UNDER THE APPLE TREE.
Years had passed--seven long years--and in that time many a pleasant
change had taken place around the minister's dwelling. Little twigs of
rose bushes had grown into blossoming thickets; the big apple tree in
the meadow had dry spray among its branches, like gray hairs on the head
of a strong man; tiny honeysuckle shoots had spread into luxuriant
vines; a row of red cherry trees along the fence was beginning to glow
with fruit in season. Every thing inside and out of the minister's
dwelling had prospered. He had scarcely grown a day older in his own
person. Indeed, with his home comforts so cared for, and his wardrobe in
order, he seemed a younger man than we found him, when, standing between
the two deacons, counselling about the meadow lot, which now bloomed
Eden-like around him.
As for the minister's wife, she had never looked so young, and it seemed
impossible that she should ever grow old; a few almost imperceptible
wrinkles marked the corners of her prim little mouth, but that was all.
Still, youth knows rapid changes, and other things than honeysuckles and
roses had bloomed into perfection at the parsonage. There was a lovely
girl sitting under the apple tree, not gathering fruit or blossoms, as
of old, but busy with her crochet needle and a ball of crimson worsted,
that would keep rolling from her lap into the grass in the most
provoking manner. By her side, half lying on the ground, was a youth,
the most splendid specimen of early manhood you ever saw, looking at her
as she worked, with an expression in those dark eyes which could only
have sprung from the one great passion of life.
As Rose worked, a smile dimpled the fresh mouth, and she glanced
sideways at Paul from under those long, brown lashes, coquetting with
him in her innocent way, but with a grace that was enough to bring the
youth's heart into his eyes. Jube was at work in the garden at a
distance, singing to himself, and pausing now and then to regard the
scene going on under the apple tree.
This was what was passing between the young people. Rose paused a moment
with her crochet hook in a half-looped stitch, and the smile trembled on
her sweet mouth. Paul had asked a question, expressed a thousand times
before, but never with that intonation and significance.
"Rose, do you love me?"
Now the bloom of roses mounted to her forehead, and swept down the snow
of her neck! Paul saw it, and blushed also--the lashes drooped over
those great velvety eyes, and a strange thrill, too sweet for pain, too
new for entire pleasure, ran through his whole system.
"Rose, do you love me?"
As I have said, she had answered that question a thousand times before,
but now it took away her voice. She bent her head and commenced her work
again, looping up the worsted with desperate haste.
"Why don't you speak, Rose?"
"I don't know what to say," she replied, trembling all over.
"Don't know what to say!" repeated Paul, sitting upright, and turning
his startled eyes full upon her. "I ask if you love me, and--oh, Rose,
is there a doubt?"
Rose shook her head and bent over her work.
"If I ask this now," said Paul, very earnestly, "it is because I wish to
be certain that--that--oh, Rose, why can't you answer me?"
"I have answered, Paul."
"But you turn away. You will not look at me."
"Yes--see, I do."
His face brightened all over; taking her hand, which he tangled up in
the crimson thread in his impetuosity, he pressed it to his lips.
"I am going away, Rose."
"Going away--oh, Paul!"
"Yes; don't turn so white. I shall come back again in a few months--it
is not so far off."
"Where, where?"
She could not complete the sentence, her tears rose so quick and fast.
"I am going back to my old home, Rose, in St. Domingo. My father was a
rich man there--one of the first and highest in the island. I can
remember that without help, but Jube has told me more than this. He and
his brothers, a large family, were all killed in that awful massacre.
They had great riches in gold and jewels. I saw piles and piles of gold
brought into my father's house that last week, and heard those
gentlemen, my father and his brothers, pledge themselves to defend it
each for the other, so long as one of them should live. This compact was
not written, but engraved on a brick of gold, that it might be
permanent, and carry its own record wherever the treasures went. I was a
boy, and too young for a trust of so much magnitude. Where these
treasures were put I never knew. My uncles were all killed. My father,
my mother--oh, Rose, you know about that. I alone was left of the
family. Jube, dear old Jube yonder, is all the servant of our great
household. My mother entrusted him with her jewels. They fell into the
hands of Captain Thrasher."
Rose uttered a faint cry, and covered her face to hide its shame.
"Don't, Rose, don't," said Paul; "I am not blaming any one. Only telling
you how it happened that Jube and I became so poor. There was some gold
with the jewels, and that Rice made Thrasher give up. It has supported
us ever since, for Rice traded with it, and kept it growing, good
fellow. But that is very little, Rose. It kept us from being a burden
here, but what would it amount to when--when--"
"When what, Paul?"
"When you and I are married, Rose."
The young girl drew a quick breath. The crochet hook fell from her
hand--her arms, neck and face were bathed in blushes.
"Have you never thought of this, Rose?" said Paul, tenderly.
"I don't--don't know, Paul."
"But you will think of it?"
"Yes--yes."
"All the while I am gone?"
"Gone!" The tears that had been trembling in her eyes dropped to the
roses on her cheek. He saw her grief and exulted in it.
"Jube knows where those treasures were buried. It was a safe place, deep
in the vaults under my father's house. The negroes would never search
there. Jube will go with me; we shall find all this gold, and then,
Rose, then--"
She looked up, piteously.
"I don't care for gold; I hate jewels; from that day I have hated them.
Don't go, Paul; I shall die before you come back."
"But we must live. When your father comes from the Indies, I cannot ask
for his daughter without some way of earning or giving her bread. Those
treasures belong to me. I am the last heir of our house. It is for your
sake I shall search for them."
"No, no; I am afraid. There may be another shipwreck," cried the young
girl, wringing her hands.
"Hush, hush, Rose! Jube is looking this way; the old fellow will wonder
what we are talking about."
"But--but you wont go, Paul? It is too cruel."
"Not till you consent. You are my queen now, Rose, and shall keep or
send me as you like."
She brightened with a sudden thought.
"Wait till father comes," she said, dashing her tears right and left
with those white hands, "and then we can all go together--that is, if
father has not money enough of his own."
Paul pressed her hand again gratefully, as if she had indeed reigned his
queen, and once more they sunk into the old attitude, save that she did
not pretend to work, and Paul no longer vailed the joy in his eyes.
They did not hear the rattle of wheels, or know that a wagon had stopped
at the parsonage; thus when Jube came hurriedly from his work in the
garden, with intelligence in his face, Rose received him with a pretty
pout, and Paul inquired rather sharply what he wanted coming upon them
in that rude way.
Poor Jube was quite taken aback. Never in his whole life had he been so
received by the young people; the joyful words were driven from his
lips, and he stood mutely gazing at them like a Newfoundland dog rebuked
for too much spirit.
"What did you want?" inquired Paul, self-rebuked and softened.
"Why, nothing, master, only Tom has just got out of the wagon and is
coming this way."
"Tom! What--Tom Hutchins?"
"Yes, master; that's him coming through the kitchen door."
Rose started up all in commotion. The idea of meeting her rustic boy
lover just then filled her with dismay. But there was no escape. He was
half across the meadow, making directly for the apple tree. A fine,
powerful young fellow he certainly was--broad-chested and stout of
limb--but there was the same frank face, the same freckles on the
cheeks, the same laughing blue eyes. He came up a little awkwardly, not
exactly knowing how to use his arms in walking, and halted a few yards
from Rose in blank astonishment at her beauty. She went toward him at
once holding out her hands.