A GRAVE IN THE SNOW.
It chanced, during the week, that another fall of snow blocked up the
roads just as they were getting well trodden down. This kept the people
in-doors, and Mrs. Allen was left to the entire solitude she so much
desired. The doctor only came once after the visit we have mentioned.
That time Mrs. Allen had been compelled to leave the house. Her firewood
was out, and she had gone in search of a neighbor who had promised her
to haul a load from the forest back of Castle Rock. The distance was
considerable, and the walking toilsome, beside the neighbor she sought
had gone out after his team and she was compelled to wait.
It was during her absence that the doctor went to the house. He found
Katharine improving; still excitable on the subject of her husband's
return, and listening for his step at every movement, but apparently so
happy with the growth of her child, that even this craving wish could
not materially impede her well-doing.
The doctor had a tedious ride before him, and only remained long enough
to be sure that there was really nothing to require his stay, and rode
off. He was in the more haste because dull, leaden clouds were gathering
in the sky, and fine snow came down at intervals, threatening a heavier
fall.
On his way down the hill he met the town carrier, a man who distributed
papers, and transported parcels for the whole neighborhood, to and from
New Haven, twice each week. Sometimes he brought letters from the
post-office. Indeed, from a three cent whistle to a dressed pig in
killing time, he refused nothing that came within the capacity of his
one-horse wagon, or could be sheltered by its oil-cloth cover. This man
nodded to the doctor, and after passing him, gave a little blast from
his tin horn to notify the next house that he was about to stop there.
This house was Mrs. Allen's. Katharine was in her room, and was ignorant
that her mother had not returned. She started up in bed at the first
sound of the horn, and cried out:
"Run, mother, run. It is the carrier, he may bring news. Nelson has come
passenger. I'm sure of it!"
The carrier drew up before the house, and waited a minute for some one
to come forth. But no one appeared, and with an impatient growl at the
delay he jumped out of his wagon, opened the street door, and flung a
letter through, muttering that he would call for the postage some other
time, a storm was coming on, and he was late already.
Katharine saw the letter, gave a cry of joy, such as those humble walls
never heard again, and sprang to the floor, leaving her child asleep in
the bed. She seized the letter and tore it open; three or four bank
notes fluttered around her, falling unheeded, about the room. She strove
to read, but the paper rattled in her hands--dizzy and weak she could
not distinguish a word of the few that danced before her eyes. She went
back to the bed, seized one of the posts of the bedstead, and steadied
herself desperately.
"Katharine, it cannot be helped, I am going on a whaling voyage;
nothing better presented itself, and I must not be idle. The
ship will be gone three years at least, perhaps more, but there
is a chance for making money. I send you all that has been
advanced to me; when that is gone go to my father, as I told
you.
"NELSON THRASHER."
She grew blind. A dull, sickening weight fell upon her. She strove to
creep into bed, clambered to the edge upon her knees, and fell forward,
with her face pressed to the pillow, which settled slowly down, and
buried the sleeping child--a struggle--a faint, stifled sound--a
scarcely perceptible upheaving of the pillow, and all was still.
There was no change in the mother; white as marble, she had fallen upon
her face--lifeless as marble she lay until the great clock in the
kitchen tolled the hour.
The struggle of her coming misery was terrible. She turned and sat upon
the bed, with her white feet hanging over the edge. The shawl which Mrs.
Allen had folded over her shoulders from fear of cold, hung loosely
adown her long night robe. She began to shiver, and drew it around her,
hugging it to her bosom, but some idea of its emptiness seized upon her.
She opened the shawl and looked down upon her flowing night dress
wonderingly, as if she had lost something. Then her eyes were turned
vaguely around the bed. She lifted a corner of the blanket, and finding
nothing, impatiently pushed the pillow aside.
There it lay--her little babe, asleep, and yet not asleep. Insane fire
flashed to her eyes; fever leaped, and burned in all her veins; angry
defiance blazed in her face. She was stunned before, but maddened now.
Somebody had been trying to kill her babe with too much warmth. Her
mother had done it. Her stern mother, who never would forgive, and had
always hated the Thrasher blood. She would come back and try again. How
flushed and hot its little face looked. How menacingly its tiny fist was
clenched. Something very cruel must have been done before it came to
that. How soundly she had slept to know nothing of this. But her mother
should never harm it again. She knew of a nice cool place under the
great butternut where it could have a beautiful blanket of snow, with
light icicles shimmering over it from the branches. Nobody could find it
there, and that strange look of pain would change to quiet sleep.
Prompted by these insane thoughts, the young mother seized her child,
folded it closely to her bosom, under the shawl, and fled from the
house. She hurried on, her white feet sinking in the snow at every step.
The crust cut her ankles, but she was unaware of the pain. The wind
whistled through her night dress, but she only laughed--its sharpness
would drive that terrible red from her baby's face. She clambered the
stone wall twice, into the orchard, and across another lot, until she
reached the rock beneath the butternut branches, now without a leaf.
A shelf of the rock shot out from the drift that almost buried it. She
took off her shawl, wrapped it tenderly about the child, laid it on this
shelf, and began to work. She tore the glittering crust away, fell upon
her knees, and commenced hurling the loose snow out with her hands,
until a cradle was scooped in the drift. Then she gathered up an armful
of the flakes, moulded and patted them into a pillow, and hushing the
baby in her arms a moment, laid it down. She covered it with a soft
blanket of snow, placed the icy crust carefully over it, and then
stopped, and looked about bewildered, as if wondering what she could do
next.
By this time the cold had pierced her to the vitals, but the fever met
it fiercely and shook that delicate form like a reed. She sat down on
the rock, gazing at the little white grave, as if she had just buried
her heart there; and was afraid that some one would trample on it. The
cold was doing its work; a few moments more and she would never have
left the rock again. But some imaginary noise frightened her. She
started up, forgot every thing, and flew toward the house--the light
hair floating back from under her cap, and her thin garments fluttering
through the atmosphere like shadows. The door was partly open--she
darted in, crossed the kitchen, and springing to the centre of her bed,
covered herself up with the clothes, shuddering and laughing in the same
breath.