WEEDING.
When the plan for Thursday was announced, both Mrs. Ashford and Mrs.
Stokes objected to the little girls going so far into the woods by
themselves; and nobody could go with them.
"Then we'll have no flowers for the ladies," sighed Marty.
"And no more missionary money," added Evaline.
"Why not give them flowers out of the garden?" said Mrs. Stokes. "Sakes
alive! there's plenty there. And they're just the kind I've seen city
folks going crazy over. Some of the hotel folks were up here last
summer, and deary me! but they did make a to-do over my larkspur,
sweet-william, china pinks, candytuft, cockscomb, and such. You just
give the ladies some of 'em, and they'll be pleased enough; for there's
hardly any flowers in Riseborough--too shady, I guess."
"That's all well enough for Evaline," said Mrs. Ashford, "but Marty has
no right to sell your flowers."
"She has if I give 'em to her, hasn't she? I'm sure she's welcome to
every bloom in the garden to do what she pleases with. Not that I want
my flowers sold; I'd rather give 'em to the ladies, but as long as it is
for mission work--" and the good woman finished with a little nod.
But Mrs. Ashford still objected to Marty's taking the flowers, and
Evaline would not have anything to do with the scheme unless Marty could
"go halves."
"Dear Mrs. Stokes," said Marty, "can't you think of some way I could
work for the flowers, and then mamma wouldn't object to my taking them?"
"Well, I'll tell you. The gravel walk 'round the centre bed is pretty
tolerable weedy, and if you and Evaline'll weed it out nice and clean,
you may have all the flowers you want all summer."
That satisfied all parties, and the weeding began that afternoon. When
Marty was going to do anything she always wanted to get at it right
away. Besides Almira advised them to do some that afternoon.
"Then maybe you can finish it up to-morrow morning before the sun gets
'round there," she said. "This is a very good time to do it too--just
after the rain."
The girls were armed with old knives--not very sharp ones--to dig out
the weeds with, if they would not come with pulling.
"You must be sure to get them up by the roots," said Almira, "or they'll
grow again before you know where you are."
"Oh, we are going to do it _good_," Marty declared.
They divided the walk into sections, and set to work vigorously. In a
few moments Marty remarked complacently,
"The bottom of my basket is quite covered with weeds. But then," she
added in a different tone, "I don't see where they came from. I hardly
miss them out of the walk."
A few moments more of quiet work, and she called out,
"Evaline, are many of your weeds in _tight_?"
"Awful tight," answered Evaline disconsolately. "They've got the longest
roots of any weeds _I_ ever saw. 'T would take a week of rain to make
this walk fit to weed."
"Well," said Marty, "of course it isn't just as easy as taking a quarter
for some clematis that was given to us in the first place, but as it is
for missions I think we ought to be willing to do it, even if it is a
little hard."
"That's so," Evaline replied, brightening up.
"And I'm very glad your mother thought of this," Marty went on, "for it
would be dreadful disappointing not to have any flowers for the ladies
when they come, and not to get any more missionary money."
Again Evaline agreed with her, and the work went on.
In about half an hour there was quite a large clean patch, and much
encouraged by seeing the progress they were making, they worked more
diligently than ever. Then Marty had a sentimental idea that it might
help them along to sing a missionary hymn, but found upon trial that it
was more of a hindrance than a help.
"I can't sing when I'm all doubled up this way," she said, "and anyway
when I find a very tough weed I have to stop singing and pull. Then I
forget what comes next."
"I guess it's better to work while you work and sing afterward," was
Evaline's opinion.
Here they heard somebody laughing, and looking up saw Mrs. Ashford, who
had come out to see how they were getting on.
"I think Evaline is about right," she said; "singing and weeding don't
go together very well. But how nicely you have been doing! Why, you are
nearly half through!"
"Yes, ma'am," said Evaline, "and the other side of the circle a'n't half
so bad as this was. We'll easy get it done to-morrow morning."
"Yes; and, mamma," cried Marty, "we've got them out good. I don't
believe there'll ever be another weed here!"
"They'll be as bad as ever after a while," said Evaline, who knew them
of old.
Marty was pretty tired that evening and did not feel like running about
as much as usual.
"There now!" exclaimed Mrs. Stokes, looking at Marty as she sat on the
porch steps after supper leaning back against her mother, "there now!
you're all beat out. 'T was too hard work for you. I oughtn't to have
let you do it."
"Oh! indeed, Mrs. Stokes, I'm not so very tired," cried Marty, "and I
was glad to do it."
Another hour's work the next morning finished the weeding, and the girls
reflected with satisfaction that they had earned their flowers. Mrs.
Stokes said the work was done "beautiful," and Hiram, who was brought to
inspect it, said they had done so well that he had a great mind to have
them come down to the field and hoe corn.
Thursday morning early they gathered and put in water enough flowers for
seven fair-sized bouquets, thinking they had better have one more than
Miss Fanny mentioned in case an extra lady came. By four o'clock these
flowers--and how lovely and fragrant they were!--with Mrs. Ashford's
valuable assistance were made into tasteful bouquets, placed on an old
tray with their stems lightly covered with wet moss, and set in the
coolest corner of the porch. The children, including Freddie, all nicely
dressed, took up position on the steps, partly to keep guard over the
flowers and prevent Ponto from lying down on them, and partly to watch
for their callers.
Marty's bright eyes were the first to see the carriages.
"There they come around the bend!" she exclaimed, and shortly a carryall
driven by Jim Dutton, and containing three ladies and two children,
followed by a buck-board wherein sat Miss Fanny and Miss Dora, drew up
at the gate.
Evaline's shyness came on in full force and she hung back, but Marty,
with Freddie holding her hand, proceeded down the walk. They were met by
Miss Fanny, who had thrown the reins to her friend and jumped out the
moment the horse stopped. She kissed Marty, snatched up Freddie,
exclaiming, "What a darling little boy!" and called out, "Come down
here, Evaline! I want to see you."
Mrs. Stokes, who was too hospitable to see people so near her house
without inviting them in, now came forward to give the invitation, and
as they were obliged to decline on the score of lateness, she called
Almira to bring some cool spring water for them. Seeing Freddie
approaching dangerously near one of the horses, Marty cried, "Freddie,
Freddie, come away from the horse!" and he gravely inquired, "What's the
matter with the poor old horse?"
This made every one laugh and brought Mrs. Ashford from the porch to
take his hand and keep him out of danger. So they were all assembled at
the roadside, and quite a pleasant, lively time they had.
The flowers were asked for and Evaline brought them, while Marty
explained why they were garden instead of wild flowers, and Mrs. Stokes
told how the girls earned them. The bouquets were extremely admired.
When proposing the plan in the woods, Miss Fanny had suggested
"ten-cent" bouquets, but everybody said ten cents was entirely too cheap
for such large, beautifully arranged ones, that fifteen cents was little
enough. There was one composed entirely of sweet peas, as Mrs. Ashford
said those delicate flowers looked prettier by themselves. This Miss
Fanny seized upon, insisted on paying twenty cents for, and presented to
a pale, sweet-faced lady in mourning.
She drew Marty to the side of the carriage where this lady was, and said
in a low voice,
"Mrs. Thurston, this is the little girl I told you of--the Missionary
Twig who doesn't leave her missionary zeal at home when she goes away
in vacation."
The lady smiled affectionately as she pressed Marty's hand, and said,
"I am glad to meet such an earnest little comrade."
"Oh! but you don't know," protested Marty. "I came very near forgetting
the whole thing. Indeed, it went out of my head altogether from Tuesday
till Sunday."
The ladies laughed, and Miss Fanny said,
"Mrs. Thurston was a missionary in India for many years, Marty, and
would be there yet if she was able."
"India!" exclaimed Marty, with wide-open eyes. "In Lahore!"
She had heard more about Lahore than any other place, and to her it
seemed like the principal city in India.
"Oh, no!" replied Mrs. Thurston. "Far from there, hundreds of miles.
Lahore, you know, is in Northern India, in the part known as the Punjab,
while my home was in the extreme south near a city called Madura. Are
you especially interested in Lahore?"
"Yes, ma'am. It's where our band sends its money. We have a school
there. That is, we pay the teacher. It is one of those little schools in
a room rented from a poor woman, who does her work in one corner while
the school is going on, and the teacher is a native."
"Ah, yes; I understand."
"Mrs. C---- is the missionary who superintends it, along with a lot of
other schools. Do you know her?"
"No, but I have seen her name in the missionary papers."
"Did you have some of those little schools when you were a missionary,
Mrs. Thurston?" Marty inquired.
"Yes, I did some school work, but more zenana work."
"What is zenana work?"
Just then Mrs. Thurston noticed that preparations were being made to
drive on, so she merely replied,
"Come down to the village and see me, and we will have a good missionary
talk."
"Thank you ever so much," said Marty. "I do hope mamma will let me go."
Evaline was quite overcome when she learned that Mrs. Thurston was a
"real live missionary," and said,
"She's the first one I ever saw. I wonder if they're all as nice as
that."
After consultation with her mother, Marty decided to give half her
"flower money"--which altogether amounted to eighty cents--to the
mountain band, and keep the other half for the home band. "Because, you
see, this is all out-and-out missionary money; there's no tithing to be
done," she said.
Evaline never felt so large in her life as she did when going to the
band meeting the next Sunday, with her eighty cents ready to hand to
Hugh Campbell.
The Saturday following that memorable Thursday, Miss Fanny and Miss Mary
again presented themselves at the farmhouse, where they were welcomed
like old friends. After some pleasant chat, and a lunch of gingerbread
and fresh buttermilk, Miss Fanny said,
"We came this morning chiefly to bring you an invitation from Mrs.
Thurston. She wants you all, or as many as possible, to come to an
all-day missionary meeting at the hotel next Tuesday."
"All day!" exclaimed Almira.
"Yes. That sounds formidable, doesn't it?" laughed Miss Fanny. "But I'll
tell you about it. We are going to sew for a home missionary family. You
must know that Mrs. Thurston, after spending the best part of her life
and the greater part of her strength in the foreign field, still does
all, in fact, more than her poor health will allow her to do for
missions both at home and abroad. She heard the other day that a
missionary family, acquaintances of hers, in Nebraska, had been burnt
out, and lost everything but the clothes they had on. She told us about
them with tears in her eyes, and some of us discovered she was laying
aside some of her own clothes for the missionary's wife and planning how
she could squeeze out a little money--for she is not rich by any
means--to buy some clothes for the children. Well, the result was we
took up a collection of clothes and money at the hotel, and Mrs.
Thurston got Mr. Dutton to go to Trout Run and telegraph to the Mission
Board that this missionary is connected with that we would send a box of
things in a few days that will keep the family going until some church
can send them a good large box."
"But how will you know what kind of garments to send?" asked Mrs.
Ashford. "I mean, what sizes?"
"Mrs. Thurston knows all about how many children there are, and their
ages, so we can guess at their sizes."
Mrs. Ashford, discovering there was a little girl near Freddie's age,
and as he was, of course, yet in "girl's clothes," said she could spare
a couple of his suits, having brought an ample supply. Some of Marty's
clothes also were found available.
"We have had some things given us for the lady," said Miss Fanny, "a
wrapper, a jersey, a cashmere skirt, a shawl; also two or three
children's dresses. We have bought nearly all the muslin in Mr. Sims'
store, with some flannel and calico. He is going to Johnsburgh Monday,
and will get us shirts for the missionary, stockings, and such things.
Monday is to be a grand cutting-out day. Tuesday we are to have three
sewing-machines. Several of the village ladies are coming to help, and
we shall be very glad if some of you will come. Mrs. Thurston
particularly desires that the little girls shall come."
"Oh, do let us go," Marty said, while Evaline looked it.
Mrs. Ashford could not leave Freddie, and it was not possible for both
Mrs. Stokes and Almira to go, so it was settled that the latter, the
little girls, and Ruth Campbell, whom Miss Fanny wished Almira to
invite, should walk down pretty early in the morning, and Hiram should
bring the light wagon for them in the evening.