Josey

“ She settled it rapidly and easily, and Everard felt his spirits rise thus to have some one think and decide for him. It was not distasteful to know that Josey was his, and he smoothed caressingly the bowed head, still resting on his arm, where Josey had laid it. It would be just like living a romance all the time, and the interviews they might occasionally have would be all the sweeter because of the secrecy. ”

“ I hate gentlemen on board ship!"
Mr. Wright, with his silver hair and mild pale face, was a great favourite with Flora, and while he carried Josey in his arms to and fro the deck, she listened with pleasure to the sad history of his misfortunes, or to the graphic pictures he drew of the countries he had visited during a long life spent at sea. He fancied that Josey was the image of the last dear babe he lost,—his pet and darling, whom he never mentioned without emotion—his blue-eyed Bessy. ”

“ After an involuntary pause for a few moments, owing to the deep emotion in the congregation, poor Josey was led forward. Minister and congregation seemed to make but slight impression upon him; Henry Ferguson was the charm throughout; he even turned his head, while the minister's hand was on it, to smile at the child. The promise was not only to those believing parents, all of them, and to their own children, but to him that was afar off; his new parents having availed themselves of the large covenant of grace, to invoke its promised blessings upon him, on the ground of their faith. ”

“ We all have good and bad in us, Josey, and surrounding circumstances have much to do in making one or the other predominate in our characters. What is that thought that crossed your eyes just now, Josey?'
'I was thinking that you have grown into a perfect philosopher, Chris. Go on.'
'Say that uncle Bryan had been blessed with such a mother as my mother is--he would have been a different man; he couldn't have helped being a better man. ”

“ Do you suppose Josey was a cross, sulky boy? Can you imagine him wearing a frown? or with his lips in an ugly pout? [Pg 68]
No, indeed! It is not possible for one who cultivates such love for all around him; for one who tries in this way to imitate the example of his blessed Saviour to be unhappy or cross. ”

“ With a great sob Josey answered,
"No, mamma, I love her dearly, [Pg 108] dearly; but I'll let Jesus have her. He'll know then how I love him."
With a gush of tears, she folded him to her heart. When they were more calm, she urged him to return to the parlor.
"Pretty soon I will," he said softly, "And oh, mamma, if you'll please let me sit up an hour later every night till she—I mean, till we're all alone. Now I'm going to write her a letter." ”

“ Forrest or mentioned her in any way, but was on the same friendly terms with Everard as ever, and when, as a crowning act, she made a little dinner party from which Josephine was omitted, the people who had been loudest in Josey’s praises began to whisper together that there must be something wrong, and gradually a cloud not larger than a man’s hand began to show itself on the horizon. But small as it was, Josephine discovered its rising, and fought it with all her power, even going so far as to insinuate that jealousy and disappointment were the causes of Miss Belknap’s coolness toward her. ”

“ Josey West caught my arm suddenly and sharply.
'Are you mad?' she cried. 'Learn the lesson you want to teach others. Look at your mother.'
She let go my arm, and stepped swiftly to my mother's side, in time to save her from falling to the ground. Uncle Bryan made a movement towards her, but I stood before him, and he shrank back. My mother's strength had given way, and she had fainted. I supported her in my arms, while Josey West loosened her dress and bathed her face. ”

“ His chance, however, of getting into that groove does not appear to be a good one.
'I know what he's casting sheep's eyes at,' says Josey, tossing her head; I see him reckoning up the stock every time he comes into the shop.'
She does not openly discourage him; she makes him spend all his pocket-money in candied lemon-peel and uncle Bryan's medicines, which are having an immense sale. ”

“ And then he tossed Miss Josey up to the ceiling with such vigorous jerks, that Flora watched his gymnastics in nervous fear lest the child should fall out of his huge grasp and break her neck.
Not so Josey; she never was better pleased in [261] her life; she crowed and screamed with delight, and rewarded her Scotch nurse, by tangling her tiny white fingers in his bushy red whiskers, and pulling his long nose.
“Haut! you’re a speretted lass. Is that the way you mean to lead the men?” ”

“ In the mean time Emma and Rose cooed and coquetted with each other in the very best of spirits, until a late hour, when they both went quietly to sleep.
"Feth and a pretty sight they're making," suggested Ann, pointing with some pride to the bed; the two little ones lying side by side, and [Pg 24] Master Josey across the foot, with his rosy cheek resting on his hand.
"It looks for all the world like a baby asylum," was Martin's laughing reply.
"I wonder what Mr. Codman is preaching about," she added; "I would like to be within sound of his voice, it's a treat to hear him." ”

“ She is very sweet and lovely, and I wonder you did not prefer her to your unworthy but loving Josey.”
Beatrice also wrote to Everard that day, and told him where she was, and why, and said of Josephine, “there must be good in her, or she could not seem so sweet, and amiable, and affectionate. A little vain she may be, and fond of attention, and why not? She cannot look in the glass and not know how beautiful she is. ”

“ His name is Josey. His parents are teaching him to walk. He is just old enough to learn to walk, and you see by his countenance, although it is turned somewhat away from us, that he is pleased with the opportunity. He is glad that he is going to learn to walk, and that his parents are going to teach him. ”

“ Poor Turk! Why, he worships the ground she walks upon. I tell you what it is, my sweet child,' she said sarcastically, there's more lessons than one you've got to learn. But to come back. There's some mystery behind all this; but it might be one thing, and it might be another. I'm in a whirl, that's what I am, my dear.'
I really think Josey administered these words to me as a kind of medicine. But she could not deceive me as to the feelings she entertained for Jessie. If any person had dared in her presence to say a word against her friend, she would have been the first to defend her. ”

“ Nothing has been heard of uncle Bryan; Josey West conducts the business as though she had been born to it, and it is really prospering under her management. She is such a favourite with all the neighbours, that her customers increase every week, and the takings are nearly doubled.
'I think we shall be able to set up a plate window soon,' says Josey West, with a grand air. 'The sale of the pills is astonishing, my dear, astonishing! Do you know, Chris, I feel quite like a respectable member of society! ”

“ Miss Josey was Mell’s only connecting link with the country “quality,” and hence appreciated in due proportion to her importance.
“I declare, Mell, you spoil me to death,” simpered Miss Josey, “and nothing else in life is half so nice as being spoiled to death. But I must eat and run—must, really—I’m just so busy I hardly know which way to turn. I want you to go to a picnic with me to-morrow.”
“A picnic!”
Mell’s heart got into her throat at one single bound, and stuck there. Jerome had said something about a picnic. ”

“ Within a few weeks after the events described in the last chapter Jessie and I were married. There were six bridesmaids, Josey and Florry West, and their four little sisters. On that day my mother gave uncle Bryan a Bible.
Josey is sole proprietor of the grocer's shop, and the business has wonderfully improved. She is really making and saving money. This of course is known, and has attracted the attention of more than one young man; I say more than one, for there is one in particular who seems to consider that if he were a grocer he would be in his proper groove. ”

“ Had she no delicacy or refinement, to allow such a thing? Would any man dare do that with Bee or even Rossie, child though she was? Was Josey devoid of that womanly dignity which puts a man always on his best behavior? He feared she was, he said sadly to himself, as he recalled the free and easy manner he had always assumed with her. How many times had he sat with his feet higher than his head, and smoked directly in her face, or stretching himself full length upon the grass while she sat beside him, laid his head in her lap and talked such slang as he would blush to have Rossie hear ”

“ CHAPTER VI. THE BURNED BABY.
The winter after Josey was eight years old, his parents received a visit from their dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Matthews and little Rose. Two infant brothers had died since they last met, and Rose was still their only daughter.
Emma was now in her fifth [Pg 75] year, and Rose only a few weeks younger.
Many a time during the visit, did the mothers and Aunt Fanny talk over the mistake made by Mrs. Reed, at which no one was more sorry than Mrs. Reed herself. Many a time they laughed over the question of the cross driver:
"Why wont one do as well as t'other?" ”

“ Yesterday I found tobacco on him. Chewing, sir.”
“Just you hurt me,” said Josey, “and I'll tell Abe.”
“Abe!” exclaimed Mr. Eastman, lifting his brow. “He means a man old enough to be his father, sir. I endeavor to instill him with some few notions of respect, but the town spoils him. Indulges him completely, I may say. And when Sharon's sympathies are stirred sir, it will espouse a cause very warmly—Give me that!” broke off the schoolmaster, and there followed a brief wrestle. “Chewing again to-day, sir,” he added to me.
“Abe lemme have it,” shrieked Josey. ”

“ The carriage door shut with a snap, and they started off, driver lashing his horses with the whip.
"We must look out that they don't pass us," said the clergyman.
"I'll keep watch," responded Aunt Fanny, decidedly. "I wonder what Josey would say if he were awake?"
"If our driver had been a father," exclaimed Mrs. Codman, [Pg 40] "he wouldn't have asked why one wouldn't do as well as t'other."
"Hem!" exclaimed Aunt Fanny, indignantly. "'Twouldn't have hurt the man to have heard your sermon to-night, brother. I don't think he's very kind, any way." ”

“ The audience say, when an actor makes a point, What a clever fellow the author is! They should read the stuff: they'd form a different opinion. Josey, do you know it is nearly ten o'clock?'
A look of some meaning passed between Turk and Josey, and Josey desired the children to put away their work. Presently they all went to bed, my mother going with them at their express desire. Only Turk, Josey, and I were now in the kitchen. ”

“ She wants to tell the poor, weary pilgrims, who have been walking hundreds of miles with stones in their shoes, that the blessed Jesus will accept them without money, without price, without any of these painful [Pg 107] journeys,—that they have only to lay their load of sin upon him, and he will carry it for them."
Josey's tears ceased to flow, and he listened with almost breathless interest.
"Do you want to keep Aunt Fanny from telling them this?" mamma asked. "Do you want them to go on worshipping those senseless idols, which can neither see, nor hear, nor understand?" ”

“ When I ask her about Jessie, Josey says that she's all right, and that I have no occasion to bother myself about her. I can extract nothing more from her than this, and if I endeavour to press the subject further, she turns snappish.
My mother and I have had many conversations about uncle Bryan, and I think one great cause of her contentment is the altered state of my feelings towards him, which I do not disguise from her. I am prospering in a worldly sense, and when I feel most despondent I work the hardest ”

“ Beatrice replied, for it seemed to her as if this going to Europe would somehow be the severing link between Everard and Josephine. Something would happen to bring on the crisis which must come sooner or later.
“I would go, most certainly,” she said again, and then she asked some questions concerning Mrs. Arnold, whose letter Josey showed to her. Evidently she was not a woman of great discernment or culture, but she was sincere in her wish to take Josephine abroad, and disposed to be very generous with her. ”

“ But come, boys, be helping me load, while we are settling this difficulty, so as not to lose our time."
So the boys began to put wood upon Jonas's sled, while the conversation continued as follows:—
"Can't two persons work together, unless one is master, and the other servant?" asked Josey. ”

“ Those children who think only of themselves, who are selfish and greedy, who never heed the blessed words, "Be ye kind one to another," are the persons to wear sour faces and pouting lips.
Don't you remember what the good Book says, "Her ways are [Pg 69] ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace." That means Wisdom's ways, and one of these paths is love; love to God and love to those around us.
You can well imagine that Josey's father and mother, and aunt and nurse, were delighted in seeing him growing up to be a good boy ”

“ Once he had been the best and most 96fashionably-dressed young man in college, but he was far from that now, though he was scrupulously neat and clean, and looked every whit a gentleman as he walked with the young ladies down the shaded street, and tried to seem natural, and answer gayly to Beatrice’s light badinage and Rossie’s quaint remarks. But it was uphill business, for how could he be happy when he knew that Josey would soon be watching for him, and expecting him to pass a part of the evening, at least, with her? ”