Adele E. Thompson

“ While Ben was making sure that everything was in good order and securely fastened before he started, Posey ran down to the clear water and wetting her handkerchief washed her face and hands, straightened her hat and cape, and made herself look as tidy as she could. Her spirits had even risen so high that sitting down on the grassy bank she ventured into her lunch, and fancying that she saw Ben give another glance at the pie, as a slight expression of her overflowing gratitude she held it out to him, urging, “Do take it. I know it’s good, for Mrs. Hagood always makes such nice pumpkin pies.” ”

“ She had trusted implicitly to Ben. What should she do if his plan for her failed?
Mrs. Blossom saw the look. “What is your name?” she asked.
“Posey.”
“And whose Posey?” Mrs. Patience questioned looking up from her work with a gentle smile.
“Nobody’s,” was the mournful answer.
“And where is your home?” continued Mrs. Blossom.
“Nowhere,” answered Posey, a great sense of her forlornness rushing over her and filling her eyes with tears.
“Now, see here,” Miss Silence’s tone was brisk and incisive; “you want to tell the truth. Everybody has a surname and lives somewhere.” ”

“ Hagood would have said that all she was doing was for Posey’s interest, but it is exceedingly doubtful if Almira Hagood ever viewed anything or any one in a light separate from her own interest. With a sublime self-confidence in her own ideas and opinions, she would unhesitatingly have crushed a stronger opposition to her will; how much the more anything so insignificant as the wishes and feelings of a little charity girl! ”

“ Hagood to make on any subject—more than he would have uttered for himself, as Posey well knew; but the grim silence in which his wife had listened was only the hush before the storm which he had drawn on his own head. “Oh, yes, Elnathan Hagood,” with a biting sarcasm of tone, “that’s right and just what I might have expected of you; take up against your own wife and for a vile, impudent, little street-beggar. You needn’t think you two have been so hand in glove all summer without my seeing it, and this is the upshot, and you uphold her in it.”
“Oh, Almiry!” ”

“ Another thing she could not but see was the prevailing tone of discontent. Though the lives of Miss Fifield and Miss Eudora were much easier than those of Miss Silence and Mrs. Patience, the one was always complaining of the dullness of Farmdale, and the other making bitter reflections on life in general. Had Rose come directly from Mrs. Hagood’s all this might have escaped her notice, but her stay in the white cottage with its sweet-spirited inmates had given her a glimpse of a different life, an ideal that would always linger with her. ”

“ It was to Posey a new idea, and the stirring of her first real ambition. Was it possible that she could become a teacher like Miss Grey, and have pupils who should in like manner admire her, and, best of all, make a [Pg 38] place and earn a living for herself? Her heart thrilled, first with the idea, and again with the determination that it should be possible. And Miss Grey, busy with her many pupils and manifold duties, went her way unconscious of the ray of promise she had given, a ray that should shine as a day-star of hope through many a long day. ”

“ Hagood said to her, “Posey, I want you to pick the green tomatoes to-morrow morning, then after dinner you can chop them for the mixed pickle.”
Posey’s heart sank with dismay. The ambition the teacher at the Refuge had awakened, had grown with her own growth; more still, an education seemed her one hope of escape from the life of a charity dependent, and she determined to risk a great deal rather than give it up. “Hadn’t I better pick the tomatoes to-day?” she asked not without an inward trembling of the heart. “You know school begins to-morrow.” ”

“ Miss Eudora regarded her in the light of a romance; Miss Jane Fifield commended the fact that she was neither vain, nor, as she was pleased to put it, “silly”; while Mr. Nathan, in his pride at Rose’s persistence, and the quality he called her “grit,” went so far as to freshen up the languages of his college days, that he might the more help her.
At their time of life it was not to be expected that the Fifield nature would greatly change; still their friendship for Rose, inexperienced young girl though she was, brought a new and wholesome atmosphere into the old house. ”

“ Sometimes, for his kindly nature held an especially tender place for children, he attempted to expostulate in Posey’s behalf; but his mild, “Now, Almiry, I wouldn’t,” or “Almiry, you know children will be children,” made matters no better for Posey, and only brought a storm about his own head.
Weakness held no part in Mrs. Hagood; “capable” was the term that truly fitted her; at the same time there was no more tenderness in her nature than in her well-polished cook-stove. A timid, sensitive child would have wilted, pined, and perhaps have died in her atmosphere ”

“ It was at this time that Posey came under the notice of Madam Atheldena Sharpe, a lady who was making her wits provide her support, and who was quick to see how a pretty and easily taught child might be a help towards that end. To her taking possession of Posey there was no one to object. None of the few people she knew felt able to assume the burden of her support. To most of them the clairvoyant with her showy manners and fine-sounding phrases seemed a very imposing person, and Posey was counted a fortunate child to have found such a protector. ”

“ Blossom, “you are a member of the Fifield family now, and have no right to repeat or we to listen to anything you may see or hear there.”
Grandmother Sweet laid down her knitting, “As thee goes through life, Rose, thee will find many people whose lives seem not to be ordered by the law of love; at such times always remember that silence is not only the part of prudence but of true charity. At the same time thee can learn to avoid the mistakes thee sees others make.” ”

“ But the crowning charm of the place to Posey was the chattering brook that with many a curve and bend, as if seeking excuse to linger, ran in a little hollow through the centre of the pasture. A clear, sparkling little stream, gurgling and hurrying through the sunlit spaces, loitering in the shadows of the willows whose green fingers bent down to meet its current, with shallow places where one could wade or cross on stepping-stones, and deep pools where minnows loved to gather and hide them under the trailing grasses of the banks. ”

“ I don’t deny that I am tried sometimes with Nathan and Eudora, but I never let them know it.”
“I have my trials, too,” added Miss Eudora with a pensive shake of her little grey curls, “but I bear them in silence. Family squabbles are so disgraceful that I don’t see how a person of refinement could ever take part in one.”
Rose stared round-eyed from one to another speaker, and Silence Blossom turned her face away for a moment; but Grandmother Sweet smiled gently, for she had long ago learned how seldom it is that people know their own faults, or see themselves as others see them. ”

“ Gradually these signs of life multiplied, the clouds grew more rosy, the trees, no longer vague, dark masses, showed their brilliant hues of red and gold; wayside objects lost their dim and spectral look; all the world was waking into the crisp brightness of a clear, fresh, autumn morning, sweet with the fruity smell of ripened orchards, and rich with the soft mellowness of the long summer time.
With everything around her new and strange Posey had no idea how far she had come. ”

“ For the ignorance of most children as to the value of money, or its need in daily life had with Posey been early and sadly dispelled. Better than many an older person she understood not only its necessity but how to make the most of it. From behind some door or curtain she would watch the people as they came to consult the clairvoyant, or gathered for a séance, as eagerly as the “Madam” herself ”

“ But I shall love Great-Uncle Samuel always, even if I never see him again, because he did take enough interest to come and see me, and plan things for me. When I was Posey, I was nobody’s Posey; and now I’m Rose, I’m nobody’s Rose!”
“You are our Rose,” and Mrs. Patience put her arms about her, “and the Fifields think you are their Rose. I will tell you what you can do. You can win the love of people for yourself, and so be everybody’s Rose.” ”

“ Then with a piteous little cry, “I don’t see why my mother couldn’t have lived or I have died, too!” and overcome with a mingling of weariness, nervous excitement, and emotion, Posey dropped down beside her bundle, and hiding her face in it burst into a passion of sobs.
“There, there,” and as he spoke there was a shake in his own voice, and a moisture in [Pg 117] his own eyes. “Don’t cry so, don’t. I’m awfully sorry for you. I’ve lost my father and mother, too, and I know how tough it is on a fellow, though Uncle John and everybody have been good to me.” ”

“ Poor Kate, how much suffering she brought on herself by her wilfulness! And yet I don’t think the blame was all hers. If her father had lived I’m certain [Pg 243] it would never have happened; but her mother was a woman who wanted to bend every one and everything to her will. And Kate was an uncommonly high-spirited girl, impulsive and a trifle headstrong, but generous, affectionate, and everybody’s favorite; a girl that it needed some tact to manage, and her mother hadn’t a particle of tact. So when Kate fell in love with Jim Shannon she made a bad matter worse instead of better. ”

“ Her words, except those last ones fixed by the solemnity of death, she did not so much remember, but the tenor of her mother’s teachings, her influence, her personality, were indelibly stamped on her mind. In every grief her first impulsive thought was, “Oh, my mamma!” as though even that mute appeal was a consolation; while the reflection, “Would Mamma like to have me?” influenced her actions more than the actual presence of many a living mother. Never a night did she omit to kneel and repeat the prayer she had learned at her knee. ”

“ Rose exclaimed one day.
“It’s the busy people who find not only the most time but the most happiness,” was Silence Blossom’s cheery answer.
And realizing, as she well did, how much more of real happiness there was in the modest Blossom home than in the big Fifield house, where no one ever thought of going to ask a service, and every life was wholly self-centered, Rose could not but admit that this was true.
“I don’t see what happiness you could find [Pg 279] in sitting up all night with Aunt Polly Brown,” she protested. “I’m sure I never want to go where there’s sick people. ”

“ As for Miss Eudora, keenly mortified at the turn matters had taken, her former friendliness to Rose only increased her present indignation.
“It’s not only the loss of the money,” she exclaimed, “but the ingratitude of it, after all our kindness to her, and I gave her my pink muffler; she never could have done what she has if she had not been really hardened.”
“But what proof have you that she took the money?” asked Mrs. Blossom. “As you say she is a stranger to us all, a friendless, homeless orphan, whose condition is a claim to our charity as well as our generosity.” ”

“ Come up, old fellow! There,” as the dog bounded into the buggy, “sit up now like a gentleman.” And Rover lifting his head, lolled out his tongue, and looked first at one and then the other with an air of deep content.
It was a five-mile drive, but it seemed short to Posey, though easy-going Jim took his own gait, and once when Mr. Hagood saw on a converging road another wagon piled with bags he held his own horse back until he saw they had the right of way, which in this case assured him a wait of two or three hours at least. ”

“ Hagood she had passed and left behind the tall wrought-iron gates of the Refuge.
To live in the country had always been to Posey a dream of delight, though her knowledge of the country was limited to fleeting views from car windows. She had, too, a faint memory of stories her mother had once told her of the happiness of a childhood spent among orchards and meadows ”

“ While scattered along the way were clumps of woodbine, its leaves flushed russet crimson; bittersweet with its clustered orange berries beginning to show their scarlet hearts; with lingering sprays of golden rod, and lavender drifts of the wild aster. The farmhouses at which Ben stopped to trade—for he was too faithful [Pg 128] an employee to forget his business for any pleasure—had for the most part, it seemed to Posey, a cozy, homelike air, the yards of many gay with fall flowers that the frosts had not yet killed. ”

“ I would like a store, but Uncle John thinks a farm is safer, and perhaps I’ll buy the old farm back.”
“How nice that would be!” cried Posey.
“Why, see here, Posey,” with the force of a sudden idea, “when I get a farm I shall need somebody to keep the house, and I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll marry you. Then you can have a home, too; we’re both orphans and haven’t either of us one now.”
Posey clapped her hands. “That will be splendid! I know I should just love to live on a farm, and I will learn to make butter, and do all the things they do on farms. ”