She was a little fat, black-eyed, black-haired girl, with waist and
ankles of no Lilliputian size, and when at last Walter dared to steal a
look at her, she had already divested herself of her traveling
habiliments, and with the household cat in her arms, was looking about
for a chair which suited her. She evidently did not fancy the high,
old-fashioned ones which had belonged to Deacon Marshall's wife, for,
spying the one which was never used, and into which even Ellen dared not
climb, she unhesitatingly wheeled it from its place, and seated herself
in its capacious depths, quite as a matter of course.
A good deal shocked, and somewhat amused, Walter watched her
proceedings, thinking to himself:
"By and by I'll tell her that is father's chair, and then she won't want
to sit in it; but she's a stranger now, so I guess I'll let her alone."
By this time the cat, unaccustomed to quite so hard a squeeze as Jessie
gave it, escaped from her lap, and jumping down, Jessie ran after it,
exclaiming:
"Oh, boy, boy, stop her!"
A peculiar whistle from Walter sent the animal flying faster from her,
and shaking back her curls, Jessie's black eyes flashed up into his
face, as she said:
"You're the meanest boy, and I don't like you a bit."
"Jessie," said the stern voice of her father, and for the first time
since his entrance, Walter turned to look at him, and as he looked he
felt the bitterness gradually giving way, for the expression of Mr.
Graham's face was not proud and overbearing as he had fancied it to be.
On the contrary, it was mild and gentle as a woman's, while there was
something in his pleasant blue eyes which would prompt an entire
stranger to trust him at once. He had seen much of the world, and of
what is called best society, and his manners were polished and pleasing.
Still there was nothing ostentatious about him, no consciousness of
superiority, and when Deacon Marshall, pointing to Walter, said to him,
"This is Seth's child," he took the boy's hand in his own, and for a
moment, stood gazing down into the frank, open face, then pushing the
brown hair from off the forehead, he said:
"You look as your father did, when we were boys together, and he was the
dearest friend I knew."
"What made you turn against him then?" trembled on Walter's lips, but
the words were not uttered, for Mr. Graham's manner had disarmed him of
all animosity, and he said instead:
"I hope I may be as good and true a man as I believe him to have been."
For a moment longer Mr. Graham held the hand in his, while he looked
admiringly at the boy, who had paid this tribute to one whom the world
considered an outcast, then releasing it, he turned away, and Walter was
sure that his eyes were moist with something which looked like tears.
"I like him for that," was his mental comment, as he watched Mr. Graham
talking with his aunt of little Jessie, who, when he bade her
farewell,--for he went back that night,--clung sobbing to his neck,
refusing to be comforted, until Walter whispered to her of a bright-eyed
squirrel playing in its cage up in the maple tree.
Then her arms relaxed their grasp, and she went with Ellen to see the
sight, while Walter accompanied Mr. Graham to the depot. There was a
bond of sympathy between the man and boy, and they grew to liking each
other very fast during the few moments they talked together upon the
platform of the Deerwood station. Numerous were the charges Mr. Graham
gave to Walter concerning his little girl, bidding him care for her as
if she were his sister, and Walter felt a boyish pride in thinking how
well he would fulfill his trust.
Mr. Graham could never tell what prompted him to say it, but as his mind
went forward to the future, when Jessie would be grown, he said:
"She will make a beautiful woman, I think, and I hope she will be as
good and pure as beautiful, so that her future husband, should she ever
have one, will not look to her in vain for happiness."
It might have been that Mr. Graham was thinking of his own wife, and the
little congeniality there had been between them. If so, he hastened to
thrust such thoughts aside by adding, laughingly:
"Her grandmother is a remarkably scheming old lady, and has already set
her heart on William Bellenger, or rather on his family; but I would
rather see her buried than the wife of any of that race."
Unconsciously Mr. Graham had wounded Walter deeply, for in his veins the
blood of the Bellengers was flowing, and he did not care to hear another
speak thus disparagingly of a race from which his gentle mother sprung,
though he had no love for it himself. William Bellenger was his cousin,
and even now he felt his finger tips tingle as he recalled the only time
they had met. It was on the occasion of that first visit to Boston, to
which Ellen had alluded. His uncle's family were then boarding at the
Tremont and William was making a constrained effort to entertain him in
the public parlor, when he became so frightened with the gong, mistaking
it for a roaring lion, and taking refuge behind the door as Ellen had
said. With explosive shouts of laughter William repeated the story to
all whose ear he could gain, and Walter had never forgotten the sneering
tone of his voice as he called after him at parting:
"The lion's out! the lion's out!"
They had never seen each other since,--he hoped they never should see
each other again,--and though sure that he disliked Jessie very much, he
shrank even from the thought of associating her with William Bellenger,
though he did not like to have Mr. Graham speak so slightingly of him.
Something like this must have shown itself upon his face, for Mr. Graham
saw the shadow resting there and quickly divining the cause, hastened to
say:
"Forgive me, Walter, for speaking thus thoughtlessly of your mother's
family. I did not think of the relationship. You are not like them in
the least, I am sure, for you remind me each moment of your father."
Around the curve the train appeared in view, but Walter must ask one
question of his companion, and as the latter sprang upon the steps of
the forward car, he held his arm, and said to him entreatingly, as it
were:
"Do you think my father guilty?"
Oh, how Mr. Graham longed to say no to the impulsive boy, whose handsome
face looked up to him so wistfully. But he could not, and he answered
sadly:
"I did think so, years ago."
"Yes, yes; but now? Do you think so now?" and Walter held fast to the
arm, even though the train was moving slowly on.
The ringing of the bell, the creaking of the machinery, and the puffing
of the engine increased each moment; but above the din of them all
Walter caught the reply:
"I have had no reason to change my mind," and releasing Mr. Graham, he
sprang to the ground and walked slowly back to the farm-house, his bosom
swelling with resentment, and his eyes filling with tears, for upon no
subject was the high-spirited boy so sensitive as the subject of his
father's honor.
"I'll never believe it till he himself tells me it is true," he said,
and then, as he had often done before, he began to wonder if his father
ever thought of the child he had never seen, and if in this world they
would ever meet.
While thus meditating, he reached home, where he found the entire family
assembled around little Jessie, who, with flushed cheeks and angry eyes,
was stamping her fat feet furiously, and, by way of variety,
occasionally bumping her hard head against the harder door.
"What is it?" he asked, pressing forward until he caught sight of the
little tempest.
The matter was soon explained. Always accustomed to her own way with her
indulgent grandmother, Jessie had insisted upon opening the cage and
taking the squirrel in her hands, and when her request was refused she
had flown into a most violent passion, screaming for her father to come
and take her away from such dirty, ugly people. It was in vain that they
tried by turns to soothe her. Her spirit was the ruling one as yet, and
she raved on till Walter came and learned the cause of her wrath.
"I can make her mind, I'll bet," he thought, and advancing toward her,
he said sternly: "Jessie!" but a more decided stamp of the foot was her
only answer, and seizing her arm, he shook her violently, while he said
more sternly than before: "Stop, instantly!"
Like coals of fire the black eyes flashed up into his, meeting a look so
firm and decided that they quailed beneath the glance. Jessie had met
her master, and after a few hysterical sobs, she became as gentle as a
lamb, nestling so close to Walter, who had seated himself upon the
chintz-covered lounge, that he involuntarily wound his arm around her,
as if to make amends for his recent harshness.
Jessie was as affectionate and warm-hearted as she was high-tempered and
rebellious. Her tears were like April showers, and before Walter had
been with her one half hour, all traces of the storm had disappeared,
and in her own way she was cultivating his acquaintance, and
occasionally inflicting upon him a pang by criticising some of his modes
of speech. Particularly was she shocked at his favorite expression,
"Darn it!" and looking wonderingly into his face, she said:
"You mustn't use such naughty words. Nobody but vulgar folks do that."
Walter colored painfully, and that night, in the little diary which he
kept, he wrote:
"Resolved to break myself of using the word 'darn;' not because a pert
city miss wishes it, but because--"
He didn't know quite what reason to assign, so he left the sentence to
be finished at some future time.
In less than three weeks Jessie was the pet of the household, not even
excepting Walter, whose prejudices gradually gave way, and who at last
admitted that she would be "a niceish kind of a little girl, if she
wasn't so awful spunky."
To no one of the family did Jessie take so kindly as to him. He had been
the first to conquer her, and she clung to him with a childish, trusting
love, whose influence he could not resist. Naturally full of life and
fond of exercise, she was his constant companion in the fields and in
the woods, where, fearless of complexion or dress, she gathered the rich
butternuts, or sought among the yellow leaves for the brown chestnuts
which the hoar frost had cast from their prickly covering. She liked the
country, she said, and when her grandmother wrote, as she often did,
begging her to come back, if only for a week, she absolutely refused to
go, bidding Walter, who was her amanuensis, say that she liked staying
where she was, and never meant to live in the city again. To Walter she
was of inestimable advantage, for she cured him of more than one bad
habit, both of word and manner, and though he, perhaps, would not have
acknowledged it, he was very careful not to offend her ladyship by a
repetition of the offense, until at last his schoolmates more than once
called him stuck-up and proud, while even Ellen thought him greatly
changed.
And thus the autumn passed away, and the breath of winter was cold and
keen upon the New England hills, while the grim old mountain frowned
gloomily down upon the pond, or tiny lake, whose surface was covered
over with a coat of polished glass, tempting the skaters far and near,
and bringing to its banks one day Walter and Jessie Graham. It was in
vain that Mrs. Howland and Aunt Debby both urged upon the latter the
propriety of remaining at home and knitting on the deacon's socks, just
as gentle, domestic Ellen did. Jessie was not to be persuaded, and,
wrapped in her warm fur cape and mittens, she went with Walter to the
pond, receiving many a heavy fall upon the ice, but always saying it was
no matter, particularly if Walter were within hearing. The surest way to
win his favor, she knew, was to be brave and fearless, and when, as the
bright afternoon drew to its close, some boy, more mischievous than the
rest, caught off Walter's cap and sent it flying toward the southern
boundary of the pond, she darted after it, unmindful of the many voices
raised to stay the rash adventure.
"Stop, Jessie! stop! The deep hole lies just there!" was shouted after
her. But she did not hear; she thought only of Walter's commendation
when she returned him his cap, and she kept on her way, while Walter,
with blanched cheek, looked anxiously after her, involuntarily shutting
his eyes as the dreadful cry rose upon the air:
"She's gone! she's gone!"
When he opened them again the space where he had seen her last, with her
bright face turned toward him, was vacant, and the cold, black waters
were breaking angrily over the spot where she had stood, Walter thought
himself dying, and almost hoped he was, for the world would be very
dreary with no little Jessie in it; then as he caught sight of the
crimson lining to Jessie's cape fluttering above the ice, and thought of
her father's trust in him, he cried, "I'll save her, or perish too!" and
rushed on to the rescue.
There was a fierce struggle in the water, and the ice was broken up for
many yards around, and then, just as those who stood upon the shore,
breathlessly awaiting the result, were beginning to despair, the noble
boy fell fainting in their midst, his arms clasped convulsively around
Jessie, whose short black curls and dripping garments clung tightly to
her face and form. Half an hour later and Deacon Marshall, smoking by
his kitchen fire, looked from the western window, and, starting to his
feet, exclaimed:
"Who are all those people coming this way, and what do they carry with
them? It's Walter,--it's Walter!" he cried, as the setting sun shone on
the white face, and hurrying out, he asked, huskily, "Is my boy dead?"
"No, not dead," answered one of the group, "his heart is beating yet,
but she----" and he pointed to little Jessie, whom a strong man carried
in his arms.
But Jessie was not dead, although for a long time they thought she was,
and Walter, who had recovered from his fainting fit, was not ashamed to
cry as he looked upon the still white face and wished he had never been
harsh to the little girl, or shaken her so hard on that first day of her
arrival at Deerwood. Slowly, as one wakes from a heavy slumber, Jessie
came back to life, and the first words she uttered were:
"Tell Walter I did get his cap, but somebody took it from me and hurt my
hand so bad," and she held up the tiny thing on which was a deep cut
made by the sharp-pointed ice.
"Yes, darling, I know it," Walter whispered, and when no one saw him he
pressed his lips to the wounded hand.
This was a good deal for Walter to do. Never had he called any one
darling before, never kissed even his blue-eyed cousin Ellen, but the
first taste inspired him with a desire for more, and he wondered at
himself for having refrained so long.
"Will she live?" he asked eagerly of the physician, who replied:
"There is now no reason why she should not," and Walter hastened away to
his own room, where, unobserved, he could weep out his great joy.
Gradually, as the days went by, Jessie comprehended what Walter had done
for her, and her first impulse was that some one should write to her
father,--somebody who would say just what she told them to, and as Aunt
Debby was the most likely to do this, the poor old lady was pressed into
the service, groaning and sweating over the task.
"And now, pa," Aunt Debby wrote, after telling of the accident, "Walter
must be paid, and I'll tell you how to pay him. I heard him one night
talking with his grandpa about going to school and college, and his
grandpa said he couldn't, they were not worth enough in the whole world
for that. Then Walter said he should never know anything, and cried so
hard that I was just going to cry too, when I fell asleep and forgot it.
You are rich, I know, for one of ma's rings cost five hundred dollars,
and her shawl a thousand, and I want you to send me money enough for
Walter to go to college. It will take a lot, I guess, for I heard him
say he'd only studied the things they learn in district schools; but you
have got enough. Let me give it to him with my own hands, because he
saved me with his, will you, father? Walter is the nicest kind of a
boy."
The letter was sent, and in course of time there came a response with a
draft for two thousand dollars, the whole to be used for the noble lad
who had saved the life of the father's only child. Wild with delight
Jessie listened while Aunt Debby, the only one in the secret, spelled
out the words, then seizing the draft, she hastened out in quest of
Walter, whom she found in the barn, milking the speckled cow. Running up
to him she cried:
"It's come,--the money! You're going to school,--to college, and to be a
great big man like father. Here it is," and thrusting the paper into his
hand she crouched so near to him that the milk-pail was upset, and the
white drops spattered her jet black hair.
At first Walter could not understand it, but Jessie managed to explain
how she had asked her father for money to pay for his education.
"Because," she said, "if it hadn't been for you I should have been a
little dead girl now, and the boys, next winter, would have skated right
over me lying there on the bottom of the pond."
Walter's first emotion was one of joy in having within his reach what he
had so greatly desired, but considered impossible. Then there arose a
feeling of unwillingness to receive his education from Mr. Graham, to
whom they were already indebted. It seemed too much like charity, and
that he could not endure. Still he did not say so to Jessie,--he would
wait, he thought, until he had talked with his grandfather. Greatly
surprised, Deacon Marshall listened to the story, saying, when it was
finished:
"You'll accept it, of course."
"No, I shan't," returned Walter. "We owe Mr. Graham now more than we can
ever pay, and I would rather work all my life on the old homestead than
be dependent on his bounty. You may send it back to your father," he
added, giving the draft to Jessie. "Tell him I thank him, but I can't
accept his favor."
"Oh, Walter!" and climbing into a chair, for Walter was standing up,
Jessie wound her arms around his neck and poured forth a torrent of
entreaties which led him finally to waver, and at last to decide upon
accepting it, provided Mr. Graham would allow him to pay it back as soon
as he was able.
To this Mr. Graham, who was immediately written to upon the subject,
assented, for he readily understood the feeling of pride which had
prompted the suggestion.
"I do not respect you less," he wrote to Walter in reply, "for wishing
to take care of yourself, and the time may come when the money so
cheerfully loaned to you now will be sorely needed by me and mine. Until
then, give yourself no trouble about it, but devote all your energies to
the acquirement of an education. Were my advice asked in reference to a
college, I should tell you Yale, but you must do as you think best. I
shall need a partner by-and-by, perhaps, and nothing could please me
more than to see the names of Graham and Marshall associated together in
business again. God bless your father, wherever he may be."
This letter touched the right chord, and often in his sleep Walter saw
the sign whose yellow letters read "Graham & Marshall," and the junior
partner of this firm sometimes was himself, but oftener a mild-faced man
wearing the sad, weary look he always saw in dreams upon his father's
face. The day would come, too, he said, when the honor of the Marshall
name would be redeemed, and he looked eagerly forward to the time when
he was to enter as a student the Wilbraham Academy, where it was decided
that he should fit himself for college.
Very delightful was the bustle and confusion attendant upon the
preparations in the deacon's household, the entire family entering into
the excitement with a zest which told how much the boy was beloved.
Every one wished to do something for him, even to little Jessie, who,
having never been taught to do a really useful thing until she came to
Deerwood, worked perseveringly, but with small hope of success, upon a
pair of socks like those which Ellen had knit for the deacon the winter
before. But alas for Jessie! knitting was not her forte, and Walter
himself could not forbear a smile at the queer-looking thing which grew
but slowly in her hands. At last, in despair, she gave it up, and one
night, when no one was near, threw it into the fire.
"I must give him something for a keepsake," she thought, and remembering
that he had sometimes smoothed her hair as if he liked it, she seized
the shears, and cutting from her head the longest, handsomest curl, gave
it to him with the explanation that "her father had taken a lock of her
hair when he went away, and perhaps he would like one too."
Affecting an indifference he did not feel, Walter laughingly accepted a
gift which in future years would be very dear to him, because of the
fair donor.
The bright April morning came at last on which Walter left his home, and
with tearful eyes the family watched him out of sight, and then, with
saddened hearts, went back to their usual employments, feeling that the
sunshine of the house had gone with the stirring, active boy, who, in
one corner of the noisy car, was winking hard and counting the fence
posts as they ran swiftly past, to keep himself from crying. Anon this
feeling left him, and with the hopefulness of youth he looked eagerly
into the far future, catching occasional glimpses of the day which would
surely come to him when the names of Graham and Marshall would be
associated together again.