Mrs. Nathaniel Conklin

“ There always comes a time when we are through. He believed that tonight. Prue was not lighter of heart than he.
"Twenty years is a large piece out of a man's lifetime; but I would have waited twice twenty for this hour, Prudence."
"I wish I deserved my happiness as much as you do yours, John."
"Perhaps you haven't as much to deserve."
"I'm glad I don't deserve it. I want it to be all God's gift and his goodness."
"It is, dear."
"I wish we might take Marjorie with us," she said, after a moment; "she would have such an unalloyed good time." ”

“ The back yard was full of interest to her—when she could forget the weeds. Twenty times a day her mother came to the kitchen door to look up at her, and tell her how the work was going on; she knew what was cooking by the odors that came up to her and what all the noises meant, from the click of the egg-beater to the thud of the churn-dasher, and she saw old Mrs. Finch when she came to borrow baking powder, and the pedlars, and book-agents, and apple-tree men; but best of all she liked to watch for her father to come in to dinner and supper. ”

“ Was it so much to give up Tessa Wadsworth? What was she that she could make such a difference in a man’s life? Was she lovable, after all, despite her quick words and sharp speeches? She was not pretty like Dinah, or “taking” like Sue; it was very pleasant to be loved for her own sake; “my own unattractive self,” she said. It would be very pleasant in that far-off time, when she reviewed her life, to remember that some one had loved her beside her father and Dine and Miss Jewett! And a good man, too; a man with brains, and a pure heart!
Her ideal was a man with brains, and a pure heart ”

“ As I stood and looked at them I thought, how many girls in this city would be vain if they owned their eyes and hair, and how God had thrown the beauty down among them who had no thought about it. He gives beauty to those who hate him and use it to dishonor him, just as he gives money to those who spend it in sinning. I almost think, that he holds cheaply those two things the world prizes so highly; money and beauty."
After a moment Marjorie said: "I do not mean to live for the world."
"And you do not sigh for beauty?" smiled Miss Prudence. ”

“ Again Tessa was spending the night with Miss Jewett; Sue Greyson had chatted away half the evening, and it was nearly eleven before Tessa could put both arms around her friend and squeeze her.
“I am hungry for a talk with you, you dear little woman, every thing is getting to be criss-cross with me nowadays; I’m so troubled and so wicked that I almost want to die. You wouldn’t love me any more if you could know how false I am. All my life I have been so proud of being true,” she added bitterly, “I despise myself.” ”

“ Then I shall go out into the world, or go back to Aunt Affy. I do not mean to be too proud—” with a quiver of the lip.
“Only just proud enough. You are exactly that. Let us live in peace this winter, and then your nineteenth birthday may do its worst for us all.”
“You will not be serious,” she answered, with vexed tears; “my life is a great deal to me.”
“It is a great deal to us all, dear. Work and be patient, and you will have as happy an ending as any story you write.”
“My children end as children,” she said, with a quick laugh. “I shouldn’t know what to do with them if they grew up.” ”

“ O, Miss Prudence, I don't love to study; I want to go away to school, of course, but I can't see the use of so many studies. Marjorie loves to study and I don't; perhaps I would if I could see some use beside 'being like other people.' Being like other people doesn't seem to me to be a real enough reason."
Linnet had forgotten her clover leaf, she was looking at Miss Prudence with eyes as grave and earnest as Marjorie's ever were. She did not love to study and it was one of the wrong doings that she had confessed in her prayers many a time. ”

“ Her fluttering reverie was brought to a sudden and giddy end; the sound of a firm tread on the dried leaves under the maple-trees outside the gate, a tall figure in plain, elegant black,—the startled color in her eyes told the rest; she sprang to her feet, dropped her long, white work, shook off all outward nervousness, brushed her hair, fastened a bow of blue ribbon down low on her braids, questioned her eyes and lips to ascertain if they were safe, and then passed down the stair-way with a light, sure tread, and stood on the piazza to welcome Ralph Towne ”

“ But if you have grown old, you will grow young. I wish I could find a girl friend for you. But God knows all the girls in the world, and he will find one for you. If my daughter remembers all her life but one truth her mother ever said to her, I hope it may be this: The true life is the life hid with Christ; no other life is life, it is playing at life; this life is safe, still, hidden away, growing stronger every day; the expression of it, the making it speak he will take care of every hour of the day. You cannot understand this now—my words tell you so little, but they will come back to you. ”

“ How little the child knew that some day she would write anything and everything because she was "too bashful to talk." How little any of us know what we are being made ready to do. And how we would stop to moan and weep in very self-pity if we did know, and thus hinder the work of preparation from going on.
Linnet played with the fringe of her shawl and looked as if something hard to speak were hovering over her lips.
"Did mother tell you about Will?" she asked, abruptly, interrupting one of Miss Prudence's stories to Marjorie of which she had not heeded one word. ”

“ Aunt Rody had a way of bringing her work and sitting somewhere near when Marion came; the girl’s vivacity, and gossip of village folks, gossip in its heavenliest sense, attracted the hard-visaged, hard-handed, sharp-tongued old woman.
An afternoon with Marion Kenney was to the old woman, who never read stories, what a volume of short stories is to other people; stories, humorous, pathetic, and always with a touch of the best in life. ”

“ I am always afraid of a leap into the dark, and I am always jumping into dark places.”
“It is a leap for him, too, Sue; you seem to forget that,” suggested Tessa.
“You always think of him, you never think of me.”
“It is a pity for no one to think of him; if I were to be married to-morrow, I should cry all night, out of pity for the hapless bridegroom.”
“Tessa, you ridiculous child,” exclaimed Miss Jewett.
“In books,” Sue went on, still with her face turned from them, “girls choose the one they are to marry out of all the world. Why don’t we?”
“We do,” said Tessa. ”

“ What made our sins hurt him so?"
"His great love to us."
"Nobody's sins ever hurt me so."
"You do not love anybody well enough."
The spirit of peace was brooding, at last, over the worn face. Morris had left her with his heart at rest, for the pain on lip and brow began to pass away in the first hour of Miss Prudence's presence.
Prue was summoned after what to her seemed endless waiting, and, nestling in Aunt Prue's lap, with her head on her shoulder and her hand in hers, she sat still in a content that would not stir itself by one word. ”

“ Lake was suffering and Sue frightened.
The gentlemen’s faces she did not scan; it was fair, matured women like Mrs. Towne and Miss Jewett, and sprightly, sweet girls like Nan Gerard that she loved.
Dr. Towne was hedged in a corner, behind a chair, conversing or seeming to converse with a gentleman; he was not a lady’s man, he could not be himself in the presence of a third or fourth person, that is himself, socially; he could be himself professionally under the gaze of the multitude. Tessa smiled, thinking how uncomfortable he must be and how he must wish himself at home. ”

“ Unless we forgive, our hearts grow hard; she could not forgive; she has said that she does not know how to forgive. Only in forgiving do our hearts grow like God’s heart. He is always forgiving.”
“I forgave somebody once,” remembered Judith; “mother,” with a start, “I do not always forgive Aunt Rody when she is ugly to me; if I do not will I have a hard heart?” ”

“ Everything in the room had been among her father's wedding presents to herself—the rosewood furniture, the lace curtains, the rare engravings, the carpet that was at once perfect to the tread and to the eye, the ornaments everywhere: everything excepting the narrow gilt frame over the dressing bureau, enclosing on a gray ground, painted in black, crimson, and gold the words: "I HAVE SEEN THY TEARS." Miss Prudence had placed it there especially for Mrs. Kemlo.
Deborah had never been alone in the house in the years when her mistress was making a home for herself elsewhere. ”

“ How could she be a student of human nature if she understood nothing but truth?
She was in a bitter mood to-night, not sparing Ralph Towne as she would not have spared herself. The crimson and gold faded! the gray shut down over her world: “How alone I shall be to live in a year without him!”
“O, Tessa! Tessa!” cried Dinah, running up-stairs, “here’s Gus, and he has brought us something good and funny I know, for he’s so provokingly cool.” ”

“ Nettie had marked the precious words in her Bible with the date of her accident, and another date: the day when she became a member of the Shut-In Society.
The Open Window had come in to-night’s mail; Nettie had been counting the hours until mail time, and laughed a joyful little laugh all to herself when she heard her father say to her mother in the hall below: “It’s mail time, and I must go to the office to-night, storm or no storm; Nettie will not sleep a wink unless she has her magazine.” ”

“ It was pleasant to sit there and see the sleighs pass and hear the bells jingle; it was pleasant to look over towards the church and the parsonage; and pleasantest of all to bring her eyes into Miss Prudence's face and work basket and the work in her lap for Prue.
"But I mean—faces," acknowledged Marjorie. "I mean faces—too. I don't see why, of all the beautiful things God has made, faces should be ignored. The human face, with the love of God in it, is more glorious than any painting, more glorious than any view of mountain, lake, or river." ”

“ Sue looked up and listened.
“I pray you don’t flirt with Dr. Lake.”
Sue laughed a conscious laugh.
“Men flirt; they haven’t any hearts.”
“He has. You do not know the influence for evil that you may become in his life.”
Sue’s eyes grew wild, she clung to Tessa with both hands. “You sha’n’t talk so to me. You sha’n’t. You make me afraid. I’ll try to be good. I will try.”
“How will you try?”
“I won’t try to make him like me. I am sure that he would if I should try a little. I’ll tell him about Stacey. Tessa, I don’t want to be an old maid.” ”

“ Roger Kenney, are you going there for the money?” asked Uncle Cephas, with solemnity.
“You know better than that,” replied Roger, angrily.
“The heart of man is deceitful. There’s a great difference in the salary. But there’s a difference in the man. You’ve grown some since you came here seven years ago.”
“Uncle Cephas, I think you are wicked,” protested Judith, with tearful vehemence. “If you don’t know Roger better than that you do not know him at all.”
“You don’t know men,” insisted the elder of the Bensalem church. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.” ”

“ Marjorie entreated. "I don't want to lose anything. I suppose it is as good to be a girl as a woman."
"Get all the sweetness out of every day; live in to-day, don't plan or hope about womanhood; God has all that in his safe hands. Read the kind of books I have spoken of and when you read grown-up stories let some one older and wiser choose them for you. By and by your taste will be so formed and cultivated that you will choose only the best for yourself. I hope the Bible will spoil some other books for you." ”

“ Nettie watched him as he swung the scythe, and listened to the swish, swish, as the tall weeds fell; when the weeds around the well grew less she caught a glimpse of something blue, and then of something red; she pulled herself up to the window, and leaned out, and then she shrieked:—
“Father, don’t cut down the lilies!”
There they were, blue lilies and tiger lilies, growing together, close by the well! ”

“ Miss Jewett was never too tired or too busy to live again her young life. Sue Greyson was sure that she had broken somebody’s heart, else she never was so eloquent in warning her about Stacey Rheid. Laura Harrison had decided that she had once lived in constant dread of having a step-mother. Mary Sherwood wondered if she had ever been a busybody, and in that experience had learned to warn her to keep quiet her busy tongue; and Tessa Wadsworth knew that she must have learned her one word of advice: “Wait,” through years that she would not talk about. ”

“ Marjorie dropped her chip into the stove and looked up at the broad figure in the wooden rocker—a figure in a black dress and gingham apron, with a neat white cap covering her gray hair, a round face, from which Marjorie had taken her roundness and dimples, a shrewd face with a determined mouth and the kindliest eyes that ever looked out upon the world. Marjorie looked at her and loved her. ”

“ Sue laughed. “Oh, how that carries me back.”
“That’s good advice,” said Tessa, as the children shouted—
“Rise, Sally, rise, and wipe off your eyes.”
“I wish that I were a little girl over there in the fun,” said Sue. “Suppose we go.”
“I intended to go. Perhaps we can teach them some new games.”
No one among the children was merrier than Sue; not one any more a child.
“I think I’ll stay little,” said Sue, coming to Tessa, half out of breath. “I’m never going to grow up; it’s hateful being a woman, isn’t it?” ”

“ Every day brings its own answer; your daily bread and God’s daily will come together; his bread gives us strength to do his will. Will mother’s little girl remember?”
“Yes,” said Judith gravely; “and when you see me forgetting you must remind me. Will it be wrong if I say ‘daily will’ when I say ‘daily bread’?”
“Not wrong,” answered her mother, smiling, “only that it comes in the prayer before daily bread.” ”

“ Marjorie's face was radiant just then. The love, the surprise, the joy, made it beautiful.
Miss Prudence could not forbear, she drew the beautiful face down to kiss it.
"People will always call you plain, dear, but keep your soul in your face, and no matter."
"Can I help Deborah now? Or isn't there something for me to do upstairs?
I can study and practice this afternoon."
"I don't believe you will. Look out in the path."
Marjorie looked, then with a shout that was almost like Linnet's she dropped her work, and sprang towards the door. ”

“ She told Miss Sarepta that she and her brother were like the men and women that St. Paul in his Epistles sent his love to. “He ought to marry a saint like Madame Guyon; I think that it would be easier to revere him as a saint than to marry him. I can’t imagine any woman forgiving him, or loving him because he needs her love; he stands so far above me, I could never think of him as at my side and sometimes saying, ‘Help me, Tessa,’ or, ‘What do you think?’”
“Now we know your ideal of marriage,” laughed Mrs. Towne. “Philip is a good boy, but he sometimes needs looking after.” ”

“ Sometimes, people say things will happen if we don’t pray; perhaps they will, it is not for me to say they will not, but the happening will not be in answer to prayer, and that has a joyfulness of its own, that nobody knows except the One who answers and the one who prays. That is a joy too great to be told. Sometimes, I know that I have been as happy over an answered prayer as I can be. And I can be very happy,” Aunt Affy said, with happy tears shining in her eyes. ”

“ Money makes a difference; is it rather hard not to be rich? Position makes a difference; is it rather hard not to be noble?"
"I never thought about those things. They give you advantage in the world; but beauty makes people love you."
"What kind of beauty?"
"Lovable beauty," confessed Marjorie, smiling, feeling that she was being cornered.
"What makes lovable beauty?"
"A lovable heart, I suppose."
"Then I shouldn't wonder if you might have it as well as another. Is
Clarissa Parks more loved than any one in your class?"
"Oh, no. She is not a favorite at all." ”