Eleanor H. Porter

“ In the chamber above a woman sprang to her feet. Harriet had quite forgotten the stove-pipe hole to the room below, and every sob and moan and wailing cry had been woefully distinct to her ears. With streaming eyes and quivering lips she hurried down the stairs and threw open the sitting-room door.
“Jehiel! Hannah Jane! I’m here, right here--alive!” she cried. “An’ I’ve been a wicked, wicked woman! I never thought how bad ‘twas goin’ ter make you feel. I truly never, never did. ’Twas only myself--I wanted yer so. Oh, children, children, I’ve been so wicked--so awful wicked!” ”

“ The laugh was uppermost and almost parted the firm-set lips, when a side glance at the quivering face of the little woman in the big chair turned the laugh into a half-stifled sob. Then Alma spoke.
“Mother, dear, listen. Do you think a silk dress and a stiff collar can make you and father any dearer to me? Do you think an ‘ain’t’ or a ‘hain’t’ can make me love either of you any less? Do you suppose I expect you, after fifty years’ service for others, to be as careful in your ways and words as if you’d spent those fifty years in training yourself instead of in training six children? ”

“ Her heart failed her again as she thought of John’s pretty, new wife, and of the two big boys, men grown, sons of dear dead Molly. There was the baby, to be sure; but the baby was always attended by one, and maybe two, white-capped, white-aproned young women. Madam Wetherby never felt quite sure of herself when with those young women. There were other young women, too, in whose presence she felt equally ill at ease; young women in still prettier white aprons and still daintier white caps; young women who moved noiselessly in and out of the halls and parlors and who waited at table each day. ”

“ In the city that night at least six clerks went home with an unusual weariness in their arms, which came from lifting down and displaying almost their entire stock of black silk. But with all the weariness, there was no irritation; there was only in their nostrils a curious perfume as of lavender and old lace, and in their hearts a strange exaltation as if they had that day been allowed a glad part in a sacred rite. As for Miss Priscilla and Miss Amelia, they went home awed, yet triumphant: when one has waited forty years to make a purchase one does not make that purchase lightly. ”

“ Nancy Wetherby never rocked her grandson again, but for days she haunted the nursery, happy if she could but tie the baby’s moccasins or hold his brush or powder-puff; yet a week had scarcely passed when John’s wife said to her:
“Mother, dear, I wouldn’t tire myself so trotting upstairs each day to the nursery. There isn’t a bit of need--Mary and Betty can manage quite well. You fatigue yourself too much!” ”

“ On and on down the long straight road flew Jupiter Ann and the little gray mare. At door and window of the scudding houses appeared men and women with startled faces and upraised hands. Miss Prue knew that they were there, and shuddered. The shame of it--she, in a horse-race, and with Rupert Joyce! Hurriedly she threw a look at the young man’s face to catch its expression; and then she saw something else: the little gray mare was a full half-head in the lead of Jupiter Ann! ”

“ Day after day, in one corner of the kitchen, an old man boiled his potatoes and fried his unappetizing eggs over a dusty, unblacked stove; in the other corner an old woman baked and brewed over a shining idol of brass and black enamel--and always the baking and brewing carried to the nostrils of the hungry man across the room the aroma of some dainty that was a particular favorite of his own. ”

“ Such had been the code of the Heath family for generations, as Miss Priscilla and Miss Amelia well knew; and it was this that had made all the harder their own fate--that their twenty-first birthday was now forty years behind them, and not yet had either of them attained this cachet of respectability.
To-day, however, there was to come a change. No longer need the carefully sponged and darned black alpaca gowns flaunt their wearers’ poverty to the world, and no longer would they force these same wearers to seek dark corners and sunless rooms, lest the full extent of that poverty become known. ”

“ A new restlessness entered their lives, a restlessness that speedily became the worst kind of homesickness--the homesickness of one who is already at home.
The extra half-hour was spent in bed as before--but now Hester lay with one ear listening to make sure that Sarah Ellen did let the cat in for her early breakfast; and Jeremiah lay with his ear listening for the squeak of the barn door which would tell him whether William was early or, late that morning. ”

“ Jane was fifty-five now, a thin-faced, stoop-shouldered, tired woman--but a woman to whom release from this constant care was soon to come, for she was not yet fifty-six when her father died.
All the children and some of the grandchildren came to the funeral. In the evening the family, with the exception of Jane, gathered in the sitting-room and discussed the future, while upstairs the woman whose fate was most concerned laid herself wearily in bed with almost a pang that she need not now first be doubly sure that doors were locked and spoons were counted. ”

“ So overwhelmed with grief were they, indeed, that they fled from the room almost immediately upon seeing him, and Edgar took the first train out of town.
Mary, shiveringly, crept from room to room, trying to find a place where the cackling laugh and the fretful voice would not reach her. But the old man, like a child with a new toy, was pleased at his daughter’s arrival, and followed her about the house with unfailing persistence.
“But, Mary, he won’t hurt you. Why do you run?” remonstrated Jane. ”

“ To most of the passengers on the trolley-car that day the trip was merely a necessary means to an end; to the old couple on the front seat it was something to be remembered and lived over all their lives. Even at the Junction the spell of unreality was so potent that the man forgot things so trivial as tickets, and marched into the car with head erect and eyes fixed straight ahead.
It was after Hezekiah had taken out the roll of bills--all ones--to pay the fares to the conductor that a young man in a tall hat sauntered down the aisle and dropped into the seat in front. ”

“ My undaunted persistence and marvelous capacity for hard work?” he was saying. “Do you think it’s to that I owe what I am? Never! Come back with me to that little home of forty years ago and I’ll show you to what and to whom I do owe it. First and foremost I owe it to a woman--no ordinary woman, I want you to understand--but to the most wonderful woman in the world.” ”

“ The weeks passed and Reuben began to be restless. One day he came in from the post office fairly bubbling over with excitement.
“Say, Em’ly, when folks have money they travel. Let’s go somewhere!”
“Why, Reuben--where?” quavered his wife, dropping into the nearest chair.
“Oh, I dunno,” with cheerful vagueness; then, suddenly animated, “Let’s go to Boston and see the sights!”
“But, Reuben, we don’t know no one there,” ventured his wife doubtfully.
“Pooh! What if we don’t? Hain’t we got money? Can’t we stay at a hotel? Well, I guess we can!” ”

“ The Hapgood twins were born in the great square house that set back from the road just on the outskirts of Fairtown. Their baby eyes had opened upon a world of faded portraits and somber haircloth furniture, and their baby hands had eagerly clutched at crystal pendants on brass candlesticks gleaming out of the sacred darkness that enveloped the parlor mantel.
When older grown they had played dolls in the wonderful attic, and made mud pies in the wilderness of a back yard. ”

“ For a moment Nancy Wetherby’s breath was held suspended, then it came in a burst with a rush of words.
“Oh, John, John, I’m so useless, so useless, so dreadfully useless! Don’t you see? Not a thing, not a person needs me. The kitchen has the cook and the maids. The baby has two or three nurses. Not even this room needs me--there’s a girl to dust it each day. Once I slipped out of bed and did it first--I did, John; but she came in, and when I told her, she just curtsied and smiled and kept right on, and--she didn’t even skip one chair! ”

“ Don’t you--like them?”
“’Like them’!” cried Lydia Ann, and at the stifled sob in her voice three men and three women caught their breath sharply and tried to swallow the lumps in their throats. “We--we just love them!”
No one spoke. The grandchildren stared silently, a little awed. Ella, Frank, and Ned stirred restlessly and looked anywhere but at each other. ”

“ I never can think of anything else. Besides, they’re always good, anyhow. But I should think you, a woman, could think of something--”
“Never mind,” interrupted Ella airily. “Mother’s a dear, and she won’t care if she does get two pairs.”
“But she won’t want three pairs,” groaned Frank; “and I got slippers too!”
There was a moment of dismayed silence, then everybody laughed.
Ella was the first to speak. “It’s too bad, of course, but never mind. Mother’ll see the joke of it just as we do. You know she never seems to care what we give her. Old people don’t have many wants, I fancy.” ”

“ John was absorbed in business and house-building, and Grandpa and Grandma Burton were contented and well cared for. There really seemed to be no reason why Mrs. John should not go away, if she wished--and she apparently did wish. It was at about this time, too, that certain Vermont villages--one of which was the Honorable John Burton’s birthplace--were stirred to sudden interest and action. A persistent, smiling-faced woman had dropped into their midst--a woman who drove from house to house, and who, in every case, left behind her a sworn ally and friend, pledged to serve her cause. ”

“ He noted the flushed cheeks and shaking hands of the woman before him. It was true, she must know; and perhaps, after all, it was best she should know through him. He drew a long breath and plunged straight into the heart of the story.
Five minutes later a glad voice came from the doorway.
“Mother, dearest--then you’re awake!” The doctor was conscious of a low-breathed “Hush, don’t tell her!” in his ears; then, to his amazement, he saw the woman on the bed turn her head and hold out her hand with the old groping uncertainty of the blind.
“Margaret! It is Margaret, isn’t it?” ”

“ The sisters trembled and changed color at the story of the boy’s hardships on the way to Fairtown; and they plied him with questions and sandwiches in about equal proportions after he told of the frequent dinnerless days and supperless nights of the journey.
That evening when the boy was safe in bed--clean, full-stomached, and sleepily content the sisters talked it over. The Reverend John Hapgood, in his will, had cut off his recreant son with the proverbial shilling, so, by law, there was little coming to Ralph. This, however, the sisters overlooked in calm disdain. ”

“ The cake was covered with the tiny colored candies so dear to the heart of a child. Miss Rachel always bought those candies at the village store, with the apology:--
“I want them for Tabitha’s birthday cake, you know. She thinks so much of pretty things.”
Tabitha invariably made the cake and iced it, and as she dropped the bits of colored sugar into place, she would explain to Huldy, who occasionally “helped” in the kitchen:--
“I wouldn’t miss the candy for the world--my sister thinks so much of it!” ”

“ The letters were dispatched with haste, and almost by return mail came the answers; an emphatic approval, and a promise of hearty cooperation signed “Frank” and “Ned.” What is every one’s business is apt to be no one’s business, however, and no one notified Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Bertram of the change of plan, each thinking that one of the others would attend to it.
“As for presents,” mused Ella, as she hurried downtown two days before Christmas, “I never can think what to give them; but, after all, there’s nothing better than bed-slippers for Mother, and a warm neckerchief for Father’s throat. ”

“ And to the old lady’s denials John’s wife returned, with a tinge of sharpness: “But, really, mother, I’d rather you didn’t. It frets the nurses and--forgive me--but you know you will forget and talk to him in ’baby-talk’!”
The days came and the days went, and Nancy Wetherby stayed more and more closely to her rooms. She begged one day for the mending-basket, but her daughter-in-law laughed and kissed her.
“Tut, tut, mother, dear!” she remonstrated. “As if I’d have you wearing your eyes and fingers out mending a paltry pair of socks!” ”

“ At once she gave the reins an angry jerk; in the other light carriage sat Rupert Joyce, the young man who for weeks had been unsuccessfully trying to find favor in her eyes because he had already found it in the eyes of her ward and niece, Mary Belle.
“Good-morning, Miss Prue,” called a boyish voice.
“Good-morning,” snapped the woman, and jerked the reins again.
Miss Prue awoke then to the sudden realization that if the other’s speed had accelerated, so, too, had her own.
“Ann, Ann, whoa!” she commanded. Then she turned angry eyes on the young man. “Go by--go by! Why don’t you go by?” ”

“ Warden and “Mr. Livingstone” were on the best of terms, and when they separated at the foot of the car-steps, to the old man and woman it seemed that half their joy and all their courage went with the smiling man who lifted his hat in farewell before being lost to sight in the crowd.
“There, Abby, we’re here!” announced Hezekiah with an exultation that was a little forced. “Gorry! There must be somethin’ goin’ on ter-day,” he added, as he followed the long line of people down the narrow passage between the cars. ”

“ Surely father isn’t knitting socks and mittens, is he?”
“No, no,” cried Sarah Ellen. “I’m coming to that as fast as I can. You see, ’twas father who went to work first. He’s been doing all sorts of little odd jobs, even to staying with the Snow children while their folks went to town, and spading up Nancy Howe’s flower beds for her. But it’s been wearing on him, and he was getting all tired out. Only think of it, William--working out--father and mother! I just can’t ever hold up my head again! What shall we do?” ”