OUR HOUSE
Aunty May and I went inside, and we looked at each other and laughed. It
was small, like a doll's house, and the room we stepped into, through
the doorway, had a window the same side as the door, which looked out on
the towpath, and two windows at the back, and a stovepipe coming right
out of the floor and running up through the low ceiling.
When I went and looked out of the back windows, I called to Aunty May,
"Oh, see, it's the Delaware." And it was.
There, right at the foot of our back garden, under the willow trees, was
the Delaware River, running along, very fast.
I said, "Come on, let's go down to the river, Aunty May." But Aunty
Edith said, "First, look at the house."
We went through a little door into another long, narrow, low room, with
a window on the towpath and a window on the river, and a queer
old-fashioned bureau and two iron beds in it, and a clothes-horse, in
one corner, covered with muslin. When you opened one flap of it, it was
a closet. This was Aunty Edith and Aunty May's room.
In the other room, with the stovepipe in the middle of it, was a big
couch, and that was to be my bed at night. There was a big closet at one
end, made out of the place where the steps went up to the attic, and
that was where my clothes were to hang. One side of the room had
bookshelves, and on the wall were some of Aunty Edith's paintings; and
there was a doorway at one end without any door.
I said to Aunty Edith, "How do we get to the river from this house? Do
we have to go out of the front door and run down? And where's the stove
that the pipe belongs to? Is it in a cellar?" Then both the aunties
laughed, and they went to this doorway without any door, and there was a
funny thing that looked like a clumsy ladder. Aunty Edith told me those
were our best stairs, and that once they were canal boat stairs.
Well, you climbed down them very carefully, for they tipped a little,
and you landed on a dark little landing with a door. You opened the door
and stepped down a step and there you were in the nicest old kitchen
you ever saw!
The top part of the house was wooden, but this under part was of stone
and cement, and the walls inside were cement, and the ceiling was just
wood with the big floor beams showing through. And there was a door with
glass in the top, that you could look through down to the river and the
willows; and there was a window with a deep window seat you could sit in
and look at the river; then there was a long window at the side, where
the outside steps came down from the towpath, and that opened in two
halves and had narrow panes of glass. It looked out on a garden.
A big cook-stove, with a kettle steaming on it, was at one end of the
room; and a nice big table, and there were some comfortable chairs, and
pots and pans hanging over and under the mantel back of the stove.
There was a rug on the floor, and a pantry with lots of good things to
eat in it, and a big couch that I sat down on, and looked around.
There was a little place in the wall, too, that had once been a window,
but was closed up and made into a little cupboard for dishes.
I said, "My! isn't this lovely?" Aunty May squeezed my hand and said it
was, and Aunty Edith looked around and said, "Well, Mrs. Katy Smith did
get my postal in time, after all. I'm so glad, because if she hadn't,
it wouldn't have been so nice and clean in here, and there would have
been no fire. Now, I'm going to take off my things and make a supper
for us all."
Aunty May said, "I'll help you," but Aunty Edith said, "Not this first
time, May. You take the boy out and show him the garden and the river,"
So Aunty May and I took hold of hands and went out, and there was a long
flower-bed running right down to the river-bank, on both sides of a long
grassplot; and beyond the grass and flowers was a lot of ploughed land
for vegetables and things; and beyond that there were a lot of woods.
There was a path between the grassplot and the flower-bed next the fence
of our neighbor, in the white stone house, and we went down that, and
when we came to the end of the flower-bed there was a big apple tree,
and then we went under that and stood on the river-bank, and there was
the Delaware!
Under the biggest willow tree there was a seat made of an old box, and
Aunty May and I sat down for a minute and looked at the river. It was so
clear that I could see the little fishes swimming along, and I threw a
stick in it, and it went by so fast that Aunty May said, "My! how swift
the current is. You must be careful, Billy-boy, and not go near the edge
when you are alone." I said, "Yes, 'm, but I am to go in wading when it
gets warmer."
We went along the bank a little farther, and there were more trees,
cherry trees, and willow trees, and buttonwood trees, and lots of nice
places for us to put our hammocks. Then we went back to the house, and
there was Aunty Edith in a big gingham apron toasting bread and making
chocolate. I laughed and said, "Oh, Aunty Edith, I never saw you look
like that in the city." Then we all laughed, and Aunty Edith said, "You
will see me look like this very often down here, for we all have to do
our share of the work. You, too, Billy. You will have to help us." I
said, "That will be bully."
Aunty May set the table, and we all sat down and ate our toast and ham
and eggs, and drank our chocolate, and I thought it was better than
anything I had ever eaten.
Just when we were in the middle of it, I heard footsteps crunching along
the walk, and down the steps at the side of the house from the towpath.
I called, "Some one's coming." Aunty Edith went to the door.
It was Mr. Tree with the trunks and the suitcase. He said, "Hullo,
young fellow. Have you come to take care of these ladies?" And I said,
"Yes, sir"; and he said, "That's right. Look after 'em. It'll be a load
off my mind to know they've got a man on the premises. It's right lonely
up here." And I told him we wasn't afraid. I asked him if he needed any
help, but he said no, and he was so terrible big and strong that he
lifted the trunks as if they were boxes.
After he had gone, Aunty Edith said she must unpack, and Aunty May said,
"Do, Edith; Billy and I will do the dishes."
So Aunty May tied a big clean towel around my waist, and she washed and
I dried. There was no running water, just a pump outside the kitchen
shed, right out of doors.
[Illustration: She washed and I dried]
I pumped for Aunty May and we had a lovely time. We played a game with
the dishes. Plates were ladies and saucers were little girls, and cups
were little boys, and knives and forks were policemen and spoons were
servants. We had a lot of fun, when the knives and forks marched round
the table, and ordered the other dishes into the cupboard.
After that was done, Aunty May said she must go upstairs and help Aunty
Edith, and unpack her own typewriter. Aunty May writes stories, too,
only she uses a typewriter and I use a pencil.
Aunty May asked me whether I'd sit in the window seat and read a
picture-book or would I explore the garden. I said I would do both; look
at pictures a little while and go in the garden. Aunty May made me
promise not to go too near the river, or too far down the towpath.
Then she went upstairs and I read a little till I had enough of
reading, and I thought I'd go to the towpath, but first, as I was
thirsty, I thought I'd get a glass and take a drink at the pump. But
when I tried to pump, the pump-handle just went up in the air, and
wouldn't pump up any water!
And just as I tried it again, I heard somebody say, "That pump handle
oughter been left up in the air. Say, young feller, you gotter pour some
water down first. That pump ain't been used stiddy for some little while
back. Ease it up and she'll go all right."
[Illustration: Turned and went into the house, and all the cats ran
after him]
I turned around, and there, leaning against the fence, was an old man
with big blue eyes and a white mustache, and a pipe, and a plaid vest
and a soft hat, and the biggest lot of cats I ever saw. Seven of them,
white and gray and black and mixed colors, all looking up at me.
I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. But the old gentleman
said, "Wait here, and I'll fetch you a kittle of water," and he turned
and went into the white stone house, and all the cats ran after him. But
he shut the door tight, and the cats sat waiting and mewing on the back
porch, and I held on to the pump-handle and waited too.
[Illustration]