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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3745-h.zip b/3745-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d534c6b --- /dev/null +++ b/3745-h.zip diff --git a/3745-h/3745-h.htm b/3745-h/3745-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e66c9f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/3745-h/3745-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7377 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Road to Providence, by Maria Thompson Daviess +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Road to Providence, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Road to Providence + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + +Posting Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #3745] +Release Date: February, 2003 +First Posted: August 15, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD TO PROVIDENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Road To Providence +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Maria Thompson Daviess +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE PEONY GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">LOVE, THE CURE-ALL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON +</H3> + +<P> +"Now, child, be sure and don't mix 'em with a heavy hand! Lightness is +expected of riz biscuits and had oughter be dealt out to 'em by the +mixer from the start. Just this way—" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, oh, Mother," came a perturbed hail in Doctor Mayberry's voice +from the barn door, "Spangles is off the nest again—better come quick!" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you persuade her some, Tom?" Mother called back from the kitchen +door as she peered anxiously across the garden fence and over to the +gray barn where the Doctor stood holding the door half open, but ready +for a quick close-up in case of an unexpected sally. "My hands is in +the biscuits and I don't want to come now. Just try, Tom!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have tried and I can't do it! She's getting the whole convention +agitated. You'd better come on, Mother!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mrs. Mayberry, as she rinsed her hands in the +wash-pan on the shelf under tin cedar bucket, "Tom is just as helpless +with the chickens at setting time as a presiding elder is at a sewing +circle; can't use a needle, too stiff to jine the talk and only good +when it comes to the eating, from broilers to frying size. Just go on +and mix the biscuits with faith, honey-bird, for I mistrust I won't be +back for quite a spell." +</P> + +<P> +"Now let me see what all these conniptions is about," she said in a +commanding voice, as she walked boldly in through her son's cautiously +widened door gap. +</P> + +<P> +And a scene of confusion that was truly feminine met her capable +glance. Fuss-and-Feathers, a stylish young spangled Wyandotte, was +waltzing up and down the floor and shrieking an appeal in the direction +of a whole row of half-barrel nests that stretched along the dark and +sequestered side of the feed-room floor, upon which was established +what had a few minutes before been a placid row of setting hens. Now +over the rim of each nest was stretched a black, white, yellow or gray +head, pop-eyed with alarm and reproach. They were emitting a chorus of +indignant squawks, all save a large, motherly old dominick in the +middle barrel who was craning her scaly old neck far over toward the +perturbed young sister and giving forth a series of reassuring and +commanding clucks. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't do a thing in the world to them, Mother," said Doctor Tom in +a deprecatory tone of voice, as if he were in a way to be blamed for +the whole excitement. "I was across the barn at the corn-crib when she +hopped off her nest and went on the rampage. Just a case of the modern +feminine rebellion, I wager." +</P> + +<P> +"No such thing, sir! They ain't nothing in the world the matter with +her 'cept as bad a case of young-mother skeer as I have ever had before +amongst all my hens. Don't you see, Tom, two of her setting have pipped +they shells and the cheepings of the little things have skeered the +poor young thing 'most to death. Old Dominick have took in the case and +is trying her chicken-sister best to comfort her. These here pullet +spasms over the hatching of the first brood ain't in no way unusual. +The way you have forgot chicken habits since you have growed up is most +astonishing to me, after all the helping with them I taught you." As +she spoke, Mother Mayberry had been rearranging the deserted nest with +practised hand and had tenderly lifted two feeble, moist little +new-borns on her broad palm to show to the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to do with them, Mother?" he asked, for though his +education in chicken lore seemed to have been in vain he was none the +less sympathetically interested in his mothers practice of the +hen-craft. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm just going to give 'em to Old Dominick to dry out and warm up for +her while I persuade her back on the nest. As she gets used to hearing +the cheepings from under another hen she'll take the next ones that +come with less mistrust." And suiting her actions to her words Mother +Mayberry slipped the two forlorn little mites under a warm old wing +that stretched itself out with gentleness to receive and comfort them. +Some budding instinct had sent the foolish fluff of stylish feathers +clucking at her skirts, so she bent down and with a gentle and +sympathetic hand lifted the young inadequate back on the nest. +</P> + +<P> +"I really oughter put on a cover and make her set on the next," she +said doubtfully, "but it do seem kinder to teach her hovering a little +at a time. Course all women things has got mothering borned into 'em, +but it comes easier to some than to others. I always feel like giving +'em a helping hand at the start off." +</P> + +<P> +"You have a great deal of faith if you feel sure of that universally +maternal instinct in these days, Mother," said the Doctor with a +teasing smile as he handed her a quart cup of oats from the bin. "Oh, I +know what you're talking about," answered Mother, as she scattered a +little grain in front of each nest and prepared to leave in peace and +quiet the brooding mothers. "It's this woman's rights and wrongs +question. I've been so busy doctoring Providence Road pains and trying +to make a good, proper husband outen you for some nice girl, what some +other woman have been putting licks on to get ready for you, that I've +been too pushed to think about the wrongs being did to me. But not +knowing any more about it than I do, I think this woman's rumpus all +sounds kinder like a hen scratching around in unlikely and contrary +corners for the bread of life, when she knows they is plenty of crumbs +at the kitchen door to be et up. But if you're going to ride over to +Flat Rock this evening you'd better go on and get back in time for some +riz biscuits as Elinory is a-making for you this blessed minute." +</P> + +<P> +"She's not making them for me," answered the young Doctor with the +color rising under his clear, tanned skin up to his very forelock. As +he spoke he busied himself with bridling his restless young mare. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course she is," answered his mother serenely. "Women don't take no +interest in cooking unless they's a man to eat the fixings. Left to +herself she'd eat store bread and cheese with her head outen the window +for the birds to clean up the crumbs. Stop by and ask after Mis' +Bostick and the Deacon. And if you bring me a little candy from the +store with the letters, maybe I'll eat it to please you. Now be a-going +so as to be a-coming the sooner." With which admonition Mother took her +departure down the garden path. +</P> + +<P> +She was tall and broad, was Mother Mayberry, and in her walk was left +much of the lissome strength of her girlhood to lighten the matronly +dignity of her carriage. Her stiffly starched, gray-print skirts swept +against a budding border of jonquils and the spring breezes floated an +end of her white lawn tie as a sort of challenge to a young cherry +tree, that was trying to snow out under the influence of the warm sun. +Her son smiled as he saw her stoop to lift a feeble, over-early hop +toad back under the safety of the jonquil leaves, out of sight of a +possible savage rooster. He knew what expression lay in her soft gray +eyes that brooded under her Wide, placid brow, upon which fell abundant +and often riotous silver water-waves. His own eyes were very like them +and softened as he looked at her, a masculine version of one of her +quick dimples quirked at the corner of his clean-cut mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"The bread of life—she's found it," he said to himself musingly as he +slipped the last buckle in his bridle tight. +</P> + +<P> +"Elinory," called Mother Mayberry from the kitchen steps, "come out +here and sense the spring. Everywhere you look they is some young thing +a-peeping up or a-reaching out or a-running over or wobbling or +bleating or calling. Looks like the whole world have done broke out in +blooms and babies." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't—I wish I could," came an answer in a low, beautiful voice +with a queer, husky note. "It's all sticking to my hands, flour and +everything, and I don't know what to do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, you've put in the milk a little too liberal! Wait until I +sift on a mite more flour. Now rub it in light! See, it's all right, +and most beautiful dough. Don't be discouraged, for riz biscuits is +most the top test of cooking. Keep remembering back to those cup +custards you made yesterday, what Tom Mayberry ate three of for supper +and then tried to sneak one outen the milk-house to eat before he went +to bed." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, did he?" asked Miss Wingate with delight shining in her dark eyes +and a beautiful pink rising up in her pale cheeks. "I wish I COULD do +something to please him and make him feel how—how—grateful I am—for +the hope he's given me. I was so hopeless and unhappy—and desperate +when I came. But I believe my voice is coming back! Every day it's +stronger and you are so good to me and make me so happy that I'm not +afraid any more. You give me faith to hope—as well as to mix +biscuits." And a pearly tear splashed on the rolling-pin. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, put your trust in the Heavenly Father, child, and some in Tom +Mayberry. Before you know it you'll be singing like the birds out in +the trees; but I can't let myself think about the time's a-coming for +you to fly away to the other people's trees to sing. When Tom told me +about Doctor Stein's wanting to send a great big singer lady, what had +lost her voice, down here to see if he couldn't cure her like he did +that preacher man and the politics speaker, I was skeered for both him +and me, for I knew things was kinder simple with us here and I was +afraid I couldn't make you happy and comfortable. But then I remembered +Doctor Stein had stayed 'most two weeks when he came South with Tom for +a visit and said he had tacked ten years on to the end of his life by +just them few days of Providence junketings and company feedings, so I +made up my mind not to be proud none and to say for you to come on. +I've got faith in my boy's doctoring same as them New York folks has, +and I wanted him to try to cure you. Then I knew you didn't have no +mother to pet up the sick throat none. A little consoling comfort is a +good dose to start healing any kind of trouble with. I knew I had +plenty of that in my heart to prescribe out to help along with your +case; so here you are not three weeks with us, a-mixing riz biscuits +for Tom's supper and like to coax the heart outen both of us. I told +him—Dearie me, somebody's calling at the front gate!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mis' Mayberry! Oh, Mis' Mayberry!" came a high, quavering old voice +from around the corner of the house, and Squire Tutt hove in sight. He +was panting for breath and trembling with rage as he ascended the steps +and stood in the kitchen door. +</P> + +<P> +Mother hastened to bring him a chair into which he wheezingly subsided. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Squire," she questioned anxiously, "have anything happened? Is +Mis' Tutt tooken with lumbago again?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" exploded the Squire, "she's well—always is! I'm the only really +sick folks in Providence, though I don't git no respect for it. In pain +all the time and no respect—no respect!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Squire, everybody in Providence have got sympathy for your tisic, +and just yesterday Mis' Pike was a-asking me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Tisic! I ain't talking about tisic now! It's this pain in my stomick +that that young limb of satan of your'n insulted me about not a hour +ago. Me a-writhing in tormint with nothing less'n a cancer—insulted +me!" As the Squire projected his remark toward Mother Mayberry he bent +double and peered expectantly up into her sympathetic face. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what did he do, Squire?" demanded Mother, with a glance at Miss +Wingate, who still stood at the biscuit block cutting out her dough. +She regarded the old man with alarmed wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"Told me to drink two cups of hot water and lie down a hour—me in +tormint!" The Squire fairly spit his complaint into the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, Tom had oughter known better than that about one of your +spells," said Mother. "Why, I've been a-curing them for years for you +myself with nothing more'n a little drop of spirits, red pepper and +mint. He had oughter told you to take that instead of hot water. I'm +sorry—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oughter told me to take spirits—told me to TAKE spirits! Don't you +know, Mis' Mayberry, a man with a sanctified wife can't TAKE no +spirits; they must be GAVE to him by somebody not a member of the +family. Me a-suffering tormints—two cups of hot water—tormints, +tormints!" +</P> + +<P> +The old man's voice rose to a perfect wail, but came down a note or two +as Mother hastily reached in the press and drew out a tall, old +demijohn and poured a liberal dose of the desired medicine into a +glass. She added a dash of red pepper and a few drops of peppermint. +This treatment of the Squire's dram in Mother's estimation turned a +sinful beverage into a useful medicine and served to soothe her +conscience while it disturbed the Squire's appreciation of her +treatment not at all. He swallowed the fiery dose without as much as +the blink of an eyelid and on the instant subsided into comfortable +complacency. +</P> + +<P> +"Please forgive Tom for not having more gumption, Squire, and next time +you're took come right over to me same as usual. Course I know all the +neighbors feel as how Tom is young and have just hung out his shingle +here, and I ain't expectin' of 'em to have no confidence in him. I +think it my duty to just go on with my usual doctoring of my friends. I +hope you won't hold this mistake against Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said the Squire in a mollified tone of voice, "I won't say no +more, but you must tell him to stop fooling with these here Providence +people. Stopped Ezra Pike's wife feeding her baby on pot-liquor and +give it biled milk watered with lime juice. It'll die—it'll die!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, Squire, it's a-getting well—jest as peart as can be," Mother +said in a mollifying tone of voice. +</P> + +<P> +"It'll die—it'll die! Cut one er the lights outen Sam Mosbey's +side—called it a new fangled impendix name—but he'll die—he'll die!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sam's a-working out there on the barn roof right this minute, Squire, +good and alive," said Mother Mayberry with a good-humored smile, while +Miss Wingate cast a restrained though indignant glance at the doubting +old magistrate. +</P> + +<P> +"And old Deacon Bostick drinking cow-hot milk and sucking raw eggs! He +looks like a mixed calf and shanghai rooster! So old he'd oughter +die—and he'll do it! Hot water and me in tormint! Hot water on his +middle in a rubber bag and nothing inside er him! He'll die-he'll die!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, Squire, the good Lord have gave Deacon Bostick back to us from +the edge of the grave; Tom a-working day and night but under His +guidance. He have gained ten pounds and walks everywhere. It were low +typhus, six weeks running, too! I'm glad it were gave to me to see my +son bring back a saint to earth from the gates themselves. Have you +been by to see him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the Squire as he rose much more briskly than he had +seated himself, and prepared to take his departure. "Yes, and it was +you a-nussing of him that did it—muster slipped him calimile—but I +ain't a-disputing! Play actor, ain't you, girl?" he demanded as he +paused on his way out of the door and peered over at Miss Wingate with +his beetling, suspicious eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the singer lady as she went on putting her biscuit into +the pan. If her culinary manoeuvers were slow they were at least sure +and the "riz" biscuits looked promising. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mother as she returned from guiding her guest down +the front walk and into the shaded Road, "it do seem that Squire Tutt +gets more rantankerous every day. Poor Mis' Tutt is just wore out with +contriving with him. It's a wonder she feels like she have got any ease +at all, much less a second blessing. Now I must turn to and make a dish +of baked chicken hash for supper to be et with them feather biscuits of +your'n. I want to compliment them by the company of a extra nice dish. +If they come out the oven in time I want to ask Sam Mosbey to stop in +and get some, with a little quince preserves. He brought his dinner in +a bucket, which troubled me, for who's got foot on my land, two or +four, I likes to feed myself. I expected he was some mortified at your +being here. He's kinder shy like in the noticing of girls." +</P> + +<P> +"That seems to be a failing with the Providence young—with Providence +people," ventured Miss Wingate with ambiguity. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, country boys is all alike," answered Mother comfortingly, only in +a measure taking in the tentative observation. "They're all kinder +co'ting tongue-tied. They have to be eased along attentive, all 'cept +Buck Peavey, who'd like to eat Pattie up same as a cannibal, I'm +thinking, and don't mind who knows it. Now the supper is all on the +simmer and can be got ready in no time. Let's me and you walk down to +the front gate and watch for Tom to come around the Nob from Flat Rock +and then we can run in the biscuits. Maybe we'll hear some news; I +haven't hardly seen any folks to-day and I mistrust some mischief are +a-brewing somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +And Mother Mayberry's well trained intuitions must have been in +unusually good working order, for she met her expected complications at +the very front gate. She was just turning to point out a promise of an +unusually large crop of snowballs on the old shrub by the gate-post +when a subdued sniffling made itself heard and caused her to +concentrate her attention on the house opposite across the Road. And a +sympathy stirring scene met her eyes. Perched along the fence were all +five of the little Pikes clinging to the top board in forlorn +despondency. On the edge of the porch sat Mr. Pike in his shirt sleeves +with his pipe in one hand and the Teether Pike balanced on his knee. +His expression matched that of the children in the matter of gloom, and +like them he glanced apprehensively toward the door as if expecting +Calamity to issue from his very hearthstone. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what's the matter?" demanded Mother as she hurried to the edge of +the sidewalk followed by the singer lady, whose acquaintance with the +young Pikes had long before ripened to the stage of intimate +friendship. At the sight of her sympathetic face, Eliza, the first +Pike, slipped to the ground and buried her head in her new but valued +friend's dainty muslin skirt. Bud, the next rung of the stair steps +licked out his tongue to dispose of a mortifying tear and little Susie +sobbed outright. At this juncture, just as Mother was about to demand +again an explanation of such united woe, Mrs. Pike came to the door, +and a large spoon and a bottle full of amber, liquid grease made +further inquiry unnecessary. +</P> + +<P> +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry, I certainly am glad you have came over to back +me up in getting down these doses of oil. Ez," with an indignant and +contemptuous glance at her sullen husband, "don't want me to give it to +'em. He'd rather they'd up and die than to stand the ruckus, but I +ain't a-going to let my own children perish for a few cherry seeds with +a bottle of oil in the house and Doctor Tom Mayberry's prescription to +give 'em a spoonful all around." Mrs. Pike was short and stout, but +with a martial and determined eye, and as she spoke she began to +measure out a first dose with her glance fixed on young Bud, who turned +white around his little mouth and clung to the fence. Susie's sobs rose +to a wail and Eliza shuddered in Miss Wingate's skirt. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Mis' Pike," said Mother hurriedly, "are you sure they +have et cherry seeds? Cherries ain't ripe yet, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"We didn't—we didn't!" came in a perfect chorus of wails from the +little fence birds. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course they did, Mis' Mayberry!" exclaimed their mother +relentlessly. "It was two jars of cherry preserves that Prissy put up +and clean forgot to seed 'fore she biled 'em, and the children done +took and et 'em on the sly. Now they're going to suffer for it." +</P> + +<P> +"We all spitted the seeds out, and we was so hungry, too!" Eliza took +courage to sob from Miss Wingate's skirt. Bud managed to echo her +statement, while Susie and the two little boys gave confirmation from +their wide-open, terror-stricken eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, maybe they did, Mis' Pike," said Mother, coming near to +argue the question. Her hand rested sustainingly on one of the brave +young Bud's knees which jutted out from the fence. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't trust 'em, Mis' Mayberry, fer if they'll steal they'll lie," +said Mrs. Pike in a voice tinged with the deepest melancholy for the +fallen estate of her family. "They'll have to suffer for both sins +whether they did or didn't," and again the bottle was poised. +</P> + +<P> +"Now hold on, Mis' Pike," again exclaimed Mother Mayberry as her face +illumined with a bright smile. "If they throwed away the cherry pits +they must be where they throwed 'em and they can go find 'em to prove +they character. They ain't nothing fairer than that. Where did you eat +the preserves, children?" she asked, but there was a wild rush around +the corner of the house before her question was answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," exclaimed the astonished mother, "I never thought of that and if +they thought to spit out one stone they did the balance. But Doctor Tom +was so kind to tell me about the oil and I paid fifteen cents down at +the store for it, that I'm a mind to give it to 'em anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be blamed if you do," ejaculated her indignant husband as he +shouldered Teether and strode into the house, unable longer to restrain +his rage. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that just like him!" said his wife in a resigned voice. "And I +was just going to try to make him take this spoonful I've poured out. +It won't hurt him none and it's a pity to pour it back, it wastes so. +Do either of you all need it?" she asked hospitably. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Wingate was dissenting with an echo of Eliza's shudder and Mother +Mayberry with a laugh, when the reprieved criminals raced back around +the house, each dirty little fist inclosing a reasonable number of +grubby cherry stones. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," assented their mother reluctantly, "I'll let you off this time, +but don't any of you never take nothing to eat again without asking, +and I'm a-going to punish you by making you every one wash your feet in +cold water and go to bed. Now mind me and all stand to once in the tub +by the pump and tell your Paw I say not to touch that kettle of hot +water. I don't want you to have a drop. Go right on and do as I say." +</P> + +<P> +The threatened punishment had been too great for the youngsters to mind +this lesser and accustomed penalty, so they retired with cheerfulness +and spirits and in a few seconds a chorus of squeals and splashes came +from the back yard. +</P> + +<P> +After an exchange of friendly good-bys Mrs. Pike entered her front door +and Mother and the singer lady returned to their own front gate. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mother in a tone of positive discouragement, "I don't +know what I will do if I have to undo another one of Tom Mayberry's +prescriptions to-day. But you couldn't expect a man to untangle a +children quirk like that; and oil woulder been the thing for the cherry +stones in children's stomachs, but not for ones throwed on the back +walk. I hope the Squire won't hear about it," she added with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," said Miss Wingate with her dark eyes fixed on Mother's face +with positive awe, "I think you are wonderful with everybody. You know +just what to do for them, and what to say to them and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," interrupted Mother with a laugh, "it are gave to some women to +be called on the Lord's ease mission, and I reckon I'm of that band. +Don't you know I'm the daughter of a doctor, and the wife of a doctor +and the mother of one as good as either of the other two? I can't +remember the time when I didn't project with the healing of ailments. +When I married Doctor Mayberry and come down over the Ridge from Warren +County with him, he had his joke with me about my herb-basket and +a-setting up opposition to him. It's in our blood. My own cousin Seliny +Lue Lovell down at the Bluff follows the calling just the same as I do. +I say the Lord were good to me to give me the love of it and a father +and a husband and now a son to practise with." +</P> + +<P> +"The Doctors Mayberry, Mother and Son, how interesting that sounds, +Mrs. Mayberry," exclaimed Miss Wingate with a delightful laugh, "And no +wonder Doctor Mayberry is so gifted that he gets National commissions +to study Pellagra and—and has a troublesome singer lady sent all the +way from New York to patch up." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it do look like that Tom Mayberry gets in a good chanct +everywhere he goes. Some folks picks a friend offen every bush they +passes and Tom's one. He was honored considerable in New York and then +sent over to Berlin, Europe, and beyont to study up about people's +skins. And then here he comes back, sent by the Government right down +to Flat Rock, on the other side of Providence Nob, to study out about +that curious corn disease they calls Pellagra, what I don't think is a +thing in the world but itch and can be cured by a little sulphur and +hog lard. But I'm blessing the chanct that brought him back to me, even +if I know it are just for a spell. And, too, he oughter be happy to +have brung his mother such a song bird as you. I'm so used to you and +your helping me with Cindy away to Springfield, that I don't see how I +ever got along without you or ever will." As she spoke, Mother Mayberry +smiled delightedly at the singer girl and drew her closer. Mother's +voice at most times was a delicious mixture of banter and caress. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I'll stay always," said the singer lady as she drew close +against the gray print shoulder. "When I look around me I feel as if I +had awakened in a beautiful world with no more dirty, smoky cities that +hurt my throat, no more hot, lighted theaters, no noises, and +everything is just a great big bouquet of soft smells and colors." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, Elinor Wingate, who was just a tired girl in the circle +of Mother Mayberry's strong arm, let her great dark eyes wander off +across the meadow to where a dim rim of Harpeth Hills seemed to close +in the valley. Her glance returned to the low, wing-spreading, brick +farm-house, which, vine-covered, lilac-hedged and maple-shaded, seemed +to nestle against the breast of Providence Nob, at whose foot clustered +the little settlement of Providence and around whose side ran the old +wilderness trail called Providence Road. And her face was soft with a +light of utter contentment, for under that low-gabled roof she was +finding strength to hope for the recovery of her lost treasure, without +which life would seem a void. Then for a moment she looked down the +village Road, across which the trees were casting long afternoon +shadows and along which was flowing the tide of late afternoon social +life. Women hung over the front gates to greet men in from the fields +or from down the Road, girls laughed and chaffed one another or the +blushing country boys, and the children played tag and hop-scotch back +and forth along the way. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all lovely," she said again with a contented little sigh. When +she spoke softly there was not a trace of the burr in her voice and it +was as sweet as a dove note. +</P> + +<P> +"Days like these we had oughter take the world as a new gift from God," +said Mother musingly. "It were a day like this I come with Doctor +Mayberry along the Road to Providence to live, and stopped right at +this gate under this very maple tree, thirty-five years ago; and thirty +of 'em have I lived lonesome without him. I had a baby at my breast and +Tom by my knee when he went away from us, and I know now it was the +call laid on me to take up his work that saved me. When I got back from +the funeral and had laid the baby on the bed Mis' Jim Petway come +a-running up the road crying that Ellen, her youngest child, were +a-choking to death with croup. I never had a thought but to take his +saddle-bags and follow her, and somehow the good Lord guided my hand +amongst his medicines, and with what I had learned from him and Pa I +fought a good fight and saved the little thing's life, though it took +the night to do it. And in one of them dark hours a sister-to-woman +sense was born in me what I ain't never lost. A neighbor took Tom and +they brought my baby to me and I stayed by Mis' Petway until they +weren't no more danger. Next day it were Squire Tutt's first wife +tooken down with the fever and not the week passed before that very Sam +Mosbey were borned. We was too poor to have a doctor come and live here +and they was a doctor over to Springfield took up my husband's county +practice, so I jest naturally had to do the healing myself, only +a-sending for him in the worst cases. They was a heap of teethers that +summer and it kept me busy looking after 'em. I expect I made mistakes +but I kept up me and the patients' courage by sympathizing and +heartening. It didn't cost nobody nothing and we wasn't so prosperous +then that it wasn't a help for me to do the doctoring when I could, and +I mostly were able. I were glad of the work and did it with a thankful +mind; not as they wasn't times when I felt sick at heart, and in danger +of questioning why, but I tried to steady myself with prayer until I +could find the Everlasting Arm to lean on that is always held out to +the widow and the fatherless. And so a-leaning I have got me and Tom +Mayberry along until now." +</P> + +<P> +"And the whole rest of the world leaning on you," said the lovely lady +as she drew nearer and caught Mother Mayberry's strong hand in her own +slender fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother, as she shaded her eyes with her other hand to +look far up the Road toward the Ridge over which they were waiting for +the Doctor's horse to appear, "looks like often hands a-reaching out +for help gives strength before they takes any, and a little hope +planted in another body's garden is apt to fly a seed and sprout in +your own patch. There he is—let's hurry in the biscuits!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL +</H3> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know as I'd like to have her messing around my kitchen +and house, a stranger and a curious one at that. But you always was +kinder soft, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Peavey as she glanced with +provoked remonstrance at Mother Mayberry, who went calmly on attending +to the needs of a fresh hatching of young chickens. Mrs. Peavey lived +next door to the Doctor's house and the stone wall that separated the +two families was not in any way a barrier to her frequent neighborly +and critical visitations. She was meager of stature and soul, and the +victim of a devouring fire of curiosity which literally licked up the +fagots of human events that came in her way. She was the fly that +kicked perpetually in Mother Mayberry's cruse of placid ointment, but +received as full a mead of that balm of friendship as any woman on the +Road. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, she ain't a mite of trouble, but just a pleasure, Hettie Ann," +answered Mother with mild remonstrance in her tone. "I expected to have +a good bit of worry with her, having no cook in my kitchen, 'count of +waiting for Cindy to get well and come back to me and nobody easy to +pick up to do the work, but she hadn't been here a week before she was +reaching out and learning house jobs. I think it takes her mind offen +her troubles and I can't say her no if it do help her, not that I want +to, for she's a real comfort." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if it was me I couldn't take no comfort in a play-acting girl. +I'd feel like locking up what teaspoons I had and a-counting over +everything in my house every day. It's just like you, Mis' Mayberry, to +take her in. And I can't sense the why of you're being so close-mouthed +about her. Near neighbors oughter know all about one another's doings +and not have to ask, I say." Mrs. Peavey sniffed and assumed an air of +injured patience. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Hettie Ann," Mother hastened to answer, "you know as I always did +hold that the give and take of advice from friends is the greatest +comfort in the world, though at times most confusing, and I thought I +told you all about Elinory." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you didn't. Muster been Bettie Pratt or Mis' Pike you was +a-talking to when you thought it was me," answered her friend with the +injured note in her voice becoming with every word more noticeable. +"Are she rich or poor? Do you know that much?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well now, come to think of it, I don't," answered Mother promptly. +"Connecting up folks and they money always looks like sticking a price +tag on you to them and them to you. I'd rather charge my friends to a +Heaven-account and settle the bill with friendly feelings as we go +along. This poor child ain't got no mother or father, that I know. All +her young life when most girls ain't got a thought above a beau or a +bonnet, she have been a-training of her voice to sing great 'cause it +were in her to do it. And she done it, too. Then all to onct when she +had got done singing in a great big town hall they call Convent Garden +or something up in New York, she made the mistake to drink a glass of +ice water and it friz up her throat chords. She haven't been able to +sing one single tune since. She have been a-roaming over the earth +a-hunting for some sort of help and ain't found none. Now she have lit +at my door and I've got her in trying to warm and comfort her to enough +strength for Tom to put her voice back into her." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you don't expect no such thing of Tom Mayberry as that, do you?" +asked Mrs. Peavey with uncompromising and combative frankness. +</P> + +<P> +"That I do," answered the Doctor's mother, and this time there was a +note of dignity in her voice, as she looked her friend straight in the +face. "You know, because I told you about it, Hettie Ann, how Tom +Mayberry cured that big preacher of a lost voice who was a friend to +this Doctor Stein, while the boy wasn't nothing but serving his term in +the hospital. He wrote a paper about it that made all the doctors take +notice of him and he have done it twice since, though throats are just +a side issue from skins with him. Yes, I'm expecting of him to cure +this child and give her back more'n just her voice, her work in life. +I'm one that believes that the Lord borns all folks with a work to do +and you've got to march on to it, whether it's singing in public +places, carrying saddle-bags to suffering or jest playing your tune on +the wash-board at home. It's a part of his hallelujah chorus in which +we've all got to join." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I shorely drawed the wash-board fer my instrumint," answered +Mrs. Peavey with a vindictive look across the wall at a line of clothes +fluttering in the breeze. +</P> + +<P> +"And they ain't nobody in Providence that turns out as white a +shirt-song as you do, Hettie Ann. Buck and Mr. Peavey are just looked +at in church Sundays fer the color of they collars," Mother hastened to +say with pride in the glance that followed Mrs. Peavey's across the +wall. "Ain't Tom always a-contriving with you to sneak one of his +shirts into your wash, so as not to hurt me and Cindy's feelings? I +don't see how you get 'em so white." +</P> + +<P> +"Elbow grease and nothing else," answered Mrs. Peavey in a tone of +voice that refused to be mollified. "I've got to be a-going." +</P> + +<P> +"Just wait and look at these chickens; ain't they pretty? Tom sent all +the way to Indiany fer the settin' of eggs fer me and I've just been +a-watching the day for 'em to hatch. I feel they are a-going to be a +credit to me and I'm glad I gave 'em to Ruffle Neck to set on. She's +such a good hoverer and can be depended on to run from the rain. Now +ain't they pretty?" and Mother even looked at Mrs. Peavey with hope for +a word of sympathy in her pleasure—after a thirty years' experience +with her neighbor. +</P> + +<P> +"No," answered her friend, "I don't hold with no fancy chickens. Just +good dominicks is all I've got any faith in and not much in them. With +strange chickens and girls around your house something misfortunate is +a-going to happen to you, Mis' Mayberry, and I see it a-coming. Don't +say I didn't tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll give you credit for your warning," answered Mother +propitiatingly. "How's that pain in your side?" she hastened to ask, to +change the subject from a disagreeable one to what she knew by +experience would prove at least interesting. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a heap better," answered Mrs. Peavey promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Mother, immediately beginning to beam with +pride. "I told you Tom could help it with that new kind of dry plaster +he made for you. Ain't it wonderful?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shoo! I never put that on! It didn't have smell enough to do any good. +I knew that as soon as I unrolled it. I just rubbed myself heavy with +that mixture of kerosine, vinegar and gum camfire you've been making me +for twenty years, and I slept uncommon well." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," answered Mother Mayberry, "I wish you had tried Tom's plaster. I +feel sure—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't—of anything that a boy like Tom Mayberry knows. If he +lives here a spell and learns from you maybe he'll get some doctoring +sense, but I wouldn't trust him for ten years at the shortest. But have +you heard the news?" A flame of positive joy flared up in Mrs. Peavey's +eyes and flushed her sallow cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what is it?" asked Mother with a guarded interest and no small +amount of anxiety, for she was accustomed to the kind of news that Mrs. +Peavey usually took the trouble to spread. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I knowed what was a-going to happen when I seen Bettie Pratt +setting the chairs straight and marshaling in the orphants at poor Mis' +Hoover's funeral, not but eleven months ago. It'll be a scandal to this +town and had oughter be took notice of by Deacon Bostick and the Elder. +She's got four Turner children and six Pratts and he have got seven of +his own, so Turner, Pratt and Hoover they'll be seventeen children in +the house, all about the same size. Then maybe more—I call it a +disgrace, I do!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," answered Mother, though her eyes did twinkle at the +thought of this allied force of seventeen, "there never was a better +child-raiser than Bettie Pratt and I'll be mighty glad to see them +poor, forlorn little Hoovers turned over to her. They've been on my +mind night and day since they mother died and they ain't a single one +of 'em as peart as it had oughter be. Who told you about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"They didn't nobody tell me—I've got eyes of my own! Just yesterday I +seen her hand a pan of biscuits over the fence to Pattie Hoover and he +had a Turner and two Pratts in the wagon with him coming in from the +field last night. But you can't do nothing about it—she have got the +marrying habit. They are other widows in this town that have mourned +respectable to say nothing of Miss Prissy Pike, that have never had no +husband at all and had oughter be gave a chanct. Mr. Hoover are a nice +man and I don't want to see him made noticeable in no such +third-husband way." +</P> + +<P> +"Course it do look a little sudden," said Mother, "and seventeen is a +good lot of children for one family, but if they love each other—" +</P> + +<P> +"Love! Shoo! I declare, Mis' Mayberry, looks to me like you swallow +what folks give you in this world whole, pit and all, and never bat a +eye. I've got to go home and put on Buck's and Mr. Peavey's supper and +sprinkle down some of my wash." And without further parley Mrs. Peavey +marched home through a little swinging gate in the wall that had been +for years a gap through which a turbid stream had flowed to trouble +Mother's peaceful waters. +</P> + +<P> +"It do seem Mis' Peavey are a victim of a most pitiful unrest," said +Mother to herself as she watched with satisfaction Ruffle Neck tuck the +last despised little Hoosier under her soft gray breast. "Some folks +act like they had dyspepsy of the mind. Dearie me, I must go and take a +glass of cream to my honey-bird, for that between-meal snack that Tom +Mayberry are so perticular about." And she started down toward the +spring-house under the hill. +</P> + +<P> +And returning a half hour later with the cool glass in her hand, she +was guided by the sound of happy voices to the front porch, where, +under the purple wistaria vine, she found the singer lady absorbed in +the construction of a most worldly garment for the doll daughter of +Eliza Pike, who was watching its evolution with absorbed interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Pleas'm, Miss Elinory, make it a little bit longer, 'cause I want her +to have a beau," besought the small mother, as she anxiously watched +the measuring of the skirt. +</P> + +<P> +"Want her to have a beau?" asked Miss Wingate with the scissors +suspended over the bit of pink muslin which matched exactly her own +ruffled skirts. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm! Pattie Hoover wored shoe-tops all winter and now she's got +foot-dresses and Buck Peavey for a beau." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see," said the singer lady as she smiled down into the eager +little face. "Do you think—er, beaux are—are desirable, Eliza?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, I do," answered the bud of a woman, as she drew nearer and said +with an expression of one bestowing a confidence, "When I'm let down to +my feet I'm going to have Doctor Tom for my beau, if you don't get him +first." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure you needn't worry about that, Eliza," Miss Wingate hastened +to exclaim with a rising color. "I wouldn't interfere with your plans +for the world—if I could." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you take him if you can get him," answered Eliza generously; +"somebody'll grow up by that time for me. But he couldn't make you take +oil, could he?" she asked doubtfully, the memory of yesterday's escape +lurking in her mind and explaining her most unfeminine generosity. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Wingate eyed her for a moment with mirth fairly dancing over her +face, "Yes," she said with a laugh, "I believe he could!" +</P> + +<P> +"Elinory, child," said Mother as she came out from the front hall, +"here we are a half hour late with this cream, and both of us under +promise solemn to Tom to have it down by four o'clock. 'Liza, honey, +how's the baby?" +</P> + +<P> +"He have got a new top-tooth and throwed up onct this morning," +answered Eliza in a practical tone of voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mother anxiously, for the Pike teether had up to this +time been the Doctor's prize patient. "I wonder if your Maw remembered +the lime water faithful?" +</P> + +<P> +"I expect she forgot it, for she was whipping Susie for sassing Aunt +Prissy, and Bud for saying fool," answered Eliza, not at all hesitating +to lay bare the iniquities of her family circle. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry they did like that," said Mother with real concern at the +news of such delinquencies. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, Susie told Aunt Prissy Mis' Peavey said she were a-setting her +cap fer Mr. Hoover and it made Bud mad 'cause he fights 'Lias Hoover +and he called her a fool. He hadn't oughter done it, but he's touchy +'bout Aunt Prissy and so's Paw. There comes Deacon and a little boy +with him." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, Mother rose to greet Deacon Bostick who had turned in the +front gate and got as far up the front walk as the second snowball +bush. The Deacon was tall, lean, bent and snow-crowned, with bright old +eyes that rested in a benediction on the group on the porch that his +fine old smile confirmed. By the hand he led a tiny boy who was clad in +a long nondescript garment and topped off by a queer red fez, pulled +down over a crop of yellow curls, a strange little exotic against the +homely background of Mother Mayberry's lilac bushes. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Mayberry," said the deacon as he paused at the foot of the +steps, "this is Martin Luther Hathaway who was left at my house this +morning by the Circuit Rider, as he came through from Springfield on +his way to Flat Rock, to be delivered to you, along with his letter. I +trust his arrival is not unexpected to you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed, Deacon, I was hoping for him though not exactly expecting +him. A month ago while you was sick, our missionary society had news of +a missionary and his wife down at Springfield who wanted to go up to +Chicagy to study some more about some heathen matter, and couldn't +quite make it with two children. My cousin Seliny Lue down to the Bluff +have took the little girl and we sent five dollars and a letter saying +to send the boy to me for the summer. Come to Mother Mayberry, sonny," +and Mother sat down on the lowest step and stretched out her arms to +the little ward of the church militant. +</P> + +<P> +Martin Luther's big blue eyes, which were set in his head like those of +a Raphael cherub, looked out from under a huge yellow curl that fell +over his forehead, straight into Mother's gray ones for a moment, and +sticking his pink thumb into his mouth, he sidled into her embrace with +a little sigh of evident relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Eat some, thank ma'am, please," he whispered into her ear by way of a +return of the introduction. His little mother tongue had evidently +suffered a slight twist by his birth and sojourn in a foreign country, +but it served to express the normal condition of all inhabitants of +boy-land. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course he's hungry, bless his little heart," answered Mother as she +removed the fez and ruffled up the damp curls. "Run fetch the tea-cake +bucket from the kitchen safe, 'Liza, and won't you come sit down, +Deacon?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you, Sister," answered the Deacon with a glance of real +regret at the comfortable rocker Miss Wingate had hastened to draw +forward into a sunny but sheltered corner of the porch, "I'm on my way +to take tea with Sister Pratt. I'm to meet Mrs. Bostick there. How's +the throat, child?" And his smile up at the singer lady was one of the +most sympathetic interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Better, thank you, I think," said Miss Wingate, answering both +question and smile. "How well you are looking to-day, Deacon!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I'm made over new by that boy of a Doctor," said the Deacon, +fairly beaming with enthusiasm. "Your cure will be only a matter of +time, a matter of time, my dear—Squire Tutt to the contrary," he added +with a chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +"There, bless my heart, if my ears ain't heard two testimonies to Tom +Mayberry all in one minute!" exclaimed Mother with a delighted laugh. +"Have a cake, won't you, Deacon?" she asked, offering the bucket. +</P> + +<P> +She then established Eliza and the small stranger on the edge of the +steps, with an admonition as to the disposal of the crumbs over on to +the grass, and filled both pairs of hands with the crisp discs. Eliza +spread the end of her short blue calico skirt over Martin Luther's +chubby knees, and they both proceeded to eat into the improvised napkin +with the utmost comradeship. Miss Wingate had strolled down to the gate +with the Deacon and had paused on the way to decorate the buttonhole of +his shiny old coat with a bit of the white lilac nodding over the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"'Liza, child," said Mother as she glanced at Martin Luther with a +contemplative eye, "when you're done eating run over and ask your Maw +to send me a pair of Billy's britches and a shirt. No, maybe young Ez's +'ll be better, and bring 'em and Martin Luther on back to the kitchen +to me." With which she disappeared into the house, leaving the munchers +to finish their feast alone. +</P> + +<P> +And in an incredibly short time the last crumb, even those rescued from +the skirt, had disappeared and Eliza had led Martin Luther down the +walk, across the Road and around the corner of the Pike cottage, while +the Deacon still lingered talking to Miss Wingate at the gate. Eliza +had taken upon herself, with her usual generalship, the development of +Mother Mayberry's plan for the arraying of the young stranger in what +Providence would consider a civilized garb. +</P> + +<P> +And for some minutes Miss Wingate stood leaning over the top rail of +the low gate idly watching a group of Pratts, Turners, Mosbeys, Hoovers +and Pikes playing a mysterious game, which necessitated wild dashes +across a line drawn down the middle of the Road in the white dust, +shrill cries of capture and frequent change of base. The day had been a +long sunshiny one, full of absorbing interests, and as she stood +drinking in the perfume from a spray of lilac she had broken to choose +the bit for the Deacon, she suddenly realized that not one minute had +she found in which to let the horrible dread creep close and clutch at +her throat. Helping along in the construction of a bucket of tea-cakes, +the printing of four cakes of butter, the simmering of a large pan of +horehound syrup and the excitement of pouring it into the family +bottles that Mother was filling against a sudden night call from some +crouper down or across the Road, to say nothing of a most exciting pie, +that had been concocted entirely by herself from a jar of peaches and +frilled around with the utmost regard for its artistic appearance, to +which could be added the triumph of the long-tailed pink gown for the +daughter of young Eliza, had kept her busy and—with a quick smile she +had to admit to herself, happy. Indeed the remembrance of the rapid +disappearance of the pie and Doctor Mayberry's blush when, after he had +eaten two-thirds of it, his mother had informed him of the authorship, +brought a positive glow of pleasure to her cheeks. Such a serious, +gentle, skilful young Doctor as he was—and "a perfect dear" she went +as far as admitting to herself, this time with a low laugh. +</P> + +<P> +And as if her pondering on his virtues had had power to bring a +materialization, suddenly Doctor Tom stood in front of her on the other +side of the gate. He had come from up the Road while she had been +looking down in the other direction, and in his hand he held a spray of +purple lilacs which he had broken from a large bush that hung over the +fence from the Pratt yard into the Road and also spread itself a yard +or two into Hoover territory. +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't they lovely and plumy?" she asked, as she took the bunch he +offered and laid the purple flowers against the white ones she held in +her hand. "These are so much darker than Mrs. Mayberry's purple ones. I +wonder why." +</P> + +<P> +"Some years they bloom lighter than Mother's and other years still +darker—just another one of the mysteries," he answered as he leaned +against the gate-post and looked down at her with a smile. He was tall, +and strong, and forceful, with a clean-cut young face which was lit by +Mother Mayberry's very own black-lashed, serene gray eyes, and his very +evident air of a man of affairs had much of the charm of Mother +Mayberry's rustic dignity. His serge coat, blue shirt and soft gray tie +had a decided cut of sophistication and were worn with a most worldly +grace that was yet strangely harmonious with his surroundings. For with +all of his distinctions in appearance and attainments, as a man he +struck no discord when contrasted with Mr. Pike's shirt-sleeved, +butternut-trousers personality and he seemed but the flowering of Buck +Peavey's store-clothes ambitions. The accord of it all struck Miss +Wingate so forcibly that unconsciously she gave voice to the feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"How at home you are in all this—this?" she paused and raised her eyes +to his with a hint of helplessness to express herself within them. +</P> + +<P> +"Simple life," he supplied with a smile that held a bit of banter. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not so simple as one would think to balance a pie plate on one +hand and cut around it with a knife so the edges aren't jagged—to be +all consumed within the hour," she answered with spirit, rising to the +slight challenge in his voice and smile. "And there are other most +complicated things I have discovered that—" +</P> + +<P> +But just here she was interrupted by a sally from around the corner of +the Pike house which streamed out across the Road, headed precisely in +their direction. Eliza was in the lead and held little Teether swung +perilously across one slender hip, while she clasped Martin Luther's +chubby fingers in her other hand. And behold, the transformation of the +young stranger was complete beyond belief! His yellow thatch was +crowned by a straw hat, which was circled by a brand new shoestring, +though it gaped across the crown to let out a peeping curl. Young Ez's +garments even had proved a size too large and the faded blue jeans +"britches" were rolled up over his round little knees and hitched up +high under his arms by an improvised pair of calico "galluses" which +were stretched tight over a clean but much patched gingham shirt. His +feet and legs had been stripped in accordance with the time-ordered +custom in Providence that bare feet could greet May Day, and his +little, bare, pink toes curled up with protest against the roughness of +even the dust-softened pike. Susie May, Billy and young Ez beamed with +pride at their share in the rehabiting of the recent acquisition and +waited breathlessly for words of praise from Miss Wingate and the +Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, who is this?" asked the Doctor quickly with a most gratifying +interest in his big voice, while Miss Wingate came out of the gate on +to the pavement. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the little missionary boy that the Deacon brought Mother +Mayberry. I guess the Lord sent him, for he's too big to come outen a +cabbage," answered Eliza, and as she spoke she settled the hat an inch +farther down over the curls with a motherly gesture. She had failed to +grasp with exactness the situation concerning the advent of Martin +Luther, but was supplying a version of her own that seemed entirely +satisfactory to the youngster's newly acquired friends. +</P> + +<P> +"Spit through teeth," ventured the young stranger, anxious to display +an accomplishment that had been bestowed upon him by Billy while the +"galluses" were in process of construction a few minutes ago. "Thank +ma'am, please," he hastened to add with pathetic loyalty to some +injunction that had been impressed upon his young mind before his +embarkation upon strange seas. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see you do it," demanded the Doctor, in instant sympathy with +his pride in this newly acquired national accomplishment. +</P> + +<P> +"He hasn't got time to do it now," answered Eliza importantly, as she +hitched Teether a notch higher up on her arm. "I've got to take him and +the baby in to Mother Mayberry to see if his other top-tooth have come +up enough for Maw to rub it through with her thimble." Though she did +not designate Teether as the subject of the operation the audience +understood that it was he and not Martin Luther so fated. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Miss Wingate in horror, and she reached out and +took Teether into protective arms. The day had been a long and weary +one for Teether Pike and he dropped his tired little head over on the +cool pink muslin shoulder and nestled his aching jaw against the smooth +white neck. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold him still just a second as he is," said Doctor Tom quickly, and +in an instant he had whipped a case from his pocket, selected an +instrument and, inserting his finger between the pink lips, he rendered +unnecessary the agony of the maternal thimble. It had been done so +quickly that Teether himself only nestled a bit closer with a faint +moan, and Miss Wingate looked up at the operator with grateful eyes. +She hugged the limp baby closer and started to speak, but was +interrupted by an anxious question from Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you cut it?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the Doctor non-committally. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Maw'll be mighty mad at you, for Mother Mayberry asked her last +night to let you cut it and she said she'd thimbled the rest of us and +she reckoned he could stand it too. If it was me, I'd let you cut me +wide open and sew me up again if you wanted to," and Eliza beamed upon +the Doctor with an affection that was the acme of idealization. She had +forgotten that only a few hours ago she had renounced her loyalty at +the memory of the oil, but Miss Wingate smiled in appreciation of this +display of further feminine inconsistency. +</P> + +<P> +"Shucks," said Billy, "you'd holler 'fore he could cut onct. I'm +a-going to let him fix my next stump toe and 'Lias Hoover have got two +warts he can cut off, if he gives him a piece of catgut string to tie +on fish hooks." And Billy looked as if he expected to see the Doctor +entirely overwhelmed at the prospect of so much practice so easily +obtained. +</P> + +<P> +"Go take Martin Luther to show Mrs. Mayberry, Eliza," said Miss Wingate +with a laughing smile over the baby's head at the Doctor and his +practice. "I'll come on with the baby." And with Teether still embraced +she strolled up the walk with Doctor Mayberry at her side. When they +reached the front steps she seated herself on the top one and slowly +lowered the drowsy little chap, until his head rested on her breast and +her arms held him cradlewise. She began a low husky humming as she +rocked herself to and fro, watching breathlessly the fringed lashes +sink over his wearied eyes, until they lay like shadows on the purple +circles beneath. She was utterly absorbed in getting Teether into a +comatose condition, and had neither eyes nor ears for the Doctor; not +that he claimed either. +</P> + +<P> +He sat for some moments watching her and listening breathlessly to the +low music that came out through the wonderful throat, as if from some +master instrument with strings uncouthly muted. And as he looked, the +horrible thought clutched at his own heart. Suppose he should not be +able to free her voice for her! Many others had tried—the +greatest—and they had all been baffled by the strange stiffness of the +chords. He knew himself to be, in a way, her last resort. A world of +music lovers awaited the result. He had been obliged to send out two +Press bulletins as to her condition within the week—and she sat on the +steps in the twilight humming Teether Pike to sleep, shut in by the +Harpeth Hills with only him to fight her fight for her. He almost +groaned aloud with the pain of it, when into his consciousness came +Mother Mayberry's placid voice shooing the Pike children home with +promises and admonitions. A line from Doctor Stein's letter flashed +into his mind: "And first and above all I want your mother to put heart +and hope into the girl." The fight was not his alone, thank God, and he +knew just how much he could trust to his mother's heart-building. Why +not? Over the land men were learning to strengthen the man within +before attempting to cure the man without. Hadn't that always been his +mother's unconscious policy out on Harpeth Hills? A deep calm fell into +his troubled spirit and, as the singer lady and Mother escorted the +escort down the walk, he slipped away into his office for an hour +before supper with his reports and microscope. +</P> + +<P> +A half hour later Mother Mayberry came into his office for the little +chat she often took the time for just before the summons to supper. She +seated herself by the open window, through which the twilight was +creeping, and he threw down his pen and came and stood leaning against +the casement. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she said with a long breath of contentment, "well, I do feel +about ready to get ready to rest. The Pikeses is all in, I heard Bettie +Pratt calling in the Turners and Pratts and Hoovers, Buck have come +home to supper on time, as I know will relieve Hettie Ann's mind, +Squire Tutt just went in the front gate as I come up the walk and I +seen Mis' Bostick light the lamp in the Deacon's study from my kitchen +window a minute ago. They ain't nothing in the world that makes me so +contented as to know that all Providence is a-setting down to meals at +the same time and a-feeding together as one family, though in different +houses. The good Lord will get all the rendered thanks at the same time +and I feel it will please Him—ours is late on account of Elinory +deciding at the last minute to beat up some clabber cheese with fresh +cream for your supper, like she says they fix it up over in Europe +somewhere she lived while she was a-studying to sing. I come on out so +she could have a swing to herself and not think anybody was a-hurrying +of her. It's a riled woman as generally answers the call of hurry and I +never gives it, lessen it's life or death or a chicken-hawk." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Mother," remonstrated the Doctor with a very real distress in his +voice, "ought you to let her—Miss Wingate—do such things—so many +things? Are you sure she enjoys it and is not just doing it to help or +because she thinks she ought? Or do you—?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," interrupted Mother decidedly, "it's my opinion they ain't +nothing in the world so heavy as empty hands. She have had to lay down +a music book and I don't know nothing better to offer than a +butter-paddle and a bread-bowl. It's the feeding of folks that counts +in a woman's life, whether it be songs or just bread and butter. If +Elinory's tunes was as much of a success as her riz biscuits have come +to be, I wisht I could have heard her just onct." +</P> + +<P> +"I did, Mother, the first night she sang in America—and it was very +wonderful. When I think of the great opera house, the lights and the +flowers, the audience mad with joy and the applause and—I—I—wonder +how she stands it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Mother, "I reckon wondering how Eve stood things muster +took Adam's mind offen hisself to a very comforting degree. Courage was +the ingredient the good Lord took to start making a woman with and it's +been a-witnessing his spirit in her ever since. I oughtn't to have to +tell you that." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't," Doctor Tom hastened to answer as he smiled down on Mother. +"I only spoke as I did about Miss Wingate because you see she is—well, +what we would call a very great lady and I wouldn't have her think that +I did not realize that-?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you can do as you choose," answered Mother placidly as she +prepared to take her departure to see to the finishing up of the +supper, "but I ain't a-letting no foolish pride hold my heart back from +my honey-bird. Love's my bread of life and I offers it free, high or +low. Come on and see how you like that cheese fixing she's done made +for you." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PEONY-GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN +</H3> + +<P> +"There's just no doubt about it, if Tom Mayberry weren't my own son and +I had occasion to know better I'd think he had teeth in his heels, from +the looks of his socks. Every week Cindy darns them a spell and then I +take a hand at it. Just look, Elinory, did you ever see a worser hole +than this?" As Mother Mayberry spoke she held up for Miss Wingate's +interested inspection a fine, dark blue sock. They were sitting on the +porch in the late afternoon and the singer lady was again at work on a +bit of wardrobe for the doll daughter of her friend Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"How does he manage such—such awful ones?" asked Miss Wingate with a +laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"That you can't never prove by me," answered his mother as she slipped +a small gourd into the top of the sock and drew a thread through her +needle. +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes I wish the time when I could turn him barefooted from May to +November had never gone by. But a-wishing they children back in years +is a habit most mothers have got in common, I reckon. When he's away +from me I dream him often at all ages, but it's mostly from six to +eleven I seem to want him. When he were six, with Doctor Mayberry gone, +I took to steadying myself by Tom and at eleven I made up my mind to +give him up." +</P> + +<P> +"Give him up?" asked Miss Wingate as she raised her eyes from her work. +"I don't think you seem to have given him up to any serious extent." +And she smiled as she turned her head in the direction of the office +wing, from which came a low whistled tune, jerkily and absorbedly +rendered. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he don't belong to me no more," answered his mother in a placid +tone of voice as she rocked to and fro with her work. "I fought out all +that fight when I took my resolve. I just figured something like this, +Pa Lovell had been a-doctoring on Harpeth Hills for a lifetime and +Doctor Mayberry had gave all his young-man life to answering the call, +a-carrying the grace of God as his main remedy, so now I felt like the +time had come for a Lovell and a Mayberry to go out and be something to +the rest of the world, and Tom were the one to carry the flag. I seen +that the call were on him since he helped me through a spell of May +pips with over two hundred little chickens before he were five years +old, and he cut a knot out of the Deacon's roan horse by the direction +of a book when he weren't but eleven, as saved its life. That kinder +settled it with me and the Deacon both, though we talked it back and +forth for two more years. Then Deacon took to teaching of him regular +and I set in to save all I could from the thin peeling of potatoes to +worser darnings and patches than this. Would you think they could be +any worser?" And she smiled up over her glasses at the girl opposite +her. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about it," demanded the singer lady interestedly. "Where did +you send him to school first?" +</P> + +<P> +"Right down here to the City. You see Doctor Mayberry left me this +home, fifty acres and a small life insurance, so they was a little +something to inch and pinch on. You can't save by trying to peel +nothing, but the smallest potatoes have got a skin, and I peeled close +them days. Tom did his part too and he run the plow deep and straight +when he wasn't much taller than the handles. I had done talked it over +with him and asked him would he, and he looked right in my eyes in his +dependable way and said yes he would. That finished it and he wasn't +but eleven; but I don't want to brag on him to you. If you listen to +mothers' talk the world are full of heroes and none-suches." Again Miss +Wingate received the smile from over Mother Mayberry's glasses and this +time it was tinged with a whimsical pride. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, Mrs. Mayberry, tell me about it; you know I want to hear," +begged the girl, and she moved her chair nearer to Mother's and picked +up the mate of the blue sock off her knee. "How old was he when he went +to college?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just sixteen, big and hearty and with enough in his head to get +through the examinations. I packed him up, and him and the Deacon +started down Providence Road at sun-up in the Deacon's old buggy. He +looked both man and baby to me as he turned around to smile back; but I +stood it out at the gate until they turned the bend, then I come on +back to the house quick like some kind of hurted animal. But, dearie +me, I never got a single tear shed, for there were Mis' Peavey with +Buck in her arms, shaking him upside down to get out a brass button he +hadn't swallowed. By the time we poured him full of hot mustard water +and the button fell outen his little apron pocket, I had done got my +grip on myself." +</P> + +<P> +"I just can't stand it that you had to let him go," Miss Wingate both +laughed and sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but I ain't told you about the commencement, honey-bird. There's +that tear <I>I</I> didn't get to drop a-splashing outen your eyes on the +doll's hat! That day was the most grandest thing that ever happened to +anybody's mother, anywhere in this world. I didn't think I could go to +see him get the diplomy, for with all his saving ways and working hard +in the summer, it had been a pull to make buckle and tongue meet and +there just wasn't nothing left for me to buy no stylish clothes to +wear. I set here a-worrying over it, not that I minded, but it was hard +on the boy to have to make his step-off in life and his mother not be +there to see. And somehow I felt as if it would hurt Pa Lovell and +Doctor Mayberry for me not to be with him. Then with thinking of Pa +Lovell a sudden idea popped into my head. There was Seliny Lue Lovell +right down to the Bluff, on the road to town, and with Aunt Lovell's +fine black silk dress packed away in the trunk, as good as new, and me +and Seliny Lue of almost the same figger as her mother. That just +settled the question and I got up and washed out my water-waves in a +little bluing water to make 'em extra white, dabbed buttermilk on my +face to get off some of the tan and called over Mis' Peavey and Mis' +Pike to let 'em know. The next morning I started off gay with everybody +there to see and sending messages to Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't it fortunate you thought of the dress and lovely for you to be +able to go right by and get it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, her eyes as +bright as Mother Mayberry's and her cheeks pink with excitement as the +tale began to unfold its dramatic length. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and Seliny Lue was glad enough to see me! We laughed and talked +half the night, was up early, and she took a time to rig me out. It is +a stiff black silk, as anybody would be proud of, cut liberal with real +lace collar and cuffs. Seliny Lue said I looked fine in it. I wisht she +could have gone with me, but they wasn't room for both of us inside the +dress." And Mother laughed merrily at the memory of her borrowing +escapade. +</P> + +<P> +"Did Doctor Mayberry know you were coming?" asked the singer lady, +hurrying on the climax of the recital. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a word! He'd gone off the week before taking it sensible, but I +could see hurt mightily about it. I got to the University Hall late, +and 'most everybody in the world looked like they was there. I stood at +the back and didn't hope to see or hear, just thankful to be near him, +but I seen one of them young usher men a-looking hard at me and he came +up and asked me if I wasn't Mr. Thomas Mayberry's mother. He had knew +me by the favor. I told him yes and he took me up to the very front +just as the singing begun. I soon got me and the silk dress settled, +with the bokay all Providence had sent Tom on my knee, and looked +around me. There next to me was the sweetest young-lady girl I have +'most ever saw, and she smiled at me real friendly. I was just about to +speak when the music stopped and the addressing began by a tall thin +kinder man. Elinory, child, did you ever hear one of them young men's +life-commencement speeches made?" This time Mother Mayberry peered over +the top of her glasses seriously and her needle paused suspended over +the fast narrowing hole in the sock. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but I don't think I ever listened very carefully," admitted Miss +Wingate with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I felt that if the Lord had gave it to me to stand up there and +say a word of start-off to all them boys setting solemn and listening, +it wouldn't have been about no combination of things done by men dead +and gone, that didn't seem to prove nothing in particular on nobody. I +woulder read 'em a line of scripture and then talked honest dealing by +one another, the measuring out of work according to the pay and always +a little over, the putting of a shoulder under another man's pressing +burden, the respect of women folks, the respect of theyselves and the +looking to the Lord to see 'em through it all. That speech made me so +mad I 'most forgot it was time for Tom's valediction. Honey-bird, I +wisht you coulder seen him and heard him." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could," answered Miss Wingate with a flush. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, but he was handsome and he spoke words of sense that the +other gray-haired man seemed to have forgot! And they was a farewell +sadness in it too, what got some of them boys' faces to working, and I +felt a big tear roll down and splash right on the lace collar. Then he +sat down and they was a to-do of hollering and clapping, but I just sat +there too happy to take in the rest of what was did. Sometimes they is +a kinder pride swell in a mother's heart that rises right up and talks +to her soul in psalm words, and I heard mine that day." Mother's eyes +softened and looked far away across to the blue hills. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he do when he saw you?" asked Miss Wingate gently. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I didn't pay much attention to him when he come up to me, or let +on how I felt. That sweet child next to me had done found out I was his +mother, I couldn't help telling her. And then she had sent for her +father, who was the head Dean man, and about the time Tom came up, he +was there shaking hands with me and telling me how proud the whole +University was of Tom and about the great scholarship for him to go to +New York to study he had got, and that he must go. It didn't take me +hardly two seconds to think a mortgage on the house and fifty acres, +the cows and all, so I answered right up on time that go he should. +While I was a-talking Tom had gave the bokay from Providence to the +girl, what he had been knowing all the time at her father's house. And +she had her nose buried in one of Mis' Peavey's pink peonys, a-blushing +as pretty as you please over it at that country bumpkin of mine with +all his fine manners. That Miss Alford is one of the most sweet girls +you ever have saw. She and me have been friends ever since. She comes +out to see me in her ottermobile sometimes. She ain't down to the City +now, for I had a picture card from some place out West from her, but +when she comes back I'm a-going to ask her to come up and have a +stay-a-week-in-the-house party for you; and she can bring her brother. +You might like him. The four of you can have some nice junketings +together. Won't that be fine?" +</P> + +<P> +"Y-e-s," answered the singer lady slowly, "but I'm afraid I'm not able +now to interest anybody, and my voice, when I speak—I—I—Will it be +soon?" Her question had a trace of positive anxiety in it and her joy +was most evidently forced. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, not till June rose time! And your voice now sounds like a angel's +with a bad cold. I'll tell Tom about it, he'll be so pleased. Her +father was such a friend to him and as proud of him now as can be." +</P> + +<P> +"Did Doctor Mayberry stay in the City—after his graduation?" asked +Miss Wingate, a trace of anxiety in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"That he didn't! He come on home with me that night, got into his +overalls and begun to plow for winter wheat by sun-up the next morning. +We made a good crop that year and the mortgage wasn't but a few hundred +dollars, what we soon paid. We've been going up ever since. Tom reminds +me of a kite, and I must make out to play tail for him until I can pick +him out a wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you thought of anybody in particular?" asked the lovely lady +without raising her eyes from her work. She had commenced operations on +the blue sock unnoticed by Mother, who was taken up in the unfolding of +her tale. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet," answered she cheerfully. "I mustn't hurry. Marrying ain't no +one-day summer junket, but a year round march and the woman to raise +the hymn tune. I take it that after a mother have builded up a man, she +oughter see to it that he's capped off fine with a wife, and then she +can forget all about him. I've got my eyes open about Tom and I'm going +to begin to hunt around soon." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder just what kind of a wife you—you will select for him," +murmured Miss Wingate with her eyes still on the sock, which she was +industriously sewing up into a tight knot on the left side of the heel. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, a man oughter marry mostly for good looks and gumption; the +looks to keep him from knowing when the gumption is being used on him. +Tom's so say-nothing and shy with women folks that he won't be no hard +proposition for nobody. But with that way of his'n I'm afraid of his +being spoiled some. I have to be real stern with myself to keep from +being foolish over him." +</P> + +<P> +"But you want his wife to—to love him, don't you?" asked Miss Wingate, +as she raised very large and frankly questioning eyes to Mother +Mayberry, who was snipping loose threads from her completed task. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh she'll do that and no trouble! But a man oughter be allowed to +sense his wife have got plenty of love and affection preserved, only he +don't know where she keeps the jar at. As I say, I don't want Tom +Mayberry spoiled. What did I do with that other sock?" And Mother began +to hunt in her darning bag, in her lap and on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Here it is," answered Miss Wingate as she blushed guiltily. "I—darned +it." And she handed her handiwork over to Mother Mayberry with +trepidation in voice and expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now," said Mother, as she inspected the tight little wad on the +blue heel. "It was right down kind of you to turn to and help me like +this, but, honey-bird, Tom Mayberry would walk like a hop toad after +he'd done got it on. You have drawn it bad. I don't know no better time +to learn you how to darn your husband's socks than right now on this +one of Tom's. You see you must begin with long cross stitches in +the—Now what's all this a-coming!" And Mother Mayberry rose, looked +down the Road and hurried to the sidewalk with the darning bag under +her arm and her thimble still on her finger. +</P> + +<P> +Up the middle of the Road came, in a body, the entire juvenile +population of Providence at a break-neck speed and farther down the +street they were followed by Deacon Bostick, coming as fast as his +feeble old legs would bring him. Eliza Pike headed the party with +Teether hitched high up en her arm and Martin Luther clinging to her +short blue calico skirt. They all drew up in a semicircle in front of +Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate and looked at Eliza expectantly. On +all occasions of excitement Eliza was both self-constituted and +unanimously appointed spokesman. On this occasion she began in the +dramatic part of the news without any sort of preamble. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a circus," she said breathlessly, "a-moving over from Bolivar to +Springfield and nelephants and camels and roar-lions and tigers and +Mis' Pratt and Deacon and Mr. Hoover and everybody is a-going over to +watch it pass—and we can't—we can't!" Her voice broke into a wail, +which was echoed by a sob and a howl from across the street just inside +the Pike gate, where Bud and Susie pressed their forlorn little bodies +against the palings and looked out on the world with the despair of the +incarcerated in their eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Why can't you?" demanded Mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Maw have gone across the Nob to Aunt Elviry's and left Susie May +and Bud being punished. They can't go outen the gate and I ain't +a-going to no circus with my little brother and sister being punished, +and I won't let Billy and Ez go either." By this time the whole group +was in different stages of grief, for the viewing of a circus without +the company of Eliza Pike had the flavor of dead sea fruit in all their +small mouths. From the heart in Eliza's small bosom radiated the force +that vivified the lives of the whole small-fry congregation, and a +circus not seen through her eyes would be but a dreary vision. +</P> + +<P> +"Now ain't that too bad!" said Mother Mayberry with compassion and +irritation striving in her voice. "What did they do and just what did +she say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Susie hurted Aunt Prissy's feelings, by taking the last biscuit when +they wasn't one left for her, and Maw said she would have to stay in +the yard until she learned to be kind and respectful to Paw's sister, +She didn't mean to be bad." And Eliza presented the case of her small +sister with hopelessness in every tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "don't you feel kind to her yet?" +There was a note of hope in Mother's voice that silenced all the wails, +and they all fixed large and expectant eyes upon this friend who never +failed them. By this time the Deacon had joined the group and his +gentle old eyes were also fixed on Mother Mayberry's face, with the +same confident hope that the children's expressed. +</P> + +<P> +"I've done been kind to her," sniffed the culprit. "I let her cut all +my finger-nails and wash my ears and never said a word. She have been +working on me all afternoon and it hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "you can go over to the cross-roads and +see that circus with the Deacon. They can't no little girl do better +than that, and your Maw just told you to stay until you learned that +lesson. You are let out! Now, what did you do, Bud?" +</P> + +<P> +"I slid on the lean-to and tored all the back of my britches out. She +couldn't stop to mend 'em and she said I could just stay front ways to +folks until she come home, and they shouldn't nobody mend 'em for me." +Bud choked with grief and mortification and edged back as little Bettie +Pratt started in his direction on an investigating tour. +</P> + +<P> +"Well course, Bud," said Mother with judicial eye, "you can't take them +britches off." She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't a-going a step without him," reiterated the loyal Eliza, and +the rest of the children's faces fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad," murmured the Deacon, and Miss Wingate could see that his +distress at the plight of young Bud was as genuine as that of any of +the rest. +</P> + +<P> +"But," began Mother Mayberry slowly, having in the last second weighed +the matter and made a decision, "your mother ain't said you couldn't go +outen the yard and she ain't said I couldn't wrap you up in one of my +kitchen aprons. That wouldn't be the same as changing the britches. She +didn't know about this circus and if she was here you all know she +woulder done as I asked her to do about Bud, so he ain't a-disobeying +her and I ain't neither, Run get the apron hanging behind the door, +Susie, and I'll fix him." +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Mayberry," said the Deacon with a delighted smile in his kind +eyes, but a twinkle in their corners, "your decision involves the +interpretation of both the letter and the spirit of the law. I am glad +it, in this case, rested with you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry, as she took the apron from Susie and +started across the Road on her rescue mission, "a woman have got to cut +her conscience kinder bias in the dealing with children. If they're +stuffed full of food and kindness they will mostly forget to be bad, +and oughtent to be made to remember they CAN be by being punished too +long. Now, sonny, I'll get you fixed up so stylish with these pins and +this apron that the circus will want to carry you off. Start on, +Deacon, he's a-coming." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to get the baby's bonnet," said Eliza as the whole party +started away in a trail after the Deacon, who led Martin Luther by one +hand and little Bettie by the other. Over by the store they could see +Mrs. Pratt waiting to marshal the forces on down the Road and Mr. +Hoover stood ready as outstanding escort. He had brought the news of +the passing of the circus train and she had promptly consented to +taking the children and the Deacon over for a view. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, Eliza, please don't take the baby! Leave him with me," said +Miss Wingate and as she spoke she stretched out her arms to Teether. +Teether was looking worn with the excitement of the day and his +sympathetic friend felt the journey would be too much for him. He +smiled and fell over on her shoulder with a sigh of contentment. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think he oughter see them nelephants and things?" asked +Eliza doubtfully, her loyalty to Teether warring with the relief of +having him out of her thin little arms for the journey. +</P> + +<P> +"He won't mind. Let me keep him here on the front porch until you come +back. Now run along and have a good time," and Miss Wingate started up +the front walk, as Eliza darted away to join the others. +</P> + +<P> +"I do declare," said Mother Mayberry, as she watched the expedition +wend its way down the white Road in the direction of the Bolivar pike, +"the way the Deacon do love the children is plumb beautiful, and sad +some too. I don't know what he would do without Jem or they without +him. Seeing 'em together reminds me of that scraggy, old snowball bush +in full bloom, leaning down to the little Stars of Bethlehem reaching +up to it. What that good man have been to me only my Heavenly Father +can know and Tom Mayberry suspicion. I tell you what I think I'll do; +I'll take one of them little pans of rolls what Cindy have baked for +supper, with a jar of peach preserves, and go down and set with Mis' +Bostick while the Deacon are gone. We can run the pan of rolls in to +get hot for him when he comes home and I know he likes the preserves. I +want to stop in to see Mis' Tutt too and give her a little advice about +that taking so much blue-mass. I don't see how anybody with a bad liver +can have any religion at all, much less a second blessing. I know the +Squire have his faults, but others has failings too. And, too, I'll +have to stop in and pacify Miss Prissy about turning the children +loose, before I go down the Road." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Prissy always seems to be getting the children into trouble. I +wonder why," said the singer lady with a shade of resentment in her +voice. The little Pikes had established themselves firmly in the heart +of this new friend, and she found herself in an attitude of critical +partisanship. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon Miss Prissy is what you call a kinder crank," answered Mother +Mayberry as she paused at the foot of the steps. "A married woman have +got to be the hub of a family-wheel, but a old maid can be the outside +crank that turns the whole contraption backwards if she has a mind to. +I wish Miss Prissy had a little more understanding of the children, +'cause the rub all comes on Mis' Pike, and she's fair wore out with it. +But I must be a-going so as to be the sooner a-coming. I wisht you +would tell Tom Mayberry to go and let you help him put the hens and +little chickens to bed. Feed 'em two quarts of millet seed, and you +both know how to do it right if you have a mind to. I'm going to +compliment you by a-trusting you this once, and don't let me wish I +hadn't! I'll be back in the course of time." +</P> + +<P> +And so it happened that as Doctor Mayberry was in the act of swinging +his microscope over a particularly absorbing new plate, a very lovely +vision framed itself in his office door against the background of +Harpeth Hill, which was composed of the slim singer girl with the baby +nodding over her shoulder. The unexpectedness of the visit sent the +color up under his tan and brought him to his feet with a delighted +smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how you are going to feel about it, but I bring the news +of an honor which we are to share. Do you suppose, do you, that we can +put the chickens to bed for Mrs. Mayberry? She says we are to try, and +if we don't do it the right way she is never going to compliment us +with her confidence again. Help, please! I'm weighted down by the +responsibility." And as she spoke Miss Wingate's eyes shone across +Teether's bobbing head with delighted merriment. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, let's try," answered the Doctor with the air of being ready to +do or dare, an attitude which a vision such as his eyes rested upon is +apt to incite in any man thus challenged. "Will you take command? I'm +many times proved incompetent on such occasions, and I feel sure Mother +trusted to your generalship." And together they went through the garden +and over into the chicken yard. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Miss Wingate, "I think the thing to do is not to let them +know we are afraid of them. Let's just take their going under the coops +as a matter of course, and then, perhaps, they will go without any +remonstrance." +</P> + +<P> +"Sort of a mental influence dodge," answered the Doctor +enthusiastically. "Let's try it on Spangles first. I somehow feel that +she will be more impressionable than Old Dominick. You influence while +I spread the millet seed in front of her coop." And he bent down in +front of the half barrel and carefully laid a tempting evening meal, +with his eye on Fuss-and-Feathers. Spangles hesitated, stood on one +foot, clucked in an affected tone of voice to her huddling babies and +coquettishly turned her head from one side to the other as if enthusing +over his artistic service before accepting his hospitality. Then, just +as she was poising one dainty foot ready for the first step in advance, +and had sounded a forward note to the cheepers around her, Old Dominick +calmly stalked forward, stepped right across the Doctor's coaxing hand +held out to Spangles, and, settling herself in the coop, began, with +her voracious band of little plebeians, to devour the grain with stolid +appreciation. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Wingate laughed merrily, Teether Pike gurgled and the Doctor +looked up with baffled astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"That was your fault," he accused; "you influenced Dominick while I was +expending my force in beguiling Spangles. Now, you try to get her in +the next coop yourself. I shan't help you further than to spread the +grain in front of all the coops." And in accordance with his threat the +Doctor disposed of the rest of the food and stood with the empty pan in +his hand. And, like the well-trained flock of biddies that they were, +all the rest of the hen mothers clucked and cajoled their fluffy little +families into their accustomed shelters and began to dispose of their +suppers with contented clucks and cheeps. Only Mrs. Spangles stood afar +and eyed the only vacant coop with evident disdain. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what to do," murmured Miss Wingate pleadingly. But the +Doctor stood firm, and regarded her with maliciously delighted eyes. +Teether bobbed his head over her shoulder and giggled with ungrateful +delight The poor little chicks peeped sleepily, but still Spangles held +her ground. The truth of the matter was that Dominick had really taken +the coop usually occupied by her ladyship, and with worldly +determination, the scion of all the Wyandottes was holding out against +the exchange. +</P> + +<P> +With a glance out of the side of her eyes from under her lowered lashes +in the direction of Doctor Mayberry in his stern attitude, the singer +lady cautiously veered around to the rear of the insulted grandee, and, +grasping her fluffy skirts in her free hand, she shook them out with a +pleading "Shoo!" Instantly a perfect whirlwind of spangled feathers +veered around and faced the cascade of frills, and a volume of defiant +hisses fairly filled the air. Teether squealed and Miss Wingate +retreated to the bounds of the fence. The Doctor laughed in the most +heartless manner, and still Spangles held her ground. +</P> + +<P> +To make matters worse, Mother Mayberry's jovial voice, mingled with the +shrill treble of the combined circus party, who were trying all at once +to tell her the wonders of the adventure, could be distinctly heard in +an increasing volume that told of their rapid approach. The situation +was desperate, and the loss of Mother Mayberry's faith in her seemed +inevitable to the nonplussed singer lady as she leaned against the +fence with Teether over her shoulder. Then the instinct that is +centuries old presented to her the wile that is of equal antiquity and, +raising her purple eyes to the defenseless Doctor, she murmured in a +voice of utter helplessness, into which was judiciously mingled a tone +of perfect confidence: +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir, get her in for me." +</P> + +<P> +The response to which, being foreordained from the beginning of time, +took Doctor Mayberry just one exciting half-minute grab and shove to +accomplish, at the end of which a ruffled but chastened Spangles was +forced to assemble her family and content herself behind the bars of +the despised coop. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Mother Mayberry as she hurried around the corner of the +house with the depleted and milk-hungry Martin Luther trailing at her +skirts, "did you make out to manage 'em? Why, ain't that fine; every +one in and settled and Fuss-and-Feathers in that end coop where I have +been wanting her to be for a week, seeing Dominick have got so many +more chickens and needs that larger barrel. I didn't depend on Tom +Mayberry, but I did on you, Elinory. This just goes to show that if you +put a little trust in people they are mighty apt to rise in the pan to +a occasion. You all look like you've been having a real good time!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LOVE, THE CURE-ALL +</H3> + +<P> +"Eat milk, thank ma'am, please, Mother Lady," demanded Martin Luther as +he stood on the top step in front of Mother Mayberry, who, with Miss +Wingate beside her, sat sewing away the early hours of the morning. A +tiny blue-check shirt was taking shape under Mother's skilful fingers, +and the singer lady was deep in the mysteries of the fore and aft of a +minute pair of jeans trousers. The limitations of young Ez's wardrobe +had necessitated the speedy construction of one for the little adopt, +and Miss Wingate's education along the lines of needle control was +progressing at what she considered a remarkable rate. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Martin Luther!" She looked down at him over a carefully poised +needle. "How can you be hungry when you ate your breakfast not two +hours ago?" she added with the intent to beguile him from his demand. +</P> + +<P> +"All gone, thank ma'am, please," he answered, looking out from under +his curl with a pathetic cast of his blue eyes, and at the same time +spreading both hands over his entire vital region. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon maybe we'd better fill him up again," said Mother. "Them legs +still look 'most too much like knitting-needles to suit me, and I +kinder want to feel him to be sure his stomick haven't growed to his +backbone. Anyway, you can't never measure a boy's food by his size. +Please run and get him a glass of buttermilk and a biscuit, child, +while I finish setting in this sleeve. Let me see them britches legs +'fore you put 'em down. Dearie me, if you ain't gone and made 'em both +for the same leg! Too bad, with all them pretty baste-stitches!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" gasped Miss Wingate in dismay; "have I ruined them?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed, just turn the left leg inside out and hem it up again—or +you might make two more right legs to sew on to these. It would be a +good thing to double one failing mistake up into two successes, +wouldn't it? Often bad luck turned inside out makes a cap that fits +plumb easy. While you fill the boy up, I'll cut out his other legs for +you to baste right this time. Take a peep around the garden before you +come back to see if Spangles have got her chickens in the wet weeds. I +hadn't oughter let her pretty feathers make me distrust her, but it +do." And Mother went placidly on with her sewing as she watched the +girl and the tot go hand-in-hand down the path to the spring-house +under the hill. She had just placed in her sleeve and was regarding it +with entire satisfaction, when the front gate clicked and she looked up +with interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, good morning, Mis' Mayberry," came in Bettie Pratt's hearty +voice as she swung up the walk at a brisk pace. On one arm she held a +bobbing baby in a white sunbonnet, a toddler clung to her skirts and a +small boy trailed behind her with a puppy in his arms. She was buxom +and rosy, was the Widow Pratt, with a dangerous dimple over the corner +of her mouth, a decided come-hither in her blue eyes, and a smile that +compelled a response. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Bettie child, how glad I am to see you!" exclaimed Mother, +rendering the smile from out over her glasses. "I didn't see you all +day yesterday and not the day before, neither. But I put it down to a +work-hold on us both, and didn't worry none. And now here you are, with +some of the little folks! Here's a empty spool for little Bettie," and +she held out the treasure to the toddler, who sidled up to her knee +with confidence to grasp the gift. +</P> + +<P> +"I told Pattie Hoover if she would stay at home this morning and clean +up some like her Pa wants her to that I'd let my Clara May help her and +would bring the baby on up here to get him outen the way. 'Lias come +along to get you to look at his puppy's foot, and I want you to see if +you don't think the baby have fatted some since I've took holt and +helped Pattie with the feeding of him." +</P> + +<P> +"He have that," answered Mother heartily. "I can tell it without even +feeling of his legs. You've got the growing hand with babies, Bettie, +and I'm glad you don't hold it back from this little half-orphant. I +don't know what the poor little Hoovers would do without you!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's what poor Mr. Hoover says," answered Bettie with the utmost +unconsciousness. "Show Mis' Mayberry the puppy's foot, 'Lias." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, the pitiful little thing!" exclaimed Mother when a small, brown, +crushed paw was presented to her inspection. "What happened to it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Petway's horse stepped on it—he didn't care. He just got in the +buggy and went on. I'm a-going to kill him with a gun when I get one." +Tears of rage and grief welled up in 'Lias' eyes, but he choked them +back with a resolution that boded ill for Mr. Petway when the time of +reckoning came. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't talk that way, 'Lias, though it are a shame," said Mother +as she looked closely at the injured paw. "The bone's all crushed. I'll +tell you what to do; just take him around to Doctor Tom's office and +he'll fix it in no time for you, in a way I couldn't never do. He won't +even limp, maybe." And Mother Mayberry made the offer of a piece of +skilled surgery with the utmost generosity. +</P> + +<P> +'Lias clasped the puppy closer, looked down and drew one of his bare +toes along a crack in the floor. "I'd rather you'd do it," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, don't that just beat all!" exclaimed Mother with both amusement +and exasperation in her face. "Looks like I can't even get Tom a puppy +practice." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, 'Lias Hoover, I'm ashamed of you not to want Doctor Tom to fix +his foot, and thank you, too! Didn't Bud Pike tell you last night how +he cut his little brother's mouth and didn't hurt him a bit, neither? +Bud is going to get him to fix his next stubbed toe hisself. Bud ain't +no bigger boy than you, but he knows a good doctor same as Mis' +Mayberry and me does when he sees one." There are ways and ways of +controverting masculine obstinancy, and evidently life had taught Mrs. +Pratt the efficacy of beguilement. Without more reluctance 'Lias +disappeared around the house in the direction of the office wing. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm mighty glad you come along this morning, Bettie," said Mother +Mayberry, as she threaded a new needle with a long thread. Little +Bettie had seated herself on the floor and begun operations with the +spool and a piece of string that vastly amused little Hoover, whom Mrs. +Pratt deposited opposite her within reach of her own balancing foot, +for the baby's age and backbone were both at a tender period. "I've got +a kinder worry on my mind that I'd like to get a little help from you +as to know what to do about. Have you noticed that both the Deacon and +Mis' Bostick look mighty peaky? Course Deacon have been sick, and she +have had a spell of nursing, but they don't neither of them pick up +like they oughter. Mis' Bostick puts me in mind of a little, +withered-up, gray seed pod when all the down have blowed away, and the +Deacon's britches fair flap around his poor thin shanks. Something or +other just makes me sense what is the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"And me, too, Mis' Mayberry. I've been a-feeling of it for some time, +since we all quit out with the nursing and taking 'em complimentary +dishes of truck. They is—is hungry." Mrs. Pratt brought out the +statement of the fact in a positively awestruck voice. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I'm afraid it is, Bettie," answered Mother, "and it hurts +me hard to think how he have served the Lord and helped us all in our +duty to Him and each other, she a-giving us of her bounty of +sister-love, and now, when they's old and feeble, a-feeling the pinch +of need. The young can reach out and help theyselves to they share of +life, but it oughter be handed old folks with thoughtful respect. We've +got to do something about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Course we have," assented the widow heartily. "But how are we a-going +to just give 'em things offen a cold collar? They're both so proud. +With owning the house, the bit the church gives 'em would do the rest, +but the Deacon have tooken that debt no-'count Will Bostick run off and +left down in the City to pay, and it have left 'em at starvation's +door. But that's neither here nor there; we've got to do something. +They don't need much but food, and Mis' Bostick is most too weak now to +cook it if they has the ingredients gave 'em to hand. They must be did +for some way." +</P> + +<P> +"And we've got to do it without a-giving them a single hurt feeling, +either," said Mother. "Enough good-will jelly will hide any kind of +charity pill, I say. Not as what we do for her and the Deacon can ever +be anything but thanks rendered for the blessing of them. But you get +to thinking, Bettie. The knees to my wits are getting old and stiff." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there's a donation party," suggested the widow thoughtfully. +"Everybody could help, and it could be made real pleasant with the men +asked to come in after supper. Everything could be gave from stovewood +to the Deacon some new Sunday pants. We did that once before, five +years ago to his birthday, and they was mighty pleased. Let's do it +again." +</P> + +<P> +"But that was before this disgrace of Will happened, and they didn't +downright need the things then—it were all sort of complimentary. When +needs are gave it's charity, but what you don't want is just a present. +We've got to find a way to do up needs in a present package for 'em. I +declare, I feel right put to know what to do." Mother Mayberry's voice +was actually worried, and she paused with her scissors ready to snip a +bit of the gingham into narrow bands. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we oughter be thankful we've got the things to give, and we'll +find some sort of way to slip up on the blind side of them about the +taking of them. The Deacon's britches is one pressing thing. Can't we +take some of the church carpet money and get Mr. Hoover to buy him a +pair when he hauls corn to town Monday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed, we can," answered Mother Mayberry, radiant at the very +thought of this relief proposition. "It's a heap more important to +carpet the Deacon with britches than the church floor right now. +Between them and her old bombersine, Mis' Bostick have spent the year +with her patch-thimble on her finger." +</P> + +<P> +"I declare, it hurts me so in church to look at her elbows and back +seams that I can't hardly listen to the Deacon pray. Patching is the +most worrisome job a woman has to do, according to my mind," said the +widow, with an expression of distaste on her beaming face. "I've done +patched two men, and I know what I'm talking about." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a trial," answered Mother Mayberry, "and Mis' Bostick's life +have been a patched one at the best, a-moving in the Methodist wagon +from one station to another and a-trying every time to cut herself out +by a new style to suit each congregation, Anyway, I reckon all women's +lives have wored thin and had to be darned in some places, but patches +on her garment of life ain't going to make no difference to a woman +when she puts it on to meet her Lord, just so it's cut on the charity +mantle pattern. And Mis' Bostick's was hung to cover the multitude. But +a-talking here have made me sprout a idea: 'Liza Pike have blazed the +trail for us, bless her little heart! Her mother don't never cook a +single thing that 'Liza haven't got a dish handy to beg some for the +Deacon and Mis' Bostick. And she don't stop at her own cook stove, but +she's always here looking into what Cindy cooks with an eye to the old +folk's sweet-tooths or chicken-hankers. I know, too, she gets what she +wants from you for them, so there is our leading. The Deacon loves +'Liza, and she is such a entertainment to him that he'd eat ten meals a +day at her dictation and no questions asked. And she do beat all with +her mothering ways with them old folks. Last Wednesday night she had +Deacon a-leading prayer meeting with a red flannel band around his +throat for his croaks, and just yesterday she made Mis' Bostick stay in +bed half the day, covered up head and ears, to sweat off a little +nose-dripping cold. She's always a-consulting Tom and leaving me out. I +think she's got her eye on my practice. They never was such a +master-hand of a child in Providence before." +</P> + +<P> +"There you are right," laughed the widow. "It's getting so that they +ain't a child on the Road as will let its own mother look at a cut +finger or a black bruise 'fore 'Liza have done had her say about what +is to be did. I believe it is as you say, Mis' Mayberry, and 'Liza can +play raven for us in fine style. I know Mis' Pike will push it on and +more'n do her part in the filling of the child's covered dish." +</P> + +<P> +"That she will," answered Mother Mayberry heartily. "Judy Pike spends a +heap of time turning over life to find for certain which is the right +and wrong of it, but once found, she sticks close to the top weave. +We'll plan it all out at the Sewing Circle, and then get it down to +days who's to send what regular. I'm thankful for this leading of how +to take care of our old folks, and I know you are, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't nobody be thankfuller," answered the rosy widow, "and the +filling of that dish is a-going to give me a lot of good pride. But I'd +better be going and seeing after them girls and the house cleaning. +They are both master hands, but if Buck Peavey was to happen to tie +hisself up to the front gate, it would be good-by dust-pan and mop for +Pattie. Not that I don't feel for her in the liking of that rampaging +boy of Mis' Peavey's, and it's mighty hard not to kinder saunter into a +little chat when the men folks call you. How are Miss Elinory to-day? +Ain't she the prettiest and most stylishest girl you have ever saw? I +wonder if she would lend me that long-tailed waist she wears to get the +pattern off to make me and Clara May and Pattie one?" As she spoke, +Mrs. Pratt rose, picked up little Hoover and set Bettie on her little +bare feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I know she will be glad to, and such a head sewer as you are can copy +it most exact. Here she are now! Child, Mis' Pratt have been so +complimenting of your looks and clothes that I'm sorter set up with +pride over you." +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Mrs. Pratt," exclaimed the singer lady, as she appeared +in the doorway with the resuscitated Martin Luther at her side. "The +darling babies! You are not going, are you?" The widow and Miss Wingate +had developed a decided attraction for each other, and their blossoming +friendship delighted Mother Mayberry most obviously. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I didn't have to," answered Mrs. Pratt, beaming with smiles, +which little Bettie echoed as she coquetted around her mother's skirts +with Miss Wingate, "but it's most dinner-pot time, and I've got mouths +to feed when the horn blows." +</P> + +<P> +"Elinory, child, run get that pink, long-tailed waist of your'n to let +Bettie make one by, please," said Mother Mayberry, with total +unconsciousness of that very strong feminine predilection for +exclusiveness of design in wearing apparel. The garment in question was +a very lovely, simply-cut linen affair that bore a distinguished +foreign trade-mark. "I know you feel complimented by her wanting to +make one for herself by it, and maybe Clara May and Pattie, too. They +ain't no worldly feeling as good as having your clothes admired, is +they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed there isn't," answered Miss Wingate cordially, and if there was +chagrin in her heart at the thought of seeing Providence in uniform +with the precious pink blouse, her smile belied it. She immediately +ascended to her room, and returned quickly with the treasure in her +hand. "Let me come and see you fit them," she entreated. "I don't know +how to sew one, but I can tell how it ought to look." +</P> + +<P> +"Come spend the day next Monday. We'll all have a good time together +and I'll make you some more of them fritters you liked for supper the +other night." The widow fairly beamed like a headlight at the thought +of the successful impromptu supper party a few nights before, when +Doctor Mayberry had brought Miss Wingate down upon her unexpectedly +with a demand to be invited to stay to supper for that especial dainty. +As she spoke she was half-way down the walk, and looked back, smiling +at them over the baby's bonnet. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I heard Tom Mayberry disgraced himself over your maple syrup jug, +Bettie Pratt," called Mother Mayberry after her. "That Hoover baby +surely have growed. Good-by!" +</P> + +<P> +"They ain't nothing in this world so comforting to a woman as good +feeling with her sisters, one and all," Mother Mayberry said as she +watched the last switch of the widow's skirt. "Mother, wife and +daughter love is a institution, but real sistering is a downright +covenant. Me and Bettie have held one betwixt us these many a year. But +you and me have both put a slight on the kitchen since Cindy got back. +Let's go see if dinner ain't most on the table." +</P> + +<P> +And they found that from their neglect the dinner had suffered not at +all. Cindy, a gaunt, black woman with a fire of service and devotion to +Mother Mayberry in her eyes, and apparently nothing else to excuse +existence, had accomplished the meal as a triumph. +</P> + +<P> +She had set the table out on the side porch under the budding +honeysuckle, and as Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate, followed by +Martin Luther, ever ready to do trencher duty, came out of the back +hall Doctor Tom emerged from his office door. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I didn't see you come in, Tom," said Mother. "You muster used +wings and lit." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I came from across the fields and in the back way. I've had a +patient and I'm puffed up with pride." As he spoke he smiled at Miss +Wingate and his mother delightedly. +</P> + +<P> +"'Lias Hoover's puppy," said Mother, stating the fact to Miss Wingate. +"Was you able to fix him up, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; his puppyship will navigate normally in ten days, I think; +but this was a real patient." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, who, son? Don't keep me waiting to know, for I'm worried at the +very thought of a Providence pain. Who's down now and what did you do +for 'em?" And Mother bestowed upon the young doctor a glance of +inter-professional inquiry. "Squire Tutt," answered her son promptly. +"I met him up by the store and he asked me what I would do if a man had +a snake bite out in the woods, ten miles from any hot-water kettle. I +diagnosed the situation and prescribed with the help of Mr. Petway, and +I think—I think, Mother, I've proselyted your patient." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Tom, don't make fun of the Squire. Them are real pains he has, +and I don't think it is right for a doctor to have a doubting mind +towards a patient. Sympathy will help worry any kinder bad dose down. +You know I want you to do your doctoring in this life with love to be +gave to help smooth all pain." Mother regarded him seriously over her +glasses as she admonished. +</P> + +<P> +"I will—I do, Mother," answered the Doctor, and his gray eyes danced +before he veiled them with his black lashes as he looked down at his +plate. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Wingate flushed ever so slightly and busied herself with spreading +butter on a large piece of bread for Martin Luther, an unnecessary +attention, as she had performed that same office for him just the +moment before, and even he had not been able to make an inroad thereon. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you are right, Mrs. Mayberry," she said slowly after a +second's rally of her forces. "The sympathy and—and regard of one's +physician is very necessary at times and—and—" She paused, but not so +much as a glance out of the corner of her purple black eyes did she +throw in the direction of the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Course they ain't nothing so encouraging in the world as love, and I +think the sick oughter have it gave to 'em in large and frequent doses! +I'm thankful I've got so much in my heart that I can just prescribe it +liberal when needed. Dearie me, could that shadow be a chicken-hawk? +Just excuse me, children; finish your dinner while I go out and look +after my feather babies." And Mother hurried away through the kitchen, +leaving the singer lady and the Doctor sitting at the table under the +fragrant vine, with the replete Martin Luther nodding his sleepy head +down into his plate between them. +</P> + +<P> +And thus deserted, the flush rose up under Miss Wingate's eyes and a +dimple teased at the corner of her red lips, but she busied herself +with removing the plate from under Martin Luther's yellow mop and +making a pillow of her own bare arm, against which he nestled his +chubby little cheek with a sigh of content, as he drifted off into his +usual after-dinner nap. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor watched her from under his half-closed eyes, then he lit a +cigarette, leaned his elbow on the table and sat silent for a few +moments, while under her breath she hummed a little sleep song to the +drifting baby. +</P> + +<P> +"On the whole," he asked at last, the usual delightful courtesy with +which he always addressed her striving with an unusual trace of gentle +banter in his deep voice, "what do you think of Mother's philosophies?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think," she answered as she ruffled the baby's curls with one white +hand, "they are so true that no wonder they are—are more healing +than—than your medicines." +</P> + +<P> +She raised her eyes to his suddenly and they were filled to the brim +with frank merriment. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't tell me I'm going to lose my one and only star patient, Teether +Pike and the puppy excepted!" he exclaimed with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she answered slowly, "I'm going to let you operate when the time +comes—but it's your Mother that's healing me. Oh, can't you, can't you +see what she's doing for me?" she turned to him and asked suddenly, the +burr thrown across her voice heavily because of the passion in her +tones. "I came to you a broken instrument—useless for ever, +perhaps—unfit for all I knew of life unless you healed me, and +now—now I can make things and do things—a pie and a good one, bread +to feed and the butter thereto, and to-day two halves of a pair of +trousers, no the halves of two pairs of trousers. What matter if I +never sing again?" She stretched her white arm across the table and +looked over the head of the sleeping baby straight into his eyes. Hers +were soft with tears, and a divine shyness that seemed to question him. +</P> + +<P> +He lifted the white hand, with its pink palm upward, gently into his +own brown one, and placed the tip of one of his fingers on a tiny red +scar on her forefinger. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know the story the drop of blood I took from this prick this +morning told?" he asked with his eyes shining into hers. "A gain of +over thirty percent in red corpuscles in less than a month. Yes, I +admit it; Mother is building, but when she has you ready—I'm going to +give it back to you, the wonderful voice. I don't know why I know, but +I do." +</P> + +<P> +"And I don't know why I know that you will—but I do," she answered +with lowered voice and eyes. "When all the others tried I knew they +would fail. The horrible thought clutched at my throat always, and +there seemed no help. I don't feel it now at all. I'm too busy," she +added with a catch in her laugh and a sudden mist in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother's treatment again," he laughed as he laid her hand gently back +on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"And yours—when directed by her—her philosophies," she ventured +daringly, as she lifted Martin Luther into her arms, with a view to +depositing him upon the haven of Mother's bed to finish his nap. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor looked at her a second, started to answer, thought better of +it, took the heavy youngster out of her arms into his own and strode +across the hall with him into Mother's room. +</P> + +<P> +The singer lady walked to the edge of the porch, pulled down a spray of +the fragrant vine and looked out through it to the blue hills beyond +the meadows. She hummed a waltz-song this time, and her eyes were +dancing as if she were meditating some further assault on the Doctor's +imperturbability. He came back and stood beside her, and was just about +to make a tentative remark when Mother Mayberry hurried around the side +of the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Children!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink with +excitement, and the white curls flying in every direction; "I never did +have such a time in my life! It WERE a chicken-hawk and he were right +down amongst the hens and little chickens. Old Dominick was spread out +like a featherbed over all hers and most of Spangles', and there +Spangles was just a-contending with him over one of her little black +babies. He had it in his claw, but she had him by a beak full of +feathers and was a-swinging on for fare-you-well. Old Dominick was +a-directing of her with squawks, and Ruffle Neck was just squatting +over hers, batting her eyes with skeer, for all the world like she was +a fine lady a-going into a faint. And there stood all four of the +roosters, not a one of 'em a-turning of a feather to help her! They +looked like they was petrified to stone, and I'm a great mind to make +'em every one up into pies and salad and such. They's a heap of men, +come trouble, don't make no show, and the women folks have to lead the +fight. But they might er helped her after she's took holt!" +</P> + +<P> +"The brutes!" exclaimed Doctor Tom with real indignation. "When are you +going to have the pie, Mother?" he added teasingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I've got no intentions of feeding no such coward truck to you, +sir," answered his mother, still flurried with belligerency. +</P> + +<P> +"But the little baby chicken—what DID become of it?" demanded Miss +Wingate, and she, too, cast a glance of scorn at the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he dropped it and flew away as soon as he caught sight of me. It +ain't hurt a mite, and Spangles have hovered it and all the rest she +could coax out from under Dominick. Now this do settle it! Good looks +don't disqualify a woman from nothing; it's the men that can't stand +extra long tail feathers and fluted combs. I'm a-going to put 'em all +four in the pot before Wednesday." +</P> + +<P> +"I apologize; I apologize, with emotion, for all my doubts, both +expressed and unexpressed, of Mrs. Spangles!" the Doctor hastened to +exclaim. "Neck under heel for the whole masculine fraternity and +suffrage triumphant!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's not as bad as that," answered Mother in a jovially +mollified tone of voice. "Meek, plain-favored men like you may be let +live, with no attention paid 'em. Now go on over to Flat Rock and stop +a-wasting me and my honey-bird's time with your chavering. Come back +early for supper or you won't get none, for all three of us are a-going +to prayer meeting." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be here, and thank you for-crumbs of attention," answered the +Doctor, and, with a laughing glance at both his mother and Miss Wingate +he took himself off in the direction of the barn, for the purpose of +saddling his horse for his afternoon visit to his patients beyond the +Nob. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't he good to look at?" asked Mother Mayberry as she watched his +tall figure swing down the garden path. "Good looks in a man can be a +heap of pleasure to a woman, but she mustn't let on to him." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe," said Miss Wingate in an impersonally judicial tone of +voice, "that Doctor Mayberry is the very handsomest man I ever saw. One +would almost call him beautiful. It isn't entirely that he is so tall +and grand and has such eyes, but—do you know I think it is because he +is so like you that he is so lovely." And the singer lady tucked her +hand into Mother Mayberry's with a shy blush. +</P> + +<P> +"Liking folks kinder shines 'em up, same as furniture polish, +honey-bird," laughed Mother Mayberry with delight at the compliment. +"You're a-rubbing some on me and Tom Mayberry. But he were the best +favored baby I 'most ever saw, if I do say it, as shouldn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Miss Wingate delightedly, "I know he must have been lovely! +What was he like?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother reminiscently, "he were about like he are now. +He come so ugly I cried when I seen him first, and Doctor Mayberry +teased me about it to the day of his death. He called Tom 'Ugly' for +short. But he mighty soon begun to sprout little pleasing ways, +a-looking up under them black lashes and a-laughing acrost my breast. +His cheeks was rosy, his back broad and his legs straight, same as now. +He teethed easy, walked soon, have never learned to talk much yet, and +had his measles and whooping-cough when his time come. I just thought +he were something 'cause he were mine. All babies is astonishing +miracles to they mothers." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm sure Doctor Mayberry was really wonderful," said Miss Wingate, +instantly sympathetic. "Had he always such black hair?" +</P> + +<P> +"Borned with it. Now, my little girl had beautiful yellow curls and I +can show you one, by the Lord's mercy I've got it." Mother paused and +an ineffable gentleness came into her lovely old face. "I want to tell +you about it, honey-heart, 'cause it have got a strange sweetness to +it. She wasn't but five years old when she died, tooken sudden with +pneumony cruel bad. Nobody thought to cut me one of her curls before +they laid her away, and when I come to myself I grieved over it more +than I had oughter. But one day when the fall come on and the days was +short and dark; and it looked like nothing couldn't light up the old +house with that sunshine head gone, me almost a-feeling bitter and +questioning why, Tom went out and picked up a robin's nest that had +blowed down from a tree in the yard. And there, wound around inside it, +was the little curl I had cut off in the spring, out on the porch, what +had tagged into her eyes and worried her! The mother bird had used it +to make the nest soft for her babies and now didn't need it no more. +When I looked at it I took it as a message and a sign that my Lord +hadn't forgot me, and I ain't never mistrusted Him again. Come, let me +show it to you." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH +</H3> + +<P> +Wednesday morning dawned clear and bright. From over Providence Nob the +round red old sun looked jovially and encouragingly down upon +Providence, up and stirring at an unusually early hour, for in the +mid-week came Sewing Circle day and the usual routine of work must be +laid by before the noon meal, and every housewife in condition to +forgather at the appointed place on the stroke of one. Mrs. Peavey had +aroused the protesting Buck at the peep of dawn, the Pikes were all up +and breakfasting by the first rays of light that fell over the Ridge, +and the Hoover biscuits had been baked in the Pratt oven and handed +across the fence fifteen minutes agone. Down the road Mr. Petway was +energetically taking down the store shutters and Mr. Mosbey was +building the blacksmith shop fire. Cindy had milked and started +breakfast and Mother Mayberry had begun the difficult task of getting +the Doctor up and ready for the morning meal. Martin Luther had had a +glass of warm milk and was ready for an energetic attack upon his first +repast. +</P> + +<P> +Above, in her room under the gables, the singer lady had been awakened +by the brushing of a white-capped old locust bough against her casement +as it attempted to climb with all its bloom into her dormer window. As +she looked through the mist, a long golden shaft of light shot across +the white flowers and turned the tender green leaves into a bright +yellow. Suddenly a desire to get up and look across at the Nob +possessed her, for the arrival of the sun upon the scene of action was +a sight that held the decided charm of novelty. And on this particular +morning she found it more than worth while. Providence lay at her feet +like a great bouquet of lilacs, locust and fruit blossoms. The early +mist was shot through with long spears of gold and the pale smoke +curled up from the brick chimneys and mingled its pungent wood-odor +with the perfume laden air. She drank in great drafts of exhilaration +and delighted her eyes with the picture for a number of minutes, until +an intoxicating breakfast aroma began to steal up from Cindy's domain. +Then, spurred by a positive agony of hunger, it took the singer lady +the fewest possible number of minutes to complete a dainty and most +ravishing breakfast toilet. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, honey-bird," exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she descended the steps +and found them all at breakfast in the wide-open dining-room, "what did +you get up so soon for? It's Wednesday and the Sewing Circle meets with +me, so Cindy and us must be a-stirring, but I had a breakfast in my +mind for you two hours from now. You hadn't oughter done it. Them ain't +orders in your prescription." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so hungry," she pleaded with a most wickedly humble glance at the +Doctor, who was busy consuming muffins and chicken gravy. "Can't I have +a breakfast now, Doctor—and the other one two hours later? Please!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the Doctor, "but don't forget the two glasses of cream +and dinner and some of the Sewing Party refreshments, to say nothing of +supper-and are you going to make custards for us to eat before seeking +our downy couches?" +</P> + +<P> +"The cup custards are going to be part of the Sewing Circle +refreshments," his mother answered him. "I want to show off my teaching +to the Providence folks. Give the child some chicken, Tom Mayberry, and +then you can go to your work. We don't want you underfoot." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you need my help?" asked the Doctor, as, in a disobedient frame +of mind, he lingered at the table to watch the singer lady begin +operations on her dainty breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you can set here and see that Elinory gets all she wants and +more too, but I must be a-doing around. There cames the Deacon! I +wonder what the matter is!" And Mother Mayberry hurried out of the +house and down to the front gate to meet the Deacon who was coming +slowly up the Road. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Sister Mayberry," he said cheerily enough, though there +was an expression of anxiety on his gentle old face. "I thought I would +find you up, even at this unusually early hour. Your lamp is always +burning to meet emergencies. Mrs. Bostick is not well this morning and +I came up to see if you could find a moment to step down to see her +soon. I also wanted to ask Thomas to stop in for a moment on his way +over to Flat Rock. I am sure that she is not at all ill, but I am just +overly anxious." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course, we will both come right away, Deacon! What did she eat +last night for supper? She oughter be careful about her night eating." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see," answered the Deacon thoughtfully, "I think we both had a +portion of milk and toast administered by our young sister, Eliza Pike. +I recall I pleaded for some of the peaches, still in the jar you gave +Mrs. Bostick, but was sternly denied." As he spoke the Deacon beamed +with affectionate pride over having been vanquished by the stern Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +Just at this moment from around the corner of the Pike home came the +young woman in question, with a pitcher in one hand and a covered dish +in the other. Ez followed her with a plate wrapped in a napkin, and +Billy brought up the rear with a bucket of cool water which he sloshed +over his bare feet with every step. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Deacon," demanded Eliza sternly, "you ain't gone and et breakfast +with Mother Mayberry, when I told you about Maw making light rolls +before she went to bed 'cause to-day is Wednesday?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Eliza," answered the Deacon meekly, with a delighted glance at +Mother Mayberry out of the corner of his eye. "Neither Mrs. Bostick nor +I would think of breakfasting without your superintendence. I was just +starting over to tell you that she felt indisposed and would like to +see you and Sister Mayberry, along with the Doctor, later in the day." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Eliza confidently, "I think I can tend to her if +Mother Mayberry is too busy to come. I was a-going to watch for Doctor +Tom and ask him in anyway. Please come on home, Deacon, 'fore the rolls +get cold and the scrambled eggs set. Ez, hold the plate straight or the +butter will run outen the rolls! Please come on, Deacon!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Deacon, go along with her right away," answered Mother Mayberry, +as her eyes rested on the serious face of the ministering child with a +peculiar tenderness tinged with respect. "And, 'Liza, honey, stop by +and tell me how Mis' Bostick does when you come back, and let me know +if you need me to help you any." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, Mother Mayberry," answered Eliza with a flash of pure joy +shining in her devoted little face when she found that she was not to +be supplanted in her attendance on her charges. "I was a-coming to see +you this morning anyway about the place Mr. Mosbey burned his finger +and I tied up last night. Please come on, Deacon!" +</P> + +<P> +"And a little child shall lead them," said Mother Mayberry to herself, +as she watched the breakfast party down the road. Martin Luther had +come out from the table by this time and now trotted along at the +Deacon's heels like a replete and contented puppy. Ez held the plate +carefully and Billy seemed about sure of arriving at his destination +with at least half the bucket of cool water. "Yes, a little child—but +some children are borned with a full-growed heart." +</P> + +<P> +And true to her promise Eliza appeared an hour or two later to hold +serious consultation over the blacksmithing finger down the Road. +</P> + +<P> +"'Liza," said Mother Mayberry as she prepared a stall for the finger +and poured a cooling lotion in a small bottle for which the child +waited eagerly, "you are a-doing the right thing to take nice things to +Mis' Bostick and the Deacon and I'm proud of your being so kind and +thoughtful. Do they ever ask you where you bring 'em from?" +</P> + +<P> +"I always tell 'em, Mother Mayberry. Deacon said I oughtn't to get +things from other folks to bring to 'em, but I told him that you and +Mis' Pratt and Mis' Mosbey and Mis' Peavey would be mad at me if I just +took things from Maw to 'em and slighted they cooking. I pick out the +best things everybody makes. Maw's light rolls, Mis' Pratt's sunshine +cake and cream potatoes, Cindy's chicken and Mis' Peavey for baked +hash. I took the custards from Miss Elinory to please her; but Mis' +Mosbey's is better. I wanted 'em to have the best they is on the Road, +'cause they is old and they is our'n." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless your dear little heart, the best they shall have always!" +exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she hugged her small confrere close +against her side and wiped away a tear with a quick gesture. "Now you +can go fix up Nath Mosbey's finger to suit your mind, Sister Pike," she +added with a laugh as she, bestowed the bottle. +</P> + +<P> +The rest of the morning was filled to the minute for the Mayberry +household, which seemed possessed with a frenzy of polishing and +garnishing. After Cindy had done her worst with broom and mop, Mother +Mayberry with feather duster and cloth, Miss Wingate threw her energies +with abandon into the accomplishing of a most artistic scheme of +decoration. She set tall jars of white locust blossoms in the hall +which shone out mystically in the cool dusk. She mingled lilac and red +bud, cherry blossoms and narcissus and trailed long vines of +honeysuckle over every possible place. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry, as she paused in her busy manoeuvers +to take in what Miss Wingate proudly declared to be the completed +effect, "everybody will think they have walked into a flower show. I'm +sorry I never thought of inviting in the outdoors to any of my parties +before. I wonder if some of the meek folks, that our dear Lord told +about being invited in from the byways and hedges, mightn't a-brought +some of the hedge blooms along into the feast with 'em. Thank you, +child, the prettiness will feed everybody's eye, I know, but you'd +better run along and get to whipping on that custard for they stomicks. +This here is a Mission Circle, but it have got a good knife and fork +by-law to it. Make a plenty and if we feel well disposed toward Tom +Mayberry, come bedtime, we may feed him a half dozen." +</P> + +<P> +And in accordance with time-honored custom the stroke of one found the +Providence matrons grouped along the Road and up Mother Mayberry's +front walk, in the act of assembling for the good work in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in, everybody," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she welcomed them +from the front steps. "I'm mighty glad all are on time, for I have got +the best of things to tell, as I have been saving by the hardest for +three days. A woman holding back news is mighty like root-beer, liable +to pop the cork and foam over in spite of all." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm mighty glad to hear something good," said Mrs. Peavey in a doleful +tone. "Looks like the world have got into astonishing misery. Did you +all read in the Bolivar Herald last week about that explode in a mine +in Delyware; a terrible flood in Louisianny and the man that killed his +wife and six children in Kansas? I don't know what we're a-coming to. I +told Mr. Peavey and Buck this morning, but they ain't either of 'em got +any sympathy. They just went on talking about the good trade Mr. Hoover +made in hogs over to Springfield and the fine clover stand they have +got in the north field." +</P> + +<P> +By this time the assembly had removed their hats, laid them on Mother +Mayberry's snowy bed and settled themselves in rocking-chairs that had +been collected from all over the house for the occasion. Gay sewing +bags had been produced and the armor of thimbles and scissors had been +buckled on. Mother Mayberry still stood in the center of the room +watching to see that all of her guests were comfortably seated. +</P> + +<P> +"Them were mighty bad happenings, Mis' Peavey, and I know we all feel +for such trouble being sent on the Lord's people," said Mother Mayberry +seriously, though a smile quirked at the corners of the Widow Pratt's +pretty mouth and young Mrs. Nath Mosbey bent over to hunt in her bag +for an unnecessary spool of thread. Mrs. Peavey's nature was of the +genus kill-joy, and it was hard to steer her into the peaceful waters +of social enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think any of that is as bad as three divorce cases I read +about in a town paper that Mr. Petway wrapped up some calico for me +in," answered Mrs. Peavey, continuing her lamentations over conditions +in general, which they all knew would get to be over conditions in +particular if something did not intervene to stop the tide of her +dissatisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Divorces oughtn't to be allowed by the United States," answered Mrs. +Pike decidedly. "They are too many people in the world that don't seem +to be able to hitch up together, without letting folks already geared +roam loose again. But what's the news, Sister Mayberry?" There came +times when only Judy Pike's uncompromising veto could lay Mrs. Peavey +on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you think! Tom Mayberry have got this Providence +Meeting-house Sewing Circle a good big sewing order from the United +States Government. Night drawers and aprons and chimeses and all sorts +of things and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Lands alive, Sister Mayberry, you must be outen your head!" exclaimed +Mrs. Peavey with her usual fear-the-worst manner. "What earthly use can +the United States Government have for night drawers and chimeses?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Hettie Ann, you didn't let me have my say out," remonstrated +Mother Mayberry as they all laughed merrily at Mrs. Peavey's +scandalized remonstrance. "They are for them poor misfortunates over at +Flat Rock what the Government have sent Tom down here to study about, +so he can find the bug that makes the disease and stop it from +spreading everywhere. While he's a-working with 'em he has to see that +they are provided for; and they condition are shameful. He wants +outfits for the women and children and Mr. Petway have the order to buy +the men's things down in the City for him. He's a-going to pay us good +prices for the work and it will mean a lot of money for the carpet and +the repair fund. A quarter apiece for the little night drawers without +feet to 'em is good money. He wanted to give us fifty cents but I told +him no, I wasn't a-going to cheat my own country for no little child's +night rigging. A quarter is fair to liberal, I say." +</P> + +<P> +"That it is, Mis' Mayberry, and thank Doctor Tom, too, for giving us +the order," answered Widow Pratt heartily. "When can we begin? I'll cut +'em all out at home, so as to save time, if you'll give me the goods. I +can cut children's clothes out with my eyes shut and sew 'em with my +left hand if needs be." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if all we hear be true, Bettie Pratt, it's a good thing it comes +easy to you. The sewing for seventeen might be a set-back to any kind +of co'ting, but seeing as you likes it so, why, maybe—" Mrs. Peavey +paused and peered at the blushing widow with goading curiosity in her +keen eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it hasn't been a bit to me and Mr. Hoover, Mis' Peavey," she +answered with dancing eyes and a lovely rose color mounting her cheeks. +"Looks like all the love we have got for each other's orphant children +have mixed itself up into a wedding cake for the family. I had laid off +to tell you all about it this afternoon, and here's a box of +peppermints Mr. Hoover sent everybody. He said to make you say sweet +things about him to me. Have one, Mis' Peavey, and pass the box!" +</P> + +<P> +With which a general laugh and buzz of inquiry went around with the box +of sweets provided by the wily widower. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we think we'll just build a long, covered porch acrost the +fronts of the two houses to connect 'em up," answered Mrs. Pratt to a +friendly inquiry about her future domestic arrangements. +</P> + +<P> +"I know it will look sorter like a broke-in-two steamboat but I can put +the boys all over into one house and take the girls with me. We can +rent a room in the boys' house to Mr. Petway and he'll look after them +if need be, though 'Lias Hoover and my Henny Turner are getting big, +dependable boys already. I'm so glad the children match out in pairs. I +always did want twins and now I'm going to have eight pairs and the +baby over. I don't think I ever was so happy before." And pretty Bettie +fairly radiated lovingness from her big, motherly heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Bettie Pratt, you are a regular Proverbs, last chapter and tenth to +thirtieth verse woman and your husband's heart is a-going to 'safely +rejoice' in you," said Mother Mayberry as she beamed across the little +sleeve she was basting in an apron. "And this brings me to the mention +of another little Bible character we have a-running about amongst us. +It's 'Liza Pike, as should be called one of God's own little ravens +arid you all know why." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we do, Sister Mayberry," spoke up Mrs. Mosbey quickly. "And I've +just caught on to her doings, and thankful I am to her for letting in +the light to us before it were too late maybe." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what have my child been a-doing to be spoke of this way?" asked +her mother with both pride and uneasiness in her tone, for Eliza, as is +the way of all geniuses, especially those of a philanthropic turn of +mind, was apt often to confront those responsible for her with the +unexpected. +</P> + +<P> +"Just seeing what we was failing to notice, that Mis' Bostick and the +Deacon was in need of being tooken care of and, without a word to +anybody, starting out with a covered dish and a napkin to do the +providing for 'em. And in the right spirit, too, walking into each +kitchen and taking the best offen the stove—no left-over scraps in her +offering to the Lord, and she have gave a lesson to grown-ups. We all +love the old folks and was ready to do, but 'Liza have proved that love +must be mixed with a little gumption to make wheels go round. And ain't +she cute about it? She told the Deacon that she had to bring something +from everybody's kitchen or hurt all our feelings. They is a way of +putting what-oughter-be into words that makes it a truth, and she did +it that time." As she delivered her little homily on the subject of the +absent small Sister Pike, Mother Mayberry's face shone with emotion and +there was a mist in her eyes that also dimmed the vision of some of the +others. +</P> + +<P> +"And the way of her," laughed the widow softly. "Told me yesterday I +didn't brown my hoe-cake enough on both sides for the Deacon's +greens—that Mis' Peavey's was better." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mis' Pratt, 'Liza oughtn't to speak that way to you; it ain't +manners," her mother hastened to say as they all laughed, even the +misanthrope, who was much pleased over this public acknowledgment of +the superiority of her handiwork. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Judy honey, don't you say one word to 'Liza about that! She have +got the whole thing fixed up for us now, and it won't do to get her +conscious like in her management of the old folks. The thing for us to +do is to make our engagements for truck with her regular and take her +dictation always about what is sent. Keep it in her mind how +complimented we are to be let give to the Deacon and she'll manage him, +pride and all, in a sorter game. We'll make it a race with her which +pleases him most. And now," Mother paused and looked from the face of +one hearty country woman to another with a wealth of affection for each +and every one, "let's don't none of us forget to take the child up to +the throne with us each night in the arms of prayer, as one of His +ministers!—Well it's time for us to walk out to the dining-room and +see what kind of a set-out Cindy and Elinory have got for us. Yes, Mis' +Nath, did you ever see such a show of decorations? She must a-kinder +sensed the wedding in the air in compliment to you, Bettie. Come in, +one and all!" +</P> + +<P> +And the cheerful company assembled around the hospitable Mayberry board +put into practice the knife and fork by-law of the Circle with hearty +good will. Cindy's austerity relaxed noticeably at the compliments +handed her in return for her offer of the various viands she had +prepared for their delectation, and Miss Wingate blushed and beamed +upon them all with the most rapturous delight when her efforts met with +like commendation. She had insisted on helping Cindy wait on them and +was such a very lovely young Hebe that they could scarcely eat for +looking at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Pike, who had unbent from her reserve +over her second cup of tea to a most remarkable degree, "it were hard +enough to ask Doctor Tom in to pot-luck with my chicken dumplins, that +he carries on over, a-knowing about what you and Cindy could shake up +in the kitchen, but with Miss Elinory's cooking added I'm a-going to +turn him away hungry next time." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please don't!" exclaimed Miss Wingate. "Yours is the next place he +has promised to take me to supper. And Bud and Eliza have both invited +me." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll set a day with him this very night," responded Mrs. Judy, all +undone with pride. Nothing in the world could have pleased the +hospitable country women more than the parties that Doctor Tom had been +improvising for the amusement of the singer girl. Before each visit he +openly and boldly made demands of each friend for her CHEF-D'OEUVRE and +consumed the same heartily and with delight in the stranger's growing +appetite. +</P> + +<P> +"If you folks don't stop spoiling Tom Mayberry I won't never be able to +get him a wife. I'll have to take little Bettie to raise and teach her +how to bit and bridle him," laughed Mother Mayberry, as they all rose +and flocked to the front porch. +</P> + +<P> +In the Road in front of the house had congregated the entire school of +small-fry, drawn by the mother lode, but too well trained to think of +making any kind of interruption to the gathering. They were busily +engaged in a tag and tally riot which was led on one side by Eliza and +the other by Henny Turner, whose generalship could hardly be said to +equal that of his younger and feminine opponent. Teether and little +Hoover sat in the Pike wheelbarrow which was drawn up beside the Pike +gate, and attached thereto by long gingham strings were Martin Luther +and little Bettie. They champed the gingham bits drawn through their +mouths and pranced with their little bare feet in the dust, as Eliza +found time every minute or two to call out "whoa" or cut at them with a +switch as she flashed past them. They were distinctly of the game and +were blissfully unconscious of the fact that they were not in it. This +arrangement for keeping them happy, though out of the way, had been of +Eliza's contriving and did credit to her wit in many senses of the word. +</P> + +<P> +At the appearance of their be-hatted parents on Mother Mayberry's front +walk they all swooped over and stood in a circle around the gate. A +mother who has many calls in the life-complicated to take her out of +reach of the children is different from a mother who is always in the +house, kitchen, garden or at a convenient neighbor's, and this weekly +three-hour separation occasionally had disastrous results. +</P> + +<P> +"Have anything happened, 'Liza?" asked her mother, as she ran a +practised eye over her group and detected not a loose end. Eliza and +Bud had rolled over the wheelbarrow, led by the prancing team. +</P> + +<P> +"No'm," answered Eliza, "everybody's been good and the Deacon have told +us three Bible tales, and my side have beat Henny's five catches and +one loose. But Henny played his'n good," she added, with a worthy +victor's generosity to the fallen foe. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a whole bucket of cakes Cindy and Miss Elinory made in case we +found a good passel of children when the meeting was over," said Mother +Mayberry as she tendered the crisp reward of merit to Bud Pike, who +stood nearest her. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, ma'am," answered Bud, mindful of his manners. "Say, 'Liza, +let's all go down and set on the pump and eat 'em, and we can drink +water, too, so they will last longer." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," answered Eliza, and she set about unharnessing the young +team, who immediately scampered after the rest. She handed little +Hoover to Mrs. Pratt and was preparing to set off with Teether in the +wake of the cake bucket, when the widow called to her. +</P> + +<P> +"'Liza, honey," she said, "here's some peppermints for you. They wasn't +enough to give some to all the children, but I want you to get a bite, +anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanky, ma'am, but I don't like the fresh air taste of 'em in my +mouth," answered Eliza. "But can you give me five of 'em? I want one +for Deacon and Mis' Bostick and I want one for Squire Tutt, 'cause he +do love peppermint so. He wouldn't take the medicine Mother Mayberry +fixes for him if she didn't put peppermint in it. He says so. He's +porely and have got his head all tied up in a shawl, 'cause prayer +meeting day Mis' Tutt sings hymns all the time and music gives him +misery in his ears. I want to give her one, too, and I want one for +Cindy." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll save all in the box for you, sweetie," assented Mrs. Pratt +heartily. "Now run along, for you might get left out of that cake +eating." +</P> + +<P> +"No, ma'am, I won't," answered Eliza with confidence; "they won't begin +till I get there. It wouldn't be fair." And she hurried down the Road +to where the group waited impatiently but loyally around the town pump. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't they all the Lord's blessings?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she +looked down the Road at the little swarm with tender pride in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"That they are," answered the widow, with an echo of the pride in her +own rich voice, "and to think that pretty soon seventeen of 'em will be +mine!" +</P> + +<P> +And it was an hour or two later that the old red sun had reluctantly +departed across the west meadows, just as a soft lady moon rose +languidly over Providence Nob. Providence suppers had all been served, +the day's news discussed with the men folk, jocularly eager to get the +drippings of excitement from the afternoon infair, and the Road +toddlers put to bed, when the soft-toned Meeting-house bell droned out +its call for the weekly prayer meeting. Very soon the Road was in a +gentle hum of conversation as the congregation issued from their house +doors and wended their way slowly toward the little church, which, back +from the Road in an old cedar glade, brooded over its peaceful yard of +graves. The men had all donned their coats and exchanged field hats for +stiff, uncomfortable, straight-brimmed straw, and their wives still +wore the Sewing Circle gala attire. The older children walked +decorously along, each group in wake of the heads of their own family, +though Buck Peavey had managed to annex himself to the Hoover household. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know just what to do with you all," said Mother +Mayberry, as she came out on the front porch, sedately bonneted, with +her Bible and hymn-book under her arm and fortified with a huge +palm-leaf fan. "It's my duty to make you both come with Cindy and me to +prayer meeting, but I don't hold with a body using they own duty as a +stick to fray out other folks with. I reckon I'll have to let you two +just set here on the steps and see if you can outshine the moon in your +talk, which you can't, but think you can." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we'll come with you! I was just going to get my hat," exclaimed +the singer lady as she rose from the steps upon which Doctor Tom kept +his seat and puffed a ring of his cigar smoke at his mother daringly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, honey-bird, you've had a long day since your sun-up breakfast and +I'll excuse you. I'd LET Tom Mayberry go only I have to make him stay +to keep care of you. Put that lace fascination around your throat if a +breeze blows up! Tom, try to make out, with Elinory's help, to bring a +fresh bucket of water from the spring for the night. Good-by, both of +you; I'm a-going to bring you a blessing!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yourself, mother," called the Doctor after her. +</P> + +<P> +"Honey-fuzzle," called Mother back from the gate. "Better keep it, son, +you'll need it some day." +</P> + +<P> +"Was there ever, ever anybody just like her?" asked Miss Wingate, as +she sank back on the step beside the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," he answered with a hint of tenderness in his voice; "but +then, really, Mother is one of a type. A type one has to get across a +continent from Harpeth Hills to appreciate. She's the result of the men +and women who blazed the wilderness trail into Tennessee, and she has +Huguenot puritanism contending with cavalier graces of spirit in her +nature." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she's perfectly darling and the little town is just an exquisite +setting for her. Do you know what this soft moonlight aspect of +Providence reminds me of, with those tall poplars down the Road and the +wide-roofed houses and barns? The little village in Lombardy +where—where I met—my fate." +</P> + +<P> +"Met your fate?" asked the Doctor quickly after a moment. His face was +in the shadow and not a note in his voice betrayed his anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the singer lady in a dreamy, reminiscent voice. The +moon shone full down into her very lovely face, fell across her white +throat and shimmered into the faint rose folds of her dainty gown. Her +close, dark braids showed black against the fragrant wistaria vines and +her eyes were deep and velvety in the soft light. "Yes, it was the +summer I was eighteen and I had gone over with my father for a month or +two of recuperation for him after a long extra session of Congress. +Monsieur LaTour was staying in the little village, also recuperating. +He heard me singing to father, and that night my fate was sealed. It +was a wonderful thing to come to me—and I was so young." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about it," said the Doctor quietly, and his voice was +perfectly steady, though his heart pounded like mad and his cigar shook +in his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"My father died at the end of the summer, after only a few day's +illness, and he had grown to believe what LaTour said of my voice, and +to have great confidence in my future. I had no near relatives and in +his will he left me to Monsieur LaTour and Madame, his wife. She is an +American and her father had been in the Senate with father for years. +Monsieur is a very great teacher, perhaps the greatest living. Madame +wanted to come to Providence with me, but Doctor Stein insisted that I +come alone. I—I'm very glad she didn't, though they both love me and +await—" She paused and leaned her flower head back against the +wistaria vine. +</P> + +<P> +And the great breath that Doctor Thomas Mayberry of Providence drew +might have cracked the breast of a giant. In this world no record is +kept of the great moments when a private individual's universe collides +with his far star and of the crash that ensues. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather thought you meant another—another kind of fate. I was +preparing for confidences," he managed to say in a very small voice for +so large a man. +</P> + +<P> +"Mais, non, Monsieur, jamais—never!" she exclaimed quickly. +"I—I—have been tempted to think sometimes I might like that sort—of +a—fate, but I haven't had the time. It was work, work, sleep, eat, +live for the voice! And—and once or twice it has seemed worth while. +My debut night in Paris when I sang the Juliette waltz-song-just the +moment when I realized I could use it as I would and always more +volume—and the people! And again the night in New York when I had made +it incarnate Elizabeth as she sings to Tannhauser—the night it went +away." And as she spoke she dropped her head on her arms folded across +her knees. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you picked out the song you are going to sing first when it comes +back?" demanded the very young Doctor with a quick note of tenderness +in his voice, still under a marvelous control. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she answered as she turned her head and peeped up at him with +shining eyes, a delicious little burr of a laugh in her throat, "Rings +on my fingers, bells on my toes, for Teether Pike. He is wild about my +humming it, and dances with his absurd, chubby little legs at the first +note. What will he do if I can really sing it? And I'll sing Beulah +Land for Cindy, and I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, for your mother, +perhaps, Oh, the kingdom of my heart for Buck, and Drink to me only, +for Squire Tutt, hymns for the Deacon—and a paean for you, if I have +to order one from New York." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," said the Doctor after a long pause in which he lit his +cigar and again began to puff rings out into the moonlight, "I'd like +to say that you are—are a—perfect wonder." +</P> + +<P> +"You may," she answered with a laugh. Then suddenly she stretched out +her hand to him and, as he took it into his, she asked very quietly +with just the one word, "When?" +</P> + +<P> +"In a few weeks, I hope," he answered her just as quietly, +comprehending her instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be good—and wait," she answered him in a Hone of voice that +would have done credit to little Bettie Pratt. "Let's hurry and get +that bucket of water; don't you hear them singing the doxology?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG +</H3> + +<P> +"Miss Elinory, do you think getting married and such is ketching, like +the mumps and chickenpox?" asked Eliza Pike as she sat on the steps at +the daintily shod feet of the singer lady, who sat in Mother Mayberry's +large arm-chair, swinging herself and Teether slowly to and fro, +humming happily little vagrant airs that floated into her brain on the +wings of their own melody. Teether's large blue eyes looked into hers +with earnest rapture and his little head swayed on his slender neck in +harmony with her singing. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Eliza, I'm sure I don't know. Do you think so?" answered Miss +Wingate, as she smiled down into the large eyes raised to hers. The +heart-to-heart communions, which she and Eliza found opportunities to +hold, were a constant source of pleasure to Miss Wingate, and the +child's quaint little personality unfolded itself delightedly in the +sunshine of appreciation from this lady of her adoration. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, I believe I do. Mis' Pratt and Mr. Hoover started it, and last +night Mr. Petway walked home with Aunt Prissy and Maw set two +racking-chairs out on the front porch for 'em. Paw said he was more'n +glad to set in the back yard and smoke his pipe. Maw wouldn't put +Teether to bed, but rocked him in her lap 'cause he might wake up and +disturb 'em. She let me set up with her and Paw and he told tales on +the time he co'ted her. She said hush up, that co'ting was like mumps +and chickenpox and he was about to get a second spell. Does it make you +want a beau too, Miss Elinory?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Miss Wingate slowly with a candor that would have been +vouched no other soul save the sympathetic Eliza, "it might be nice." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you would like one," answered Eliza enthusiastically, "and +you know I had done picked out Doctor Tom for you, but since I saw him +dress up so good this morning and go to Bolivar to take the train to +the City and he got the letter from Miss Alford day before +yesterday—that is, Aunt Prissy says Mr. Petway thinks it was from +her—I reckon it won't be fair to get him for you, when she had him +first last summer. Oughtn't you to be fair about taking folk's beaux +just like taking they piece of cake or skipping rope?" Eliza was fast +developing a code of morals that bade fair to be both original and +sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with the utmost gravity and not a little +perturbation in her voice, "yes, of course. When did Doctor Mayberry +go?" +</P> + +<P> +"This morning before you came down-stairs. He give Mother Mayberry some +drops for Mis' Bostick and told me, too, how to give 'em to her. Mother +Mayberry is down there now and I'm a-going to stay with her this +afternoon. But I tell you what we can do, Miss Elinory, there is Sam +Mosbey—I believe you can get him easy. He picked up a rose you dropped +when you went in the store to get your letters the other day, and when +Mr. Petway laughed he got red even in his ears. And just this week he +have bought a pair of pink suspenders, some sweet grease for his hair +and green striped socks. He'll look lovely when he gets fixed up and I +hope you will notice him some." Eliza spoke in the most encouraging of +tones of the improvement in appearance of the suitor she was +advocating, and was just about to continue her machinations by further +enthusiasm when, from down the road at the Bosticks, came Mother +Mayberry's voice calling her, and like a little killdee she darted away +to the aid of her confrere. +</P> + +<P> +And for several long minutes Miss Wingate sat perfectly still and +looked across the meadow to the sky-line with intent eyes. Teether was +busily engaged in drawing by degrees his own pink toes up to his rosy +lips in an effort to get his foot into his mouth, an ambition that +sways most mortals from their seventh to tenth month. A thin wraith of +Miss Alford's personality had been drifting through the singer lady's +consciousness for some days, but she was positively stunned at this +sudden materialization. There come moments in the lives of most women +when they get glimpses into the undiscovered land of their own hearts +and are appalled thereby. Suddenly she hugged the chuckling baby very +close and began a rapid rocking to the humming accompaniment of a +rollicking street tune, a seemingly inexplicable but perfectly natural +proceeding. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'd like to know which is the oldest, you or the baby, +honey-bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she came up the steps in the +midst of the frolic. "You and him a-giggling make music like a nest +full of young cat-birds. Did you ever notice how 'most any down-heart +will get up and go a-marching to a laugh tune? I needed just them +chuckles to set me up again." As she finished speaking Mother Mayberry +seated herself on the top step and Miss Wingate slipped down beside her +with the baby in her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the trouble this morning, Mrs. Mayberry?" she asked, as she +moved a little closer, so Teether could reach out and nozzle against +Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "Anybody sick?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not to say sick much," answered Mother, with a touch of +wistfulness in her gentle eyes, "but it looks like, day by day, I can +see Mis' Bostick slipping away from us, same as one of the white garden +lilies what on the third day just closes up its leaves when you ain't +looking and when you go back is gone." +</P> + +<P> +"She isn't so old she can't—can't recuperate when the lovely warm days +come to stay this summer, is she?" asked the singer lady with a quick +sympathy in her voice and eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"No, she ain't so old as to die by old age, but what hurts me, child, +is that it is just her broke heart giving out. She have always been +quiet and gentle-smiling, but since the news of Will's running off with +that money came to Providence she have just been fading away. A +mother's heart don't break clean over a child, but gets a jagged wound +that won't often heal. When I think of her suffering it puts a hitch in +my enjoying of that Tom Mayberry." And Mother blinked away the +suspicion of a tear. +</P> + +<P> +"But Mrs. Bostick and the Deacon both are so fond of Doctor Mayberry +that it must be a joy to have him such a comfort to them," said Miss +Wingate softly, as she carried one of Teether's pink hands to her lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, child, I know he is all that. Somehow, here in Providence, we +women have all tried to put some of our own sister love for one another +in our young folks. I hold that when the whole world have learned to +cut sister and brother deep enough into they children's hearts, then +His kingdom is a-going to come in about one generation from them. Now +there's a picture that goes on the page with my remarks! Bettie sure do +look pretty with that white sunbonnet on her head, and count how many +Turners, Pratts, Hoovers and Pikes she have got trailing peacefully +behind her, all like full-blood brothers and sisters. I'm so glad she's +a-bringing her sewing to set a spell. Come in, Bettie, here's a rocker +a-holding out arms to you!" Little Hoover was as usual bobbing in +Bettie's arms and he gurgled at the sight of Teether Pike as if in joy +at this encounter with his side partner and when deposited upon the +floor beside him made a brotherly grab at one of young Pike's pink feet +in the most manifest interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if this just ain't filling at the price," said the widow as she +settled herself in the rocker, and Mother Mayberry established herself +in one opposite, while Miss Wingate elected to remain on the step by +the babies. "I left Pattie over to my house helping Clara May get a +little weed-pulling outen 'Lias and Henny in my garden. Buck Peavey +have just passed by looking like the last of pea-time and the first of +frost. I do declare it were right down funny to see Pattie toss her +head at him, and them boys both giggled out loud. He ain't spoke to +Pattie for a week 'cause she sang outen Sam Mosbey's hymn-book last +Wednesday night at prayer meeting. He've got a long-meter doxology face +for sure." +</P> + +<P> +"And he's a-suffering, too," answered Mother Mayberry with the utmost +sympathy in her placid face at the troubles of her favorite, Buck, the +lover. "To some folks love is a kinder inflammatory rheumatism of the +soul and a-deserving of pity." +</P> + +<P> +A vision of a girl at a college commencement with her nose buried in a +pink peony, looking up and smiling, flashed across the consciousness of +the singer lady and she pressed her head between little Hoover's chubby +shoulders, and acknowledged herself a fit subject for sympathy. To go +and not even think of telling her good-by was cruel, and a forlorn +little sob stifled itself in the mite's pink apron. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, folks," broke in the widow's cheerful voice that somehow +reminded one of peaches and cream, "I come over to-day to get a little +help and encouragement about planning the wedding. I knowed Miss +Elinory would think it up stylish for me and Mis' Mayberry would lend +her head to help fitting notions to what can be did. Mr. Hoover's +clover hay will be laid by next week and he says they ain't nothing +more to keep us back. I've sewed up four bolts of light caliker, two of +domestic, one of blue jeans, and three of gingham into a trousseau for +us all to wear on the wedding trip, and Mr. Petway are a-going to take +measures and bring out new shoes and tasty hats all 'round, next wagon, +trip to town. I think we will make a nice genteel show." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you-going to take everybody on the trip?" asked Miss Wingate, +roused out of her woe by the very idea of the tour in the company of +the seventeen. +</P> + +<P> +"That we are," responded the widow heartily, "but not all to onct. +We'll have to make two bites of the cherry. The day after the wedding +we are a-going to take the two-horse team, a trunk and the ten youngest +and go a-visiting over the Ridge at Mr. Hoover's brother's, Mr. +Biggers. We won't stay more'n a week and stop a day or two coming back +to see Andy and Carrie Louise. Then we'll drop the little ones here on +you neighbors and pick up the seven big ones, add Buck for a compliment +and go on down to the City for two days' high jinks. We're going to +take 'em up to the capitol and over the new bridge and we hope to +strike some kind of band music going on somewhere for 'em to hear. We +want a photygraft group of us all, too. We are going to put up at the +Teamsters' Hotel up on the Square and Mr. Hoover have got party rates. +He says he are a-going to get that seven town-broke anyway, if it costs +two acres of corn. Now won't we have a good time?" The bright face of +the prospective bride fairly radiated with joy at the prospect—Miss +Wingate could but be sympathetically involved, and Mother Mayberry +beamed with delight at the plan. +</P> + +<P> +"That'll be a junket that they won't never a one of 'em forget, +Bettie!" she exclaimed with approval. "They ain't nothing in the world +so educating as travel. And you can trust a country child to see +further and hear more than any other animal on earth. I wouldn't trust +Tom to go to town now without coming back pop-eyed over the +ottermobiles," and Mother Mayberry laughed at her own fling at the +sophisticated young Doctor. Another dart of agony entered the soul of +the singer lady and this time the vision of the girl and the peony was +placed in a big, red motor-car—why red she didn't know, except the +intensity of her feelings seemed to call for that color. She was his +patient and courtesy at least demanded that he should tell her of his +intended absence. What could— +</P> + +<P> +"Well, to come out with the truth," Mrs. Pratt was going on to say by +the time Miss Wingate brought herself to the point of listening again, +"it's just the wedding itself that have gave me all these squeems. Why, +Mis' Mayberry, how on earth are we a-going to parade all the seventeen +into the Meeting-house without getting the whole congregation into a +regular giggle? I don't care, 'cause I know the neighbors wouldn't give +us a mean laugh, but I can see Mr. Hoover have got the whole seventeen +sticking in his craw at the thought, and I'm downright sorry for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Bettie, men have got sensitive gullets when it comes to +swollering a joke on theyselves," said Mother Mayberry, as she joined +in the widow's merry laugh at the plight of the embarrassed widower. +"Looks like when we all can trust Mr. Hoover to be so good and kind to +you and your children, after he have done waded into the marrying of +you, we oughter find some way to save his feelings from being +mortified. Can't you hatch out a idea, Elinory?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I know, I know just what to do—it came to me in a flash!" +exclaimed the singer lady with pink-cheeked enthusiasm over the +inspiration that had risen from the depths at the call of Mrs. Pratt +and brought her up to the surface of life with it for a moment anyway. +"I saw a wedding once in rural England. All the children in the village +in a double line along the path to the church, each with baskets of +flowers from which they threw posies in front of the bride as she came +by them! Let's get all the children together and mix them up and let +them stand along the walk to the church door. It will just make a +beautiful picture with no—no thought of—of who belongs to anybody. +Everybody from Pattie and Buck down to little Bettie and Martin Luther! +Won't it be lovely? I can show them just how to march, down the road +with their baskets in their arms, and Mrs. Pratt, you can come from +your house with the Deacon and Mr. Hoover can come out of the back of +the store—with—with, who is going to be his groomsman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lawsy me, I hadn't thought of that," answered the widow. "I'll tell +you, Mr. Pratt's brother is coming over from Bolivar to the wedding, +and as he is a-going to be a kinder relation in law by two marriages +with Mr. Hoover, I think it would be nice to ask him." +</P> + +<P> +"Er—yes," assented the singer lady, controlling a desire to smile at +this mix-up of the bride's present and past relations to life. "The +little girls ought to have white dresses and the boys—well, what could +the little boys wear?" Miss Wingate felt reasonably sure that white +dresses for all the feminine youth of Providence would be forthcoming, +but she hesitated at suggesting a costume for the small boys. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, all the little girls have got white dresses and ribbons and +fixings, but dressing up a herd of boys is another thing," answered +Mother Mayberry. "If just blue jeans britches could be made to do we +might make out to get the top of them rigged out in a white shirt +apiece; couldn't we, Bettie?" +</P> + +<P> +"That we can," answered the bride heartily. "Give me a good day at the +sewing-machine, with somebody to cut and somebody to baste, and I will +get 'em all turned out by sundown. But they feet! Mis' Mayberry, could +we get Jem into shoes, do you reckon? About how many bad stumped toes +is they in Providence now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry reflectively, "I don't know about but +two, but we can ask 'Liza Pike. Thank you for your plan, honey-bird, +and we're a-going to put it through so as to be a credit to you. +Children are sorter going out of style these days and I'm proud to make +a show of our'n. Women's leaving babies outen they calculations is +kinder like cutting buds offen the tree of life, and I'm glad no sech +fashion have struck Harpeth Hills yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, ain't that the truth?" exclaimed the Widow Pratt. "Sometimes when +I read some of the truck about what women have took a notion to turn +out and do in the world, I get right skeered about what are a-going to +happen to the babies and men in the time to come." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry about 'em, Bettie," laughed Mother Mayberry, with a +quizzical sparkle in her eyes. "Even when women have got that right to +march in the front rank with the men and carry some of the flags, that +they are a-contending for, they'll always be some foolish enough to lag +behind with babies on they breasts, a string of children following and +with always a snack in her pocket to feed the broke down front-rankers, +men or women. You'll find most Providence women in that tag-gang, I'm +thinking; but let's do our part in whooping on the other sisters that +have got wrongs to right." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose the world really has done women injustice in lots of ways," +said the singer lady plaintively, for she had very lately, for the +first time in her life, felt the +sit-still-and-hold-your-hands-while-he-rides-away grind, and it had +struck in deep. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I suppose so," answered Mother Mayberry, as she picked up little +Hoover, who was nodding like a top-heavy petunia in a breeze, and +stretched him across her lap for a nap. "But as long as she have got +the spanking of man sprouts from they one to ten years she oughter make +out to get in a vote to suit herself, as time comes along, especially +if she have picked her husband right." +</P> + +<P> +"She—she can't—can't pick her husband," hazarded the singer lady +desperately. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she can, honey-child," answered Mother Mayberry comfortably. "The +smile in her eye and the switch of her skirts is a woman's borned-vote, +and she can elect herself wife to any man she cares to use 'em on. But +what about the collation, Bettie? Everybody is going to help you with +the cooking and fixings, and let's have a never-forget supper this +onct." +</P> + +<P> +"That we are," answered Mrs. Pratt emphatically. "Mr. Hoover says no +hand-around, stand-around for him; he wants a regular laid table with a +knife and fork set-down to it. He says we are a-going to feed our +friends liberal, if it takes three acres of timothy hay to do it, and +he's about right. We'll begin thinking about that and deciding what the +first of the week. But I must be a-going to see that the dinner horn +blows in time. I want to get my sparagrasses extra tender, for 'Liza +have notified me that she is going to stop by to-day with the covered +dish, and I want to fill it tasty for her. Come visiting soon, Miss +Elinory, for I've got something to show you that are too foolish to +speak about to Mis' Mayberry." And the widow gave a delicious little +giggle as she lifted the sleeping baby from Mother Mayberry's lap and +started down the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, Bettie," answered Mother with a laugh, "don't you know that +poking up a woman's curiosity is mighty apt to start a yaller jacket to +buzzing? I'll be by your house sometime before sundown myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Some women's ship of life is a steamboat that stops to take on +passengers at every landing. Bettie's are one of them kind, and she'll +tie up with 'em all in glory when the time comes," remarked Mother +Mayberry as she watched the sturdy widow swing away down the Road with +the baby asleep over her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +Just at this moment, Cindy found occasion to summon Mother Mayberry to +the chicken yard on account of a dispute that had arisen between old +Dominick and one of the ungallant roosters that had resulted in an +injury to one of the small fry, which lay pitifully cheeping on the +back steps. Dominick, with every feather awry, was holding command of +the bowl of corn-meal while her family feasted, and the Plymouth +rooster stood at a respectful distance with a weather eye on both the +determined mother and Cindy's broom. Retribution in the form of Mother +Mayberry descended upon him swiftly and certainly, and he lost no time +in seeking seclusion under the barn. +</P> + +<P> +And by the time order and peace were restored to the barn-yard, Mother +came in to dinner and spent an hour in interested hen-lore with the +singer lady, who was really fond of hearing about the feathered +families when she saw how her interest in them pleased Mrs. Mayberry. +The subject of the Doctor, his absence and the probable time of his +return was not mentioned by his mother, and for the life of her Miss +Wingate could not muster the courage for a single question. She felt +utterly unable to stand even the most mild eulogy on the peony-girl and +was glad that nothing occurred to turn the conversation in that +direction. She was silent for the most part, and most assiduous in her +attentions to Martin Luther, whose rapidly filling outlines were making +him into a chubby edition of the Raphaelite angel. Martin had landed in +the garden of the gods and was making the most of the golden days. He +bore his order of American boyhood with jaunty grace, and the curl had +assumed a rampant air in place of the pathetic. +</P> + +<P> +"Martin, do you want me to wash your face and hands and come go +visiting with me?" asked the singer lady, as she stood on the front +steps and watched Mother Mayberry depart in her old buggy on the way to +visit a patient over the Nob. A long, lonely afternoon was more than +she could face just now, and she felt certain that distraction, if not +amusement, could be found in a number of places along the Road. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank, ma'am, please," answered Martin Luther, who still clung to the +formula that he had found to be a perfectly good open sesame to most of +the pleasant things of life, when used as he knew how to use it. +</P> + +<P> +So, taking her rose-garden hat in one hand and Martin Luther's chubby +fist in the other, Miss Wingate started down Providence Road for a +series of afternoon calls, at the fashionable hour of one-thirty. She +was just passing by Mrs. Peavey's gate with no earthly thought of going +in when she beheld the disconsolate Buck stretched full length on the +grass under a tree, which was screened by a large syringa bush from the +front windows of the maternal residence. A hoe rested languidly beside +him, and it was a plain case of farm hookey. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Miss Elinory," called his mother from the side steps, "did Mis' +Mayberry hear about that fire down in town that burned up two firemen, +a police and a woman?" At the sound of his mother's strident voice, +Buck curled up in a tight knot and with a despairing glance rolled +under the bush. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Mrs. Peavey, but I'll tell her," Miss Wingate called +back as she prepared to hasten on for fear Mrs. Peavey would come to +the gate for further parley, and thus discover the exhausted culprit. +</P> + +<P> +"And a man tooken pisen on account of a bank's failing in Louisville," +she added in a still shriller tone, which just did carry across the +distance to Mrs. Pike's front door, through which Miss Wingate was +disappearing. Her prompt flight had saved the day for the disconsolate +lover, who cautiously rolled from under the bush again and went on with +his interrupted nap. +</P> + +<P> +She found Mrs. Pike and Miss Prissy at home, and spent a really +delightful hour in speculating and unfolding possible plans for the +Pratt-Hoover nuptials. Miss Prissy blushed and giggled at an +elephantine attempt at badinage that her sister-in-law directed at her +on the subject of Mr. Petway, and after a while Miss Wingate went on +her way, in a manner comforted by their wholesome merriment. She +hesitated at the front gate of the Tutt residence, but the sight of the +Squire pottering around in a diminutive garden at the side of the house +decided her to enter, for Squire Tutt held the charm for her that a +still-fused fire-cracker holds for a small boy. +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't well at all," he exploded, in answer to her polite question, +asked in the meekest of voices. "Don't you set up to marry Tom +Mayberry, girl, if you don't wanter get a numbskull. Told me to eat a +passel of raw green stuff for my liver, like I was a head of cattle. +I'll die if I follow him. Everybody he doctors'll die. Snake bite is +the only thing he knows how to cure, and snakes don't crawl until the +last of the month. Don't marry him, I say, don't marry him!" +</P> + +<P> +And it took Miss Wingate several minutes after her hurried adieus to +get over the effect of the Squire's inhibitory caution. But the haven +for which she had been instinctively aiming was just across the Road, +and she found a peace and quiet which sank into her perturbed soul like +a benediction. The Deacon sat by Mrs. Bostick's bed with his Bible +across his thin old knees, and Eliza was crouched on the floor just in +front of him, with her knees in her embrace and her eyes fixed on his +gentle face. Little Bettie Pratt lay across Mrs. Bostick's bed, deep in +her afternoon nap, and Henny Turner was stretched out full length on +the floor in front of the window, while 'Lias sat with his back against +the wall with the puppy in his arms. The pale face of the sweet invalid +was lit by a gentle smile, and she held one of the sleeping child's +warm little hands in her frail, knotted, old fingers. Unnoticed, Miss +Wingate and Martin Luther paused a moment at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Golly, Deacon, but didn't he do him up at one shot, and nothing but a +little piece of rock in the gum-sling!" exclaimed 'Lias in excitement +over the climax of the tale the Deacon had just completed. "I wisht I +was that strong!" +</P> + +<P> +"It was the strength the Lord gived to him, 'Lias Hoover, to special +kill the giant with," said Eliza in an argumentative tone of voice. "Do +you reckon He tooken the strength away from David the next morning, +Deacon, or let him keep it to use all the time?" Eliza's extreme +practicality showed at all times, even in those of deepest excitement. +</P> + +<P> +The Deacon was saved the strain of intellect involved in making reply +to this demand by his wife's low exclamation of pleasure as she caught +sight of the girl and the tot in the doorway. She smiled softly as the +singer lady seated herself on the side of the bed and took both her +hand and that of the sleeping baby in a firm, young one. A peculiar +bond of sympathy had arisen between the girl and the gentle old +invalid, both fighting pain and anxiety. Mrs. Bostick would lie for +hours drinking in tales of Miss Wingate's travels in the world, which +she had timidly but eagerly asked for from the beginning of their +friendship. The girl knew that the anxious mother-heart vas using her +descriptions to fare forth on quests for the wanderer into the wide +world beyond the Harpeth Hills, that had all her life bounded her +horizon, and she sat by her long hours, leading the way into the +uttermost parts. After a fatherly greeting, the Deacon departed with +the children to his bench under the trees and left the two alone for +their talk, and the long shadows were stretched across the Road and the +sun sinking beyond the Ridge before the singer lady wended her way +dejectedly home with the play-wearied Martin Luther trailing beside +her. She found Mother Mayberry, much to her relieved astonishment, +placidly rocking in her accustomed place, with her palm-leaf ruffling +the water-waves and a fresh lawn tie blowing in the breeze. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in, honey-hearts," she said eagerly, with bright tenderness +shining in her face for the girl and the barefoot young pilgrim; "I +have been setting here a-missing you both for a hour. With you and my +young mission boy both gone I'm like an old hawk-robbed hen. I knew you +was with Mis' Bostick, and I didn't come for you 'cause somehow them +rocking-chair-bed travels you and her take seems to comfort her. I +wouldn't interrupt one of 'em for the world, though I was getting plumb +lonesome. I was even a-hankering after that Tom Mayberry what I left +not over two hours ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Has the Doctor come back from the City this soon?" demanded the singer +lady, with a queer thump in her cardiac region that almost smothered +her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Well now, to tell the truth, Tom Mayberry haven't been to no City," +answered his mother with a chuckle as she looked at Miss Wingate over +Martin Luther's head on her shoulder where he had buried it with a +demand for "milk, milk, thank ma'am, please." "I don't think he wants +you to know what he have been having happen to him, but I can't keep +from telling you 'cause I'm tickled clean to my funny bone. Dave Hanks +come over here at daylight wanting a doctor quick, and I had a cramp in +my leg what I forgot to tie a yarn string around before I went to bed, +so I had to let Tom hurry on over there 'count of the push they was in. +Then I got to studying it over and while I knewed how Tom had had a lot +of practice in such things in a hospital, I thought it was just as well +to let him get a little Harpeth experience along that line and sorter +prove his character to Squire Tutt and the rest. About dinner time, +though, I got sorry for him and hitched up and went over there to see +how they was a-getting along, without telling you or Cindy anything +about it. And what did I find? That Tom Mayberry and Dave Hanks out on +the back porch, Dave taking a drink outen a bottle and Tom with two +babies wrapped up in a shawl showing 'em to a neighbor woman, proud as +a peacock over 'em. He most dropped 'em when he seen me and I promised +not to tell you about it at all, but if you coulder seen him!" And the +tried and proven young AEsculapius' mother fairly rolled in her chair +with mirth at the recollection. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," gasped the singer girl, as she sank weakly down upon the top step +and leaned her head against the convenient post. "It was awful—I—I—" +she caught herself quickly in the expression of the intensity of her +relief. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it wasn't awful," answered Mother Mayberry, fortunately losing the +trend of the exclamation. "They are mighty sweet little babies, both +girls. The joke is mostly on me getting uneasy and following Tom up. +When I pick out his wife, I must be sure and see she are a girl what +don't worry none about what he is up to. A trouble-hunting wife is a +rock sinker to any man, but around a doctor's neck she'll finish him +quick. Don't let on to the shame-faced thing when he comes! He asked me +what you'd been a-doing all day, and I told him I thought maybe you had +a few custards in your mind for him to-night when he gets back from +Flat Rock. Don't you want to beat up some with Cindy's help? And they +is a bunch of pink peonies he sent you from Mis' Hank's bushes, +sticking in a bucket on the back porch. Pin one in your hair to sorter +compliment him after all the trouble he have had this day, poor Tom!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY +</H3> + +<P> +And even old Dame Nature of Harpeth Hills aroused herself for the +occasion and took in hand the wedding day of pretty Bettie Pratt on +Providence Road. In the dark hours before dawn she spread a light film +of clouds over the stars, from which she first puffed a stiff +dust-cleansing breeze and then proceeded to sprinkle a good washing +shower which took away the last trace of wear and tear of the past hot +days, so by the time she brought the sun out for a final shine up, the +village looked like it had been having a most professional laundering. +And after an hour or two of his warm encouragement, the roses lifted +their buds and began to blow out with joyous exuberance. Mother +Mayberry's red-musks tumbled over the wall almost on to the head of +Mrs. Peavey's yellow-cluster, and Judy Pike's pink-cabbage fairly flung +blossoms and buds over into the Road. The widow's own moss-damask +nodded and beckoned hospitably to Mrs. Tutt's Maryland tea, and Pattie +Hoover's Maiden's Blush mingled its sweetness with that of the dainty +white-cluster that climbed around Mrs. Bostick's window. A haunting +perfume from the new-mown clover fields drifted over it all and the +glistening silver poplar leaves danced in the breezes. +</P> + +<P> +"Was they ever such a day before!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she +stood on the front steps with the singer lady, who was as blooming +herself as any rose on the Road. "And everything is well along towards +ready when it's turned twelve. The children have all been washed from +skin out and just need a last polish-off. I've put 'em all on honor not +to get dirty again and I think every shoe will be on by marching time." +</P> + +<P> +"The baskets and the tubs of roses are in the milk house, and I will +arrange them at the last minute so they won't wilt," answered Miss +Wingate with enthusiasm that matched Mother Mayberry's. "Do you suppose +there is anything I can do to help anybody anywhere? I never was so +excited before." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe they is a loose end to tie up on the Road, child. Even +Bettie herself have finished for the day and have gone over to set a +quiet hour with Mis' Bostack. Clothes is all laid out on beds, and cold +lunch snacks put on kitchen tables. They ain't to be a dinner cooked on +the Road this day 'cept what 'Liza and Cindy are a-stewing up for the +Deacon and Mis' Bostick. Looks like everything is on greased wheels, +and—but there comes the child running now! I do hope they haven't +nothing flew the track." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother Mayberry, please ma'am, tell me what to do about Mis' Tutt!" +Eliza exclaimed with anxiety spread all over her little face, which was +given a comic cast by a row of red flannel rags around her head over +which were rolled prospective curls, due to float out for the +festivities. "She says she won't go to the wedding 'cause it's prayer +meeting night, and it were a sin to put off the Lord's meeting 'till +to-morrow night. I didn't know she were a-going to do this way! I got +out her dress for her yesterday. The Squire is so mad he says tell +Doctor Tom to come do something for him quick and not to bring no hot +water kettle neither." +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry with mild exasperation in her voice. +"You run along, 'Liza, and don't you worry with Mis' Tutt. I'll come +down there tereckly and see if I can't kinder persuade her some. Go +around there and give that message to Doctor Tom yourself. I don't take +no stock in such doctoring as he does to the Squire these days." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it too bad for Mrs. Tutt to feel that way and miss the wedding?" +asked Miss Wingate with a trace of the same exasperation in her voice +that had sounded in Mother Mayberry's tones. +</P> + +<P> +"It are that," answered Mother regretfully. "Looks like religion +oughter be tooken as a cooling draft to the soul and not stuck on life +like a fly blister. But I think we can kinder fix Mis' Tutt some. And +that reminds me, I want you to undertake a job of using a little +persuading on Tom Mayberry for me. He have got the most lovely long +tail coat, gray britches, gray vest and high silk hat up in his press, +and he says he are a-going to wear his blue Sunday clothes same as +usual, when I asked him careless like about it this morning. I'm fair +dying to behold him just onct in them good clothes he wears out in the +big world and thinks Providence people will make fun of him to see, but +I wouldn't ask him outright to put 'em on for me, not for nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, Mrs. Mayberry, you really—really flirt with the Doctor?" +laughed Miss Wingate as she rubbed her delicate little nose against +Mother Mayberry's shoulder with Teether Pike's exact nozzling gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's a affair that have been a-going on since the first time I +laid eyes on Ugly, and they ain't nothing ever a-going to stop it +'lessen his wife objects," answered Mother Mayberry as she glanced down +quizzically at the face against her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"She's sure to—to adore it," answered the singer lady as she buried +her head in Mother's tie so only the rosy back of her neck showed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think she will understand," answered the Doctor's mother with a +sweet note in her rich voice as she bestowed a little hug on the +slender body pressed close to hers. "You see, child, the tie twixt a +woman and her own man-child ain't like anything on earth, and I feel it +must hold between Mary and her Son in Heaven. I felt it pull close like +steel when mine weren't fifteen minutes old, and it won't die when I do +neither. And that Tom Mayberry are so serious that a-flirting with him +gets him sorter on his blind side and works to a finish. Can't you try +to help me out about that coat and the silk hat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with a dimpling smile, "I'll try. I'll ask +him what I shall wear and then maybe—maybe—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the very idea, honey-bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry +delightedly. "Tell him you are a-going to put on your best bib and +tucker and it'll start the notion in him to keep you company. If a +woman can just make a man believe his vanity are proper pride, he will +prance along like the trick horse in a circus. Now s'pose you kinder +saunter round careless like to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Mis' Mayberry," came in a doleful voice over the wall near the porch, +and Mrs. Peavey's mournful face appeared, framed in the lilac bushes. +"I've just been reading the Tuesday Bolivar Herald, and Bettie Pratt's +own first husband's sister-in-law's child died last week out in +Californy, where she moved when she married the second time. I hate to +tell Bettie and have the wedding stopped, but I feel it are my duty not +to let her pay no disrespect to her Turner children by having a wedding +with some of they law-kin in trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Hettie Ann, I don't believe I'd tell her, for as bad as that +would be on the Turner children, think how much the Pratts and Hoovers +would lose in pleasure, so as they are the majority, it's only fair +they should rule." Mother Mayberry had for a moment stood aghast at the +idea of the misanthrope's descent upon happy Bettie with even this long +distance shadow to cast across her joy, but dealing with her neighbor +for years had sharpened her wits and she knew that a sense of fair play +was one of Mrs. Peavey's redeeming traits that could always be counted +upon. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I reckon that are so," she answered grudgingly. "Then we'll have +to keep the bad news to tell her when she gets back from the trip. Did +you know that spangled Wyandotte hen have deserted all them little +chickens and is a-laying again out in the weeds behind the barn? Told +you them foreign poultry wasn't no good," with which she disappeared +behind the top stone of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Spangles! she carried them chickens a week longer than could be +expected and now don't get no credit for it," said Mother Mayberry, as +the singer lady gave vent to the giggle she had been suppressing for a +good many minutes. "Now run on, sweet child, and use them beguilements +on Tom for me, while I go try to rub some liniment on Mis' Tutt's +conscience. Fill up Martin Luther sometime soon, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +And in accordance with directions, after a few minutes spent before +Mother Mayberry's old-fashioned mirror in tucking three very perfect +red-musk buds in the belt of her white linen gown, the singer lady +descended upon the unwitting victim, in the north wing and began the +machinations according to promise. Doctor Mayberry, unfortunately for +him, showed extravagant signs of delight at the very sight of the +enemy, for it was almost the first voluntary visit she had ever paid +him, and thus he gave her the advantage to start with. +</P> + +<P> +"You aren't busy, are you?" she asked as she glanced around the +book-lined room and into the laboratory beyond. "This is only a +semi-professional consultation. Could I stay just a few minutes?" and +the lift of her dark lashes from her eyes was most effectively unfair. +As she spoke she settled herself in his chair, while he leaned against +the table looking down upon her with a very shy delight in his gray +eyes and a very decided color in his tan cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"As long as you will," he answered. "I never can prescribe from a +hurried consultation. It always takes several hours for me to locate +anything. I'm very slow, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I rather thought you treated your patients with—with very little +time spent in consultation," a remark which she, herself, knew to be a +dastardly manoeuver. "You attended to Squire Tutt's trouble in a very +few minutes, it seems," she hastened to add, as she glanced at a flask +that lay on the corner of the table. +</P> + +<P> +"The Squire's trouble is chronic, and simply calls for refilled +prescriptions," he laughed, his generosity giving over the retort that +was his due. "I somehow think this matter of yours will prove obscure +and will call for time." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wedding dress I want you to prescribe for me," she hazarded a +bit too hurriedly, for before she could catch up with her own words he +had flashed her an answer. +</P> + +<P> +"That depends!" was the victim's most skilful parry. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you wear a white embroidery and lace or a rose batiste? A rose +hat and parasol go with the batiste, but the white is perfectly +delicious. You haven't seen either one, so I want you to choose by +guess." Only the slightest rose signal in her cheeks showed that she +had been pricked by his quick thrust. She had taken one of the damask +buds from her belt and was daintily nibbling at the folded leaves. Over +it, her eyes dared him to follow up his advantage. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know—I'll have to think about it," he answered her, weakly +capitulating, but still on guard. "If I choose one for to-day, when +will you wear the other? Soon?" he bargained for his forbearance. +</P> + +<P> +"Whenever you want me to if you'd like to see it," she answered with +what he ought to have known was dangerous meekness. "What are you going +to wear?" she asked, putting the direct question with disarming +boldness. +</P> + +<P> +"Blue serge Sunday-go-to-meetings," he answered carelessly, as if it +were a matter to be dismissed with the statement. "Let's see—say them +over again—white dress, pink parasol, rose hat, how did they go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Once, not long ago, I was in your room with Mrs. Mayberry hunting for +the kittens the yellow cat had hidden in the house, and I caught a +glimpse of a most beautiful frock coat—it made me feel partyfied then, +and I thought of the rose gown I have never worn and—and—" she paused +to let that much sink in well. "I thought I would ask you," she ended +in a pensive tone, as she kept her eyes fixed on the rose determinedly. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't have to ask me things—just tell me!" he answered with an +exquisite hint of something in his voice which he quickly controlled. +"The frock coat let it be—and shall we say the rose gown? Then the +high gods protect Providence when it beholds!" he added with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, will you really?" she asked, overwhelmed with the ease with which +the battle had been won. +</P> + +<P> +"I will," he answered, "only don't let Mother tease me, please!" +</P> + +<P> +At which pathetically ingenuous demand the conquering singer lady +tossed him the rose and laughed long and merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"You and your Mother are perfect—" she was observing with delighted +dimples, when Mother Mayberry herself stood in the doorway with +well-concealed eagerness as to the outcome of the mission, in her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she observed with a laugh, "I'm glad to see somebody that has +time to stand-around, set-around, passing the news of the day. Did you +all know that Bettie Pratt were a-going to get married in about two +hours and a half?" +</P> + +<P> +"We did," answered her son as he drew her a chair close to that of Miss +Wingate. "We were just discussing in what garb we could best grace the +occasion. Did you succeed in getting Mrs. Tutt to change her mind about +honoring the festivities?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, she just wanted to be persuaded some. It's a mighty dried-up +mind that can't leaf out in a change onct in a while, and it's mostly +men folks that take a notion, then petrify to stone in it. But you all +oughter see what is a-going on down the Road." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" they both demanded of her at the same second. +</P> + +<P> +"It's that 'Liza Pike again. Just as soon as that child hatches a idea, +the whole town takes to helping her feather it out. She got Mis' +Bostick's bed moved to the front window, and then found that Nath +Mosbey's fence kept her from seeing the Road where the procession are +a-going into the Meeting-house yard. But that didn't down her none at +all, for when I left she had Nath and Buck and Mr. Petway a-knocking +down the two panels of fence, and leaving Mis' Bostick a clean sweep of +view, Did you ever?" and mother Mayberry chuckled over the small +sister's triumph over what to the rest of Providence would have seemed +an insurmountable obstacle. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just like her, the darling!" exclaimed the singer lady +appreciatively. +</P> + +<P> +"And she have got the Deacon all tucked out until he is a sight to +behold. She have made Mis' Peavey starch his white tie until it sets +out on both sides like cat whiskers, and have pinned a bokay on his +coat 'most as big as the bride's. Then she have reached his forelock up +on his head so he looks like Martin Luther, and she have got him +a-settin' down, so as not to get out of gear none. Mis' Bostick is +a-wearing a little white rose pinned on her night-gown, and they is +honeysuckle trailed all over the bed. But here am I a-chavering with +you all, with time a-flying and no chance of putting salt on her tail +this day. Please, Tom Mayberry, go down to the store and buy a nickel's +worth of starch, and it's none of your business how I want to use it. +I'm going to look a surprise for you myself, before sundown." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, how did you get along with him, honeybird?" she asked eagerly, +as they ascended the front steps together, while the Doctor strode down +the Road on his errand. +</P> + +<P> +"Beautifully!" exclaimed the singer lady with enthusiasm and the very +faintest of blushes. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so from his looks," answered the beguiled young Doctor's +wily mother. "A man always do have that satisfied martyr-smile when he +thinks he are doing something just to please a woman. Now, honey-child, +you ain't got nothing to do but frill out your own sweet self; and make +a job of it while you are about it." With which command Mother Mayberry +dismissed Miss Wingate up the stairs to her dormer-window room. +</P> + +<P> +And it is safe to say that no two such teeming hours ever fleeted their +seconds away on Providence Road as did those ensuing. The whole village +buzzed and bumbled and swarmed in and out from house to house like a +colony of clover-drunken bees on an August afternoon. Laughter floated +on the air and mingled with banter and song, while the aroma of flesh +pots and fine spices drifted from huge waiters being hurriedly carried +from down and up the Road and into the Pratt gate. The wedding supper +was being laid on improvised tables in Bettie's side yard, with Judy +Pike in command, seconded by Mrs. Peavey with her skirts tucked up out +of possible harm and her mind on the outlook for any possible disaster, +from the wilting of the jelly mold to a sad streak in the bride's cake, +baked by the bride herself with perfectly happy confidence. +</P> + +<P> +Then on the heels of the excitement came a quiet half-hour devoted to +the completing of all toilets behind closed family doors. A shrill +squeal issuing now and then from an open window told its tale of +tortures being undergone, and a smothered masculine ejaculation added a +like testimony. +</P> + +<P> +At exactly a quarter to five, Miss Wingate issued from her room after a +completely satisfactory seance with her mirror, and from the front +steps looked down in dismay upon a scene of rebellion, that threatened +at any moment to become one of riot. +</P> + +<P> +On the grass beside the porch stood a group of little girls all +starched, frilled, curled and beribboned until they resembled a large +bouquet of cabbage roses themselves. Each one clasped carefully a gaily +decorated basket filled with roses, and from each and every pair of +eyes there danced sparks of rage, aimed at a huddled company of small +boys who were returning their indignation by sullen scorn mixed with +determination in their polished, freckled faces. Half way between each +group stood Eliza Pike, a glorified Eliza, from a halo of curls to +brand new small shoes. She had evidently been carrying on a losing +series of negotiations, for her usually sanguine face had an expression +of utter hopelessness, tinged with some of the others' feminine +indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Elinory," she exclaimed as the singer lady came to the edge of +the porch, "I don't know what to make of the boys, they never did this +way before!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what is the matter?" asked Miss Wingate, something of Eliza's +panic communicating itself to her own face and voice. +</P> + +<P> +The boys all suddenly found interest in their own feet or the cracks in +the pavement, so Eliza as usual became the spokesman for the occasion. +</P> + +<P> +"They say they just won't carry baskets of flowers, because it makes +them look silly like girls. They will march with us if you make 'em do +it, but they won't carry no baskets for nobody. I don't want Mis' Pratt +to find out how they is a-acting, for three of 'em are hers and five +Hoovers, and it is they own wedding." Eliza's voice almost became a +wail in which Miss Wingate felt inclined to join. +</P> + +<P> +At this juncture, Martin Luther took it upon himself to create a +further diversion and to add fuel to the flame. By a mistake, and +through a determination to follow instructions, he had clung to little +Bettie's hand, and when she picked up one of the tiny baskets provided +for the two tots, so had he, and thus he found himself humiliatingly +equipped and on the wrong side of the yard and question. Disengaging +himself from the wide-eyed Bettie, he marched to the center of the +middle ground and cast the despised basket upon the grass. +</P> + +<P> +"No girl—BOY, thank ma'am, please!" he announced with a defiant glance +at the singer lady up from under the rampant curl, and that he did not +fail in his usual shibboleth of courtesy was due to his habitual use of +it, rather than a desire to soften the effect of his announcement. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Wingate sank down upon the steps in helpless dismay, and tears +began to drop from Eliza's eyes, when Mother Mayberry appeared upon the +scene of action, stiff and rustling as to black silk gown, capped with +a cobweb of lace over the water-waves and most imposing as to mien. +</P> + +<P> +"Now what's all these conniptions about?" she demanded, and eyed the +boys with an expression of reserving judgment that did her credit, for +a forlorn and surly sight they presented. +</P> + +<P> +And again Eliza stated the case of the culprits in brief and not +uncertain terms. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said Mother Mayberry, and a most delicious laugh fell on +the overcharged air and in itself began to clear the atmosphere, "so +you empty-handed, cross-faced boys think you look more stylisher for +the wedding than the girls look, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No'm, we never said that," answered young Bud with a grin coaxing at +his wide mouth. "We just don't want to carry no baskets. Buck said he +wouldn't, and Sam Mosbey said they had oughter tie a sash around the +middle of all of us for a show. We think the girls look fine," and he +cast an uneasy glance at his sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, seeing as you came down as far as to pass a compliment on 'em, I +reckon the girls will have to forgive you for talking about them that +way. I am willing to ask Miss Elinory here to give you each a little +bunch of roses to carry in your hand instead of a basket, and to let +you walk along beside the girls, though nobody will look at you anyway +or know you are there. Is that a bargain and is everybody ready to step +into line?" +</P> + +<P> +And almost instantly there was a relieved and amicable settling of the +difficulties, a sorting of bunches from the despised baskets, and a +quick line-up. +</P> + +<P> +"Now start on down! Don't you hear Miss Prissy playing the organ for +you?" exclaimed Mother Mayberry from the steps. "Billy, lift up your +feet, and Henny, you throw the first rose just where Miss Elinory told +you to. Everybody watch Henny and throw a flower whenever he does. Aim +them at the ground and not at each other or the company. We'll be just +behind you. Now, Martin Luther, take Bettie by the hand and don't go +too fast!" +</P> + +<P> +"A little fun poked at the right time will settle most man +conniptions," she added, in an aside to the relieved and admiring +singer lady, as they prepared to follow in the wake of the bridal train. +</P> + +<P> +And among all the weddings over all the land, that fill to a joyous +overflowing almost every hour of the month of June, none could have +been more lovely or happier than that of pretty Bettie Pratt, and the +embarrassed but adoring Mr. Hoover on Providence Road. The train of +solemn, wide-eyed little flower bearers was received by the wedding +guests, who were assembled around the Meeting-house door, with a +positive wave of rapture and no hint of the previous hurricane of +rebellion showed in their rosy, cherubic countenances. They separated +at the designated point and according to instructions took their stand +along the side of the walk from the gate to the steps. Billy stepped +high, roly-poly little Bettie steered Martin Luther into place and +Eliza had the joy of catching a glimpse of the pale face across the +store-yard, peering out of the window with the greatest interest. +</P> + +<P> +Then from the Pratt home, directly across the Road, came the Deacon and +Bettie, and the enthusiasm at this point boiled up and ran over in a +perfect foam of joy. And, indeed, the pair made a picture deserving of +every thrill, Bettie in her dove gray muslin and the Deacon bedight +according to Eliza's expert opinion of good form. He beamed like a +gentle old cherub himself, while she giggled and blushed and nodded to +the children as she stepped over the rain of roses, on up to the very +door itself. Immediately following the children, the congregation filed +in and settled itself for the long prayer, that the Deacon always used +to open such solemn occasions. +</P> + +<P> +The singer lady found herself seated between Mother Mayberry and the +Doctor on the end of the pew, and out of the corner of her eye she +essayed a view of his magnificence, but caught him in the act of making +the same pass in her direction. They both blushed, and her smile was +wickedly tantalizing, though she kept her eyes fixed on the Deacon's +face as he began to read the words of the service in his sweet old +voice, with its note of tender affection for the pair of friends for +whom he read them. And she never knew why she didn't realize it or why +she thought of permitting it, but as the impressive words enfolded the +pair at the altar, one of her own small hands was gently possessed in a +warm, strong one, and tightly clasped. For moments the pair of hands +rested on the bench between them, hid by a filmy fold of the rose gown. +There was just nothing to be done about it that the singer lady could +see, so she let matters rest as they were and gave her attention to +trying to keep the riot in her own heart in reasonable bounds. However, +it might have been a comfort to her to know that across the church, +Buck had captured five of Pattie's sunburned fingers, and Mr. Petway +was sitting so close to Miss Prissy that Mr. Pike came very near being +irreverent enough to nudge the devout Judy. Then what a glorious time +followed the solemn minutes in the church! The very twilight fell upon +the entire wedding party still feasting and rejoicing, and it was under +the light of the early stars that the guests had to wend their way +home. Mother Mayberry was surrounded by a court of small boys, each one +eager for her words of commendation on their more than exemplary +conduct and she smiled and joked them as they escorted her to her +door-step. Cindy had gone on ahead and a light shone from the kitchen +window, which was answered by flashes all along and across the Road as +the various households settled down to the business of recovering +sufficient equilibrium to begin the conduct of the ordinary affairs of +daily life at the morrow sun-up. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down here on the steps just a minute," pleaded the Doctor with +trepidation in his voice, for the rose lady had found the strength of +mind to reprove him for their conduct in church by ignoring him utterly +at the wedding feast, even going to the point of partaking of her +supper in the overwhelmed company of Sam Mosbey, who not for the life +of him could have told from whence came the courage to ask for such a +compliment, and the result of which had been to send him back later to +the table in a half-famished condition; he not having been able to +feast the eyes and the inner man at the same time. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I trust you?" she demanded of the Doctor in a very small and +reproving voice. +</P> + +<P> +"If that is a condition—yes," he reluctantly consented, as he looked +up at her in the starlight. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—you were very grand," she said after she had settled +herself in what she decided to be an uncompromising distance from him. +"You really graced the occasion." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Wingate," he said slowly, and he turned his head so that only his +profile showed against the dusk of the wistaria vine, "you wouldn't +really be cruel to a country boy with his heart on his sleeve and only +his pride to protect it, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it was unkind, for he was so hungry and couldn't seem to eat +at all; but I saw Mrs. Pike giving him a glorious supper later, so +please don't worry over him." Which answer was delivered in a meek tone +of voice that it was difficult to hold to its ingenuous note. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor ignored this feint and went on with the most exquisite +gentleness in his lovely voice that somehow brought her heart into her +throat, and without knowing it she edged an inch or two closer to him +and her hand made an involuntary movement toward his that rested on the +step near her, but which she managed to stop in time. "You realize, do +you not, dear lady, that your friendliness to—to us all, commands my +intensest loyalty? You'll just promise to remember always that I do +understand and go on being happy with us, won't you—us country folks +of Providence Road?" The note of pride in his voice was struck with no +uncertain sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it's you that don't—don't—" the singer lady was about to +commit herself most dreadfully by her exclamation in the low dove notes +that alone had no trace of the disastrous burr, when Mother Mayberry +stepped out of the hall door and came and seated herself beside them. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, of course, I know the Bible do say that they won't be no +marriage or giving in marriage in the hereafter, but I do declare we +all might miss such infairs as these, even in Heaven," she observed +jovially. "Didn't everybody look nice and act nice? Course it was just +country doings to you, honey-bird, but I know you enjoyed it some even +if it were." Like all sympathetic natures Mother Mayberry fell with +ease into the current of any thought, and the young Doctor reached out +and took her hand into his with quick appreciation of the fact. +</P> + +<P> +"It was so very lovely that it made me—made me want—" the daring with +which the singer lady had begun her defiant remark gave out in the +middle and she had to let it trail weakly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope it made Mr. Petway want Prissy bad enough to ask her, +along about moon-up," said Mother Mayberry in a practical tone of +voice. "Seems like I hear they voices; and if he IS over there I don't +see how he can get out of co'ting some. It's just in the air +to-night—and WE'D better all be a-going to bed so as to get up early +to start off. Tom Mayberry, seems to me as I remember it, you looked +much less plain favored to-day than common. Did you have on some new +clothes? And ain't you a-going to pass a compliment on Elinory and me, +both with new frocks wored to please you?" +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor laughed and as they all rose together he still held his +mother's hand in his and instead of an answer he bent and kissed it +with a most distinctly foreign-acquired grace. +</P> + +<P> +"That's honey-fuzzle again, Tom Mayberry, if not in words, in acts," +she exclaimed with a delighted laugh. "But pass it along to Elinory if +only to keep her from feeling lonesome. Let him kiss your hand, child, +he ain't nothing but a country bumpkin that can't talk complimentary to +save his life. Now, go get your bucket of water, sonny, and don't let +in the cat!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB +</H3> + +<P> +"Why, honey-bird; troubles ain't nothing but tight, ugly little buds +the Lord are a-going to flower out for us all, in His good time; maybe +not until in His kingdom. I hold that fact in my heart always," said +Mother Mayberry as she looked down over her glasses at the singer lady +sitting on the top step at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you do," answered Miss Wingate with a new huskiness rather than +the burr in her voice, which made Mother look at her quickly before she +drew another thread through her needle. "But I was just thinking about +Mrs. Bostick and wishing—oh! I wish we could in some way bring her son +back to her before it is too late. Yesterday afternoon when I started +home she drew me down and asked me if when—when I went out into the +world again I would look for him and help him. Is there nothing that +can be done about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon not, child," answered Mother Mayberry gently. "If Will was to +come back now it would be just to tear up her heart some more. Last +night, when I was a-settling of her for bed, I began to talk about the +other five children she have buried under God's green grass, each in a +different county, as they moved from place to place. I just collected +them little graves together and tried to fill her heart with 'em, and +when I left she was asleep with a smile on her face I ain't seen for a +year. It's as I say—a buried baby are a trouble bud that's a-going to +flower out in eternity for a woman. I'll find a lone blossom and she a +little bunch. I'm praying in my heart that Will's a stunted plant +that'll bloom late, but in time to be sheathed in with the rest. But +bless your sweet feeling-heart, child, and let's keep the smile on our +faces for her comfort! Woman must bend and not break under a sorrow +load. Take some of them calcanthuses to her when you go down for one of +them foreign junkets and ask her to tell you about them little folks of +her'n. Start her on the little girl that favored the Deacon and cut off +all his forelock with the scissors while he were asleep, so he 'most +made the congregation over at Twin Creeks disgrace theyselves with +laughing at his shorn plight the next Sunday. I've got to turn around +'fore sundown for I've got 'most a day's work to straighten out the hen +house and settle the ruckus about nests. The whole sisterhood of 'em +have tooken a notion to lay in the same barrel and have to be persuaded +some. Now run on so as to be back as early as you can before Tom +comes." And as Mother Mayberry spoke, she began to gather together her +sewing, preparatory to a sally into the world of her feathered folk. +</P> + +<P> +But before she had watched the singer lady out of sight down the Road, +with her spray of brown blossoms in her one hand and her garden hat in +the other, she espied young Eliza rapidly approaching from up the Road +and there was excitement in every movement of her slim, little body and +in every swish of her short calico skirts, as well as in the way her +long pigtail swung out behind. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother Mayberry," she exclaimed, as she sank breathless on the top +step, "they is a awful thing happened! Aunt Prissy was 'most disgraced +'bout a box of soap and Bud and 'Lias and Henny might have got killed +and Buck too, because he sent one to Pattie and wrote what was on the +card. I've been so scared I am in the trembles now, but you said always +pray to the Lord and I did it while I was a-running down to the store +to beg Mr. Petway not to make her jump off from Bee Rock on the Nob +like the lady Mis' Peavey read about in the paper did because the man +wouldn't marry her that she was in love with. Fast as I were a-running +I reckon the Lord made out what I said and beat me to him and told +him—" +</P> + +<P> +"'Liza, 'Liza, honey, stop this minute and tell me what you are +a-talking about," demanded Mother Mayberry, with almost as much +excitement in her voice as was trembling in that of the small talking +machine at her feet. "Now begin at the beginning and tell me just what +is the matter with your Aunt Prissy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing now," answered Eliza, taking a fresh breath, "she's a-going to +marry Mr. Petway, only she won't know it until to-night and I've +promised him not to tell her." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" was all that Mother Mayberry managed to demand from the depths +of her astonishment as she sank back in her rocking-chair and regarded +Eliza with positive awe. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'um, and it were all about them two beautiful boxes of +sweet-smelling soap that he bought in town and have had in the store +window for a week. Buck bought one to send to Pattie for a birthday +present and he wrote, 'When this you see, remember me,' on a card and +put it in the box. I carried it over to her for him and Mr. Hoover jest +laughed, and said Buck meant Pattie didn't keep her face clean. But +Mis' Hoover hugged Pattie and whispered something to her and told Mr. +Hoover to shut up and go see how many children he could get to come in +and be washed up for dinner. Buck was a-waiting for me around the +corner of the store and when I told him how pleased Mis' Hoover and +Pattie were, he—" +</P> + +<P> +"But wait a minute, 'Liza," interrupted Mother Mayberry with a laugh, +"them love jinks twixt Buck and Pattie is most interesting, but I'm +waiting to hear about your Aunt Prissy and Mr. Petway. It's liable to +be serious when two folks as old as they is—but go on with your tale, +honey." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Buck wrote two of them beautiful 'Remember me' verses on nice +pieces of white paper, in them curlycues the Deacon taught him, before +he got one to suit him and he left one on the counter, right by the +cheese box. While we was gone, along come 'Lias and Bud and Henny and +disgraced Aunt Prissy." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what did them scamps do?" demanded Mother Mayberry, looking over +her glasses in some perturbation as the end of the involved narration +began to dawn upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"They tooken the other box of soap outen the window and put the verse +in it and carried it down to Aunt Prissy and told her Mr. Petway sent +it to her. It was a joke they said, but they was good and skeered. I +got home then and I seen her and Maw laughing about it and Aunt Prissy +was just as pink and pleased and loving looking as Pattie were and Maw +was a-joking of her like Mis' Pratt—no, Hoover—did Pattie and all of +a sudden I knewed it were them bad boys, 'cause I seen 'em laughing in +a way I knows is badness. Oh, then I was so skeered I couldn't swoller +something in my throat 'cause I thought maybe Aunt Prissy would jump +offen Bee Rock when she found she were so disgraced with Mr. Petway. I +woulder done it myself, for I got right red in my own face thinking +about it." And the blush that was a dawn of the eternal feminine again +rose to the little bud-woman's face. +</P> + +<P> +"It were awful, Eliza child, and I don't blame you for being mortified +over it," said Mother Mayberry with a quick appreciation of the wound +inflicted on the delicacy of the child, and the tale began to assume +serious proportions in her mind as she thought of the probable result +to the incipient affair between the elderly lovers that had been a +subject of prayful hope to her for some time past. "What did you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I prayed," answered Eliza in a perfectly practical tone of voice, "and +as I prayed I ran to Mr. Petway as fast as I could. He was filling +molasses cans at the barrel when I got there and they wasn't nobody in +the store, only I seen Bud and Henny peeping from behind the blacksmith +shop and they was right white, they was so skeered by that time. Then I +told him all about it and begged him to let Aunt Prissy have the box of +soap and think he sent it, so her feelings wouldn't get hurted. I told +him I would give him my seventy-five cents from picking peas to pay for +it and that Aunt Prissy cried so when her feelings was hurted, and she +thought so much of him that she kept her frizzes rolled up all day when +she hoped he might be coming that night to see her and got Maw to bake +tea-cakes to pass him out on the front porch and he MIGHT let her have +just that one little box of soap." +</P> + +<P> +"What did he say, child?" asked Mother Mayberry in a voice that was +positively weak from anxiety and suppressed mirth at Eliza's own +account of her management of the outraged lover. +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't say a thing, but he sat down on a cracker box and just +hugged me and laughed until he cried all over my dress and I hugged +back and laughed too, but I didn't know what at. Then he told me that +he didn't ever want Aunt Prissy to know about them bad boys' foolish +joke 'cause he wanted to marry Aunt Prissy and didn't want her to find +out that three young scallawags had to begin his co'ting for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he say all that to you, 'Liza honey, are you sure?" asked Mother +Mayberry, beginning to beam with delight at the outcome of the horrible +situation. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, he did, and I went out and brought Bud and 'Lias and Henny in +and he talked to 'em serious until 'Lias cried and Bud got choked +trying not to. Then he give them all a bottle of soda pop and they +ain't never anybody a-going to tell anybody else about it. He made them +boys cross they hearts and bodies not to. I didn't cross mine 'cause I +knew I had to tell you, but I do it now." And Eliza stood up and +solemnly made the mystic sign, thus locking the barn door of her secret +chambers after having quartered the troublesome steed of confidence on +the ranges of Mother Mayberry's conscience. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, 'Liza, a secret oughter always be wrapped up tight and dropped +down the well inside a person, and suppose you and me do it to this +one. And, child, I want to tell you that you did the right thing all +along this line, and it were the Heavenly Father you asked to help you +out that put the right notion in your heart of what to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, I believe He did, and He got hold of Mr. Petway some too, to +make him kind about wanting to marry Aunt Prissy. He are a-going to ask +her to-night and I promised to keep Paw outen the way for him, 'cause +Paw WILL get away from Maw and come talk crops with him sometimes on +the front porch. May I go out to the kitchen and get Cindy to make a +little chicken soup for Mis' Bostick now? I can't get her to eat much +to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and welcome, Sister Pike," answered Mother Mayberry heartily, and +she shook with laughter as the end of the blue calico skirt disappeared +in the hall. "The little raven have actually begun to sprout cupid +wings," she said to herself as she went around the corner of the house +toward the Doctor's office. "Co'ting are a bombshell that explodes in +the big Road of life and look out who it hits," she further observed to +herself as she paused to train up a shoot of the rambler over the +office door. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor had just come from over the Ridge, put up his horse and made +his way through the kitchen and hall into his office where he found his +Mother sitting in his chair by the table. He smiled in a dejected way +and seated himself opposite her, leaned his elbows on the table and +dropped his chin into his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, what's your trouble, Tom Mayberry?" demanded his Mother, as she +gazed across at him with anxiety and tenderness striving in glance and +tone. "You've been a-going around like a dropped-wing young rooster +with a touch of malaria for a week. If it's just moon-gaps you can keep +'em and welcome, but if it's trouble, I claim my share, son." +</P> + +<P> +"I meant to tell you to-day, Mother," he answered slowly. After a +moment's silence he looked up and said steadily, "I've failed with Miss +Wingate—and I'm too much of a coward to tell her. I feel sure now that +she'll never be able to use her voice any more than she can in the +speaking tones and she—she will never sing again." As he spoke he +buried his face in his hands and his arms shook the table they rested +upon. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Mother Mayberry sat perfectly still and from the whispered +words on her lips her son knew she was praying. "The Lord's will be +done," she said at last in her deep, quiet voice, and she laid one of +her strong hands on her son's arm. "Tell me about it, Tom. You ain't +done no operation yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mother, I have," he answered quietly. "All the different +laryngeal treatments she had tried under the greatest specialists. Her +one hope was to be built up to the point of standing a bloodless +operation with the galvanic shock. I have tried three times in the last +week to release the muscles and start life in the nerves that control +the vocal chords. In the two other cases with which I have succeeded +the response was immediate after the first operation. Now I dare not +risk another tear of the muscles. One reason I didn't tell her is that +I had to count on her losing the fear that she wouldn't gain the +control. You know she thinks they have been only preliminary treatments +and you have heard her laugh as I held her white throat in my hands. +She believes completely in the outcome. God, to think I have failed +her—HER!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Tom, He knows—and Mother understands," his Mother answered +gently. +</P> + +<P> +"And she must be told right away," said the Doctor as he rose and +walked to the window. "It is only fair. Shall I or you tell her? +Choose, Mother, what will be best for her! But can she stand it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Son," said his Mother, as she also rose and stood facing him with the +late afternoon sun falling straight into her face which, lit by the +light without and a fire within, shone with a wonderful radiance. "Son, +don't you know these old Harpeth Hills have looked down in they day on +many a woman open her arms, take a burden to her heart and start on a +long journey up to the Master's everlasting hills? Sometimes it have +been disgrace, or a lifelong loneliness, or her man hunted out into the +night by the law. I have laid still-born children into my sisters' +arms, and I've washed the blood from the wounds in women's murdered +sons, but I ain't never seen no woman deny her Lord yet and I don't +look to see this little sister of my heart refuse her cup. I'll tell +her, for it's my part—but Tom Mayberry, see that you stand to her when +your time comes, as it surely will." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know, Mother, that I would lay down my life to do the least +thing for her?" he asked, with the suffering drawing his young face +into stern, hard lines. "But to do the one thing for her I might have +done has been denied me," he added bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Tom, there's one thing left to you to give her. Sympathy is God's +box of precious ointment and see that you break yours over her heart +this day. Now, I'm a-going down Providence Road to meet her and I know +the Lord will help me to the right words when the time comes. I leave +His blessing with you, boy!" And she turned and left him with his +softened eyes looking up into her calm face. +</P> + +<P> +Then for a long hour Mother Mayberry worked quietly among her dependent +feather folk and as she worked, her gentle face had its brooding +mother-look and her lips moved as she comforted and fortified herself +with snatches of prayer for the journey through the deep waters, on +which she was to lead this child of her affection. After the last +tangle had been straightened out, each brood settled in comfortable +quarters and the cause of all quarrels arbitrated, she walked to the +front gate and stood looking down the Road. +</P> + +<P> +And up from the Deacon's house came a little procession that made her +smile with a sob clutching at her heart. The singer lady had taken +Teether from the arms of his mother, who stood happily exchanging the +topics of the times with the Hoover bride, who had not had thus far +sufficient opportunity to expatiate on quite all the adventures of the +wedding journey and kept on hand still a small store of happenings to +recount to her sympathetic neighbors as they found time and +opportunity. The rosy rollicking youngster she had perched on her +shoulder and held him steadily thus exalted by his pair of sturdy, +milk-fed legs. Martin Luther, as usual, clung to her skirts, Susie Pike +danced on before her and the Deacon was walking slowly along at her +side, carefully carrying the rose-garden of a hat in both his hands. He +was looking up at her with his gentle face abeam with pleasure and +Mother Mayberry could hear, as they came near, that she was humming to +him as he lined out some quaint, early-church words to her. It was a +never failing source of delight to the old patriarch to have her thus +fit motives from the world's great music to the old, pioneer hymns. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Mayberry," he exclaimed with exultation in his old face, "I +never thought to hear in this world these words of my brother, Charles +Wesley, sung to such heavenly strains as my young sister has put them +this day. Never before, I feel, have they had fit rendition. While I +line the verse, sing them again to Sister Mayberry, child, that her +ears may be rejoiced with mine." And Mother Mayberry caught at the top +of the gate as the girl slipped the nodding baby down into her arms and +in her wonderful muted voice hummed the Grail motif while the Deacon +raised his thin old hands and lined out the +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord,<BR> + Whom one in three we know—"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +on through its verses to its final invocation of the +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Supreme, essential One, adored<BR> + In co-eternal Three."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"The Lord bless you, child, and make His sun to shine upon you," he +said as the last note died away, while Teether chuckled and nozzled at +Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "I must go on back to sit with Mrs. Bostick +and will deposit this treasure with Sister Mayberry," he added with a +smile as he handed the bouquet-hat over the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"Susie, can't you take Teether over to your Aunt Prissy and tell her +that Mother says please give him his milk right away, for it's past +time, and she will come in a few minutes?" asked the singer lady, as +she handed the reluctant baby to the small girl at her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Milk, thank ma'am, please," demanded Martin Luther quickly, having no +intention of being left out of any lactic deal. +</P> + +<P> +"Run ask Cindy," answered Mother Mayberry, as she started him up the +front walk, and came on more slowly with Miss Wingate at her side. In +her soul she was realizing fully the influence the lovely woman had +thrown over the hearts of the simple Providence folk and the greatness +of her own nature was making her understand something of the loss to +those of the outer world whom the great singer would be no longer able +to call within the spell of her wonderful voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Honey-bird," she said gently, as she drew the girl to the end of the +porch where the wistaria vine, a whispering maple and the crimson +rambler shut them in from the eyes of all the world save the spirit of +Providence Nob, which brooded down over them in a wisp of cloud across +its sun-reddened top, "here's the place and time and heart strength to +tell you that your Lord have laid the hand of affliction on you heavy +and have tooken back from you the beautiful voice He gave you to use +for a time. I'm a-praying for you to be able to say His will be done." +</P> + +<P> +For one instant the singer woman went white to the eyes and swayed back +against the vine, then she asked huskily, "Did HE say so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the Doctor's mother gently with her deep eyes looking +into the girl's very soul. "Them treatments was operations and they is +all he dares to make for fear of your losing the speaking voice what +you have got so beautiful. If they is any love and pity in my heart +after I have stopped giving it to you I'm going to pour some out on Tom +Mayberry, for when a man's got to look sorrow in the eyes he goes blind +and don't know what way to turn, lessen a woman leads him. But he ain't +neither here or there and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" demanded Miss Wingate in her soft dove notes as she +looked the tragedy-stricken young Doctor's mother straight in the face, +with her dark eyes completely unveiling her heart, woman to woman. +"I—I want HIM!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's left of him is in the office, and you are welcome to the +pieces," answered his Mother, a comprehensive joy rising above the +sorrow in her eyes. "I reckon I can trust him with you, but if you need +any help, call me," she added, as the singer girl fled down the steps +and around to the office wing. +</P> + +<P> +And they neither one of them ever knew how it really happened, though +she insisted on accusing herself and he claimed always the entire +blame, but he had been sitting where his Mother had left him for an +hour or more with his face in his hands when he suddenly found himself +clasped in soft arms and his eyes pressed close against a bare white +throat and a most wonderful dove voice was murmuring happy, comforting +little words that fell down like jewels into his very heart of hearts. +And his own strong arms held very close a palpitating, cajoling, flower +of a woman, who was wooing for smiles and dimpling with raptures. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care, I don't, and please don't you!" she pleaded with her +lips against his black forelock. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't help caring! The one thing I asked of all my years of hard +work was to give the music back to you—" and again he buried his face +in the soft lace at her throat. +</P> + +<P> +"You say, do you, that I'll never sing again?" she asked quickly, and +as she spoke she lifted his head in her hands and waited an instant for +the smothered groan with which he answered her. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, listen," she answered him in a voice fairly a-tremble with joyous +passion and as she spoke she laid his ear close over her heart and held +him so an instant. "Does it matter that only you will ever hear the +song, dear?" she whispered, then slipped out of his arms and across to +the other side of the table before he could detain her. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Tom Mayberry," she said as he reached for her, and her tone was so +positive that he stopped with his arms in the air and let them sink +slowly to his side. "We'll have this question out right here and if I +have trouble with you I'll—call your Mother," and she laughed as she +shook away a tear. +</P> + +<P> +"Please!" he pleaded and his face was both so radiant and so worn that +she had to harden her heart against him to be able to hold herself in +hand for what she wanted to say to him. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she answered determinedly, "and you must listen to every word I +say, for I am getting frightened already and may have to stop." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to talk some myself," he said with the very first smile coming +into his grave young eyes. "I want to tell you that I can't help loving +you, and have ever since I first saw you, but that it won't do at all +for you to marry—marry a Providence country bumpkin with nothing but a +doctoring head on his shoulders. I want you to understand that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't refuse me this way before I've ever asked you," she said +with a trace of the grand dame hauteur in her manner and voice that he +had never seen before. "I think—I think very suddenly I have come to +realize, Doctor Mayberry, that—that—oh, I'm very frightened, but I +must say it! I wouldn't blame you or your Mother for not wanting me at +all. I—I somehow, I don't seem very great—or real to myself here in +Providence. My training has been all to one end—useless now—and I'm +all unlessoned and unlearned in the real things of life. I seem to feel +that the hot theaters and the crowds that have looked at me and—am I +what she has a right to demand in your wife?" And, with a proud little +gesture, she laid her case in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +And though she had not expected anything dramatic from him in the way +of refutation of her speech, she was totally unprepared for the +wonderful, absolute silence that met her heroics. He stood and looked +her full in the eyes with a calm radiance in his face that reminded her +of the dawn-light she had seen that morning come over Providence Nob +and his deep smile gave a young prophet look to his austere mouth. And +as she gazed at him she drew timidly nearer, even around the corner of +the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Your work is so wonderful—and real—and you ought to have a wife +who—" By this time she had got much nearer and her voice trailed off +into uncertainty. And still he stood perfectly still and looked at her. +</P> + +<P> +"She loves me and I love her, so that, do you think, I might—I might +learn? Cindy says I'm a wonder—and remember the custards," she +finished from somewhere in the region of his collar. "Now that we've +both refused each other do you suppose we can go on and be happy?" she +laughed softly from under his chin. +</P> + +<P> +And the young Doctor held her very close and never answered a word she +said. The strain on him had been very great and he was more shaken than +he wanted her to see. But from the depths of her heart she understood +and pressed closer to him as she gave him a long silence in which to +recover himself. Twilight was coming in the windows and a fragrant +night breeze was ruffling her hair against his cheek before she stirred +in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to ask—to ask Mother before—before," she was venturing to +suggest in the smallest of voices in which was both mirth and +tenderness, when a low laugh answered her from the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no you don't," said Mother Mayberry, as she beamed upon them with +the most manifest joy. "I had done picked you out before you had been +here more'n a week, honey-bird. You can have him and welcome if you can +put up with him. He's like Mis' Peavey always says of her own jam; +'Plenty of it such as it is and good enough what they is of it.' A real +slow-horse love can be rid far and long at a steady gate. He ain't +pretty, but middling smart." And the handsome young Doctor's mother +eyed him with a well-assumed tolerance covering her positive rapture. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure, sure you're not disappointed about—about that +peony-girl?" demanded the singer lady, as she came into the circle of +Mother Mayberry's arm and nozzled her little nose under the white lawn +tie. +</P> + +<P> +"Le'me see," answered Mother Mayberry in a puzzled tone of voice. "I +seem to understand you, but not to know what you are talking about." +</P> + +<P> +"The girl to whom he gave the graduating bouquet with Mrs. Peavey's +peony in it," she whispered, but not so low that the Doctor, who had +come over and put a long arm around them both, couldn't hear. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry in a judicial tone of voice as she +bestowed a quizzical glance on the Doctor, who blushed to the roots of +his hair at this revelation of the fact of his Mother's indulgence in +personal reminiscence, "I reckon Miss Alford'll be mighty disappointed +to lose him, but I don't know nothing about her riz biscuits. Happiness +and good cooking lie like peas in a pod in a man's life and I reckon +I'll have to give Tom Mayberry, prize, to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother!" exclaimed the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," murmured Miss Wingate with a wicked glance at him from his +Mother's shoulder that brought a hurried embrace down upon them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Children," said Mother Mayberry, as she suddenly reached put her +strong arms and took them both close to her breast, "looks like the +Lord sometimes hatches out two birds in far apart nests just to give +'em wing-strength to fly acrost river and hill to find each other. You +both kinder wandered foreign some 'fore you sighted one another, but +now you can begin to build your own nest right away, and I offers my +heart as a bush on Providence Nob to put it in." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS +</H3> + +<P> +"This here are a curious spell of weather," remarked Mother Mayberry, +as she paused beside the singer lady who was holding Martin Luther up +on the broad window-sill, and with him was looking disconsolately down +the Road. "June's gone to acting like a woman with nerves that cries +just because she can. I'm glad all the chicken babies are feathered out +and can shed rain. Them little Hoosier pullets have already sprouted +tail feathers. They ain't a one of 'em a-going into the skillet no +matter how hungry Tom Mayberry looks after 'em. If I don't hold you and +Cindy back from spoiling him with chicken-fixings three times a day +he'll begin to show pin feathers hisself in no time." +</P> + +<P> +"He likes chicken better than anything else," murmured Miss Wingate as +she buried a blush in Martin Luther's topknot. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, wanting ain't always a reason for being gave to," said the +Doctor's mother with a chuckle as she admired the side view of the +blush. "But, seeing that he about half feeds hisself by looking at me +and you at the table, I reckon I'll have to let him have two chickens a +day to keep up his strength. Honey-fuzzle are a mighty satisfying diet, +though light, for a growed man. Reckon we can persuade him to try a +couple of slices of old ham onct in a while so as to give a few +broilers time to get legs long enough to fry?" +</P> + +<P> +"We can try," answered the singer lady in a doubtful tone of voice, for +the Doctor's penchant for young chicken was very decided. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, it do beat all how some plans of life fall down in the +oven," said the Doctor's mother, as she eyed Miss Wingate with her most +quizzical smile quirking up the corners of her humorous mouth. "Here I +put myself to all manner of troubles to go out into the big world to +get a real managing wife for Tom Mayberry and I might just as well have +set cross-handed and waited for Susie Pike or little Bettie to grow up +to the spoiling of him. I thought seeing that you'd been raised with a +silver spoon in your mouth and handed life on a fringed napkin, so to +speak, you would make him stand around some, but for all I can see +you're going to make another Providence wife. Ain't you got none of the +suffering-women new notions at all?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't help it," answered the singer lady, ducking her head behind +Martin Luther again, but smiling up out of the corners of her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you just going to drop over into being a poor, down-trodden, +miserable, man-bossed Harpeth Hill's wife, without trying a single +new-fashioned husband remedy on him, with so many receipts for managing +'em being written down by ladies all over the world, mostly single +ones?" demanded Mother Mayberry, fairly bubbling over with glee at the +singer lady's abashment. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," answered Miss Wingate sturdily. "I want him to have just +what he wants." +</P> + +<P> +"This are worse and more of it," exclaimed the Doctor's delighted +Mother. "You are got a wrong notion, child! Marriage ain't no slow, +plow-team business these days; it's hitched at opposite ends and +pulling both ways for dear life. Don't you even hope you will be; able +to think up no kind of tantrums to keep Tom Mayberry from being happy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to," laughed the infatuated bride prospective. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I reckon I'll have to give up and let you settle down into being +one of these here regular old-fashioned, primping-for-a-man, +dinner-on-the-table-at-the-horn-blow, +hanging-over-the-front-gate-waiting kind of wives. I thought I'd caught +a high-faluting bird of Paradise for him and you ain't a thing in the +world but a meadow dove. But there comes Bettie scooting through the +rain with little Hoover under her shawl. Providence folks have got duck +blood, all of 'em, and the more it pours out they paddles. Come in and +shake your feathers, Bettie." +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy all," exclaimed the rosy Mrs. Hoover. "This here rain on the +corn is money in everybody's pocket. I just stopped in to show you this +pink flowered shirt-waist I have done finished for Miss Prissy Pike. +Ain't it stylish?" +</P> + +<P> +"It surely are, Bettie!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry. "I'm so glad you +got it pink." +</P> + +<P> +"And it don't run neither. I tried it," said the proud designer of the +admired garment. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good sign for the wedding. You can rub happiness that's fast +dyed through any kinder worry suds and it'll come out with the color +left. Any news along the Road?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she handled +the rosy blouse with careful hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Henny Turner says that Squire Tutt are in bed covered up head +and ears with the quilts, but 'Lias says that it are just 'cause Mis' +Tutt have got a happy spell on her and have been exorting of him. She +called all three of them boys in, Bud and Henny and 'Lias, and made 'em +learn a Bible verse a-piece, and I was grateful to her for her +interest, but the Squire cussed so to 'em while she went to get 'em a +cake that I'm afraid the lesson were spoiled for the chaps." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't reckon it were, Bettie. Good salts down any day, while Evil +don't ever keep long. But I do wish we could get the Squire and Mis' +Tutt to be a little more peaceably with one another. It downright +grieves me to have 'em so spited here in they old age." And Mother +Mayberry's eyes took on a regretful look and she peered over her +glasses at the happy bride. On her buoyant heart she ever carried the +welfare of every soul in Providence and the crabbed old couple down the +Road was a constant source of trouble to her. +</P> + +<P> +"You shan't worry over 'em, Mis' Mayberry," answered pretty Bettie +quickly, "You get every Providence trouble landed right on your +shoulders as soon as one comes. You don't get a chance to do nothing +but deal out ease to other people's bodies and souls, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, a cup of cold water held to other folks' mouths is a mighty good +way to quench your own thirst, Bettie child, and I'm glad if it are +gave to me to label out the blessing of ease. But have you been in to +the Deacon's this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"No'm, I'm a-going to stop as I go along home," answered Bettie. "I +have seed the little raven paddling back and forth, so I guess they is +all right. I must hurry on now, for I see Miss Prissy at the window +looking for me. Ain't my baby a-growing?" she asked, as she picked +little Hoover off of the floor and again enveloped the bobbing head +under her own shawl. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it are, and Mr. Hoover's a-smiling hisself fat by the day, +child," answered Mother Mayberry with a smile. "Do you pass on the word +to Elinory here that Providence husbands wear good, both warp and woof?" +</P> + +<P> +"That they do, Miss Elinory, and I never seed nothing like 'em in my +travels," called back the bride from the door, as she reefed in her +skirts and sailed out in the downpour. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, your mind oughter be satisfied, child, for Bettie muster seen a +good deal of the world in that three weeks' bridal trip in the farm +wagon," laughed Mother Mayberry at the singer lady by the window. "Now +I'm a-going to swim out to gather eggs and I'll be back if I don't +drown." With which she left the girl and the tot to resume their watch +down the Road for a horse and rider due in not over two hours' time. +</P> + +<P> +And indeed the last of old June's days seemed in danger of dripping +away from her in tears of farewell. Rain clouds hung low over Harpeth +Hills and drifted down to the very top of Providence Nob. A steady +downpour had begun in the night and held on into the day and seemed to +increase in volume as the hours wore away. The tall maples were +standing depressed-boughed and dripping and the poplar leaves hung +sodden and wet, refusing a glimpse of their silver lining. A row of +bleeding-hearts down the walk were turning faint pink and drooping to +the ground, while every rose in the yard was shattered and wasted away. +</P> + +<P> +"Rain, rain!" wailed Martin Luther under his breath, as he pressed his +cheek to the window-pane and looked without interest at a forlorn +rooster huddled with a couple of hens under the snowball bush. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you want a cake and some milk?" asked the singer lady, as she +gave him a comforting hug and essayed consolation by the offer of a +material distraction. +</P> + +<P> +"No milk, no cake; L-i-z-a, thank ma'am, please," he sobbed a +disconsolate demand for what he considered a good substitute sunbeam. +</P> + +<P> +"There she comes now, darling," exclaimed the singer lady, with as much +pleasure coming into her face as lit the doleful cherub's at her side. +And from the Pike front door there had issued a small figure, also +enveloped in an old shawl, which made its way across the puddles with +splashing, bare feet. She had her covered dish under her arm and a +bucket dangled from one hand. She answered Martin Luther's hail with a +flash of her white teeth and sped across the front porch. +</P> + +<P> +And in the course of just ten minutes the experienced young pacifier +had established the small boy as driver to Mother Mayberry's large +rocking-chair, mounted him on the foot of the bed with snapping switch +to crack and thus secured a two-hour reign of peace for his elders. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Elinory," she said, as she came and stood close to the singer +lady seated in the deep window, "I'm mighty glad you got Doctor Tom; +and it were fair to the other lady, too. He couldn't help loving you +best, 'cause you are got a sick throat and she ain't. Do you reckon +she'll be satisfied to take Sam Mosbey when she comes again? I'm sorry +for her." +</P> + +<P> +"So am I, Eliza," laughed Miss Wingate softly, as the rose blush stole +up over her cheeks, "but I don't believe she'll need Mr. Mosbey. Don't +you suppose she—that—is—there must be some one down in the City whom +she likes a lot." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, I reckon they is. Then I'll just take Sam myself when I grow up +if nobody else wants him," answered Eliza comfortably. "I'm sorry to be +glad that your throat didn't get well, but Mis' Peavey says that you +never in the world woulder tooken Doctor Tom if you coulder gone away +and made money singing to people. I don't know what me or him or Mother +Mayberry woulder done without you, but we couldn'ter paid you much to +stay. You won't never go now, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never," answered the singer lady, as she drew the little ingenue close +to her side. "And let me whisper something to you, Eliza—I +never—would—have—gone—any—way. I love you too much, you and Mother +Mayberry—and Doctor Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"And Mis' Bostick and Deacon," exclaimed the loyal young raven. "Miss +Elinory, I get so scared about Mis' Bostick right here," she added, +laying her hand on her little throat. "She won't eat nothing and she +can't talk to me to-day. Maw and Mis' Nath Mosbey are there now and +waiting for Doctor Tom to come back. They said not to tell Mother +Mayberry until the rain held up some, but they want her, too. Can't +loving people do nothing for 'em, Miss Elinory?" and with big, wistful +eyes the tiny woman put the question, which has agonized hearts down +the ages. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, darling, the—loving itself helps," answered the singer lady +quickly with the mist over her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe it do," answered Eliza thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I hold the Deacon's other hand when he sets by Mis' Bostick! He wants +me, and she smiles at us both. I don't like to leave 'em for one single +minute. I have to wait now for Cindy to get the dinner done, but then +I'm a-going to run. Why, there goes Mother Mayberry outen the gate +under a umbrella! And Aunt Prissy asked me to get a spool of number +fifty thread from her to sew some lace on a petticoat Mis' Hoover have +done finished for her. If I was to go to get married I'd make some +things for my husband, too, and not so much for myself. I wouldn't want +so many skirts unless I knewed he had enough shirts." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Eliza," remonstrated Miss Wingate, slightly shocked at this +rather original idea of providing a groom with a trousseau, "perhaps he +would rather get things for himself." +</P> + +<P> +"No'm, he wouldn't," answered Eliza positively. "I ain't a-going to say +anything to Aunt Prissy about it 'cause you never can tell what will +hurt her feelings, but I want you to get Mis' Hoover to show you how +and make three nice shirts for Doctor Tom, so you can wash one while he +wears the other and keep one put away for Sunday. That is the way Maw +does for Paw and all the other folks on the Road does the same for they +men. Mis' Peavey can show you how to iron them nice, for she does the +Deacon's for me and Mother Mayberry is too busy to bother with such +things 'count of always having to go to sick folks even over to the +other side of the Nob. Cindy don't starch good. You'll do for Doctor +Tom nice, now you've got him, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Eliza, I will," answered the singer lady meekly, as this +prevision of the life domestic rose up and menaced her. She even had a +queer little thrill of pleasure at the thought of performing such +superhuman tasks for what was to be her individual responsibility among +Providence men along the Road. The certainty that she would never be +allowed to perform such offices at machine and tub actually depressed +her, for the thought had brought a primitive sense of possession that +she was loath to dismiss; the passion for service to love being an +instinct that sways the great lady and her country sister alike. "Do +you think he—will let me?" she asked of her admonisher. +</P> + +<P> +"Just go on and do it and don't ask him," was the practical answer. +"There he comes now leading his horse and he have been to see Mis' +Bostick. I can get the dinner and run on to meet him and hear how he +thinks she are," she exclaimed as she seized her dish and bucket and +disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +And a few minutes later, as Doctor Mayberry was unsaddling his horse in +the barn a lithe figure enveloped as to head and shoulders in one of +Cindy's kitchen aprons darted under the dripping eaves and stood +breathless and laughing in the wide door. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw you come up the Road," said the singer lady, as she divested +herself of the gingham garment, "and I was dying to get out in the +rain, much to Cindy's horror. You are late." +</P> + +<P> +"Not much," answered the young Doctor, slipping out of his rain coat +and coming over to stand beside her in the door. "What have you been +doing all morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been being—being lectured," she answered, as she looked up in +his face with dancing dark eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Who did it to you?" he asked, taking her fingers into his and drawing +her farther back from the splash of the rain drops. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Mother and then Eliza Pike," she answered with a low laugh. +"Eliza is afraid I won't 'do for you' in proper Providence style and +I'm very humble and—I—I want to learn. She thinks I ought to begin on +some—some shirts for you right now and I'm going to. What color do you +prefer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Horrors!" exclaimed the Doctor, positively blushing at the thought of +the very lovely lady engaged in such a clothing mission. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you wouldn't have any confidence in them," answered Miss +Wingate mournfully, "and I haven't myself, but still I was willing to +try." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I have!" the young Doctor hastened to exclaim. "Better make +them suitable for traveling, for I've got marching orders in the noon +mail. Are you ready to start to Italy on short notice and then on to +India?" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" demanded the singer lady with alarmed astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the young Doctor coolly. "The Commission writes that my +reports on Pellagra down here are complete enough now for them to send +some chap down to continue them, while I go on to Southern Italy for a +study of similar conditions there and then on to India for a still more +exhaustive examination. The Government is determined to stamp this +scourge out before it gets a hold, and it's work to put out the fire +before it spreads. Better hurry the shirts and pack up your own fluff." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm not going a step or a wave," answered the singer girl +defiantly. "I'm too busy here now. I don't ever intend to leave Mother +as long as I live. I don't see how you can even suggest such a thing to +me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what leaving Mother is like?" asked the young Doctor, as +he looked down on her with tenderness in his gray eyes and Mother +Mayberry's own quizzical smile on his lips. "It's like going to sleep +at night with a last look at Providence Nob,—you wake up in the +morning and find it more there than ever. She was THERE on sunny +mornings over in Berlin and THERE on gray days in London and I had her +on long hard hospital nights in New York. Just come with me on this +trip and I promise she and Old Harpeth will be here when we get back. +Please!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," answered Miss Wingate in a small voice as she rubbed +her cheek against the arm of his coat. "I'm in love with Tom Mayberry +of Providence Road. I don't know that I want to go traveling with a +distinguished physician on an important Government mission and attend +Legation dinners and banquets and—I don't want to leave my Mother," +and there was a real catch in the laugh she smothered in his coat +sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie girl," he exclaimed, looking down with delight at a small +section of blush left visible against the rough blue serge of his coat, +"you and Mother are—" +</P> + +<P> +"Sakes, you folks, I wish you'd try to listen when you are called at!" +came in a sharp voice as Mrs. Peavey looked down upon them from over +the wall near the barn. "One of them foolish Indiany chickens are +stretched out kicking most drowned in a puddle right by the barn door, +and there you both stand doing nothing for it. Tom Mayberry, pick it up +this minute and give it to me! I'm a-going to put it behind my stove +until Mis' Mayberry comes home. I've got some feeling for her love of +chickens, <I>I</I> have." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I didn't see it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, in an agony of regret. +"The dear little thing! Give it to me and I'll take care of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Fiddlesticks! Chickens ain't 'dear little things,' and I wouldn't +trust neither one of you to take care of a flea of mine, with your +philandering. Hand it here to me, Tom Mayberry, like I tell you!" And +the Doctor hastened to pick up the little gasping bunch of drenched +feathers, which Mrs. Peavey tucked in the corner of her shawl "Did you +all hear that a car busted into another one down in the City day before +yesterday and throwed the driver and broke a lady's arm and cut a +baby's leg shameful? It was in the morning paper I saw down to the +store; and a wind storm blew off a man's roof too." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't read the paper yet," answered the singer lady in the subdued +voice she always used in addressing Mother Mayberry's pessimistic +neighbor. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you oughter take interest in accidents if you are a-going to be +a Doctor's wife. It'll be all in the family then and you can hear it +all straight and maybe see some folks mended," answered Mrs. Peavey, +and she failed to notice Miss Wingate's horrified expression at such a +prospect. "How's Mis' Bostick, Tom? That is, how do your Mother say she +are, for I couldn't trust your notion in such a case as her'n." +</P> + +<P> +"I think Mother feels worried over her to-day," answered the Doctor +gently, with not a trace of offense at his neighbor's outspoken +question. "Her heart is very weak and it is impossible to stimulate her +further. Mother is up there now and I'll come tell you what she says +when she comes home to dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm always thankful for news, bad as it mostly are," answered +Mrs. Peavey in gloomy gratitude for his offer of a report from Mother +Mayberry. "You all had better go on in the house now and put Miss +Elinory's wet feet in the stove, for they won't be no use in her dying +on Mis' Mayberry's hands with pneumony at this busy time of the year. +Them slippers is too foolish to look at." With which the shawled head +disappeared from the top of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, I had a strange dream last night," said the singer lady, +as the Doctor hung up his bridle and shut the feed-room door +preparatory to following out Mrs. Peavey's injunction as to carrying +Miss Wingate away to be dry shod. "I dreamed that I was singing to Mrs. +Bostick and the Deacon, REALLY singing, and just as it rose clear and +strong Mrs. Peavey called to me to 'shut up' and it stopped so suddenly +that I waked up—and the strange part of it is that I heard, really +heard, I thought, my own voice die away in an echo up in the eaves. For +a second I seemed awake and listening—and it was lovely—lovely!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear," said the Doctor, as he took her hand in his and held it against +his breast, "I would give all life has to offer me to get it back for +you. I will hope against hope! I haven't written Doctor Stein yet. I +can't make myself write. Perhaps we will find some one on this trip who +has some theory or treatment or something to offer. I've been praying +that help will come!" +</P> + +<P> +"Would you—like me any better if I had it back?" she asked with a +happy little laugh as she laid her cheek against their clasped hands. +"Would you want L'ELEONORE more than you do just plain Elinor Wingate, +care Mother Mayberry, Providence, Tennessee?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to carry you in the house so you can put on dry stockings," +answered the Doctor with a spark in his gray eyes that scorned her +question, and without any discussion he picked her up, strode through +the rain with her and deposited her in the kitchen door. +</P> + +<P> +And over by the long window they found Mother Mayberry standing with +her hand on Cindy's shoulder, who sat with her head bowed in her apron +sobbing quietly, while Martin Luther stood wide-eyed and questioning, +with his little hand clutching Mother's skirts. +</P> + +<P> +"Children," said Mother quietly as she came and stood beside them in +the doorway, while Martin Luther nestled up to Doctor Tom, "I've come +down the Road to tell you that it are all over up at the Deacon's. It +were very beautiful, for Mis' Bostick just give us a smile and went to +meet her Lord with the love of us all a-shining on her face. We didn't +hardly sense it at first, for she had just spoke to 'Liza, and the +Deacon were over by the window. I ain't got no tears to shed for her +and Deacon are so stunned he don't need 'em yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother," exclaimed the Doctor, as he took her hand in his, while the +singer lady crept close and rested against her strong shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, son," answered his Mother gently, "it come so sudden I couldn't +even send for you, but go on up there now and see what you can do for +Deacon. He'll want you for the comfort of your presence, you and 'Liza." +</P> + +<P> +"And Eliza!" exclaimed Miss Wingate with a sob, "it'll break her little +heart." +</P> + +<P> +"They never was such a child as 'Liza Pike in the world," said Mother +Mayberry softly and for the first time a film of tears spread over her +eyes. "She have never said a word, but just stands pressed up close +with her arm 'round the Deacon's shoulders as he sits with his Good +Book acrost his knees. She give one little moan when she understood, +but she ain't made a mite of child-fuss, just shed her baby tears like +a woman growed to sorrow. Her little bucket and dish of dinner is +a-setting cold on the table and a little draggled rose she had brung in +not a hour back is still in Mis' Bostick's fingers, and the other one +pinned on the Deacon's coat. When Judy and Betty wanted to begin to fix +things she understood without a word, led the Deacon out into the hall +and are just a-standing there a-keeping him up in his daze by the +courage in her own loving little heart. The good Lord bless and keep +the child! Now, go on, Tom, and see what you can do! Yes, Cindy will +run right over and tell Mis' Peavey. And stop in and see Squire Tutt, +for Henny Turner says he are down to-day and a-asking for you. Come +into my room, honey-bird, I've got to look for something." +</P> + +<P> +"Somehow, I don't feel about dying as lot of folks do," she remarked to +the singer lady, as she stood in front of the tall old chest of drawers +in her own room a few minutes later. "Death ain't nothing but laying +down one job of work and going to answer the Master when He calls you +to come take up another. Mis' Bostick have worked in His vineyard early +and late, through summer sun and winter wind, and now He have summoned +her in for some other purpose. He'll find her well-tried and seasoned +to go on with whatever plans He have for her in His Kingdom." +</P> + +<P> +"It's wonderful to believe that," answered the singer girl through her +tears. "It seems to supply a reason for what happens to us here—if we +can go on with it later." +</P> + +<P> +"Course we can," answered Mother Mayberry, as she began to search in +her top drawer for something. "I hope He have got some good big job cut +out for Tom Mayberry and me; but course it will have to be something +different, for they won't be no more sickness or death or sorrowing for +us doctors to tend on. But Pa Lovell and Doctor Mayberry have found +something by this time and maybe it will be for me and Tom to work at +it alongside of 'em. It might be you will have the beautiful voice back +and come sing for us all, as have never heard you in this world. Then, +too, I believe He'll give it to little Sister Pike to tend on the +prophets and maybe I'll be there to see!" +</P> + +<P> +"This is the first time I ever could take—take any interest in Heaven +at all," confessed Miss Wingate, lifting large, comforted eyes to +Mother Mayberry's face. "When I was so desperate and didn't know what +to do, before I came and found out that there was a place for me in +this world even if I couldn't sing any more, I used to dread the +thought of Heaven, even if I might some day be good enough to go there." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, a stand-around, set-around kind of Heaven may be for some people +as wants it, but a come-over-and-help-us kind is what I'm hoping for. I +want to have a good lot of honest acts to pack up and take into the +judgment seat to prove my character by and then be honored with some +kind of telling labor to do. I'm looking for something white to put at +Mis' Bostick's neck, for we are a-going to lay her in her grave in the +old dress with its honorable patches, but with a little piece of fine +white to match her sweet soul. Here it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you let me know if I can do anything for anybody or the Deacon +later?" asked the singer lady gently. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will be a comfort to him, child, after a while. You can +look after my chickens and things for me, for Cindy's a-going with me +and that leaves you to feed the two boys, Tom and Martin Luther, for +dinner. And don't you never forget that you are the apple-core of your +Mother Mayberry's heart and she's a-going to hold you to her tender, +even unto them Glory days we've been a-planning for, with Death here in +the midst of Life." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL +</H3> + +<P> +"In all my long life it have never been gave to me to see anything like +Deacon Bostick and his Providence children," said Mother Mayberry, as +she stood on the end of the porch with the singer girl's hand in hers. +"He are a-setting on his bench under the tree right by her window, like +he always did to listen for her, and every child in the Road is +a-huddled up against him like a forlorn lot of little motherless +chickens. He have got little Bettie and Martin Luther on his knees and +the rest are just crowded up all around him. He don't seem to notice +any of the rest of us, but looks to 'Liza for everything. She got him +to go to bed at nine o'clock and when Buck and Mr. Petway went to set +up for the night they found she'd done made 'Lias and Henny and Bud all +lie down by him, one on each side and Bud acrost the foot. He wanted +'em to stay and the men let 'em do it. Judy says she were up by +daylight and gone down the Road to see about his breakfast and things. +And now she are just a-standing by him waiting for the bell to toll for +the funeral. The Deacon have surely followed his Master in the +suffering of little children to draw close to him in this life and now +he are becoming as one of 'em before entering the Kingdom." +</P> + +<P> +"This soft, misty, sun-veiled day seems just made for Mrs. Bostick," +said Miss Wingate with unshed tears in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"It may be just a notion of mine, honey-bird, but it looks like up here +in Harpeth Hills the weather have got a sympathy with us folks. Look +how Providence Nob have drawed a mist of tears 'twixt it and the faint +sun. When troubles are with us I've seen clouds boil up over the Ridge +and on the other hand we ain't scarcely ever had rain on a wedding or +church soshul day. I like to feel that maybe the good Lord looks +special after us of His children living out in the open fields and we +have got His word that He tempers the winds. People in the big cities +can crowd up and keep care of one another, but out here we are all just +in the hollow of His hand. Here comes Mis' Peavey. I asked her to go +along to the funeral with me and you. It are most time now." +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy, all," said Mrs. Peavey in an utterly gray tone of voice. "Mis' +Mayberry, that Circuit Rider have never come from Bolivar yet. Do you +reckon his horse have throwed him or is it just he don't care for us +Providence folks and don't think it worth his while to come say the +words over Sister Bostick?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he come 'most a half-hour ago, Hettie Ann," answered Mother +Mayberry quickly. "Bettie had a little snack laid out for him 'count of +his having to make such a early start to get here. He was most kind to +the Deacon and professed much sorrow for us all. How are your side this +morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"I got out that foolish dry plaster Tom made me more'n a month ago and +put it on last night, 'cause I didn't want to disturb you, and to my +surprise they ain't a mite of pain hit me since. But I guess it are +mostly the clearing weather that have stopped it." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe a little of both," answered the Doctor's mother with a smile, +"but anyway, it's good that you ain't a-suffering none. We must all +take good care of each other's pains from now on, 'cause we are most +valuable one to another. Friends is one kind of treasure you don't want +to lay up in Heaven." +</P> + +<P> +"I spend most of my time thinking about folks' accidents and hurts and +pains," answered Mrs. Peavey in all truth. "Miss Elinory, did you +gargle your throat with that slippery-ellum tea I thought about to make +for you last week?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mrs. Peavey, I did," answered Miss Wingate quickly, for she had +performed that nauseous operation actuated by positive fear of Mrs. +Peavey if she should discover a failure to follow her directions. +</P> + +<P> +"It'll cure you, maybe," answered the gratified neighbor. "There's the +bell and let's all go on slow and respectful." +</P> + +<P> +And the sweet-toned old Providence Meeting-house bell was tolling its +notes for the passing of the soul of the gentle little Harpeth woman of +many sorrows as her friends and neighbors walked quietly down the Road, +along the dim aisle and took their places in the old pews with a +fitting solemnity on their serious faces. The young Circuit Rider spoke +to them from a full heart in sympathetically simple words and Pattie +Hoover led the congregation from behind the little cabinet organ in a +few of the Deacon's favorite hymns. +</P> + +<P> +Then the little procession wound its way among the graves over to a +corner under an old cedar tree, where the stout young farmers laid +their frail burden down for its long sleep. The Deacon stood close by +and the children clung around his thin old legs, to his hands, and +reached to grasp at a corner of his coat. Eliza laid her head against +his shoulder and Henny and 'Lias crowded close on the other side, while +Bud held the old black hat he had taken from off his white hair, in +careful, shaking little hands. The singer lady, with the Doctor at her +side and her hand in Mother Mayberry's, stood just opposite and the +others came near. +</P> + +<P> +The simple service that the Church has instituted for the committing of +its dead to the grave had been read by the Circuit Rider, the last +prayer offered, and as a long ray of sunlight came through the mist and +fell across the little assembly, he turned expectantly to Pattie +Hoover, who stood between her father and Buck at the other end of the +grave. He had read the first lines of the hymn and he expected her to +raise the tune for the others to follow. But when a woman's heart is +very young and tender, and attuned to that of another which is +throbbing emotionally close by, her own feelings are apt to rise in a +tidal wave of tears, regardless of consequences; and as Buck Peavey +choked off a sob, Pattie turned and buried her head on her father's +arm. There was a long pause and nobody attempted to start the singing. +They were accustomed to depend on Pattie or her organ and their own +throats were tight with tears. The unmusical young preacher was +helpless and looked from one to another, then was about to raise his +hands for the benediction, when a little voice came across the grave. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't nobody going to sing for Mis' Bostick?" wailed Eliza, as her +head went down on the Deacon's arm in a shudder of sobs. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly a very wonderful and beautiful thing happened in that old +churchyard of Providence Meeting-house under Harpeth Hills, for the +great singer lady stepped toward the Deacon a little way, paused, +looked across at the old Nob in the sunlight, and high and clear and +free-winged like that of an archangel, rose her glorious voice in the +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord,"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +which she had set for him and the gentle invalid to the wonderful motif +of the Song of the Master's Grail. Love and sorrow and a flood of tears +had relieved a pressure somewhere, the balance had been recovered and +her muted voice freed. And on through the verses to the very end she +sang it, while the little group of field people held their breath in +awe and amazement. Then, while they all stood with bowed heads for the +benediction, she turned and walked away through the graves, out of the +churchyard and on up Providence Road, with an instinct to hide from +them all for a moment of realization. +</P> + +<P> +"And here I have to come and hunt the little skeered miracle out of my +own feather pillows," exclaimed Mother Mayberry a little later with +laughter, tears, pride and joy in her voice, as she bent over the broad +expanse of her own bed and drew the singer girl up in her strong arms. +"Daughter," she said, with her cheek pressed to the flushed one against +her shoulder, "what the Lord hath given and taketh away we bless Him +for and none the less what He giveth back, blessed be His name. That's +a jumble, but He understands me. You don't feel in no ways peculiar, do +you?" and as she asked the question the Doctor's mother clasped the +slender throat in one of her strong hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit anywhere," answered Miss Wingate, with the burr all gone +from her soft voice. "Is it true?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dearie me, I can't hardly stand it to hear you speak, it are so +sweet!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry in positive rapture and again the +tears filled her eyes, while her face crinkled up into a dimpled smile. +"Don't say nothing where the mocking-birds will hear you, please, +'cause they'll begin to hatch out a dumb race from plumb +discouragement. Come out on the porch where it ain't so hot, but I'm +a-holding on to you to keep you from flying up into one of the trees. +I'm a-going to set about building a cage for you right—" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, didn't I tell you about that slippery-ellum!" came in a +positively triumphant voile to greet them as they stepped out of the +front door. Mrs. Peavey was ascending the steps all out of breath, her +decorous hat awry, and her eyes snapping with excitement. "Course I +don't think this can be no positive cure and like as not you'll wake up +to-morrow with your voice all gone dry again, but it were the +slippery-ellum that done it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think it must have helped some," answered the singer lady in the +clear voice that still held its wonted note of meekness to her neighbor. +</P> + +<P> +"Course it did! Tom Mayberry's experimenting couldn'ter done it no real +good. His mother have been giving that biled bark for sore throat for +thirty years and it was me that remembered it. But it were a pity you +done it at the grave; that were Mis' Bostick's funeral and not your'n. +Now look at everybody a-coming up the Road with no grieving left at +all." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Hettie Ann," exclaimed Mother Mayberry in quick distress, "it are +a mean kind of sorrow that can't open its arms to hold joy tender. +Think what it do mean to the child and—Look at Bettie!" +</P> + +<P> +And indeed it was a sight to behold the pretty mother of the seventeen +sailing up the front walk like a great full-rigged ship. Miss Wingate +flew down the steps to meet her and in a few seconds was enveloped and +involved with little Hoover in an embrace that threatened to be +disastrous to all concerned. Judy Pike was close behind and, making a +grab on her own part, stood holding the end of the singer lady's sash +in her one hand while Teether, from her other arm, caught at the bright +ribbons and squealed with delight. The abashed Pattie hung over the +front gate and Buck grinned in the rear. +</P> + +<P> +"Lawsy me, child," Mrs. Hoover laughed and sobbed as she patted the +singer lady on the back, little Hoover anywhere he came upmost and +included Teether and Judy also in the demonstration, "I feel like it +would take two to hold me down! You sure sing with as much style as you +dress! And to think such a thing have happened to all of us here in +Providence. We won't never need that phonygraph we all are a-hankering +after now. Speak up to the child, Judy Pike!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't need to," answered the more self-contained Sister Pike, "she +knows how I'm a-rejoicing for her. Just look at Mr. Hoover and Ez Pike +a-grinning acrost the street at her and here do come the Squire and +Mis' Tutt walking along together for the first time I almost ever seed +'em." +</P> + +<P> +"Wheeuh," wheezed the Squire, "I done come up here to give up on the +subject of that Tom Mayberry! He don't look or talk like he have got +any sense, girl, but he are the greatest doctor anywhere from Harpeth +Hills to Californy or Alasky. He have got good remedies for all. I +reckon you are one of the hot water kind, but he can give bitters too. +You'd better keep him to the bitters though for safety." +</P> + +<P> +"There now! You all have done heard the top testimony for Tom +Mayberry," exclaimed Mother, fairly running over with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory!" was the one word that rose to the surface of Mrs. Tutt's +emotions, but it expressed her state of beatitude and caused the Squire +to peer at her with uneasiness as if expecting an outburst of +exhortation on the next breath. Mrs. Peavey's experienced eye also +caught the threatened downpour and she hastened to admonish the group +of women. +</P> + +<P> +"Sakes, you all!" she exclaimed, untying the strings of her bonnet +energetically, "they won't be a supper cooked on the Road if we don't +go get about it. A snack dinner were give the men and such always calls +for the putting on of the big pot and the little kettle for supper. +Miss Elinory will be here for you all to eat up to-morrow morning, +'lessen something happens to her in the night, like a wind storm. Go on +everybody!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she stood on the top step looking +down at them all, "look how the sun have come out on us all, with its +happiness after the sorrow we have known this day. I thank you, one and +all, for your feeling with me and my daughter Elinory. The rejoicing of +friends are a soft wind to folks' spirit wings and we're all flying +high this night. Get the children bedded down early, for they have had +a long day and need good sleep. Bettie, let Mis' Tutt walk along with +you and the Squire can come on slow. Don't nobody forget that it are +Sewing Circle with Mis' Mosbey to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +And, with more congratulations to the singer lady, laughs with Mother +Mayberry, and the return of a shot or two with Mrs. Peavey, the happy +country women dispersed to their own roof trees. The sorrow that had +come they had endured for the night and now they were ready to rise up +and meet joy for the morning. In the children of nature the emotions +maintain their elemental balance and their sense of the proportions of +life is instinctively true. +</P> + +<P> +"Look, honey-bird, who's coming!" said Mother Mayberry, just as she was +turning to seat herself in her rocking-chair, tired out as she was with +the strain of the long day. "Run, meet 'em at the gate!" And up +Providence Road came the old Deacon and Eliza hand in hand, with Martin +Luther trailing wearily behind them. When she saw Miss Wingate at the +gate, Eliza, for the first time during the day, loosed her hold on her +old charge and darted forward to hide her head on the singer lady's +breast as her thin little arms clasped around her convulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," she wailed, "Mis' Bostick are dead and you'll be goned away too. +Can't you stay a little while, till we can stand to let you go? Poor +Doctor Tom! Please, oh, please!" +</P> + +<P> +"Darling, darling, I'm never going to leave you!" exclaimed Miss +Wingate, as she hugged the small implorer as closely as possible and +held out one hand to the Deacon as he came up beside them. "I'm going +to stay and sing for you and the Deacon whenever you want me—if it +will help!" +</P> + +<P> +"Child," said the old patriarch, with an ineffable sweetness shining +from his sad old face, "out of my affliction I come to add my blessing +to what the Lord has given to you this day. And I take this mercy as a +special dispensation to me and to her, as it came when you were +performing one of His offices for us. No sweeter strain could come from +the Choir Invisible that she hears this night, and if she knows she +rejoices that it will be given at other times to me, to feed my lonely +soul." +</P> + +<P> +"The songs are yours when you want them, Deacon," said the singer girl +in her sweet low voice as she held his hand in hers gently. +</P> + +<P> +"And it are true what the Deacon says, they ain't no help like music," +said Mother Mayberry who had come down the walk and stood leaning +against the gate near them. "A song can tote comfort from heart to +heart when words wouldn't have no meaning. It's a high calling, child, +and have to be answered with a high life." +</P> + +<P> +"I know Pattie and Buck and Aunt Prissy will let you always sing in the +choir if Deacon asks 'em," said Eliza in a practical voice as she again +took hold of the Deacon's hand, "and Mr. Petway are a-going to buy a +piano for Aunt Prissy when they get married and sometimes you can sing +by it if Doctor Tom can't save up enough to get you one. But I want +Deacon to come home now, 'cause he are tired." And without more ado she +departed with her docile charge, leaving the tired Martin Luther with +his hands clasped in Mother Mayberry's. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother," faltered Miss Wingate as she and Mother Mayberry were slowly +ascending the steps, assisting the almost paralyzed young missionary to +mount between them, "where do you suppose—HE is?" For some minutes +back the singer lady had been growing pale at the realization that the +Doctor had not come to her since she had left his side in the +churchyard and her eyes were beginning to show a deep hurt within. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Elinory, and I've been a-wondering," answered Mother +Mayberry as she sank down on the top step and took the tired child in +her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Miss Wingate as she stood before her on the lower step and +clasped her white hands against her breast, "do you suppose he is going +to—to hurt me now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Child," answered the Doctor's mother quietly, with a quick sadness +spreading over her usually bright face, "they ain't nothing in the +world that can be as cruel as true love when it goes blind. Tom +Mayberry is a good man and I borned, nursed and raised him, but I won't +answer for him about no co'ting conniptions. A man lover are a shy bird +and they can't nothing but a true mate keep him steady on any limb. You +ain't showed a single symptom of managing Tom yet, but somehow I've got +confidence in you if you just keep your head now." +</P> + +<P> +"But what can the matter be?" demanded Miss Wingate in a voice that +shook with positive terror. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry slowly, "I sorter sense the trouble +and I'll tell you right out and out for your good. Loving a woman are a +kinder regeneration process for any man, and a good one like as not +comes outen it humbler than a bad most times. Tom have wrapped you +around with some sorter pink cloud of sentiments, tagged you with all +them bokays the world have give you for singing so grand, turned all +them lights on you he first seen you acrost and now he's afraid to come +nigh you. I suspect him of a bad case of chicken-heart and I'm +a-pitying of him most deep. He's just lying down at your feet waiting +to be picked up." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder where he is!" exclaimed Miss Wingate as a light flashed into +her eyes and a trace of color came back to her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find him," answered the Doctor's mother comfortably, "and when +you do I want you to promise me to put him through a good course of +sprouts. A wife oughtn't to stand on no pedestal for a man, but she +have got no call to make squaw tracks behind him neither. Go on and +find him! A woman have got to come out of the pink cloud to her husband +some time, but she'd better keep a bit to flirt behind the rest of her +life. Look in the office!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well; Martin Luther," remarked Mother a few minutes later, as she +lifted the absolutely dead youngster in her arms and rose to take him +into the house, "life are all alike from Harpeth Hills to Galilee. A +woman can shape up her dough any fancy way she wants and it's likely to +come outen the oven a husband. All Elinory's fine songs are about to +end in little chorus cheeps with Tom under Mother Mayberry's wings, the +Lord be praised!" +</P> + +<P> +And over in the office wing the situation was about as Mother +Mayberry's experienced intuitions had predicted. Miss Wingate found the +young Doctor sitting in the deep window and looking out at Providence +Nob, which the last rays of the sun were dying blood red, with his +strong young face set and white. The battle was still on and his soul +was up in arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Where have you been?" she asked quietly as she came and stood against +the other side of the casement. The pain in his gray eyes set her heart +to throbbing, but she had herself well in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"When I came up the Road the others were all here and I waited to see +you until they were gone," he answered her, just as quietly and in just +as controlled a voice and with possibly just as wild a throb in his +heart "I have been writing to Doctor Stein and there are the Press +bulletins, subject to your approval," He pointed to some letters on the +table which she never deigned to notice. She had drawn herself to her +slim young height and looked him full in the face with a beautiful +stateliness in her manner and glance. Her dark eyes never left his and +she seemed waiting for him to say something further to her. +</P> + +<P> +"You know without my telling you how very glad I am for you," he said +gently and his hand trembled on the window ledge. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" she asked in a low tone, still with her eyes fixed on his +face, but her lips pressed close with a sharp intake of breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered quickly, and this time the note of pain would sound +clearly in his voice. "Yes, no matter what it means to me!" +</P> + +<P> +The pain of it, the haggard gray eyes, the firm young mouth and the +droop of the broad shoulders were too much for the singer girl and she +smiled shakily as she held out her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Mayberry," she pleaded with a little laugh, "please, please don't +treat me this way. I promised your mother to be stern with you but—I +can't! Don't you see that it can only mean to me what it means to your +happiness—if—do you, could you possibly think it would make any +difference to me? Do you suppose for all the wide world I would throw +away what I have found here in Providence under Harpeth Hills—my +Mother and you? Ah, Tom, I'll be good, I'll go to Italy and India with +you! I'll—I'll 'do for' you just the best I can!" +</P> + +<P> +"But, dear, it isn't right at all," whispered the young Doctor to the +back of the singer lady's head, as he laid his cheek against the dark +braids. "Your voice belongs to the world—there must be no giving it +up. I can't let you—I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Listen," said the singer girl as she raised her head and looked up +into his face. "For all your life you will have to go where pain and +grief call you, won't you? Can't you take my voice with you and use +it—as one of your—remedies? Your Mother says songs can comfort where +words fail; let me go with you! Your father brought her and her herb +basket to Providence, won't you take me and my songs out into the world +with you? Don't send me back to sing in the dreadful crowded theaters +to people who pay to hear me. Let me give it all my lifelong, as she +has given herself here in Providence. Please, Tom, please!" And again +she buried her head against his coat. +</P> + +<P> +And as was his wont, the silent young doctor failed to answer a single +word but just held her close and comforted. And how long he would have +held her, there is no way to know, because the strain had been too +great on Mother Mayberry and in a few minutes she stood calmly in the +door and looked at the pair of children with happy but quizzical eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just as well you got Tom Mayberry straightened out quick, +Elinory," she remarked in her most jovial tone. "I've been getting +madder and madder as I put Martin Luther to bed and though I ain't +never had to whip him yet, I'd just about made up my mind to ask him +out in the barn and dress him down for onct. Now are you well over your +tantrum, sir?" she demanded as she eyed the shamefaced young Doctor +delightedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother!" he exclaimed as he turned his head away and the color rose +under his tan. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you done made up your mind to travel from town to town with +Elinory and take in the tickets at the door and make yourself useful to +her the rest of your life? Are you a-going to follow her peaceable all +over Europe, Asia and Africa?" And her eyes fairly over-danced +themselves with delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother!" and this time the exclamation came from Miss Wingate as she +came over to rest her cheek against Mother Mayberry's arm. She also +blushed, but her eyes danced with an echo of the young Doctor's +mother's laugh as she beheld his embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered the Doctor, rallying at last, "yes, I'm ready to go +with her. Will you go too, Mother, as retained physician?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know about that," answered his Mother with a laugh; "not +till 'Liza Pike have growed up to take my place here. But I'm mighty +glad to see you take your dose of humble pie so nice, Tom, and I reckon +I'll have to tell you how happy I am about my child here. It was kinder +smart of you to cure her and then claim her sweet self as a fee, wasn't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do feel that way, Mother, and I don't see how I can let her make the +sacrifice. Her future is so brilliant and I—I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Son," said Mother Mayberry with the banter all gone from her rich +voice and the love fairly radiating from her face as she laid a tender +hand on the singer lady's dark head on her shoulder, "I don't have to +ask my honey-bird the choice she have made. A woman don't want to wear +her life-work like no jewelry harness nor yet no sacrificial garment, +but she loves to clothe herself in it like it were a soft-colored, +homespun dress to cover the pillow of her breast and the cradle of her +arms to hold the tired folks against. Take her to India's coral strand +if you must, for it's gave a wife to follow the husband-star. Long ago +I vowed you to the Master's high call and now with these words I +dedicates my daughter the same. She have waded through much pain and +sorrow, but do it matter along how hard a Road folks travels if at last +they come to they Providence?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Road to Providence, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD TO PROVIDENCE *** + +***** This file should be named 3745-h.htm or 3745-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/4/3745/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Road to Providence + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + +Posting Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #3745] +Release Date: February, 2003 +First Posted: August 15, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD TO PROVIDENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +The Road To Providence + + +by + +Maria Thompson Daviess + + + + +CONTENTS + + I THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON + II THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL + III THE PEONY GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN + IV LOVE, THE CURE-ALL + V THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH + VI THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG + VII PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY + VIII THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB + IX THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS + X THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON + + +"Now, child, be sure and don't mix 'em with a heavy hand! Lightness is +expected of riz biscuits and had oughter be dealt out to 'em by the +mixer from the start. Just this way--" + +"Mother, oh, Mother," came a perturbed hail in Doctor Mayberry's voice +from the barn door, "Spangles is off the nest again--better come quick!" + +"Can't you persuade her some, Tom?" Mother called back from the kitchen +door as she peered anxiously across the garden fence and over to the +gray barn where the Doctor stood holding the door half open, but ready +for a quick close-up in case of an unexpected sally. "My hands is in +the biscuits and I don't want to come now. Just try, Tom!" + +"I have tried and I can't do it! She's getting the whole convention +agitated. You'd better come on, Mother!" + +"Dearie me," said Mrs. Mayberry, as she rinsed her hands in the +wash-pan on the shelf under tin cedar bucket, "Tom is just as helpless +with the chickens at setting time as a presiding elder is at a sewing +circle; can't use a needle, too stiff to jine the talk and only good +when it comes to the eating, from broilers to frying size. Just go on +and mix the biscuits with faith, honey-bird, for I mistrust I won't be +back for quite a spell." + +"Now let me see what all these conniptions is about," she said in a +commanding voice, as she walked boldly in through her son's cautiously +widened door gap. + +And a scene of confusion that was truly feminine met her capable +glance. Fuss-and-Feathers, a stylish young spangled Wyandotte, was +waltzing up and down the floor and shrieking an appeal in the direction +of a whole row of half-barrel nests that stretched along the dark and +sequestered side of the feed-room floor, upon which was established +what had a few minutes before been a placid row of setting hens. Now +over the rim of each nest was stretched a black, white, yellow or gray +head, pop-eyed with alarm and reproach. They were emitting a chorus of +indignant squawks, all save a large, motherly old dominick in the +middle barrel who was craning her scaly old neck far over toward the +perturbed young sister and giving forth a series of reassuring and +commanding clucks. + +"I didn't do a thing in the world to them, Mother," said Doctor Tom in +a deprecatory tone of voice, as if he were in a way to be blamed for +the whole excitement. "I was across the barn at the corn-crib when she +hopped off her nest and went on the rampage. Just a case of the modern +feminine rebellion, I wager." + +"No such thing, sir! They ain't nothing in the world the matter with +her 'cept as bad a case of young-mother skeer as I have ever had before +amongst all my hens. Don't you see, Tom, two of her setting have pipped +they shells and the cheepings of the little things have skeered the +poor young thing 'most to death. Old Dominick have took in the case and +is trying her chicken-sister best to comfort her. These here pullet +spasms over the hatching of the first brood ain't in no way unusual. +The way you have forgot chicken habits since you have growed up is most +astonishing to me, after all the helping with them I taught you." As +she spoke, Mother Mayberry had been rearranging the deserted nest with +practised hand and had tenderly lifted two feeble, moist little +new-borns on her broad palm to show to the Doctor. + +"What are you going to do with them, Mother?" he asked, for though his +education in chicken lore seemed to have been in vain he was none the +less sympathetically interested in his mothers practice of the +hen-craft. + +"I'm just going to give 'em to Old Dominick to dry out and warm up for +her while I persuade her back on the nest. As she gets used to hearing +the cheepings from under another hen she'll take the next ones that +come with less mistrust." And suiting her actions to her words Mother +Mayberry slipped the two forlorn little mites under a warm old wing +that stretched itself out with gentleness to receive and comfort them. +Some budding instinct had sent the foolish fluff of stylish feathers +clucking at her skirts, so she bent down and with a gentle and +sympathetic hand lifted the young inadequate back on the nest. + +"I really oughter put on a cover and make her set on the next," she +said doubtfully, "but it do seem kinder to teach her hovering a little +at a time. Course all women things has got mothering borned into 'em, +but it comes easier to some than to others. I always feel like giving +'em a helping hand at the start off." + +"You have a great deal of faith if you feel sure of that universally +maternal instinct in these days, Mother," said the Doctor with a +teasing smile as he handed her a quart cup of oats from the bin. "Oh, I +know what you're talking about," answered Mother, as she scattered a +little grain in front of each nest and prepared to leave in peace and +quiet the brooding mothers. "It's this woman's rights and wrongs +question. I've been so busy doctoring Providence Road pains and trying +to make a good, proper husband outen you for some nice girl, what some +other woman have been putting licks on to get ready for you, that I've +been too pushed to think about the wrongs being did to me. But not +knowing any more about it than I do, I think this woman's rumpus all +sounds kinder like a hen scratching around in unlikely and contrary +corners for the bread of life, when she knows they is plenty of crumbs +at the kitchen door to be et up. But if you're going to ride over to +Flat Rock this evening you'd better go on and get back in time for some +riz biscuits as Elinory is a-making for you this blessed minute." + +"She's not making them for me," answered the young Doctor with the +color rising under his clear, tanned skin up to his very forelock. As +he spoke he busied himself with bridling his restless young mare. + +"Of course she is," answered his mother serenely. "Women don't take no +interest in cooking unless they's a man to eat the fixings. Left to +herself she'd eat store bread and cheese with her head outen the window +for the birds to clean up the crumbs. Stop by and ask after Mis' +Bostick and the Deacon. And if you bring me a little candy from the +store with the letters, maybe I'll eat it to please you. Now be a-going +so as to be a-coming the sooner." With which admonition Mother took her +departure down the garden path. + +She was tall and broad, was Mother Mayberry, and in her walk was left +much of the lissome strength of her girlhood to lighten the matronly +dignity of her carriage. Her stiffly starched, gray-print skirts swept +against a budding border of jonquils and the spring breezes floated an +end of her white lawn tie as a sort of challenge to a young cherry +tree, that was trying to snow out under the influence of the warm sun. +Her son smiled as he saw her stoop to lift a feeble, over-early hop +toad back under the safety of the jonquil leaves, out of sight of a +possible savage rooster. He knew what expression lay in her soft gray +eyes that brooded under her Wide, placid brow, upon which fell abundant +and often riotous silver water-waves. His own eyes were very like them +and softened as he looked at her, a masculine version of one of her +quick dimples quirked at the corner of his clean-cut mouth. + +"The bread of life--she's found it," he said to himself musingly as he +slipped the last buckle in his bridle tight. + +"Elinory," called Mother Mayberry from the kitchen steps, "come out +here and sense the spring. Everywhere you look they is some young thing +a-peeping up or a-reaching out or a-running over or wobbling or +bleating or calling. Looks like the whole world have done broke out in +blooms and babies." + +"I can't--I wish I could," came an answer in a low, beautiful voice +with a queer, husky note. "It's all sticking to my hands, flour and +everything, and I don't know what to do!" + +"Dearie me, you've put in the milk a little too liberal! Wait until I +sift on a mite more flour. Now rub it in light! See, it's all right, +and most beautiful dough. Don't be discouraged, for riz biscuits is +most the top test of cooking. Keep remembering back to those cup +custards you made yesterday, what Tom Mayberry ate three of for supper +and then tried to sneak one outen the milk-house to eat before he went +to bed." + +"Oh, did he?" asked Miss Wingate with delight shining in her dark eyes +and a beautiful pink rising up in her pale cheeks. "I wish I COULD do +something to please him and make him feel how--how--grateful I am--for +the hope he's given me. I was so hopeless and unhappy--and desperate +when I came. But I believe my voice is coming back! Every day it's +stronger and you are so good to me and make me so happy that I'm not +afraid any more. You give me faith to hope--as well as to mix +biscuits." And a pearly tear splashed on the rolling-pin. + +"Yes, put your trust in the Heavenly Father, child, and some in Tom +Mayberry. Before you know it you'll be singing like the birds out in +the trees; but I can't let myself think about the time's a-coming for +you to fly away to the other people's trees to sing. When Tom told me +about Doctor Stein's wanting to send a great big singer lady, what had +lost her voice, down here to see if he couldn't cure her like he did +that preacher man and the politics speaker, I was skeered for both him +and me, for I knew things was kinder simple with us here and I was +afraid I couldn't make you happy and comfortable. But then I remembered +Doctor Stein had stayed 'most two weeks when he came South with Tom for +a visit and said he had tacked ten years on to the end of his life by +just them few days of Providence junketings and company feedings, so I +made up my mind not to be proud none and to say for you to come on. +I've got faith in my boy's doctoring same as them New York folks has, +and I wanted him to try to cure you. Then I knew you didn't have no +mother to pet up the sick throat none. A little consoling comfort is a +good dose to start healing any kind of trouble with. I knew I had +plenty of that in my heart to prescribe out to help along with your +case; so here you are not three weeks with us, a-mixing riz biscuits +for Tom's supper and like to coax the heart outen both of us. I told +him--Dearie me, somebody's calling at the front gate!" + +"Mis' Mayberry! Oh, Mis' Mayberry!" came a high, quavering old voice +from around the corner of the house, and Squire Tutt hove in sight. He +was panting for breath and trembling with rage as he ascended the steps +and stood in the kitchen door. + +Mother hastened to bring him a chair into which he wheezingly subsided. + +"Why, Squire," she questioned anxiously, "have anything happened? Is +Mis' Tutt tooken with lumbago again?" + +"No!" exploded the Squire, "she's well--always is! I'm the only really +sick folks in Providence, though I don't git no respect for it. In pain +all the time and no respect--no respect!" + +"Now, Squire, everybody in Providence have got sympathy for your tisic, +and just yesterday Mis' Pike was a-asking me--" + +"Tisic! I ain't talking about tisic now! It's this pain in my stomick +that that young limb of satan of your'n insulted me about not a hour +ago. Me a-writhing in tormint with nothing less'n a cancer--insulted +me!" As the Squire projected his remark toward Mother Mayberry he bent +double and peered expectantly up into her sympathetic face. + +"Why, what did he do, Squire?" demanded Mother, with a glance at Miss +Wingate, who still stood at the biscuit block cutting out her dough. +She regarded the old man with alarmed wonder. + +"Told me to drink two cups of hot water and lie down a hour--me in +tormint!" The Squire fairly spit his complaint into the air. + +"Dearie me, Tom had oughter known better than that about one of your +spells," said Mother. "Why, I've been a-curing them for years for you +myself with nothing more'n a little drop of spirits, red pepper and +mint. He had oughter told you to take that instead of hot water. I'm +sorry--" + +"Oughter told me to take spirits--told me to TAKE spirits! Don't you +know, Mis' Mayberry, a man with a sanctified wife can't TAKE no +spirits; they must be GAVE to him by somebody not a member of the +family. Me a-suffering tormints--two cups of hot water--tormints, +tormints!" + +The old man's voice rose to a perfect wail, but came down a note or two +as Mother hastily reached in the press and drew out a tall, old +demijohn and poured a liberal dose of the desired medicine into a +glass. She added a dash of red pepper and a few drops of peppermint. +This treatment of the Squire's dram in Mother's estimation turned a +sinful beverage into a useful medicine and served to soothe her +conscience while it disturbed the Squire's appreciation of her +treatment not at all. He swallowed the fiery dose without as much as +the blink of an eyelid and on the instant subsided into comfortable +complacency. + +"Please forgive Tom for not having more gumption, Squire, and next time +you're took come right over to me same as usual. Course I know all the +neighbors feel as how Tom is young and have just hung out his shingle +here, and I ain't expectin' of 'em to have no confidence in him. I +think it my duty to just go on with my usual doctoring of my friends. I +hope you won't hold this mistake against Tom." + +"Well," said the Squire in a mollified tone of voice, "I won't say no +more, but you must tell him to stop fooling with these here Providence +people. Stopped Ezra Pike's wife feeding her baby on pot-liquor and +give it biled milk watered with lime juice. It'll die--it'll die!" + +"Oh no, Squire, it's a-getting well--jest as peart as can be," Mother +said in a mollifying tone of voice. + +"It'll die--it'll die! Cut one er the lights outen Sam Mosbey's +side--called it a new fangled impendix name--but he'll die--he'll die!" + +"Sam's a-working out there on the barn roof right this minute, Squire, +good and alive," said Mother Mayberry with a good-humored smile, while +Miss Wingate cast a restrained though indignant glance at the doubting +old magistrate. + +"And old Deacon Bostick drinking cow-hot milk and sucking raw eggs! He +looks like a mixed calf and shanghai rooster! So old he'd oughter +die--and he'll do it! Hot water and me in tormint! Hot water on his +middle in a rubber bag and nothing inside er him! He'll die-he'll die!" + +"Oh no, Squire, the good Lord have gave Deacon Bostick back to us from +the edge of the grave; Tom a-working day and night but under His +guidance. He have gained ten pounds and walks everywhere. It were low +typhus, six weeks running, too! I'm glad it were gave to me to see my +son bring back a saint to earth from the gates themselves. Have you +been by to see him?" + +"Yes," answered the Squire as he rose much more briskly than he had +seated himself, and prepared to take his departure. "Yes, and it was +you a-nussing of him that did it--muster slipped him calimile--but I +ain't a-disputing! Play actor, ain't you, girl?" he demanded as he +paused on his way out of the door and peered over at Miss Wingate with +his beetling, suspicious eyes. + +"Yes," answered the singer lady as she went on putting her biscuit into +the pan. If her culinary manoeuvers were slow they were at least sure +and the "riz" biscuits looked promising. + +"Dearie me," said Mother as she returned from guiding her guest down +the front walk and into the shaded Road, "it do seem that Squire Tutt +gets more rantankerous every day. Poor Mis' Tutt is just wore out with +contriving with him. It's a wonder she feels like she have got any ease +at all, much less a second blessing. Now I must turn to and make a dish +of baked chicken hash for supper to be et with them feather biscuits of +your'n. I want to compliment them by the company of a extra nice dish. +If they come out the oven in time I want to ask Sam Mosbey to stop in +and get some, with a little quince preserves. He brought his dinner in +a bucket, which troubled me, for who's got foot on my land, two or +four, I likes to feed myself. I expected he was some mortified at your +being here. He's kinder shy like in the noticing of girls." + +"That seems to be a failing with the Providence young--with Providence +people," ventured Miss Wingate with ambiguity. + +"Oh, country boys is all alike," answered Mother comfortingly, only in +a measure taking in the tentative observation. "They're all kinder +co'ting tongue-tied. They have to be eased along attentive, all 'cept +Buck Peavey, who'd like to eat Pattie up same as a cannibal, I'm +thinking, and don't mind who knows it. Now the supper is all on the +simmer and can be got ready in no time. Let's me and you walk down to +the front gate and watch for Tom to come around the Nob from Flat Rock +and then we can run in the biscuits. Maybe we'll hear some news; I +haven't hardly seen any folks to-day and I mistrust some mischief are +a-brewing somewhere." + +And Mother Mayberry's well trained intuitions must have been in +unusually good working order, for she met her expected complications at +the very front gate. She was just turning to point out a promise of an +unusually large crop of snowballs on the old shrub by the gate-post +when a subdued sniffling made itself heard and caused her to +concentrate her attention on the house opposite across the Road. And a +sympathy stirring scene met her eyes. Perched along the fence were all +five of the little Pikes clinging to the top board in forlorn +despondency. On the edge of the porch sat Mr. Pike in his shirt sleeves +with his pipe in one hand and the Teether Pike balanced on his knee. +His expression matched that of the children in the matter of gloom, and +like them he glanced apprehensively toward the door as if expecting +Calamity to issue from his very hearthstone. + +"Why, what's the matter?" demanded Mother as she hurried to the edge of +the sidewalk followed by the singer lady, whose acquaintance with the +young Pikes had long before ripened to the stage of intimate +friendship. At the sight of her sympathetic face, Eliza, the first +Pike, slipped to the ground and buried her head in her new but valued +friend's dainty muslin skirt. Bud, the next rung of the stair steps +licked out his tongue to dispose of a mortifying tear and little Susie +sobbed outright. At this juncture, just as Mother was about to demand +again an explanation of such united woe, Mrs. Pike came to the door, +and a large spoon and a bottle full of amber, liquid grease made +further inquiry unnecessary. + +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry, I certainly am glad you have came over to back +me up in getting down these doses of oil. Ez," with an indignant and +contemptuous glance at her sullen husband, "don't want me to give it to +'em. He'd rather they'd up and die than to stand the ruckus, but I +ain't a-going to let my own children perish for a few cherry seeds with +a bottle of oil in the house and Doctor Tom Mayberry's prescription to +give 'em a spoonful all around." Mrs. Pike was short and stout, but +with a martial and determined eye, and as she spoke she began to +measure out a first dose with her glance fixed on young Bud, who turned +white around his little mouth and clung to the fence. Susie's sobs rose +to a wail and Eliza shuddered in Miss Wingate's skirt. + +"Wait a minute, Mis' Pike," said Mother hurriedly, "are you sure they +have et cherry seeds? Cherries ain't ripe yet, and--" + +"We didn't--we didn't!" came in a perfect chorus of wails from the +little fence birds. + +"Of course they did, Mis' Mayberry!" exclaimed their mother +relentlessly. "It was two jars of cherry preserves that Prissy put up +and clean forgot to seed 'fore she biled 'em, and the children done +took and et 'em on the sly. Now they're going to suffer for it." + +"We all spitted the seeds out, and we was so hungry, too!" Eliza took +courage to sob from Miss Wingate's skirt. Bud managed to echo her +statement, while Susie and the two little boys gave confirmation from +their wide-open, terror-stricken eyes. + +"Well, now, maybe they did, Mis' Pike," said Mother, coming near to +argue the question. Her hand rested sustainingly on one of the brave +young Bud's knees which jutted out from the fence. + +"Can't trust 'em, Mis' Mayberry, fer if they'll steal they'll lie," +said Mrs. Pike in a voice tinged with the deepest melancholy for the +fallen estate of her family. "They'll have to suffer for both sins +whether they did or didn't," and again the bottle was poised. + +"Now hold on, Mis' Pike," again exclaimed Mother Mayberry as her face +illumined with a bright smile. "If they throwed away the cherry pits +they must be where they throwed 'em and they can go find 'em to prove +they character. They ain't nothing fairer than that. Where did you eat +the preserves, children?" she asked, but there was a wild rush around +the corner of the house before her question was answered. + +"Now," exclaimed the astonished mother, "I never thought of that and if +they thought to spit out one stone they did the balance. But Doctor Tom +was so kind to tell me about the oil and I paid fifteen cents down at +the store for it, that I'm a mind to give it to 'em anyway." + +"I'll be blamed if you do," ejaculated her indignant husband as he +shouldered Teether and strode into the house, unable longer to restrain +his rage. + +"Ain't that just like him!" said his wife in a resigned voice. "And I +was just going to try to make him take this spoonful I've poured out. +It won't hurt him none and it's a pity to pour it back, it wastes so. +Do either of you all need it?" she asked hospitably. + +Miss Wingate was dissenting with an echo of Eliza's shudder and Mother +Mayberry with a laugh, when the reprieved criminals raced back around +the house, each dirty little fist inclosing a reasonable number of +grubby cherry stones. + +"Well," assented their mother reluctantly, "I'll let you off this time, +but don't any of you never take nothing to eat again without asking, +and I'm a-going to punish you by making you every one wash your feet in +cold water and go to bed. Now mind me and all stand to once in the tub +by the pump and tell your Paw I say not to touch that kettle of hot +water. I don't want you to have a drop. Go right on and do as I say." + +The threatened punishment had been too great for the youngsters to mind +this lesser and accustomed penalty, so they retired with cheerfulness +and spirits and in a few seconds a chorus of squeals and splashes came +from the back yard. + +After an exchange of friendly good-bys Mrs. Pike entered her front door +and Mother and the singer lady returned to their own front gate. + +"Dearie me," said Mother in a tone of positive discouragement, "I don't +know what I will do if I have to undo another one of Tom Mayberry's +prescriptions to-day. But you couldn't expect a man to untangle a +children quirk like that; and oil woulder been the thing for the cherry +stones in children's stomachs, but not for ones throwed on the back +walk. I hope the Squire won't hear about it," she added with a laugh. + +"I think," said Miss Wingate with her dark eyes fixed on Mother's face +with positive awe, "I think you are wonderful with everybody. You know +just what to do for them, and what to say to them and--" + +"Well," interrupted Mother with a laugh, "it are gave to some women to +be called on the Lord's ease mission, and I reckon I'm of that band. +Don't you know I'm the daughter of a doctor, and the wife of a doctor +and the mother of one as good as either of the other two? I can't +remember the time when I didn't project with the healing of ailments. +When I married Doctor Mayberry and come down over the Ridge from Warren +County with him, he had his joke with me about my herb-basket and +a-setting up opposition to him. It's in our blood. My own cousin Seliny +Lue Lovell down at the Bluff follows the calling just the same as I do. +I say the Lord were good to me to give me the love of it and a father +and a husband and now a son to practise with." + +"The Doctors Mayberry, Mother and Son, how interesting that sounds, +Mrs. Mayberry," exclaimed Miss Wingate with a delightful laugh, "And no +wonder Doctor Mayberry is so gifted that he gets National commissions +to study Pellagra and--and has a troublesome singer lady sent all the +way from New York to patch up." + +"Yes, it do look like that Tom Mayberry gets in a good chanct +everywhere he goes. Some folks picks a friend offen every bush they +passes and Tom's one. He was honored considerable in New York and then +sent over to Berlin, Europe, and beyont to study up about people's +skins. And then here he comes back, sent by the Government right down +to Flat Rock, on the other side of Providence Nob, to study out about +that curious corn disease they calls Pellagra, what I don't think is a +thing in the world but itch and can be cured by a little sulphur and +hog lard. But I'm blessing the chanct that brought him back to me, even +if I know it are just for a spell. And, too, he oughter be happy to +have brung his mother such a song bird as you. I'm so used to you and +your helping me with Cindy away to Springfield, that I don't see how I +ever got along without you or ever will." As she spoke, Mother Mayberry +smiled delightedly at the singer girl and drew her closer. Mother's +voice at most times was a delicious mixture of banter and caress. + +"Perhaps I'll stay always," said the singer lady as she drew close +against the gray print shoulder. "When I look around me I feel as if I +had awakened in a beautiful world with no more dirty, smoky cities that +hurt my throat, no more hot, lighted theaters, no noises, and +everything is just a great big bouquet of soft smells and colors." + +As she spoke, Elinor Wingate, who was just a tired girl in the circle +of Mother Mayberry's strong arm, let her great dark eyes wander off +across the meadow to where a dim rim of Harpeth Hills seemed to close +in the valley. Her glance returned to the low, wing-spreading, brick +farm-house, which, vine-covered, lilac-hedged and maple-shaded, seemed +to nestle against the breast of Providence Nob, at whose foot clustered +the little settlement of Providence and around whose side ran the old +wilderness trail called Providence Road. And her face was soft with a +light of utter contentment, for under that low-gabled roof she was +finding strength to hope for the recovery of her lost treasure, without +which life would seem a void. Then for a moment she looked down the +village Road, across which the trees were casting long afternoon +shadows and along which was flowing the tide of late afternoon social +life. Women hung over the front gates to greet men in from the fields +or from down the Road, girls laughed and chaffed one another or the +blushing country boys, and the children played tag and hop-scotch back +and forth along the way. + +"It's all lovely," she said again with a contented little sigh. When +she spoke softly there was not a trace of the burr in her voice and it +was as sweet as a dove note. + +"Days like these we had oughter take the world as a new gift from God," +said Mother musingly. "It were a day like this I come with Doctor +Mayberry along the Road to Providence to live, and stopped right at +this gate under this very maple tree, thirty-five years ago; and thirty +of 'em have I lived lonesome without him. I had a baby at my breast and +Tom by my knee when he went away from us, and I know now it was the +call laid on me to take up his work that saved me. When I got back from +the funeral and had laid the baby on the bed Mis' Jim Petway come +a-running up the road crying that Ellen, her youngest child, were +a-choking to death with croup. I never had a thought but to take his +saddle-bags and follow her, and somehow the good Lord guided my hand +amongst his medicines, and with what I had learned from him and Pa I +fought a good fight and saved the little thing's life, though it took +the night to do it. And in one of them dark hours a sister-to-woman +sense was born in me what I ain't never lost. A neighbor took Tom and +they brought my baby to me and I stayed by Mis' Petway until they +weren't no more danger. Next day it were Squire Tutt's first wife +tooken down with the fever and not the week passed before that very Sam +Mosbey were borned. We was too poor to have a doctor come and live here +and they was a doctor over to Springfield took up my husband's county +practice, so I jest naturally had to do the healing myself, only +a-sending for him in the worst cases. They was a heap of teethers that +summer and it kept me busy looking after 'em. I expect I made mistakes +but I kept up me and the patients' courage by sympathizing and +heartening. It didn't cost nobody nothing and we wasn't so prosperous +then that it wasn't a help for me to do the doctoring when I could, and +I mostly were able. I were glad of the work and did it with a thankful +mind; not as they wasn't times when I felt sick at heart, and in danger +of questioning why, but I tried to steady myself with prayer until I +could find the Everlasting Arm to lean on that is always held out to +the widow and the fatherless. And so a-leaning I have got me and Tom +Mayberry along until now." + +"And the whole rest of the world leaning on you," said the lovely lady +as she drew nearer and caught Mother Mayberry's strong hand in her own +slender fingers. + +"Well," answered Mother, as she shaded her eyes with her other hand to +look far up the Road toward the Ridge over which they were waiting for +the Doctor's horse to appear, "looks like often hands a-reaching out +for help gives strength before they takes any, and a little hope +planted in another body's garden is apt to fly a seed and sprout in +your own patch. There he is--let's hurry in the biscuits!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL + + +"Well, I don't know as I'd like to have her messing around my kitchen +and house, a stranger and a curious one at that. But you always was +kinder soft, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Peavey as she glanced with +provoked remonstrance at Mother Mayberry, who went calmly on attending +to the needs of a fresh hatching of young chickens. Mrs. Peavey lived +next door to the Doctor's house and the stone wall that separated the +two families was not in any way a barrier to her frequent neighborly +and critical visitations. She was meager of stature and soul, and the +victim of a devouring fire of curiosity which literally licked up the +fagots of human events that came in her way. She was the fly that +kicked perpetually in Mother Mayberry's cruse of placid ointment, but +received as full a mead of that balm of friendship as any woman on the +Road. + +"Why, she ain't a mite of trouble, but just a pleasure, Hettie Ann," +answered Mother with mild remonstrance in her tone. "I expected to have +a good bit of worry with her, having no cook in my kitchen, 'count of +waiting for Cindy to get well and come back to me and nobody easy to +pick up to do the work, but she hadn't been here a week before she was +reaching out and learning house jobs. I think it takes her mind offen +her troubles and I can't say her no if it do help her, not that I want +to, for she's a real comfort." + +"Well, if it was me I couldn't take no comfort in a play-acting girl. +I'd feel like locking up what teaspoons I had and a-counting over +everything in my house every day. It's just like you, Mis' Mayberry, to +take her in. And I can't sense the why of you're being so close-mouthed +about her. Near neighbors oughter know all about one another's doings +and not have to ask, I say." Mrs. Peavey sniffed and assumed an air of +injured patience. + +"Why, Hettie Ann," Mother hastened to answer, "you know as I always did +hold that the give and take of advice from friends is the greatest +comfort in the world, though at times most confusing, and I thought I +told you all about Elinory." + +"Well, you didn't. Muster been Bettie Pratt or Mis' Pike you was +a-talking to when you thought it was me," answered her friend with the +injured note in her voice becoming with every word more noticeable. +"Are she rich or poor? Do you know that much?" + +"Well now, come to think of it, I don't," answered Mother promptly. +"Connecting up folks and they money always looks like sticking a price +tag on you to them and them to you. I'd rather charge my friends to a +Heaven-account and settle the bill with friendly feelings as we go +along. This poor child ain't got no mother or father, that I know. All +her young life when most girls ain't got a thought above a beau or a +bonnet, she have been a-training of her voice to sing great 'cause it +were in her to do it. And she done it, too. Then all to onct when she +had got done singing in a great big town hall they call Convent Garden +or something up in New York, she made the mistake to drink a glass of +ice water and it friz up her throat chords. She haven't been able to +sing one single tune since. She have been a-roaming over the earth +a-hunting for some sort of help and ain't found none. Now she have lit +at my door and I've got her in trying to warm and comfort her to enough +strength for Tom to put her voice back into her." + +"Well, you don't expect no such thing of Tom Mayberry as that, do you?" +asked Mrs. Peavey with uncompromising and combative frankness. + +"That I do," answered the Doctor's mother, and this time there was a +note of dignity in her voice, as she looked her friend straight in the +face. "You know, because I told you about it, Hettie Ann, how Tom +Mayberry cured that big preacher of a lost voice who was a friend to +this Doctor Stein, while the boy wasn't nothing but serving his term in +the hospital. He wrote a paper about it that made all the doctors take +notice of him and he have done it twice since, though throats are just +a side issue from skins with him. Yes, I'm expecting of him to cure +this child and give her back more'n just her voice, her work in life. +I'm one that believes that the Lord borns all folks with a work to do +and you've got to march on to it, whether it's singing in public +places, carrying saddle-bags to suffering or jest playing your tune on +the wash-board at home. It's a part of his hallelujah chorus in which +we've all got to join." + +"Well, I shorely drawed the wash-board fer my instrumint," answered +Mrs. Peavey with a vindictive look across the wall at a line of clothes +fluttering in the breeze. + +"And they ain't nobody in Providence that turns out as white a +shirt-song as you do, Hettie Ann. Buck and Mr. Peavey are just looked +at in church Sundays fer the color of they collars," Mother hastened to +say with pride in the glance that followed Mrs. Peavey's across the +wall. "Ain't Tom always a-contriving with you to sneak one of his +shirts into your wash, so as not to hurt me and Cindy's feelings? I +don't see how you get 'em so white." + +"Elbow grease and nothing else," answered Mrs. Peavey in a tone of +voice that refused to be mollified. "I've got to be a-going." + +"Just wait and look at these chickens; ain't they pretty? Tom sent all +the way to Indiany fer the settin' of eggs fer me and I've just been +a-watching the day for 'em to hatch. I feel they are a-going to be a +credit to me and I'm glad I gave 'em to Ruffle Neck to set on. She's +such a good hoverer and can be depended on to run from the rain. Now +ain't they pretty?" and Mother even looked at Mrs. Peavey with hope for +a word of sympathy in her pleasure--after a thirty years' experience +with her neighbor. + +"No," answered her friend, "I don't hold with no fancy chickens. Just +good dominicks is all I've got any faith in and not much in them. With +strange chickens and girls around your house something misfortunate is +a-going to happen to you, Mis' Mayberry, and I see it a-coming. Don't +say I didn't tell you." + +"No, I'll give you credit for your warning," answered Mother +propitiatingly. "How's that pain in your side?" she hastened to ask, to +change the subject from a disagreeable one to what she knew by +experience would prove at least interesting. + +"It's a heap better," answered Mrs. Peavey promptly. + +"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Mother, immediately beginning to beam with +pride. "I told you Tom could help it with that new kind of dry plaster +he made for you. Ain't it wonderful?" + +"Shoo! I never put that on! It didn't have smell enough to do any good. +I knew that as soon as I unrolled it. I just rubbed myself heavy with +that mixture of kerosine, vinegar and gum camfire you've been making me +for twenty years, and I slept uncommon well." + +"Oh," answered Mother Mayberry, "I wish you had tried Tom's plaster. I +feel sure--" + +"Well, I don't--of anything that a boy like Tom Mayberry knows. If he +lives here a spell and learns from you maybe he'll get some doctoring +sense, but I wouldn't trust him for ten years at the shortest. But have +you heard the news?" A flame of positive joy flared up in Mrs. Peavey's +eyes and flushed her sallow cheeks. + +"Why, what is it?" asked Mother with a guarded interest and no small +amount of anxiety, for she was accustomed to the kind of news that Mrs. +Peavey usually took the trouble to spread. + +"Well, I knowed what was a-going to happen when I seen Bettie Pratt +setting the chairs straight and marshaling in the orphants at poor Mis' +Hoover's funeral, not but eleven months ago. It'll be a scandal to this +town and had oughter be took notice of by Deacon Bostick and the Elder. +She's got four Turner children and six Pratts and he have got seven of +his own, so Turner, Pratt and Hoover they'll be seventeen children in +the house, all about the same size. Then maybe more--I call it a +disgrace, I do!" + +"I don't know," answered Mother, though her eyes did twinkle at the +thought of this allied force of seventeen, "there never was a better +child-raiser than Bettie Pratt and I'll be mighty glad to see them +poor, forlorn little Hoovers turned over to her. They've been on my +mind night and day since they mother died and they ain't a single one +of 'em as peart as it had oughter be. Who told you about it?" + +"They didn't nobody tell me--I've got eyes of my own! Just yesterday I +seen her hand a pan of biscuits over the fence to Pattie Hoover and he +had a Turner and two Pratts in the wagon with him coming in from the +field last night. But you can't do nothing about it--she have got the +marrying habit. They are other widows in this town that have mourned +respectable to say nothing of Miss Prissy Pike, that have never had no +husband at all and had oughter be gave a chanct. Mr. Hoover are a nice +man and I don't want to see him made noticeable in no such +third-husband way." + +"Course it do look a little sudden," said Mother, "and seventeen is a +good lot of children for one family, but if they love each other--" + +"Love! Shoo! I declare, Mis' Mayberry, looks to me like you swallow +what folks give you in this world whole, pit and all, and never bat a +eye. I've got to go home and put on Buck's and Mr. Peavey's supper and +sprinkle down some of my wash." And without further parley Mrs. Peavey +marched home through a little swinging gate in the wall that had been +for years a gap through which a turbid stream had flowed to trouble +Mother's peaceful waters. + +"It do seem Mis' Peavey are a victim of a most pitiful unrest," said +Mother to herself as she watched with satisfaction Ruffle Neck tuck the +last despised little Hoosier under her soft gray breast. "Some folks +act like they had dyspepsy of the mind. Dearie me, I must go and take a +glass of cream to my honey-bird, for that between-meal snack that Tom +Mayberry are so perticular about." And she started down toward the +spring-house under the hill. + +And returning a half hour later with the cool glass in her hand, she +was guided by the sound of happy voices to the front porch, where, +under the purple wistaria vine, she found the singer lady absorbed in +the construction of a most worldly garment for the doll daughter of +Eliza Pike, who was watching its evolution with absorbed interest. + +"Pleas'm, Miss Elinory, make it a little bit longer, 'cause I want her +to have a beau," besought the small mother, as she anxiously watched +the measuring of the skirt. + +"Want her to have a beau?" asked Miss Wingate with the scissors +suspended over the bit of pink muslin which matched exactly her own +ruffled skirts. + +"Yes'm! Pattie Hoover wored shoe-tops all winter and now she's got +foot-dresses and Buck Peavey for a beau." + +"Oh, I see," said the singer lady as she smiled down into the eager +little face. "Do you think--er, beaux are--are desirable, Eliza?" + +"Yes'm, I do," answered the bud of a woman, as she drew nearer and said +with an expression of one bestowing a confidence, "When I'm let down to +my feet I'm going to have Doctor Tom for my beau, if you don't get him +first." + +"I'm sure you needn't worry about that, Eliza," Miss Wingate hastened +to exclaim with a rising color. "I wouldn't interfere with your plans +for the world--if I could." + +"Well, you take him if you can get him," answered Eliza generously; +"somebody'll grow up by that time for me. But he couldn't make you take +oil, could he?" she asked doubtfully, the memory of yesterday's escape +lurking in her mind and explaining her most unfeminine generosity. + +Miss Wingate eyed her for a moment with mirth fairly dancing over her +face, "Yes," she said with a laugh, "I believe he could!" + +"Elinory, child," said Mother as she came out from the front hall, +"here we are a half hour late with this cream, and both of us under +promise solemn to Tom to have it down by four o'clock. 'Liza, honey, +how's the baby?" + +"He have got a new top-tooth and throwed up onct this morning," +answered Eliza in a practical tone of voice. + +"Dearie me," said Mother anxiously, for the Pike teether had up to this +time been the Doctor's prize patient. "I wonder if your Maw remembered +the lime water faithful?" + +"I expect she forgot it, for she was whipping Susie for sassing Aunt +Prissy, and Bud for saying fool," answered Eliza, not at all hesitating +to lay bare the iniquities of her family circle. + +"I'm sorry they did like that," said Mother with real concern at the +news of such delinquencies. + +"Yes'm, Susie told Aunt Prissy Mis' Peavey said she were a-setting her +cap fer Mr. Hoover and it made Bud mad 'cause he fights 'Lias Hoover +and he called her a fool. He hadn't oughter done it, but he's touchy +'bout Aunt Prissy and so's Paw. There comes Deacon and a little boy +with him." + +As she spoke, Mother rose to greet Deacon Bostick who had turned in the +front gate and got as far up the front walk as the second snowball +bush. The Deacon was tall, lean, bent and snow-crowned, with bright old +eyes that rested in a benediction on the group on the porch that his +fine old smile confirmed. By the hand he led a tiny boy who was clad in +a long nondescript garment and topped off by a queer red fez, pulled +down over a crop of yellow curls, a strange little exotic against the +homely background of Mother Mayberry's lilac bushes. + +"Sister Mayberry," said the deacon as he paused at the foot of the +steps, "this is Martin Luther Hathaway who was left at my house this +morning by the Circuit Rider, as he came through from Springfield on +his way to Flat Rock, to be delivered to you, along with his letter. I +trust his arrival is not unexpected to you." + +"No, indeed, Deacon, I was hoping for him though not exactly expecting +him. A month ago while you was sick, our missionary society had news of +a missionary and his wife down at Springfield who wanted to go up to +Chicagy to study some more about some heathen matter, and couldn't +quite make it with two children. My cousin Seliny Lue down to the Bluff +have took the little girl and we sent five dollars and a letter saying +to send the boy to me for the summer. Come to Mother Mayberry, sonny," +and Mother sat down on the lowest step and stretched out her arms to +the little ward of the church militant. + +Martin Luther's big blue eyes, which were set in his head like those of +a Raphael cherub, looked out from under a huge yellow curl that fell +over his forehead, straight into Mother's gray ones for a moment, and +sticking his pink thumb into his mouth, he sidled into her embrace with +a little sigh of evident relief. + +"Eat some, thank ma'am, please," he whispered into her ear by way of a +return of the introduction. His little mother tongue had evidently +suffered a slight twist by his birth and sojourn in a foreign country, +but it served to express the normal condition of all inhabitants of +boy-land. + +"Of course he's hungry, bless his little heart," answered Mother as she +removed the fez and ruffled up the damp curls. "Run fetch the tea-cake +bucket from the kitchen safe, 'Liza, and won't you come sit down, +Deacon?" + +"No, thank you, Sister," answered the Deacon with a glance of real +regret at the comfortable rocker Miss Wingate had hastened to draw +forward into a sunny but sheltered corner of the porch, "I'm on my way +to take tea with Sister Pratt. I'm to meet Mrs. Bostick there. How's +the throat, child?" And his smile up at the singer lady was one of the +most sympathetic interest. + +"Better, thank you, I think," said Miss Wingate, answering both +question and smile. "How well you are looking to-day, Deacon!" + +"Why, I'm made over new by that boy of a Doctor," said the Deacon, +fairly beaming with enthusiasm. "Your cure will be only a matter of +time, a matter of time, my dear--Squire Tutt to the contrary," he added +with a chuckle. + +"There, bless my heart, if my ears ain't heard two testimonies to Tom +Mayberry all in one minute!" exclaimed Mother with a delighted laugh. +"Have a cake, won't you, Deacon?" she asked, offering the bucket. + +She then established Eliza and the small stranger on the edge of the +steps, with an admonition as to the disposal of the crumbs over on to +the grass, and filled both pairs of hands with the crisp discs. Eliza +spread the end of her short blue calico skirt over Martin Luther's +chubby knees, and they both proceeded to eat into the improvised napkin +with the utmost comradeship. Miss Wingate had strolled down to the gate +with the Deacon and had paused on the way to decorate the buttonhole of +his shiny old coat with a bit of the white lilac nodding over the wall. + +"'Liza, child," said Mother as she glanced at Martin Luther with a +contemplative eye, "when you're done eating run over and ask your Maw +to send me a pair of Billy's britches and a shirt. No, maybe young Ez's +'ll be better, and bring 'em and Martin Luther on back to the kitchen +to me." With which she disappeared into the house, leaving the munchers +to finish their feast alone. + +And in an incredibly short time the last crumb, even those rescued from +the skirt, had disappeared and Eliza had led Martin Luther down the +walk, across the Road and around the corner of the Pike cottage, while +the Deacon still lingered talking to Miss Wingate at the gate. Eliza +had taken upon herself, with her usual generalship, the development of +Mother Mayberry's plan for the arraying of the young stranger in what +Providence would consider a civilized garb. + +And for some minutes Miss Wingate stood leaning over the top rail of +the low gate idly watching a group of Pratts, Turners, Mosbeys, Hoovers +and Pikes playing a mysterious game, which necessitated wild dashes +across a line drawn down the middle of the Road in the white dust, +shrill cries of capture and frequent change of base. The day had been a +long sunshiny one, full of absorbing interests, and as she stood +drinking in the perfume from a spray of lilac she had broken to choose +the bit for the Deacon, she suddenly realized that not one minute had +she found in which to let the horrible dread creep close and clutch at +her throat. Helping along in the construction of a bucket of tea-cakes, +the printing of four cakes of butter, the simmering of a large pan of +horehound syrup and the excitement of pouring it into the family +bottles that Mother was filling against a sudden night call from some +crouper down or across the Road, to say nothing of a most exciting pie, +that had been concocted entirely by herself from a jar of peaches and +frilled around with the utmost regard for its artistic appearance, to +which could be added the triumph of the long-tailed pink gown for the +daughter of young Eliza, had kept her busy and--with a quick smile she +had to admit to herself, happy. Indeed the remembrance of the rapid +disappearance of the pie and Doctor Mayberry's blush when, after he had +eaten two-thirds of it, his mother had informed him of the authorship, +brought a positive glow of pleasure to her cheeks. Such a serious, +gentle, skilful young Doctor as he was--and "a perfect dear" she went +as far as admitting to herself, this time with a low laugh. + +And as if her pondering on his virtues had had power to bring a +materialization, suddenly Doctor Tom stood in front of her on the other +side of the gate. He had come from up the Road while she had been +looking down in the other direction, and in his hand he held a spray of +purple lilacs which he had broken from a large bush that hung over the +fence from the Pratt yard into the Road and also spread itself a yard +or two into Hoover territory. + +"Aren't they lovely and plumy?" she asked, as she took the bunch he +offered and laid the purple flowers against the white ones she held in +her hand. "These are so much darker than Mrs. Mayberry's purple ones. I +wonder why." + +"Some years they bloom lighter than Mother's and other years still +darker--just another one of the mysteries," he answered as he leaned +against the gate-post and looked down at her with a smile. He was tall, +and strong, and forceful, with a clean-cut young face which was lit by +Mother Mayberry's very own black-lashed, serene gray eyes, and his very +evident air of a man of affairs had much of the charm of Mother +Mayberry's rustic dignity. His serge coat, blue shirt and soft gray tie +had a decided cut of sophistication and were worn with a most worldly +grace that was yet strangely harmonious with his surroundings. For with +all of his distinctions in appearance and attainments, as a man he +struck no discord when contrasted with Mr. Pike's shirt-sleeved, +butternut-trousers personality and he seemed but the flowering of Buck +Peavey's store-clothes ambitions. The accord of it all struck Miss +Wingate so forcibly that unconsciously she gave voice to the feeling. + +"How at home you are in all this--this?" she paused and raised her eyes +to his with a hint of helplessness to express herself within them. + +"Simple life," he supplied with a smile that held a bit of banter. + +"It's not so simple as one would think to balance a pie plate on one +hand and cut around it with a knife so the edges aren't jagged--to be +all consumed within the hour," she answered with spirit, rising to the +slight challenge in his voice and smile. "And there are other most +complicated things I have discovered that--" + +But just here she was interrupted by a sally from around the corner of +the Pike house which streamed out across the Road, headed precisely in +their direction. Eliza was in the lead and held little Teether swung +perilously across one slender hip, while she clasped Martin Luther's +chubby fingers in her other hand. And behold, the transformation of the +young stranger was complete beyond belief! His yellow thatch was +crowned by a straw hat, which was circled by a brand new shoestring, +though it gaped across the crown to let out a peeping curl. Young Ez's +garments even had proved a size too large and the faded blue jeans +"britches" were rolled up over his round little knees and hitched up +high under his arms by an improvised pair of calico "galluses" which +were stretched tight over a clean but much patched gingham shirt. His +feet and legs had been stripped in accordance with the time-ordered +custom in Providence that bare feet could greet May Day, and his +little, bare, pink toes curled up with protest against the roughness of +even the dust-softened pike. Susie May, Billy and young Ez beamed with +pride at their share in the rehabiting of the recent acquisition and +waited breathlessly for words of praise from Miss Wingate and the +Doctor. + +"Why, who is this?" asked the Doctor quickly with a most gratifying +interest in his big voice, while Miss Wingate came out of the gate on +to the pavement. + +"It's the little missionary boy that the Deacon brought Mother +Mayberry. I guess the Lord sent him, for he's too big to come outen a +cabbage," answered Eliza, and as she spoke she settled the hat an inch +farther down over the curls with a motherly gesture. She had failed to +grasp with exactness the situation concerning the advent of Martin +Luther, but was supplying a version of her own that seemed entirely +satisfactory to the youngster's newly acquired friends. + +"Spit through teeth," ventured the young stranger, anxious to display +an accomplishment that had been bestowed upon him by Billy while the +"galluses" were in process of construction a few minutes ago. "Thank +ma'am, please," he hastened to add with pathetic loyalty to some +injunction that had been impressed upon his young mind before his +embarkation upon strange seas. + +"Let me see you do it," demanded the Doctor, in instant sympathy with +his pride in this newly acquired national accomplishment. + +"He hasn't got time to do it now," answered Eliza importantly, as she +hitched Teether a notch higher up on her arm. "I've got to take him and +the baby in to Mother Mayberry to see if his other top-tooth have come +up enough for Maw to rub it through with her thimble." Though she did +not designate Teether as the subject of the operation the audience +understood that it was he and not Martin Luther so fated. + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Miss Wingate in horror, and she reached out and +took Teether into protective arms. The day had been a long and weary +one for Teether Pike and he dropped his tired little head over on the +cool pink muslin shoulder and nestled his aching jaw against the smooth +white neck. + +"Hold him still just a second as he is," said Doctor Tom quickly, and +in an instant he had whipped a case from his pocket, selected an +instrument and, inserting his finger between the pink lips, he rendered +unnecessary the agony of the maternal thimble. It had been done so +quickly that Teether himself only nestled a bit closer with a faint +moan, and Miss Wingate looked up at the operator with grateful eyes. +She hugged the limp baby closer and started to speak, but was +interrupted by an anxious question from Eliza. + +"Did you cut it?" she demanded. + +"Yes," answered the Doctor non-committally. + +"Well, Maw'll be mighty mad at you, for Mother Mayberry asked her last +night to let you cut it and she said she'd thimbled the rest of us and +she reckoned he could stand it too. If it was me, I'd let you cut me +wide open and sew me up again if you wanted to," and Eliza beamed upon +the Doctor with an affection that was the acme of idealization. She had +forgotten that only a few hours ago she had renounced her loyalty at +the memory of the oil, but Miss Wingate smiled in appreciation of this +display of further feminine inconsistency. + +"Shucks," said Billy, "you'd holler 'fore he could cut onct. I'm +a-going to let him fix my next stump toe and 'Lias Hoover have got two +warts he can cut off, if he gives him a piece of catgut string to tie +on fish hooks." And Billy looked as if he expected to see the Doctor +entirely overwhelmed at the prospect of so much practice so easily +obtained. + +"Go take Martin Luther to show Mrs. Mayberry, Eliza," said Miss Wingate +with a laughing smile over the baby's head at the Doctor and his +practice. "I'll come on with the baby." And with Teether still embraced +she strolled up the walk with Doctor Mayberry at her side. When they +reached the front steps she seated herself on the top one and slowly +lowered the drowsy little chap, until his head rested on her breast and +her arms held him cradlewise. She began a low husky humming as she +rocked herself to and fro, watching breathlessly the fringed lashes +sink over his wearied eyes, until they lay like shadows on the purple +circles beneath. She was utterly absorbed in getting Teether into a +comatose condition, and had neither eyes nor ears for the Doctor; not +that he claimed either. + +He sat for some moments watching her and listening breathlessly to the +low music that came out through the wonderful throat, as if from some +master instrument with strings uncouthly muted. And as he looked, the +horrible thought clutched at his own heart. Suppose he should not be +able to free her voice for her! Many others had tried--the +greatest--and they had all been baffled by the strange stiffness of the +chords. He knew himself to be, in a way, her last resort. A world of +music lovers awaited the result. He had been obliged to send out two +Press bulletins as to her condition within the week--and she sat on the +steps in the twilight humming Teether Pike to sleep, shut in by the +Harpeth Hills with only him to fight her fight for her. He almost +groaned aloud with the pain of it, when into his consciousness came +Mother Mayberry's placid voice shooing the Pike children home with +promises and admonitions. A line from Doctor Stein's letter flashed +into his mind: "And first and above all I want your mother to put heart +and hope into the girl." The fight was not his alone, thank God, and he +knew just how much he could trust to his mother's heart-building. Why +not? Over the land men were learning to strengthen the man within +before attempting to cure the man without. Hadn't that always been his +mother's unconscious policy out on Harpeth Hills? A deep calm fell into +his troubled spirit and, as the singer lady and Mother escorted the +escort down the walk, he slipped away into his office for an hour +before supper with his reports and microscope. + +A half hour later Mother Mayberry came into his office for the little +chat she often took the time for just before the summons to supper. She +seated herself by the open window, through which the twilight was +creeping, and he threw down his pen and came and stood leaning against +the casement. + +"Well," she said with a long breath of contentment, "well, I do feel +about ready to get ready to rest. The Pikeses is all in, I heard Bettie +Pratt calling in the Turners and Pratts and Hoovers, Buck have come +home to supper on time, as I know will relieve Hettie Ann's mind, +Squire Tutt just went in the front gate as I come up the walk and I +seen Mis' Bostick light the lamp in the Deacon's study from my kitchen +window a minute ago. They ain't nothing in the world that makes me so +contented as to know that all Providence is a-setting down to meals at +the same time and a-feeding together as one family, though in different +houses. The good Lord will get all the rendered thanks at the same time +and I feel it will please Him--ours is late on account of Elinory +deciding at the last minute to beat up some clabber cheese with fresh +cream for your supper, like she says they fix it up over in Europe +somewhere she lived while she was a-studying to sing. I come on out so +she could have a swing to herself and not think anybody was a-hurrying +of her. It's a riled woman as generally answers the call of hurry and I +never gives it, lessen it's life or death or a chicken-hawk." + +"But, Mother," remonstrated the Doctor with a very real distress in his +voice, "ought you to let her--Miss Wingate--do such things--so many +things? Are you sure she enjoys it and is not just doing it to help or +because she thinks she ought? Or do you--?" + +"Well," interrupted Mother decidedly, "it's my opinion they ain't +nothing in the world so heavy as empty hands. She have had to lay down +a music book and I don't know nothing better to offer than a +butter-paddle and a bread-bowl. It's the feeding of folks that counts +in a woman's life, whether it be songs or just bread and butter. If +Elinory's tunes was as much of a success as her riz biscuits have come +to be, I wisht I could have heard her just onct." + +"I did, Mother, the first night she sang in America--and it was very +wonderful. When I think of the great opera house, the lights and the +flowers, the audience mad with joy and the applause and--I--I--wonder +how she stands it!" + +"Yes," answered Mother, "I reckon wondering how Eve stood things muster +took Adam's mind offen hisself to a very comforting degree. Courage was +the ingredient the good Lord took to start making a woman with and it's +been a-witnessing his spirit in her ever since. I oughtn't to have to +tell you that." + +"You don't," Doctor Tom hastened to answer as he smiled down on Mother. +"I only spoke as I did about Miss Wingate because you see she is--well, +what we would call a very great lady and I wouldn't have her think that +I did not realize that-?" + +"Well, you can do as you choose," answered Mother placidly as she +prepared to take her departure to see to the finishing up of the +supper, "but I ain't a-letting no foolish pride hold my heart back from +my honey-bird. Love's my bread of life and I offers it free, high or +low. Come on and see how you like that cheese fixing she's done made +for you." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PEONY-GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN + + +"There's just no doubt about it, if Tom Mayberry weren't my own son and +I had occasion to know better I'd think he had teeth in his heels, from +the looks of his socks. Every week Cindy darns them a spell and then I +take a hand at it. Just look, Elinory, did you ever see a worser hole +than this?" As Mother Mayberry spoke she held up for Miss Wingate's +interested inspection a fine, dark blue sock. They were sitting on the +porch in the late afternoon and the singer lady was again at work on a +bit of wardrobe for the doll daughter of her friend Eliza. + +"How does he manage such--such awful ones?" asked Miss Wingate with a +laugh. + +"That you can't never prove by me," answered his mother as she slipped +a small gourd into the top of the sock and drew a thread through her +needle. + +"Sometimes I wish the time when I could turn him barefooted from May to +November had never gone by. But a-wishing they children back in years +is a habit most mothers have got in common, I reckon. When he's away +from me I dream him often at all ages, but it's mostly from six to +eleven I seem to want him. When he were six, with Doctor Mayberry gone, +I took to steadying myself by Tom and at eleven I made up my mind to +give him up." + +"Give him up?" asked Miss Wingate as she raised her eyes from her work. +"I don't think you seem to have given him up to any serious extent." +And she smiled as she turned her head in the direction of the office +wing, from which came a low whistled tune, jerkily and absorbedly +rendered. + +"Oh, he don't belong to me no more," answered his mother in a placid +tone of voice as she rocked to and fro with her work. "I fought out all +that fight when I took my resolve. I just figured something like this, +Pa Lovell had been a-doctoring on Harpeth Hills for a lifetime and +Doctor Mayberry had gave all his young-man life to answering the call, +a-carrying the grace of God as his main remedy, so now I felt like the +time had come for a Lovell and a Mayberry to go out and be something to +the rest of the world, and Tom were the one to carry the flag. I seen +that the call were on him since he helped me through a spell of May +pips with over two hundred little chickens before he were five years +old, and he cut a knot out of the Deacon's roan horse by the direction +of a book when he weren't but eleven, as saved its life. That kinder +settled it with me and the Deacon both, though we talked it back and +forth for two more years. Then Deacon took to teaching of him regular +and I set in to save all I could from the thin peeling of potatoes to +worser darnings and patches than this. Would you think they could be +any worser?" And she smiled up over her glasses at the girl opposite +her. + +"Tell me about it," demanded the singer lady interestedly. "Where did +you send him to school first?" + +"Right down here to the City. You see Doctor Mayberry left me this +home, fifty acres and a small life insurance, so they was a little +something to inch and pinch on. You can't save by trying to peel +nothing, but the smallest potatoes have got a skin, and I peeled close +them days. Tom did his part too and he run the plow deep and straight +when he wasn't much taller than the handles. I had done talked it over +with him and asked him would he, and he looked right in my eyes in his +dependable way and said yes he would. That finished it and he wasn't +but eleven; but I don't want to brag on him to you. If you listen to +mothers' talk the world are full of heroes and none-suches." Again Miss +Wingate received the smile from over Mother Mayberry's glasses and this +time it was tinged with a whimsical pride. + +"Please, Mrs. Mayberry, tell me about it; you know I want to hear," +begged the girl, and she moved her chair nearer to Mother's and picked +up the mate of the blue sock off her knee. "How old was he when he went +to college?" + +"Just sixteen, big and hearty and with enough in his head to get +through the examinations. I packed him up, and him and the Deacon +started down Providence Road at sun-up in the Deacon's old buggy. He +looked both man and baby to me as he turned around to smile back; but I +stood it out at the gate until they turned the bend, then I come on +back to the house quick like some kind of hurted animal. But, dearie +me, I never got a single tear shed, for there were Mis' Peavey with +Buck in her arms, shaking him upside down to get out a brass button he +hadn't swallowed. By the time we poured him full of hot mustard water +and the button fell outen his little apron pocket, I had done got my +grip on myself." + +"I just can't stand it that you had to let him go," Miss Wingate both +laughed and sobbed. + +"Yes, but I ain't told you about the commencement, honey-bird. There's +that tear _I_ didn't get to drop a-splashing outen your eyes on the +doll's hat! That day was the most grandest thing that ever happened to +anybody's mother, anywhere in this world. I didn't think I could go to +see him get the diplomy, for with all his saving ways and working hard +in the summer, it had been a pull to make buckle and tongue meet and +there just wasn't nothing left for me to buy no stylish clothes to +wear. I set here a-worrying over it, not that I minded, but it was hard +on the boy to have to make his step-off in life and his mother not be +there to see. And somehow I felt as if it would hurt Pa Lovell and +Doctor Mayberry for me not to be with him. Then with thinking of Pa +Lovell a sudden idea popped into my head. There was Seliny Lue Lovell +right down to the Bluff, on the road to town, and with Aunt Lovell's +fine black silk dress packed away in the trunk, as good as new, and me +and Seliny Lue of almost the same figger as her mother. That just +settled the question and I got up and washed out my water-waves in a +little bluing water to make 'em extra white, dabbed buttermilk on my +face to get off some of the tan and called over Mis' Peavey and Mis' +Pike to let 'em know. The next morning I started off gay with everybody +there to see and sending messages to Tom." + +"Wasn't it fortunate you thought of the dress and lovely for you to be +able to go right by and get it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, her eyes as +bright as Mother Mayberry's and her cheeks pink with excitement as the +tale began to unfold its dramatic length. + +"Yes, and Seliny Lue was glad enough to see me! We laughed and talked +half the night, was up early, and she took a time to rig me out. It is +a stiff black silk, as anybody would be proud of, cut liberal with real +lace collar and cuffs. Seliny Lue said I looked fine in it. I wisht she +could have gone with me, but they wasn't room for both of us inside the +dress." And Mother laughed merrily at the memory of her borrowing +escapade. + +"Did Doctor Mayberry know you were coming?" asked the singer lady, +hurrying on the climax of the recital. + +"Not a word! He'd gone off the week before taking it sensible, but I +could see hurt mightily about it. I got to the University Hall late, +and 'most everybody in the world looked like they was there. I stood at +the back and didn't hope to see or hear, just thankful to be near him, +but I seen one of them young usher men a-looking hard at me and he came +up and asked me if I wasn't Mr. Thomas Mayberry's mother. He had knew +me by the favor. I told him yes and he took me up to the very front +just as the singing begun. I soon got me and the silk dress settled, +with the bokay all Providence had sent Tom on my knee, and looked +around me. There next to me was the sweetest young-lady girl I have +'most ever saw, and she smiled at me real friendly. I was just about to +speak when the music stopped and the addressing began by a tall thin +kinder man. Elinory, child, did you ever hear one of them young men's +life-commencement speeches made?" This time Mother Mayberry peered over +the top of her glasses seriously and her needle paused suspended over +the fast narrowing hole in the sock. + +"Yes, but I don't think I ever listened very carefully," admitted Miss +Wingate with a smile. + +"Well, I felt that if the Lord had gave it to me to stand up there and +say a word of start-off to all them boys setting solemn and listening, +it wouldn't have been about no combination of things done by men dead +and gone, that didn't seem to prove nothing in particular on nobody. I +woulder read 'em a line of scripture and then talked honest dealing by +one another, the measuring out of work according to the pay and always +a little over, the putting of a shoulder under another man's pressing +burden, the respect of women folks, the respect of theyselves and the +looking to the Lord to see 'em through it all. That speech made me so +mad I 'most forgot it was time for Tom's valediction. Honey-bird, I +wisht you coulder seen him and heard him." + +"I wish I could," answered Miss Wingate with a flush. + +"Dearie me, but he was handsome and he spoke words of sense that the +other gray-haired man seemed to have forgot! And they was a farewell +sadness in it too, what got some of them boys' faces to working, and I +felt a big tear roll down and splash right on the lace collar. Then he +sat down and they was a to-do of hollering and clapping, but I just sat +there too happy to take in the rest of what was did. Sometimes they is +a kinder pride swell in a mother's heart that rises right up and talks +to her soul in psalm words, and I heard mine that day." Mother's eyes +softened and looked far away across to the blue hills. + +"What did he do when he saw you?" asked Miss Wingate gently. + +"Oh, I didn't pay much attention to him when he come up to me, or let +on how I felt. That sweet child next to me had done found out I was his +mother, I couldn't help telling her. And then she had sent for her +father, who was the head Dean man, and about the time Tom came up, he +was there shaking hands with me and telling me how proud the whole +University was of Tom and about the great scholarship for him to go to +New York to study he had got, and that he must go. It didn't take me +hardly two seconds to think a mortgage on the house and fifty acres, +the cows and all, so I answered right up on time that go he should. +While I was a-talking Tom had gave the bokay from Providence to the +girl, what he had been knowing all the time at her father's house. And +she had her nose buried in one of Mis' Peavey's pink peonys, a-blushing +as pretty as you please over it at that country bumpkin of mine with +all his fine manners. That Miss Alford is one of the most sweet girls +you ever have saw. She and me have been friends ever since. She comes +out to see me in her ottermobile sometimes. She ain't down to the City +now, for I had a picture card from some place out West from her, but +when she comes back I'm a-going to ask her to come up and have a +stay-a-week-in-the-house party for you; and she can bring her brother. +You might like him. The four of you can have some nice junketings +together. Won't that be fine?" + +"Y-e-s," answered the singer lady slowly, "but I'm afraid I'm not able +now to interest anybody, and my voice, when I speak--I--I--Will it be +soon?" Her question had a trace of positive anxiety in it and her joy +was most evidently forced. + +"Oh, not till June rose time! And your voice now sounds like a angel's +with a bad cold. I'll tell Tom about it, he'll be so pleased. Her +father was such a friend to him and as proud of him now as can be." + +"Did Doctor Mayberry stay in the City--after his graduation?" asked +Miss Wingate, a trace of anxiety in her voice. + +"That he didn't! He come on home with me that night, got into his +overalls and begun to plow for winter wheat by sun-up the next morning. +We made a good crop that year and the mortgage wasn't but a few hundred +dollars, what we soon paid. We've been going up ever since. Tom reminds +me of a kite, and I must make out to play tail for him until I can pick +him out a wife." + +"Have you thought of anybody in particular?" asked the lovely lady +without raising her eyes from her work. She had commenced operations on +the blue sock unnoticed by Mother, who was taken up in the unfolding of +her tale. + +"Not yet," answered she cheerfully. "I mustn't hurry. Marrying ain't no +one-day summer junket, but a year round march and the woman to raise +the hymn tune. I take it that after a mother have builded up a man, she +oughter see to it that he's capped off fine with a wife, and then she +can forget all about him. I've got my eyes open about Tom and I'm going +to begin to hunt around soon." + +"I wonder just what kind of a wife you--you will select for him," +murmured Miss Wingate with her eyes still on the sock, which she was +industriously sewing up into a tight knot on the left side of the heel. + +"Well, a man oughter marry mostly for good looks and gumption; the +looks to keep him from knowing when the gumption is being used on him. +Tom's so say-nothing and shy with women folks that he won't be no hard +proposition for nobody. But with that way of his'n I'm afraid of his +being spoiled some. I have to be real stern with myself to keep from +being foolish over him." + +"But you want his wife to--to love him, don't you?" asked Miss Wingate, +as she raised very large and frankly questioning eyes to Mother +Mayberry, who was snipping loose threads from her completed task. + +"Oh she'll do that and no trouble! But a man oughter be allowed to +sense his wife have got plenty of love and affection preserved, only he +don't know where she keeps the jar at. As I say, I don't want Tom +Mayberry spoiled. What did I do with that other sock?" And Mother began +to hunt in her darning bag, in her lap and on the floor. + +"Here it is," answered Miss Wingate as she blushed guiltily. "I--darned +it." And she handed her handiwork over to Mother Mayberry with +trepidation in voice and expression. + +"Well, now," said Mother, as she inspected the tight little wad on the +blue heel. "It was right down kind of you to turn to and help me like +this, but, honey-bird, Tom Mayberry would walk like a hop toad after +he'd done got it on. You have drawn it bad. I don't know no better time +to learn you how to darn your husband's socks than right now on this +one of Tom's. You see you must begin with long cross stitches in +the--Now what's all this a-coming!" And Mother Mayberry rose, looked +down the Road and hurried to the sidewalk with the darning bag under +her arm and her thimble still on her finger. + +Up the middle of the Road came, in a body, the entire juvenile +population of Providence at a break-neck speed and farther down the +street they were followed by Deacon Bostick, coming as fast as his +feeble old legs would bring him. Eliza Pike headed the party with +Teether hitched high up en her arm and Martin Luther clinging to her +short blue calico skirt. They all drew up in a semicircle in front of +Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate and looked at Eliza expectantly. On +all occasions of excitement Eliza was both self-constituted and +unanimously appointed spokesman. On this occasion she began in the +dramatic part of the news without any sort of preamble. + +"It's a circus," she said breathlessly, "a-moving over from Bolivar to +Springfield and nelephants and camels and roar-lions and tigers and +Mis' Pratt and Deacon and Mr. Hoover and everybody is a-going over to +watch it pass--and we can't--we can't!" Her voice broke into a wail, +which was echoed by a sob and a howl from across the street just inside +the Pike gate, where Bud and Susie pressed their forlorn little bodies +against the palings and looked out on the world with the despair of the +incarcerated in their eyes. + +"Why can't you?" demanded Mother. + +"Oh, Maw have gone across the Nob to Aunt Elviry's and left Susie May +and Bud being punished. They can't go outen the gate and I ain't +a-going to no circus with my little brother and sister being punished, +and I won't let Billy and Ez go either." By this time the whole group +was in different stages of grief, for the viewing of a circus without +the company of Eliza Pike had the flavor of dead sea fruit in all their +small mouths. From the heart in Eliza's small bosom radiated the force +that vivified the lives of the whole small-fry congregation, and a +circus not seen through her eyes would be but a dreary vision. + +"Now ain't that too bad!" said Mother Mayberry with compassion and +irritation striving in her voice. "What did they do and just what did +she say?" + +"Susie hurted Aunt Prissy's feelings, by taking the last biscuit when +they wasn't one left for her, and Maw said she would have to stay in +the yard until she learned to be kind and respectful to Paw's sister, +She didn't mean to be bad." And Eliza presented the case of her small +sister with hopelessness in every tone. + +"Well, Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "don't you feel kind to her yet?" +There was a note of hope in Mother's voice that silenced all the wails, +and they all fixed large and expectant eyes upon this friend who never +failed them. By this time the Deacon had joined the group and his +gentle old eyes were also fixed on Mother Mayberry's face, with the +same confident hope that the children's expressed. + +"I've done been kind to her," sniffed the culprit. "I let her cut all +my finger-nails and wash my ears and never said a word. She have been +working on me all afternoon and it hurt." + +"Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "you can go over to the cross-roads and +see that circus with the Deacon. They can't no little girl do better +than that, and your Maw just told you to stay until you learned that +lesson. You are let out! Now, what did you do, Bud?" + +"I slid on the lean-to and tored all the back of my britches out. She +couldn't stop to mend 'em and she said I could just stay front ways to +folks until she come home, and they shouldn't nobody mend 'em for me." +Bud choked with grief and mortification and edged back as little Bettie +Pratt started in his direction on an investigating tour. + +"Well course, Bud," said Mother with judicial eye, "you can't take them +britches off." She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. + +"I ain't a-going a step without him," reiterated the loyal Eliza, and +the rest of the children's faces fell. + +"Too bad," murmured the Deacon, and Miss Wingate could see that his +distress at the plight of young Bud was as genuine as that of any of +the rest. + +"But," began Mother Mayberry slowly, having in the last second weighed +the matter and made a decision, "your mother ain't said you couldn't go +outen the yard and she ain't said I couldn't wrap you up in one of my +kitchen aprons. That wouldn't be the same as changing the britches. She +didn't know about this circus and if she was here you all know she +woulder done as I asked her to do about Bud, so he ain't a-disobeying +her and I ain't neither, Run get the apron hanging behind the door, +Susie, and I'll fix him." + +"Sister Mayberry," said the Deacon with a delighted smile in his kind +eyes, but a twinkle in their corners, "your decision involves the +interpretation of both the letter and the spirit of the law. I am glad +it, in this case, rested with you." + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry, as she took the apron from Susie and +started across the Road on her rescue mission, "a woman have got to cut +her conscience kinder bias in the dealing with children. If they're +stuffed full of food and kindness they will mostly forget to be bad, +and oughtent to be made to remember they CAN be by being punished too +long. Now, sonny, I'll get you fixed up so stylish with these pins and +this apron that the circus will want to carry you off. Start on, +Deacon, he's a-coming." + +"I've got to get the baby's bonnet," said Eliza as the whole party +started away in a trail after the Deacon, who led Martin Luther by one +hand and little Bettie by the other. Over by the store they could see +Mrs. Pratt waiting to marshal the forces on down the Road and Mr. +Hoover stood ready as outstanding escort. He had brought the news of +the passing of the circus train and she had promptly consented to +taking the children and the Deacon over for a view. + +"Please, Eliza, please don't take the baby! Leave him with me," said +Miss Wingate and as she spoke she stretched out her arms to Teether. +Teether was looking worn with the excitement of the day and his +sympathetic friend felt the journey would be too much for him. He +smiled and fell over on her shoulder with a sigh of contentment. + +"Don't you think he oughter see them nelephants and things?" asked +Eliza doubtfully, her loyalty to Teether warring with the relief of +having him out of her thin little arms for the journey. + +"He won't mind. Let me keep him here on the front porch until you come +back. Now run along and have a good time," and Miss Wingate started up +the front walk, as Eliza darted away to join the others. + +"I do declare," said Mother Mayberry, as she watched the expedition +wend its way down the white Road in the direction of the Bolivar pike, +"the way the Deacon do love the children is plumb beautiful, and sad +some too. I don't know what he would do without Jem or they without +him. Seeing 'em together reminds me of that scraggy, old snowball bush +in full bloom, leaning down to the little Stars of Bethlehem reaching +up to it. What that good man have been to me only my Heavenly Father +can know and Tom Mayberry suspicion. I tell you what I think I'll do; +I'll take one of them little pans of rolls what Cindy have baked for +supper, with a jar of peach preserves, and go down and set with Mis' +Bostick while the Deacon are gone. We can run the pan of rolls in to +get hot for him when he comes home and I know he likes the preserves. I +want to stop in to see Mis' Tutt too and give her a little advice about +that taking so much blue-mass. I don't see how anybody with a bad liver +can have any religion at all, much less a second blessing. I know the +Squire have his faults, but others has failings too. And, too, I'll +have to stop in and pacify Miss Prissy about turning the children +loose, before I go down the Road." + +"Miss Prissy always seems to be getting the children into trouble. I +wonder why," said the singer lady with a shade of resentment in her +voice. The little Pikes had established themselves firmly in the heart +of this new friend, and she found herself in an attitude of critical +partisanship. + +"I reckon Miss Prissy is what you call a kinder crank," answered Mother +Mayberry as she paused at the foot of the steps. "A married woman have +got to be the hub of a family-wheel, but a old maid can be the outside +crank that turns the whole contraption backwards if she has a mind to. +I wish Miss Prissy had a little more understanding of the children, +'cause the rub all comes on Mis' Pike, and she's fair wore out with it. +But I must be a-going so as to be the sooner a-coming. I wisht you +would tell Tom Mayberry to go and let you help him put the hens and +little chickens to bed. Feed 'em two quarts of millet seed, and you +both know how to do it right if you have a mind to. I'm going to +compliment you by a-trusting you this once, and don't let me wish I +hadn't! I'll be back in the course of time." + +And so it happened that as Doctor Mayberry was in the act of swinging +his microscope over a particularly absorbing new plate, a very lovely +vision framed itself in his office door against the background of +Harpeth Hill, which was composed of the slim singer girl with the baby +nodding over her shoulder. The unexpectedness of the visit sent the +color up under his tan and brought him to his feet with a delighted +smile. + +"I don't know how you are going to feel about it, but I bring the news +of an honor which we are to share. Do you suppose, do you, that we can +put the chickens to bed for Mrs. Mayberry? She says we are to try, and +if we don't do it the right way she is never going to compliment us +with her confidence again. Help, please! I'm weighted down by the +responsibility." And as she spoke Miss Wingate's eyes shone across +Teether's bobbing head with delighted merriment. + +"Well, let's try," answered the Doctor with the air of being ready to +do or dare, an attitude which a vision such as his eyes rested upon is +apt to incite in any man thus challenged. "Will you take command? I'm +many times proved incompetent on such occasions, and I feel sure Mother +trusted to your generalship." And together they went through the garden +and over into the chicken yard. + +"Now," said Miss Wingate, "I think the thing to do is not to let them +know we are afraid of them. Let's just take their going under the coops +as a matter of course, and then, perhaps, they will go without any +remonstrance." + +"Sort of a mental influence dodge," answered the Doctor +enthusiastically. "Let's try it on Spangles first. I somehow feel that +she will be more impressionable than Old Dominick. You influence while +I spread the millet seed in front of her coop." And he bent down in +front of the half barrel and carefully laid a tempting evening meal, +with his eye on Fuss-and-Feathers. Spangles hesitated, stood on one +foot, clucked in an affected tone of voice to her huddling babies and +coquettishly turned her head from one side to the other as if enthusing +over his artistic service before accepting his hospitality. Then, just +as she was poising one dainty foot ready for the first step in advance, +and had sounded a forward note to the cheepers around her, Old Dominick +calmly stalked forward, stepped right across the Doctor's coaxing hand +held out to Spangles, and, settling herself in the coop, began, with +her voracious band of little plebeians, to devour the grain with stolid +appreciation. + +Miss Wingate laughed merrily, Teether Pike gurgled and the Doctor +looked up with baffled astonishment. + +"That was your fault," he accused; "you influenced Dominick while I was +expending my force in beguiling Spangles. Now, you try to get her in +the next coop yourself. I shan't help you further than to spread the +grain in front of all the coops." And in accordance with his threat the +Doctor disposed of the rest of the food and stood with the empty pan in +his hand. And, like the well-trained flock of biddies that they were, +all the rest of the hen mothers clucked and cajoled their fluffy little +families into their accustomed shelters and began to dispose of their +suppers with contented clucks and cheeps. Only Mrs. Spangles stood afar +and eyed the only vacant coop with evident disdain. + +"I don't know what to do," murmured Miss Wingate pleadingly. But the +Doctor stood firm, and regarded her with maliciously delighted eyes. +Teether bobbed his head over her shoulder and giggled with ungrateful +delight The poor little chicks peeped sleepily, but still Spangles held +her ground. The truth of the matter was that Dominick had really taken +the coop usually occupied by her ladyship, and with worldly +determination, the scion of all the Wyandottes was holding out against +the exchange. + +With a glance out of the side of her eyes from under her lowered lashes +in the direction of Doctor Mayberry in his stern attitude, the singer +lady cautiously veered around to the rear of the insulted grandee, and, +grasping her fluffy skirts in her free hand, she shook them out with a +pleading "Shoo!" Instantly a perfect whirlwind of spangled feathers +veered around and faced the cascade of frills, and a volume of defiant +hisses fairly filled the air. Teether squealed and Miss Wingate +retreated to the bounds of the fence. The Doctor laughed in the most +heartless manner, and still Spangles held her ground. + +To make matters worse, Mother Mayberry's jovial voice, mingled with the +shrill treble of the combined circus party, who were trying all at once +to tell her the wonders of the adventure, could be distinctly heard in +an increasing volume that told of their rapid approach. The situation +was desperate, and the loss of Mother Mayberry's faith in her seemed +inevitable to the nonplussed singer lady as she leaned against the +fence with Teether over her shoulder. Then the instinct that is +centuries old presented to her the wile that is of equal antiquity and, +raising her purple eyes to the defenseless Doctor, she murmured in a +voice of utter helplessness, into which was judiciously mingled a tone +of perfect confidence: + +"Please, sir, get her in for me." + +The response to which, being foreordained from the beginning of time, +took Doctor Mayberry just one exciting half-minute grab and shove to +accomplish, at the end of which a ruffled but chastened Spangles was +forced to assemble her family and content herself behind the bars of +the despised coop. + +"Well," said Mother Mayberry as she hurried around the corner of the +house with the depleted and milk-hungry Martin Luther trailing at her +skirts, "did you make out to manage 'em? Why, ain't that fine; every +one in and settled and Fuss-and-Feathers in that end coop where I have +been wanting her to be for a week, seeing Dominick have got so many +more chickens and needs that larger barrel. I didn't depend on Tom +Mayberry, but I did on you, Elinory. This just goes to show that if you +put a little trust in people they are mighty apt to rise in the pan to +a occasion. You all look like you've been having a real good time!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LOVE, THE CURE-ALL + + +"Eat milk, thank ma'am, please, Mother Lady," demanded Martin Luther as +he stood on the top step in front of Mother Mayberry, who, with Miss +Wingate beside her, sat sewing away the early hours of the morning. A +tiny blue-check shirt was taking shape under Mother's skilful fingers, +and the singer lady was deep in the mysteries of the fore and aft of a +minute pair of jeans trousers. The limitations of young Ez's wardrobe +had necessitated the speedy construction of one for the little adopt, +and Miss Wingate's education along the lines of needle control was +progressing at what she considered a remarkable rate. + +"Why, Martin Luther!" She looked down at him over a carefully poised +needle. "How can you be hungry when you ate your breakfast not two +hours ago?" she added with the intent to beguile him from his demand. + +"All gone, thank ma'am, please," he answered, looking out from under +his curl with a pathetic cast of his blue eyes, and at the same time +spreading both hands over his entire vital region. + +"I reckon maybe we'd better fill him up again," said Mother. "Them legs +still look 'most too much like knitting-needles to suit me, and I +kinder want to feel him to be sure his stomick haven't growed to his +backbone. Anyway, you can't never measure a boy's food by his size. +Please run and get him a glass of buttermilk and a biscuit, child, +while I finish setting in this sleeve. Let me see them britches legs +'fore you put 'em down. Dearie me, if you ain't gone and made 'em both +for the same leg! Too bad, with all them pretty baste-stitches!" + +"Oh!" gasped Miss Wingate in dismay; "have I ruined them?" + +"No, indeed, just turn the left leg inside out and hem it up again--or +you might make two more right legs to sew on to these. It would be a +good thing to double one failing mistake up into two successes, +wouldn't it? Often bad luck turned inside out makes a cap that fits +plumb easy. While you fill the boy up, I'll cut out his other legs for +you to baste right this time. Take a peep around the garden before you +come back to see if Spangles have got her chickens in the wet weeds. I +hadn't oughter let her pretty feathers make me distrust her, but it +do." And Mother went placidly on with her sewing as she watched the +girl and the tot go hand-in-hand down the path to the spring-house +under the hill. She had just placed in her sleeve and was regarding it +with entire satisfaction, when the front gate clicked and she looked up +with interest. + +"Well, good morning, Mis' Mayberry," came in Bettie Pratt's hearty +voice as she swung up the walk at a brisk pace. On one arm she held a +bobbing baby in a white sunbonnet, a toddler clung to her skirts and a +small boy trailed behind her with a puppy in his arms. She was buxom +and rosy, was the Widow Pratt, with a dangerous dimple over the corner +of her mouth, a decided come-hither in her blue eyes, and a smile that +compelled a response. + +"Why, Bettie child, how glad I am to see you!" exclaimed Mother, +rendering the smile from out over her glasses. "I didn't see you all +day yesterday and not the day before, neither. But I put it down to a +work-hold on us both, and didn't worry none. And now here you are, with +some of the little folks! Here's a empty spool for little Bettie," and +she held out the treasure to the toddler, who sidled up to her knee +with confidence to grasp the gift. + +"I told Pattie Hoover if she would stay at home this morning and clean +up some like her Pa wants her to that I'd let my Clara May help her and +would bring the baby on up here to get him outen the way. 'Lias come +along to get you to look at his puppy's foot, and I want you to see if +you don't think the baby have fatted some since I've took holt and +helped Pattie with the feeding of him." + +"He have that," answered Mother heartily. "I can tell it without even +feeling of his legs. You've got the growing hand with babies, Bettie, +and I'm glad you don't hold it back from this little half-orphant. I +don't know what the poor little Hoovers would do without you!" + +"That's what poor Mr. Hoover says," answered Bettie with the utmost +unconsciousness. "Show Mis' Mayberry the puppy's foot, 'Lias." + +"Why, the pitiful little thing!" exclaimed Mother when a small, brown, +crushed paw was presented to her inspection. "What happened to it?" + +"Mr. Petway's horse stepped on it--he didn't care. He just got in the +buggy and went on. I'm a-going to kill him with a gun when I get one." +Tears of rage and grief welled up in 'Lias' eyes, but he choked them +back with a resolution that boded ill for Mr. Petway when the time of +reckoning came. + +"You mustn't talk that way, 'Lias, though it are a shame," said Mother +as she looked closely at the injured paw. "The bone's all crushed. I'll +tell you what to do; just take him around to Doctor Tom's office and +he'll fix it in no time for you, in a way I couldn't never do. He won't +even limp, maybe." And Mother Mayberry made the offer of a piece of +skilled surgery with the utmost generosity. + +'Lias clasped the puppy closer, looked down and drew one of his bare +toes along a crack in the floor. "I'd rather you'd do it," he said. + +"Now, don't that just beat all!" exclaimed Mother with both amusement +and exasperation in her face. "Looks like I can't even get Tom a puppy +practice." + +"Why, 'Lias Hoover, I'm ashamed of you not to want Doctor Tom to fix +his foot, and thank you, too! Didn't Bud Pike tell you last night how +he cut his little brother's mouth and didn't hurt him a bit, neither? +Bud is going to get him to fix his next stubbed toe hisself. Bud ain't +no bigger boy than you, but he knows a good doctor same as Mis' +Mayberry and me does when he sees one." There are ways and ways of +controverting masculine obstinancy, and evidently life had taught Mrs. +Pratt the efficacy of beguilement. Without more reluctance 'Lias +disappeared around the house in the direction of the office wing. + +"I'm mighty glad you come along this morning, Bettie," said Mother +Mayberry, as she threaded a new needle with a long thread. Little +Bettie had seated herself on the floor and begun operations with the +spool and a piece of string that vastly amused little Hoover, whom Mrs. +Pratt deposited opposite her within reach of her own balancing foot, +for the baby's age and backbone were both at a tender period. "I've got +a kinder worry on my mind that I'd like to get a little help from you +as to know what to do about. Have you noticed that both the Deacon and +Mis' Bostick look mighty peaky? Course Deacon have been sick, and she +have had a spell of nursing, but they don't neither of them pick up +like they oughter. Mis' Bostick puts me in mind of a little, +withered-up, gray seed pod when all the down have blowed away, and the +Deacon's britches fair flap around his poor thin shanks. Something or +other just makes me sense what is the matter." + +"And me, too, Mis' Mayberry. I've been a-feeling of it for some time, +since we all quit out with the nursing and taking 'em complimentary +dishes of truck. They is--is hungry." Mrs. Pratt brought out the +statement of the fact in a positively awestruck voice. + +"That's what I'm afraid it is, Bettie," answered Mother, "and it hurts +me hard to think how he have served the Lord and helped us all in our +duty to Him and each other, she a-giving us of her bounty of +sister-love, and now, when they's old and feeble, a-feeling the pinch +of need. The young can reach out and help theyselves to they share of +life, but it oughter be handed old folks with thoughtful respect. We've +got to do something about it." + +"Course we have," assented the widow heartily. "But how are we a-going +to just give 'em things offen a cold collar? They're both so proud. +With owning the house, the bit the church gives 'em would do the rest, +but the Deacon have tooken that debt no-'count Will Bostick run off and +left down in the City to pay, and it have left 'em at starvation's +door. But that's neither here nor there; we've got to do something. +They don't need much but food, and Mis' Bostick is most too weak now to +cook it if they has the ingredients gave 'em to hand. They must be did +for some way." + +"And we've got to do it without a-giving them a single hurt feeling, +either," said Mother. "Enough good-will jelly will hide any kind of +charity pill, I say. Not as what we do for her and the Deacon can ever +be anything but thanks rendered for the blessing of them. But you get +to thinking, Bettie. The knees to my wits are getting old and stiff." + +"Well, there's a donation party," suggested the widow thoughtfully. +"Everybody could help, and it could be made real pleasant with the men +asked to come in after supper. Everything could be gave from stovewood +to the Deacon some new Sunday pants. We did that once before, five +years ago to his birthday, and they was mighty pleased. Let's do it +again." + +"But that was before this disgrace of Will happened, and they didn't +downright need the things then--it were all sort of complimentary. When +needs are gave it's charity, but what you don't want is just a present. +We've got to find a way to do up needs in a present package for 'em. I +declare, I feel right put to know what to do." Mother Mayberry's voice +was actually worried, and she paused with her scissors ready to snip a +bit of the gingham into narrow bands. + +"Well, we oughter be thankful we've got the things to give, and we'll +find some sort of way to slip up on the blind side of them about the +taking of them. The Deacon's britches is one pressing thing. Can't we +take some of the church carpet money and get Mr. Hoover to buy him a +pair when he hauls corn to town Monday?" + +"Yes, indeed, we can," answered Mother Mayberry, radiant at the very +thought of this relief proposition. "It's a heap more important to +carpet the Deacon with britches than the church floor right now. +Between them and her old bombersine, Mis' Bostick have spent the year +with her patch-thimble on her finger." + +"I declare, it hurts me so in church to look at her elbows and back +seams that I can't hardly listen to the Deacon pray. Patching is the +most worrisome job a woman has to do, according to my mind," said the +widow, with an expression of distaste on her beaming face. "I've done +patched two men, and I know what I'm talking about." + +"It is a trial," answered Mother Mayberry, "and Mis' Bostick's life +have been a patched one at the best, a-moving in the Methodist wagon +from one station to another and a-trying every time to cut herself out +by a new style to suit each congregation, Anyway, I reckon all women's +lives have wored thin and had to be darned in some places, but patches +on her garment of life ain't going to make no difference to a woman +when she puts it on to meet her Lord, just so it's cut on the charity +mantle pattern. And Mis' Bostick's was hung to cover the multitude. But +a-talking here have made me sprout a idea: 'Liza Pike have blazed the +trail for us, bless her little heart! Her mother don't never cook a +single thing that 'Liza haven't got a dish handy to beg some for the +Deacon and Mis' Bostick. And she don't stop at her own cook stove, but +she's always here looking into what Cindy cooks with an eye to the old +folk's sweet-tooths or chicken-hankers. I know, too, she gets what she +wants from you for them, so there is our leading. The Deacon loves +'Liza, and she is such a entertainment to him that he'd eat ten meals a +day at her dictation and no questions asked. And she do beat all with +her mothering ways with them old folks. Last Wednesday night she had +Deacon a-leading prayer meeting with a red flannel band around his +throat for his croaks, and just yesterday she made Mis' Bostick stay in +bed half the day, covered up head and ears, to sweat off a little +nose-dripping cold. She's always a-consulting Tom and leaving me out. I +think she's got her eye on my practice. They never was such a +master-hand of a child in Providence before." + +"There you are right," laughed the widow. "It's getting so that they +ain't a child on the Road as will let its own mother look at a cut +finger or a black bruise 'fore 'Liza have done had her say about what +is to be did. I believe it is as you say, Mis' Mayberry, and 'Liza can +play raven for us in fine style. I know Mis' Pike will push it on and +more'n do her part in the filling of the child's covered dish." + +"That she will," answered Mother Mayberry heartily. "Judy Pike spends a +heap of time turning over life to find for certain which is the right +and wrong of it, but once found, she sticks close to the top weave. +We'll plan it all out at the Sewing Circle, and then get it down to +days who's to send what regular. I'm thankful for this leading of how +to take care of our old folks, and I know you are, too." + +"Couldn't nobody be thankfuller," answered the rosy widow, "and the +filling of that dish is a-going to give me a lot of good pride. But I'd +better be going and seeing after them girls and the house cleaning. +They are both master hands, but if Buck Peavey was to happen to tie +hisself up to the front gate, it would be good-by dust-pan and mop for +Pattie. Not that I don't feel for her in the liking of that rampaging +boy of Mis' Peavey's, and it's mighty hard not to kinder saunter into a +little chat when the men folks call you. How are Miss Elinory to-day? +Ain't she the prettiest and most stylishest girl you have ever saw? I +wonder if she would lend me that long-tailed waist she wears to get the +pattern off to make me and Clara May and Pattie one?" As she spoke, +Mrs. Pratt rose, picked up little Hoover and set Bettie on her little +bare feet. + +"I know she will be glad to, and such a head sewer as you are can copy +it most exact. Here she are now! Child, Mis' Pratt have been so +complimenting of your looks and clothes that I'm sorter set up with +pride over you." + +"Good morning, Mrs. Pratt," exclaimed the singer lady, as she appeared +in the doorway with the resuscitated Martin Luther at her side. "The +darling babies! You are not going, are you?" The widow and Miss Wingate +had developed a decided attraction for each other, and their blossoming +friendship delighted Mother Mayberry most obviously. + +"I wish I didn't have to," answered Mrs. Pratt, beaming with smiles, +which little Bettie echoed as she coquetted around her mother's skirts +with Miss Wingate, "but it's most dinner-pot time, and I've got mouths +to feed when the horn blows." + +"Elinory, child, run get that pink, long-tailed waist of your'n to let +Bettie make one by, please," said Mother Mayberry, with total +unconsciousness of that very strong feminine predilection for +exclusiveness of design in wearing apparel. The garment in question was +a very lovely, simply-cut linen affair that bore a distinguished +foreign trade-mark. "I know you feel complimented by her wanting to +make one for herself by it, and maybe Clara May and Pattie, too. They +ain't no worldly feeling as good as having your clothes admired, is +they?" + +"Indeed there isn't," answered Miss Wingate cordially, and if there was +chagrin in her heart at the thought of seeing Providence in uniform +with the precious pink blouse, her smile belied it. She immediately +ascended to her room, and returned quickly with the treasure in her +hand. "Let me come and see you fit them," she entreated. "I don't know +how to sew one, but I can tell how it ought to look." + +"Come spend the day next Monday. We'll all have a good time together +and I'll make you some more of them fritters you liked for supper the +other night." The widow fairly beamed like a headlight at the thought +of the successful impromptu supper party a few nights before, when +Doctor Mayberry had brought Miss Wingate down upon her unexpectedly +with a demand to be invited to stay to supper for that especial dainty. +As she spoke she was half-way down the walk, and looked back, smiling +at them over the baby's bonnet. + +"Yes, I heard Tom Mayberry disgraced himself over your maple syrup jug, +Bettie Pratt," called Mother Mayberry after her. "That Hoover baby +surely have growed. Good-by!" + +"They ain't nothing in this world so comforting to a woman as good +feeling with her sisters, one and all," Mother Mayberry said as she +watched the last switch of the widow's skirt. "Mother, wife and +daughter love is a institution, but real sistering is a downright +covenant. Me and Bettie have held one betwixt us these many a year. But +you and me have both put a slight on the kitchen since Cindy got back. +Let's go see if dinner ain't most on the table." + +And they found that from their neglect the dinner had suffered not at +all. Cindy, a gaunt, black woman with a fire of service and devotion to +Mother Mayberry in her eyes, and apparently nothing else to excuse +existence, had accomplished the meal as a triumph. + +She had set the table out on the side porch under the budding +honeysuckle, and as Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate, followed by +Martin Luther, ever ready to do trencher duty, came out of the back +hall Doctor Tom emerged from his office door. + +"Why, I didn't see you come in, Tom," said Mother. "You muster used +wings and lit." + +"No, I came from across the fields and in the back way. I've had a +patient and I'm puffed up with pride." As he spoke he smiled at Miss +Wingate and his mother delightedly. + +"'Lias Hoover's puppy," said Mother, stating the fact to Miss Wingate. +"Was you able to fix him up, Tom?" + +"Oh, yes; his puppyship will navigate normally in ten days, I think; +but this was a real patient." + +"Why, who, son? Don't keep me waiting to know, for I'm worried at the +very thought of a Providence pain. Who's down now and what did you do +for 'em?" And Mother bestowed upon the young doctor a glance of +inter-professional inquiry. "Squire Tutt," answered her son promptly. +"I met him up by the store and he asked me what I would do if a man had +a snake bite out in the woods, ten miles from any hot-water kettle. I +diagnosed the situation and prescribed with the help of Mr. Petway, and +I think--I think, Mother, I've proselyted your patient." + +"Now, Tom, don't make fun of the Squire. Them are real pains he has, +and I don't think it is right for a doctor to have a doubting mind +towards a patient. Sympathy will help worry any kinder bad dose down. +You know I want you to do your doctoring in this life with love to be +gave to help smooth all pain." Mother regarded him seriously over her +glasses as she admonished. + +"I will--I do, Mother," answered the Doctor, and his gray eyes danced +before he veiled them with his black lashes as he looked down at his +plate. + +Miss Wingate flushed ever so slightly and busied herself with spreading +butter on a large piece of bread for Martin Luther, an unnecessary +attention, as she had performed that same office for him just the +moment before, and even he had not been able to make an inroad thereon. + +"I think you are right, Mrs. Mayberry," she said slowly after a +second's rally of her forces. "The sympathy and--and regard of one's +physician is very necessary at times and--and--" She paused, but not so +much as a glance out of the corner of her purple black eyes did she +throw in the direction of the Doctor. + +"Course they ain't nothing so encouraging in the world as love, and I +think the sick oughter have it gave to 'em in large and frequent doses! +I'm thankful I've got so much in my heart that I can just prescribe it +liberal when needed. Dearie me, could that shadow be a chicken-hawk? +Just excuse me, children; finish your dinner while I go out and look +after my feather babies." And Mother hurried away through the kitchen, +leaving the singer lady and the Doctor sitting at the table under the +fragrant vine, with the replete Martin Luther nodding his sleepy head +down into his plate between them. + +And thus deserted, the flush rose up under Miss Wingate's eyes and a +dimple teased at the corner of her red lips, but she busied herself +with removing the plate from under Martin Luther's yellow mop and +making a pillow of her own bare arm, against which he nestled his +chubby little cheek with a sigh of content, as he drifted off into his +usual after-dinner nap. + +The Doctor watched her from under his half-closed eyes, then he lit a +cigarette, leaned his elbow on the table and sat silent for a few +moments, while under her breath she hummed a little sleep song to the +drifting baby. + +"On the whole," he asked at last, the usual delightful courtesy with +which he always addressed her striving with an unusual trace of gentle +banter in his deep voice, "what do you think of Mother's philosophies?" + +"I think," she answered as she ruffled the baby's curls with one white +hand, "they are so true that no wonder they are--are more healing +than--than your medicines." + +She raised her eyes to his suddenly and they were filled to the brim +with frank merriment. + +"Don't tell me I'm going to lose my one and only star patient, Teether +Pike and the puppy excepted!" he exclaimed with a laugh. + +"Yes," she answered slowly, "I'm going to let you operate when the time +comes--but it's your Mother that's healing me. Oh, can't you, can't you +see what she's doing for me?" she turned to him and asked suddenly, the +burr thrown across her voice heavily because of the passion in her +tones. "I came to you a broken instrument--useless for ever, +perhaps--unfit for all I knew of life unless you healed me, and +now--now I can make things and do things--a pie and a good one, bread +to feed and the butter thereto, and to-day two halves of a pair of +trousers, no the halves of two pairs of trousers. What matter if I +never sing again?" She stretched her white arm across the table and +looked over the head of the sleeping baby straight into his eyes. Hers +were soft with tears, and a divine shyness that seemed to question him. + +He lifted the white hand, with its pink palm upward, gently into his +own brown one, and placed the tip of one of his fingers on a tiny red +scar on her forefinger. + +"Do you know the story the drop of blood I took from this prick this +morning told?" he asked with his eyes shining into hers. "A gain of +over thirty percent in red corpuscles in less than a month. Yes, I +admit it; Mother is building, but when she has you ready--I'm going to +give it back to you, the wonderful voice. I don't know why I know, but +I do." + +"And I don't know why I know that you will--but I do," she answered +with lowered voice and eyes. "When all the others tried I knew they +would fail. The horrible thought clutched at my throat always, and +there seemed no help. I don't feel it now at all. I'm too busy," she +added with a catch in her laugh and a sudden mist in her eyes. + +"Mother's treatment again," he laughed as he laid her hand gently back +on the table. + +"And yours--when directed by her--her philosophies," she ventured +daringly, as she lifted Martin Luther into her arms, with a view to +depositing him upon the haven of Mother's bed to finish his nap. + +The Doctor looked at her a second, started to answer, thought better of +it, took the heavy youngster out of her arms into his own and strode +across the hall with him into Mother's room. + +The singer lady walked to the edge of the porch, pulled down a spray of +the fragrant vine and looked out through it to the blue hills beyond +the meadows. She hummed a waltz-song this time, and her eyes were +dancing as if she were meditating some further assault on the Doctor's +imperturbability. He came back and stood beside her, and was just about +to make a tentative remark when Mother Mayberry hurried around the side +of the house. + +"Children!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink with +excitement, and the white curls flying in every direction; "I never did +have such a time in my life! It WERE a chicken-hawk and he were right +down amongst the hens and little chickens. Old Dominick was spread out +like a featherbed over all hers and most of Spangles', and there +Spangles was just a-contending with him over one of her little black +babies. He had it in his claw, but she had him by a beak full of +feathers and was a-swinging on for fare-you-well. Old Dominick was +a-directing of her with squawks, and Ruffle Neck was just squatting +over hers, batting her eyes with skeer, for all the world like she was +a fine lady a-going into a faint. And there stood all four of the +roosters, not a one of 'em a-turning of a feather to help her! They +looked like they was petrified to stone, and I'm a great mind to make +'em every one up into pies and salad and such. They's a heap of men, +come trouble, don't make no show, and the women folks have to lead the +fight. But they might er helped her after she's took holt!" + +"The brutes!" exclaimed Doctor Tom with real indignation. "When are you +going to have the pie, Mother?" he added teasingly. + +"Well, I've got no intentions of feeding no such coward truck to you, +sir," answered his mother, still flurried with belligerency. + +"But the little baby chicken--what DID become of it?" demanded Miss +Wingate, and she, too, cast a glance of scorn at the Doctor. + +"Why, he dropped it and flew away as soon as he caught sight of me. It +ain't hurt a mite, and Spangles have hovered it and all the rest she +could coax out from under Dominick. Now this do settle it! Good looks +don't disqualify a woman from nothing; it's the men that can't stand +extra long tail feathers and fluted combs. I'm a-going to put 'em all +four in the pot before Wednesday." + +"I apologize; I apologize, with emotion, for all my doubts, both +expressed and unexpressed, of Mrs. Spangles!" the Doctor hastened to +exclaim. "Neck under heel for the whole masculine fraternity and +suffrage triumphant!" + +"Well, it's not as bad as that," answered Mother in a jovially +mollified tone of voice. "Meek, plain-favored men like you may be let +live, with no attention paid 'em. Now go on over to Flat Rock and stop +a-wasting me and my honey-bird's time with your chavering. Come back +early for supper or you won't get none, for all three of us are a-going +to prayer meeting." + +"I'll be here, and thank you for-crumbs of attention," answered the +Doctor, and, with a laughing glance at both his mother and Miss Wingate +he took himself off in the direction of the barn, for the purpose of +saddling his horse for his afternoon visit to his patients beyond the +Nob. + +"Ain't he good to look at?" asked Mother Mayberry as she watched his +tall figure swing down the garden path. "Good looks in a man can be a +heap of pleasure to a woman, but she mustn't let on to him." + +"I believe," said Miss Wingate in an impersonally judicial tone of +voice, "that Doctor Mayberry is the very handsomest man I ever saw. One +would almost call him beautiful. It isn't entirely that he is so tall +and grand and has such eyes, but--do you know I think it is because he +is so like you that he is so lovely." And the singer lady tucked her +hand into Mother Mayberry's with a shy blush. + +"Liking folks kinder shines 'em up, same as furniture polish, +honey-bird," laughed Mother Mayberry with delight at the compliment. +"You're a-rubbing some on me and Tom Mayberry. But he were the best +favored baby I 'most ever saw, if I do say it, as shouldn't." + +"Oh!" said Miss Wingate delightedly, "I know he must have been lovely! +What was he like?" + +"Well," answered Mother reminiscently, "he were about like he are now. +He come so ugly I cried when I seen him first, and Doctor Mayberry +teased me about it to the day of his death. He called Tom 'Ugly' for +short. But he mighty soon begun to sprout little pleasing ways, +a-looking up under them black lashes and a-laughing acrost my breast. +His cheeks was rosy, his back broad and his legs straight, same as now. +He teethed easy, walked soon, have never learned to talk much yet, and +had his measles and whooping-cough when his time come. I just thought +he were something 'cause he were mine. All babies is astonishing +miracles to they mothers." + +"But I'm sure Doctor Mayberry was really wonderful," said Miss Wingate, +instantly sympathetic. "Had he always such black hair?" + +"Borned with it. Now, my little girl had beautiful yellow curls and I +can show you one, by the Lord's mercy I've got it." Mother paused and +an ineffable gentleness came into her lovely old face. "I want to tell +you about it, honey-heart, 'cause it have got a strange sweetness to +it. She wasn't but five years old when she died, tooken sudden with +pneumony cruel bad. Nobody thought to cut me one of her curls before +they laid her away, and when I come to myself I grieved over it more +than I had oughter. But one day when the fall come on and the days was +short and dark; and it looked like nothing couldn't light up the old +house with that sunshine head gone, me almost a-feeling bitter and +questioning why, Tom went out and picked up a robin's nest that had +blowed down from a tree in the yard. And there, wound around inside it, +was the little curl I had cut off in the spring, out on the porch, what +had tagged into her eyes and worried her! The mother bird had used it +to make the nest soft for her babies and now didn't need it no more. +When I looked at it I took it as a message and a sign that my Lord +hadn't forgot me, and I ain't never mistrusted Him again. Come, let me +show it to you." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH + + +Wednesday morning dawned clear and bright. From over Providence Nob the +round red old sun looked jovially and encouragingly down upon +Providence, up and stirring at an unusually early hour, for in the +mid-week came Sewing Circle day and the usual routine of work must be +laid by before the noon meal, and every housewife in condition to +forgather at the appointed place on the stroke of one. Mrs. Peavey had +aroused the protesting Buck at the peep of dawn, the Pikes were all up +and breakfasting by the first rays of light that fell over the Ridge, +and the Hoover biscuits had been baked in the Pratt oven and handed +across the fence fifteen minutes agone. Down the road Mr. Petway was +energetically taking down the store shutters and Mr. Mosbey was +building the blacksmith shop fire. Cindy had milked and started +breakfast and Mother Mayberry had begun the difficult task of getting +the Doctor up and ready for the morning meal. Martin Luther had had a +glass of warm milk and was ready for an energetic attack upon his first +repast. + +Above, in her room under the gables, the singer lady had been awakened +by the brushing of a white-capped old locust bough against her casement +as it attempted to climb with all its bloom into her dormer window. As +she looked through the mist, a long golden shaft of light shot across +the white flowers and turned the tender green leaves into a bright +yellow. Suddenly a desire to get up and look across at the Nob +possessed her, for the arrival of the sun upon the scene of action was +a sight that held the decided charm of novelty. And on this particular +morning she found it more than worth while. Providence lay at her feet +like a great bouquet of lilacs, locust and fruit blossoms. The early +mist was shot through with long spears of gold and the pale smoke +curled up from the brick chimneys and mingled its pungent wood-odor +with the perfume laden air. She drank in great drafts of exhilaration +and delighted her eyes with the picture for a number of minutes, until +an intoxicating breakfast aroma began to steal up from Cindy's domain. +Then, spurred by a positive agony of hunger, it took the singer lady +the fewest possible number of minutes to complete a dainty and most +ravishing breakfast toilet. + +"Why, honey-bird," exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she descended the steps +and found them all at breakfast in the wide-open dining-room, "what did +you get up so soon for? It's Wednesday and the Sewing Circle meets with +me, so Cindy and us must be a-stirring, but I had a breakfast in my +mind for you two hours from now. You hadn't oughter done it. Them ain't +orders in your prescription." + +"I'm so hungry," she pleaded with a most wickedly humble glance at the +Doctor, who was busy consuming muffins and chicken gravy. "Can't I have +a breakfast now, Doctor--and the other one two hours later? Please!" + +"Yes," answered the Doctor, "but don't forget the two glasses of cream +and dinner and some of the Sewing Party refreshments, to say nothing of +supper-and are you going to make custards for us to eat before seeking +our downy couches?" + +"The cup custards are going to be part of the Sewing Circle +refreshments," his mother answered him. "I want to show off my teaching +to the Providence folks. Give the child some chicken, Tom Mayberry, and +then you can go to your work. We don't want you underfoot." + +"Don't you need my help?" asked the Doctor, as, in a disobedient frame +of mind, he lingered at the table to watch the singer lady begin +operations on her dainty breakfast. + +"Well, you can set here and see that Elinory gets all she wants and +more too, but I must be a-doing around. There cames the Deacon! I +wonder what the matter is!" And Mother Mayberry hurried out of the +house and down to the front gate to meet the Deacon who was coming +slowly up the Road. + +"Good morning, Sister Mayberry," he said cheerily enough, though there +was an expression of anxiety on his gentle old face. "I thought I would +find you up, even at this unusually early hour. Your lamp is always +burning to meet emergencies. Mrs. Bostick is not well this morning and +I came up to see if you could find a moment to step down to see her +soon. I also wanted to ask Thomas to stop in for a moment on his way +over to Flat Rock. I am sure that she is not at all ill, but I am just +overly anxious." + +"Why, of course, we will both come right away, Deacon! What did she eat +last night for supper? She oughter be careful about her night eating." + +"Let me see," answered the Deacon thoughtfully, "I think we both had a +portion of milk and toast administered by our young sister, Eliza Pike. +I recall I pleaded for some of the peaches, still in the jar you gave +Mrs. Bostick, but was sternly denied." As he spoke the Deacon beamed +with affectionate pride over having been vanquished by the stern Eliza. + +Just at this moment from around the corner of the Pike home came the +young woman in question, with a pitcher in one hand and a covered dish +in the other. Ez followed her with a plate wrapped in a napkin, and +Billy brought up the rear with a bucket of cool water which he sloshed +over his bare feet with every step. + +"Why, Deacon," demanded Eliza sternly, "you ain't gone and et breakfast +with Mother Mayberry, when I told you about Maw making light rolls +before she went to bed 'cause to-day is Wednesday?" + +"No, Eliza," answered the Deacon meekly, with a delighted glance at +Mother Mayberry out of the corner of his eye. "Neither Mrs. Bostick nor +I would think of breakfasting without your superintendence. I was just +starting over to tell you that she felt indisposed and would like to +see you and Sister Mayberry, along with the Doctor, later in the day." + +"Well," answered Eliza confidently, "I think I can tend to her if +Mother Mayberry is too busy to come. I was a-going to watch for Doctor +Tom and ask him in anyway. Please come on home, Deacon, 'fore the rolls +get cold and the scrambled eggs set. Ez, hold the plate straight or the +butter will run outen the rolls! Please come on, Deacon!" + +"Yes, Deacon, go along with her right away," answered Mother Mayberry, +as her eyes rested on the serious face of the ministering child with a +peculiar tenderness tinged with respect. "And, 'Liza, honey, stop by +and tell me how Mis' Bostick does when you come back, and let me know +if you need me to help you any." + +"Yes'm, Mother Mayberry," answered Eliza with a flash of pure joy +shining in her devoted little face when she found that she was not to +be supplanted in her attendance on her charges. "I was a-coming to see +you this morning anyway about the place Mr. Mosbey burned his finger +and I tied up last night. Please come on, Deacon!" + +"And a little child shall lead them," said Mother Mayberry to herself, +as she watched the breakfast party down the road. Martin Luther had +come out from the table by this time and now trotted along at the +Deacon's heels like a replete and contented puppy. Ez held the plate +carefully and Billy seemed about sure of arriving at his destination +with at least half the bucket of cool water. "Yes, a little child--but +some children are borned with a full-growed heart." + +And true to her promise Eliza appeared an hour or two later to hold +serious consultation over the blacksmithing finger down the Road. + +"'Liza," said Mother Mayberry as she prepared a stall for the finger +and poured a cooling lotion in a small bottle for which the child +waited eagerly, "you are a-doing the right thing to take nice things to +Mis' Bostick and the Deacon and I'm proud of your being so kind and +thoughtful. Do they ever ask you where you bring 'em from?" + +"I always tell 'em, Mother Mayberry. Deacon said I oughtn't to get +things from other folks to bring to 'em, but I told him that you and +Mis' Pratt and Mis' Mosbey and Mis' Peavey would be mad at me if I just +took things from Maw to 'em and slighted they cooking. I pick out the +best things everybody makes. Maw's light rolls, Mis' Pratt's sunshine +cake and cream potatoes, Cindy's chicken and Mis' Peavey for baked +hash. I took the custards from Miss Elinory to please her; but Mis' +Mosbey's is better. I wanted 'em to have the best they is on the Road, +'cause they is old and they is our'n." + +"Bless your dear little heart, the best they shall have always!" +exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she hugged her small confrere close +against her side and wiped away a tear with a quick gesture. "Now you +can go fix up Nath Mosbey's finger to suit your mind, Sister Pike," she +added with a laugh as she, bestowed the bottle. + +The rest of the morning was filled to the minute for the Mayberry +household, which seemed possessed with a frenzy of polishing and +garnishing. After Cindy had done her worst with broom and mop, Mother +Mayberry with feather duster and cloth, Miss Wingate threw her energies +with abandon into the accomplishing of a most artistic scheme of +decoration. She set tall jars of white locust blossoms in the hall +which shone out mystically in the cool dusk. She mingled lilac and red +bud, cherry blossoms and narcissus and trailed long vines of +honeysuckle over every possible place. + +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry, as she paused in her busy manoeuvers +to take in what Miss Wingate proudly declared to be the completed +effect, "everybody will think they have walked into a flower show. I'm +sorry I never thought of inviting in the outdoors to any of my parties +before. I wonder if some of the meek folks, that our dear Lord told +about being invited in from the byways and hedges, mightn't a-brought +some of the hedge blooms along into the feast with 'em. Thank you, +child, the prettiness will feed everybody's eye, I know, but you'd +better run along and get to whipping on that custard for they stomicks. +This here is a Mission Circle, but it have got a good knife and fork +by-law to it. Make a plenty and if we feel well disposed toward Tom +Mayberry, come bedtime, we may feed him a half dozen." + +And in accordance with time-honored custom the stroke of one found the +Providence matrons grouped along the Road and up Mother Mayberry's +front walk, in the act of assembling for the good work in hand. + +"Come in, everybody," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she welcomed them +from the front steps. "I'm mighty glad all are on time, for I have got +the best of things to tell, as I have been saving by the hardest for +three days. A woman holding back news is mighty like root-beer, liable +to pop the cork and foam over in spite of all." + +"I'm mighty glad to hear something good," said Mrs. Peavey in a doleful +tone. "Looks like the world have got into astonishing misery. Did you +all read in the Bolivar Herald last week about that explode in a mine +in Delyware; a terrible flood in Louisianny and the man that killed his +wife and six children in Kansas? I don't know what we're a-coming to. I +told Mr. Peavey and Buck this morning, but they ain't either of 'em got +any sympathy. They just went on talking about the good trade Mr. Hoover +made in hogs over to Springfield and the fine clover stand they have +got in the north field." + +By this time the assembly had removed their hats, laid them on Mother +Mayberry's snowy bed and settled themselves in rocking-chairs that had +been collected from all over the house for the occasion. Gay sewing +bags had been produced and the armor of thimbles and scissors had been +buckled on. Mother Mayberry still stood in the center of the room +watching to see that all of her guests were comfortably seated. + +"Them were mighty bad happenings, Mis' Peavey, and I know we all feel +for such trouble being sent on the Lord's people," said Mother Mayberry +seriously, though a smile quirked at the corners of the Widow Pratt's +pretty mouth and young Mrs. Nath Mosbey bent over to hunt in her bag +for an unnecessary spool of thread. Mrs. Peavey's nature was of the +genus kill-joy, and it was hard to steer her into the peaceful waters +of social enjoyment. + +"I don't think any of that is as bad as three divorce cases I read +about in a town paper that Mr. Petway wrapped up some calico for me +in," answered Mrs. Peavey, continuing her lamentations over conditions +in general, which they all knew would get to be over conditions in +particular if something did not intervene to stop the tide of her +dissatisfaction. + +"Divorces oughtn't to be allowed by the United States," answered Mrs. +Pike decidedly. "They are too many people in the world that don't seem +to be able to hitch up together, without letting folks already geared +roam loose again. But what's the news, Sister Mayberry?" There came +times when only Judy Pike's uncompromising veto could lay Mrs. Peavey +on the table. + +"Well, what do you think! Tom Mayberry have got this Providence +Meeting-house Sewing Circle a good big sewing order from the United +States Government. Night drawers and aprons and chimeses and all sorts +of things and--" + +"Lands alive, Sister Mayberry, you must be outen your head!" exclaimed +Mrs. Peavey with her usual fear-the-worst manner. "What earthly use can +the United States Government have for night drawers and chimeses?" + +"Now, Hettie Ann, you didn't let me have my say out," remonstrated +Mother Mayberry as they all laughed merrily at Mrs. Peavey's +scandalized remonstrance. "They are for them poor misfortunates over at +Flat Rock what the Government have sent Tom down here to study about, +so he can find the bug that makes the disease and stop it from +spreading everywhere. While he's a-working with 'em he has to see that +they are provided for; and they condition are shameful. He wants +outfits for the women and children and Mr. Petway have the order to buy +the men's things down in the City for him. He's a-going to pay us good +prices for the work and it will mean a lot of money for the carpet and +the repair fund. A quarter apiece for the little night drawers without +feet to 'em is good money. He wanted to give us fifty cents but I told +him no, I wasn't a-going to cheat my own country for no little child's +night rigging. A quarter is fair to liberal, I say." + +"That it is, Mis' Mayberry, and thank Doctor Tom, too, for giving us +the order," answered Widow Pratt heartily. "When can we begin? I'll cut +'em all out at home, so as to save time, if you'll give me the goods. I +can cut children's clothes out with my eyes shut and sew 'em with my +left hand if needs be." + +"Well, if all we hear be true, Bettie Pratt, it's a good thing it comes +easy to you. The sewing for seventeen might be a set-back to any kind +of co'ting, but seeing as you likes it so, why, maybe--" Mrs. Peavey +paused and peered at the blushing widow with goading curiosity in her +keen eyes. + +"Well, it hasn't been a bit to me and Mr. Hoover, Mis' Peavey," she +answered with dancing eyes and a lovely rose color mounting her cheeks. +"Looks like all the love we have got for each other's orphant children +have mixed itself up into a wedding cake for the family. I had laid off +to tell you all about it this afternoon, and here's a box of +peppermints Mr. Hoover sent everybody. He said to make you say sweet +things about him to me. Have one, Mis' Peavey, and pass the box!" + +With which a general laugh and buzz of inquiry went around with the box +of sweets provided by the wily widower. + +"Well, we think we'll just build a long, covered porch acrost the +fronts of the two houses to connect 'em up," answered Mrs. Pratt to a +friendly inquiry about her future domestic arrangements. + +"I know it will look sorter like a broke-in-two steamboat but I can put +the boys all over into one house and take the girls with me. We can +rent a room in the boys' house to Mr. Petway and he'll look after them +if need be, though 'Lias Hoover and my Henny Turner are getting big, +dependable boys already. I'm so glad the children match out in pairs. I +always did want twins and now I'm going to have eight pairs and the +baby over. I don't think I ever was so happy before." And pretty Bettie +fairly radiated lovingness from her big, motherly heart. + +"Bettie Pratt, you are a regular Proverbs, last chapter and tenth to +thirtieth verse woman and your husband's heart is a-going to 'safely +rejoice' in you," said Mother Mayberry as she beamed across the little +sleeve she was basting in an apron. "And this brings me to the mention +of another little Bible character we have a-running about amongst us. +It's 'Liza Pike, as should be called one of God's own little ravens +arid you all know why." + +"Yes, we do, Sister Mayberry," spoke up Mrs. Mosbey quickly. "And I've +just caught on to her doings, and thankful I am to her for letting in +the light to us before it were too late maybe." + +"Why, what have my child been a-doing to be spoke of this way?" asked +her mother with both pride and uneasiness in her tone, for Eliza, as is +the way of all geniuses, especially those of a philanthropic turn of +mind, was apt often to confront those responsible for her with the +unexpected. + +"Just seeing what we was failing to notice, that Mis' Bostick and the +Deacon was in need of being tooken care of and, without a word to +anybody, starting out with a covered dish and a napkin to do the +providing for 'em. And in the right spirit, too, walking into each +kitchen and taking the best offen the stove--no left-over scraps in her +offering to the Lord, and she have gave a lesson to grown-ups. We all +love the old folks and was ready to do, but 'Liza have proved that love +must be mixed with a little gumption to make wheels go round. And ain't +she cute about it? She told the Deacon that she had to bring something +from everybody's kitchen or hurt all our feelings. They is a way of +putting what-oughter-be into words that makes it a truth, and she did +it that time." As she delivered her little homily on the subject of the +absent small Sister Pike, Mother Mayberry's face shone with emotion and +there was a mist in her eyes that also dimmed the vision of some of the +others. + +"And the way of her," laughed the widow softly. "Told me yesterday I +didn't brown my hoe-cake enough on both sides for the Deacon's +greens--that Mis' Peavey's was better." + +"Why, Mis' Pratt, 'Liza oughtn't to speak that way to you; it ain't +manners," her mother hastened to say as they all laughed, even the +misanthrope, who was much pleased over this public acknowledgment of +the superiority of her handiwork. + +"Now, Judy honey, don't you say one word to 'Liza about that! She have +got the whole thing fixed up for us now, and it won't do to get her +conscious like in her management of the old folks. The thing for us to +do is to make our engagements for truck with her regular and take her +dictation always about what is sent. Keep it in her mind how +complimented we are to be let give to the Deacon and she'll manage him, +pride and all, in a sorter game. We'll make it a race with her which +pleases him most. And now," Mother paused and looked from the face of +one hearty country woman to another with a wealth of affection for each +and every one, "let's don't none of us forget to take the child up to +the throne with us each night in the arms of prayer, as one of His +ministers!--Well it's time for us to walk out to the dining-room and +see what kind of a set-out Cindy and Elinory have got for us. Yes, Mis' +Nath, did you ever see such a show of decorations? She must a-kinder +sensed the wedding in the air in compliment to you, Bettie. Come in, +one and all!" + +And the cheerful company assembled around the hospitable Mayberry board +put into practice the knife and fork by-law of the Circle with hearty +good will. Cindy's austerity relaxed noticeably at the compliments +handed her in return for her offer of the various viands she had +prepared for their delectation, and Miss Wingate blushed and beamed +upon them all with the most rapturous delight when her efforts met with +like commendation. She had insisted on helping Cindy wait on them and +was such a very lovely young Hebe that they could scarcely eat for +looking at her. + +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Pike, who had unbent from her reserve +over her second cup of tea to a most remarkable degree, "it were hard +enough to ask Doctor Tom in to pot-luck with my chicken dumplins, that +he carries on over, a-knowing about what you and Cindy could shake up +in the kitchen, but with Miss Elinory's cooking added I'm a-going to +turn him away hungry next time." + +"Oh, please don't!" exclaimed Miss Wingate. "Yours is the next place he +has promised to take me to supper. And Bud and Eliza have both invited +me." + +"I'll set a day with him this very night," responded Mrs. Judy, all +undone with pride. Nothing in the world could have pleased the +hospitable country women more than the parties that Doctor Tom had been +improvising for the amusement of the singer girl. Before each visit he +openly and boldly made demands of each friend for her CHEF-D'OEUVRE and +consumed the same heartily and with delight in the stranger's growing +appetite. + +"If you folks don't stop spoiling Tom Mayberry I won't never be able to +get him a wife. I'll have to take little Bettie to raise and teach her +how to bit and bridle him," laughed Mother Mayberry, as they all rose +and flocked to the front porch. + +In the Road in front of the house had congregated the entire school of +small-fry, drawn by the mother lode, but too well trained to think of +making any kind of interruption to the gathering. They were busily +engaged in a tag and tally riot which was led on one side by Eliza and +the other by Henny Turner, whose generalship could hardly be said to +equal that of his younger and feminine opponent. Teether and little +Hoover sat in the Pike wheelbarrow which was drawn up beside the Pike +gate, and attached thereto by long gingham strings were Martin Luther +and little Bettie. They champed the gingham bits drawn through their +mouths and pranced with their little bare feet in the dust, as Eliza +found time every minute or two to call out "whoa" or cut at them with a +switch as she flashed past them. They were distinctly of the game and +were blissfully unconscious of the fact that they were not in it. This +arrangement for keeping them happy, though out of the way, had been of +Eliza's contriving and did credit to her wit in many senses of the word. + +At the appearance of their be-hatted parents on Mother Mayberry's front +walk they all swooped over and stood in a circle around the gate. A +mother who has many calls in the life-complicated to take her out of +reach of the children is different from a mother who is always in the +house, kitchen, garden or at a convenient neighbor's, and this weekly +three-hour separation occasionally had disastrous results. + +"Have anything happened, 'Liza?" asked her mother, as she ran a +practised eye over her group and detected not a loose end. Eliza and +Bud had rolled over the wheelbarrow, led by the prancing team. + +"No'm," answered Eliza, "everybody's been good and the Deacon have told +us three Bible tales, and my side have beat Henny's five catches and +one loose. But Henny played his'n good," she added, with a worthy +victor's generosity to the fallen foe. + +"Here's a whole bucket of cakes Cindy and Miss Elinory made in case we +found a good passel of children when the meeting was over," said Mother +Mayberry as she tendered the crisp reward of merit to Bud Pike, who +stood nearest her. + +"Thank you, ma'am," answered Bud, mindful of his manners. "Say, 'Liza, +let's all go down and set on the pump and eat 'em, and we can drink +water, too, so they will last longer." + +"All right," answered Eliza, and she set about unharnessing the young +team, who immediately scampered after the rest. She handed little +Hoover to Mrs. Pratt and was preparing to set off with Teether in the +wake of the cake bucket, when the widow called to her. + +"'Liza, honey," she said, "here's some peppermints for you. They wasn't +enough to give some to all the children, but I want you to get a bite, +anyway." + +"Thanky, ma'am, but I don't like the fresh air taste of 'em in my +mouth," answered Eliza. "But can you give me five of 'em? I want one +for Deacon and Mis' Bostick and I want one for Squire Tutt, 'cause he +do love peppermint so. He wouldn't take the medicine Mother Mayberry +fixes for him if she didn't put peppermint in it. He says so. He's +porely and have got his head all tied up in a shawl, 'cause prayer +meeting day Mis' Tutt sings hymns all the time and music gives him +misery in his ears. I want to give her one, too, and I want one for +Cindy." + +"I'll save all in the box for you, sweetie," assented Mrs. Pratt +heartily. "Now run along, for you might get left out of that cake +eating." + +"No, ma'am, I won't," answered Eliza with confidence; "they won't begin +till I get there. It wouldn't be fair." And she hurried down the Road +to where the group waited impatiently but loyally around the town pump. + +"Ain't they all the Lord's blessings?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she +looked down the Road at the little swarm with tender pride in her eyes. + +"That they are," answered the widow, with an echo of the pride in her +own rich voice, "and to think that pretty soon seventeen of 'em will be +mine!" + +And it was an hour or two later that the old red sun had reluctantly +departed across the west meadows, just as a soft lady moon rose +languidly over Providence Nob. Providence suppers had all been served, +the day's news discussed with the men folk, jocularly eager to get the +drippings of excitement from the afternoon infair, and the Road +toddlers put to bed, when the soft-toned Meeting-house bell droned out +its call for the weekly prayer meeting. Very soon the Road was in a +gentle hum of conversation as the congregation issued from their house +doors and wended their way slowly toward the little church, which, back +from the Road in an old cedar glade, brooded over its peaceful yard of +graves. The men had all donned their coats and exchanged field hats for +stiff, uncomfortable, straight-brimmed straw, and their wives still +wore the Sewing Circle gala attire. The older children walked +decorously along, each group in wake of the heads of their own family, +though Buck Peavey had managed to annex himself to the Hoover household. + +"Well, I don't know just what to do with you all," said Mother +Mayberry, as she came out on the front porch, sedately bonneted, with +her Bible and hymn-book under her arm and fortified with a huge +palm-leaf fan. "It's my duty to make you both come with Cindy and me to +prayer meeting, but I don't hold with a body using they own duty as a +stick to fray out other folks with. I reckon I'll have to let you two +just set here on the steps and see if you can outshine the moon in your +talk, which you can't, but think you can." + +"Oh, we'll come with you! I was just going to get my hat," exclaimed +the singer lady as she rose from the steps upon which Doctor Tom kept +his seat and puffed a ring of his cigar smoke at his mother daringly. + +"No, honey-bird, you've had a long day since your sun-up breakfast and +I'll excuse you. I'd LET Tom Mayberry go only I have to make him stay +to keep care of you. Put that lace fascination around your throat if a +breeze blows up! Tom, try to make out, with Elinory's help, to bring a +fresh bucket of water from the spring for the night. Good-by, both of +you; I'm a-going to bring you a blessing!" + +"Yourself, mother," called the Doctor after her. + +"Honey-fuzzle," called Mother back from the gate. "Better keep it, son, +you'll need it some day." + +"Was there ever, ever anybody just like her?" asked Miss Wingate, as +she sank back on the step beside the Doctor. + +"I think not," he answered with a hint of tenderness in his voice; "but +then, really, Mother is one of a type. A type one has to get across a +continent from Harpeth Hills to appreciate. She's the result of the men +and women who blazed the wilderness trail into Tennessee, and she has +Huguenot puritanism contending with cavalier graces of spirit in her +nature." + +"Well, she's perfectly darling and the little town is just an exquisite +setting for her. Do you know what this soft moonlight aspect of +Providence reminds me of, with those tall poplars down the Road and the +wide-roofed houses and barns? The little village in Lombardy +where--where I met--my fate." + +"Met your fate?" asked the Doctor quickly after a moment. His face was +in the shadow and not a note in his voice betrayed his anxiety. + +"Yes," answered the singer lady in a dreamy, reminiscent voice. The +moon shone full down into her very lovely face, fell across her white +throat and shimmered into the faint rose folds of her dainty gown. Her +close, dark braids showed black against the fragrant wistaria vines and +her eyes were deep and velvety in the soft light. "Yes, it was the +summer I was eighteen and I had gone over with my father for a month or +two of recuperation for him after a long extra session of Congress. +Monsieur LaTour was staying in the little village, also recuperating. +He heard me singing to father, and that night my fate was sealed. It +was a wonderful thing to come to me--and I was so young." + +"Tell me about it," said the Doctor quietly, and his voice was +perfectly steady, though his heart pounded like mad and his cigar shook +in his fingers. + +"My father died at the end of the summer, after only a few day's +illness, and he had grown to believe what LaTour said of my voice, and +to have great confidence in my future. I had no near relatives and in +his will he left me to Monsieur LaTour and Madame, his wife. She is an +American and her father had been in the Senate with father for years. +Monsieur is a very great teacher, perhaps the greatest living. Madame +wanted to come to Providence with me, but Doctor Stein insisted that I +come alone. I--I'm very glad she didn't, though they both love me and +await--" She paused and leaned her flower head back against the +wistaria vine. + +And the great breath that Doctor Thomas Mayberry of Providence drew +might have cracked the breast of a giant. In this world no record is +kept of the great moments when a private individual's universe collides +with his far star and of the crash that ensues. + +"I rather thought you meant another--another kind of fate. I was +preparing for confidences," he managed to say in a very small voice for +so large a man. + +"Mais, non, Monsieur, jamais--never!" she exclaimed quickly. +"I--I--have been tempted to think sometimes I might like that sort--of +a--fate, but I haven't had the time. It was work, work, sleep, eat, +live for the voice! And--and once or twice it has seemed worth while. +My debut night in Paris when I sang the Juliette waltz-song-just the +moment when I realized I could use it as I would and always more +volume--and the people! And again the night in New York when I had made +it incarnate Elizabeth as she sings to Tannhauser--the night it went +away." And as she spoke she dropped her head on her arms folded across +her knees. + +"Have you picked out the song you are going to sing first when it comes +back?" demanded the very young Doctor with a quick note of tenderness +in his voice, still under a marvelous control. + +"Yes," she answered as she turned her head and peeped up at him with +shining eyes, a delicious little burr of a laugh in her throat, "Rings +on my fingers, bells on my toes, for Teether Pike. He is wild about my +humming it, and dances with his absurd, chubby little legs at the first +note. What will he do if I can really sing it? And I'll sing Beulah +Land for Cindy, and I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, for your mother, +perhaps, Oh, the kingdom of my heart for Buck, and Drink to me only, +for Squire Tutt, hymns for the Deacon--and a paean for you, if I have +to order one from New York." + +"Do you know," said the Doctor after a long pause in which he lit his +cigar and again began to puff rings out into the moonlight, "I'd like +to say that you are--are a--perfect wonder." + +"You may," she answered with a laugh. Then suddenly she stretched out +her hand to him and, as he took it into his, she asked very quietly +with just the one word, "When?" + +"In a few weeks, I hope," he answered her just as quietly, +comprehending her instantly. + +"I'll be good--and wait," she answered him in a Hone of voice that +would have done credit to little Bettie Pratt. "Let's hurry and get +that bucket of water; don't you hear them singing the doxology?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG + + +"Miss Elinory, do you think getting married and such is ketching, like +the mumps and chickenpox?" asked Eliza Pike as she sat on the steps at +the daintily shod feet of the singer lady, who sat in Mother Mayberry's +large arm-chair, swinging herself and Teether slowly to and fro, +humming happily little vagrant airs that floated into her brain on the +wings of their own melody. Teether's large blue eyes looked into hers +with earnest rapture and his little head swayed on his slender neck in +harmony with her singing. + +"Why, Eliza, I'm sure I don't know. Do you think so?" answered Miss +Wingate, as she smiled down into the large eyes raised to hers. The +heart-to-heart communions, which she and Eliza found opportunities to +hold, were a constant source of pleasure to Miss Wingate, and the +child's quaint little personality unfolded itself delightedly in the +sunshine of appreciation from this lady of her adoration. + +"Yes'm, I believe I do. Mis' Pratt and Mr. Hoover started it, and last +night Mr. Petway walked home with Aunt Prissy and Maw set two +racking-chairs out on the front porch for 'em. Paw said he was more'n +glad to set in the back yard and smoke his pipe. Maw wouldn't put +Teether to bed, but rocked him in her lap 'cause he might wake up and +disturb 'em. She let me set up with her and Paw and he told tales on +the time he co'ted her. She said hush up, that co'ting was like mumps +and chickenpox and he was about to get a second spell. Does it make you +want a beau too, Miss Elinory?" + +"Well," answered Miss Wingate slowly with a candor that would have been +vouched no other soul save the sympathetic Eliza, "it might be nice." + +"I thought you would like one," answered Eliza enthusiastically, "and +you know I had done picked out Doctor Tom for you, but since I saw him +dress up so good this morning and go to Bolivar to take the train to +the City and he got the letter from Miss Alford day before +yesterday--that is, Aunt Prissy says Mr. Petway thinks it was from +her--I reckon it won't be fair to get him for you, when she had him +first last summer. Oughtn't you to be fair about taking folk's beaux +just like taking they piece of cake or skipping rope?" Eliza was fast +developing a code of morals that bade fair to be both original and +sound. + +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with the utmost gravity and not a little +perturbation in her voice, "yes, of course. When did Doctor Mayberry +go?" + +"This morning before you came down-stairs. He give Mother Mayberry some +drops for Mis' Bostick and told me, too, how to give 'em to her. Mother +Mayberry is down there now and I'm a-going to stay with her this +afternoon. But I tell you what we can do, Miss Elinory, there is Sam +Mosbey--I believe you can get him easy. He picked up a rose you dropped +when you went in the store to get your letters the other day, and when +Mr. Petway laughed he got red even in his ears. And just this week he +have bought a pair of pink suspenders, some sweet grease for his hair +and green striped socks. He'll look lovely when he gets fixed up and I +hope you will notice him some." Eliza spoke in the most encouraging of +tones of the improvement in appearance of the suitor she was +advocating, and was just about to continue her machinations by further +enthusiasm when, from down the road at the Bosticks, came Mother +Mayberry's voice calling her, and like a little killdee she darted away +to the aid of her confrere. + +And for several long minutes Miss Wingate sat perfectly still and +looked across the meadow to the sky-line with intent eyes. Teether was +busily engaged in drawing by degrees his own pink toes up to his rosy +lips in an effort to get his foot into his mouth, an ambition that +sways most mortals from their seventh to tenth month. A thin wraith of +Miss Alford's personality had been drifting through the singer lady's +consciousness for some days, but she was positively stunned at this +sudden materialization. There come moments in the lives of most women +when they get glimpses into the undiscovered land of their own hearts +and are appalled thereby. Suddenly she hugged the chuckling baby very +close and began a rapid rocking to the humming accompaniment of a +rollicking street tune, a seemingly inexplicable but perfectly natural +proceeding. + +"Well, I'd like to know which is the oldest, you or the baby, +honey-bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she came up the steps in the +midst of the frolic. "You and him a-giggling make music like a nest +full of young cat-birds. Did you ever notice how 'most any down-heart +will get up and go a-marching to a laugh tune? I needed just them +chuckles to set me up again." As she finished speaking Mother Mayberry +seated herself on the top step and Miss Wingate slipped down beside her +with the baby in her arms. + +"What is the trouble this morning, Mrs. Mayberry?" she asked, as she +moved a little closer, so Teether could reach out and nozzle against +Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "Anybody sick?" + +"No, not to say sick much," answered Mother, with a touch of +wistfulness in her gentle eyes, "but it looks like, day by day, I can +see Mis' Bostick slipping away from us, same as one of the white garden +lilies what on the third day just closes up its leaves when you ain't +looking and when you go back is gone." + +"She isn't so old she can't--can't recuperate when the lovely warm days +come to stay this summer, is she?" asked the singer lady with a quick +sympathy in her voice and eyes. + +"No, she ain't so old as to die by old age, but what hurts me, child, +is that it is just her broke heart giving out. She have always been +quiet and gentle-smiling, but since the news of Will's running off with +that money came to Providence she have just been fading away. A +mother's heart don't break clean over a child, but gets a jagged wound +that won't often heal. When I think of her suffering it puts a hitch in +my enjoying of that Tom Mayberry." And Mother blinked away the +suspicion of a tear. + +"But Mrs. Bostick and the Deacon both are so fond of Doctor Mayberry +that it must be a joy to have him such a comfort to them," said Miss +Wingate softly, as she carried one of Teether's pink hands to her lips. + +"Yes, child, I know he is all that. Somehow, here in Providence, we +women have all tried to put some of our own sister love for one another +in our young folks. I hold that when the whole world have learned to +cut sister and brother deep enough into they children's hearts, then +His kingdom is a-going to come in about one generation from them. Now +there's a picture that goes on the page with my remarks! Bettie sure do +look pretty with that white sunbonnet on her head, and count how many +Turners, Pratts, Hoovers and Pikes she have got trailing peacefully +behind her, all like full-blood brothers and sisters. I'm so glad she's +a-bringing her sewing to set a spell. Come in, Bettie, here's a rocker +a-holding out arms to you!" Little Hoover was as usual bobbing in +Bettie's arms and he gurgled at the sight of Teether Pike as if in joy +at this encounter with his side partner and when deposited upon the +floor beside him made a brotherly grab at one of young Pike's pink feet +in the most manifest interest. + +"Well, if this just ain't filling at the price," said the widow as she +settled herself in the rocker, and Mother Mayberry established herself +in one opposite, while Miss Wingate elected to remain on the step by +the babies. "I left Pattie over to my house helping Clara May get a +little weed-pulling outen 'Lias and Henny in my garden. Buck Peavey +have just passed by looking like the last of pea-time and the first of +frost. I do declare it were right down funny to see Pattie toss her +head at him, and them boys both giggled out loud. He ain't spoke to +Pattie for a week 'cause she sang outen Sam Mosbey's hymn-book last +Wednesday night at prayer meeting. He've got a long-meter doxology face +for sure." + +"And he's a-suffering, too," answered Mother Mayberry with the utmost +sympathy in her placid face at the troubles of her favorite, Buck, the +lover. "To some folks love is a kinder inflammatory rheumatism of the +soul and a-deserving of pity." + +A vision of a girl at a college commencement with her nose buried in a +pink peony, looking up and smiling, flashed across the consciousness of +the singer lady and she pressed her head between little Hoover's chubby +shoulders, and acknowledged herself a fit subject for sympathy. To go +and not even think of telling her good-by was cruel, and a forlorn +little sob stifled itself in the mite's pink apron. + +"Well, folks," broke in the widow's cheerful voice that somehow +reminded one of peaches and cream, "I come over to-day to get a little +help and encouragement about planning the wedding. I knowed Miss +Elinory would think it up stylish for me and Mis' Mayberry would lend +her head to help fitting notions to what can be did. Mr. Hoover's +clover hay will be laid by next week and he says they ain't nothing +more to keep us back. I've sewed up four bolts of light caliker, two of +domestic, one of blue jeans, and three of gingham into a trousseau for +us all to wear on the wedding trip, and Mr. Petway are a-going to take +measures and bring out new shoes and tasty hats all 'round, next wagon, +trip to town. I think we will make a nice genteel show." + +"Are you-going to take everybody on the trip?" asked Miss Wingate, +roused out of her woe by the very idea of the tour in the company of +the seventeen. + +"That we are," responded the widow heartily, "but not all to onct. +We'll have to make two bites of the cherry. The day after the wedding +we are a-going to take the two-horse team, a trunk and the ten youngest +and go a-visiting over the Ridge at Mr. Hoover's brother's, Mr. +Biggers. We won't stay more'n a week and stop a day or two coming back +to see Andy and Carrie Louise. Then we'll drop the little ones here on +you neighbors and pick up the seven big ones, add Buck for a compliment +and go on down to the City for two days' high jinks. We're going to +take 'em up to the capitol and over the new bridge and we hope to +strike some kind of band music going on somewhere for 'em to hear. We +want a photygraft group of us all, too. We are going to put up at the +Teamsters' Hotel up on the Square and Mr. Hoover have got party rates. +He says he are a-going to get that seven town-broke anyway, if it costs +two acres of corn. Now won't we have a good time?" The bright face of +the prospective bride fairly radiated with joy at the prospect--Miss +Wingate could but be sympathetically involved, and Mother Mayberry +beamed with delight at the plan. + +"That'll be a junket that they won't never a one of 'em forget, +Bettie!" she exclaimed with approval. "They ain't nothing in the world +so educating as travel. And you can trust a country child to see +further and hear more than any other animal on earth. I wouldn't trust +Tom to go to town now without coming back pop-eyed over the +ottermobiles," and Mother Mayberry laughed at her own fling at the +sophisticated young Doctor. Another dart of agony entered the soul of +the singer lady and this time the vision of the girl and the peony was +placed in a big, red motor-car--why red she didn't know, except the +intensity of her feelings seemed to call for that color. She was his +patient and courtesy at least demanded that he should tell her of his +intended absence. What could-- + +"Well, to come out with the truth," Mrs. Pratt was going on to say by +the time Miss Wingate brought herself to the point of listening again, +"it's just the wedding itself that have gave me all these squeems. Why, +Mis' Mayberry, how on earth are we a-going to parade all the seventeen +into the Meeting-house without getting the whole congregation into a +regular giggle? I don't care, 'cause I know the neighbors wouldn't give +us a mean laugh, but I can see Mr. Hoover have got the whole seventeen +sticking in his craw at the thought, and I'm downright sorry for him." + +"Yes, Bettie, men have got sensitive gullets when it comes to +swollering a joke on theyselves," said Mother Mayberry, as she joined +in the widow's merry laugh at the plight of the embarrassed widower. +"Looks like when we all can trust Mr. Hoover to be so good and kind to +you and your children, after he have done waded into the marrying of +you, we oughter find some way to save his feelings from being +mortified. Can't you hatch out a idea, Elinory?" + +"Oh, yes, I know, I know just what to do--it came to me in a flash!" +exclaimed the singer lady with pink-cheeked enthusiasm over the +inspiration that had risen from the depths at the call of Mrs. Pratt +and brought her up to the surface of life with it for a moment anyway. +"I saw a wedding once in rural England. All the children in the village +in a double line along the path to the church, each with baskets of +flowers from which they threw posies in front of the bride as she came +by them! Let's get all the children together and mix them up and let +them stand along the walk to the church door. It will just make a +beautiful picture with no--no thought of--of who belongs to anybody. +Everybody from Pattie and Buck down to little Bettie and Martin Luther! +Won't it be lovely? I can show them just how to march, down the road +with their baskets in their arms, and Mrs. Pratt, you can come from +your house with the Deacon and Mr. Hoover can come out of the back of +the store--with--with, who is going to be his groomsman?" + +"Lawsy me, I hadn't thought of that," answered the widow. "I'll tell +you, Mr. Pratt's brother is coming over from Bolivar to the wedding, +and as he is a-going to be a kinder relation in law by two marriages +with Mr. Hoover, I think it would be nice to ask him." + +"Er--yes," assented the singer lady, controlling a desire to smile at +this mix-up of the bride's present and past relations to life. "The +little girls ought to have white dresses and the boys--well, what could +the little boys wear?" Miss Wingate felt reasonably sure that white +dresses for all the feminine youth of Providence would be forthcoming, +but she hesitated at suggesting a costume for the small boys. + +"Yes, all the little girls have got white dresses and ribbons and +fixings, but dressing up a herd of boys is another thing," answered +Mother Mayberry. "If just blue jeans britches could be made to do we +might make out to get the top of them rigged out in a white shirt +apiece; couldn't we, Bettie?" + +"That we can," answered the bride heartily. "Give me a good day at the +sewing-machine, with somebody to cut and somebody to baste, and I will +get 'em all turned out by sundown. But they feet! Mis' Mayberry, could +we get Jem into shoes, do you reckon? About how many bad stumped toes +is they in Providence now?" + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry reflectively, "I don't know about but +two, but we can ask 'Liza Pike. Thank you for your plan, honey-bird, +and we're a-going to put it through so as to be a credit to you. +Children are sorter going out of style these days and I'm proud to make +a show of our'n. Women's leaving babies outen they calculations is +kinder like cutting buds offen the tree of life, and I'm glad no sech +fashion have struck Harpeth Hills yet." + +"Now, ain't that the truth?" exclaimed the Widow Pratt. "Sometimes when +I read some of the truck about what women have took a notion to turn +out and do in the world, I get right skeered about what are a-going to +happen to the babies and men in the time to come." + +"Don't worry about 'em, Bettie," laughed Mother Mayberry, with a +quizzical sparkle in her eyes. "Even when women have got that right to +march in the front rank with the men and carry some of the flags, that +they are a-contending for, they'll always be some foolish enough to lag +behind with babies on they breasts, a string of children following and +with always a snack in her pocket to feed the broke down front-rankers, +men or women. You'll find most Providence women in that tag-gang, I'm +thinking; but let's do our part in whooping on the other sisters that +have got wrongs to right." + +"I suppose the world really has done women injustice in lots of ways," +said the singer lady plaintively, for she had very lately, for the +first time in her life, felt the +sit-still-and-hold-your-hands-while-he-rides-away grind, and it had +struck in deep. + +"Yes, I suppose so," answered Mother Mayberry, as she picked up little +Hoover, who was nodding like a top-heavy petunia in a breeze, and +stretched him across her lap for a nap. "But as long as she have got +the spanking of man sprouts from they one to ten years she oughter make +out to get in a vote to suit herself, as time comes along, especially +if she have picked her husband right." + +"She--she can't--can't pick her husband," hazarded the singer lady +desperately. + +"Yes, she can, honey-child," answered Mother Mayberry comfortably. "The +smile in her eye and the switch of her skirts is a woman's borned-vote, +and she can elect herself wife to any man she cares to use 'em on. But +what about the collation, Bettie? Everybody is going to help you with +the cooking and fixings, and let's have a never-forget supper this +onct." + +"That we are," answered Mrs. Pratt emphatically. "Mr. Hoover says no +hand-around, stand-around for him; he wants a regular laid table with a +knife and fork set-down to it. He says we are a-going to feed our +friends liberal, if it takes three acres of timothy hay to do it, and +he's about right. We'll begin thinking about that and deciding what the +first of the week. But I must be a-going to see that the dinner horn +blows in time. I want to get my sparagrasses extra tender, for 'Liza +have notified me that she is going to stop by to-day with the covered +dish, and I want to fill it tasty for her. Come visiting soon, Miss +Elinory, for I've got something to show you that are too foolish to +speak about to Mis' Mayberry." And the widow gave a delicious little +giggle as she lifted the sleeping baby from Mother Mayberry's lap and +started down the steps. + +"Dearie me, Bettie," answered Mother with a laugh, "don't you know that +poking up a woman's curiosity is mighty apt to start a yaller jacket to +buzzing? I'll be by your house sometime before sundown myself." + +"Some women's ship of life is a steamboat that stops to take on +passengers at every landing. Bettie's are one of them kind, and she'll +tie up with 'em all in glory when the time comes," remarked Mother +Mayberry as she watched the sturdy widow swing away down the Road with +the baby asleep over her shoulder. + +Just at this moment, Cindy found occasion to summon Mother Mayberry to +the chicken yard on account of a dispute that had arisen between old +Dominick and one of the ungallant roosters that had resulted in an +injury to one of the small fry, which lay pitifully cheeping on the +back steps. Dominick, with every feather awry, was holding command of +the bowl of corn-meal while her family feasted, and the Plymouth +rooster stood at a respectful distance with a weather eye on both the +determined mother and Cindy's broom. Retribution in the form of Mother +Mayberry descended upon him swiftly and certainly, and he lost no time +in seeking seclusion under the barn. + +And by the time order and peace were restored to the barn-yard, Mother +came in to dinner and spent an hour in interested hen-lore with the +singer lady, who was really fond of hearing about the feathered +families when she saw how her interest in them pleased Mrs. Mayberry. +The subject of the Doctor, his absence and the probable time of his +return was not mentioned by his mother, and for the life of her Miss +Wingate could not muster the courage for a single question. She felt +utterly unable to stand even the most mild eulogy on the peony-girl and +was glad that nothing occurred to turn the conversation in that +direction. She was silent for the most part, and most assiduous in her +attentions to Martin Luther, whose rapidly filling outlines were making +him into a chubby edition of the Raphaelite angel. Martin had landed in +the garden of the gods and was making the most of the golden days. He +bore his order of American boyhood with jaunty grace, and the curl had +assumed a rampant air in place of the pathetic. + +"Martin, do you want me to wash your face and hands and come go +visiting with me?" asked the singer lady, as she stood on the front +steps and watched Mother Mayberry depart in her old buggy on the way to +visit a patient over the Nob. A long, lonely afternoon was more than +she could face just now, and she felt certain that distraction, if not +amusement, could be found in a number of places along the Road. + +"Thank, ma'am, please," answered Martin Luther, who still clung to the +formula that he had found to be a perfectly good open sesame to most of +the pleasant things of life, when used as he knew how to use it. + +So, taking her rose-garden hat in one hand and Martin Luther's chubby +fist in the other, Miss Wingate started down Providence Road for a +series of afternoon calls, at the fashionable hour of one-thirty. She +was just passing by Mrs. Peavey's gate with no earthly thought of going +in when she beheld the disconsolate Buck stretched full length on the +grass under a tree, which was screened by a large syringa bush from the +front windows of the maternal residence. A hoe rested languidly beside +him, and it was a plain case of farm hookey. + +"Oh, Miss Elinory," called his mother from the side steps, "did Mis' +Mayberry hear about that fire down in town that burned up two firemen, +a police and a woman?" At the sound of his mother's strident voice, +Buck curled up in a tight knot and with a despairing glance rolled +under the bush. + +"I don't know, Mrs. Peavey, but I'll tell her," Miss Wingate called +back as she prepared to hasten on for fear Mrs. Peavey would come to +the gate for further parley, and thus discover the exhausted culprit. + +"And a man tooken pisen on account of a bank's failing in Louisville," +she added in a still shriller tone, which just did carry across the +distance to Mrs. Pike's front door, through which Miss Wingate was +disappearing. Her prompt flight had saved the day for the disconsolate +lover, who cautiously rolled from under the bush again and went on with +his interrupted nap. + +She found Mrs. Pike and Miss Prissy at home, and spent a really +delightful hour in speculating and unfolding possible plans for the +Pratt-Hoover nuptials. Miss Prissy blushed and giggled at an +elephantine attempt at badinage that her sister-in-law directed at her +on the subject of Mr. Petway, and after a while Miss Wingate went on +her way, in a manner comforted by their wholesome merriment. She +hesitated at the front gate of the Tutt residence, but the sight of the +Squire pottering around in a diminutive garden at the side of the house +decided her to enter, for Squire Tutt held the charm for her that a +still-fused fire-cracker holds for a small boy. + +"I ain't well at all," he exploded, in answer to her polite question, +asked in the meekest of voices. "Don't you set up to marry Tom +Mayberry, girl, if you don't wanter get a numbskull. Told me to eat a +passel of raw green stuff for my liver, like I was a head of cattle. +I'll die if I follow him. Everybody he doctors'll die. Snake bite is +the only thing he knows how to cure, and snakes don't crawl until the +last of the month. Don't marry him, I say, don't marry him!" + +And it took Miss Wingate several minutes after her hurried adieus to +get over the effect of the Squire's inhibitory caution. But the haven +for which she had been instinctively aiming was just across the Road, +and she found a peace and quiet which sank into her perturbed soul like +a benediction. The Deacon sat by Mrs. Bostick's bed with his Bible +across his thin old knees, and Eliza was crouched on the floor just in +front of him, with her knees in her embrace and her eyes fixed on his +gentle face. Little Bettie Pratt lay across Mrs. Bostick's bed, deep in +her afternoon nap, and Henny Turner was stretched out full length on +the floor in front of the window, while 'Lias sat with his back against +the wall with the puppy in his arms. The pale face of the sweet invalid +was lit by a gentle smile, and she held one of the sleeping child's +warm little hands in her frail, knotted, old fingers. Unnoticed, Miss +Wingate and Martin Luther paused a moment at the door. + +"Golly, Deacon, but didn't he do him up at one shot, and nothing but a +little piece of rock in the gum-sling!" exclaimed 'Lias in excitement +over the climax of the tale the Deacon had just completed. "I wisht I +was that strong!" + +"It was the strength the Lord gived to him, 'Lias Hoover, to special +kill the giant with," said Eliza in an argumentative tone of voice. "Do +you reckon He tooken the strength away from David the next morning, +Deacon, or let him keep it to use all the time?" Eliza's extreme +practicality showed at all times, even in those of deepest excitement. + +The Deacon was saved the strain of intellect involved in making reply +to this demand by his wife's low exclamation of pleasure as she caught +sight of the girl and the tot in the doorway. She smiled softly as the +singer lady seated herself on the side of the bed and took both her +hand and that of the sleeping baby in a firm, young one. A peculiar +bond of sympathy had arisen between the girl and the gentle old +invalid, both fighting pain and anxiety. Mrs. Bostick would lie for +hours drinking in tales of Miss Wingate's travels in the world, which +she had timidly but eagerly asked for from the beginning of their +friendship. The girl knew that the anxious mother-heart vas using her +descriptions to fare forth on quests for the wanderer into the wide +world beyond the Harpeth Hills, that had all her life bounded her +horizon, and she sat by her long hours, leading the way into the +uttermost parts. After a fatherly greeting, the Deacon departed with +the children to his bench under the trees and left the two alone for +their talk, and the long shadows were stretched across the Road and the +sun sinking beyond the Ridge before the singer lady wended her way +dejectedly home with the play-wearied Martin Luther trailing beside +her. She found Mother Mayberry, much to her relieved astonishment, +placidly rocking in her accustomed place, with her palm-leaf ruffling +the water-waves and a fresh lawn tie blowing in the breeze. + +"Come in, honey-hearts," she said eagerly, with bright tenderness +shining in her face for the girl and the barefoot young pilgrim; "I +have been setting here a-missing you both for a hour. With you and my +young mission boy both gone I'm like an old hawk-robbed hen. I knew you +was with Mis' Bostick, and I didn't come for you 'cause somehow them +rocking-chair-bed travels you and her take seems to comfort her. I +wouldn't interrupt one of 'em for the world, though I was getting plumb +lonesome. I was even a-hankering after that Tom Mayberry what I left +not over two hours ago." + +"Has the Doctor come back from the City this soon?" demanded the singer +lady, with a queer thump in her cardiac region that almost smothered +her voice. + +"Well now, to tell the truth, Tom Mayberry haven't been to no City," +answered his mother with a chuckle as she looked at Miss Wingate over +Martin Luther's head on her shoulder where he had buried it with a +demand for "milk, milk, thank ma'am, please." "I don't think he wants +you to know what he have been having happen to him, but I can't keep +from telling you 'cause I'm tickled clean to my funny bone. Dave Hanks +come over here at daylight wanting a doctor quick, and I had a cramp in +my leg what I forgot to tie a yarn string around before I went to bed, +so I had to let Tom hurry on over there 'count of the push they was in. +Then I got to studying it over and while I knewed how Tom had had a lot +of practice in such things in a hospital, I thought it was just as well +to let him get a little Harpeth experience along that line and sorter +prove his character to Squire Tutt and the rest. About dinner time, +though, I got sorry for him and hitched up and went over there to see +how they was a-getting along, without telling you or Cindy anything +about it. And what did I find? That Tom Mayberry and Dave Hanks out on +the back porch, Dave taking a drink outen a bottle and Tom with two +babies wrapped up in a shawl showing 'em to a neighbor woman, proud as +a peacock over 'em. He most dropped 'em when he seen me and I promised +not to tell you about it at all, but if you coulder seen him!" And the +tried and proven young AEsculapius' mother fairly rolled in her chair +with mirth at the recollection. + +"Oh," gasped the singer girl, as she sank weakly down upon the top step +and leaned her head against the convenient post. "It was awful--I--I--" +she caught herself quickly in the expression of the intensity of her +relief. + +"No, it wasn't awful," answered Mother Mayberry, fortunately losing the +trend of the exclamation. "They are mighty sweet little babies, both +girls. The joke is mostly on me getting uneasy and following Tom up. +When I pick out his wife, I must be sure and see she are a girl what +don't worry none about what he is up to. A trouble-hunting wife is a +rock sinker to any man, but around a doctor's neck she'll finish him +quick. Don't let on to the shame-faced thing when he comes! He asked me +what you'd been a-doing all day, and I told him I thought maybe you had +a few custards in your mind for him to-night when he gets back from +Flat Rock. Don't you want to beat up some with Cindy's help? And they +is a bunch of pink peonies he sent you from Mis' Hank's bushes, +sticking in a bucket on the back porch. Pin one in your hair to sorter +compliment him after all the trouble he have had this day, poor Tom!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY + + +And even old Dame Nature of Harpeth Hills aroused herself for the +occasion and took in hand the wedding day of pretty Bettie Pratt on +Providence Road. In the dark hours before dawn she spread a light film +of clouds over the stars, from which she first puffed a stiff +dust-cleansing breeze and then proceeded to sprinkle a good washing +shower which took away the last trace of wear and tear of the past hot +days, so by the time she brought the sun out for a final shine up, the +village looked like it had been having a most professional laundering. +And after an hour or two of his warm encouragement, the roses lifted +their buds and began to blow out with joyous exuberance. Mother +Mayberry's red-musks tumbled over the wall almost on to the head of +Mrs. Peavey's yellow-cluster, and Judy Pike's pink-cabbage fairly flung +blossoms and buds over into the Road. The widow's own moss-damask +nodded and beckoned hospitably to Mrs. Tutt's Maryland tea, and Pattie +Hoover's Maiden's Blush mingled its sweetness with that of the dainty +white-cluster that climbed around Mrs. Bostick's window. A haunting +perfume from the new-mown clover fields drifted over it all and the +glistening silver poplar leaves danced in the breezes. + +"Was they ever such a day before!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she +stood on the front steps with the singer lady, who was as blooming +herself as any rose on the Road. "And everything is well along towards +ready when it's turned twelve. The children have all been washed from +skin out and just need a last polish-off. I've put 'em all on honor not +to get dirty again and I think every shoe will be on by marching time." + +"The baskets and the tubs of roses are in the milk house, and I will +arrange them at the last minute so they won't wilt," answered Miss +Wingate with enthusiasm that matched Mother Mayberry's. "Do you suppose +there is anything I can do to help anybody anywhere? I never was so +excited before." + +"I don't believe they is a loose end to tie up on the Road, child. Even +Bettie herself have finished for the day and have gone over to set a +quiet hour with Mis' Bostack. Clothes is all laid out on beds, and cold +lunch snacks put on kitchen tables. They ain't to be a dinner cooked on +the Road this day 'cept what 'Liza and Cindy are a-stewing up for the +Deacon and Mis' Bostick. Looks like everything is on greased wheels, +and--but there comes the child running now! I do hope they haven't +nothing flew the track." + +"Mother Mayberry, please ma'am, tell me what to do about Mis' Tutt!" +Eliza exclaimed with anxiety spread all over her little face, which was +given a comic cast by a row of red flannel rags around her head over +which were rolled prospective curls, due to float out for the +festivities. "She says she won't go to the wedding 'cause it's prayer +meeting night, and it were a sin to put off the Lord's meeting 'till +to-morrow night. I didn't know she were a-going to do this way! I got +out her dress for her yesterday. The Squire is so mad he says tell +Doctor Tom to come do something for him quick and not to bring no hot +water kettle neither." + +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry with mild exasperation in her voice. +"You run along, 'Liza, and don't you worry with Mis' Tutt. I'll come +down there tereckly and see if I can't kinder persuade her some. Go +around there and give that message to Doctor Tom yourself. I don't take +no stock in such doctoring as he does to the Squire these days." + +"Isn't it too bad for Mrs. Tutt to feel that way and miss the wedding?" +asked Miss Wingate with a trace of the same exasperation in her voice +that had sounded in Mother Mayberry's tones. + +"It are that," answered Mother regretfully. "Looks like religion +oughter be tooken as a cooling draft to the soul and not stuck on life +like a fly blister. But I think we can kinder fix Mis' Tutt some. And +that reminds me, I want you to undertake a job of using a little +persuading on Tom Mayberry for me. He have got the most lovely long +tail coat, gray britches, gray vest and high silk hat up in his press, +and he says he are a-going to wear his blue Sunday clothes same as +usual, when I asked him careless like about it this morning. I'm fair +dying to behold him just onct in them good clothes he wears out in the +big world and thinks Providence people will make fun of him to see, but +I wouldn't ask him outright to put 'em on for me, not for nothing." + +"Do you know, Mrs. Mayberry, you really--really flirt with the Doctor?" +laughed Miss Wingate as she rubbed her delicate little nose against +Mother Mayberry's shoulder with Teether Pike's exact nozzling gesture. + +"Well, it's a affair that have been a-going on since the first time I +laid eyes on Ugly, and they ain't nothing ever a-going to stop it +'lessen his wife objects," answered Mother Mayberry as she glanced down +quizzically at the face against her shoulder. + +"She's sure to--to adore it," answered the singer lady as she buried +her head in Mother's tie so only the rosy back of her neck showed. + +"Yes, I think she will understand," answered the Doctor's mother with a +sweet note in her rich voice as she bestowed a little hug on the +slender body pressed close to hers. "You see, child, the tie twixt a +woman and her own man-child ain't like anything on earth, and I feel it +must hold between Mary and her Son in Heaven. I felt it pull close like +steel when mine weren't fifteen minutes old, and it won't die when I do +neither. And that Tom Mayberry are so serious that a-flirting with him +gets him sorter on his blind side and works to a finish. Can't you try +to help me out about that coat and the silk hat?" + +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with a dimpling smile, "I'll try. I'll ask +him what I shall wear and then maybe--maybe--" + +"That's the very idea, honey-bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry +delightedly. "Tell him you are a-going to put on your best bib and +tucker and it'll start the notion in him to keep you company. If a +woman can just make a man believe his vanity are proper pride, he will +prance along like the trick horse in a circus. Now s'pose you kinder +saunter round careless like to--" + +"Mis' Mayberry," came in a doleful voice over the wall near the porch, +and Mrs. Peavey's mournful face appeared, framed in the lilac bushes. +"I've just been reading the Tuesday Bolivar Herald, and Bettie Pratt's +own first husband's sister-in-law's child died last week out in +Californy, where she moved when she married the second time. I hate to +tell Bettie and have the wedding stopped, but I feel it are my duty not +to let her pay no disrespect to her Turner children by having a wedding +with some of they law-kin in trouble." + +"Well, Hettie Ann, I don't believe I'd tell her, for as bad as that +would be on the Turner children, think how much the Pratts and Hoovers +would lose in pleasure, so as they are the majority, it's only fair +they should rule." Mother Mayberry had for a moment stood aghast at the +idea of the misanthrope's descent upon happy Bettie with even this long +distance shadow to cast across her joy, but dealing with her neighbor +for years had sharpened her wits and she knew that a sense of fair play +was one of Mrs. Peavey's redeeming traits that could always be counted +upon. + +"Yes, I reckon that are so," she answered grudgingly. "Then we'll have +to keep the bad news to tell her when she gets back from the trip. Did +you know that spangled Wyandotte hen have deserted all them little +chickens and is a-laying again out in the weeds behind the barn? Told +you them foreign poultry wasn't no good," with which she disappeared +behind the top stone of the wall. + +"Poor Spangles! she carried them chickens a week longer than could be +expected and now don't get no credit for it," said Mother Mayberry, as +the singer lady gave vent to the giggle she had been suppressing for a +good many minutes. "Now run on, sweet child, and use them beguilements +on Tom for me, while I go try to rub some liniment on Mis' Tutt's +conscience. Fill up Martin Luther sometime soon, will you?" + +And in accordance with directions, after a few minutes spent before +Mother Mayberry's old-fashioned mirror in tucking three very perfect +red-musk buds in the belt of her white linen gown, the singer lady +descended upon the unwitting victim, in the north wing and began the +machinations according to promise. Doctor Mayberry, unfortunately for +him, showed extravagant signs of delight at the very sight of the +enemy, for it was almost the first voluntary visit she had ever paid +him, and thus he gave her the advantage to start with. + +"You aren't busy, are you?" she asked as she glanced around the +book-lined room and into the laboratory beyond. "This is only a +semi-professional consultation. Could I stay just a few minutes?" and +the lift of her dark lashes from her eyes was most effectively unfair. +As she spoke she settled herself in his chair, while he leaned against +the table looking down upon her with a very shy delight in his gray +eyes and a very decided color in his tan cheeks. + +"As long as you will," he answered. "I never can prescribe from a +hurried consultation. It always takes several hours for me to locate +anything. I'm very slow, you know." + +"Why, I rather thought you treated your patients with--with very little +time spent in consultation," a remark which she, herself, knew to be a +dastardly manoeuver. "You attended to Squire Tutt's trouble in a very +few minutes, it seems," she hastened to add, as she glanced at a flask +that lay on the corner of the table. + +"The Squire's trouble is chronic, and simply calls for refilled +prescriptions," he laughed, his generosity giving over the retort that +was his due. "I somehow think this matter of yours will prove obscure +and will call for time." + +"It's a wedding dress I want you to prescribe for me," she hazarded a +bit too hurriedly, for before she could catch up with her own words he +had flashed her an answer. + +"That depends!" was the victim's most skilful parry. + +"Would you wear a white embroidery and lace or a rose batiste? A rose +hat and parasol go with the batiste, but the white is perfectly +delicious. You haven't seen either one, so I want you to choose by +guess." Only the slightest rose signal in her cheeks showed that she +had been pricked by his quick thrust. She had taken one of the damask +buds from her belt and was daintily nibbling at the folded leaves. Over +it, her eyes dared him to follow up his advantage. + +"I don't know--I'll have to think about it," he answered her, weakly +capitulating, but still on guard. "If I choose one for to-day, when +will you wear the other? Soon?" he bargained for his forbearance. + +"Whenever you want me to if you'd like to see it," she answered with +what he ought to have known was dangerous meekness. "What are you going +to wear?" she asked, putting the direct question with disarming +boldness. + +"Blue serge Sunday-go-to-meetings," he answered carelessly, as if it +were a matter to be dismissed with the statement. "Let's see--say them +over again--white dress, pink parasol, rose hat, how did they go?" + +"Once, not long ago, I was in your room with Mrs. Mayberry hunting for +the kittens the yellow cat had hidden in the house, and I caught a +glimpse of a most beautiful frock coat--it made me feel partyfied then, +and I thought of the rose gown I have never worn and--and--" she paused +to let that much sink in well. "I thought I would ask you," she ended +in a pensive tone, as she kept her eyes fixed on the rose determinedly. + +"You don't have to ask me things--just tell me!" he answered with an +exquisite hint of something in his voice which he quickly controlled. +"The frock coat let it be--and shall we say the rose gown? Then the +high gods protect Providence when it beholds!" he added with a laugh. + +"Oh, will you really?" she asked, overwhelmed with the ease with which +the battle had been won. + +"I will," he answered, "only don't let Mother tease me, please!" + +At which pathetically ingenuous demand the conquering singer lady +tossed him the rose and laughed long and merrily. + +"You and your Mother are perfect--" she was observing with delighted +dimples, when Mother Mayberry herself stood in the doorway with +well-concealed eagerness as to the outcome of the mission, in her face. + +"Well," she observed with a laugh, "I'm glad to see somebody that has +time to stand-around, set-around, passing the news of the day. Did you +all know that Bettie Pratt were a-going to get married in about two +hours and a half?" + +"We did," answered her son as he drew her a chair close to that of Miss +Wingate. "We were just discussing in what garb we could best grace the +occasion. Did you succeed in getting Mrs. Tutt to change her mind about +honoring the festivities?" + +"Oh, yes, she just wanted to be persuaded some. It's a mighty dried-up +mind that can't leaf out in a change onct in a while, and it's mostly +men folks that take a notion, then petrify to stone in it. But you all +oughter see what is a-going on down the Road." + +"What?" they both demanded of her at the same second. + +"It's that 'Liza Pike again. Just as soon as that child hatches a idea, +the whole town takes to helping her feather it out. She got Mis' +Bostick's bed moved to the front window, and then found that Nath +Mosbey's fence kept her from seeing the Road where the procession are +a-going into the Meeting-house yard. But that didn't down her none at +all, for when I left she had Nath and Buck and Mr. Petway a-knocking +down the two panels of fence, and leaving Mis' Bostick a clean sweep of +view, Did you ever?" and mother Mayberry chuckled over the small +sister's triumph over what to the rest of Providence would have seemed +an insurmountable obstacle. + +"It's just like her, the darling!" exclaimed the singer lady +appreciatively. + +"And she have got the Deacon all tucked out until he is a sight to +behold. She have made Mis' Peavey starch his white tie until it sets +out on both sides like cat whiskers, and have pinned a bokay on his +coat 'most as big as the bride's. Then she have reached his forelock up +on his head so he looks like Martin Luther, and she have got him +a-settin' down, so as not to get out of gear none. Mis' Bostick is +a-wearing a little white rose pinned on her night-gown, and they is +honeysuckle trailed all over the bed. But here am I a-chavering with +you all, with time a-flying and no chance of putting salt on her tail +this day. Please, Tom Mayberry, go down to the store and buy a nickel's +worth of starch, and it's none of your business how I want to use it. +I'm going to look a surprise for you myself, before sundown." + +"Well, how did you get along with him, honeybird?" she asked eagerly, +as they ascended the front steps together, while the Doctor strode down +the Road on his errand. + +"Beautifully!" exclaimed the singer lady with enthusiasm and the very +faintest of blushes. + +"I thought so from his looks," answered the beguiled young Doctor's +wily mother. "A man always do have that satisfied martyr-smile when he +thinks he are doing something just to please a woman. Now, honey-child, +you ain't got nothing to do but frill out your own sweet self; and make +a job of it while you are about it." With which command Mother Mayberry +dismissed Miss Wingate up the stairs to her dormer-window room. + +And it is safe to say that no two such teeming hours ever fleeted their +seconds away on Providence Road as did those ensuing. The whole village +buzzed and bumbled and swarmed in and out from house to house like a +colony of clover-drunken bees on an August afternoon. Laughter floated +on the air and mingled with banter and song, while the aroma of flesh +pots and fine spices drifted from huge waiters being hurriedly carried +from down and up the Road and into the Pratt gate. The wedding supper +was being laid on improvised tables in Bettie's side yard, with Judy +Pike in command, seconded by Mrs. Peavey with her skirts tucked up out +of possible harm and her mind on the outlook for any possible disaster, +from the wilting of the jelly mold to a sad streak in the bride's cake, +baked by the bride herself with perfectly happy confidence. + +Then on the heels of the excitement came a quiet half-hour devoted to +the completing of all toilets behind closed family doors. A shrill +squeal issuing now and then from an open window told its tale of +tortures being undergone, and a smothered masculine ejaculation added a +like testimony. + +At exactly a quarter to five, Miss Wingate issued from her room after a +completely satisfactory seance with her mirror, and from the front +steps looked down in dismay upon a scene of rebellion, that threatened +at any moment to become one of riot. + +On the grass beside the porch stood a group of little girls all +starched, frilled, curled and beribboned until they resembled a large +bouquet of cabbage roses themselves. Each one clasped carefully a gaily +decorated basket filled with roses, and from each and every pair of +eyes there danced sparks of rage, aimed at a huddled company of small +boys who were returning their indignation by sullen scorn mixed with +determination in their polished, freckled faces. Half way between each +group stood Eliza Pike, a glorified Eliza, from a halo of curls to +brand new small shoes. She had evidently been carrying on a losing +series of negotiations, for her usually sanguine face had an expression +of utter hopelessness, tinged with some of the others' feminine +indignation. + +"Miss Elinory," she exclaimed as the singer lady came to the edge of +the porch, "I don't know what to make of the boys, they never did this +way before!" + +"Why, what is the matter?" asked Miss Wingate, something of Eliza's +panic communicating itself to her own face and voice. + +The boys all suddenly found interest in their own feet or the cracks in +the pavement, so Eliza as usual became the spokesman for the occasion. + +"They say they just won't carry baskets of flowers, because it makes +them look silly like girls. They will march with us if you make 'em do +it, but they won't carry no baskets for nobody. I don't want Mis' Pratt +to find out how they is a-acting, for three of 'em are hers and five +Hoovers, and it is they own wedding." Eliza's voice almost became a +wail in which Miss Wingate felt inclined to join. + +At this juncture, Martin Luther took it upon himself to create a +further diversion and to add fuel to the flame. By a mistake, and +through a determination to follow instructions, he had clung to little +Bettie's hand, and when she picked up one of the tiny baskets provided +for the two tots, so had he, and thus he found himself humiliatingly +equipped and on the wrong side of the yard and question. Disengaging +himself from the wide-eyed Bettie, he marched to the center of the +middle ground and cast the despised basket upon the grass. + +"No girl--BOY, thank ma'am, please!" he announced with a defiant glance +at the singer lady up from under the rampant curl, and that he did not +fail in his usual shibboleth of courtesy was due to his habitual use of +it, rather than a desire to soften the effect of his announcement. + +Miss Wingate sank down upon the steps in helpless dismay, and tears +began to drop from Eliza's eyes, when Mother Mayberry appeared upon the +scene of action, stiff and rustling as to black silk gown, capped with +a cobweb of lace over the water-waves and most imposing as to mien. + +"Now what's all these conniptions about?" she demanded, and eyed the +boys with an expression of reserving judgment that did her credit, for +a forlorn and surly sight they presented. + +And again Eliza stated the case of the culprits in brief and not +uncertain terms. + +"Well, well," said Mother Mayberry, and a most delicious laugh fell on +the overcharged air and in itself began to clear the atmosphere, "so +you empty-handed, cross-faced boys think you look more stylisher for +the wedding than the girls look, do you?" + +"No'm, we never said that," answered young Bud with a grin coaxing at +his wide mouth. "We just don't want to carry no baskets. Buck said he +wouldn't, and Sam Mosbey said they had oughter tie a sash around the +middle of all of us for a show. We think the girls look fine," and he +cast an uneasy glance at his sister. + +"Well, seeing as you came down as far as to pass a compliment on 'em, I +reckon the girls will have to forgive you for talking about them that +way. I am willing to ask Miss Elinory here to give you each a little +bunch of roses to carry in your hand instead of a basket, and to let +you walk along beside the girls, though nobody will look at you anyway +or know you are there. Is that a bargain and is everybody ready to step +into line?" + +And almost instantly there was a relieved and amicable settling of the +difficulties, a sorting of bunches from the despised baskets, and a +quick line-up. + +"Now start on down! Don't you hear Miss Prissy playing the organ for +you?" exclaimed Mother Mayberry from the steps. "Billy, lift up your +feet, and Henny, you throw the first rose just where Miss Elinory told +you to. Everybody watch Henny and throw a flower whenever he does. Aim +them at the ground and not at each other or the company. We'll be just +behind you. Now, Martin Luther, take Bettie by the hand and don't go +too fast!" + +"A little fun poked at the right time will settle most man +conniptions," she added, in an aside to the relieved and admiring +singer lady, as they prepared to follow in the wake of the bridal train. + +And among all the weddings over all the land, that fill to a joyous +overflowing almost every hour of the month of June, none could have +been more lovely or happier than that of pretty Bettie Pratt, and the +embarrassed but adoring Mr. Hoover on Providence Road. The train of +solemn, wide-eyed little flower bearers was received by the wedding +guests, who were assembled around the Meeting-house door, with a +positive wave of rapture and no hint of the previous hurricane of +rebellion showed in their rosy, cherubic countenances. They separated +at the designated point and according to instructions took their stand +along the side of the walk from the gate to the steps. Billy stepped +high, roly-poly little Bettie steered Martin Luther into place and +Eliza had the joy of catching a glimpse of the pale face across the +store-yard, peering out of the window with the greatest interest. + +Then from the Pratt home, directly across the Road, came the Deacon and +Bettie, and the enthusiasm at this point boiled up and ran over in a +perfect foam of joy. And, indeed, the pair made a picture deserving of +every thrill, Bettie in her dove gray muslin and the Deacon bedight +according to Eliza's expert opinion of good form. He beamed like a +gentle old cherub himself, while she giggled and blushed and nodded to +the children as she stepped over the rain of roses, on up to the very +door itself. Immediately following the children, the congregation filed +in and settled itself for the long prayer, that the Deacon always used +to open such solemn occasions. + +The singer lady found herself seated between Mother Mayberry and the +Doctor on the end of the pew, and out of the corner of her eye she +essayed a view of his magnificence, but caught him in the act of making +the same pass in her direction. They both blushed, and her smile was +wickedly tantalizing, though she kept her eyes fixed on the Deacon's +face as he began to read the words of the service in his sweet old +voice, with its note of tender affection for the pair of friends for +whom he read them. And she never knew why she didn't realize it or why +she thought of permitting it, but as the impressive words enfolded the +pair at the altar, one of her own small hands was gently possessed in a +warm, strong one, and tightly clasped. For moments the pair of hands +rested on the bench between them, hid by a filmy fold of the rose gown. +There was just nothing to be done about it that the singer lady could +see, so she let matters rest as they were and gave her attention to +trying to keep the riot in her own heart in reasonable bounds. However, +it might have been a comfort to her to know that across the church, +Buck had captured five of Pattie's sunburned fingers, and Mr. Petway +was sitting so close to Miss Prissy that Mr. Pike came very near being +irreverent enough to nudge the devout Judy. Then what a glorious time +followed the solemn minutes in the church! The very twilight fell upon +the entire wedding party still feasting and rejoicing, and it was under +the light of the early stars that the guests had to wend their way +home. Mother Mayberry was surrounded by a court of small boys, each one +eager for her words of commendation on their more than exemplary +conduct and she smiled and joked them as they escorted her to her +door-step. Cindy had gone on ahead and a light shone from the kitchen +window, which was answered by flashes all along and across the Road as +the various households settled down to the business of recovering +sufficient equilibrium to begin the conduct of the ordinary affairs of +daily life at the morrow sun-up. + +"Sit down here on the steps just a minute," pleaded the Doctor with +trepidation in his voice, for the rose lady had found the strength of +mind to reprove him for their conduct in church by ignoring him utterly +at the wedding feast, even going to the point of partaking of her +supper in the overwhelmed company of Sam Mosbey, who not for the life +of him could have told from whence came the courage to ask for such a +compliment, and the result of which had been to send him back later to +the table in a half-famished condition; he not having been able to +feast the eyes and the inner man at the same time. + +"Can I trust you?" she demanded of the Doctor in a very small and +reproving voice. + +"If that is a condition--yes," he reluctantly consented, as he looked +up at her in the starlight. + +"Thank you--you were very grand," she said after she had settled +herself in what she decided to be an uncompromising distance from him. +"You really graced the occasion." + +"Miss Wingate," he said slowly, and he turned his head so that only his +profile showed against the dusk of the wistaria vine, "you wouldn't +really be cruel to a country boy with his heart on his sleeve and only +his pride to protect it, would you?" + +"I suppose it was unkind, for he was so hungry and couldn't seem to eat +at all; but I saw Mrs. Pike giving him a glorious supper later, so +please don't worry over him." Which answer was delivered in a meek tone +of voice that it was difficult to hold to its ingenuous note. + +The Doctor ignored this feint and went on with the most exquisite +gentleness in his lovely voice that somehow brought her heart into her +throat, and without knowing it she edged an inch or two closer to him +and her hand made an involuntary movement toward his that rested on the +step near her, but which she managed to stop in time. "You realize, do +you not, dear lady, that your friendliness to--to us all, commands my +intensest loyalty? You'll just promise to remember always that I do +understand and go on being happy with us, won't you--us country folks +of Providence Road?" The note of pride in his voice was struck with no +uncertain sound. + +"Oh, but it's you that don't--don't--" the singer lady was about to +commit herself most dreadfully by her exclamation in the low dove notes +that alone had no trace of the disastrous burr, when Mother Mayberry +stepped out of the hall door and came and seated herself beside them. + +"Well, of course, I know the Bible do say that they won't be no +marriage or giving in marriage in the hereafter, but I do declare we +all might miss such infairs as these, even in Heaven," she observed +jovially. "Didn't everybody look nice and act nice? Course it was just +country doings to you, honey-bird, but I know you enjoyed it some even +if it were." Like all sympathetic natures Mother Mayberry fell with +ease into the current of any thought, and the young Doctor reached out +and took her hand into his with quick appreciation of the fact. + +"It was so very lovely that it made me--made me want--" the daring with +which the singer lady had begun her defiant remark gave out in the +middle and she had to let it trail weakly. + +"Well, I hope it made Mr. Petway want Prissy bad enough to ask her, +along about moon-up," said Mother Mayberry in a practical tone of +voice. "Seems like I hear they voices; and if he IS over there I don't +see how he can get out of co'ting some. It's just in the air +to-night--and WE'D better all be a-going to bed so as to get up early +to start off. Tom Mayberry, seems to me as I remember it, you looked +much less plain favored to-day than common. Did you have on some new +clothes? And ain't you a-going to pass a compliment on Elinory and me, +both with new frocks wored to please you?" + +The Doctor laughed and as they all rose together he still held his +mother's hand in his and instead of an answer he bent and kissed it +with a most distinctly foreign-acquired grace. + +"That's honey-fuzzle again, Tom Mayberry, if not in words, in acts," +she exclaimed with a delighted laugh. "But pass it along to Elinory if +only to keep her from feeling lonesome. Let him kiss your hand, child, +he ain't nothing but a country bumpkin that can't talk complimentary to +save his life. Now, go get your bucket of water, sonny, and don't let +in the cat!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB + + +"Why, honey-bird; troubles ain't nothing but tight, ugly little buds +the Lord are a-going to flower out for us all, in His good time; maybe +not until in His kingdom. I hold that fact in my heart always," said +Mother Mayberry as she looked down over her glasses at the singer lady +sitting on the top step at her feet. + +"I know you do," answered Miss Wingate with a new huskiness rather than +the burr in her voice, which made Mother look at her quickly before she +drew another thread through her needle. "But I was just thinking about +Mrs. Bostick and wishing--oh! I wish we could in some way bring her son +back to her before it is too late. Yesterday afternoon when I started +home she drew me down and asked me if when--when I went out into the +world again I would look for him and help him. Is there nothing that +can be done about it?" + +"I reckon not, child," answered Mother Mayberry gently. "If Will was to +come back now it would be just to tear up her heart some more. Last +night, when I was a-settling of her for bed, I began to talk about the +other five children she have buried under God's green grass, each in a +different county, as they moved from place to place. I just collected +them little graves together and tried to fill her heart with 'em, and +when I left she was asleep with a smile on her face I ain't seen for a +year. It's as I say--a buried baby are a trouble bud that's a-going to +flower out in eternity for a woman. I'll find a lone blossom and she a +little bunch. I'm praying in my heart that Will's a stunted plant +that'll bloom late, but in time to be sheathed in with the rest. But +bless your sweet feeling-heart, child, and let's keep the smile on our +faces for her comfort! Woman must bend and not break under a sorrow +load. Take some of them calcanthuses to her when you go down for one of +them foreign junkets and ask her to tell you about them little folks of +her'n. Start her on the little girl that favored the Deacon and cut off +all his forelock with the scissors while he were asleep, so he 'most +made the congregation over at Twin Creeks disgrace theyselves with +laughing at his shorn plight the next Sunday. I've got to turn around +'fore sundown for I've got 'most a day's work to straighten out the hen +house and settle the ruckus about nests. The whole sisterhood of 'em +have tooken a notion to lay in the same barrel and have to be persuaded +some. Now run on so as to be back as early as you can before Tom +comes." And as Mother Mayberry spoke, she began to gather together her +sewing, preparatory to a sally into the world of her feathered folk. + +But before she had watched the singer lady out of sight down the Road, +with her spray of brown blossoms in her one hand and her garden hat in +the other, she espied young Eliza rapidly approaching from up the Road +and there was excitement in every movement of her slim, little body and +in every swish of her short calico skirts, as well as in the way her +long pigtail swung out behind. + +"Mother Mayberry," she exclaimed, as she sank breathless on the top +step, "they is a awful thing happened! Aunt Prissy was 'most disgraced +'bout a box of soap and Bud and 'Lias and Henny might have got killed +and Buck too, because he sent one to Pattie and wrote what was on the +card. I've been so scared I am in the trembles now, but you said always +pray to the Lord and I did it while I was a-running down to the store +to beg Mr. Petway not to make her jump off from Bee Rock on the Nob +like the lady Mis' Peavey read about in the paper did because the man +wouldn't marry her that she was in love with. Fast as I were a-running +I reckon the Lord made out what I said and beat me to him and told +him--" + +"'Liza, 'Liza, honey, stop this minute and tell me what you are +a-talking about," demanded Mother Mayberry, with almost as much +excitement in her voice as was trembling in that of the small talking +machine at her feet. "Now begin at the beginning and tell me just what +is the matter with your Aunt Prissy?" + +"Nothing now," answered Eliza, taking a fresh breath, "she's a-going to +marry Mr. Petway, only she won't know it until to-night and I've +promised him not to tell her." + +"What?" was all that Mother Mayberry managed to demand from the depths +of her astonishment as she sank back in her rocking-chair and regarded +Eliza with positive awe. + +"Yes'um, and it were all about them two beautiful boxes of +sweet-smelling soap that he bought in town and have had in the store +window for a week. Buck bought one to send to Pattie for a birthday +present and he wrote, 'When this you see, remember me,' on a card and +put it in the box. I carried it over to her for him and Mr. Hoover jest +laughed, and said Buck meant Pattie didn't keep her face clean. But +Mis' Hoover hugged Pattie and whispered something to her and told Mr. +Hoover to shut up and go see how many children he could get to come in +and be washed up for dinner. Buck was a-waiting for me around the +corner of the store and when I told him how pleased Mis' Hoover and +Pattie were, he--" + +"But wait a minute, 'Liza," interrupted Mother Mayberry with a laugh, +"them love jinks twixt Buck and Pattie is most interesting, but I'm +waiting to hear about your Aunt Prissy and Mr. Petway. It's liable to +be serious when two folks as old as they is--but go on with your tale, +honey." + +"Well, Buck wrote two of them beautiful 'Remember me' verses on nice +pieces of white paper, in them curlycues the Deacon taught him, before +he got one to suit him and he left one on the counter, right by the +cheese box. While we was gone, along come 'Lias and Bud and Henny and +disgraced Aunt Prissy." + +"Why, what did them scamps do?" demanded Mother Mayberry, looking over +her glasses in some perturbation as the end of the involved narration +began to dawn upon her. + +"They tooken the other box of soap outen the window and put the verse +in it and carried it down to Aunt Prissy and told her Mr. Petway sent +it to her. It was a joke they said, but they was good and skeered. I +got home then and I seen her and Maw laughing about it and Aunt Prissy +was just as pink and pleased and loving looking as Pattie were and Maw +was a-joking of her like Mis' Pratt--no, Hoover--did Pattie and all of +a sudden I knewed it were them bad boys, 'cause I seen 'em laughing in +a way I knows is badness. Oh, then I was so skeered I couldn't swoller +something in my throat 'cause I thought maybe Aunt Prissy would jump +offen Bee Rock when she found she were so disgraced with Mr. Petway. I +woulder done it myself, for I got right red in my own face thinking +about it." And the blush that was a dawn of the eternal feminine again +rose to the little bud-woman's face. + +"It were awful, Eliza child, and I don't blame you for being mortified +over it," said Mother Mayberry with a quick appreciation of the wound +inflicted on the delicacy of the child, and the tale began to assume +serious proportions in her mind as she thought of the probable result +to the incipient affair between the elderly lovers that had been a +subject of prayful hope to her for some time past. "What did you do?" + +"I prayed," answered Eliza in a perfectly practical tone of voice, "and +as I prayed I ran to Mr. Petway as fast as I could. He was filling +molasses cans at the barrel when I got there and they wasn't nobody in +the store, only I seen Bud and Henny peeping from behind the blacksmith +shop and they was right white, they was so skeered by that time. Then I +told him all about it and begged him to let Aunt Prissy have the box of +soap and think he sent it, so her feelings wouldn't get hurted. I told +him I would give him my seventy-five cents from picking peas to pay for +it and that Aunt Prissy cried so when her feelings was hurted, and she +thought so much of him that she kept her frizzes rolled up all day when +she hoped he might be coming that night to see her and got Maw to bake +tea-cakes to pass him out on the front porch and he MIGHT let her have +just that one little box of soap." + +"What did he say, child?" asked Mother Mayberry in a voice that was +positively weak from anxiety and suppressed mirth at Eliza's own +account of her management of the outraged lover. + +"He didn't say a thing, but he sat down on a cracker box and just +hugged me and laughed until he cried all over my dress and I hugged +back and laughed too, but I didn't know what at. Then he told me that +he didn't ever want Aunt Prissy to know about them bad boys' foolish +joke 'cause he wanted to marry Aunt Prissy and didn't want her to find +out that three young scallawags had to begin his co'ting for him." + +"Did he say all that to you, 'Liza honey, are you sure?" asked Mother +Mayberry, beginning to beam with delight at the outcome of the horrible +situation. + +"Yes'm, he did, and I went out and brought Bud and 'Lias and Henny in +and he talked to 'em serious until 'Lias cried and Bud got choked +trying not to. Then he give them all a bottle of soda pop and they +ain't never anybody a-going to tell anybody else about it. He made them +boys cross they hearts and bodies not to. I didn't cross mine 'cause I +knew I had to tell you, but I do it now." And Eliza stood up and +solemnly made the mystic sign, thus locking the barn door of her secret +chambers after having quartered the troublesome steed of confidence on +the ranges of Mother Mayberry's conscience. + +"Well, 'Liza, a secret oughter always be wrapped up tight and dropped +down the well inside a person, and suppose you and me do it to this +one. And, child, I want to tell you that you did the right thing all +along this line, and it were the Heavenly Father you asked to help you +out that put the right notion in your heart of what to do." + +"Yes'm, I believe He did, and He got hold of Mr. Petway some too, to +make him kind about wanting to marry Aunt Prissy. He are a-going to ask +her to-night and I promised to keep Paw outen the way for him, 'cause +Paw WILL get away from Maw and come talk crops with him sometimes on +the front porch. May I go out to the kitchen and get Cindy to make a +little chicken soup for Mis' Bostick now? I can't get her to eat much +to-day." + +"Yes, and welcome, Sister Pike," answered Mother Mayberry heartily, and +she shook with laughter as the end of the blue calico skirt disappeared +in the hall. "The little raven have actually begun to sprout cupid +wings," she said to herself as she went around the corner of the house +toward the Doctor's office. "Co'ting are a bombshell that explodes in +the big Road of life and look out who it hits," she further observed to +herself as she paused to train up a shoot of the rambler over the +office door. + +The Doctor had just come from over the Ridge, put up his horse and made +his way through the kitchen and hall into his office where he found his +Mother sitting in his chair by the table. He smiled in a dejected way +and seated himself opposite her, leaned his elbows on the table and +dropped his chin into his hands. + +"Now, what's your trouble, Tom Mayberry?" demanded his Mother, as she +gazed across at him with anxiety and tenderness striving in glance and +tone. "You've been a-going around like a dropped-wing young rooster +with a touch of malaria for a week. If it's just moon-gaps you can keep +'em and welcome, but if it's trouble, I claim my share, son." + +"I meant to tell you to-day, Mother," he answered slowly. After a +moment's silence he looked up and said steadily, "I've failed with Miss +Wingate--and I'm too much of a coward to tell her. I feel sure now that +she'll never be able to use her voice any more than she can in the +speaking tones and she--she will never sing again." As he spoke he +buried his face in his hands and his arms shook the table they rested +upon. + +For a moment Mother Mayberry sat perfectly still and from the whispered +words on her lips her son knew she was praying. "The Lord's will be +done," she said at last in her deep, quiet voice, and she laid one of +her strong hands on her son's arm. "Tell me about it, Tom. You ain't +done no operation yet." + +"Yes, Mother, I have," he answered quietly. "All the different +laryngeal treatments she had tried under the greatest specialists. Her +one hope was to be built up to the point of standing a bloodless +operation with the galvanic shock. I have tried three times in the last +week to release the muscles and start life in the nerves that control +the vocal chords. In the two other cases with which I have succeeded +the response was immediate after the first operation. Now I dare not +risk another tear of the muscles. One reason I didn't tell her is that +I had to count on her losing the fear that she wouldn't gain the +control. You know she thinks they have been only preliminary treatments +and you have heard her laugh as I held her white throat in my hands. +She believes completely in the outcome. God, to think I have failed +her--HER!" + +"Yes, Tom, He knows--and Mother understands," his Mother answered +gently. + +"And she must be told right away," said the Doctor as he rose and +walked to the window. "It is only fair. Shall I or you tell her? +Choose, Mother, what will be best for her! But can she stand it?" + +"Son," said his Mother, as she also rose and stood facing him with the +late afternoon sun falling straight into her face which, lit by the +light without and a fire within, shone with a wonderful radiance. "Son, +don't you know these old Harpeth Hills have looked down in they day on +many a woman open her arms, take a burden to her heart and start on a +long journey up to the Master's everlasting hills? Sometimes it have +been disgrace, or a lifelong loneliness, or her man hunted out into the +night by the law. I have laid still-born children into my sisters' +arms, and I've washed the blood from the wounds in women's murdered +sons, but I ain't never seen no woman deny her Lord yet and I don't +look to see this little sister of my heart refuse her cup. I'll tell +her, for it's my part--but Tom Mayberry, see that you stand to her when +your time comes, as it surely will." + +"Don't you know, Mother, that I would lay down my life to do the least +thing for her?" he asked, with the suffering drawing his young face +into stern, hard lines. "But to do the one thing for her I might have +done has been denied me," he added bitterly. + +"No, Tom, there's one thing left to you to give her. Sympathy is God's +box of precious ointment and see that you break yours over her heart +this day. Now, I'm a-going down Providence Road to meet her and I know +the Lord will help me to the right words when the time comes. I leave +His blessing with you, boy!" And she turned and left him with his +softened eyes looking up into her calm face. + +Then for a long hour Mother Mayberry worked quietly among her dependent +feather folk and as she worked, her gentle face had its brooding +mother-look and her lips moved as she comforted and fortified herself +with snatches of prayer for the journey through the deep waters, on +which she was to lead this child of her affection. After the last +tangle had been straightened out, each brood settled in comfortable +quarters and the cause of all quarrels arbitrated, she walked to the +front gate and stood looking down the Road. + +And up from the Deacon's house came a little procession that made her +smile with a sob clutching at her heart. The singer lady had taken +Teether from the arms of his mother, who stood happily exchanging the +topics of the times with the Hoover bride, who had not had thus far +sufficient opportunity to expatiate on quite all the adventures of the +wedding journey and kept on hand still a small store of happenings to +recount to her sympathetic neighbors as they found time and +opportunity. The rosy rollicking youngster she had perched on her +shoulder and held him steadily thus exalted by his pair of sturdy, +milk-fed legs. Martin Luther, as usual, clung to her skirts, Susie Pike +danced on before her and the Deacon was walking slowly along at her +side, carefully carrying the rose-garden of a hat in both his hands. He +was looking up at her with his gentle face abeam with pleasure and +Mother Mayberry could hear, as they came near, that she was humming to +him as he lined out some quaint, early-church words to her. It was a +never failing source of delight to the old patriarch to have her thus +fit motives from the world's great music to the old, pioneer hymns. + +"Sister Mayberry," he exclaimed with exultation in his old face, "I +never thought to hear in this world these words of my brother, Charles +Wesley, sung to such heavenly strains as my young sister has put them +this day. Never before, I feel, have they had fit rendition. While I +line the verse, sing them again to Sister Mayberry, child, that her +ears may be rejoiced with mine." And Mother Mayberry caught at the top +of the gate as the girl slipped the nodding baby down into her arms and +in her wonderful muted voice hummed the Grail motif while the Deacon +raised his thin old hands and lined out the + + "Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord, + Whom one in three we know--" + +on through its verses to its final invocation of the + + "Supreme, essential One, adored + In co-eternal Three." + +"The Lord bless you, child, and make His sun to shine upon you," he +said as the last note died away, while Teether chuckled and nozzled at +Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "I must go on back to sit with Mrs. Bostick +and will deposit this treasure with Sister Mayberry," he added with a +smile as he handed the bouquet-hat over the gate. + +"Susie, can't you take Teether over to your Aunt Prissy and tell her +that Mother says please give him his milk right away, for it's past +time, and she will come in a few minutes?" asked the singer lady, as +she handed the reluctant baby to the small girl at her side. + +"Milk, thank ma'am, please," demanded Martin Luther quickly, having no +intention of being left out of any lactic deal. + +"Run ask Cindy," answered Mother Mayberry, as she started him up the +front walk, and came on more slowly with Miss Wingate at her side. In +her soul she was realizing fully the influence the lovely woman had +thrown over the hearts of the simple Providence folk and the greatness +of her own nature was making her understand something of the loss to +those of the outer world whom the great singer would be no longer able +to call within the spell of her wonderful voice. + +"Honey-bird," she said gently, as she drew the girl to the end of the +porch where the wistaria vine, a whispering maple and the crimson +rambler shut them in from the eyes of all the world save the spirit of +Providence Nob, which brooded down over them in a wisp of cloud across +its sun-reddened top, "here's the place and time and heart strength to +tell you that your Lord have laid the hand of affliction on you heavy +and have tooken back from you the beautiful voice He gave you to use +for a time. I'm a-praying for you to be able to say His will be done." + +For one instant the singer woman went white to the eyes and swayed back +against the vine, then she asked huskily, "Did HE say so?" + +"Yes," answered the Doctor's mother gently with her deep eyes looking +into the girl's very soul. "Them treatments was operations and they is +all he dares to make for fear of your losing the speaking voice what +you have got so beautiful. If they is any love and pity in my heart +after I have stopped giving it to you I'm going to pour some out on Tom +Mayberry, for when a man's got to look sorrow in the eyes he goes blind +and don't know what way to turn, lessen a woman leads him. But he ain't +neither here or there and--" + +"Where is he?" demanded Miss Wingate in her soft dove notes as she +looked the tragedy-stricken young Doctor's mother straight in the face, +with her dark eyes completely unveiling her heart, woman to woman. +"I--I want HIM!" + +"What's left of him is in the office, and you are welcome to the +pieces," answered his Mother, a comprehensive joy rising above the +sorrow in her eyes. "I reckon I can trust him with you, but if you need +any help, call me," she added, as the singer girl fled down the steps +and around to the office wing. + +And they neither one of them ever knew how it really happened, though +she insisted on accusing herself and he claimed always the entire +blame, but he had been sitting where his Mother had left him for an +hour or more with his face in his hands when he suddenly found himself +clasped in soft arms and his eyes pressed close against a bare white +throat and a most wonderful dove voice was murmuring happy, comforting +little words that fell down like jewels into his very heart of hearts. +And his own strong arms held very close a palpitating, cajoling, flower +of a woman, who was wooing for smiles and dimpling with raptures. + +"I don't care, I don't, and please don't you!" she pleaded with her +lips against his black forelock. + +"I can't help caring! The one thing I asked of all my years of hard +work was to give the music back to you--" and again he buried his face +in the soft lace at her throat. + +"You say, do you, that I'll never sing again?" she asked quickly, and +as she spoke she lifted his head in her hands and waited an instant for +the smothered groan with which he answered her. + +"Now, listen," she answered him in a voice fairly a-tremble with joyous +passion and as she spoke she laid his ear close over her heart and held +him so an instant. "Does it matter that only you will ever hear the +song, dear?" she whispered, then slipped out of his arms and across to +the other side of the table before he could detain her. + +"No, Tom Mayberry," she said as he reached for her, and her tone was so +positive that he stopped with his arms in the air and let them sink +slowly to his side. "We'll have this question out right here and if I +have trouble with you I'll--call your Mother," and she laughed as she +shook away a tear. + +"Please!" he pleaded and his face was both so radiant and so worn that +she had to harden her heart against him to be able to hold herself in +hand for what she wanted to say to him. + +"No," she answered determinedly, "and you must listen to every word I +say, for I am getting frightened already and may have to stop." + +"I want to talk some myself," he said with the very first smile coming +into his grave young eyes. "I want to tell you that I can't help loving +you, and have ever since I first saw you, but that it won't do at all +for you to marry--marry a Providence country bumpkin with nothing but a +doctoring head on his shoulders. I want you to understand that--" + +"Please don't refuse me this way before I've ever asked you," she said +with a trace of the grand dame hauteur in her manner and voice that he +had never seen before. "I think--I think very suddenly I have come to +realize, Doctor Mayberry, that--that--oh, I'm very frightened, but I +must say it! I wouldn't blame you or your Mother for not wanting me at +all. I--I somehow, I don't seem very great--or real to myself here in +Providence. My training has been all to one end--useless now--and I'm +all unlessoned and unlearned in the real things of life. I seem to feel +that the hot theaters and the crowds that have looked at me and--am I +what she has a right to demand in your wife?" And, with a proud little +gesture, she laid her case in his hands. + +And though she had not expected anything dramatic from him in the way +of refutation of her speech, she was totally unprepared for the +wonderful, absolute silence that met her heroics. He stood and looked +her full in the eyes with a calm radiance in his face that reminded her +of the dawn-light she had seen that morning come over Providence Nob +and his deep smile gave a young prophet look to his austere mouth. And +as she gazed at him she drew timidly nearer, even around the corner of +the table. + +"Your work is so wonderful--and real--and you ought to have a wife +who--" By this time she had got much nearer and her voice trailed off +into uncertainty. And still he stood perfectly still and looked at her. + +"She loves me and I love her, so that, do you think, I might--I might +learn? Cindy says I'm a wonder--and remember the custards," she +finished from somewhere in the region of his collar. "Now that we've +both refused each other do you suppose we can go on and be happy?" she +laughed softly from under his chin. + +And the young Doctor held her very close and never answered a word she +said. The strain on him had been very great and he was more shaken than +he wanted her to see. But from the depths of her heart she understood +and pressed closer to him as she gave him a long silence in which to +recover himself. Twilight was coming in the windows and a fragrant +night breeze was ruffling her hair against his cheek before she stirred +in his arms. + +"We've got to ask--to ask Mother before--before," she was venturing to +suggest in the smallest of voices in which was both mirth and +tenderness, when a low laugh answered her from the doorway. + +"Oh, no you don't," said Mother Mayberry, as she beamed upon them with +the most manifest joy. "I had done picked you out before you had been +here more'n a week, honey-bird. You can have him and welcome if you can +put up with him. He's like Mis' Peavey always says of her own jam; +'Plenty of it such as it is and good enough what they is of it.' A real +slow-horse love can be rid far and long at a steady gate. He ain't +pretty, but middling smart." And the handsome young Doctor's mother +eyed him with a well-assumed tolerance covering her positive rapture. + +"Are you sure, sure you're not disappointed about--about that +peony-girl?" demanded the singer lady, as she came into the circle of +Mother Mayberry's arm and nozzled her little nose under the white lawn +tie. + +"Le'me see," answered Mother Mayberry in a puzzled tone of voice. "I +seem to understand you, but not to know what you are talking about." + +"The girl to whom he gave the graduating bouquet with Mrs. Peavey's +peony in it," she whispered, but not so low that the Doctor, who had +come over and put a long arm around them both, couldn't hear. + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry in a judicial tone of voice as she +bestowed a quizzical glance on the Doctor, who blushed to the roots of +his hair at this revelation of the fact of his Mother's indulgence in +personal reminiscence, "I reckon Miss Alford'll be mighty disappointed +to lose him, but I don't know nothing about her riz biscuits. Happiness +and good cooking lie like peas in a pod in a man's life and I reckon +I'll have to give Tom Mayberry, prize, to you." + +"Mother!" exclaimed the Doctor. + +"Thank you," murmured Miss Wingate with a wicked glance at him from his +Mother's shoulder that brought a hurried embrace down upon them both. + +"Children," said Mother Mayberry, as she suddenly reached put her +strong arms and took them both close to her breast, "looks like the +Lord sometimes hatches out two birds in far apart nests just to give +'em wing-strength to fly acrost river and hill to find each other. You +both kinder wandered foreign some 'fore you sighted one another, but +now you can begin to build your own nest right away, and I offers my +heart as a bush on Providence Nob to put it in." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS + + +"This here are a curious spell of weather," remarked Mother Mayberry, +as she paused beside the singer lady who was holding Martin Luther up +on the broad window-sill, and with him was looking disconsolately down +the Road. "June's gone to acting like a woman with nerves that cries +just because she can. I'm glad all the chicken babies are feathered out +and can shed rain. Them little Hoosier pullets have already sprouted +tail feathers. They ain't a one of 'em a-going into the skillet no +matter how hungry Tom Mayberry looks after 'em. If I don't hold you and +Cindy back from spoiling him with chicken-fixings three times a day +he'll begin to show pin feathers hisself in no time." + +"He likes chicken better than anything else," murmured Miss Wingate as +she buried a blush in Martin Luther's topknot. + +"Well, wanting ain't always a reason for being gave to," said the +Doctor's mother with a chuckle as she admired the side view of the +blush. "But, seeing that he about half feeds hisself by looking at me +and you at the table, I reckon I'll have to let him have two chickens a +day to keep up his strength. Honey-fuzzle are a mighty satisfying diet, +though light, for a growed man. Reckon we can persuade him to try a +couple of slices of old ham onct in a while so as to give a few +broilers time to get legs long enough to fry?" + +"We can try," answered the singer lady in a doubtful tone of voice, for +the Doctor's penchant for young chicken was very decided. + +"Dearie me, it do beat all how some plans of life fall down in the +oven," said the Doctor's mother, as she eyed Miss Wingate with her most +quizzical smile quirking up the corners of her humorous mouth. "Here I +put myself to all manner of troubles to go out into the big world to +get a real managing wife for Tom Mayberry and I might just as well have +set cross-handed and waited for Susie Pike or little Bettie to grow up +to the spoiling of him. I thought seeing that you'd been raised with a +silver spoon in your mouth and handed life on a fringed napkin, so to +speak, you would make him stand around some, but for all I can see +you're going to make another Providence wife. Ain't you got none of the +suffering-women new notions at all?" + +"I can't help it," answered the singer lady, ducking her head behind +Martin Luther again, but smiling up out of the corners of her eyes. + +"Are you just going to drop over into being a poor, down-trodden, +miserable, man-bossed Harpeth Hill's wife, without trying a single +new-fashioned husband remedy on him, with so many receipts for managing +'em being written down by ladies all over the world, mostly single +ones?" demanded Mother Mayberry, fairly bubbling over with glee at the +singer lady's abashment. + +"Yes, I am," answered Miss Wingate sturdily. "I want him to have just +what he wants." + +"This are worse and more of it," exclaimed the Doctor's delighted +Mother. "You are got a wrong notion, child! Marriage ain't no slow, +plow-team business these days; it's hitched at opposite ends and +pulling both ways for dear life. Don't you even hope you will be; able +to think up no kind of tantrums to keep Tom Mayberry from being happy?" + +"I don't want to," laughed the infatuated bride prospective. + +"Then I reckon I'll have to give up and let you settle down into being +one of these here regular old-fashioned, primping-for-a-man, +dinner-on-the-table-at-the-horn-blow, +hanging-over-the-front-gate-waiting kind of wives. I thought I'd caught +a high-faluting bird of Paradise for him and you ain't a thing in the +world but a meadow dove. But there comes Bettie scooting through the +rain with little Hoover under her shawl. Providence folks have got duck +blood, all of 'em, and the more it pours out they paddles. Come in and +shake your feathers, Bettie." + +"Howdy all," exclaimed the rosy Mrs. Hoover. "This here rain on the +corn is money in everybody's pocket. I just stopped in to show you this +pink flowered shirt-waist I have done finished for Miss Prissy Pike. +Ain't it stylish?" + +"It surely are, Bettie!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry. "I'm so glad you +got it pink." + +"And it don't run neither. I tried it," said the proud designer of the +admired garment. + +"That's a good sign for the wedding. You can rub happiness that's fast +dyed through any kinder worry suds and it'll come out with the color +left. Any news along the Road?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she handled +the rosy blouse with careful hands. + +"Well, Henny Turner says that Squire Tutt are in bed covered up head +and ears with the quilts, but 'Lias says that it are just 'cause Mis' +Tutt have got a happy spell on her and have been exorting of him. She +called all three of them boys in, Bud and Henny and 'Lias, and made 'em +learn a Bible verse a-piece, and I was grateful to her for her +interest, but the Squire cussed so to 'em while she went to get 'em a +cake that I'm afraid the lesson were spoiled for the chaps." + +"I don't reckon it were, Bettie. Good salts down any day, while Evil +don't ever keep long. But I do wish we could get the Squire and Mis' +Tutt to be a little more peaceably with one another. It downright +grieves me to have 'em so spited here in they old age." And Mother +Mayberry's eyes took on a regretful look and she peered over her +glasses at the happy bride. On her buoyant heart she ever carried the +welfare of every soul in Providence and the crabbed old couple down the +Road was a constant source of trouble to her. + +"You shan't worry over 'em, Mis' Mayberry," answered pretty Bettie +quickly, "You get every Providence trouble landed right on your +shoulders as soon as one comes. You don't get a chance to do nothing +but deal out ease to other people's bodies and souls, too." + +"Well, a cup of cold water held to other folks' mouths is a mighty good +way to quench your own thirst, Bettie child, and I'm glad if it are +gave to me to label out the blessing of ease. But have you been in to +the Deacon's this morning?" + +"No'm, I'm a-going to stop as I go along home," answered Bettie. "I +have seed the little raven paddling back and forth, so I guess they is +all right. I must hurry on now, for I see Miss Prissy at the window +looking for me. Ain't my baby a-growing?" she asked, as she picked +little Hoover off of the floor and again enveloped the bobbing head +under her own shawl. + +"Yes, it are, and Mr. Hoover's a-smiling hisself fat by the day, +child," answered Mother Mayberry with a smile. "Do you pass on the word +to Elinory here that Providence husbands wear good, both warp and woof?" + +"That they do, Miss Elinory, and I never seed nothing like 'em in my +travels," called back the bride from the door, as she reefed in her +skirts and sailed out in the downpour. + +"Well, your mind oughter be satisfied, child, for Bettie muster seen a +good deal of the world in that three weeks' bridal trip in the farm +wagon," laughed Mother Mayberry at the singer lady by the window. "Now +I'm a-going to swim out to gather eggs and I'll be back if I don't +drown." With which she left the girl and the tot to resume their watch +down the Road for a horse and rider due in not over two hours' time. + +And indeed the last of old June's days seemed in danger of dripping +away from her in tears of farewell. Rain clouds hung low over Harpeth +Hills and drifted down to the very top of Providence Nob. A steady +downpour had begun in the night and held on into the day and seemed to +increase in volume as the hours wore away. The tall maples were +standing depressed-boughed and dripping and the poplar leaves hung +sodden and wet, refusing a glimpse of their silver lining. A row of +bleeding-hearts down the walk were turning faint pink and drooping to +the ground, while every rose in the yard was shattered and wasted away. + +"Rain, rain!" wailed Martin Luther under his breath, as he pressed his +cheek to the window-pane and looked without interest at a forlorn +rooster huddled with a couple of hens under the snowball bush. + +"Don't you want a cake and some milk?" asked the singer lady, as she +gave him a comforting hug and essayed consolation by the offer of a +material distraction. + +"No milk, no cake; L-i-z-a, thank ma'am, please," he sobbed a +disconsolate demand for what he considered a good substitute sunbeam. + +"There she comes now, darling," exclaimed the singer lady, with as much +pleasure coming into her face as lit the doleful cherub's at her side. +And from the Pike front door there had issued a small figure, also +enveloped in an old shawl, which made its way across the puddles with +splashing, bare feet. She had her covered dish under her arm and a +bucket dangled from one hand. She answered Martin Luther's hail with a +flash of her white teeth and sped across the front porch. + +And in the course of just ten minutes the experienced young pacifier +had established the small boy as driver to Mother Mayberry's large +rocking-chair, mounted him on the foot of the bed with snapping switch +to crack and thus secured a two-hour reign of peace for his elders. + +"Miss Elinory," she said, as she came and stood close to the singer +lady seated in the deep window, "I'm mighty glad you got Doctor Tom; +and it were fair to the other lady, too. He couldn't help loving you +best, 'cause you are got a sick throat and she ain't. Do you reckon +she'll be satisfied to take Sam Mosbey when she comes again? I'm sorry +for her." + +"So am I, Eliza," laughed Miss Wingate softly, as the rose blush stole +up over her cheeks, "but I don't believe she'll need Mr. Mosbey. Don't +you suppose she--that--is--there must be some one down in the City whom +she likes a lot." + +"Yes'm, I reckon they is. Then I'll just take Sam myself when I grow up +if nobody else wants him," answered Eliza comfortably. "I'm sorry to be +glad that your throat didn't get well, but Mis' Peavey says that you +never in the world woulder tooken Doctor Tom if you coulder gone away +and made money singing to people. I don't know what me or him or Mother +Mayberry woulder done without you, but we couldn'ter paid you much to +stay. You won't never go now, will you?" + +"Never," answered the singer lady, as she drew the little ingenue close +to her side. "And let me whisper something to you, Eliza--I +never--would--have--gone--any--way. I love you too much, you and Mother +Mayberry--and Doctor Tom." + +"And Mis' Bostick and Deacon," exclaimed the loyal young raven. "Miss +Elinory, I get so scared about Mis' Bostick right here," she added, +laying her hand on her little throat. "She won't eat nothing and she +can't talk to me to-day. Maw and Mis' Nath Mosbey are there now and +waiting for Doctor Tom to come back. They said not to tell Mother +Mayberry until the rain held up some, but they want her, too. Can't +loving people do nothing for 'em, Miss Elinory?" and with big, wistful +eyes the tiny woman put the question, which has agonized hearts down +the ages. + +"Oh, darling, the--loving itself helps," answered the singer lady +quickly with the mist over her eyes. + +"I believe it do," answered Eliza thoughtfully. + +"I hold the Deacon's other hand when he sets by Mis' Bostick! He wants +me, and she smiles at us both. I don't like to leave 'em for one single +minute. I have to wait now for Cindy to get the dinner done, but then +I'm a-going to run. Why, there goes Mother Mayberry outen the gate +under a umbrella! And Aunt Prissy asked me to get a spool of number +fifty thread from her to sew some lace on a petticoat Mis' Hoover have +done finished for her. If I was to go to get married I'd make some +things for my husband, too, and not so much for myself. I wouldn't want +so many skirts unless I knewed he had enough shirts." + +"But, Eliza," remonstrated Miss Wingate, slightly shocked at this +rather original idea of providing a groom with a trousseau, "perhaps he +would rather get things for himself." + +"No'm, he wouldn't," answered Eliza positively. "I ain't a-going to say +anything to Aunt Prissy about it 'cause you never can tell what will +hurt her feelings, but I want you to get Mis' Hoover to show you how +and make three nice shirts for Doctor Tom, so you can wash one while he +wears the other and keep one put away for Sunday. That is the way Maw +does for Paw and all the other folks on the Road does the same for they +men. Mis' Peavey can show you how to iron them nice, for she does the +Deacon's for me and Mother Mayberry is too busy to bother with such +things 'count of always having to go to sick folks even over to the +other side of the Nob. Cindy don't starch good. You'll do for Doctor +Tom nice, now you've got him, won't you?" + +"Yes, Eliza, I will," answered the singer lady meekly, as this +prevision of the life domestic rose up and menaced her. She even had a +queer little thrill of pleasure at the thought of performing such +superhuman tasks for what was to be her individual responsibility among +Providence men along the Road. The certainty that she would never be +allowed to perform such offices at machine and tub actually depressed +her, for the thought had brought a primitive sense of possession that +she was loath to dismiss; the passion for service to love being an +instinct that sways the great lady and her country sister alike. "Do +you think he--will let me?" she asked of her admonisher. + +"Just go on and do it and don't ask him," was the practical answer. +"There he comes now leading his horse and he have been to see Mis' +Bostick. I can get the dinner and run on to meet him and hear how he +thinks she are," she exclaimed as she seized her dish and bucket and +disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. + +And a few minutes later, as Doctor Mayberry was unsaddling his horse in +the barn a lithe figure enveloped as to head and shoulders in one of +Cindy's kitchen aprons darted under the dripping eaves and stood +breathless and laughing in the wide door. + +"I saw you come up the Road," said the singer lady, as she divested +herself of the gingham garment, "and I was dying to get out in the +rain, much to Cindy's horror. You are late." + +"Not much," answered the young Doctor, slipping out of his rain coat +and coming over to stand beside her in the door. "What have you been +doing all morning?" + +"I've been being--being lectured," she answered, as she looked up in +his face with dancing dark eyes. + +"Who did it to you?" he asked, taking her fingers into his and drawing +her farther back from the splash of the rain drops. + +"Your Mother and then Eliza Pike," she answered with a low laugh. +"Eliza is afraid I won't 'do for you' in proper Providence style and +I'm very humble and--I--I want to learn. She thinks I ought to begin on +some--some shirts for you right now and I'm going to. What color do you +prefer?" + +"Horrors!" exclaimed the Doctor, positively blushing at the thought of +the very lovely lady engaged in such a clothing mission. + +"I knew you wouldn't have any confidence in them," answered Miss +Wingate mournfully, "and I haven't myself, but still I was willing to +try." + +"Oh, yes, I have!" the young Doctor hastened to exclaim. "Better make +them suitable for traveling, for I've got marching orders in the noon +mail. Are you ready to start to Italy on short notice and then on to +India?" + +"What?" demanded the singer lady with alarmed astonishment. + +"Yes," answered the young Doctor coolly. "The Commission writes that my +reports on Pellagra down here are complete enough now for them to send +some chap down to continue them, while I go on to Southern Italy for a +study of similar conditions there and then on to India for a still more +exhaustive examination. The Government is determined to stamp this +scourge out before it gets a hold, and it's work to put out the fire +before it spreads. Better hurry the shirts and pack up your own fluff." + +"But I'm not going a step or a wave," answered the singer girl +defiantly. "I'm too busy here now. I don't ever intend to leave Mother +as long as I live. I don't see how you can even suggest such a thing to +me." + +"Do you know what leaving Mother is like?" asked the young Doctor, as +he looked down on her with tenderness in his gray eyes and Mother +Mayberry's own quizzical smile on his lips. "It's like going to sleep +at night with a last look at Providence Nob,--you wake up in the +morning and find it more there than ever. She was THERE on sunny +mornings over in Berlin and THERE on gray days in London and I had her +on long hard hospital nights in New York. Just come with me on this +trip and I promise she and Old Harpeth will be here when we get back. +Please!" + +"I don't know," answered Miss Wingate in a small voice as she rubbed +her cheek against the arm of his coat. "I'm in love with Tom Mayberry +of Providence Road. I don't know that I want to go traveling with a +distinguished physician on an important Government mission and attend +Legation dinners and banquets and--I don't want to leave my Mother," +and there was a real catch in the laugh she smothered in his coat +sleeve. + +"Dearie girl," he exclaimed, looking down with delight at a small +section of blush left visible against the rough blue serge of his coat, +"you and Mother are--" + +"Sakes, you folks, I wish you'd try to listen when you are called at!" +came in a sharp voice as Mrs. Peavey looked down upon them from over +the wall near the barn. "One of them foolish Indiany chickens are +stretched out kicking most drowned in a puddle right by the barn door, +and there you both stand doing nothing for it. Tom Mayberry, pick it up +this minute and give it to me! I'm a-going to put it behind my stove +until Mis' Mayberry comes home. I've got some feeling for her love of +chickens, _I_ have." + +"Oh, I didn't see it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, in an agony of regret. +"The dear little thing! Give it to me and I'll take care of it." + +"Fiddlesticks! Chickens ain't 'dear little things,' and I wouldn't +trust neither one of you to take care of a flea of mine, with your +philandering. Hand it here to me, Tom Mayberry, like I tell you!" And +the Doctor hastened to pick up the little gasping bunch of drenched +feathers, which Mrs. Peavey tucked in the corner of her shawl "Did you +all hear that a car busted into another one down in the City day before +yesterday and throwed the driver and broke a lady's arm and cut a +baby's leg shameful? It was in the morning paper I saw down to the +store; and a wind storm blew off a man's roof too." + +"I haven't read the paper yet," answered the singer lady in the subdued +voice she always used in addressing Mother Mayberry's pessimistic +neighbor. + +"Well, you oughter take interest in accidents if you are a-going to be +a Doctor's wife. It'll be all in the family then and you can hear it +all straight and maybe see some folks mended," answered Mrs. Peavey, +and she failed to notice Miss Wingate's horrified expression at such a +prospect. "How's Mis' Bostick, Tom? That is, how do your Mother say she +are, for I couldn't trust your notion in such a case as her'n." + +"I think Mother feels worried over her to-day," answered the Doctor +gently, with not a trace of offense at his neighbor's outspoken +question. "Her heart is very weak and it is impossible to stimulate her +further. Mother is up there now and I'll come tell you what she says +when she comes home to dinner." + +"Well, I'm always thankful for news, bad as it mostly are," answered +Mrs. Peavey in gloomy gratitude for his offer of a report from Mother +Mayberry. "You all had better go on in the house now and put Miss +Elinory's wet feet in the stove, for they won't be no use in her dying +on Mis' Mayberry's hands with pneumony at this busy time of the year. +Them slippers is too foolish to look at." With which the shawled head +disappeared from the top of the wall. + +"Do you know, I had a strange dream last night," said the singer lady, +as the Doctor hung up his bridle and shut the feed-room door +preparatory to following out Mrs. Peavey's injunction as to carrying +Miss Wingate away to be dry shod. "I dreamed that I was singing to Mrs. +Bostick and the Deacon, REALLY singing, and just as it rose clear and +strong Mrs. Peavey called to me to 'shut up' and it stopped so suddenly +that I waked up--and the strange part of it is that I heard, really +heard, I thought, my own voice die away in an echo up in the eaves. For +a second I seemed awake and listening--and it was lovely--lovely!" + +"Dear," said the Doctor, as he took her hand in his and held it against +his breast, "I would give all life has to offer me to get it back for +you. I will hope against hope! I haven't written Doctor Stein yet. I +can't make myself write. Perhaps we will find some one on this trip who +has some theory or treatment or something to offer. I've been praying +that help will come!" + +"Would you--like me any better if I had it back?" she asked with a +happy little laugh as she laid her cheek against their clasped hands. +"Would you want L'ELEONORE more than you do just plain Elinor Wingate, +care Mother Mayberry, Providence, Tennessee?" + +"I'm going to carry you in the house so you can put on dry stockings," +answered the Doctor with a spark in his gray eyes that scorned her +question, and without any discussion he picked her up, strode through +the rain with her and deposited her in the kitchen door. + +And over by the long window they found Mother Mayberry standing with +her hand on Cindy's shoulder, who sat with her head bowed in her apron +sobbing quietly, while Martin Luther stood wide-eyed and questioning, +with his little hand clutching Mother's skirts. + +"Children," said Mother quietly as she came and stood beside them in +the doorway, while Martin Luther nestled up to Doctor Tom, "I've come +down the Road to tell you that it are all over up at the Deacon's. It +were very beautiful, for Mis' Bostick just give us a smile and went to +meet her Lord with the love of us all a-shining on her face. We didn't +hardly sense it at first, for she had just spoke to 'Liza, and the +Deacon were over by the window. I ain't got no tears to shed for her +and Deacon are so stunned he don't need 'em yet." + +"Mother," exclaimed the Doctor, as he took her hand in his, while the +singer lady crept close and rested against her strong shoulder. + +"Yes, son," answered his Mother gently, "it come so sudden I couldn't +even send for you, but go on up there now and see what you can do for +Deacon. He'll want you for the comfort of your presence, you and 'Liza." + +"And Eliza!" exclaimed Miss Wingate with a sob, "it'll break her little +heart." + +"They never was such a child as 'Liza Pike in the world," said Mother +Mayberry softly and for the first time a film of tears spread over her +eyes. "She have never said a word, but just stands pressed up close +with her arm 'round the Deacon's shoulders as he sits with his Good +Book acrost his knees. She give one little moan when she understood, +but she ain't made a mite of child-fuss, just shed her baby tears like +a woman growed to sorrow. Her little bucket and dish of dinner is +a-setting cold on the table and a little draggled rose she had brung in +not a hour back is still in Mis' Bostick's fingers, and the other one +pinned on the Deacon's coat. When Judy and Betty wanted to begin to fix +things she understood without a word, led the Deacon out into the hall +and are just a-standing there a-keeping him up in his daze by the +courage in her own loving little heart. The good Lord bless and keep +the child! Now, go on, Tom, and see what you can do! Yes, Cindy will +run right over and tell Mis' Peavey. And stop in and see Squire Tutt, +for Henny Turner says he are down to-day and a-asking for you. Come +into my room, honey-bird, I've got to look for something." + +"Somehow, I don't feel about dying as lot of folks do," she remarked to +the singer lady, as she stood in front of the tall old chest of drawers +in her own room a few minutes later. "Death ain't nothing but laying +down one job of work and going to answer the Master when He calls you +to come take up another. Mis' Bostick have worked in His vineyard early +and late, through summer sun and winter wind, and now He have summoned +her in for some other purpose. He'll find her well-tried and seasoned +to go on with whatever plans He have for her in His Kingdom." + +"It's wonderful to believe that," answered the singer girl through her +tears. "It seems to supply a reason for what happens to us here--if we +can go on with it later." + +"Course we can," answered Mother Mayberry, as she began to search in +her top drawer for something. "I hope He have got some good big job cut +out for Tom Mayberry and me; but course it will have to be something +different, for they won't be no more sickness or death or sorrowing for +us doctors to tend on. But Pa Lovell and Doctor Mayberry have found +something by this time and maybe it will be for me and Tom to work at +it alongside of 'em. It might be you will have the beautiful voice back +and come sing for us all, as have never heard you in this world. Then, +too, I believe He'll give it to little Sister Pike to tend on the +prophets and maybe I'll be there to see!" + +"This is the first time I ever could take--take any interest in Heaven +at all," confessed Miss Wingate, lifting large, comforted eyes to +Mother Mayberry's face. "When I was so desperate and didn't know what +to do, before I came and found out that there was a place for me in +this world even if I couldn't sing any more, I used to dread the +thought of Heaven, even if I might some day be good enough to go there." + +"Well, a stand-around, set-around kind of Heaven may be for some people +as wants it, but a come-over-and-help-us kind is what I'm hoping for. I +want to have a good lot of honest acts to pack up and take into the +judgment seat to prove my character by and then be honored with some +kind of telling labor to do. I'm looking for something white to put at +Mis' Bostick's neck, for we are a-going to lay her in her grave in the +old dress with its honorable patches, but with a little piece of fine +white to match her sweet soul. Here it is." + +"Will you let me know if I can do anything for anybody or the Deacon +later?" asked the singer lady gently. + +"I know you will be a comfort to him, child, after a while. You can +look after my chickens and things for me, for Cindy's a-going with me +and that leaves you to feed the two boys, Tom and Martin Luther, for +dinner. And don't you never forget that you are the apple-core of your +Mother Mayberry's heart and she's a-going to hold you to her tender, +even unto them Glory days we've been a-planning for, with Death here in +the midst of Life." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL + + +"In all my long life it have never been gave to me to see anything like +Deacon Bostick and his Providence children," said Mother Mayberry, as +she stood on the end of the porch with the singer girl's hand in hers. +"He are a-setting on his bench under the tree right by her window, like +he always did to listen for her, and every child in the Road is +a-huddled up against him like a forlorn lot of little motherless +chickens. He have got little Bettie and Martin Luther on his knees and +the rest are just crowded up all around him. He don't seem to notice +any of the rest of us, but looks to 'Liza for everything. She got him +to go to bed at nine o'clock and when Buck and Mr. Petway went to set +up for the night they found she'd done made 'Lias and Henny and Bud all +lie down by him, one on each side and Bud acrost the foot. He wanted +'em to stay and the men let 'em do it. Judy says she were up by +daylight and gone down the Road to see about his breakfast and things. +And now she are just a-standing by him waiting for the bell to toll for +the funeral. The Deacon have surely followed his Master in the +suffering of little children to draw close to him in this life and now +he are becoming as one of 'em before entering the Kingdom." + +"This soft, misty, sun-veiled day seems just made for Mrs. Bostick," +said Miss Wingate with unshed tears in her voice. + +"It may be just a notion of mine, honey-bird, but it looks like up here +in Harpeth Hills the weather have got a sympathy with us folks. Look +how Providence Nob have drawed a mist of tears 'twixt it and the faint +sun. When troubles are with us I've seen clouds boil up over the Ridge +and on the other hand we ain't scarcely ever had rain on a wedding or +church soshul day. I like to feel that maybe the good Lord looks +special after us of His children living out in the open fields and we +have got His word that He tempers the winds. People in the big cities +can crowd up and keep care of one another, but out here we are all just +in the hollow of His hand. Here comes Mis' Peavey. I asked her to go +along to the funeral with me and you. It are most time now." + +"Howdy, all," said Mrs. Peavey in an utterly gray tone of voice. "Mis' +Mayberry, that Circuit Rider have never come from Bolivar yet. Do you +reckon his horse have throwed him or is it just he don't care for us +Providence folks and don't think it worth his while to come say the +words over Sister Bostick?" + +"Oh, he come 'most a half-hour ago, Hettie Ann," answered Mother +Mayberry quickly. "Bettie had a little snack laid out for him 'count of +his having to make such a early start to get here. He was most kind to +the Deacon and professed much sorrow for us all. How are your side this +morning?" + +"I got out that foolish dry plaster Tom made me more'n a month ago and +put it on last night, 'cause I didn't want to disturb you, and to my +surprise they ain't a mite of pain hit me since. But I guess it are +mostly the clearing weather that have stopped it." + +"Maybe a little of both," answered the Doctor's mother with a smile, +"but anyway, it's good that you ain't a-suffering none. We must all +take good care of each other's pains from now on, 'cause we are most +valuable one to another. Friends is one kind of treasure you don't want +to lay up in Heaven." + +"I spend most of my time thinking about folks' accidents and hurts and +pains," answered Mrs. Peavey in all truth. "Miss Elinory, did you +gargle your throat with that slippery-ellum tea I thought about to make +for you last week?" + +"Yes, Mrs. Peavey, I did," answered Miss Wingate quickly, for she had +performed that nauseous operation actuated by positive fear of Mrs. +Peavey if she should discover a failure to follow her directions. + +"It'll cure you, maybe," answered the gratified neighbor. "There's the +bell and let's all go on slow and respectful." + +And the sweet-toned old Providence Meeting-house bell was tolling its +notes for the passing of the soul of the gentle little Harpeth woman of +many sorrows as her friends and neighbors walked quietly down the Road, +along the dim aisle and took their places in the old pews with a +fitting solemnity on their serious faces. The young Circuit Rider spoke +to them from a full heart in sympathetically simple words and Pattie +Hoover led the congregation from behind the little cabinet organ in a +few of the Deacon's favorite hymns. + +Then the little procession wound its way among the graves over to a +corner under an old cedar tree, where the stout young farmers laid +their frail burden down for its long sleep. The Deacon stood close by +and the children clung around his thin old legs, to his hands, and +reached to grasp at a corner of his coat. Eliza laid her head against +his shoulder and Henny and 'Lias crowded close on the other side, while +Bud held the old black hat he had taken from off his white hair, in +careful, shaking little hands. The singer lady, with the Doctor at her +side and her hand in Mother Mayberry's, stood just opposite and the +others came near. + +The simple service that the Church has instituted for the committing of +its dead to the grave had been read by the Circuit Rider, the last +prayer offered, and as a long ray of sunlight came through the mist and +fell across the little assembly, he turned expectantly to Pattie +Hoover, who stood between her father and Buck at the other end of the +grave. He had read the first lines of the hymn and he expected her to +raise the tune for the others to follow. But when a woman's heart is +very young and tender, and attuned to that of another which is +throbbing emotionally close by, her own feelings are apt to rise in a +tidal wave of tears, regardless of consequences; and as Buck Peavey +choked off a sob, Pattie turned and buried her head on her father's +arm. There was a long pause and nobody attempted to start the singing. +They were accustomed to depend on Pattie or her organ and their own +throats were tight with tears. The unmusical young preacher was +helpless and looked from one to another, then was about to raise his +hands for the benediction, when a little voice came across the grave. + +"Ain't nobody going to sing for Mis' Bostick?" wailed Eliza, as her +head went down on the Deacon's arm in a shudder of sobs. + +Then suddenly a very wonderful and beautiful thing happened in that old +churchyard of Providence Meeting-house under Harpeth Hills, for the +great singer lady stepped toward the Deacon a little way, paused, +looked across at the old Nob in the sunlight, and high and clear and +free-winged like that of an archangel, rose her glorious voice in the + + "Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord," + +which she had set for him and the gentle invalid to the wonderful motif +of the Song of the Master's Grail. Love and sorrow and a flood of tears +had relieved a pressure somewhere, the balance had been recovered and +her muted voice freed. And on through the verses to the very end she +sang it, while the little group of field people held their breath in +awe and amazement. Then, while they all stood with bowed heads for the +benediction, she turned and walked away through the graves, out of the +churchyard and on up Providence Road, with an instinct to hide from +them all for a moment of realization. + +"And here I have to come and hunt the little skeered miracle out of my +own feather pillows," exclaimed Mother Mayberry a little later with +laughter, tears, pride and joy in her voice, as she bent over the broad +expanse of her own bed and drew the singer girl up in her strong arms. +"Daughter," she said, with her cheek pressed to the flushed one against +her shoulder, "what the Lord hath given and taketh away we bless Him +for and none the less what He giveth back, blessed be His name. That's +a jumble, but He understands me. You don't feel in no ways peculiar, do +you?" and as she asked the question the Doctor's mother clasped the +slender throat in one of her strong hands. + +"Not a bit anywhere," answered Miss Wingate, with the burr all gone +from her soft voice. "Is it true?" + +"Dearie me, I can't hardly stand it to hear you speak, it are so +sweet!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry in positive rapture and again the +tears filled her eyes, while her face crinkled up into a dimpled smile. +"Don't say nothing where the mocking-birds will hear you, please, +'cause they'll begin to hatch out a dumb race from plumb +discouragement. Come out on the porch where it ain't so hot, but I'm +a-holding on to you to keep you from flying up into one of the trees. +I'm a-going to set about building a cage for you right--" + +"Now, didn't I tell you about that slippery-ellum!" came in a +positively triumphant voile to greet them as they stepped out of the +front door. Mrs. Peavey was ascending the steps all out of breath, her +decorous hat awry, and her eyes snapping with excitement. "Course I +don't think this can be no positive cure and like as not you'll wake up +to-morrow with your voice all gone dry again, but it were the +slippery-ellum that done it!" + +"I think it must have helped some," answered the singer lady in the +clear voice that still held its wonted note of meekness to her neighbor. + +"Course it did! Tom Mayberry's experimenting couldn'ter done it no real +good. His mother have been giving that biled bark for sore throat for +thirty years and it was me that remembered it. But it were a pity you +done it at the grave; that were Mis' Bostick's funeral and not your'n. +Now look at everybody a-coming up the Road with no grieving left at +all." + +"Oh, Hettie Ann," exclaimed Mother Mayberry in quick distress, "it are +a mean kind of sorrow that can't open its arms to hold joy tender. +Think what it do mean to the child and--Look at Bettie!" + +And indeed it was a sight to behold the pretty mother of the seventeen +sailing up the front walk like a great full-rigged ship. Miss Wingate +flew down the steps to meet her and in a few seconds was enveloped and +involved with little Hoover in an embrace that threatened to be +disastrous to all concerned. Judy Pike was close behind and, making a +grab on her own part, stood holding the end of the singer lady's sash +in her one hand while Teether, from her other arm, caught at the bright +ribbons and squealed with delight. The abashed Pattie hung over the +front gate and Buck grinned in the rear. + +"Lawsy me, child," Mrs. Hoover laughed and sobbed as she patted the +singer lady on the back, little Hoover anywhere he came upmost and +included Teether and Judy also in the demonstration, "I feel like it +would take two to hold me down! You sure sing with as much style as you +dress! And to think such a thing have happened to all of us here in +Providence. We won't never need that phonygraph we all are a-hankering +after now. Speak up to the child, Judy Pike!" + +"I don't need to," answered the more self-contained Sister Pike, "she +knows how I'm a-rejoicing for her. Just look at Mr. Hoover and Ez Pike +a-grinning acrost the street at her and here do come the Squire and +Mis' Tutt walking along together for the first time I almost ever seed +'em." + +"Wheeuh," wheezed the Squire, "I done come up here to give up on the +subject of that Tom Mayberry! He don't look or talk like he have got +any sense, girl, but he are the greatest doctor anywhere from Harpeth +Hills to Californy or Alasky. He have got good remedies for all. I +reckon you are one of the hot water kind, but he can give bitters too. +You'd better keep him to the bitters though for safety." + +"There now! You all have done heard the top testimony for Tom +Mayberry," exclaimed Mother, fairly running over with joy. + +"Glory!" was the one word that rose to the surface of Mrs. Tutt's +emotions, but it expressed her state of beatitude and caused the Squire +to peer at her with uneasiness as if expecting an outburst of +exhortation on the next breath. Mrs. Peavey's experienced eye also +caught the threatened downpour and she hastened to admonish the group +of women. + +"Sakes, you all!" she exclaimed, untying the strings of her bonnet +energetically, "they won't be a supper cooked on the Road if we don't +go get about it. A snack dinner were give the men and such always calls +for the putting on of the big pot and the little kettle for supper. +Miss Elinory will be here for you all to eat up to-morrow morning, +'lessen something happens to her in the night, like a wind storm. Go on +everybody!" + +"Oh," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she stood on the top step looking +down at them all, "look how the sun have come out on us all, with its +happiness after the sorrow we have known this day. I thank you, one and +all, for your feeling with me and my daughter Elinory. The rejoicing of +friends are a soft wind to folks' spirit wings and we're all flying +high this night. Get the children bedded down early, for they have had +a long day and need good sleep. Bettie, let Mis' Tutt walk along with +you and the Squire can come on slow. Don't nobody forget that it are +Sewing Circle with Mis' Mosbey to-morrow." + +And, with more congratulations to the singer lady, laughs with Mother +Mayberry, and the return of a shot or two with Mrs. Peavey, the happy +country women dispersed to their own roof trees. The sorrow that had +come they had endured for the night and now they were ready to rise up +and meet joy for the morning. In the children of nature the emotions +maintain their elemental balance and their sense of the proportions of +life is instinctively true. + +"Look, honey-bird, who's coming!" said Mother Mayberry, just as she was +turning to seat herself in her rocking-chair, tired out as she was with +the strain of the long day. "Run, meet 'em at the gate!" And up +Providence Road came the old Deacon and Eliza hand in hand, with Martin +Luther trailing wearily behind them. When she saw Miss Wingate at the +gate, Eliza, for the first time during the day, loosed her hold on her +old charge and darted forward to hide her head on the singer lady's +breast as her thin little arms clasped around her convulsively. + +"Now," she wailed, "Mis' Bostick are dead and you'll be goned away too. +Can't you stay a little while, till we can stand to let you go? Poor +Doctor Tom! Please, oh, please!" + +"Darling, darling, I'm never going to leave you!" exclaimed Miss +Wingate, as she hugged the small implorer as closely as possible and +held out one hand to the Deacon as he came up beside them. "I'm going +to stay and sing for you and the Deacon whenever you want me--if it +will help!" + +"Child," said the old patriarch, with an ineffable sweetness shining +from his sad old face, "out of my affliction I come to add my blessing +to what the Lord has given to you this day. And I take this mercy as a +special dispensation to me and to her, as it came when you were +performing one of His offices for us. No sweeter strain could come from +the Choir Invisible that she hears this night, and if she knows she +rejoices that it will be given at other times to me, to feed my lonely +soul." + +"The songs are yours when you want them, Deacon," said the singer girl +in her sweet low voice as she held his hand in hers gently. + +"And it are true what the Deacon says, they ain't no help like music," +said Mother Mayberry who had come down the walk and stood leaning +against the gate near them. "A song can tote comfort from heart to +heart when words wouldn't have no meaning. It's a high calling, child, +and have to be answered with a high life." + +"I know Pattie and Buck and Aunt Prissy will let you always sing in the +choir if Deacon asks 'em," said Eliza in a practical voice as she again +took hold of the Deacon's hand, "and Mr. Petway are a-going to buy a +piano for Aunt Prissy when they get married and sometimes you can sing +by it if Doctor Tom can't save up enough to get you one. But I want +Deacon to come home now, 'cause he are tired." And without more ado she +departed with her docile charge, leaving the tired Martin Luther with +his hands clasped in Mother Mayberry's. + +"Mother," faltered Miss Wingate as she and Mother Mayberry were slowly +ascending the steps, assisting the almost paralyzed young missionary to +mount between them, "where do you suppose--HE is?" For some minutes +back the singer lady had been growing pale at the realization that the +Doctor had not come to her since she had left his side in the +churchyard and her eyes were beginning to show a deep hurt within. + +"I don't know, Elinory, and I've been a-wondering," answered Mother +Mayberry as she sank down on the top step and took the tired child in +her arms. + +"Oh," said Miss Wingate as she stood before her on the lower step and +clasped her white hands against her breast, "do you suppose he is going +to--to hurt me now?" + +"Child," answered the Doctor's mother quietly, with a quick sadness +spreading over her usually bright face, "they ain't nothing in the +world that can be as cruel as true love when it goes blind. Tom +Mayberry is a good man and I borned, nursed and raised him, but I won't +answer for him about no co'ting conniptions. A man lover are a shy bird +and they can't nothing but a true mate keep him steady on any limb. You +ain't showed a single symptom of managing Tom yet, but somehow I've got +confidence in you if you just keep your head now." + +"But what can the matter be?" demanded Miss Wingate in a voice that +shook with positive terror. + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry slowly, "I sorter sense the trouble +and I'll tell you right out and out for your good. Loving a woman are a +kinder regeneration process for any man, and a good one like as not +comes outen it humbler than a bad most times. Tom have wrapped you +around with some sorter pink cloud of sentiments, tagged you with all +them bokays the world have give you for singing so grand, turned all +them lights on you he first seen you acrost and now he's afraid to come +nigh you. I suspect him of a bad case of chicken-heart and I'm +a-pitying of him most deep. He's just lying down at your feet waiting +to be picked up." + +"I wonder where he is!" exclaimed Miss Wingate as a light flashed into +her eyes and a trace of color came back to her cheeks. + +"You'll find him," answered the Doctor's mother comfortably, "and when +you do I want you to promise me to put him through a good course of +sprouts. A wife oughtn't to stand on no pedestal for a man, but she +have got no call to make squaw tracks behind him neither. Go on and +find him! A woman have got to come out of the pink cloud to her husband +some time, but she'd better keep a bit to flirt behind the rest of her +life. Look in the office!" + +"Well; Martin Luther," remarked Mother a few minutes later, as she +lifted the absolutely dead youngster in her arms and rose to take him +into the house, "life are all alike from Harpeth Hills to Galilee. A +woman can shape up her dough any fancy way she wants and it's likely to +come outen the oven a husband. All Elinory's fine songs are about to +end in little chorus cheeps with Tom under Mother Mayberry's wings, the +Lord be praised!" + +And over in the office wing the situation was about as Mother +Mayberry's experienced intuitions had predicted. Miss Wingate found the +young Doctor sitting in the deep window and looking out at Providence +Nob, which the last rays of the sun were dying blood red, with his +strong young face set and white. The battle was still on and his soul +was up in arms. + +"Where have you been?" she asked quietly as she came and stood against +the other side of the casement. The pain in his gray eyes set her heart +to throbbing, but she had herself well in hand. + +"When I came up the Road the others were all here and I waited to see +you until they were gone," he answered her, just as quietly and in just +as controlled a voice and with possibly just as wild a throb in his +heart "I have been writing to Doctor Stein and there are the Press +bulletins, subject to your approval," He pointed to some letters on the +table which she never deigned to notice. She had drawn herself to her +slim young height and looked him full in the face with a beautiful +stateliness in her manner and glance. Her dark eyes never left his and +she seemed waiting for him to say something further to her. + +"You know without my telling you how very glad I am for you," he said +gently and his hand trembled on the window ledge. + +"Are you?" she asked in a low tone, still with her eyes fixed on his +face, but her lips pressed close with a sharp intake of breath. + +"Yes," he answered quickly, and this time the note of pain would sound +clearly in his voice. "Yes, no matter what it means to me!" + +The pain of it, the haggard gray eyes, the firm young mouth and the +droop of the broad shoulders were too much for the singer girl and she +smiled shakily as she held out her arms. + +"Tom Mayberry," she pleaded with a little laugh, "please, please don't +treat me this way. I promised your mother to be stern with you but--I +can't! Don't you see that it can only mean to me what it means to your +happiness--if--do you, could you possibly think it would make any +difference to me? Do you suppose for all the wide world I would throw +away what I have found here in Providence under Harpeth Hills--my +Mother and you? Ah, Tom, I'll be good, I'll go to Italy and India with +you! I'll--I'll 'do for' you just the best I can!" + +"But, dear, it isn't right at all," whispered the young Doctor to the +back of the singer lady's head, as he laid his cheek against the dark +braids. "Your voice belongs to the world--there must be no giving it +up. I can't let you--I--" + +"Listen," said the singer girl as she raised her head and looked up +into his face. "For all your life you will have to go where pain and +grief call you, won't you? Can't you take my voice with you and use +it--as one of your--remedies? Your Mother says songs can comfort where +words fail; let me go with you! Your father brought her and her herb +basket to Providence, won't you take me and my songs out into the world +with you? Don't send me back to sing in the dreadful crowded theaters +to people who pay to hear me. Let me give it all my lifelong, as she +has given herself here in Providence. Please, Tom, please!" And again +she buried her head against his coat. + +And as was his wont, the silent young doctor failed to answer a single +word but just held her close and comforted. And how long he would have +held her, there is no way to know, because the strain had been too +great on Mother Mayberry and in a few minutes she stood calmly in the +door and looked at the pair of children with happy but quizzical eyes. + +"It's just as well you got Tom Mayberry straightened out quick, +Elinory," she remarked in her most jovial tone. "I've been getting +madder and madder as I put Martin Luther to bed and though I ain't +never had to whip him yet, I'd just about made up my mind to ask him +out in the barn and dress him down for onct. Now are you well over your +tantrum, sir?" she demanded as she eyed the shamefaced young Doctor +delightedly. + +"Mother!" he exclaimed as he turned his head away and the color rose +under his tan. + +"Have you done made up your mind to travel from town to town with +Elinory and take in the tickets at the door and make yourself useful to +her the rest of your life? Are you a-going to follow her peaceable all +over Europe, Asia and Africa?" And her eyes fairly over-danced +themselves with delight. + +"Mother!" and this time the exclamation came from Miss Wingate as she +came over to rest her cheek against Mother Mayberry's arm. She also +blushed, but her eyes danced with an echo of the young Doctor's +mother's laugh as she beheld his embarrassment. + +"Yes," answered the Doctor, rallying at last, "yes, I'm ready to go +with her. Will you go too, Mother, as retained physician?" + +"Well, I don't know about that," answered his Mother with a laugh; "not +till 'Liza Pike have growed up to take my place here. But I'm mighty +glad to see you take your dose of humble pie so nice, Tom, and I reckon +I'll have to tell you how happy I am about my child here. It was kinder +smart of you to cure her and then claim her sweet self as a fee, wasn't +it?" + +"I do feel that way, Mother, and I don't see how I can let her make the +sacrifice. Her future is so brilliant and I--I--" + +"Son," said Mother Mayberry with the banter all gone from her rich +voice and the love fairly radiating from her face as she laid a tender +hand on the singer lady's dark head on her shoulder, "I don't have to +ask my honey-bird the choice she have made. A woman don't want to wear +her life-work like no jewelry harness nor yet no sacrificial garment, +but she loves to clothe herself in it like it were a soft-colored, +homespun dress to cover the pillow of her breast and the cradle of her +arms to hold the tired folks against. Take her to India's coral strand +if you must, for it's gave a wife to follow the husband-star. Long ago +I vowed you to the Master's high call and now with these words I +dedicates my daughter the same. She have waded through much pain and +sorrow, but do it matter along how hard a Road folks travels if at last +they come to they Providence?" + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Road to Providence, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD TO PROVIDENCE *** + +***** This file should be named 3745.txt or 3745.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/4/3745/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +The Road To Providence + +by Maria Thompson Daviess + + + + + CONTENTS + + I THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON + II THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL + III THE PEONY GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN + IV LOVE, THE CURE-ALL + V THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH + VI THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG + VII PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY + VIII THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB + IX THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS + X THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE DOCTORS MAYBERRY, MOTHER AND SON + + +"Now, child, be sure and don't mix 'em with a heavy hand! Lightness +is expected of riz biscuits and had oughter be dealt out to 'em by +the mixer from the start. Just this way--" + +"Mother, oh, Mother," came a perturbed hail in Doctor Mayberry's +voice from the barn door, "Spangles is off the nest again--better +come quick!" + +"Can't you persuade her some, Tom?" Mother called back from the +kitchen door as she peered anxiously across the garden fence and +over to the gray barn where the Doctor stood holding the door half +open, but ready for a quick close-up in case of an unexpected sally. +"My hands is in the biscuits and I don't want to come now. Just try, +Tom!" + +"I have tried and I can't do it! She's getting the whole convention +agitated. You'd better come on, Mother!" + +"Dearie me," said Mrs. Mayberry, as she rinsed her hands in the +wash-pan on the shelf under tin cedar bucket, "Tom is just as +helpless with the chickens at setting time as a presiding elder is +at a sewing circle; can't use a needle, too stiff to jine the talk +and only good when it comes to the eating, from broilers to frying +size. Just go on and mix the biscuits with faith, honey-bird, for I +mistrust I won't be back for quite a spell." + +"Now let me see what all these conniptions is about," she said in a +commanding voice, as she walked boldly in through her son's +cautiously widened door gap. + +And a scene of confusion that was truly feminine met her capable +glance. Fuss-and-Feathers, a stylish young spangled Wyandotte, was +waltzing up and down the floor and shrieking an appeal in the +direction of a whole row of half-barrel nests that stretched along +the dark and sequestered side of the feed-room floor, upon which was +established what had a few minutes before been a placid row of +setting hens. Now over the rim of each nest was stretched a black, +white, yellow or gray head, pop-eyed with alarm and reproach. They +were emitting a chorus of indignant squawks, all save a large, +motherly old dominick in the middle barrel who was craning her scaly +old neck far over toward the perturbed young sister and giving forth +a series of reassuring and commanding clucks. + +"I didn't do a thing in the world to them, Mother," said Doctor Tom +in a deprecatory tone of voice, as if he were in a way to be blamed +for the whole excitement. "I was across the barn at the corn-crib +when she hopped off her nest and went on the rampage. Just a case of +the modern feminine rebellion, I wager." + +"No such thing, sir! They ain't nothing in the world the matter with +her 'cept as bad a case of young-mother skeer as I have ever had +before amongst all my hens. Don't you see, Tom, two of her setting +have pipped they shells and the cheepings of the little things have +skeered the poor young thing 'most to death. Old Dominick have took +in the case and is trying her chicken-sister best to comfort her. +These here pullet spasms over the hatching of the first brood ain't +in no way unusual. The way you have forgot chicken habits since you +have growed up is most astonishing to me, after all the helping with +them I taught you." As she spoke, Mother Mayberry had been +rearranging the deserted nest with practised hand and had tenderly +lifted two feeble, moist little new-borns on her broad palm to show +to the Doctor. + +"What are you going to do with them, Mother?" he asked, for though +his education in chicken lore seemed to have been in vain he was +none the less sympathetically interested in his mothers practice of +the hen-craft. + +"I'm just going to give 'em to Old Dominick to dry out and warm up +for her while I persuade her back on the nest. As she gets used to +hearing the cheepings from under another hen she'll take the next +ones that come with less mistrust." And suiting her actions to her +words Mother Mayberry slipped the two forlorn little mites under a +warm old wing that stretched itself out with gentleness to receive +and comfort them. Some budding instinct had sent the foolish fluff +of stylish feathers clucking at her skirts, so she bent down and +with a gentle and sympathetic hand lifted the young inadequate back +on the nest. + +"I really oughter put on a cover and make her set on the next," she +said doubtfully, "but it do seem kinder to teach her hovering a +little at a time. Course all women things has got mothering borned +into 'em, but it comes easier to some than to others. I always feel +like giving 'em a helping hand at the start off." + +"You have a great deal of faith if you feel sure of that universally +maternal instinct in these days, Mother," said the Doctor with a +teasing smile as he handed her a quart cup of oats from the bin. +"Oh, I know what you're talking about," answered Mother, as she +scattered a little grain in front of each nest and prepared to leave +in peace and quiet the brooding mothers. "It's this woman's rights +and wrongs question. I've been so busy doctoring Providence Road +pains and trying to make a good, proper husband outen you for some +nice girl, what some other woman have been putting licks on to get +ready for you, that I've been too pushed to think about the wrongs +being did to me. But not knowing any more about it than I do, I +think this woman's rumpus all sounds kinder like a hen scratching +around in unlikely and contrary corners for the bread of life, when +she knows they is plenty of crumbs at the kitchen door to be et up. +But if you're going to ride over to Flat Rock this evening you'd +better go on and get back in time for some riz biscuits as Elinory +is a-making for you this blessed minute." + +"She's not making them for me," answered the young Doctor with the +color rising under his clear, tanned skin up to his very forelock. +As he spoke he busied himself with bridling his restless young mare. + +"Of course she is," answered his mother serenely. "Women don't take +no interest in cooking unless they's a man to eat the fixings. Left +to herself she'd eat store bread and cheese with her head outen the +window for the birds to clean up the crumbs. Stop by and ask after +Mis' Bostick and the Deacon. And if you bring me a little candy from +the store with the letters, maybe I'll eat it to please you. Now be +a-going so as to be a-coming the sooner." With which admonition +Mother took her departure down the garden path. + +She was tall and broad, was Mother Mayberry, and in her walk was +left much of the lissome strength of her girlhood to lighten the +matronly dignity of her carriage. Her stiffly starched, gray-print +skirts swept against a budding border of jonquils and the spring +breezes floated an end of her white lawn tie as a sort of challenge +to a young cherry tree, that was trying to snow out under the +influence of the warm sun. Her son smiled as he saw her stoop to +lift a feeble, over-early hop toad back under the safety of the +jonquil leaves, out of sight of a possible savage rooster. He knew +what expression lay in her soft gray eyes that brooded under her +Wide, placid brow, upon which fell abundant and often riotous silver +water-waves. His own eyes were very like them and softened as he +looked at her, a masculine version of one of her quick s quirked at +the corner of his clean-cut mouth. + +"The bread of life--she's found it," he said to himself musingly as +he slipped the last buckle in his bridle tight. + +"Elinory," called Mother Mayberry from the kitchen steps, "come out +here and sense the spring. Everywhere you look they is some young +thing a-peeping up or a-reaching out or a-running over or wobbling +or bleating or calling. Looks like the whole world have done broke +out in blooms and babies." + +"I can't--I wish I could," came an answer in a low, beautiful voice +with a queer, husky note. "It's all sticking to my hands, flour and +everything, and I don't know what to do!" + +"Dearie me, you've put in the milk a little too liberal! Wait until +I sift on a mite more flour. Now rub it in light! See, it's all +right, and most beautiful dough. Don't be discouraged, for riz +biscuits is most the top test of cooking. Keep remembering back to +those cup custards you made yesterday, what Tom Mayberry ate three +of for supper and then tried to sneak one outen the milk-house to +eat before he went to bed." + +"Oh, did he?" asked Miss Wingate with delight shining in her dark +eyes and a beautiful pink rising up in her pale cheeks. "I wish I +COULD do something to please him and make him feel how--how-- +grateful I am--for the hope he's given me. I was so hopeless and +unhappy--and desperate when I came. But I believe my voice is coming +back! Every day it's stronger and you are so good to me and make me +so happy that I'm not afraid any more. You give me faith to hope--as +well as to mix biscuits." And a pearly tear splashed on the rolling- +pin. + +"Yes, put your trust in the Heavenly Father, child, and some in Tom +Mayberry. Before you know it you'll be singing like the birds out in +the trees; but I can't let myself think about the time's a-coming +for you to fly away to the other people's trees to sing. When Tom +told me about Doctor Stein's wanting to send a great big singer +lady, what had lost her voice, down here to see if he couldn't cure +her like he did that preacher man and the politics speaker, I was +skeered for both him and me, for I knew things was kinder simple +with us here and I was afraid I couldn't make you happy and +comfortable. But then I remembered Doctor Stein had stayed 'most two +weeks when he came South with Tom for a visit and said he had tacked +ten years on to the end of his life by just them few days of +Providence junketings and company feedings, so I made up my mind not +to be proud none and to say for you to come on. I've got faith in my +boy's doctoring same as them New York folks has, and I wanted him to +try to cure you. Then I knew you didn't have no mother to pet up the +sick throat none. A little consoling comfort is a good dose to start +healing any kind of trouble with. I knew I had plenty of that in my +heart to prescribe out to help along with your case; so here you are +not three weeks with us, a-mixing riz biscuits for Tom's supper and +like to coax the heart outen both of us. I told him--Dearie me, +somebody's calling at the front gate!" + +"Mis' Mayberry! Oh, Mis' Mayberry!" came a high, quavering old voice +from around the corner of the house, and Squire Tutt hove in sight. +He was panting for breath and trembling with rage as he ascended the +steps and stood in the kitchen door. + +Mother hastened to bring him a chair into which he wheezingly +subsided. + +"Why, Squire," she questioned anxiously, "have anything happened? Is +Mis' Tutt tooken with lumbago again?" + +"No!" exploded the Squire, "she's well--always is! I'm the only +really sick folks in Providence, though I don't git no respect for +it. In pain all the time and no respect--no respect!" + +"Now, Squire, everybody in Providence have got sympathy for your +tisic, and just yesterday Mis' Pike was a-asking me--" + +"Tisic! I ain't talking about tisic now! It's this pain in my +stomick that that young limb of satan of your'n insulted me about +not a hour ago. Me a-writhing in tormint with nothing less'n a +cancer--insulted me!" As the Squire projected his remark toward +Mother Mayberry he bent double and peered expectantly up into her +sympathetic face. + +"Why, what did he do, Squire?" demanded Mother, with a glance at +Miss Wingate, who still stood at the biscuit block cutting out her +dough. She regarded the old man with alarmed wonder. + +"Told me to drink two cups of hot water and lie down a hour--me in +tormint!" The Squire fairly spit his complaint into the air. + +"Dearie me, Tom had oughter known better than that about one of your +spells," said Mother. "Why, I've been a-curing them for years for +you myself with nothing more'n a little drop of spirits, red pepper +and mint. He had oughter told you to take that instead of hot water. +I'm sorry--" + +"Oughter told me to take spirits--told me to TAKE spirits! Don't you +know, Mis' Mayberry, a man with a sanctified wife can't TAKE no +spirits; they must be GAVE to him by somebody not a member of the +family. Me a-suffering tormints--two cups of hot water--tormints, +tormints!" + +The old man's voice rose to a perfect wail, but came down a note or +two as Mother hastily reached in the press and drew out a tall, old +demijohn and poured a liberal dose of the desired medicine into a +glass. She added a dash of red pepper and a few drops of peppermint. +This treatment of the Squire's dram in Mother's estimation turned a +sinful beverage into a useful medicine and served to soothe her +conscience while it disturbed the Squire's appreciation of her +treatment not at all. He swallowed the fiery dose without as much as +the blink of an eyelid and on the instant subsided into comfortable +complacency. + +"Please forgive Tom for not having more gumption, Squire, and next +time you're took come right over to me same as usual. Course I know +all the neighbors feel as how Tom is young and have just hung out +his shingle here, and I ain't expectin' of 'em to have no confidence +in him. I think it my duty to just go on with my usual doctoring of +my friends. I hope you won't hold this mistake against Tom." + +"Well," said the Squire in a mollified tone of voice, "I won't say +no more, but you must tell him to stop fooling with these here +Providence people. Stopped Ezra Pike's wife feeding her baby on pot- +liquor and give it biled milk watered with lime juice. It'll die-- +it'll die!" + +"Oh no, Squire, it's a-getting well--jest as peart as can be," +Mother said in a mollifying tone of voice. + +"It'll die--it'll die! Cut one er the lights outen Sam Mosbey's +side--called it a new fangled impendix name--but he'll die--he'll +die!" + +"Sam's a-working out there on the barn roof right this minute, +Squire, good and alive," said Mother Mayberry with a good-humored +smile, while Miss Wingate cast a restrained though indignant glance +at the doubting old magistrate. + +"And old Deacon Bostick drinking cow-hot milk and sucking raw eggs! +He looks like a mixed calf and shanghai rooster! So old he'd oughter +die--and he'll do it! Hot water and me in tormint! Hot water on his +middle in a rubber bag and nothing inside er him! He'll die-he'll +die!" + +"Oh no, Squire, the good Lord have gave Deacon Bostick back to us +from the edge of the grave; Tom a-working day and night but under +His guidance. He have gained ten pounds and walks everywhere. It +were low typhus, six weeks running, too! I'm glad it were gave to me +to see my son bring back a saint to earth from the gates themselves. +Have you been by to see him?" + +"Yes," answered the Squire as he rose much more briskly than he had +seated himself, and prepared to take his departure. "Yes, and it was +you a-nussing of him that did it--muster slipped him calimile--but I +ain't a-disputing! Play actor, ain't you, girl?" he demanded as he +paused on his way out of the door and peered over at Miss Wingate +with his beetling, suspicious eyes. + +"Yes," answered the singer lady as she went on putting her biscuit +into the pan. If her culinary manoeuvers were slow they were at +least sure and the "riz" biscuits looked promising. + +"Dearie me," said Mother as she returned from guiding her guest down +the front walk and into the shaded Road, "it do seem that Squire +Tutt gets more rantankerous every day. Poor Mis' Tutt is just wore +out with contriving with him. It's a wonder she feels like she have +got any ease at all, much less a second blessing. Now I must turn to +and make a dish of baked chicken hash for supper to be et with them +feather biscuits of your'n. I want to compliment them by the company +of a extra nice dish. If they come out the oven in time I want to +ask Sam Mosbey to stop in and get some, with a little quince +preserves. He brought his dinner in a bucket, which troubled me, for +who's got foot on my land, two or four, I likes to feed myself. I +expected he was some mortified at your being here. He's kinder shy +like in the noticing of girls." + +"That seems to be a failing with the Providence young--with +Providence people," ventured Miss Wingate with ambiguity. + +"Oh, country boys is all alike," answered Mother comfortingly, only +in a measure taking in the tentative observation. "They're all +kinder co'ting tongue-tied. They have to be eased along attentive, +all 'cept Buck Peavey, who'd like to eat Pattie up same as a +cannibal, I'm thinking, and don't mind who knows it. Now the supper +is all on the simmer and can be got ready in no time. Let's me and +you walk down to the front gate and watch for Tom to come around the +Nob from Flat Rock and then we can run in the biscuits. Maybe we'll +hear some news; I haven't hardly seen any folks to-day and I +mistrust some mischief are a-brewing somewhere." + +And Mother Mayberry's well trained intuitions must have been in +unusually good working order, for she met her expected complications +at the very front gate. She was just turning to point out a promise +of an unusually large crop of snowballs on the old shrub by the +gate-post when a subdued sniffling made itself heard and caused her +to concentrate her attention on the house opposite across the Road. +And a sympathy stirring scene met her eyes. Perched along the fence +were all five of the little Pikes clinging to the top board in +forlorn despondency. On the edge of the porch sat Mr. Pike in his +shirt sleeves with his pipe in one hand and the Teether Pike +balanced on his knee. His expression matched that of the children in +the matter of gloom, and like them he glanced apprehensively toward +the door as if expecting Calamity to issue from his very +hearthstone. + +"Why, what's the matter?" demanded Mother as she hurried to the edge +of the sidewalk followed by the singer lady, whose acquaintance with +the young Pikes had long before ripened to the stage of intimate +friendship. At the sight of her sympathetic face, Eliza, the first +Pike, slipped to the ground and buried her head in her new but +valued friend's dainty muslin skirt. Bud, the next rung of the stair +steps licked out his tongue to dispose of a mortifying tear and +little Susie sobbed outright. At this juncture, just as Mother was +about to demand again an explanation of such united woe, Mrs. Pike +came to the door, and a large spoon and a bottle full of amber, +liquid grease made further inquiry unnecessary. + +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry, I certainly am glad you have came over to +back me up in getting down these doses of oil. Ez," with an +indignant and contemptuous glance at her sullen husband, "don't want +me to give it to 'em. He'd rather they'd up and die than to stand +the ruckus, but I ain't a-going to let my own children perish for a +few cherry seeds with a bottle of oil in the house and Doctor Tom +Mayberry's prescription to give 'em a spoonful all around." Mrs. +Pike was short and stout, but with a martial and determined eye, and +as she spoke she began to measure out a first dose with her glance +fixed on young Bud, who turned white around his little mouth and +clung to the fence. Susie's sobs rose to a wail and Eliza shuddered +in Miss Wingate's skirt. + +"Wait a minute, Mis' Pike," said Mother hurriedly, "are you sure +they have et cherry seeds? Cherries ain't ripe yet, and--" + +"We didn't--we didn't!" came in a perfect chorus of wails from the +little fence birds. + +"Of course they did, Mis' Mayberry!" exclaimed their mother +relentlessly. "It was two jars of cherry preserves that Prissy put +up and clean forgot to seed 'fore she biled 'em, and the children +done took and et 'em on the sly. Now they're going to suffer for +it." + +"We all spitted the seeds out, and we was so hungry, too!" Eliza +took courage to sob from Miss Wingate's skirt. Bud managed to echo +her statement, while Susie and the two little boys gave confirmation +from their wide-open, terror-stricken eyes. + +"Well, now, maybe they did, Mis' Pike," said Mother, coming near to +argue the question. Her hand rested sustainingly on one of the brave +young Bud's knees which jutted out from the fence. + +"Can't trust 'em, Mis' Mayberry, fer if they'll steal they'll lie," +said Mrs. Pike in a voice tinged with the deepest melancholy for the +fallen estate of her family. "They'll have to suffer for both sins +whether they did or didn't," and again the bottle was poised. + +"Now hold on, Mis' Pike," again exclaimed Mother Mayberry as her +face illumined with a bright smile. "If they throwed away the cherry +pits they must be where they throwed 'em and they can go find 'em to +prove they character. They ain't nothing fairer than that. Where did +you eat the preserves, children?" she asked, but there was a wild +rush around the corner of the house before her question was +answered. + +"Now," exclaimed the astonished mother, "I never thought of that and +if they thought to spit out one stone they did the balance. But +Doctor Tom was so kind to tell me about the oil and I paid fifteen +cents down at the store for it, that I'm a mind to give it to 'em +anyway." + +"I'll be blamed if you do," ejaculated her indignant husband as he +shouldered Teether and strode into the house, unable longer to +restrain his rage. + +"Ain't that just like him!" said his wife in a resigned voice. "And +I was just going to try to make him take this spoonful I've poured +out. It won't hurt him none and it's a pity to pour it back, it +wastes so. Do either of you all need it?" she asked hospitably. + +Miss Wingate was dissenting with an echo of Eliza's shudder and +Mother Mayberry with a laugh, when the reprieved criminals raced +back around the house, each dirty little fist inclosing a reasonable +number of grubby cherry stones. + +"Well," assented their mother reluctantly, "I'll let you off this +time, but don't any of you never take nothing to eat again without +asking, and I'm a-going to punish you by making you every one wash +your feet in cold water and go to bed. Now mind me and all stand to +once in the tub by the pump and tell your Paw I say not to touch +that kettle of hot water. I don't want you to have a drop. Go right +on and do as I say." + +The threatened punishment had been too great for the youngsters to +mind this lesser and accustomed penalty, so they retired with +cheerfulness and spirits and in a few seconds a chorus of squeals +and splashes came from the back yard. + +After an exchange of friendly good-bys Mrs. Pike entered her front +door and Mother and the singer lady returned to their own front +gate. + +"Dearie me," said Mother in a tone of positive discouragement, "I +don't know what I will do if I have to undo another one of Tom +Mayberry's prescriptions to-day. But you couldn't expect a man to +untangle a children quirk like that; and oil woulder been the thing +for the cherry stones in children's stomachs, but not for ones +throwed on the back walk. I hope the Squire won't hear about it," +she added with a laugh. + +"I think," said Miss Wingate with her dark eyes fixed on Mother's +face with positive awe, "I think you are wonderful with everybody. +You know just what to do for them, and what to say to them and--" + +"Well," interrupted Mother with a laugh, "it are gave to some women +to be called on the Lord's ease mission, and I reckon I'm of that +band. Don't you know I'm the daughter of a doctor, and the wife of a +doctor and the mother of one as good as either of the other two? I +can't remember the time when I didn't project with the healing of +ailments. When I married Doctor Mayberry and come down over the +Ridge from Warren County with him, he had his joke with me about my +herb-basket and a-setting up opposition to him. It's in our blood. +My own cousin Seliny Lue Lovell down at the Bluff follows the +calling just the same as I do. I say the Lord were good to me to +give me the love of it and a father and a husband and now a son to +practise with." + +"The Doctors Mayberry, Mother and Son, how interesting that sounds, +Mrs. Mayberry," exclaimed Miss Wingate with a delightful laugh, "And +no wonder Doctor Mayberry is so gifted that he gets National +commissions to study Pellagra and--and has a troublesome singer lady +sent all the way from New York to patch up." + +"Yes, it do look like that Tom Mayberry gets in a good chanct +everywhere he goes. Some folks picks a friend offen every bush they +passes and Tom's one. He was honored considerable in New York and +then sent over to Berlin, Europe, and beyont to study up about +people's skins. And then here he comes back, sent by the Government +right down to Flat Rock, on the other side of Providence Nob, to +study out about that curious corn disease they calls Pellagra, what +I don't think is a thing in the world but itch and can be cured by a +little sulphur and hog lard. But I'm blessing the chanct that +brought him back to me, even if I know it are just for a spell. And, +too, he oughter be happy to have brung his mother such a song bird +as you. I'm so used to you and your helping me with Cindy away to +Springfield, that I don't see how I ever got along without you or +ever will." As she spoke, Mother Mayberry smiled delightedly at the +singer girl and drew her closer. Mother's voice at most times was a +delicious mixture of banter and caress. + +"Perhaps I'll stay always," said the singer lady as she drew close +against the gray print shoulder. "When I look around me I feel as if +I had awakened in a beautiful world with no more dirty, smoky cities +that hurt my throat, no more hot, lighted theaters, no noises, and +everything is just a great big bouquet of soft smells and colors." + +As she spoke, Elinor Wingate, who was just a tired girl in the +circle of Mother Mayberry's strong arm, let her great dark eyes +wander off across the meadow to where a dim rim of Harpeth Hills +seemed to close in the valley. Her glance returned to the low, wing- +spreading, brick farm-house, which, vine-covered, lilac-hedged and +maple-shaded, seemed to nestle against the breast of Providence Nob, +at whose foot clustered the little settlement of Providence and +around whose side ran the old wilderness trail called Providence +Road. And her face was soft with a light of utter contentment, for +under that low-gabled roof she was finding strength to hope for the +recovery of her lost treasure, without which life would seem a void. +Then for a moment she looked down the village Road, across which the +trees were casting long afternoon shadows and along which was +flowing the tide of late afternoon social life. Women hung over the +front gates to greet men in from the fields or from down the Road, +girls laughed and chaffed one another or the blushing country boys, +and the children played tag and hop-scotch back and forth along the +way. + +"It's all lovely," she said again with a contented little sigh. When +she spoke softly there was not a trace of the burr in her voice and +it was as sweet as a dove note. + +"Days like these we had oughter take the world as a new gift from +God," said Mother musingly. "It were a day like this I come with +Doctor Mayberry along the Road to Providence to live, and stopped +right at this gate under this very maple tree, thirty-five years +ago; and thirty of 'em have I lived lonesome without him. I had a +baby at my breast and Tom by my knee when he went away from us, and +I know now it was the call laid on me to take up his work that saved +me. When I got back from the funeral and had laid the baby on the +bed Mis' Jim Petway come a-running up the road crying that Ellen, +her youngest child, were a-choking to death with croup. I never had +a thought but to take his saddle-bags and follow her, and somehow +the good Lord guided my hand amongst his medicines, and with what I +had learned from him and Pa I fought a good fight and saved the +little thing's life, though it took the night to do it. And in one +of them dark hours a sister-to-woman sense was born in me what I +ain't never lost. A neighbor took Tom and they brought my baby to me +and I stayed by Mis' Petway until they weren't no more danger. Next +day it were Squire Tutt's first wife tooken down with the fever and +not the week passed before that very Sam Mosbey were borned. We was +too poor to have a doctor come and live here and they was a doctor +over to Springfield took up my husband's county practice, so I jest +naturally had to do the healing myself, only a-sending for him in +the worst cases. They was a heap of teethers that summer and it kept +me busy looking after 'em. I expect I made mistakes but I kept up me +and the patients' courage by sympathizing and heartening. It didn't +cost nobody nothing and we wasn't so prosperous then that it wasn't +a help for me to do the doctoring when I could, and I mostly were +able. I were glad of the work and did it with a thankful mind; not +as they wasn't times when I felt sick at heart, and in danger of +questioning why, but I tried to steady myself with prayer until I +could find the Everlasting Arm to lean on that is always held out to +the widow and the fatherless. And so a-leaning I have got me and Tom +Mayberry along until now." + +"And the whole rest of the world leaning on you," said the lovely +lady as she drew nearer and caught Mother Mayberry's strong hand in +her own slender fingers. + +"Well," answered Mother, as she shaded her eyes with her other hand +to look far up the Road toward the Ridge over which they were +waiting for the Doctor's horse to appear, "looks like often hands a- +reaching out for help gives strength before they takes any, and a +little hope planted in another body's garden is apt to fly a seed +and sprout in your own patch. There he is--let's hurry in the +biscuits!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SINGER LADY AND THE BREAD-BOWL + + +"Well, I don't know as I'd like to have her messing around my +kitchen and house, a stranger and a curious one at that. But you +always was kinder soft, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Peavey as she +glanced with provoked remonstrance at Mother Mayberry, who went +calmly on attending to the needs of a fresh hatching of young +chickens. Mrs. Peavey lived next door to the Doctor's house and the +stone wall that separated the two families was not in any way a +barrier to her frequent neighborly and critical visitations. She was +meager of stature and soul, and the victim of a devouring fire of +curiosity which literally licked up the fagots of human events that +came in her way. She was the fly that kicked perpetually in Mother +Mayberry's cruse of placid ointment, but received as full a mead of +that balm of friendship as any woman on the Road. + +"Why, she ain't a mite of trouble, but just a pleasure, Hettie Ann," +answered Mother with mild remonstrance in her tone. "I expected to +have a good bit of worry with her, having no cook in my kitchen, +'count of waiting for Cindy to get well and come back to me and +nobody easy to pick up to do the work, but she hadn't been here a +week before she was reaching out and learning house jobs. I think it +takes her mind offen her troubles and I can't say her no if it do +help her, not that I want to, for she's a real comfort." + +"Well, if it was me I couldn't take no comfort in a play-acting +girl. I'd feel like locking up what teaspoons I had and a-counting +over everything in my house every day. It's just like you, Mis' +Mayberry, to take her in. And I can't sense the why of you're being +so close-mouthed about her. Near neighbors oughter know all about +one another's doings and not have to ask, I say." Mrs. Peavey +sniffed and assumed an air of injured patience. + +"Why, Hettie Ann," Mother hastened to answer, "you know as I always +did hold that the give and take of advice from friends is the +greatest comfort in the world, though at times most confusing, and I +thought I told you all about Elinory." + +"Well, you didn't. Muster been Bettie Pratt or Mis' Pike you was a- +talking to when you thought it was me," answered her friend with the +injured note in her voice becoming with every word more noticeable. +"Are she rich or poor? Do you know that much?" + +"Well now, come to think of it, I don't," answered Mother promptly. +"Connecting up folks and they money always looks like sticking a +price tag on you to them and them to you. I'd rather charge my +friends to a Heaven-account and settle the bill with friendly +feelings as we go along. This poor child ain't got no mother or +father, that I know. All her young life when most girls ain't got a +thought above a beau or a bonnet, she have been a-training of her +voice to sing great 'cause it were in her to do it. And she done it, +too. Then all to onct when she had got done singing in a great big +town hall they call Convent Garden or something up in New York, she +made the mistake to drink a glass of ice water and it friz up her +throat chords. She haven't been able to sing one single tune since. +She have been a-roaming over the earth a-hunting for some sort of +help and ain't found none. Now she have lit at my door and I've got +her in trying to warm and comfort her to enough strength for Tom to +put her voice back into her." + +"Well, you don't expect no such thing of Tom Mayberry as that, do +you?" asked Mrs. Peavey with uncompromising and combative frankness. + +"That I do," answered the Doctor's mother, and this time there was a +note of dignity in her voice, as she looked her friend straight in +the face. "You know, because I told you about it, Hettie Ann, how +Tom Mayberry cured that big preacher of a lost voice who was a +friend to this Doctor Stein, while the boy wasn't nothing but +serving his term in the hospital. He wrote a paper about it that +made all the doctors take notice of him and he have done it twice +since, though throats are just a side issue from skins with him. +Yes, I'm expecting of him to cure this child and give her back +more'n just her voice, her work in life. I'm one that believes that +the Lord borns all folks with a work to do and you've got to march +on to it, whether it's singing in public places, carrying saddle- +bags to suffering or jest playing your tune on the wash-board at +home. It's a part of his hallelujah chorus in which we've all got to +join." + +"Well, I shorely drawed the wash-board fer my instrumint," answered +Mrs. Peavey with a vindictive look across the wall at a line of +clothes fluttering in the breeze. + +"And they ain't nobody in Providence that turns out as white a +shirt-song as you do, Hettie Ann. Buck and Mr. Peavey are just +looked at in church Sundays fer the color of they collars," Mother +hastened to say with pride in the glance that followed Mrs. Peavey's +across the wall. "Ain't Tom always a-contriving with you to sneak +one of his shirts into your wash, so as not to hurt me and Cindy's +feelings? I don't see how you get 'em so white." + +"Elbow grease and nothing else," answered Mrs. Peavey in a tone of +voice that refused to be mollified. "I've got to be a-going." + +"Just wait and look at these chickens; ain't they pretty? Tom sent +all the way to Indiany fer the settin' of eggs fer me and I've just +been a-watching the day for 'em to hatch. I feel they are a-going to +be a credit to me and I'm glad I gave 'em to Ruffle Neck to set on. +She's such a good hoverer and can be depended on to run from the +rain. Now ain't they pretty?" and Mother even looked at Mrs. Peavey +with hope for a word of sympathy in her pleasure--after a thirty +years' experience with her neighbor. + +"No," answered her friend, "I don't hold with no fancy chickens. +Just good dominicks is all I've got any faith in and not much in +them. With strange chickens and girls around your house something +misfortunate is a-going to happen to you, Mis' Mayberry, and I see +it a-coming. Don't say I didn't tell you." + +"No, I'll give you credit for your warning," answered Mother +propitiatingly. "How's that pain in your side?" she hastened to ask, +to change the subject from a disagreeable one to what she knew by +experience would prove at least interesting. + +"It's a heap better," answered Mrs. Peavey promptly. + +"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Mother, immediately beginning to beam +with pride. "I told you Tom could help it with that new kind of dry +plaster he made for you. Ain't it wonderful?" + +"Shoo! I never put that on! It didn't have smell enough to do any +good. I knew that as soon as I unrolled it. I just rubbed myself +heavy with that mixture of kerosine, vinegar and gum camfire you've +been making me for twenty years, and I slept uncommon well." + +"Oh," answered Mother Mayberry, "I wish you had tried Tom's plaster. +I feel sure--" + +"Well, I don't--of anything that a boy like Tom Mayberry knows. If +he lives here a spell and learns from you maybe he'll get some +doctoring sense, but I wouldn't trust him for ten years at the +shortest. But have you heard the news?" A flame of positive joy +flared up in Mrs. Peavey's eyes and flushed her sallow cheeks. + +"Why, what is it?" asked Mother with a guarded interest and no small +amount of anxiety, for she was accustomed to the kind of news that +Mrs. Peavey usually took the trouble to spread. + +"Well, I knowed what was a-going to happen when I seen Bettie Pratt +setting the chairs straight and marshaling in the orphants at poor +Mis' Hoover's funeral, not but eleven months ago. It'll be a scandal +to this town and had oughter be took notice of by Deacon Bostick and +the Elder. She's got four Turner children and six Pratts and he have +got seven of his own, so Turner, Pratt and Hoover they'll be +seventeen children in the house, all about the same size. Then maybe +more--I call it a disgrace, I do!" + +"I don't know," answered Mother, though her eyes did twinkle at the +thought of this allied force of seventeen, "there never was a better +child-raiser than Bettie Pratt and I'll be mighty glad to see them +poor, forlorn little Hoovers turned over to her. They've been on my +mind night and day since they mother died and they ain't a single +one of 'em as peart as it had oughter be. Who told you about it?" + +"They didn't nobody tell me--I've got eyes of my own! Just yesterday +I seen her hand a pan of biscuits over the fence to Pattie Hoover +and he had a Turner and two Pratts in the wagon with him coming in +from the field last night. But you can't do nothing about it--she +have got the marrying habit. They are other widows in this town that +have mourned respectable to say nothing of Miss Prissy Pike, that +have never had no husband at all and had oughter be gave a chanct. +Mr. Hoover are a nice man and I don't want to see him made +noticeable in no such third-husband way." + +"Course it do look a little sudden," said Mother, "and seventeen is +a good lot of children for one family, but if they love each other-- +" + +"Love! Shoo! I declare, Mis' Mayberry, looks to me like you swallow +what folks give you in this world whole, pit and all, and never bat +a eye. I've got to go home and put on Buck's and Mr. Peavey's supper +and sprinkle down some of my wash." And without further parley Mrs. +Peavey marched home through a little swinging gate in the wall that +had been for years a gap through which a turbid stream had flowed to +trouble Mother's peaceful waters. + +"It do seem Mis' Peavey are a victim of a most pitiful unrest," said +Mother to herself as she watched with satisfaction Ruffle Neck tuck +the last despised little Hoosier under her soft gray breast. "Some +folks act like they had dyspepsy of the mind. Dearie me, I must go +and take a glass of cream to my honey-bird, for that between-meal +snack that Tom Mayberry are so perticular about." And she started +down toward the spring-house under the hill. + +And returning a half hour later with the cool glass in her hand, she +was guided by the sound of happy voices to the front porch, where, +under the purple wistaria vine, she found the singer lady absorbed +in the construction of a most worldly garment for the doll daughter +of Eliza Pike, who was watching its evolution with absorbed +interest. + +"Pleas'm, Miss Elinory, make it a little bit longer, 'cause I want +her to have a beau," besought the small mother, as she anxiously +watched the measuring of the skirt. + +"Want her to have a beau?" asked Miss Wingate with the scissors +suspended over the bit of pink muslin which matched exactly her own +ruffled skirts, + +"Yes'm! Pattie Hoover wored shoe-tops all winter and now she's got +foot-dresses and Buck Peavey for a beau." + +"Oh, I see," said the singer lady as she smiled down into the eager +little face. "Do you think--er, beaux are--are desirable, Eliza?" + +"Yes'm, I do," answered the bud of a woman, as she drew nearer and +said with an expression of one bestowing a confidence, "When I'm let +down to my feet I'm going to have Doctor Tom for my beau, if you +don't get him first." + +"I'm sure you needn't worry about that, Eliza," Miss Wingate +hastened to exclaim with a rising color. "I wouldn't interfere with +your plans for the world--if I could." + +"Well, you take him if you can get him," answered Eliza generously; +"somebody'll grow up by that time for me. But he couldn't make you +take oil, could he?" she asked doubtfully, the memory of yesterday's +escape lurking in her mind and explaining her most unfeminine +generosity. + +Miss Wingate eyed her for a moment with mirth fairly dancing over +her face, "Yes," she said with a laugh, "I believe he could!" + +"Elinory, child," said Mother as she came out from the front hall, +"here we are a half hour late with this cream, and both of us under +promise solemn to Tom to have it down by four o'clock. 'Liza, honey, +how's the baby?" + +"He have got a new top-tooth and throwed up onct this morning," +answered Eliza in a practical tone of voice. + +"Dearie me," said Mother anxiously, for the Pike teether had up to +this time been the Doctor's prize patient. "I wonder if your Maw +remembered the lime water faithful?" + +"I expect she forgot it, for she was whipping Susie for sassing Aunt +Prissy, and Bud for saying fool," answered Eliza, not at all +hesitating to lay bare the iniquities of her family circle. + +"I'm sorry they did like that," said Mother with real concern at the +news of such delinquencies. + +"Yes'm, Susie told Aunt Prissy Mis' Peavey said she were a-setting +her cap fer Mr. Hoover and it made Bud mad 'cause he fights 'Lias +Hoover and he called her a fool. He hadn't oughter done it, but he's +touchy 'bout Aunt Prissy and so's Paw. There comes Deacon and a +little boy with him." + +As she spoke, Mother rose to greet Deacon Bostick who had turned in +the front gate and got as far up the front walk as the second +snowball bush. The Deacon was tall, lean, bent and snow-crowned, +with bright old eyes that rested in a benediction on the group on +the porch that his fine old smile confirmed. By the hand he led a +tiny boy who was clad in a long nondescript garment and topped off +by a queer red fez, pulled down over a crop of yellow curls, a +strange little exotic against the homely background of Mother +Mayberry's lilac bushes. + +"Sister Mayberry," said the deacon as he paused at the foot of the +steps, "this is Martin Luther Hathaway who was left at my house this +morning by the Circuit Rider, as he came through from Springfield on +his way to Flat Rock, to be delivered to you, along with his letter. +I trust his arrival is not unexpected to you." + +"No, indeed, Deacon, I was hoping for him though not exactly +expecting him. A month ago while you was sick, our missionary +society had news of a missionary and his wife down at Springfield +who wanted to go up to Chicagy to study some more about some heathen +matter, and couldn't quite make it with two children. My cousin +Seliny Lue down to the Bluff have took the little girl and we sent +five dollars and a letter saying to send the boy to me for the +summer. Come to Mother Mayberry, sonny," and Mother sat down on the +lowest step and stretched out her arms to the little ward of the +church militant. + +Martin Luther's big blue eyes, which were set in his head like those +of a Raphael cherub, looked out from under a huge yellow curl that +fell over his forehead, straight into Mother's gray ones for a +moment, and sticking his pink thumb into his mouth, he sidled into +her embrace with a little sigh of evident relief. + +"Eat some, thank ma'am, please," he whispered into her ear by way of +a return of the introduction. His little mother tongue had evidently +suffered a slight twist by his birth and sojourn in a foreign +country, but it served to express the normal condition of all +inhabitants of boy-land. + +"Of course he's hungry, bless his little heart," answered Mother as +she removed the fez and ruffled up the damp curls. "Run fetch the +tea-cake bucket from the kitchen safe, 'Liza, and won't you come sit +down, Deacon?" + +"No, thank you, Sister," answered the Deacon with a glance of real +regret at the comfortable rocker Miss Wingate had hastened to draw +forward into a sunny but sheltered corner of the porch, "I'm on my +way to take tea with Sister Pratt. I'm to meet Mrs. Bostick there. +How's the throat, child?" And his smile up at the singer lady was +one of the most sympathetic interest. + +"Better, thank you, I think," said Miss Wingate, answering both +question and smile. "How well you are looking to-day, Deacon!" + +"Why, I'm made over new by that boy of a Doctor," said the Deacon, +fairly beaming with enthusiasm. "Your cure will be only a matter of +time, a matter of time, my dear--Squire Tutt to the contrary," he +added with a chuckle. + +"There, bless my heart, if my ears ain't heard two testimonies to +Tom Mayberry all in one minute!" exclaimed Mother with a delighted +laugh. "Have a cake, won't you, Deacon?" she asked, offering the +bucket. + +She then established Eliza and the small stranger on the edge of the +steps, with an admonition as to the disposal of the crumbs over on +to the grass, and filled both pairs of hands with the crisp discs. +Eliza spread the end of her short blue calico skirt over Martin +Luther's chubby knees, and they both proceeded to eat into the +improvised napkin with the utmost comradeship. Miss Wingate had +strolled down to the gate with the Deacon and had paused on the way +to decorate the buttonhole of his shiny old coat with a bit of the +white lilac nodding over the wall. + +"'Liza, child," said Mother as she glanced at Martin Luther with a +contemplative eye, "when you're done eating run over and ask your +Maw to send me a pair of Billy's britches and a shirt. No, maybe +young Ez's 'll be better, and bring 'em and Martin Luther on back to +the kitchen to me." With which she disappeared into the house, +leaving the munchers to finish their feast alone. + +And in an incredibly short time the last crumb, even those rescued +from the skirt, had disappeared and Eliza had led Martin Luther down +the walk, across the Road and around the corner of the Pike cottage, +while the Deacon still lingered talking to Miss Wingate at the gate. +Eliza had taken upon herself, with her usual generalship, the +development of Mother Mayberry's plan for the arraying of the young +stranger in what Providence would consider a civilized garb. + +And for some minutes Miss Wingate stood leaning over the top rail of +the low gate idly watching a group of Pratts, Turners, Mosbeys, +Hoovers and Pikes playing a mysterious game, which necessitated wild +dashes across a line drawn down the middle of the Road in the white +dust, shrill cries of capture and frequent change of base. The day +had been a long sunshiny one, full of absorbing interests, and as +she stood drinking in the perfume from a spray of lilac she had +broken to choose the bit for the Deacon, she suddenly realized that +not one minute had she found in which to let the horrible dread +creep close and clutch at her throat. Helping along in the +construction of a bucket of tea-cakes, the printing of four cakes of +butter, the simmering of a large pan of horehound syrup and the +excitement of pouring it into the family bottles that Mother was +filling against a sudden night call from some crouper down or across +the Road, to say nothing of a most exciting pie, that had been +concocted entirely by herself from a jar of peaches and frilled +around with the utmost regard for its artistic appearance, to which +could be added the triumph of the long-tailed pink gown for the +daughter of young Eliza, had kept her busy and--with a quick smile +she had to admit to herself, happy. Indeed the remembrance of the +rapid disappearance of the pie and Doctor Mayberry's blush when, +after he had eaten two-thirds of it, his mother had informed him of +the authorship, brought a positive glow of pleasure to her cheeks. +Such a serious, gentle, skilful young Doctor as he was--and "a +perfect dear" she went as far as admitting to herself, this time +with a low laugh. + +And as if her pondering on his virtues had had power to bring a +materialization, suddenly Doctor Tom stood in front of her on the +other side of the gate. He had come from up the Road while she had +been looking down in the other direction, and in his hand he held a +spray of purple lilacs which he had broken from a large bush that +hung over the fence from the Pratt yard into the Road and also +spread itself a yard or two into Hoover territory. + +"Aren't they lovely and plumy?" she asked, as she took the bunch he +offered and laid the purple flowers against the white ones she held +in her hand. "These are so much darker than Mrs. Mayberry's purple +ones. I wonder why." + +"Some years they bloom lighter than Mother's and other years still +darker--just another one of the mysteries," he answered as he leaned +against the gate-post and looked down at her with a smile. He was +tall, and strong, and forceful, with a clean-cut young face which +was lit by Mother Mayberry's very own black-lashed, serene gray +eyes, and his very evident air of a man of affairs had much of the +charm of Mother Mayberry's rustic dignity. His serge coat, blue +shirt and soft gray tie had a decided cut of sophistication and were +worn with a most worldly grace that was yet strangely harmonious +with his surroundings. For with all of his distinctions in +appearance and attainments, as a man he struck no discord when +contrasted with Mr. Pike's shirt-sleeved, butternut-trousers +personality and he seemed but the flowering of Buck Peavey's store- +clothes ambitions. The accord of it all struck Miss Wingate so +forcibly that unconsciously she gave voice to the feeling. + +"How at home you are in all this--this?" she paused and raised her +eyes to his with a hint of helplessness to express herself within +them. + +"Simple life," he supplied with a smile that held a bit of banter. + +"It's not so simple as one would think to balance a pie plate on one +hand and cut around it with a knife so the edges aren't jagged--to +be all consumed within the hour," she answered with spirit, rising +to the slight challenge in his voice and smile. "And there are other +most complicated things I have discovered that--" + +But just here she was interrupted by a sally from around the corner +of the Pike house which streamed out across the Road, headed +precisely in their direction. Eliza was in the lead and held little +Teether swung perilously across one slender hip, while she clasped +Martin Luther's chubby fingers in her other hand. And behold, the +transformation of the young stranger was complete beyond belief! His +yellow thatch was crowned by a straw hat, which was circled by a +brand new shoestring, though it gaped across the crown to let out a +peeping curl. Young Ez's garments even had proved a size too large +and the faded blue jeans "britches" were rolled up over his round +little knees and hitched up high under his arms by an improvised +pair of calico "galluses" which were stretched tight over a clean +but much patched gingham shirt. His feet and legs had been stripped +in accordance with the time-ordered custom in Providence that bare +feet could greet May Day, and his little, bare, pink toes curled up +with protest against the roughness of even the dust-softened pike. +Susie May, Billy and young Ez beamed with pride at their share in +the rehabiting of the recent acquisition and waited breathlessly for +words of praise from Miss Wingate and the Doctor. + +"Why, who is this?" asked the Doctor quickly with a most gratifying +interest in his big voice, while Miss Wingate came out of the gate +on to the pavement. + +"It's the little missionary boy that the Deacon brought Mother +Mayberry. I guess the Lord sent him, for he's too big to come outen +a cabbage," answered Eliza, and as she spoke she settled the hat an +inch farther down over the curls with a motherly gesture. She had +failed to grasp with exactness the situation concerning the advent +of Martin Luther, but was supplying a version of her own that seemed +entirely satisfactory to the youngster's newly acquired friends. + +"Spit through teeth," ventured the young stranger, anxious to +display an accomplishment that had been bestowed upon him by Billy +while the "galluses" were in process of construction a few minutes +ago. "Thank ma'am, please," he hastened to add with pathetic loyalty +to some injunction that had been impressed upon his young mind +before his embarkation upon strange seas. + +"Let me see you do it," demanded the Doctor, in instant sympathy +with his pride in this newly acquired national accomplishment. + +"He hasn't got time to do it now," answered Eliza importantly, as +she hitched Teether a notch higher up on her arm. "I've got to take +him and the baby in to Mother Mayberry to see if his other top-tooth +have come up enough for Maw to rub it through with her thimble." +Though she did not designate Teether as the subject of the operation +the audience understood that it was he and not Martin Luther so +fated. + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Miss Wingate in horror, and she reached out +and took Teether into protective arms. The day had been a long and +weary one for Teether Pike and he dropped his tired little head over +on the cool pink muslin shoulder and nestled his aching jaw against +the smooth white neck. + +"Hold him still just a second as he is," said Doctor Tom quickly, +and in an instant he had whipped a case from his pocket, selected an +instrument and, inserting his finger between the pink lips, he +rendered unnecessary the agony of the maternal thimble. It had been +done so quickly that Teether himself only nestled a bit closer with +a faint moan, and Miss Wingate looked up at the operator with +grateful eyes. She hugged the limp baby closer and started to speak, +but was interrupted by an anxious question from Eliza. + +"Did you cut it?" she demanded. + +"Yes," answered the Doctor non-committally. + +"Well, Maw'll be mighty mad at you, for Mother Mayberry asked her +last night to let you cut it and she said she'd thimbled the rest of +us and she reckoned he could stand it too. If it was me, I'd let you +cut me wide open and sew me up again if you wanted to," and Eliza +beamed upon the Doctor with an affection that was the acme of +idealization. She had forgotten that only a few hours ago she had +renounced her loyalty at the memory of the oil, but Miss Wingate +smiled in appreciation of this display of further feminine +inconsistency. + +"Shucks," said Billy, "you'd holler 'fore he could cut onct. I'm a- +going to let him fix my next stump toe and 'Lias Hoover have got two +warts he can cut off, if he gives him a piece of catgut string to +tie on fish hooks." And Billy looked as if he expected to see the +Doctor entirely overwhelmed at the prospect of so much practice so +easily obtained. + +"Go take Martin Luther to show Mrs. Mayberry, Eliza," said Miss +Wingate with a laughing smile over the baby's head at the Doctor and +his practice. "I'll come on with the baby." And with Teether still +embraced she strolled up the walk with Doctor Mayberry at her side. +When they reached the front steps she seated herself on the top one +and slowly lowered the drowsy little chap, until his head rested on +her breast and her arms held him cradlewise. She began a low husky +humming as she rocked herself to and fro, watching breathlessly the +fringed lashes sink over his wearied eyes, until they lay like +shadows on the purple circles beneath. She was utterly absorbed in +getting Teether into a comatose condition, and had neither eyes nor +ears for the Doctor; not that he claimed either. + +He sat for some moments watching her and listening breathlessly to +the low music that came out through the wonderful throat, as if from +some master instrument with strings uncouthly muted. And as he +looked, the horrible thought clutched at his own heart. Suppose he +should not be able to free her voice for her! Many others had tried- +-the greatest--and they had all been baffled by the strange +stiffness of the chords. He knew himself to be, in a way, her last +resort. A world of music lovers awaited the result. He had been +obliged to send out two Press bulletins as to her condition within +the week--and she sat on the steps in the twilight humming Teether +Pike to sleep, shut in by the Harpeth Hills with only him to fight +her fight for her. He almost groaned aloud with the pain of it, when +into his consciousness came Mother Mayberry's placid voice shooing +the Pike children home with promises and admonitions. A line from +Doctor Stein's letter flashed into his mind: "And first and above +all I want your mother to put heart and hope into the girl." The +fight was not his alone, thank God, and he knew just how much he +could trust to his mother's heart-building. Why not? Over the land +men were learning to strengthen the man within before attempting to +cure the man without. Hadn't that always been his mother's +unconscious policy out on Harpeth Hills? A deep calm fell into his +troubled spirit and, as the singer lady and Mother escorted the +escort down the walk, he slipped away into his office for an hour +before supper with his reports and microscope. + +A half hour later Mother Mayberry came into his office for the +little chat she often took the time for just before the summons to +supper. She seated herself by the open window, through which the +twilight was creeping, and he threw down his pen and came and stood +leaning against the casement. + +"Well," she said with a long breath of contentment, "well, I do feel +about ready to get ready to rest. The Pikeses is all in, I heard +Bettie Pratt calling in the Turners and Pratts and Hoovers, Buck +have come home to supper on time, as I know will relieve Hettie +Ann's mind, Squire Tutt just went in the front gate as I come up the +walk and I seen Mis' Bostick light the lamp in the Deacon's study +from my kitchen window a minute ago. They ain't nothing in the world +that makes me so contented as to know that all Providence is a- +setting down to meals at the same time and a-feeding together as one +family, though in different houses. The good Lord will get all the +rendered thanks at the same time and I feel it will please Him--ours +is late on account of Elinory deciding at the last minute to beat up +some clabber cheese with fresh cream for your supper, like she says +they fix it up over in Europe somewhere she lived while she was a- +studying to sing. I come on out so she could have a swing to herself +and not think anybody was a-hurrying of her. It's a riled woman as +generally answers the call of hurry and I never gives it, lessen +it's life or death or a chicken-hawk." + +"But, Mother," remonstrated the Doctor with a very real distress in +his voice, "ought you to let her--Miss Wingate--do such things--so +many things? Are you sure she enjoys it and is not just doing it to +help or because she thinks she ought? Or do you--?" + +"Well," interrupted Mother decidedly, "it's my opinion they ain't +nothing in the world so heavy as empty hands. She have had to lay +down a music book and I don't know nothing better to offer than a +butter-paddle and a bread-bowl. It's the feeding of folks that +counts in a woman's life, whether it be songs or just bread and +butter. If Elinory's tunes was as much of a success as her riz +biscuits have come to be, I wisht I could have heard her just onct." + +"I did, Mother, the first night she sang in America--and it was very +wonderful. When I think of the great opera house, the lights and the +flowers, the audience mad with joy and the applause and--I--I-- +wonder how she stands it!" + +"Yes," answered Mother, "I reckon wondering how Eve stood things +muster took Adam's mind offen hisself to a very comforting degree. +Courage was the ingredient the good Lord took to start making a +woman with and it's been a-witnessing his spirit in her ever since. +I oughtn't to have to tell you that." + +"You don't," Doctor Tom hastened to answer as he smiled down on +Mother. "I only spoke as I did about Miss Wingate because you see +she is--well, what we would call a very great lady and I wouldn't +have her think that I did not realize that-?" + +"Well, you can do as you choose," answered Mother placidly as she +prepared to take her departure to see to the finishing up of the +supper, "but I ain't a-letting no foolish pride hold my heart back +from my honey-bird. Love's my bread of life and I offers it free, +high or low. Come on and see how you like that cheese fixing she's +done made for you." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PEONY-GIRL AND THE BUMPKIN + + +"There's just no doubt about it, if Tom Mayberry weren't my own son +and I had occasion to know better I'd think he had teeth in his +heels, from the looks of his socks. Every week Cindy darns them a +spell and then I take a hand at it. Just look, Elinory, did you ever +see a worser hole than this?" As Mother Mayberry spoke she held up +for Miss Wingate's interested inspection a fine, dark blue sock. +They were sitting on the porch in the late afternoon and the singer +lady was again at work on a bit of wardrobe for the doll daughter of +her friend Eliza. + +"How does he manage such--such awful ones?" asked Miss Wingate with +a laugh. + +"That you can't never prove by me," answered his mother as she +slipped a small gourd into the top of the sock and drew a thread +through her needle. + +"Sometimes I wish the time when I could turn him barefooted from May +to November had never gone by. But a-wishing they children back in +years is a habit most mothers have got in common, I reckon. When +he's away from me I dream him often at all ages, but it's mostly +from six to eleven I seem to want him. When he were six, with Doctor +Mayberry gone, I took to steadying myself by Tom and at eleven I +made up my mind to give him up." + +"Give him up?" asked Miss Wingate as she raised her eyes from her +work. "I don't think you seem to have given him up to any serious +extent." And she smiled as she turned her head in the direction of +the office wing, from which came a low whistled tune, jerkily and +absorbedly rendered. + +"Oh, he don't belong to me no more," answered his mother in a placid +tone of voice as she rocked to and fro with her work. "I fought out +all that fight when I took my resolve. I just figured something like +this, Pa Lovell had been a-doctoring on Harpeth Hills for a lifetime +and Doctor Mayberry had gave all his young-man life to answering the +call, a-carrying the grace of God as his main remedy, so now I felt +like the time had come for a Lovell and a Mayberry to go out and be +something to the rest of the world, and Tom were the one to carry +the flag. I seen that the call were on him since he helped me +through a spell of May pips with over two hundred little chickens +before he were five years old, and he cut a knot out of the Deacon's +roan horse by the direction of a book when he weren't but eleven, as +saved its life. That kinder settled it with me and the Deacon both, +though we talked it back and forth for two more years. Then Deacon +took to teaching of him regular and I set in to save all I could +from the thin peeling of potatoes to worser darnings and patches +than this. Would you think they could be any worser?" And she smiled +up over her glasses at the girl opposite her. + +"Tell me about it," demanded the singer lady interestedly. "Where +did you send him to school first?" + +"Right down here to the City. You see Doctor Mayberry left me this +home, fifty acres and a small life insurance, so they was a little +something to inch and pinch on. You can't save by trying to peel +nothing, but the smallest potatoes have got a skin, and I peeled +close them days. Tom did his part too and he run the plow deep and +straight when he wasn't much taller than the handles. I had done +talked it over with him and asked him would he, and he looked right +in my eyes in his dependable way and said yes he would. That +finished it and he wasn't but eleven; but I don't want to brag on +him to you. If you listen to mothers' talk the world are full of +heroes and none-suches." Again Miss Wingate received the smile from +over Mother Mayberry's glasses and this time it was tinged with a +whimsical pride. + +"Please, Mrs., Mayberry, tell me about it; you know I want to hear," +begged the girl, and she moved her chair nearer to Mother's and +picked up the mate of the blue sock off her knee. "How old was he +when he went to college?" + +"Just sixteen, big and hearty and with enough in his head to get +through the examinations. I packed him up, and him and the Deacon +started down Providence Road at sun-up in the Deacon's old buggy. He +looked both man and baby to me as he turned around to smile back; +but I stood it out at the gate until they turned the bend, then I +come on back to the house quick like some kind of hurted animal. +But, dearie me, I never got a single tear shed, for there were Mis' +Peavey with Buck in her arms, shaking him upside down to get out a +brass button he hadn't swallowed. By the time we poured him full of +hot mustard water and the button fell outen his little apron pocket, +I had done got my grip on myself." + +"I just can't stand it that you had to let him go," Miss Wingate +both laughed and sobbed. + +"Yes, but I ain't told you about the commencement, honey-bird. +There's that tear _I_ didn't get to drop a-splashing outen your eyes +on the doll's hat! That day was the most grandest thing that ever +happened to anybody's mother, anywhere in this world. I didn't think +I could go to see him get the diplomy, for with all his saving ways +and working hard in the summer, it had been a pull to make buckle +and tongue meet and there just wasn't nothing left for me to buy no +stylish clothes to wear. I set here a-worrying over it, not that I +minded, but it was hard on the boy to have to make his step-off in +life and his mother not be there to see. And somehow I felt as if it +would hurt Pa Lovell and Doctor Mayberry for me not to be with him. +Then with thinking of Pa Lovell a sudden idea popped into my head. +There was Seliny Lue Lovell right down to the Bluff, on the road to +town, and with Aunt Lovell's fine black silk dress packed away in +the trunk, as good as new, and me and Seliny Lue of almost the same +figger as her mother. That just settled the question and I got up +and washed out my water-waves in a little bluing water to make 'em +extra white, dabbed buttermilk on my face to get off some of the tan +and called over Mis' Peavey and Mis' Pike to let 'em know. The next +morning I started off gay with everybody there to see and sending +messages to Tom." + +"Wasn't it fortunate you thought of the dress and lovely for you to +be able to go right by and get it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, her eyes +as bright as Mother Mayberry's and her cheeks pink with excitement +as the tale began to unfold its dramatic length. + +"Yes, and Seliny Lue was glad enough to see me! We laughed and +talked half the night, was up early, and she took a time to rig me +out. It is a stiff black silk, as anybody would be proud of, cut +liberal with real lace collar and cuffs. Seliny Lue said I looked +fine in it. I wisht she could have gone with me, but they wasn't +room for both of us inside the dress." And Mother laughed merrily at +the memory of her borrowing escapade. + +"Did Doctor Mayberry know you were coming?" asked the singer lady, +hurrying on the climax of the recital. + +"Not a word! He'd gone off the week before taking it sensible, but I +could see hurt mightily about it. I got to the University Hall late, +and 'most everybody in the world looked like they was there. I stood +at the back and didn't hope to see or hear, just thankful to be near +him, but I seen one of them young usher men a-looking hard at me and +he came up and asked me if I wasn't Mr. Thomas Mayberry's mother. He +had knew me by the favor. I told him yes and he took me up to the +very front just as the singing begun. I soon got me and the silk +dress settled, with the bokay all Providence had sent Tom on my +knee, and looked around me. There next to me was the sweetest young- +lady girl I have 'most ever saw, and she smiled at me real friendly. +I was just about to speak when the music stopped and the addressing +began by a tall thin kinder man. Elinory, child, did you ever hear +one of them young men's life-commencement speeches made?" This time +Mother Mayberry peered over the top of her glasses seriously and her +needle paused suspended over the fast narrowing hole in the sock. + +"Yes, but I don't think I ever listened very carefully," admitted +Miss Wingate with a smile. + +"Well, I felt that if the Lord had gave it to me to stand up there +and say a word of start-off to all them boys setting solemn and +listening, it wouldn't have been about no combination of things done +by men dead and gone, that didn't seem to prove nothing in +particular on nobody. I woulder read 'em a line of scripture and +then talked honest dealing by one another, the measuring out of work +according to the pay and always a little over, the putting of a +shoulder under another man's pressing burden, the respect of women +folks, the respect of theyselves and the looking to the Lord to see +'em through it all. That speech made me so mad I'most forgot it was +time for Tom's valediction. Honey-bird, I wisht you coulder seen him +and heard him." + +"I wish I could," answered Miss Wingate with a flush. + +"Dearie me, but he was handsome and he spoke words of sense that the +other gray-haired man seemed to have forgot! And they was a farewell +sadness in it too, what got some of them boys' faces to working, and +I felt a big tear roll down and splash right on the lace collar. +Then he sat down and they was a to-do of hollering and clapping, but +I just sat there too happy to take in the rest of what was did. +Sometimes they is a kinder pride swell in a mother's heart that +rises right up and talks to her soul in psalm words, and I heard +mine that day." Mother's eyes softened and looked far away across to +the blue hills. + +"What did he do when he saw you?" asked Miss Wingate gently. + +"Oh, I didn't pay much attention to him when he come up to me, or +let on how I felt. That sweet child next to me had done found out I +was his mother, I couldn't help telling her. And then she had sent +for her father, who was the head Dean man, and about the time Tom +came up, he was there shaking hands with me and telling me how proud +the whole University was of Tom and about the great scholarship for +him to go to New York to study he had got, and that he must go. It +didn't take me hardly two seconds to think a mortgage on the house +and fifty acres, the cows and all, so I answered right up on time +that go he should. While I was a-talking Tom had gave the bokay from +Providence to the girl, what he had been knowing all the time at her +father's house. And she had her nose buried in one of Mis' Peavey's +pink peonys, a-blushing as pretty as you please over it at that +country bumpkin of mine with all his fine manners. That Miss Alford +is one of the most sweet girls you ever have saw. She and me have +been friends ever since. She comes out to see me in her ottermobile +sometimes. She ain't down to the City now, for I had a picture card +from some place out West from her, but when she comes back I'm a- +going to ask her to come up and have a stay-a-week-in-the-house +party for you; and she can bring her brother. You might like him. +The four of you can have some nice junketings together. Won't that +be fine?" + +"Y-e-s," answered the singer lady slowly, "but I'm afraid I'm not +able now to interest anybody, and my voice, when I speak--I--I--Will +it be soon?" Her question had a trace of positive anxiety in it and +her joy was most evidently forced. + +"Oh, not till June rose time! And your voice now sounds like a +angel's with a bad cold. I'll tell Tom about it, he'll be so +pleased. Her father was such a friend to him and as proud of him now +as can be." + +"Did Doctor Mayberry stay in the City--after his graduation?" asked +Miss Wingate, a trace of anxiety in her voice. + +"That he didn't! He come on home with me that night, got into his +overalls and begun to plow for winter wheat by sun-up the next +morning. We made a good crop that year and the mortgage wasn't but a +few hundred dollars, what we soon paid. We've been going up ever +since. Tom reminds me of a kite, and I must make out to play tail +for him until I can pick him out a wife." + +"Have you thought of anybody in particular?" asked the lovely lady +without raising her eyes from her work. She had commenced operations +on the blue sock unnoticed by Mother, who was taken up in the +unfolding of her tale. + +"Not yet," answered she cheerfully. "I mustn't hurry. Marrying ain't +no one-day summer junket, but a year round march and the woman to +raise the hymn tune. I take it that after a mother have builded up a +man, she oughter see to it that he's capped off fine with a wife, +and then she can forget all about him. I've got my eyes open about +Tom and I'm going to begin to hunt around soon." + +"I wonder just what kind of a wife you--you will select for him," +murmured Miss Wingate with her eyes still on the sock, which she was +industriously sewing up into a tight knot on the left side of the +heel. + +"Well, a man oughter marry mostly for good looks and gumption; the +looks to keep him from knowing when the gumption is being used on +him. Tom's so say-nothing and shy with women folks that he won't be +no hard proposition for nobody. But with that way of his'n I'm +afraid of his being spoiled some. I have to be real stern with +myself to keep from being foolish over him." + +"But you want his wife to--to love him, don't you?" asked Miss +Wingate, as she raised very large and frankly questioning eyes to +Mother Mayberry, who was snipping loose threads from her completed +task. + +"Oh she'll do that and no trouble! But a man oughter be allowed to +sense his wife have got plenty of love and affection preserved, only +he don't know where she keeps the jar at. As I say, I don't want Tom +Mayberry spoiled. What did I do with that other sock?" And Mother +began to hunt in her darning bag, in her lap and on the floor. + +"Here it is," answered Miss Wingate as she blushed guiltily. "I-- +darned it." And she handed her handiwork over to Mother Mayberry +with trepidation in voice and expression. + +"Well, now," said Mother, as she inspected the tight little wad on +the blue heel. "It was right down kind of you to turn to and help me +like this, but, honey-bird, Tom Mayberry would walk like a hop toad +after he'd done got it on. You have drawn it bad. I don't know no +better time to learn you how to darn your husband's socks than right +now on this one of Tom's. You see you must begin with long cross +stitches in the--Now what's all this a-coming!" And Mother Mayberry +rose, looked down the Road and hurried to the sidewalk with the +darning bag under her arm and her thimble still on her finger. + +Up the middle of the Road came, in a body, the entire juvenile +population of Providence at a break-neck speed and farther down the +street they were followed by Deacon Bostick, coming as fast as his +feeble old legs would bring him. Eliza Pike headed the party with +Teether hitched high up en her arm and Martin Luther clinging to her +short blue calico skirt. They all drew up in a semicircle in front +of Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate and looked at Eliza expectantly. +On all occasions of excitement Eliza was both self-constituted and +unanimously appointed spokesman. On this occasion she began in the +dramatic part of the news without any sort of preamble. + +"It's a circus," she said breathlessly, "a-moving over from Bolivar +to Springfield and nelephants and camels and roar-lions and tigers +and Mis' Pratt and Deacon and Mr. Hoover and everybody is a-going +over to watch it pass--and we can't--we can't!" Her voice broke into +a wail, which was echoed by a sob and a howl from across the street +just inside the Pike gate, where Bud and Susie pressed their forlorn +little bodies against the palings and looked out on the world with +the despair of the incarcerated in their eyes. + +"Why can't you?" demanded Mother. + +"Oh, Maw have gone across the Nob to Aunt Elviry's and left Susie +May and Bud being punished. They can't go outen the gate and I ain't +a-going to no circus with my little brother and sister being +punished, and I won't let Billy and Ez go either." By this time the +whole group was in different stages of grief, for the viewing of a +circus without the company of Eliza Pike had the flavor of dead sea +fruit in all their small mouths. From the heart in Eliza's small +bosom radiated the force that vivified the lives of the whole small- +fry congregation, and a circus not seen through her eyes would be +but a dreary vision. + +"Now ain't that too bad!" said Mother Mayberry with compassion and +irritation striving in her voice. "What did they do and just what +did she say?" + +"Susie hurted Aunt Prissy's feelings, by taking the last biscuit +when they wasn't one left for her, and Maw said she would have to +stay in the yard until she learned to be kind and respectful to +Paw's sister, She didn't mean to be bad." And Eliza presented the +case of her small sister with hopelessness in every tone. + +"Well, Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "don't you feel kind to her +yet?" There was a note of hope in Mother's voice that silenced all +the wails, and they all fixed large and expectant eyes upon this +friend who never failed them. By this time the Deacon had joined the +group and his gentle old eyes were also fixed on Mother Mayberry's +face, with the same confident hope that the children's expressed. + +"I've done been kind to her," sniffed the culprit. "I let her cut +all my finger-nails and wash my ears and never said a word. She have +been working on me all afternoon and it hurt." + +"Susie," said Mother Mayberry, "you can go over to the cross-roads +and see that circus with the Deacon. They can't no little girl do +better than that, and your Maw just told you to stay until you +learned that lesson. You are let out! Now, what did you do, Bud?" + +"I slid on the lean-to and tored all the back of my britches out. +She couldn't stop to mend 'em and she said I could just stay front +ways to folks until she come home, and they shouldn't nobody mend +'em for me." Bud choked with grief and mortification and edged back +as little Bettie Pratt started in his direction on an investigating +tour. + +"Well course, Bud," said Mother with judicial eye, "you can't take +them britches off." She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. + +"I ain't a-going a step without him," reiterated the loyal Eliza, +and the rest of the children's faces fell. + +"Too bad," murmured the Deacon, and Miss Wingate could see that his +distress at the plight of young Bud was as genuine as that of any of +the rest. + +"But," began Mother Mayberry slowly, having in the last second +weighed the matter and made a decision, "your mother ain't said you +couldn't go outen the yard and she ain't said I couldn't wrap you up +in one of my kitchen aprons. That wouldn't be the same as changing +the britches. She didn't know about this circus and if she was here +you all know she woulder done as I asked her to do about Bud, so he +ain't a-disobeying her and I ain't neither, Run get the apron +hanging behind the door, Susie, and I'll fix him." + +"Sister Mayberry," said the Deacon with a delighted smile in his +kind eyes, but a twinkle in their corners, "your decision involves +the interpretation of both the letter and the spirit of the law. I +am glad it, in this case, rested with you." + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry, as she took the apron from Susie +and started across the Road on her rescue mission, "a woman have got +to cut her conscience kinder bias in the dealing with children. If +they're stuffed full of food and kindness they will mostly forget +to be bad, and oughtent to be made to remember they CAN be by being +punished too long. Now, sonny, I'll get you fixed up so stylish with +these pins and this apron that the circus will want to carry you +off. Start on, Deacon, he's a-coming." + +"I've got to get the baby's bonnet," said Eliza as the whole party +started away in a trail after the Deacon, who led Martin Luther by +one hand and little Bettie by the other. Over by the store they +could see Mrs. Pratt waiting to marshal the forces on down the Road +and Mr. Hoover stood ready as outstanding escort. He had brought the +news of the passing of the circus train and she had promptly +consented to taking the children and the Deacon over for a view. + +"Please, Eliza, please don't take the baby! Leave him with me," said +Miss Wingate and as she spoke she stretched out her arms to Teether. +Teether was looking worn with the excitement of the day and his +sympathetic friend felt the journey would be too much for him. He +smiled and fell over on her shoulder with a sigh of contentment. + +"Don't you think he oughter see them nelephants and things?" asked +Eliza doubtfully, her loyalty to Teether warring with the relief of +having him out of her thin little arms for the journey. + +"He won't mind. Let me keep him here on the front porch until you +come back. Now run along and have a good time," and Miss Wingate +started up the front walk, as Eliza darted away to join the others. + +"I do declare," said Mother Mayberry, as she watched the expedition +wend its way down the white Road in the direction of the Bolivar +pike, "the way the Deacon do love the children is plumb beautiful, +and sad some too. I don't know what he would do without Jem or they +without him. Seeing 'em together reminds me of that scraggy, old +snowball bush in full bloom, leaning down to the little Stars of +Bethlehem reaching up to it. What that good man have been to me only +my Heavenly Father can know and Tom Mayberry suspicion. I tell you +what I think I'll do; I'll take one of them little pans of rolls +what Cindy have baked for supper, with a jar of peach preserves, and +go down and set with Mis' Bostick while the Deacon are gone. We can +run the pan of rolls in to get hot for him when he comes home and I +know he likes the preserves. I want to stop in to see Mis' Tutt too +and give her a little advice about that taking so much blue-mass. I +don't see how anybody with a bad liver can have any religion at all, +much less a second blessing. I know the Squire have his faults, but +others has failings too. And, too, I'll have to stop in and pacify +Miss Prissy about turning the children loose, before I go down the +Road." + +"Miss Prissy always seems to be getting the children into trouble. I +wonder why," said the singer lady with a shade of resentment in her +voice. The little Pikes had established themselves firmly in the +heart of this new friend, and she found herself in an attitude of +critical partisanship. + +"I reckon Miss Prissy is what you call a kinder crank," answered +Mother Mayberry as she paused at the foot of the steps. "A married +woman have got to be the hub of a family-wheel, but a old maid can +be the outside crank that turns the whole contraption backwards if +she has a mind to. I wish Miss Prissy had a little more +understanding of the children, 'cause the rub all comes on Mis' +Pike, and she's fair wore out with it. But I must be a-going so as +to be the sooner a-coming. I wisht you would tell Tom Mayberry to go +and let you help him put the hens and little chickens to bed. Feed +'em two quarts of millet seed, and you both know how to do it right +if you have a mind to. I'm going to compliment you by a-trusting you +this once, and don't let me wish I hadn't! I'll be back in the +course of time." + +And so it happened that as Doctor Mayberry was in the act of +swinging his microscope over a particularly absorbing new plate, a +very lovely vision framed itself in his office door against the +background of Harpeth Hill, which was composed of the slim singer +girl with the baby nodding over her shoulder. The unexpectedness of +the visit sent the color up under his tan and brought him to his +feet with a delighted smile. + +"I don't know how you are going to feel about it, but I bring the +news of an honor which we are to share. Do you suppose, do you, that +we can put the chickens to bed for Mrs. Mayberry? She says we are to +try, and if we don't do it the right way she is never going to +compliment us with her confidence again. Help, please! I'm weighted +down by the responsibility." And as she spoke Miss Wingate's eyes +shone across Teether's bobbing head with delighted merriment. + +"Well, let's try," answered the Doctor with the air of being ready +to do or dare, an attitude which a vision such as his eyes rested +upon is apt to incite in any man thus challenged. "Will you take +command? I'm many times proved incompetent on such occasions, and I +feel sure Mother trusted to your generalship." And together they +went through the garden and over into the chicken yard. + +"Now," said Miss Wingate, "I think the thing to do is not to let +them know we are afraid of them. Let's just take their going under +the coops as a matter of course, and then, perhaps, they will go +without any remonstrance." + +"Sort of a mental influence dodge," answered the Doctor +enthusiastically. "Let's try it on Spangles first. I somehow feel +that she will be more impressionable than Old Dominick. You +influence while I spread the millet seed in front of her coop." And +he bent down in front of the half barrel and carefully laid a +tempting evening meal, with his eye on Fuss-and-Feathers. Spangles +hesitated, stood on one foot, clucked in an affected tone of voice +to her huddling babies and coquettishly turned her head from one +side to the other as if enthusing over his artistic service before +accepting his hospitality. Then, just as she was poising one dainty +foot ready for the first step in advance, and had sounded a forward +note to the cheepers around her, Old Dominick calmly stalked +forward, stepped right across the Doctor's coaxing hand held out to +Spangles, and, settling herself in the coop, began, with her +voracious band of little plebeians, to devour the grain with stolid +appreciation. + +Miss Wingate laughed merrily, Teether Pike gurgled and the Doctor +looked up with baffled astonishment. + +"That was your fault," he accused; "you influenced Dominick while I +was expending my force in beguiling Spangles. Now, you try to get +her in the next coop yourself. I shan't help you further than to +spread the grain in front of all the coops." And in accordance with +his threat the Doctor disposed of the rest of the food and stood +with the empty pan in his hand. And, like the well-trained flock of +biddies that they were, all the rest of the hen mothers clucked and +cajoled their fluffy little families into their accustomed shelters +and began to dispose of their suppers with contented clucks and +cheeps. Only Mrs. Spangles stood afar and eyed the only vacant coop +with evident disdain. + +"I don't know what to do," murmured Miss Wingate pleadingly. But the +Doctor stood firm, and regarded her with maliciously delighted eyes. +Teether bobbed his head over her shoulder and giggled with +ungrateful delight The poor little chicks peeped sleepily, but still +Spangles held her ground. The truth of the matter was that Dominick +had really taken the coop usually occupied by her ladyship, and with +worldly determination, the scion of all the Wyandottes was holding +out against the exchange. + +With a glance out of the side of her eyes from under her lowered +lashes in the direction of Doctor Mayberry in his stern attitude, +the singer lady cautiously veered around to the rear of the insulted +grandee, and, grasping her fluffy skirts in her free hand, she shook +them out with a pleading "Shoo!" Instantly a perfect whirlwind of +spangled feathers veered around and faced the cascade of frills, and +a volume of defiant hisses fairly filled the air. Teether squealed +and Miss Wingate retreated to the bounds of the fence. The Doctor +laughed in the most heartless manner, and still Spangles held her +ground. + +To make matters worse, Mother Mayberry's jovial voice, mingled with +the shrill treble of the combined circus party, who were trying all +at once to tell her the wonders of the adventure, could be +distinctly heard in an increasing volume that told of their rapid +approach. The situation was desperate, and the loss of Mother +Mayberry's faith in her seemed inevitable to the nonplussed singer +lady as she leaned against the fence with Teether over her shoulder. +Then the instinct that is centuries old presented to her the wile +that is of equal antiquity and, raising her purple eyes to the +defenseless Doctor, she murmured in a voice of utter helplessness, +into which was judiciously mingled a tone of perfect confidence: + +"Please, sir, get her in for me." + +The response to which, being foreordained from the beginning of +time, took Doctor Mayberry just one exciting half-minute grab and +shove to accomplish, at the end of which a ruffled but chastened +Spangles was forced to assemble her family and content herself +behind the bars of the despised coop. + +"Well," said Mother Mayberry as she hurried around the corner of the +house with the depleted and milk-hungry Martin Luther trailing at +her skirts, "did you make out to manage 'em? Why, ain't that fine; +every one in and settled and Fuss-and-Feathers in that end coop +where I have been wanting her to be for a week, seeing Dominick have +got so many more chickens and needs that larger barrel. I didn't +depend on Tom Mayberry, but I did on you, Elinory. This just goes to +show that if you put a little trust in people they are mighty apt to +rise in the pan to a occasion. You all look like you've been having +a real good time!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LOVE, THE CURE-ALL + + +"Eat milk, thank ma'am, please, Mother Lady," demanded Martin +Luther as he stood on the top step in front of Mother Mayberry, who, +with Miss Wingate beside her, sat sewing away the early hours of the +morning. A tiny blue-check shirt was taking shape under Mother's +skilful fingers, and the singer lady was deep in the mysteries of +the fore and aft of a minute pair of jeans trousers. The limitations +of young Ez's wardrobe had necessitated the speedy construction of +one for the little adopt, and Miss Wingate's education along the +lines of needle control was progressing at what she considered a +remarkable rate. + +"Why, Martin Luther!" She looked down at him over a carefully poised +needle. "How can you be hungry when you ate your breakfast not two +hours ago?" she added with the intent to beguile him from his +demand. + +"All gone, thank ma'am, please," he answered, looking out from under +his curl with a pathetic cast of his blue eyes, and at the same time +spreading both hands over his entire vital region. + +"I reckon maybe we'd better fill him up again," said Mother. "Them +legs still look 'most too much like knitting-needles to suit me, and +I kinder want to feel him to be sure his stomick haven't growed to +his backbone. Anyway, you can't never measure a boy's food by his +size. Please run and get him a glass of buttermilk and a biscuit, +child, while I finish setting in this sleeve. Let me see them +britches legs 'fore you put 'em down. Dearie me, if you ain't gone +and made 'em both for the same leg! Too bad, with all them pretty +baste-stitches!" + +"Oh!" gasped Miss Wingate in dismay; "have I ruined them?" + +"No, indeed, just turn the left leg inside out and hem it up again-- +or you might make two more right legs to sew on to these. It would +be a good thing to double one failing mistake up into two successes, +wouldn't it? Often bad luck turned inside out makes a cap that fits +plumb easy. While you fill the boy up, I'll cut out his other legs +for you to baste right this time. Take a peep around the garden +before you come back to see if Spangles have got her chickens in the +wet weeds. I hadn't oughter let her pretty feathers make me distrust +her, but it do." And Mother went placidly on with her sewing as she +watched the girl and the tot go hand-in-hand down the path to the +spring-house under the hill. She had just placed in her sleeve and +was regarding it with entire satisfaction, when the front gate +clicked and she looked up with interest. + +"Well, good morning, Mis' Mayberry," came in Bettie Pratt's hearty +voice as she swung up the walk at a brisk pace. On one arm she held +a bobbing baby in a white sunbonnet, a toddler clung to her skirts +and a small boy trailed behind her with a puppy in his arms. She was +buxom and rosy, was the Widow Pratt, with a dangerous dimple over +the corner of her mouth, a decided come-hither in her blue eyes, and +a smile that compelled a response. + +"Why, Bettie child, how glad I am to see you!" exclaimed Mother, +rendering the smile from out over her glasses. "I didn't see you all +day yesterday and not the day before, neither. But I put it down to +a work-hold on us both, and didn't worry none. And now here you are, +with some of the little folks! Here's a empty spool for little +Bettie," and she held out the treasure to the toddler, who sidled up +to her knee with confidence to grasp the gift. + +"I told Pattie Hoover if she would stay at home this morning and +clean up some like her Pa wants her to that I'd let my Clara May +help her and would bring the baby on up here to get him outen the +way. 'Lias come along to get you to look at his puppy's foot, and I +want you to see if you don't think the baby have fatted some since +I've took holt and helped Pattie with the feeding of him." + +"He have that," answered Mother heartily. "I can tell it without +even feeling of his legs. You've got the growing hand with babies, +Bettie, and I'm glad you don't hold it back from this little half- +orphant. I don't know what the poor little Hoovers would do without +you!" + +"That's what poor Mr. Hoover says," answered Bettie with the utmost +unconsciousness. "Show Mis' Mayberry the puppy's foot, 'Lias." + +"Why, the pitiful little thing!" exclaimed Mother when a small, +brown, crushed paw was presented to her inspection. "What happened +to it?" + +"Mr. Petway's horse stepped on it--he didn't care. He just got in +the buggy and went on. I'm a-going to kill him with a gun when I get +one." Tears of rage and grief welled up in 'Lias' eyes, but he +choked them back with a resolution that boded ill for Mr. Petway +when the time of reckoning came. + +"You mustn't talk that way, 'Lias, though it are a shame," said +Mother as she looked closely at the injured paw. "The bone's all +crushed. I'll tell you what to do; just take him around to Doctor +Tom's office and he'll fix it in no time for you, in a way I +couldn't never do. He won't even limp, maybe." And Mother Mayberry +made the offer of a piece of skilled surgery with the utmost +generosity. + +'Lias clasped the puppy closer, looked down and drew one of his bare +toes along a crack in the floor. "I'd rather you'd do it," he said. + +"Now, don't that just beat all!" exclaimed Mother with both +amusement and exasperation in her face. "Looks like I can't even get +Tom a puppy practice." + +"Why, 'Lias Hoover, I'm ashamed of you not to want Doctor Tom to fix +his foot, and thank you, too! Didn't Bud Pike tell you last night +how he cut his little brother's mouth and didn't hurt him a bit, +neither? Bud is going to get him to fix his next stubbed toe +hisself. Bud ain't no bigger boy than you, but he knows a good +doctor same as Mis' Mayberry and me does when he sees one." There +are ways and ways of controverting masculine obstinancy, and +evidently life had taught Mrs. Pratt the efficacy of beguilement. +Without more reluctance 'Lias disappeared around the house in the +direction of the office wing. + +"I'm mighty glad you come along this morning, Bettie," said Mother +Mayberry, as she threaded a new needle with a long thread. Little +Bettie had seated herself on the floor and begun operations with the +spool and a piece of string that vastly amused little Hoover, whom +Mrs. Pratt deposited opposite her within reach of her own balancing +foot, for the baby's age and backbone were both at a tender period. +"I've got a kinder worry on my mind that I'd like to get a little +help from you as to know what to do about. Have you noticed that +both the Deacon and Mis' Bostick look mighty peaky? Course Deacon +have been sick, and she have had a spell of nursing, but they don't +neither of them pick up like they oughter. Mis' Bostick puts me in +mind of a little, withered-up, gray seed pod when all the down have +blowed away, and the Deacon's britches fair flap around his poor +thin shanks. Something or other just makes me sense what is the +matter." + +"And me, too, Mis' Mayberry. I've been a-feeling of it for some +time, since we all quit out with the nursing and taking 'em +complimentary dishes of truck. They is--is hungry." Mrs. Pratt +brought out the statement of the fact in a positively awestruck +voice. + +"That's what I'm afraid it is, Bettie," answered Mother, "and it +hurts me hard to think how he have served the Lord and helped us all +in our duty to Him and each other, she a-giving us of her bounty of +sister-love, and now, when they's old and feeble, a-feeling the +pinch of need. The young can reach out and help theyselves to they +share of life, but it oughter be handed old folks with thoughtful +respect. We've got to do something about it." + +"Course we have," assented the widow heartily. "But how are we a- +going to just give 'em things offen a cold collar? They're both so +proud. With owning the house, the bit the church gives 'em would do +the rest, but the Deacon have tooken that debt no-'count Will +Bostick run off and left down in the City to pay, and it have left +'em at starvation's door. But that's neither here nor there; we've +got to do something. They don't need much but food, and Mis' Bostick +is most too weak now to cook it if they has the ingredients gave 'em +to hand. They must be did for some way." + +"And we've got to do it without a-giving them a single hurt feeling, +either," said Mother. "Enough good-will jelly will hide any kind of +charity pill, I say. Not as what we do for her and the Deacon can +ever be anything but thanks rendered for the blessing of them. But +you get to thinking, Bettie. The knees to my wits are getting old +and stiff." + +"Well, there's a donation party," suggested the widow thoughtfully. +"Everybody could help, and it could be made real pleasant with the +men asked to come in after supper. Everything could be gave from +stovewood to the Deacon some new Sunday pants. We did that once +before, five years ago to his birthday, and they was mighty pleased. +Let's do it again." + +"But that was before this disgrace of Will happened, and they didn't +downright need the things then--it were all sort of complimentary. +When needs are gave it's charity, but what you don't want is just a +present. We've got to find a way to do up needs in a present package +for 'em. I declare, I feel right put to know what to do." Mother +Mayberry's voice was actually worried, and she paused with her +scissors ready to snip a bit of the gingham into narrow bands. + +"Well, we oughter be thankful we've got the things to give, and +we'll find some sort of way to slip up on the blind side of them +about the taking of them. The Deacon's britches is one pressing +thing. Can't we take some of the church carpet money and get Mr. +Hoover to buy him a pair when he hauls corn to town Monday?" + +"Yes, indeed, we can," answered Mother Mayberry, radiant at the very +thought of this relief proposition. "It's a heap more important to +carpet the Deacon with britches than the church floor right now. +Between them and her old bombersine, Mis' Bostick have spent the +year with her patch-thimble on her finger." + +"I declare, it hurts me so in church to look at her elbows and back +seams that I can't hardly listen to the Deacon pray. Patching is the +most worrisome job a woman has to do, according to my mind," said +the widow, with an expression of distaste on her beaming face. "I've +done patched two men, and I know what I'm talking about." + +"It is a trial," answered Mother Mayberry, "and Mis' Bostick's life +have been a patched one at the best, a-moving in the Methodist wagon +from one station to another and a-trying every time to cut herself +out by a new style to suit each congregation, Anyway, I reckon all +women's lives have wored thin and had to be darned in some places, +but patches on her garment of life ain't going to make no difference +to a woman when she puts it on to meet her Lord, just so it's cut on +the charity mantle pattern. And Mis' Bostick's was hung to cover the +multitude. But a-talking here have made me sprout a idea: 'Liza Pike +have blazed the trail for us, bless her little heart! Her mother +don't never cook a single thing that 'Liza haven't got a dish handy +to beg some for the Deacon and Mis' Bostick. And she don't stop at +her own cook stove, but she's always here looking into what Cindy +cooks with an eye to the old folk's sweet-tooths or chicken-hankers. +I know, too, she gets what she wants from you for them, so there is +our leading. The Deacon loves 'Liza, and she is such a entertainment +to him that he'd eat ten meals a day at her dictation and no +questions asked. And she do beat all with her mothering ways with +them old folks. Last Wednesday night she had Deacon a-leading prayer +meeting with a red flannel band around his throat for his croaks, +and just yesterday she made Mis' Bostick stay in bed half the day, +covered up head and ears, to sweat off a little nose-dripping cold. +She's always a-consulting Tom and leaving me out. I think she's got +her eye on my practice. They never was such a master-hand of a child +in Providence before." + +"There you are right," laughed the widow. "It's getting so that they +ain't a child on the Road as will let its own mother look at a cut +finger or a black bruise 'fore 'Liza have done had her say about +what is to be did. I believe it is as you say, Mis' Mayberry, and +'Liza can play raven for us in fine style. I know Mis' Pike will +push it on and more'n do her part in the filling of the child's +covered dish." + +"That she will," answered Mother Mayberry heartily. "Judy Pike +spends a heap of time turning over life to find for certain which is +the right and wrong of it, but once found, she sticks close to the +top weave. We'll plan it all out at the Sewing Circle, and then get +it down to days who's to send what regular. I'm thankful for this +leading of how to take care of our old folks, and I know you are, +too." + +"Couldn't nobody be thankfuller," answered the rosy widow, "and the +filling of that dish is a-going to give me a lot of good pride. But +I'd better be going and seeing after them girls and the house +cleaning. They are both master hands, but if Buck Peavey was to +happen to tie hisself up to the front gate, it would be good-by +dust-pan and mop for Pattie. Not that I don't feel for her in the +liking of that rampaging boy of Mis' Peavey's, and it's mighty hard +not to kinder saunter into a little chat when the men folks call +you. How are Miss Elinory to-day? Ain't she the prettiest and most +stylishest girl you have ever saw? I wonder if she would lend me +that long-tailed waist she wears to get the pattern off to make me +and Clara May and Pattie one?" As she spoke, Mrs. Pratt rose, picked +up little Hoover and set Bettie on her little bare feet. + +"I know she will be glad to, and such a head sewer as you are can +copy it most exact. Here she are now! Child, Mis' Pratt have been so +complimenting of your looks and clothes that I'm sorter set up with +pride over you." + +"Good morning, Mrs. Pratt," exclaimed the singer lady, as she +appeared in the doorway with the resuscitated Martin Luther at her +side. "The darling babies! You are not going, are you?" The widow +and Miss Wingate had developed a decided attraction for each other, +and their blossoming friendship delighted Mother Mayberry most +obviously. + +"I wish I didn't have to," answered Mrs. Pratt, beaming with smiles, +which little Bettie echoed as she coquetted around her mother's +skirts with Miss Wingate, "but it's most dinner-pot time, and I've +got mouths to feed when the horn blows." + +"Elinory, child, run get that pink, long-tailed waist of your'n to +let Bettie make one by, please," said Mother Mayberry, with total +unconsciousness of that very strong feminine predilection for +exclusiveness of design in wearing apparel. The garment in question +was a very lovely, simply-cut linen affair that bore a distinguished +foreign trade-mark. "I know you feel complimented by her wanting to +make one for herself by it, and maybe Clara May and Pattie, too. +They ain't no worldly feeling as good as having your clothes +admired, is they?" + +"Indeed there isn't," answered Miss Wingate cordially, and if there +was chagrin in her heart at the thought of seeing Providence in +uniform with the precious pink blouse, her smile belied it. She +immediately ascended to her room, and returned quickly with the +treasure in her hand. "Let me come and see you fit them," she +entreated. "I don't know how to sew one, but I can tell how it ought +to look." + +"Come spend the day next Monday. We'll all have a good time together +and I'll make you some more of them fritters you liked for supper +the other night." The widow fairly beamed like a headlight at the +thought of the successful impromptu supper party a few nights +before, when Doctor Mayberry had brought Miss Wingate down upon her +unexpectedly with a demand to be invited to stay to supper for that +especial dainty. As she spoke she was half-way down the walk, and +looked back, smiling at them over the baby's bonnet. + +"Yes, I heard Tom Mayberry disgraced himself over your maple syrup +jug, Bettie Pratt," called Mother Mayberry after her. "That Hoover +baby surely have growed. Good-by!" + +"They ain't nothing in this world so comforting to a woman as good +feeling with her sisters, one and all," Mother Mayberry said as she +watched the last switch of the widow's skirt. "Mother, wife and +daughter love is a institution, but real sistering is a downright +covenant. Me and Bettie have held one betwixt us these many a year. +But you and me have both put a slight on the kitchen since Cindy got +back. Let's go see if dinner ain't most on the table." + +And they found that from their neglect the dinner had suffered not +at all. Cindy, a gaunt, black woman with a fire of service and +devotion to Mother Mayberry in her eyes, and apparently nothing else +to excuse existence, had accomplished the meal as a triumph. + +She had set the table out on the side porch under the budding +honeysuckle, and as Mother Mayberry and Miss Wingate, followed by +Martin Luther, ever ready to do trencher duty, came out of the back +hall Doctor Tom emerged from his office door. + +"Why, I didn't see you come in, Tom," said Mother. "You muster used +wings and lit." + +"No, I came from across the fields and in the back way. I've had a +patient and I'm puffed up with pride." As he spoke he smiled at Miss +Wingate and his mother delightedly. + +"'Lias Hoover's puppy," said Mother, stating the fact to Miss +Wingate. "Was you able to fix him up, Tom?" + +"Oh, yes; his puppyship will navigate normally in ten days, I think; +but this was a real patient." + +"Why, who, son? Don't keep me waiting to know, for I'm worried at +the very thought of a Providence pain. Who's down now and what did +you do for 'em?" And Mother bestowed upon the young doctor a glance +of inter-professional inquiry. "Squire Tutt," answered her son +promptly. "I met him up by the store and he asked me what I would do +if a man had a snake bite out in the woods, ten miles from any hot- +water kettle. I diagnosed the situation and prescribed with the help +of Mr. Petway, and I think--I think, Mother, I've proselyted your +patient." + +"Now, Tom, don't make fun of the Squire. Them are real pains he has, +and I don't think it is right for a doctor to have a doubting mind +towards a patient. Sympathy will help worry any kinder bad dose +down. You know I want you to do your doctoring in this life with +love to be gave to help smooth all pain." Mother regarded him +seriously over her glasses as she admonished. + +"I will--I do, Mother," answered the Doctor, and his gray eyes +danced before he veiled them with his black lashes as he looked down +at his plate. + +Miss Wingate flushed ever so slightly and busied herself with +spreading butter on a large piece of bread for Martin Luther, an +unnecessary attention, as she had performed that same office for him +just the moment before, and even he had not been able to make an +inroad thereon. + +"I think you are right, Mrs. Mayberry," she said slowly after a +second's rally of her forces. "The sympathy and--and regard of one's +physician is very necessary at times and--and--" She paused, but not +so much as a glance out of the corner of her purple black eyes did +she throw in the direction of the Doctor. + +"Course they ain't nothing so encouraging in the world as love, and +I think the sick oughter have it gave to 'em in large and frequent +doses! I'm thankful I've got so much in my heart that I can just +prescribe it liberal when needed. Dearie me, could that shadow be a +chicken-hawk? Just excuse me, children; finish your dinner while I +go out and look after my feather babies." And Mother hurried away +through the kitchen, leaving the singer lady and the Doctor sitting +at the table under the fragrant vine, with the replete Martin Luther +nodding his sleepy head down into his plate between them. + +And thus deserted, the flush rose up under Miss Wingate's eyes and a +dimple teased at the corner of her red lips, but she busied herself +with removing the plate from under Martin Luther's yellow mop and +making a pillow of her own bare arm, against which he nestled his +chubby little cheek with a sigh of content, as he drifted off into +his usual after-dinner nap. + +The Doctor watched her from under his half-closed eyes, then he lit +a cigarette, leaned his elbow on the table and sat silent for a few +moments, while under her breath she hummed a little sleep song to +the drifting baby. + +"On the whole," he asked at last, the usual delightful courtesy with +which he always addressed her striving with an unusual trace of +gentle banter in his deep voice, "what do you think of Mother's +philosophies?" + +"I think," she answered as she ruffled the baby's curls with one +white hand, "they are so true that no wonder they are--are more +healing than--than your medicines." + +She raised her eyes to his suddenly and they were filled to the brim +with frank merriment. + +"Don't tell me I'm going to lose my one and only star patient, +Teether Pike and the puppy excepted!" he exclaimed with a laugh. + +"Yes," she answered slowly, "I'm going to let you operate when the +time comes--but it's your Mother that's healing me. Oh, can't you, +can't you see what she's doing for me?" she turned to him and asked +suddenly, the burr thrown across her voice heavily because of the +passion in her tones. "I came to you a broken instrument--useless +for ever, perhaps--unfit for all I knew of life unless you healed +me, and now--now I can make things and do things--a pie and a good +one, bread to feed and the butter thereto, and to-day two halves of +a pair of trousers, no the halves of two pairs of trousers. What +matter if I never sing again?" She stretched her white arm across +the table and looked over the head of the sleeping baby straight +into his eyes. Hers were soft with tears, and a divine shyness that +seemed to question him. + +He lifted the white hand, with its pink palm upward, gently into his +own brown one, and placed the tip of one of his fingers on a tiny +red scar on her forefinger. + +"Do you know the story the drop of blood I took from this prick this +morning told?" he asked with his eyes shining into hers. "A gain of +over thirty percent in red corpuscles in less than a month. Yes, I +admit it; Mother is building, but when she has you ready--I'm going +to give it back to you, the wonderful voice. I don't know why I +know, but I do." + +"And I don't know why I know that you will--but I do," she answered +with lowered voice and eyes. "When all the others tried I knew they +would fail. The horrible thought clutched at my throat always, and +there seemed no help. I don't feel it now at all. I'm too busy," she +added with a catch in her laugh and a sudden mist in her eyes. + +"Mother's treatment again," he laughed as he laid her hand gently +back on the table. + +"And yours--when directed by her--her philosophies," she ventured +daringly, as she lifted Martin Luther into her arms, with a view to +depositing him upon the haven of Mother's bed to finish his nap. + +The Doctor looked at her a second, started to answer, thought better +of it, took the heavy youngster out of her arms into his own and +strode across the hall with him into Mother's room. + +The singer lady walked to the edge of the porch, pulled down a spray +of the fragrant vine and looked out through it to the blue hills +beyond the meadows. She hummed a waltz-song this time, and her eyes +were dancing as if she were meditating some further assault on the +Doctor's imperturbability. He came back and stood beside her, and +was just about to make a tentative remark when Mother Mayberry +hurried around the side of the house. + +"Children!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink with +excitement, and the white curls flying in every direction; "I never +did have such a time in my life! It WERE a chicken-hawk and he were +right down amongst the hens and little chickens. Old Dominick was +spread out like a featherbed over all hers and most of Spangles', +and there Spangles was just a-contending with him over one of her +little black babies. He had it in his claw, but she had him by a +beak full of feathers and was a-swinging on for fare-you-well. Old +Dominick was a-directing of her with squawks, and Ruffle Neck was +just squatting over hers, batting her eyes with skeer, for all the +world like she was a fine lady a-going into a faint. And there stood +all four of the roosters, not a one of 'em a-turning of a feather to +help her! They looked like they was petrified to stone, and I'm a +great mind to make 'em every one up into pies and salad and such. +They's a heap of men, come trouble, don't make no show, and the +women folks have to lead the fight. But they might er helped her +after she's took holt!" + +"The brutes!" exclaimed Doctor Tom with real indignation. "When are +you going to have the pie, Mother?" he added teasingly. + +"Well, I've got no intentions of feeding no such coward truck to +you, sir," answered his mother, still flurried with belligerency. + +"But the little baby chicken--what DID become of it?" demanded Miss +Wingate, and she, too, cast a glance of scorn at the Doctor. + +"Why, he dropped it and flew away as soon as he caught sight of me. +It ain't hurt a mite, and Spangles have hovered it and all the rest +she could coax out from under Dominick. Now this do settle it! Good +looks don't disqualify a woman from nothing; it's the men that can't +stand extra long tail feathers and fluted combs. I'm a-going to put +'em all four in the pot before Wednesday." + +"I apologize; I apologize, with emotion, for all my doubts, both +expressed and unexpressed, of Mrs. Spangles!" the Doctor hastened to +exclaim. "Neck under heel for the whole masculine fraternity and +suffrage triumphant!" + +"Well, it's not as bad as that," answered Mother in a jovially +mollified tone of voice. "Meek, plain-favored men like you may be +let live, with no attention paid 'em. Now go on over to Flat Rock +and stop a-wasting me and my honey-bird's time with your chavering. +Come back early for supper or you won't get none, for all three of +us are a-going to prayer meeting." + +"I'll be here, and thank you for-crumbs of attention," answered the +Doctor, and, with a laughing glance at both his mother and Miss +Wingate he took himself off in the direction of the barn, for the +purpose of saddling his horse for his afternoon visit to his +patients beyond the Nob. + +"Ain't he good to look at?" asked Mother Mayberry as she watched his +tall figure swing down the garden path. "Good looks in a man can be +a heap of pleasure to a woman, but she mustn't let on to him." + +"I believe," said Miss Wingate in an impersonally judicial tone of +voice, "that Doctor Mayberry is the very handsomest man I ever saw. +One would almost call him beautiful. It isn't entirely that he is so +tall and grand and has such eyes, but--do you know I think it is +because he is so like you that he is so lovely." And the singer lady +tucked her hand into Mother Mayberry's with a shy blush. + +"Liking folks kinder shines 'em up, same as furniture polish, honey- +bird," laughed Mother Mayberry with delight at the compliment. +"You're a-rubbing some on me and Tom Mayberry. But he were the best +favored baby I 'most ever saw, if I do say it, as shouldn't." + +"Oh!" said Miss Wingate delightedly, "I know he must have been +lovely! What was he like?" + +"Well," answered Mother reminiscently, "he were about like he are +now. He come so ugly I cried when I seen him first, and Doctor +Mayberry teased me about it to the day of his death. He called Tom +'Ugly' for short. But he mighty soon begun to sprout little pleasing +ways, a-looking up under them black lashes and a-laughing acrost my +breast. His cheeks was rosy, his back broad and his legs straight, +same as now. He teethed easy, walked soon, have never learned to +talk much yet, and had his measles and whooping-cough when his time +come. I just thought he were something 'cause he were mine. All +babies is astonishing miracles to they mothers." + +"But I'm sure Doctor Mayberry was really wonderful," said Miss +Wingate, instantly sympathetic. "Had he always such black hair?" + +"Borned with it. Now, my little girl had beautiful yellow curls and +I can show you one, by the Lord's mercy I've got it." Mother paused +and an ineffable gentleness came into her lovely old face. "I want +to tell you about it, honey-heart, 'cause it have got a strange +sweetness to it. She wasn't but five years old when she died, tooken +sudden with pneumony cruel bad. Nobody thought to cut me one of her +curls before they laid her away, and when I come to myself I grieved +over it more than I had oughter. But one day when the fall come on +and the days was short and dark; and it looked like nothing couldn't +light up the old house with that sunshine head gone, me almost a- +feeling bitter and questioning why, Tom went out and picked up a +robin's nest that had blowed down from a tree in the yard. And +there, wound around inside it, was the little curl I had cut off in +the spring, out on the porch, what had tagged into her eyes and +worried her! The mother bird had used it to make the nest soft for +her babies and now didn't need it no more. When I looked at it I +took it as a message and a sign that my Lord hadn't forgot me, and I +ain't never mistrusted Him again. Come, let me show it to you." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LITTLE RAVEN AND HER COVERED DISH + + +Wednesday morning dawned clear and bright. From over Providence Nob +the round red old sun looked jovially and encouragingly down upon +Providence, up and stirring at an unusually early hour, for in the +mid-week came Sewing Circle day and the usual routine of work must +be laid by before the noon meal, and every housewife in condition to +forgather at the appointed place on the stroke of one. Mrs. Peavey +had aroused the protesting Buck at the peep of dawn, the Pikes were +all up and breakfasting by the first rays of light that fell over +the Ridge, and the Hoover biscuits had been baked in the Pratt oven +and handed across the fence fifteen minutes agone. Down the road Mr. +Petway was energetically taking down the store shutters and Mr. +Mosbey was building the blacksmith shop fire. Cindy had milked and +started breakfast and Mother Mayberry had begun the difficult task +of getting the Doctor up and ready for the morning meal. Martin +Luther had had a glass of warm milk and was ready for an energetic +attack upon his first repast. + +Above, in her room under the gables, the singer lady had been +awakened by the brushing of a white-capped old locust bough against +her casement as it attempted to climb with all its bloom into her +dormer window. As she looked through the mist, a long golden shaft +of light shot across the white flowers and turned the tender green +leaves into a bright yellow. Suddenly a desire to get up and look +across at the Nob possessed her, for the arrival of the sun upon the +scene of action was a sight that held the decided charm of novelty. +And on this particular morning she found it more than worth while. +Providence lay at her feet like a great bouquet of lilacs, locust +and fruit blossoms. The early mist was shot through with long spears +of gold and the pale smoke curled up from the brick chimneys and +mingled its pungent wood-odor with the perfume laden air. She drank +in great drafts of exhilaration and delighted her eyes with the +picture for a number of minutes, until an intoxicating breakfast +aroma began to steal up from Cindy's domain. Then, spurred by a +positive agony of hunger, it took the singer lady the fewest +possible number of minutes to complete a dainty and most ravishing +breakfast toilet. + +"Why, honey-bird," exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she descended the +steps and found them all at breakfast in the wide-open dining-room, +"what did you get up so soon for? It's Wednesday and the Sewing +Circle meets with me, so Cindy and us must be a-stirring, but I had +a breakfast in my mind for you two hours from now. You hadn't +oughter done it. Them ain't orders in your prescription." + +"I'm so hungry," she pleaded with a most wickedly humble glance at +the Doctor, who was busy consuming muffins and chicken gravy. "Can't +I have a breakfast now, Doctor--and the other one two hours later? +Please!" + +"Yes," answered the Doctor, "but don't forget the two glasses of +cream and dinner and some of the Sewing Party refreshments, to say +nothing of supper-and are you going to make custards for us to eat +before seeking our downy couches?" + +"The cup custards are going to be part of the Sewing Circle +refreshments," his mother answered him. "I want to show off my +teaching to the Providence folks. Give the child some chicken, Tom +Mayberry, and then you can go to your work. We don't want you +underfoot." + +"Don't you need my help?" asked the Doctor, as, in a disobedient +frame of mind, he lingered at the table to watch the singer lady +begin operations on her dainty breakfast. + +"Well, you can set here and see that Elinory gets all she wants and +more too, but I must be a-doing around. There cames the Deacon! I +wonder what the matter is!" And Mother Mayberry hurried out of the +house and down to the front gate to meet the Deacon who was coming +slowly up the Road. + +"Good morning, Sister Mayberry," he said cheerily enough, though +there was an expression of anxiety on his gentle old face. "I +thought I would find you up, even at this unusually early hour. Your +lamp is always burning to meet emergencies. Mrs. Bostick is not well +this morning and I came up to see if you could find a moment to step +down to see her soon. I also wanted to ask Thomas to stop in for a +moment on his way over to Flat Rock. I am sure that she is not at +all ill, but I am just overly anxious." + +"Why, of course, we will both come right away, Deacon! What did she +eat last night for supper? She oughter be careful about her night +eating." + +"Let me see," answered the Deacon thoughtfully, "I think we both had +a portion of milk and toast administered by our young sister, Eliza +Pike. I recall I pleaded for some of the peaches, still in the jar +you gave Mrs. Bostick, but was sternly denied." As he spoke the +Deacon beamed with affectionate pride over having been vanquished by +the stern Eliza. + +Just at this moment from around the corner of the Pike home came the +young woman in question, with a pitcher in one hand and a covered +dish in the other. Ez followed her with a plate wrapped in a napkin, +and Billy brought up the rear with a bucket of cool water which he +sloshed over his bare feet with every step. + +"Why, Deacon," demanded Eliza sternly, "you ain't gone and et +breakfast with Mother Mayberry, when I told you about Maw making +light rolls before she went to bed 'cause to-day is Wednesday?" + +"No, Eliza," answered the Deacon meekly, with a delighted glance at +Mother Mayberry out of the corner of his eye. "Neither Mrs. Bostick +nor I would think of breakfasting without your superintendence. I +was just starting over to tell you that she felt indisposed and +would like to see you and Sister Mayberry, along with the Doctor, +later in the day." + +"Well," answered Eliza confidently, "I think I can tend to her if +Mother Mayberry is too busy to come. I was a-going to watch for +Doctor Tom and ask him in anyway. Please come on home, Deacon, 'fore +the rolls get cold and the scrambled eggs set. Ez, hold the plate +straight or the butter will run outen the rolls! Please come on, +Deacon!" + +"Yes, Deacon, go along with her right away," answered Mother +Mayberry, as her eyes rested on the serious face of the ministering +child with a peculiar tenderness tinged with respect. "And, 'Liza, +honey, stop by and tell me how Mis' Bostick does when you come back, +and let me know if you need me to help you any." + +"Yes'm, Mother Mayberry," answered Eliza with a flash of pure joy +shining in her devoted little face when she found that she was not +to be supplanted in her attendance on her charges. "I was a-coming +to see you this morning anyway about the place Mr. Mosbey burned his +finger and I tied up last night. Please come on, Deacon!" + +"And a little child shall lead them," said Mother Mayberry to +herself, as she watched the breakfast party down the road. Martin +Luther had come out from the table by this time and now trotted +along at the Deacon's heels like a replete and contented puppy. Ez +held the plate carefully and Billy seemed about sure of arriving at +his destination with at least half the bucket of cool water. "Yes, a +little child--but some children are borned with a full-growed +heart." + +And true to her promise Eliza appeared an hour or two later to hold +serious consultation over the blacksmithing finger down the Road. + +"'Liza," said Mother Mayberry as she prepared a stall for the finger +and poured a cooling lotion in a small bottle for which the child +waited eagerly, "you are a-doing the right thing to take nice things +to Mis' Bostick and the Deacon and I'm proud of your being so kind +and thoughtful. Do they ever ask you where you bring 'em from?" + +"I always tell 'em, Mother Mayberry. Deacon said I oughtn't to get +things from other folks to bring to 'em, but I told him that you and +Mis' Pratt and Mis' Mosbey and Mis' Peavey would be mad at me if I +just took things from Maw to 'em and slighted they cooking. I pick +out the best things everybody makes. Maw's light rolls, Mis' Pratt's +sunshine cake and cream potatoes, Cindy's chicken and Mis' Peavey +for baked hash. I took the custards from Miss Elinory to please her; +but Mis' Mosbey's is better. I wanted 'em to have the best they is +on the Road, 'cause they is old and they is our'n." + +"Bless your dear little heart, the best they shall have always!" +exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she hugged her small confrere close +against her side and wiped away a tear with a quick gesture. "Now +you can go fix up Nath Mosbey's finger to suit your mind, Sister +Pike," she added with a laugh as she, bestowed the bottle. + +The rest of the morning was filled to the minute for the Mayberry +household, which seemed possessed with a frenzy of polishing and +garnishing. After Cindy had done her worst with broom and mop, +Mother Mayberry with feather duster and cloth, Miss Wingate threw +her energies with abandon into the accomplishing of a most artistic +scheme of decoration. She set tall jars of white locust blossoms in +the hall which shone out mystically in the cool dusk. She mingled +lilac and red bud, cherry blossoms and narcissus and trailed long +vines of honeysuckle over every possible place. + +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry, as she paused in her busy +manoeuvers to take in what Miss Wingate proudly declared to be the +completed effect, "everybody will think they have walked into a +flower show. I'm sorry I never thought of inviting in the outdoors +to any of my parties before. I wonder if some of the meek folks, +that our dear Lord told about being invited in from the byways and +hedges, mightn't a-brought some of the hedge blooms along into the +feast with 'em. Thank you, child, the prettiness will feed +everybody's eye, I know, but you'd better run along and get to +whipping on that custard for they stomicks. This here is a Mission +Circle, but it have got a good knife and fork by-law to it. Make a +plenty and if we feel well disposed toward Tom Mayberry, come +bedtime, we may feed him a half dozen." + +And in accordance with time-honored custom the stroke of one found +the Providence matrons grouped along the Road and up Mother +Mayberry's front walk, in the act of assembling for the good work in +hand. + +"Come in, everybody," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she welcomed +them from the front steps. "I'm mighty glad all are on time, for I +have got the best of things to tell, as I have been saving by the +hardest for three days. A woman holding back news is mighty like +root-beer, liable to pop the cork and foam over in spite of all." + +"I'm mighty glad to hear something good," said Mrs. Peavey in a +doleful tone. "Looks like the world have got into astonishing +misery. Did you all read in the Bolivar Herald last week about that +explode in a mine in Delyware; a terrible flood in Lottisianny and +the man that killed his wife and six children in Kansas? I don't +know what we're a-coming to. I told Mr. Peavey and Buck this +morning, but they ain't either of 'em got any sympathy. They just +went on talking about the good trade Mr. Hoover made in hogs over to +Springfield and the fine clover stand they have got in the north +field." + +By this time the assembly had removed their hats, laid them on +Mother Mayberry's snowy bed and settled themselves in rocking-chairs +that had been collected from all over the house for the occasion. +Gay sewing bags had been produced and the armor of thimbles and +scissors had been buckled on. Mother Mayberry still stood in the +center of the room watching to see that all of her guests were +comfortably seated. + +"Them were mighty bad happenings, Mis' Peavey, and I know we all +feel for such trouble being sent on the Lord's people," said Mother +Mayberry seriously, though a smile quirked at the corners of the +Widow Pratt's pretty mouth and young Mrs. Nath Mosbey bent over to +hunt in her bag for an unnecessary spool of thread. Mrs. Peavey's +nature was of the genus kill-joy, and it was hard to steer her into +the peaceful waters of social enjoyment. + +"I don't think any of that is as bad as three divorce cases I read +about in a town paper that Mr. Petway wrapped up some calico for me +in," answered Mrs. Peavey, continuing her lamentations over +conditions in general, which they all knew would get to be over +conditions in particular if something did not intervene to stop the +tide of her dissatisfaction. + +"Divorces oughtn't to be allowed by the United States," answered +Mrs. Pike decidedly. "They are too many people in the world that +don't seem to be able to hitch up together, without letting folks +already geared roam loose again. But what's the news, Sister +Mayberry?" There came times when only Judy Pike's uncompromising +veto could lay Mrs. Peavey on the table. + +"Well, what do you think! Tom Mayberry have got this Providence +Meeting-house Sewing Circle a good big sewing order from the United +States Government. Night drawers and aprons and chimeses and all +sorts of things and--" + +"Lands alive, Sister Mayberry, you must be outen your head!" +exclaimed Mrs. Peavey with her usual fear-the-worst manner. "What +earthly use can the United States Government have for night drawers +and chimeses?" + +"Now, Hettie Ann, you didn't let me have my say out," remonstrated +Mother Mayberry as they all laughed merrily at Mrs. Peavey's +scandalized remonstrance. "They are for them poor misfortunates over +at Flat Rock what the Government have sent Tom down here to study +about, so he can find the bug that makes the disease and stop it +from spreading everywhere. While he's a-working with 'em he has to +see that they are provided for; and they condition are shameful. He +wants outfits for the women and children and Mr. Petway have the +order to buy the men's things down in the City for him. He's a-going +to pay us good prices for the work and it will mean a lot of money +for the carpet and the repair fund. A quarter apiece for the little +night drawers without feet to 'em is good money. He wanted to give +us fifty cents but I told him no, I wasn't a-going to cheat my own +country for no little child's night rigging. A quarter is fair to +liberal, I say." + +"That it is, Mis' Mayberry, and thank Doctor Tom, too, for giving us +the order," answered Widow Pratt heartily. "When can we begin? I'll +cut 'em all out at home, so as to save time, if you'll give me the +goods. I can cut children's clothes out with my eyes shut and sew +'em with my left hand if needs be." + +"Well, if all we hear be true, Bettie Pratt, it's a good thing it +comes easy to you. The sewing for seventeen might be a set-back to +any kind of co'ting, but seeing as you likes it so, why, maybe--" +Mrs. Peavey paused and peered at the blushing widow with goading +curiosity in her keen eyes. + +"Well, it hasn't been a bit to me and Mr. Hoover, Mis' Peavey," she +answered with dancing eyes and a lovely rose color mounting her +cheeks. "Looks like all the love we have got for each other's +orphant children have mixed itself up into a wedding cake for the +family. I had laid off to tell you all about it this afternoon, and +here's a box of peppermints Mr. Hoover sent everybody. He said to +make you say sweet things about him to me. Have one, Mis' Peavey, +and pass the box!" + +With which a general laugh and buzz of inquiry went around with the +box of sweets provided by the wily widower. + +"Well, we think we'll just build a long, covered porch acrost the +fronts of the two houses to connect 'em up," answered Mrs. Pratt to +a friendly inquiry about her future domestic arrangements. + +"I know it will look sorter like a broke-in-two steamboat but I can +put the boys all over into one house and take the girls with me. We +can rent a room in the boys' house to Mr. Petway and he'll look +after them if need be, though 'Lias Hoover and my Henny Turner are +getting big, dependable boys already. I'm so glad the children match +out in pairs. I always did want twins and now I'm going to have +eight pairs and the baby over. I don't think I ever was so happy +before." And pretty Bettie fairly radiated lovingness from her big, +motherly heart. + +"Bettie Pratt, you are a regular Proverbs, last chapter and tenth to +thirtieth verse woman and your husband's heart is a-going to 'safely +rejoice' in you," said Mother Mayberry as she beamed across the +little sleeve she was basting in an apron. "And this brings me to +the mention of another little Bible character we have a-running +about amongst us. It's 'Liza Pike, as should be called one of God's +own little ravens arid you all know why." + +"Yes, we do, Sister Mayberry," spoke up Mrs. Mosbey quickly. "And +I've just caught on to her doings, and thankful I am to her for +letting in the light to us before it were too late maybe." + +"Why, what have my child been a-doing to be spoke of this way?" +asked her mother with both pride and uneasiness in her tone, for +Eliza, as is the way of all geniuses, especially those of a +philanthropic turn of mind, was apt often to confront those +responsible for her with the unexpected. + +"Just seeing what we was failing to notice, that Mis' Bostick and +the Deacon was in need of being tooken care of and, without a word +to anybody, starting out with a covered dish and a napkin to do the +providing for 'em. And in the right spirit, too, walking into each +kitchen and taking the best offen the stove--no left-over scraps in +her offering to the Lord, and she have gave a lesson to grown-ups. +We all love the old folks and was ready to do, but 'Liza have proved +that love must be mixed with a little gumption to make wheels go +round. And ain't she cute about it? She told the Deacon that she had +to bring something from everybody's kitchen or hurt all our +feelings. They is a way of putting what-oughter-be into words that +makes it a truth, and she did it that time." As she delivered her +little homily on the subject of the absent small Sister Pike, Mother +Mayberry's face shone with emotion and there was a mist in her eyes +that also dimmed the vision of some of the others. + +"And the way of her," laughed the widow softly. "Told me yesterday I +didn't brown my hoe-cake enough on both sides for the Deacon's +greens--that Mis' Peavey's was better." + +"Why, Mis' Pratt, 'Liza oughtn't to speak that way to you; it ain't +manners," her mother hastened to say as they all laughed, even the +misanthrope, who was much pleased over this public acknowledgment of +the superiority of her handiwork. + +"Now, Judy honey, don't you say one word to 'Liza about that! She +have got the whole thing fixed up for us now, and it won't do to get +her conscious like in her management of the old folks. The thing for +us to do is to make our engagements for truck with her regular and +take her dictation always about what is sent. Keep it in her mind +how complimented we are to be let give to the Deacon and she'll +manage him, pride and all, in a sorter game. We'll make it a race +with her which pleases him. most. And now," Mother paused and looked +from the face of one hearty country woman to another with a wealth +of affection for each and every one, "let's don't none of us forget +to take the child up to the throne with us each night in the arms of +prayer, as one of His ministers!--Well it's time for us to walk out +to the dining-room and see what kind of a set-out Cindy and Elinory +have got for us. Yes, Mis' Nath, did you ever see such a show of +decorations? She must a-kinder sensed the wedding in the air in +compliment to you, Bettie. Come in, one and all!" + +And the cheerful company assembled around the hospitable Mayberry +board put into practice the knife and fork by-law of the Circle with +hearty good will. Cindy's austerity relaxed noticeably at the +compliments handed her in return for her offer of the various viands +she had prepared for their delectation, and Miss Wingate blushed and +beamed upon them all with the most rapturous delight when her +efforts met with like commendation. She had insisted on helping +Cindy wait on them and was such a very lovely young Hebe that they +could scarcely eat for looking at her. + +"Sakes, Mis' Mayberry," said Mrs. Pike, who had unbent from her +reserve over her second cup of tea to a most remarkable degree, "it +were hard enough to ask Doctor Tom in to pot-luck with my chicken +dumplins, that he carries on over, a-knowing about what you and +Cindy could shake up in the kitchen, but with Miss Elinory's cooking +added I'm a-going to turn him away hungry next time." + +"Oh, please don't!" exclaimed Miss Wingate. "Yours is the next place +he has promised to take me to supper. And Bud and Eliza have both +invited me." + +"I'll set a day with him this very night," responded Mrs. Judy, all +undone with pride. Nothing in the world could have pleased the +hospitable country women more than the parties that Doctor Tom had +been improvising for the amusement of the singer girl. Before each +visit he openly and boldly made demands of each friend for her CHEF- +D'OEUVRE and consumed the same heartily and with delight in the +stranger's growing appetite. + +"If you folks don't stop spoiling Tom Mayberry I won't never be able +to get him a wife. I'll have to take little Bettie to raise and +teach her how to bit and bridle him," laughed Mother Mayberry, as +they all rose and flocked to the front porch. + +In the Road in front of the house had congregated the entire school +of small-fry, drawn by the mother lode, but too well trained to +think of making any kind of interruption to the gathering. They were +busily engaged in a tag and tally riot which was led on one side by +Eliza and the other by Henny Turner, whose generalship could hardly +be said to equal that of his younger and feminine opponent. Teether +and little Hoover sat in the Pike wheelbarrow which was drawn up +beside the Pike gate, and attached thereto by long gingham strings +were Martin Luther and little Bettie. They champed the gingham bits +drawn through their mouths and pranced with their little bare feet +in the dust, as Eliza found time every minute or two to call out +"whoa" or cut at them with a switch as she flashed past them. They +were distinctly of the game and were blissfully unconscious of the +fact that they were not in it. This arrangement for keeping them +happy, though out of the way, had been of Eliza's contriving and did +credit to her wit in many senses of the word. + +At the appearance of their be-hatted parents on Mother Mayberry's +front walk they all swooped over and stood in a circle around the +gate. A mother who has many calls in the life-complicated to take +her out of reach of the children is different from a mother who is +always in the house, kitchen, garden or at a convenient neighbor's, +and this weekly three-hour separation occasionally had disastrous +results. + +"Have anything happened, 'Liza?" asked her mother, as she ran a +practised eye over her group and detected not a loose end. Eliza and +Bud had rolled over the wheelbarrow, led by the prancing team. + +"No'm," answered Eliza, "everybody's been good and the Deacon have +told us three Bible tales, and my side have beat Henny's five +catches and one loose. But Henny played his'n good," she added, with +a worthy victor's generosity to the fallen foe. + +"Here's a whole bucket of cakes Cindy and Miss Elinory made in case +we found a good passel of children when the meeting was over," said +Mother Mayberry as she tendered the crisp reward of merit to Bud +Pike, who stood nearest her. + +"Thank you, ma'am," answered Bud, mindful of his manners. "Say, +'Liza, let's all go down and set on the pump and eat 'em, and we can +drink water, too, so they will last longer." + +"All right," answered Eliza, and she set about unharnessing the +young team, who immediately scampered after the rest. She handed +little Hoover to Mrs. Pratt and was preparing to set off with +Teether in the wake of the cake bucket, when the widow called to +her. + +"'Liza, honey," she said, "here's some peppermints for you. They +wasn't enough to give some to all the children, but I want you to +get a bite, anyway." + +"Thanky, ma'am, but I don't like the fresh air taste of 'em in my +mouth," answered Eliza. "But can you give me five of 'em? I want one +for Deacon and Mis' Bostick and I want one for Squire Tutt, 'cause +he do love peppermint so. He wouldn't take the medicine Mother +Mayberry fixes for him if she didn't put peppermint in it. He says +so. He's porely and have got his head all tied up in a shawl, 'cause +prayer meeting day Mis' Tutt sings hymns all the time and music +gives him misery in his ears. I want to give her one, too, and I +want one for Cindy." + +"I'll save all in the box for you, sweetie," assented Mrs. Pratt +heartily. "Now run along, for you might get left out of that cake +eating." + +"No, ma'am, I won't," answered Eliza with confidence; "they won't +begin till I get there. It wouldn't be fair." And she hurried down +the Road to where the group waited impatiently but loyally around +the town pump. + +"Ain't they all the Lord's blessings?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she +looked down the Road at the little swarm with tender pride in her +eyes. + +"That they are," answered the widow, with an echo of the pride in +her own rich voice, "and to think that pretty soon seventeen of 'em +will be mine!" + +And it was an hour or two later that the old red sun had reluctantly +departed across the west meadows, just as a soft lady moon rose +languidly over Providence Nob. Providence suppers had all been +served, the day's news discussed with the men folk, jocularly eager +to get the drippings of excitement from the afternoon infair, and +the Road toddlers put to bed, when the soft-toned Meeting-house bell +droned out its call for the weekly prayer meeting. Very soon the +Road was in a gentle hum of conversation as the congregation issued +from their house doors and wended their way slowly toward the little +church, which, back from the Road in an old cedar glade, brooded +over its peaceful yard of graves. The men had all donned their coats +and exchanged field hats for stiff, uncomfortable, straight-brimmed +straw, and their wives still wore the Sewing Circle gala attire. The +older children walked decorously along, each group in wake of the +heads of their own family, though Buck Peavey had managed to annex +himself to the Hoover household. + +"Well, I don't know just what to do with you all," said Mother +Mayberry, as she came out on the front porch, sedately bonneted, +with her Bible and hymn-book under her arm and fortified with a huge +palm-leaf fan. "It's my duty to make you both come with Cindy and me +to prayer meeting, but I don't hold with a body using they own duty +as a stick to fray out other folks with. I reckon I'll have to let +you two just set here on the steps and see if you can outshine the +moon in your talk, which you can't, but think you can." + +"Oh, we'll come with you! I was just going to get my hat," exclaimed +the singer lady as she rose from the steps upon which Doctor Tom +kept his seat and puffed a ring of his cigar smoke at his mother +daringly. + +"No, honey-bird, you've had a long day since your sun-up breakfast +and I'll excuse you. I'd LET Tom Mayberry go only I have to make him +stay to keep care of you. Put that lace fascination around your +throat if a breeze blows up! Tom, try to make out, with Elinory's +help, to bring a fresh bucket of water from the spring for the +night. Good-by, both of you; I'm a-going to bring you a blessing!" + +"Yourself, mother," called the Doctor after her. + +"Honey-fuzzle," called Mother back from the gate. "Better keep it, +son, you'll need it some day." + +"Was there ever, ever anybody just like her?" asked Miss Wingate, as +she sank back on the step beside the Doctor. + +"I think not," he answered with a hint of tenderness in his voice; +"but then, really, Mother is one of a type. A type one has to get +across a continent from Harpeth Hills to appreciate. She's the +result of the men and women who blazed the wilderness trail into +Tennessee, and she has Huguenot puritanism contending with cavalier +graces of spirit in her nature." + +"Well, she's perfectly darling and the little town is just an +exquisite setting for her. Do you know what this soft moonlight +aspect of Providence reminds me of, with those tall poplars down the +Road and the wide-roofed houses and barns? The little village in +Lombardy where--where I met--my fate." + +"Met your fate?" asked the Doctor quickly after a moment. His face +was in the shadow and not a note in his voice betrayed his anxiety. + +"Yes," answered the singer lady in a dreamy, reminiscent voice. The +moon shone full down into her very lovely face, fell across her +white throat and shimmered into the faint rose folds of her dainty +gown. Her close, dark braids showed black against the fragrant +wistaria vines and her eyes were deep and velvety in the soft light. +"Yes, it was the summer I was eighteen and I had gone over with my +father for a month or two of recuperation for him after a long extra +session of Congress. Monsieur LaTour was staying in the little +village, also recuperating. He heard me singing to father, and that +night my fate was sealed. It was a wonderful thing to come to me-- +and I was so young." + +"Tell me about it," said the Doctor quietly, and his voice was +perfectly steady, though his heart pounded like mad and his cigar +shook in his fingers. + +"My father died at the end of the summer, after only a few day's +illness, and he had grown to believe what LaTour said of my voice, +and to have great confidence in my future. I had no near relatives +and in his will he left me to Monsieur LaTour and Madame, his wife. +She is an American and her father had been in the Senate with father +for years. Monsieur is a very great teacher, perhaps the greatest +living. Madame wanted to come to Providence with me, but Doctor +Stein insisted that I come alone. I--I'm very glad she didn't, +though they both love me and await--" She paused and leaned her +flower head back against the wistaria vine, + +And the great breath that Doctor Thomas Mayberry of Providence drew +might have cracked the breast of a giant. In this world no record is +kept of the great moments when a private individual's universe +collides with his far star and of the crash that ensues. + +"I rather thought you meant another--another kind of fate. I was +preparing for confidences," he managed to say in a very small voice +for so large a man. + +"Mais, non, Monsieur, jamais--never!" she exclaimed quickly. "I--I-- +have been tempted to think sometimes I might like that sort--of a-- +fate, but I haven't had the time. It was work, work, sleep, eat, +live for the voice! And--and once or twice it has seemed worth +while. My debut night in Paris when I sang the Juliette waltz-song- +just the moment when I realized I could use it as I would and always +more volume--and the people! And again the night in New York when I +had made it incarnate Elizabeth as she sings to Tannhauser--the +night it went away." And as she spoke she dropped her head on her +arms folded across her knees. + +"Have you picked out the song you are going to sing first when it +comes back?" demanded the very young Doctor with a quick note of +tenderness in his voice, still under a marvelous control. + +"Yes," she answered as she turned her head and peeped up at him with +shining eyes, a delicious little burr of a laugh in her throat, +"Rings on my fingers, bells on my toes, for Teether Pike. He is wild +about my humming it, and dances with his absurd, chubby little legs +at the first note. What will he do if I can really sing it? And I'll +sing Beulah Land for Cindy, and I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, for +your mother, perhaps, Oh, the kingdom of my heart for Buck, and +Drink to me only, for Squire Tutt, hymns for the Deacon--and a paean +for you, if I have to order one from New York." + +"Do you know," said the Doctor after a long pause in which he lit +his cigar and again began to puff rings out into the moonlight, "I'd +like to say that you are--are a--perfect wonder." + +"You may," she answered with a laugh. Then suddenly she stretched +out her hand to him and, as he took it into his, she asked very +quietly with just the one word, "When?" + +"In a few weeks, I hope," he answered her just as quietly, +comprehending her instantly. + +"I'll be good--and wait," she answered him in a Hone of voice that +would have done credit to little Bettie Pratt. "Let's hurry and get +that bucket of water; don't you hear them singing the doxology?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PROVIDENCE TAG-GANG + + +"Miss Elinory, do you think getting married and such is ketching, +like the mumps and chickenpox?" asked Eliza Pike as she sat on the +steps at the daintily shod feet of the singer lady, who sat in +Mother Mayberry's large arm-chair, swinging herself and Teether +slowly to and fro, humming happily little vagrant airs that floated +into her brain on the wings of their own melody. Teether's large +blue eyes looked into hers with earnest rapture and his little head +swayed on his slender neck in harmony with her singing. + +"Why, Eliza, I'm sure I don't know. Do you think so?" answered Miss +Wingate, as she smiled down into the large eyes raised to hers. The +heart-to-heart communions, which she and Eliza found opportunities +to hold, were a constant source of pleasure to Miss Wingate, and the +child's quaint little personality unfolded itself delightedly in the +sunshine of appreciation from this lady of her adoration. + +"Yes'm, I believe I do. Mis' Pratt and Mr. Hoover started it, and +last night Mr. Petway walked home with Aunt Prissy and Maw set two +racking-chairs out on the front porch for 'em. Paw said he was +more'n glad to set in the back yard and smoke his pipe. Maw wouldn't +put Teether to bed, but rocked him in her lap 'cause he might wake +up and disturb 'em. She let me set up with her and Paw and he told +tales on the time he co'ted her. She said hush up, that co'ting was +like mumps and chickenpox and he was about to get a second spell. +Does it make you want a beau too, Miss Elinory?" + +"Well," answered Miss Wingate slowly with a candor that would have +been vouched no other soul save the sympathetic Eliza, "it might be +nice." + +"I thought you would like one," answered Eliza enthusiastically, +"and you know I had done picked out Doctor Tom for you, but since I +saw him dress up so good this morning and go to Bolivar to take the +train to the City and he got the letter from Miss Alford day before +yesterday--that is, Aunt Prissy says Mr. Petway thinks it was from +her--I reckon it won't be fair to get him for you, when she had him +first last summer. Oughtn't you to be fair about taking folk's beaux +just like taking they piece of cake or skipping rope?" Eliza was +fast developing a code of morals that bade fair to be both original +and sound. + +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with the utmost gravity and not a +little perturbation in her voice, "yes, of course. When did Doctor +Mayberry go?" + +"This morning before you came down-stairs. He give Mother Mayberry +some drops for Mis' Bostick and told me, too, how to give 'em to +her. Mother Mayberry is down there now and I'm a-going to stay with +her this afternoon. But I tell you what we can do, Miss Elinory, +there is Sam Mosbey--I believe you can get him easy. He picked up a +rose you dropped when you went in the store to get your letters the +other day, and when Mr. Petway laughed he got red even in his ears. +And just this week he have bought a pair of pink suspenders, some +sweet grease for his hair and green striped socks. He'll look lovely +when he gets fixed up and I hope you will notice him some." Eliza +spoke in the most encouraging of tones of the improvement in +appearance of the suitor she was advocating, and was just about to +continue her machinations by further enthusiasm when, from down the +road at the Bosticks, came Mother Mayberry's voice calling her, and +like a little killdee she darted away to the aid of her confrere. + +And for several long minutes Miss Wingate sat perfectly still and +looked across the meadow to the sky-line with intent eyes. Teether +was busily engaged in drawing by degrees his own pink toes up to his +rosy lips in an effort to get his foot into his mouth, an ambition +that sways most mortals from their seventh to tenth month. A thin +wraith of Miss Alford's personality had been drifting through the +singer lady's consciousness for some days, but she was positively +stunned at this sudden materialization. There come moments in the +lives of most women when they get glimpses into the undiscovered +land of their own hearts and are appalled thereby. Suddenly she +hugged the chuckling baby very close and began a rapid rocking to +the humming accompaniment of a rollicking street tune, a seemingly +inexplicable but perfectly natural proceeding. + +"Well, I'd like to know which is the oldest, you or the baby, honey- +bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she came up the steps in the +midst of the frolic. "You and him a-giggling make music like a nest +full of young cat-birds. Did you ever notice how 'most any down- +heart will get up and go a-marching to a laugh tune? I needed just +them chuckles to set me up again." As she finished speaking Mother +Mayberry seated herself on the top step and Miss Wingate slipped +down beside her with the baby in her arms. + +"What is the trouble this morning, Mrs. Mayberry?" she asked, as she +moved a little closer, so Teether could reach out and nozzle against +Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "Anybody sick?" + +"No, not to say sick much," answered Mother, with a touch of +wistfulness in her gentle eyes, "but it looks like, day by day, I +can see Mis' Bostick slipping away from us, same as one of the white +garden lilies what on the third day just closes up its leaves when +you ain't looking and when you go back is gone." + +"She isn't so old she can't--can't recuperate when the lovely warm +days come to stay this summer, is she?" asked the singer lady with a +quick sympathy in her voice and eyes. + +"No, she ain't so old as to die by old age, but what hurts me, +child, is that it is just her broke heart giving out. She have +always been quiet and gentle-smiling, but since the news of Will's +running off with that money came to Providence she have just been +fading away. A mother's heart don't break clean over a child, but +gets a jagged wound that won't often heal. When I think of her +suffering it puts a hitch in my enjoying of that Tom Mayberry." And +Mother blinked away the suspicion of a tear. + +"But Mrs. Bostick and the Deacon both are so fond of Doctor Mayberry +that it must be a joy to have him such a comfort to them," said Miss +Wingate softly, as she carried one of Teether's pink hands to her +lips. + +"Yes, child, I know he is all that. Somehow, here in Providence, we +women have all tried to put some of our own sister love for one +another in our young folks. I hold that when the whole world have +learned to cut sister and brother deep enough into they children's +hearts, then His kingdom is a-going to come in about one generation +from them. Now there's a picture that goes on the page with my +remarks! Bettie sure do look pretty with that white sunbonnet on her +head, and count how many Turners, Pratts, Hoovers and Pikes she have +got trailing peacefully behind her, all like full-blood brothers and +sisters. I'm so glad she's a-bringing her sewing to set a spell. +Come in, Bettie, here's a rocker a-holding out arms to you!" Little +Hoover was as usual bobbing in Bettie's arms and he gurgled at the +sight of Teether Pike as if in joy at this encounter with his side +partner and when deposited upon the floor beside him made a +brotherly grab at one of young Pike's pink feet in the most manifest +interest. + +"Well, if this just ain't filling at the price," said the widow as +she settled herself in the rocker, and Mother Mayberry established +herself in one opposite, while Miss Wingate elected to remain on the +step by the babies. "I left Pattie over to my house helping Clara +May get a little weed-pulling outen 'Lias and Henny in my garden. +Buck Peavey have just passed by looking like the last of pea-time +and the first of frost. I do declare it were right down funny to see +Pattie toss her head at him, and them boys both giggled out loud. He +ain't spoke to Pattie for a week 'cause she sang outen Sam Mosbey's +hymn-book last Wednesday night at prayer meeting. He've got a long- +meter doxology face for sure." + +"And he's a-suffering, too," answered Mother Mayberry with the +utmost sympathy in her placid face at the troubles of her favorite, +Buck, the lover. "To some folks love is a kinder inflammatory +rheumatism of the soul and a-deserving of pity." + +A vision of a girl at a college commencement with her nose buried in +a pink peony, looking up and smiling, flashed across the +consciousness of the singer lady and she pressed her head between +little Hoover's chubby shoulders, and acknowledged herself a fit +subject for sympathy. To go and not even think of telling her good- +by was cruel, and a forlorn little sob stifled itself in the mite's +pink apron. + +"Well, folks," broke in the widow's cheerful voice that somehow +reminded one of peaches and cream, "I come over to-day to get a +little help and encouragement about planning the wedding. I knowed +Miss Elinory would think it up stylish for me and Mis' Mayberry +would lend her head to help fitting notions to what can be did. Mr. +Hoover's clover hay will be laid by next week and he says they ain't +nothing more to keep us back. I've sewed up four bolts of light +caliker, two of domestic, one of blue jeans, and three of gingham +into a trousseau for us all to wear on the wedding trip, and Mr. +Petway are a-going to take measures and bring out new shoes and +tasty hats all 'round, next wagon, trip to town. I think we will +make a nice genteel show." + +"Are you-going to take everybody on the trip?" asked Miss Wingate, +roused out of her woe by the very idea of the tour in the company of +the seventeen. + +"That we are," responded the widow heartily, "but not all to onct. +We'll have to make two bites of the cherry. The day after the +wedding we are a-going to take the two-horse team, a trunk and the +ten youngest and go a-visiting over the Ridge at Mr. Hoover's +brother's, Mr. Biggers. We won't stay more'n a week and stop a day +or two coming back to see Andy and Carrie Louise. Then we'll drop +the little ones here on you neighbors and pick up the seven big +ones, add Buck for a compliment and go on down to the City for two +days' high jinks. We're going to take 'em up to the capitol and over +the new bridge and we hope to strike some kind of band music going +on somewhere for 'em to hear. We want a photygraft group of us all, +too. We are going to put up at the Teamsters' Hotel up on the Square +and Mr. Hoover have got party rates. He says he are a-going to get +that seven town-broke anyway, if it costs two acres of corn. Now +won't we have a good time?" The bright face of the prospective bride +fairly radiated with joy at the prospect--Miss Wingate could but be +sympathetically involved, and Mother Mayberry beamed with delight at +the plan. + +"That'll be a junket that they won't never a one of 'em forget, +Bettie!" she exclaimed with approval. "They ain't nothing in the +world so educating as travel. And you can trust a country child to +see further and hear more than any other animal on earth. I wouldn't +trust Tom to go to town now without coming back pop-eyed over the +ottermobiles," and Mother Mayberry laughed at her own fling at the +sophisticated young Doctor. Another dart of agony entered the soul +of the singer lady and this time the vision of the girl and the +peony was placed in a big, red motor-car--why red she didn't know, +except the intensity of her feelings seemed to call for that color. +She was his patient and courtesy at least demanded that he should +tell her of his intended absence. What could-- + +"Well, to come out with the truth," Mrs. Pratt was going on to say +by the time Miss Wingate brought herself to the point of listening +again, "it's just the wedding itself that have gave me all these +squeems. Why, Mis' Mayberry, how on earth are we a-going to parade +all the seventeen into the Meeting-house without getting the whole +congregation into a regular giggle? I don't care, 'cause I know the +neighbors wouldn't give us a mean laugh, but I can see Mr. Hoover +have got the whole seventeen sticking in his craw at the thought, +and I'm downright sorry for him." + +"Yes, Bettie, men have got sensitive gullets when it comes to +swollering a joke on theyselves," said Mother Mayberry, as she +joined in the widow's merry laugh at the plight of the embarrassed +widower. "Looks like when we all can trust Mr. Hoover to be so good +and kind to you and your children, after he have done waded into the +marrying of you, we oughter find some way to save his feelings from +being mortified. Can't you hatch out a idea, Elinory?" + +"Oh, yes, I know, I know just what to do--it came to me in a flash!" +exclaimed the singer lady with pink-cheeked enthusiasm over the +inspiration that had risen from the depths at the call of Mrs. Pratt +and brought her up to the surface of life with it for a moment +anyway. "I saw a wedding once in rural England. All the children in +the village in a double line along the path to the church, each with +baskets of flowers from which they threw posies in front of the +bride as she came by them! Let's get all the children together and +mix them up and let them stand along the walk to the church door. It +will just make a beautiful picture with no--no thought of--of who +belongs to anybody. Everybody from Pattie and Buck down to little +Bettie and Martin Luther! Won't it be lovely? I can show them just +how to march, down the road with their baskets in their arms, and +Mrs. Pratt, you can come from your house with the Deacon and Mr. +Hoover can come out of the back of the store--with--with, who is +going to be his groomsman?" + +"Lawsy me, I hadn't thought of that," answered the widow. "I'll tell +you, Mr. Pratt's brother is coming over from Bolivar to the wedding, +and as he is a-going to be a kinder relation in law by two marriages +with Mr. Hoover, I think it would be nice to ask him." + +"Er--yes," assented the singer lady, controlling a desire to smile +at this mix-up of the bride's present and past relations to life. +"The little girls ought to have white dresses and the boys--well, +what could the little boys wear?" Miss Wingate felt reasonably sure +that white dresses for all the feminine youth of Providence would be +forthcoming, but she hesitated at suggesting a costume for the small +boys. + +"Yes, all the little girls have got white dresses and ribbons and +fixings, but dressing up a herd of boys is another thing," answered +Mother Mayberry. "If just blue jeans britches could be made to do we +might make out to get the top of them rigged out in a white shirt +apiece; couldn't we, Bettie?" + +"That we can," answered the bride heartily. "Give me a good day at +the sewing-machine, with somebody to cut and somebody to baste, and +I will get 'em all turned out by sundown. But they feet! Mis' +Mayberry, could we get Jem into shoes, do you reckon? About how many +bad stumped toes is they in Providence now?" + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry reflectively, "I don't know about +but two, but we can ask 'Liza Pike. Thank you for your plan, honey- +bird, and we're a-going to put it through so as to be a credit to +you. Children are sorter going out of style these days and I'm proud +to make a show of our'n. Women's leaving babies outen they +calculations is kinder like cutting buds offen the tree of life, and +I'm glad no sech fashion have struck Harpeth Hills yet." + +"Now, ain't that the truth?" exclaimed the Widow Pratt. "Sometimes +when I read some of the truck about what women have took a notion to +turn out and do in the world, I get right skeered about what are a- +going to happen to the babies and men in the time to come." + +"Don't worry about 'em, Bettie," laughed Mother Mayberry, with a +quizzical sparkle in her eyes. "Even when women have got that right +to march in the front rank with the men and carry some of the flags, +that they are a-contending for, they'll always be some foolish +enough to lag behind with babies on they breasts, a string of +children following and with always a snack in her pocket to feed the +broke down front-rankers, men or women. You'll find most Providence +women in that tag-gang, I'm thinking; but let's do our part in +whooping on the other sisters that have got wrongs to right." + +"I suppose the world really has done women injustice in lots of +ways," said the singer lady plaintively, for she had very lately, +for the first time in her life, felt the sit-still-and-hold-your- +hands-while-he-rides-away grind, and it had struck in deep. + +"Yes, I suppose so," answered Mother Mayberry, as she picked up +little Hoover, who was nodding like a top-heavy petunia in a breeze, +and stretched him across her lap for a nap. "But as long as she have +got the spanking of man sprouts from they one to ten years she +oughter make out to get in a vote to suit herself, as time comes +along, especially if she have picked her husband right." + +"She--she can't--can't pick her husband," hazarded the singer lady +desperately. + +"Yes, she can, honey-child," answered Mother Mayberry comfortably. +"The smile in her eye and the switch of her skirts is a woman's +borned-vote, and she can elect herself wife to any man she cares to +use 'em on. But what about the collation, Bettie? Everybody is going +to help you with the cooking and fixings, and let's have a never- +forget supper this onct." + +"That we are," answered Mrs. Pratt emphatically. "Mr. Hoover says no +hand-around, stand-around for him; he wants a regular laid table +with a knife and fork set-down to it. He says we are a-going to feed +our friends liberal, if it takes three acres of timothy hay to do +it, and he's about right. We'll begin thinking about that and +deciding what the first of the week. But I must be a-going to see +that the dinner horn blows in time. I want to get my sparagrasses +extra tender, for 'Liza have notified me that she is going to stop +by to-day with the covered dish, and I want to fill it tasty for +her. Come visiting soon, Miss Elinory, for I've got something to +show you that are too foolish to speak about to Mis' Mayberry." And +the widow gave a delicious little giggle as she lifted the sleeping +baby from Mother Mayberry's lap and started down the steps. + +"Dearie me, Bettie," answered Mother with a laugh, "don't you know +that poking up a woman's curiosity is mighty apt to start a yaller +jacket to buzzing? I'll be by your house sometime before sundown +myself." + +"Some women's ship of life is a steamboat that stops to take on +passengers at every landing. Bettie's are one of them kind, and +she'll tie up with 'em all in glory when the time comes," remarked +Mother Mayberry as she watched the sturdy widow swing away down the +Road with the baby asleep over her shoulder. + +Just at this moment, Cindy found occasion to summon Mother Mayberry +to the chicken yard on account of a dispute that had arisen between +old Dominick and one of the ungallant roosters that had resulted in +an injury to one of the small fry, which lay pitifully cheeping on +the back steps. Dominick, with every feather awry, was holding +command of the bowl of corn-meal while her family feasted, and the +Plymouth rooster stood at a respectful distance with a weather eye +on both the determined mother and Cindy's broom. Retribution in the +form of Mother Mayberry descended upon him swiftly and certainly, +and he lost no time in seeking seclusion under the barn. + +And by the time order and peace were restored to the barn-yard, +Mother came in to dinner and spent an hour in interested hen-lore +with the singer lady, who was really fond of hearing about the +feathered families when she saw how her interest in them pleased +Mrs. Mayberry. The subject of the Doctor, his absence and the +probable time of his return was not mentioned by his mother, and for +the life of her Miss Wingate could not muster the courage for a +single question. She felt utterly unable to stand even the most mild +eulogy on the peony-girl and was glad that nothing occurred to turn +the conversation in that direction. She was silent for the most +part, and most assiduous in her attentions to Martin Luther, whose +rapidly filling outlines were making him into a chubby edition of +the Raphaelite angel. Martin had landed in the garden of the gods +and was making the most of the golden days. He bore his order of +American boyhood with jaunty grace, and the curl had assumed a +rampant air in place of the pathetic. + +"Martin, do you want me to wash your face and hands and come go +visiting with me?" asked the singer lady, as she stood on the front +steps and watched Mother Mayberry depart in her old buggy on the way +to visit a patient over the Nob. A long, lonely afternoon was more +than she could face just now, and she felt certain that distraction, +if not amusement, could be found in a number of places along the +Road. + +"Thank, ma'am, please," answered Martin Luther, who still clung to +the formula that he had found to be a perfectly good open sesame to +most of the pleasant things of life, when used as he knew how to use +it. + +So, taking her rose-garden hat in one hand and Martin Luther's +chubby fist in the other, Miss Wingate started down Providence Road +for a series of afternoon calls, at the fashionable hour of one- +thirty. She was just passing by Mrs. Peavey's gate with no earthly +thought of going in when she beheld the disconsolate Buck stretched +full length on the grass under a tree, which was screened by a large +syringa bush from the front windows of the maternal residence. A hoe +rested languidly beside him, and it was a plain case of farm hookey. + +"Oh, Miss Elinory," called his mother from the side steps, "did Mis' +Mayberry hear about that fire down in town that burned up two +firemen, a police and a woman?" At the sound of his mother's +strident voice, Buck curled up in a tight knot and with a despairing +glance rolled under the bush. + +"I don't know, Mrs. Peavey, but I'll tell her," Miss Wingate called +back as she prepared to hasten on for fear Mrs. Peavey would come to +the gate for further parley, and thus discover the exhausted +culprit. + +"And a man tooken pisen on account of a bank's failing in +Louisville," she added in a still shriller tone, which just did +carry across the distance to Mrs. Pike's front door, through which +Miss Wingate was disappearing. Her prompt flight had saved the day +for the disconsolate lover, who cautiously rolled from under the +bush again and went on with his interrupted nap. + +She found Mrs. Pike and Miss Prissy at home, and spent a really +delightful hour in speculating and unfolding possible plans for the +Pratt-Hoover nuptials. Miss Prissy blushed and giggled at an +elephantine attempt at badinage that her sister-in-law directed at +her on the subject of Mr. Petway, and after a while Miss Wingate +went on her way, in a manner comforted by their wholesome merriment. +She hesitated at the front gate of the Tutt residence, but the sight +of the Squire pottering around in a diminutive garden at the side of +the house decided her to enter, for Squire Tutt held the charm for +her that a still-fused fire-cracker holds for a small boy. + +"I ain't well at all," he exploded, in answer to her polite +question, asked in the meekest of voices. "Don't you set up to marry +Tom Mayberry, girl, if you don't wanter get a numbskull. Told me to +eat a passel of raw green stuff for my liver, like I was a head of +cattle. I'll die if I follow him. Everybody he doctors'll die. Snake +bite is the only thing he knows how to cure, and snakes don't crawl +until the last of the month. Don't marry him, I say, don't marry +him!" + +And it took Miss Wingate several minutes after her hurried adieus to +get over the effect of the Squire's inhibitory caution. But the +haven for which she had been instinctively aiming was just across +the Road, and she found a peace and quiet which sank into her +perturbed soul like a benediction. The Deacon sat by Mrs. Bostick's +bed with his Bible across his thin old knees, and Eliza was crouched +on the floor just in front of him, with her knees in her embrace and +her eyes fixed on his gentle face. Little Bettie Pratt lay across +Mrs. Bostick's bed, deep in her afternoon nap, and Henny Turner was +stretched out full length on the floor in front of the window, while +'Lias sat with his back against the wall with the puppy in his arms. +The pale face of the sweet invalid was lit by a gentle smile, and +she held one of the sleeping child's warm little hands in her frail, +knotted, old fingers. Unnoticed, Miss Wingate and Martin Luther +paused a moment at the door. + +"Golly, Deacon, but didn't he do him up at one shot, and nothing but +a little piece of rock in the gum-sling!" exclaimed 'Lias in +excitement over the climax of the tale the Deacon had just +completed. "I wisht I was that strong!" + +"It was the strength the Lord gived to him, 'Lias Hoover, to special +kill the giant with," said Eliza in an argumentative tone of voice. +"Do you reckon He tooken the strength away from David the next +morning, Deacon, or let him keep it to use all the time?" Eliza's +extreme practicality showed at all times, even in those of deepest +excitement. + +The Deacon was saved the strain of intellect involved in making +reply to this demand by his wife's low exclamation of pleasure as +she caught sight of the girl and the tot in the doorway. She smiled +softly as the singer lady seated herself on the side of the bed and +took both her hand and that of the sleeping baby in a firm, young +one. A peculiar bond of sympathy had arisen between the girl and the +gentle old invalid, both fighting pain and anxiety. Mrs. Bostick +would lie for hours drinking in tales of Miss Wingate's travels in +the world, which she had timidly but eagerly asked for from the +beginning of their friendship. The girl knew that the anxious +mother-heart vas using her descriptions to fare forth on quests for +the wanderer into the wide world beyond the Harpeth Hills, that had +all her life bounded her horizon, and she sat by her long hours, +leading the way into the uttermost parts. After a fatherly greeting, +the Deacon departed with the children to his bench under the trees +and left the two alone for their talk, and the long shadows were +stretched across the Road and the sun sinking beyond the Ridge +before the singer lady wended her way dejectedly home with the play- +wearied Martin Luther trailing beside her. She found Mother +Mayberry, much to her relieved astonishment, placidly rocking in her +accustomed place, with her palm-leaf ruffling the water-waves and a +fresh lawn tie blowing in the breeze. + +"Come in, honey-hearts," she said eagerly, with bright tenderness +shining in her face for the girl and the barefoot young pilgrim; "I +have been setting here a-missing you both for a hour. With you and +my young mission boy both gone I'm like an old hawk-robbed hen. I +knew you was with Mis' Bostick, and I didn't come for you 'cause +somehow them rocking-chair-bed travels you and her take seems to +comfort her. I wouldn't interrupt one of 'em for the world, though I +was getting plumb lonesome. I was even a-hankering after that Tom +Mayberry what I left not over two hours ago." + +"Has the Doctor come back from the City this soon?" demanded the +singer lady, with a queer thump in her cardiac region that almost +smothered her voice. + +"Well now, to tell the truth, Tom Mayberry haven't been to no City," +answered his mother with a chuckle as she looked at Miss Wingate +over Martin Luther's head on her shoulder where he had buried it +with a demand for "milk, milk, thank ma'am, please." "I don't think +he wants you to know what he have been having happen to him, but I +can't keep from telling you 'cause I'm tickled clean to my funny +bone. Dave Hanks come over here at daylight wanting a doctor quick, +and I had a cramp in my leg what I forgot to tie a yarn string +around before I went to bed, so I had to let Tom hurry on over there +'count of the push they was in. Then I got to studying it over and +while I knewed how Tom had had a lot of practice in such things in a +hospital, I thought it was just as well to let him get a little +Harpeth experience along that line and sorter prove his character to +Squire Tutt and the rest. About dinner time, though, I got sorry for +him and hitched up and went over there to see how they was a-getting +along, without telling you or Cindy anything about it. And what did +I find? That Tom Mayberry and Dave Hanks out on the back porch, Dave +taking a drink outen a bottle and Tom with two babies wrapped up in +a shawl showing 'em to a neighbor woman, proud as a peacock over +'em. He most dropped 'em when he seen me and I promised not to tell +you about it at all, but if you coulder seen him!" And the tried and +proven young AEsculapius' mother fairly rolled in her chair with +mirth at the recollection. + +"Oh," gasped the singer girl, as she sank weakly down upon the top +step and leaned her head against the convenient post. "It was awful- +-I--I--" she caught herself quickly in the expression of the +intensity of her relief. + +"No, it wasn't awful," answered Mother Mayberry, fortunately losing +the trend of the exclamation. "They are mighty sweet little babies, +both girls. The joke is mostly on me getting uneasy and following +Tom up. When I pick out his wife, I must be sure and see she are a +girl what don't worry none about what he is up to. A trouble-hunting +wife is a rock sinker to any man, but around a doctor's neck she'll +finish him quick. Don't let on to the shame-faced thing when he +comes! He asked me what you'd been a-doing all day, and I told him I +thought maybe you had a few custards in your mind for him to-night +when he gets back from Flat Rock. Don't you want to beat up some +with Cindy's help? And they is a bunch of pink peonies he sent you +from Mis' Hank's bushes, sticking in a bucket on the back porch. Pin +one in your hair to sorter compliment him after all the trouble he +have had this day, poor Tom!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PRETTY BETTIE'S WEDDING DAY + + +And even old Dame Nature of Harpeth Hills aroused herself for the +occasion and took in hand the wedding day of pretty Bettie Pratt on +Providence Road. In the dark hours before dawn she spread a light +film of clouds over the stars, from which she first puffed a stiff +dust-cleansing breeze and then proceeded to sprinkle a good washing +shower which took away the last trace of wear and tear of the past +hot days, so by the time she brought the sun out for a final shine +up, the village looked like it had been having a most professional +laundering. And after an hour or two of his warm encouragement, the +roses lifted their buds and began to blow out with joyous +exuberance. Mother Mayberry's red-musks tumbled over the wall almost +on to the head of Mrs. Peavey's yellow-cluster, and Judy Pike's +pink-cabbage fairly flung blossoms and buds over into the Road. The +widow's own moss-damask nodded and beckoned hospitably to Mrs. +Tutt's Maryland tea, and Pattie Hoover's Maiden's Blush mingled its +sweetness with that of the dainty white-cluster that climbed around +Mrs. Bostick's window. A haunting perfume from the new-mown clover +fields drifted over it all and the glistening silver poplar leaves +danced in the breezes. + +"Was they ever such a day before!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry as she +stood on the front steps with the singer lady, who was as blooming +herself as any rose on the Road. "And everything is well along +towards ready when it's turned twelve. The children have all been +washed from skin out and just need a last polish-off. I've put 'em +all on honor not to get dirty again and I think every shoe will be +on by marching time." + +"The baskets and the tubs of roses are in the milk house, and I will +arrange them at the last minute so they won't wilt," answered Miss +Wingate with enthusiasm that matched Mother Mayberry's. "Do you +suppose there is anything I can do to help anybody anywhere? I never +was so excited before." + +"I don't believe they is a loose end to tie up on the Road, child. +Even Bettie herself have finished for the day and have gone over to +set a quiet hour with Mis' Bostack. Clothes is all laid out on beds, +and cold lunch snacks put on kitchen tables. They ain't to be a +dinner cooked on the Road this day 'cept what 'Liza and Cindy are a- +stewing up for the Deacon and Mis' Bostick. Looks like everything is +on greased wheels, and--but there comes the child running now! I do +hope they haven't nothing flew the track." + +"Mother Mayberry, please ma'am, tell me what to do about Mis' Tutt!" +Eliza exclaimed with anxiety spread all over her little face, which +was given a comic cast by a row of red flannel rags around her head +over which were rolled prospective curls, due to float out for the +festivities. "She says she won't go to the wedding 'cause it's +prayer meeting night, and it were a sin to put off the Lord's +meeting 'till to-morrow night. I didn't know she were a-going to do +this way! I got out her dress for her yesterday. The Squire is so +mad he says tell Doctor Tom to come do something for him quick and +not to bring no hot water kettle neither." + +"Dearie me," said Mother Mayberry with mild exasperation in her +voice. "You run along, 'Liza, and don't you worry with Mis' Tutt. +I'll come down there tereckly and see if I can't kinder persuade her +some. Go around there and give that message to Doctor Tom yourself. +I don't take no stock in such doctoring as he does to the Squire +these days." + +"Isn't it too bad for Mrs. Tutt to feel that way and miss the +wedding?" asked Miss Wingate with a trace of the same exasperation +in her voice that had sounded in Mother Mayberry's tones. + +"It are that," answered Mother regretfully. "Looks like religion +oughter be tooken as a cooling draft to the soul and not stuck on +life like a fly blister. But I think we can kinder fix Mis' Tutt +some. And that reminds me, I want you to undertake a job of using a +little persuading on Tom Mayberry for me. He have got the most +lovely long tail coat, gray britches, gray vest and high silk hat up +in his press, and he says he are a-going to wear his blue Sunday +clothes same as usual, when I asked him careless like about it this +morning. I'm fair dying to behold him just onct in them good clothes +he wears out in the big world and thinks Providence people will make +fun of him to see, but I wouldn't ask him outright to put 'em on for +me, not for nothing." + +"Do you know, Mrs. Mayberry, you really--really flirt with the +Doctor?" laughed Miss Wingate as she rubbed her delicate little nose +against Mother Mayberry's shoulder with Teether Pike's exact +nozzling gesture. + +"Well, it's a affair that have been a-going on since the first time +I laid eyes on Ugly, and they ain't nothing ever a-going to stop it +'lessen his wife objects," answered Mother Mayberry as she glanced +down quizzically at the face against her shoulder. + +"She's sure to--to adore it," answered the singer lady as she buried +her head in Mother's tie so only the rosy back of her neck showed. + +"Yes, I think she will understand," answered the Doctor's mother +with a sweet note in her rich voice as she bestowed a little hug on +the slender body pressed close to hers. "You see, child, the tie +twixt a woman and her own man-child ain't like anything on earth, +and I feel it must hold between Mary and her Son in Heaven. I felt +it pull close like steel when mine weren't fifteen minutes old, and +it won't die when I do neither. And that Tom Mayberry are so serious +that a-flirting with him gets him sorter on his blind side and works +to a finish. Can't you try to help me out about that coat and the +silk hat?" + +"Yes," answered Miss Wingate with a dimpling smile, "I'll try. I'll +ask him what I shall wear and then maybe--maybe--" + +"That's the very idea, honey-bird!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry +delightedly. "Tell him you are a-going to put on your best bib and +tucker and it'll start the notion in him to keep you company. If a +woman can just make a man believe his vanity are proper pride, he +will prance along like the trick horse in a circus. Now s'pose you +kinder saunter round careless like to--" + +"Mis' Mayberry," came in a doleful voice over the wall near the +porch, and Mrs. Peavey's mournful face appeared, framed in the lilac +bushes. "I've just been reading the Tuesday Bolivar Herald, and +Bettie Pratt's own first husband's sister-in-law's child died last +week out in Californy, where she moved when she married the second +time. I hate to tell Bettie and have the wedding stopped, but I feel +it are my duty not to let her pay no disrespect to her Turner +children by having a wedding with some of they law-kin in trouble." + +"Well, Hettie Ann, I don't believe I'd tell her, for as bad as that +would be on the Turner children, think how much the Pratts and +Hoovers would lose in pleasure, so as they are the majority, it's +only fair they should rule." Mother Mayberry had for a moment stood +aghast at the idea of the misanthrope's descent upon happy Bettie +with even this long distance shadow to cast across her joy, but +dealing with her neighbor for years had sharpened her wits and she +knew that a sense of fair play was one of Mrs. Peavey's redeeming +traits that could always be counted upon. + +"Yes, I reckon that are so," she answered grudgingly. "Then we'll +have to keep the bad news to tell her when she gets back from the +trip. Did you know that spangled Wyandotte hen have deserted all +them little chickens and is a-laying again out in the weeds behind +the barn? Told you them foreign poultry wasn't no good," with which +she disappeared behind the top stone of the wall. + +"Poor Spangles! she carried them chickens a week longer than could +be expected and now don't get no credit for it," said Mother +Mayberry, as the singer lady gave vent to the giggle she had been +suppressing for a good many minutes. "Now run on, sweet child, and +use them beguilements on Tom for me, while I go try to rub some +liniment on Mis' Tutt's conscience. Fill up Martin Luther sometime +soon, will you?" + +And in accordance with directions, after a few minutes spent before +Mother Mayberry's old-fashioned mirror in tucking three very perfect +red-musk buds in the belt of her white linen gown, the singer lady +descended upon the unwitting victim, in the north wing and began the +machinations according to promise. Doctor Mayberry, unfortunately +for him, showed extravagant signs of delight at the very sight of +the enemy, for it was almost the first voluntary visit she had ever +paid him, and thus he gave her the advantage to start with. + +"You aren't busy, are you?" she asked as she glanced around the +book-lined room and into the laboratory beyond. "This is only a +semi-professional consultation. Could I stay just a few minutes?" +and the lift of her dark lashes from her eyes was most effectively +unfair. As she spoke she settled herself in his chair, while he +leaned against the table looking down upon her with a very shy +delight in his gray eyes and a very decided color in his tan cheeks. + +"As long as you will," he answered. "I never can prescribe from a +hurried consultation. It always takes several hours for me to locate +anything. I'm very slow, you know." + +"Why, I rather thought you treated your patients with--with very +little time spent in consultation," a remark which she, herself, +knew to be a dastardly manoeuver. "You attended to Squire Tutt's +trouble in a very few minutes, it seems," she hastened to add, as +she glanced at a flask that lay on the corner of the table. + +"The Squire's trouble is chronic, and simply calls for refilled +prescriptions," he laughed, his generosity giving over the retort +that was his due. "I somehow think this matter of yours will prove +obscure and will call for time." + +"It's a wedding dress I want you to prescribe for me," she hazarded +a bit too hurriedly, for before she could catch up with her own +words he had flashed her an answer. + +"That depends!" was the victim's most skilful parry. + +"Would you wear a white embroidery and lace or a rose batiste? A +rose hat and parasol go with the batiste, but the white is perfectly +delicious. You haven't seen either one, so I want you to choose by +guess." Only the slightest rose signal in her cheeks showed that she +had been pricked by his quick thrust. She had taken one of the +damask buds from her belt and was daintily nibbling at the folded +leaves. Over it, her eyes dared him to follow up his advantage. + +"I don't know--I'll have to think about it," he answered her, weakly +capitulating, but still on guard. "If I choose one for to-day, when +will you wear the other? Soon?" he bargained for his forbearance. + +"Whenever you want me to if you'd like to see it," she answered with +what he ought to have known was dangerous meekness. "What are you +going to wear?" she asked, putting the direct question with +disarming boldness. + +"Blue serge Sunday-go-to-meetings," he answered carelessly, as if it +were a matter to be dismissed with the statement. "Let's see--say +them over again--white dress, pink parasol, rose hat, how did they +go?" + +"Once, not long ago, I was in your room with Mrs. Mayberry hunting +for the kittens the yellow cat had hidden in the house, and I caught +a glimpse of a most beautiful frock coat--it made me feel partyfied +then, and I thought of the rose gown I have never worn and--and--" +she paused to let that much sink in well. "I thought I would ask +you," she ended in a pensive tone, as she kept her eyes fixed on the +rose determinedly. + +"You don't have to ask me things--just tell me!" he answered with an +exquisite hint of something in his voice which he quickly +controlled. "The frock coat let it be--and shall we say the rose +gown? Then the high gods protect Providence when it beholds!" he +added with a laugh. + +"Oh, will you really?" she asked, overwhelmed with the ease with +which the battle had been won. + +"I will," he answered, "only don't let Mother tease me, please!" + +At which pathetically ingenuous demand the conquering singer lady +tossed him the rose and laughed long and merrily. + +"You and your Mother are perfect--" she was observing with delighted +dimples, when Mother Mayberry herself stood in the doorway with +well-concealed eagerness as to the outcome of the mission, in her +face. + +"Well," she observed with a laugh, "I'm glad to see somebody that +has time to stand-around, set-around, passing the news of the day. +Did you all know that Bettie Pratt were a-going to get married in +about two hours and a half?" + +"We did," answered her son as he drew her a chair close to that of +Miss Wingate. "We were just discussing in what garb we could best +grace the occasion. Did you succeed in getting Mrs. Tutt to change +her mind about honoring the festivities?" + +"Oh, yes, she just wanted to be persuaded some. It's a mighty dried- +up mind that can't leaf out in a change onct in a while, and it's +mostly men folks that take a notion, then petrify to stone in it. +But you all oughter see what is a-going on down the Road." + +"What?" they both demanded of her at the same second. + +"It's that 'Liza Pike again. Just as soon as that child hatches a +idea, the whole town takes to helping her feather it out. She got +Mis' Bostick's bed moved to the front window, and then found that +Nath Mosbey's fence kept her from seeing the Road where the +procession are a-going into the Meeting-house yard. But that didn't +down her none at all, for when I left she had Nath and Buck and Mr. +Petway a-knocking down the two panels of fence, and leaving Mis' +Bostick a clean sweep of view, Did you ever?" and mother Mayberry +chuckled over the small sister's triumph over what to the rest of +Providence would have seemed an insurmountable obstacle. + +"It's just like her, the darling!" exclaimed the singer lady +appreciatively. + +"And she have got the Deacon all tucked out until he is a sight to +behold. She have made Mis' Peavey starch his white tie until it sets +out on both sides like cat whiskers, and have pinned a bokay on his +coat 'most as big as the bride's. Then she have reached his forelock +up on his head so he looks like Martin Luther, and she have got him +a-settin' down, so as not to get out of gear none. Mis' Bostick is +a-wearing a little white rose pinned on her night-gown, and they is +honeysuckle trailed all over the bed. But here am I a-chavering with +you all, with time a-flying and no chance of putting salt on her +tail this day. Please, Tom Mayberry, go down to the store and buy a +nickel's worth of starch, and it's none of your business how I want +to use it. I'm gaing to look a surprise for you myself, before +sundown." + +"Well, how did you get along with him, honeybird?" she asked +eagerly, as they ascended the front steps together, while the Doctor +strode down the Road on his errand. + +"Beautifully!" exclaimed the singer lady with enthusiasm and the +very faintest of blushes. + +"I thought so from his looks," answered the beguiled young Doctor's +wily mother. "A man always do have that satisfied martyr-smile when +he thinks he are doing something just to please a woman. Now, honey- +child, you ain't got nothing to do but frill out your own sweet +self; and make a job of it while you are about it." With which +command Mother Mayberry dismissed Miss Wingate up the stairs to her +dormer-window room. + +And it is safe to say that no two such teeming hours ever fleeted +their seconds away on Providence Road as did those ensuing. The +whole village buzzed and bumbled and swarmed in and out from house +to house like a colony of clover-drunken bees on an August +afternoon. Laughter floated on the air and mingled with banter and +song, while the aroma of flesh pots and fine spices drifted from +huge waiters being hurriedly carried from down and up the Road and +into the Pratt gate. The wedding supper was being laid on improvised +tables in Bettie's side yard, with Judy Pike in command, seconded by +Mrs. Peavey with her skirts tucked up out of possible harm and her +mind on the outlook for any possible disaster, from the wilting of +the jelly mold to a sad streak in the bride's cake, baked by the +bride herself with perfectly happy confidence. + +Then on the heels of the excitement came a quiet half-hour devoted +to the completing of all toilets behind closed family doors. A +shrill squeal issuing now and then from an open window told its tale +of tortures being undergone, and a smothered masculine ejaculation +added a like testimony. + +At exactly a quarter to five, Miss Wingate issued from her room +after a completely satisfactory seance with her mirror, and from the +front steps looked down in dismay upon a scene of rebellion, that +threatened at any moment to become one of riot. + +On the grass beside the porch stood a group of little girls all +starched, frilled, curled and beribboned until they resembled a +large bouquet of cabbage roses themselves. Each one clasped +carefully a gaily decorated basket filled with roses, and from each +and every pair of eyes there danced sparks of rage, aimed at a +huddled company of small boys who were returning their indignation +by sullen scorn mixed with determination in their polished, freckled +faces. Half way between each group stood Eliza Pike, a glorified +Eliza, from a halo of curls to brand new small shoes. She had +evidently been carrying on a losing series of negotiations, for her +usually sanguine face had an expression of utter hopelessness, +tinged with some of the others' feminine indignation. + +"Miss Elinory," she exclaimed as the singer lady came to the edge of +the porch, "I don't know what to make of the boys, they never did +this way before!" + +"Why, what is the matter?" asked Miss Wingate, something of Eliza's +panic communicating itself to her own face and voice. + +The boys all suddenly found interest in their own feet or the cracks +in the pavement, so Eliza as usual became the spokesman for the +occasion. + +"They say they just won't carry baskets of flowers, because it makes +them look silly like girls. They will march with us if you make 'em +do it, but they won't carry no baskets for nobody. I don't want Mis' +Pratt to find out how they is a-acting, for three of 'em are hers +and five Hoovers, and it is they own wedding." Eliza's voice almost +became a wail in which Miss Wingate felt inclined to join. + +At this juncture, Martin Luther took it upon himself to create a +further diversion and to add fuel to the flame. By a mistake, and +through a determination to follow instructions, he had clung to +little Bettie's hand, and when she picked up one of the tiny baskets +provided for the two tots, so had he, and thus he found himself +humiliatingly equipped and on the wrong side of the yard and +question. Disengaging himself from the wide-eyed Bettie, he marched +to the center of the middle ground and cast the despised basket upon +the grass. + +"No girl--BOY, thank ma'am, please!" he announced with a defiant +glance at the singer lady up from under the rampant curl, and that +he did not fail in his usual shibboleth of courtesy was due to his +habitual use of it, rather than a desire to soften the effect of his +announcement. + +Miss Wingate sank down upon the steps in helpless dismay, and tears +began to drop from Eliza's eyes, when Mother Mayberry appeared upon +the scene of action, stiff and rustling as to black silk gown, +capped with a cobweb of lace over the water-waves and most imposing +as to mien. + +"Now what's all these conniptions about?" she demanded, and eyed the +boys with an expression of reserving judgment that did her credit, +for a forlorn and surly sight they presented. + +And again Eliza stated the case of the culprits in brief and not +uncertain terms. + +"Well, well," said Mother Mayberry, and a most delicious laugh fell +on the overcharged air and in itself began to clear the atmosphere, +"so you empty-handed, cross-faced boys think you look more stylisher +for the wedding than the girls look, do you?" + +"No'm, we never said that," answered young Bud with a grin coaxing +at his wide mouth. "We just don't want to carry no baskets. Buck +said he wouldn't, and Sam Mosbey said they had oughter tie a sash +around the middle of all of us for a show. We think the girls look +fine," and he cast an uneasy glance at his sister, + +"Well, seeing as you came down as far as to pass a compliment on +'em, I reckon the girls will have to forgive you for talking about +them that way. I am willing to ask Miss Elinory here to give you +each a little bunch of roses to carry in your hand instead of a +basket, and to let you walk along beside the girls, though nobody +will look at you anyway or know you are there. Is that a bargain and +is everybody ready to step into line?" + +And almost instantly there was a relieved and amicable settling of +the difficulties, a sorting of bunches from the despised baskets, +and a quick line-up. + +"Now start on down! Don't you hear Miss Prissy playing the organ for +you?" exclaimed Mother Mayberry from the steps. "Billy, lift up your +feet, and Henny, you throw the first rose just where Miss Elinory +told you to. Everybody watch Henny and throw a flower whenever he +does. Aim them at the ground and not at each other or the company. +We'll be just behind you. Now, Martin Luther, take Bettie by the +hand and don't go too fast!" + +"A little fun poked at the right time will settle most man +conniptions," she added, in an aside to the relieved and admiring +singer lady, as they prepared to follow in the wake of the bridal +train. + +And among all the weddings over all the land, that fill to a joyous +overflowing almost every hour of the month of June, none could have +been more lovely or happier than that of pretty Bettie Pratt, and +the embarrassed but adoring Mr. Hoover on Providence Road. The train +of solemn, wide-eyed little flower bearers was received by the +wedding guests, who were assembled around the Meeting-house door, +with a positive wave of rapture and no hint of the previous +hurricane of rebellion showed in their rosy, cherubic countenances. +They separated at the designated point and according to instructions +took their stand along the side of the walk from the gate to the +steps. Billy stepped high, roly-poly little Bettie steered Martin +Luther into place and Eliza had the joy of catching a glimpse of the +pale face across the store-yard, peering out of the window with the +greatest interest. + +Then from the Pratt home, directly across the Road, came the Deacon +and Bettie, and the enthusiasm at this point boiled up and ran over +in a perfect foam of joy. And, indeed, the pair made a picture +deserving of every thrill, Bettie in her dove gray muslin and the +Deacon bedight according to Eliza's expert opinion of good form. He +beamed like a gentle old cherub himself, while she giggled and +blushed and nodded to the children as she stepped over the rain of +roses, on up to the very door itself. Immediately following the +children, the congregation filed in and settled itself for the long +prayer, that the Deacon always used to open such solemn occasions. + +The singer lady found herself seated between Mother Mayberry and the +Doctor on the end of the pew, and out of the corner of her eye she +essayed a view of his magnificence, but caught him in the act of +making the same pass in her direction. They both blushed, and her +smile was wickedly tantalizing, though she kept her eyes fixed on +the Deacon's face as he began to read the words of the service in +his sweet old voice, with its note of tender affection for the pair +of friends for whom he read them. And she never knew why she didn't +realize it or why she thought of permitting it, but as the +impressive words enfolded the pair at the altar, one of her own +small hands was gently possessed in a warm, strong one, and tightly +clasped. For moments the pair of hands rested on the bench between +them, hid by a filmy fold of the rose gown. There was just nothing +to be done about it that the singer lady could see, so she let +matters rest as they were and gave her attention to trying to keep +the riot in her own heart in reasonable bounds. However, it might +have been a comfort to her to know that across the church, Buck had +captured five of Pattie's sunburned fingers, and Mr. Petway was +sitting so close to Miss Prissy that Mr. Pike came very near being +irreverent enough to nudge the devout Judy. Then what a glorious +time followed the solemn minutes in the church! The very twilight +fell upon the entire wedding party still feasting and rejoicing, and +it was under the light of the early stars that the guests had to +wend their way home. Mother Mayberry was surrounded by a court of +small boys, each one eager for her words of commendation on their +more than exemplary conduct and she smiled and joked them as they +escorted her to her door-step. Cindy had gone on ahead and a light +shone from the kitchen window, which was answered by flashes all +along and across the Road as the various households settled down to +the business of recovering sufficient equilibrium to begin the +conduct of the ordinary affairs of daily life at the morrow sun-up. + +"Sit down here on the steps just a minute," pleaded the Doctor with +trepidation in his voice, for the rose lady had found the strength +of mind to reprove him for their conduct in church by ignoring him +utterly at the wedding feast, even going to the point of partaking +of her supper in the overwhelmed company of Sam Mosbey, who not for +the life of him could have told from whence came the courage to ask +for such a compliment, and the result of which had been to send him +back later to the table in a half-famished condition; he not having +been able to feast the eyes and the inner man at the same time. + +"Can I trust you?" she demanded of the Doctor in a very small and +reproving voice. + +"If that is a condition--yes," he reluctantly consented, as he +looked up at her in the starlight. + +"Thank you--you were very grand," she said after she had settled +herself in what she decided to be an uncompromising distance from +him. "You really graced the occasion." + +"Miss Wingate," he said slowly, and he turned his head so that only +his profile showed against the dusk of the wistaria vine, "you +wouldn't really be cruel to a country boy with his heart on his +sleeve and only his pride to protect it, would you?" + +"I suppose it was unkind, for he was so hungry and couldn't seem to +eat at all; but I saw Mrs. Pike giving him a glorious supper later, +so please don't worry over him." Which answer was delivered in a +meek tone of voice that it was difficult to hold to its ingenuous +note. + +The Doctor ignored this feint and went on with the most exquisite +gentleness in his lovely voice that somehow brought her heart into +her throat, and without knowing it she edged an inch or two closer +to him and her hand made an involuntary movement toward his that +rested on the step near her, but which she managed to stop in time. +"You realize, do you not, dear lady, that your friendliness to--to +us all, commands my intensest loyalty? You'll just promise to +remember always that I do understand and go on being happy with us, +won't you--us country folks of Providence Road?" The note of pride +in his voice was struck with no uncertain sound. + +"Oh, but it's you that don't--don't--" the singer lady was about to +commit herself most dreadfully by her exclamation in the low dove +notes that alone had no trace of the disastrous burr, when Mother +Mayberry stepped out of the hall door and came and seated herself +beside them. + +"Well, of course, I know the Bible do say that they won't be no +marriage or giving in marriage in the hereafter, but I do declare we +all might miss such infairs as these, even in Heaven," she observed +jovially. "Didn't everybody look nice and act nice? Course it was +just country doings to you, honey-bird, but I know you enjoyed it +some even if it were." Like all sympathetic natures Mother Mayberry +fell with ease into the current of any thought, and the young Doctor +reached out and took her hand into his with quick appreciation of +the fact. + +"It was so very lovely that it made me--made me want--" the daring +with which the singer lady had begun her defiant remark gave out in +the middle and she had to let it trail weakly. + +"Well, I hope it made Mr. Petway want Prissy bad enough to ask her, +along about moon-up," said Mother Mayberry in a practical tone of +voice. "Seems like I hear they voices; and if he IS over there I +don't see how he can get out of co'ting some. It's just in the air +to-night--and WE'D better all be a-going to bed so as to get up +early to start off. Tom Mayberry, seems to me as I remember it, you +looked much less plain favored to-day than common. Did you have on +some new clothes? And ain't you a-going to pass a compliment on +Elinory and me, both with new frocks wored to please you?" + +The Doctor laughed and as they all rose together he still held his +mother's hand in his and instead of an answer he bent and kissed it +with a most distinctly foreign-acquired grace. + +"That's honey-fuzzle again, Tom Mayberry, if not in words, in acts," +she exclaimed with a delighted laugh. "But pass it along to Elinory +if only to keep her from feeling lonesome. Let him kiss your hand, +child, he ain't nothing but a country bumpkin that can't talk +complimentary to save his life. Now, go get your bucket of water, +sonny, and don't let in the cat!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEST ON PROVIDENCE NOB + + +"Why, honey-bird; troubles ain't nothing but tight, ugly little buds +the Lord are a-going to flower out for us all, in His good time; +maybe not until in His kingdom. I hold that fact in my heart +always," said Mother Mayberry as she looked down over her glasses at +the singer lady sitting on the top step at her feet. + +"I know you do," answered Miss Wingate with a new huskiness rather +than the burr in her voice, which made Mother look at her quickly +before she drew another thread through her needle. "But I was just +thinking about Mrs. Bostick and wishing--oh! I wish we could in some +way bring her son back to her before it is too late. Yesterday +afternoon when I started home she drew me down and asked me if when- +-when I went out into the world again I would look for him and help +him. Is there nothing that can be done about it?" + +"I reckon not, child," answered Mother Mayberry gently. "If Will was +to come back now it would be just to tear up her heart some more. +Last night, when I was a-settling of her for bed, I began to talk +about the other five children she have buried under God's green +grass, each in a different county, as they moved from place to +place. I just collected them little graves together and tried to +fill her heart with 'em, and when I left she was asleep with a smile +on her face I ain't seen for a year. It's as I say--a buried baby +are a trouble bud that's a-going to flower out in eternity for a +woman. I'll find a lone blossom and she a little bunch. I'm praying +in my heart that Will's a stunted plant that'll bloom late, but in +time to be sheathed in with the rest. But bless your sweet feeling- +heart, child, and let's keep the smile on our faces for her comfort! +Woman must bend and not break under a sorrow load. Take some of them +calcanthuses to her when you go down for one of them foreign junkets +and ask her to tell you about them little folks of her'n. Start her +on the little girl that favored the Deacon and cut off all his +forelock with the scissors while he were asleep, so he 'most made +the congregation over at Twin Creeks disgrace theyselves with +laughing at his shorn plight the next Sunday. I've got to turn +around 'fore sundown for I've got 'most a day's work to straighten +out the hen house and settle the ruckus about nests. The whole +sisterhood of 'em have tooken a notion to lay in the same barrel and +have to be persuaded some. Now run on so as to be back as early as +you can before Tom comes." And as Mother Mayberry spoke, she began +to gather together her sewing, preparatory to a sally into the world +of her feathered folk. + +But before she had watched the singer lady out of sight down the +Road, with her spray of brown blossoms in her one hand and her +garden hat in the other, she espied young Eliza rapidly approaching +from up the Road and there was excitement in every movement of her +slim, little body and in every swish of her short calico skirts, as +well as in the way her long pigtail swung out behind. + +"Mother Mayberry," she exclaimed, as she sank breathless on the top +step, "they is a awful thing happened! Aunt Prissy was 'most +disgraced 'bout a box of soap and Bud and 'Lias and Henny might have +got killed and Buck too, because he sent one to Pattie and wrote +what was on the card. I've been so scared I am in the trembles now, +but you said always pray to the Lord and I did it while I was a- +running down to the store to beg Mr. Petway not to make her jump off +from Bee Rock on the Nob like the lady Mis' Peavey read about in the +paper did because the man wouldn't marry her that she was in love +with. Fast as I were a-running I reckon the Lord made out what I +said and beat me to him and told him--" + +"'Liza, 'Liza, honey, stop this minute and tell me what you are a- +talking about," demanded Mother Mayberry, with almost as much +excitement in her voice as was trembling in that of the small +talking machine at her feet. "Now begin at the beginning and tell me +just what is the matter with your Aunt Prissy?" + +"Nothing now," answered Eliza, taking a fresh breath, "she's a-going +to marry Mr. Petway, only she won't know it until to-night and I've +promised him not to tell her." + +"What?" was all that Mother Mayberry managed to demand from the +depths of her astonishment as she sank back in her rocking-chair and +regarded Eliza with positive awe. + +"Yes'um, and it were all about them two beautiful boxes of sweet- +smelling soap that he bought in town and have had in the store +window for a week. Buck bought one to send to Pattie for a birthday +present and he wrote, 'When this you see, remember me,' on a card +and put it in the box. I carried it over to her for him and Mr. +Hoover jest laughed, and said Buck meant Pattie didn't keep her face +clean. But Mis' Hoover hugged Pattie and whispered something to her +and told Mr. Hoover to shut up and go see how many children he could +get to come in and be washed up for dinner. Buck was a-waiting for +me around the corner of the store and when I told him how pleased +Mis' Hoover and Pattie were, he--" + +"But wait a minute, 'Liza," interrupted Mother Mayberry with a +laugh, "them love jinks twixt Buck and Pattie is most interesting, +but I'm waiting to hear about your Aunt Prissy and Mr. Petway. It's +liable to be serious when two folks as old as they is--but go on +with your tale, honey." + +"Well, Buck wrote two of them beautiful 'Remember me' verses on nice +pieces of white paper, in them curlycues the Deacon taught him, +before he got one to suit him and he left one on the counter, right +by the cheese box. While we was gone, along come 'Lias and Bud and +Henny and disgraced Aunt Prissy." + +"Why, what did them scamps do?" demanded Mother Mayberry, looking +over her glasses in some perturbation as the end of the involved +narration began to dawn upon her. + +"They tooken the other box of soap outen the window and put the +verse in it and carried it down to Aunt Prissy and told her Mr. +Petway sent it to her. It was a joke they said, but they was good +and skeered. I got home then and I seen her and Maw laughing about +it and Aunt Prissy was just as pink and pleased and loving looking +as Pattie were and Maw was a-joking of her like Mis' Pratt--no, +Hoover--did Pattie and all of a sudden I knewed it were them bad +boys, 'cause I seen 'em laughing in a way I knows is badness. Oh, +then I was so skeered I couldn't swoller something in my throat +'cause I thought maybe Aunt Prissy would jump offen Bee Rock when +she found she were so disgraced with Mr. Petway. I woulder done it +myself, for I got right red in my own face thinking about it." And +the blush that was a dawn of the eternal feminine again rose to the +little bud-woman's face. + +"It were awful, Eliza child, and I don't blame you for being +mortified over it," said Mother Mayberry with a quick appreciation +of the wound inflicted on the delicacy of the child, and the tale +began to assume serious proportions in her mind as she thought of +the probable result to the incipient affair between the elderly +lovers that had been a subject of prayful hope to her for some time +past. "What did you do?" + +"I prayed," answered Eliza in a perfectly practical tone of voice, +"and as I prayed I ran to Mr. Petway as fast as I could. He was +filling molasses cans at the barrel when I got there and they wasn't +nobody in the store, only I seen Bud and Henny peeping from behind +the blacksmith shop and they was right white, they was so skeered by +that time. Then I told him all about it and begged him to let Aunt +Prissy have the box of soap and think he sent it, so her feelings +wouldn't get hurted. I told him I would give him my seventy-five +cents from picking peas to pay for it and that Aunt Prissy cried so +when her feelings was hurted, and she thought so much of him that +she kept her frizzes rolled up all day when she hoped he might be +coming that night to see her and got Maw to bake tea-cakes to pass +him out on the front porch and he MIGHT let her have just that one +little box of soap." + +"What did he say, child?" asked Mother Mayberry in a voice that was +positively weak from anxiety and suppressed mirth at Eliza's own +account of her management of the outraged lover. + +"He didn't say a thing, but he sat down on a cracker box and just +hugged me and laughed until he cried all over my dress and I hugged +back and laughed too, but I didn't know what at. Then he told me +that he didn't ever want Aunt Prissy to know about them bad boys' +foolish joke 'cause he wanted to marry Aunt Prissy and didn't want +her to find out that three young scallawags had to begin his co'ting +for him." + +"Did he say all that to you, 'Liza honey, are you sure?" asked +Mother Mayberry, beginning to beam with delight at the outcome of +the horrible situation. + +"Yes'm, he did, and I went out and brought Bud and 'Lias and Henny +in and he talked to 'em serious until 'Lias cried and Bud got choked +trying not to. Then he give them all a bottle of soda pop and they +ain't never anybody a-going to tell anybody else about it. He made +them boys cross they hearts and bodies not to. I didn't cross mine +'cause I knew I had to tell you, but I do it now." And Eliza stood +up and solemnly made the mystic sign, thus locking the barn door of +her secret chambers after having quartered the troublesome steed of +confidence on the ranges of Mother Mayberry's conscience. + +"Well, 'Liza, a secret oughter always be wrapped up tight and +dropped down the well inside a person, and suppose you and me do it +to this one. And, child, I want to tell you that you did the right +thing all along this line, and it were the Heavenly Father you asked +to help you out that put the right notion in your heart of what to +do." + +"Yes'm, I believe He did, and He got hold of Mr. Petway some too, to +make him kind about wanting to marry Aunt Prissy. He are a-going to +ask her to-night and I promised to keep Paw outen the way for him, +'cause Paw WILL get away from Maw and come talk crops with him +sometimes on the front porch. May I go out to the kitchen and get +Cindy to make a little chicken soup for Mis' Bostick now? I can't +get her to eat much to-day." + +"Yes, and welcome, Sister Pike," answered Mother Mayberry heartily, +and she shook with laughter as the end of the blue calico skirt +disappeared in the hall. "The little raven have actually begun to +sprout cupid wings," she said to herself as she went around the +corner of the house toward the Doctor's office. "Co'ting are a +bombshell that explodes in the big Road of life and look out who it +hits," she further observed to herself as she paused to train up a +shoot of the rambler over the office door. + +The Doctor had just come from over the Ridge, put up his horse and +made his way through the kitchen and hall into his office where he +found his Mother sitting in his chair by the table. He smiled in a +dejected way and seated himself opposite her, leaned his elbows on +the table and dropped his chin into his hands. + +"Now, what's your trouble, Tom Mayberry?" demanded his Mother, as +she gazed across at him with anxiety and tenderness striving in +glance and tone. "You've been a-going around like a dropped-wing +young rooster with a touch of malaria for a week. If it's just moon- +gaps you can keep 'em and welcome, but if it's trouble, I claim my +share, son." + +"I meant to tell you to-day, Mother," he answered slowly. After a +moment's silence he looked up and said steadily, "I've failed with +Miss Wingate--and I'm too much of a coward to tell her. I feel sure +now that she'll never be able to use her voice any more than she can +in the speaking tones and she--she will never sing again." As he +spoke he buried his face in his hands and his arms shook the table +they rested upon. + +For a moment Mother Mayberry sat perfectly still and from the +whispered words on her lips her son knew she was praying. "The +Lord's will be done," she said at last in her deep, quiet voice, and +she laid one of her strong hands on her son's arm. "Tell me about +it, Tom. You ain't done no operation yet." + +"Yes, Mother, I have," he answered quietly. "All the different +laryngeal treatments she had tried under the greatest specialists. +Her one hope was to be built up to the point of standing a bloodless +operation with the galvanic shock. I have tried three times in the +last week to release the muscles and start life in the nerves that +control the vocal chords. In the two other cases with which I have +succeeded the response was immediate after the first operation. Now +I dare not risk another tear of the muscles. One reason I didn't +tell her is that I had to count on her losing the fear that she +wouldn't gain the control. You know she thinks they have been only +preliminary treatments and you have heard her laugh as I held her +white throat in my hands. She believes completely in the outcome. +God, to think I have failed her--HER!" + +"Yes, Tom, He knows--and Mother understands," his Mother answered +gently. + +"And she must be told right away," said the Doctor as he rose and +walked to the window. "It is only fair. Shall I or you tell her? +Choose, Mother, what will be best for her! But can she stand it?" + +"Son," said his Mother, as she also rose and stood facing him with +the late afternoon sun falling straight into her face which, lit by +the light without and a fire within, shone with a wonderful +radiance. "Son, don't you know these old Harpeth Hills have looked +down in they day on many a woman open her arms, take a burden to her +heart and start on a long journey up to the Master's everlasting +hills? Sometimes it have been disgrace, or a lifelong loneliness, or +her man hunted out into the night by the law. I have laid still-born +children into my sisters' arms, and I've washed the blood from the +wounds in women's murdered sons, but I ain't never seen no woman +deny her Lord yet and I don't look to see this little sister of my +heart refuse her cup. I'll tell her, for it's my part--but Tom +Mayberry, see that you stand to her when your time comes, as it +surely will." + +"Don't you know, Mother, that I would lay down my life to do the +least thing for her?" he asked, with the suffering drawing his young +face into stern, hard lines. "But to do the one thing for her I +might have done has been denied me," he added bitterly. + +"No, Tom, there's one thing left to you to give her. Sympathy is +God's box of precious ointment and see that you break yours over her +heart this day. Now, I'm a-going down Providence Road to meet her +and I know the Lord will help me to the right words when the time +comes. I leave His blessing with you, boy!" And she turned and left +him with his softened eyes looking up into her calm face. + +Then for a long hour Mother Mayberry worked quietly among her +dependent feather folk and as she worked, her gentle face had its +brooding mother-look and her lips moved as she comforted and +fortified herself with snatches of prayer for the journey through +the deep waters, on which she was to lead this child of her +affection. After the last tangle had been straightened out, each +brood settled in comfortable quarters and the cause of all quarrels +arbitrated, she walked to the front gate and stood looking down the +Road. + +And up from the Deacon's house came a little procession that made +her smile with a sob clutching at her heart. The singer lady had +taken Teether from the arms of his mother, who stood happily +exchanging the topics of the times with the Hoover bride, who had +not had thus far sufficient opportunity to expatiate on quite all +the adventures of the wedding journey and kept on hand still a small +store of happenings to recount to her sympathetic neighbors as they +found time and opportunity. The rosy rollicking youngster she had +perched on her shoulder and held him steadily thus exalted by his +pair of sturdy, milk-fed legs. Martin Luther, as usual, clung to her +skirts, Susie Pike danced on before her and the Deacon was walking +slowly along at her side, carefully carrying the rose-garden of a +hat in both his hands. He was looking up at her with his gentle face +abeam with pleasure and Mother Mayberry could hear, as they came +near, that she was humming to him as he lined out some quaint, +early-church words to her. It was a never failing source of delight +to the old patriarch to have her thus fit motives from the world's +great music to the old, pioneer hymns. + +"Sister Mayberry," he exclaimed with exultation in his old face, "I +never thought to hear in this world these words of my brother, +Charles Wesley, sung to such heavenly strains as my young sister has +put them this day. Never before, I feel, have they had fit +rendition. While I line the verse, sing them again to Sister +Mayberry, child, that her ears may be rejoiced with mine." And +Mother Mayberry caught at the top of the gate as the girl slipped +the nodding baby down into her arms and in her wonderful muted voice +hummed the Grail motif while the Deacon raised his thin old hands +and lined out the + + "Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord, + Whom one in three we know--" + +on through its verses to its final invocation of the + + "Supreme, essential One, adored + In co-eternal Three." + +"The Lord bless you, child, and make His sun to shine upon you," he +said as the last note died away, while Teether chuckled and nozzled +at Mother Mayberry's shoulder. "I must go on back to sit with Mrs. +Bostick and will deposit this treasure with Sister Mayberry," he +added with a smile as he handed the bouquet-hat over the gate. + +"Susie, can't you take Teether over to your Aunt Prissy and tell her +that Mother says please give him his milk right away, for it's past +time, and she will come in a few minutes?" asked the singer lady, as +she handed the reluctant baby to the small girl at her side. + +"Milk, thank ma'am, please," demanded Martin Luther quickly, having +no intention of being left out of any lactic deal. + +"Run ask Cindy," answered Mother Mayberry, as she started him up the +front walk, and came on more slowly with Miss Wingate at her side. +In her soul she was realizing fully the influence the lovely woman +had thrown over the hearts of the simple Providence folk and the +greatness of her own nature was making her understand something of +the loss to those of the outer world whom the great singer would be +no longer able to call within the spell of her wonderful voice. + +"Honey-bird," she said gently, as she drew the girl to the end of +the porch where the wistaria vine, a whispering maple and the +crimson rambler shut them in from the eyes of all the world save the +spirit of Providence Nob, which brooded down over them in a wisp of +cloud across its sun-reddened top, "here's the place and time and +heart strength to tell you that your Lord have laid the hand of +affliction on you heavy and have tooken back from you the beautiful +voice He gave you to use for a time. I'm a-praying for you to be +able to say His will be done." + +For one instant the singer woman went white to the eyes and swayed +back against the vine, then she asked huskily, "Did HE say so?" + +"Yes," answered the Doctor's mother gently with her deep eyes +looking into the girl's very soul. "Them treatments was operations +and they is all he dares to make for fear of your losing the +speaking voice what you have got so beautiful. If they is any love +and pity in my heart after I have stopped giving it to you I'm going +to pour some out on Tom Mayberry, for when a man's got to look +sorrow in the eyes he goes blind and don't know what way to turn, +lessen a woman leads him. But he ain't neither here or there and--" + +"Where is he?" demanded Miss Wingate in her soft dove notes as she +looked the tragedy-stricken young Doctor's mother straight in the +face, with her dark eyes completely unveiling her heart, woman to +woman. "I--I want HIM!" + +"What's left of him is in the office, and you are welcome to the +pieces," answered his Mother, a comprehensive joy rising above the +sorrow in her eyes. "I reckon I can trust him with you, but if you +need any help, call me," she added, as the singer girl fled down the +steps and around to the office wing. + +And they neither one of them ever knew how it really happened, +though she insisted on accusing herself and he claimed always the +entire blame, but he had been sitting where his Mother had left him +for an hour or more with his face in his hands when he suddenly +found himself clasped in soft arms and his eyes pressed close +against a bare white throat and a most wonderful dove voice was +murmuring happy, comforting little words that fell down like jewels +into his very heart of hearts. And his own strong arms held very +close a palpitating, cajoling, flower of a woman, who was wooing for +smiles and dimpling with raptures. + +"I don't care, I don't, and please don't you!" she pleaded with her +lips against his black forelock. + +"I can't help caring! The one thing I asked of all my years of hard +work was to give the music back to you--" and again he buried his +face in the soft lace at her throat. + +"You say, do you, that I'll never sing again?" she asked quickly, +and as she spoke she lifted his head in her hands and waited an +instant for the smothered groan with which he answered her. + +"Now, listen," she answered him in a voice fairly a-tremble with +joyous passion and as she spoke she laid his ear close over her +heart and held him so an instant. "Does it matter that only you will +ever hear the song, dear?" she whispered, then slipped out of his +arms and across to the other side of the table before he could +detain her. + +"No, Tom Mayberry," she said as he reached for her, and her tone was +so positive that he stopped with his arms in the air and let them +sink slowly to his side. "We'll have this question out right here +and if I have trouble with you I'll--call your Mother," and she +laughed as she shook away a tear. + +"Please!" he pleaded and his face was both so radiant and so worn +that she had to harden her heart against him to be able to hold +herself in hand for what she wanted to say to him. + +"No," she answered determinedly, "and you must listen to every word +I say, for I am getting frightened already and may have to stop." + +"I want to talk some myself," he said with the very first smile +coming into his grave young eyes. "I want to tell you that I can't +help loving you, and have ever since I first saw you, but that it +won't do at all for you to marry--marry a Providence country bumpkin +with nothing but a doctoring head on his shoulders. I want you to +understand that--" + +"Please don't refuse me this way before I've ever asked you," she +said with a trace of the grand dame hauteur in her manner and voice +that he had never seen before. "I think--I think very suddenly I +have come to realize, Doctor Mayberry, that--that--oh, I'm very +frightened, but I must say it! I wouldn't blame you or your Mother +for not wanting me at all. I--I somehow, I don't seem very great--or +real to myself here in Providence. My training has been all to one +end--useless now--and I'm all unlessoned and unlearned in the real +things of life. I seem to feel that the hot theaters and the crowds +that have looked at me and--am I what she has a right to demand in +your wife?" And, with a proud little gesture, she laid her case in +his hands. + +And though she had not expected anything dramatic from him in the +way of refutation of her speech, she was totally unprepared for the +wonderful, absolute silence that met her heroics. He stood and +looked her full in the eyes with a calm radiance in his face that +reminded her of the dawn-light she had seen that morning come over +Providence Nob and his deep smile gave a young prophet look to his +austere mouth. And as she gazed at him she drew timidly nearer, even +around the corner of the table. + +"Your work is so wonderful--and real--and you ought to have a wife +who--" By this time she had got much nearer and her voice trailed +off into uncertainty. And still he stood perfectly still and looked +at her. + +"She loves me and I love her, so that, do you think, I might--I +might learn? Cindy says I'm a wonder--and remember the custards," +she finished from somewhere in the region of his collar. "Now that +we've both refused each other do you suppose we can go on and be +happy?" she laughed softly from under his chin. + +And the young Doctor held her very close and never answered a word +she said. The strain on him had been very great and he was more +shaken than he wanted her to see. But from the depths of her heart +she understood and pressed closer to him as she gave him a long +silence in which to recover himself. Twilight was coming in the +windows and a fragrant night breeze was ruffling her hair against +his cheek before she stirred in his arms. + +"We've got to ask--to ask Mother before--before," she was venturing +to suggest in the smallest of voices in which was both mirth and +tenderness, when a low laugh answered her from the doorway. + +"Oh, no you don't," said Mother Mayberry, as she beamed upon them +with the most manifest joy. "I had done picked you out before you +had been here more'n a week, honey-bird. You can have him and +welcome if you can put up with him. He's like Mis' Peavey always +says of her own jam; 'Plenty of it such as it is and good enough +what they is of it.' A real slow-horse love can be rid far and long +at a steady gate. He ain't pretty, but middling smart." And the +handsome young Doctor's mother eyed him with a well-assumed +tolerance covering her positive rapture. + +"Are you sure, sure you're not disappointed about--about that peony- +girl?" demanded the singer lady, as she came into the circle of +Mother Mayberry's arm and nozzled her little nose under the white +lawn tie. + +"Le'me see," answered Mother Mayberry in a puzzled tone of voice. "I +seem to understand you, but not to know what you are talking about." + +"The girl to whom he gave the graduating bouquet with Mrs. Peavey's +peony in it," she whispered, but not so low that the Doctor, who had +come over and put a long arm around them both, couldn't hear. + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry in a judicial tone of voice as she +bestowed a quizzical glance on the Doctor, who blushed to the roots +of his hair at this revelation of the fact of his Mother's +indulgence in personal reminiscence, "I reckon Miss Alford'll be +mighty disappointed to lose him, but I don't know nothing about her +riz biscuits. Happiness and good cooking lie like peas in a pod in a +man's life and I reckon I'll have to give Tom Mayberry, prize, to +you." + +"Mother!" exclaimed the Doctor. + +"Thank you," murmured Miss Wingate with a wicked glance at him from +his Mother's shoulder that brought a hurried embrace down upon them +both. + +"Children," said Mother Mayberry, as she suddenly reached put her +strong arms and took them both close to her breast, "looks like the +Lord sometimes hatches out two birds in far apart nests just to give +'em wing-strength to fly acrost river and hill to find each other. +You both kinder wandered foreign some 'fore you sighted one another, +but now you can begin to build your own nest right away, and I +offers my heart as a bush on Providence Nob to put it in." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LITTLE HARPETH WOMAN OF MANY SORROWS + + +"This here are a curious spell of weather," remarked Mother +Mayberry, as she paused beside the singer lady who was holding +Martin Luther up on the broad window-sill, and with him was looking +disconsolately down the Road. "June's gone to acting like a woman +with nerves that cries just because she can. I'm glad all the +chicken babies are feathered out and can shed rain. Them little +Hoosier pullets have already sprouted tail feathers. They ain't a +one of 'em a-going into the skillet no matter how hungry Tom +Mayberry looks after 'em. If I don't hold you and Cindy back from +spoiling him with chicken-fixings three times a day he'll begin to +show pin feathers hisself in no time." + +"He likes chicken better than anything else," murmured Miss Wingate +as she buried a blush in Martin Luther's topknot. + +"Well, wanting ain't always a reason for being gave to," said the +Doctor's mother with a chuckle as she admired the side view of the +blush. "But, seeing that he about half feeds hisself by looking at +me and you at the table, I reckon I'll have to let him have two +chickens a day to keep up his strength. Honey-fuzzle are a mighty +satisfying diet, though light, for a growed man. Reckon we can +persuade him to try a couple of slices of old ham onct in a while so +as to give a few broilers time to get legs long enough to fry?" + +"We can try," answered the singer lady in a doubtful tone of voice, +for the Doctor's penchant for young chicken was very decided. + +"Dearie me, it do beat all how some plans of life fall down in the +oven," said the Doctor's mother, as she eyed Miss Wingate with her +most quizzical smile quirking up the corners of her humorous mouth. +"Here I put myself to all manner of troubles to go out into the big +world to get a real managing wife for Tom Mayberry and I might just +as well have set cross-handed and waited for Susie Pike or little +Bettie to grow up to the spoiling of him. I thought seeing that +you'd been raised with a silver spoon in your mouth and handed life +on a fringed napkin, so to speak, you would make him stand around +some, but for all I can see you're going to make another Providence +wife. Ain't you got none of the suffering-women new notions at all?" + +"I can't help it," answered the singer lady, ducking her head behind +Martin Luther again, but smiling up out of the corners of her eyes. + +"Are you just going to drop over into being a poor, down-trodden, +miserable, man-bossed Harpeth Hill's wife, without trying a single +new-fashioned husband remedy on him, with so many receipts for +managing 'em being written down by ladies all over the world, mostly +single ones?" demanded Mother Mayberry, fairly bubbling over with +glee at the singer lady's abashment. + +"Yes, I am," answered Miss Wingate sturdily. "I want him to have +just what he wants." + +"This are worse and more of it," exclaimed the Doctor's delighted +Mother. "You are got a wrong notion, child! Marriage ain't no slow, +plow-team business these days; it's hitched at opposite ends and +pulling both ways for dear life. Don't you even hope you will be; +able to think up no kind of tantrums to keep Tom Mayberry from being +happy?" + +"I don't want to," laughed the infatuated bride prospective. + +"Then I reckon I'll have to give up and let you settle down into +being one of these here regular old-fashioned, primping-for-a-man, +dinner-on-the-table-at-the-horn-blow, hanging-over-the-front-gate- +waiting kind of wives. I thought I'd caught a high-faluting bird of +Paradise for him and you ain't a thing in the world but a meadow +dove. But there comes Bettie scooting through the rain with little +Hoover under her shawl. Providence folks have got duck blood, all of +'em, and the more it pours out they paddles. Come in and shake your +feathers, Bettie." + +"Howdy all," exclaimed the rosy Mrs. Hoover. "This here rain on the +corn is money in everybody's pocket. I just stopped in to show you +this pink flowered shirt-waist I have done finished for Miss Prissy +Pike. Ain't it stylish?" + +"It surely are, Bettie!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry. "I'm so glad you +got it pink." + +"And it don't run neither. I tried it," said the proud designer of +the admired garment. + +"That's a good sign for the wedding. You can rub happiness that's +fast dyed through any kinder worry suds and it'll come out with the +color left. Any news along the Road?" asked Mother Mayberry, as she +handled the rosy blouse with careful hands. + +"Well, Henny Turner says that Squire Tutt are in bed covered up head +and ears with the quilts, but 'Lias says that it are just 'cause +Mis' Tutt have got a happy spell on her and have been exorting of +him. She called all three of them boys in, Bud and Henny and 'Lias, +and made 'em learn a Bible verse a-piece, and I was grateful to her +for her interest, but the Squire cussed so to 'em while she went to +get 'em a cake that I'm afraid the lesson were spoiled for the +chaps." + +"I don't reckon it were, Bettie. Good salts down any day, while Evil +don't ever keep long. But I do wish we could get the Squire and Mis' +Tutt to be a little more peaceably with one another. It downright +grieves me to have 'em so spited here in they old age." And Mother +Mayberry's eyes took on a regretful look and she peered over her +glasses at the happy bride. On her buoyant heart she ever carried +the welfare of every soul in Providence and the crabbed old couple +down the Road was a constant source of trouble to her. + +"You shan't worry over 'em, Mis' Mayberry," answered pretty Bettie +quickly, "You get every Providence trouble landed right on your +shoulders as soon as one comes. You don't get a chance to do nothing +but deal out ease to other people's bodies and souls, too." + +"Well, a cup of cold water held to other folks' mouths is a mighty +good way to quench your own thirst, Bettie child, and I'm glad if it +are gave to me to label out the blessing of ease. But have you been +in to the Deacon's this morning?" + +"No'm, I'm a-going to stop as I go along home," answered Bettie. "I +have seed the little raven paddling back and forth, so I guess they +is all right. I must hurry on now, for I see Miss Prissy at the +window looking for me. Ain't my baby a-growing?" she asked, as she +picked little Hoover off of the floor and again enveloped the +bobbing head under her own shawl. + +"Yes, it are, and Mr. Hoover's a-smiling hisself fat by the day, +child," answered Mother Mayberry with a smile. "Do you pass on the +word to Elinory here that Providence husbands wear good, both warp +and woof?" + +"That they do, Miss Elinory, and I never seed nothing like 'em in my +travels," called back the bride from the door, as she reefed in her +skirts and sailed out in the downpour. + +"Well, your mind oughter be satisfied, child, for Bettie muster seen +a good deal of the world in that three weeks' bridal trip in the +farm wagon," laughed Mother Mayberry at the singer lady by the +window. "Now I'm a-going to swim out to gather eggs and I'll be back +if I don't drown." With which she left the girl and the tot to +resume their watch down the Road for a horse and rider due in not +over two hours' time. + +And indeed the last of old June's days seemed in danger of dripping +away from her in tears of farewell. Rain clouds hung low over +Harpeth Hills and drifted down to the very top of Providence Nob. A +steady downpour had begun in the night and held on into the day and +seemed to increase in volume as the hours wore away. The tall maples +were standing depressed-boughed and dripping and the poplar leaves +hung sodden and wet, refusing a glimpse of their silver lining. A +row of bleeding-hearts down the walk were turning faint pink and +drooping to the ground, while every rose in the yard was shattered +and wasted away. + +"Rain, rain!" wailed Martin Luther under his breath, as he pressed +his cheek to the window-pane and looked without interest at a +forlorn rooster huddled with a couple of hens under the snowball +bush. + +"Don't you want a cake and some milk?" asked the singer lady, as she +gave him a comforting hug and essayed consolation by the offer of a +material distraction. + +"No milk, no cake; L-i-z-a, thank ma'am, please" he sobbed a +disconsolate demand for what he considered a good substitute +sunbeam. + +"There she comes now, darling," exclaimed the singer lady, with as +much pleasure coming into her face as lit the doleful cherub's at +her side. And from the Pike front door there had issued a small +figure, also enveloped in an old shawl, which made its way across +the puddles with splashing, bare feet. She had her covered dish +under her arm and a bucket dangled from one hand. She answered +Martin Luther's hail with a flash of her white teeth and sped across +the front porch. + +And in the course of just ten minutes the experienced young pacifier +had established the small boy as driver to Mother Mayberry's large +rocking-chair, mounted him on the foot of the bed with snapping +switch to crack and thus secured a two-hour reign of peace for his +elders. + +"Miss Elinory," she said, as she came and stood close to the singer +lady seated in the deep window, "I'm mighty glad you got Doctor Tom; +and it were fair to the other lady, too. He couldn't help loving you +best, 'cause you are got a sick throat and she ain't. Do you reckon +she'll be satisfied to take Sam Mosbey when she comes again? I'm +sorry for her." + +"So am I, Eliza," laughed Miss Wingate softly, as the rose blush +stole up over her cheeks, "but I don't believe she'll need Mr. +Mosbey. Don't you suppose she--that--is--there must be some one down +in the City whom she likes a lot." + +"Yes'm, I reckon they is. Then I'll just take Sam myself when I grow +up if nobody else wants him," answered Eliza comfortably. "I'm sorry +to be glad that your throat didn't get well, but Mis' Peavey says +that you never in the world woulder tooken Doctor Tom if you coulder +gone away and made money singing to people. I don't know what me or +him or Mother Mayberry woulder done without you, but we couldn'ter +paid you much to stay. You won't never go now, will you?" + +"Never," answered the singer lady, as she drew the little ingenue +close to her side. "And let me whisper something to you, Eliza--I +never--would--have--gone--any--way. I love you too much, you and +Mother Mayberry--and Doctor Tom." + +"And Mis' Bostick and Deacon," exclaimed the loyal young raven. +"Miss Elinory, I get so scared about Mis' Bostick right here," she +added, laying her hand on her little throat. "She won't eat nothing +and she can't talk to me to-day. Maw and Mis' Nath Mosbey are there +now and waiting for Doctor Tom to come back. They said not to tell +Mother Mayberry until the rain held up some, but they want her, too. +Can't loving people do nothing for 'em, Miss Elinory?" and with big, +wistful eyes the tiny woman put the question, which has agonized +hearts down the ages. + +"Oh, darling, the--loving itself helps," answered the singer lady +quickly with the mist over her eyes. + +"I believe it do," answered Eliza thoughtfully. + +"I hold the Deacon's other hand when he sets by Mis' Bostick! He +wants me, and she smiles at us both. I don't like to leave 'em for +one single minute. I have to wait now for Cindy to get the dinner +done, but then I'm a-going to run. Why, there goes Mother Mayberry +outen the gate under a umbrella! And Aunt Prissy asked me to get a +spool of number fifty thread from her to sew some lace on a +petticoat Mis' Hoover have done finished for her. If I was to go to +get married I'd make some things for my husband, too, and not so +much for myself. I wouldn't want so many skirts unless I knewed he +had enough shirts." + +"But, Eliza," remonstrated Miss Wingate, slightly shocked at this +rather original idea of providing a groom with a trousseau, "perhaps +he would rather get things for himself." + +"No'm, he wouldn't," answered Eliza positively. "I ain't a-going to +say anything to Aunt Prissy about it 'cause you never can tell what +will hurt her feelings, but I want you to get Mis' Hoover to show +you how and make three nice shirts for Doctor Tom, so you can wash +one while he wears the other and keep one put away for Sunday. That +is the way Maw does for Paw and all the other folks on the Road does +the same for they men. Mis' Peavey can show you how to iron them +nice, for she does the Deacon's for me and Mother Mayberry is too +busy to bother with such things 'count of always having to go to +sick folks even over to the other side of the Nob. Cindy don't +starch good. You'll do for Doctor Tom nice, now you've got him, +won't you?" + +"Yes, Eliza, I will," answered the singer lady meekly, as this +prevision of the life domestic rose up and menaced her. She even had +a queer little thrill of pleasure at the thought of performing such +superhuman tasks for what was to be her individual responsibility +among Providence men along the Road. The certainty that she would +never be allowed to perform such offices at machine and tub actually +depressed her, for the thought had brought a primitive sense of +possession that she was loath to dismiss; the passion for service to +love being an instinct that sways the great lady and her country +sister alike. "Do you think he--will let me?" she asked of her +admonisher. + +"Just go on and do it and don't ask him," was the practical answer. +"There he comes now leading his horse and he have been to see Mis' +Bostick. I can get the dinner and run on to meet him and hear how he +thinks she are," she exclaimed as she seized her dish and bucket and +disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. + +And a few minutes later, as Doctor Mayberry was unsaddling his horse +in the barn a lithe figure enveloped as to head and shoulders in one +of Cindy's kitchen aprons darted under the dripping eaves and stood +breathless and laughing in the wide door. + +"I saw you come up the Road," said the singer lady, as she divested +herself of the gingham garment, "and I was dying to get out in the +rain, much to Cindy's horror. You are late." + +"Not much," answered the young Doctor, slipping out of his rain coat +and coming over to stand beside her in the door. "What have you been +doing all morning?" + +"I've been being--being lectured," she answered, as she looked up in +his face with dancing dark eyes. + +"Who did it to you?" he asked, taking her fingers into his and +drawing her farther back from the splash of the rain drops. + +"Your Mother and then Eliza Pike," she answered with a low laugh. +"Eliza is afraid I won't 'do for you' in proper Providence style and +I'm very humble and--I--I want to learn. She thinks I ought to begin +on some--some shirts for you right now and I'm going to. What color +do you prefer?" + +"Horrors!" exclaimed the Doctor, positively blushing at the thought +of the very lovely lady engaged in such a clothing mission. + +"I knew you wouldn't have any confidence in them" answered Miss +Wingate mournfully, "and I haven't myself, but still I was willing +to try." + +"Oh, yes, I have!" the young Doctor hastened to exclaim. "Better +make them suitable for traveling, for I've got marching orders in +the noon mail. Are you ready to start to Italy on short notice and +then on to India?" + +"What?" demanded the singer lady with alarmed astonishment. + +"Yes," answered the young Doctor coolly. "The Commission writes that +my reports on Pellagra down here are complete enough now for them to +send some chap down to continue them, while I go on to Southern +Italy for a study of similar conditions there and then on to India +for a still more exhaustive examination. The Government is +determined to stamp this scourge out before it gets a hold, and it's +work to put out the fire before it spreads. Better hurry the shirts +and pack up your own fluff." + +"But I'm not going a step or a wave," answered the singer girl +defiantly. "I'm too busy here now. I don't ever intend to leave +Mother as long as I live. I don't see how you can even suggest such +a thing to me." + +"Do you know what leaving Mother is like?" asked the young Doctor, +as he looked down on her with tenderness in his gray eyes and Mother +Mayberry's own quizzical smile on his lips. "It's like going to +sleep at night with a last look at Providence Nob,--you wake up in +the morning and find it more there than ever. She was THERE on sunny +mornings over in Berlin and THERE on gray days in London and I had +her on long hard hospital nights in New York. Just come with me on +this trip and I promise she and Old Harpeth will be here when we get +back. Please!" + +"I don't know," answered Miss Wingate in a small voice as she rubbed +her cheek against the arm of his coat. "I'm in love with Tom +Mayberry of Providence Road. I don't know that I want to go +traveling with a distinguished physician on an important Government +mission and attend Legation dinners and banquets and--I don't want +to leave my Mother," and there was a real catch in the laugh she +smothered in his coat sleeve. + +"Dearie girl," he exclaimed, looking down with delight at a small +section of blush left visible against the rough blue serge of his +coat, "you and Mother are--" + +"Sakes, you folks, I wish you'd try to listen when you are called +at!" came in a sharp voice as Mrs. Peavey looked down upon them from +over the wall near the barn. "One of them foolish Indiany chickens +are stretched out kicking most drowned in a puddle right by the barn +door, and there you both stand doing nothing for it. Tom Mayberry, +pick it up this minute and give it to me! I'm a-going to put it +behind my stove until Mis' Mayberry comes home. I've got some +feeling for her love of chickens, _I_ have." + +"Oh, I didn't see it!" exclaimed Miss Wingate, in an agony of +regret. "The dear little thing! Give it to me and I'll take care of +it." + +"Fiddlesticks! Chickens ain't 'dear little things,' and I wouldn't +trust neither one of you to take care of a flea of mine, with your +philandering. Hand it here to me, Tom Mayberry, like I tell you!" +And the Doctor hastened to pick up the little gasping bunch of +drenched feathers, which Mrs. Peavey tucked in the corner of her +shawl "Did you all hear that a car busted into another one down in +the City day before yesterday and throwed the driver and broke a +lady's arm and cut a baby's leg shameful? It was in the morning +paper I saw down to the store; and a wind storm blew off a man's +roof too." + +"I haven't read the paper yet," answered the singer lady in the +subdued voice she always used in addressing Mother Mayberry's +pessimistic neighbor. + +"Well, you oughter take interest in accidents if you are a-going to +be a Doctor's wife. It'll be all in the family then and you can hear +it all straight and maybe see some folks mended" answered Mrs. +Peavey, and she failed to notice Miss Wingate's horrified expression +at such a prospect. "How's Mis' Bostick, Tom? That is, how do your +Mother say she are, for I couldn't trust your notion in such a case +as her'n." + +"I think Mother feels worried over her to-day," answered the Doctor +gently, with not a trace of offense at his neighbor's outspoken +question. "Her heart is very weak and it is impossible to stimulate +her further. Mother is up there now and I'll come tell you what she +says when she comes home to dinner." + +"Well, I'm always thankful for news, bad as it mostly are," answered +Mrs. Peavey in gloomy gratitude for his offer of a report from +Mother Mayberry. "You all had better go on in the house now and put +Miss Elinory's wet feet in the stove, for they won't be no use in +her dying on Mis' Mayberry's hands with pneumony at this busy time +of the year. Them slippers is too foolish to look at." With which +the shawled head disappeared from the top of the wall. + +"Do you know, I had a strange dream last night," said the singer +lady, as the Doctor hung up his bridle and shut the feed-room door +preparatory to following out Mrs. Peavey's injunction as to carrying +Miss Wingate away to be dry shod. "I dreamed that I was singing to +Mrs. Bostick and the Deacon, REALLY singing, and just as it rose +clear and strong Mrs. Peavey called to me to 'shut up' and it +stopped so suddenly that I waked up--and the strange part of it is +that I heard, really heard, I thought, my own voice die away in an +echo up in the eaves. For a second I seemed awake and listening--and +it was lovely--lovely!" + +"Dear," said the Doctor, as he took her hand in his and held it +against his breast, "I would give all life has to offer me to get it +back for you. I will hope against hope! I haven't written Doctor +Stein yet. I can't make myself write. Perhaps we will find some one +on this trip who has some theory or treatment or something to offer. +I've been praying that help will come!" + +"Would you--like me any better if I had it back?" she asked with a +happy little laugh as she laid her cheek against their clasped +hands. "Would you want L'ELEONORE more than you do just plain Elinor +Wingate, care Mother Mayberry, Providence, Tennessee?" + +"I'm going to carry you in the house so you can put on dry +stockings," answered the Doctor with a spark in his gray eyes that +scorned her question, and without any discussion he picked her up, +strode through the rain with her and deposited her in the kitchen +door. + +And over by the long window they found Mother Mayberry standing with +her hand on Cindy's shoulder, who sat with her head bowed in her +apron sobbing quietly, while Martin Luther stood wide-eyed and +questioning, with his little hand clutching Mother's skirts. + +"Children," said Mother quietly as she came and stood beside them in +the doorway, while Martin Luther nestled up to Doctor Tom, "I've +come down the Road to tell you that it are all over up at the +Deacon's. It were very beautiful, for Mis' Bostick just give us a +smile and went to meet her Lord with the love of us all a-shining on +her face. We didn't hardly sense it at first, for she had just spoke +to 'Liza, and the Deacon were over by the window. I ain't got no +tears to shed for her and Deacon are so stunned he don't need 'em +yet." + +"Mother," exclaimed the Doctor, as he took her hand in his, while +the singer lady crept close and rested against her strong shoulder. + +"Yes, son," answered his Mother gently, "it come so sudden I +couldn't even send for you, but go on up there now and see what you +can do for Deacon. He'll want you for the comfort of your presence, +you and 'Liza." + +"And Eliza!" exclaimed Miss Wingate with a sob, "it'll break her +little heart." + +"They never was such a child as 'Liza Pike in the world," said +Mother Mayberry softly and for the first time a film of tears spread +over her eyes. "She have never said a word, but just stands pressed +up close with her arm 'round the Deacon's shoulders as he sits with +his Good Book acrost his knees. She give one little moan when she +understood, but she ain't made a mite of child-fuss, just shed her +baby tears like a woman growed to sorrow. Her little bucket and dish +of dinner is a-setting cold on the table and a little draggled rose +she had brung in not a hour back is still in Mis' Bostick's fingers, +and the other one pinned on the Deacon's coat. When Judy and Betty +wanted to begin to fix things she understood without a word, led the +Deacon out into the hall and are just a-standing there a-keeping him +up in his daze by the courage in her own loving little heart. The +good Lord bless and keep the child! Now, go on, Tom, and see what +you can do! Yes, Cindy will run right over and tell Mis' Peavey. And +stop in and see Squire Tutt, for Henny Turner says he are down to- +day and a-asking for you. Come into my room, honey-bird, I've got to +look for something." + +"Somehow, I don't feel about dying as lot of folks do," she remarked +to the singer lady, as she stood in front of the tall old chest of +drawers in her own room a few minutes later. "Death ain't nothing +but laying down one job of work and going to answer the Master when +He calls you to come take up another. Mis' Bostick have worked in +His vineyard early and late, through summer sun and winter wind, and +now He have summoned her in for some other purpose. He'll find her +well-tried and seasoned to go on with whatever plans He have for her +in His Kingdom." + +"It's wonderful to believe that," answered the singer girl through +her tears. "It seems to supply a reason for what happens to us here- +-if we can go on with it later." + +"Course we can," answered Mother Mayberry, as she began to search in +her top drawer for something. "I hope He have got some good big job +cut out for Tom Mayberry and me; but course it will have to be +something different, for they won't be no more sickness or death or +sorrowing for us doctors to tend on. But Pa Lovell and Doctor +Mayberry have found something by this time and maybe it will be for +me and Tom to work at it alongside of 'em. It might be you will have +the beautiful voice back and come sing for us all, as have never +heard you in this world. Then, too, I believe He'll give it to +little Sister Pike to tend on the prophets and maybe I'll be there +to see!" + +"This is the first time I ever could take--take any interest in +Heaven at all," confessed Miss Wingate, lifting large, comforted +eyes to Mother Mayberry's face. "When I was so desperate and didn't +know what to do, before I came and found out that there was a place +for me in this world even if I couldn't sing any more, I used to +dread the thought of Heaven, even if I might some day be good enough +to go there." + +"Well, a stand-around, set-around kind of Heaven may be for some +people as wants it, but a come-over-and-help-us kind is what I'm +hoping for. I want to have a good lot of honest acts to pack up and +take into the judgment seat to prove my character by and then be +honored with some kind of telling labor to do. I'm looking for +something white to put at Mis' Bostick's neck, for we are a-going to +lay her in her grave in the old dress with its honorable patches, +but with a little piece of fine white to match her sweet soul. Here +it is." + +"Will you let me know if I can do anything for anybody or the Deacon +later?" asked the singer lady gently. + +"I know you will be a comfort to him, child, after a while. You can +look after my chickens and things for me, for Cindy's a-going with +me and that leaves you to feed the two boys, Tom and Martin Luther, +for dinner. And don't you never forget that you are the apple-core +of your Mother Mayberry's heart and she's a-going to hold you to her +tender, even unto them Glory days we've been a-planning for, with +Death here in the midst of Life." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SONG OF THE MASTER'S GRAIL + + +"In all my long life it have never been gave to me to see anything +like Deacon Bostick and his Providence children," said Mother +Mayberry, as she stood on the end of the porch with the singer +girl's hand in hers. "He are a-setting on his bench under the tree +right by her window, like he always did to listen for her, and every +child in the Road is a-huddled up against him like a forlorn lot of +little motherless chickens. He have got little Bettie and Martin +Luther on his knees and the rest are just crowded up all around him. +He don't seem to notice any of the rest of us, but looks to 'Liza +for everything. She got him to go to bed at nine o'clock and when +Buck and Mr. Petway went to set up for the night they found she'd +done made 'Lias and Henny and Bud all lie down by him, one on each +side and Bud acrost the foot. He wanted 'em to stay and the men let +'em do it. Judy says she were up by daylight and gone down the Road +to see about his breakfast and things. And now she are just a- +standing by him waiting for the bell to toll for the funeral. The +Deacon have surely followed his Master in the suffering of little +children to draw close to him in this life and now he are becoming +as one of 'em before entering the Kingdom." + +"This soft, misty, sun-veiled day seems just made for Mrs. Bostick," +said Miss Wingate with unshed tears in her voice. + +"It may be just a notion of mine, honey-bird, but it looks like up +here in Harpeth Hills the weather have got a sympathy with us folks. +Look how Providence Nob have drawed a mist of tears 'twixt it and +the faint sun. When troubles are with us I've seen clouds boil up +over the Ridge and on the other hand we ain't scarcely ever had rain +on a wedding or church soshul day. I like to feel that maybe the +good Lord looks special after us of His children living out in the +open fields and we have got His word that He tempers the winds. +People in the big cities can crowd up and keep care of one another, +but out here we are all just in the hollow of His hand. Here comes +Mis' Peavey. I asked her to go along to the funeral with me and you. +It are most time now." + +"Howdy, all," said Mrs. Peavey in an utterly gray tone of voice. +"Mis' Mayberry, that Circuit Rider have never come from Bolivar yet. +Do you reckon his horse have throwed him or is it just he don't care +for us Providence folks and don't think it worth his while to come +say the words over Sister Bostick?" + +"Oh, he come 'most a half-hour ago, Hettie Ann," answered Mother +Mayberry quickly. "Bettie had a little snack laid out for him 'count +of his having to make such a early start to get here. He was most +kind to the Deacon and professed much sorrow for us all. How are +your side this morning?" + +"I got out that foolish dry plaster Tom made me more'n a month ago +and put it on last night, 'cause I didn't want to disturb you, and +to my surprise they ain't a mite of pain hit me since. But I guess +it are mostly the clearing weather that have stopped it." + +"Maybe a little of both," answered the Doctor's mother with a smile, +"but anyway, it's good that you ain't a-suffering none. We must all +take good care of each other's pains from now on, 'cause we are most +valuable one to another. Friends is one kind of treasure you don't +want to lay up in Heaven." + +"I spend most of my time thinking about folks' accidents and hurts +and pains," answered Mrs. Peavey in all truth. "Miss Elinory, did +you gargle your throat with that slippery-ellum tea I thought about +to make for you last week?" + +"Yes, Mrs. Peavey, I did," answered Miss Wingate quickly, for she +had performed that nauseous operation actuated by positive fear of +Mrs. Peavey if she should discover a failure to follow her +directions. + +"It'll cure you, maybe," answered the gratified neighbor. "There's +the bell and let's all go on slow and respectful." + +And the sweet-toned old Providence Meeting-house bell was tolling +its notes for the passing of the soul of the gentle little Harpeth +woman of many sorrows as her friends and neighbors walked quietly +down the Road, along the dim aisle and took their places in the old +pews with a fitting solemnity on their serious faces. The young +Circuit Rider spoke to them from a full heart in sympathetically +simple words and Pattie Hoover led the congregation from behind the +little cabinet organ in a few of the Deacon's favorite hymns. + +Then the little procession wound its way among the graves over to a +corner under an old cedar tree, where the stout young farmers laid +their frail burden down for its long sleep. The Deacon stood close +by and the children clung around his thin old legs, to his hands, +and reached to grasp at a corner of his coat. Eliza laid her head +against his shoulder and Henny and 'Lias crowded close on the other +side, while Bud held the old black hat he had taken from off his +white hair, in careful, shaking little hands. The singer lady, with +the Doctor at her side and her hand in Mother Mayberry's, stood just +opposite and the others came near. + +The simple service that the Church has instituted for the committing +of its dead to the grave had been read by the Circuit Rider, the +last prayer offered, and as a long ray of sunlight came through the +mist and fell across the little assembly, he turned expectantly to +Pattie Hoover, who stood between her father and Buck at the other +end of the grave. He had read the first lines of the hymn and he +expected her to raise the tune for the others to follow. But when a +woman's heart is very young and tender, and attuned to that of +another which is throbbing emotionally close by, her own feelings +are apt to rise in a tidal wave of tears, regardless of +consequences; and as Buck Peavey choked off a sob, Pattie turned and +buried her head on her father's arm. There was a long pause and +nobody attempted to start the singing. They were accustomed to +depend on Pattie or her organ and their own throats were tight with +tears. The unmusical young preacher was helpless and looked from one +to another, then was about to raise his hands for the benediction, +when a little voice came across the grave. + +"Ain't nobody going to sing for Mis' Bostick?" wailed Eliza, as her +head went down on the Deacon's arm in a shudder of sobs. + +Then suddenly a very wonderful and beautiful thing happened in that +old churchyard of Providence Meeting-house under Harpeth Hills, for +the great singer lady stepped toward the Deacon a little way, +paused, looked across at the old Nob in the sunlight, and high and +clear and free-winged like that of an archangel, rose her glorious +voice in the + +"Hail, holy, holy, holy Lord," + +which she had set for him and the gentle invalid to the wonderful +motif of the Song of the Master's Grail. Love and sorrow and a flood +of tears had relieved a pressure somewhere, the balance had been +recovered and her muted voice freed. And on through the verses to +the very end she sang it, while the little group of field people +held their breath in awe and amazement. Then, while they all stood +with bowed heads for the benediction, she turned and walked away +through the graves, out of the churchyard and on up Providence Road, +with an instinct to hide from them all for a moment of realization. + +"And here I have to come and hunt the little skeered miracle out of +my own feather pillows," exclaimed Mother Mayberry a little later +with laughter, tears, pride and joy in her voice, as she bent over +the broad expanse of her own bed and drew the singer girl up in her +strong arms. "Daughter," she said, with her cheek pressed to the +flushed one against her shoulder, "what the Lord hath given and +taketh away we bless Him for and none the less what He giveth back, +blessed be His name. That's a jumble, but He understands me. You +don't feel in no ways peculiar, do you?" and as she asked the +question the Doctor's mother clasped the slender throat in one of +her strong hands. + +"Not a bit anywhere," answered Miss Wingate, with the burr all gone +from her soft voice. "Is it true?" + +"Dearie me, I can't hardly stand it to hear you speak, it are so +sweet!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry in positive rapture and again the +tears filled her eyes, while her face crinkled up into a dimpled +smile. "Don't say nothing where the mocking-birds will hear you, +please, 'cause they'll begin to hatch out a dumb race from plumb +discouragement. Come out on the porch where it ain't so hot, but I'm +a-holding on to you to keep you from flying up into one of the +trees. I'm a-going to set about building a cage for you right--" + +"Now, didn't I tell you about that slippery-ellum!" came in a +positively triumphant voile to greet them as they stepped out of the +front door. Mrs. Peavey was ascending the steps all out of breath, +her decorous hat awry, and her eyes snapping with excitement. +"Course I don't think this can be no positive cure and like as not +you'll wake up to-morrow with your voice all gone dry again, but it +were the slippery-ellum that done it!" + +"I think it must have helped some," answered the singer lady in the +clear voice that still held its wonted note of meekness to her +neighbor. + +"Course it did! Tom Mayberry's experimenting couldn'ter done it no +real good. His mother have been giving that biled bark for sore +throat for thirty years and it was me that remembered it. But it +were a pity you done it at the grave; that were Mis' Bostick's +funeral and not your'n. Now look at everybody a-coming up the Road +with no grieving left at all." + +"Oh, Hettie Ann," exclaimed Mother Mayberry in quick distress, "it +are a mean kind of sorrow that can't open its arms to hold joy +tender. Think what it do mean to the child and--Look at Bettie!" + +And indeed it was a sight to behold the pretty mother of the +seventeen sailing up the front walk like a great full-rigged ship. +Miss Wingate flew down the steps to meet her and in a few seconds +was enveloped and involved with little Hoover in an embrace that +threatened to be disastrous to all concerned. Judy Pike was close +behind and, making a grab on her own part, stood holding the end of +the singer lady's sash in her one hand while Teether, from her other +arm, caught at the bright ribbons and squealed with delight. The +abashed Pattie hung over the front gate and Buck grinned in the +rear. + +"Lawsy me, child," Mrs. Hoover laughed and sobbed as she patted the +singer lady on the back, little Hoover anywhere he came upmost and +included Teether and Judy also in the demonstration, "I feel like it +would take two to hold me down! You sure sing with as much style as +you dress! And to think such a thing have happened to all of us here +in Providence. We won't never need that phonygraph we all are a- +hankering after now. Speak up to the child, Judy Pike!" + +"I don't need to," answered the more self-contained Sister Pike, +"she knows how I'm a-rejoicing for her. Just look at Mr. Hoover and +Ez Pike a-grinning acrost the street at her and here do come the +Squire and Mis' Tutt walking along together for the first time I +almost ever seed 'em." + +"Wheeuh," wheezed the Squire, "I done come up here to give up on the +subject of that Tom Mayberry! He don't look or talk like he have got +any sense, girl, but he are the greatest doctor anywhere from +Harpeth Hills to Californy or Alasky. He have got good remedies for +all. I reckon you are one of the hot water kind, but he can give +bitters too. You'd better keep him to the bitters though for +safety." + +"There now! You all have done heard the top testimony for Tom +Mayberry," exclaimed Mother, fairly running over with joy. + +"Glory!" was the one word that rose to the surface of Mrs. Tutt's +emotions, but it expressed her state of beatitude and caused the +Squire to peer at her with uneasiness as if expecting an outburst of +exhortation on the next breath. Mrs. Peavey's experienced eye also +caught the threatened downpour and she hastened to admonish the +group of women. + +"Sakes, you all!" she exclaimed, untying the strings of her bonnet +energetically, "they won't be a supper cooked on the Road if we +don't go get about it. A snack dinner were give the men and such +always calls for the putting on of the big pot and the little kettle +for supper. Miss Elinory will be here for you all to eat up to- +morrow morning, 'lessen something happens to her in the night, like +a wind storm. Go on everybody!" + +"Oh," exclaimed Mother Mayberry, as she stood on the top step +looking down at them all, "look how the sun have come out on us all, +with its happiness after the sorrow we have known this day. I thank +you, one and all, for your feeling with me and my daughter Elinory. +The rejoicing of friends are a soft wind to folks' spirit wings and +we're all flying high this night. Get the children bedded down +early, for they have had a long day and need good sleep. Bettie, let +Mis' Tutt walk along with you and the Squire can come on slow. Don't +nobody forget that it are Sewing Circle with Mis' Mosbey to-morrow." + +And, with more congratulations to the singer lady, laughs with +Mother Mayberry, and the return of a shot or two with Mrs. Peavey, +the happy country women dispersed to their own roof trees. The +sorrow that had come they had endured for the night and now they +were ready to rise up and meet joy for the morning. In the children +of nature the emotions maintain their elemental balance and their +sense of the proportions of life is instinctively true. + +"Look, honey-bird, who's coming!" said Mother Mayberry, just as she +was turning to seat herself in her rocking-chair, tired out as she +was with the strain of the long day. "Run, meet 'em at the gate!" +And up Providence Road came the old Deacon and Eliza hand in hand, +with Martin Luther trailing wearily behind them. When she saw Miss +Wingate at the gate, Eliza, for the first time during the day, +loosed her hold on her old charge and darted forward to hide her +head on the singer lady's breast as her thin little arms clasped +around her convulsively. + +"Now," she wailed, "Mis' Bostick are dead and you'll be goned away +too. Can't you stay a little while, till we can stand to let you go? +Poor Doctor Tom! Please, oh, please!" + +"Darling, darling, I'm never going to leave you!" exclaimed Miss +Wingate, as she hugged the small implorer as closely as possible and +held out one hand to the Deacon as he came up beside them. "I'm +going to stay and sing for you and the Deacon whenever you want me-- +if it will help!" + +"Child," said the old patriarch, with an ineffable sweetness shining +from his sad old face, "out of my affliction I come to add my +blessing to what the Lord has given to you this day. And I take this +mercy as a special dispensation to me and to her, as it came when +you were performing one of His offices for us. No sweeter strain +could come from the Choir Invisible that she hears this night, and +if she knows she rejoices that it will be given at other times to +me, to feed my lonely soul." + +"The songs are yours when you want them, Deacon," said the singer +girl in her sweet low voice as she held his hand in hers gently. + +"And it are true what the Deacon says, they ain't no help like +music," said Mother Mayberry who had come down the walk and stood +leaning against the gate near them. "A song can tote comfort from +heart to heart when words wouldn't have no meaning. It's a high +calling, child, and have to be answered with a high life." + +"I know Pattie and Buck and Aunt Prissy will let you always sing in +the choir if Deacon asks 'em," said Eliza in a practical voice as +she again took hold of the Deacon's hand, "and Mr. Petway are a- +going to buy a piano for Aunt Prissy when they get married and +sometimes you can sing by it if Doctor Tom can't save up enough to +get you one. But I want Deacon to come home now, 'cause he are +tired." And without more ado she departed with her docile charge, +leaving the tired Martin Luther with his hands clasped in Mother +Mayberry's. + +"Mother," faltered Miss Wingate as she and Mother Mayberry were +slowly ascending the steps, assisting the almost paralyzed young +missionary to mount between them, "where do you suppose--HE is?" For +some minutes back the singer lady had been growing pale at the +realization that the Doctor had not come to her since she had left +his side in the churchyard and her eyes were beginning to show a +deep hurt within. + +"I don't know, Elinory, and I've been a-wondering," answered Mother +Mayberry as she sank down on the top step and took the tired child +in her arms. + +"Oh," said Miss Wingate as she stood before her on the lower step +and clasped her white hands against her breast, "do you suppose he +is going to--to hurt me now?" + +"Child," answered the Doctor's mother quietly, with a quick sadness +spreading over her usually bright face, "they ain't nothing in the +world that can be as cruel as true love when it goes blind. Tom +Mayberry is a good man and I borned, nursed and raised him, but I +won't answer for him about no co'ting conniptions. A man lover are a +shy bird and they can't nothing but a true mate keep him steady on +any limb. You ain't showed a single symptom of managing Tom yet, but +somehow I've got confidence in you if you just keep your head now." + +"But what can the matter be?" demanded Miss Wingate in a voice that +shook with positive terror. + +"Well," answered Mother Mayberry slowly, "I sorter sense the trouble +and I'll tell you right out and out for your good. Loving a woman +are a kinder regeneration process for any man, and a good one like +as not comes outen it humbler than a bad most times. Tom have +wrapped you around with some sorter pink cloud of sentiments, tagged +you with all them bokays the world have give you for singing so +grand, turned all them lights on you he first seen you acrost and +now he's afraid to come nigh you. I suspect him of a bad case of +chicken-heart and I'm a-pitying of him most deep. He's just lying +down at your feet waiting to be picked up." + +"I wonder where he is!" exclaimed Miss Wingate as a light flashed +into her eyes and a trace of color came back to her cheeks. + +"You'll find him," answered the Doctor's mother comfortably, "and +when you do I want you to promise me to put him through a good +course of sprouts. A wife oughtn't to stand on no pedestal for a +man, but she have got no call to make squaw tracks behind him +neither. Go on and find him! A woman have got to come out of the +pink cloud to her husband some time, but she'd better keep a bit to +flirt behind the rest of her life. Look in the office!" + +"Well; Martin Luther," remarked Mother a few minutes later, as she +lifted the absolutely dead youngster in her arms and rose to take +him into the house, "life are all alike from Harpeth Hills to +Galilee. A woman can shape up her dough any fancy way she wants and +it's likely to come outen the oven a husband. All Elinory's fine +songs are about to end in little chorus cheeps with Tom under Mother +Mayberry's wings, the Lord be praised!" + +And over in the office wing the situation was about as Mother +Mayberry's experienced intuitions had predicted. Miss Wingate found +the young Doctor sitting in the deep window and looking out at +Providence Nob, which the last rays of the sun were dying blood red, +with his strong young face set and white. The battle was still on +and his soul was up in arms. + +"Where have you been?" she asked quietly as she came and stood +against the other side of the casement. The pain in his gray eyes +set her heart to throbbing, but she had herself well in hand. + +"When I came up the Road the others were all here and I waited to +see you until they were gone," he answered her, just as quietly and +in just as controlled a voice and with possibly just as wild a throb +in his heart "I have been writing to Doctor Stein and there are the +Press bulletins, subject to your approval," He pointed to some +letters on the table which she never deigned to notice. She had +drawn herself to her slim young height and looked him full in the +face with a beautiful stateliness in her manner and glance. Her dark +eyes never left his and she seemed waiting for him to say something +further to her. + +"You know without my telling you how very glad I am for you," he +said gently and his hand trembled on the window ledge. + +"Are you?" she asked in a low tone, still with her eyes fixed on his +face, but her lips pressed close with a sharp intake of breath. + +"Yes," he answered quickly, and this time the note of pain would +sound clearly in his voice. "Yes, no matter what it means to me!" + +The pain of it, the haggard gray eyes, the firm young mouth and the +droop of the broad shoulders were too much for the singer girl and +she smiled shakily as she held out her arms. + +"Tom Mayberry," she pleaded with a little laugh, "please, please +don't treat me this way. I promised your mother to be stern with you +but--I can't! Don't you see that it can only mean to me what it +means to your happiness--if--do you, could you possibly think it +would make any difference to me? Do you suppose for all the wide +world I would throw away what I have found here in Providence under +Harpeth Hills--my Mother and you? Ah, Tom, I'll be good, I'll go to +Italy and India with you! I'll--I'll 'do for' you just the best I +can!" + +"But, dear, it isn't right at all," whispered the young Doctor to +the back of the singer lady's head, as he laid his cheek against the +dark braids. "Your voice belongs to the world--there must be no +giving it up. I can't let you--I--" + +"Listen," said the singer girl as she raised her head and looked up +into his face. "For all your life you will have to go where pain and +grief call you, won't you? Can't you take my voice with you and use +it--as one of your--remedies? Your Mother says songs can comfort +where words fail; let me go with you! Your father brought her and +her herb basket to Providence, won't you take me and my songs out +into the world with you? Don't send me back to sing in the dreadful +crowded theaters to people who pay to hear me. Let me give it all my +lifelong, as she has given herself here in Providence. Please, Tom, +please!" And again she buried her head against his coat. + +And as was his wont, the silent young doctor failed to answer a +single word but just held her close and comforted. And how long he +would have held her, there is no way to know, because the strain had +been too great on Mother Mayberry and in a few minutes she stood +calmly in the door and looked at the pair of children with happy but +quizzical eyes. + +"It's just as well you got Tom Mayberry straightened out quick, +Elinory," she remarked in her most jovial tone. "I've been getting +madder and madder as I put Martin Luther to bed and though I ain't +never had to whip him yet, I'd just about made up my mind to ask him +out in the barn and dress him down for onct. Now are you well over +your tantrum, sir?" she demanded as she eyed the shamefaced young +Doctor delightedly. + +"Mother!" he exclaimed as he turned his head away and the color rose +under his tan. + +"Have you done made up your mind to travel from town to town with +Elinory and take in the tickets at the door and make yourself useful +to her the rest of your life? Are you a-going to follow her +peaceable all over Europe, Asia and Africa?" And her eyes fairly +over-danced themselves with delight. + +"Mother!" and this time the exclamation came from Miss Wingate as +she came over to rest her cheek against Mother Mayberry's arm. She +also blushed, but her eyes danced with an echo of the young Doctor's +mother's laugh as she beheld his embarrassment. + +"Yes," answered the Doctor, rallying at last, "yes, I'm ready to go +with her. Will you go too, Mother, as retained physician?" + +"Well, I don't know about that," answered his Mother with a laugh; +"not till 'Liza Pike have growed up to take my place here. But I'm +mighty glad to see you take your dose of humble pie so nice, Tom, +and I reckon I'll have to tell you how happy I am about my child +here. It was kinder smart of you to cure her and then claim her +sweet self as a fee, wasn't it?" + +"I do feel that way, Mother, and I don't see how I can let her make +the sacrifice. Her future is so brilliant and I--I--" + +"Son," said Mother Mayberry with the banter all gone from her rich +voice and the love fairly radiating from her face as she laid a +tender hand on the singer lady's dark head on her shoulder, "I don't +have to ask my honey-bird the choice she have made. A woman don't +want to wear her life-work like no jewelry harness nor yet no +sacrificial garment, but she loves to clothe herself in it like it +were a soft-colored, homespun dress to cover the pillow of her +breast and the cradle of her arms to hold the tired folks against. +Take her to India's coral strand if you must, for it's gave a wife +to follow the husband-star. Long ago I vowed you to the Master's +high call and now with these words I dedicates my daughter the same. +She have waded through much pain and sorrow, but do it matter along +how hard a Road folks travels if at last they come to they Providence?" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Road To Providence, by Maria Thompson Daviess + diff --git a/old/r2prv10.zip b/old/r2prv10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe7e191 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/r2prv10.zip |