Betsy Ross

“ They never even looked at the children, any more than if they were in another world. In fact she had felt the school was in another world.
“Ralph, it’s your turn to get the water,” said the teacher, handing him a pail. “Want to go along?” said Ralph gruffly to Ellen and Betsy. He led the way and the little girls walked after him. Now that she was out of a crowd Elizabeth Ann felt all her shyness come down on her like a black cloud, drying up her mouth and turning her hands and feet cold as ice. Into one of these cold hands she felt small, warm fingers slide. ”

“ Then he managed to pull his jaws apart and chewed loudly and visibly, tossing his head, opening his mouth wide till Betsy could see the sticky, brown candy draped in melting festoons all over his big white teeth and red gullet. Then with a gulp he had swallowed it all down and was whining for more, striking softly at the little girl’s skirt with his forepaw. “Oh, you eat it too fast!” cried Betsy, but she shared her next lot with him too. The sun had gone down over Hemlock Mountain by this time, and the big slope above her was all deep blue shadow. ”

“ ILLUSTRATIONS Uncle Henry looked at her, eyeing her sidewise over the top of one spectacle-glass Frontispiece Elizabeth Ann stood up before the doctor. “Do you know,” said Aunt Abigail, “I think it’s going to be real nice, having a little girl in the house again” She had greatly enjoyed doing her own hair. “Oh, he’s asking for more!” cried Elizabeth Ann Betsy shut her teeth together hard, and started across “What’s the matter, Molly? What’s the matter?” Betsy and Ellen and the old doll He had fallen asleep with his head on his arms Never were dishes washed better! ”

“ She wouldn’t be so mean. When you love her so much I don’t see how you can think she could be so mean.”
“She loved me so much and yet she thought I could be mean,” replied Elizabeth, still on the defensive. “I was hurt to the very core of my being, Betsy, and there is no balm for my wounded heart.”
Just here the family appeared and the conversation ceased. Betsy was quite at home here, and was never treated as company. She now began taking some things from a chair that she might draw it up to the table. As she removed some books, Bert’s lunch box clattered to the floor. ”

“ An attack of tonsilitis it was, and Van must not [90] be allowed to disturb her. Thus, even in the house there was no liberty. Betsy’s door was shut, and the lonesome little prisoner might not have her comforting. Mary was good to him in the kitchen, but at every opportunity he would slip away upstairs and paw at Betsy’s door. There was no way to separate him from his beloved mistress, except to keep him outside the house. So all day long he ran sadly up and down, with his chain attached to a long wire that stretched from the apple tree to the honeysuckle porch. ”

“ How pretty she was! And how young—under the veil which hid so kindly all the little lines in her sweet, thin face. And how excited and fluttery! Betsy had forgotten how fluttery Aunt Frances was! She clasped Betsy to her, and then started back crying—she must see to her suitcase—and then she clasped Betsy to her again and shook hands with Uncle Henry, whose grim old face looked about as cordial and welcoming as the sourest kind of sour pickle, and she fluttered back and said she must have left her umbrella on the train. ”

“ Each girl had taken her bundle of poverty-stricken clothes and had carried it to the hollow trysting-tree. This being in a most secluded spot, they were not observed when they changed their appearance and assumed the characters of old women.
“You look so funny,” giggled Betsy when Elizabeth, in a much stained and faded skirt of Electra’s, an old worsted shawl, and a battered felt hat tied down over her ears, announced that she was ready and how did she look.
Betsy was more respectable in a cast-off skirt of Elizabeth’s, a black shawl over her head, and a basket on her arm. ”

“ I like them to have brown hair, just the way most little girls really do!”
Ellen lifted her eyes and smiled radiantly. “Oh, so do I!” she said. “And that lovely old doll your folks have has got brown hair. Will you let me play with her some time?”
“My folks?” said Elizabeth Ann blankly.
“Why yes, your Aunt Abigail and your Uncle Henry.”
“Have they got a doll?” said Betsy, thinking this was the very climax of Putney queerness.
“Oh my, yes!” said Molly, eagerly. “She’s the one Mrs. Putney had when she was a little girl. And she’s got the loveliest clothes! ”

“ But you must do your best to remember. Little girls must be nice in every way.”
That evening, when Uncle Ben came to dinner, he was greeted by an apparition all in white. Betsy stood by her chair with a shy look at him, to observe the effect of her transformation.
“As I live,—a fairy,—out of a story-book! Or was there a fairy godmother somewhere, and is this Cinderella? Where is the Prince?”
Betsy laughed and seated herself, and Aunt Kate noticed that at the end of the meal she reached down shyly, and wiped her mouth on the corner of her napkin. ”

“ An’ what’ll Miss Betsy be doin’ to yez?”
When the parade was over and Betsy had returned to the house, she looked Van over despairingly.
“Oh, Vanny-Boy! After all I’ve taught you about manners—think what you’ve done. You’ve disturbed a good pig who wasn’t trying to do anything but look beautiful. You’ve been disobedient. You’ve let your feelings run away with you. No decent dog was ever so dirty. ”

“ Betsy gave him back one of the nickels that remained to her, but he refused it.
“No, keep the change,” he said royally. “It was worth it.”
“Then I’ll buy two doughnuts with my extra nickel,” said Betsy.
“No, you won’t,” said the girl. “You’ll take all you want for nothing ... Momma’ll never miss ’em. And what you sell here has got to be fresh every day. Here, hold out your hands, both of you.”
“Some people came and bought things,” said Betsy, happening to remember as she and Molly turned away. “The money is on that shelf.” ”

“ Now [223] up and out, through some burned ground, over a brook, through a long stretch of unbroken wood, and then, before them lay the Reservoir, its gray mirror broken into millions of tiny ripples by the falling raindrops.
Beyond lay the field of the cedar soldiers, on guard. Betsy knew the way now, although the dusk was gathering. Across the valley she could see the Hospital buildings looming, and the lights as they flashed up in the corridors. ”

“ BETSY STARTS A SEWING SOCIETY
Betsy and Molly had taken Deborah to school with them. Deborah was the old wooden doll with brown, painted curls. She had lain in a trunk almost ever since Aunt Abigail’s childhood, because Cousin Ann had never cared for dolls when she was a little girl. At first Betsy had not dared to ask to see her, much less to play with her, but when Ellen, as she had promised, came over to Putney Farm that first Saturday she had said right out, as soon as she landed in the house, “Oh, Mrs. Putney, can’t we play with Deborah?” ”

“ Betsy was greatly excited. She had been asked to dress as one of a party of haymakers, and ride in a big haywagon, all draped with red, white, and blue. Her big brown eyes danced as she [144] talked it over the evening before, with Treesa and Mary.
“Why can’t the Boy-Heart ride wit’ you in the waggin?” said Mary. “He’d make a foine show, sittin’ up so grand besoide yez.”
“He’d be great!” said Betsy, clapping her hands. “I’ll put his chain on him, so he can’t get away. He’ll be the finest thing in the show. I’ll ask Aunt Kate. Van, do you want to ride in the procession?” ”

“ I am going to ask Miss Jewett to let me change my seat, Betsy Tyson, and as for you, Bess Ferguson—no wonder the boys don’t want to drag a great fat thing like you uphill. I’ll never, never be friends with you again, so there!” She flounced out the door and down the path before the schoolhouse, pounding her feet down very hard and trying to keep back the smarting tears.
Betsy and Bess looked at one another dismayed. “Now we’ve done it,” said Betsy. “You needn’t have called her lazy, Bess. You know she isn’t.” ”

“ Mary the cook, and Treesa, could not be bribed into punishing the winsome, fascinating sinner. There was no one to do it but Betsy, and she hated to worse than anybody. But she loved the little Prince too well to let him go on lightly in his wicked ways.
One evening, when it was just beginning to be [119] cat-time—every one knows that this is at twilight, when the cats, who love darkness, shake themselves out of their day naps, and prowl about after mice and rats—Van escaped through the kitchen door, and was off on a marauding expedition. ”

“ Without heeding that, nor the roaring of the wind as it burst into the hallway, she stepped out into the awful tumult, slipped the catch of Van’s chain, picked up the half-drowned, frightened little body, and set him inside the door.
Then came the really hard part—to shut the door again. Betsy pushed with all her might. A strong man could hardly have done it, and she was just recovering from an illness. In the hallway pictures were torn from their moorings, and the furniture was dancing a quickstep. Try as best she might, with all her strength, she could not close the latch. ”

“ I thought they were sort of fun.”
“Fun!” cried Betsy, indignantly, staring through the beginnings of her tears.
“Why, yes. Like taking a dare, don’t you know. Somebody stumps you to jump off the hitching-post, and you do it to show ’em. I always used to think examinations were like that. Somebody stumps you to spell ‘pneumonia,’ and you do it to show ’em. Here’s your cup of syrup. You’d better go right out and wax it while it’s hot.”
Elizabeth Ann automatically took the cup in her hand, but she did not look at it. “But supposing you get so scared you can’t spell ‘pneumonia’ or anything else!” ”

“ Barefooted and silent, Betsy opened the door and crept softly out into the hall. Feeling her way she went down the stairs, the soft rustle of her little nightgown being the only sound that broke the stillness of the house. Gently she turned the key in the lock and stepped out on the back veranda. In the tool-room Van was still [45] rending deaf heaven. The door was unlocked, and Betsy gently pushed it open.
Instantly the wailing ceased. A scamper of little feet came toward her, and she felt the cold little pads on her own as Van dug his foreclaws into her nightgown, and tried to climb up. ”

“ Cousin Ann, in a very short old skirt and a man’s coat and high rubber boots, was just poking some more wood into the big fire which blazed furiously under the broad, flat pan where the sap was boiling. The rough, brown hut was filled with white steam and that sweetest of all odors, hot maple syrup. Cousin Ann turned her head, her face very red with the heat of the fire, and nodded at the child.
“Hello, Betsy, you’re just in time. I’ve saved out a cupful of hot syrup for you, all ready to wax.” ”

“ Betsy could have cried with disappointment; but she and the other girls, putting their heads together for comfort, told each other that there was time enough yet. Mr. Pond would not leave town till tomorrow. Perhaps ... there was still some hope.
But that afternoon even this last hope was dashed. As they gathered at the schoolhouse, the girls fresh and crisp in their newly starched dresses, with red or blue hair-ribbons, the boys very self-conscious in their dark suits, clean collars, new caps (all but Ralph) , and blacked shoes, there was no little ’Lias. ”

“ Betsy was screaming too, and when a wagon passing by stopped and a big, broad-shouldered farmer jumped down laughing, put the end of the rope over his shoulder, and just walked off with the whole lot of them till he had pulled them clear off their feet, Elizabeth Ann found herself rolling over and over with a breathless, squirming mass of children, her shrill laughter rising even above the shouts of merriment of the others. ”

“ Trueworth beyond all patience, he gave him three or four blows with the flat of his sword, before he sheathed it, saying, at the same time, 'Execrable dog! If thou wert not unworthy of death from any hand but that of the common hangman, thou shouldst not live a moment to boast the least acquaintance with this lady.' Then turning to Miss Betsy, who was half dying with the various emotions she was possessed of, 'Madam,' said he, 'I will not ask by what means you came into this villain's company ”

“ Momma’d just eat me up alive if I left the booth for a minute!”
Betsy turned quickly. A very pretty girl with yellow hair and blue eyes (she looked as Molly might when she was grown-up) was leaning over the edge of a little canvas-covered booth, the sign of which announced that home-made doughnuts and soft drinks were for sale there. A young man, very flushed and gay, was pulling at the girl’s blue gingham sleeve. “Oh, come on, Annie. Just one turn! The floor’s elegant. You can keep an eye on the booth from the hall! Nobody’s going to run away with the old thing anyhow!” ”

“ Peters and the fire-hose remained unchanged, but Van went home a reconstructed dog, [112] never more to be merely a cuddled, pampered house-darling. Betsy shuddered when she looked at him. He had a wild eye, a swagger, blood on his white shirt-front and all over his coat. He was a man-grown now, and had done a man’s work. His only regret was that the lady of his heart could not see the magnificent heap of slain. But perhaps she would not have appreciated it. He looked pityingly at Betsy. She was only a girl. She could not go out into the world and kill rats. Poor Betsy! ”