Miss Baker

“ Judge Baker was known all over western Massachusetts as the sage of Plainfield, and Lute's mother—she was a Kellogg before the judge married her—she had more faculty than a dozen of your girls nowadays, and her cooking was talked about everywhere—never was another woman, as folks said, could cook like Miss Baker. The boys—Lute's friends—used to hang around the back porch of noonings just to get some of her doughnuts; she was always considerate and liberal to growing boys. ”

“ At the time of the first breaking out of hostilities, Miss Baker was residing in Chicago, Illinois, enjoying a respite from public labors, and devoting herself to her family. But she soon saw that there was much need of the efforts of woman—a great deal to be done by her in preparing for the sudden emergency into which the nation had been plunged. ”

“ If godliness wants to stay next to cleanliness when she’s around it has to keep on the jump. I always buy shirts two degrees heavier’n I need, ’cause I know she’ll have ’em scrubbed thin in a fortni’t. When it comes to real Domestic Science, Caroline, Abbie ain’t in the back row of the primer class, now I tell you.”
Miss Baker had planned that her young guest should sit in state, with folded hands, in the parlor. She seemed to consider that the proper conduct for a former member of New York’s best society. She was shocked when the girl volunteered to help her about the house. ”

“ Had I gone, I should have disobeyed Aunt Rebecca, and—Harry.”
“Why disobeyed Aunt Rebecca?” said the captain, quietly dropping the other party.
“Because they,” said Becky, not relishing the dropping game, “forbade my going until the expiration of the school term.”
“How? She forbid you! It’s a good idea; a nice way of earning money; and you want to go still?”
“O, indeed I do, if only it was right.”
“Right? Of course it’s right,” said the captain, roused at a chance for opposition. “She’s no right to prevent you, and I should like to see her do it. You want to go to Boston. You shall go.” ”

“ Becky knew that well enough. Why should she be told what she knew so well? It was nobody’s business, any way. Why didn’t people attend to their own affairs? She failed to recognize the voice, and, being in an ugly state of misery, snatched the soft hand from its resting-place, and flung it rudely from her, with her eyes defiantly closed.
Mrs. Thompson did not replace the hand, did not repeat the words. She stood looking at the girl a moment, then passed across the room, and took a seat by the window. This movement set Becky to thinking. ”

“ Abigail Ambrose Baker was distinguished for numerous excellences. She possessed a strong intellect, a sympathizing heart, and a placid spirit. Her presence, like the gentle dew and cheerful light, was felt by all around her. ”

“ That is what I mean,” whispered Dorothy, eagerly.
“You want to buy me, Miss?' said Baker, calmly.
“Not that, quite, Baker, but just—”
“You will not think badly of me if I cannot listen to your offer, Miss? I am to serve you here, and I want you to like me, but I cannot do what you would ask. Pardon me if I speak plainly, but I cannot be bought.” There was no mistaking the honest expression in the maid's eyes. “Lady Saxondale is my mistress, and I love her. If she asks me to take you to your friends, I will obey.” ”

“ What I have admired in some dear women is their capacity for quarrelling and for reconciliation. As I saw Lady Baker hanging round her son’s neck, and fondling his scanty ringlets, I remembered the awful stories with which in former days she used to entertain us regarding this reprobate. Her heart was pincushioned with his filial crimes. Under her chesnut front her ladyship’s real head of hair was grey, in consequence of his iniquities. ”

“ But ’tis time you learned a young woman’s duties. You are quick, intelligent, apt to learn. Will you let me give you a few lessons, Becky?”
“O, Aunt Rebecca, if you don’t hate me, if you will try and make something of me, I’ll never go out doors again as long as I live!” ”

“ For a number of years she has kept a home for teachers of the high school, of both the normal and other grades, having sometimes four in the family, and this because so few are willing to receive them. She has derived much pleasure and benefit by reading and studying with them, thus keeping in touch mentally with the active workers of the younger generation.
Mrs. Baker's reminiscences of her girlhood give interesting pictures of country life in the thirties and forties of last century. "Every daughter," she says, "had her work planned and systematized. ”

“ Having emphatically launched this alarming threat, Becky applied herself to the task of raising the temperature of that truthful thermometer,—her nose,—which indicated a state of the weather but little above zero. This she did by a brisk application of her hand, with her eyes fastened upon her companions.
“Take care, Becky; you’ll rub it off. It’s very tender, and there’s but little of it,” said Harry, with a laugh. “Woolen mill, indeed! You can’t get up a blaze there; it’s brick.”
“Don’t think of such a thing, child. There’s no necessity for your earning money,” said Mrs. Thompson. ”

“ He was a man of fifty, compactly and strongly built. A squarely cut goatee, slightly streaked with gray, fell straight from his thin-lipped but handsome mouth; his eyes were dark, humorous, yet searching. But the distinctive quality that struck Mrs. Baker was the blending of urban ease with frontier frankness. He was evidently a man who had seen cities and knew countries as well. And while he was dressed with the comfortable simplicity of a Californian mounted traveler, her inexperienced but feminine eye detected the keynote of his respectability in the carefully tied bow of his cravat. ”

“ She had felt a glow of pleasure when she saw the flush on her mother’s cheek, the tears standing in her eyes, and a faint smile upon her lips. There was something very warming to her heart, when Aunt Hulda said, with a shake of the head,—
“What did I tell you? She’s a brave, good girl; and I knew she’d come out strong when she did come;” with a defiant glance at an invisible somebody, who might be inclined to doubt her.
Mrs. Thompson’s warm kiss of approval; Harry’s loud “Well done, pet! I’m proud of you!” ”

“ But I am Mercutio, who, upon my life,
Had nearly made that maid there be my wife
But for your coming. Now that you have come,
And I’m not wanted, I think I’ll go home.
Rom. Stay, vile Mercutio, I see what you’re about:
With this ’ere maid you tried to cut me out;
But you shall find that I can cut as well.
A game of turn him out, we’ll have, my swell.
You are a sneak, so be a little bolder:
Let’s see you knock that chip from off my shoulder.
(Mercutio blows chip off.)
A blow. We’ll try the manly art.
Mer. The manly art?—oh, no!
We can’t do that: it’s not for us, you know. ”

“ Sara's little heart swelled with love and pride. Her eyes traveled once more over the shining little table, and the friendly faces of Pirlaps and Avrillia, and the glowing little kitchen, and out through the little window, where the fog-bushes were making long blue shadows, and the fairy lights danced on the silver snow. ”

“ Baker began to talk again. He was interested in the young companion by his side, this boy so filled with determination, so energetic and forceful and yet so abounding in loyalty and affection, as his grief over Jerry's death and his fondness for his horse testified; this boy who read books and yet had such a whole-souled contempt of affected learning as evidenced by his ill-concealed disdain of the Eastern "dude." "You've never been East," began the ranchman, "or to school?"
"No. I was born in Bismarck, North Dakota," was the answer. ”

“ She is at first full of affection, mingled with dread of what he may know. He is fighting suspicion, passion for her, and inability to believe her guilty. Seeking her at Crowe Hall, he has followed her thither. At first she is too sincere to play with him. He is too anxious to be able to diplomatize. He shows his fears—that she is intriguing with another, with the Pretender. She is maddeningly incomprehensible—swears she knows no Pretender, but will not say yes or no as to meeting any one in the wood. ”

“ She sold her jewels to build a home for the aged sick, but she did not do it, princess and grown woman as she was, until she had asked the consent of her mother and her brother the king. What have you done, my child? What have you been thinking of? You must explain yourself fully. I have a right to demand it!"
Alma again left the room, to return with the little yellow house in her hands. "Here is my savings-box, papa," she said; "Nono made it for me."
A flush of pleasure came over the face of the colonel. "So exactly like Karin's cottage!" he exclaimed. "What a clever little boy! ”

“ The man stretched himself at his companion's feet, where he could look into her face and catch its every expression.
"Florence Baker," his voice came to her ears like the sound of one speaking afar off, "Florence Baker, I love you. In all that I'm going to say, bear this in mind; don't forget it for a moment. To me you will always be the one woman on earth. ”

“ His jaws will open. His teeth will gleam. If any little girl cries, he will snap at her, and it will be good-bye girl. Now, if you are not a fraid-cat you'll say, 'Harvey Baker, whistle.'"
She wanted to run more than ever, but instead she repeated slowly:
"Harvey Baker, whistle."
The boy pursed up his lips, but he then made an impressive pause, and finally pointed his finger at Beth.
"Elizabeth Davenport, remember. If you give the least little bit of a cry, you die. But, if you keep perfectly still, and never tell what you see, I am your friend for life." ”

“ Almost always somebody comes along and gives me a ride. Everybody is very kind to me, and I get along famously.”
Ah, Jenny, if everybody had your cheerful [135] spirit, how much better and brighter the world would become! how pleasantly we should all get along! The hard, grinding times come to all, in different shapes, to be rightly borne in patience; but between the past and the coming are long reaches of level life which the sunshine of a contented spirit can make glad and happy.
That long walk opened a fresh path in the new life to Becky. For two years Jenny York had worked at the mill. ”

“ Mary, I wish I had not come here. There’s a power in the old house that makes my heart ache, it awakens such memories! And mother, dear soul, how sadly her bright hopes of her boy have been shattered! Though I have dashed into the city, and been swept along by its hurry and whirl, I have often thought of this quiet house, and ached, fairly ached, to feel mother’s arms around my neck, and her goodnight kiss upon my brow. O, Mary, be tender, very tender with her. Don’t let her hear a word against me. Sometimes I think that fierce temptation will overwhelm me, ruin me, body and soul ”

“ Bill Lampeter nodded, munching his bread.
“They’ll not be back afore the dawning, them troopers,” he said. “They’ve limed the twig, ye see; the bird is made fast. If Mr. Cope do hear the country’s up, he’ll bide where he be there at Goodrest, reckoning ’tis safest to keep still. Between now and the first streak as shows over the Black Scaur, mistress, you can do as you will.”
“Eh, Mistress Beatrice, you can’t never go,” said Patty, trembling. “You couldn’t dare to do it. And this here boy,” she whispered, standing close to Mistress Beatrice, “is a very proverb for 356 wicked story-telling. ”

“ Mary corresponded with her brother and also with her cousin who was at college and her fame gradually spread as a young prodigy of learning whose writing fell naturally into poetry and whose thought was forever brooding on spiritual matters.
In spite of her intelligence, Mary Baker’s spiritual experiences continued to be grave and unusual, as had been her “Voices.” She was what her family thought morbidly devout, reading her Bible with absorbed interest, making its characters the familiar friends of her mind. ”

“ He’s nothing but a boy.”
“What will the captain say now, Becky?”
“I don’t care what he says. Guess he don’t like the teacher any better than I do. Come, let’s get away from here; he’ll be after us.”
“That’s so. Where shall we go?”
“Where we were going this morning. We’ve got time to ‘shoot the Basin’ before dinner.”
So saying, Becky, whose hasty exit from the school-room had not allowed her to gain possession of her hat, started off bareheaded, followed by Teddy, along the bank of the river, towards the Corner. ”

“ Their friendship was of a breed that Baker had never quite been able to define to his own satisfaction. It seemed to him there was a sort of deadly fascination in associating with a man who walked so blindly, who was so profoundly incapable of understanding his own blindness and peril.
"I'm going to show you," Baker said abruptly, "exactly what it would mean if we were to do as you suggest. I'll show you what it would be like to give attention to every halfwit and crackpot that comes begging for a handout." He switched the intercom and spoke into it. "Doris, please bring in the Ellerbee file. ”

“ Then, though the details of Baker’s capture by a band of Woodend villagers, and his exemplary punishment at their hands, were still withheld from him, he had the relief of knowing that the brutal rascal of Lumber’s Yard had been packed off to America, with a threat of legal proceedings should he dare to reappear in Woodend; and that Bell Baker, free of his tyranny, was developing into a good mother and tidy housewife. Max’s friends found her as much work as she could do; and the Altruists helped her judiciously with extra food and clothing for her little ones. ”