GUESTS AT POTTER'S.
A week or two later, there was trouble, but not of a very unusual kind,
in the Fairthorn household. It was Sunday, the dinner was on the table,
but Joe and Jake were not to be found. The garden, the corn-crib, the
barn, and the grove below the house, were searched, without detecting
the least sign of the truants. Finally Sally's eyes descried a
remarkable object moving over the edge of the hill, from the direction
of the Philadelphia road. It was a huge round creature, something like a
cylindrical tortoise, slowly advancing upon four short, dark legs.
“What upon earth is that?” she cried.
All eyes were brought to bear upon this phenomenon, which gradually
advanced until it reached the fence. Then it suddenly separated into
three parts, the round back falling off, whereupon it was seized by two
figures and lifted upon the fence.
“It's the best wash-tub, I do declare!” said Sally; “whatever have they
been doing with it?”
Having crossed the fence, the boys lifted the inverted tub over their
heads, and resumed their march. When they came near enough, it could be
seen that their breeches and stockings were not only dripping wet,
but streaked with black swamp-mud. This accounted for the unsteady,
hesitating course of the tub, which at times seemed inclined to approach
the house, and then tacked away towards the corner of the barn-yard
wall. A few vigorous calls, however, appeared to convince it that the
direct course was the best, for it set out with a grotesque bobbing
trot, which brought it speedily to the kitchen-door.
Then Joe and Jake crept out, dripping to the very crowns of their heads,
with their Sunday shirts and jackets in a horrible plight. The truth,
slowly gathered from their mutual accusations, was this: they had
resolved to have a boating excursion on Redley Creek, and had abstracted
the tub that morning when nobody was in the kitchen. Slipping down
through the wood, they had launched it in a piece of still water. Joe
got in first, and when Jake let go of the tub, it tilted over; then he
held it for Jake, who squatted in the centre, and floated successfully
down the stream until Joe pushed him with a pole, and made the tub lose
its balance. Jake fell into the mud, and the tub drifted away; they had
chased it nearly to the road before they recovered it.
“You bad boys, what shall I do with you?” cried Mother Fairthorn. “Put
on your every-day clothes, and go to the garret. Sally, you can ride
down to Potter's with the pears; they won't keep, and I expect Gilbert
has no time to come for any, this summer.”
“I'll go,” said Sally, “but Gilbert don't deserve it. The way he snapped
me up at Hallowell's--and he hasn't been here since!”
“Don't be hard on him, Sally!” said the kindly old woman; nor was
Sally's more than a surface grudge. She had quite a sisterly affection
for Gilbert, and was rather hurt than angered by what he had said in the
fret of a mood which she could not comprehend.
The old mare rejoiced in a new bridle, with a head-stall of scarlet
morocco, and Sally would have made a stately appearance, but for the
pears, which, stowed in the two ends of a grain-bag, and hung over the
saddle, would not quite be covered by her riding-skirt. She trudged on
slowly, down the lonely road, but had barely crossed the level below
Kennett Square, when there came a quick sound of hoofs behind her.
It was Mark and Martha Deane, who presently drew rein, one on either
side of her.
“Don't ride fast, please,” Sally begged; “_I_ can't, for fear of
smashing the pears. Where are you going?”
“To Falconer's,” Martha replied; “Fanny promised to lend me some new
patterns; but I had great trouble in getting Mark to ride with me.”
“Not, if you will ride along, Sally,” Mark rejoined. “We'll go with you
first, and then you'll come with us. What do you say, Martha?”
“I'll answer for Martha!” cried Sally; “I am going to Potter's, and it's
directly on your way.”
“Just the thing,” said Mark; “I have a little business with Gilbert.”
It was all settled before Martha's vote had been taken, and she accepted
the decision without remark. She was glad, for Sally's sake, that they
had fallen in with her, for she had shrewdly watched Mark, and found
that, little by little, a serious liking for her friend was sending its
roots down through the gay indifference of his surface mood. Perhaps
she was not altogether calm in spirit at the prospect of meeting Gilbert
Potter; but, if so, no sign of the agitation betrayed itself in her
face.
Gilbert, sitting on the porch, half-hidden behind a mass of blossoming
trumpet-flower, was aroused from his Sabbath reverie by the sound of
hoofs. Sally Fairthorn's voice followed, reaching even the ears of Mary
Potter, who thereupon issued from the house to greet the unexpected
guest. Mark had already dismounted, and although Sally protested that
she would remain in the saddle, the strong arms held out to her proved
too much of a temptation; it was so charming to put her hands on his
shoulders, and to have his take her by the waist, and lift her to the
ground so lightly!
While Mark was performing this service, (and evidently with as much
deliberation as possible,) Gilbert could do no less than offer his aid
to Martha Deane, whose sudden apparition he had almost incredulously
realized. A bright, absorbing joy kindled his sad, strong features into
beauty, and Martha felt her cheeks grow warm, in spite of herself, as
their eyes met. The hands that touched her waist were firm, but no hands
had ever before conveyed to her heart such a sense of gentleness and
tenderness, and though her own gloved hand rested but a moment on his
shoulder, the action seemed to her almost like a caress.
“How kind of you--all--to come!” said Gilbert, feeling that his voice
expressed too much, and his words too little.
“The credit of coming is not mine, Gilbert,” she answered. “We overtook
Sally, and gave her our company for the sake of hers, afterwards. But
I shall like to take a look at your place; how pleasant you are making
it!”
“You are the first to say so; I shall always remember that!”
Mary Potter now advanced, with grave yet friendly welcome, and would
have opened her best room to the guests, but the bowery porch, with its
swinging scarlet bloom, haunted by humming-birds and hawk-moths, wooed
them “o take their seats in its shade. The noise of a plunging cascade,
which restored the idle mill-water to its parted stream, made a mellow,
continuous music in the air. The high road was visible at one point,
across the meadow, just where it entered the wood; otherwise, the
seclusion of the place was complete.
“You could not have found a lovelier home, M--Mary,” said Martha,
terrified to think how near the words “Mrs. Potter” had been to her
lips. But she had recovered herself so promptly that the hesitation was
not noticed.
“Many people think the house ought to be upon the road,” Mary Potter
replied, “but Gilbert and I like it as it is. Yes, I hope it will be a
good home, when we can call it our own.”
“Mother is a little impatient,” said Gilbert, “and perhaps I am also.
But if we have health, it won't be very long to wait.”
“That's a thing soon learned!” cried Mark. “I mean to be impatient. Why,
when I was doing journey-work, I was as careless as the day's long, and
so from hand to mouth didn't trouble me a bit; but now, I ha'n't been
undertaking six months, and it seems that I feel worried if I don't get
all the jobs going!”
Martha smiled, well pleased at this confession of the change, which
she knew better how to interpret than Mark himself. But Sally, in her
innocence, remarked:
“Oh Mark! that isn't right.”
“I suppose it isn't. But maybe you've got to wish for more than you get,
in order to get what you do. I guess I take things pretty easy, on the
whole, for it's nobody's nature to be entirely satisfied. Gilbert, will
you be satisfied when your farm's paid for?”
“No!” answered Gilbert with an emphasis, the sound of which, as soon as
uttered, smote him to the heart. He had not thought of his mother. She
clasped her hands convulsively, and looked at him, but his face was
turned away.
“Why, Gilbert!” exclaimed Sally.
“I mean,” he said, striving to collect his thoughts, “that there is
something more than property”--but how should he go on? Could he speak
of the family relation, then and there? Of honor in the community, the
respect of his neighbors, without seeming to refer to the brand upon his
and his mother's name? No; of none of these things. With sudden energy,
he turned upon himself, and continued:
“I shall not feel satisfied until I am cured of my own impatience--until
I can better control my temper, and get the weeds and rocks and stumps
out of myself as well as out of my farm.”
“Then you've got a job!” Mark laughed. “I think your fields are pretty
tolerable clean, what I've seen of 'em. Nobody can say they're not
well fenced in. Why, compared with you, I'm an open common, like the
Wastelands, down on Whitely Creek, and everybody's cattle run over me!”
Mark's thoughtlessness was as good as tact. They all laughed heartily at
his odd continuation of the simile, and Martha hastened to say:
“For my part, I don't think you are quite such an open common, Mark, or
Gilbert so well fenced in. But even if you are, a great many things may
be hidden in a clearing, and some people are tall enough to look over
a high hedge. Betsy Lavender says some men tell all about themselves
without saying a word, while others talk till Doomsday and tell
nothing.”
“And tell nothing,” gravely repeated Mark, whereat no one could repress
a smile, and Sally laughed outright.
Mary Potter had not mingled much in the society of Kennett, and did not
know that this imitation of good Miss Betsy was a very common thing, and
had long ceased to mean any harm. It annoyed her, and she felt it her
duty to say a word for her friend.
“There is not a better or kinder-hearted woman in the county,” she said,
“than just Betsy Lavender. With all her odd ways of speech, she talks
the best of sense and wisdom, and I don't know who I'd sooner take for a
guide in times of trouble.”
“You could not give Betsy a higher place than she deserves,” Martha
answered. “We all esteem her as a dear friend, and as the best helper
where help is needed. She has been almost a mother to me.”
Sally felt rebuked, and exclaimed tearfully, with her usual impetuous
candor,--“Now you know I meant no harm; it was all Mark's doing!”
“If you've anything against me, Sally, I forgive you for it. It isn't in
my nature to bear malice,” said Mark, with so serious an air, that poor
Sally was more bewildered than ever. Gilbert and Martha, however,
could not restrain their laughter at the fellow's odd, reckless humor,
whereupon Sally, suddenly comprehending the joke, sprang from her seat.
Mark leaped from the porch, and darted around the house, followed by
Sally with mock-angry cries and brandishings of her riding-whip.
The scene was instantly changed to Gilbert's eyes. It was wonderful!
There, on the porch of the home he so soon hoped to call his own, sat
his mother, Martha Deane, and himself. The two former had turned towards
each other, and were talking pleasantly; the hum of the hawk-moths, the
mellow plunge of the water, and the stir of the soft summer breeze in
the leaves, made a sweet accompaniment to their voices. His brain grew
dizzy with yearning to fix that chance companionship, and make it the
boundless fortune of his life. Under his habit of repression, his love
for her had swelled and gathered to such an intensity, that it seemed he
must either speak or die.
Presently the rollicking couple made their appearance. Sally's foot had
caught in her riding-skirt as she ran, throwing her at full length on
the sward, and Mark, in picking her up, had possessed himself of the
whip. She was not hurt in the least, (her life having been a succession
of tears and tumbles,) but Mark's arm found it necessary to encircle her
waist, and she did not withdraw from the support until they came within
sight of the porch.
It was now time for the guests to leave, but Mary Potter must first
produce her cakes and currant-wine,--the latter an old and highly
superior article, for there had been, alas! too few occasions which
called for its use.
“Gilbert,” said Mark, as they moved towards the gate, “why can't you
catch and saddle Roger, and ride with us? You have nothing to do?”
“No; I would like--but where are you going?”
“To Falconer's; that is, the girls; but we won't stay for supper--I
don't fancy quality company.”
“Nor I,” said Gilbert, with a gloomy face. “I have never visited
Falconer's, and they might not thank you for introducing me.”
He looked at Martha, as he spoke. She understood him, and gave him her
entire sympathy and pity,--yet it was impossible for her to propose
giving up the visit, solely for his sake. It was not want of
independence, but a maidenly shrinking from the inference of the act,
which kept her silent.
Mark, however, cut through the embarrassment. “I'll tell you what,
Gilbert!” he exclaimed, “you go and get Roger from the field, while
we ride on to Falconer's. If the girls will promise not to be too long
about their patterns and their gossip, and what not, we can be back
to the lane-end by the time you get there; then we'll ride up t' other
branch o' Redley Creek, to the cross-road, and out by Hallowell's. I
want to have a squint at the houses and barns down that way; nothing
like business, you know!”
Mark thought he was very cunning in thus disposing of Martha during
the ride, unconscious of the service he was offering to Gilbert. The
latter's eagerness shone from his eyes, but still he looked at Martha,
trembling for a sign that should decide his hesitation. Her lids fell
before his gaze, and a faint color came into her face, yet she did not
turn away. This time it was Sally Fairthorn who spoke.
“Five minutes will be enough for us, Mark,” she said. “I'm not much
acquainted with Fanny Falconer. So, Gilbert, hoist Martha into her
saddle, and go for Roger.”
He opened the gate for them, and then climbed over the fence into the
hill-field above his house. Having reached the crest, he stopped to
watch the three riding abreast, on a smart trot, down the glen. Sally
looked back, saw him, and waved her hand; then Mark and Martha turned,
giving no sign, yet to his eyes there seemed a certain expectancy in the
movement.
Roger came from the farthest corner of the field at his call, and
followed him down the hill to the bars, with the obedient attachment of
a dog. When he had carefully brushed and then saddled the horse, he went
to seek his mother, who was already making preparations for their early
supper.
“Mother,” he said, “I am going to ride a little way.”
She looked at him wistfully and questioningly, as if she would fain have
asked more; but only said,--
“Won't you be home to supper, Gilbert?”
“I can't tell, but don't wait a minute, if I'm not here when it's
ready.”
He turned quickly, as if fearful of a further question, and the next
moment was in the saddle.
The trouble in Mary Potter's face increased. Sighing sorely, she
followed to the bridge of the barn, and presently descried him, beyond
the mill, cantering lightly down the road. Then, lifting her arms, as in
a blind appeal for help, she let them fall again, and walked slowly back
to the house.