Black-eyed Susan

“ The house Susan lived in with Grandmother and Grandfather Whiting and Snuff the dog was a broad, low, white house that stood far back from the road at the end of Featherbed Lane.
Susan thought this the funniest name she had ever heard.
As she and Grandfather, hand in hand, would carefully pick their way over the stones that covered the road from house to highway, she never tired of asking, “Grandfather, why do you call it Featherbed Lane? It’s not a bit like a feather bed. It’s as hard as hard can be.” ”

“ Susan walked about, surveying the battered desks covered with scratches and ink-spots and ornamented with initials cut into the wood. The door of the rusty stove stood open, and within lay a heap of torn papers. The faded maps were not interesting, and Susan began to think the schoolroom more attractive when peeped at from the porch than when actually within it.
“Let’s go outside,” said she to Gentilla, who had followed her about like Mary’s lamb. “Then we’ll sit down and eat our lunch.” ”

“ Perhaps they would have to stay forever in the schoolhouse. Without anything to eat they would grow thinner and thinner and thinner until there would be nothing left of them at all. At this doleful thought, one tear rolled down Susan’s nose and splashed on the dusty boards. But only one! For she swallowed hard, gave herself a little shake, and then took Gentilla by the hand. ”

“ And there was Snowball, the rubber cat, that had been Susan’s favorite toy when she was a baby. Snowball may once have deserved her name. But now she was a dingy gray that not even frequent scrubbings with soap and water could freshen. She had lost her tail, she had lost her squeak, but Susan was loyal to her old pet and still lavished tender care upon her.
Then, too, there was the shawl dolly. Most of the time the dolly was a plain little black-and-white checked shawl spread over Grandmother’s shoulders or neatly folded on the hatbox in Grandmother’s closet. ”

“ At dinner, Susan discovered that “Bussels sprouts” were like baby cabbages, but it was not until later in the evening that Mrs. Spargo, seeing Susan’s bewilderment at Letty’s talk of the Blackbird Pie, made clear the mystery to her.
“It is not a real pie, Susan,” said she. “It is going to be the largest dishpan we can buy, covered with paper to look like a pie and filled with little articles and toys that cost five or ten cents each. You will pull a string, and out of the pie will come something nice. And the blackbird curtains are to drape the booth. Do you understand?” ”

“ The lunch basket, guarded by Flip and Snowball, had been left on the porch steps.
Susan turned the knob of the schoolhouse door, which had swung shut behind them, and pulled. The door wouldn’t open. Susan tugged until she grew red in the face.
“You try, Gentilla,” said she.
Gentilla obligingly gave a pull, and toppled over backward upon the floor.
“Don’t cry,” said Susan, helping her to her feet. “We will just climb out of the window.” ”

“ She had asked to see Flip, but Grandmother had said mysteriously that Flip, in her turn, had gone visiting, and that she wouldn’t be back until dinner-time Thanksgiving Day.
“When is Thanksgiving Day?” Susan had asked.
“To-morrow,” Grandmother had answered, and Susan had sprung up in bed with a cry.
“Won’t I be well to-morrow?” she asked imploringly. “Won’t I be well for Thanksgiving Day?”
Grandmother at this moment was shaking the big black medicine bottle. It did seem to Susan that it was always medicine time, though Grandmother said it was marked on the bottle “To be taken every two hours.” ”

“ But he seemed dispirited, and Grandmother, who had sharp eyes and ears as well as a warm heart, and who had guessed something of Phil’s unhappy afternoon, looked from the drooping little figure on the steps to the red-rimmed eyes of her own Susan.
“Susan,” said she briskly, “it’s a long while to supper-time. You run over and ask Mrs. Vane to let Philip come back here with you. Tell her I have a little treat for you two. I hope I won’t give them bad dreams,” Grandmother added to herself, as Susan gladly sped over the garden wall and across the green lawn on her pleasant errand. ”

“ And Susan jumped out of bed and, running to the window, peered eagerly over at the old Tallman house.
Yes, some one was already up and stirring, for smoke was pouring out of the kitchen chimney, but there was no sign to be seen of any little boy.
Breakfast over, Susan hurried through her daily tasks about the house, and then ran out to the chicken-yard, with her bowl of chicken-feed under her arm. She waited until the fowls, with their usual squawkings and cluckings, had gathered about her feet, and addressed them solemnly. ”

“ I guess everybody is awake now. But where is Snuff? He’s always the first one up.”
Susan turned to go in search of her playmate when a flutter of white caught her eye. On one of the porch posts a slip of paper had been fastened with a common white pin. In a twinkling Susan was on the rail and down again, paper in hand.
“Grandfather, Grandfather, here’s a letter,” she called, and, running through the house, she gave the paper to Grandfather, just settling himself at the breakfast table. ”

“ You know the Fair is only one day after to-morrow now. Don’t you think we ought to begin to save right away so that we can have lots of pulls at the Blackbird Pie? And there will be ice-cream, too, and other good things, I know. Have you any money?”
Susan was as business-like as Letty. ”

“ Jerrold's "Black-ey'd Susan," first performed in 1822, waited till 1866 for the travestie by Mr. Burnand, to which I have already adverted. This "Latest Edition of Black-eyed Susan, or the Little Bill that was Taken Up," [42] was made specially gay by a wealth of song and dance; but it had other merits. Here, for instance, is an amusing soliloquy by Dame Hatley:—
It's very hard, and nothing can be harder
Than for three weeks to have an empty larder ”

“ And Susan pensively put out her tongue and caught a tear rolling slowly down her cheek.
“Well, Susan, take my advice,” said Grandmother sensibly, “and don’t try to train Gentilla any more. It is all most of us can do to take care of ourselves, and we think Gentilla is a nice little girl just as she is now, don’t we?”
Susan nodded soberly. Much nicer than Susan Whiting, she thought, as she remembered slapping and pushing and knocking Gentilla down.
But she brightened when Grandmother added:
“Hurry now and dress yourself. We are all invited over to Mrs. Vane’s for tea, Grandfather and all. ”

“ Whiting.
“But you wouldn’t steal.”
“I hope not,” returned Grandfather. “But you must remember, Susan, that the gypsies don’t go to school or to church, and so they don’t know the difference between right and wrong as well as the people who do.”
“They ought to go,” said Susan morally. “I go. Everybody ought to go. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to teach Gentilla Bible stories right away to-morrow. How long will she stay here? Forever?”
“No, not forever. I don’t know how long. Now you must go to sleep, or Grandmother will be up here after us.”
“I will,” promised Susan drowsily. ”

“ Drew married them. Then they went off to Green Valley, where her husband lives.”
“Maybe she will ask me to come to see her there,” said Susan hopefully.
“Perhaps she will,” said Grandmother. “It may be the making of her, Susan,” she went on, half to herself. “She certainly was full of whims and crotchets, and would try the patience of any one but a saint like Miss Liza. Your Grandfather always said that all she needed was hard work, and I think she will have it now, for her husband was a widower with three children and an old mother, too. It may make a woman of her. ”

“ One wide river to cross.” “Do you like it?” asked Phil, looking up into Susan’s face with a smile.
Susan nodded with an energy that set her curls a-bobbing.
“There’s Grandmother in the window,” said she. “Let’s go in and see her.”
Grandmother put down her knitting to welcome Philip, and bade Susan pass the cinnamon cookies.
“I know my mother likes me to eat them,” announced Phil, silent until he had disposed of his cooky, “because she wants me to grow fat.” ”

“ Grandfather said so, and he knows everything.”
“Everything,” echoed Gentilla loyally.
“Yes, he does,” Susan chattered on. “When I was little, I used to wonder why he wasn’t a king. There are always plenty of kings in fairy stories, but there don’t seem to be any round here. Did you ever see a king?”
Gentilla shook her head solemnly, but Susan was not looking at her.
“Gentilla,” said Susan, staring at the schoolhouse door, “it’s open!”
Never before had Susan seen the schoolhouse door unlocked. Many times had she shaken it and rattled the knob, and all of no avail. ”

“ She doesn’t need any better fortune than she has.”
Nor did she, for she and Gentilla, still carrying the squash baby, had become good friends and were enjoying their play together equally well. They walked off, hand in hand, Susan helping Gentilla over the rough places and mothering her to her heart’s delight. She washed her new baby’s face and hands in the brook and dried them upon her own handkerchief. She told her about Flip, and Snowball, and Snuff, to which Gentilla listened with a roll of her big gray eyes. ”

“ Susan uttered cries of delight as she rapidly made her selection.
“Look at these blue diamonds,” she exclaimed rapturously over some glass buttons that had seen better days. “And here is one with beautiful pink flowers painted on it. Here is a white fur one off my baby coat, and these little violet-and-white checks are from Grandmother’s gingham dress. I know they are.” ”

“ Suppose we let him step down. He doesn’t know that he has any knees.”
So Parson Drew, as fond as Susan of raspberry vinegar, obligingly “stepped down cellar,” and brought up a tall rosy bottle the contents of which, under Madame Bonnet’s careful eye, he poured into thin little glasses with a gold band about the top.
“Well,” said Grandfather, after he had actually turned the bottle upside down to prove to Susan and Phil that there was not a single drop left in it, “I’m afraid the time has come for us to go.”
And after many good-byes and messages for Grandmother, the party moved toward the door. ”

“ It was a white china egg, and, lifting off the top, there lay a little dolly, as snug as could be.
“It’s beautiful,” said Susan. And bold with gratitude, she stood on tiptoe and placed a kiss upon Madame Bonnet’s wrinkled cheek.
“Well!” said Madame Bonnet, taken aback for the moment, but liking it nevertheless. “If I had a good knee I’d step down cellar for a bottle of my raspberry vinegar to treat you all. How are your knees, Mr. Whiting?”
“Young as a boy’s,” returned Grandfather, rubbing them as he spoke. “But here’s Parson Drew. ”

“ Are you thinking of taking them to Banbury? You will need a Saratoga trunk, if you keep on.”
“I thought Letty would like to see them,” faltered Susan, halting with an armful in the doorway.
“So she will, when she comes to visit you,” answered Grandmother. “It is your turn now to see her toys. And I should leave Flip and Snowball home, too, if I were you. You will be gone only four or five days, a week at the most, you know.”
“I am afraid they will miss me,” said Susan, coming forward to look wistfully at her pile of treasures.
“No, they won’t,” said Grandmother, shaking her head with decision. ”

“ All the little boys and girls were sound asleep tucked in their warm beds—”
“All but one,” interrupted Susan.
“Yes, all but one,” agreed Grandfather, “and she was riding along in a sleigh, and the sleigh-bells went jingle jangle, jingle jangle, and the horses’ feet went crunch, crunch, crunch, through the snow.”
“Now, tell was I cold,” prompted Susan, as Grandfather paused to spread his silk handkerchief over his head to keep off the draught.
“The little girl wasn’t one bit cold,” went on Grandfather smoothly, “because she was dressed in fur from head to foot. ”

“ And Susan and Phil, with the ease of old friends, proceeded to marshal the strange little toy animals in line, two by two, behind Mr. and Mrs. Noah and their stiff and stolid family.
“Now you sing a song,” said Phil. “Do you know it?” And without waiting for Susan’s shake of the head he burst loudly into tune:
“They marched the animals, two by two,
One wide river to cross—
The elephant and the kangaroo,
One wide river to cross.” ”

“ The 'snake' has got the scarlet leaves, and she knows when she has got a good thing."
She took some of the leaves from the jar, and held them against her black hair. They were brilliantly beautiful, and became her well. She looked in the glass and nodded, well pleased with what she saw there; then she carefully clipped the ends of the branches, and put fresh water in the jar before replacing them.
"Indian Summer will take the shine out of Black-eyed Susan, I'm afraid," she said to herself. "Poor Susan, I am sorry for her." She laughed ”

“ But I’m going to grow big and fat now—if I eat enough,” he added with his eyes on the plate of cakes.
Each with a cooky in hand and an extra one in Phil’s pocket, Susan escorted her new friend down Featherbed Lane in the hope that Grandfather would invite them into the office.
He was writing busily, but when Susan and Phil, clinging to the window-sill, all but pressed their noses against the pane, Grandfather put down his pen and motioned them to come in.
“How do you do, sir,” said Grandfather as Phil shook hands in true manly fashion. “So you are my next-door neighbor. ”

“ Whiting says they are a little jealous because we do so much for Gentilla, and not for their own little girls. He thinks we haven’t been very wise,” answered Mrs. Whiting. “And now that you have made Gentilla these aprons, I don’t know what they will say.”
From the shady back porch, where Grandmother and Miss Liza sat rocking and sewing together, it looked as if two Susans, one large and one small, were walking down the path toward them. For Gentilla wore, fitted to her small person, a dress Susan had outgrown, and on her feet a pair of Susan’s shoes, the toes well stuffed with cotton. ”