A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE.
"There is a letter, my dear, which concerns you quite as much as
myself," Mr. Keith said, putting it into his wife's hand. "It gives
information which perhaps, for several reasons, it may be as well for
us to keep to ourselves for the present," he added, with a smile. "That
is why I kept it back until now that we are alone."
They had retired to their own room for the night, and the little ones
who shared it with them were fast asleep.
"From Uncle Dinsmore!" Mrs. Keith exclaimed, recognizing the
hand-writing at a glance.
Her husband watched her face with interest and some curiosity as she
read, a slight smile on his lips and in his eyes.
She looked up presently with hers shining. "How good, how wonderfully
good and kind they always are!"
"Almost too kind," he responded, his face clouding a little. "At least
I wish there was no occasion for receiving such favors. I should have
been tempted to decline, had I been consulted beforehand. But it would
hardly do now that the goods are almost here. We could not well send
them back."
"No; certainly that is not to be thought of for a moment," she said,
lifting to his, eyes smiling through tears. "We must follow the Golden
Rule, Stuart, and accept their kind assistance in educating our
children just as we would wish them to accept ours were our situations
reversed."
"Yes," he said, heaving a sigh, "doubtless you take the right view
of it; but--ah! Marcia, wife, 'it is more blessed to give than to
receive.'"
"It is indeed, my dear husband, and we will not refuse them that
blessedness now, but receive their kindnesses in the spirit in which
they are offered, hoping that we may have our turn some of these days.
Shall we not?"
He gave a silent assent. "Do you not agree with me that it will be well
to keep the matter a secret from the children until the boxes arrive?"
he asked.
"Oh, yes, indeed! we will not let even Mildred know. It will be such a
delightful surprise to her, dear child! for though she has uttered no
word of complaint, I am sure it must have been a great disappointment
to her that you could not furnish her with a piano this fall to enable
her to keep up her music. Now she can do that and teach her sisters
too."
"And her playing will be a great treat to us all," added Mr. Keith,
with a smile that spoke volumes of fatherly affection and pride in his
first-born.
"And then the books! what delightful times we shall have over them!"
she added, her eyes sparkling; "what a help they will be in cultivating
our children's minds! I think our dear girl must have completely won
her way into the hearts of my uncle and cousin Horace."
"As her mother did before her," he responded, with a light happy laugh.
When preparing to leave Ohio for the wilds of Indiana, Mr. Keith had
sold most of their heavy articles of furniture, among them the piano.
Its loss had been greatly lamented in the family, especially by the
older girls and Rupert. The purchase of another had become a darling
project with him, and to that end he had worked and saved till he
had now quite a little hoard, earned mostly by the sale of fruits,
vegetables, and fowls of his own raising; his mother paying him for
these at the market price, and whatever surplus he had finding ready
sale at the stores.
The lad was very industrious and painstaking, generally very successful
in what he undertook--as such people are apt to be--and while generous
to others spent little on himself.
Since Mildred's return, the desire for a piano was stronger than ever:
there was not one in the town, nor an organ, or any kind of keyed
instrument; so that there was no chance for them to hear her play and
judge of her improvement; and worse still, she would be in danger, from
want of practice, of losing all she had gained. But pianos cost a great
deal in those days, and Mr. Keith could not just now spare the money to
make the purchase and pay the heavy cost of transportation.
Money was scarce in that region then, business carried on very largely
by barter. This made it easier for him to be at the expense of
enlarging his house than to pay for something that must come from a
distance.
There was little or no fretting or complaint over this state of things,
but the children often talked longingly of the good time coming, when
father would be able, with the help of what they could earn and save,
to send for a piano.
That time seemed to be brought a little nearer by an act of thoughtful
kindness on the part of their dear Aunt Wealthy. She had set apart from
her income a certain sum which she engaged to send to their mother, at
regular intervals, to be divided among them as pocket-money. The dear
old lady could hardly have devised anything that would have given more
pleasure. The news, as announced by Mildred on the day of her arrival,
was received with demonstrations of wild delight, and evidently the
little ones now considered themselves moneyed individuals, taking great
pride and pleasure in consulting together, or with father and mother,
as to the disposal of their incomes.
This opened up to the careful Christian parents a new opportunity for
the study of the natural character of each of their children, and
the curbing of wrong inclinations, whether toward extravagance or
penuriousness.
One day, several weeks after Mildred's return, Rupert came in near
the dinner hour, and drawing his mother aside, whispered something in
her ear. There was a look of covert delight in his face, and his eyes
sparkled as he added, "One's long, low and broad, mother; can only be
one thing, I think--just the thing we're all wanting so much. But where
could it come from?"
"Where do you suppose?" she answered merrily. "Well, the instant you
are done your dinner you may go down and see them brought up."
"But father said it was your wish and his to make it a complete
surprise to the children."
"Mildred included?" laughed his mother; "you are so much older than
she. I will manage it. They shall all be out of the way while we
unpack."
Mr. Keith came in presently, and with his arrival the call to dinner.
Mildred looked curiously at Rupert several times during the meal,
wondering at his unaccustomed air of importance, the half-exultant,
meaning glance he now and then sent across the table to one or the
other of their parents, and the haste with which he swallowed his food
and hurried from the table and the house, having asked to be excused,
as he had business of importance to attend to.
"Dear me, what airs!" laughed Zillah, as he whisked out of the room.
"One would think he was a man, sure enough."
"Girls," said Mrs. Keith, "I want you to take the little ones out for
a walk this afternoon. It is a bright day and the walking good, and if
you are all well wrapped up, you will not feel the cold."
"Not if they go at once," put in Mr. Keith.
"Run away and make yourselves ready, all of you."
"The party will be large enough without me, won't it, mother?" queried
Mildred. "You know I have a piece of sewing on hand that I am very
desirous to finish before night."
"Let it go, child; you need air and exercise far more than I do the
dress," was the kind and smiling rejoinder.
Then came a chorus of entreaties from all the children that mother
would go too.
But she would not hear of it, had a matter of importance to attend to
at home; perhaps, if to-morrow should prove pleasant, she would go with
them then.
And so with smiles and merry, loving words she helped to make them
ready and sent them on their way.
Barely in time, for hardly were they out of sight when a wagon drove up
with two large, weighty looking boxes. Rupert and two men, beside the
driver, were in the vehicle also, and it took all their strength, with
Mr. Keith's added, to lift and carry the boxes into the house.
"Oh, it is a piano! I know it is!" cried Rupert, as they set down in
the hall the box he had described to his mother.
"A pianer did ye say?" queried one of the men, as for a moment they all
stood panting from their exertions and gazing down upon the burden they
had just deposited upon the floor. "Let's get it open quick then, for I
never see one in my life."
Rupert ran for the hatchet, and in another five minutes the lid was off
the box, and all remaining doubt vanished.
"It is, it is!" cried the lad, fairly capering about the room in his
delight. "Oh, what a joyful surprise for the girls and all of us! But
where on earth did it come from? Father--"
"I had nothing to do with it, my son," Mr. Keith asserted with a grave
earnestness that precluded the idea that he might be jesting.
The boy looked bewildered, then disappointed. "There's been some
mistake, I'm afraid. Perhaps there's another family of our name
somewhere in this region, and--"
But his mother whispered a word in his ear and his face grew radiant.
"Is that it? O mother, how good they are!"
"Let's git the thing out and see what it's like," said the man who had
spoken before.
The others eagerly assented, and set to work at once, Mr. Keith giving
assistance and directions, Mrs. Keith pointing out the place in the
parlor where she wished it to stand.
"You kin play, I 'spose, Mrs. Keith. Won't you give us a tune?" was the
eager request when their task was ended.
Smilingly she seated herself and played "Yankee Doodle" with variations.
They were delighted. "First-rate!" commented the one who seemed to act
as chief spokesman of the party. "Now, ma'am, if you please, won't you
strike up 'Hail Columby.'"
She good-naturedly complied, added "Star Spangled Banner," then rose
from the instrument.
They thanked her warmly, saying they felt well paid for bringing "the
thing" in.
"You must come in again some day, if you enjoy hearing it," she said
with gracious sweetness. "I think you will find my daughter a better
performer than I am."
"Yours is plenty good enough for us," they answered, bowing themselves
out.
"It is a very sweet-toned instrument," she remarked, running her
fingers over the keys; "a most magnificent present. How delighted
Mildred and the rest will be!"
"I am eager to witness it," her husband said with a smile. "It
is indeed a most valuable gift, and nothing could have been more
acceptable."
"They're the kindest, most generous relations anybody ever had," added
Rupert emphatically. "What's in that other box? shan't we open it now?"
"Books," answered his mother. "Yes, we may as well open it and spread
them out ready for Mildred's inspection. Most of them belong to her."
This done Mrs. Keith again seated herself at the piano.
The young people had taken a pretty long walk, moving briskly to
keep themselves warm, for the November air was frosty, and were now
returning in gay spirits, eyes sparkling and cheeks glowing with health
and happiness, while the tongues of the little ones ran fast, and a
joyous shout or a silvery laugh rang out now and then; for the greater
part of their way lay not through the streets of the town, but on its
outskirts--along the river bank, through the groves of saplings, and
over still unoccupied prairie land. When they came where there were
houses and people to be disturbed by their noise, their mirth subsided
a little, and they spoke to each other in subdued tones.
As they drew near home, unaccustomed, surprising sounds greeted their
astonished ears.
"Oh, what's that music?" cried the little ones, "such pretty music!"
"Why, it sounds like a piano!" exclaimed the older ones; "but where
could it come from?" and they rushed tumultuously into the house, even
Mildred forgetting the staid propriety of her years.
The parlor door stood open, and--yes, there it was--a beautiful piano,
mother's skilful fingers bringing out its sweetest tones, father and
Rupert standing enraptured close beside her, and Celestia Ann, sleeves
rolled up, dish-towel in hand, eyes dancing, and mouth stretched in a
broad grin, stationed at the farther end.
"Well, I never! where on airth did the critter come from?" she
exclaimed just as the others came upon the scene. "I never see the
like, I never did!" she went on. "I just ran down town of an arrant,
and I'd come home again and in the back door and begun to wash up them
dishes, when I heered this agoin', and come in to find out what under
the sun was agoin' on."
But no one seemed to hear a word she said; the children were jumping
and careering about the room in frantic delight, clapping their hands,
pouring out questions and exclamations. "Oh, aren't you glad? aren't
you glad?" "Isn't it a beauty?" "It's just too nice for anything!" "Who
did send it?"
Mildred stood silently gazing at it, her eyes full of glad tears.
Father and Rupert were watching her, taking no notice of the others.
"Well, dear?" her mother said, whirling about on the piano stool and
looking up into her face with tender, loving eyes.
"O mother, it is too much!" she cried, the tears beginning to fall.
"Uncle Dinsmore sent it, I know; and I do believe it's one of the very
two I liked the best of all we saw. He bought the other for themselves
and this for us."
"For you, dear; but indeed it is, he says, not his own gift, but Cousin
Horace's. The books are from him--our kind, generous uncle." And she
pointed to them where they lay piled high upon the table.
"Books too!" Mildred exclaimed in increased astonishment and delight.
"Yes, he has marked out a course of reading for you--subject to your
father's and my approval--and sent the necessary books and some others
beside."
While his wife was speaking Mr. Keith had drawn near and put an arm
about Mildred's waist; and now she fairly broke down, and hiding her
face on her father's shoulder, sobbed aloud.
The children were immediately awed into silence. They gathered around
her, asking in half-frightened tones, "Milly, Milly, what's the matter?
are you sorry the piano's come? We thought you'd be so glad."
"And so I am," she said, lifting her head and smiling through her tears.
Her mother vacated the stool, her father seated her thereon, and
hastily wiping away her tears, she sent her fingers flying over the
keys in a lively merry tune that set the children to jumping and
dancing more wildly than before.