It was the middle of April, yet the drifts still blocked the ravines,
and great patches of snow lay scattered thickly on the northern and
eastern slopes of the mountains.
Not a bud had thought of swelling; not a fern dared to raise its downy
ball above the sodden leaves. Day after day a keen wind from the north
chased dark clouds across a watery blue sky, and now and then a solitary
crow flapped disconsolately over the upland pastures and into the woods.
But in the farmhouse on the mountain, every Blossom was a-quiver with
excitement, for the "live Valentine" was to arrive that day.
According to what Doctor Heath had written first, Mrs. Blossom had
expected Hazel to come the middle of March. She had told the children
about it a week before that date, and ever since, wild and varied and
continuous had been the speculations concerning the new member of the
family.
Both father and mother were much amused at the different ways in which
each one accepted the fact, and commented upon it. At the same time
they were slightly anxious as to the outcome of such a combination.
"They 'll work it out for themselves, Mary," said Mr. Blossom, when his
wife was expressing her fears on account of the attitude of March and
Cherry.
"I hope with all my heart they will, without friction or unpleasantness
for the poor child," replied his wife, thoughtfully, for March's looks
and words returned to her, and they foreboded trouble.
Her husband smiled. "Perhaps the 'poor child' will have her ways of
looking at things up here, which may cause a pretty hard rub now and
then for our children. But let them take it; it will do them good, and
show us what stuff is in them for the future."
Mrs. Blossom tried to think so, but March's words on that afternoon she
had told the children came back to her.
They were dumb at first through sheer surprise. Then Rose spoke,
flinging aside her Virgil she had been studying by the failing light at
the window.
"Oh, mother! we 've been so happy--just by ourselves."
"Will you be less happy, Rose, in trying to make some one else share our
happiness?"
Rose said nothing, but leaned her forehead against the pane, and the
tears trickled adown it and froze halfway.
Mrs. Blossom proceeded, in the silence that followed, to tell them
something of Hazel's life. Then Budd spoke up like a man.
"I 'm awful sorry for her; she 's a little brick to be willing to come
away from her father and live with folks she don't know. I 'd be a
darned coward about leaving my Popsey."
There was no tablecloth handy to hide the squeeze he wanted to give his
mother's hand, and Mrs. Blossom, knowing how he hated any public
demonstration of affection, reserved her approving kiss for the dark and
bedtime. But she looked at him in a way that sent Budd whistling, "I
won't play in your back-yard," over to the kitchen stove, where he
stared inanely at his own reflection in the polished pipe.
For the first time in her life, Cherry did not echo her twin's
sentiment. She was already insanely jealous of the new-comer who seemed
to claim so much of her mother's sympathy and affection. And she was
n't even here! What would it be when she was here for good and all?
At this miserable thought, and all that it appeared to involve, Cherry
began to cry.
Now to see Cherry Blossom cry generally afforded great fun for the whole
family; for there never was a girl of ten who could cry in quite such a
unique manner as this same round-faced, pug-nosed, brown-eyed Cherry,
whose red hair curled as tightly as corkscrews all over her head, and
bobbed and danced and quivered and shook with every motion and emotion.
First, her nose grew very red at the tip; then, her small mouth screwed
itself around by her left ear; gradually, her round face wrinkled till
it resembled a withered crabapple; and finally, if one listened intently
and watched closely, one could hear small sniffs and see two
infinitesimal drops of water issue from the nearly closed and wrinkled
eyes.
But to-day no one noticed, and Cherry sat down in her mother's lap, and
mumbled out her woe between sniffs.
"I can't help it if Budd does want her; _I_ don't, Martie. Budd will
play with her, and you 'll kiss her just as you do us, and it won't be
comfy any more."
"That does not sound like mother's Cherry Blossom," said Mrs. Blossom,
smiling in spite of herself. "I think I 'll tell you all why it comes
to mother and father as a blessing."
Then Mrs. Blossom told them of the mortgage on the farm; how it had been
made necessary, and what it meant, and how it was her duty to accept
what had been sent to her as a means of paying it off.
Rose came over from the window. "Oh, why did n't you tell us before,
Martie," she cried, sobbing outright this time, "and let us help you to
earn something towards it during all this dreadful year? To think you
have been bearing all this, and just going about the same, smiling and
cheer--oh, dear!" Rose sat down on the hearth-rug at her mother's feet,
and her sobs mingled with Cherry's sniffs.
March, who had listened thus far in silence, rose from the settle where
he had flung himself in disgust, and, going over to his mother, stood
straight and tall before her. His gray eyes flashed.
"I 've been a fool, mother, not to see it all before this. You ought to
have told _me_. I 'm your eldest son, and come next after father in
'home things.'" And with this assertion he made a mighty resolve, then
and there to put away boyish things and be more of a man. His mother,
looking at him, felt the change, and tears of thankfulness filled her
eyes.
"What could you do, children? You were too young to have your lives
burdened with work."
"I 'd have found something to do, mother, if you had only told me.
About the girl--" he hesitated--"of course I 'll look at it from the
money side, but it 'll never be the same after she comes--never!" And
with that he went off into the barn.
His mother sighed, for March was looking at the matter in the very way
which, to her, was abhorrent.
"Don't sigh so, Martie," cried Rose; "I 'll take back what I said, and
do everything I can to help you by making it pleasant for her. Budd has
made me ashamed of myself."
"That's my own daughter Rose," said Mrs. Blossom, leaning over to kiss
her parting, for Cherry was awkwardly in the way.
"Did you hear Rose, Cherry?" whispered her mother.
"Ye-es," sniffed Cherry.
"And won't you try to help mother, and make Hazel happy?"
"N-o," said Cherry, still obdurate.
"Very well; then I must depend on Rose and Budd and little May," replied
her mother, putting her down from her knee. By which Cherry knew she
was out of favor, and, not having Budd to flee to for sympathy, ran
blindly out into the woodshed and straight into Chi, who was bringing in
two twelve-quart milk pails filled to overflowing with their creamy
contents.
"Hi there! Cherry Bounce! Steady, steady--without you want to mop up
this woodshed."
"O Chi! I 'm just as miser'ble; a new little girl's coming to live with
us always, and we 'll have no more good times."
"That's queer," said Chi, balancing the pails deftly as Cherry fluttered
about, rather uncertain as to where she should betake herself in the
cold. "I should think it would be the more, the merrier. When's she
comin'?"
"This very month," said Cherry, opening her eyes a little wider, and
forgetting to sniff in her delight at telling some news. "She 's a rich
little girl, but very poor, too, mother says, and she's been sick and is
coming here to get well. I suppose she 's lost all her flesh while she
's been sick, like Aunt Tryphosa; don't you? That's why she 's so
poor."
"Hm!--rich 'n' poor too; that's bad for children," said Chi, soberly.
"Why?" asked Cherry, surprised into drying her small tears and
forgetting to sniff.
"Coz 't is. You see, all you children are rich 'n' poor too; so she 'll
keep you comp'ny, as she 's poor where you 're rich as Croesus, 'n' you
're poor as Job's turkey where she's rich."
"Why, what do you mean, Chi?"
"You wait awhile, 'n' you 'll find out." And with that, Cherry had to
be content.
As the woodshed was too cold to be long comfortably mournful in,--Cherry
decided to go inside and set the table for tea, wondering, meanwhile,
what Chi meant. Ordinarily she would have gone straight to her mother to
find out; but just to-night Cherry felt there was an abyss separating
them, and she hated the very thought of the newcomer having caused this
break between her adored Martie and herself before having stepped foot
in the house.
But Hazel's arrival had been delayed a whole month: first, on account of
the unusually cold weather of March, and then on account of the Doctor's
pressing engagements. To-night, however, this long waiting was to be at
an end.
Mr. Blossom had harnessed Bess and Bob into the two-seated wagon, and
driven down three miles for them to the "Mill Settlement;" and there he
was to meet the stage from Barton's River, the nearest railway station.
As the time approached for the light of the lantern on the wagon to
glimmer on the lower mountain road, which ran in view of the house, the
excitement of Budd and Cherry grew intense. March intended to be
indifferent, yet tolerant, but even he went twice to the door to listen.
As for Rose, she was thinking almost more of Doctor Heath, with whom she
was a great favorite, than of the coming guest. Chi had done up the
chores early with March's help, and sat whistling and whittling in the
shed door with his eye on the lower road.
"They 're coming; they 're coming!" screamed the twins, making a wild
dash for the woodshed, that they might have the first glimpse as the
wagon drove up to the kitchen porch.
"Chi, they 're coming!" they shrieked in his ear, as they flew past him.
"Well, I ain't deaf, if they are," said Chi, gathering himself together,
and going out to help unload.
"Chi, how are you?" said the Doctor, in a hearty tone, grasping the
horny hand held out to him.
"First-rate, 'n' glad to see you back on the Mountain."
"Here, lend a hand, will you? and take out a Little somebody who has to
be handled rather gently for a week or two."
"I ain't much used to handlin' chiny," he replied, "but I 'll be
careful."
He reached up his long arms and, gently as a woman, lifted Hazel out of
the wagon on to the porch.
By this time, Budd had found his bearings and had the Doctor by the
hand.
"Halloo, Budd! here you are handy. Just take Hazel's bag, and run into
the house with her; she must n't stand a minute in this keen air."
Budd's heart was going pretty fast, but he faced the music.
"Come along, Hazel; we 've been waiting a month to see you."
"And I've been waiting longer than that to see you, Budd." The gentle
voice made Budd her vassal forever after.
"Here, Martie, here's Hazel!" he shouted quite unnecessarily, for his
mother had come to the door to welcome her guests. Cherry, hearing the
shout, disappeared in the pantry, and was invisible until called to
supper.
In the confusion of glad welcome that followed, Hazel was conscious of
stepping into a large, warm, lighted room, of some one's arms about her,
and of a loving voice, saying:
"Come in, dear; you must be so tired with your long journey and this
cold ride;" and then a kiss that made her half forget the lonely,
strange feeling she had had during the stage and wagon ride, despite the
doctor's cheerfulness and care of her.
Then some one untied her brown velvet hood and loosened her long
sealskin coat.
"Let me take off your things," said Rose.
Hazel looked up and into the loveliest face she ever remembered to have
seen.
"I 'm Rose, and this is May. May, this is the valentine Martie told us
of."
"I tiss 'oo," said May, winningly, and held up her rosy bud of a face to
Hazel. Hazel stooped to give her, not one, but a half-dozen kisses.
There was no resisting such a little blossom.
May put up her hand and stroked the little silk skull-cap.
"What 'oo wear tap for?"
"Sh! baby," said Rose, horrified, putting her hand on May's mouth.
"Oh, don't do that," said Hazel, "I 'm so used to it now; I don't mind
what people say or think. But I did at first."
May's lip began to quiver and roll over; Hazel sat down on the settle,
and, drawing May up beside her, said gently:--
"There, there, little May Blossom, don't you cry, and I 'll tell you all
about it. It's because I have n't any hair. I lost it all when I was
sick so long. Sometime I 'll show you how funny my head looks, all
covered with fuzz. Doctor Heath says it's like a little chicken's." And
May was comforted and won once and for all to the Valentine, who gave
her the tiny chatelaine watch to play with.
Budd had been hanging about to get the first glimpse of Hazel by
lamplight, and now rushed off to the barn and Chi to give vent to his
feelings.
"I say, Chi, where are you?"
"In the harness room," replied Chi. "What do you want?" as he appeared.
"I say, Chi, she 's a peach. She is n't a bit stuck up, as March said
she would be."
"Good-lookin'?" queried Chi.
"N-o," said Budd, hesitating, "n-o, but I think she will be when she
gets some hair."
"Ain't got any hair!" exclaimed Chi. "How does that happen?"
"She said she 'd been sick an' lost it all, an' 't was like chicken
fuzz."
"Said that, did she?" exclaimed Chi, laughing; then, with the sudden
change from gayety to absolute solemnity that was peculiar to him, he
said:--
"She 's no fool, I can tell you that, Budd; 'n' I 'll bet my last red
cent she 'll come out an A Number 1 beauty; 'n' March Blossom had better
hold his tongue till he cuts all his wisdom teeth." And with that Chi
went into the shed room to "wash up."
What a supper that was! And what a room in which to eat it!
But for the Doctor's cheery voice, Hazel, as she sat in a corner of the
settle, might have thought herself in another world, so unaccustomed
were her city-bred eyes to all that was going on before her. The room
itself was so queer, and, in a way new to her, delightful.
The farmhouse was an old one, strong of beam and solid of foundation.
It had been divided at first according to the fashion of the other
century in which it was built. But as his family increased, Mr. Blossom
found the need of a large, general living-room. It was then that he
took down the wall between the front square room and the kitchen, and
threw them into one. It was this arrangement that made the apartment
unique.
At one end was the huge fireplace that was originally in the front room.
At the left of the fireplace was the jog into which the front door
opened, formerly the little entry.
This was the sitting-room end of the low forty-foot-long apartment; and
it showed to Hazel the fireplace, the old-fashioned crane, with the
hickory back-log glowing warm welcome, the long red-cushioned settle, a
set of shelves filled with books, a little round work-table, Mrs.
Blossom's special property, a large round table of cherry that had
turned richly red with age, and wooden armchairs and rockers, with
patchwork cushions.
The middle portion served for dining-room. In it were the family table
of hard pine, the wooden chairs, and Mrs. Blossom's grandmother's tall
pine dresser.
At the kitchen end, next the woodshed, were the sink, the stove, the
kitchen shelves for pots and pans, and the kitchen table with its
bread-trough and pie-board, all of which Rose kept scoured white with
soap and sand.
This living-room, sitting-room, dining-room, and kitchen in one had six
windows facing south and east. Every window had brackets for plants;
for this evening Rose had turned the blossom-side inwards to the room,
and the walls glowed and gleamed with the velvety crimson of gloxinias,
the red of fuchsias, the pink and white and scarlet of geraniums, the
cream of wax-plant and begonia. Upon all this radiance of color, the
lamplight shone and the fire flashed its crimson shadows. The kettle
sang on the stove, and the delicious odor of baked potatoes came from
the open oven.
"Why, March!" said the Doctor, coming down from the spare room at the
call for supper, "waiting for an introduction? I did n't know you stood
on ceremony in this fashion. Allow me," he said with mock gravity to
Hazel, and presented March in due form.
Hazel greeted him exactly as she would have greeted a new boy at
dancing-school. "Little Miss Finicky," was March's scornful thought of
her, as he bowed rather awkwardly and thrust his hands into his pockets,
racking his brains for something to say.
"What a handsome boy! As handsome as Jack," was Hazel's first
impression; then, missing the cordiality with which the other members of
the family had welcomed her, she said in thought, "I 'm sure he does not
want me here by the way he acts; I think he 's horrid."
Doctor Heath sat down by Hazel. "I 'm not going to let you sit down to
tea with all these mischiefs, little girl, not to-night, for you can't
eat baked potatoes and the other good things after that long journey, so
I 'll ask Rose to give you a bite right here on the settle."
"I 'll speak to Rose," said March, glad to get away.
"Thank you," said the Doctor, looking after him with a puzzled
expression in his keen eyes. Just then Mr. Blossom and Chi came in, and
the whole family sat down at the table.
"Why, where 's Cherry?" exclaimed the Doctor.
"Budd, where 's Cherry?" said his father.
"I promised her I would n't tell where she hides till she was twelve,
an' now she 's ten, an' she 's been so mean about Haz--
"Budd," said his father, sternly, "answer me directly."
"She 's under the pantry shelf behind the meal-chest," said Budd,
meekly.
There was a shout of laughter that caused Cherry to crawl out pretty
quickly and open the pantry door,--for it was hard to hear the fun and
not be in it.
"Come, Cherry," said her mother, still laughing, and Cherry slipped into
her seat beside Doctor Heath with a murmured, "How do you do?" and her
face bent so low over her plate that nothing was visible to Hazel but a
round head running over with tight red curls that bobbed and trembled in
a peculiarly funny way.
"Well, Cherry," said the Doctor, trying to speak gravely, with only the
red tip of a nose in view, "you seem to be rather low in your mind. I
shall have to prescribe for you. Chi, suppose you drive me down to the
Settlement to-morrow morning, and on the way to the train I will send up
a cure-all for low spirits. I 've something for March, too. I think he
needs it." He drew his eyebrows together over the bridge of his nose
and cast a sharp glance at the boy, who felt the doctor had read him.
"That means you 've got something for us," said Budd, bluntly.
"Guess Budd's hit the nail on the head this time," said Chi. "Should
n't wonder if 't was some pretty lively stuff."
"You 're right there, Chi," replied the Doctor, laughing. "There 's
plenty of good strong bark in it--"
Thereupon there was a shout of joy from Budd which brought Cherry's head
into position at once.
"I know, I know, it's a St. Bernard puppy!"
"Oh--ee," squealed Cherry, in her delight, and forthwith put her arm
through the Doctor's and squeezed it hard against her ribs.
"Guess there's a good deal of crow-foot in the other, ain't there?" said
Chi, with a wink at March, who deliberately left his seat after saying,
"Excuse me" most gravely to his mother, and turned a somersault in the
kitchen end just to relieve his feelings. Then, with his hands in his
pockets, he went up to Doctor Heath, his usually clear, pale face
flushing with excitement.
"Do you mean, Doctor Heath, you 're going to give me a full-blooded
Wyandotte cock?" he demanded.
"That is just what I mean, March," replied the Doctor, with great
gravity, "and twelve full-blooded wives are at this moment looking in
vain for a roost beside their lord and master in the express office down
at Barton's River."
"Oh, glory!" cried March, wringing the Doctor's hand with both his, and
then going off to execute another somersault. "You 've done it now!"
"Done what, March?" asked Doctor Heath, really touched by the boy's
grateful enthusiasm.
"Made my fortune," he replied, dropping into his seat again, breathless
with excitement; and to the Doctor's amazement he saw tears, actual
tears, gather in the boy's eyes, before he looked down in his plate and
busied himself with his baked potato.
Hazel saw them too. "What a strange boy," she thought, "and how
different this is from eating my dinner all alone!" Then she slipped up
to the Doctor's side with her small tray containing nothing but empty
dishes, for the keen air and the sight of so many others eating and
enjoying themselves had given her a good appetite.
"Are you satisfied with me _now_?" she said, presenting her tray.
"I should think so," he exclaimed. "Two glasses of milk, two slices of
toasted brown bread, one piece of sponge cake, and a baked apple with
cream! I 've gone out of business with you; my last 'tonic' is going to
work well,--don't you think so?"
"I 'm sure it is," she said quietly, but there was such a depth of
meaning in the sweet voice and the few words that the Doctor threw his
arm around her as they rose from the table, and kept her beside him
until bedtime.
At nine o'clock, Mrs. Blossom helped her to undress, and then, saying
she would come back soon, left her alone in the little bedroom off the
kitchen.
Hazel looked about her in amazement. This was her little room! A small
single bed, looking like a snow drift, so white and feathery and high
was it; one window curtained with a square of starched white cotton
cloth that drew over the panes by means of a white cord on which it was
run at the top; a tiny wash-stand with an old-fashioned bowl and pitcher
of green and white stone-ware, and over it an old-fashioned gilt mirror;
a small splint-bottomed chair and large braided rug of red woollen rags.
That was all, except in one corner, where some cleats had been nailed to
the ceiling and a clothes-press made by hanging from them full curtains
of white cloth.
For the first time in her life, Hazel unpacked her own travelling-bag
and took out the silver toilet articles with the pretty monogram. But
where should she put them? No bureau, no dressing-case, no
bath-room!--For a few minutes Hazel felt bewildered, then, laughing, she
put them back again into her bag, and, leaving her candle in the tin
candlestick on the wash-stand, she gave one leap into the middle of the
high feather-bed.
Just then Mrs. Blossom returned from saying good-night to her own
children. She tucked Hazel in snugly, and to the young girl's surprise,
knelt by the bed saying, "Let us repeat the Lord's Prayer together,
dear;" and together they said it, Hazel fearing almost the sound of her
own voice. When they had finished, Mary Blossom, still kneeling, asked
that Father to bless the coming of this one of His little ones into
their home, and asked it in such a loving, trustful way, that Hazel's
arm stole out from the coverlet and around Mrs. Blossom's neck; her
head, soft and silky as a new-born baby's, cuddled to her shoulder: and
when Mrs. Blossom kissed her good-night, she said suddenly, but
half-timidly, "Do you say _this_ with Rose every night?"
"Yes, dear, every night."
"And how old is Rose?"
"She will be seventeen next August."
"Do you with Budd and Cherry, too?"
"Yes, with all my children, even March and May."
"March!" exclaimed Hazel.
"Why not?" laughed his mother. "I 'm sure he needs it, as you 'll find
out; now good-night, and don't get up to our early breakfast to-morrow,
for the Doctor goes on the first morning train, and you 're not quite
strong enough yet to do just as we do. Good-night again."
"Good-night," said Hazel, thinking she could never have enough of this
kind of putting to bed.
Meanwhile March and Budd, in their bedroom over the "long-room," were
discussing in half-whispers Wyandotte cocks, St. Bernard puppies, and
the new-comer, for they were too excited to sleep.
Just behind March's bed, near the head, there was a large knot in the
boards of the flooring, which for four years had served him many a good
turn, when Budd and Cherry were planning, below in the kitchen, how they
could play tricks upon him. March had carefully removed the knot, and
with his eye, or ear, at the hole, he had been able, entirely to the
mystification of the twins, to overthrow their conspiracies and defeat
their flank movements. When his espionage was over, he replaced the
knot, and no one in the household was the wiser for his private
detective service.
To-day, late in the afternoon, he had taken out the knot, intending to
have a view of the new arrival, unbeknown to the rest of the household;
but so interested had he become in the general welcome and in the
anticipation of the Doctor's gifts, that he had forgotten both to look
through the hole and to replace the knot.
Hazel, too, could not sleep at first. It was all so strange, and yet
she was so happy. Her thoughts were in New York, and she was already
planning for a visit from her father, when suddenly she remembered that
she had left the little chatelaine watch he had given her on her last
birthday, lying on the settle where May had been playing with it. She
must wind it regularly, that was her father's stipulation when he gave
it to her. She sprang out of bed, tiptoed to the door, listened; all
was still, but not wholly dark. The embers beneath the ashes in the
fireplace sent a dull glow into the room. Softly she stole out; found
her watch, then, half-way to her own door, stopped, startled by a voice
issuing apparently from the rafters overhead. It was March, who,
forgetting his open knot-hole, turned over towards the wall with a
prolonged yawn and said, evidently in answer to Budd:--
"Oh, go to sleep; don't talk about her. I think she 's a perfect guy."