Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

“ Life had had no power to dim them. Out of them youth looked and sparkled and flamed. She was so small that no clothes ever fitted her. They hung upon her tiny frame. Her thin hands peeped out of great, overhanging sleeves. She never had a garment of any but an obsolete fashion. She was wearing out the clothes of Squire Amos K.'s second wife, who had been a small woman, but not as small as Sophia.
Eliza Price esteemed it a very fortunate providence that the Squire's first wife had been a large woman, and that she herself, being also large, was provided with a wardrobe for the rest of her life. ”

“ Her heart was full of love, and it had not much upon which to lavish itself directly. Eliza presented, apparently, a granite surface toward the soft impulses of affection, although Sophia loved her with all her heart. Then there were Amy Horton and her mother and grandmother. Sophia loved them, but love was too strong a word to apply to their sentiments toward her. There was, in reality, no reason why people should love Sophia Wilton unless they saw below her surface, and the two elder Hortons were not women to see below surfaces, and Amy was too much engrossed with her love for Lem Jay. ”

“ He had returned to college, and had never noticed the little village girl again. He had married a grand dame from the city. He had lived and died in the great mansion-house. He had held the state of a feudal lord in his native village. His wife had died, and he had married the second time, but neither wife brought him a child. The village girl had never married. She had lived to be old and poor, with that pearl of divine value in her heart. Always she pondered upon it, and the face of Squire Amos K. as he had been in his youth was ever before her mental vision. ”

“ Eliza laughed. "Well, Sophia Wilton," said she, "you've made me sense something in my old age that I ain't never rightly sensed before, and that is, I guess we never can really have any cake in this world except what we give to other folks."
"I ain't told you everything," said Sophia. "I've been keeping a stray cat in the house a long time."
Eliza gasped.
"He's a splendid cat. He's a tiger," said Sophia.
Eliza laughed, with an actual peal of hilarity. "I always did like cats," said she, "and I was wondering what we should do with the chicken-bones to-morrow. It seemed wicked to waste them. ”

“ Then, with no apparent connection, she thought of something else, of Sylvia White. "It's too bad for that poor old woman to be living the way she does, from pillar to post," she thought. She made up her mind, then and there, to give Sylvia—Sylvia with that unsuspected pearl of love and suffering in her heart—a home for the rest of her life in the Price house.
When Sophia returned Eliza was eager with questions. ”

“ Nobody knew how much Eliza Price enjoyed the sense of possession. She had always owned so little that new riches seemed to be developing within her character seeds of miserliness. The two women lived upon an inconceivably small amount. Sophia did not object, for she was so tiny that her physical needs were matched. She was entirely content to peck at crumbs, like a bird. But the great, crippled old woman often went hungry, and got a morbid pleasure from it. ”

“ Sophia was in terror lest the cat steal into the front part of the house, and betray his existence to Eliza. He was a stray which Sophia had taken in, and she loved him. She fed him with food which she went without herself, and in that her conscience did not assail her; but she felt guilty with regard to harboring him without Eliza's knowledge. Eliza declared that she detested pet animals. "People had better put what cats and dogs cost into their own mouths, and save their money," she was wont to say. ”

“ She was somewhat curious with regard to that, but finally she settled the matter for herself.
"I suppose they must have decided to live with Amy's mother and grandmother," said she. "I suppose it was the only thing they could do, but I must say, from what I've heard and seen of that woman, it will be like living in a hornets' nest. I've heard that she was a good woman and means well, but she buzzes all the time, and don't say nor do what she means to. Well, it ain't any of my business. You've got too much sugar in my tea again, Sophia." ”

“ It is a bitter thing, if one senses it, to live to become the source of self-righteousness to other human beings, and this old woman had come to that. But deep in her heart was a memory which still perfumed it and made her worth while to her own self. ”

“ We ain't held up on the high-road the way we read about in books, but the butcher holds us up at our kitchen doors every day, and it's ‘Your money or your life,’ and no mistake. Twenty-eight cents a pound! Well, we ain't fools enough to pay many twenty-eight cents to the butcher. I don't think so much meat is healthy, for my part."
"I'd just as lief have other things," assented Sophia sweetly. She sat watching Eliza Price eat her dry toast and sip her tea. ”

“ She did not like Eliza Price. She felt that she, as a relative of the Squire's second wife, should have had some of the property.
"I wouldn't risk it," said Sophia, "but I don't worry when I'm here, for I can see the least sign of smoke, and run over there in time to get her out."
"I guess she'd get out. Some folks always do," said old Mrs. Horton, and now her tone was pessimistic to a degree. "Some folks always get the cream, and other folks have to thank the Lord Almighty for about half enough of skim milk," she added, and she nodded her long head with a fierce movement. ”

“ But Eliza interrupted her with an outburst of grim laughter. "For goodness' sake! You don't expect Lem Jay is going to wear that old swallow-tail and the Squire's flowered vests and pants?" said she, and laughed again.
But Sophia did not laugh. She was terribly sober. "I give them to him," she repeated, "and that ain't all. I told them they could have that house of yours, next the Jones place, free of rent, and they are going to live there to-morrow after they are married."
Sophia stopped. She stood before Eliza, calmly awaiting her verdict. ”

“ Then Sophia Wilton faced them, and committed the first deadly sin of her life. She lied straight from the shoulder, without the slightest hesitation.
"There ain't any need for you and Lem not to get married, if you want to," said she. "Eliza ain't so bad as folks think, and she ain't so stingy. She's better than she knows she is herself."
A wonderful flush overspread Amy's delicate face. Her eyes shot a quick blue flash at Sophia. ”

“ You didn't have any need to take such means to get them, and tell lies—and they wasn't lies, either, though you didn't know it, for I always did hate to be thanked for anything— But I would like to see Amy when she's all decked out a bride. I don't care any great sight about seeing Lem Jay; men don't amount to much; but I suppose he's part of the show."
Sophia was weeping. "You are real good, Eliza," she sobbed.
"Mebbe I am better than you've been thinking, and kept it close," admitted Eliza. "Now, stop crying, Sophia Wilton. ”

“ Sophia rose and peered over her shoulder. Her eyes were better than Eliza's, who needed new spectacles, but would not purchase on account of the expense.
"It ain't two women; it's a woman and a man," said she.
"You know better, Sophia Wilton. Can't I see two skirts swishin'?"
"The man has got on a long coat, and that swishes. It's Amy Horton and Lem Jay."
"What business has Lem Jay got with a coat with a long tail that swishes? I know it cost no end of money. He's as poor as Job's off ox. He'd better save up his money if he ever expects to marry that girl." ”

“ Had Eliza Price employed an agent, the matter would have been more difficult, but she was parsimonious in that as in everything else. Sophia cautioned everybody about mentioning the subject of Eliza's good works to her, and the caution was heeded. People were a little afraid of the grim old woman.
Eliza heard that Lem Jay and Amy Horton were to be married on Thanksgiving Day, and that was all she did hear. Nobody told her anything else, and nobody told her where they were to live. ”

“ No, I ain't. I've been lying like all possessed, and I ain't been sorry for it, neither. Now I'm sorry I had to lie, and it's just before Thanksgiving, and I don't dare keep it back any longer, and I'm going to tell the truth. ”