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SUNSHINE JANE
[Illustration: "Auntie Susan, it's Aunt Matilda and Mr. Beamer."
FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 265._]
SUNSHINE JANE
by
ANNE WARNER
Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," "Susan
Clegg and Her Friend, Mrs. Lathrop," etc.
With Frontispiece by Harriet Roosevelt Richards
Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1914
Copyright, 1913, 1914,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published, February, 1914
Reprinted, January, 1914
Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. GENERAL IGNORANCE 1
II. EVERYBODY GETS THERE 6
III. MATILDA TEACHES 22
IV. JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING 37
V. A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS 61
VI. LORENZO RATH 84
VII. A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA 98
VIII. SOUL-UPLIFTING 127
IX. MADELEINE'S SECRET 138
X. OLD MRS. CROFT 148
XI. SHE SLEEPS 159
XII. EMILY'S PROJECT 169
XIII. EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY 191
XIV. JANE'S CONVERTS 208
XV. REAL CONVERSATION 220
XVI. THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER HAPPENED 233
XVII. WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED 243
XVIII. IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY 256
XIX. THE RESULTS 277
SUNSHINE JANE
SUNSHINE JANE
CHAPTER I
GENERAL IGNORANCE
THERE was something pathetic in the serene unconsciousness of the little
village as the stage came lumbering down the hillside, bearing its
freight of portent. So many things were going to be changed forever
after,--and no one knew it. Such a vast difference was going speedily to
make itself felt, and not a soul was aware even of what a bigger soul it
was so soon to be. Old Mrs. Croft, clear at the other end of town and
paralyzed for twenty years, hadn't the slightest conception of what a
leading part was being prepared for her to play. Poor Katie Croft, her
daughter-in-law and slave, whose one prayer was for freedom, dreamed not
that the answer was now at last coming near. Mrs. Cowmull, sitting on
her porch awaiting the "artist who had advertised," knew not who or what
or how old he might be or the interest that would soon be hers. Poor
Emily Mead, shelling peas on the bench at the back of her mother's
house, frowned fretfully and, putting back her great lock of rich
chestnut hair with an impatient gesture, wished that she might see "just
one real man before she died,"--and the man was even then jolting
towards her. Miss Debby Vane, putting last touches to the flowers on her
guest-room table, where Madeleine would soon see them, was also sweetly
unaware of the approach of momentous events. She thought but of
Madeleine, the distant cousin whose parents wanted to see if absence
would break up an obnoxious love affair, and so were sending her to Miss
Debby, who was "only too pleased."
"A love affair," she whispered rapturously. "A _real_ love affair in
this town!" And then she pursed her lips delightfully, never guessing
that she was to see so much besides.
Meanwhile Miss Matilda Drew stood looking sternly out of her sister
Susan's window, considering if there were any necessary yet up to now
forgotten point to be impressed upon Jane the instant that she should
arrive. Miss Matilda was naturally as ignorant as all the rest,--as
ignorant even as poor Susan, lying primly straight behind her on the
bed. Susan was a widow and an invalid, not paralyzed like old Mrs.
Croft, but pretty helpless. Matilda had lived with her for five years
and tended her assiduously, as she grew more and more feeble. Now
Matilda was "about give out," and--"just like a answer out of a clear
sky," as Matilda said--their niece Jane, whom neither had seen since she
was a mite in curls fifteen years ago, had written to ask if she might
spend her holiday with them. They had said "Yes," and Matilda was going
away for a rest while Jane kept house and waited on her poor old aunt.
Jane was one of the passengers now rattling along in the stage. She
differed widely from the others and from every one else in the village,
but all put together, they formed that mass known to literature as "the
situation." I think myself that it was the rest that formed "the
situation" and that Jane formed "the key," but I may be prejudiced.
Anyway, "key" or not, Miss Matilda's niece was a sweet, brown-skinned,
bright-haired girl, with a happy face, great, beautiful eyes, and a
heart that beat every second in truer accord with the great working
principles of the universe. She was the only one among them now who had
a foot upon the step that led to the path "higher up." And yet because
she was the only one, she had seen her way to come gladly and teach them
what they had never known; not only that, but also to learn of them the
greatest lesson of her own life. So we see that although conscious of
both hands overflowing with gifts, Jane really was as ignorant, in God's
eyes, as all the rest. She had gone far enough beyond the majority to
know that to give is the divinest joy which one may know, but she had
not gone far enough to realize that in the greatest outpouring of
generosity which we can ever give vent to, a vacuum is created which
receives back from those we benefit gifts way beyond the value of our
own. "I shall bring so much happiness here," ran the undercurrent of her
thought; she never imagined that Fate had brought her to this simple
village to fashion herself unto better things.
So all, alike unaware--those in the stage and those awaiting its advent
with passengers and post--drew long, relieved breaths as it passed with
rattle and clatter over the bridge and into the main street.