Evelyn Raymond

“ The group of young folks who watched their carriage out of sight felt for a few moments a sense of desolation which even Paula’s pride in authority, or Content’s serenity, could not banish.
“Oh, dear! I feel—I feel so lumpy, and kind of sick inside,” said little Fritz, dropping his head on Christina’s shoulder; “I don’t see what makes folks go away all the time.”
“Let’s all go into Melville’s room and be miserable together,” said Content, trying to smile, yet finding the tears interfering; “I think I heard Octave say that Melville had had a letter from your Uncle Fritz.” ”

“ Of late, they had found many things in common, of likes and dislikes; and it had grown to be “the girls,” whenever they were spoken of in the household. Slowly ripening friendships are safest; and that of the elder cousins had grown gradually enough; but now it promised to equal that of names famous in history.
“What can I have done to vex Aunt Ruth!” cried Paula, wistfully. “I never thought so much about doing just right in my life as I have done since grandmother went away; but the harder I try the worse things appear to go.” ”

“ Think of that, Melville Capers! I, Octave Pickel, the impecunious, with ten real dollars all my very own!”
“It is almost incredible. But don’t worry; you’ll not have them long; you have no liking for money,” answered Melville, consolingly.
“Humph! I do so like it—to spend!”
“I, too, think there is another ‘Mystery’; but it can never be half so splendid as ours. I think your Uncle Fritz is in it even more deeply than Aunt Ruth. ”

“ Paula had nourished a mistaken notion that her “perfect Cousin Content” considered herself infinitely superior to the worldly and frivolous “Miss Pickel,” whose main interests in life appeared to be dress and the supervision of her neighbors’ manners.
The truth was simply that each girl was to the other a new and uncomprehended type. Octave had early nicknamed the one “Beauty,” the other “Duty”; and, unlike as they were, it took just such a sorrow to break away the outer form of habit and training, and show the warm, friendly hearts beneath. ”

“ If no one troubled me more than thee does, sweet mother, I should find life all too comfortable. It is the children—the ‘pickles.’”
“Thee promised to leave care behind thee when we left The Snuggery, and thee has bravely tried to keep thy word, though it has been hard at times. What is new about them, now?”
“I have a letter from Rosetta which puzzles me. I don’t know if thee is well enough to hear it, but I should like advice.”
“Ruth, I am well; and thee shall have the advice for what it may be worth to thee.” ”

“ There she could sleep undisturbed as late as nature craved the rest. “After a good sleep she will be as fresh as new,” the doctor had told them.
So, in her lonely chamber, by the light of one candle, Octave prepared to unburden herself of her great “Mystery.”
Her fingers trembled so that she could hardly write, and her heart-beats were so loud she fancied that all the family must hear them. She began, without prelude, other than the conventional “Dear Aunt Ruth”:—
The great surgeon is to come here to-morrow. ”

“ I was ashamed to put Fritz Pickel into such a pigeonhole as the little room under the stairs, and it was all there was left to offer him.”
“Fritz Pickel will do very well if he has always such a comfortable and cleanly bed to rest him on; and it is not he who is troubled, but thy own housewifely heart. Go now to sleep, my child. On thee will fall the burden of the day, and thee must rest. All that the past day has brought to our door, that will we keep; and because of the new bringing we will not discard the old.” ”

“ Christina, there, is the mother made anew for us. Thou wilt find comfort in little Christina,” he added fondly, laying his broad hand on the flaxen braids of his youngest niece, who blushed and smiled gratefully at the commendation.
“And what of me, Fritzy Nunky? Am I not a comfort, also?” asked the tall Octave, demurely.
“Praise goes unsought, sweetheart. It never answers to bidding, thou witch! Octave will make thee great care, Frau Kinsolving. She has a big heart and a head full of heedless ways. Octave is my brother Franz, as little Christina is my sister Lydia.” ”

“ When, that night, at locking-up-time, Octave had not appeared, and Paula went to the room the sisters shared in common, hoping to find the wild-cap safe in bed, although the sheets had been turned down and then shaken, as if the well-grown lassie could by any possibility be hiding within them, there was great consternation in the household.
“She is always up to pranks, but she does not generally treat us unkindly,” said the aggrieved elder girl, feeling somehow that the house was not a “Snuggery” without the sharpest of the “pickles.” ”

“ Strangely enough, “Fritzy Nunky” appeared to agree with her, and if there was one person of whom his sunshiny nature stood in awe it was of Fräulein Paula Pickel.
On Paula’s pretty features, then, there rested an expression of grave disapproval during that supper which followed the arrival of the stranger grandchildren; for Uncle Fritz was so lost in admiration of his lovely old hostess, and so relieved to find The Snuggery such a delightful home for his darlings, that he was even more boisterous than ever. ”

“ Nothin’ else on the face o’ the airth!” he had ejaculated fervently.
“Thee is right, Abraham. The Providence who watches over all His children,” said Grandmother Kinsolving, quietly. Even in that supreme moment of anxiety which her pallor showed her to be suffering, the outward serenity of Mother Amy’s face remained sweet and undisturbed, and Ruth wondered if anything could ever find her distrustful or afraid.
At a motion from Ruth’s hand, Uncle Fritz ceased racing to and fro between the brookside and the fainting Octave, and waited while she opened her eyes and looked wearily about her. ”

“ But suddenly, upon the wan features turned so anxiously toward Melville, there came a change which even his inexperienced eye was swift to interpret.
With a strength born of excitement,—or given by God,—he forced his useless body downward upon the lounge until he could clasp and hold his grandmother’s head against his breast.
Then a rapture, born of her great love for him and of her gratitude for his unwonted tenderness, illumined the aged face: “My darling—my darling!” she cried faintly. ”

“ But whatever might be her mental or moral weaknesses, in one thing she was strong; and that was in her supreme, untiring devotion to her grandson. It seemed to Amy Kinsolving as if Ellison’s mother was seeking, by the consecration of her every faculty to Ellison’s child, to make up to him for the terrible injury he had suffered at his parent’s hands. If the devotion wearied Melville, he was still so accustomed to it that he would scarcely have known how to exist without it. ”

“ If I bring you this man of science will you talk with him, or will you be cantankerous? Mind you, I don’t do it just for you—but for the good of the world at large. I’m a philanthropist, in general. I always felt that I was ‘cut out’ for something unusual; but I didn’t dream it was to be scientific till I became your assistant. Say, will you?”
“You don’t know any man of science; and—he would laugh at my ‘cheek.’”
“All right. I’ve always sighed for adventure, and now I shall have it. I feel like a conspirator—and it’s a perfectly exquisite sensation. Hurrah!”
“Octave Pickel! Are you crazy?” ”

“ In this benighted household my blessed professor is known only as—He! He is a part of a splendid Mystery, which even you cannot be told, till the time is ripe. We have told you already more than we intended, and more than any one else is to know, perhaps for several weeks. When it is all accomplished”—here Octave smiled most encouragingly upon Melville, who suddenly appeared to turn pale—“everybody will congratulate everybody, and everything will be so beautiful! Please, Aunt Ruth, don’t tell Paula Pickel nor any of the others what we have told you. ”

“ My lad, I hold you to be both; and when you shall be physically able, I ask you to come and take a position in my laboratory. It will give the old man new vigor to feel that such an one as you is beside him.”
“O Melville! Is it true? Is it really true? I shall have to pinch myself to make myself believe it.” Octave’s eyes were shining, and her cheeks glowed with delight.
“It is, it must be, true, Octave; since here it is in black and white. I have to take it out from under my pillow a dozen times a day to read it over, since I haven’t your felicitous method of convincing myself. ”

“ When [189] you are sure,—perfectly, perfectly sure,—and it has been tried in other ways ever so many times, then he is to try it on himself; when the great surgeon says the time has come. We want him to show his courage and get his fame all at once—in a blaze of glory! Poor laddie! he hasn’t had many blazes of glory, but he’s had lots of blazing tempers! He’s almost as spunky as I am. So, when we get to The Snuggery, you are to be—He, I am a Heroine, and this is part of my romance. I just have astonished Paula Pickel for once in my life, and I don’t want you to go and spoil the fun. ”

“ One by one the cousins who could do so passed out of the room, leaving Melville, who could not go had he wished, as sole witness of the interview between Ruth and Octave.
The sight of the merry Octave in tears was one so unusual and so depressing that little Fritz set up a dismal wail, which Christina checked her own more silent grief to soothe.
“Never mind, little brother; Aunt Ruthy loves Octave ever so! She’ll not scold her very hard for running away and being a heroine.” ”

“ Melville smiled. “I am not much of a hero, dear; but I ought to be patient. Indeed, there doesn’t seem to be any need for that virtue now. Only think, in a very few weeks the surgeon said I could begin to try my limbs. Think! when I’ve lain here so many years, without the shadow of a hope that I should ever be any better! A fellow ought to be willing to bear anything for such a gain.”
Octave’s eyes filled. It had, strangely enough, never seemed half so pitiful to her that Melville [263] should be a cripple till this possibility of his cure arose to cheer them on. ”

“ A slight misgiving as he did so died when he saw how contentedly the creature curled herself down upon Melville’s luxurious cushions.
“She looks as if she liked you, a’ready,” said the little boy.
“Of course she does. She is a self-denying animal, who is glad to die for science’s sake.”
Fritz did wish that Melville would not use that unpleasant word “die” so frequently. ”

“ Fame is not always nobility; nor is notoriety fame. I should not want either thee or him to do anything for the mere sake of making peoples’ tongues wag.”
“Aunt Ruth, we’re all in a ‘mix-up,’ as Fritzy says. In the first place, I am going to tell tales for once, so as to clear up that about the ‘tantrum.’ Or, will you, Melville? It isn’t fair that you should think it was Paula.” ”

“ Then, being of slender build and sensitive temperament, she always found it convenient to sleep wrapped in one shawl; and, owing to the undue exposure of the night just gone, she had put on a second, of rich color and great amplitude. Below all trailed a heavy dressing-gown which was summer and winter bedfellow to shawl number one.
Melville was on the point of retorting to her usual fond inquiry: “No, I didn’t ‘call you darling!’” but one of those rare glimpses of humor which proved him, after all, to be something of a Kinsolving and relative to Ruth, averted the sharp retort. ”

“ The satisfied and aged expression which settled upon the boyish face was funny in the extreme, and Content laughed more heartily than she had yet done since she parted with her father at Osaka, in far-away Japan.
“I know she will ‘like’ you; I do”; and she kissed again the pretty, dirty face of the young traveller, and lifted him out upon the grass.
“Where’s the stable?”
“Around this way. Can you lead your horse?”
“I can, but I don’t want to. I’m tired. Where’s the hostler?”
“There is none.”
Little Fritz opened his big eyes. “What’ll we do then?” ”

“ An older and a wiser person would have hesitated long before intruding upon one so fully occupied as Prof, von Holsneck; but the girl had but one idea in her mind, and believed that the man she sought was the best one in the world to help her to her object. Why, then, should she not go to him? To her it appeared the most natural way, when one was in need, to apply at head-quarters for the assistance required; and she knew very well that in neither Europe nor America was there any one who could approach the professor in his special branch of knowledge. ”

“ So, evidently, thought Uncle Fritz; for he arose and, crossing to Aunt Ruth’s side, held out his great hand invitingly.
Then she, looking like a sweet blush rose, wrapped in a cloak of soft gray moss, stood up and faced him; and before anybody could do much more than sigh their amazement, those two people had—married themselves!
So that was the “Mystery” then! A Quaker wedding! “Pooh!” said Melville; “it wasn’t half so great as ours. Anybody can get married!”
Then there was such a deal of hand-shaking and good-wishing that Octave couldn’t just bear it. She was sorry and she was glad ”

“ The injured girl’s face brightened still more. “I did not know that you ever had a ‘half-mind,’ Aunt Ruthy. You look always decided enough to have a great, big, sound, and whole one, with a few ‘pieces’ to spare. Well, let’s get ‘Abry-ham’ and I’ll ‘beard the lion,’ and all the rest of it.”
“We will hope that ‘all the rest of it’ will not prove too much for even thy daring soul,” replied Aunt Ruth gaily; and as she passed out of the room she paused to give her charge a quiet kiss. This demonstration was rare with the aunt, and little Fritz alone of all his family would not have found it so. ”

“ The telegram said that all of Aunt Lydia’s children were coming.”
“Oh, they be; when they get ready. Paula,—she’s a stick,—she told Uncle Fritz that she could not come till she had stopped to the hotel and freshened herself. She’s always a freshening herself, Paula is, but I’m sure I don’t know why, for she never does a blessed thing to get herself messed. Octave, now—Octave, she is a jolly one! she’s always messing, but she never freshens. I like Octave.”
“Indeed! most boys do like their sisters. But come, come quickly to dear grandmother! She will be so glad to see you!” ”

“ From his room adjoining, Melville heard the discussion and terminated it in his own fashion: “Go to bed, grandma, and keep still! If, at your age, you want to be a fool, be one, and not bother other folks about it! As for you, Aunt Ruth, I wish you would get me a drink of fresh water out of the well, and take yourself off out of the way. I hate this night rowing! If you don’t get back to that side of the house pretty soon, some of the rest of your imps will be breaking loose! I’ll make grandmother get out of this!”
“Thee will, in a sense thee little understands, ungrateful boy!” ”