Annie Laurie

“ Annie Laurie felt her heart leaping in her, and the black care that had been hanging over her of late lifted like mist before the sun. Looking up, she could see where Azalea’s house was perched fairly upon the edge of the mountain ledge. There it hung, like an eagle’s great nest, daringly near the long slope of old Mount Tennyson.
“Isn’t she a dear—that Azalea girl?” asked Carin enthusiastically. “Never was there such a friend! Why, just having her believe in me the way she does, makes me long to do things. ”

“ Annie Laurie drew a deep breath.
“Yes, I suppose it is,” sighed Carin sympathetically. “Isn’t it queer, when you come to think of it, that work had to be brought into the world? Why weren’t we made like the birds, so that we could hop around awhile, and sing awhile, and go to sleep under a nice dry leaf?”
p. 15“Well, life isn’t that way,” said Annie Laurie in the solemn tones the Paces sometimes used. “We have to work for what we get, and I’m glad we do. Life is more interesting just the way it is.” ”

“ They put the pony in the stall, and then, wrapped in their raincoats, tramped along over the red pine needles to Annie Laurie’s home.
“Don’t feel at all backward, will you, Azalea?” the other girl said as they stood on the doorstep. “You just have a little pluck and everything will come out all right.”
Azalea laughed.
“You don’t half understand me yet, Annie Laurie,” she said. “You’re so much more serious than I am. I can’t help enjoying things even when they are serious. ”

“ So the three girls grew browner and brighter-eyed each day, and the heart in each of them—even Annie Laurie’s—was light as down.
But not a hint did they have of the Disbrows. Though they plunged deeper and deeper into the mountains, getting far beyond the towns, they saw nothing of them. They went so far that they came at last upon the lonely, sad-eyed people whom Miss Borrow had described. In their miserable cabins, which were far from weatherproof, they lived their curious, solitary lives. Their faces were vacant and mournful; their voices like the soughing of wind in the trees. ”

“ However, a few minutes later, when she was in Annie Laurie’s sober, tidy room, putting on her dress and freshening her hair, she overheard Miss Zillah saying softly to Annie Laurie in the next room:
“Sister Adnah thinks you should not invite anyone to the house without first asking permission, my dear. As for myself, I’m glad to see p. 83you have friends and feel free to ask them, but it would be well to make certain preparations.”
“Not at all, Aunt Zillah,” answered Annie Laurie hotly. “I’ve never had a girl to stay all night—never. I asked Azalea because it was raining. ”

“ Disbrow had grown calmer. Azalea would have left them, but Annie Laurie wanted her to stay. She held her hand and kept her close beside her.
“You understand everything, Azalea,” she whispered. “You don’t seem surprised at good times or at bad times, dear. You take things as they come. Stay with me, Azalea, I need you very much.”
“What will you do, miss?” Disbrow had asked. “Will you let the people know how you got your money back?” ”

“ Carin protested, “not just a silly niggling beginner. Just you wait, Annie Laurie! Some day you are going to be a beautiful woman, and by that time I hope to know enough to paint you the way you ought to be.”
Then there was a walk in the late afternoon, and tea with Mrs. Kitchell at the Industries, and then the stroll back in the lilac-tinted air, and the fun of dressing together for dinner.
Annie Laurie could hardly make her own toilet for watching Carin, as she came all fresh from her bath, in her dainty garments, and p. 209slipped into her simple, exquisite frock of clinging white silk. ”

“ It was a much easier thing for Azalea to cook the supper than it was for Annie Laurie to persuade Sam to come in and eat with them. But the bright-faced girl, with her good will shining in her face, succeeded in overcoming his p. 265scruples. It was very hard for so social a creature as Sam to keep to himself, holding before himself the hard fact:
“I am the son of a man who is under suspicion. I must not be the friend of honest folk until I am proved of an honest family.” ”

“ Annie Laurie whispered agonizingly, “Azalea will hear you.”
“Why didn’t you stay in the kitchen, miss? You seemed very anxious not to leave it a few minutes ago. I won’t have boys looking in my windows.”
“But it’s only Hi. He’s crazy about Azalea—like her little brother, you know. Azalea will think we’re dreadful.”
“Dreadful? We may be a terror to evil doers—well, hear that telephone, will you? Ringing like mad. Never did I know such a morning. No, I’ll answer it, Ann. Hello! Hello! Yes. The Pace residence. Who? Carin Carson. Very well, what is it? Yes, Ann is home. All right? ”

“ By the way, Carin is up in her studio. Lessons are to be up there this morning, for a change. Azalea, will you kindly show Annie Laurie the way? Your luncheon will be served there too. We thought we’d celebrate the formation of the Triple Alliance.
“What, ma’am?” said Azalea.
“The Three Girls’ Alliance,” smiled Mrs. Carson. “Drive back to town, please Ben. I must do my marketing.”
As she rode off, Annie Laurie looked at Azalea in a puzzled way.
“How quiet she is,” she said. “I can’t make her out. Nothing seems to matter to her, yet she’s always doing good. ”

“ A dark cloud had tumbled off the mountain and settled down over the valley, and though it was not late, it seemed almost like night.
“Goodness me,” said Annie Laurie, “I don’t like to think of you riding away up on the mountain a night like this. Why, you’d be drenched.”
“I ought to have accepted Carin’s invitation and stayed all night with her,” said Azalea. “Mother doesn’t expect me on bad nights. She’s not to worry about me if I don’t come when it rains or snows.” ”

“ Annie Laurie went on, holding tight to Azalea’s hand to gather courage, “I think I ought to tell them. It will let them know you were honest in your heart after all, and it will make them give Sam credit for what he’s done. I’m sure that’s the right way, Mr. Disbrow. When I was naughty I used to like to be punished—it made me feel fair and honest again. And you’ll feel better if the neighbors know. That will be your punishment. And what’s more, it will explain everything. I don’t want to have to tell a lie when I say how I got my money back. ”

“ Jim McBirney or Sam Disbrow took a hand. There always was plenty to do at the Mountain Industries, it seemed, however slack work might be elsewhere.
One day of cold rain, Azalea and Annie Laurie had stopped in at Mrs. Kitchell’s for a cup of tea before they made their way to their distant homes. There was no one there that afternoon, save the sharp-eyed, busy Mrs. Kitchell, and she, having served them, went back to the loom-room and left them to themselves. The girls were excellent friends now. They trusted and admired each other—counted on each other, as true friends should. ”

“ Carson, and the ivory toilet set from Carin, a set of Tennyson from Mr. Carson, and a handmade petticoat from Annie Laurie, and some old eardrops of pink coral made into a brooch by Miss Adnah, and a knitted shoulder shawl from Miss Zillah, and a kind of zither thing that Sam had made himself, and a box of sweets from Dick Heller, and—are you out of breath? Because there are ever so many more things. ”

“ The two sat shivering before the fire, tearful and nervous, and even Miss Adnah was now willing to give over the search for their lost fortune into the hands of these respectful and sympathetic girls.
“At first, my dear girls,” said Aunt Zillah brokenly, “it seemed as if we couldn’t let anyone in to help us and it’s hard enough now, but we’d rather it would be you than anyone.”
“Oh, Miss Zillah,” cried Azalea in her impulsive way, “we understand just how you feel. But Annie Laurie’s fortune just must be found, mustn’t it? Why, it’s a quest, you know. A sacred quest—like you read about.” ”

“ Annie Laurie broke in enthusiastically. “You see it’s this way. Now I have my money I’ll be able to pay for all the work he’s been doing for me, and he’ll keep right on working and saving up his money, and next October he’ll go back to the Rutherford Academy. It’s not so far away but that he can afford to run down here every week p. 275or two to go over the books, and he’ll get some good man in to take his place while he’s away. Vacations, he can take charge himself. Oh, we’ll get on now, Mr. Disbrow, both Sam and I, and we’ll have plenty of schooling too.” ”

“ But whatever the reason, we are great friends, and I can not think of anything that would give me greater pleasure than to see him loping down the mountain-side, with his fiddle under his arm, and his hair all in a shock, like a windblown haystack.
I had no time to prepare a fit present for Annie Laurie, the announcement of her wedding was so unexpected. So now I am weaving a counterpane for her of blue, orange and white in the wheel and star pattern. It is going to be beautiful, and will bring color into her room, which always has been too austere. ”

“ Azalea broke in with a sob in her voice. “If anybody in this world ought to have been good to Annie Laurie it is myself, for I haven’t any mother, either, you know, though of course Mrs. McBirney is as good to me as any mother could be. I can’t explain the way we’ve acted. It all came about from Carin and myself having some lovely secrets together, and games we liked to play that we didn’t want to share with any one. And we were writing poems, and Carin was painting me. We were happy in each other all the time. ”

“ And, oh, Carin, it’s getting to be so sad at the house with the old aunts always talking about the lost money and hunting and hunting for it, and the business going to pieces and I not able to prevent it.”
That night when the Carsons sat at dinner, Carin told her father that Annie Laurie had said Mrs. Disbrow was expecting her husband to take the family West.
Mr. Carson brought his fist down on the table.
“Now, that can’t be,” he cried. “I won’t have that! I simply won’t. No matter what risk I run of doing the man an injustice, I won’t have him leave this community. ”

“ As for the girls, they set out on the road with vigor. The air was full of life, the mountains were brown beneath their purple bloom, and the roadway was beginning to fill with folk driving in to market. Azalea and Annie Laurie knew almost every one—knew Mr. Disbrow, the undertaker, driving his black horses—which now were hitched to a somewhat rickety buggy—they knew “Haystack” Thompson, who was eating up the road with his great strides, his fiddle under his arm ”

“ What had Annie Laurie to do with it all? A girl like that—would she care seriously for one of the queer, shiftless tribe of Disbrow? Sam p. 177hit his knee angrily. Let him attend to what was before him and stop thinking nonsense.
He reached the Academy, and walked along under its wonderful white oaks to the Ballenger dormitories, where he knew Heller stayed. Perhaps Heller could get him a room near his own. It was rather a trick to get in the Ballenger dormitories and the fellows who succeeded were considered lucky. ”

“ It was "Annie Laurie"—an air heard daily and hourly among our tents in the Crimea.
"Of all songs, the favourite song at the camp," says one of the lancers, in a published letter, "is 'Annie Laurie.' Words and music combine to render it popular, for every soldier has a sweetheart, and almost every soldier possesses the organ of tune. Every new draft from Britain marches into camp playing this old Scottish melody. I once heard a corporal of the Rifle Brigade start 'Annie Laurie.' He had a tolerably good tenor voice, and sang with expression ”

“ There she saw the two girls in convulsions of laughter, and Zillah stiff and incredulous on the piano stool. Miss Adnah surveyed the scene for a moment in wrath.
p. 58“Come, Zillah,” she commanded, and dragged her sister from the room.
The girls heard the kitchen door slam behind the two, and rocked again with painful mirth.
“Oh, oh,” half-sobbed Annie Laurie at length, “how ridiculous we’ve been!”
“Dreadful,” agreed Azalea. “I’m just as ashamed of myself as I can be. Can’t I go and apologize to your aunts?”
“Not on any account,” said Annie Laurie firmly. “They’ll never understand. Never! ”

“ He looked at her a moment, half closing his eyes, and turning his head a little on one side in a way he had.
“They’ve been snubbing you—those girls!” he declared. “I knew they would—knew it as well as anything.”
“I don’t see how you could know that,” said Annie Laurie with a sudden feeling that she ought not say anything against Carin and Azalea. “They’re the nicest girls I ever knew; the nicest girls anywhere about here. If I haven’t been able to—to make them understand me, it’s my own fault, I suppose.”
p. 40“Nonsense!” cried Sam. “They’re not nice if they’ve been making you unhappy. ”

“ And Aunt Zillah would not have indulged in such a luxury with her sister’s stern eye upon her. But more and more Annie Laurie’s determined will was having its way in that household, and when to her command was added Azalea’s importunities, the aunts yielded.
Sam had the fires burning for them in a few p. 262minutes, and as the old ladies undressed and toasted their shins before the blaze, and thought of the two competent young girls down in the kitchen who were preparing supper for them, they experienced the luxurious feeling of those who are old, well-loved, and carefully looked after. ”