GUESTS AT FAIRTHORN'S.
The Fairthorn farm was immediately north of Kennett Square. For the
first mile towards Unionville, the rich rolling fields which any
traveller may see, to this day, on either side of the road, belonged
to it. The house stood on the right, in the hollow into which the road
dips, on leaving the village. Originally a large cabin of hewn logs, it
now rejoiced in a stately stone addition, overgrown with ivy up to the
eaves, and a long porch in front, below which two mounds of box guarded
the flight of stone steps leading down to the garden. The hill in the
rear kept off the north wind, and this garden caught the earliest warmth
of spring. Nowhere else in the neighborhood did the crocuses bloom so
early, or the peas so soon appear above ground. The lack of order, the
air of old neglect about the place, in nowise detracted from its warm,
cosy character; it was a pleasant nook, and the relatives and friends of
the family (whose name was Legion) always liked to visit there.
Several days had elapsed since the chase, and the eventful evening which
followed it. It was baking-day, and the plump arms of Sally Fairthorn
were floury-white up to the elbows. She was leaning over the
dough-trough, plunging her fists furiously into the spongy mass, when
she heard a step on the porch. Although her gown was pinned up, leaving
half of her short, striped petticoat visible, and a blue and white
spotted handkerchief concealed her dark hair, Sally did not stop to
think of that. She rushed into the front room, just as a gaunt female
figure passed the window, at the sight of which she clapped her hands so
that the flour flew in a little white cloud, and two or three strips of
dough peeled off her arms and fell upon the floor.
The front-door opened, and our old friend, Miss Betsy Lavender, walked
into the room.
Any person, between Kildeer Hill and Hockessin, who did not know Miss
Betsy, must have been an utter stranger to the country, or an idiot. She
had a marvellous clairvoyant faculty for the approach of either Joy or
Grief, and always turned up just at the moment when she was most wanted.
Profession had she none; neither a permanent home, but for twenty years
she had wandered hither and thither, in highly independent fashion,
turning her hand to whatever seemed to require its cunning. A better
housekeeper never might have lived, if she could have stuck to one spot;
an admirable cook, nurse, seamstress, and spinner, she refused alike the
high wages of wealthy farmers and the hands of poor widowers. She had a
little money of her own, but never refused payment from those who were
able to give it, in order that she might now and then make a present of
her services to poorer friends. Her speech was blunt and rough, her ways
odd and eccentric; her name was rarely mentioned without a laugh, but
those who laughed at her esteemed her none the less. In those days of
weekly posts and one newspaper, she was Politics, Art, Science, and
Literature to many families.
In person, Miss Betsy Lavender was peculiar rather than attractive. She
was nearly, if not quite fifty years of age, rather tall, and a little
stoop-shouldered. Her face, at first sight, suggested that of a horse,
with its long, ridged nose, loose lips and short chin. Her eyes were
dull gray, set near together, and much sharper in their operation than a
stranger would suppose. Over a high, narrow forehead she wore thin bands
of tan-colored hair, somewhat grizzled, and forming a coil at the back
of her head, barely strong enough to hold the teeth of an enormous
tortoise-shell comb. Yet her grotesqueness had nothing repellant; it
was a genial caricature, at which no one could take offence. “The very
person I wanted to see!” cried Sally. “Father and mother are going up
to Uncle John's this afternoon; Aunt Eliza has an old woman's
quilting-party, and they'll stay all night, and however am I to manage
Joe and Jake by myself? Martha's half promised to come, but not till
after supper. It will all go right, since you are here; come into
mother's room and take off your things!”
“Well,” said Miss Betsy, with a snort, “_that's_ to be my business, eh?
I'll have my hands full; a pearter couple o' lads a'n't to be found this
side o' Nottin'gam. They might ha' growed up wild on the Barrens, for
all the manners they've got.”
Sally knew that this criticism was true; also that Miss Betsy's task was
no sinecure, and she therefore thought it best to change the subject.
“There!” said she, as Miss Betsy gave the thin rope of her back hair a
fierce twist, and jammed her high comb inward and outward that the teeth
might catch,--“there! now you'll do! Come into the kitchen and tell me
the news, while I set my loaves to rise.”
“Loaves to rise,” echoed Miss Betsy, seating herself on a tall,
rush-bottomed chair near the window. She had an incorrigible habit of
repeating the last three words of the person with whom she spoke,--a
habit which was sometimes mimicked good-humoredly, even by her best
friends. Many persons, however, were flattered by it, as it seemed to
denote an earnest attention to what they were saying. Between the two,
there it was and there it would be, to the day of her death,--Miss
Lavender's “keel-mark, [Footnote: Keel, a local term for red chalk.] as
the farmers said of their sheep.
“Well,” she resumed, after taking breath, “no news is good news, these
days. Down Whitely Creek way, towards Strickersville, there's fever,
they say; Richard Rudd talks o' buildin' higher up the hill,--you know
it's low and swampy about the old house,--but Sarah, she says it'll be a
mortal long ways to the spring-house, and so betwixt and between them
I dunno how it'll turn out. Dear me! I was up at Aunt Buffin'ton's t'
other day; she's lookin' poorly; her mother, I remember, went off in a
decline, the same year the Tories burnt down their barn, and I'm afeard
she's goin' the same way. But, yes! I guess there's one thing you'll
like to hear. Old-man Barton is goin' to put up a new wagon-house, and
Mark is to have the job.”
“Law!” exclaimed Sally, “what's that to me?” But there was a decided
smile on her face as she put another loaf into the pan, and, although
her head was turned away, a pretty flush of color came up behind her
ear, and betrayed itself to Miss Lavender's quick eye.
“Nothin' much, I reckon,” the latter answered, in the most
matter-of-fact way, “only I thought you might like to know it, Mark
bein' a neighbor, like, and a right-down smart young fellow.”
“Well, I _am_ glad of it,” said Sally, with sudden candor, “he's
Martha's cousin.”
“Martha's cousin,--and I shouldn't wonder if he'd be something more to
her, some day.”
“No, indeed! What are you thinking of, Betsy?” Sally turned around
and faced her visitor, regardless that her soft brunette face showed a
decided tinge of scarlet. At this instant clattering feet were heard,
and Joe and Jake rushed into the kitchen. They greeted their old friend
with boisterous demonstrations of joy.
“Now we'll have dough-nuts,” cried Joe.
“No; 'lasses-wax!” said Jake. “Sally, where's mother? Dad's out at the
wall, and Bonnie's jumpin' and prancin' like anything!”
“Go along!” exclaimed Sally, with a slap which, lost its force in the
air, as Jake jumped away. Then they all left the kitchen together, and
escorted the mother to the garden-wall by the road, which served the
purpose of a horseblock. Farmer Fairthorn--a hale, ruddy, honest figure,
in broad-brimmed hat, brown coat and knee-breeches--already sat upon the
old mare, and the pillion behind his saddle awaited the coming burden.
Mother Fairthorn, a cheery little woman, with dark eyes and round
brunette face, like her daughter, wore the scoop bonnet and drab shawl
of a Quakeress, as did many in the neighborhood who did not belong to
the sect. Never were people better suited to each other than these two:
they took the world as they found it, and whether the crops were poor or
abundant, whether money came in or had to be borrowed, whether the roof
leaked, or a broken pale let the sheep into the garden, they were alike
easy of heart, contented and cheerful.
The mare, after various obstinate whirls, was finally brought near the
wall; the old woman took her seat on the pillion, and after a parting
admonition to Sally: “Rake the coals and cover 'em up, before going to
bed, whatever you do!”--they went off, deliberately, up the hill.
“Miss Betsy,” said Joe, with a very grave air, as they returned to the
kitchen, “I want you to tell me one thing,--whether it's true or not.
Sally says I'm a monkey.”
“I'm a monkey,” repeated the unconscious Miss Lavender, whereupon both
boys burst into shrieks of laughter, and made their escape.
“Much dough-nuts they'll get from me,” muttered the ruffled spinster, as
she pinned up her sleeves and proceeded to help Sally. The work went on
rapidly, and by the middle of the afternoon, the kitchen wore its normal
aspect of homely neatness. Then came the hour or two of quiet and rest,
nowhere in the world so grateful as in a country farm-house, to its
mistress and her daughters, when all the rough work of the day is over,
and only the lighter task of preparing supper yet remains. Then, when
the sewing or knitting has been produced, the little painted-pine
work-stand placed near the window, and a pleasant neighbor drops in
to enliven the softer occupation with gossip, the country wife or girl
finds her life a very happy and cheerful possession. No dresses are worn
with so much pleasure as those then made; no books so enjoyed as those
then read, a chapter or two at a time.
Sally Fairthorn, we must confess, was not in the habit of reading much.
Her education had been limited. She had ciphered as far as Compound
Interest, read Murray's “Sequel,” and Goldsmith's “Rome,” and could
write a fair letter, without misspelling many words; but very few other
girls in the neighborhood possessed greater accomplishments than these,
and none of them felt, or even thought of, their deficiencies. There
were no “missions” in those days; it was fifty or sixty years before
the formation of the “Kennett Psychological Society,” and “Pamela,”
“Rasselas,” and “Joseph Andrews,” were lent and borrowed, as at present
“Consuelo,” Buckle, Ruskin, and “Enoch Arden.”
One single work of art had Sally created, and it now hung, stately in
a frame of curled maple, in the chilly parlor. It was a sampler,
containing the alphabet, both large and small, the names and dates of
birth of both her parents, a harp and willow-tree, the twigs whereof
were represented by parallel rows of “herring-bone” stitch, a sharp
zigzag spray of rose-buds, and the following stanza, placed directly
underneath the harp and willow:--
“By Babel's streams we Sat and Wept
When Zion we thought on;
For Grief thereof, we Hang our Harp
The Willow Tree upon.”
Across the bottom of the sampler was embroidered the inscription: “Done
by Sarah Ann Fairthorn, May, 1792, in the 16th year of her age.”
While Sally went up-stairs to her room, to put her hair into order, and
tie a finer apron over her cloth gown, Miss Betsy Lavender was made the
victim of a most painful experience.
Joe and Jake, who had been dodging around the house, half-coaxing and
half-teasing the ancient maiden whom they both plagued and liked, had
not been heard or seen for a while. Miss Betsy was knitting by the front
window, waiting for Sally, when the door was hastily thrown open, and
Joe appeared, panting, scared, and with an expression of horror upon his
face.
“Oh, Miss Betsy!” was his breathless exclamation, “Jake! the
cherry-tree!”
Dropping her work upon the floor, Miss Lavender hurried out of the
house, with beating heart and trembling limbs, following Joe, who ran
towards the field above the barn, where, near the fence, there stood a
large and lofty cherry-tree. As she reached the fence she beheld Jake,
lying motionless on his back, on the brown grass.
“The Lord have mercy!” she cried; her knees gave way, and she sank upon
the ground in an angular heap. When, with a desperate groan, she lifted
her head and looked through the lower rails, Jake was not to be seen.
With a swift, convulsive effort she rose to her feet, just in time to
catch a glimpse of the two young scamps whirling over the farther fence
into the wood below.
She walked unsteadily back to the house. “It's given me such a turn,”
she said to Sally, after describing the trick, “that I dunno when I'll
get over it.”
Sally gave her some whiskey and sugar, which soon brought a vivid red to
the tip of her chin and the region of her cheek-bones, after which she
professed that she felt very comfortable. But the boys, frightened at
the effect of their thoughtless prank, did not make their appearance.
Joe, seeing Miss Betsy fall, thought she was dead, and the two hid
themselves in a bed of dead leaves, beside a fallen log, not daring to
venture home for supper. Sally said they should have none, and would
have cleared the table; but Miss Betsy, whose kind heart had long since
relented, went forth and brought them to light, promising that she would
not tell their father, provided they “would never do such a wicked thing
again.” Their behavior, for the rest of the evening, was irreproachable.
Just as candles were being lighted, there was another step on the porch,
and the door opened on Martha Deane.
“I'm _so_ glad!” cried Sally. “Never mind your pattens, Martha; Joe
shall carry them into the kitchen. Come, let me take off your cloak and
hat.”
Martha's coming seemed to restore the fading daylight. Not boisterous
or impulsive, like Sally, her nature burned with a bright and steady
flame,--white and cold to some, golden and radiant to others. Her form
was slender, and every motion expressed a calm, serene grace, which
could only spring from some conscious strength of character. Her face
was remarkably symmetrical, its oval outline approaching the Greek
ideal; but the brow was rather high than low, and the light brown hair
covered the fair temples evenly, without a ripple. Her eyes were purely
blue, and a quick, soft spark was easily kindled in their depths; the
cheeks round and rosy, and the mouth clearly and delicately cut, with
an unusual, yet wholly feminine firmness in the lines of the upper lip.
This peculiarity, again, if slightly out of harmony with the pervading
gentleness of her face, was balanced by the softness and sweetness of
her dimpled chin, and gave to her face a rare union of strength and
tenderness. It very rarely happens that decision and power of will in a
young woman are not manifested by some characteristic rather masculine
than feminine; but Martha Deane knew the art of unwearied, soft
assertion and resistance, and her beautiful lips could pronounce, when
necessary, a final word.
Joe and Jake came forward with a half-shy delight, to welcome “Cousin
Martha,” as she was called in the Fairthorn household, her mother and
Sally's father having been “own” cousins. There was a cheerful fire
on the hearth, and the three ladies gathered in front of it, with
the work-stand in the middle, while the boys took possession of the
corner-nooks. The latter claimed their share of the gossip; they
knew the family histories of the neighborhood much better than their
school-books, and exhibited a precocious interest in this form of
knowledge. The conversation, therefore, was somewhat guarded, and the
knitting and sewing all the more assiduously performed, until, with
great reluctance, and after repeated commands, Joe and Jake stole off to
bed.
The atmosphere of the room then became infinitely more free and
confidential. Sally dropped her hands in her lap, and settled herself
more comfortably in her chair, while Miss Lavender, with an unobserved
side-glance at her, said:--
“Mark is to put up Barton's new wagon-house, I hear, Martha.”
“Yes,” Martha answered; “it is not much, but Mark, of course, is very
proud of his first job. There is a better one in store, though he does
not know of it.”
Sally pricked up her ears. “What is it?” asked Miss Betsy.
“It is not to be mentioned, you will understand. I saw Alfred Barton
to-day. He seems to take quite an interest in Mark, all at once, and he
told me that the Hallowells are going to build a new barn this summer.
He spoke to them of Mark, and thinks the work is almost sure.”
“Well, now!” Miss Betsy exclaimed, “if he gets that, after a year's
journey-work, Mark is a made man. And I'll speak to Richard Rudd the
next time I see him. He thinks he's beholden to me, since Sarah had the
fever so bad. I don't like folks to think that, but there's times when
it appears to come handy.”
Sally arose, flushed and silent, and brought a plate of cakes and a
basket of apples from the pantry. The work was now wholly laid aside,
and the stand cleared to receive the refreshments.
“Now pare your peels in one piece, girls,” Miss Betsy advised, “and then
whirl 'em to find the _initials_ o' your sweethearts' names.”
“You, too, Miss Betsy!” cried Sally, “we must find out the widower's
name!”
“The widower's name,” Miss Betsy gravely repeated, as she took a knife.
With much mirth the parings were cut, slowly whirled three times around
the head, and then let fly over the left shoulder. Miss Betsy's was
first examined and pronounced to be an A.
“Who's A?” she asked.
“Alfred!” said Sally. “Now, Martha, here's yours--an S, no it's a G!”
“The curl is the wrong way,” said Martha, gravely, “it's a figure 3; so,
I have three of them, have I?”
“And mine,” Sally continued, “is a W!”
“Yes, if you look at it upside down. The inside of the peel is
uppermost: you must turn it, and then it will be an M.”
Sally snatched it up in affected vexation, and threw it into the fire.
“Oh, I know a new way!” she cried; “did you ever try it, Martha--with
the key and the Bible!”
“Old as the hills, but awful sure,” remarked Miss Lavender. “When it's
done serious, it's never been known to fail.”
Sally took the house-key, and brought from the old walnut cabinet a
plump octavo Bible, which she opened at the Song of Solomon, eighth
chapter and sixth verse. The end of the key being carefully placed
therein, the halves of the book were bound together with cords, so that
it could be carried by the key-handle. Then Sally and Martha, sitting
face to face, placed each the end of the fore finger of the right hand
under the half the ring of the key nearest to her.
“Now, Martha,” said Sally, “we'll try your fortune first. Say 'A,' and
then repeat the verse: 'set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon
thine arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave:
the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.'”
Martha did as she was bidden, but the book hung motionless. She was
thereupon directed to say B, and repeat the verse; and so on, letter by
letter. The slender fingers trembled a little with the growing weight
of the book, and, although Sally protested that she was holding as still
“as she knew how,” the trembling increased, and before the verse which
followed G had been finished, the ring of the key slowly turned, and the
volume fell to the floor.
Martha picked it up with a quiet smile.
“It is easy to see who was in _your_ mind, Sally,” she said. “Now let me
tell your fortune: we will begin at L--it will save time.”
“Save time,” said Miss Lavender, rising. “Have it out betwixt and
between you, girls: I'm a-goin' to bed.”
The two girls soon followed her example. Hastily undressing themselves
in the chilly room, they lay down side by side, to enjoy the blended
warmth and rest, and the tender, delicious interchanges of confidence
which precede sleep. Though so different in every fibre of their
natures, they loved each other with a very true and tender affection.
“Martha,” said Sally, after an interval of silence, “did you think I
_made_ the Bible turn at G?”
“I think you thought it would turn, and therefore it did. Gilbert Potter
was in your mind, of course.”
“And not in yours, Martha?”
“If any man was seriously in my mind, Sally, do you think I would take
the Bible and the door-key in order to find out his name?”
Sally was not adroit in speech: she felt that her question had not
been answered, but was unable to see precisely how the answer had been
evaded.
“I certainly was beginning to think that you liked Gilbert,” she said.
“So I do. Anybody may know that who cares for the information.” And
Martha laughed cheerfully.
“Would you say so to Gilbert himself?” Sally timidly suggested.
“Certainly; but why should he ask? I like a great many young men.”
“Oh, Martha!”
“Oh, Sally!--and so do you. But there's this I will say: if I were to
love a man, neither he nor any other living soul should know it, until
he had told me with his own lips that his heart had chosen me.”
The strength of conviction in Martha's grave, gentle voice, struck Sally
dumb. Her lips were sealed on the delicious secret she was longing, and
yet afraid, to disclose. _He_ had not spoken: she hoped he loved her,
she was sure she loved him. Did she speak now, she thought, she would
lower herself in Martha's eyes. With a helpless impulse, she threw one
arm over the latter's neck, and kissed her cheek. She did not know that
with the kiss she had left a tear.
“Sally,” said Martha, in a tender whisper, “I only spoke for myself.
Some hearts must be silent, while it is the nature of others to speak
out. You are not afraid of me: it will be womanly in you to tell me
everything. Your cheek is hot: you are blushing. Don't blush, Sally
dear, for I know it already.”
Sally answered with an impassioned demonstration of gratitude and
affection. Then she spoke; but we will not reveal the secrets of her
virgin heart. It is enough that, soothed and comforted by Martha's wise
counsel and sympathy, she sank into happy slumber at her side.