Carin

“ Then they heard Miss Parkhurst’s steps approaching down the hall. Annie Laurie struck her two hands together sharply.
“I can’t do it!” she cried. “I can’t let Sam’s people be chased like that and brought back. I may be wrong, and weak, and not fair to the poor old aunts, but I just can’t do it, that’s all there is to it.”
Carin and Azalea looked at her with perfect understanding.
“No,” said Carin softly, “you couldn’t do that, could you? Plenty of people could, and they’d be just and right—maybe. But you couldn’t, and I like you, Annie Laurie, because you can’t.” ”

“ Perhaps you sing a great deal better than you think you do.”
“No, no,” whispered Azalea, shaking her head. “I do everything wrong!”
Carin laughed under her breath and gave her friend’s hand another squeeze. She was thinking that Azalea was the prettiest girl in the place, but she had been taught that it was not nice to pay people compliments, and so she said nothing of what was in her mind. But she decided that she would enjoy Azalea’s society for that day, and when the singing adjourned for the people to eat their lunch, Carin insisted that the McBirneys and her people should eat together. ”

“ It was as if she had come into p. 133the house of her own mind; as if she had opened up the weed-choked door and crossed the threshold, discovering within fair rooms undreamed of; as if she had put the shutters back from long-closed windows and let the light stream in.
By four o’clock the rain seemed to have beaten itself out, and the wind died, too.
“Study is over!” cried Azalea at length. “Come, Paralee, get your things. Such a day! I tell you, anyone who can study as you do will make a success. Isn’t it so, Carin?”
Carin got up from her letter writing. ”

“ Carson had a twinkle in her eye as she surveyed her. Carin had been a gentle princess in the schoolroom, with Miss Parkhurst for her willing guide and Azalea her adoring servitor. The truth was, the two girls had become so bound up in each other that they saw nothing beyond their own horizon. The dark-eyed girl from the mountain cabin, with her strange, romantic history, and the blue-eyed one from the mansion, loving romance above all imaginable things, had made a compact of undying friendship; and unconsciously, they had also determined to exclude the rest of the world. ”

“ Azalea never forgot how quietly and sweetly that night came down. The mountain, so old—older than the peaks of the Rockies or the Sierras—lay beneath the stars with an air of placidity as comforting to the spirit as great music or great words.
Within the room where Keefe rested, the shadows deepened till Azalea and the others could no longer see his long form on the sofa, nor the little dark head of Mary Cecily bent to touch his.
“To think of finding some one on the earth who really, really belongs to you,” said Azalea. “Oh, Carin, how happy they are!” ”

“ Azalea’s heart was in leading strings to Carin, but her excellent p. 21little brain went on its independent way, though Carin had traveled and studied, and been all her life with charming and cultivated people, and Azalea had been tended no more than a patch of wayside daisies.
Miss Parkhurst brought the books they were needing from the library, and Carin taking hers, sighed happily: “Isn’t it beautiful to be here by ourselves—just the three of us? No one else would fall into our way of doing. ”

“ To Carin, used to luxury and beauty and her parent’s unceasing care, it was an adventure in independence; to Azalea, accustomed to changes, to people of many sorts, to both rough and smooth living, it was one more chapter in a book destined to be filled with curious incidents. To Keefe—but let him speak for himself.
“This place,” he said, “looks to me singularly like Paradise. My own particular habitation is as damp and cold as the Mammoth Cave. My bed is done up in oilskins, and my easel is under the bed. Every stick of wood I have is drenched, and the field mice have got at my food.” ”

“ If it should happen to be a wonderful silver web how pleased I would be!”
“Oh, you’re so young, Azalea, dear,” mourned Miss Zillah. “Don’t go to taking too much risk. Don’t be too independent.”
“No, don’t, Azalea,” pleaded Carin. “Let papa and mamma make some plan for you.”
“They understand me better than you do, Carin love,” said her friend. “They know what p. 285a joy it is to make one’s own plans and carry them out. Annie Laurie knows, too, don’t you, dear?”
Annie Laurie nodded her fine ruddy head. She knew. Keefe knew too, for he was like an eagle in his love of freedom. ”

“ They were attached to Mis’ Cassie McEvoy, and were a good deal worried that she seemed displeased with them.
p. 85“I’d like to knock Bluebeard and the Princess Madeline off the shelf and break them to flinders,” said Carin. They all called Mrs. McEvoy’s favorite bottles by the names Azalea had given them. “It could be done so accidentally that she’d think it was the cat.”
“No, she wouldn’t,” said Miss Zillah firmly. “Don’t you try anything like that, Carin. Folks have to work out their own liberty. It can’t be done for them by anybody else, though a little help may be given now and then. ”

“ Just then, the man who was sitting next Azalea arose and went over by the window, and a moment later some one slipped down into the place he had left and gave Azalea’s hand a squeeze. Azalea turned her head as quick as a frightened bird, and there sat Carin Carson, smiling at her as if they were old friends.
“I was so glad when I saw you here,” she whispered. “Isn’t it a pity they don’t ask the children to sing? I just love to sing, don’t you?” ”

“ This time, Aunt Zillah and Carin rode together, and Azalea’s pony tried in vain to keep pace with Keefe’s raw-boned horse. Keefe had much to say of the day.
“I was very happy the little time I stayed there at Rowantree Hall,” he said. “I understood their ways—understood the things they do and the things they don’t do—and what’s more I perfectly understand why they don’t do them. Rowantree himself amuses me, yet I’m fond of him. Mrs. Rowantree—well, she’s a little miracle.”
“Oh, she is,” cried Azalea. “How she works—and doesn’t mind. What ducks the children are! ”

“ The traveling men no longer told their stories; Aunt Zillah nodded but dared not doze for fear of missing her station; the mountain woman brooded patiently, caring little, it seemed, as to what fate might have in store for her; and little Constance slept in Azalea’s arms. Carin was supremely patient and quiet; and the bright eyes of Keefe O’Connor gleamed now and then from under the rim of his cap, which was pulled low over his face, and behind which he was occupied in thinking his own thoughts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And “Oh,” sighed Carin softly, and p. 137slid down to the ground and sat there, very white, with one hand to her lips.
“It’s all right, honey bird, all right,” cried a voice near them. “That there sarpent can’t do you no manner of harm now. You jest sit still a minute or two and get over your scare, and then I’ll escort you back to your folks.”
Carin and Azalea both turned and looked into the eyes of a wonderful old man—looked into eyes, large, dark, and soft, half hidden beneath bushy eyebrows, and set beneath a beetling brow. ”

“ Carin was wild to join him, but the truth was that those first few days of teaching drained every drop of strength in her, and Azalea and Aunt Zillah hurried her into her bed immediately after supper.
“It wouldn’t be so bad,” she complained to Aunt Zillah, half laughing and half in earnest, “if it wasn’t for that dreadful Paralee Panther. She seems like a bad dream; the only trouble is I can’t wake up. I’d like to think I had imagined her. But she is real and needs us more, I suspect, than anybody else in the school.”
“She’s always frowning and watching,” Azalea added. ”

“ Carinne, listen,”—and I told her the story of my connection with the villain.
“I would wring his neck if they would spare mine,” I said. “But, alas! I fear I am doomed, Carinne.”
She had from me all the details in brief of my captivity. Mon Dieu! but it was ecstasy this dessert to my long feast of neglect. At the end she was silent a space; then she said very low—
“He communicates with me; but I never answer. Now I will do so, and perhaps thou shalt not die.”
“Carinne.”
“Hush, thou small citizen! The time is up; we must talk no longer.” ”

“ It was Ma McBirney who murmured: “Yes.”
“We came,” went on Mr. Carson gently, “to ask Azalea to make a choice. We are going to invite her to live with us and to be as our own daughter. She will share equally with Carin in everything; at least as far as it is possible for us to make an equal division. We know the story of her life and that under more fortunate circumstances the home we live in would have been hers. She would have been educated in the best manner and fitted for the life of a lady of position. Now, of our four children only one is left. ”

“ But I’ll make it a weekend instead of two weeks if you think best.”
“We couldn’t spare you for two weeks, Azalea,” said Uncle David kindly. “Make it a week-end, do. For my part, I am glad you like her. Particularly glad. She is a lonely and hurt soul, is poor Delight, who delights nobody.”
At that, Carin, things I had heard came back to me, and I knew she once had loved uncle. It must be a terrible thing to love someone, always, who cares nothing for you. I can’t think of anything worse. ”

“ Practice studying to yourself awhile this evening, and be here to-morrow morning with the rest. You’ll come out ahead. Miss Azalea was very happy that you were to be in her school. You see, she and Miss Carin have given up a good deal to come up here to help you young folk along, and they want everybody in the country round about to get some good out of the school. They want you to make their sacrifice and hard work worth while. So you’ll come to-morrow, won’t you, son?”
Skully lifted a tear-stained face and looked at the teacher with weary eyes. ”

“ The telephone rang again. They could hear p. 59Miss Zillah begging to be allowed to answer it and Miss Adnah refusing. So Annie Laurie took down the receiver.
“Yes, Mrs. Carson,” Azalea heard her say. “Yes, it’s Annie Laurie. Yes, Azalea is here. Forgive Carin? Yes, Mrs. Carson. I reckon it was my fault, too. Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault, whosever it was, ma’am. We’ve been bad, that’s all. Everybody is bad sometimes, I suppose. I never was so horrid before, though, honestly. You say Carin never was, either. Well, I’m coming back now. Azalea and I were just starting. What is it? ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Uncle David is going to take her. She is to close up the house, send Jim to school, and betake herself and Father McBirney to Bethal Springs for the winter. Uncle David has written down to engage a cosy little furnished cottage for them. He has given me a check for them. I am very happy, Carin.
I told you I was going to make Accident my goddess. I like Accident. Just turning around the corner may bring one face to face with—with something glorious. I feel all the time now as if something delightful and surprising were going to happen.
Lovingly,
Your Azalea. ”

“ She heard Azalea’s voice going on and on, kindly, gently, insistently; heard Paralee’s gruff answers; but the rain and the wind drowned the words. It was only when Azalea called to her that she learned of the nature of the conversation. Paralee was standing with half dried garments before the fire. She had eaten her little repast, and with her one poor hand was brushing back the hair that straggled about her face.
“Paralee,” said Azalea, “wants to be a teacher, Carin. She has to make her own living, and that is the way she means to do it.” ”

“ Good has always come to you, Carin, and good will continue to come. Annie Laurie has already chosen what she wishes to do. We have decided what we think best for you. There remains only Azalea to care for. How is it with you, Azalea? What do you wish to do?”
“I mean,” said Azalea, her heart trembling a little in spite of her efforts to be calm and philosophic, “to prepare myself to take charge of the mountain industries at Lee. Just how I can best fit myself for this work I do not know. I mustn’t desert Mother McBirney, must I? ”

“ It isn’t normal for him to be stupid. He’s up to something, you’ll see.”
But as the “last day,” hot, with gay clouds, came, and the pupils appeared an hour too early, and the Rowantree’s old surrey swung from the thick shade of the old wood road, all indicating that the hour was at hand, Carin began to have her doubts. For once in the history of the world, her parents were going to be stupid and sensible and economical! They were going to act like other people! She was horribly disappointed in them, and kept very busy so as not to be alone with Azalea and let her see how disappointed she was. ”