Chronicles of Avonlea
by
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Part 4 out of 5
you do give him cream in the pantry on the sly."
Alexander Abraham looked foolish. He hadn't thought I knew
that.
I didn't take the smallpox and in another week the doctor came
out and sent the policeman home. I was disinfected and William
Adolphus was fumigated, and then we were free to go.
"Good-bye, Mr. Bennett," I said, offering to shake hands in a
forgiving spirit. "I've no doubt that you are glad to be rid
of me, but you are no gladder than I am to go. I suppose this
house will be dirtier than ever in a month's time, and Mr.
Riley will have discarded the little polish his manners have
taken on. Reformation with men and dogs never goes very deep."
With this Parthian shaft I walked out of the house, supposing
that I had seen the last of it and Alexander Abraham.
I was glad to get back home, of course; but it did seem queer
and lonesome. The cats hardly knew me, and William Adolphus
roamed about forlornly and appeared to feel like an exile. I
didn't take as much pleasure in cooking as usual, for it
seemed kind of foolish to be fussing over oneself. The sight
of a bone made me think of poor Mr. Riley. The neighbours
avoided me pointedly, for they couldn't get rid of the fear
that I might erupt into smallpox at any moment. My Sunday
School class had been given to another woman, and altogether I
felt as if I didn't belong anywhere.
I had existed like this for a fortnight when Alexander Abraham
suddenly appeared. He walked in one evening at dusk, but at
first sight I didn't know him he was so spruced and barbered
up. But William Adolphus knew him. Will you believe it,
William Adolphus, my own William Adolphus, rubbed up against
that man's trouser leg with an undisguised purr of
satisfaction.
"I had to come, Angelina," said Alexander Abraham. "I couldn't
stand it any longer."
"My name is Peter," I said coldly, although I was feeling
ridiculously glad about something.
"It isn't," said Alexander Abraham stubbornly. "It is Angelina
for me, and always will be. I shall never call you Peter.
Angelina just suits you exactly; and Angelina Bennett would
suit you still better. You must come back, Angelina. Mr. Riley
is moping for you, and I can't get along without somebody to
appreciate my sarcasms, now that you have accustomed me to the
luxury."
"What about the other five cats?" I demanded.
Alexander Abraham sighed.
"I suppose they'll have to come too," he sighed, "though no
doubt they'll chase poor Mr. Riley clean off the premises. But
I can live without him, and I can't without you. How soon can
you be ready to marry me?"
"I haven't said that I was going to marry you at all, have I?"
I said tartly, just to be consistent. For I wasn't feeling
tart.
"No, but you will, won't you?" said Alexander Abraham
anxiously. "Because if you won't, I wish you'd let me die of
the smallpox. Do, dear Angelina."
To think that a man should dare to call me his "dear
Angelina!" And to think that I shouldn't mind!
"Where I go, William Adolphus goes," I said, "but I shall give
away the other five cats for--for the sake of Mr. Riley."
IX. Pa Sloane's Purchase
"I guess the molasses is getting low, ain't it?" said Pa
Sloane insinuatingly. "S'pose I'd better drive up to Carmody
this afternoon and get some more."
"There's a good half-gallon of molasses in the jug yet," said
ma Sloane ruthlessly.
"That so? Well, I noticed the kerosene demijohn wasn't very
hefty the last time I filled the can. Reckon it needs
replenishing."
"We have kerosene enough to do for a fortnight yet." Ma
continued to eat her dinner with an impassive face, but a
twinkle made itself apparent in her eye. Lest Pa should see
it, and feel encouraged thereby, she looked immovably at her
plate.
Pa Sloane sighed. His invention was giving out.
"Didn't I hear you say day before yesterday that you were out
of nutmegs?" he queried, after a few moments' severe
reflection.
"I got a supply of them from the egg-pedlar yesterday,"
responded Ma, by a great effort preventing the twinkle from
spreading over her entire face. She wondered if this third
failure would squelch Pa. But Pa was not to be squelched.
"Well, anyway," he said, brightening up under the influence of
a sudden saving inspiration. "I'll have to go up to get the
sorrel mare shod. So, if you've any little errands you want
done at the store, Ma, just make a memo of them while I hitch
up."
The matter of shoeing the sorrel mare was beyond Ma's
province, although she had her own suspicions about the sorrel
mare's need of shoes.
"Why can't you give up beating about the bush, Pa?" she
demanded, with contemptuous pity. "You might as well own up
what's taking you to Carmody. _I_ can see through your design.
You want to get away to the Garland auction. That is what is
troubling you, Pa Sloane."
"I dunno but what I might step over, seeing it's so handy. But
the sorrel mare really does need shoeing, Ma," protested Pa.
"There's always something needing to be done if it's
convenient," retorted Ma. "Your mania for auctions will be the
ruin of you yet, Pa. A man of fifty-five ought to have grown
out of such a hankering. But the older you get the worse you
get. Anyway, if _I_ wanted to go to auctions, I'd select them
as was something like, and not waste my time on little one-
horse affairs like this of Garland's."
"One might pick up something real cheap at Garland's," said Pa
defensively.
"Well, you are not going to pick up anything, cheap or
otherwise, Pa Sloane, because I'm going with you to see that
you don't. I know I can't stop you from going. I might as well
try to stop the wind from blowing. But I shall go, too, out of
self-defence. This house is so full now of old clutter and
truck that you've brought home from auctions that I feel as if
I was made up out of pieces and left overs."
Pa Sloane sighed again. It was not exhilarating to attend an
auction with Ma. She would never let him bid on anything. But
he realized that Ma's mind was made up beyond the power of
mortal man's persuasion to alter it, so he went out to hitch
up.
Pa Sloane's dissipation was going to auctions and buying
things that nobody else would buy. Ma Sloane's patient
endeavours of over thirty years had been able to effect only a
partial reform. Sometimes Pa heroically refrained from going
to an auction for six months at a time; then he would break
out worse than ever, go to all that took place for miles
around, and come home with a wagonful of misfits. His last
exploit had been to bid on an old dasher churn for five
dollars--the boys "ran things up" on Pa Sloane for the fun of
it--and bring it home to outraged Ma, who had made her butter
for fifteen years in the very latest, most up-to-date barrel
churn. To add insult to injury this was the second dasher
churn Pa had bought at auction. That settled it. Ma decreed
that henceforth she would chaperon Pa when he went to
auctions.
But this was the day of Pa's good angel. When he drove up to
the door where Ma was waiting, a breathless, hatless imp of
ten flew into the yard, and hurled himself between Ma and the
wagon-step.
"Oh, Mrs. Sloane, won't you come over to our house at once?"
he gasped. "The baby, he's got colic, and ma's just wild, and
he's all black in the face."
Ma went, feeling that the stars in their courses fought
against a woman who was trying to do her duty by her husband.
But first she admonished Pa.
"I shall have to let you go alone. But I charge you, Pa, not
to bid on anything--on ANYTHING, do you hear?"
Pa heard and promised to heed, with every intention of keeping
his promise. Then he drove away joyfully. On any other
occasion Ma would have been a welcome companion. But she
certainly spoiled the flavour of an auction.
When Pa arrived at the Carmody store, he saw that the little
yard of the Garland place below the hill was already full of
people. The auction had evidently begun; so, not to miss any
more of it, Pa hurried down. The sorrel mare could wait for
her shoes until afterwards.
Ma had been within bounds when she called the Garland auction
a "one-horse affair." It certainly was very paltry, especially
when compared to the big Donaldson auction of a month ago,
which Pa still lived over in happy dreams.
Horace Garland and his wife had been poor. When they died
within six weeks of each other, one of consumption and one of
pneumonia, they left nothing but debts and a little furniture.
The house had been a rented one.
The bidding on the various poor articles of household gear put
up for sale was not brisk, but had an element of resigned
determination. Carmody people knew that these things had to be
sold to pay the debts, and they could not be sold unless they
were bought. Still, it was a very tame affair.
A woman came out of the house carrying a baby of about
eighteen months in her arms, and sat down on the bench beneath
the window.
"There's Marthy Blair with the Garland Baby," said Robert
Lawson to Pa. "I'd like to know what's to become of that poor
young one!"
"Ain't there any of the father's or mother's folks to take
him?" asked Pa.
"No. Horace had no relatives that anybody ever heard of. Mrs.
Horace had a brother; but he went to Mantioba years ago, and
nobody knows where he is now. Somebody'll have to take the
baby and nobody seems anxious to. I've got eight myself, or
I'd think about it. He's a fine little chap."
Pa, with Ma's parting admonition ringing in his ears, did not
bid on anything, although it will never be known how great was
the heroic self-restraint he put on himself, until just at the
last, when he did bid on a collection of flower-pots, thinking
he might indulge himself to that small extent. But Josiah
Sloane had been commissioned by his wife to bring those
flower-pots home to her; so Pa lost them.
"There, that's all," said the auctioneer, wiping his face, for
the day was very warm for October.
"There's nothing more unless we sell the baby."
A laugh went through the crowd. The sale had been a dull
affair, and they were ready for some fun. Someone called out,
"Put him up, Jacob." The joke found favour and the call was
repeated hilariously.
Jacob Blair took little Teddy Garland out of Martha's arms and
stood him up on the table by the door, steadying the small
chap with one big brown hand. The baby had a mop of yellow
curls, and a pink and white face, and big blue eyes. He
laughed out at the men before him and waved his hands in
delight. Pa Sloane thought he had never seen so pretty a baby.
"Here's a baby for sale," shouted the auctioneer. "A genuine
article, pretty near as good as brand-new. A real live baby,
warranted to walk and talk a little. Who bids? A dollar? Did I
hear anyone mean enough to bid a dollar? No, sir, babies don't
come as cheap as that, especially the curly-headed brand."
The crowd laughed again. Pa Sloane, by way of keeping on the
joke, cried, "Four dollars!"
Everybody looked at him. The impression flashed through the
crowd that Pa was in earnest, and meant thus to signify his
intention of giving the baby a home. He was well-to-do, and
his only son was grown up and married.
"Six," cried out John Clarke from the other side of the yard.
John Clarke lived at White Sands and he and his wife were
childless.
That bid of John Clarke's was Pa's undoing. Pa Sloane could
not have an enemy; but a rival he had, and that rival was John
Clarke. Everywhere at auctions John Clarke was wont to bid
against Pa. At the last auction he had outbid Pa in
everything, not having the fear of his wife before his eyes.
Pa's fighting blood was up in a moment; he forgot Ma Sloane;
he forgot what he was bidding for; he forgot everything except
a determination that John Clarke should not be victor again.
"Ten," he called shrilly.
"Fifteen," shouted Clarke.
"Twenty," vociferated Pa.
"Twenty-five," bellowed Clarke.
"Thirty," shrieked Pa. He nearly bust a blood-vessel in his
shrieking, but he had won. Clarke turned off with a laugh and
a shrug, and the baby was knocked down to Pa Sloane by the
auctioneer, who had meanwhile been keeping the crowd in roars
of laughter by a quick fire of witticisms. There had not been
such fun at an auction in Carmody for many a long day.
Pa Sloane came, or was pushed, forward. The baby was put into
his arms; he realized that he was expected to keep it, and he
was too dazed to refuse; besides, his heart went out to the
child.
The auctioneer looked doubtfully at the money which Pa laid
mutely down.
"I s'pose that part was only a joke," he said.
"Not a bit of it," said Robert Lawson. "All the money won't
bee too much to pay the debts. There's a doctor's bill, and
this will just about pay it."
Pa Sloane drove back home, with the sorrel mare still unshod,
the baby, and the baby's meager bundle of clothes. The baby
did not trouble him much; it had become well used to strangers
in the past two months, and promptly fell asleep on his arm;
but Pa Sloane did not enjoy that drive; at the end of it; he
mentally saw Ma Sloane.
Ma was there, too, waiting for him on the back door-step as he
drove into the yard at sunset. Her face, when she saw the
baby, expressed the last degree of amazement.
"Pa Sloane," she demanded, "whose is that young one, and there
did you get it?"
"I--I--bought it at the auction, Ma," said Pa feebly. Then he
waited for the explosion. None came. This last exploit of Pa's
was too much for Ma.
With a gasp she snatched the baby from Pa's arms, and ordered
him to go out and put the mare in. When Pa returned to the
kitchen Ma had set the baby on the sofa, fenced him around
with chairs so that he couldn't fall off and given him a
molassed cooky.
"Now, Pa Sloane, you can explain," she said.
Pa explained. Ma listened in grim silence until he had
finished. Then she said sternly:
"Do you reckon we're going to keep this baby?"
"I--I--dunno," said Pa. And he didn't.
"Well, we're NOT. I brought up one boy and that's enough. I
don't calculate to be pestered with any more. I never was much
struck on children _as_ children, anyhow. You say that Mary
Garland had a brother out in Mantioba? Well, we shall just
write to him and tell him he's got to look out for his nephew."
"But how can you do that, Ma, when nobody knows his address?"
objected Pa, with a wistful look at that delicious, laughing baby.
"I'll find out his address if I have to advertise in the
papers for him," retorted Ma. "As for you, Pa Sloane, you're
not fit to be out of a lunatic asylum. The next auction you'll
be buying a wife, I s'pose?"
Pa, quite crushed by Ma's sarcasm, pulled his chair in to
supper. Ma picked up the baby and sat down at the head of the
table. Little Teddy laughed and pinched her face--Ma's face!
Ma looked very grim, but she fed him his supper as skilfully
as if it had not been thirty years since she had done such a
thing. But then, the woman who once learns the mother knack
never forgets it.
After tea Ma despatched Pa over to William Alexander's to
borrow a high chair. When Pa returned in the twilight, the
baby was fenced in on the sofa again, and Ma was stepping
briskly about the garret. She was bringing down the little cot
bed her own boy had once occupied, and setting it up in their
room for Teddy. Then she undressed the baby and rocked him to
sleep, crooning an old lullaby over him. Pa Sloane sat quietly
and listened, with very sweet memories of the long ago, when
he and Ma had been young and proud, and the bewhiskered
William Alexander had been a curly-headed little fellow like
this one.
Ma was not driven to advertising for Mrs. Garland's brother.
That personage saw the notice of his sister's death in a home
paper and wrote to the Carmody postmaster for full
information. The letter was referred to Ma and Ma answered it.
She wrote that they had taken in the baby, pending further
arrangements, but had no intention of keeping it; and she
calmly demanded of its uncle what was to be done with it. Then
she sealed and addressed the letter with an unfaltering hand;
but, when it was done, she looked across the table at Pa
Sloane, who was sitting in the armchair with the baby on his
knee. They were having a royal good time together. Pa had
always been dreadfully foolish about babies. He looked ten
years younger. Ma's keen eyes softened a little as she watched
them.
A prompt answer came to her letter. Teddy's uncle wrote that
he had six children of his own, but was nevertheless willing
and glad to give his little nephew a home. But he could not
come after him. Josiah Spencer, of White Sands, was going out
to Manitoba in the spring. If Mr. and Mrs. Sloane could only
keep the baby till then he could be sent out with the
Spencers. Perhaps they would see a chance sooner.
"There'll be no chance sooner," said Pa Sloane in a tone of
satisfaction.
"No, worse luck!" retorted Ma crisply.
The winter passed by. Little Teddy grew and throve, and Pa
Sloane worshipped him. Ma was very good to him, too, and Teddy
was just as fond of her as of Pa.
Nevertheless, as the spring drew near, Pa became depressed.
Sometimes he sighed heavily, especially when he heard casual
references to the Josiah Spencer emigration.
One warm afternoon in early May Josiah Spencer arrived. He
found Ma knitting placidly in the kitchen, while Pa nodded
over his newspaper and the baby played with the cat on the
floor.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Sloane," said Josiah with a flourish. "I
just dropped in to see about this young man here. We are going
to leave next Wednesday; so you'd better send him down to our
place Monday or Tuesday, so that he can get used to us, and--"
"Oh, Ma," began Pa, rising imploringly to his feet.
Ma transfixed him with her eye.
"Sit down, Pa," she commanded.
Unhappy Pa sat.
Then Ma glared at the smiling Josiah, who instantly felt as
guilty as if he had been caught stealing sheep red-handed.
"We are much obliged to you, Mr. Spencer," said Ma icily, "but
this baby is OURS. We bought him, and we paid for him. A
bargain is a bargain. When I pay cash down for babies, I
propose to get my money's worth. We are going to keep this
baby in spite of any number of uncles in Manitoba. Have I made
this sufficiently clear to your understanding, Mr. Spencer?"
"Certainly, certainly," stammered the unfortunate man, feeling
guiltier than ever, "but I thought you didn't want him--I
thought you'd written to his uncle--I thought--"
"I really wouldn't think quite so much if I were you," said Ma
kindly. "It must be hard on you. Won't you stay and have tea
with us?"
But, no, Josiah would not stay. He was thankful to make his
escape with such rags of self-respect as remained to him.
Pa Sloane arose and came around to Ma's chair. He laid a
trembling hand on her shoulder.
"Ma, you're a good woman," he said softly.
"Go 'long, Pa," said Ma.
X. The Courting of Prissy Strong
I WASN'T able to go to prayer meeting that evening because I
had neuralgia in my face; but Thomas went, and the minute he
came home I knew by the twinkle in his eye that he had some news.
"Who do you s'pose Stephen Clark went home with from meeting
to-night?" he said, chuckling.
"Jane Miranda Blair," I said promptly. Stephen Clark's wife
had been dead for two years and he hadn't taken much notice of
anybody, so far as was known. But Carmody had Jane Miranda all
ready for him, and really I don't know why she didn't suit
him, except for the reason that a man never does what he is
expected to do when it comes to marrying.
Thomas chuckled again.
"Wrong. He stepped up to Prissy Strong and walked off with
her. Cold soup warmed over."
"Prissy Strong!" I just held up my hands. Then I laughed. "He
needn't try for Prissy," I said. "Emmeline nipped that in the
bud twenty years ago, and she'll do it again."
"Em'line is an old crank," growled Thomas. He detested
Emmeline Strong, and always did.
"She's that, all right," I agreed, "and that is just the
reason she can turn poor Prissy any way she likes. You mark my
words, she'll put her foot right down on this as soon as she
finds it out."
Thomas said that I was probably right. I lay awake for a long
time after I went to bed that night, thinking of Prissy and
Stephen. As a general rule, I don't concern my head about
other people's affairs, but Prissy was such a helpless
creature I couldn't get her off my mind.
Twenty years ago Stephen Clark had tried to go with Prissy
Strong. That was pretty soon after Prissy's father had died.
She and Emmeline were living alone together. Emmeline was
thirty, ten years older than Prissy, and if ever there were
two sisters totally different from each other in every way,
those two were Emmeline and Prissy Strong.
Emmeline took after her father; she was big and dark and
homely, and she was the most domineering creature that ever
stepped on shoe leather. She simply ruled poor Prissy with a
rod of iron.
Prissy herself was a pretty girl--at least most people thought
so. I can't honestly say I ever admired her style much myself.
I like something with more vim and snap to it. Prissy was slim
and pink, with soft, appealing blue eyes, and pale gold hair
all clinging in baby rings around her face. She was just as
meek and timid as she looked and there wasn't a bit of harm in
her. I always liked Prissy, even if I didn't admire her looks
as much as some people did.
Anyway, it was plain her style suited Stephen Clark. He began
to drive her, and there wasn't a speck of doubt that Prissy
liked him. Then Emmeline just put a stopper on the affair. It
was pure cantankerousness in her. Stephen was a good match and
nothing could be said against him. But Emmeline was just
determined that Prissy shouldn't marry. She couldn't get
married herself, and she was sore enough about it.
Of course, if Prissy had had a spark of spirit she wouldn't
have given in. But she hadn't a mite; I believe she would have
cut off her nose if Emmeline had ordered her to do it. She was
just her mother over again. If ever a girl belied her name,
Prissy Strong did. There wasn't anything strong about her.
One night, when prayer meeting came out, Stephen stepped up to
Prissy as usual and asked if he might see her home. Thomas and
I were just behind--we weren't married ourselves then--and we
heard it all. Prissy gave one scared, appealing look at
Emmeline and then said, "No, thank you, not to-night."
Stephen just turned on his heel and went. He was a high-
spirited fellow and I knew he would never overlook a public
slight like that. If he had had as much sense as he ought to
have had he would have known that Emmeline was at the bottom
of it; but he didn't, and he began going to see Althea Gillis,
and they were married the next year. Althea was a rather nice
girl, though giddy, and I think she and Stephen were happy
enough together. In real life things are often like that.
Nobody ever tried to go with Prissy again. I suppose they were
afraid of Emmeline. Prissy's beauty soon faded. She was always
kind of sweet looking, but her bloom went, and she got shyer
and limper every year of her life. She wouldn't have dared put
on her second best dress without asking Emmeline's permission.
She was real fond of cats and Emmeline wouldn't let her keep
one. Emmeline even cut the serial out of the religious weekly
she took before she would give it to Prissy, because she
didn't believe in reading novels. It used to make me furious
to see it all. They were my next door neighbours after I
married Thomas, and I was often in and out. Sometimes I'd feel
real vexed at Prissy for giving in the way she did; but, after
all, she couldn't help it--she was born that way.
And now Stephen was going to try his luck again. It certainly
did seem funny.
Stephen walked home with Prissy from prayer meeting four
nights before Emmeline found it out. Emmeline hadn't been
going to prayer meeting all that summer because she was mad at
Mr. Leonard. She had expressed her disapproval to him because
he had buried old Naomi Clark at the harbour "just as if she
was a Christian," and Mr. Leonard had said something to her
she couldn't get over for a while. I don't know what it was,
but I know that when Mr. Leonard WAS roused to rebuke anyone
the person so rebuked remembered it for a spell.
All at once I knew she must have discovered about Stephen and
Prissy, for Prissy stopped going to prayer meeting.
I felt real worried about it, someway, and although Thomas
said for goodness' sake not to go poking my fingers into other
people's pies, I felt as if I ought to do something. Stephen
Clark was a good man and Prissy would have a beautiful home;
and those two little boys of Althea's needed a mother if ever
boys did. Besides, I knew quite well that Prissy, in her
secret soul, was hankering to be married. So was Emmeline,
too--but nobody wanted to help HER to a husband.
The upshot of my meditations was that I asked Stephen down to
dinner with us from church one day. I had heard a rumour that
he was going to see Lizzie Pye over at Avonlea, and I knew it
was time to be stirring, if anything were to be done. If it
had been Jane Miranda I don't know that I'd have bothered; but
Lizzie Pye wouldn't have done for a stepmother for Althea's
boys at all. She was too bad-tempered, and as mean as second
skimmings besides.
Stephen came. He seemed dull and moody, and not much inclined
to talk. After dinner I gave Thomas a hint. I said,
"You go to bed and have your nap. I want to talk to Stephen."
Thomas shrugged his shoulders and went. He probably thought I
was brewing up lots of trouble for myself, but he didn't say
anything. As soon as he was out of the way I casually remarked
to Stephen that I understood that he was going to take one of
my neighbours away and that I couldn't be sorry, though she
was an excellent neighbour and I would miss her a great deal.
"You won't have to miss her much, I reckon," said Stephen
grimly. "I've been told I'm not wanted there."
I was surprised to hear Stephen come out so plump and plain
about it, for I hadn't expected to get at the root of the
matter so easily. Stephen wasn't the confidential kind. But it
really seemed to be a relief to him to talk about it; I never
saw a man feeling so sore about anything. He told me the whole
story.
Prissy had written him a letter--he fished it out of his
pocket and gave it to me to read. It was in Prissy's prim,
pretty little writing, sure enough, and it just said that his
attentions were "unwelcome," and would he be "kind enough to
refrain from offering them." Not much wonder the poor man went
to see Lizzie Pye!
"Stephen, I'm surprised at you for thinking that Prissy Strong
wrote that letter," I said.
"It's in her handwriting," he said stubbornly.
"Of course it is. 'The hand is the hand of Esau, but the voice
is the voice of Jacob,'" I said, though I wasn't sure whether
the quotation was exactly appropriate. "Emmeline composed that
letter and made Prissy copy it out. I know that as well as if
I'd seen her do it, and you ought to have known it, too."
"If I thought that I'd show Emmeline I could get Prissy in
spite of her," said Stephen savagely. "But if Prissy doesn't
want me I'm not going to force my attentions on her."
Well, we talked it over a bit, and in the end I agreed to
sound Prissy, and find out what she really thought about it. I
didn't think it would be hard to do; and it wasn't. I went
over the very next day because I saw Emmeline driving off to
the store. I found Prissy alone, sewing carpet rags. Emmeline
kept her constantly at that--because Prissy hated it I
suppose. Prissy was crying when I went in, and in a few
minutes I had the whole story.
Prissy wanted to get married--and she wanted to get married to
Stephen--and Emmeline wouldn't let her.
"Prissy Strong," I said in exasperation, "you haven't the
spirit of a mouse! Why on earth did you write him such a
letter?"
"Why, Emmeline made me," said Prissy, as if there couldn't be
any appeal from that; and I knew there couldn't--for Prissy. I
also knew that if Stephen wanted to see Prissy again Emmeline
must know nothing of it, and I told him so when he came down
the next evening--to borrow a hoe, he said. It was a long way
to come for a hoe.
"Then what am I to do?" he said. "It wouldn't be any use to
write, for it would likely fall into Emmeline's hands. She
won't let Prissy go anywhere alone after this, and how am I to
know when the old cat is away?"
"Please don't insult cats," I said. "I'll tell you what we'll
do. You can see the ventilator on our barn from your place,
can't you? You'd be able to make out a flag or something tied
to it, wouldn't you, through that spy-glass of yours?"
Stephen thought he could.
"Well, you take a squint at it every now and then," I said.
"Just as soon as Emmeline leaves Prissy alone I'll hoist the
signal."
The chance didn't come for a whole fortnight. Then, one
evening, I saw Emmeline striding over the field below our
house. As soon as she was out of sight I ran through the birch
grove to Prissy.
"Yes, Em'line's gone to sit up with Jane Lawson to-night,"
said Prissy, all fluttered and trembling.
"Then you put on your muslin dress and fix your hair," I said.
"I'm going home to get Thomas to tie something to that
ventilator."
But do you think Thomas would do it? Not he. He said he owed
something to his position as elder in the church. In the end I
had to do it myself, though I don't like climbing ladders. I
tied Thomas' long red woollen scarf to the ventilator, and
prayed that Stephen would see it. He did, for in less than an
hour he drove down our lane and put his horse in our barn. He
was all spruced up, and as nervous and excited as a schoolboy.
He went right over to Prissy, and I began to tuft my new
comfort with a clear conscience. I shall never know why it
suddenly came into my head to go up to the garret and make
sure that the moths hadn't got into my box of blankets; but I
always believed that it was a special interposition of
Providence. I went up and happened to look out of the east
window; and there I saw Emmeline Strong coming home across our
pond field.
I just flew down those garret stairs and out through the
birches. I burst into the Strong kitchen, where Stephen and
Prissy were sitting as cozy as you please.
"Stephen, come quick! Emmeline's nearly here," I cried.
Prissy looked out of the window and wrung her hands.
"Oh, she's in the lane now," she gasped. "He can't get out of
the house without her seeing him. Oh, Rosanna, what shall we
do?
I really don't know what would have become of those two people
if I hadn't been in existence to find ideas for them.
"Take Stephen up to the garret and hide him there, Prissy," I
said firmly, "and take him quick."
Prissy took him quick, but she had barely time to get back to
the kitchen before Emmeline marched in--mad as a wet hen
because somebody had been ahead of her offering to sit up with
Jane Lawson, and so she lost the chance of poking and prying
into things while Jane was asleep. The minute she clapped eyes
on Prissy she suspected something. It wasn't any wonder, for
there was Prissy, all dressed up, with flushed cheeks and
shining eyes. She was all in a quiver of excitement, and
looked ten years younger.
"Priscilla Strong, you've been expecting Stephen Clark here
this evening!" burst out Emmeline. "You wicked, deceitful,
underhanded, ungrateful creature!"
And she went on storming at Prissy, who began to cry, and
looked so weak and babyish that I was frightened she would
betray the whole thing.
"This is between you and Prissy, Emmeline," I struck in, "and
I'm not going to interfere. But I want to get you to come over
and show me how to tuft my comfort that new pattern you
learned in Avonlea, and as it had better be done before dark I
wish you'd come right away."
"I s'pose I'll go," said Emmeline ungraciously, "but Priscilla
shall come, too, for I see that she isn't to be trusted out of
my sight after this."
I hoped Stephen would see us from the garret window and make
good his escape. But I didn't dare trust to chance, so when I
got Emmeline safely to work on my comfort I excused myself and
slipped out. Luckily my kitchen was on the off side of the
house, but I was a nervous woman as I rushed across to the
Strong place and dashed up Emmeline's garret stairs to
Stephen. It was fortunate I had come, for he didn't know we
had gone. Prissy had hidden him behind the loom and he didn't
dare move for fear Emmeline would hear him on that creaky
floor. He was a sight with cobwebs.
I got him down and smuggled him into our barn, and he stayed
there until it was dark and the Strong girls had gone home.
Emmeline began to rage at Prissy the moment they were outside
my door.
Then Stephen came in and we talked things over. He and Prissy
had made good use of their time, short as it had been. Prissy
had promised to marry him, and all that remained was to get
the ceremony performed.
"And that will be no easy matter," I warned him. "Now that
Emmeline's suspicions are aroused she'll never let Prissy out
of her sight until you're married to another woman, if it's
years. I know Emmeline Strong. And I know Prissy. If it was
any other girl in the world she'd run away, or manage it
somehow, but Prissy never will. She's too much in the habit of
obeying Emmeline. You'll have an obedient wife, Stephen--if
you ever get her."
Stephen looked as if he thought that wouldn't be any drawback.
Gossip said that Althea had been pretty bossy. I don't know.
Maybe it was so.
"Can't you suggest something, Rosanna?" he implored. "You've
helped us so far, and I'll never forget it."
"The only thing I can think of is for you to have the license
ready, and speak to Mr. Leonard, and keep an eye on our
ventilator," I said. "I'll watch here and signal whenever
there's an opening."
Well, I watched and Stephen watched, and Mr. Leonard was in
the plot, too. Prissy was always a favourite of his, and he
would have been more than human, saint as he is, if he'd had
any love for Emmeline, after the way she was always trying to
brew up strife in the church.
But Emmeline was a match for us all. She never let Prissy out
of her sight. Everywhere she went she toted Prissy, too. When
a month had gone by, I was almost in despair. Mr. Leonard had
to leave for the Assembly in another week and Stephen's
neighbours were beginning to talk about him. They said that a
man who spent all his time hanging around the yard with a
spyglass, and trusting everything to a hired boy, couldn't be
altogether right in his mind.
I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Emmeline driving
away one day alone. As soon as she was out of sight I whisked
over, and Anne Shirley and Diana Barry went with me.
They were visiting me that afternoon. Diana's mother was my
second cousin, and, as we visited back and forth frequently,
I'd often seen Diana. But I'd never seen her chum, Anne
Shirley, although I'd heard enough about her to drive anyone
frantic with curiosity. So when she came home from Redmond
College that summer I asked Diana to take pity on me and bring
her over some afternoon.
I wasn't disappointed in her. I considered her a beauty,
though some people couldn't see it. She had the most
magnificent red hair and the biggest, shiningest eyes I ever
saw in a girl's head. As for her laugh, it made me feel young
again to hear it. She and Diana both laughed enough that
afternoon, for I told them, under solemn promise of secrecy,
all about poor Prissy's love affair. So nothing would do them
but they must go over with me.
The appearance of the house amazed me. All the shutters were
closed and the door locked. I knocked and knocked, but there
was no answer. Then I walked around the house to the only
window that hadn't shutters--a tiny one upstairs. I knew it
was the window in the closet off the room where the girls
slept. I stopped under it and called Prissy. Before long
Prissy came and opened it. She was so pale and woe-begone
looking that I pitied her with all my heart.
"Prissy, where has Emmeline gone?" I asked.
"Down to Avonlea to see the Roger Pyes. They're sick with
measles, and Emmeline couldn't take me because I've never had
measles."
Poor Prissy! She had never had anything a body ought to have.
"Then you just come and unfasten a shutter, and come right
over to my house," I said exultantly. "We'll have Stephen and
the minister here in no time."
"I can't--Em'line has locked me in here," said Prissy
woefully.
I was posed. No living mortal bigger than a baby could have
got in or out of that closet window.
"Well," I said finally, "I'll put the signal up for Stephen
anyhow, and we'll see what can be done when he gets here."
I didn't know how I was ever to get the signal up on that
ventilator, for it was one of the days I take dizzy spells;
and if I took one up on the ladder there'd probably be a
funeral instead of a wedding. But Anne Shirley said she'd put
it up for me, and she did. I had never seen that girl before,
and I've never seen her since, but it's my opinion that there
wasn't much she couldn't do if she made up her mind to do it.
Stephen wasn't long in getting there and he brought the
minister with him. Then we all, including Thomas--who was
beginning to get interested in the affair in spite of himself-
-went over and held council of war beneath the closet window.
Thomas suggested breaking in doors and carrying Prissy off
boldly, but I could see that Mr. Leonard looked very dubious
over that, and even Stephen said he thought it could only be
done as a last resort. I agreed with him. I knew Emmeline
Strong would bring an action against him for housebreaking as
likely as not. She'd be so furious she'd stick at nothing if
we gave her any excuse. Then Anne Shirley, who couldn't have
been more excited if she was getting married herself, came to
the rescue again.
"Couldn't you put a ladder up to the closet window," she said,
"And Mr. Clark can go up it and they can be married there.
Can't they, Mr. Leonard?"
Mr. Leonard agreed that they could. He was always the most
saintly looking man, but I know I saw a twinkle in his eye.
"Thomas, go over and bring our little ladder over here," I
said.
Thomas forgot he was an elder, and he brought the ladder as
quick as it was possible for a fat man to do it. After all it
was too short to reach the window, but there was no time to go
for another. Stephen went up to the top of it, and he reached
up and Prissy reached down, and they could just barely clasp
hands so. I shall never forget the look of Prissy. The window
was so small she could only get her head and one arm out of
it. Besides, she was almost frightened to death.
Mr. Leonard stood at the foot of the ladder and married them.
As a rule, he makes a very long and solemn thing of the
marriage ceremony, but this time he cut out everything that
wasn't absolutely necessary; and it was well that he did, for
just as he pronounced them man and wife, Emmeline drove into
the lane.
She knew perfectly well what had happened when she saw the
minister with his blue book in his hand. Never a word said
she. She marched to the front door, unlocked it, and strode
upstairs. I've always been convinced it was a mercy that
closet window was so small, or I believe that she would have
thrown Prissy out of it. As it was, she walked her downstairs
by the arm and actually flung her at Stephen.
"There, take your wife," she said, "and I'll pack up every
stitch she owns and send it after her; and I never want to see
her or you again as long as I live."
Then she turned to me and Thomas.
"As for you that have aided and abetted that weakminded fool
in this, take yourselves out of my yard and never darken my
door again."
"Goodness, who wants to, you old spitfire?" said Thomas.
It wasn't just the thing for him to say, perhaps, but we are
all human, even elders.
The girls didn't escape. Emmeline looked daggers at them.
"This will be something for you to carry back to Avonlea," she
said. "You gossips down there will have enough to talk about
for a spell. That's all you ever go out of Avonlea for--just
to fetch and carry tales."
Finally she finished up with the minister.
"I'm going to the Baptist church in Spencervale after this,"
she said. Her tone and look said a hundred other things. She
whirled into the house and slammed the door.
Mr. Leonard looked around on us with a pitying smile as
Stephen put poor, half-fainting Prissy into the buggy.
"I am very sorry," he said in that gently, saintly way of his,
"for the Baptists."
XI. The Miracle at Carmody
Salome looked out of the kitchen window, and a pucker of
distress appeared on her smooth forehead.
"Dear, dear, what has Lionel Hezekiah been doing now?" she
murmured anxiously.
Involuntarily she reached out for her crutch; but it was a
little beyond her reach, having fallen on the floor, and
without it Salome could not move a step.
"Well, anyway, Judith is bringing him in as fast as she can,"
she reflected. "He must have been up to something terrible
this time; for she looks very cross, and she never walks like
that unless she is angry clear through. Dear me, I am
sometimes tempted to think that Judith and I made a mistake in
adopting the child. I suppose two old maids don't know much
about bringing up a boy properly. But he is NOT a bad child,
and it really seems to me that there must be some way of
making him behave better if we only knew what it was."
Salome's monologue was cut short by the entrance of her sister
Judith, holding Lionel Hezekiah by his chubby wrist with a
determined grip.
Judith Marsh was ten years older than Salome, and the two
women were as different in appearance as night and day.
Salome, in spite of her thirty-five years, looked almost
girlish. She was small and pink and flower-like, with little
rings of pale golden hair clustering all over her head in a
most unspinster-like fashion, and her eyes were big and blue,
and mild as a dove's. Her face was perhaps a weak one, but it
was very sweet and appealing.
Judith Marsh was tall and dark, with a plain, tragic face and
iron-gray hair. Her eyes were black and sombre, and every
feature bespoke unyielding will and determination. Just now
she looked, as Salome had said, "angry clear through," and the
baleful glances she cast on the small mortal she held would
have withered a more hardened criminal than six happy-go-lucky
years had made of Lionel Hezekiah.
Lionel Hezekiah, whatever his shortcomings, did not look bad.
Indeed, he was as engaging an urchin as ever beamed out on a
jolly good world through a pair of big, velvet-brown eyes. He
was chubby and firm-limbed, with a mop of beautiful golden
curls, which were the despair of his heart and the pride and
joy of Salome's; and his round face was usually a lurking-
place for dimples and smiles and sunshine.
But just now Lionel Hezekiah was under a blight; he had been
caught red-handed in guilt, and was feeling much ashamed of
himself. He hung his head and squirmed his toes under the
mournful reproach in Salome's eyes. When Salome looked at him
like that, Lionel Hezekiah always felt that he was paying more
for his fun than it was worth.
"What do you suppose I caught him doing this time?" demanded
Judith.
"I--I don't know," faltered Salome.
"Firing--at--a--mark--on--the--henhouse--door--with--new-laid-
-eggs," said Judith with measured distinctness. "He has broken
every egg that was laid to-day except three. And as for the
state of that henhouse door--"
Judith paused, with an indignant gesture meant to convey that
the state of the henhouse door must be left to Salome's
imagination, since the English language was not capable of
depicting it.
"O Lionel Hezekiah, why will you do such things?" said Salome
miserably.
"I--didn't know it was wrong," said Lionel Hezekiah, bursting
into prompt tears. "I--I thought it would be bully fun.
Seems's if everything what's fun 's wrong."
Salome's heart was not proof against tears, as Lionel Hezekiah
very well knew. She put her arm about the sobbing culprit, and
drew him to her side.
"He didn't know it was wrong," she said defiantly to Judith.
"He's got to be taught, then," was Judith's retort. "No, you
needn't try to beg him off, Salome. He shall go right to bed
without supper, and stay there till to-morrow morning."
"Oh! not without his supper," entreated Salome. "You--you
won't improve the child's morals by injuring his stomach,
Judith."
"Without his supper, I say," repeated Judith inexorably.
"Lionel Hezekiah, go up-stairs to the south room, and go to
bed at once."
Lionel Hezekiah went up-stairs, and went to bed at once. He
was never sulky or disobedient. Salome listened to him as he
stumped patiently up-stairs with a sob at every step, and her
own eyes filled with tears.
"Now don't for pity's sake go crying, Salome," said Judith
irritably. "I think I've let him off very easily. He is enough
to try the patience of a saint, and I never was that," she
added with entire truth.
"But he isn't bad," pleaded Salome. "You know he never does
anything the second time after he has been told it was wrong,
never."
"What good does that do when he is certain to do something new
and twice as bad? I never saw anything like him for
originating ideas of mischief. Just look at what he has done
in the past fortnight--in one fortnight, Salome. He brought in
a live snake, and nearly frightened you into fits; he drank up
a bottle of liniment, and almost poisoned himself; he took
three toads to bed with him; he climbed into the henhouse
loft, and fell through on a hen and killed her; he painted his
face all over with your water-colours; and now comes THIS
exploit. And eggs at twenty-eight cents a dozen! I tell you,
Salome, Lionel Hezekiah is an expensive luxury."
"But we couldn't do without him," protested Salome.
"_I_ could. But as you can't, or think you can't, we'll have
to keep him, I suppose. But the only way to secure any peace
of mind for ourselves, as far as I can see, is to tether him
in the yard, and hire somebody to watch him."
"There must be some way of managing him," said Salome
desperately. She thought Judith was in earnest about the
tethering. Judith was generally so terribly in earnest in all
she said. "Perhaps it is because he has no other employment
that he invents so many unheard-of things. If he had anything
to occupy himself with--perhaps if we sent him to school--"
"He's too young to go to school. Father always said that no
child should go to school until it was seven, and I don't mean
Lionel Hezekiah shall. Well, I'm going to take a pail of hot
water and a brush, and see what I can do to that henhouse
door. I've got my afternoon's work cut out for me."
Judith stood Salome's crutch up beside her, and departed to
purify the henhouse door. As soon as she was safely out of the
way, Salome took her crutch, and limped slowly and painfully
to the foot of the stairs. She could not go up and comfort
Lionel Hezekiah as she yearned to do, which was the reason
Judith had sent him up-stairs. Salome had not been up-stairs
for fifteen years. Neither did she dare to call him out on the
landing, lest Judith return. Besides, of course he must be
punished; he had been very naughty.
"But I wish I could smuggle a bit of supper up to him," she
mused, sitting down on the lowest step and listening. "I don't
hear a sound. I suppose he has cried himself to sleep, poor,
dear baby. He certainly is dreadfully mischievous; but it
seems to me that it shows an investigating turn of mind, and
if it could only be directed into the proper channels--I wish
Judith would let me have a talk with Mr. Leonard about Lionel
Hezekiah. I wish Judith didn't hate ministers so. I don't mind
so much her not letting me go to church, because I'm so lame
that it would be painful anyhow; but I'd like to talk with Mr.
Leonard now and then about some things. I can never believe
that Judith and father were right; I am sure they were not.
There is a God, and I'm afraid it's terribly wicked not to go
to church. But there, nothing short of a miracle would
convince Judith; so there is no use in thinking about it. Yes,
Lionel Hezekiah must have gone to sleep."
Salome pictured him so, with his long, curling lashes brushing
his rosy, tear-stained cheek and his chubby fists clasped
tightly over his breast as was his habit; her heart grew warm
and thrilling with the maternity the picture provoked.
A year previously Lionel Hezekiah's parents, Abner and Martha
Smith, had died, leaving a houseful of children and very
little else. The children were adopted into various Carmody
families, and Salome Marsh had amazed Judith by asking to be
allowed to take the five-year-old "baby." At first Judith had
laughed at the idea; but, when she found that Salome was in
earnest, she yielded. Judith always gave Salome her own way
except on one point.
"If you want the child, I suppose you must have him," she said
finally. "I wish he had a civilized name, though. Hezekiah is
bad, and Lionel is worse; but the two in combination, and
tacked on to Smith at that, is something that only Martha
Smith could have invented. Her judgment was the same clear
through, from selecting husbands to names."
So Lionel Hezekiah came into Judith's home and Salome's heart.
The latter was permitted to love him all she pleased, but
Judith overlooked his training with a critical eye. Possibly
it was just as well, for Salome might otherwise have ruined
him with indulgence. Salome, who always adopted Judith's
opinions, no matter how ill they fitted her, deferred to the
former's decrees meekly, and suffered far more than Lionel
Hezekiah when he was punished.
She sat on the stairs until she fell asleep herself, her head
pillowed on her arm. Judith found her there when she came in,
severe and triumphant, from her bout with the henhouse door.
Her face softened into marvelous tenderness as she looked at
Salome.
"She's nothing but a child herself in spite of her age," she
thought pityingly. "A child that's had her whole life thwarted
and spoiled through no fault of her own. And yet folks say
there is a God who is kind and good! If there is a God, he is
a cruel, jealous tyrant, and I hate Him!"
Judith's eyes were bitter and vindictive. She thought she had
many grievances against the great Power that rules the
universe, but the most intense was Salome's helplessness--
Salome, who fifteen years before had been the brightest,
happiest of maidens, light of heart and foot, bubbling over
with harmless, sparkling mirth and life. If Salome could only
walk like other women, Judith told herself that she would not
hate the great tyrannical Power.
Lionel Hezekiah was subdued and angelic for four days after
that affair of the henhouse door. Then he broke out in a new
place. One afternoon he came in sobbing, with his golden curls
full of burrs. Judith was not in, but Salome dropped her
crochet-work and gazed at him in dismay.
"Oh, Lionel Hezekiah, what have you gone and done now?"
"I--I just stuck the burrs in 'cause I was playing I was a
heathen chief," sobbed Lionel Hezekiah. "It was great fun
while it lasted; but, when I tried to take them out, it hurt
awful."
Neither Salome nor Lionel Hezekiah ever forgot the harrowing
hour that followed. With the aid of comb and scissors, Salome
eventually got the burrs out of Lionel Hezekiah's crop of
curls. It would be impossible to decide which of them suffered
more in the process. Salome cried as hard as Lionel Hezekiah
did, and every snip of the scissors or tug at the silken floss
cut into her heart. She was almost exhausted when the
performance was over; but she took the tired Lionel Hezekiah
on her knee, and laid her wet cheek against his shining head.
"Oh, Lionel Hezekiah, what does make you get into mischief so
constantly?" she sighed.
Lionel Hezekiah frowned reflectively.
"I don't know," he finally announced, "unless it's because you
don't send me to Sunday school."
Salome started as if an electric shock had passed through her
frail body.
"Why, Lionel Hezekiah," she stammered, "what put such and idea
into your head?"
"Well, all the other boys go," said Lionel Hezekiah defiantly;
"and they're all better'n me; so I guess that must be the
reason. Teddy Markham says that all little boys should go to
Sunday school, and that if they don't they're sure to go to
the bad place. I don't see how you can 'spect me to behave
well when you won't send me to Sunday school.
"Would you like to go?" asked Salome, almost in a whisper.
"I'd like it bully," said Lionel Hezekiah frankly and
succinctly.
"Oh, don't use such dreadful words," sighed Salome helplessly.
"I'll see what can be done. Perhaps you can go. I'll ask your
Aunt Judith."
"Oh, Aunt Judith won't let me go," said Lionel Hezekiah
despondingly. "Aunt Judith doesn't believe there is any God or
any bad place. Teddy Markham says she doesn't. He says she's
an awful wicked woman 'cause she never goes to church. So you
must be wicked too, Aunt Salome, 'cause you never go. Why
don't you?"
"Your--your Aunt Judith won't let me go," faltered Salome,
more perplexed than she had ever been before in her life.
"Well, it doesn't seem to me that you have much fun on
Sundays," remarked Lionel Hezekiah ponderingly. "I'd have more
if I was you. But I s'pose you can't 'cause you're ladies. I'm
glad I'm a man. Look at Abel Blair, what splendid times he has
on Sundays. He never goes to church, but he goes fishing, and
has cock-fights, and gets drunk. When I grow up, I'm going to
do that on Sundays too, since I won't be going to church. I
don't want to go to church, but I'd like to go to Sunday
school."
Salome listened in agony. Every word of Lionel Hezekiah's
stung her conscience unbearably. So this was the result of her
weak yielding to Judith; this innocent child looked upon her
as a wicked woman, and, worse still, regarded old, depraved
Abel Blair as a model to be imitated. Oh! was it too late to
undo the evil? When Judith returned, Salome blurted out the
whole story. "Lionel Hezekiah must go to Sunday school," she
concluded appealingly.
Judith's face hardened until it was as if cut in stone.
"No, he shall not," she said stubbornly. "No one living in my
household shall ever go to church or Sunday school. I gave in
to you when you wanted to teach him to say his prayers, though
I knew it was only foolish superstition, but I sha'n't yield
another inch. You know exactly how I feel on this subject,
Salome; I believe just as father did. You know he hated
churches and churchgoing. And was there ever a better, kinder,
more lovable man?"
"Mother believed in God; mother always went to church,"
pleaded Salome.
"Mother was weak and superstitious, just as you are," retorted
Judith inflexibly. "I tell you, Salome, I don't believe there
is a God. But, if there is, He is cruel and unjust, and I hate
Him."
"Judith!" gasped Salome, aghast at the impiety. She half
expected to see her sister struck dead at her feet.
"Don't 'Judith' me!" said Judith passionately, in the strange
anger that any discussion of the subject always roused in her.
"I mean every word I say. Before you got lame I didn't feel
much about it one way or another; I'd just as soon have gone
with mother as with father. But, when you were struck down
like that, I knew father was right."
For a moment Salome quailed. She felt that she could not, dare
not, stand out against Judith. For her own sake she could not
have done so, but the thought of Lionel Hezekiah nerved her to
desperation. She struck her thin, bleached little hands wildly
together.
"Judith, I'm going to church to-morrow," she cried. "I tell
you I am, I won't set Lionel Hezekiah a bad example one day
longer. I'll not take him; I won't go against you in that, for
it is your bounty feeds and clothes him; but I'm going
myself."
"If you do, Salome Marsh, I'll never forgive you," said
Judith, her harsh face dark with anger; and then, not trusting
herself to discuss the subject any longer, she went out.
Salome dissolved into her ready tears, and cried most of the
night. But her resolution did not fail. Go to church she
would, for that dear baby's sake.
Judith would not speak to her at breakfast, and this almost
broke Salome's heart; but she dared not yield. After
breakfast, she limped painfully into her room, and still more
painfully dressed herself. When she was ready, she took a
little old worn Bible out of her box. It had been her
mother's, and Salome read a chapter in it every night,
although she never dared to let Judith see her doing it.
When she limped out into the kitchen, Judith looked up with a
hard face. A flame of sullen anger glowed in her dark eyes,
and she went into the sitting-room and shut the door, as if by
that act she were shutting her sister for evermore out of her
heart and life. Salome, strung up to the last pitch of nervous
tension, felt intuitively the significance of that closed
door. For a moment she wavered--oh, she could not go against
Judith! She was all but turning back to her room when Lionel
Hezekiah came running in, and paused to look at her
admiringly.
"You look just bully, Aunt Salome," he said. "Where are you
going?"
"Don't use that word, Lionel Hezekiah," pleaded Salome. "I'm
going to church."
"Take me with you," said Lionel Hezekiah promptly. Salome
shook her head.
"I can't, dear. Your Aunt Judith wouldn't like it. Perhaps she
will let you go after a while. Now do be a good boy while I am
away, won't you? Don't do any naughty things."
"I won't do them if I know they're naughty," conceded Lionel
Hezekiah. "But that's just the trouble; I don't know what's
naughty and what ain't. Prob'ly if I went to Sunday school I'd
find out."
Salome limped out of the yard and down the lane bordered by
its asters and goldenrod. Fortunately the church was just
outside the lane, across the main road; but Salome found it
hard to cover even that short distance. She felt almost
exhausted when she reached the church and toiled painfully up
the aisle to her mother's old pew. She laid her crutch on the
seat, and sank into the corner by the window with a sigh of
relief.
She had elected to come early so that she might get there
before the rest of the people. The church was as yet empty,
save for a class of Sunday school children and their teacher
in a remote corner, who paused midway in their lesson to stare
with amazement at the astonishing sigh of Salome Marsh limping
into church.
The big building, shadowy from the great elms around it, was
very still. A faint murmur came from the closed room behind
the pulpit where the rest of the Sunday school was assembled.
In front of the pulpit was a stand bearing tall white
geraniums in luxuriant blossom. The light fell through the
stained-glass window in a soft tangle of hues upon the floor.
Salome felt a sense of peace and happiness fill her heart.
Even Judith's anger lost its importance. She leaned her head
against the window-sill, and gave herself up to the flood of
tender old recollections that swept over her.
Memory went back to the years of her childhood when she had
sat in this pew every Sunday with her mother. Judith had come
then, too, always seeming grown up to Salome by reason of her
ten years' seniority. Her tall, dark, reserved father never
came. Salome knew that the Carmody people called him an
infidel, and looked upon him as a very wicked man. But he had
not been wicked; he had been good and kind in his own odd way.
The gently little mother had died when Salome was ten years
old, but so loving and tender was Judith's care that the child
did not miss anything out of her life. Judith Marsh loved her
little sister with an intensity that was maternal. She herself
was a plain, repellent girl, liked by few, sought after by no
man; but she was determined that Salome should have everything
that she had missed--admiration, friendship, love. She would
have a vicarious youth in Salome's.
All went according to Judith's planning until Salome was
eighteen, and then trouble after trouble came. Their father,
whom Judith had understood and passionately loved, died;
Salome's young lover was killed in a railroad accident; and
finally Salome herself developed symptoms of the hip-disease
which, springing from a trifling injury, eventually left her a
cripple. Everything possible was done for her. Judith, falling
heir to a snug little fortune by the death of the old aunt for
whom she was named, spared nothing to obtain the best medical
skill, and in vain. One and all, the great doctors failed.
Judith had borne her father's death bravely enough in spite of
her agony of grief; she had watched her sister pining and
fading with the pain of her broken heart without growing
bitter; but when she knew at last that Salome would never walk
again save as she hobbled painfully about on her crutch, the
smouldering revolt in her soul broke its bounds, and
overflowed her nature in a passionate rebellion against the
Being who had sent, or had failed to prevent, these
calamities. She did not rave or denounce wildly; that was not
Judith's way; but she never went to church again, and it soon
became an accepted fact in Carmody that Judith Marsh was as
rank an infidel as her father had been before her; nay, worse,
since she would not even allow Salome to go to church, and
shut the door in the minister's face when he went to see her.
"I should have stood out against her for conscience' sake,"
reflected Salome in her pew self-reproachfully. "But, O dear,
I'm afraid she'll never forgive me, and how can I live if she
doesn't? But I must endure it for Lionel Hezekiah's sake; my
weakness has perhaps done him great harm already. They say
that what a child learns in the first seven years never leaves
him; so Lionel Hezekiah has only another year to get set right
about these things. Oh, if I've left it till too late!"
When the people began to come in, Salome felt painfully the
curious glances directed at her. Look where she would, she met
them, unless she looked out of the window; so out of the
window she did look unswervingly, her delicate little face
burning crimson with self-consciousness. She could see her
home and its back yard plainly, with Lionel Hezekiah making
mud-pies joyfully in the corner. Presently she saw Judith come
out of the house and stride away to the pine wood behind it.
Judith always betook herself to the pines in time of mental
stress and strain.
Salome could see the sunlight shining on Lionel Hezekiah's
bare head as he mixed his pies. In the pleasure of watching
him she forgot where she was and the curious eyes turned on
her.
Suddenly Lionel Hezekiah ceased concocting pies, and betook
himself to the corner of the summer kitchen, where he
proceeded to climb up to the top of the storm-fence and from
there to mount the sloping kitchen roof. Salome clasped her
hands in agony. What if the child should fall? Oh! why had
Judith gone away and left him alone? What if--what if--and
then, while her brain with lightning-like rapidity pictured
forth a dozen possible catastrophes, something really did
happen. Lionel Hezekiah slipped, sprawled wildly, slid down,
and fell off the roof, in a bewildering whirl of arms and
legs, plump into the big rain-water hogshead under the spout,
which was generally full to the brim with rain-water, a
hogshead big and deep enough to swallow up half a dozen small
boys who went climbing kitchen roofs on a Sunday.
Then something took place that is talked of in Carmody to this
day, and even fiercely wrangled over, so many and conflicting
are the opinions on the subject. Salome Marsh, who had not
walked a step without assistance for fifteen years, suddenly
sprang to her feet with a shriek, ran down the aisle, and out
of the door!
Every man, woman, and child in the Carmody church followed
her, even to the minister, who had just announced his text.
When they got out, Salome was already half-way up her lane,
running wildly. In her heart was room for but one agonized
thought. Would Lionel Hezekiah be drowned before she reached
him?
She opened the gate of the yard, and panted across it just as
a tall, grim-faced woman came around the corner of the house
and stood rooted to the ground in astonishment at the sight
that met her eyes.
But Salome saw nobody. She flung herself against the hogshead
and looked in, sick with terror at what she might see. What
she did see was Lionel Hezekiah sitting on the bottom of the
hogshead in water that came only to his waist. He was looking
rather dazed and bewildered, but was apparently quite
uninjured.
The yard was full of people, but nobody had as yet said a
word; awe and wonder held everybody in spellbound silence.
Judith was the first to speak. She pushed through the crowd to
Salome. Her face was blanched to a deadly whiteness; and her
eyes, as Mrs. William Blair afterwards declared, were enough
to give a body the creeps.
"Salome," she said in a high, shrill, unnatural voice, "where
is your crutch?"
Salome came to herself at the question. For the first time,
she realized that she had walked, nay, run, all that distance
from the church alone and unaided. She turned pale, swayed,
and would have fallen if Judith had not caught her.
Old Dr. Blair came forward briskly.
"Carry her in," he said, "and don't all of you come crowding
in, either. She wants quiet and rest for a spell."
Most of the people obediently returned to the church, their
sudden loosened tongues clattering in voluble excitement. A
few women assisted Judith to carry Salome in and lay her on
the kitchen lounge, followed by the doctor and the dripping
Lionel Hezekiah, whom the minister had lifted out of the
hogshead and to whom nobody now paid the slightest attention.
Salome faltered out her story, and her hearers listened with
varying emotions.
"It's a miracle," said Sam Lawson in an awed voice.
Dr. Blair shrugged his shoulders.
"There is no miracle about it," he said bluntly. "It's all
perfectly natural. The disease in the hip has evidently been
quite well for a long time; Nature does sometimes work cures
like that when she is let alone. The trouble was that the
muscles were paralyzed by long disuse. That paralysis was
overcome by the force of a strong and instinctive effort.
Salome, get up and walk across the kitchen."
Salome obeyed. She walked across the kitchen and back, slowly,
stiffly, falteringly, now that the stimulus of frantic fear
was spent; but still she walked. The doctor nodded his
satisfaction.
"Keep that up every day. Walk as much as you can without
tiring yourself, and you'll soon be as spry as ever. No more
need of crutches for you, but there's no miracle in the case."
Judith Marsh turned to him. She had not spoken a word since
her question concerning Salome's crutch. Now she said
passionately:
"It WAS a miracle. God has worked it to prove His existence
for me, and I accept the proof."
The old doctor shrugged his shoulders again. Being a wise man,
he knew when to hold his tongue.
"Well, put Salome to bed, and let her sleep the rest of the
day. She's worn out. And for pity's sake let some one take
that poor child and put some dry clothes on him before he
catches his death of cold."
That evening, as Salome Marsh lay in her bed in a glory of
sunset light, her heart filled with unutterable gratitude and
happiness, Judith came into the room. She wore her best hat
and dress, and she held Lionel Hezekiah by the hand. Lionel
Hezekiah's beaming face was scrubbed clean, and his curls fell
in beautiful sleekness over the lace collar of his velvet
suit.
"How do you feel now, Salome?" asked Judith gently.
"Better. I've had a lovely sleep. But where are you going,
Judith?"
"I am going to church," said Judith firmly, "and I am going to
take Lionel Hezekiah with me."
XII. The End of a Quarrel
Nancy Rogerson sat down on Louisa Shaw's front doorstep and
looked about her, drawing a long breath of delight that seemed
tinged with pain. Everything was very much the same; the
square garden was as charming bodge-podge of fruit and
flowers, and goose-berry bushes and tiger lilies, a gnarled
old apple tree sticking up here and there, and a thick cherry
copse at the foot. Behind was a row of pointed firs, coming
out darkly against the swimming pink sunset sky, not looking a
day older than they had looked twenty years ago, when Nancy
had been a young girl walking and dreaming in their shadows.
The old willow to the left was as big and sweeping and, Nancy
thought with a little shudder, probably as caterpillary, as
ever. Nancy had learned many things in her twenty years of
exile from Avonlea, but she had never learned to conquer her
dread of caterpillars.
"Nothing is much changed, Louisa," she said, propping her chin
on her plump white hands, and sniffing at the delectable odour
of the bruised mint upon which Louisa was trampling. "I'm
glad; I was afraid to come back for fear you would have
improved the old garden out of existence, or else into some
prim, orderly lawn, which would have been worse. It's as
magnificently untidy as ever, and the fence still wobbles. It
CAN'T be the same fence, but it looks exactly like it. No,
nothing is much changed. Thank you, Louisa."
Louisa had not the faintest idea what Nancy was thanking her
for, but then she had never been able to fathom Nancy, much as
she had always liked her in the old girlhood days that now
seemed much further away to Louisa than they did to Nancy.
Louisa was separated from them by the fulness of wifehood and
motherhood, while Nancy looked back only over the narrow gap
that empty years make.
"You haven't changed much yourself, Nancy," she said, looking
admiringly at Nancy's trim figure, in the nurse's uniform she
had donned to show Louisa what it was like, her firm, pink-
and-white face and the the glossy waves of her golden brown
hair. "You've held your own wonderfully well."
"Haven't I?" said Nancy complacently. "Modern methods of
massage and cold cream have kept away the crowsfeet, and
fortunately I had the Rogerson complexion to start with. You
wouldn't think I was really thirty-eight, would you? Thirty-
eight! Twenty years ago I thought anybody who was thirty-eight
was a perfect female Methuselah. And now I feel so horribly,
ridiculously young, Louisa. Every morning when I get up I have
to say solemnly to myself three times, 'You're an old maid,
Nancy Rogerson,' to tone myself down to anything like a
becoming attitude for the day."
"I guess you don't mind being an old maid much," said Louisa,
shrugging her shoulders. She would not have been an old maid
herself for anything; yet she inconsistently envied Nancy her
freedom, her wide life in the world, her unlined brow, and
care-free lightness of spirit.
"Oh, but I do mind," said Nancy frankly. "I hate being an old
maid."
"Why don't you get married, then?" asked Louisa, paying an
unconscious tribute to Nancy's perennial chance by her use of
the present tense.
Nancy shook her head.
"No, that wouldn't suit me either. I don't want to be married.
Do you remember that story Anne Shirley used to tell long ago
of the pupil who wanted to be a widow because 'if you were
married your husband bossed you and if you weren't married
people called you an old maid?' Well, that is precisely my
opinion. I'd like to be a widow. Then I'd have the freedom of
the unmarried, with the kudos of the married. I could eat my
cake and have it, too. Oh, to be a widow!"
"Nancy!" said Louisa in a shocked tone.
Nancy laughed, a mellow gurgle that rippled through the garden
like a brook.
"Oh, Louisa, I can shock you yet. That was just how you used
to say 'Nancy' long ago, as if I'd broken all the commandments
at once."
"You do say such queer things," protested Louisa, "and half
the time I don't know what you mean."
"Bless you, dear coz, half the time I don't myself. Perhaps
the joy of coming back to the old spot has slightly turned my
brain, I've found my lost girlhood here. I'm NOT thirty-
eight in this garden--it is a flat impossibility. I'm sweet
eighteen, with a waist line two inches smaller. Look, the sun
is just setting. I see he has still his old trick of throwing
his last beams over the Wright farmhouse. By the way, Louisa,
is Peter Wright still living there?"
"Yes." Louisa threw a sudden interested glance at the
apparently placid Nancy.
"Married, I suppose, with half a dozen children?" said Nancy
indifferently, pulling up some more sprigs of mint and pinning
them on her breast. Perhaps the exertion of leaning over to do
it flushed her face. There was more than the Rogerson colour
in it, anyhow, and Louisa, slow though her mental processes
might be in some respects, thought she understood the meaning
of a blush as well as the next one. All the instinct of the
matchmaker flamed up in her.
"Indeed he isn't," she said promptly. "Peter Wright has never
married. He has been faithful to your memory, Nancy."
"Ugh! You make me feel as if I were buried up there in the
Avonlea cemetery and had a monument over me with a weeping
willow carved on it," shivered Nancy. "When it is said that a
man has been faithful to a woman's memory it generally means
that he couldn't get anyone else to take him."
"That isn't the case with Peter," protested Louisa. "He is a
good match, and many a woman would have been glad to take him,
and would yet. He's only forty-three. But he's never taken the
slightest interest in anyone since you threw him over, Nancy."
"But I didn't. He threw me over," said Nancy, plaintively,
looking afar over the low-lying fields and a feathery young
spruce valley to the white buildings of the Wright farm,
glowing rosily in the sunset light when all the rest of
Avonlea was scarfing itself in shadows. There was laughter in
her eyes. Louisa could not pierce beneath that laughter to
find if there were anything under it.
"Fudge!" said Louisa. "What on earth did you and Peter quarrel
about?" she added, curiously.
"I've often wondered," parried Nancy.
"And you've never seen him since?" reflected Louisa.
"No. Has he changed much?"
"Well, some. He is gray and kind of tired-looking. But it
isn't to be wondered at--living the life he does. He hasn't
had a housekeeper for two years--not since his old aunt died.
He just lives there alone and cooks his own meals. I've never
been in the house, but folks say the disorder is something
awful."
"Yes, I shouldn't think Peter was cut out for a tidy
housekeeper," said Nancy lightly, dragging up more mint. "Just
think, Louisa, if it hadn't been for that old quarrel I might
be Mrs. Peter Wright at this very moment, mother to the
aforesaid supposed half dozen, and vexing my soul over Peter's
meals and socks and cows."
"I guess you are better off as you are," said Louisa.
"Oh, I don't know." Nancy looked up at the white house on the
hill again. "I have an awfully good time out of life, but it
doesn't seem to satisfy, somehow. To be candid--and oh,
Louisa, candour is a rare thing among women when it comes to
talking of the men--I believe I'd rather be cooking Peter's
meals and dusting his house. I wouldn't mind his bad grammar
now. I've learned one or two valuable little things out
yonder, and one is that it doesn't matter if a man's grammar
is askew, so long as he doesn't swear at you. By the way, is
Peter as ungrammatical as ever?"
"I--I don't know," said Louisa helplessly. "I never knew he
WAS ungrammatical."
"Does he still say, 'I seen,' and 'them things'?" demanded Nancy.
"I never noticed," confessed Louisa.
"Enviable Louisa! Would that I had been born with that blessed
faculty of never noticing! It stands a woman in better stead
than beauty or brains. _I_ used to notice Peter's mistakes.
When he said 'I seen,' it jarred on me in my salad days. I
tried, oh, so tactfully, to reform him in that respect. Peter
didn't like being reformed--the Wrights always had a fairly
good opinion of themselves, you know. It was really over a
question of syntax we quarrelled. Peter told me I'd have to
take him as he was, grammar and all, or go without him. I went
without him--and ever since I've been wondering if I were
really sorry, or if it were merely a pleasantly sentimental
regret I was hugging to my heart. I daresay it's the latter.
Now, Louisa, I see the beginning of the plot far down in those
placid eyes of yours. Strangle it at birth, dear Louisa. There
is no use in your trying to make up a match between Peter and
me now--no, nor in slyly inviting him up here to tea some
evening, as you are even this moment thinking of doing."
"Well, I must go and milk the cows," gasped Louisa, rather
glad to make her escape. Nancy's power of thought-reading
struck her as uncanny. She felt afraid to remain with her
cousin any longer, lest Nancy should drag to light all the
secrets of her being.
Nancy sat long on the steps after Louisa had gone--sat until
the night came down, darkly and sweetly, over the garden, and
the stars twinkled out above the firs. This had been her home
in girlhood. Here she had lived and kept house for her father.
When he died, Curtis Shaw, newly married to her cousin Louisa,
bought the farm from her and moved in. Nancy stayed on with
them, expecting soon to go to a home of her own. She and Peter
Wright were engaged.
Then came their mysterious quarrel, concerning the cause of
which kith and kin on both sides were left in annoying
ignorance. Of the results they were not ignorant. Nancy
promptly packed up and left Avonlea seven hundred miles behind
her. She went to a hospital in Montreal and studied nursing.
In the twenty years that followed she had never even revisited
Avonlea. Her sudden descent on it this summer was a whim born
of a moment's homesick longing for this same old garden. She
had not thought about Peter. In very truth, she had thought
little about Peter for the last fifteen years. She supposed
that she had forgotten him. But now, sitting on the old
doorstep, where she had often sat in her courting days, with
Peter lounging on a broad stone at her feet, something tugged
at her heartstrings. She looked over the valley to the light
in the kitchen of the Wright farmhouse, and pictured Peter
sitting there, lonely and uncared for, with naught but the
cold comfort of his own providing.
"Well, he should have got married," she said snappishly. "I am
not going to worry because he is a lonely old bachelor when
all these years I have supposed him a comfy Benedict. Why
doesn't he hire him a housekeeper, at least? He can afford it;
the place looks prosperous. Ugh! I've a fat bank account, and
I've seen almost everything in the world worth seeing; but
I've got several carefully hidden gray hairs and a horrible
conviction that grammar isn't one of the essential things in
life after all. Well, I'm not going to moon out here in the
dew any longer. I'm going in to read the smartest, frilliest,
frothiest society novel in my trunk."
In the week that followed Nancy enjoyed herself after her own
fashion. She read and swung in the garden, having a hammock
hung under the firs. She went far afield, in rambles to woods
and lonely uplands.
"I like it much better than meeting people," she said, when
Louisa suggested going to see this one and that one,
"especially the Avonlea people. All my old chums are gone, or
hopelessly married and changed, and the young set who have
come up know not Joseph, and make me feel uncomfortably
middle-aged. It's far worse to feel middle-aged than old, you
know. Away there in the woods I feel as eternally young as
Nature herself. And oh, it's so nice not having to fuss with
thermometers and temperatures and other people's whims. Let me
indulge my own whims, Louisa dear, and punish me with a cold
bite when I come in late for meals. I'm not even going to
church again. It was horrible there yesterday. The church is
so offensively spick-and-span brand new and modern."
"It's thought to be the prettiest church in these parts,"
protested Louisa, a little sorely.
"Churches shouldn't be pretty--they should at least be fifty
years old and mellowed into beauty. New churches are an
abomination."
"Did you see Peter Wright in church?" asked Louisa. She had
been bursting to ask it.
Nancy nodded.
"Verily, yes. He sat right across from me in the corner pew. I
didn't think him painfully changed. Iron-gray hair becomes
him. But I was horribly disappointed in myself. I had expected
to feel at least a romantic thrill, but all I felt was a
comfortable interest, such as I might have taken in any old
friend. Do my utmost, Louisa, I couldn't compass a thrill."
"Did he come to speak to you?" asked Louisa, who hadn't any
idea what Nancy meant by her thrills.
"Alas, no. It wasn't my fault. I stood at the door outside
with the most amiable expression I could assume, but Peter
merely sauntered away without a glance in my direction. It
would be some comfort to my vanity if I could believe it was
on account of rankling spite or pride. But the honest truth,
dear Weezy, is that it looked to me exactly as if he never
thought of it. He was more interested in talking about the hay
crop with Oliver Sloane--who, by the way, is more Oliver
Sloaneish than ever."
"If you feel as you said you did the other night, why didn't
you go and speak to him?" Louisa wanted to know.
"But I don't feel that way now. That was just a mood. You
don't know anything about moods, dearie. You don't know what
it is to yearn desperately one hour for something you wouldn't
take if it were offered you the next."
"But that is foolishness," protested Louisa.
"To be sure it is--rank foolishness. But oh, it is so
delightful to be foolish after being compelled to be
unbrokenly sensible for twenty years. Well, I'm going picking
strawberries this afternoon, Lou. Don't wait tea for me. I
probably won't be back till dark. I've only four more days to
stay and I want to make the most of them."
Nancy wandered far and wide in her rambles that afternoon.
When she had filled her jug she still roamed about with
delicious aimlessness. Once she found herself in a wood lane
skirting a field wherein a man was mowing hay. The man was
Peter Wright. Nancy walked faster when she discovered this,
with never a roving glance, and presently the green, ferny
depths of the maple woods swallowed her up.
From old recollections, she knew that she was on Peter
Morrison's land, and calculated that if she kept straight on
she would come out where the old Morrison house used to be.
Her calculations proved correct, with a trifling variation.
She came out fifty yards south of the old deserted Morrison
house, and found herself in the yard of the Wright farm!
Passing the house--the house where she had once dreamed of
reigning as mistress--Nancy's curiosity overcame her. The
place was not in view of any other near house. She
deliberately went up to it intending--low be it spoken--to
peep in at the kitchen window. But, seeing the door wide open,
she went to it instead and halted on the step, looking about
her keenly.
The kitchen was certainly pitiful in its disorder. The floor
had apparently not been swept for a fortnight. On the bare
deal table were the remnants of Peter's dinner, a meal that
could not have been very tempting at its best.
"What a miserable place for a human being to live in!" groaned
Nancy. "Look at the ashes on that stove! And that table! Is it
any wonder that Peter has got gray? He'll work hard haymaking
all the afternoon--and then come home to THIS!"
An idea suddenly darted into Nancy's brain. At first she
looked aghast. Then she laughed and glanced at her watch.
"I'll do it--just for fun and a little pity. It's half-past
two, and Peter won't be home till four at the earliest. I'll
have a good hour to do it in, and still make my escape in good
time. Nobody will ever know; nobody can see me here."
Nancy went in, threw off her hat, and seized a broom. The
first thing she did was to give the kitchen a thorough
sweeping. Then she kindled a fire, put a kettle full of water
on to heat, and attacked the dishes. From the number of them
she rightly concluded that Peter hadn't washed any for at
least a week.
"I suppose he just uses the clean ones as long as they hold
out, and then has a grand wash-up," she laughed. "I wonder
where he keeps his dish-towels, if he has any."
Evidently Peter hadn't any. At least, Nancy couldn't find any.
She marched boldly into the dusty sitting-room and explored
the drawers of an old-fashioned sideboard, confiscating a
towel she found there. As she worked, she hummed a song; her
steps were light and her eyes bright with excitement. Nancy
was enjoying herself thoroughly, there was no doubt of that.
The spice of mischief in the adventure pleased her mightily.
The dishes washed, she hunted up a clean, but yellow and
evidently long unused tablecloth out of the sideboard, and
proceeded to set the table and get Peter's tea. She found
bread and butter in the pantry, a trip to the cellar furnished
a pitcher of cream, and Nancy recklessly heaped the contents
of her strawberry jug on Peter's plate. The tea was made and
set back to keep warm. And, as a finishing touch, Nancy
ravaged the old neglected garden and set a huge bowl of
crimson roses in the centre of the table.
"Now I must go," she said aloud. "Wouldn't it be fun to see
Peter's face when he comes in, though? Ha-hum! I've enjoyed
doing this--but why? Nancy Rogerson, don't be asking yourself
conundrums. Put on your hat and proceed homeward, constructing
on your way some reliable fib to account to Louisa for the
absence of your strawberries."
Nancy paused a moment and looked around wistfully. She had
made the place look cheery and neat and homelike. She felt
that queer tugging at her heart-strings again. Suppose she
belonged here, and was waiting for Peter to come home to tea.
Suppose--Nancy whirled around with a sudden horrible
prescience of what she was going to see! Peter Wright was
standing in the doorway.
Nancy's face went crimson. For the first time in her life she
had not a word to say for herself. Peter looked at her and
then at the table, with its fruit and flowers.
"Thank you," he said politely.
Nancy recovered herself. With a shame-faced laugh, she held
out her hand.
"Don't have me arrested for trespass, Peter. I came and looked
in at your kitchen out of impertinent curiosity, and just for
fun I thought I'd come in and get your tea. I thought you'd be
so surprised--and I meant to go before you came home, of
course."
"I wouldn't have been surprised," said Peter, shaking hands.
"I saw you go past the field and I tied the horses and
followed you down through the woods. I've been sitting on the
fence back yonder, watching your comings and goings."
"Why didn't you come and speak to me at church yesterday,
Peter?" demanded Nancy boldly.
"I was afraid I would say something ungrammatical," answered
Peter drily.
The crimson flamed over Nancy's face again. She pulled her
hand away.
"That's cruel of you, Peter."
Peter suddenly laughed. There was a note of boyishness in the
laughter.
"So it is," he said, "but I had to get rid of the accumulated
malice and spite of twenty years somehow. It's all gone now,
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