A LAUNCH INTO A NEW LIFE
It required the greater part of two days for Mrs. Cliff and Willy to
open the seven trunks, and properly display and dispose of the various
articles and goods, astonishing in their variety and beauty, and
absolutely amazing when the difference between the price paid for them
and what they would have cost in New York was considered.
During these fascinating operations it so happened that at one time or
another nearly all of Mrs. Cliff's female friends dropped in, and all
were wonderfully impressed by what they saw and what they heard; but
although Miss Shott did not come there during the grand opening, it was
not long before she knew the price and something of the general
appearance of nearly everything that Mrs. Cliff had brought with her.
Among the contents of the trunks were a great many presents for Mrs.
Cliff's friends, and whenever Miss Shott heard of one of these gifts,
she made a remark to the effect that she had not a doubt in the world
that the Widow Cliff knew better than to bring her a present, for she
would not want the thing, whatever it was, whether a glass pitcher or a
pin-cushion, flung back at her after the fashion that she had set
herself at a time when everybody was trying their best to be kind to
her.
It was clearly a fact, that through the influence of the seven trunks
Mrs. Cliff was becoming a very popular woman, and Miss Shott did not
like it at all. She had never had any faith--at least she said so--in
those lumps of gold found in a hole in some part of the world that
nobody had ever heard of; and had not hesitated to say that fortunes
founded on such wild-goose stories as these should not even be
considered by people of good sense who worked for their living, or had
incomes which they could depend on. But the dress goods, the ribbons,
the gloves, the little clocks, the shoes, the parasols, the breast-pins,
the portfolios of pictures, the jewelry, the rugs and table covers, and
hundreds of other beautiful and foreign things, were a substantial
evidence that Mrs. Cliff's money was not all moonshine.
It was very pleasant for Mrs. Cliff to bring out her treasures to
display them to her enthusiastic friends, and to arrange them in her
house, and to behold the rapturous delight of Willy Croup from early
morn until bed-time.
But the seven empty trunks had been carried up into the garret, and now
Mrs. Cliff set her mind to the solution of the question--how was she to
begin her new life in her old home? It must be a new life, for to live
as she had lived even in the days of her highest prosperity during her
husband's life would be absurd and even wicked. With such an income she
must endeavor as far as was possible to her to live in a manner worthy
of it; but one thing she was determined upon--she would not alienate her
friends by climbing to the top of her money and looking down upon them.
None of them knew how high she would be if she were to perch herself on
the very top of that money, but even if she climbed up a little way,
they might still feel that they were very small in her sight.
No, the money should always be kept in the background. It might be as
high as the sky and as glorious as a sunset, but she would be on the
ground with the people of Plainton, and as far as was possible, they
should all enjoy the fine weather together.
She could not repress a feeling of pride, for she would be looked upon
as one of the principal persons--if not the principal person--in
Plainton; but she could not believe that any real friend could possibly
object to that.
If her husband had lived and prospered, it was probable he would have
been the principal man in Plainton, the minister always excepted; but
now there was no reason whatever why any one should object to her being
a principal personage, and, in this case, she could not see why the
minister's wife should be excepted.
But Plainton was to be her home; the Plainton people were to be her
friends. How should she set about using her money in such a way that she
should not be driven forth to some large city to live as ordinary
wealthy people live, in a fashion to which she was utterly unsuited, and
which possessed for her no attractions whatever?
Of course, she had early determined to devote a large sum to charitable
purposes, for she would have thought herself a very unworthy woman if
her wealth had not benefited others than herself, but this was an easy
matter to attend to. The amount she had set aside for charity was not
permanently invested, and, through the advice of Mr. Perley, there would
be no difficulty in devoting this to suitable objects. Already she had
confidentially spoken to her pastor on the subject, and had found him
enthusiastic in his desire to help her in every possible way in her
benevolent purposes. But who was there who could help her in regard to
herself? Who was there who could tell her how she ought to live so as
to gain all the good that her money should give her, and yet not lose
that which was to her the highest object of material existence,--a happy
and prosperous life among her old friends in her native town?
Should she choose to elevate herself in the social circle by living as
ordinary very rich people live, she could not hope to elevate her
friends in that way, although she would be glad enough to do it in many
cases, and there would be a gap between them which would surely grow
wider and wider; and yet here was this money coming in upon her in a
steady stream day by day, and how was she going to make herself happier
with it?
She must do that, or, she believed, it would be her duty to hand it over
to somebody else who was better adapted by nature to use it.
"If I did not take so much pleasure in things which cost so little and
which are so easy for me to buy," said poor Mrs. Cliff to herself, "or
if I did not have so much money, I am sure I should get on a great deal
better."
Mrs. Cliff's belief that she must not long delay in selecting some sort
of station in life, and endeavoring to live up to it, was soon
strengthened by Willy Croup. During the time of the trunk opening, and
for some days afterwards, when all her leisure hours were occupied with
the contemplation and consideration of her own presents, Willy had been
perfectly contented to let things go on in the old way, or any way, but
now the incongruity of Mrs. Cliff's present mode of living, and the
probable amount of her fortune, began to impress itself upon her.
"It does seem to me," said she, "that it's a sin and a shame that you
should be goin' about this house just as you used to do, helpin' me
upstairs and downstairs, as if you couldn't afford to hire nobody. You
ought to have a girl, and a good one, and for the matter of that, you
might have two of 'em, I suppose. And even if it wasn't too much for you
to be workin' about when there's no necessity for it, the people are
beginnin' to talk, and that ought to be stopped."
"What are they talking about?" asked Mrs. Cliff.
"Well, it's not everybody that's talkin'," returned Willy, "and I guess
that them that does gets their opinions from one quarter, but I've heard
people say that it's pretty plain that all you got out of that gold mine
you spent in buyin' the things you brought home in your trunks; for if
you didn't, you wouldn't be livin' like this, helpin' to do your own
housework and cookin'."
In consequence of this conversation, a servant-of-all-work was employed;
for Mrs. Cliff did not know what she would do with two women until she
had made a change in her household arrangements; and with this as a
beginning, our good widow determined to start out on her career as a
rich woman who intended to enjoy herself in the fashion she liked best.
She sent for Mr. Thompson, the carpenter, and consulted with him in
regard to the proposed additions to her house, but when she had talked
for a time, she became disheartened. She found that it would be
necessary to dig a new cellar close to her present premises; that there
would be stones, and gravel, and lime, and sand, and carts and horses,
and men, and dirt; and that it would be some months before all the
hammering, and the sawing, and the planing, and the plastering, and
tinwork could be finished, and all this would be going on under her eye,
and close to her ears during those first months in which she had
proposed to be so happy in her home. She could not bear to give the word
to dig, and pound, and saw. It was not like building a new house, for
that would not be near her, and the hub-bub of its construction would
not annoy her.
So she determined she would not begin a new dining-room at present. She
would wait a little while until she had had some good of her house as it
was, and then she would feel better satisfied to live in the midst of
pounding, banging, and all-pervading dust; but she would do something.
She would have the fence which separated the sidewalk from her front
yard newly painted. She had long wanted to have that done, but had not
been able to afford it.
But when Mr. Thompson went to look at the fence, he told her that it
would be really a waste of money to paint it, for in many places it was
old and decayed, and it would be much wiser to put up a new one and
paint that.
Again Mrs. Cliff hesitated. If that fence had to be taken down, and the
posts dug up, and new posts put in, and the flower-bed which ran along
the inside of it destroyed, it would be just as well to wait until the
other work began and have it all done at once; so she told Mr. Thompson
he need not send a painter, for she would make the old fence do for a
while.
Mrs. Cliff sighed a little as the carpenter walked away, but there were
other things to do. There was the pasture lot at the rear of her garden,
and she could have a cow, and there was the little barn, and she could
have a horse. The idea of the horse pleased her more than anything she
had yet thought of in connection with her wealth.
In her days of prosperity it had been her greatest pleasure to drive in
her phaeton with her good brown horse, generally with Willy Croup by her
side; to stop at shops or to make calls upon friends, and to make those
little excursions into the surrounding country in which she and Willy
both delighted. They had sometimes gone a long distance and had taken
their dinner with them, and Willy was really very good in unharnessing
the horse and watering him at a brook, and in giving him some oats.
To return to these old joys was a delightful prospect, and Mrs. Cliff
made inquiries about her horse, which had been sold in the town; but he
was gone. He had been sold to a drover, and his whereabouts no one knew.
So she went to Mr. Williams, the keeper of the hotel, who knew more
about horses than anybody else, and consulted with him on the subject of
a new steed. She told him just what she wanted: a gentle horse which
she could drive herself, and one which Willy could hold when she went
into a house or a shop.
Now, it so happened that Mr. Williams had just such a horse, and when
Mrs. Cliff had seen it, and when Willy had come up to look at it, and
when the matter had been talked about in all the aspects in which it
presented itself to Mrs. Cliff's mind, she bought the animal, and it was
taken to her stable, where Andrew Marks, a neighbor, was engaged to take
care of it.
The next morning Mrs. Cliff and Willy took a drive a little way out of
town, and they both agreed that this horse, which was gray, was a great
deal better traveller than the old brown, and a much handsomer animal;
but both of them also agreed that they did not believe that they would
ever learn to love him as they had their old horse.
Still he was very easy to drive, and he went along so pleasantly,
without needing the whip in the least, that Mrs. Cliff said to herself,
that for the first time since her return she really felt herself a rich
woman.
"If everything," she thought, "should come to me as this horse came to
me, how delightful my life would be! When I wanted him, I found him. I
did not have to trouble myself in the least about the price; I simply
paid it, and ordered him sent home. Now, that sort of thing is what
makes a person feel truly rich."
When they had gone far enough, and had reached a wide place in the road,
Mrs. Cliff turned and started back to Plainton. But now the horse began
to be a different kind of a horse. With his face towards his home, he
set out to trot as fast as he could, and when Mrs. Cliff, not liking
such a rapid pace, endeavored to pull him in, she found it very hard to
do, and when she began to saw his mouth, thinking that would restrain
his ardor, he ambled and capered, and Mrs. Cliff was obliged to let him
resume his rapid gait.
He was certainly a very hard-mouthed horse, going home, and Mrs. Cliff's
arms ached, and Willy Croup's heart quaked, long before they reached the
town. When they reached Plainton, Mrs. Cliff began to be afraid that he
would gallop through the streets, and she told Willy that if he did, she
must not scream, but must sit quietly, and she would endeavor to steer
him clear of the vehicles and people.
But although he did not gallop, the ardent gray seemed to travel faster
after he entered the town, and Mrs. Cliff, who was getting very red in
the face from her steady tugging at the reins, thought it wise not to
attempt to go home, but to let her horse go straight to the hotel
stables where he had lived.
When Mrs. Cliff had declared to Mr. Williams that that horse would never
suit her, that she would not be willing to drive it, and would not even
think of going into a house and leaving Willy Croup to hold him, he was
very much surprised, and said that he had not a gentler horse in his
stable, and he did not believe there was one in the town.
"All horses," said he, "want to go home, especially at dinner-time."
"But the old brown did not," urged Mrs. Cliff. "That is the sort of
horse I want."
"Some very old beast might please you better," said he; "but really,
Mrs. Cliff, that is not the sort of horse you should have. He would die
or break down in a little while, and then you would have to get another.
What you should do is to have a good horse and a driver. You might get a
two-seated carriage, either open or closed, and go anywhere and
everywhere, and never think of the horse."
That was not the thing she longed for; that would not bring back the
happy days when she drove the brown through the verdant lanes. If she
must have a driver, she might as well hire a cab and be driven about.
But she told Mr. Williams to get her a suitable vehicle, and she would
have Andrew Marks to drive her; and she and Willy Croup walked sadly
home.
As to the cow, she succeeded better. She bought a fairly good one, and
Willy undertook to milk her and to make butter.
"Now, what have I done so far?" said Mrs. Cliff, on the evening of the
day when the cow came home. "I have a woman to cook, I have a new
kitchen door, and I have a cow! I do not count the horse and the wagon,
for if I do not drive, myself, I shall not feel that they are mine in
the way that I want them to be."