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diff --git a/old/snybk10.txt b/old/snybk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2529642 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/snybk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10660 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm*** +by Kate Douglas Wiggin + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned by Charles Keller for Tina with +OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + + +Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm + +by Kate Douglas Wiggin + + + + +TO MY MOTHER + + +Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; +Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; +But all things else about her drawn +From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; +A dancing Shape, an Image gay, +To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. + +Wordsworth. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. "WE ARE SEVEN" +II. REBECCA'S RELATIONS +III. A DIFFERENCE IN HEARTS +IV. REBECCA'S POINT OF VIEW +V. WISDOM'S WAYS +VI. SUNSHINE IN A SHADY PLACE +VII. RIVERBORO SECRETS +VIII. COLOR OF ROSE +IX ASHES OF ROSES +X. RAINBOW BRIDGES +XI. "THE STIRRING OF THE POWERS" +XII. "SEE THE PALE MARTYR" +XIII. SNOW-WHITE; ROSE-RED +XIV. MR. ALADDIN +XV. THE BANQUET LAMP +XVI. SEASONS OF GROWTH +XVII. GRAY DAYS AND GOLD +XVIII. REBECCA REPRESENTS THE FAMILY +XIX. DEACON ISRAEL'S SUCCESSOR +XX. A CHANGE OF HEART +XXI. THE SKY LINE WIDENS +XXII. CLOVER BLOSSOMS AND SUNFLOWERS +XXIII. THE HILL DIFFICULTY +XXIV. ALADDIN RUBS HIS LAMP +XXV. ROSES OF JOY +XXVI. OVER THE TEACUPS +XXVII. "THE VISION SPLENDID" +XXVIII. "TH' INEVITABLE YOKE" +XXIX. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER +XXX. "GOOD-BY, SUNNYBROOK!" +XXXI. AUNT MIRANDA'S APOLOGY + + + + +REBECCA +OF SUNNYBROOK FARM + + + +REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM + + +"WE ARE SEVEN" + +The old stage coach was rumbling along +the dusty road that runs from Maplewood +to Riverboro. The day was as warm +as midsummer, though it was only the middle of +May, and Mr. Jeremiah Cobb was favoring the +horses as much as possible, yet never losing sight +of the fact that he carried the mail. The hills were +many, and the reins lay loosely in his hands as he +lolled back in his seat and extended one foot and +leg luxuriously over the dashboard. His brimmed +hat of worn felt was well pulled over his eyes, and +he revolved a quid of tobacco in his left cheek. + +There was one passenger in the coach,--a small +dark-haired person in a glossy buff calico dress. +She was so slender and so stiffly starched that +she slid from space to space on the leather cushions, +though she braced herself against the middle +seat with her feet and extended her cotton-gloved +hands on each side, in order to maintain some sort +of balance. Whenever the wheels sank farther than +usual into a rut, or jolted suddenly over a stone, +she bounded involuntarily into the air, came down +again, pushed back her funny little straw hat, and +picked up or settled more firmly a small pink sun +shade, which seemed to be her chief responsibility, +--unless we except a bead purse, into which +she looked whenever the condition of the roads +would permit, finding great apparent satisfaction +in that its precious contents neither disappeared +nor grew less. Mr. Cobb guessed nothing of these +harassing details of travel, his business being to +carry people to their destinations, not, necessarily, +to make them comfortable on the way. Indeed he +had forgotten the very existence of this one +unnoteworthy little passenger. + +When he was about to leave the post-office in +Maplewood that morning, a woman had alighted +from a wagon, and coming up to him, inquired +whether this were the Riverboro stage, and if he +were Mr. Cobb. Being answered in the affirmative, +she nodded to a child who was eagerly waiting +for the answer, and who ran towards her as if she +feared to be a moment too late. The child might +have been ten or eleven years old perhaps, but +whatever the number of her summers, she had an +air of being small for her age. Her mother helped +her into the stage coach, deposited a bundle and +a bouquet of lilacs beside her, superintended the +"roping on" behind of an old hair trunk, and finally +paid the fare, counting out the silver with great +care. + +"I want you should take her to my sisters' +in Riverboro," she said. "Do you know Mi- +randy and Jane Sawyer? They live in the brick +house." + +Lord bless your soul, he knew 'em as well as +if he'd made 'em! + +"Well, she's going there, and they're expecting +her. Will you keep an eye on her, please? If she +can get out anywhere and get with folks, or get +anybody in to keep her company, she'll do it. +Good-by, Rebecca; try not to get into any mischief, +and sit quiet, so you'll look neat an' nice when +you get there. Don't be any trouble to Mr. Cobb. +--You see, she's kind of excited.--We came on +the cars from Temperance yesterday, slept all night +at my cousin's, and drove from her house--eight +miles it is--this morning." + +"Good-by, mother, don't worry; you know it +isn't as if I hadn't traveled before." + +The woman gave a short sardonic laugh and said +in an explanatory way to Mr. Cobb, "She's been to +Wareham and stayed over night; that isn't much +to be journey-proud on!" + +"It WAS TRAVELING, mother," said the child +eagerly and willfully. "It was leaving the farm, and +putting up lunch in a basket, and a little riding +and a little steam cars, and we carried our nightgowns." + +"Don't tell the whole village about it, if we did," +said the mother, interrupting the reminiscences of +this experienced voyager. "Haven't I told you +before," she whispered, in a last attempt at +discipline, "that you shouldn't talk about night +gowns and stockings and--things like that, in a +loud tone of voice, and especially when there's +men folks round?" + +"I know, mother, I know, and I won't. All I +want to say is"--here Mr. Cobb gave a cluck, +slapped the reins, and the horses started sedately +on their daily task--"all I want to say is that it +is a journey when"--the stage was really under +way now and Rebecca had to put her head out of +the window over the door in order to finish her +sentence--"it IS a journey when you carry a +nightgown!" + +The objectionable word, uttered in a high treble, +floated back to the offended ears of Mrs. Randall, +who watched the stage out of sight, gathered up +her packages from the bench at the store door, +and stepped into the wagon that had been standing +at the hitching-post. As she turned the horse's +head towards home she rose to her feet for a +moment, and shading her eyes with her hand, looked +at a cloud of dust in the dim distance. + +"Mirandy'll have her hands full, I guess," she +said to herself; "but I shouldn't wonder if it would +be the making of Rebecca." + +All this had been half an hour ago, and the sun, +the heat, the dust, the contemplation of errands to +be done in the great metropolis of Milltown, had +lulled Mr. Cobb's never active mind into complete +oblivion as to his promise of keeping an eye on +Rebecca. + +Suddenly he heard a small voice above the rattle +and rumble of the wheels and the creaking of the +harness. At first he thought it was a cricket, a tree +toad, or a bird, but having determined the direction +from which it came, he turned his head over his +shoulder and saw a small shape hanging as far out +of the window as safety would allow. A long black +braid of hair swung with the motion of the coach; +the child held her hat in one hand and with the +other made ineffectual attempts to stab the driver +with her microscopic sunshade. + +"Please let me speak!" she called. + +Mr. Cobb drew up the horses obediently. + +"Does it cost any more to ride up there with +you?" she asked. "It's so slippery and shiny down +here, and the stage is so much too big for me, that +I rattle round in it till I'm 'most black and blue. +And the windows are so small I can only see pieces +of things, and I've 'most broken my neck stretching +round to find out whether my trunk has fallen +off the back. It's my mother's trunk, and she's +very choice of it." + +Mr. Cobb waited until this flow of conversation, +or more properly speaking this flood of criticism, +had ceased, and then said jocularly:-- + +"You can come up if you want to; there ain't +no extry charge to sit side o' me." Whereupon he +helped her out, "boosted" her up to the front seat, +and resumed his own place. + +Rebecca sat down carefully, smoothing her dress +under her with painstaking precision, and putting +her sunshade under its extended folds between the +driver and herself. This done she pushed back her +hat, pulled up her darned white cotton gloves, and +said delightedly:-- + +"Oh! this is better! This is like traveling! I +am a real passenger now, and down there I felt like +our setting hen when we shut her up in a coop. I +hope we have a long, long ways to go?" + +"Oh! we've only just started on it," Mr. Cobb +responded genially; "it's more 'n two hours." + +"Only two hours," she sighed "That will be +half past one; mother will be at cousin Ann's, the +children at home will have had their dinner, and +Hannah cleared all away. I have some lunch, +because mother said it would be a bad beginning to get +to the brick house hungry and have aunt Mirandy +have to get me something to eat the first thing.-- +It's a good growing day, isn't it?" + +"It is, certain; too hot, most. Why don't you +put up your parasol?" + +She extended her dress still farther over the +article in question as she said, "Oh dear no! I never +put it up when the sun shines; pink fades awfully, +you know, and I only carry it to meetin' cloudy +Sundays; sometimes the sun comes out all of a +sudden, and I have a dreadful time covering it up; +it's the dearest thing in life to me, but it's an awful +care." + +At this moment the thought gradually permeated +Mr. Jeremiah Cobb's slow-moving mind that the +bird perched by his side was a bird of very different +feather from those to which he was accustomed in +his daily drives. He put the whip back in its socket, +took his foot from the dashboard, pushed his hat +back, blew his quid of tobacco into the road, and +having thus cleared his mental decks for action, he took +his first good look at the passenger, a look which +she met with a grave, childlike stare of friendly +curiosity. + +The buff calico was faded, but scrupulously clean, +and starched within an inch of its life. From the +little standing ruffle at the neck the child's slender +throat rose very brown and thin, and the head looked +small to bear the weight of dark hair that hung in +a thick braid to her waist. She wore an odd little +vizored cap of white leghorn, which may either have +been the latest thing in children's hats, or some bit +of ancient finery furbished up for the occasion. It +was trimmed with a twist of buff ribbon and a cluster +of black and orange porcupine quills, which hung +or bristled stiffly over one ear, giving her the +quaintest and most unusual appearance. Her face was +without color and sharp in outline. As to features, +she must have had the usual number, though Mr. +Cobb's attention never proceeded so far as nose, +forehead, or chin, being caught on the way and held +fast by the eyes. Rebecca's eyes were like faith,-- +"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence +of things not seen." Under her delicately etched +brows they glowed like two stars, their dancing +lights half hidden in lustrous darkness. Their +glance was eager and full of interest, yet never +satisfied; their steadfast gaze was brilliant and +mysterious, and had the effect of looking directly through +the obvious to something beyond, in the object, in +the landscape, in you. They had never been +accounted for, Rebecca's eyes. The school teacher +and the minister at Temperance had tried and +failed; the young artist who came for the summer +to sketch the red barn, the ruined mill, and the +bridge ended by giving up all these local beauties +and devoting herself to the face of a child,--a +small, plain face illuminated by a pair of eyes carrying +such messages, such suggestions, such hints of +sleeping power and insight, that one never tired of +looking into their shining depths, nor of fancying +that what one saw there was the reflection of one's +own thought. + +Mr. Cobb made none of these generalizations; +his remark to his wife that night was simply to the +effect that whenever the child looked at him she +knocked him galley-west. + +"Miss Ross, a lady that paints, gave me the +sunshade," said Rebecca, when she had exchanged +looks with Mr. Cobb and learned his face by heart. +"Did you notice the pinked double ruffle and the +white tip and handle? They're ivory. The handle +is scarred, you see. That's because Fanny sucked +and chewed it in meeting when I wasn't looking. +I've never felt the same to Fanny since." + +"Is Fanny your sister?" + +"She's one of them." + +"How many are there of you?" + +"Seven. There's verses written about seven +children:-- + +"`Quick was the little Maid's reply, + O master! we are seven!' + +I learned it to speak in school, but the scholars +were hateful and laughed. Hannah is the oldest, I +come next, then John, then Jenny, then Mark, then +Fanny, then Mira." + +"Well, that IS a big family!" + +"Far too big, everybody says," replied Rebecca +with an unexpected and thoroughly grown-up candor +that induced Mr. Cobb to murmur, "I swan!" +and insert more tobacco in his left cheek. + +"They're dear, but such a bother, and cost so +much to feed, you see," she rippled on. "Hannah +and I haven't done anything but put babies to bed +at night and take them up in the morning for years +and years. But it's finished, that's one comfort, +and we'll have a lovely time when we're all grown +up and the mortgage is paid off." + +"All finished? Oh, you mean you've come +away?" + +"No, I mean they're all over and done with; +our family 's finished. Mother says so, and she always +keeps her promises. There hasn't been any +since Mira, and she's three. She was born the +day father died Aunt Miranda wanted Hannah +to come to Riverboro instead of me, but mother +couldn't spare her; she takes hold of housework +better than I do, Hannah does. I told mother last +night if there was likely to be any more children +while I was away I'd have to be sent for, for when +there's a baby it always takes Hannah and me +both, for mother has the cooking and the farm." + +"Oh, you live on a farm, do ye? Where is it? +--near to where you got on?" + +"Near? Why, it must be thousands of miles! +We came from Temperance in the cars. Then we +drove a long ways to cousin Ann's and went to bed. +Then we got up and drove ever so far to Maplewood, +where the stage was. Our farm is away off +from everywheres, but our school and meeting +house is at Temperance, and that's only two miles. +Sitting up here with you is most as good as climbing +the meeting-house steeple. I know a boy who's +been up on our steeple. He said the people and +cows looked like flies. We haven't met any people +yet, but I'm KIND of disappointed in the cows;-- +they don't look so little as I hoped they would; +still (brightening) they don't look quite as big as +if we were down side of them, do they? Boys always +do the nice splendid things, and girls can only +do the nasty dull ones that get left over. They +can't climb so high, or go so far, or stay out so +late, or run so fast, or anything." + +Mr. Cobb wiped his mouth on the back of his +hand and gasped. He had a feeling that he was being +hurried from peak to peak of a mountain range +without time to take a good breath in between. + +"I can't seem to locate your farm," he said, +"though I've been to Temperance and used to live +up that way. What's your folks' name?" + +"Randall. My mother's name is Aurelia Randall; +our names are Hannah Lucy Randall, Rebecca +Rowena Randall, John Halifax Randall, Jenny +Lind Randall, Marquis Randall, Fanny Ellsler +Randall, and Miranda Randall. Mother named half +of us and father the other half, but we didn't come +out even, so they both thought it would be nice to +name Mira after aunt Miranda in Riverboro; they +hoped it might do some good, but it didn't, and now +we call her Mira. We are all named after somebody +in particular. Hannah is Hannah at the +Window Binding Shoes, and I am taken out of +Ivanhoe; John Halifax was a gentleman in a book; +Mark is after his uncle Marquis de Lafayette that +died a twin. (Twins very often don't live to grow +up, and triplets almost never--did you know that, +Mr. Cobb?) We don't call him Marquis, only Mark. +Jenny is named for a singer and Fanny for a beautiful +dancer, but mother says they're both misfits, for +Jenny can't carry a tune and Fanny's kind of stiff- +legged. Mother would like to call them Jane and +Frances and give up their middle names, but she +says it wouldn't be fair to father. She says we +must always stand up for father, because everything +was against him, and he wouldn't have died if he +hadn't had such bad luck. I think that's all there +is to tell about us," she finished seriously. + +"Land o' Liberty! I should think it was +enough," ejaculated Mr. Cobb. "There wa'n't +many names left when your mother got through +choosin'! You've got a powerful good memory! +I guess it ain't no trouble for you to learn your +lessons, is it?" + +"Not much; the trouble is to get the shoes to +go and learn 'em. These are spandy new I've got +on, and they have to last six months. Mother +always says to save my shoes. There don't seem +to be any way of saving shoes but taking 'em off +and going barefoot; but I can't do that in Riverboro +without shaming aunt Mirandy. I'm going to +school right along now when I'm living with aunt +Mirandy, and in two years I'm going to the seminary +at Wareham; mother says it ought to be the +making of me! I'm going to be a painter like Miss +Ross when I get through school. At any rate, that's +what _I_ think I'm going to be. Mother thinks I'd +better teach." + +"Your farm ain't the old Hobbs place, is it?" + +"No, it's just Randall's Farm. At least that's +what mother calls it. I call it Sunnybrook Farm." + +"I guess it don't make no difference what you +call it so long as you know where it is," remarked +Mr. Cobb sententiously. + +Rebecca turned the full light of her eyes upon +him reproachfully, almost severely, as she answered:-- + +"Oh! don't say that, and be like all the rest! It +does make a difference what you call things. When +I say Randall's Farm, do you see how it looks?" + +"No, I can't say I do," responded Mr. Cobb uneasily. + +"Now when I say Sunnybrook Farm, what does +it make you think of?" + +Mr. Cobb felt like a fish removed from his native +element and left panting on the sand; there was +no evading the awful responsibility of a reply, for +Rebecca's eyes were searchlights, that pierced the +fiction of his brain and perceived the bald spot on +the back of his head. + +"I s'pose there's a brook somewheres near it," +he said timorously. + +Rebecca looked disappointed but not quite dis- +heartened. "That's pretty good," she said +encouragingly. "You're warm but not hot; there's +a brook, but not a common brook. It has young +trees and baby bushes on each side of it, and it's a +shallow chattering little brook with a white sandy +bottom and lots of little shiny pebbles. Whenever +there's a bit of sunshine the brook catches it, and +it's always full of sparkles the livelong day. +Don't your stomach feel hollow? Mine doest I +was so 'fraid I'd miss the stage I couldn't eat any +breakfast." + +"You'd better have your lunch, then. I don't +eat nothin' till I get to Milltown; then I get a +piece o' pie and cup o' coffee." + +"I wish I could see Milltown. I suppose it's +bigger and grander even than Wareham; more like +Paris? Miss Ross told me about Paris; she bought +my pink sunshade there and my bead purse. You +see how it opens with a snap? I've twenty cents +in it, and it's got to last three months, for stamps +and paper and ink. Mother says aunt Mirandy +won't want to buy things like those when she's +feeding and clothing me and paying for my school +books." + +"Paris ain't no great," said Mr. Cobb +disparagingly. "It's the dullest place in the State o' +Maine. I've druv there many a time." + +Again Rebecca was obliged to reprove Mr. Cobb, +tacitly and quietly, but none the less surely, though +the reproof was dealt with one glance, quickly sent +and as quickly withdrawn. + +"Paris is the capital of France, and you have to +go to it on a boat," she said instructively. "It's in +my geography, and it says: `The French are a gay +and polite people, fond of dancing and light wines.' +I asked the teacher what light wines were, and he +thought it was something like new cider, or maybe +ginger pop. I can see Paris as plain as day by just +shutting my eyes. The beautiful ladies are always +gayly dancing around with pink sunshades and +bead purses, and the grand gentlemen are politely +dancing and drinking ginger pop. But you can see +Milltown most every day with your eyes wide +open," Rebecca said wistfully. + +"Milltown ain't no great, neither," replied Mr. +Cobb, with the air of having visited all the cities of +the earth and found them as naught. "Now you +watch me heave this newspaper right onto Mis' +Brown's doorstep." + +Piff! and the packet landed exactly as it was +intended, on the corn husk mat in front of the +screen door. + +"Oh, how splendid that was!" cried Rebecca +with enthusiasm. "Just like the knife thrower +Mark saw at the circus. I wish there was a long, +long row of houses each with a corn husk mat and +a screen door in the middle, and a newspaper to +throw on every one!" + +"I might fail on some of 'em, you know," said +Mr. Cobb, beaming with modest pride. "If your +aunt Mirandy'll let you, I'll take you down to +Milltown some day this summer when the stage +ain't full." + +A thrill of delicious excitement ran through +Rebecca's frame, from her new shoes up, up to the +leghorn cap and down the black braid. She pressed +Mr. Cobb's knee ardently and said in a voice choking +with tears of joy and astonishment, "Oh, it +can't be true, it can't; to think I should see +Milltown. It's like having a fairy godmother who asks +you your wish and then gives it to you! Did you +ever read Cinderella, or The Yellow Dwarf, or The +Enchanted Frog, or The Fair One with Golden +Locks?" + +"No," said Mr. Cobb cautiously, after a moment's +reflection. "I don't seem to think I ever did read +jest those partic'lar ones. Where'd you get a +chance at so much readin'?" + +"Oh, I've read lots of books," answered +Rebecca casually. "Father's and Miss Ross's and all +the dif'rent school teachers', and all in the Sunday- +school library. I've read The Lamplighter, and +Scottish Chiefs, and Ivanhoe, and The Heir of +Redclyffe, and Cora, the Doctor's Wife, and David +Copperfield, and The Gold of Chickaree, and Plutarch's +Lives, and Thaddeus of Warsaw, and Pilgrim's Progress, +and lots more.--What have you read?" + +"I've never happened to read those partic'lar +books; but land! I've read a sight in my time! +Nowadays I'm so drove I get along with the +Almanac, the Weekly Argus, and the Maine State +Agriculturist.--There's the river again; this is +the last long hill, and when we get to the top of it +we'll see the chimbleys of Riverboro in the +distance. 'T ain't fur. I live 'bout half a mile beyond +the brick house myself." + +Rebecca's hand stirred nervously in her lap and +she moved in her seat. "I didn't think I was going +to be afraid," she said almost under her breath; +"but I guess I am, just a little mite--when you +say it's coming so near." + +"Would you go back?" asked Mr. Cobb curiously. + +She flashed him an intrepid look and then said +proudly, "I'd never go back--I might be frightened, +but I'd be ashamed to run. Going to aunt +Mirandy's is like going down cellar in the dark. +There might be ogres and giants under the stairs, +--but, as I tell Hannah, there MIGHT be elves and +fairies and enchanted frogs!--Is there a main +street to the village, like that in Wareham?" + +"I s'pose you might call it a main street, an' +your aunt Sawyer lives on it, but there ain't no +stores nor mills, an' it's an awful one-horse +village! You have to go 'cross the river an' get on +to our side if you want to see anything goin' on." + +"I'm almost sorry," she sighed, "because it +would be so grand to drive down a real main street, +sitting high up like this behind two splendid horses, +with my pink sunshade up, and everybody in town +wondering who the bunch of lilacs and the hair +trunk belongs to. It would be just like the beautiful +lady in the parade. Last summer the circus +came to Temperance, and they had a procession in +the morning. Mother let us all walk in and wheel +Mira in the baby carriage, because we couldn't +afford to go to the circus in the afternoon. And +there were lovely horses and animals in cages, and +clowns on horseback; and at the very end came a +little red and gold chariot drawn by two ponies, and +in it, sitting on a velvet cushion, was the snake +charmer, all dressed in satin and spangles. She was +so beautiful beyond compare, Mr. Cobb, that you +had to swallow lumps in your throat when you +looked at her, and little cold feelings crept up and +down your back. Don't you know how I mean? +Didn't you ever see anybody that made you feel +like that?" + +Mr. Cobb was more distinctly uncomfortable at +this moment than he had been at any one time +during the eventful morning, but he evaded the +point dexterously by saying, "There ain't no harm, +as I can see, in our makin' the grand entry in the +biggest style we can. I'll take the whip out, set +up straight, an' drive fast; you hold your bo'quet +in your lap, an' open your little red parasol, an' +we'll jest make the natives stare!" + +The child's face was radiant for a moment, but +the glow faded just as quickly as she said, "I forgot-- +mother put me inside, and maybe she'd want +me to be there when I got to aunt Mirandy's. +Maybe I'd be more genteel inside, and then I +wouldn't have to be jumped down and my clothes +fly up, but could open the door and step down like +a lady passenger. Would you please stop a minute, +Mr. Cobb, and let me change?" + +The stage driver good-naturedly pulled up his +horses, lifted the excited little creature down, opened +the door, and helped her in, putting the lilacs and +the pink sunshade beside her. + +"We've had a great trip," he said, "and we've +got real well acquainted, haven't we?--You won't +forget about Milltown?" + +"Never!" she exclaimed fervently; "and you're +sure you won't, either?" + +"Never! Cross my heart!" vowed Mr. Cobb +solemnly, as he remounted his perch; and as the +stage rumbled down the village street between the +green maples, those who looked from their windows +saw a little brown elf in buff calico sitting primly +on the back seat holding a great bouquet tightly in +one hand and a pink parasol in the other. Had they +been farsighted enough they might have seen, when +the stage turned into the side dooryard of the old +brick house, a calico yoke rising and falling +tempestuously over the beating heart beneath, the red +color coming and going in two pale cheeks, and a +mist of tears swimming in two brilliant dark eyes. + +Rebecca's journey had ended. + +"There's the stage turnin' into the Sawyer +girls' dooryard," said Mrs. Perkins to her husband. +"That must be the niece from up Temperance way. +It seems they wrote to Aurelia and invited Hannah, +the oldest, but Aurelia said she could spare Rebecca +better, if 't was all the same to Mirandy 'n' Jane; +so it's Rebecca that's come. She'll be good +comp'ny for our Emma Jane, but I don't believe +they'll keep her three months! She looks black +as an Injun what I can see of her; black and kind +of up-an-comin'. They used to say that one o' the +Randalls married a Spanish woman, somebody +that was teachin' music and languages at a boardin' +school. Lorenzo was dark complected, you remember, +and this child is, too. Well, I don't know as +Spanish blood is any real disgrace, not if it's a good +ways back and the woman was respectable." + + + +II + +REBECCA'S RELATIONS + +They had been called the Sawyer girls when +Miranda at eighteen, Jane at twelve, and +Aurelia at eight participated in the various +activities of village life; and when Riverboro fell +into a habit of thought or speech, it saw no reason +for falling out of it, at any rate in the same century. +So although Miranda and Jane were between fifty +and sixty at the time this story opens, Riverboro +still called them the Sawyer girls. They were +spinsters; but Aurelia, the youngest, had made what +she called a romantic marriage and what her sisters +termed a mighty poor speculation. "There's worse +things than bein' old maids," they said; whether +they thought so is quite another matter. + +The element of romance in Aurelia's marriage +existed chiefly in the fact that Mr. L. D. M. Randall +had a soul above farming or trading and was a votary +of the Muses. He taught the weekly singing-school +(then a feature of village life) in half a dozen +neighboring towns, he played the violin and "called off" +at dances, or evoked rich harmonies from church +melodeons on Sundays. He taught certain uncouth +lads, when they were of an age to enter society, the +intricacies of contra dances, or the steps of the +schottische and mazurka, and he was a marked +figure in all social assemblies, though conspicuously +absent from town-meetings and the purely masculine +gatherings at the store or tavern or bridge. + +His hair was a little longer, his hands a little +whiter, his shoes a little thinner, his manner a trifle +more polished, than that of his soberer mates; +indeed the only department of life in which he failed +to shine was the making of sufficient money to live +upon. Luckily he had no responsibilities; his father +and his twin brother had died when he was yet a +boy, and his mother, whose only noteworthy achievement +had been the naming of her twin sons Marquis +de Lafayette and Lorenzo de Medici Randall, had +supported herself and educated her child by making +coats up to the very day of her death. She was wont +to say plaintively, "I'm afraid the faculties was too +much divided up between my twins. L. D. M. is +awful talented, but I guess M. D. L. would 'a' ben +the practical one if he'd 'a' lived." + +"L. D. M. was practical enough to get the richest +girl in the village," replied Mrs. Robinson. + +"Yes," sighed his mother, "there it is again; if +the twins could 'a' married Aurelia Sawyer, 't would +'a' been all right. L. D. M. was talented 'nough to +GET Reely's money, but M. D. L. would 'a' ben practical +'nough to have KEP' it." + +Aurelia's share of the modest Sawyer property +had been put into one thing after another by the +handsome and luckless Lorenzo de Medici. He had +a graceful and poetic way of making an investment +for each new son and daughter that blessed their +union. "A birthday present for our child, Aurelia," +he would say,--"a little nest-egg for the future;" +but Aurelia once remarked in a moment of bitterness +that the hen never lived that could sit on +those eggs and hatch anything out of them. + +Miranda and Jane had virtually washed their +hands of Aurelia when she married Lorenzo de +Medici Randall. Having exhausted the resources +of Riverboro and its immediate vicinity, the +unfortunate couple had moved on and on in a steadily +decreasing scale of prosperity until they had reached +Temperance, where they had settled down and +invited fate to do its worst, an invitation which was +promptly accepted. The maiden sisters at home +wrote to Aurelia two or three times a year, and sent +modest but serviceable presents to the children at +Christmas, but refused to assist L. D. M. with the +regular expenses of his rapidly growing family. +His last investment, made shortly before the birth +of Miranda (named in a lively hope of favors which +never came), was a small farm two miles from +Temperance. Aurelia managed this herself, and so +it proved a home at least, and a place for the +unsuccessful Lorenzo to die and to be buried from, a duty +somewhat too long deferred, many thought, which +he performed on the day of Mira's birth. + +It was in this happy-go-lucky household that Rebecca +had grown up. It was just an ordinary family; +two or three of the children were handsome and the +rest plain, three of them rather clever, two industrious, +and two commonplace and dull. Rebecca had +her father's facility and had been his aptest pupil. +She "carried" the alto by ear, danced without being +taught, played the melodeon without knowing the +notes. Her love of books she inherited chiefly from +her mother, who found it hard to sweep or cook +or sew when there was a novel in the house. +Fortunately books were scarce, or the children might +sometimes have gone ragged and hungry. + +But other forces had been at work in Rebecca, +and the traits of unknown forbears had been wrought +into her fibre. Lorenzo de Medici was flabby and +boneless; Rebecca was a thing of fire and spirit: +he lacked energy and courage; Rebecca was plucky +at two and dauntless at five. Mrs. Randall and +Hannah had no sense of humor; Rebecca possessed +and showed it as soon as she could walk and talk. + +She had not been able, however, to borrow her +parents' virtues and those of other generous ancestors +and escape all the weaknesses in the calendar. +She had not her sister Hannah's patience or her +brother John's sturdy staying power. Her will was +sometimes willfulness, and the ease with which she +did most things led her to be impatient of hard tasks +or long ones. But whatever else there was or was +not, there was freedom at Randall's farm. The children +grew, worked, fought, ate what and slept where +they could; loved one another and their parents +pretty well, but with no tropical passion; and +educated themselves for nine months of the year, each +one in his own way. + +As a result of this method Hannah, who could +only have been developed by forces applied from +without, was painstaking, humdrum, and limited; +while Rebecca, who apparently needed nothing but +space to develop in, and a knowledge of terms in +which to express herself, grew and grew and grew, +always from within outward. Her forces of one sort +and another had seemingly been set in motion when +she was born; they needed no daily spur, but moved +of their own accord--towards what no one knew, +least of all Rebecca herself. The field for the +exhibition of her creative instinct was painfully small, +and the only use she had made of it as yet was to +leave eggs out of the corn bread one day and milk +another, to see how it would turn out; to part +Fanny's hair sometimes in the middle, sometimes +on the right, and sometimes on the left side; and to +play all sorts of fantastic pranks with the children, +occasionally bringing them to the table as fictitious +or historical characters found in her favorite books. +Rebecca amused her mother and her family generally, +but she never was counted of serious +importance, and though considered "smart" and old for +her age, she was never thought superior in any way. +Aurelia's experience of genius, as exemplified in the +deceased Lorenzo de Medici led her into a greater +admiration of plain, every-day common sense, a quality +in which Rebecca, it must be confessed, seemed +sometimes painfully deficient. + +Hannah was her mother's favorite, so far as Aurelia +could indulge herself in such recreations as partiality. +The parent who is obliged to feed and clothe +seven children on an income of fifteen dollars a +month seldom has time to discriminate carefully +between the various members of her brood, but Hannah +at fourteen was at once companion and partner in +all her mother's problems. She it was who kept the +house while Aurelia busied herself in barn and field. +Rebecca was capable of certain set tasks, such as +keeping the small children from killing themselves +and one another, feeding the poultry, picking up +chips, hulling strawberries, wiping dishes; but she +was thought irresponsible, and Aurelia, needing +somebody to lean on (having never enjoyed that +luxury with the gifted Lorenzo), leaned on Hannah. +Hannah showed the result of this attitude somewhat, +being a trifle careworn in face and sharp in manner; +but she was a self-contained, well-behaved, dependable +child, and that is the reason her aunts had invited +her to Riverboro to be a member of their family and +participate in all the advantages of their loftier +position in the world. It was several years since +Miranda and Jane had seen the children, but they +remembered with pleasure that Hannah had not +spoken a word during the interview, and it was +for this reason that they had asked for the pleasure +of her company. Rebecca, on the other hand, had +dressed up the dog in John's clothes, and being +requested to get the three younger children ready +for dinner, she had held them under the pump and +then proceeded to "smack" their hair flat to their +heads by vigorous brushing, bringing them to the +table in such a moist and hideous state of shininess +that their mother was ashamed of their appearance. +Rebecca's own black locks were commonly pushed +smoothly off her forehead, but on this occasion she +formed what I must perforce call by its only name, +a spit-curl, directly in the centre of her brow, an +ornament which she was allowed to wear a very +short time, only in fact till Hannah was able to call +her mother's attention to it, when she was sent +into the next room to remove it and to come back +looking like a Christian. This command she interpreted +somewhat too literally perhaps, because she +contrived in a space of two minutes an extremely +pious style of hairdressing, fully as effective if not +as startling as the first. These antics were solely +the result of nervous irritation, a mood born of Miss +Miranda Sawyer's stiff, grim, and martial attitude. +The remembrance of Rebecca was so vivid that their +sister Aurelia's letter was something of a shock to +the quiet, elderly spinsters of the brick house; for +it said that Hannah could not possibly be spared +for a few years yet, but that Rebecca would come +as soon as she could be made ready; that the offer +was most thankfully appreciated, and that the regular +schooling and church privileges, as well as the +influence of the Sawyer home, would doubtless be +"the making of Rebecca" + + +III + +A DIFFERENCE IN HEARTS + +I don' know as I cal'lated to be the makin' of any +child," Miranda had said as she folded Aurelia's +letter and laid it in the light-stand drawer. +"I s'posed, of course, Aurelia would send us the +one we asked for, but it's just like her to palm off +that wild young one on somebody else." + +"You remember we said that Rebecca or even +Jenny might come, in case Hannah couldn't," +interposed Jane. + +"I know we did, but we hadn't any notion it would +turn out that way," grumbled Miranda. + +"She was a mite of a thing when we saw her +three years ago," ventured Jane; "she's had time +to improve." + +"And time to grow worse!" + +"Won't it be kind of a privilege to put her on the +right track?" asked Jane timidly. + +"I don' know about the privilege part; it'll be +considerable of a chore, I guess. If her mother hain't +got her on the right track by now, she won't take to +it herself all of a sudden." + +This depressed and depressing frame of mind had +lasted until the eventful day dawned on which Rebecca +was to arrive. + +"If she makes as much work after she comes as +she has before, we might as well give up hope of +ever gettin' any rest," sighed Miranda as she hung +the dish towels on the barberry bushes at the side +door. + +"But we should have had to clean house, Rebecca +or no Rebecca," urged Jane; "and I can't see why +you've scrubbed and washed and baked as you have +for that one child, nor why you've about bought out +Watson's stock of dry goods." + +"I know Aurelia if you don't," responded +Miranda. "I've seen her house, and I've seen that +batch o' children, wearin' one another's clothes and +never carin' whether they had 'em on right sid' out +or not; I know what they've had to live and dress +on, and so do you. That child will like as not come +here with a passel o' things borrowed from the +rest o' the family. She'll have Hannah's shoes and +John's undershirts and Mark's socks most likely. +I suppose she never had a thimble on her finger in +her life, but she'll know the feelin' o' one before +she's ben here many days. I've bought a piece of +unbleached muslin and a piece o' brown gingham +for her to make up; that'll keep her busy. Of +course she won't pick up anything after herself; she +probably never see a duster, and she'll be as hard +to train into our ways as if she was a heathen." + +"She'll make a dif'rence," acknowledged Jane, +"but she may turn out more biddable 'n we think." + +"She'll mind when she's spoken to, biddable or +not," remarked Miranda with a shake of the last +towel. + +Miranda Sawyer had a heart, of course, but she +had never used it for any other purpose than the +pumping and circulating of blood. She was just, +conscientious, economical, industrious; a regular +attendant at church and Sunday-school, and a member +of the State Missionary and Bible societies, but +in the presence of all these chilly virtues you longed +for one warm little fault, or lacking that, one likable +failing, something to make you sure she was +thoroughly alive. She had never had any education +other than that of the neighborhood district school, +for her desires and ambitions had all pointed to the +management of the house, the farm, and the dairy. +Jane, on the other hand, had gone to an academy, +and also to a boarding-school for young ladies; so +had Aurelia; and after all the years that had elapsed +there was still a slight difference in language and +in manner between the elder and the two younger +sisters. + +Jane, too, had had the inestimable advantage of a +sorrow; not the natural grief at the loss of her aged +father and mother, for she had been content to let +them go; but something far deeper. She was engaged +to marry young Tom Carter, who had nothing +to marry on, it is true, but who was sure to have, +some time or other. Then the war broke out. Tom +enlisted at the first call. Up to that time Jane had +loved him with a quiet, friendly sort of affection, and +had given her country a mild emotion of the same +sort. But the strife, the danger, the anxiety of the +time, set new currents of feeling in motion. Life became +something other than the three meals a day, +the round of cooking, washing, sewing, and church +going. Personal gossip vanished from the village +conversation. Big things took the place of trifling +ones,--sacred sorrows of wives and mothers, pangs +of fathers and husbands, self-denials, sympathies, +new desire to bear one another's burdens. Men +and women grew fast in those days of the nation's +trouble and danger, and Jane awoke from the vague +dull dream she had hitherto called life to new hopes, +new fears, new purposes. Then after a year's anxiety, +a year when one never looked in the newspaper +without dread and sickness of suspense, came +the telegram saying that Tom was wounded; and +without so much as asking Miranda's leave, she +packed her trunk and started for the South. She +was in time to hold Tom's hand through hours of +pain; to show him for once the heart of a prim New +England girl when it is ablaze with love and grief; +to put her arms about him so that he could have a +home to die in, and that was all;--all, but it served. + +It carried her through weary months of nursing +--nursing of other soldiers for Tom's dear sake; it +sent her home a better woman; and though she had +never left Riverboro in all the years that lay between, +and had grown into the counterfeit presentment of +her sister and of all other thin, spare, New England +spinsters, it was something of a counterfeit, and +underneath was still the faint echo of that wild heart- +beat of her girlhood. Having learned the trick of +beating and loving and suffering, the poor faithful +heart persisted, although it lived on memories +and carried on its sentimental operations mostly in +secret. + +"You're soft, Jane," said Miranda once; "you +allers was soft, and you allers will be. If 't wa'n't +for me keeping you stiffened up, I b'lieve you'd +leak out o' the house into the dooryard." + + +It was already past the appointed hour for Mr. +Cobb and his coach to be lumbering down the +street. + +"The stage ought to be here," said Miranda, +glancing nervously at the tall clock for the twentieth +time. "I guess everything 's done. I've +tacked up two thick towels back of her washstand +and put a mat under her slop-jar; but children are +awful hard on furniture. I expect we sha'n't know +this house a year from now." + +Jane's frame of mind was naturally depressed +and timorous, having been affected by Miranda's +gloomy presages of evil to come. The only difference +between the sisters in this matter was that +while Miranda only wondered how they could endure +Rebecca, Jane had flashes of inspiration in +which she wondered how Rebecca would endure +them. It was in one of these flashes that she ran +up the back stairs to put a vase of apple blossoms +and a red tomato-pincushion on Rebecca's bureau. + +The stage rumbled to the side door of the brick +house, and Mr. Cobb handed Rebecca out like a +real lady passenger. She alighted with great +circumspection, put the bunch of faded flowers in her +aunt Miranda's hand, and received her salute; it +could hardly be called a kiss without injuring the +fair name of that commodity. + +"You needn't 'a' bothered to bring flowers," +remarked that gracious and tactful lady; "the garden +'s always full of 'em here when it comes time." + +Jane then kissed Rebecca, giving a somewhat +better imitation of the real thing than her sister. +"Put the trunk in the entry, Jeremiah, and we'll +get it carried upstairs this afternoon," she said. + +"I'll take it up for ye now, if ye say the word, +girls." + +"No, no; don't leave the horses; somebody'll +be comin' past, and we can call 'em in." + +"Well, good-by, Rebecca; good-day, Mirandy 'n' +Jane. You've got a lively little girl there. I guess +she'll be a first-rate company keeper." + +Miss Sawyer shuddered openly at the adjective +"lively" as applied to a child; her belief being that +though children might be seen, if absolutely necessary, +they certainly should never be heard if she +could help it. "We're not much used to noise, Jane +and me," she remarked acidly. + +Mr. Cobb saw that he had taken the wrong tack, +but he was too unused to argument to explain himself +readily, so he drove away, trying to think by +what safer word than "lively" he might have +described his interesting little passenger. + +"I'll take you up and show you your room, +Rebecca," Miss Miranda said. "Shut the mosquito +nettin' door tight behind you, so 's to keep the flies +out; it ain't flytime yet, but I want you to start +right; take your passel along with ye and then you +won't have to come down for it; always make your +head save your heels. Rub your feet on that braided +rug; hang your hat and cape in the entry there as +you go past." + +"It's my best hat," said Rebecca + +"Take it upstairs then and put it in the clothes- +press; but I shouldn't 'a' thought you'd 'a' worn +your best hat on the stage." + +"It's my only hat," explained Rebecca. "My +everyday hat wasn't good enough to bring. Fanny's +going to finish it." + +"Lay your parasol in the entry closet." + +"Do you mind if I keep it in my room, please? +It always seems safer." + +"There ain't any thieves hereabouts, and if there +was, I guess they wouldn't make for your sunshade, +but come along. Remember to always go up the +back way; we don't use the front stairs on account +o' the carpet; take care o' the turn and don't ketch +your foot; look to your right and go in. When +you've washed your face and hands and brushed +your hair you can come down, and by and by +we'll unpack your trunk and get you settled before +supper. Ain't you got your dress on hind sid' foremost?" + +Rebecca drew her chin down and looked at the +row of smoked pearl buttons running up and down +the middle of her flat little chest. + +"Hind side foremost? Oh, I see! No, that's all +right. If you have seven children you can't keep +buttonin' and unbuttonin' 'em all the time--they +have to do themselves. We're always buttoned up +in front at our house. Mira's only three, but she's +buttoned up in front, too." + +Miranda said nothing as she closed the door, but +her looks were at once equivalent to and more +eloquent than words. + +Rebecca stood perfectly still in the centre of the +floor and looked about her. There was a square of +oilcloth in front of each article of furniture and a +drawn-in rug beside the single four poster, which +was covered with a fringed white dimity counterpane. + +Everything was as neat as wax, but the ceilings +were much higher than Rebecca was accustomed to. +It was a north room, and the window, which was +long and narrow, looked out on the back buildings +and the barn. + +It was not the room, which was far more comfortable +than Rebecca's own at the farm, nor the lack +of view, nor yet the long journey, for she was not +conscious of weariness; it was not the fear of a +strange place, for she loved new places and courted +new sensations; it was because of some curious +blending of uncomprehended emotions that Rebecca +stood her sunshade in the corner, tore off her best +hat, flung it on the bureau with the porcupine quills +on the under side, and stripping down the dimity +spread, precipitated herself into the middle of the +bed and pulled the counterpane over her head. + +In a moment the door opened quietly. Knocking +was a refinement quite unknown in Riverboro, and +if it had been heard of would never have been +wasted on a child. + +Miss Miranda entered, and as her eye wandered +about the vacant room, it fell upon a white and +tempestuous ocean of counterpane, an ocean breaking +into strange movements of wave and crest and billow. + +"REBECCA!" + +The tone in which the word was voiced gave it all +the effect of having been shouted from the housetops + +A dark ruffled head and two frightened eyes +appeared above the dimity spread. + +"What are you layin' on your good bed in the +daytime for, messin' up the feathers, and dirtyin' +the pillers with your dusty boots?" + +Rebecca rose guiltily. There seemed no excuse +to make. Her offense was beyond explanation or +apology. + +"I'm sorry, aunt Mirandy--something came +over me; I don't know what." + +"Well, if it comes over you very soon again we'll +have to find out what 't is. Spread your bed up +smooth this minute, for 'Bijah Flagg 's bringin' your +trunk upstairs, and I wouldn't let him see such a +cluttered-up room for anything; he'd tell it all over +town." + + +When Mr. Cobb had put up his horses that night +he carried a kitchen chair to the side of his wife, +who was sitting on the back porch. + +"I brought a little Randall girl down on the +stage from Maplewood to-day, mother. She's kin to +the Sawyer girls an' is goin' to live with 'em," he +said, as he sat down and began to whittle. "She's +that Aurelia's child, the one that ran away with +Susan Randall's son just before we come here to +live." + +"How old a child?" + +"'Bout ten, or somewhere along there, an' small +for her age; but land! she might be a hundred to +hear her talk! She kep' me jumpin' tryin' to an- +swer her! Of all the queer children I ever come +across she's the queerest. She ain't no beauty-- +her face is all eyes; but if she ever grows up to +them eyes an' fills out a little she'll make folks +stare. Land, mother! I wish 't you could 'a' heard +her talk." + +"I don't see what she had to talk about, a child +like that, to a stranger," replied Mrs. Cobb. + +"Stranger or no stranger, 't wouldn't make no +difference to her. She'd talk to a pump or a grind- +stun; she'd talk to herself ruther 'n keep still." + +"What did she talk about?" + +"Blamed if I can repeat any of it. She kep' me +so surprised I didn't have my wits about me. She +had a little pink sunshade--it kind o' looked like a +doll's amberill, 'n' she clung to it like a burr to a +woolen stockin'. I advised her to open it up--the +sun was so hot; but she said no, 't would fade, an' +she tucked it under her dress. `It's the dearest +thing in life to me,' says she, `but it's a dreadful +care.' Them 's the very words, an' it's all the words +I remember. `It's the dearest thing in life to me, but +it's an awful care!' "--here Mr. Cobb laughed aloud +as he tipped his chair back against the side of the +house. "There was another thing, but I can't get +it right exactly. She was talkin' 'bout the circus +parade an' the snake charmer in a gold chariot, an' +says she, `She was so beautiful beyond compare, +Mr. Cobb, that it made you have lumps in your +throat to look at her.' She'll be comin' over to +see you, mother, an' you can size her up for +yourself. I don' know how she'll git on with Mirandy +Sawyer--poor little soul!" + +This doubt was more or less openly expressed in +Riverboro, which, however, had two opinions on the +subject; one that it was a most generous thing in +the Sawyer girls to take one of Aurelia's children +to educate, the other that the education would be +bought at a price wholly out of proportion to its +intrinsic value. + +Rebecca's first letters to her mother would seem +to indicate that she cordially coincided with the +latter view of the situation. + + + +IV + +REBECCA'S POINT OF VIEW + +Dear Mother,--I am safely here. My +dress was not much tumbled and Aunt +Jane helped me press it out. I like Mr. +Cobb very much. He chews but throws +newspapers straight up to the doors. I rode outside a +little while, but got inside before I got to Aunt +Miranda's house. I did not want to, but thought +you would like it better. Miranda is such a long +word that I think I will say Aunt M. and Aunt J. in +my Sunday letters. Aunt J. has given me a +dictionary to look up all the hard words in. It takes +a good deal of time and I am glad people can talk +without stoping to spell. It is much eesier to talk +than write and much more fun. The brick house +looks just the same as you have told us. The parler +is splendid and gives you creeps and chills when you +look in the door. The furnature is ellergant too, and +all the rooms but there are no good sitting-down +places exsept in the kitchen. The same cat is here +but they do not save kittens when she has them, +and the cat is too old to play with. Hannah told +me once you ran away with father and I can see it +would be nice. If Aunt M. would run away I think +I should like to live with Aunt J. She does not hate +me as bad as Aunt M. does. Tell Mark he can have +my paint box, but I should like him to keep the red +cake in case I come home again. I hope Hannah +and John do not get tired doing my chores. + +Your afectionate friend + +Rebecca. + +P. S. Please give the piece of poetry to John because +he likes my poetry even when it is not very good. +This piece is not very good but it is true but I hope +you won't mind what is in it as you ran away. + + This house is dark and dull and dreer + No light doth shine from far or near + Its like the tomb. + + And those of us who live herein + Are most as dead as serrafim + Though not as good. + + My gardian angel is asleep + At leest he doth no vigil keep + +Ah I woe is me! + + Then give me back my lonely farm + Where none alive did wish me harm + Dear home of youth! + +P. S. again. I made the poetry like a piece in a +book but could not get it right at first. You see +"tomb" and "good" do not sound well together but +I wanted to say "tomb" dreadfully and as serrafim +are always "good" I couldn't take that out. I +have made it over now. It does not say my thoughts +as well but think it is more right. Give the best one +to John as he keeps them in a box with his birds' +eggs. This is the best one. + + +SUNDAY THOUGHTS + +BY + +REBECCA ROWENA RANDALL + + This house is dark and dull and drear + No light doth shine from far or near + Nor ever could. + + And those of us who live herein + Are most as dead as seraphim + Though not as good. + + My guardian angel is asleep + At least he doth no vigil keep + But far doth roam. + + Then give me back my lonely farm + Where none alive did wish me harm, + Dear childhood home! + + +Dear Mother,--I am thrilling with unhappyness +this morning. I got that out of Cora The +Doctor's Wife whose husband's mother was very +cross and unfealing to her like Aunt M. to me. I +wish Hannah had come instead of me for it was +Hannah that was wanted and she is better than +I am and does not answer back so quick. Are +there any peaces of my buff calico. Aunt J. wants +enough to make a new waste button behind so I +wont look so outlandish. The stiles are quite pretty +in Riverboro and those at Meeting quite ellergant +more so than in Temperance. + + This town is stilish, gay and fair, + And full of wellthy riches rare, + But I would pillow on my arm + The thought of my sweet Brookside Farm. + +School is pretty good. The Teacher can answer +more questions than the Temperance one but not so +many as I can ask. I am smarter than all the girls +but one but not so smart as two boys. Emma Jane +can add and subtract in her head like a streek of +lightning and knows the speling book right through +but has no thoughts of any kind. She is in the +Third Reader but does not like stories in books. I +am in the Sixth Reader but just because I cannot +say the seven multiplication Table Miss Dearborn +threttens to put me in the baby primer class with +Elijah and Elisha Simpson little twins. + + Sore is my heart and bent my stubborn pride, + With Lijah and with Lisha am I tied, + My soul recoyles like Cora Doctor's Wife, + Like her I feer I cannot bare this life. + + +I am going to try for the speling prize but fear +I cannot get it. I would not care but wrong speling +looks dreadful in poetry. Last Sunday when I +found seraphim in the dictionary I was ashamed I +had made it serrafim but seraphim is not a word you +can guess at like another long one outlandish in this +letter which spells itself. Miss Dearborn says use +the words you CAN spell and if you cant spell seraphim +make angel do but angels are not just the same +as seraphims. Seraphims are brighter whiter and +have bigger wings and I think are older and longer +dead than angels which are just freshly dead and +after a long time in heaven around the great white +throne grow to be seraphims. + +I sew on brown gingham dresses every afternoon +when Emma Jane and the Simpsons are playing +house or running on the Logs when their mothers +do not know it. Their mothers are afraid they will +drown and Aunt M. is afraid I will wet my clothes +so will not let me either. I can play from half past +four to supper and after supper a little bit and Saturday +afternoons. I am glad our cow has a calf and it +is spotted. It is going to be a good year for apples +and hay so you and John will be glad and we can +pay a little more morgage. Miss Dearborn asked us +what is the object of edducation and I said the object +of mine was to help pay off the morgage. She told +Aunt M. and I had to sew extra for punishment because +she says a morgage is disgrace like stealing +or smallpox and it will be all over town that we have +one on our farm. Emma Jane is not morgaged nor +Richard Carter nor Dr. Winship but the Simpsons +are. + + Rise my soul, strain every nerve, + Thy morgage to remove, + Gain thy mother's heartfelt thanks + Thy family's grateful love. + +Pronounce family QUICK or it won't sound right + +Your loving little friend +Rebecca + + +Dear John,--You remember when we tide the +new dog in the barn how he bit the rope and +howled I am just like him only the brick house is +the barn and I can not bite Aunt M. because I +must be grateful and edducation is going to be the +making of me and help you pay off the morgage +when we grow up. Your loving + +Becky. + + + +V + +WISDOM'S WAYS + +The day of Rebecca's arrival had been +Friday, and on the Monday following she +began her education at the school which +was in Riverboro Centre, about a mile distant. +Miss Sawyer borrowed a neighbor's horse and +wagon and drove her to the schoolhouse, interviewing +the teacher, Miss Dearborn, arranging for books, +and generally starting the child on the path that +was to lead to boundless knowledge. Miss Dearborn, +it may be said in passing, had had no special +preparation in the art of teaching. It came to her +naturally, so her family said, and perhaps for this +reason she, like Tom Tulliver's clergyman tutor, +"set about it with that uniformity of method and +independence of circumstances which distinguish the +actions of animals understood to be under the +immediate teaching of Nature." You remember the +beaver which a naturalist tells us "busied himself +as earnestly in constructing a dam in a room up +three pair of stairs in London as if he had been laying +his foundation in a lake in Upper Canada. It +was his function to build, the absence of water or of +possible progeny was an accident for which he was +not accountable." In the same manner did Miss +Dearborn lay what she fondly imagined to be +foundations in the infant mind. + +Rebecca walked to school after the first morning. +She loved this part of the day's programme. When +the dew was not too heavy and the weather was fair +there was a short cut through the woods. She turned +off the main road, crept through uncle Josh Woodman's +bars, waved away Mrs. Carter's cows, trod the +short grass of the pasture, with its well-worn path +running through gardens of buttercups and white- +weed, and groves of ivory leaves and sweet fern. +She descended a little hill, jumped from stone to +stone across a woodland brook, startling the drowsy +frogs, who were always winking and blinking in the +morning sun. Then came the "woodsy bit," with +her feet pressing the slippery carpet of brown pine +needles; the "woodsy bit" so full of dewy morning, +surprises,--fungous growths of brilliant orange and +crimson springing up around the stumps of dead +trees, beautiful things born in a single night; and +now and then the miracle of a little clump of waxen +Indian pipes, seen just quickly enough to be saved +from her careless tread. Then she climbed a stile, +went through a grassy meadow, slid under another +pair of bars, and came out into the road again. having +gained nearly half a mile. + +How delicious it all was! Rebecca clasped her +Quackenbos's Grammar and Greenleaf's Arithmetic +with a joyful sense of knowing her lessons. Her +dinner pail swung from her right hand, and she +had a blissful consciousness of the two soda biscuits +spread with butter and syrup, the baked cup-custard, +the doughnut, and the square of hard gingerbread. +Sometimes she said whatever "piece" she was going +to speak on the next Friday afternoon. + + "A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, + There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of + woman's tears." + +How she loved the swing and the sentiment of it! +How her young voice quivered whenever she came to +the refrain:-- + + "But we'll meet no more at Bingen, dear Bingen on the Rhine." + +It always sounded beautiful in her ears, as she +sent her tearful little treble into the clear morning +air. Another early favorite (for we must remember +that Rebecca's only knowledge of the great world +of poetry consisted of the selections in vogue in +school readers) was:-- + +"Woodman, spare that tree! + Touch not a single bough! +In youth it sheltered me, + And I'll protect it now." + + +When Emma Jane Perkins walked through the +"short cut" with her, the two children used to render +this with appropriate dramatic action. Emma +Jane always chose to be the woodman because she +had nothing to do but raise on high an imaginary +axe. On the one occasion when she essayed the +part of the tree's romantic protector, she represented +herself as feeling "so awful foolish" that she +refused to undertake it again, much to the secret +delight of Rebecca, who found the woodman's role +much too tame for her vaulting ambition. She +reveled in the impassioned appeal of the poet, and +implored the ruthless woodman to be as brutal as +possible with the axe, so that she might properly +put greater spirit into her lines. One morning, feeling +more frisky than usual, she fell upon her knees +and wept in the woodman's petticoat. Curiously +enough, her sense of proportion rejected this as +soon as it was done. + +"That wasn't right, it was silly, Emma Jane; but +I'll tell you where it might come in--in Give me +Three Grains of Corn. You be the mother, and +I'll be the famishing Irish child. For pity's sake +put the axe down; you are not the woodman any +longer!" + +"What'll I do with my hands, then?" asked +Emma Jane. + +"Whatever you like," Rebecca answered wearily; +"you're just a mother--that's all. What does +YOUR mother do with her hands? Now here goes! + + +"`Give me three grains of corn, mother, + Only three grains of corn, +'T will keep the little life I have + Till the coming of the morn.'" + + +This sort of thing made Emma Jane nervous and +fidgety, but she was Rebecca's slave and hugged her +chains, no matter how uncomfortable they made her. + +At the last pair of bars the two girls were +sometimes met by a detachment of the Simpson children, +who lived in a black house with a red door and +a red barn behind, on the Blueberry Plains road. +Rebecca felt an interest in the Simpsons from the +first, because there were so many of them and they +were so patched and darned, just like her own brood +at the home farm. + +The little schoolhouse with its flagpole on top and +its two doors in front, one for boys and the other +for girls, stood on the crest of a hill, with rolling +fields and meadows on one side, a stretch of pine +woods on the other, and the river glinting and +sparkling in the distance. It boasted no attractions +within. All was as bare and ugly and uncomfortable +as it well could be, for the villages along the river +expended so much money in repairing and rebuilding +bridges that they were obliged to be very economical +in school privileges. The teacher's desk and chair +stood on a platform in one corner; there was an +uncouth stove, never blackened oftener than once +a year, a map of the United States, two blackboards, +a ten-quart tin pail of water and long-handled dipper +on a corner shelf, and wooden desks and benches +for the scholars, who only numbered twenty in +Rebecca's time. The seats were higher in the back of +the room, and the more advanced and longer-legged +pupils sat there, the position being greatly to be +envied, as they were at once nearer to the windows +and farther from the teacher. + +There were classes of a sort, although nobody, +broadly speaking, studied the same book with anybody +else, or had arrived at the same degree of proficiency +in any one branch of learning. Rebecca in +particular was so difficult to classify that Miss Dearborn +at the end of a fortnight gave up the attempt +altogether. She read with Dick Carter and Living +Perkins, who were fitting for the academy; recited +arithmetic with lisping little Thuthan Thimpthon; +geography with Emma Jane Perkins, and grammar +after school hours to Miss Dearborn alone. Full to +the brim as she was of clever thoughts and quaint +fancies, she made at first but a poor hand at composition. +The labor of writing and spelling, with the +added difficulties of punctuation and capitals, interfered +sadly with the free expression of ideas. She +took history with Alice Robinson's class, which +was attacking the subject of the Revolution, while +Rebecca was bidden to begin with the discovery +of America. In a week she had mastered +the course of events up to the Revolution, and in +ten days had arrived at Yorktown, where the class +had apparently established summer quarters. Then +finding that extra effort would only result in her +reciting with the oldest Simpson boy, she delib- +erately held herself back, for wisdom's ways were +not those of pleasantness nor her paths those of +peace if one were compelled to tread them in the +company of Seesaw Simpson. Samuel Simpson was +generally called Seesaw, because of his difficulty in +making up his mind. Whether it were a question +of fact, of spelling, or of date, of going swimming +or fishing, of choosing a book in the Sunday-school +library or a stick of candy at the village store, he +had no sooner determined on one plan of action +than his wish fondly reverted to the opposite one. +Seesaw was pale, flaxen haired, blue eyed, round +shouldered, and given to stammering when nervous. +Perhaps because of his very weakness Rebecca's +decision of character had a fascination for him, and +although she snubbed him to the verge of madness, +he could never keep his eyes away from her. The +force with which she tied her shoe when the lacing +came undone, the flirt over shoulder she gave her +black braid when she was excited or warm, her +manner of studying,--book on desk, arms folded, +eyes fixed on the opposite wall,--all had an abiding +charm for Seesaw Simpson. When, having obtained +permission, she walked to the water pail in the +corner and drank from the dipper, unseen forces +dragged Seesaw from his seat to go and drink after +her. It was not only that there was something akin +to association and intimacy in drinking next, but +there was the fearful joy of meeting her in transit +and receiving a cold and disdainful look from her +wonderful eyes. + +On a certain warm day in summer Rebecca's +thirst exceeded the bounds of propriety. When she +asked a third time for permission to quench it at the +common fountain Miss Dearborn nodded "yes," but +lifted her eyebrows unpleasantly as Rebecca neared +the desk. As she replaced the dipper Seesaw +promptly raised his hand, and Miss Dearborn +indicated a weary affirmative. + +"What is the matter with you, Rebecca?" she +asked. + +"I had salt mackerel for breakfast," answered +Rebecca. + +There seemed nothing humorous about this reply, +which was merely the statement of a fact, but an +irrepressible titter ran through the school. Miss +Dearborn did not enjoy jokes neither made nor +understood by herself, and her face flushed. + +"I think you had better stand by the pail for five +minutes, Rebecca; it may help you to control your +thirst." + +Rebecca's heart fluttered. She to stand in the +corner by the water pail and be stared at by all +the scholars! She unconsciously made a gesture +of angry dissent and moved a step nearer her seat, +but was arrested by Miss Dearborn's command in +a still firmer voice. + +"Stand by the pail, Rebecca! Samuel, how many +times have you asked for water to-day?" + +This is the f-f-fourth." + +"Don't touch the dipper, please. The school has +done nothing but drink this afternoon; it has had +no time whatever to study. I suppose you had something +salt for breakfast, Samuel?" queried Miss +Dearborn with sarcasm. + +"I had m-m-mackerel, j-just like Reb-b-becca." +(Irrepressible giggles by the school.) + +"I judged so. Stand by the other side of the pail, +Samuel." + +Rebecca's head was bowed with shame and wrath. +Life looked too black a thing to be endured. The +punishment was bad enough, but to be coupled in +correction with Seesaw Simpson was beyond human +endurance. + +Singing was the last exercise in the afternoon, +and Minnie Smellie chose Shall we Gather at the +River? It was a baleful choice and seemed to hold +some secret and subtle association with the situation +and general progress of events; or at any rate there +was apparently some obscure reason for the energy +and vim with which the scholars shouted the choral +invitation again and again:-- + + +"Shall we gather at the river, +The beautiful, the beautiful river?" + + +Miss Dearborn stole a look at Rebecca's bent head +and was frightened. The child's face was pale save +for two red spots glowing on her cheeks. Tears +hung on her lashes; her breath came and went +quickly, and the hand that held her pocket +handkerchief trembled like a leaf. + +"You may go to your seat, Rebecca," said Miss +Dearborn at the end of the first song. "Samuel, +stay where you are till the close of school. And let +me tell you, scholars, that I asked Rebecca to stand +by the pail only to break up this habit of incessant +drinking, which is nothing but empty-mindedness +and desire to walk to and fro over the floor. Every +time Rebecca has asked for a drink to-day the whole +school has gone to the pail one after another. She +is really thirsty, and I dare say I ought to have +punished you for following her example, not her for +setting it. What shall we sing now, Alice?" + +"The Old Oaken Bucket, please." + +"Think of something dry, Alice, and change the +subject. Yes, The Star Spangled Banner if you +like, or anything else." + +Rebecca sank into her seat and pulled the singing +book from her desk. Miss Dearborn's public explanation +had shifted some of the weight from her +heart, and she felt a trifle raised in her self-esteem. + +Under cover of the general relaxation of singing, +votive offerings of respectful sympathy began to +make their appearance at her shrine. Living Perkins, +who could not sing, dropped a piece of maple +sugar in her lap as he passed her on his way to the +blackboard to draw the map of Maine. Alice Rob- +inson rolled a perfectly new slate pencil over the +floor with her foot until it reached Rebecca's place, +while her seat-mate, Emma Jane, had made up a +little mound of paper balls and labeled them +"Bullets for you know who." + +Altogether existence grew brighter, and when +she was left alone with the teacher for her grammar +lesson she had nearly recovered her equanimity, +which was more than Miss Dearborn had. The last +clattering foot had echoed through the hall, Seesaw's +backward glance of penitence had been met +and answered defiantly by one of cold disdain. + +"Rebecca, I am afraid I punished you more than I +meant," said Miss Dearborn, who was only eighteen +herself, and in her year of teaching country schools +had never encountered a child like Rebecca. + +"I hadn't missed a question this whole day, nor +whispered either," quavered the culprit; "and I don't +think I ought to be shamed just for drinking." + +"You started all the others, or it seemed as if +you did. Whatever you do they all do, whether you +laugh, or miss, or write notes, or ask to leave the +room, or drink; and it must be stopped." + +"Sam Simpson is a copycoat!" stormed Rebecca +"I wouldn't have minded standing in the corner +alone--that is, not so very much; but I couldn't +bear standing with him." + +"I saw that you couldn't, and that's the reason +I told you to take your seat, and left him in the +corner. Remember that you are a stranger in the +place, and they take more notice of what you do, +so you must be careful. Now let's have our +conjugations. Give me the verb `to be,' potential mood, +past perfect tense." + +"I might have been "We might have been +Thou mightst have been You might have been +He might have been They might have been." + + +"Give me an example, please." + +"I might have been glad +Thou mightst have been glad +He, she, or it might have been glad." + + +"`He' or `she' might have been glad because +they are masculine and feminine, but could `it' +have been glad?" asked Miss Dearborn, who was +very fond of splitting hairs. + +"Why not?" asked Rebecca + +"Because `it' is neuter gender." + +"Couldn't we say, `The kitten might have +been glad if it had known it was not going to be +drowned'?" + +"Ye--es," Miss Dearborn answered hesitatingly, +never very sure of herself under Rebecca's fire; +"but though we often speak of a baby, a chicken, or +a kitten as `it,' they are really masculine or feminine +gender, not neuter." + +Rebecca reflected a long moment and then asked, +"Is a hollyhock neuter?" + +"Oh yes, of course it is, Rebecca" + +"Well, couldn't we say, `The hollyhock might +have been glad to see the rain, but there was a weak +little hollyhock bud growing out of its stalk and it +was afraid that that might be hurt by the storm; +so the big hollyhock was kind of afraid, instead of +being real glad'?" + +Miss Dearborn looked puzzled as she answered, +"Of course, Rebecca, hollyhocks could not be +sorry, or glad, or afraid, really." + +"We can't tell, I s'pose," replied the child; "but +_I_ think they are, anyway. Now what shall I say?" + +"The subjunctive mood, past perfect tense of +the verb `to know.'" + +"If I had known "If we had known +If thou hadst known If you had known +If he had known If they had known. + + +"Oh, it is the saddest tense," sighed Rebecca +with a little break in her voice; "nothing but IFS, +IFS, IFS! And it makes you feel that if they only +HAD known, things might have been better!" + +Miss Dearborn had not thought of it before, +but on reflection she believed the subjunctive mood +was a "sad" one and "if" rather a sorry "part of +speech." + +"Give me some more examples of the subjunctive, +Rebecca, and that will do for this afternoon," she +said. + +"If I had not loved mackerel I should not have +been thirsty;" said Rebecca with an April smile, +as she closed her grammar. "If thou hadst loved +me truly thou wouldst not have stood me up in the +corner. If Samuel had not loved wickedness he +would not have followed me to the water pail." + +"And if Rebecca had loved the rules of the +school she would have controlled her thirst," finished +Miss Dearborn with a kiss, and the two parted +friends. + + + +VI + +SUNSHINE IN A SHADY PLACE + +The little schoolhouse on the hill had its +moments of triumph as well as its scenes +of tribulation, but it was fortunate that +Rebecca had her books and her new acquaintances +to keep her interested and occupied, or life would +have gone heavily with her that first summer in +Riverboro. She tried to like her aunt Miranda (the +idea of loving her had been given up at the moment +of meeting), but failed ignominiously in the attempt. +She was a very faulty and passionately human child, +with no aspirations towards being an angel of the +house, but she had a sense of duty and a desire to +be good,--respectably, decently good. Whenever +she fell below this self-imposed standard she was +miserable. She did not like to be under her aunt's +roof, eating bread, wearing clothes, and studying +books provided by her, and dislike her so heartily +all the time. She felt instinctively that this was +wrong and mean, and whenever the feeling of remorse +was strong within her she made a desperate +effort to please her grim and difficult relative. But +how could she succeed when she was never herself in +her aunt Miranda's presence? The searching look +of the eyes, the sharp voice, the hard knotty fingers, +the thin straight lips, the long silences, the "front- +piece" that didn't match her hair, the very obvious +"parting" that seemed sewed in with linen thread on +black net,--there was not a single item that appealed +to Rebecca. There are certain narrow, unimaginative, +and autocratic old people who seem to call out +the most mischievous, and sometimes the worst +traits in children. Miss Miranda, had she lived in a +populous neighborhood, would have had her doorbell +pulled, her gate tied up, or "dirt traps" set in her +garden paths. The Simpson twins stood in such +awe of her that they could not be persuaded to come +to the side door even when Miss Jane held gingerbread +cookies in her outstretched hands. + +It is needless to say that Rebecca irritated her +aunt with every breath she drew. She continually +forgot and started up the front stairs because it was +the shortest route to her bedroom; she left the +dipper on the kitchen shelf instead of hanging it up +over the pail; she sat in the chair the cat liked best; +she was willing to go on errands, but often forgot +what she was sent for; she left the screen doors +ajar, so that flies came in; her tongue was ever in +motion; she sang or whistled when she was picking +up chips; she was always messing with flowers, +putting them in vases, pinning them on her dress, +and sticking them in her hat; finally she was an +everlasting reminder of her foolish, worthless father, +whose handsome face and engaging manner had +so deceived Aurelia, and perhaps, if the facts were +known, others besides Aurelia. The Randalls were +aliens. They had not been born in Riverboro nor +even in York County. Miranda would have allowed, +on compulsion, that in the nature of things a large +number of persons must necessarily be born outside +this sacred precinct; but she had her opinion of +them, and it was not a flattering one. Now if Hannah +had come--Hannah took after the other side of the +house; she was "all Sawyer." (Poor Hannah! that +was true!) Hannah spoke only when spoken to, +instead of first, last, and all the time; Hannah at +fourteen was a member of the church; Hannah liked to +knit; Hannah was, probably, or would have been, a +pattern of all the smaller virtues; instead of which +here was this black-haired gypsy, with eyes as big +as cartwheels, installed as a member of the household. + +What sunshine in a shady place was aunt Jane +to Rebecca! Aunt Jane with her quiet voice, her +understanding eyes, her ready excuses, in these first +difficult weeks, when the impulsive little stranger +was trying to settle down into the "brick house +ways." She did learn them, in part, and by degrees, +and the constant fitting of herself to these new and +difficult standards of conduct seemed to make her +older than ever for her years. + +The child took her sewing and sat beside aunt +Jane in the kitchen while aunt Miranda had the post +of observation at the sitting-room window. Sometimes +they would work on the side porch where the +clematis and woodbine shaded them from the hot +sun. To Rebecca the lengths of brown gingham +were interminable. She made hard work of sewing, +broke the thread, dropped her thimble into the +syringa bushes, pricked her finger, wiped the +perspiration from her forehead, could not match the +checks, puckered the seams. She polished her needles +to nothing, pushing them in and out of the emery +strawberry, but they always squeaked. Still aunt +Jane's patience held good, and some small measure +of skill was creeping into Rebecca's fingers, fingers +that held pencil, paint brush, and pen so cleverly and +were so clumsy with the dainty little needle. + +When the first brown gingham frock was +completed, the child seized what she thought an +opportune moment and asked her aunt Miranda if she +might have another color for the next one. + +"I bought a whole piece of the brown," said +Miranda laconically. "That'll give you two more +dresses, with plenty for new sleeves, and to patch +and let down with, an' be more economical." + +"I know. But Mr. Watson says he'll take back +part of it, and let us have pink and blue for the +same price." + +"Did you ask him?" + +"Yes'm." + +"It was none o' your business." + +"I was helping Emma Jane choose aprons, and +didn't think you'd mind which color I had. Pink +keeps clean just as nice as brown, and Mr. Watson +says it'll boil without fading." + +"Mr. Watson 's a splendid judge of washing, I +guess. I don't approve of children being rigged +out in fancy colors, but I'll see what your aunt +Jane thinks." + +"I think it would be all right to let Rebecca +have one pink and one blue gingham," said Jane. +"A child gets tired of sewing on one color. It's +only natural she should long for a change; besides +she'd look like a charity child always wearing the +same brown with a white apron. And it's dreadful +unbecoming to her!" + +"`Handsome is as handsome does,' say I. +Rebecca never'll come to grief along of her beauty, +that's certain, and there's no use in humoring her +to think about her looks. I believe she's vain as a +peacock now, without anything to be vain of." + +"She's young and attracted to bright things-- +that's all. I remember well enough how I felt at her +age." + +"You was considerable of a fool at her age, +Jane." + +"Yes, I was, thank the Lord! I only wish I'd +known how to take a little of my foolishness along +with me, as some folks do, to brighten my declining +years." + +There finally was a pink gingham, and when it was +nicely finished, aunt Jane gave Rebecca a delightful +surprise. She showed her how to make a pretty +trimming of narrow white linen tape, by folding it +in pointed shapes and sewing it down very flat with +neat little stitches. + +"It'll be good fancy work for you, Rebecca; for +your aunt Miranda won't like to see you always +reading in the long winter evenings. Now if you +think you can baste two rows of white tape round +the bottom of your pink skirt and keep it straight +by the checks, I'll stitch them on for you and trim +the waist and sleeves with pointed tape-trimming, +so the dress'll be real pretty for second best." + +Rebecca's joy knew no bounds. "I'll baste +like a house afire!" she exclaimed. "It's a thousand +yards round that skirt, as well I know, having +hemmed it; but I could sew pretty trimming on if +it was from here to Milltown. Oh! do you think +aunt Mirandy'll ever let me go to Milltown with +Mr. Cobb? He's asked me again, you know; but +one Saturday I had to pick strawberries, and another +it rained, and I don't think she really approves of +my going. It's TWENTY-NINE minutes past four, aunt +Jane, and Alice Robinson has been sitting under +the currant bushes for a long time waiting for me. +Can I go and play?" + +"Yes, you may go, and you'd better run as far as +you can out behind the barn, so 't your noise won't +distract your aunt Mirandy. I see Susan Simpson +and the twins and Emma Jane Perkins hiding behind +the fence." + +Rebecca leaped off the porch, snatched Alice +Robinson from under the currant bushes, and, +what was much more difficult, succeeded, by means +of a complicated system of signals, in getting Emma +Jane away from the Simpson party and giving them +the slip altogether. They were much too small for +certain pleasurable activities planned for that +afternoon; but they were not to be despised, for they +had the most fascinating dooryard in the village. In +it, in bewildering confusion, were old sleighs, pungs, +horse rakes, hogsheads, settees without backs, bed- +steads without heads, in all stages of disability, and +never the same on two consecutive days. Mrs. +Simpson was seldom at home, and even when she +was, had little concern as to what happened on the +premises. A favorite diversion was to make the +house into a fort, gallantly held by a handful of +American soldiers against a besieging force of the +British army. Great care was used in apportioning +the parts, for there was no disposition to let +anybody win but the Americans. Seesaw Simpson +was usually made commander-in-chief of the British +army, and a limp and uncertain one he was, capable, +with his contradictory orders and his fondness +for the extreme rear, of leading any regiment to +an inglorious death. Sometimes the long-suffering +house was a log hut, and the brave settlers defeated +a band of hostile Indians, or occasionally were +massacred by them; but in either case the Simpson +house looked, to quote a Riverboro expression, "as +if the devil had been having an auction in it." + +Next to this uncommonly interesting playground, +as a field of action, came, in the children's opinion, +the "secret spot." There was a velvety stretch +of ground in the Sawyer pasture which was full of +fascinating hollows and hillocks, as well as verdant +levels, on which to build houses. A group of trees +concealed it somewhat from view and flung a grateful +shade over the dwellings erected there. It had +been hard though sweet labor to take armfuls of +"stickins" and "cutrounds" from the mill to this +secluded spot, and that it had been done mostly +after supper in the dusk of the evenings gave it +a still greater flavor. Here in soap boxes hidden +among the trees were stored all their treasures: +wee baskets and plates and cups made of burdock +balls, bits of broken china for parties, dolls, soon +to be outgrown, but serving well as characters in +all sorts of romances enacted there,--deaths, +funerals, weddings, christenings. A tall, square house +of stickins was to be built round Rebecca this +afternoon, and she was to be Charlotte Corday +leaning against the bars of her prison. + +It was a wonderful experience standing inside the +building with Emma Jane's apron wound about her +hair; wonderful to feel that when she leaned her +head against the bars they seemed to turn to cold +iron; that her eyes were no longer Rebecca Randall's +but mirrored something of Charlotte Corday's +hapless woe. + +"Ain't it lovely?" sighed the humble twain, who +had done most of the labor, but who generously +admired the result. + +"I hate to have to take it down," said Alice, +"it's been such a sight of work." + +"If you think you could move up some stones +and just take off the top rows, I could step out +over," suggested Charlotte Corday. "Then leave +the stones, and you two can step down into the +prison to-morrow and be the two little princes in +the Tower, and I can murder you." + +"What princes? What tower?" asked Alice and +Emma Jane in one breath. "Tell us about them." + +"Not now, it's my supper time." (Rebecca was +a somewhat firm disciplinarian.) + +"It would be elergant being murdered by you," +said Emma Jane loyally, "though you are awful +real when you murder; or we could have Elijah and +Elisha for the princes." + +"They'd yell when they was murdered," objected +Alice; "you know how silly they are at plays, all +except Clara Belle. Besides if we once show them +this secret place, they'll play in it all the time, and +perhaps they'd steal things, like their father." + +"They needn't steal just because their father +does," argued Rebecca; "and don't you ever talk +about it before them if you want to be my secret, +partic'lar friends. My mother tells me never to say +hard things about people's own folks to their face. +She says nobody can bear it, and it's wicked to shame +them for what isn't their fault. Remember Minnie +Smellie!" + +Well, they had no difficulty in recalling that +dramatic episode, for it had occurred only a few days +before; and a version of it that would have melted +the stoniest heart had been presented to every girl +in the village by Minnie Smellie herself, who, +though it was Rebecca and not she who came off +victorious in the bloody battle of words, nursed her +resentment and intended to have revenge. + + + +VII + +RIVERBORO SECRETS + +Mr. Simpson spent little time with his +family, owing to certain awkward methods +of horse-trading, or the "swapping" +of farm implements and vehicles of various kinds,-- +operations in which his customers were never long +suited. After every successful trade he generally +passed a longer or shorter term in jail; for when a +poor man without goods or chattels has the inveterate +habit of swapping, it follows naturally that he +must have something to swap; and having nothing +of his own, it follows still more naturally that he +must swap something belonging to his neighbors. + +Mr. Simpson was absent from the home circle +for the moment because he had exchanged the +Widow Rideout's sleigh for Joseph Goodwin's +plough. Goodwin had lately moved to North +Edgewood and had never before met the urbane +and persuasive Mr. Simpson. The Goodwin plough +Mr. Simpson speedily bartered with a man "over +Wareham way," and got in exchange for it an old +horse which his owner did not need, as he was +leaving town to visit his daughter for a year, +Simpson fattened the aged animal, keeping him for +several weeks (at early morning or after nightfall) in +one neighbor's pasture after another, and then +exchanged him with a Milltown man for a top buggy. +It was at this juncture that the Widow Rideout +missed her sleigh from the old carriage house. +She had not used it for fifteen years and might +not sit in it for another fifteen, but it was +property, and she did not intend to part with it +without a struggle. Such is the suspicious nature of +the village mind that the moment she discovered +her loss her thought at once reverted to Abner +Simpson. So complicated, however, was the nature +of this particular business transaction, and so +tortuous the paths of its progress (partly owing to the +complete disappearance of the owner of the horse, +who had gone to the West and left no address), +that it took the sheriff many weeks to prove Mr. +Simpson's guilt to the town's and to the Widow +Rideout's satisfaction. Abner himself avowed his +complete innocence, and told the neighbors how +a red-haired man with a hare lip and a pepper-and- +salt suit of clothes had called him up one morning +about daylight and offered to swap him a good +sleigh for an old cider press he had layin' out in +the dooryard. The bargain was struck, and he, +Abner, had paid the hare-lipped stranger four dollars +and seventy-five cents to boot; whereupon the +mysterious one set down the sleigh, took the press +on his cart, and vanished up the road, never to be +seen or heard from afterwards. + +"If I could once ketch that consarned old thief," +exclaimed Abner righteously, "I'd make him +dance,--workin' off a stolen sleigh on me an' +takin' away my good money an' cider press, to say +nothin' o' my character!" + +"You'll never ketch him, Ab," responded the +sheriff. "He's cut off the same piece o' goods as +that there cider press and that there character and +that there four-seventy-five o' yourn; nobody ever +see any of 'em but you, and you'll never see 'em +again!" + +Mrs. Simpson, who was decidedly Abner's better +half, took in washing and went out to do days' +cleaning, and the town helped in the feeding and +clothing of the children. George, a lanky boy of +fourteen, did chores on neighboring farms, and +the others, Samuel, Clara Belle, Susan, Elijah, and +Elisha, went to school, when sufficiently clothed +and not otherwise more pleasantly engaged. + +There were no secrets in the villages that lay +along the banks of Pleasant River. There were +many hard-working people among the inhabitants, +but life wore away so quietly and slowly that there +was a good deal of spare time for conversation,-- +under the trees at noon in the hayfield; hanging +over the bridge at nightfall; seated about the +stove in the village store of an evening. These +meeting-places furnished ample ground for the +discussion of current events as viewed by the mas- +culine eye, while choir rehearsals, sewing societies, +reading circles, church picnics, and the like, gave +opportunity for the expression of feminine opinion. +All this was taken very much for granted, as a +rule, but now and then some supersensitive person +made violent objections to it, as a theory of life. + +Delia Weeks, for example, was a maiden lady +who did dressmaking in a small way; she fell ill, +and although attended by all the physicians in +the neighborhood, was sinking slowly into a +decline when her cousin Cyrus asked her to come and +keep house for him in Lewiston. She went, and in +a year grew into a robust, hearty, cheerful woman. +Returning to Riverboro on a brief visit, she was +asked if she meant to end her days away from +home. + +"I do most certainly, if I can get any other +place to stay," she responded candidly. "I was +bein' worn to a shadder here, tryin' to keep my +little secrets to myself, an' never succeedin'. First +they had it I wanted to marry the minister, and +when he took a wife in Standish I was known to +be disappointed. Then for five or six years they +suspicioned I was tryin' for a place to teach school, +and when I gave up hope, an' took to dressmakin', +they pitied me and sympathized with me for that. +When father died I was bound I'd never let anybody +know how I was left, for that spites 'em +worse than anything else; but there's ways o' +findin' out, an' they found out, hard as I fought +'em! Then there was my brother James that went +to Arizona when he was sixteen. I gave good news +of him for thirty years runnin', but aunt Achsy +Tarbox had a ferretin' cousin that went out to +Tombstone for her health, and she wrote to a +postmaster, or to some kind of a town authority, and +found Jim and wrote back aunt Achsy all about +him and just how unfortunate he'd been. They +knew when I had my teeth out and a new set +made; they knew when I put on a false front- +piece; they knew when the fruit peddler asked +me to be his third wife--I never told 'em, an' you +can be sure HE never did, but they don't NEED to be +told in this village; they have nothin' to do but +guess, an' they'll guess right every time. I was +all tuckered out tryin' to mislead 'em and deceive +'em and sidetrack 'em; but the minute I got where +I wa'n't put under a microscope by day an' a +telescope by night and had myself TO myself without +sayin' `By your leave,' I begun to pick up. Cousin +Cyrus is an old man an' consid'able trouble, but he +thinks my teeth are handsome an' says I've got +a splendid suit of hair. There ain't a person in +Lewiston that knows about the minister, or father's +will, or Jim's doin's, or the fruit peddler; an' if +they should find out, they wouldn't care, an' they +couldn't remember; for Lewiston 's a busy place, +thanks be!" + +Miss Delia Weeks may have exaggerated matters +somewhat, but it is easy to imagine that Rebecca +as well as all the other Riverboro children +had heard the particulars of the Widow Rideout's +missing sleigh and Abner Simpson's supposed +connection with it. + +There is not an excess of delicacy or chivalry in +the ordinary country school, and several choice +conundrums and bits of verse dealing with the Simpson +affair were bandied about among the scholars, +uttered always, be it said to their credit, in +undertones, and when the Simpson children were not in +the group. + +Rebecca Randall was of precisely the same stock, +and had had much the same associations as her +schoolmates, so one can hardly say why she so hated +mean gossip and so instinctively held herself aloof +from it. + +Among the Riverboro girls of her own age was a +certain excellently named Minnie Smellie, who was +anything but a general favorite. She was a ferret- +eyed, blond-haired, spindle-legged little creature +whose mind was a cross between that of a parrot +and a sheep. She was suspected of copying answers +from other girls' slates, although she had +never been caught in the act. Rebecca and Emma +Jane always knew when she had brought a tart or +a triangle of layer cake with her school luncheon, +because on those days she forsook the cheerful +society of her mates and sought a safe solitude in +the woods, returning after a time with a jocund +smile on her smug face. + +After one of these private luncheons Rebecca +had been tempted beyond her strength, and when +Minnie took her seat among them asked, "Is your +headache better, Minnie? Let me wipe off that +strawberry jam over your mouth." + +There was no jam there as a matter of fact, +but the guilty Minnie's handkerchief went to her +crimson face in a flash. + +Rebecca confessed to Emma Jane that same +afternoon that she felt ashamed of her prank. "I +do hate her ways," she exclaimed, "but I'm sorry +I let her know we 'spected her; and so to make +up, I gave her that little piece of broken coral I +keep in my bead purse; you know the one?" + +"It don't hardly seem as if she deserved that, +and her so greedy," remarked Emma Jane. + +"I know it, but it makes me feel better," said +Rebecca largely; "and then I've had it two years, +and it's broken so it wouldn't ever be any real +good, beautiful as it is to look at." + +The coral had partly served its purpose as a +reconciling bond, when one afternoon Rebecca, +who had stayed after school for her grammar lesson +as usual, was returning home by way of the +short cut. Far ahead, beyond the bars, she espied +the Simpson children just entering the woodsy +bit. Seesaw was not with them, so she hastened +her steps in order to secure company on her homeward +walk. They were speedily lost to view, but +when she had almost overtaken them she heard, +in the trees beyond, Minnie Smellie's voice lifted +high in song, and the sound of a child's sobbing. +Clara Belle, Susan, and the twins were running +along the path, and Minnie was dancing up and +down, shrieking:-- + +"`What made the sleigh love Simpson so?' + The eager children cried; +`Why Simpson loved the sleigh, you know,' + The teacher quick replied." + + +The last glimpse of the routed Simpson tribe, +and the last Rutter of their tattered garments, +disappeared in the dim distance. The fall of one small +stone cast by the valiant Elijah, known as "the fighting +twin," did break the stillness of the woods for +a moment, but it did not come within a hundred +yards of Minnie, who shouted "Jail Birds" at the +top of her lungs and then turned, with an agreeable +feeling of excitement, to meet Rebecca, standing +perfectly still in the path, with a day of reckoning +plainly set forth in her blazing eyes. + +Minnie's face was not pleasant to see, for a coward +detected at the moment of wrongdoing is not +an object of delight. + +"Minnie Smellie, if ever--I--catch--you-- +singing--that--to the Simpsons again--do you +know what I'll do?" asked Rebecca in a tone of +concentrated rage. + +"I don't know and I don't care," said Minnie +jauntily, though her looks belied her. + +"I'll take that piece of coral away from you, and +I THINK I shall slap you besides!" + +"You wouldn't darst," retorted Minnie. "If +you do, I'll tell my mother and the teacher, so +there!" + +"I don't care if you tell your mother, my mother, +and all your relations, and the president," said +Rebecca, gaining courage as the noble words fell from +her lips. "I don't care if you tell the town, the +whole of York county, the state of Maine and-- +and the nation!" she finished grandiloquently. +"Now you run home and remember what I say. +If you do it again, and especially if you say `Jail +Birds,' if I think it's right and my duty, I shall +punish you somehow." + +The next morning at recess Rebecca observed +Minnie telling the tale with variations to Huldah +Meserve. "She THREATENED me," whispered Minnie, +"but I never believe a word she says." + +The latter remark was spoken with the direct +intention of being overheard, for Minnie had spasms +of bravery, when well surrounded by the machinery +of law and order. + +As Rebecca went back to her seat she asked +Miss Dearborn if she might pass a note to Minnie +Smellie and received permission. This was the note:-- + +Of all the girls that are so mean +There's none like Minnie Smellie. +I'll take away the gift I gave +And pound her into jelly. + + _P. S. Now do you believe me?_ + +R. Randall. + + +The effect of this piece of doggerel was entirely +convincing, and for days afterwards whenever Minnie +met the Simpsons even a mile from the brick +house she shuddered and held her peace. + + + +VIII + +COLOR OF ROSE + +On the very next Friday after this +"dreadfullest fight that ever was seen," as +Bunyan says in Pilgrim's Progress, there were +great doings in the little schoolhouse on the hill. +Friday afternoon was always the time chosen for +dialogues, songs, and recitations, but it cannot be +stated that it was a gala day in any true sense of +the word. Most of the children hated "speaking +pieces;" hated the burden of learning them, +dreaded the danger of breaking down in them. +Miss Dearborn commonly went home with a headache, +and never left her bed during the rest of the +afternoon or evening; and the casual female parent +who attended the exercises sat on a front bench +with beads of cold sweat on her forehead, listening +to the all-too-familiar halts and stammers. Sometimes +a bellowing infant who had clean forgotten his +verse would cast himself bodily on the maternal +bosom and be borne out into the open air, where he +was sometimes kissed and occasionally spanked; +but in any case the failure added an extra dash +of gloom and dread to the occasion. The advent +of Rebecca had somehow infused a new spirit +into these hitherto terrible afternoons. She had +taught Elijah and Elisha Simpson so that they +recited three verses of something with such comical +effect that they delighted themselves, the teacher, +and the school; while Susan, who lisped, had been +provided with a humorous poem in which she +impersonated a lisping child. Emma Jane and +Rebecca had a dialogue, and the sense of companionship +buoyed up Emma Jane and gave her self- +reliance. In fact, Miss Dearborn announced on +this particular Friday morning that the exercises +promised to be so interesting that she had invited +the doctor's wife, the minister's wife, two members +of the school committee, and a few mothers. Living +Perkins was asked to decorate one of the black- +boards and Rebecca the other. Living, who was +the star artist of the school, chose the map of North +America. Rebecca liked better to draw things +less realistic, and speedily, before the eyes of the +enchanted multitude, there grew under her skillful +fingers an American flag done in red, white, +and blue chalk, every star in its right place, every +stripe fluttering in the breeze. Beside this +appeared a figure of Columbia, copied from the top +of the cigar box that held the crayons. + +Miss Dearborn was delighted. "I propose we +give Rebecca a good hand-clapping for such a +beautiful picture--one that the whole school may +well be proud of!" + +The scholars clapped heartily, and Dick Carter, +waving his hand, gave a rousing cheer. + +Rebecca's heart leaped for joy, and to her +confusion she felt the tears rising in her eyes. She +could hardly see the way back to her seat, for in +her ignorant lonely little life she had never been +singled out for applause, never lauded, nor crowned, +as in this wonderful, dazzling moment. If "nobleness +enkindleth nobleness," so does enthusiasm +beget enthusiasm, and so do wit and talent enkindle +wit and talent. Alice Robinson proposed that +the school should sing Three Cheers for the Red, +White, and Blue! and when they came to the +chorus, all point to Rebecca's flag. Dick Carter +suggested that Living Perkins and Rebecca Randall +should sign their names to their pictures, so +that the visitors would know who drew them. Huldah +Meserve asked permission to cover the largest +holes in the plastered walls with boughs and fill the +water pail with wild flowers. Rebecca's mood was +above and beyond all practical details. She sat +silent, her heart so full of grateful joy that she +could hardly remember the words of her dialogue. +At recess she bore herself modestly, notwithstanding +her great triumph, while in the general atmosphere +of good will the Smellie-Randall hatchet was +buried and Minnie gathered maple boughs and covered +the ugly stove with them, under Rebecca's +direction. + +Miss Dearborn dismissed the morning session +at quarter to twelve, so that those who lived near +enough could go home for a change of dress. +Emma Jane and Rebecca ran nearly every step of +the way, from sheer excitement, only stopping to +breathe at the stiles. + +"Will your aunt Mirandy let you wear your best, +or only your buff calico?" asked Emma Jane. + +"I think I'll ask aunt Jane," Rebecca replied. +"Oh! if my pink was only finished! I left aunt +Jane making the buttonholes!" + +"I'm going to ask my mother to let me wear +her garnet ring," said Emma Jane. "It would look +perfectly elergant flashing in the sun when I point +to the flag. Good-by; don't wait for me going +back; I may get a ride." + +Rebecca found the side door locked, but she +knew that the key was under the step, and so of +course did everybody else in Riverboro, for they +all did about the same thing with it. She unlocked +the door and went into the dining-room to find her +lunch laid on the table and a note from aunt Jane +saying that they had gone to Moderation with Mrs. +Robinson in her carryall. Rebecca swallowed a +piece of bread and butter, and flew up the front +stairs to her bedroom. On the bed lay the pink +gingham dress finished by aunt Jane's kind hands. +Could she, dare she, wear it without asking? Did +the occasion justify a new costume, or would her +aunts think she ought to keep it for the concert? + +"I'll wear it," thought Rebecca. "They're not +here to ask, and maybe they wouldn't mind a bit; +it's only gingham after all, and wouldn't be so +grand if it wasn't new, and hadn't tape trimming +on it, and wasn't pink." + +She unbraided her two pigtails, combed out the +waves of her hair and tied them back with a ribbon, +changed her shoes, and then slipped on the +pretty frock, managing to fasten all but the three +middle buttons, which she reserved for Emma Jane. + +Then her eye fell on her cherished pink sunshade, +the exact match, and the girls had never seen it. +It wasn't quite appropriate for school, but she +needn't take it into the room; she would wrap it +in a piece of paper, just show it, and carry it coming +home. She glanced in the parlor looking-glass +downstairs and was electrified at the vision. It +seemed almost as if beauty of apparel could go no +further than that heavenly pink gingham dress! +The sparkle of her eyes, glow of her cheeks, sheen +of her falling hair, passed unnoticed in the all- +conquering charm of the rose-colored garment. Goodness! +it was twenty minutes to one and she would +be late. She danced out the side door, pulled a pink +rose from a bush at the gate, and covered the mile +between the brick house and the seat of learning +in an incredibly short time, meeting Emma Jane, +also breathless and resplendent, at the entrance. + +"Rebecca Randall!" exclaimed Emma Jane, +"you're handsome as a picture!" + +"I?" laughed Rebecca "Nonsense! it's only +the pink gingham." + +"You're not good looking every day," insisted +Emma Jane; "but you're different somehow. See +my garnet ring; mother scrubbed it in soap and +water. How on earth did your aunt Mirandy let +you put on your bran' new dress?" + +"They were both away and I didn't ask," +Rebecca responded anxiously. "Why? Do you think +they'd have said no?" + +"Miss Mirandy always says no, doesn't she?" +asked Emma Jane. + +"Ye--es; but this afternoon is very special-- +almost like a Sunday-school concert." + +"Yes," assented Emma Jane, "it is, of course; +with your name on the board, and our pointing to +your flag, and our elergant dialogue, and all that." + +The afternoon was one succession of solid +triumphs for everybody concerned. There were no +real failures at all, no tears, no parents ashamed +of their offspring. Miss Dearborn heard many +admiring remarks passed upon her ability, and +wondered whether they belonged to her or partly, +at least, to Rebecca. The child had no more to +do than several others, but she was somehow in +the foreground. It transpired afterwards at various +village entertainments that Rebecca couldn't +be kept in the background; it positively refused +to hold her. Her worst enemy could not have +called her pushing. She was ready and willing +and never shy; but she sought for no chances +of display and was, indeed, remarkably lacking in +self-consciousness, as well as eager to bring others +into whatever fun or entertainment there was. +If wherever the MacGregor sat was the head of +the table, so in the same way wherever Rebecca +stood was the centre of the stage. Her clear high +treble soared above all the rest in the choruses, +and somehow everybody watched her, took note +of her gestures, her whole-souled singing, her +irrepressible enthusiasm. + +Finally it was all over, and it seemed to Rebecca +as if she should never be cool and calm again, as +she loitered on the homeward path. There would +be no lessons to learn to-night, and the vision of +helping with the preserves on the morrow had no +terrors for her--fears could not draw breath in +the radiance that flooded her soul. There were +thick gathering clouds in the sky, but she took no +note of them save to be glad that she could raise +her sunshade. She did not tread the solid ground +at all, or have any sense of belonging to the common +human family, until she entered the side yard +of the brick house and saw her aunt Miranda +standing in the open doorway. Then with a rush +she came back to earth. + + + +IX + +ASHES OF ROSES + +There she is, over an hour late; a little +more an' she'd 'a' been caught in a thunder +shower, but she'd never look ahead," +said Miranda to Jane; "and added to all her other +iniquities, if she ain't rigged out in that new dress, +steppin' along with her father's dancin'-school steps, +and swingin' her parasol for all the world as if she +was play-actin'. Now I'm the oldest, Jane, an' I +intend to have my say out; if you don't like it you +can go into the kitchen till it's over. Step right +in here, Rebecca; I want to talk to you. What did +you put on that good new dress for, on a school +day, without permission?" + +"I had intended to ask you at noontime, but you +weren't at home, so I couldn't," began Rebecca. + +"You did no such a thing; you put it on because +you was left alone, though you knew well enough +I wouldn't have let you." + +"If I'd been CERTAIN you wouldn't have let me +I'd never have done it," said Rebecca, trying to +be truthful; "but I wasn't CERTAIN, and it was worth +risking. I thought perhaps you might, if you knew +it was almost a real exhibition at school." + +"Exhibition!" exclaimed Miranda scornfully; +"you are exhibition enough by yourself, I should +say. Was you exhibitin' your parasol?" + +"The parasol WAS silly," confessed Rebecca, +hanging her head; "but it's the only time in my +whole life when I had anything to match it, and +it looked so beautiful with the pink dress! Emma +Jane and I spoke a dialogue about a city girl and +a country girl, and it came to me just the minute +before I started how nice it would come in for the +city girl; and it did. I haven't hurt my dress a +mite, aunt Mirandy." + +"It's the craftiness and underhandedness of +your actions that's the worst," said Miranda +coldly. "And look at the other things you've +done! It seems as if Satan possessed you! You +went up the front stairs to your room, but you +didn't hide your tracks, for you dropped your +handkerchief on the way up. You left the screen +out of your bedroom window for the flies to come +in all over the house. You never cleared away +your lunch nor set away a dish, AND YOU LEFT THE +SIDE DOOR UNLOCKED from half past twelve to three +o'clock, so 't anybody could 'a' come in and stolen +what they liked!" + +Rebecca sat down heavily in her chair as she +heard the list of her transgressions. How could +she have been so careless? The tears began to +flow now as she attempted to explain sins that +never could be explained or justified. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she faltered. "I was trimming +the schoolroom, and got belated, and ran all +the way home. It was hard getting into my dress +alone, and I hadn't time to eat but a mouthful, +and just at the last minute, when I honestly--HONESTLY +--would have thought about clearing away +and locking up, I looked at the clock and knew I +could hardly get back to school in time to form in +the line; and I thought how dreadful it would be +to go in late and get my first black mark on a Friday +afternoon, with the minister's wife and the +doctor's wife and the school committee all there!" + +"Don't wail and carry on now; it's no good +cryin' over spilt milk," answered Miranda. "An +ounce of good behavior is worth a pound of repentance. +Instead of tryin' to see how little trouble +you can make in a house that ain't your own home, +it seems as if you tried to see how much you could +put us out. Take that rose out o' your dress and +let me see the spot it's made on your yoke, an' the +rusty holes where the wet pin went in. No, it ain't; +but it's more by luck than forethought. I ain't got +any patience with your flowers and frizzled-out hair +and furbelows an' airs an' graces, for all the world +like your Miss-Nancy father." + +Rebecca lifted her head in a flash. "Look here, +aunt Mirandy, I'll be as good as I know how to be. +I'll mind quick when I'm spoken to and never +leave the door unlocked again, but I won't have +my father called names. He was a p-perfectly +l-lovely father, that's what he was, and it's MEAN +to call him Miss Nancy!" + +"Don't you dare answer me back that imperdent +way, Rebecca, tellin' me I'm mean; your father +was a vain, foolish, shiftless man, an' you might as +well hear it from me as anybody else; he spent +your mother's money and left her with seven children +to provide for." + +"It's s-something to leave s-seven nice +children," sobbed Rebecca. + +"Not when other folks have to help feed, clothe, +and educate 'em," responded Miranda. "Now you +step upstairs, put on your nightgown, go to bed, +and stay there till to-morrow mornin'. You'll find +a bowl o' crackers an' milk on your bureau, an' I +don't want to hear a sound from you till breakfast +time. Jane, run an' take the dish towels off the +line and shut the shed doors; we're goin' to have +a turrible shower." + +"We've had it, I should think," said Jane +quietly, as she went to do her sister's bidding. +"I don't often speak my mind, Mirandy; but you +ought not to have said what you did about Lorenzo. +He was what he was, and can't be made +any different; but he was Rebecca's father, and +Aurelia always says he was a good husband." + +Miranda had never heard the proverbial phrase +about the only "good Indian," but her mind worked +in the conventional manner when she said grimly, +"Yes, I've noticed that dead husbands are usually +good ones; but the truth needs an airin' now and +then, and that child will never amount to a hill o' +beans till she gets some of her father trounced out +of her. I'm glad I said just what I did." + +"I daresay you are," remarked Jane, with what +might be described as one of her annual bursts of +courage; "but all the same, Mirandy, it wasn't +good manners, and it wasn't good religion!" + +The clap of thunder that shook the house just at +that moment made no such peal in Miranda Sawyer's +ears as Jane's remark made when it fell with +a deafening roar on her conscience. + +Perhaps after all it is just as well to speak only +once a year and then speak to the purpose. + +Rebecca mounted the back stairs wearily, closed +the door of her bedroom, and took off the beloved +pink gingham with trembling fingers. Her cotton +handkerchief was rolled into a hard ball, and in the +intervals of reaching the more difficult buttons that +lay between her shoulder blades and her belt, she +dabbed her wet eyes carefully, so that they should +not rain salt water on the finery that had been +worn at such a price. She smoothed it out carefully, +pinched up the white ruffle at the neck, and +laid it away in a drawer with an extra little sob at +the roughness of life. The withered pink rose fell +on the floor. Rebecca looked at it and thought to +herself, "Just like my happy day!" Nothing could +show more clearly the kind of child she was than +the fact that she instantly perceived the symbolism +of the rose, and laid it in the drawer with the dress +as if she were burying the whole episode with all +its sad memories. It was a child's poetic instinct +with a dawning hint of woman's sentiment in it. + +She braided her hair in the two accustomed pig- +tails, took off her best shoes (which had happily +escaped notice), with all the while a fixed resolve +growing in her mind, that of leaving the brick +house and going back to the farm. She would not +be received there with open arms,--there was no +hope of that,--but she would help her mother +about the house and send Hannah to Riverboro in +her place. "I hope she'll like it!" she thought in +a momentary burst of vindictiveness. She sat by +the window trying to make some sort of plan, +watching the lightning play over the hilltop and +the streams of rain chasing each other down the +lightning rod. And this was the day that had +dawned so joyfully! It had been a red sunrise, +and she had leaned on the window sill studying +her lesson and thinking what a lovely world it +was. And what a golden morning! The changing +of the bare, ugly little schoolroom into a bower of +beauty; Miss Dearborn's pleasure at her success +with the Simpson twins' recitation; the privilege +of decorating the blackboard; the happy thought +of drawing Columbia from the cigar box; the +intoxicating moment when the school clapped her! +And what an afternoon! How it went on from +glory to glory, beginning with Emma Jane's telling +her, Rebecca Randall, that she was as "handsome +as a picture." + +She lived through the exercises again in +memory, especially her dialogue with Emma Jane and +her inspiration of using the bough-covered stove +as a mossy bank where the country girl could sit +and watch her flocks. This gave Emma Jane a feeling +of such ease that she never recited better; +and how generous it was of her to lend the garnet +ring to the city girl, fancying truly how it would +flash as she furled her parasol and approached the +awe-stricken shepherdess! She had thought aunt +Miranda might be pleased that the niece invited +down from the farm had succeeded so well at +school; but no, there was no hope of pleasing her +in that or in any other way. She would go to +Maplewood on the stage next day with Mr. Cobb +and get home somehow from cousin Ann's. On +second thoughts her aunts might not allow it. +Very well, she would slip away now and see if she +could stay all night with the Cobbs and be off next +morning before breakfast. + +Rebecca never stopped long to think, more 's the +pity, so she put on her oldest dress and hat and +jacket, then wrapped her nightdress, comb, and +toothbrush in a bundle and dropped it softly out +of the window. Her room was in the L and her +window at no very dangerous distance from the +ground, though had it been, nothing could have +stopped her at that moment. Somebody who had +gone on the roof to clean out the gutters had left +a cleat nailed to the side of the house about halfway +between the window and the top of the back +porch. Rebecca heard the sound of the sewing +machine in the dining-room and the chopping of +meat in the kitchen; so knowing the whereabouts +of both her aunts, she scrambled out of the window, +caught hold of the lightning rod, slid down to the +helpful cleat, jumped to the porch, used the woodbine +trellis for a ladder, and was flying up the road +in the storm before she had time to arrange any +details of her future movements. + + +Jeremiah Cobb sat at his lonely supper at the +table by the kitchen window. "Mother," as he +with his old-fashioned habits was in the habit of +calling his wife, was nursing a sick neighbor. Mrs. +Cobb was mother only to a little headstone in the +churchyard, where reposed "Sarah Ann, beloved +daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Cobb, aged seventeen +months;" but the name of mother was better +than nothing, and served at any rate as a reminder +of her woman's crown of blessedness. + +The rain still fell, and the heavens were dark, +though it was scarcely five o'clock. Looking up +from his "dish of tea," the old man saw at the +open door a very figure of woe. Rebecca's face +was so swollen with tears and so sharp with misery +that for a moment he scarcely recognized her. +Then when he heard her voice asking, "Please +may I come in, Mr. Cobb?" he cried, "Well I +vow! It's my little lady passenger! Come to call +on old uncle Jerry and pass the time o' day, hev +ye? Why, you're wet as sops. Draw up to the +stove. I made a fire, hot as it was, thinkin' I +wanted somethin' warm for my supper, bein' kind +o' lonesome without mother. She's settin' up with +Seth Strout to-night. There, we'll hang your +soppy hat on the nail, put your jacket over the +chair rail, an' then you turn your back to the stove +an' dry yourself good." + +Uncle Jerry had never before said so many +words at a time, but he had caught sight of the +child's red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, and his +big heart went out to her in her trouble, quite +regardless of any circumstances that might have +caused it. + +Rebecca stood still for a moment until uncle +Jerry took his seat again at the table, and then, +unable to contain herself longer, cried, "Oh, Mr. +Cobb, I've run away from the brick house, and I +want to go back to the farm. Will you keep me +to-night and take me up to Maplewood in the +stage? I haven't got any money for my fare, but +I'll earn it somehow afterwards." + +"Well, I guess we won't quarrel 'bout money, you +and me," said the old man; "and we've never had +our ride together, anyway, though we allers meant +to go down river, not up." + +"I shall never see Milltown now!" sobbed Rebecca. + +"Come over here side o' me an' tell me all about +it," coaxed uncle Jerry. "Jest set down on that +there wooden cricket an' out with the whole story." + +Rebecca leaned her aching head against Mr. +Cobb's homespun knee and recounted the history +of her trouble. Tragic as that history seemed to +her passionate and undisciplined mind, she told it +truthfully and without exaggeration. + + + +X + +RAINBOW BRIDGES + +Uncle Jerry coughed and stirred in his +chair a good deal during Rebecca's recital, +but he carefully concealed any undue +feeling of sympathy, just muttering, "Poor little soul! +We'll see what we can do for her!" + +"You will take me to Maplewood, won't you, Mr. +Cobb?" begged Rebecca piteously. + +"Don't you fret a mite," he answered, with a +crafty little notion at the back of his mind; "I'll +see the lady passenger through somehow. Now +take a bite o' somethin' to eat, child. Spread some +o' that tomato preserve on your bread; draw up to +the table. How'd you like to set in mother's place +an' pour me out another cup o' hot tea?" + +Mr. Jeremiah Cobb's mental machinery was +simple, and did not move very smoothly save when +propelled by his affection or sympathy. In the +present case these were both employed to his +advantage, and mourning his stupidity and praying +for some flash of inspiration to light his path, he +blundered along, trusting to Providence. + +Rebecca, comforted by the old man's tone, and +timidly enjoying the dignity of sitting in Mrs. Cobb's +seat and lifting the blue china teapot, smiled faintly, +smoothed her hair, and dried her eyes. + +"I suppose your mother'll be turrible glad to +see you back again?" queried Mr. Cobb. + +A tiny fear--just a baby thing--in the bottom +of Rebecca's heart stirred and grew larger the moment +it was touched with a question. + +"She won't like it that I ran away, I s'pose, and +she'll be sorry that I couldn't please aunt Mirandy; +but I'll make her understand, just as I did you." + +"I s'pose she was thinkin' o' your schoolin', +lettin' you come down here; but land! you can go to +school in Temperance, I s'pose?" + +"There's only two months' school now in +Temperance, and the farm 's too far from all the other +schools." + +"Oh well! there's other things in the world +beside edjercation," responded uncle Jerry, attacking +a piece of apple pie. + +"Ye--es; though mother thought that was going +to be the making of me," returned Rebecca sadly, +giving a dry little sob as she tried to drink her tea. + +"It'll be nice for you to be all together again +at the farm--such a house full o' children!" +remarked the dear old deceiver, who longed for +nothing so much as to cuddle and comfort the poor +little creature. + +"It's too full--that's the trouble. But I'll +make Hannah come to Riverboro in my place." + +"S'pose Mirandy 'n' Jane'll have her? I should +be 'most afraid they wouldn't. They'll be kind o' +mad at your goin' home, you know, and you can't +hardly blame 'em." + +This was quite a new thought,--that the brick +house might be closed to Hannah, since she, Rebecca, +had turned her back upon its cold hospitality. + +"How is this school down here in Riverboro +--pretty good?" inquired uncle Jerry, whose brain +was working with an altogether unaccustomed +rapidity,--so much so that it almost terrified him. + +"Oh, it's a splendid school! And Miss +Dearborn is a splendid teacher!" + +"You like her, do you? Well, you'd better believe +she returns the compliment. Mother was down to +the store this afternoon buyin' liniment for Seth +Strout, an' she met Miss Dearborn on the bridge. +They got to talkin' 'bout school, for mother has +summer-boarded a lot o' the schoolmarms, an' likes +'em. `How does the little Temperance girl git +along?' asks mother. `Oh, she's the best scholar +I have!' says Miss Dearborn. `I could teach school +from sun-up to sun-down if scholars was all like +Rebecca Randall,' says she." + +"Oh, Mr. Cobb, DID she say that?" glowed +Rebecca, her face sparkling and dimpling in an instant. +"I've tried hard all the time, but I'll study the +covers right off of the books now." + +"You mean you would if you'd ben goin' to +stay here," interposed uncle Jerry. "Now ain't it +too bad you've jest got to give it all up on account +o' your aunt Mirandy? Well, I can't hardly blame +ye. She's cranky an' she's sour; I should think +she'd ben nussed on bonny-clabber an' green +apples. She needs bearin' with; an' I guess you +ain't much on patience, be ye?" + +"Not very much," replied Rebecca dolefully. + +"If I'd had this talk with ye yesterday," pursued +Mr. Cobb, "I believe I'd have advised ye different. +It's too late now, an' I don't feel to say you've +ben all in the wrong; but if 't was to do over again, +I'd say, well, your aunt Mirandy gives you clothes +and board and schoolin' and is goin' to send you +to Wareham at a big expense. She's turrible hard +to get along with, an' kind o' heaves benefits at +your head, same 's she would bricks; but they're +benefits jest the same, an' mebbe it's your job to +kind o' pay for 'em in good behavior. Jane's a +leetle bit more easy goin' than Mirandy, ain't she, +or is she jest as hard to please?" + +"Oh, aunt Jane and I get along splendidly," +exclaimed Rebecca; "she's just as good and kind +as she can be, and I like her better all the time. +I think she kind of likes me, too; she smoothed +my hair once. I'd let her scold me all day long, +for she understands; but she can't stand up for me +against aunt Mirandy; she's about as afraid of +her as I am." + +"Jane'll be real sorry to-morrow to find you've +gone away, I guess; but never mind, it can't be +helped. If she has a kind of a dull time with Mirandy, +on account o' her bein' so sharp, why of course +she'd set great store by your comp'ny. Mother was +talkin' with her after prayer meetin' the other night. +`You wouldn't know the brick house, Sarah,' says +Jane. `I'm keepin' a sewin' school, an' my scholar +has made three dresses. What do you think o' +that,' says she, `for an old maid's child? I've +taken a class in Sunday-school,' says Jane, `an' +think o' renewin' my youth an' goin' to the picnic +with Rebecca,' says she; an' mother declares she +never see her look so young 'n' happy." + +There was a silence that could be felt in the little +kitchen; a silence only broken by the ticking of +the tall clock and the beating of Rebecca's heart, +which, it seemed to her, almost drowned the voice +of the clock. The rain ceased, a sudden rosy light +filled the room, and through the window a rainbow +arch could be seen spanning the heavens like +a radiant bridge. Bridges took one across difficult +places, thought Rebecca, and uncle Jerry seemed +to have built one over her troubles and given her +strength to walk. + +"The shower 's over," said the old man, filling +his pipe; "it's cleared the air, washed the face o' +the airth nice an' clean, an' everything to-morrer +will shine like a new pin--when you an' I are +drivin' up river." + +Rebecca pushed her cup away, rose from the +table, and put on her hat and jacket quietly. "I'm +not going to drive up river, Mr. Cobb," she said. +"I'm going to stay here and--catch bricks; catch +'em without throwing 'em back, too. I don't know +as aunt Mirandy will take me in after I've run +away, but I'm going back now while I have the +courage. You wouldn't be so good as to go with +me, would you, Mr. Cobb?" + +"You'd better b'lieve your uncle Jerry don't +propose to leave till he gits this thing fixed up," +cried the old man delightedly. "Now you've had +all you can stan' to-night, poor little soul, without +gettin' a fit o' sickness; an' Mirandy'll be sore +an' cross an' in no condition for argyment; so my +plan is jest this: to drive you over to the brick +house in my top buggy; to have you set back in +the corner, an' I git out an' go to the side door; +an' when I git your aunt Mirandy 'n' aunt Jane +out int' the shed to plan for a load o' wood I'm +goin' to have hauled there this week, you'll slip +out o' the buggy and go upstairs to bed. The front +door won't be locked, will it?" + +"Not this time of night," Rebecca answered; +"not till aunt Mirandy goes to bed; but oh! what +if it should be?" + +"Well, it won't; an' if 't is, why we'll have to +face it out; though in my opinion there's things +that won't bear facin' out an' had better be settled +comfortable an' quiet. You see you ain't run away +yet; you've only come over here to consult me +'bout runnin' away, an' we've concluded it ain't +wuth the trouble. The only real sin you've +committed, as I figger it out, was in comin' here by the +winder when you'd ben sent to bed. That ain't so +very black, an' you can tell your aunt Jane 'bout +it come Sunday, when she's chock full o' religion, +an' she can advise you when you'd better tell your +aunt Mirandy. I don't believe in deceivin' folks, +but if you've hed hard thoughts you ain't obleeged +to own 'em up; take 'em to the Lord in prayer, as +the hymn says, and then don't go on hevin' 'em. +Now come on; I'm all hitched up to go over to +the post-office; don't forget your bundle; `it's +always a journey, mother, when you carry a nightgown;' +them 's the first words your uncle Jerry +ever heard you say! He didn't think you'd be +bringin' your nightgown over to his house. Step +in an' curl up in the corner; we ain't goin' to let +folks see little runaway gals, 'cause they're goin' +back to begin all over ag'in!" + + +When Rebecca crept upstairs, and undressing in +the dark finally found herself in her bed that night, +though she was aching and throbbing in every +nerve, she felt a kind of peace stealing over her. +She had been saved from foolishness and error; +kept from troubling her poor mother; prevented +from angering and mortifying her aunts. + +Her heart was melted now, and she determined +to win aunt Miranda's approval by some desperate +means, and to try and forget the one thing that +rankled worst, the scornful mention of her father, +of whom she thought with the greatest admiration, +and whom she had not yet heard criticised; for +such sorrows and disappointments as Aurelia Randall +had suffered had never been communicated to +her children. + +It would have been some comfort to the bruised, +unhappy little spirit to know that Miranda Sawyer +was passing an uncomfortable night, and that +she tacitly regretted her harshness, partly because +Jane had taken such a lofty and virtuous position +in the matter. She could not endure Jane's disapproval, +although she would never have confessed to +such a weakness. + +As uncle Jerry drove homeward under the stars, +well content with his attempts at keeping the peace, +he thought wistfully of the touch of Rebecca's head +on his knee, and the rain of her tears on his hand; +of the sweet reasonableness of her mind when she +had the matter put rightly before her; of her quick +decision when she had once seen the path of duty; +of the touching hunger for love and understanding +that were so characteristic in her. "Lord +A'mighty!" he ejaculated under his breath, "Lord +A'mighty! to hector and abuse a child like that +one! 'T ain't ABUSE exactly, I know, or 't wouldn't +be to some o' your elephant-hided young ones; but +to that little tender will-o'-the-wisp a hard word 's +like a lash. Mirandy Sawyer would be a heap better +woman if she had a little gravestun to remember, +same's mother 'n' I have." + + +"I never see a child improve in her work as +Rebecca has to-day," remarked Miranda Sawyer to +Jane on Saturday evening. "That settin' down I +gave her was probably just what she needed, and +I daresay it'll last for a month." + +"I'm glad you're pleased," returned Jane. "A +cringing worm is what you want, not a bright, smiling +child. Rebecca looks to me as if she'd been +through the Seven Years' War. When she came +downstairs this morning it seemed to me she'd +grown old in the night. If you follow my advice, +which you seldom do, you'll let me take her and +Emma Jane down beside the river to-morrow afternoon +and bring Emma Jane home to a good Sunday +supper. Then if you'll let her go to Milltown with +the Cobbs on Wednesday, that'll hearten her up +a little and coax back her appetite. Wednesday 's a +holiday on account of Miss Dearborn's going home +to her sister's wedding, and the Cobbs and Perkinses +want to go down to the Agricultural Fair." + + + +XI + +"THE STIRRING OF THE POWERS" + +Rebecca's visit to Milltown was all that her +glowing fancy had painted it, except that +recent readings about Rome and Venice +disposed her to believe that those cities might +have an advantage over Milltown in the matter +of mere pictorial beauty. So soon does the soul +outgrow its mansions that after once seeing +Milltown her fancy ran out to the future sight of +Portland; for that, having islands and a harbor +and two public monuments, must be far more +beautiful than Milltown, which would, she felt, take +its proud place among the cities of the earth, by +reason of its tremendous business activity rather +than by any irresistible appeal to the imagination. + +It would be impossible for two children to see +more, do more, walk more, talk more, eat more, or +ask more questions than Rebecca and Emma Jane +did on that eventful Wednesday. + +"She's the best company I ever see in all my +life," said Mrs. Cobb to her husband that evening. +"We ain't had a dull minute this day. She's well- +mannered, too; she didn't ask for anything, and +was thankful for whatever she got. Did you watch +her face when we went into that tent where they +was actin' out Uncle Tom's Cabin? And did you +take notice of the way she told us about the book +when we sat down to have our ice cream? I tell you +Harriet Beecher Stowe herself couldn't 'a' done +it better justice." + +"I took it all in," responded Mr. Cobb, who was +pleased that "mother" agreed with him about +Rebecca. "I ain't sure but she's goin' to turn out +somethin' remarkable,--a singer, or a writer, or a +lady doctor like that Miss Parks up to Cornish." + +"Lady doctors are always home'paths, ain't +they?" asked Mrs. Cobb, who, it is needless to say, +was distinctly of the old school in medicine. + +"Land, no, mother; there ain't no home'path +'bout Miss Parks--she drives all over the country." + +"I can't see Rebecca as a lady doctor, somehow," +mused Mrs. Cobb. "Her gift o' gab is what's +goin' to be the makin' of her; mebbe she'll lecture, +or recite pieces, like that Portland elocutionist that +come out here to the harvest supper." + +"I guess she'll be able to write down her own +pieces," said Mr. Cobb confidently; "she could +make 'em up faster 'n she could read 'em out of a +book." + +"It's a pity she's so plain looking," remarked +Mrs. Cobb, blowing out the candle. + +"PLAIN LOOKING, mother?" exclaimed her husband +in astonishment. "Look at the eyes of her; +look at the hair of her, an' the smile, an' that +there dimple! Look at Alice Robinson, that's +called the prettiest child on the river, an' see how +Rebecca shines her ri' down out o' sight! I hope +Mirandy'll favor her comin' over to see us real +often, for she'll let off some of her steam here, an' +the brick house'll be consid'able safer for everybody +concerned. We've known what it was to hev +children, even if 't was more 'n thirty years ago, +an' we can make allowances." + +Notwithstanding the encomiums of Mr. and Mrs. +Cobb, Rebecca made a poor hand at composition +writing at this time. Miss Dearborn gave her +every sort of subject that she had ever been given +herself: Cloud Pictures; Abraham Lincoln; Nature; +Philanthropy; Slavery; Intemperance; Joy +and Duty; Solitude; but with none of them did +Rebecca seem to grapple satisfactorily. + +"Write as you talk, Rebecca," insisted poor Miss +Dearborn, who secretly knew that she could never +manage a good composition herself. + +"But gracious me, Miss Dearborn! I don't talk +about nature and slavery. I can't write unless I +have something to say, can I?" + +"That is what compositions are for," returned +Miss Dearborn doubtfully; "to make you have +things to say. Now in your last one, on solitude, you +haven't said anything very interesting, and you've +made it too common and every-day to sound well. +There are too many `yous' and `yours' in it; you +ought to say `one' now and then, to make it seem +more like good writing. `One opens a favorite +book;' `One's thoughts are a great comfort in +solitude,' and so on." + +"I don't know any more about solitude this week +than I did about joy and duty last week," grumbled +Rebecca. + +"You tried to be funny about joy and duty," +said Miss Dearborn reprovingly; "so of course you +didn't succeed." + +"I didn't know you were going to make us read +the things out loud," said Rebecca with an embarrassed +smile of recollection. + +"Joy and Duty" had been the inspiring subject +given to the older children for a theme to be written +in five minutes. + +Rebecca had wrestled, struggled, perspired in +vain. When her turn came to read she was obliged +to confess she had written nothing. + +"You have at least two lines, Rebecca," insisted +the teacher, "for I see them on your slate." + +"I'd rather not read them, please; they are not +good," pleaded Rebecca. + +"Read what you have, good or bad, little or +much; I am excusing nobody." + +Rebecca rose, overcome with secret laughter +dread, and mortification; then in a low voice she +read the couplet:-- + + +When Joy and Duty clash +Let Duty go to smash. + + +Dick Carter's head disappeared under the desk, +while Living Perkins choked with laughter. + +Miss Dearborn laughed too; she was little more +than a girl, and the training of the young idea seldom +appealed to the sense of humor. + +"You must stay after school and try again, +Rebecca," she said, but she said it smilingly. "Your +poetry hasn't a very nice idea in it for a good little +girl who ought to love duty." + +"It wasn't MY idea," said Rebecca apologetically. +"I had only made the first line when I saw you were +going to ring the bell and say the time was up. I +had `clash' written, and I couldn't think of anything +then but `hash' or `rash' or `smash.' I'll +change it to this:-- + + +When Joy and Duty clash, +'T is Joy must go to smash." + + +"That is better," Miss Dearborn answered, +"though I cannot think `going to smash' is a pretty +expression for poetry." + +Having been instructed in the use of the indefinite +pronoun "one" as giving a refined and elegant touch +to literary efforts, Rebecca painstakingly rewrote +her composition on solitude, giving it all the benefit +of Miss Dearborn's suggestion. It then appeared in +the following form, which hardly satisfied either +teacher or pupil:-- + +SOLITUDE + + +It would be false to say that one could ever be +alone when one has one's lovely thoughts to comfort +one. One sits by one's self, it is true, but one thinks; +one opens one's favorite book and reads one's favorite +story; one speaks to one's aunt or one's brother, +fondles one's cat, or looks at one's photograph album. +There is one's work also: what a joy it is to one, if +one happens to like work. All one's little household +tasks keep one from being lonely. Does one ever +feel bereft when one picks up one's chips to light +one's fire for one's evening meal? Or when one +washes one's milk pail before milking one's cow? +One would fancy not. +R. R. R. + + +"It is perfectly dreadful," sighed Rebecca when +she read it aloud after school. "Putting in `one' all +the time doesn't make it sound any more like a +book, and it looks silly besides." + +"You say such queer things," objected Miss +Dearborn. "I don't see what makes you do it. +Why did you put in anything so common as picking +up chips?" + +"Because I was talking about `household tasks' +in the sentence before, and it IS one of my household +tasks. Don't you think calling supper `one's evening meal' +is pretty? and isn't `bereft' a nice word?" + +"Yes, that part of it does very well. It is the cat, +the chips, and the milk pail that I don't like." + +"All right!" sighed Rebecca. "Out they go; +Does the cow go too?" + +"Yes, I don't like a cow in a composition," said +the difficult Miss Dearborn. + + +The Milltown trip had not been without its tragic +consequences of a small sort; for the next week +Minnie Smellie's mother told Miranda Sawyer that +she'd better look after Rebecca, for she was given +to "swearing and profane language;" that she had +been heard saying something dreadful that very +afternoon, saying it before Emma Jane and Living +Perkins, who only laughed and got down on all +fours and chased her. + +Rebecca, on being confronted and charged with +the crime, denied it indignantly, and aunt Jane +believed her. + +"Search your memory, Rebecca, and try to think +what Minnie overheard you say," she pleaded. +"Don't be ugly and obstinate, but think real hard. +When did they chase you up the road, and what +were you doing?" + +A sudden light broke upon Rebecca's darkness. + +"Oh! I see it now," she exclaimed. "It had +rained hard all the morning, you know, and the +road was full of puddles. Emma Jane, Living, and +I were walking along, and I was ahead. I saw the +water streaming over the road towards the ditch, and +it reminded me of Uncle Tom's Cabin at Milltown, +when Eliza took her baby and ran across the Mississippi +on the ice blocks, pursued by the bloodhounds. +We couldn't keep from laughing after we came out +of the tent because they were acting on such a small +platform that Eliza had to run round and round, and +part of the time the one dog they had pursued her, +and part of the time she had to pursue the dog. I +knew Living would remember, too, so I took off my +waterproof and wrapped it round my books for a +baby; then I shouted, `MY GOD! THE RIVER!' just +like that--the same as Eliza did in the play; then +I leaped from puddle to puddle, and Living and +Emma Jane pursued me like the bloodhounds. It's +just like that stupid Minnie Smellie who doesn't +know a game when she sees one. And Eliza wasn't +swearing when she said `My God! the river!' It +was more like praying." + +"Well, you've got no call to be prayin', any more +than swearin', in the middle of the road," said +Miranda; "but I'm thankful it's no worse. You're +born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, an' I'm +afraid you allers will be till you learn to bridle your +unruly tongue." + +"I wish sometimes that I could bridle Minnie's," +murmured Rebecca, as she went to set the table for +supper. + +"I declare she IS the beatin'est child!" said +Miranda, taking off her spectacles and laying down +her mending. "You don't think she's a leetle mite +crazy, do you, Jane?" + +"I don't think she's like the rest of us," +responded Jane thoughtfully and with some anxiety +in her pleasant face; "but whether it's for the +better or the worse I can't hardly tell till she grows +up. She's got the making of 'most anything in her, +Rebecca has; but I feel sometimes as if we were +not fitted to cope with her." + +"Stuff an' nonsense!" said Miranda "Speak +for yourself. I feel fitted to cope with any child +that ever was born int' the world!" + +"I know you do, Mirandy; but that don't MAKE +you so," returned Jane with a smile. + +The habit of speaking her mind freely was +certainly growing on Jane to an altogether terrifying +extent. + + + +XII + +"SEE THE PALE MARTYR" + +It was about this time that Rebecca, who had been +reading about the Spartan boy, conceived the +idea of some mild form of self-punishment to +be applied on occasions when she was fully convinced +in her own mind that it would be salutary. +The immediate cause of the decision was a somewhat +sadder accident than was common, even in a +career prolific in such things. + +Clad in her best, Rebecca had gone to take tea +with the Cobbs; but while crossing the bridge she +was suddenly overcome by the beauty of the river +and leaned over the newly painted rail to feast her +eyes on the dashing torrent of the fall. Resting her +elbows on the topmost board, and inclining her little +figure forward in delicious ease, she stood there +dreaming. + +The river above the dam was a glassy lake with +all the loveliness of blue heaven and green shore +reflected in its surface; the fall was a swirling wonder +of water, ever pouring itself over and over inexhaustibly +in luminous golden gushes that lost themselves +in snowy depths of foam. Sparkling in the sunshine, +gleaming under the summer moon, cold and gray +beneath a November sky, trickling over the dam +in some burning July drought, swollen with turbulent +power in some April freshet, how many young +eyes gazed into the mystery and majesty of the +falls along that river, and how many young hearts +dreamed out their futures leaning over the bridge +rail, seeing "the vision splendid" reflected there and +often, too, watching it fade into "the light of +common day." + +Rebecca never went across the bridge without +bending over the rail to wonder and to ponder, and +at this special moment she was putting the finishing +touches on a poem. + +Two maidens by a river strayed + Down in the state of Maine. +The one was called Rebecca, + The other Emma Jane. +"I would my life were like the stream," + Said her named Emma Jane, +"So quiet and so very smooth, + So free from every pain." + +"I'd rather be a little drop + In the great rushing fall! +I would not choose the glassy lake, + 'T would not suit me at all!" +(It was the darker maiden spoke + The words I just have stated, +The maidens twain were simply friends + And not at all related.) + +But O! alas I we may not have + The things we hope to gain; +The quiet life may come to me, + The rush to Emma Jane! + +"I don't like `the rush to Emma Jane,' and I +can't think of anything else. Oh! what a smell of +paint! Oh! it is ON me! Oh! it's all over my best +dress! Oh I what WILL aunt Miranda say!" + +With tears of self-reproach streaming from her +eyes, Rebecca flew up the hill, sure of sympathy, +and hoping against hope for help of some sort. + +Mrs. Cobb took in the situation at a glance, and +professed herself able to remove almost any stain +from almost any fabric; and in this she was +corroborated by uncle Jerry, who vowed that mother +could git anything out. Sometimes she took the +cloth right along with the spot, but she had a sure +hand, mother had! + +The damaged garment was removed and partially +immersed in turpentine, while Rebecca graced the +festal board clad in a blue calico wrapper of Mrs. +Cobb's. + +"Don't let it take your appetite away," crooned +Mrs. Cobb. "I've got cream biscuit and honey for +you. If the turpentine don't work, I'll try French +chalk, magneshy, and warm suds. If they fail, father +shall run over to Strout's and borry some of the +stuff Marthy got in Milltown to take the currant pie +out of her weddin' dress." + +"I ain't got to understandin' this paintin' accident +yet," said uncle Jerry jocosely, as he handed +Rebecca the honey. "Bein' as how there's `Fresh +Paint' signs hung all over the breedge, so 't a blind +asylum couldn't miss 'em, I can't hardly account +for your gettin' int' the pesky stuff." + +"I didn't notice the signs," Rebecca said +dolefully. "I suppose I was looking at the falls." + +"The falls has been there sence the beginnin' +o' time, an' I cal'late they'll be there till the end +on 't; so you needn't 'a' been in sech a brash to git +a sight of 'em. Children comes turrible high, mother, +but I s'pose we must have 'em!" he said, winking +at Mrs. Cobb. + +When supper was cleared away Rebecca insisted +on washing and wiping the dishes, while Mrs. Cobb +worked on the dress with an energy that plainly +showed the gravity of the task. Rebecca kept leaving +her post at the sink to bend anxiously over +the basin and watch her progress, while uncle Jerry +offered advice from time to time. + +"You must 'a' laid all over the breedge, deary," +said Mrs. Cobb; "for the paint 's not only on your +elbows and yoke and waist, but it about covers +your front breadth." + +As the garment began to look a little better +Rebecca's spirits took an upward turn, and at length +she left it to dry in the fresh air, and went into the +sitting-room. + +"Have you a piece of paper, please?" asked +Rebecca. "I'll copy out the poetry I was making +while I was lying in the paint." + +Mrs. Cobb sat by her mending basket, and uncle +Jerry took down a gingham bag of strings and occupied +himself in taking the snarls out of them,--a +favorite evening amusement with him. + +Rebecca soon had the lines copied in her round +schoolgirl hand, making such improvements as +occurred to her on sober second thought. + +THE TWO WISHES +BY +REBECCA RANDALL +Two maidens by a river strayed, + 'T was in the state of Maine. +Rebecca was the darker one, + The fairer, Emma Jane. +The fairer maiden said, "I would + My life were as the stream; +So peaceful, and so smooth and still, + So pleasant and serene." + +"I'd rather be a little drop + In the great rushing fall; +I'd never choose the quiet lake; + 'T would not please me at all." +(It was the darker maiden spoke + The words we just have stated; +The maidens twain were simply friends, + Not sisters, or related.) + +But O! alas! we may not have + The things we hope to gain. +The quiet life may come to me, + The rush to Emma Jane! + + +She read it aloud, and the Cobbs thought it not only +surpassingly beautiful, but a marvelous production + +"I guess if that writer that lived on Congress +Street in Portland could 'a' heard your poetry he'd +'a' been astonished," said Mrs. Cobb. "If you ask +me, I say this piece is as good as that one o' his, +`Tell me not in mournful numbers;' and consid'able +clearer." + +"I never could fairly make out what `mournful +numbers' was," remarked Mr. Cobb critically. + +"Then I guess you never studied fractions!" +flashed Rebecca. "See here, uncle Jerry and aunt +Sarah, would you write another verse, especially for +a last one, as they usually do--one with `thoughts' +in it--to make a better ending?" + +"If you can grind 'em out jest by turnin' the +crank, why I should say the more the merrier; but +I don't hardly see how you could have a better +endin'," observed Mr. Cobb. + +"It is horrid!" grumbled Rebecca. "I ought not +to have put that `me' in. I'm writing the poetry. +Nobody ought to know it IS me standing by the +river; it ought to be `Rebecca,' or `the darker +maiden;' and `the rush to Emma Jane' is simply +dreadful. Sometimes I think I never will try poetry, +it's so hard to make it come right; and other times +it just says itself. I wonder if this would be better? + +But O! alas! we may not gain + The good for which we pray +The quiet life may come to one + Who likes it rather gay, + +I don't know whether that is worse or not. Now for +a new last verse!" + +In a few minutes the poetess looked up, flushed +and triumphant. "It was as easy as nothing. Just +hear!" And she read slowly, with her pretty, +pathetic voice:-- + +Then if our lot be bright or sad, + Be full of smiles, or tears, +The thought that God has planned it so + Should help us bear the years. + + +Mr. and Mrs. Cobb exchanged dumb glances of +admiration; indeed uncle Jerry was obliged to turn +his face to the window and wipe his eyes furtively +with the string-bag. + +"How in the world did you do it?" Mrs. Cobb +exclaimed. + +"Oh, it's easy," answered Rebecca; "the hymns +at meeting are all like that. You see there's a +school newspaper printed at Wareham Academy +once a month. Dick Carter says the editor is always +a boy, of course; but he allows girls to try and write +for it, and then chooses the best. Dick thinks I can +be in it." + +"IN it!" exclaimed uncle Jerry. "I shouldn't +be a bit surprised if you had to write the whole +paper; an' as for any boy editor, you could lick +him writin', I bate ye, with one hand tied behind ye." + +"Can we have a copy of the poetry to keep in +the family Bible?" inquired Mrs. Cobb respectfully. + +"Oh! would you like it?" asked Rebecca. "Yes +indeed! I'll do a clean, nice one with violet ink +and a fine pen. But I must go and look at my poor +dress." + +The old couple followed Rebecca into the kitchen. +The frock was quite dry, and in truth it had been +helped a little by aunt Sarah's ministrations; but +the colors had run in the rubbing, the pattern was +blurred, and there were muddy streaks here and +there. As a last resort, it was carefully smoothed +with a warm iron, and Rebecca was urged to attire +herself, that they might see if the spots showed as +much when it was on. + +They did, most uncompromisingly, and to the +dullest eye. Rebecca gave one searching look, and +then said, as she took her hat from a nail in the +entry, "I think I'll be going. Good-night! If I've +got to have a scolding, I want it quick, and get it +over." + +"Poor little onlucky misfortunate thing!" sighed +uncle Jerry, as his eyes followed her down the hill. +"I wish she could pay some attention to the ground +under her feet; but I vow, if she was ourn I'd let +her slop paint all over the house before I could +scold her. Here's her poetry she's left behind. +Read it out ag'in, mother. Land!" he continued, +chuckling, as he lighted his cob pipe; "I can just +see the last flap o' that boy-editor's shirt tail as he +legs it for the woods, while Rebecky settles down in +his revolvin' cheer! I'm puzzled as to what kind of +a job editin' is, exactly; but she'll find out, Rebecky +will. An' she'll just edit for all she's worth! + +"`The thought that God has planned it so + Should help us bear the years.' + +Land, mother! that takes right holt, kind o' like +the gospel. How do you suppose she thought that out?" + +"She couldn't have thought it out at her age," +said Mrs. Cobb; "she must have just guessed it +was that way. We know some things without bein' +told, Jeremiah." + + +Rebecca took her scolding (which she richly +deserved) like a soldier. There was considerable of it, +and Miss Miranda remarked, among other things, +that so absent-minded a child was sure to grow up +into a driveling idiot. She was bidden to stay away +from Alice Robinson's birthday party, and doomed to +wear her dress, stained and streaked as it was, until +it was worn out. Aunt Jane six months later mitigated +this martyrdom by making her a ruffled dimity +pinafore, artfully shaped to conceal all the spots. +She was blessedly ready with these mediations +between the poor little sinner and the full consequences +of her sin. + +When Rebecca had heard her sentence and gone +to the north chamber she began to think. If there +was anything she did not wish to grow into, it was +an idiot of any sort, particularly a driveling one; +and she resolved to punish herself every time she +incurred what she considered to be the righteous +displeasure of her virtuous relative. She didn't +mind staying away from Alice Robinson's. She +had told Emma Jane it would be like a picnic in +a graveyard, the Robinson house being as near an +approach to a tomb as a house can manage to be. +Children were commonly brought in at the back +door, and requested to stand on newspapers while +making their call, so that Alice was begged by her +friends to "receive" in the shed or barn whenever +possible. Mrs. Robinson was not only "turrible +neat," but "turrible close," so that the refreshments +were likely to be peppermint lozenges and glasses +of well water. + +After considering the relative values, as penances, +of a piece of haircloth worn next the skin, and a +pebble in the shoe, she dismissed them both. The +haircloth could not be found, and the pebble would +attract the notice of the Argus-eyed aunt, besides +being a foolish bar to the activity of a person who +had to do housework and walk a mile and a half to +school. + +Her first experimental attempt at martyrdom had +not been a distinguished success. She had stayed +at home from the Sunday-school concert, a func- +tion of which, in ignorance of more alluring ones, +she was extremely fond. As a result of her desertion, +two infants who relied upon her to prompt +them (she knew the verses of all the children better +than they did themselves) broke down ignominiously. +The class to which she belonged had to read +a difficult chapter of Scripture in rotation, and the +various members spent an arduous Sabbath afternoon +counting out verses according to their seats +in the pew, and practicing the ones that would +inevitably fall to them. They were too ignorant to +realize, when they were called upon, that Rebecca's +absence would make everything come wrong, and +the blow descended with crushing force when the +Jebusites and Amorites, the Girgashites, Hivites, +and Perizzites had to be pronounced by the persons +of all others least capable of grappling with them. + +Self-punishment, then, to be adequate and proper, +must begin, like charity, at home, and unlike charity +should end there too. Rebecca looked about the +room vaguely as she sat by the window. She must +give up something, and truth to tell she possessed +little to give, hardly anything but--yes, that would +do, the beloved pink parasol. She could not hide it +in the attic, for in some moment of weakness she +would be sure to take it out again. She feared she +had not the moral energy to break it into bits. Her +eyes moved from the parasol to the apple-trees in +the side yard, and then fell to the well curb. That +would do; she would fling her dearest possession into +the depths of the water. Action followed quickly +upon decision, as usual. She slipped down in the +darkness, stole out the front door, approached the +place of sacrifice, lifted the cover of the well, gave one +unresigned shudder, and flung the parasol downward +with all her force. At the crucial instant of +renunciation she was greatly helped by the reflection that +she closely resembled the heathen mothers who cast +their babes to the crocodiles in the Ganges. + +She slept well and arose refreshed, as a +consecrated spirit always should and sometimes does. +But there was great difficulty in drawing water after +breakfast. Rebecca, chastened and uplifted, had +gone to school. Abijah Flagg was summoned, lifted +the well cover, explored, found the inciting cause of +trouble, and with the help of Yankee wit succeeded +in removing it. The fact was that the ivory hook of +the parasol had caught in the chain gear, and when +the first attempt at drawing water was made, the +little offering of a contrite heart was jerked up, bent, +its strong ribs jammed into the well side, and +entangled with a twig root. It is needless to say that +no sleight-of-hand performer, however expert, unless +aided by the powers of darkness, could have accomplished +this feat; but a luckless child in the pursuit +of virtue had done it with a turn of the wrist. + +We will draw a veil over the scene that occurred +after Rebecca's return from school. You who read +may be well advanced in years, you may be gifted in +rhetoric, ingenious in argument; but even you might +quail at the thought of explaining the tortuous mental +processes that led you into throwing your beloved +pink parasol into Miranda Sawyer's well. Perhaps +you feel equal to discussing the efficacy of spiritual +self-chastisement with a person who closes her lips +into a thin line and looks at you out of blank, +uncomprehending eyes! Common sense, right, and logic +were all arrayed on Miranda's side. When poor Rebecca, +driven to the wall, had to avow the reasons +lying behind the sacrifice of the sunshade, her aunt +said, "Now see here, Rebecca, you're too big to be +whipped, and I shall never whip you; but when you +think you ain't punished enough, just tell me, and +I'll make out to invent a little something more. I +ain't so smart as some folks, but I can do that much; +and whatever it is, it'll be something that won't +punish the whole family, and make 'em drink ivory +dust, wood chips, and pink silk rags with their +water." + + + +XIII + +SNOW-WHITE; ROSE-RED + +Just before Thanksgiving the affairs of the +Simpsons reached what might have been called +a crisis, even in their family, which had been +born and reared in a state of adventurous poverty and +perilous uncertainty. + +Riverboro was doing its best to return the entire +tribe of Simpsons to the land of its fathers, so to +speak, thinking rightly that the town which had +given them birth, rather than the town of their +adoption, should feed them and keep a roof over their +heads until the children were of an age for self- +support. There was little to eat in the household and +less to wear, though Mrs. Simpson did, as always, +her poor best. The children managed to satisfy their +appetites by sitting modestly outside their neighbors' +kitchen doors when meals were about to be +served. They were not exactly popular favorites, but +they did receive certain undesirable morsels from the +more charitable housewives. + +Life was rather dull and dreary, however, and in +the chill and gloom of November weather, with the +vision of other people's turkeys bursting with fat, +and other people's golden pumpkins and squashes +and corn being garnered into barns, the young +Simpsons groped about for some inexpensive form +of excitement, and settled upon the selling of soap +for a premium. They had sold enough to their +immediate neighbors during the earlier autumn to +secure a child's handcart, which, though very weak +on its pins, could be trundled over the country roads. +With large business sagacity and an executive capacity +which must have been inherited from their father, +they now proposed to extend their operations +to a larger area and distribute soap to contiguous +villages, if these villages could be induced to buy. The +Excelsior Soap Company paid a very small return of +any kind to its infantile agents, who were scattered +through the state, but it inflamed their imaginations +by the issue of circulars with highly colored pictures +of the premiums to be awarded for the sale of a certain +number of cakes. It was at this juncture that +Clara Belle and Susan Simpson consulted Rebecca, +who threw herself solidly and wholeheartedly into the +enterprise, promising her help and that of Emma +Jane Perkins. The premiums within their possible +grasp were three: a bookcase, a plush reclining chair, +and a banquet lamp. Of course the Simpsons had +no books, and casting aside, without thought or pang, +the plush chair, which might have been of some +use in a family of seven persons (not counting Mr. +Simpson, who ordinarily sat elsewhere at the town's +expense), they warmed themselves rapturously in +the vision of the banquet lamp, which speedily be- +came to them more desirable than food, drink, or +clothing. Neither Emma Jane nor Rebecca perceived +anything incongruous in the idea of the +Simpsons striving for a banquet lamp. They looked +at the picture daily and knew that if they themselves +were free agents they would toil, suffer, ay sweat, +for the happy privilege of occupying the same room +with that lamp through the coming winter evenings. +It looked to be about eight feet tall in the catalogue, +and Emma Jane advised Clara Belle to measure the +height of the Simpson ceilings; but a note in the +margin of the circular informed them that it stood +two and a half feet high when set up in all its dignity +and splendor on a proper table, three dollars extra. +It was only of polished brass, continued the circular, +though it was invariably mistaken for solid gold, and +the shade that accompanied it (at least it accompanied +it if the agent sold a hundred extra cakes) +was of crinkled crepe paper printed in a dozen +delicious hues, from which the joy-dazzled agent might +take his choice. + +Seesaw Simpson was not in the syndicate. Clara +Belle was rather a successful agent, but Susan, who +could only say "thoap," never made large returns, +and the twins, who were somewhat young to be thoroughly +trustworthy, could be given only a half dozen +cakes at a time, and were obliged to carry with them +on their business trips a brief document stating the +price per cake, dozen, and box. Rebecca and Emma +Jane offered to go two or three miles in some one +direction and see what they could do in the way of +stirring up a popular demand for the Snow-White and +Rose-Red brands, the former being devoted to laundry +purposes and the latter being intended for the toilet. + +There was a great amount of hilarity in the +preparation for this event, and a long council in Emma +Jane's attic. They had the soap company's circular +from which to arrange a proper speech, and they +had, what was still better, the remembrance of a +certain patent-medicine vender's discourse at the +Milltown Fair. His method, when once observed, +could never be forgotten; nor his manner, nor his +vocabulary. Emma Jane practiced it on Rebecca, +and Rebecca on Emma Jane. + +"Can I sell you a little soap this afternoon? It +is called the Snow-White and Rose-Red Soap, six +cakes in an ornamental box, only twenty cents for +the white, twenty-five cents for the red. It is made +from the purest ingredients, and if desired could be +eaten by an invalid with relish and profit." + +"Oh, Rebecca, don't let's say that!" interposed +Emma Jane hysterically. "It makes me feel like a +fool." + +"It takes so little to make you feel like a fool, +Emma Jane," rebuked Rebecca, "that sometimes I +think that you must BE one I don't get to feeling +like a fool so awfully easy; now leave out that eating +part if you don't like it, and go on." + +"The Snow-White is probably the most remarkable +laundry soap ever manufactured. Immerse the +garments in a tub, lightly rubbing the more soiled +portions with the soap; leave them submerged in +water from sunset to sunrise, and then the youngest +baby can wash them without the slightest effort." + +"BABE, not baby," corrected Rebecca from the circular. + +"It's just the same thing," argued Emma Jane. + +"Of course it's just the same THING; but a baby +has got to be called babe or infant in a circular, +the same as it is in poetry! Would you rather say infant?" + +"No," grumbled Emma Jane; "infant is worse +even than babe. Rebecca, do you think we'd better +do as the circular says, and let Elijah or Elisha try +the soap before we begin selling?" + +"I can't imagine a babe doing a family wash with +ANY soap," answered Rebecca; "but it must be true +or they would never dare to print it, so don't let's +bother. Oh! won't it be the greatest fun, Emma +Jane? At some of the houses--where they can't +possibly know me--I shan't be frightened, and I +shall reel off the whole rigmarole, invalid, babe, and +all. Perhaps I shall say even the last sentence, if I +can remember it: `We sound every chord in the +great mac-ro-cosm of satisfaction." + +This conversation took place on a Friday afternoon +at Emma Jane's house, where Rebecca, to her +unbounded joy, was to stay over Sunday, her aunts +having gone to Portland to the funeral of an old +friend. Saturday being a holiday, they were going +to have the old white horse, drive to North Riverboro +three miles away, eat a twelve o'clock dinner +with Emma Jane's cousins, and be back at four +o'clock punctually. + +When the children asked Mrs. Perkins if they +could call at just a few houses coming and going, +and sell a little soap for the Simpsons, she at first +replied decidedly in the negative. She was an +indulgent parent, however, and really had little +objection to Emma Jane amusing herself in this unusual +way; it was only for Rebecca, as the niece of the +difficult Miranda Sawyer, that she raised scruples; +but when fully persuaded that the enterprise was a +charitable one, she acquiesced. + +The girls called at Mr. Watson's store, and +arranged for several large boxes of soap to be charged +to Clara Belle Simpson's account. These were +lifted into the back of the wagon, and a happier +couple never drove along the country road than +Rebecca and her companion. It was a glorious +Indian summer day, which suggested nothing of +Thanksgiving, near at hand as it was. It was a +rustly day, a scarlet and buff, yellow and carmine, +bronze and crimson day. There were still many +leaves on the oaks and maples, making a goodly +show of red and brown and gold. The air was like +sparkling cider, and every field had its heaps of +yellow and russet good things to eat, all ready for the +barns, the mills, and the markets. The horse forgot +his twenty years, sniffed the sweet bright air, and +trotted like a colt; Nokomis Mountain looked blue +and clear in the distance; Rebecca stood in the +wagon, and apostrophized the landscape with sudden +joy of living:-- + +"Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World, +With the wonderful water round you curled, +And the wonderful grass upon your breast, +World, you are beautifully drest!" + + +Dull Emma Jane had never seemed to Rebecca +so near, so dear, so tried and true; and Rebecca, +to Emma Jane's faithful heart, had never been so +brilliant, so bewildering, so fascinating, as in this +visit together, with its intimacy, its freedom, and +the added delights of an exciting business enterprise. + +A gorgeous leaf blew into the wagon. + +"Does color make you sort of dizzy?" asked Rebecca. + +"No," answered Emma Jane after a long pause; +"no, it don't; not a mite." + +"Perhaps dizzy isn't just the right word, but it's +nearest. I'd like to eat color, and drink it, and +sleep in it. If you could be a tree, which one +would you choose?" + +Emma Jane had enjoyed considerable experience +of this kind, and Rebecca had succeeded in unstopping +her ears, ungluing her eyes, and loosening her +tongue, so that she could "play the game" after +a fashion. + +"I'd rather be an apple-tree in blossom,--that +one that blooms pink, by our pig-pen." + +Rebecca laughed. There was always something +unexpected in Emma Jane's replies. "I'd choose +to be that scarlet maple just on the edge of the +pond there,"--and she pointed with the whip. +"Then I could see so much more than your pink +apple-tree by the pig-pen. I could look at all the +rest of the woods, see my scarlet dress in my beautiful +looking-glass, and watch all the yellow and brown +trees growing upside down in the water. When +I'm old enough to earn money, I'm going to have +a dress like this leaf, all ruby color--thin, you +know, with a sweeping train and ruffly, curly edges; +then I think I'll have a brown sash like the trunk +of the tree, and where could I be green? Do they +have green petticoats, I wonder? I'd like a green +petticoat coming out now and then underneath to +show what my leaves were like before I was a scarlet maple." + +"I think it would be awful homely," said Emma +Jane. "I'm going to have a white satin with a pink +sash, pink stockings, bronze slippers, and a spangled +fan." + + + +XIV + +MR. ALADDIN + +A single hour's experience of the vicissitudes +incident to a business career clouded +the children's spirits just the least bit. +They did not accompany each other to the doors +of their chosen victims, feeling sure that together +they could not approach the subject seriously; +but they parted at the gate of each house, the +one holding the horse while the other took the +soap samples and interviewed any one who seemed +of a coming-on disposition. Emma Jane had disposed +of three single cakes, Rebecca of three small +boxes; for a difference in their ability to persuade +the public was clearly defined at the start, though +neither of them ascribed either success or defeat to +anything but the imperious force of circumstances. +Housewives looked at Emma Jane and desired no +soap; listened to her description of its merits, and +still desired none. Other stars in their courses +governed Rebecca's doings. The people whom she +interviewed either remembered their present need +of soap, or reminded themselves that they would +need it in the future; the notable point in the case +being that lucky Rebecca accomplished, with almost +no effort, results that poor little Emma Jane failed +to attain by hard and conscientious labor. + +"It's your turn, Rebecca, and I'm glad, too," +said Emma Jane, drawing up to a gateway and +indicating a house that was set a considerable +distance from the road. "I haven't got over +trembling from the last place yet." (A lady had put her +head out of an upstairs window and called, "Go +away, little girl; whatever you have in your box we +don't want any.") "I don't know who lives here, +and the blinds are all shut in front. If there's +nobody at home you mustn't count it, but take the +next house as yours." + +Rebecca walked up the lane and went to the +side door. There was a porch there, and seated in +a rocking-chair, husking corn, was a good-looking +young man, or was he middle aged? Rebecca +could not make up her mind. At all events he had +an air of the city about him,--well-shaven face, +well-trimmed mustache, well-fitting clothes. +Rebecca was a trifle shy at this unexpected encounter, +but there was nothing to be done but explain her +presence, so she asked, "Is the lady of the house +at home?" + +"I am the lady of the house at present," said +the stranger, with a whimsical smile. "What can I +do for you?" + +"Have you ever heard of the--would you like, or +I mean--do you need any soap?" queried Rebecca + +"Do I look as if I did?" he responded +unexpectedly. + +Rebecca dimpled. "I didn't mean THAT; I have +some soap to sell; I mean I would like to introduce +to you a very remarkable soap, the best now +on the market. It is called the"-- + +"Oh! I must know that soap," said the gentleman +genially. "Made out of pure vegetable fats, +isn't it?" + +"The very purest," corroborated Rebecca. + +"No acid in it?" + +"Not a trace." + +"And yet a child could do the Monday washing +with it and use no force." + +"A babe," corrected Rebecca + +"Oh! a babe, eh? That child grows younger +every year, instead of older--wise child!" + +This was great good fortune, to find a customer +who knew all the virtues of the article in advance. +Rebecca dimpled more and more, and at her new +friend's invitation sat down on a stool at his side +near the edge of the porch. The beauties of the +ornamental box which held the Rose-Red were +disclosed, and the prices of both that and the Snow- +White were unfolded. Presently she forgot all +about her silent partner at the gate and was talking +as if she had known this grand personage all her +life. + +"I'm keeping house to-day, but I don't live here," +explained the delightful gentleman. "I'm just on +a visit to my aunt, who has gone to Portland. +I used to be here as a boy. and I am very fond of +the spot." + +"I don't think anything takes the place of the +farm where one lived when one was a child," +observed Rebecca, nearly bursting with pride at having +at last successfully used the indefinite pronoun in +general conversation. + +The man darted a look at her and put down his +ear of corn. "So you consider your childhood a +thing of the past, do you, young lady?" + +"I can still remember it," answered Rebecca +gravely, "though it seems a long time ago." + +"I can remember mine well enough, and a +particularly unpleasant one it was," said the stranger. + +"So was mine," sighed Rebecca. "What was +your worst trouble?" + +"Lack of food and clothes principally." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Rebecca sympathetically,-- +"mine was no shoes and too many babies and not +enough books. But you're all right and happy +now, aren't you?" she asked doubtfully, for though +he looked handsome, well-fed, and prosperous, any +child could see that his eyes were tired and his +mouth was sad when he was not speaking. + +"I'm doing pretty well, thank you," said the +man, with a delightful smile. "Now tell me, how +much soap ought I to buy to-day?" + +"How much has your aunt on hand now?" +suggested the very modest and inexperienced agent; +"and how much would she need?" + +"Oh, I don't know about that; soap keeps, +doesn't it?" + +"I'm not certain," said Rebecca conscientiously, +"but I'll look in the circular--it's sure to tell;" +and she drew the document from her pocket. + +"What are you going to do with the magnificent +profits you get from this business?" + +"We are not selling for our own benefit," said +Rebecca confidentially. "My friend who is holding +the horse at the gate is the daughter of a very +rich blacksmith, and doesn't need any money. I +am poor, but I live with my aunts in a brick house, +and of course they wouldn't like me to be a +peddler. We are trying to get a premium for some +friends of ours." + +Rebecca had never thought of alluding to the +circumstances with her previous customers, but +unexpectedly she found herself describing Mr. Simpson, +Mrs. Simpson, and the Simpson family; their poverty, +their joyless life, and their abject need of a +banquet lamp to brighten their existence. + +"You needn't argue that point," laughed the +man, as he stood up to get a glimpse of the "rich +blacksmith's daughter" at the gate. "I can see that +they ought to have it if they want it, and especially +if you want them to have it. I've known what it was +myself to do without a banquet lamp. Now give me +the circular, and let's do some figuring. How much +do the Simpsons lack at this moment?" + +"If they sell two hundred more cakes this month +and next, they can have the lamp by Christmas," +Rebecca answered, "and they can get a shade by +summer time; but I'm afraid I can't help very much +after to-day, because my aunt Miranda may not like +to have me." + +"I see. Well, that's all right. I'll take three +hundred cakes, and that will give them shade and +all." + +Rebecca had been seated on a stool very near to +the edge of the porch, and at this remark she made +a sudden movement, tipped over, and disappeared +into a clump of lilac bushes. It was a very short +distance, fortunately, and the amused capitalist picked +her up, set her on her feet, and brushed her off. +"You should never seem surprised when you have +taken a large order," said he; "you ought to have +replied `Can't you make it three hundred and fifty?' +instead of capsizing in that unbusinesslike way." + +"Oh, I could never say anything like that!" +exclaimed Rebecca, who was blushing crimson at her +awkward fall. "But it doesn't seem right for you +to buy so much. Are you sure you can afford it?" + +"If I can't, I'll save on something else," returned +the jocose philanthropist. + +"What if your aunt shouldn't like the kind of +soap?" queried Rebecca nervously. + +"My aunt always likes what I like," he returned + +"Mine doesn't!" exclaimed Rebecca + +"Then there's something wrong with your aunt!" + +"Or with me," laughed Rebecca. + +"What is your name, young lady?" + +"Rebecca Rowena Randall, sir." + +"What?" with an amused smile. "BOTH? Your +mother was generous." + +"She couldn't bear to give up either of the +names she says." + +"Do you want to hear my name?" + +"I think I know already," answered Rebecca, with +a bright glance. "I'm sure you must be Mr. Aladdin +in the Arabian Nights. Oh, please, can I run +down and tell Emma Jane? She must be so tired +waiting, and she will be so glad!" + +At the man's nod of assent Rebecca sped down +the lane, crying irrepressibly as she neared the +wagon, "Oh, Emma Jane! Emma Jane! we are sold +out!" + +Mr. Aladdin followed smilingly to corroborate +this astonishing, unbelievable statement; lifted all +their boxes from the back of the wagon, and taking +the circular, promised to write to the Excelsior +Company that night concerning the premium. + +"If you could contrive to keep a secret,--you +two little girls,--it would be rather a nice surprise +to have the lamp arrive at the Simpsons' on Thanksgiving +Day, wouldn't it?" he asked, as he tucked +the old lap robe cosily over their feet. + +They gladly assented, and broke into a chorus of +excited thanks during which tears of joy stood in +Rebecca's eyes. + +"Oh, don't mention it!" laughed Mr. Aladdin, +lifting his hat. "I was a sort of commercial traveler +myself once,--years ago,--and I like to see +the thing well done. Good-by Miss Rebecca Rowena! +Just let me know whenever you have anything +to sell, for I'm certain beforehand I shall want it." + +"Good-by, Mr. Aladdin! I surely will!" cried +Rebecca, tossing back her dark braids delightedly +and waving her hand. + +"Oh, Rebecca!" said Emma Jane in an awe- +struck whisper. "He raised his hat to us, and we +not thirteen! It'll be five years before we're +ladies." + +"Never mind," answered Rebecca; "we are the +BEGINNINGS of ladies, even now." + +"He tucked the lap robe round us, too," +continued Emma Jane, in an ecstasy of reminiscence. +"Oh! isn't he perfectly elergant? And wasn't it +lovely of him to buy us out? And just think of +having both the lamp and the shade for one day's +work! Aren't you glad you wore your pink gingham +now, even if mother did make you put on +flannel underneath? You do look so pretty in pink +and red, Rebecca, and so homely in drab and +brown!" + +"I know it," sighed Rebecca "I wish I was +like you--pretty in all colors!" And Rebecca +looked longingly at Emma Jane's fat, rosy cheeks; +at her blue eyes, which said nothing; at her neat +nose, which had no character; at her red lips, from +between which no word worth listening to had ever +issued. + +"Never mind!" said Emma Jane comfortingly. +"Everybody says you're awful bright and smart, and +mother thinks you'll be better looking all the time +as you grow older. You wouldn't believe it, but I +was a dreadful homely baby, and homely right along +till just a year or two ago, when my red hair began +to grow dark. What was the nice man's name?" + +"I never thought to ask!" ejaculated Rebecca. +"Aunt Miranda would say that was just like me, +and it is. But I called him Mr. Aladdin because he +gave us a lamp. You know the story of Aladdin and +the wonderful lamp?" + +"Oh, Rebecca! how could you call him a nickname +the very first time you ever saw him?" + +"Aladdin isn't a nickname exactly; anyway, he +laughed and seemed to like it." + +By dint of superhuman effort, and putting such +a seal upon their lips as never mortals put before, +the two girls succeeded in keeping their wonderful +news to themselves; although it was obvious to all +beholders that they were in an extraordinary and +abnormal state of mind. + +On Thanksgiving the lamp arrived in a large +packing box, and was taken out and set up by See- +saw Simpson, who suddenly began to admire and +respect the business ability of his sisters. Rebecca +had heard the news of its arrival, but waited until +nearly dark before asking permission to go to the +Simpsons', so that she might see the gorgeous +trophy lighted and sending a blaze of crimson +glory through its red crepe paper shade. + + + +XV + +THE BANQUET LAMP + +There had been company at the brick +house to the bountiful Thanksgiving +dinner which had been provided at one +o'clock,--the Burnham sisters, who lived between +North Riverboro and Shaker Village, and who for +more than a quarter of a century had come to pass +the holiday with the Sawyers every year. Rebecca +sat silent with a book after the dinner dishes were +washed, and when it was nearly five asked if she +might go to the Simpsons'. + +"What do you want to run after those Simpson +children for on a Thanksgiving Day?" queried Miss +Miranda. "Can't you set still for once and listen +to the improvin' conversation of your elders? You +never can let well enough alone, but want to be forever +on the move." + +"The Simpsons have a new lamp, and Emma +Jane and I promised to go up and see it lighted, +and make it a kind of a party." + +"What under the canopy did they want of a +lamp, and where did they get the money to pay for +it? If Abner was at home, I should think he'd been +swappin' again," said Miss Miranda. + +"The children got it as a prize for selling soap," +replied Rebecca; "they've been working for a year, +and you know I told you that Emma Jane and I +helped them the Saturday afternoon you were in +Portland." + +"I didn't take notice, I s'pose, for it's the first +time I ever heard the lamp mentioned. Well, you +can go for an hour, and no more. Remember it's +as dark at six as it is at midnight Would you like +to take along some Baldwin apples? What have +you got in the pocket of that new dress that makes +it sag down so?" + +"It's my nuts and raisins from dinner," replied +Rebecca, who never succeeded in keeping the most +innocent action a secret from her aunt Miranda; +"they're just what you gave me on my plate." + +"Why didn't you eat them?" + +"Because I'd had enough dinner, and I thought +if I saved these, it would make the Simpsons' +party better," stammered Rebecca, who hated to +be scolded and examined before company. + +"They were your own, Rebecca," interposed +aunt Jane, "and if you chose to save them to give +away, it is all right. We ought never to let this day +pass without giving our neighbors something to be +thankful for, instead of taking all the time to think +of our own mercies." + +The Burnham sisters nodded approvingly as +Rebecca went out, and remarked that they had never +seen a child grow and improve so fast in so short a +time. + +"There's plenty of room left for more improvement, +as you'd know if she lived in the same house +with you," answered Miranda. "She's into every +namable thing in the neighborhood, an' not only +into it, but generally at the head an' front of it, +especially when it's mischief. Of all the foolishness +I ever heard of, that lamp beats everything; it's +just like those Simpsons, but I didn't suppose the +children had brains enough to sell anything." + +"One of them must have," said Miss Ellen +Burnham, "for the girl that was selling soap at the +Ladds' in North Riverboro was described by Adam +Ladd as the most remarkable and winning child he +ever saw." + +"It must have been Clara Belle, and I should +never call her remarkable," answered Miss Miranda. +"Has Adam been home again?" + +"Yes, he's been staying a few days with his aunt. +There's no limit to the money he's making, they +say; and he always brings presents for all the +neighbors. This time it was a full set of furs for +Mrs. Ladd; and to think we can remember the +time he was a barefoot boy without two shirts to his +back! It is strange he hasn't married, with all his +money, and him so fond of children that he always +has a pack of them at his heels." + +"There's hope for him still, though," said Miss +Jane smilingly; "for I don't s'pose he's more than +thirty." + +"He could get a wife in Riverboro if he was a +hundred and thirty," remarked Miss Miranda. + +"Adam's aunt says he was so taken with the little +girl that sold the soap (Clara Belle, did you say her +name was?), that he declared he was going to bring +her a Christmas present," continued Miss Ellen. + +"Well, there's no accountin' for tastes," exclaimed +Miss Miranda. "Clara Belle's got cross-eyes and +red hair, but I'd be the last one to grudge her a +Christmas present; the more Adam Ladd gives to +her the less the town'll have to." + +"Isn't there another Simpson girl?" asked Miss +Lydia Burnham; "for this one couldn't have been +cross-eyed; I remember Mrs. Ladd saying Adam +remarked about this child's handsome eyes. He said +it was her eyes that made him buy the three hundred +cakes. Mrs. Ladd has it stacked up in the shed +chamber." + +"Three hundred cakes!" ejaculated Miranda. +"Well, there's one crop that never fails in Riverboro!" + +"What's that?" asked Miss Lydia politely. + +"The fool crop," responded Miranda tersely, and +changed the subject, much to Jane's gratitude, for +she had been nervous and ill at ease for the last fifteen +minutes. What child in Riverboro could be +described as remarkable and winning, save Rebecca? +What child had wonderful eyes, except the same +Rebecca? and finally, was there ever a child in the +world who could make a man buy soap by the hundred +cakes, save Rebecca? + +Meantime the "remarkable" child had flown up +the road in the deepening dusk, but she had not +gone far before she heard the sound of hurrying +footsteps, and saw a well-known figure coming in +her direction. In a moment she and Emma Jane +met and exchanged a breathless embrace. + +"Something awful has happened," panted Emma +Jane. + +"Don't tell me it's broken," exclaimed Rebecca. + +"No! oh, no! not that! It was packed in straw, +and every piece came out all right; and I was there, +and I never said a single thing about your selling +the three hundred cakes that got the lamp, so that +we could be together when you told." + +"OUR selling the three hundred cakes," corrected +Rebecca; "you did as much as I." + +"No, I didn't, Rebecca Randall. I just sat at the +gate and held the horse." + +"Yes, but WHOSE horse was it that took us to +North Riverboro? And besides, it just happened +to be my turn. If you had gone in and found Mr. +Aladdin you would have had the wonderful lamp +given to you; but what's the trouble?" + +"The Simpsons have no kerosene and no wicks. +I guess they thought a banquet lamp was something +that lighted itself, and burned without any +help. Seesaw has gone to the doctor's to try if he +can borrow a wick, and mother let me have a pint +of oil, but she says she won't give me any more. +We never thought of the expense of keeping up +the lamp, Rebecca." + +"No, we didn't, but let's not worry about that +till after the party. I have a handful of nuts and +raisins and some apples." + +"I have peppermints and maple sugar," said +Emma Jane. "They had a real Thanksgiving dinner; +the doctor gave them sweet potatoes and cranberries +and turnips; father sent a spare-rib, and Mrs. +Cobb a chicken and a jar of mince-meat." + +At half past five one might have looked in at +the Simpsons' windows, and seen the party at its +height. Mrs. Simpson had let the kitchen fire die +out, and had brought the baby to grace the festal +scene. The lamp seemed to be having the party, +and receiving the guests. The children had taken +the one small table in the house, and it was placed +in the far corner of the room to serve as a pedestal. +On it stood the sacred, the adored, the long-desired +object; almost as beautiful, and nearly half as large +as the advertisement. The brass glistened like gold, +and the crimson paper shade glowed like a giant +ruby. In the wide splash of light that it flung upon +the floor sat the Simpsons, in reverent and solemn +silence, Emma Jane standing behind them, hand in +hand with Rebecca. There seemed to be no desire +for conversation; the occasion was too thrilling and +serious for that. The lamp, it was tacitly felt by +everybody, was dignifying the party, and providing +sufficient entertainment simply by its presence; +being fully as satisfactory in its way as a pianola or +a string band. + +"I wish father could see it," said Clara Belle +loyally. + +"If he onth thaw it he'd want to thwap it," +murmured Susan sagaciously. + +At the appointed hour Rebecca dragged herself +reluctantly away from the enchanting scene. + +"I'll turn the lamp out the minute I think you +and Emma Jane are home," said Clara Belle. +"And, oh! I'm so glad you both live where you +can see it shine from our windows. I wonder how +long it will burn without bein' filled if I only keep +it lit one hour every night?" + +"You needn't put it out for want o' karosene," +said Seesaw, coming in from the shed, "for there's +a great kag of it settin' out there. Mr. Tubbs +brought it over from North Riverboro and said +somebody sent an order by mail for it." + +Rebecca squeezed Emma Jane's arm, and Emma +Jane gave a rapturous return squeeze. "It was Mr. +Aladdin," whispered Rebecca, as they ran down +the path to the gate. Seesaw followed them and +handsomely offered to see them "apiece" down +the road, but Rebecca declined his escort with +such decision that he did not press the matter, but +went to bed to dream of her instead. In his dreams +flashes of lightning proceeded from both her eyes, +and she held a flaming sword in either hand. + +Rebecca entered the home dining-room joyously. +The Burnham sisters had gone and the two aunts +were knitting. + +"It was a heavenly party," she cried, taking off +her hat and cape. + +"Go back and see if you have shut the door +tight, and then lock it," said Miss Miranda, in her +usual austere manner. + +"It was a heavenly party," reiterated Rebecca, +coming in again, much too excited to be easily +crushed, "and oh! aunt Jane, aunt Miranda, if +you'll only come into the kitchen and look out of +the sink window, you can see the banquet lamp +shining all red, just as if the Simpsons' house was +on fire." + +"And probably it will be before long," observed +Miranda. "I've got no patience with such foolish +goin's-on." + +Jane accompanied Rebecca into the kitchen. +Although the feeble glimmer which she was able +to see from that distance did not seem to her a +dazzling exhibition, she tried to be as enthusiastic +as possible. + +"Rebecca, who was it that sold the three +hundred cakes of soap to Mr. Ladd in North Riverboro?" + +"Mr. WHO?" exclaimed Rebecca + +"Mr. Ladd, in North Riverboro." + +"Is that his real name?" queried Rebecca in +astonishment. "I didn't make a bad guess;" and +she laughed softly to herself. + +"I asked you who sold the soap to Adam +Ladd?" resumed Miss Jane. + +"Adam Ladd! then he's A. Ladd, too; what fun!" + +"Answer me, Rebecca." + +"Oh! excuse me, aunt Jane, I was so busy +thinking. Emma Jane and I sold the soap to Mr. +Ladd." + +"Did you tease him, or make him buy it?" + +"Now, aunt Jane, how could I make a big +grown-up man buy anything if he didn't want to? +He needed the soap dreadfully as a present for his +aunt." + +Miss Jane still looked a little unconvinced, +though she only said, "I hope your aunt Miranda +won't mind, but you know how particular she is, +Rebecca, and I really wish you wouldn't do +anything out of the ordinary without asking her first, +for your actions are very queer." + +"There can't be anything wrong this time," +Rebecca answered confidently. "Emma Jane sold +her cakes to her own relations and to uncle Jerry +Cobb, and I went first to those new tenements near +the lumber mill, and then to the Ladds'. Mr. Ladd +bought all we had and made us promise to keep +the secret until the premium came, and I've been +going about ever since as if the banquet lamp was +inside of me all lighted up and burning, for everybody +to see." + +Rebecca's hair was loosened and falling over her +forehead in ruffled waves; her eyes were brilliant, +her cheeks crimson; there was a hint of everything +in the girl's face,--of sensitiveness and delicacy +as well as of ardor; there was the sweetness +of the mayflower and the strength of the young +oak, but one could easily divine that she was one of + +"The souls by nature pitched too high, + By suffering plunged too low." + + +"That's just the way you look, for all the world +as if you did have a lamp burning inside of you," +sighed aunt Jane. "Rebecca! Rebecca! I wish +you could take things easier, child; I am fearful +for you sometimes." + + + +XVI + +SEASONS OF GROWTH + +The days flew by; as summer had melted +into autumn so autumn had given place to +winter. Life in the brick house had gone +on more placidly of late, for Rebecca was honestly +trying to be more careful in the performance of her +tasks and duties as well as more quiet in her plays, +and she was slowly learning the power of the soft +answer in turning away wrath. + +Miranda had not had, perhaps, quite as many +opportunities in which to lose her temper, but it is +only just to say that she had not fully availed herself +of all that had offered themselves. + +There had been one outburst of righteous wrath +occasioned by Rebecca's over-hospitable habits, +which were later shown in a still more dramatic and +unexpected fashion. + +On a certain Friday afternoon she asked her aunt +Miranda if she might take half her bread and milk +upstairs to a friend. + +"What friend have you got up there, for pity's +sake?" demanded aunt Miranda. + +"The Simpson baby, come to stay over Sunday; +that is, if you're willing, Mrs. Simpson says she is. +Shall I bring her down and show her? She's dressed +in an old dress of Emma Jane's and she looks sweet." + +"You can bring her down, but you can't show +her to me! You can smuggle her out the way you +smuggled her in and take her back to her mother. +Where on earth do you get your notions, borrowing +a baby for Sunday!" + +"You're so used to a house without a baby you +don't know how dull it is," sighed Rebecca resignedly, +as she moved towards the door; "but at the +farm there was always a nice fresh one to play with +and cuddle. There were too many, but that's not +half as bad as none at all. Well, I'll take her back. +She'll be dreadfully disappointed and so will Mrs. +Simpson. She was planning to go to Milltown." + +"She can un-plan then," observed Miss Miranda. + +"Perhaps I can go up there and take care of the +baby?" suggested Rebecca. "I brought her home +so 't I could do my Saturday work just the same." + +"You've got enough to do right here, without +any borrowed babies to make more steps. Now, no +answering back, just give the child some supper and +carry it home where it belongs." + +"You don't want me to go down the front way, +hadn't I better just come through this room and +let you look at her? She has yellow hair and big +blue eyes! Mrs. Simpson says she takes after her +father." + +Miss Miranda smiled acidly as she said she +couldn't take after her father, for he'd take any +thing there was before she got there! + +Aunt Jane was in the linen closet upstairs, sorting +out the clean sheets and pillow cases for Saturday, +and Rebecca sought comfort from her. + +"I brought the Simpson baby home, aunt Jane, +thinking it would help us over a dull Sunday, but +aunt Miranda won't let her stay. Emma Jane has +the promise of her next Sunday and Alice Robinson +the next. Mrs. Simpson wanted I should have her +first because I've had so much experience in babies. +Come in and look at her sitting up in my bed, aunt +Jane! Isn't she lovely? She's the fat, gurgly +kind, not thin and fussy like some babies, and I +thought I was going to have her to undress and +dress twice each day. Oh dear! I wish I could +have a printed book with everything set down in it +that I COULD do, and then I wouldn't get disappointed +so often." + +"No book could be printed that would fit you, +Rebecca," answered aunt Jane, "for nobody could +imagine beforehand the things you'd want to do. +Are you going to carry that heavy child home in +your arms?" + +"No, I'm going to drag her in the little +soap-wagon. Come, baby! Take your thumb out of +your mouth and come to ride with Becky in your +go-cart." She stretched out her strong young arms +to the crowing baby, sat down in a chair with the +child, turned her upside down unceremoniously, +took from her waistband and scornfully flung away +a crooked pin, walked with her (still in a highly +reversed position) to the bureau, selected a large +safety pin, and proceeded to attach her brief red +flannel petticoat to a sort of shirt that she wore. +Whether flat on her stomach, or head down, heels +in the air, the Simpson baby knew she was in the +hands of an expert, and continued gurgling placidly +while aunt Jane regarded the pantomime with a +kind of dazed awe. + +"Bless my soul, Rebecca," she ejaculated, "it +beats all how handy you are with babies!" + +"I ought to be; I've brought up three and a +half of 'em," Rebecca responded cheerfully, pulling +up the infant Simpson's stockings. + +"I should think you'd be fonder of dolls than +you are," said Jane. + +"I do like them, but there's never any change +in a doll; it's always the same everlasting old doll, +and you have to make believe it's cross or sick, or +it loves you, or can't bear you. Babies are more +trouble, but nicer." + +Miss Jane stretched out a thin hand with a slender, +worn band of gold on the finger, and the baby +curled her dimpled fingers round it and held it fast. + +"You wear a ring on your engagement finger, +don't you, aunt Jane? Did you ever think about +getting married?" + +"Yes, dear, long ago." + +"What happened, aunt Jane?" + +"He died--just before." + +"Oh!" And Rebecca's eyes grew misty. + +"He was a soldier and he died of a gunshot +wound, in a hospital, down South." + +"Oh! aunt Jane!" softly. "Away from you?" + +"No, I was with him." + +"Was he young?" + +"Yes; young and brave and handsome, Rebecca; +he was Mr. Carter's brother Tom." + +"Oh! I'm so glad you were with him! Wasn't +he glad, aunt Jane?" + +Jane looked back across the half-forgotten years, +and the vision of Tom's gladness flashed upon her: +his haggard smile, the tears in his tired eyes, his +outstretched arms, his weak voice saying, "Oh, Jenny! +Dear Jenny! I've wanted you so, Jenny!" It was +too much! She had never breathed a word of it +before to a human creature, for there was no one who +would have understood. Now, in a shamefaced way, +to hide her brimming eyes, she put her head down +on the young shoulder beside her, saying, "It was +hard, Rebecca!" + +The Simpson baby had cuddled down sleepily in +Rebecca's lap, leaning her head back and sucking +her thumb contentedly. Rebecca put her cheek +down until it touched her aunt's gray hair and softly +patted her, as she said, "I'm sorry, aunt Jane!" + +The girl's eyes were soft and tender and the +heart within her stretched a little and grew; grew +in sweetness and intuition and depth of feeling. It +had looked into another heart, felt it beat, and +heard it sigh; and that is how all hearts grow. + +Episodes like these enlivened the quiet course of +every-day existence, made more quiet by the departure +of Dick Carter, Living Perkins, and Huldah +Meserve for Wareham, and the small attendance at +the winter school, from which the younger children +of the place stayed away during the cold weather. + +Life, however, could never be thoroughly dull +or lacking in adventure to a child of Rebecca's +temperament. Her nature was full of adaptability, +fluidity, receptivity. She made friends everywhere +she went, and snatched up acquaintances in every +corner. + +It was she who ran to the shed door to take the +dish to the "meat man" or "fish man;" she who +knew the family histories of the itinerant fruit +venders and tin peddlers; she who was asked to take +supper or pass the night with children in neighboring +villages--children of whose parents her aunts +had never so much as heard. As to the nature of +these friendships, which seemed so many to the +eye of the superficial observer, they were of various +kinds, and while the girl pursued them with +enthusiasm and ardor, they left her unsatisfied and +heart-hungry; they were never intimacies such as +are so readily made by shallow natures. She loved +Emma Jane, but it was a friendship born of propinquity +and circumstance, not of true affinity. It was +her neighbor's amiability, constancy, and devotion +that she loved, and although she rated these qualities +at their true value, she was always searching +beyond them for intellectual treasures; searching +and never finding, for although Emma Jane had +the advantage in years she was still immature. +Huldah Meserve had an instinctive love of fun +which appealed to Rebecca; she also had a fascinating +knowledge of the world, from having visited +her married sisters in Milltown and Portland; but +on the other hand there was a certain sharpness +and lack of sympathy in Huldah which repelled +rather than attracted. With Dick Carter she could +at least talk intelligently about lessons. He was a +very ambitious boy, full of plans for his future, which +he discussed quite freely with Rebecca, but when +she broached the subject of her future his interest +sensibly lessened. Into the world of the ideal Emma +Jane, Huldah, and Dick alike never seemed to have +peeped, and the consciousness of this was always a +fixed gulf between them and Rebecca. + +"Uncle Jerry" and "aunt Sarah" Cobb were +dear friends of quite another sort, a very satisfying +and perhaps a somewhat dangerous one. A visit +from Rebecca always sent them into a twitter of +delight. Her merry conversation and quaint come- +ments on life in general fairly dazzled the old couple, +who hung on her lightest word as if it had been +a prophet's utterance; and Rebecca, though she +had had no previous experience, owned to herself a +perilous pleasure in being dazzling, even to a couple +of dear humdrum old people like Mr. and Mrs. Cobb. +Aunt Sarah flew to the pantry or cellar whenever +Rebecca's slim little shape first appeared on the crest +of the hill, and a jelly tart or a frosted cake was sure +to be forthcoming. The sight of old uncle Jerry's +spare figure in its clean white shirt sleeves, whatever +the weather, always made Rebecca's heart warm +when she saw him peer longingly from the kitchen +window. Before the snow came, many was the time +he had come out to sit on a pile of boards at the +gate, to see if by any chance she was mounting the +hill that led to their house. In the autumn Rebecca +was often the old man's companion while he was +digging potatoes or shelling beans, and now in the +winter, when a younger man was driving the stage, +she sometimes stayed with him while he did his +evening milking. It is safe to say that he was the +only creature in Riverboro who possessed Rebecca's +entire confidence; the only being to whom she +poured out her whole heart, with its wealth of hopes, +and dreams, and vague ambitions. At the brick +house she practiced scales and exercises, but at the +Cobbs' cabinet organ she sang like a bird, improvising +simple accompaniments that seemed to her +ignorant auditors nothing short of marvelous. Here +she was happy, here she was loved, here she was +drawn out of herself and admired and made much +of. But, she thought, if there were somebody who +not only loved but understood; who spoke her language, +comprehended her desires, and responded to +her mysterious longings! Perhaps in the big world +of Wareham there would be people who thought +and dreamed and wondered as she did. + +In reality Jane did not understand her niece very +much better than Miranda; the difference between +the sisters was, that while Jane was puzzled, she +was also attracted, and when she was quite in the +dark for an explanation of some quaint or unusual +action she was sympathetic as to its possible motive +and believed the best. A greater change had come +over Jane than over any other person in the brick +house, but it had been wrought so secretly, and +concealed so religiously, that it scarcely appeared to the +ordinary observer. Life had now a motive utterly +lacking before. Breakfast was not eaten in the +kitchen, because it seemed worth while, now that +there were three persons, to lay the cloth in the dining- +room; it was also a more bountiful meal than of +yore, when there was no child to consider. The +morning was made cheerful by Rebecca's start for +school, the packing of the luncheon basket, the final +word about umbrella, waterproof, or rubbers; the +parting admonition and the unconscious waiting at +the window for the last wave of the hand. She found +herself taking pride in Rebecca's improved appearance, +her rounder throat and cheeks, and her better +color; she was wont to mention the length of +Rebecca's hair and add a word as to its remarkable +evenness and lustre, at times when Mrs. Perkins +grew too diffuse about Emma Jane's complexion. +She threw herself wholeheartedly on her niece's side +when it became a question between a crimson or +a brown linsey-woolsey dress, and went through a +memorable struggle with her sister concerning the +purchase of a red bird for Rebecca's black felt hat. +No one guessed the quiet pleasure that lay hidden in +her heart when she watched the girl's dark head bent +over her lessons at night, nor dreamed of her joy it, +certain quiet evenings when Miranda went to prayer +meeting; evenings when Rebecca would read aloud +Hiawatha or Barbara Frietchie, The Bugle Song, +or The Brook. Her narrow, humdrum existence +bloomed under the dews that fell from this fresh +spirit; her dullness brightened under the kindling +touch of the younger mind, took fire from the "vital +spark of heavenly flame" that seemed always to +radiate from Rebecca's presence. + +Rebecca's idea of being a painter like her friend +Miss Ross was gradually receding, owing to the +apparently insuperable difficulties in securing any +instruction. Her aunt Miranda saw no wisdom in +cultivating such a talent, and could not conceive that +any money could ever be earned by its exercise, +"Hand painted pictures" were held in little esteem +in Riverboro, where the cheerful chromo or the +dignified steel engraving were respected and valued. +There was a slight, a very slight hope, that Rebecca +might be allowed a few music lessons from Miss +Morton, who played the church cabinet organ, but +this depended entirely upon whether Mrs. Morton +would decide to accept a hayrack in return for a +year's instruction from her daughter. She had the +matter under advisement, but a doubt as to whether +or not she would sell or rent her hayfields kept her +from coming to a conclusion. Music, in common +with all other accomplishments, was viewed by Miss +Miranda as a trivial, useless, and foolish amusement, +but she allowed Rebecca an hour a day for practice +on the old piano, and a little extra time for +lessons, if Jane could secure them without payment of +actual cash. + +The news from Sunnybrook Farm was hopeful +rather than otherwise. Cousin Ann's husband had +died, and John, Rebecca's favorite brother, had gone +to be the man of the house to the widowed cousin. +He was to have good schooling in return for his care +of the horse and cow and barn, and what was still +more dazzling, the use of the old doctor's medical +library of two or three dozen volumes. John's whole +heart was set on becoming a country doctor, with +Rebecca to keep house for him, and the vision +seemed now so true, so near, that he could almost +imagine his horse ploughing through snowdrifts on +errands of mercy, or, less dramatic but none the +less attractive, could see a physician's neat turncut +trundling along the shady country roads, a medicine +case between his, Dr. Randall's, feet, and Miss +Rebecca Randall sitting in a black silk dress by his +side. + +Hannah now wore her hair in a coil and her +dresses a trifle below her ankles, these concessions +being due to her extreme height. Mark had broken +his collar bone, but it was healing well. Little Mira +was growing very pretty. There was even a rumor +that the projected railroad from Temperance to +Plumville might go near the Randall farm, in which +case land would rise in value from nothing-at-all an +acre to something at least resembling a price. Mrs. +Randall refused to consider any improvement in +their financial condition as a possibility. Content to +work from sunrise to sunset to gain a mere +subsistence for her children, she lived in their future, +not in her own present, as a mother is wont to do +when her own lot seems hard and cheerless. + + + +XVII + +GRAY DAYS AND GOLD + +When Rebecca looked back upon the +year or two that followed the Simpsons' +Thanksgiving party, she could see only +certain milestones rising in the quiet pathway of +the months. + +The first milestone was Christmas Day. It was +a fresh, crystal morning, with icicles hanging like +dazzling pendants from the trees and a glaze of +pale blue on the surface of the snow. The Simpsons' +red barn stood out, a glowing mass of color in +the white landscape. Rebecca had been busy for +weeks before, trying to make a present for each of +the seven persons at Sunnybrook Farm, a somewhat +difficult proceeding on an expenditure of fifty +cents, hoarded by incredible exertion. Success had +been achieved, however, and the precious packet +had been sent by post two days previous. Miss +Sawyer had bought her niece a nice gray squirrel +muff and tippet, which was even more unbecoming +if possible, than Rebecca's other articles of wearing +apparel; but aunt Jane had made her the loveliest +dress of green cashmere, a soft, soft green like +that of a young leaf. It was very simply made, but +the color delighted the eye. Then there was a +beautiful "tatting" collar from her mother, some +scarlet mittens from Mrs. Cobb, and a handkerchief +from Emma Jane. + +Rebecca herself had fashioned an elaborate tea- +cosy with a letter "M" in outline stitch, and a +pretty frilled pincushion marked with a "J," for her +two aunts, so that taken all together the day would +have been an unequivocal success had nothing else +happened; but something else did. + +There was a knock at the door at breakfast time, +and Rebecca, answering it, was asked by a boy if +Miss Rebecca Randall lived there. On being told +that she did, he handed her a parcel bearing her +name, a parcel which she took like one in a dream +and bore into the dining-room. + +"It's a present; it must be," she said, looking +at it in a dazed sort of way; "but I can't think +who it could be from." + +"A good way to find out would be to open it," +remarked Miss Miranda. + +The parcel being untied proved to have two +smaller packages within, and Rebecca opened with +trembling fingers the one addressed to her. Anybody's +fingers would have trembled. There was a +case which, when the cover was lifted, disclosed a +long chain of delicate pink coral beads,--a chain +ending in a cross made of coral rosebuds. A card +with "Merry Christmas from Mr. Aladdin" lay +under the cross. + +"Of all things!" exclaimed the two old ladies, +rising in their seats. "Who sent it?" + +"Mr. Ladd," said Rebecca under her breath. + +"Adam Ladd! Well I never! Don't you remember +Ellen Burnham said he was going to send +Rebecca a Christmas present? But I never supposed +he'd think of it again," said Jane. "What's +the other package?" + +It proved to be a silver chain with a blue enamel +locket on it, marked for Emma Jane. That added +the last touch--to have him remember them both! +There was a letter also, which ran:-- + + +Dear Miss Rebecca Rowena,--My idea of a +Christmas present is something entirely unnecessary +and useless. I have always noticed when I +give this sort of thing that people love it, so I +hope I have not chosen wrong for you and your +friend. You must wear your chain this afternoon, +please, and let me see it on your neck, for I am +coming over in my new sleigh to take you both to +drive. My aunt is delighted with the soap. + +Sincerely your friend, + +Adam Ladd. + + +"Well, well!" cried Miss Jane, "isn't that kind +of him? He's very fond of children, Lyddy Burnham +says. Now eat your breakfast, Rebecca, and +after we've done the dishes you can run over to +Emma's and give her her chain-- What's the matter, +child?" + +Rebecca's emotions seemed always to be stored, +as it were, in adjoining compartments, and to be +continually getting mixed. At this moment, though +her joy was too deep for words, her bread and butter +almost choked her, and at intervals a tear stole +furtively down her cheek. + +Mr. Ladd called as he promised, and made the +acquaintance of the aunts, understanding them both +in five minutes as well as if he had known them +for years. On a footstool near the open fire sat +Rebecca, silent and shy, so conscious of her fine +apparel and the presence of aunt Miranda that she +could not utter a word. It was one of her "beauty +days." Happiness, excitement, the color of the +green dress, and the touch of lovely pink in the +coral necklace had transformed the little brown +wren for the time into a bird of plumage, and Adam +Ladd watched her with evident satisfaction. Then +there was the sleigh ride, during which she found +her tongue and chattered like any magpie, and so +ended that glorious Christmas Day; and many and +many a night thereafter did Rebecca go to sleep +with the precious coral chain under her pillow, one +hand always upon it to be certain that it was safe. + +Another milestone was the departure of the +Simpsons from Riverboro, bag and baggage, the +banquet lamp being their most conspicuous posses- +sion. It was delightful to be rid of Seesaw's hateful +presence; but otherwise the loss of several +playmates at one fell swoop made rather a gap +in Riverboro's "younger set," and Rebecca was +obliged to make friends with the Robinson baby, +he being the only long-clothes child in the village +that winter. The faithful Seesaw had called at the +side door of the brick house on the evening before +his departure, and when Rebecca answered his +knock, stammered solemnly, "Can I k-keep comp'ny +with you when you g-g-row up?" "Certainly NOT," +replied Rebecca, closing the door somewhat +too speedily upon her precocious swain. + +Mr. Simpson had come home in time to move +his wife and children back to the town that had +given them birth, a town by no means waiting with +open arms to receive them. The Simpsons' moving +was presided over by the village authorities and +somewhat anxiously watched by the entire +neighborhood, but in spite of all precautions a pulpit +chair, several kerosene lamps, and a small stove +disappeared from the church and were successfully +swapped in the course of Mr. Simpson's +driving tour from the old home to the new. It gave +Rebecca and Emma Jane some hours of sorrow to +learn that a certain village in the wake of Abner +Simpson's line of progress had acquired, through +the medium of an ambitious young minister, a +magnificent lamp for its new church parlors. No money +changed hands in the operation; for the minister +succeeded in getting the lamp in return for an old +bicycle. The only pleasant feature of the whole +affair was that Mr. Simpson, wholly unable to console +his offspring for the loss of the beloved object, +mounted the bicycle and rode away on it, not to +be seen or heard of again for many a long day. + +The year was notable also as being the one in +which Rebecca shot up like a young tree. She had +seemingly never grown an inch since she was ten +years old, but once started she attended to growing +precisely as she did other things,--with such +energy, that Miss Jane did nothing for months but +lengthen skirts, sleeves, and waists. In spite of all +the arts known to a thrifty New England woman, +the limit of letting down and piecing down was +reached at last, and the dresses were sent to Sunnybrook +Farm to be made over for Jenny. + +There was another milestone, a sad one, marking +a little grave under a willow tree at Sunnybrook +Farm. Mira, the baby of the Randall family, +died, and Rebecca went home for a fortnight's +visit. The sight of the small still shape that had +been Mira, the baby who had been her special +charge ever since her birth, woke into being a host +of new thoughts and wonderments; for it is sometimes +the mystery of death that brings one to a +consciousness of the still greater mystery of life. + +It was a sorrowful home-coming for Rebecca. The +death of Mira, the absence of John, who had been +her special comrade, the sadness of her mother, the +isolation of the little house, and the pinching +economies that went on within it, all conspired to +depress a child who was so sensitive to beauty and +harmony as Rebecca. + +Hannah seemed to have grown into a woman +during Rebecca's absence. There had always been +a strange unchildlike air about Hannah, but in +certain ways she now appeared older than aunt Jane +--soberer, and more settled. She was pretty, +though in a colorless fashion; pretty and capable. + +Rebecca walked through all the old playgrounds +and favorite haunts of her early childhood; all her +familiar, her secret places; some of them known to +John, some to herself alone. There was the spot +where the Indian pipes grew; the particular bit of +marshy ground where the fringed gentians used to +be largest and bluest; the rock maple where she +found the oriole's nest; the hedge where the field +mice lived; the moss-covered stump where the +white toadstools were wont to spring up as if by +magic; the hole at the root of the old pine where an +ancient and honorable toad made his home; these +were the landmarks of her childhood, and she looked +at them as across an immeasurable distance. The +dear little sunny brook, her chief companion after +John, was sorry company at this season. There +was no laughing water sparkling in the sunshine. +In summer the merry stream had danced over white +pebbles on its way to deep pools where it could be +still and think. Now, like Mira, it was cold and +quiet, wrapped in its shroud of snow; but Rebecca +knelt by the brink, and putting her ear to the glaze +of ice, fancied, where it used to be deepest, she could +hear a faint, tinkling sound. It was all right! Sunnybrook +would sing again in the spring; perhaps Mira +too would have her singing time somewhere--she +wondered where and how. In the course of these +lonely rambles she was ever thinking, thinking, +of one subject. Hannah had never had a chance; +never been freed from the daily care and work of +the farm. She, Rebecca, had enjoyed all the privileges +thus far. Life at the brick house had not been +by any means a path of roses, but there had been +comfort and the companionship of other children, as +well as chances for study and reading. Riverboro +had not been the world itself, but it had been a +glimpse of it through a tiny peephole that was +infinitely better than nothing. Rebecca shed more +than one quiet tear before she could trust herself to +offer up as a sacrifice that which she so much desired +for herself. Then one morning as her visit neared +its end she plunged into the subject boldly and +said, "Hannah, after this term I'm going to stay +at home and let you go away. Aunt Miranda has +always wanted you, and it's only fair you should +have your turn." + +Hannah was darning stockings, and she threaded +her needle and snipped off the yarn before she +answered, "No, thank you, Becky. Mother couldn't +do without me, and I hate going to school. I can +read and write and cipher as well as anybody now, +and that's enough for me. I'd die rather than teach +school for a living. The winter'll go fast, for Will +Melville is going to lend me his mother's sewing +machine, and I'm going to make white petticoats +out of the piece of muslin aunt Jane sent, and have +'em just solid with tucks. Then there's going to +be a singing-school and a social circle in Temperance +after New Year's, and I shall have a real good +time now I'm grown up. I'm not one to be lonesome, +Becky," Hannah ended with a blush; "I love +this place." + +Rebecca saw that she was speaking the truth, but +she did not understand the blush till a year or two +later. + + + +XVIII + +REBECCA REPRESENTS THE FAMILY + +There was another milestone; it was more +than that, it was an "event;" an event +that made a deep impression in several +quarters and left a wake of smaller events in its +train. This was the coming to Riverboro of the +Reverend Amos Burch and wife, returned missionaries +from Syria. + +The Aid Society had called its meeting for a +certain Wednesday in March of the year in which +Rebecca ended her Riverboro school days and +began her studies at Wareham. It was a raw, +blustering day, snow on the ground and a look in +the sky of more to follow. Both Miranda and Jane +had taken cold and decided that they could not +leave the house in such weather, and this deflection +from the path of duty worried Miranda, since she +was an officer of the society. After making the +breakfast table sufficiently uncomfortable and wishing +plaintively that Jane wouldn't always insist on +being sick at the same time she was, she decided +that Rebecca must go to the meeting in their +stead. "You'll be better than nobody, Rebecca," +she said flatteringly; "your aunt Jane shall write +an excuse from afternoon school for you; you can +wear your rubber boots and come home by the +way of the meetin' house. This Mr. Burch, if I +remember right, used to know your grandfather +Sawyer, and stayed here once when he was +candidatin'. He'll mebbe look for us there, and you +must just go and represent the family, an' give him +our respects. Be careful how you behave. Bow +your head in prayer; sing all the hymns, but not +too loud and bold; ask after Mis' Strout's boy; +tell everybody what awful colds we've got; if you +see a good chance, take your pocket handkerchief +and wipe the dust off the melodeon before the +meetin' begins, and get twenty-five cents out of the +sittin' room match-box in case there should be a +collection." + +Rebecca willingly assented. Anything interested +her, even a village missionary meeting, and the idea +of representing the family was rather intoxicating. + +The service was held in the Sunday-school room, +and although the Rev. Mr. Burch was on the platform +when Rebecca entered, there were only a +dozen persons present. Feeling a little shy and +considerably too young for this assemblage, Rebecca +sought the shelter of a friendly face, and seeing +Mrs. Robinson in one of the side seats near the +front, she walked up the aisle and sat beside her. + +"Both my aunts had bad colds," she said softly, +"and sent me to represent the family." + +"That's Mrs. Burch on the platform with her +husband," whispered Mrs. Robinson. "She's awful +tanned up, ain't she? If you're goin' to save souls +seems like you hev' to part with your complexion. +Eudoxy Morton ain't come yet; I hope to the land +she will, or Mis' Deacon Milliken'll pitch the tunes +where we can't reach 'em with a ladder; can't +you pitch, afore she gits her breath and clears her +throat?" + +Mrs. Burch was a slim, frail little woman with +dark hair, a broad low forehead, and patient mouth. +She was dressed in a well-worn black silk, and +looked so tired that Rebecca's heart went out to +her. + +"They're poor as Job's turkey," whispered Mrs. +Robinson; "but if you give 'em anything they'd +turn right round and give it to the heathen. His +congregation up to Parsonsfield clubbed together +and give him that gold watch he carries; I s'pose +he'd 'a' handed that over too, only heathens always +tell time by the sun 'n' don't need watches. Eudoxy +ain't comin'; now for massy's sake, Rebecca, do +git ahead of Mis' Deacon Milliken and pitch real +low." + +The meeting began with prayer and then the +Rev. Mr. Burch announced, to the tune of Mendon:-- + +"Church of our God I arise and shine, +Bright with the beams of truth divine: +Then shall thy radiance stream afar, +Wide as the heathen nations are. +"Gentiles and kings thy light shall view, +And shall admire and love thee too; +They come, like clouds across the sky, +As doves that to their windows fly." + + +"Is there any one present who will assist us at +the instrument?" he asked unexpectedly. + +Everybody looked at everybody else, and nobody +moved; then there came a voice out of a far corner +saying informally, "Rebecca, why don't you?" It +was Mrs. Cobb. Rebecca could have played Mendon +in the dark, so she went to the melodeon and +did so without any ado, no member of her family +being present to give her self-consciousness. + +The talk that ensued was much the usual sort of +thing. Mr. Burch made impassioned appeals for the +spreading of the gospel, and added his entreaties +that all who were prevented from visiting in +person the peoples who sat in darkness should +contribute liberally to the support of others who could. +But he did more than this. He was a pleasant, +earnest speaker, and he interwove his discourse with +stories of life in a foreign land,--of the manners, +the customs, the speech, the point of view; even +giving glimpses of the daily round, the common +task, of his own household, the work of his +devoted helpmate and their little group of children, +all born under Syrian skies. + +Rebecca sat entranced, having been given the +key of another world. Riverboro had faded; the +Sunday-school room, with Mrs. Robinson's red plaid +shawl, and Deacon Milliken's wig, on crooked, the +bare benches and torn hymn-books, the hanging +texts and maps, were no longer visible, and she +saw blue skies and burning stars, white turbans +and gay colors; Mr. Burch had not said so, but +perhaps there were mosques and temples and minarets +and date-palms. What stories they must know, +those children born under Syrian skies! Then +she was called upon to play "Jesus shall reign +where'er the sun." + +The contribution box was passed and Mr. Burch +prayed. As he opened his eyes and gave out the +last hymn he looked at the handful of people, at the +scattered pennies and dimes in the contribution box, +and reflected that his mission was not only to gather +funds for the building of his church, but to keep +alive, in all these remote and lonely neighborhoods, +that love for the cause which was its only hope in +the years to come. + +"If any of the sisters will provide entertainment," +he said, "Mrs. Burch and I will remain among you +to-night and to-morrow. In that event we could +hold a parlor meeting. My wife and one of my +children would wear the native costume, we would +display some specimens of Syrian handiwork, and +give an account of our educational methods with the +children. These informal parlor meetings, admitting +of questions or conversation, are often the means +of interesting those not commonly found at church +services so I repeat, if any member of the congregation +desires it and offers her hospitality, we will +gladly stay and tell you more of the Lord's work." + +A pall of silence settled over the little assembly. +There was some cogent reason why every "sister" +there was disinclined for company. Some had no +spare room, some had a larder less well stocked than +usual, some had sickness in the family, some were +"unequally yoked together with unbelievers" who +disliked strange ministers. Mrs. Burch's thin hands +fingered her black silk nervously. "Would no one +speak!" thought Rebecca, her heart fluttering with +sympathy. Mrs. Robinson leaned over and whispered +significantly, "The missionaries always used +to be entertained at the brick house; your grand- +father never would let 'em sleep anywheres else +when he was alive." She meant this for a stab at +Miss Miranda's parsimony, remembering the four +spare chambers, closed from January to December; +but Rebecca thought it was intended as a suggestion. +If it had been a former custom, perhaps her +aunts would want her to do the right thing; for +what else was she representing the family? So, +delighted that duty lay in so pleasant a direction, +she rose from her seat and said in the pretty voice +and with the quaint manner that so separated her +from all the other young people in the village, "My +aunts, Miss Miranda and Miss Jane Sawyer, would +be very happy to have you visit them at the brick +house, as the ministers always used to do when their +father was alive. They sent their respects by me." +The "respects" might have been the freedom of +the city, or an equestrian statue, when presented in +this way, and the aunts would have shuddered could +they have foreseen the manner of delivery; but it +was vastly impressive to the audience, who concluded +that Mirandy Sawyer must be making her +way uncommonly fast to mansions in the skies, else +what meant this abrupt change of heart? + +Mr. Burch bowed courteously, accepted the +invitation "in the same spirit in which it was offered," +and asked Brother Milliken to lead in prayer. + +If the Eternal Ear could ever tire it would have +ceased long ere this to listen to Deacon Milliken, +who had wafted to the throne of grace the same +prayer, with very slight variations, for forty years. +Mrs. Perkins followed; she had several petitions +at her command, good sincere ones too, but a little +cut and dried, made of scripture texts laboriously +woven together. Rebecca wondered why she always +ended, at the most peaceful seasons, with the form, +"Do Thou be with us, God of Battles, while we +strive onward like Christian soldiers marching as +to war;" but everything sounded real to her to-day, +she was in a devout mood, and many things Mr. +Burch had said had moved her strangely. As she +lifted her head the minister looked directly at her +and said, "Will our young sister close the service +by leading us in prayer?" + +Every drop of blood in Rebecca's body seemed to +stand still, and her heart almost stopped beating. +Mrs. Cobb's excited breathing could be heard distinctly +in the silence. There was nothing extraordinary +in Mr. Burch's request. In his journeyings +among country congregations he was constantly +in the habit of meeting young members who had +"experienced religion" and joined the church when +nine or ten years old. Rebecca was now thirteen; +she had played the melodeon, led the singing, +delivered her aunts' invitation with an air of great +worldly wisdom, and he, concluding that she must +be a youthful pillar of the church, called upon her +with the utmost simplicity. + +Rebecca's plight was pathetic. How could she +refuse; how could she explain she was not a +"member;" how could she pray before all those elderly +women! John Rogers at the stake hardly suffered +more than this poor child for the moment as she +rose to her feet, forgetting that ladies prayed +sitting, while deacons stood in prayer. Her mind was +a maze of pictures that the Rev. Mr. Burch had +flung on the screen. She knew the conventional +phraseology, of course; what New England child, +accustomed to Wednesday evening meetings, does +not? But her own secret prayers were different. +However, she began slowly and tremulously:-- + +"Our Father who art in Heaven, . . . Thou art +God in Syria just the same as in Maine; . . . over +there to-day are blue skies and yellow stars and +burning suns . . . the great trees are waving in the +warm air, while here the snow lies thick under our +feet, . . . but no distance is too far for God to travel +and so He is with us here as He is with them +there, . . . and our thoughts rise to Him `as doves +that to their windows fly.'. . . + +"We cannot all be missionaries, teaching people +to be good, . . . some of us have not learned yet +how to be good ourselves, but if thy kingdom is +to come and thy will is to be done on earth as it +is in heaven, everybody must try and everybody +must help, . . . those who are old and tired and +those who are young and strong. . . . The little +children of whom we have heard, those born under +Syrian skies, have strange and interesting work to +do for Thee, and some of us would like to travel +in far lands and do wonderful brave things for the +heathen and gently take away their idols of wood +and stone. But perhaps we have to stay at home +and do what is given us to do . . . sometimes even +things we dislike, . . . but that must be what it +means in the hymn we sang, when it talked about +the sweet perfume that rises with every morning +sacrifice. . . . This is the way that God teaches us +to be meek and patient, and the thought that He +has willed it so should rob us of our fears and help +us bear the years. Amen." + +Poor little ignorant, fantastic child! Her petition +was simply a succession of lines from the various +hymns, and images the minister had used in his +sermon, but she had her own way of recombining +and applying these things, even of using them in a +new connection, so that they had a curious effect +of belonging to her. The words of some people +might generally be written with a minus sign after +them, the minus meaning that the personality of +the speaker subtracted from, rather than added to, +their weight; but Rebecca's words might always +have borne the plus sign. + +The "Amen" said, she sat down, or presumed +she sat down, on what she believed to be a bench, +and there was a benediction. In a moment or two, +when the room ceased spinning, she went up to +Mrs. Burch, who kissed her affectionately and said, +"My dear, how glad I am that we are going to stay +with you. Will half past five be too late for us to +come? It is three now, and we have to go to the +station for our valise and for our children. We left +them there, being uncertain whether we should go +back or stop here." + +Rebecca said that half past five was their supper +hour, and then accepted an invitation to drive home +with Mrs. Cobb. Her face was flushed and her lip +quivered in a way that aunt Sarah had learned to +know, so the homeward drive was taken almost in +silence. The bleak wind and aunt Sarah's quieting +presence brought her back to herself, however, and +she entered the brick house cheerily. Being too +full of news to wait in the side entry to take off her +rubber boots, she carefully lifted a braided rug into +the sitting-room and stood on that while she opened +her budget. + +"There are your shoes warming by the fire," +said aunt Jane. "Slip them right on while you talk." + + + +XIX + +DEACON ISRAEL'S SUCCESSOR + +It was a very small meeting, aunt Miranda," +began Rebecca, "and the missionary and his +wife are lovely people, and they are coming +here to stay all night and to-morrow with you. I +hope you won't mind." + +"Coming here!" exclaimed Miranda, letting her +knitting fall in her lap, and taking her spectacles +off, as she always did in moments of extreme +excitement. "Did they invite themselves?" + +"No," Rebecca answered. "I had to invite them +for you; but I thought you'd like to have such +interesting company. It was this way"-- + +"Stop your explainin', and tell me first when +they'll be here. Right away?" + +"No, not for two hours--about half past five." + +"Then you can explain, if you can, who gave you +any authority to invite a passel of strangers to stop +here over night, when you know we ain't had any +company for twenty years, and don't intend to have +any for another twenty,--or at any rate while I'm +the head of the house." + +"Don't blame her, Miranda, till you've heard +her story," said Jane. "It was in my mind right +along, if we went to the meeting, some such thing +might happen, on account of Mr. Burch knowing +father." + +"The meeting was a small one," began Rebecca +"I gave all your messages, and everybody was +disappointed you couldn't come, for the president +wasn't there, and Mrs. Matthews took the chair, which +was a pity, for the seat wasn't nearly big enough for +her, and she reminded me of a line in a hymn we +sang, `Wide as the heathen nations are,' and she +wore that kind of a beaver garden-hat that always +gets on one side. And Mr. Burch talked beautifully +about the Syrian heathen, and the singing went +real well, and there looked to be about forty cents +in the basket that was passed on our side. And +that wouldn't save even a heathen baby, would it? +Then Mr. Burch said, if any sister would offer +entertainment, they would pass the night, and have +a parlor meeting in Riverboro to-morrow, with Mrs. +Burch in Syrian costume, and lovely foreign things +to show. Then he waited and waited, and nobody +said a word. I was so mortified I didn't know what +to do. And then he repeated what he said, an +explained why he wanted to stay, and you could see +he thought it was his duty. Just then Mrs. +Robinson whispered to me and said the missionaries +always used to go to the brick house when +grandfather was alive, and that he never would let them +sleep anywhere else. I didn't know you had stopped +having them. because no traveling ministers have +been here, except just for a Sunday morning, since +I came to Riverboro. So I thought I ought to +invite them, as you weren't there to do it for yourself, +and you told me to represent the family." + +"What did you do--go up and introduce +yourself as folks was goin' out?" + +"No; I stood right up in meeting. I had to, for +Mr. Burch's feelings were getting hurt at nobody's +speaking. So I said, `My aunts, Miss Miranda and +Miss Jane Sawyer would be happy to have you +visit at the brick house, just as the missionaries +always did when their father was alive, and they +sent their respects by me.' Then I sat down; and +Mr. Burch prayed for grandfather, and called him a +man of God, and thanked our Heavenly Father that +his spirit was still alive in his descendants (that was +you), and that the good old house where so many +of the brethren had been cheered and helped, and +from which so many had gone out strengthened for +the fight, was still hospitably open for the stranger +and wayfarer." + +Sometimes, when the heavenly bodies are in +just the right conjunction, nature seems to be the +most perfect art. The word or the deed coming +straight from the heart, without any thought of +effect, seems inspired. + +A certain gateway in Miranda Sawyer's soul had +been closed for years; not all at once had it been +done, but gradually, and without her full knowledge. +If Rebecca had plotted for days, and with the utmost +cunning, she could not have effected an entrance +into that forbidden country, and now, unknown to +both of them, the gate swung on its stiff and rusty +hinges, and the favoring wind of opportunity opened +it wider and wider as time went on. All things had +worked together amazingly for good. The memory +of old days had been evoked, and the daily life +of a pious and venerated father called to mind; +the Sawyer name had been publicly dignified and +praised; Rebecca had comported herself as the +granddaughter of Deacon Israel Sawyer should, and +showed conclusively that she was not "all Randall," +as had been supposed. Miranda was rather +mollified by and pleased with the turn of events, +although she did not intend to show it, or give anybody +any reason to expect that this expression of +hospitality was to serve for a precedent on any +subsequent occasion. + +"Well, I see you did only what you was obliged +to do, Rebecca," she said, "and you worded your +invitation as nice as anybody could have done. I +wish your aunt Jane and me wasn't both so worthless +with these colds; but it only shows the good +of havin' a clean house, with every room in order, +whether open or shut, and enough victuals cooked +so 't you can't be surprised and belittled by +anybody, whatever happens. There was half a dozen +there that might have entertained the Burches as +easy as not, if they hadn't 'a' been too mean +or lazy. Why didn't your missionaries come right +along with you?" + +"They had to go to the station for their valise +and their children." + +"Are there children?" groaned Miranda. + +"Yes, aunt Miranda, all born under Syrian +skies." + +"Syrian grandmother!" ejaculated Miranda (and +it was not a fact). "How many?" + +"I didn't think to ask; but I will get two rooms +ready, and if there are any over I'll take 'em into +my bed," said Rebecca, secretly hoping that this +would be the case. "Now, as you're both half sick, +couldn't you trust me just once to get ready for the +company? You can come up when I call. Will +you?" + +"I believe I will," sighed Miranda reluctantly. +"I'll lay down side o' Jane in our bedroom and see +if I can get strength to cook supper. It's half past +three--don't you let me lay a minute past five. I +kep' a good fire in the kitchen stove. I don't know, +I'm sure, why I should have baked a pot o' beans +in the middle of the week, but they'll come in +handy. Father used to say there was nothing that +went right to the spot with returned missionaries +like pork 'n' beans 'n' brown bread. Fix up the two +south chambers, Rebecca." + +Rebecca, given a free hand for the only time in her +life, dashed upstairs like a whirlwind. Every room +in the brick house was as neat as wax, and she had +only to pull up the shades, go over the floors with +a whisk broom, and dust the furniture. The aunts +could hear her scurrying to and fro, beating up +pillows and feather beds, flapping towels, jingling +crockery, singing meanwhile in her clear voice:-- + +"In vain with lavish kindness + The gifts of God are strown; +The heathen in his blindness + Bows down to wood and stone." + + +She had grown to be a handy little creature, and +tasks she was capable of doing at all she did like +a flash, so that when she called her aunts at five +o'clock to pass judgment, she had accomplished +wonders. There were fresh towels on bureaus and +washstands, the beds were fair and smooth, the +pitchers were filled, and soap and matches were +laid out; newspaper, kindling, and wood were in the +boxes, and a large stick burned slowly in each air- +tight stove. "I thought I'd better just take the +chill off," she explained, "as they're right from +Syria; and that reminds me, I must look it up in +the geography before they get here." + +There was nothing to disapprove, so the two +sisters went downstairs to make some slight changes +in their dress. As they passed the parlor door +Miranda thought she heard a crackle and looked in. +The shades were up, there was a cheerful blaze in +the open stove in the front parlor, and a fire laid +on the hearth in the back room. Rebecca's own +lamp, her second Christmas present from Mr. Aladdin, +stood on a marble-topped table in the corner, +the light that came softly through its rose-colored +shade transforming the stiff and gloomy ugliness of +the room into a place where one could sit and love +one's neighbor. + +"For massy's sake, Rebecca," called Miss +Miranda up the stairs, "did you think we'd better +open the parlor?" + +Rebecca came out on the landing braiding her +hair. + +"We did on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I +thought this was about as great an occasion," she +said. "I moved the wax flowers off the mantelpiece +so they wouldn't melt, and put the shells, the coral, +and the green stuffed bird on top of the what-not, +so the children wouldn't ask to play with them. +Brother Milliken's coming over to see Mr. Burch +about business, and I shouldn't wonder if Brother +and Sister Cobb happened in. Don't go down +cellar, I'll be there in a minute to do the running." + +Miranda and Jane exchanged glances. + +"Ain't she the beatin'est creetur that ever was +born int' the world!" exclaimed Miranda; "but she +can turn off work when she's got a mind to!" + +At quarter past five everything was ready, and +the neighbors, those at least who were within sight +of the brick house (a prominent object in the +landscape when there were no leaves on the trees), +were curious almost to desperation. Shades up in +both parlors! Shades up in the two south bedrooms! +And fires--if human vision was to be relied +on--fires in about every room. If it had not +been for the kind offices of a lady who had been at +the meeting, and who charitably called in at one or +two houses and explained the reason of all this +preparation, there would have been no sleep in many +families. + +The missionary party arrived promptly, and there +were but two children, seven or eight having been +left with the brethren in Portland, to diminish +traveling expenses. Jane escorted them all upstairs, +while Miranda watched the cooking of the supper; +but Rebecca promptly took the two little girls away +from their mother, divested them of their wraps, +smoothed their hair, and brought them down to the +kitchen to smell the beans. + +There was a bountiful supper, and the presence +of the young people robbed it of all possible stiffness. +Aunt Jane helped clear the table and put +away the food, while Miranda entertained in the +parlor; but Rebecca and the infant Burches washed +the dishes and held high carnival in the kitchen, +doing only trifling damage--breaking a cup and +plate that had been cracked before, emptying a silver +spoon with some dishwater out of the back door +(an act never permitted at the brick house), and +putting coffee grounds in the sink. All evidences +of crime having been removed by Rebecca, and damages +repaired in all possible cases, the three entered +the parlor, where Mr. and Mrs. Cobb and Deacon +and Mrs. Milliken had already appeared. + +It was such a pleasant evening! Occasionally +they left the heathen in his blindness bowing down +to wood and stone, not for long, but just to give +themselves (and him) time enough to breathe, and +then the Burches told strange, beautiful, marvelous +things. The two smaller children sang together, +and Rebecca, at the urgent request of Mrs. Burch, +seated herself at the tinkling old piano and gave +"Wild roved an Indian girl, bright Alfarata" with +considerable spirit and style. + +At eight o'clock she crossed the room, handed a +palm-leaf fan to her aunt Miranda, ostensibly that +she might shade her eyes from the lamplight; but +it was a piece of strategy that gave her an opportunity +to whisper, "How about cookies?" + +"Do you think it's worth while?" sibilated Miss +Miranda in answer. + +"The Perkinses always do." + +"All right. You know where they be." + +Rebecca moved quietly towards the door, and the +young Burches cataracted after her as if they could +not bear a second's separation. In five minutes +they returned, the little ones bearing plates of thin +caraway wafers,--hearts, diamonds, and circles +daintily sugared, and flecked with caraway seed +raised in the garden behind the house. These were +a specialty of Miss Jane's, and Rebecca carried a +tray with six tiny crystal glasses filled with dandelion +wine, for which Miss Miranda had been famous in +years gone by. Old Deacon Israel had always had +it passed, and he had bought the glasses himself +in Boston. Miranda admired them greatly, not only +for their beauty but because they held so little. +Before their advent the dandelion wine had been served +in sherry glasses. + +As soon as these refreshments--commonly +called a "colation" in Riverboro--had been genteelly +partaken of, Rebecca looked at the clock, rose +from her chair in the children's corner, and said +cheerfully, "Come! time for little missionaries to +be in bed!" + +Everybody laughed at this, the big missionaries +most of all, as the young people shook hands and +disappeared with Rebecca. + + + +XX + +A CHANGE OF HEART + +That niece of yours is the most remarkable +girl I have seen in years," said Mr. +Burch when the door closed. + +"She seems to be turnin' out smart enough lately, +but she's consid'able heedless," answered Miranda, +"an' most too lively." + +"We must remember that it is deficient, not +excessive vitality, that makes the greatest trouble in +this world," returned Mr. Burch. + +"She'd make a wonderful missionary," said Mrs. +Burch; "with her voice, and her magnetism, and her +gift of language." + +"If I was to say which of the two she was best +adapted for, I'd say she'd make a better heathen," +remarked Miranda curtly. + +"My sister don't believe in flattering children," +hastily interpolated Jane, glancing toward Mrs. +Burch, who seemed somewhat shocked, and was +about to open her lips to ask if Rebecca was not +a "professor." + +Mrs. Cobb had been looking for this question all +the evening and dreading some allusion to her +favorite as gifted in prayer. She had taken an +instantaneous and illogical dislike to the Rev. Mr. Burch +in the afternoon because he called upon Rebecca +to "lead." She had seen the pallor creep into the +girl's face, the hunted look in her eyes, and the +trembling of the lashes on her cheeks, and realized +the ordeal through which she was passing. Her +prejudice against the minister had relaxed under his +genial talk and presence, but feeling that Mrs. +Burch was about to tread on dangerous ground, she +hastily asked her if one had to change cars many +times going from Riverboro to Syria. She felt that +it was not a particularly appropriate question, but it +served her turn. + +Deacon Milliken, meantime, said to Miss Sawyer, +"Mirandy, do you know who Rebecky reminds me +of?" + +"I can guess pretty well," she replied. + +"Then you've noticed it too! I thought at first, +seein' she favored her father so on the outside, that +she was the same all through; but she ain't, she's +like your father, Israel Sawyer." + +"I don't see how you make that out," said +Miranda, thoroughly astonished. + +"It struck me this afternoon when she got up +to give your invitation in meetin'. It was kind o' +cur'ous, but she set in the same seat he used to +when he was leader o' the Sabbath-school. You +know his old way of holdin' his chin up and throwin' +his head back a leetle when he got up to say +anything? Well, she done the very same thing; there +was more'n one spoke of it." + +The callers left before nine, and at that hour (an +impossibly dissipated one for the brick house) the +family retired for the night. As Rebecca carried +Mrs. Burch's candle upstairs and found herself +thus alone with her for a minute, she said shyly, +"Will you please tell Mr. Burch that I'm not a +member of the church? I didn't know what to do +when he asked me to pray this afternoon. I hadn't +the courage to say I had never done it out loud +and didn't know how. I couldn't think; and I was +so frightened I wanted to sink into the floor. It +seemed bold and wicked for me to pray before all +those old church members and make believe I was +better than I really was; but then again, wouldn't +God think I was wicked not to be willing to pray +when a minister asked me to?" + +The candle light fell on Rebecca's flushed, sensitive +face. Mrs. Burch bent and kissed her good- +night. "Don't be troubled," she said. "I'll tell +Mr. Burch, and I guess God will understand." + + +Rebecca waked before six the next morning, so +full of household cares that sleep was impossible. +She went to the window and looked out; it was +still dark, and a blustering, boisterous day. + +"Aunt Jane told me she should get up at half +past six and have breakfast at half past seven," she +thought; "but I daresay they are both sick with +their colds, and aunt Miranda will be fidgety with +so many in the house. I believe I'll creep down +and start things for a surprise." + +She put on a wadded wrapper and slippers and +stole quietly down the tabooed front stairs, +carefully closed the kitchen door behind her so that no +noise should waken the rest of the household, busied +herself for a half hour with the early morning routine +she knew so well, and then went back to her room +to dress before calling the children. + +Contrary to expectation, Miss Jane, who the +evening before felt better than Miranda, grew worse +in the night, and was wholly unable to leave her bed +in the morning. Miranda grumbled without ceasing +during the progress of her hasty toilet, blaming +everybody in the universe for the afflictions she had +borne and was to bear during the day; she even +castigated the Missionary Board that had sent the +Burches to Syria, and gave it as her unbiased opinion +that those who went to foreign lands for the purpose +of saving heathen should stay there and save +'em, and not go gallivantin' all over the earth with +a passel o' children, visitin' folks that didn't want +'em and never asked 'em. + +Jane lay anxiously and restlessly in bed with a +feverish headache, wondering how her sister could +manage without her. + +Miranda walked stiffly through the dining-room, +tying a shawl over her head to keep the draughts +away, intending to start the breakfast fire and then +call Rebecca down, set her to work, and tell her, +meanwhile, a few plain facts concerning the proper +way of representing the family at a missionary +meeting. + +She opened the kitchen door and stared vaguely +about her, wondering whether she had strayed into +the wrong house by mistake. + +The shades were up, and there was a roaring fire +in the stove; the teakettle was singing and bubbling +as it sent out a cloud of steam, and pushed +over its capacious nose was a half sheet of note +paper with "Compliments of Rebecca" scrawled +on it. The coffee pot was scalding, the coffee was +measured out in a bowl, and broken eggshells for +the settling process were standing near. The cold +potatoes and corned beef were in the wooden tray, +and "Regards of Rebecca" stuck on the chopping +knife. The brown loaf was out, the white loaf was +out, the toast rack was out, the doughnuts were out, +the milk was skimmed, the butter had been brought +from the dairy. + +Miranda removed the shawl from her head and +sank into the kitchen rocker, ejaculating under her +breath, "She is the beatin'est child! I declare she's +all Sawyer!" + +The day and the evening passed off with credit +and honor to everybody concerned, even to Jane, +who had the discretion to recover instead of growing +worse and acting as a damper to the general +enjoyment. The Burches left with lively regrets, +and the little missionaries, bathed in tears, swore +eternal friendship with Rebecca, who pressed into +their hands at parting a poem composed before +breakfast. + +TO MARY AND MARTHA BURCH + +Born under Syrian skies, + 'Neath hotter suns than ours; +The children grew and bloomed, + Like little tropic flowers. + +When they first saw the light, + 'T was in a heathen land. +Not Greenland's icy mountains, + Nor India's coral strand, + +But some mysterious country + Where men are nearly black +And where of true religion, + There is a painful lack. + +Then let us haste in helping + The Missionary Board, +Seek dark-skinned unbelievers, + And teach them of their Lord. + Rebecca Rowena Randall. + + +It can readily be seen that this visit of the +returned missionaries to Riverboro was not without +somewhat far-reaching results. Mr. and Mrs. Burch +themselves looked back upon it as one of the rarest +pleasures of their half year at home. The neighborhood +extracted considerable eager conversation +from it; argument, rebuttal, suspicion, certainty, +retrospect, and prophecy. Deacon Milliken gave ten +dollars towards the conversion of Syria to +Congregationalism, and Mrs. Milliken had a spell of +sickness over her husband's rash generosity. + +It would be pleasant to state that Miranda +Sawyer was an entirely changed woman afterwards, but +that is not the fact. The tree that has been getting +a twist for twenty years cannot be straightened +in the twinkling of an eye. It is certain, however, +that although the difference to the outward eye +was very small, it nevertheless existed, and she was +less censorious in her treatment of Rebecca, less +harsh in her judgments, more hopeful of final +salvation for her. This had come about largely from +her sudden vision that Rebecca, after all, inherited +something from the Sawyer side of the house instead +of belonging, mind, body, and soul, to the despised +Randall stock. Everything that was interesting in +Rebecca, and every evidence of power, capability, +or talent afterwards displayed by her, Miranda +ascribed to the brick house training, and this gave +her a feeling of honest pride, the pride of a master +workman who has built success out of the most +unpromising material; but never, to the very end, +even when the waning of her bodily strength relaxed +her iron grip and weakened her power of repression, +never once did she show that pride or make a +single demonstration of affection. + +Poor misplaced, belittled Lorenzo de Medici Ran- +dall, thought ridiculous and good-for-naught by his +associates, because he resembled them in nothing! +If Riverboro could have been suddenly emptied into +a larger community, with different and more flexible +opinions, he was, perhaps, the only personage in +the entire population who would have attracted the +smallest attention. It was fortunate for his daughter +that she had been dowered with a little practical +ability from her mother's family, but if Lorenzo +had never done anything else in the world, he might +have glorified himself that he had prevented Rebecca +from being all Sawyer. Failure as he was, complete +and entire, he had generously handed down to her +all that was best in himself, and prudently retained +all that was unworthy. Few fathers are capable of +such delicate discrimination. + +The brick house did not speedily become a sort +of wayside inn, a place of innocent revelry and +joyous welcome; but the missionary company was an +entering wedge, and Miranda allowed one spare bed +to be made up "in case anything should happen," +while the crystal glasses were kept on the second +from the top, instead of the top shelf, in the china +closet. Rebecca had had to stand on a chair to reach +them; now she could do it by stretching; and this +is symbolic of the way in which she unconsciously +scaled the walls of Miss Miranda's dogmatism and +prejudice. + +Miranda went so far as to say that she wouldn't +mind if the Burches came every once in a while, but +she was afraid he'd spread abroad the fact of his +visit, and missionaries' families would be underfoot +the whole continual time. As a case in point, she +gracefully cited the fact that if a tramp got a good +meal at anybody's back door, 't was said that he'd +leave some kind of a sign so that all other tramps +would know where they were likely to receive the +same treatment. + +It is to be feared that there is some truth in this +homely illustration, and Miss Miranda's dread as +to her future responsibilities had some foundation, +though not of the precise sort she had in mind. +The soul grows into lovely habits as easily as into +ugly ones, and the moment a life begins to blossom +into beautiful words and deeds, that moment a new +standard of conduct is established, and your eager +neighbors look to you for a continuous manifestation +of the good cheer, the sympathy, the ready wit, the +comradeship, or the inspiration, you once showed +yourself capable of. Bear figs for a season or two, +and the world outside the orchard is very unwilling +you should bear thistles. + +The effect of the Burches' visit on Rebecca is not +easily described. Nevertheless, as she looked back +upon it from the vantage ground of after years, she +felt that the moment when Mr. Burch asked her to +"lead in prayer" marked an epoch in her life. + +If you have ever observed how courteous and +gracious and mannerly you feel when you don a +beautiful new frock; if you have ever noticed the +feeling of reverence stealing over you when you +close your eyes, clasp your hands, and bow your +head; if you have ever watched your sense of +repulsion toward a fellow creature melt a little under +the exercise of daily politeness, you may understand +how the adoption of the outward and visible sign +has some strange influence in developing the inward +and spiritual state of which it is the expression. + +It is only when one has grown old and dull that +the soul is heavy and refuses to rise. The young +soul is ever winged; a breath stirs it to an upward +flight. Rebecca was asked to bear witness to a +state of mind or feeling of whose existence she had +only the vaguest consciousness. She obeyed, and as +she uttered words they became true in the uttering; +as she voiced aspirations they settled into realities. + +As "dove that to its window flies," her spirit +soared towards a great light, dimly discovered at +first, but brighter as she came closer to it. To +become sensible of oneness with the Divine heart +before any sense of separation has been felt, this is +surely the most beautiful way for the child to find +God. + + + +XXI + +THE SKY LINE WIDENS + +The time so long and eagerly waited for +had come, and Rebecca was a student at +Wareham. Persons who had enjoyed the +social bewilderments and advantages of foreign +courts, or had mingled freely in the intellectual +circles of great universities, might not have looked +upon Wareham as an extraordinary experience; +but it was as much of an advance upon Riverboro +as that village had been upon Sunnybrook Farm. +Rebecca's intention was to complete the four +years' course in three, as it was felt by all the +parties concerned that when she had attained the ripe +age of seventeen she must be ready to earn her +own living and help in the education of the younger +children. While she was wondering how this could +be successfully accomplished, some of the other +girls were cogitating as to how they could meander +through the four years and come out at the end +knowing no more than at the beginning. This +would seem a difficult, well-nigh an impossible task, +but it can be achieved, and has been, at other seats +of learning than modest little Wareham. + +Rebecca was to go to and fro on the cars daily +from September to Christmas, and then board in +Wareham during the three coldest months. Emma +Jane's parents had always thought that a year or +two in the Edgewood high school (three miles from +Riverboro) would serve every purpose for their +daughter and send her into the world with as fine +an intellectual polish as she could well sustain. +Emma Jane had hitherto heartily concurred in +this opinion, for if there was any one thing that +she detested it was the learning of lessons. One +book was as bad as another in her eyes, and she +could have seen the libraries of the world sinking +into ocean depths and have eaten her dinner cheerfully +the while; but matters assumed a different +complexion when she was sent to Edgewood and +Rebecca to Wareham. She bore it for a week-- +seven endless days of absence from the beloved +object, whom she could see only in the evenings +when both were busy with their lessons. Sunday +offered an opportunity to put the matter before +her father, who proved obdurate. He didn't +believe in education and thought she had full enough +already. He never intended to keep up "blacksmithing" +for good when he leased his farm and +came into Riverboro, but proposed to go back to +it presently, and by that time Emma Jane would +have finished school and would be ready to help +her mother with the dairy work. + +Another week passed. Emma Jane pined visibly +and audibly. Her color faded, and her appetite +(at table) dwindled almost to nothing. + +Her mother alluded plaintively to the fact that +the Perkinses had a habit of going into declines; +that she'd always feared that Emma Jane's +complexion was too beautiful to be healthy; that some +men would be proud of having an ambitious daughter, +and be glad to give her the best advantages; +that she feared the daily journeys to Edgewood +were going to be too much for her own health, +and Mr. Perkins would have to hire a boy to drive +Emma Jane; and finally that when a girl had such +a passion for learning as Emma Jane, it seemed +almost like wickedness to cross her will. + +Mr. Perkins bore this for several days until his +temper, digestion, and appetite were all sensibly +affected; then he bowed his head to the inevitable, +and Emma Jane flew, like a captive set free, to the +loved one's bower. Neither did her courage flag, +although it was put to terrific tests when she entered +the academic groves of Wareham. She passed in +only two subjects, but went cheerfully into the +preparatory department with her five "conditions," +intending to let the stream of education play gently +over her mental surfaces and not get any wetter than +she could help. It is not possible to blink the truth +that Emma Jane was dull; but a dogged, unswerving +loyalty, and the gift of devoted, unselfish loving, +these, after all, are talents of a sort, and may +possibly be of as much value in the world as a sense +of numbers or a faculty for languages. + +Wareham was a pretty village with a broad main +street shaded by great maples and elms. It had an +apothecary, a blacksmith, a plumber, several shops +of one sort and another, two churches, and many +boarding-houses; but all its interests gathered about +its seminary and its academy. These seats of learning +were neither better nor worse than others of +their kind, but differed much in efficiency, according +as the principal who chanced to be at the head was +a man of power and inspiration or the reverse. +There were boys and girls gathered from all parts +of the county and state, and they were of every +kind and degree as to birth, position in the world, +wealth or poverty. There was an opportunity for a +deal of foolish and imprudent behavior, but on the +whole surprisingly little advantage was taken of it. +Among the third and fourth year students there +was a certain amount of going to and from the +trains in couples; some carrying of heavy books +up the hill by the sterner sex for their feminine +schoolmates, and occasional bursts of silliness on +the part of heedless and precocious girls, among +whom was Huldah Meserve. She was friendly +enough with Emma Jane and Rebecca, but grew +less and less intimate as time went on. She was +extremely pretty, with a profusion of auburn hair, +and a few very tiny freckles, to which she +constantly alluded, as no one could possibly detect +them without noting her porcelain skin and her +curling lashes. She had merry eyes, a somewhat +too plump figure for her years, and was popularly +supposed to have a fascinating way with her. +Riverboro being poorly furnished with beaux, she +intended to have as good a time during her four +years at Wareham as circumstances would permit. +Her idea of pleasure was an ever-changing circle +of admirers to fetch and carry for her, the more +publicly the better; incessant chaff and laughter +and vivacious conversation, made eloquent and +effective by arch looks and telling glances. She +had a habit of confiding her conquests to less +fortunate girls and bewailing the incessant havoc and +damage she was doing; a damage she avowed +herself as innocent of, in intention, as any new-born +lamb. It does not take much of this sort of thing +to wreck an ordinary friendship, so before long +Rebecca and Emma Jane sat in one end of the +railway train in going to and from Riverboro, and +Huldah occupied the other with her court. +Sometimes this was brilliant beyond words, including +a certain youthful Monte Cristo, who on Fridays +expended thirty cents on a round trip ticket and +traveled from Wareham to Riverboro merely to be +near Huldah; sometimes, too, the circle was reduced +to the popcorn-and-peanut boy of the train, who +seemed to serve every purpose in default of better +game. + +Rebecca was in the normally unconscious state +that belonged to her years; boys were good comrades, +but no more; she liked reciting in the same +class with them, everything seemed to move better; +but from vulgar and precocious flirtations she was +protected by her ideals. There was little in the +lads she had met thus far to awaken her fancy, for +it habitually fed on better meat. Huldah's school- +girl romances, with their wealth of commonplace +detail, were not the stuff her dreams were made of, +when dreams did flutter across the sensitive plate of +her mind. + +Among the teachers at Wareham was one who +influenced Rebecca profoundly, Miss Emily Maxwell, +with whom she studied English literature and +composition. Miss Maxwell, as the niece of one +of Maine's ex-governors and the daughter of one of +Bowdoin's professors, was the most remarkable +personality in Wareham, and that her few years of +teaching happened to be in Rebecca's time was the +happiest of all chances. There was no indecision or +delay in the establishment of their relations; +Rebecca's heart flew like an arrow to its mark, and +her mind, meeting its superior, settled at once into +an abiding attitude of respectful homage. + +It was rumored that Miss Maxwell "wrote," +which word, when uttered in a certain tone, was +understood to mean not that a person had command +of penmanship, Spencerian or otherwise, but that +she had appeared in print. + +"You'll like her; she writes," whispered Huldah +to Rebecca the first morning at prayers, where the +faculty sat in an imposing row on the front seats. +"She writes; and I call her stuck up." + +Nobody seemed possessed of exact information +with which to satisfy the hungry mind, but there was +believed to be at least one person in existence who +had seen, with his own eyes, an essay by Miss +Maxwell in a magazine. This height of achievement +made Rebecca somewhat shy of her, but she looked +her admiration; something that most of the class +could never do with the unsatisfactory organs of +vision given them by Mother Nature. Miss +Maxwell's glance was always meeting a pair of eager +dark eyes; when she said anything particularly +good, she looked for approval to the corner of the +second bench, where every shade of feeling she +wished to evoke was reflected on a certain sensitive +young face. + +One day, when the first essay of the class was +under discussion, she asked each new pupil to bring +her some composition written during the year before, +that she might judge the work, and know precisely +with what material she had to deal. Rebecca +lingered after the others, and approached the desk +shyly. + +"I haven't any compositions here, Miss Maxwell, +but I can find one when I go home on Friday. +They are packed away in a box in the attic." + +"Carefully tied with pink and blue ribbons?" +asked Miss Maxwell, with a whimsical smile. + +"No," answered Rebecca, shaking her head +decidedly; "I wanted to use ribbons, because all the +other girls did, and they looked so pretty, but I +used to tie my essays with twine strings on +purpose; and the one on solitude I fastened with an +old shoelacing just to show it what I thought of +it!" + +"Solitude!" laughed Miss Maxwell, raising her +eyebrows. "Did you choose your own subject?" + +"No; Miss Dearborn thought we were not old +enough to find good ones." + +"What were some of the others?" + +"Fireside Reveries, Grant as a Soldier, Reflections +on the Life of P. T. Barnum, Buried Cities; +I can't remember any more now. They were all bad, +and I can't bear to show them; I can write poetry +easier and better, Miss Maxwell." + +"Poetry!" she exclaimed. "Did Miss Dearborn +require you to do it?" + +"Oh, no; I always did it even at the farm. Shall +I bring all I have? It isn't much." + +Rebecca took the blank-book in which she kept +copies of her effusions and left it at Miss Maxwell's +door, hoping that she might be asked in and thus +obtain a private interview; but a servant answered +her ring, and she could only walk away, disappointed. + +A few days afterward she saw the black-covered +book on Miss Maxwell's desk and knew that the +dreaded moment of criticism had come, so she was +not surprised to be asked to remain after class. + +The room was quiet; the red leaves rustled in +the breeze and flew in at the open window, bearing +the first compliments of the season. Miss Maxwell +came and sat by Rebecca's side on the bench. + +"Did you think these were good?" she asked, +giving her the verses. + +"Not so very," confessed Rebecca; "but it's +hard to tell all by yourself. The Perkinses and the +Cobbs always said they were wonderful, but when +Mrs. Cobb told me she thought they were better +than Mr. Longfellow's I was worried, because I +knew that couldn't be true." + +This ingenuous remark confirmed Miss Maxwell's +opinion of Rebecca as a girl who could hear the +truth and profit by it. + +"Well, my child," she said smilingly, "your +friends were wrong and you were right; judged by +the proper tests, they are pretty bad." + +"Then I must give up all hope of ever being a +writer!" sighed Rebecca, who was tasting the +bitterness of hemlock and wondering if she could +keep the tears back until the interview was over. + +"Don't go so fast," interrupted Miss Maxwell. +"Though they don't amount to anything as poetry, +they show a good deal of promise in certain direc- +tions. You almost never make a mistake in rhyme +or metre, and this shows you have a natural sense +of what is right; a `sense of form,' poets would +call it. When you grow older, have a little more +experience,--in fact, when you have something +to say, I think you may write very good verses. +Poetry needs knowledge and vision, experience and +imagination, Rebecca. You have not the first three +yet, but I rather think you have a touch of the last." + +"Must I never try any more poetry, not even +to amuse myself?" + +"Certainly you may; it will only help you to +write better prose. Now for the first composition. +I am going to ask all the new students to write a +letter giving some description of the town and a +hint of the school life." + +"Shall I have to be myself?" asked Rebecca. + +"What do you mean?" + +"A letter from Rebecca Randall to her sister +Hannah at Sunnybrook Farm, or to her aunt Jane +at the brick house, Riverboro, is so dull and stupid, +if it is a real letter; but if I could make believe I was +a different girl altogether, and write to somebody +who would be sure to understand everything I said, +I could make it nicer." + +"Very well; I think that's a delightful plan," +said Miss Maxwell; "and whom will you suppose +yourself to be?" + +"I like heiresses very much," replied Rebecca +contemplatively. "Of course I never saw one, but +interesting things are always happening to +heiresses, especially to the golden-haired kind. My +heiress wouldn't be vain and haughty like the +wicked sisters in Cinderella; she would be noble +and generous. She would give up a grand school +in Boston because she wanted to come here where +her father lived when he was a boy, long before he +made his fortune. The father is dead now, and she +has a guardian, the best and kindest man in the +world; he is rather old of course, and sometimes +very quiet and grave, but sometimes when he is +happy, he is full of fun, and then Evelyn is not afraid +of him. Yes, the girl shall be called Evelyn +Abercrombie, and her guardian's name shall be Mr. Adam +Ladd." + +"Do you know Mr. Ladd?" asked Miss Maxwell +in surprise. + +"Yes, he's my very best friend," cried Rebecca +delightedly. "Do you know him too?" + +"Oh, yes; he is a trustee of these schools, you +know, and often comes here. But if I let you +`suppose' any more, you will tell me your whole letter +and then I shall lose a pleasant surprise." + + +What Rebecca thought of Miss Maxwell we +already know; how the teacher regarded the pupil +may be gathered from the following letter written +two or three months later. + +Wareham, December 1st + +My Dear Father,--As you well know, I have +not always been an enthusiast on the subject of +teaching. The task of cramming knowledge into +these self-sufficient, inefficient youngsters of both +sexes discourages me at times. The more stupid they +are, the less they are aware of it. If my department +were geography or mathematics, I believe I should +feel that I was accomplishing something, for in those +branches application and industry work wonders; +but in English literature and composition one yearns +for brains, for appreciation, for imagination! Month +after month I toil on, opening oyster after oyster, +but seldom finding a pearl. Fancy my joy this term +when, without any violent effort at shell-splitting, +I came upon a rare pearl; a black one, but of satin +skin and beautiful lustre! Her name is Rebecca, +and she looks not unlike Rebekah at the Well in our +family Bible; her hair and eyes being so dark as +to suggest a strain of Italian or Spanish blood. She +is nobody in particular. Man has done nothing for +her; she has no family to speak of, no money, no +education worthy the name, has had no advantages +of any sort; but Dame Nature flung herself into +the breach and said:-- + +"This child I to myself will take; +She shall be mine and I will make +A Lady of my own." + +Blessed Wordsworth! How he makes us understand! +And the pearl never heard of him until now! +Think of reading Lucy to a class, and when you +finish, seeing a fourteen-year-old pair of lips +quivering with delight, and a pair of eyes brimming with +comprehending tears! + +You poor darling! You, too, know the +discouragement of sowing lovely seed in rocky earth, +in sand, in water, and (it almost seems sometimes) +in mud; knowing that if anything comes up at all +it will be some poor starveling plant. Fancy the joy +of finding a real mind; of dropping seed in a soil +so warm, so fertile, that one knows there are sure +to be foliage, blossoms, and fruit all in good time! +I wish I were not so impatient and so greedy of +results! I am not fit to be a teacher; no one is +who is so scornful of stupidity as I am. . . . The +pearl writes quaint countrified little verses, +doggerel they are; but somehow or other she always +contrives to put in one line, one thought, one image, +that shows you she is, quite unconsciously to herself, +in possession of the secret. . . . Good-by; I'll bring +Rebecca home with me some Friday, and let you +and mother see her for yourselves. + +Your affectionate daughter, + +Emily. + + + +XXII + +CLOVER BLOSSOMS AND SUNFLOWERS + +How d' ye do, girls?" said Huldah Meserve, +peeping in at the door. "Can you +stop studying a minute and show me your +room? Say, I've just been down to the store +and bought me these gloves, for I was bound I +wouldn't wear mittens this winter; they're +simply too countrified. It's your first year here, and +you're younger than I am, so I s'pose you don't +mind, but I simply suffer if I don't keep up some +kind of style. Say, your room is simply too cute for +words! I don't believe any of the others can begin +to compare with it! I don't know what gives it that +simply gorgeous look, whether it's the full curtains, +or that elegant screen, or Rebecca's lamp; but you +certainly do have a faculty for fixing up. I like a +pretty room too, but I never have a minute to +attend to mine; I'm always so busy on my clothes that +half the time I don't get my bed made up till noon; +and after all, having no callers but the girls, it don't +make much difference. When I graduate, I'm going +to fix up our parlor at home so it'll be simply regal. +I've learned decalcomania, and after I take up lustre +painting I shall have it simply stiff with drapes and +tidies and placques and sofa pillows, and make mo- +ther let me have a fire, and receive my friends there +evenings. May I dry my feet at your register? I +can't bear to wear rubbers unless the mud or the +slush is simply knee-deep, they make your feet look +so awfully big. I had such a fuss getting this pair +of French-heeled boots that I don't intend to spoil +the looks of them with rubbers any oftener than I +can help. I believe boys notice feet quicker than +anything. Elmer Webster stepped on one of mine +yesterday when I accidentally had it out in the +aisle, and when he apologized after class, he said he +wasn't so much to blame, for the foot was so little +he really couldn't see it! Isn't he perfectly great? +Of course that's only his way of talking, for after +all I only wear a number two, but these French +heels and pointed toes do certainly make your foot +look smaller, and it's always said a high instep helps, +too. I used to think mine was almost a deformity, +but they say it's a great beauty. Just put your feet +beside mine, girls, and look at the difference; not +that I care much, but just for fun." + +"My feet are very comfortable where they are," +responded Rebecca dryly. "I can't stop to measure +insteps on algebra days; I've noticed your habit +of keeping a foot in the aisle ever since you had +those new shoes, so I don't wonder it was stepped +on." + +"Perhaps I am a little mite conscious of them, +because they're not so very comfortable at first, till +you get them broken in. Say, haven't you got a +lot of new things?" + +"Our Christmas presents, you mean," said Emma +Jane. "The pillow-cases are from Mrs. Cobb, the +rug from cousin Mary in North Riverboro, the +scrap-basket from Living and Dick. We gave each +other the bureau and cushion covers, and the screen +is mine from Mr. Ladd." + +"Well, you were lucky when you met him! +Gracious! I wish I could meet somebody like that. +The way he keeps it up, too! It just hides your +bed, doesn't it, and I always say that a bed takes +the style off any room--specially when it's not +made up; though you have an alcove, and it's the +only one in the whole building. I don't see how +you managed to get this good room when you're +such new scholars," she finished discontentedly. + +"We shouldn't have, except that Ruth Berry +had to go away suddenly on account of her father's +death. This room was empty, and Miss Maxwell +asked if we might have it," returned Emma Jane. + +"The great and only Max is more stiff and +standoffish than ever this year," said Huldah. "I've +simply given up trying to please her, for there's +no justice in her; she is good to her favorites, but +she doesn't pay the least attention to anybody else, +except to make sarcastic speeches about things +that are none of her business. I wanted to tell her +yesterday it was her place to teach me Latin, not +manners." + +"I wish you wouldn't talk against Miss Maxwell +to me," said Rebecca hotly. "You know how I +feel." + +"I know; but I can't understand how you can +abide her." + +"I not only abide, I love her!" exclaimed +Rebecca. "I wouldn't let the sun shine too hot on +her, or the wind blow too cold. I'd like to put a +marble platform in her class-room and have her sit +in a velvet chair behind a golden table!" + +"Well, don't have a fit!--because she can sit +where she likes for all of me; I've got something +better to think of," and Huldah tossed her head. + +"Isn't this your study hour?" asked Emma +Jane, to stop possible discussion. + +"Yes, but I lost my Latin grammar yesterday; +I left it in the hall half an hour while I was having +a regular scene with Herbert Dunn. I haven't +spoken to him for a week and gave him back his +class pin. He was simply furious. Then when I +came back to the hall, the book was gone. I had +to go down town for my gloves and to the principal's +office to see if the grammar had been handed +in, and that's the reason I'm so fine." + +Huldah was wearing a woolen dress that had +once been gray, but had been dyed a brilliant blue. +She had added three rows of white braid and large +white pearl buttons to her gray jacket, in order to +make it a little more "dressy." Her gray felt hat +had a white feather on it, and a white tissue veil +with large black dots made her delicate skin look +brilliant. Rebecca thought how lovely the knot of +red hair looked under the hat behind, and how the +color of the front had been dulled by incessant +frizzing with curling irons. Her open jacket +disclosed a galaxy of souvenirs pinned to the +background of bright blue,--a small American flag, a +button of the Wareham Rowing Club, and one or +two society pins. These decorations proved her +popularity in very much the same way as do the +cotillion favors hanging on the bedroom walls of +the fashionable belle. She had been pinning and +unpinning, arranging and disarranging her veil +ever since she entered the room, in the hope that +the girls would ask her whose ring she was wearing +this week; but although both had noticed the new +ornament instantly, wild horses could not have +drawn the question from them; her desire to be +asked was too obvious. With her gay plumage, +her "nods and becks and wreathed smiles," and her +cheerful cackle, Huldah closely resembled the +parrot in Wordsworth's poem:-- + +"Arch, volatile, a sportive bird, + By social glee inspired; +Ambitious to be seen or heard, + And pleased to be admired!" + + +"Mr. Morrison thinks the grammar will be +returned, and lent me another," Huldah continued. + +"He was rather snippy about my leaving a book in +the hall. There was a perfectly elegant gentleman +in the office, a stranger to me. I wish he was a new +teacher, but there's no such luck. He was too +young to be the father of any of the girls, and too +old to be a brother, but he was handsome as a +picture and had on an awful stylish suit of clothes. +He looked at me about every minute I was in the +room. It made me so embarrassed I couldn't hardly +answer Mr. Morrison's questions straight." + +"You'll have to wear a mask pretty soon, if +you're going to have any comfort, Huldah," said +Rebecca. "Did he offer to lend you his class pin, +or has it been so long since he graduated that he's +left off wearing it? And tell us now whether the +principal asked for a lock of your hair to put in his +watch?" + +This was all said merrily and laughingly, but +there were times when Huldah could scarcely make +up her mind whether Rebecca was trying to be +witty, or whether she was jealous; but she +generally decided it was merely the latter feeling, +rather natural in a girl who had little attention. + +"He wore no jewelry but a cameo scarf pin and +a perfectly gorgeous ring,--a queer kind of one +that wound round and round his finger. Oh dear, +I must run! Where has the hour gone? There's +the study bell!" + +Rebecca had pricked up her ears at Huldah's +speech. She remembered a certain strange ring, +and it belonged to the only person in the world (save +Miss Maxwell) who appealed to her imagination,-- +Mr. Aladdin. Her feeling for him, and that of Emma +Jane, was a mixture of romantic and reverent admiration +for the man himself and the liveliest gratitude +for his beautiful gifts. Since they first met him +not a Christmas had gone by without some remembrance +for them both; remembrances chosen with +the rarest taste and forethought. Emma Jane had +seen him only twice, but he had called several times +at the brick house, and Rebecca had learned to +know him better. It was she, too, who always wrote +the notes of acknowledgment and thanks, taking +infinite pains to make Emma Jane's quite different +from her own. Sometimes he had written from +Boston and asked her the news of Riverboro, and +she had sent him pages of quaint and childlike gossip, +interspersed, on two occasions, with poetry, +which he read and reread with infinite relish. If +Huldah's stranger should be Mr. Aladdin, would he +come to see her, and could she and Emma Jane +show him their beautiful room with so many of his +gifts in evidence? + +When the girls had established themselves in +Wareham as real boarding pupils, it seemed to +them existence was as full of joy as it well could +hold. This first winter was, in fact, the most +tranquilly happy of Rebecca's school life,--a winter +long to be looked back upon. She and Emma +Jane were room-mates, and had put their modest +possessions together to make their surroundings +pretty and homelike. The room had, to begin with, +a cheerful red ingrain carpet and a set of maple +furniture. As to the rest, Rebecca had furnished +the ideas and Emma Jane the materials and labor, +a method of dividing responsibilities that seemed +to suit the circumstances admirably. Mrs. Perkins's +father had been a storekeeper, and on his death +had left the goods of which he was possessed to +his married daughter. The molasses, vinegar, and +kerosene had lasted the family for five years, and +the Perkins attic was still a treasure-house of +ginghams, cottons, and "Yankee notions." So at +Rebecca's instigation Mrs. Perkins had made full +curtains and lambrequins of unbleached muslin, +which she had trimmed and looped back with +bands of Turkey red cotton. There were two table +covers to match, and each of the girls had her +study corner. Rebecca, after much coaxing, had +been allowed to bring over her precious lamp, +which would have given a luxurious air to any +apartment, and when Mr. Aladdin's last Christmas +presents were added,--the Japanese screen for +Emma Jane and the little shelf of English Poets +for Rebecca,--they declared that it was all quite +as much fun as being married and going to housekeeping. + +The day of Huldah's call was Friday, and on +Fridays from three to half past four Rebecca was +free to take a pleasure to which she looked forward +the entire week. She always ran down the snowy +path through the pine woods at the back of the +seminary, and coming out on a quiet village street, +went directly to the large white house where Miss +Maxwell lived. The maid-of-all-work answered her +knock; she took off her hat and cape and hung +them in the hall, put her rubber shoes and +umbrella carefully in the corner, and then opened the +door of paradise. Miss Maxwell's sitting-room was +lined on two sides with bookshelves, and Rebecca +was allowed to sit before the fire and browse +among the books to her heart's delight for an hour +or more. Then Miss Maxwell would come back +from her class, and there would be a precious half +hour of chat before Rebecca had to meet Emma +Jane at the station and take the train for Riverboro, +where her Saturdays and Sundays were +spent, and where she was washed, ironed, mended, +and examined, approved and reproved, warned and +advised in quite sufficient quantity to last her the +succeeding week. + +On this Friday she buried her face in the blooming +geraniums on Miss Maxwell's plant-stand, selected +Romola from one of the bookcases, and sank +into a seat by the window with a sigh of infinite +content, She glanced at the clock now and then, +remembering the day on which she had been so +immersed in David Copperfield that the Riverboro +train had no place in her mind. The distracted +Emma Jane had refused to leave without her, and +had run from the station to look for her at Miss +Maxwell's. There was but one later train, and that +went only to a place three miles the other side +of Riverboro, so that the two girls appeared at their +respective homes long after dark, having had a +weary walk in the snow. + +When she had read for half an hour she glanced +out of the window and saw two figures issuing from +the path through the woods. The knot of bright +hair and the coquettish hat could belong to but +one person; and her companion, as the couple +approached, proved to be none other than Mr. Aladdin. +Huldah was lifting her skirts daintily and +picking safe stepping-places for the high-heeled +shoes, her cheeks glowing, her eyes sparkling under +the black and white veil. + +Rebecca slipped from her post by the window to +the rug before the bright fire and leaned her head +on the seat of the great easy-chair. She was frightened +at the storm in her heart; at the suddenness +with which it had come on, as well as at the strangeness +of an entirely new sensation. She felt all at +once as if she could not bear to give up her share +of Mr. Aladdin's friendship to Huldah: Huldah so +bright, saucy, and pretty; so gay and ready, and +such good company! She had always joyfully +admitted Emma Jane into the precious partnership, +but perhaps unconsciously to herself she had +realized that Emma Jane had never held anything but +a secondary place in Mr. Aladdin's regard; yet who +was she herself, after all, that she could hope to be +first? + +Suddenly the door opened softly and somebody +looked in, somebody who said: "Miss Maxwell +told me I should find Miss Rebecca Randall here." + +Rebecca started at the sound and sprang to her +feet, saying joyfully, "Mr. Aladdin! Oh! I knew +you were in Wareham, and I was afraid you +wouldn't have time to come and see us." + +"Who is `us'? The aunts are not here, are +they? Oh, you mean the rich blacksmith's daughter, +whose name I can never remember. Is she +here?" + +"Yes, and my room-mate," answered Rebecca, +who thought her own knell of doom had sounded, +if he had forgotten Emma Jane's name. + +The light in the room grew softer, the fire +crackled cheerily, and they talked of many things, +until the old sweet sense of friendliness and +familiarity crept back into Rebecca's heart. Adam +had not seen her for several months, and there was +much to be learned about school matters as viewed +from her own standpoint; he had already inquired +concerning her progress from Mr. Morrison. + +"Well, little Miss Rebecca," he said, rousing +himself at length, "I must be thinking of my drive +to Portland. There is a meeting of railway +directors there to-morrow, and I always take this +opportunity of visiting the school and giving my +valuable advice concerning its affairs, educational +and financial." + +"It seems funny for you to be a school trustee," +said Rebecca contemplatively. "I can't seem to +make it fit." + +"You are a remarkably wise young person and +I quite agree with you," he answered; "the fact +is," he added soberly, "I accepted the trusteeship +in memory of my poor little mother, whose last +happy years were spent here." + +"That was a long time ago!" + +"Let me see, I am thirty-two; only thirty-two, +despite an occasional gray hair. My mother was +married a month after she graduated, and she lived +only until I was ten; yes, it is a long way back to +my mother's time here, though the school was fifteen +or twenty years old then, I believe. Would +you like to see my mother, Miss Rebecca?" + +The girl took the leather case gently and opened +it to find an innocent, pink-and-white daisy of a +face, so confiding, so sensitive, that it went straight +to the heart. It made Rebecca feel old, experienced, +and maternal. She longed on the instant to comfort +and strengthen such a tender young thing. + +"Oh, what a sweet, sweet, flowery face!" she +whispered softly. + +"The flower had to bear all sorts of storms," said +Adam gravely. "The bitter weather of the world +bent its slender stalk, bowed its head, and dragged +it to the earth. I was only a child and could do +nothing to protect and nourish it, and there was no +one else to stand between it and trouble. Now I +have success and money and power, all that would +have kept her alive and happy, and it is too late. +She died for lack of love and care, nursing and +cherishing, and I can never forget it. All that has +come to me seems now and then so useless, since I +cannot share it with her!" + +This was a new Mr. Aladdin, and Rebecca's heart +gave a throb of sympathy and comprehension. This +explained the tired look in his eyes, the look that +peeped out now and then, under all his gay speech +and laughter. + +"I'm so glad I know," she said, "and so glad I +could see her just as she was when she tied that +white muslin hat under her chin and saw her yellow +curls and her sky-blue eyes in the glass. Mustn't +she have been happy! I wish she could have been +kept so, and had lived to see you grow up strong +and good. My mother is always sad and busy, but +once when she looked at John I heard her say, `He +makes up for everything.' That's what your mother +would have thought about you if she had lived, +and perhaps she does as it is." + +"You are a comforting little person, Rebecca," +said Adam, rising from his chair. + +As Rebecca rose, the tears still trembling on her +lashes, he looked at her suddenly as with new vision. + +"Good-by!" he said, taking her slim brown +hands in his, adding, as if he saw her for the first +time, "Why, little Rose-Red-Snow-White is making +way for a new girl! Burning the midnight oil and +doing four years' work in three is supposed to dull +the eye and blanch the cheek, yet Rebecca's eyes +are bright and she has a rosy color! Her long braids +are looped one on the other so that they make a +black letter U behind, and they are tied with grand +bows at the top! She is so tall that she reaches +almost to my shoulder. This will never do in the +world! How will Mr. Aladdin get on without his +comforting little friend! He doesn't like grown-up +young ladies in long trains and wonderful fine +clothes; they frighten and bore him!" + +"Oh, Mr. Aladdin!" cried Rebecca eagerly, +taking his jest quite seriously; "I am not fifteen +yet, and it will be three years before I'm a young +lady; please don't give me up until you have to!" + +"I won't; I promise you that," said Adam. +"Rebecca," he continued, after a moment's pause, +"who is that young girl with a lot of pretty red +hair and very citified manners? She escorted me +down the hill; do you know whom I mean?" + +"It must be Huldah Meserve; she is from Riverboro." + +Adam put a finger under Rebecca's chin and +looked into her eyes; eyes as soft, as clear, as +unconscious, and childlike as they had been when she +was ten. He remembered the other pair of challenging +blue ones that had darted coquettish glances +through half-dropped lids, shot arrowy beams from +under archly lifted brows, and said gravely, "Don't +form yourself on her, Rebecca; clover blossoms +that grow in the fields beside Sunnybrook mustn't +be tied in the same bouquet with gaudy sunflowers; +they are too sweet and fragrant and wholesome." + + + +XXIII + +THE HILL DIFFICULTY + +The first happy year at Wareham, with +its widened sky-line, its larger vision, its +greater opportunity, was over and gone. +Rebecca had studied during the summer vacation, +and had passed, on her return in the autumn, +certain examinations which would enable her, if she +carried out the same programme the next season, +to complete the course in three instead of four +years. She came off with no flying colors,--that +would have been impossible in consideration of her +inadequate training; but she did wonderfully well +in some of the required subjects, and so brilliantly +in others that the average was respectable. She +would never have been a remarkable scholar under +any circumstances, perhaps, and she was easily out- +stripped in mathematics and the natural sciences +by a dozen girls, but in some inexplicable way she +became, as the months went on, the foremost figure +in the school. When she had entirely forgotten the +facts which would enable her to answer a question +fully and conclusively, she commonly had some +original theory to expound; it was not always +correct, but it was generally unique and sometimes +amusing. She was only fair in Latin or French +grammar, but when it came to translation, her freedom, +her choice of words, and her sympathetic +understanding of the spirit of the text made her the +delight of her teachers and the despair of her rivals. + +"She can be perfectly ignorant of a subject,' +said Miss Maxwell to Adam Ladd, "but entirely +intelligent the moment she has a clue. Most of the +other girls are full of information and as stupid as +sheep." + +Rebecca's gifts had not been discovered save by +the few, during the first year, when she was adjusting +herself quietly to the situation. She was distinctly +one of the poorer girls; she had no fine +dresses to attract attention, no visitors, no friends +in the town. She had more study hours, and less +time, therefore, for the companionship of other girls, +gladly as she would have welcomed the gayety of +that side of school life. Still, water will find its own +level in some way, and by the spring of the second +year she had naturally settled into the same sort of +leadership which had been hers in the smaller +community of Riverboro. She was unanimously elected +assistant editor of the Wareham School Pilot, being +the first girl to assume that enviable, though somewhat +arduous and thankless position, and when her +maiden number went to the Cobbs, uncle Jerry and +aunt Sarah could hardly eat or sleep for pride. + +"She'll always get votes," said Huldah Meserve, +when discussing the election, "for whether she +knows anything or not, she looks as if she did, and +whether she's capable of filling an office or not, she +looks as if she was. I only wish I was tall and dark +and had the gift of making people believe I was +great things, like Rebecca Randall. There's one +thing: though the boys call her handsome, you +notice they don't trouble her with much attention." + +It was a fact that Rebecca's attitude towards the +opposite sex was still somewhat indifferent and +oblivious, even for fifteen and a half! No one could +look at her and doubt that she had potentialities of +attraction latent within her somewhere, but that side +of her nature was happily biding its time. A human +being is capable only of a certain amount of activity +at a given moment, and it will inevitably satisfy +first its most pressing needs, its most ardent desires, +its chief ambitions. Rebecca was full of small +anxieties and fears, for matters were not going well +at the brick house and were anything but hopeful +at the home farm. She was overbusy and overtaxed, +and her thoughts were naturally drawn towards the +difficult problems of daily living. + +It had seemed to her during the autumn and +winter of that year as if her aunt Miranda had +never been, save at the very first, so censorious and +so fault-finding. One Saturday Rebecca ran upstairs +and, bursting into a flood of tears, exclaimed, +"Aunt Jane, it seems as if I never could stand her +continual scoldings. Nothing I can do suits aunt +Miranda; she's just said it will take me my whole +life to get the Randall out of me, and I'm not +convinced that I want it all out, so there we are!" + +Aunt Jane, never demonstrative, cried with +Rebecca as she attempted to soothe her. + +"You must be patient," she said, wiping first her +own eyes and then Rebecca's. "I haven't told you, +for it isn't fair you should be troubled when you're +studying so hard, but your aunt Miranda isn't well. +One Monday morning about a month ago, she had +a kind of faint spell; it wasn't bad, but the doctor +is afraid it was a shock, and if so, it's the beginning +of the end. Seems to me she's failing right along, +and that's what makes her so fretful and easy vexed. +She has other troubles too, that you don't know +anything about, and if you're not kind to your aunt +Miranda now, child, you'll be dreadful sorry some +time." + +All the temper faded from Rebecca's face, and +she stopped crying to say penitently, "Oh! the poor +dear thing! I won't mind a bit what she says now. +She's just asked me for some milk toast and I +was dreading to take it to her, but this will make +everything different. Don't worry yet, aunt Jane, +for perhaps it won't be as bad as you think." + +So when she carried the toast to her aunt a little +later, it was in the best gilt-edged china bowl, with +a fringed napkin on the tray and a sprig of geranium +lying across the salt cellar. + +"Now, aunt Miranda," she said cheerily, "I expect +you to smack your lips and say this is good; it's not +Randall, but Sawyer milk toast." + +"You've tried all kinds on me, one time an' +another," Miranda answered. "This tastes real +kind o' good; but I wish you hadn't wasted that +nice geranium." + +"You can't tell what's wasted," said Rebecca +philosophically; "perhaps that geranium has been +hoping this long time it could brighten somebody's +supper, so don't disappoint it by making believe you +don't like it. I've seen geraniums cry,--in the very +early morning!" + +The mysterious trouble to which Jane had alluded +was a very real one, but it was held in profound +secrecy. Twenty-five hundred dollars of the small +Sawyer property had been invested in the business +of a friend of their father's, and had returned them +a regular annual income of a hundred dollars. The +family friend had been dead for some five years, +but his son had succeeded to his interests and all +went on as formerly. Suddenly there came a letter +saying that the firm had gone into bankruptcy, +that the business had been completely wrecked, and +that the Sawyer money had been swept away with +everything else. + +The loss of one hundred dollars a year is a very +trifling matter, but it made all the difference between +comfort and self-denial to the two old spinsters +Their manner of life had been so rigid and careful +that it was difficult to economize any further, and the +blow had fallen just when it was most inconvenient, +for Rebecca's school and boarding expenses, small +as they were, had to be paid promptly and in cash. + +"Can we possibly go on doing it? Shan't we +have to give up and tell her why?" asked Jane +tearfully of the elder sister. + +"We have put our hand to the plough, and we +can't turn back," answered Miranda in her grimmest +tone; "we've taken her away from her mother +and offered her an education, and we've got to keep +our word. She's Aurelia's only hope for years to +come, to my way o' thinkin'. Hannah's beau takes +all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a +husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind. +John, instead of farmin', thinks he must be a doctor,-- +as if folks wasn't gettin' unhealthy enough +these days, without turnin' out more young doctors +to help 'em into their graves. No, Jane; we'll skimp +'n' do without, 'n' plan to git along on our interest +money somehow, but we won't break into our principal, +whatever happens." + +"Breaking into the principal" was, in the minds +of most thrifty New England women, a sin only +second to arson, theft, or murder; and, though the +rule was occasionally carried too far for common +sense,--as in this case, where two elderly women +of sixty might reasonably have drawn something +from their little hoard in time of special need,--it +doubtless wrought more of good than evil in the +community. + +Rebecca, who knew nothing of their business +affairs, merely saw her aunts grow more and more +saving, pinching here and there, cutting off this +and that relentlessly. Less meat and fish were +bought; the woman who had lately been coming +two days a week for washing, ironing, and scrubbing +was dismissed; the old bonnets of the season +before were brushed up and retrimmed; there were +no drives to Moderation or trips to Portland. Economy +was carried to its very extreme; but though +Miranda was well-nigh as gloomy and uncompromising +in her manner and conversation as a woman could +well be, she at least never twitted her niece of being +a burden; so Rebecca's share of the Sawyers' +misfortunes consisted only in wearing her old dresses, +hats, and jackets, without any apparent hope of a +change. + +There was, however, no concealing the state of +things at Sunnybrook, where chapters of accidents +had unfolded themselves in a sort of serial story that +had run through the year. The potato crop had +failed; there were no apples to speak of; the hay +had been poor; Aurelia had turns of dizziness in +her head; Mark had broken his ankle. As this was +his fourth offense, Miranda inquired how many +bones there were in the human body, "so 't they'd +know when Mark got through breakin' 'em." The +time for paying the interest on the mortgage, that +incubus that had crushed all the joy out of the +Randall household, had come and gone, and there +was no possibility, for the first time in fourteen +years, of paying the required forty-eight dollars. +The only bright spot in the horizon was Hannah's +engagement to Will Melville,--a young farmer +whose land joined Sunnybrook, who had a good +house, was alone in the world, and his own master. +Hannah was so satisfied with her own unexpectedly +radiant prospects that she hardly realized her mother's +anxieties; for there are natures which flourish, +in adversity, and deteriorate when exposed to sudden +prosperity. She had made a visit of a week at +the brick house; and Miranda's impression, conveyed +in privacy to Jane, was that Hannah was close +as the bark of a tree, and consid'able selfish too; +that when she'd clim' as fur as she could in the +world, she'd kick the ladder out from under her, +everlastin' quick; that, on being sounded as to her +ability to be of use to the younger children in the +future, she said she guessed she'd done her share +a'ready, and she wan't goin' to burden Will with +her poor relations. "She's Susan Randall through +and through!" ejaculated Miranda. "I was glad to +see her face turned towards Temperance. If that +mortgage is ever cleared from the farm, 't won't be +Hannah that'll do it; it'll be Rebecca or me!" + + + +XXIV + +ALADDIN RUBS HIS LAMP + +Your esteemed contribution entitled Wareham +Wildflowers has been accepted for +The Pilot, Miss Perkins," said Rebecca, +entering the room where Emma Jane was darning +the firm's stockings. "I stayed to tea with Miss +Maxwell, but came home early to tell you." + +"You are joking, Becky!" faltered Emma Jane, +looking up from her work. + +"Not a bit; the senior editor read it and thought +it highly instructive; it appears in the next issue." + +"Not in the same number with your poem about +the golden gates that close behind us when we leave +school?"--and Emma Jane held her breath as she +awaited the reply. + +"Even so, Miss Perkins." + +"Rebecca," said Emma Jane, with the nearest +approach to tragedy that her nature would permit, +"I don't know as I shall be able to bear it, and if +anything happens to me, I ask you solemnly to bury +that number of The Pilot with me." + +Rebecca did not seem to think this the expression +of an exaggerated state of feeling, inasmuch as +she replied, "I know; that's just the way it seemed +to me at first, and even now, whenever I'm alone +and take out the Pilot back numbers to read over +my contributions, I almost burst with pleasure; and +it's not that they are good either, for they look +worse to me every time I read them." + +"If you would only live with me in some little +house when we get older," mused Emma Jane, as +with her darning needle poised in air she regarded +the opposite wall dreamily, "I would do the housework +and cooking, and copy all your poems and +stories, and take them to the post-office, and you +needn't do anything but write. It would be +perfectly elergant!" + +"I'd like nothing better, if I hadn't promised to +keep house for John," replied Rebecca. + +"He won't have a house for a good many years, +will he?" + +"No," sighed Rebecca ruefully, flinging herself +down by the table and resting her head on her hand. +"Not unless we can contrive to pay off that detestable +mortgage. The day grows farther off instead +of nearer now that we haven't paid the interest +this year." + +She pulled a piece of paper towards her, and +scribbling idly on it read aloud in a moment or two:-- + +"Will you pay a little faster?" said the mortgage to the farm; + "I confess I'm very tired of this place." +"The weariness is mutual," Rebecca Randall cried; + "I would I'd never gazed upon your face!" + + +"A note has a `face,'" observed Emma Jane, who +was gifted in arithmetic. "I didn't know that a +mortgage had." + +"Our mortgage has," said Rebecca revengefully. +"I should know him if I met him in the dark. Wait +and I'll draw him for you. It will be good for you +to know how he looks, and then when you have a +husband and seven children, you won't allow him to +come anywhere within a mile of your farm." + +The sketch when completed was of a sort to be +shunned by a timid person on the verge of slumber. +There was a tiny house on the right, and a weeping +family gathered in front of it. The mortgage was +depicted as a cross between a fiend and an ogre, +and held an axe uplifted in his red right hand. A +figure with streaming black locks was staying the +blow, and this, Rebecca explained complacently, was +intended as a likeness of herself, though she was +rather vague as to the method she should use in +attaining her end. + +"He's terrible," said Emma Jane, "but awfully +wizened and small." + +"It's only a twelve hundred dollar mortgage," +said Rebecca, "and that's called a small one. John +saw a man once that was mortgaged for twelve +thousand." + +"Shall you be a writer or an editor?" asked +Emma Jane presently, as if one had only to choose +and the thing were done. + +"I shall have to do what turns up first, I suppose." + +"Why not go out as a missionary to Syria, as the +Burches are always coaxing you to? The Board +would pay your expenses." + +"I can't make up my mind to be a missionary," +Rebecca answered. "I'm not good enough in the +first place, and I don't `feel a call,' as Mr. Burch +says you must. I would like to do something for +somebody and make things move, somewhere, but +I don't want to go thousands of miles away teaching +people how to live when I haven't learned myself. +It isn't as if the heathen really needed me; I'm +sure they'll come out all right in the end." + +"I can't see how; if all the people who ought to +go out to save them stay at home as we do," argued +Emma Jane. + +"Why, whatever God is, and wherever He is, +He must always be there, ready and waiting. He +can't move about and miss people. It may take +the heathen a little longer to find Him, but God +will make allowances, of course. He knows if they +live in such hot climates it must make them lazy +and slow; and the parrots and tigers and snakes +and bread-fruit trees distract their minds; and +having no books, they can't think as well; but +they'll find God somehow, some time." + +"What if they die first?" asked Emma Jane. + +"Oh, well, they can't be blamed for that; they +don't die on purpose," said Rebecca, with a +comfortable theology. + + +In these days Adam Ladd sometimes went to +Temperance on business connected with the proposed +branch of the railroad familiarly known +as the "York and Yank 'em," and while there he +gained an inkling of Sunnybrook affairs. The +building of the new road was not yet a certainty, and +there was a difference of opinion as to the best +route from Temperance to Plumville. In one event +the way would lead directly through Sunnybrook, +from corner to corner, and Mrs. Randall would be +compensated; in the other, her interests would not +be affected either for good or ill, save as all land in +the immediate neighborhood might rise a little in +value. + +Coming from Temperance to Wareham one day, +Adam had a long walk and talk with Rebecca, +whom he thought looking pale and thin, though +she was holding bravely to her self-imposed hours +of work. She was wearing a black cashmere dress +that had been her aunt Jane's second best. We are +familiar with the heroine of romance whose foot is +so exquisitely shaped that the coarsest shoe cannot +conceal its perfections, and one always cherishes a +doubt of the statement; yet it is true that Rebecca's +peculiar and individual charm seemed wholly +independent of accessories. The lines of her fig- +ure, the rare coloring of skin and hair and eyes, +triumphed over shabby clothing, though, had the +advantage of artistic apparel been given her, the +little world of Wareham would probably at once +have dubbed her a beauty. The long black braids +were now disposed after a quaint fashion of her +own. They were crossed behind, carried up to the +front, and crossed again, the tapering ends finally +brought down and hidden in the thicker part at the +neck. Then a purely feminine touch was given to +the hair that waved back from the face,--a touch +that rescued little crests and wavelets from bondage +and set them free to take a new color in the sun. + +Adam Ladd looked at her in a way that made +her put her hands over her face and laugh through +them shyly as she said: "I know what you are +thinking, Mr. Aladdin,--that my dress is an inch +longer than last year, and my hair different; but +I'm not nearly a young lady yet; truly I'm not. +Sixteen is a month off still, and you promised not +to give me up till my dress trails. If you don't like +me to grow old, why don't you grow young? Then +we can meet in the halfway house and have nice +times. Now that I think about it," she continued, +"that's just what you've been doing all along. +When you bought the soap, I thought you were +grandfather Sawyer's age; when you danced with +me at the flag-raising, you seemed like my father; +but when you showed me your mother's picture, I +felt as if you were my John, because I was so sorry +for you." + +"That will do very well," smiled Adam; "unless +you go so swiftly that you become my grandmother +before I really need one. You are studying too +hard, Miss Rebecca Rowena!" + +"Just a little," she confessed. "But vacation +comes soon, you know." + +"And are you going to have a good rest and try +to recover your dimples? They are really worth +preserving." + +A shadow crept over Rebecca's face and her eyes +suffused. "Don't be kind, Mr. Aladdin, I can't bear +it;--it's--it's not one of my dimply days!" and +she ran in at the seminary gate, and disappeared +with a farewell wave of her hand. + +Adam Ladd wended his way to the principal's +office in a thoughtful mood. He had come to Wareham +to unfold a plan that he had been considering +for several days. This year was the fiftieth +anniversary of the founding of the Wareham schools, +and he meant to tell Mr. Morrison that in addition +to his gift of a hundred volumes to the reference +library, he intended to celebrate it by offering prizes +in English composition, a subject in which he was +much interested. He wished the boys and girls of +the two upper classes to compete; the award to be +made to the writers of the two best essays. As to +the nature of the prizes he had not quite made up +his mind, but they would be substantial ones, either +of money or of books. + +This interview accomplished, he called upon Miss +Maxwell, thinking as he took the path through the +woods, "Rose-Red-Snow-White needs the help, and +since there is no way of my giving it to her without +causing remark, she must earn it, poor little soul! +I wonder if my money is always to be useless where +most I wish to spend it!" + +He had scarcely greeted his hostess when he +said: "Miss Maxwell, doesn't it strike you that +our friend Rebecca looks wretchedly tired?" + +"She does indeed, and I am considering whether +I can take her away with me. I always go South +for the spring vacation, traveling by sea to Old +Point Comfort, and rusticating in some quiet spot +near by. I should like nothing better than to have +Rebecca for a companion." + +"The very thing!" assented Adam heartily; +"but why should you take the whole responsibility? +Why not let me help? I am greatly interested in +the child, and have been for some years." + +"You needn't pretend you discovered her," +interrupted Miss Maxwell warmly, "for I did that +myself." + +"She was an intimate friend of mine long before +you ever came to Wareham," laughed Adam, and +he told Miss Maxwell the circumstances of his first +meeting with Rebecca. "From the beginning I've +tried to think of a way I could be useful in her +development, but no reasonable solution seemed to +offer itself." + +"Luckily she attends to her own development," +answered Miss Maxwell. "In a sense she is +independent of everything and everybody; she follows +her saint without being conscious of it. But she +needs a hundred practical things that money would +buy for her, and alas! I have a slender purse." + +"Take mine, I beg, and let me act through you," +pleaded Adam. "I could not bear to see even a +young tree trying its best to grow without light or +air,--how much less a gifted child! I interviewed +her aunts a year ago, hoping I might be permitted +to give her a musical education. I assured them it +was a most ordinary occurrence, and that I was willing +to be repaid later on if they insisted, but it was +no use. The elder Miss Sawyer remarked that no +member of her family ever had lived on charity, +and she guessed they wouldn't begin at this late +day." + +"I rather like that uncompromising New England +grit," exclaimed Miss Maxwell, "and so far, I +don't regret one burden that Rebecca has borne or +one sorrow that she has shared. Necessity has only +made her brave; poverty has only made her daring +and self-reliant. As to her present needs, there +are certain things only a woman ought to do for a +girl, and I should not like to have you do them for +Rebecca; I should feel that I was wounding her +pride and self-respect, even though she were ignorant; +but there is no reason why I may not do them +if necessary and let you pay her traveling expenses. +I would accept those for her without the slightest +embarrassment, but I agree that the matter would +better be kept private between us." + +"You are a real fairy godmother!" exclaimed +Adam, shaking her hand warmly. "Would it be +less trouble for you to invite her room-mate too,-- +the pink-and-white inseparable?" + +"No, thank you, I prefer to have Rebecca all to +myself," said Miss Maxwell. + +"I can understand that," replied Adam absent- +mindedly; "I mean, of course, that one child is less +trouble than two. There she is now." + +Here Rebecca appeared in sight, walking down +the quiet street with a lad of sixteen. They were in +animated conversation, and were apparently reading +something aloud to each other, for the black head +and the curly brown one were both bent over a sheet +of letter paper. Rebecca kept glancing up at her +companion, her eyes sparkling with appreciation. + +"Miss Maxwell," said Adam, "I am a trustee of +this institution, but upon my word I don't believe in +coeducation!" + +"I have my own occasional hours of doubt," she +answered, "but surely its disadvantages are reduced +to a minimum with--children! That is a very im- +pressive sight which you are privileged to witness, +Mr. Ladd. The folk in Cambridge often gloated +on the spectacle of Longfellow and Lowell arm in +arm. The little school world of Wareham palpitates +with excitement when it sees the senior and +the junior editors of The Pilot walking together!" + + + +XXV + +ROSES OF JOY + +The day before Rebecca started for the +South with Miss Maxwell she was in the +library with Emma Jane and Huldah, +consulting dictionaries and encyclopaedias. As they +were leaving they passed the locked cases containing +the library of fiction, open to the teachers and +townspeople, but forbidden to the students. + +They looked longingly through the glass, getting +some little comfort from the titles of the volumes, +as hungry children imbibe emotional nourishment +from the pies and tarts inside a confectioner's window. +Rebecca's eyes fell upon a new book in the +corner, and she read the name aloud with delight: +"_The Rose of Joy_. Listen, girls; isn't that lovely? +_The Rose of Joy_. It looks beautiful, and it sounds +beautiful. What does it mean, I wonder?" + +"I guess everybody has a different rose," said +Huldah shrewdly. "I know what mine would be, +and I'm not ashamed to own it. I'd like a year +in a city, with just as much money as I wanted +to spend, horses and splendid clothes and amusements +every minute of the day; and I'd like above +everything to live with people that wear low +necks." (Poor Huldah never took off her dress with- +out bewailing the fact that her lot was cast in +Riverboro, where her pretty white shoulders could +never be seen.) + +"That would be fun, for a while anyway," Emma +Jane remarked. "But wouldn't that be pleasure +more than joy? Oh, I've got an idea!" + +"Don't shriek so!" said the startled Huldah. +"I thought it was a mouse." + +"I don't have them very often," apologized Emma +Jane,--"ideas, I mean; this one shook me like +a stroke of lightning. Rebecca, couldn't it be success?" + +"That's good," mused Rebecca; "I can see that +success would be a joy, but it doesn't seem to me +like a rose, somehow. I was wondering if it could +be love?" + +"I wish we could have a peep at the book! It +must be perfectly elergant!" said Emma Jane. +"But now you say it is love, I think that's the best +guess yet." + +All day long the four words haunted and possessed +Rebecca; she said them over to herself continually. +Even the prosaic Emma Jane was affected +by them, for in the evening she said, "I don't +expect you to believe it, but I have another idea,-- +that's two in one day; I had it while I was putting +cologne on your head. The rose of joy might be +helpfulness." + +"If it is, then it is always blooming in your dear +little heart, you darlingest, kind Emmie, taking +such good care of your troublesome Becky!" + +"Don't dare to call yourself troublesome! You're +--you're--you're my rose of joy, that's what you +are!" And the two girls hugged each other affectionately. + +In the middle of the night Rebecca touched +Emma Jane on the shoulder softly. "Are you very +fast asleep, Emmie?" she whispered. + +"Not so very," answered Emma Jane drowsily. + +"I've thought of something new. If you sang or +painted or wrote,--not a little, but beautifully, you +know,--wouldn't the doing of it, just as much as +you wanted, give you the rose of joy?" + +"It might if it was a real talent," answered Emma +Jane, "though I don't like it so well as love. If you +have another thought, Becky, keep it till morning." + +"I did have one more inspiration," said Rebecca +when they were dressing next morning, "but I +didn't wake you. I wondered if the rose of joy +could be sacrifice? But I think sacrifice would be +a lily, not a rose; don't you?" + + +The journey southward, the first glimpse of the +ocean, the strange new scenes, the ease and delicious +freedom, the intimacy with Miss Maxwell, +almost intoxicated Rebecca. In three days she was +not only herself again, she was another self, thrilling +with delight, anticipation, and realization. She +had always had such eager hunger for knowledge, +such thirst for love, such passionate longing for the +music, the beauty, the poetry of existence! She +had always been straining to make the outward +world conform to her inward dreams, and now life +had grown all at once rich and sweet, wide and full. +She was using all her natural, God-given outlets; +and Emily Maxwell marveled daily at the inexhaustible +way in which the girl poured out and gathered +in the treasures of thought and experience that +belonged to her. She was a lifegiver, altering the +whole scheme of any picture she made a part of, +by contributing new values. Have you never seen +the dull blues and greens of a room changed, +transfigured by a burst of sunshine? That seemed to +Miss Maxwell the effect of Rebecca on the groups of +people with whom they now and then mingled; but +they were commonly alone, reading to each other +and having quiet talks. The prize essay was very +much on Rebecca's mind. Secretly she thought +she could never be happy unless she won it. She +cared nothing for the value of it, and in this case +almost nothing for the honor; she wanted to please +Mr. Aladdin and justify his belief in her. + +"If I ever succeed in choosing a subject, I must +ask if you think I can write well on it; and then +I suppose I must work in silence and secret, never +even reading the essay to you, nor talking about it." + +Miss Maxwell and Rebecca were sitting by a little +brook on a sunny spring day. They had been in a +stretch of wood by the sea since breakfast, going +every now and then for a bask on the warm white +sand, and returning to their shady solitude when +tired of the sun's glare. + +"The subject is very important," said Miss +Maxwell, "but I do not dare choose for you. Have you +decided on anything yet?" + +"No," Rebecca answered; "I plan a new essay +every night. I've begun one on What is Failure? +and another on He and She. That would be a +dialogue between a boy and girl just as they were +leaving school, and would tell their ideals of life. +Then do you remember you said to me one day, +`Follow your Saint'? I'd love to write about that. +I didn't have a single thought in Wareham, and +now I have a new one every minute, so I must try +and write the essay here; think it out, at any rate, +while I am so happy and free and rested. Look at +the pebbles in the bottom of the pool, Miss Emily, +so round and smooth and shining." + +"Yes, but where did they get that beautiful +polish, that satin skin, that lovely shape, Rebecca? +Not in the still pool lying on the sands. It was +never there that their angles were rubbed off and +their rough surfaces polished, but in the strife and +warfare of running waters. They have jostled +against other pebbles, dashed against sharp rocks, +and now we look at them and call them beautiful." + +"If Fate had not made somebody a teacher, + She might have been, oh! such a splendid preacher!" + +rhymed Rebecca. "Oh! if I could only think and +speak as you do!" she sighed. "I am so afraid I +shall never get education enough to make a good +writer." + +"You could worry about plenty of other things +to better advantage," said Miss Maxwell, a little +scornfully. "Be afraid, for instance, that you won't +understand human nature; that you won't realize +the beauty of the outer world; that you may lack +sympathy, and thus never be able to read a heart; +that your faculty of expression may not keep pace +with your ideas,--a thousand things, every one of +them more important to the writer than the knowledge +that is found in books. AEsop was a Greek +slave who could not even write down his wonderful +fables; yet all the world reads them." + +"I didn't know that," said Rebecca, with a half +sob. "I didn't know anything until I met you!" + +"You will only have had a high school course, but +the most famous universities do not always succeed +in making men and women. When I long to go +abroad and study, I always remember that there +were three great schools in Athens and two in +Jerusalem, but the Teacher of all teachers came out of +Nazareth, a little village hidden away from the bigger, +busier world." + +"Mr. Ladd says that you are almost wasted on +Wareham." said Rebecca thoughtfully. + +"He is wrong; my talent is not a great one, but +no talent is wholly wasted unless its owner chooses +to hide it in a napkin. Remember that of your own +gifts, Rebecca; they may not be praised of men, but +they may cheer, console, inspire, perhaps, when and +where you least expect. The brimming glass that +overflows its own rim moistens the earth about it." + +"Did you ever hear of The Rose of Joy?" asked +Rebecca, after a long silence. + +"Yes, of course; where did you see it?" + +"On the outside of a book in the library." + +"I saw it on the inside of a book in the library," +smiled Miss Maxwell. "It is from Emerson, but +I'm afraid you haven't quite grown up to it, +Rebecca, and it is one of the things impossible to +explain." + +"Oh, try me, dear Miss Maxwell!" pleaded +Rebecca. "Perhaps by thinking hard I can guess a +little bit what it means." + +"`In the actual--this painful kingdom of time +and chance--are Care, Canker, and Sorrow; with +thought, with the Ideal, is immortal hilarity--the +rose of Joy; round it all the Muses sing,'" quoted +Miss Maxwell. + +Rebecca repeated it over and over again until she +had learned it by heart; then she said, "I don't +want to be conceited, but I almost believe I do +understand it, Miss Maxwell. Not altogether, perhaps, +because it is puzzling and difficult; but a little, +enough to go on with. It's as if a splendid shape +galloped past you on horseback; you are so surprised +and your eyes move so slowly you cannot +half see it, but you just catch a glimpse as it whisks +by, and you know it is beautiful. It's all settled. +My essay is going to be called The Rose of Joy. +I've just decided. It hasn't any beginning, nor any +middle, but there will be a thrilling ending, +something like this: let me see; joy, boy, toy, ahoy, +decoy, alloy:-- + + +Then come what will of weal or woe + (Since all gold hath alloy), +Thou 'lt bloom unwithered in this heart, + My Rose of Joy! + +Now I'm going to tuck you up in the shawl and +give you the fir pillow, and while you sleep I am +going down on the shore and write a fairy story for +you. It's one of our `supposing' kind; it flies far, +far into the future, and makes beautiful things happen +that may never really all come to pass; but +some of them will,--you'll see! and then you'll +take out the little fairy story from your desk and +remember Rebecca." + +"I wonder why these young things always choose +subjects that would tax the powers of a great +essayist!" thought Miss Maxwell, as she tried to sleep. +"Are they dazzled, captivated, taken possession of, +by the splendor of the theme, and do they fancy +they can write up to it? Poor little innocents, hitch- +ing their toy wagons to the stars! How pretty this +particular innocent looks under her new sunshade!" + +Adam Ladd had been driving through Boston +streets on a cold spring day when nature and the +fashion-mongers were holding out promises which +seemed far from performance. Suddenly his vision +was assailed by the sight of a rose-colored parasol +gayly unfurled in a shop window, signaling the +passer-by and setting him to dream of summer +sunshine. It reminded Adam of a New England apple- +tree in full bloom, the outer covering of deep pink +shining through the thin white lining, and a fluffy, +fringe-like edge of mingled rose and cream dropping +over the green handle. All at once he remembered +one of Rebecca's early confidences,--the little pink +sunshade that had given her the only peep into the +gay world of fashion that her childhood had ever +known; her adoration of the flimsy bit of finery and +its tragic and sacrificial end. He entered the shop, +bought the extravagant bauble, and expressed it to +Wareham at once, not a single doubt of its +appropriateness crossing the darkness of his masculine +mind. He thought only of the joy in Rebecca's +eyes; of the poise of her head under the apple-blossom +canopy. It was a trifle embarrassing to return +an hour later and buy a blue parasol for Emma Jane +Perkins, but it seemed increasingly difficult, as the +years went on, to remember her existence at all +the proper times and seasons. + +This is Rebecca's fairy story, copied the next day +and given to Emily Maxwell just as she was going to +her room for the night. She read it with tears in her +eyes and then sent it to Adam Ladd, thinking he had +earned a share in it, and that he deserved a glimpse +of the girl's budding imagination, as well as of her +grateful young heart. + + +A FAIRY STORY + + +There was once a tired and rather poverty- +stricken Princess who dwelt in a cottage on the +great highway between two cities. She was not as +unhappy as thousands of others; indeed, she had +much to be grateful for, but the life she lived and +the work she did were full hard for one who was +fashioned slenderly. + +Now the cottage stood by the edge of a great +green forest where the wind was always singing +in the branches and the sunshine filtering through +the leaves. + +And one day when the Princess was sitting by the +wayside quite spent by her labor in the fields, she +saw a golden chariot rolling down the King's Highway, +and in it a person who could be none other than +somebody's Fairy Godmother on her way to the +Court. The chariot halted at her door, and though +the Princess had read of such beneficent personages, +she never dreamed for an instant that one of them +could ever alight at her cottage. + +"If you are tired, poor little Princess, why do you +not go into the cool green forest and rest?" asked +the Fairy Godmother. + +"Because I have no time," she answered. "I +must go back to my plough." + +"Is that your plough leaning by the tree, and is +it not too heavy?" + +"It is heavy," answered the Princess, "but I love +to turn the hard earth into soft furrows and know +that I am making good soil wherein my seeds may +grow. When I feel the weight too much, I try to +think of the harvest." + +The golden chariot passed on, and the two talked +no more together that day; nevertheless the King's +messengers were busy, for they whispered one word +into the ear of the Fairy Godmother and another +into the ear of the Princess, though so faintly that +neither of them realized that the King had spoken. + +The next morning a strong man knocked at the +cottage door, and doffing his hat to the Princess +said: "A golden chariot passed me yesterday, and +one within it flung me a purse of ducats, saying: +`Go out into the King's Highway and search until +you find a cottage and a heavy plough leaning against +a tree near by. Enter and say to the Princess whom +you will find there: "I will guide the plough and +you must go and rest, or walk in the cool green +forest; for this is the command of your Fairy +Godmother."'" + +And the same thing happened every day, and +every day the tired Princess walked in the green +wood. Many times she caught the glitter of the +chariot and ran into the Highway to give thanks +to the Fairy Godmother; but she was never fleet +enough to reach the spot. She could only stand +with eager eyes and longing heart as the chariot +passed by. Yet she never failed to catch a smile, +and sometimes a word or two floated back to her, +words that sounded like: "I would not be thanked. +We are all children of the same King, and I am only +his messenger." + +Now as the Princess walked daily in the green +forest, hearing the wind singing in the branches and +seeing the sunlight filter through the lattice-work of +green leaves, there came unto her thoughts that had +lain asleep in the stifling air of the cottage and the +weariness of guiding the plough. And by and by +she took a needle from her girdle and pricked the +thoughts on the leaves of the trees and sent them +into the air to float hither and thither. And it came +to pass that people began to pick them up, and holding +them against the sun, to read what was written +on them, and this was because the simple little +words on the leaves were only, after all, a part of +one of the King's messages, such as the Fairy Godmother +dropped continually from her golden chariot. + +But the miracle of the story lies deeper than all this. + +Whenever the Princess pricked the words upon +the leaves she added a thought of her Fairy Godmother, +and folding it close within, sent the leaf out +on the breeze to float hither and thither and fall +where it would. And many other little Princesses +felt the same impulse and did the same thing. And +as nothing is ever lost in the King's Dominion, so +these thoughts and wishes and hopes, being full +of love and gratitude, had no power to die, but took +unto themselves other shapes and lived on forever. +They cannot be seen, our vision is too weak; nor +heard, our hearing is too dull; but they can sometimes +be felt, and we know not what force is stirring +our hearts to nobler aims. + +The end of the story is not come, but it may be +that some day when the Fairy Godmother has a message +to deliver in person straight to the King, he will +say: "Your face I know; your voice, your thoughts, +and your heart. I have heard the rumble of your +chariot wheels on the great Highway, and I knew +that you were on the King's business. Here in my +hand is a sheaf of messages from every quarter of +my kingdom. They were delivered by weary and +footsore travelers, who said that they could never +have reached the gate in safety had it not been for +your help and inspiration. Read them, that you +may know when and where and how you sped the +King's service." + +And when the Fairy Godmother reads them, it +may be that sweet odors will rise from the pages, +and half-forgotten memories will stir the air; but +in the gladness of the moment nothing will be half +so lovely as the voice of the King when he said: +"Read, and know how you sped the King's service." + +Rebecca Rowena Randall + + + +XXVI + +"OVER THE TEACUPS" + +The summer term at Wareham had ended, +and Huldah Meserve, Dick Carter, and +Living Perkins had finished school, leaving +Rebecca and Emma Jane to represent Riverboro +in the year to come. Delia Weeks was at home +from Lewiston on a brief visit, and Mrs. Robinson +was celebrating the occasion by a small and select +party, the particular day having been set because +strawberries were ripe and there was a rooster that +wanted killing. Mrs. Robinson explained this to her +husband, and requested that he eat his dinner on +the carpenter's bench in the shed, as the party was +to be a ladies' affair. + +"All right; it won't be any loss to me," said Mr. +Robinson. "Give me beans, that's all I ask. When +a rooster wants to be killed, I want somebody else +to eat him, not me!" + +Mrs. Robinson had company only once or twice +a year, and was generally much prostrated for several +days afterward, the struggle between pride and +parsimony being quite too great a strain upon her. +It was necessary, in order to maintain her standing +in the community, to furnish a good "set out," yet +the extravagance of the proceeding goaded her from +the first moment she began to stir the marble cake +to the moment when the feast appeared upon the +table. + +The rooster had been boiling steadily over a slow +fire since morning, but such was his power of resistance +that his shape was as firm and handsome in +the pot as on the first moment when he was lowered +into it. + +"He ain't goin' to give up!" said Alice, peering +nervously under the cover, "and he looks like a +scarecrow." + +"We'll see whether he gives up or not when I +take a sharp knife to him," her mother answered; +"and as to his looks, a platter full o' gravy makes +a sight o' difference with old roosters, and I'll put +dumplings round the aidge; they're turrible fillin', +though they don't belong with boiled chicken." + +The rooster did indeed make an impressive showing, +lying in his border of dumplings, and the dish +was much complimented when it was borne in by +Alice. This was fortunate, as the chorus of admiration +ceased abruptly when the ladies began to eat +the fowl. + +"I was glad you could git over to Huldy's +graduation, Delia," said Mrs. Meserve, who sat at the +foot of the table and helped the chicken while Mrs. +Robinson poured coffee at the other end. She was +a fit mother for Huldah, being much the most stylish +person in Riverboro; ill health and dress were, +indeed, her two chief enjoyments in life. It was +rumored that her elaborately curled "front piece" +had cost five dollars, and that it was sent into Portland +twice a year to be dressed and frizzed; but +it is extremely difficult to discover the precise facts +in such cases, and a conscientious historian always +prefers to warn a too credulous reader against +imbibing as gospel truth something that might be +the basest perversion of it. As to Mrs. Meserve's +appearance, have you ever, in earlier years, sought +the comforting society of the cook and hung over +the kitchen table while she rolled out sugar +gingerbread? Perhaps then, in some unaccustomed +moment of amiability, she made you a dough lady, +cutting the outline deftly with her pastry knife, and +then, at last, placing the human stamp upon it by +sticking in two black currants for eyes. Just call to +mind the face of that sugar gingerbread lady and +you will have an exact portrait of Huldah's mother, +--Mis' Peter Meserve, she was generally called, +there being several others. + +"How'd you like Huldy's dress, Delia?" she +asked, snapping the elastic in her black jet bracelets +after an irritating fashion she had. + +"I thought it was about the handsomest of any," +answered Delia; "and her composition was first +rate. It was the only real amusin' one there was, +and she read it so loud and clear we didn't miss +any of it; most o' the girls spoke as if they had +hasty pudtin' in their mouths." + +"That was the composition she wrote for Adam +Ladd's prize," explained Mrs. Meserve, "and they +do say she'd 'a' come out first, 'stead o' fourth, +if her subject had been dif'rent. There was three +ministers and three deacons on the committee, and +it was only natural they should choose a serious +piece; hers was too lively to suit 'em." + +Huldah's inspiring theme had been Boys, and she +certainly had a fund of knowledge and experience +that fitted her to write most intelligently upon it. It +was vastly popular with the audience, who enjoyed +the rather cheap jokes and allusions with which it +coruscated; but judged from a purely literary standpoint, +it left much to be desired. + +"Rebecca's piece wan't read out loud, but the +one that took the boy's prize was; why was that?" +asked Mrs. Robinson. + +"Because she wan't graduatin'," explained Mrs. +Cobb, "and couldn't take part in the exercises; +it'll be printed, with Herbert Dunn's, in the school +paper." + +"I'm glad o' that, for I'll never believe it was +better 'n Huldy's till I read it with my own eyes; +it seems as if the prize ought to 'a' gone to one of +the seniors." + +"Well, no, Marthy, not if Ladd offered it to any +of the two upper classes that wanted to try for it," +argued Mrs. Robinson. "They say they asked him +to give out the prizes, and he refused, up and down. +It seems odd, his bein' so rich and travelin' about +all over the country, that he was too modest to git +up on that platform." + +"My Huldy could 'a' done it, and not winked an +eyelash," observed Mrs. Meserve complacently; a +remark which there seemed no disposition on the +part of any of the company to controvert. + +"It was complete, though, the governor happening +to be there to see his niece graduate," said Delia +Weeks. "Land! he looked elegant! They say he's +only six feet, but he might 'a' been sixteen, and he +certainly did make a fine speech." + +"Did you notice Rebecca, how white she was, +and how she trembled when she and Herbert Dunn +stood there while the governor was praisin' 'em? +He'd read her composition, too, for he wrote the +Sawyer girls a letter about it." This remark was +from the sympathetic Mrs. Cobb. + +"I thought 't was kind o' foolish, his makin' so +much of her when it wan't her graduation," +objected Mrs. Meserve; "layin' his hand on her head +'n' all that, as if he was a Pope pronouncin' benediction. +But there! I'm glad the prize come to Riverboro +'t any rate, and a han'somer one never was +give out from the Wareham platform. I guess there +ain't no end to Adam Ladd's money. The fifty dollars +would 'a' been good enough, but he must needs +go and put it into those elegant purses." + +"I set so fur back I couldn't see 'em fairly," +complained Delia, "and now Rebecca has taken +hers home to show her mother." + +"It was kind of a gold net bag with a chain," said +Mrs. Perkins, "and there was five ten-dollar gold +pieces in it. Herbert Dunn's was put in a fine +leather wallet." + +"How long is Rebecca goin' to stay at the farm?" +asked Delia. + +"Till they get over Hannah's bein' married, and +get the house to runnin' without her," answered +Mrs. Perkins. "It seems as if Hannah might 'a' +waited a little longer. Aurelia was set against her +goin' away while Rebecca was at school, but she's +obstinate as a mule, Hannah is, and she just took +her own way in spite of her mother. She's been +doin' her sewin' for a year; the awfullest coarse +cotton cloth she had, but she's nearly blinded herself +with fine stitchin' and rufflin' and tuckin'. Did +you hear about the quilt she made? It's white, and +has a big bunch o' grapes in the centre, quilted by +a thimble top. Then there's a row of circle-borderin' +round the grapes, and she done them the size +of a spool. The next border was done with a sherry +glass, and the last with a port glass, an' all outside +o' that was solid stitchin' done in straight rows; +she's goin' to exhibit it at the county fair." + +"She'd better 'a' been takin' in sewin' and earnin' +money, 'stead o' blindin' her eyes on such foolishness +as quilted counterpanes," said Mrs. Cobb. +"The next thing you know that mortgage will be +foreclosed on Mis' Randall, and she and the children +won't have a roof over their heads." + +"Don't they say there's a good chance of the +railroad goin' through her place?" asked Mrs. +Robinson. "If it does, she'll git as much as the farm +is worth and more. Adam Ladd 's one of the stockholders, +and everything is a success he takes holt +of. They're fightin' it in Augusty, but I'd back +Ladd agin any o' them legislaters if he thought he +was in the right." + +"Rebecca'll have some new clothes now," said +Delia, "and the land knows she needs 'em. Seems +to me the Sawyer girls are gittin' turrible near!" + +"Rebecca won't have any new clothes out o' the +prize money," remarked Mrs. Perkins, "for she sent +it away the next day to pay the interest on that +mortgage." + +"Poor little girl!" exclaimed Delia Weeks. + +"She might as well help along her folks as spend +it on foolishness," affirmed Mrs. Robinson. "I think +she was mighty lucky to git it to pay the interest +with, but she's probably like all the Randalls; it +was easy come, easy go, with them." + +"That's more than could be said of the Sawyer +stock," retorted Mrs. Perkins; "seems like they +enjoyed savin' more'n anything in the world, and +it's gainin' on Mirandy sence her shock." + +"I don't believe it was a shock; it stands to +reason she'd never 'a' got up after it and been so +smart as she is now; we had three o' the worst +shocks in our family that there ever was on this +river, and I know every symptom of 'em better'n +the doctors." And Mrs. Peter Meserve shook her +head wisely. + +"Mirandy 's smart enough," said Mrs. Cobb, +"but you notice she stays right to home, and she's +more close-mouthed than ever she was; never took +a mite o' pride in the prize, as I could see, though +it pretty nigh drove Jeremiah out o' his senses. I +thought I should 'a' died o' shame when he cried +`Hooray!' and swung his straw hat when the governor +shook hands with Rebecca. It's lucky he +couldn't get fur into the church and had to stand +back by the door, for as it was, he made a spectacle +of himself. My suspicion is"--and here every lady +stopped eating and sat up straight--"that the +Sawyer girls have lost money. They don't know a +thing about business 'n' never did, and Mirandy's +too secretive and contrairy to ask advice." + +"The most o' what they've got is in gov'ment +bonds, I always heard, and you can't lose money +on them. Jane had the timber land left her, an' +Mirandy had the brick house. She probably took +it awful hard that Rebecca's fifty dollars had to be +swallowed up in a mortgage, 'stead of goin' towards +school expenses. The more I think of it, the more +I think Adam Ladd intended Rebecca should have +that prize when he gave it." The mind of Huldah's +mother ran towards the idea that her daughter's +rights had been assailed. + +"Land, Marthy, what foolishness you talk!" +exclaimed Mrs. Perkins; "you don't suppose he +could tell what composition the committee was +going to choose; and why should he offer another +fifty dollars for a boy's prize, if he wan't interested +in helpin' along the school? He's give Emma Jane +about the same present as Rebecca every Christmas +for five years; that's the way he does." + +"Some time he'll forget one of 'em and give to +the other, or drop 'em both and give to some new +girl!" said Delia Weeks, with an experience born +of fifty years of spinsterhood. + +"Like as not," assented Mrs. Peter Meserve, +"though it's easy to see he ain't the marryin' kind. +There's men that would marry once a year if their +wives would die fast enough, and there's men that +seems to want to live alone." + +"If Ladd was a Mormon, I guess he could have +every woman in North Riverboro that's a suitable +age, accordin' to what my cousins say," remarked +Mrs. Perkins. + +"'T ain't likely he could be ketched by any North +Riverboro girl," demurred Mrs. Robinson; "not +when he prob'bly has had the pick o' Boston. I +guess Marthy hit it when she said there's men +that ain't the marryin' kind." + +"I wouldn't trust any of 'em when Miss Right +comes along!" laughed Mrs. Cobb genially. "You +never can tell what 'n' who 's goin' to please 'em. +You know Jeremiah's contrairy horse, Buster? He +won't let anybody put the bit into his mouth if he +can help it. He'll fight Jerry, and fight me, till he +has to give in. Rebecca didn't know nothin' about +his tricks, and the other day she went int' the +barn to hitch up. I followed right along, knowing +she'd have trouble with the headstall, and I declare +if she wan't pattin' Buster's nose and talkin' to +him, and when she put her little fingers into his +mouth he opened it so fur I thought he'd swaller +her, for sure. He jest smacked his lips over the bit +as if 't was a lump o' sugar. `Land, Rebecca,' I +says, `how'd you persuade him to take the bit?' +`I didn't,' she says, `he seemed to want it; perhaps +he's tired of his stall and wants to get out in +the fresh air.'" + + + +XXVII + +"THE VISION SPLENDID" + +A year had elapsed since Adam Ladd's +prize had been discussed over the teacups +in Riverboro. The months had come and +gone, and at length the great day had dawned for +Rebecca,--the day to which she had been looking +forward for five years, as the first goal to be reached +on her little journey through the world. School- +days were ended, and the mystic function known +to the initiated as "graduation" was about to be +celebrated; it was even now heralded by the sun +dawning in the eastern sky. Rebecca stole softly +out of bed, crept to the window, threw open the +blinds, and welcomed the rosy light that meant a +cloudless morning. Even the sun looked different +somehow,--larger, redder, more important than +usual; and if it were really so, there was no member +of the graduating class who would have thought +it strange or unbecoming, in view of all the +circumstances. Emma Jane stirred on her pillow, +woke, and seeing Rebecca at the window, came and +knelt on the floor beside her. "It's going to be +pleasant!" she sighed gratefully. "If it wasn't +wicked, I could thank the Lord, I'm so relieved in +mind! Did you sleep?" + +"Not much; the words of my class poem kept +running through my head, and the accompaniments +of the songs; and worse than anything, Mary +Queen of Scots' prayer in Latin; it seemed as if + +"`Adoro, imploro, + Ut liberes me!' + +were burned into my brain." + +No one who is unfamiliar with life in rural +neighborhoods can imagine the gravity, the importance, +the solemnity of this last day of school. In +the matter of preparation, wealth of detail, and general +excitement it far surpasses a wedding; for that +is commonly a simple affair in the country, sometimes +even beginning and ending in a visit to the +parsonage. Nothing quite equals graduation in the +minds of the graduates themselves, their families, +and the younger students, unless it be the inauguration +of a governor at the State Capitol. Wareham, +then, was shaken to its very centre on this +day of days. Mothers and fathers of the scholars, +as well as relatives to the remotest generation, had +been coming on the train and driving into the town +since breakfast time; old pupils, both married and +single, with and without families, streamed back to +the dear old village. The two livery stables were +crowded with vehicles of all sorts, and lines of buggies +and wagons were drawn up along the sides of +the shady roads, the horses switching their tails in +luxurious idleness. The streets were filled with +people wearing their best clothes, and the fashions +included not only "the latest thing," but the well +preserved relic of a bygone day. There were all +sorts and conditions of men and women, for there +were sons and daughters of storekeepers, lawyers, +butchers, doctors, shoemakers, professors, ministers, +and farmers at the Wareham schools, either +as boarders or day scholars. In the seminary building +there was an excitement so deep and profound +that it expressed itself in a kind of hushed silence, +a transient suspension of life, as those most interested +approached the crucial moment. The feminine +graduates-to-be were seated in their own +bedrooms, dressed with a completeness of detail +to which all their past lives seemed to have been +but a prelude. At least, this was the case with their +bodies; but their heads, owing to the extreme heat +of the day, were one and all ornamented with leads, +or papers, or dozens of little braids, to issue later +in every sort of curl known to the girl of that +period. Rolling the hair on leads or papers was a +favorite method of attaining the desired result, and +though it often entailed a sleepless night, there +were those who gladly paid the price. Others, in +whose veins the blood of martyrs did not flow, +substituted rags for leads and pretended that they +made a more natural and less woolly curl. Heat, +however, will melt the proudest head and reduce +to fiddling strings the finest product of the waving- +pin; so anxious mothers were stationed over +their offspring, waving palm-leaf fans, it having +been decided that the supreme instant when the +town clock struck ten should be the one chosen +for releasing the prisoners from their self-imposed +tortures. + +Dotted or plain Swiss muslin was the favorite +garb, though there were those who were steaming +in white cashmere or alpaca, because in some cases +such frocks were thought more useful afterwards. +Blue and pink waist ribbons were lying over the +backs of chairs, and the girl who had a Roman +sash was praying that she might be kept from +vanity and pride. + +The way to any graduating dress at all had not +seemed clear to Rebecca until a month before. +Then, in company with Emma Jane, she visited the +Perkins attic, found piece after piece of white butter- +muslin or cheesecloth, and decided that, at a +pinch, it would do. The "rich blacksmith's daughter" +cast the thought of dotted Swiss behind her, +and elected to follow Rebecca in cheesecloth as +she had in higher matters; straightway devising +costumes that included such drawing of threads, +such hemstitching and pin-tucking, such insertions +of fine thread tatting that, in order to be finished, +Rebecca's dress was given out in sections,--the +sash to Hannah, waist and sleeves to Mrs. Cobb, +and skirt to aunt Jane. The stitches that went +into the despised material, worth only three or +four pennies a yard, made the dresses altogether +lovely, and as for the folds and lines into which +they fell, they could have given points to satins +and brocades. + +The two girls were waiting in their room alone, +Emma Jane in rather a tearful state of mind. She +kept thinking that it was the last day that they +would be together in this altogether sweet and +close intimacy. The beginning of the end seemed +to have dawned, for two positions had been offered +Rebecca by Mr. Morrison the day before: one in +which she would play for singing and calisthenics, +and superintend the piano practice of the younger +girls in a boarding-school; the other an assistant's +place in the Edgewood High School. Both were +very modest as to salary, but the former included +educational advantages that Miss Maxwell thought +might be valuable. + +Rebecca's mood had passed from that of excitement +into a sort of exaltation, and when the first +bell rang through the corridors announcing that in +five minutes the class would proceed in a body to +the church for the exercises, she stood motionless +and speechless at the window with her hand on +her heart. + +"It is coming, Emmie," she said presently; "do +you remember in The Mill on the Floss, when +Maggie Tulliver closed the golden gates of childhood +behind her? I can almost see them swing; +almost hear them clang; and I can't tell whether I +am glad or sorry." + +"I shouldn't care how they swung or clanged," +said Emma Jane, "if only you and I were on the +same side of the gate; but we shan't be, I know +we shan't!" + +"Emmie, don't dare to cry, for I'm just on the +brink myself! If only you were graduating with +me; that's my only sorrow! There! I hear the +rumble of the wheels! People will be seeing our +grand surprise now! Hug me once for luck, dear +Emmie; a careful hug, remembering our butter- +muslin frailty!" + +Ten minutes later, Adam Ladd, who had just +arrived from Portland and was wending his way to +the church, came suddenly into the main street and +stopped short under a tree by the wayside, riveted +to the spot by a scene of picturesque loveliness +such as his eyes had seldom witnessed before. The +class of which Rebecca was president was not +likely to follow accepted customs. Instead of marching +two by two from the seminary to the church, +they had elected to proceed thither by royal chariot. +A haycart had been decked with green vines and +bunches of long-stemmed field daisies, those gay +darlings of New England meadows. Every inch of +the rail, the body, even the spokes, all were twined +with yellow and green and white. There were two +white horses, flower-trimmed reins, and in the floral +bower, seated on maple boughs, were the twelve +girls of the class, while the ten boys marched on +either side of the vehicle, wearing buttonhole +bouquets of daisies, the class flower. + +Rebecca drove, seated on a green-covered bench +that looked not unlike a throne. No girl clad +in white muslin, no happy girl of seventeen, is +plain; and the twelve little country maids, from +the vantage ground of their setting, looked +beautiful, as the June sunlight filtered down on their +uncovered heads, showing their bright eyes, their +fresh cheeks, their smiles, and their dimples. + +Rebecca, Adam thought, as he took off his hat +and saluted the pretty panorama,--Rebecca, with +her tall slenderness, her thoughtful brow, the fire +of young joy in her face, her fillet of dark braided +hair, might have been a young Muse or Sibyl; and +the flowery hayrack, with its freight of blooming +girlhood, might have been painted as an allegorical +picture of The Morning of Life. It all passed him, +as he stood under the elms in the old village street +where his mother had walked half a century ago, +and he was turning with the crowd towards the +church when he heard a little sob. Behind a hedge +in the garden near where he was standing was a +forlorn person in white, whose neat nose, chestnut +hair, and blue eyes he seemed to know. He stepped +inside the gate and said, "What's wrong, Miss +Emma?" + +"Oh, is it you, Mr. Ladd? Rebecca wouldn't +let me cry for fear of spoiling my looks, but I must +have just one chance before I go in. I can be as +homely as I like, after all, for I only have to sing +with the school; I'm not graduating, I'm just +leaving! Not that I mind that; it's only being +separated from Rebecca that I never can stand!" + +The two walked along together, Adam comforting +the disconsolate Emma Jane, until they reached +the old meeting-house where the Commencement +exercises were always held. The interior, with +its decorations of yellow, green, and white, was +crowded, the air hot and breathless, the essays and +songs and recitations precisely like all others that +have been since the world began. One always fears +that the platform may sink under the weight of +youthful platitudes uttered on such occasions; yet +one can never be properly critical, because the sight +of the boys and girls themselves, those young and +hopeful makers of to-morrow, disarms one's scorn. +We yawn desperately at the essays, but our hearts +go out to the essayists, all the same, for "the vision +splendid" is shining in their eyes, and there is no +fear of "th' inevitable yoke" that the years are so +surely bringing them. + +Rebecca saw Hannah and her husband in the +audience; dear old John and cousin Ann also, and +felt a pang at the absence of her mother, though +she had known there was no possibility of seeing +her; for poor Aurelia was kept at Sunnybrook by +cares of children and farm, and lack of money +either for the journey or for suitable dress. The +Cobbs she saw too. No one, indeed, could fail to +see uncle Jerry; for he shed tears more than once, +and in the intervals between the essays descanted +to his neighbors concerning the marvelous gifts +of one of the graduating class whom he had known +ever since she was a child; in fact, had driven her +from Maplewood to Riverboro when she left her +home, and he had told mother that same night that +there wan't nary rung on the ladder o' fame that +that child wouldn't mount before she got through +with it. + +The Cobbs, then, had come, and there were +other Riverboro faces, but where was aunt Jane, +in her black silk made over especially for this +occasion? Aunt Miranda had not intended to come, +she knew, but where, on this day of days, was her +beloved aunt Jane? However, this thought, like +all others, came and went in a flash, for the whole +morning was like a series of magic lantern +pictures, crossing and recrossing her field of vision. +She played, she sang, she recited Queen Mary's +Latin prayer, like one in a dream, only brought to +consciousness by meeting Mr. Aladdin's eyes as +she spoke the last line. Then at the end of the +programme came her class poem, Makers of To- +morrow; and there, as on many a former occasion, +her personality played so great a part that she +seemed to be uttering Miltonic sentiments instead +of school-girl verse. Her voice, her eyes, her body +breathed conviction, earnestness, emotion; and +when she left the platform the audience felt that +they had listened to a masterpiece. Most of her +hearers knew little of Carlyle or Emerson, or they +might have remembered that the one said, "We +are all poets when we read a poem well," and the +other, "'T is the good reader makes the good +book." + +It was over! The diplomas had been presented, +and each girl, after giving furtive touches to her +hair, sly tweaks to her muslin skirts, and caressing +pats to her sash, had gone forward to receive the +roll of parchment with a bow that had been the +subject of anxious thought for weeks. Rounds of +applause greeted each graduate at this thrilling +moment, and Jeremiah Cobb's behavior, when +Rebecca came forward, was the talk of Wareham and +Riverboro for days. Old Mrs. Webb avowed that +he, in the space of two hours, had worn out her +pew more--the carpet, the cushions, and woodwork-- +than she had by sitting in it forty years. +Yes, it was over, and after the crowd had thinned +a little, Adam Ladd made his way to the platform. +Rebecca turned from speaking to some stran- +gers and met him in the aisle. "Oh, Mr. Aladdin, +I am so glad you could come! Tell me"--and she +looked at him half shyly, for his approval was dearer +to her, and more difficult to win, than that of the +others--"tell me, Mr. Aladdin,--were you satisfied?" + +"More than satisfied!" he said; "glad I met +the child, proud I know the girl, longing to meet +the woman!" + + + +XXVIII + +"TH' INEVITABLE YOKE" + +Rebecca's heart beat high at this sweet +praise from her hero's lips, but before she +had found words to thank him, Mr. and +Mrs. Cobb, who had been modestly biding their +time in a corner, approached her and she introduced +them to Mr. Ladd. + +"Where, where is aunt Jane?" she cried, holding +aunt Sarah's hand on one side and uncle Jerry's +on the other. + +"I'm sorry, lovey, but we've got bad news for +you." + +"Is aunt Miranda worse? She is; I can see it +by your looks;" and Rebecca's color faded. + +"She had a second stroke yesterday morning +jest when she was helpin' Jane lay out her things +to come here to-day. Jane said you wan't to know +anything about it till the exercises was all over, and +we promised to keep it secret till then." + +"I will go right home with you, aunt Sarah. I +must just run to tell Miss Maxwell, for after I had +packed up to-morrow I was going to Brunswick with +her. Poor aunt Miranda! And I have been so gay +and happy all day, except that I was longing for +mother and aunt Jane." + +"There ain't no harm in bein' gay, lovey; that's +what Jane wanted you to be. And Miranda's got +her speech back, for your aunt has just sent a letter +sayin' she's better; and I'm goin' to set up to-night, +so you can stay here and have a good sleep, and get +your things together comfortably to-morrow." + +"I'll pack your trunk for you, Becky dear, and +attend to all our room things," said Emma Jane, +who had come towards the group and heard the +sorrowful news from the brick house. + +They moved into one of the quiet side pews, +where Hannah and her husband and John joined +them. From time to time some straggling acquaintance +or old schoolmate would come up to congratulate +Rebecca and ask why she had hidden herself +in a corner. Then some member of the class would +call to her excitedly, reminding her not to be late +at the picnic luncheon, or begging her to be early +at the class party in the evening. All this had an +air of unreality to Rebecca. In the midst of the +happy excitement of the last two days, when +"blushing honors" had been falling thick upon her, and +behind the delicious exaltation of the morning, had +been the feeling that the condition was a transient +one, and that the burden, the struggle, the anxiety, +would soon loom again on the horizon. She longed +to steal away into the woods with dear old John, +grown so manly and handsome, and get some comfort +from him. + +Meantime Adam Ladd and Mr. Cobb had been +having an animated conversation. + +"I s'pose up to Boston, girls like that one are as +thick as blackb'ries?" uncle Jerry said, jerking his +head interrogatively in Rebecca's direction. + +"They may be," smiled Adam, taking in the old +man's mood; "only I don't happen to know one." + +"My eyesight bein' poor 's the reason she looked +han'somest of any girl on the platform, I s'pose?" + +"There's no failure in my eyes," responded Adam, +"but that was how the thing seemed to me!" + +"What did you think of her voice? Anything +extry about it?" + +"Made the others sound poor and thin, I +thought." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear your opinion, you bein' +a traveled man, for mother says I'm foolish 'bout +Rebecky and hev been sence the fust. Mother +scolds me for spoilin' her, but I notice mother ain't +fur behind when it comes to spoilin'. Land! it +made me sick, thinkin' o' them parents travelin' +miles to see their young ones graduate, and then +when they got here hevin' to compare 'em with Rebecky. +Good-by, Mr. Ladd, drop in some day when +you come to Riverboro." + +"I will," said Adam, shaking the old man's hand +cordially; "perhaps to-morrow if I drive Rebecca +home, as I shall offer to do. Do you think Miss +Sawyer's condition is serious?" + +"Well, the doctor don't seem to know; but anyhow +she's paralyzed, and she'll never walk fur +again, poor soul! She ain't lost her speech; that'll +be a comfort to her." + +Adam left the church, and in crossing the common +came upon Miss Maxwell doing the honors +of the institution, as she passed from group to +group of strangers and guests. Knowing that +she was deeply interested in all Rebecca's plans, he +told her, as he drew her aside, that the girl would +have to leave Wareham for Riverboro the next +day. + +"That is almost more than I can bear!" exclaimed +Miss Maxwell, sitting down on a bench and stabbing +the greensward with her parasol. "It seems to me +Rebecca never has any respite. I had so many +plans for her this next month in fitting her for her +position, and now she will settle down to housework +again, and to the nursing of that poor, sick, +cross old aunt." + +"If it had not been for the cross old aunt, +Rebecca would still have been at Sunnybrook; and +from the standpoint of educational advantages, or +indeed advantages of any sort, she might as well +have been in the backwoods," returned Adam. + +"That is true; I was vexed when I spoke, for I +thought an easier and happier day was dawning for +my prodigy and pearl." + +"OUR prodigy and pearl," corrected Adam. + +"Oh, yes!" she laughed. "I always forget that +it pleases you to pretend you discovered Rebecca." + +"I believe, though, that happier days are dawning +for her," continued Adam. "It must be a secret +for the present, but Mrs. Randall's farm will be +bought by the new railroad. We must have right +of way through the land, and the station will be +built on her property. She will receive six thousand +dollars, which, though not a fortune, will yield her +three or four hundred dollars a year, if she will +allow me to invest it for her. There is a mortgage +on the land; that paid, and Rebecca self-supporting, +the mother ought to push the education of the oldest +boy, who is a fine, ambitious fellow. He should +be taken away from farm work and settled at his +studies." + +"We might form ourselves into a Randall +Protective Agency, Limited," mused Miss Maxwell. "I +confess I want Rebecca to have a career." + +"I don't," said Adam promptly. + +"Of course you don't. Men have no interest in +the careers of women! But I know Rebecca better +than you." + +"You understand her mind better, but not +necessarily her heart. You are considering her for the +moment as prodigy; I am thinking of her more as +pearl." + +"Well," sighed Miss Maxwell whimsically, "prodigy +or pearl, the Randall Protective Agency may +pull Rebecca in opposite directions, but nevertheless +she will follow her saint." + +That will content me," said Adam gravely. + +"Particularly if the saint beckons your way." +And Miss Maxwell looked up and smiled provokingly. + + +Rebecca did not see her aunt Miranda till she +had been at the brick house for several days. +Miranda steadily refused to have any one but Jane in +the room until her face had regained its natural +look, but her door was always ajar, and Jane fancied +she liked to hear Rebecca's quick, light step. Her +mind was perfectly clear now, and, save that she +could not move, she was most of the time quite free +from pain, and alert in every nerve to all that was +going on within or without the house. "Were the +windfall apples being picked up for sauce; were the +potatoes thick in the hills; was the corn tosselin' +out; were they cuttin' the upper field; were they +keepin' fly-paper laid out everywheres; were there +any ants in the dairy; was the kindlin' wood holdin' +out; had the bank sent the cowpons?" + +Poor Miranda Sawyer! Hovering on the verge +of the great beyond,--her body "struck" and no +longer under control of her iron will,--no divine +visions floated across her tired brain; nothing but +petty cares and sordid anxieties. Not all at once +can the soul talk with God, be He ever so near. If +the heavenly language never has been learned, +quick as is the spiritual sense in seizing the facts it +needs, then the poor soul must use the words and +phrases it has lived on and grown into day by day. +Poor Miss Miranda!--held fast within the prison +walls of her own nature, blind in the presence of +revelation because she had never used the spiritual +eye, deaf to angelic voices because she had not used +the spiritual ear. + +There came a morning when she asked for +Rebecca. The door was opened into the dim sick- +room, and Rebecca stood there with the sunlight +behind her, her hands full of sweet peas. Miranda's +pale, sharp face, framed in its nightcap, looked +haggard on the pillow, and her body was pitifully still +under the counterpane. + +"Come in," she said; "I ain't dead yet. Don't +mess up the bed with them flowers, will ye?" + +"Oh, no! They're going in a glass pitcher," said +Rebecca, turning to the washstand as she tried to +control her voice and stop the tears that sprang +to her eyes. + +"Let me look at ye; come closer. What dress +are ye wearin'?" said the old aunt in her cracked, +weak voice. + +"My blue calico." + +"Is your cashmere holdin' its color?" + +"Yes, aunt Miranda." + +"Do you keep it in a dark closet hung on the +wrong side, as I told ye?" + +"Always." + +"Has your mother made her jelly?" + +"She hasn't said." + +"She always had the knack o' writin' letters with +nothin' in 'em. What's Mark broke sence I've been +sick?" + +"Nothing at all, aunt Miranda." + +"Why, what's the matter with him? Gittin' +lazy, ain't he? How 's John turnin' out?" + +"He's going to be the best of us all." + +"I hope you don't slight things in the kitchen +because I ain't there. Do you scald the coffee-pot +and turn it upside down on the winder-sill?" + +"Yes, aunt Miranda." + +"It's always `yes' with you, and `yes' with +Jane," groaned Miranda, trying to move her stiffened +body; "but all the time I lay here knowin' +there's things done the way I don't like 'em." + +There was a long pause, during which Rebecca +sat down by the bedside and timidly touched her +aunt's hand, her heart swelling with tender pity at +the gaunt face and closed eyes. + +"I was dreadful ashamed to have you graduate +in cheesecloth, Rebecca, but I couldn't help it no- +how. You'll hear the reason some time, and know +I tried to make it up to ye. I'm afraid you was a +laughin'-stock!" + +"No," Rebecca answered. "Ever so many people +said our dresses were the very prettiest; they looked +like soft lace. You're not to be anxious about +anything. Here I am all grown up and graduated,-- +number three in a class of twenty-two, aunt +Miranda,--and good positions offered me already. +Look at me, big and strong and young, all ready to +go into the world and show what you and aunt +Jane have done for me. If you want me near, I'll +take the Edgewood school, so that I can be here +nights and Sundays to help; and if you get better, +then I'll go to Augusta,--for that's a hundred +dollars more, with music lessons and other things +beside." + +"You listen to me," said Miranda quaveringly. +"Take the best place, regardless o' my sickness. +I'd like to live long enough to know you'd paid off +that mortgage, but I guess I shan't." + +Here she ceased abruptly, having talked more +than she had for weeks; and Rebecca stole out of +the room, to cry by herself and wonder if old age +must be so grim, so hard, so unchastened and +unsweetened, as it slipped into the valley of the +shadow. + +The days went on, and Miranda grew stronger +and stronger; her will seemed unassailable, and +before long she could be moved into a chair by the +window, her dominant thought being to arrive at +such a condition of improvement that the doctor +need not call more than once a week, instead of +daily; thereby diminishing the bill, that was mount- +ing to such a terrifying sum that it haunted her +thoughts by day and dreams by night. + +Little by little hope stole back into Rebecca's +young heart. Aunt Jane began to "clear starch" +her handkerchiefs and collars and purple muslin +dress, so that she might be ready to go to Brunswick +at any moment when the doctor pronounced +Miranda well on the road to recovery. Everything +beautiful was to happen in Brunswick if she +could be there by August,--everything that heart +could wish or imagination conceive, for she was to +be Miss Emily's very own visitor, and sit at table +with college professors and other great men. + +At length the day dawned when the few clean, +simple dresses were packed in the hair trunk, +together with her beloved coral necklace, her cheesecloth +graduating dress, her class pin, aunt Jane's +lace cape, and the one new hat, which she tried on +every night before going to bed. It was of white +chip with a wreath of cheap white roses and green +leaves, and cost between two and three dollars, an +unprecedented sum in Rebecca's experience. The +effect of its glories when worn with her nightdress +was dazzling enough, but if ever it appeared in +conjunction with the cheesecloth gown, Rebecca felt +that even reverend professors might regard it with +respect. It is probable indeed that any professorial +gaze lucky enough to meet a pair of dark eyes shining +under that white rose garland would never have +stopped at respect! + +Then, when all was ready and Abijah Flagg at +the door, came a telegram from Hannah: "Come +at once. Mother has had bad accident." + +In less than an hour Rebecca was started on her +way to Sunnybrook, her heart palpitating with fear +as to what might be awaiting her at her journey's +end. + +Death, at all events, was not there to meet her; +but something that looked at first only too much +like it. Her mother had been standing on the +haymow superintending some changes in the barn, +had been seized with giddiness, they thought, and +slipped. The right knee was fractured and the back +strained and hurt, but she was conscious and in no +immediate danger, so Rebecca wrote, when she had +a moment to send aunt Jane the particulars. + +"I don' know how 'tis," grumbled Miranda, who +was not able to sit up that day; "but from a child +I could never lay abed without Aurelia's gettin' sick +too. I don' know 's she could help fallin', though +it ain't anyplace for a woman,--a haymow; but +if it hadn't been that, 't would 'a' been somethin' +else. Aurelia was born unfortunate. Now she'll +probably be a cripple, and Rebecca'll have to nurse +her instead of earning a good income somewheres +else." + +"Her first duty 's to her mother," said aunt Jane; +"I hope she'll always remember that." + +"Nobody remembers anything they'd ought to, +--at seventeen," responded Miranda. "Now that +I'm strong again, there's things I want to consider +with you, Jane, things that are on my mind night +and day. We've talked 'em over before; now we'll +settle 'em. When I'm laid away, do you want to +take Aurelia and the children down here to the brick +house? There's an awful passel of 'em,--Aurelia, +Jenny, and Fanny; but I won't have Mark. Hannah +can take him; I won't have a great boy stompin' +out the carpets and ruinin' the furniture, though +I know when I'm dead I can't hinder ye, if you +make up your mind to do anything." + +"I shouldn't like to go against your feelings, +especially in laying out your money, Miranda," said +Jane. + +"Don't tell Rebecca I've willed her the brick +house. She won't git it till I'm gone, and I want to +take my time 'bout dyin' and not be hurried off by +them that's goin' to profit by it; nor I don't want to +be thanked, neither. I s'pose she'll use the front +stairs as common as the back and like as not have +water brought into the kitchen, but mebbe when +I've been dead a few years I shan't mind. She sets +such store by you, she'll want you to have your home +here as long's you live, but anyway I've wrote it +down that way; though Lawyer Burns's wills don't +hold more'n half the time. He's cheaper, but I +guess it comes out jest the same in the end. I +wan't goin' to have the fust man Rebecca picks up +for a husband turnin' you ou'doors." + +There was a long pause, during which Jane knit +silently, wiping the tears from her eyes from time +to time, as she looked at the pitiful figure lying +weakly on the pillows. Suddenly Miranda said slowly +and feebly:-- + +"I don' know after all but you might as well +take Mark; I s'pose there's tame boys as well as +wild ones. There ain't a mite o' sense in havin' +so many children, but it's a turrible risk splittin' up +families and farmin' 'em out here 'n' there; they'd +never come to no good, an' everybody would keep +rememberin' their mother was a Sawyer. Now if +you'll draw down the curtin, I'll try to sleep." + + + +XXIX + +MOTHER AND DAUGHTER + +Two months had gone by,--two months of +steady, fagging work; of cooking, washing, +ironing; of mending and caring for +the three children, although Jenny was fast becoming +a notable little housewife, quick, ready, and +capable. They were months in which there had +been many a weary night of watching by Aurelia's +bedside; of soothing and bandaging and rubbing; +of reading and nursing, even of feeding and bathing. +The ceaseless care was growing less now, and +the family breathed more freely, for the mother's +sigh of pain no longer came from the stifling +bedroom, where, during a hot and humid August, +Aurelia had lain, suffering with every breath she +drew. There would be no question of walking for +many a month to come, but blessings seemed to +multiply when the blinds could be opened and the +bed drawn near the window; when mother, with +pillows behind her, could at least sit and watch the +work going on, could smile at the past agony and +forget the weary hours that had led to her present +comparative ease and comfort. + +No girl of seventeen can pass through such an +ordeal and come out unchanged; no girl of Re- +becca's temperament could go through it without +some inward repining and rebellion. She was doing +tasks in which she could not be fully happy,--heavy +and trying tasks, which perhaps she could never +do with complete success or satisfaction; and like +promise of nectar to thirsty lips was the vision of +joys she had had to put aside for the performance +of dull daily duty. How brief, how fleeting, +had been those splendid visions when the universe +seemed open for her young strength to battle +and triumph in! How soon they had faded into +the light of common day! At first, sympathy and +grief were so keen she thought of nothing but +her mother's pain. No consciousness of self interposed +between her and her filial service; then, as +the weeks passed, little blighted hopes began to stir +and ache in her breast; defeated ambitions raised +their heads as if to sting her; unattainable delights +teased her by their very nearness; by the narrow +line of separation that lay between her and their +realization. It is easy, for the moment, to tread the +narrow way, looking neither to the right nor left, +upborne by the sense of right doing; but that first +joy of self-denial, the joy that is like fire in the +blood, dies away; the path seems drearier and the +footsteps falter. Such a time came to Rebecca, and +her bright spirit flagged when the letter was +received saying that her position in Augusta had been +filled. There was a mutinous leap of the heart then, +a beating of wings against the door of the cage, a +longing for the freedom of the big world outside. +It was the stirring of the powers within her, though +she called it by no such grand name. She felt as +if the wind of destiny were blowing her flame +hither and thither, burning, consuming her, but +kindling nothing. All this meant one stormy night +in her little room at Sunnybrook, but the clouds +blew over, the sun shone again, a rainbow stretched +across the sky, while "hope clad in April green" +smiled into her upturned face and beckoned her on, +saying:-- + + +"Grow old along with me, + The best is yet to be." + +Threads of joy ran in and out of the gray tangled +web of daily living. There was the attempt at odd +moments to make the bare little house less bare by +bringing in out-of-doors, taking a leaf from Nature's +book and noting how she conceals ugliness wherever +she finds it. Then there was the satisfaction of being +mistress of the poor domain; of planning, governing, +deciding; of bringing order out of chaos; of +implanting gayety in the place of inert resignation to +the inevitable. Another element of comfort was the +children's love, for they turned to her as flowers to +the sun, drawing confidently on her fund of stories, +serene in the conviction that there was no limit to +Rebecca's power of make-believe. In this, and in +yet greater things, little as she realized it, the law +of compensation was working in her behalf, for in +those anxious days mother and daughter found and +knew each other as never before. A new sense was +born in Rebecca as she hung over her mother's bed +of pain and unrest,--a sense that comes only of +ministering, a sense that grows only when the strong +bend toward the weak. As for Aurelia, words could +never have expressed her dumb happiness when the +real revelation of motherhood was vouchsafed her. +In all the earlier years when her babies were young, +carking cares and anxieties darkened the fireside +with their brooding wings. Then Rebecca had gone +away, and in the long months of absence her mind +and soul had grown out of her mother's knowledge, +so that now, when Aurelia had time and strength +to study her child, she was like some enchanting +changeling. Aurelia and Hannah had gone on in +the dull round and the common task, growing duller +and duller; but now, on a certain stage of life's +journey, who should appear but this bewildering +being, who gave wings to thoughts that had only +crept before; who brought color and grace and +harmony into the dun brown texture of existence. + +You might harness Rebecca to the heaviest +plough, and while she had youth on her side, she +would always remember the green earth under her +feet and the blue sky over her head. Her physical +eye saw the cake she was stirring and the loaf she +was kneading; her physical ear heard the kitchen +fire crackling and the teakettle singing, but ever +and anon her fancy mounted on pinions, rested +itself, renewed its strength in the upper air. The +bare little farmhouse was a fixed fact, but she had +many a palace into which she now and then withdrew; +palaces peopled with stirring and gallant figures +belonging to the world of romance; palaces +not without their heavenly apparitions too, breathing +celestial counsel. Every time she retired to her +citadel of dreams she came forth radiant and +refreshed, as one who has seen the evening star, or +heard sweet music, or smelled the rose of joy. + +Aurelia could have understood the feeling of +a narrow-minded and conventional hen who has +brought a strange, intrepid duckling into the world; +but her situation was still more wonderful, for she +could only compare her sensations to those of some +quiet brown Dorking who has brooded an ordinary +egg and hatched a bird of paradise. Such an idea +had crossed her mind more than once during the +past fortnight, and it flashed to and fro this mellow +October morning when Rebecca came into the room +with her arms full of goldenrod and flaming autumn +leaves. + +"Just a hint of the fall styles, mother," she said, +slipping the stem of a gorgeous red and yellow +sapling between the mattress and the foot of the bed. +"This was leaning over the pool, and I was afraid +it would be vain if I left it there too long looking +at its beautiful reflection, so I took it away from +danger; isn't it wonderful? How I wish I could +carry one to poor aunt Miranda to-day! There's +never a flower in the brick house when I'm +away." + +It was a marvelous morning. The sun had climbed +into a world that held in remembrance only a +succession of golden days and starlit nights. The air +was fragrant with ripening fruit, and there was a +mad little bird on a tree outside the door nearly +bursting his throat with joy of living. He had +forgotten that summer was over, that winter must ever +come; and who could think of cold winds, bare +boughs, or frozen streams on such a day? A painted +moth came in at the open window and settled on +the tuft of brilliant leaves. Aurelia heard the bird +and looked from the beauty of the glowing bush to +her tall, splendid daughter, standing like young +Spring with golden Autumn in her arms. + +Then suddenly she covered her eyes and cried, +"I can't bear it! Here I lie chained to this bed, +interfering with everything you want to do. It's all +wasted! All my saving and doing without; all your +hard study; all Mirandy's outlay; everything that +we thought was going to be the making of you!" + +"Mother, mother, don't talk so, don't think +so!" exclaimed Rebecca, sitting down impetuously +on the floor by the bed and dropping the goldenrod +by her side. "Why, mother, I'm only a little past +seventeen! This person in a purple calico apron +with flour on her nose is only the beginnings of me! +Do you remember the young tree that John transplanted? +We had a dry summer and a cold winter +and it didn't grow a bit, nor show anything of all +we did for it; then there was a good year and it +made up for lost time. This is just my little +`rooting season,' mother, but don't go and believe my +day is over, because it hasn't begun! The old +maple by the well that's in its hundredth year had +new leaves this summer, so there must be hope for +me at seventeen!" + +"You can put a brave face on it," sobbed +Aurelia, "but you can't deceive me. You've lost your +place; you'll never see your friends here, and +you're nothing but a drudge!" + +"I look like a drudge," said Rebecca mysteriously, +with laughing eyes, "but I really am a princess; +you mustn't tell, but this is only a disguise; +I wear it for reasons of state. The king and queen +who are at present occupying my throne are very +old and tottering, and are going to abdicate shortly +in my favor. It's rather a small kingdom, I suppose, +as kingdoms go, so there isn't much struggle +for it in royal circles, and you mustn't expect to +see a golden throne set with jewels. It will probably +be only of ivory with a nice screen of peacock +feathers for a background; but you shall have a +comfortable chair very near it, with quantities of +slaves to do what they call in novels your `lightest +bidding.'" + +Aurelia smiled in spite of herself, and though not +perhaps wholly deceived, she was comforted. + +"I only hope you won't have to wait too long for +your thrones and your kingdoms, Rebecca," she +said, "and that I shall have a sight of them before +I die; but life looks very hard and rough to me, +what with your aunt Miranda a cripple at the brick +house, me another here at the farm, you tied hand +and foot, first with one and then with the other, +to say nothing of Jenny and Fanny and Mark! +You've got something of your father's happy +disposition, or it would weigh on you as it does on +me." + +"Why, mother!" cried Rebecca, clasping her +knees with her hands; "why, mother, it's enough +joy just to be here in the world on a day like this; +to have the chance of seeing, feeling, doing, becoming! +When you were seventeen, mother, wasn't it +good just to be alive? You haven't forgotten?" + +"No," said Aurelia, "but I wasn't so much alive +as you are, never in the world." + +"I often think," Rebecca continued, walking to +the window and looking out at the trees,--"I often +think how dreadful it would be if I were not here +at all. If Hannah had come, and then, instead of +me, John; John and Jenny and Fanny and the +others, but no Rebecca; never any Rebecca! To +be alive makes up for everything; there ought to +be fears in my heart, but there aren't; something +stronger sweeps them out, something like a wind. +Oh, see! There is Will driving up the lane, +mother, and he ought to have a letter from the +brick house." + + + +XXX + +GOOD-BY, SUNNYBROOK + +Will Melville drove up to the window +and, tossing a letter into Rebecca's +lap, went off to the barn on an errand. + +"Sister 's no worse, then," sighed Aurelia +gratefully, "or Jane would have telegraphed. See what +she says." + +Rebecca opened the envelope and read in one +flash of an eye the whole brief page:-- + + +Your aunt Miranda passed away an hour ago. +Come at once, if your mother is out of danger. I +shall not have the funeral till you are here. She +died very suddenly and without any pain. Oh, +Rebecca! I long for you so! + +Aunt Jane. + + +The force of habit was too strong, and even +in the hour of death Jane had remembered that +a telegram was twenty-five cents, and that Aurelia +would have to pay half a dollar for its delivery. + +Rebecca burst into a passion of tears as she +cried, "Poor, poor aunt Miranda! She is gone +without taking a bit of comfort in life, and I +couldn't say good-by to her! Poor lonely aunt +Jane! What can I do, mother? I feel torn in two, +between you and the brick house." + +"You must go this very instant," said Aurelia; +starting from her pillows. "If I was to die while +you were away, I would say the very same thing. +Your aunts have done everything in the world for +you,--more than I've ever been able to do,--and +it is your turn to pay back some o' their kindness +and show your gratitude. The doctor says I've +turned the corner and I feel I have. Jenny can +make out somehow, if Hannah'll come over once +a day." + +"But, mother, I CAN'T go! Who'll turn you in +bed?" exclaimed Rebecca, walking the floor and +wringing her hands distractedly. + +"It don't make any difference if I don't get +turned," replied Aurelia stoically. "If a woman +of my age and the mother of a family hasn't got +sense enough not to slip off haymows, she'd ought +to suffer. Go put on your black dress and pack your +bag. I'd give a good deal if I was able to go to +my sister's funeral and prove that I've forgotten +and forgiven all she said when I was married. Her +acts were softer 'n her words, Mirandy's were, and +she's made up to you for all she ever sinned +against me 'n' your father! And oh, Rebecca," she +continued with quivering voice, "I remember so +well when we were little girls together and she took +such pride in curling my hair; and another time, +when we were grown up, she lent me her best blue +muslin: it was when your father had asked me to +lead the grand march with him at the Christmas +dance, and I found out afterwards she thought he'd +intended to ask her!" + +Here Aurelia broke down and wept bitterly; for +the recollection of the past had softened her heart +and brought the comforting tears even more effectually +than the news of her sister's death. + +There was only an hour for preparation. Will +would drive Rebecca to Temperance and send +Jenny back from school. He volunteered also to +engage a woman to sleep at the farm in case Mrs. +Randall should be worse at any time in the night. + +Rebecca flew down over the hill to get a last pail +of spring water, and as she lifted the bucket from +the crystal depths and looked out over the glowing +beauty of the autumn landscape, she saw a company +of surveyors with their instruments making +calculations and laying lines that apparently crossed +Sunnybrook at the favorite spot where Mirror Pool +lay clear and placid, the yellow leaves on its surface +no yellower than its sparkling sands. + +She caught her breath. "The time has come!" +she thought. "I am saying good-by to Sunnybrook, +and the golden gates that almost swung together +that last day in Wareham will close forever +now. Good-by, dear brook and hills and meadows; +you are going to see life too, so we must be hopeful +and say to one another:-- + +"`Grow old along with me, + The best is yet to be.'" + + +Will Melville had seen the surveyors too, and +had heard in the Temperance post-office that morning +the probable sum that Mrs. Randall would receive +from the railway company. He was in good +spirits at his own improved prospects, for his farm +was so placed that its value could be only increased +by the new road; he was also relieved in mind +that his wife's family would no longer be in dire +poverty directly at his doorstep, so to speak. John +could now be hurried forward and forced into the +position of head of the family several years sooner +than had been anticipated, so Hannah's husband +was obliged to exercise great self-control or he +would have whistled while he was driving Rebecca +to the Temperance station. He could not understand +her sad face or the tears that rolled silently +down her cheeks from time to time; for Hannah +had always represented her aunt Miranda as an +irascible, parsimonious old woman, who would be +no loss to the world whenever she should elect to +disappear from it. + +"Cheer up, Becky!" he said, as he left her at the +depot. "You'll find your mother sitting up when +you come back, and the next thing you know the +whole family'll be moving to some nice little house +wherever your work is. Things will never be so +bad again as they have been this last year; that's +what Hannah and I think;" and he drove away to +tell his wife the news. + +Adam Ladd was in the station and came up to +Rebecca instantly, as she entered the door looking +very unlike her bright self. + +"The Princess is sad this morning," he said, +taking her hand. "Aladdin must rub the magic +lamp; then the slave will appear, and these tears +be dried in a trice." + +He spoke lightly, for he thought her trouble +was something connected with affairs at Sunnybrook, +and that he could soon bring the smiles by +telling her that the farm was sold and that her +mother was to receive a handsome price in return. +He meant to remind her, too, that though she must +leave the home of her youth, it was too remote a +place to be a proper dwelling either for herself or +for her lonely mother and the three younger +children. He could hear her say as plainly as if it were +yesterday, "I don't think one ever forgets the spot +where one lived as a child." He could see the quaint +little figure sitting on the piazza at North Riverboro +and watch it disappear in the lilac bushes when he +gave the memorable order for three hundred cakes +of Rose-Red and Snow-White soap. + +A word or two soon told him that her grief was +of another sort, and her mood was so absent, so +sensitive and tearful, that he could only assure her +of his sympathy and beg that he might come soon +to the brick house to see with his own eyes how +she was faring. + +Adam thought, when he had put her on the train +and taken his leave, that Rebecca was, in her sad +dignity and gravity, more beautiful than he had ever +seen her,--all-beautiful and all-womanly. But in that +moment's speech with her he had looked into her +eyes and they were still those of a child; there was +no knowledge of the world in their shining depths, +no experience of men or women, no passion, nor +comprehension of it. He turned from the little country +station to walk in the woods by the wayside until +his own train should be leaving, and from time to +time he threw himself under a tree to think and +dream and look at the glory of the foliage. He +had brought a new copy of The Arabian Nights for +Rebecca, wishing to replace the well-worn old one +that had been the delight of her girlhood; but +meeting her at such an inauspicious time, he had +absently carried it away with him. He turned the +pages idly until he came to the story of Aladdin +and the Wonderful Lamp, and presently, in spite +of his thirty-four years, the old tale held him +spellbound as it did in the days when he first read it as +a boy. But there were certain paragraphs that +especially caught his eye and arrested his attention,-- +paragraphs that he read and reread, finding in them +he knew not what secret delight and significance. +These were the quaintly turned phrases describing +the effect on the once poor Aladdin of his +wonderful riches, and those descanting upon the beauty +and charm of the Sultan's daughter, the Princess +Badroulboudour:-- + + +_Not only those who knew Aladdin when he +played in the streets like a vagabond did not know +him again; those who had seen him but a little +while before hardly knew him, so much were his +features altered; such were the effects of the lamp, +as to procure by degrees to those who possessed it, +perfections agreeable to the rank the right use of it +advanced them to._ + + +_The Princess was the most beautiful brunette in +the world; her eyes were large, lively, and sparkling; +her looks sweet and modest; her nose was of +a just proportion and without a fault; her mouth +small, her lips of a vermilion red, and charmingly +agreeable symmetry; in a word, all the features of +her face were perfectly regular. It is not therefore +surprising that Aladdin, who had never seen, and +was a stranger to, so many charms, was dazzled. +With all these perfections the Princess had so delicate +a shape, so majestic an air, that the sight of her +was sufficient to inspire respect._ + +_"Adorable Princess," said Aladdin to her, accosting +her, and saluting her respectfully, "if I have the +misfortune to have displeased you by my boldness in +aspiring to the possession of so lovely a creature, I +must tell you that you ought to blame your bright +eyes and charms, not me." + +"Prince," answered the Princess, "it is enough +for me to have seen you, to tell you that I obey without +reluctance."_ + + + +XXXI + +AUNT MIRANDA'S APOLOGY + +When Rebecca alighted from the train +at Maplewood and hurried to the post- +office where the stage was standing, +what was her joy to see uncle Jerry Cobb holding +the horses' heads. + +"The reg'lar driver 's sick," he explained, "and +when they sent for me, thinks I to myself, my +drivin' days is over, but Rebecky won't let the grass +grow under her feet when she gits her aunt Jane's +letter, and like as not I'll ketch her to-day; or, if +she gits delayed, to-morrow for certain. So here I +be jest as I was more 'n six year ago. Will you be +a real lady passenger, or will ye sit up in front +with me?" + +Emotions of various sorts were all struggling +together in the old man's face, and the two or +three bystanders were astounded when they saw +the handsome, stately girl fling herself on Mr. +Cobb's dusty shoulder crying like a child. "Oh, +uncle Jerry!" she sobbed; "dear uncle Jerry! It's +all so long ago, and so much has happened, and +we've grown so old, and so much is going to happen +that I'm fairly frightened." + +"There, there, lovey," the old man whispered +comfortingly, "we'll be all alone on the stage, and +we'll talk things over 's we go along the road an' +mebbe they won't look so bad." + +Every mile of the way was as familiar to Rebecca +as to uncle Jerry; every watering-trough, grindstone, +red barn, weather-vane, duck-pond, and sandy +brook. And all the time she was looking backward +to the day, seemingly so long ago, when she sat on +the box seat for the first time, her legs dangling in +the air, too short to reach the footboard. She could +smell the big bouquet of lilacs, see the pink-flounced +parasol, feel the stiffness of the starched buff calico +and the hated prick of the black and yellow porcupine +quills. The drive was taken almost in silence, +but it was a sweet, comforting silence both to +uncle Jerry and the girl. + +Then came the sight of Abijah Flagg shelling +beans in the barn, and then the Perkins attic windows +with a white cloth fluttering from them. She +could spell Emma Jane's loving thought and welcome +in that little waving flag; a word and a message +sent to her just at the first moment when +Riverboro chimneys rose into view; something to +warm her heart till they could meet. + +The brick house came next, looking just as of +yore; though it seemed to Rebecca as if death +should have cast some mysterious spell over it. +There were the rolling meadows, the stately elms, +all yellow and brown now; the glowing maples, +the garden-beds bright with asters, and the hollyhocks, +rising tall against the parlor windows; only +in place of the cheerful pinks and reds of the +nodding stalks, with their gay rosettes of bloom, +was a crape scarf holding the blinds together, and +another on the sitting-room side, and another on +the brass knocker of the brown-painted door. + +"Stop, uncle Jerry! Don't turn in at the side; +hand me my satchel, please; drop me in the road +and let me run up the path by myself. Then drive +away quickly." + +At the noise and rumble of the approaching +stage the house door opened from within, just as +Rebecca closed the gate behind her. Aunt Jane +came down the stone steps, a changed woman, +frail and broken and white. Rebecca held out her +arms and the old aunt crept into them feebly, as +she did on that day when she opened the grave of +her buried love and showed the dead face, just for +an instant, to a child. Warmth and strength and +life flowed into the aged frame from the young one. + +"Rebecca," she said, raising her head, "before +you go in to look at her, do you feel any bitterness +over anything she ever said to you?" + +Rebecca's eyes blazed reproach, almost anger, as +she said chokingly: "Oh, aunt Jane! Could you +believe it of me? I am going in with a heart brimful +of gratitude!" + +"She was a good woman, Rebecca; she had a +quick temper and a sharp tongue, but she wanted +to do right, and she did it as near as she could. +She never said so, but I'm sure she was sorry for +every hard word she spoke to you; she didn't take +'em back in life, but she acted so 't you'd know her +feeling when she was gone." + +"I told her before I left that she'd been the making +of me, just as mother says," sobbed Rebecca + +"She wasn't that," said Jane. "God made you +in the first place, and you've done considerable yourself +to help Him along; but she gave you the wherewithal +to work with, and that ain't to be despised; +specially when anybody gives up her own luxuries +and pleasures to do it. Now let me tell you something, +Rebecca. Your aunt Mirandy 's willed all this +to you,--the brick house and buildings and furniture, +and the land all round the house, as far 's you +can see." + +Rebecca threw off her hat and put her hand to +her heart, as she always did in moments of intense +excitement. After a moment's silence she said: +"Let me go in alone; I want to talk to her; I want +to thank her; I feel as if I could make her hear and +feel and understand!" + +Jane went back into the kitchen to the inexorable +tasks that death has no power, even for a day, to +blot from existence. He can stalk through dwelling +after dwelling, leaving despair and desolation behind +him, but the table must be laid, the dishes washed, +the beds made, by somebody. + +Ten minutes later Rebecca came out from the +Great Presence looking white and spent, but chastened +and glorified. She sat in the quiet doorway, +shaded from the little Riverboro world by the +overhanging elms. A wide sense of thankfulness and +peace possessed her, as she looked at the autumn +landscape, listened to the rumble of a wagon on the +bridge, and heard the call of the river as it dashed +to the sea. She put up her hand softly and touched +first the shining brass knocker and then the red +bricks, glowing in the October sun. + +It was home; her roof, her garden, her green +acres, her dear trees; it was shelter for the little +family at Sunnybrook; her mother would have once +more the companionship of her sister and the friends +of her girlhood; the children would have teachers +and playmates. + +And she? Her own future was close-folded still; +folded and hidden in beautiful mists; but she leaned +her head against the sun-warmed door, and closing +her eyes, whispered, just as if she had been a +child saying her prayers: "God bless aunt Miranda; +God bless the brick house that was; God bless the +brick house that is to be!" + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm + |