"I dinna ken what I should want
If I could get but a man."
SCOTCH BALLAD.
Captain Rossitur did no work at the saw-mill. But Fleda's
words had not fallen to the ground. He began to show care for
his fellow-creatures in getting the bellows mended; his next
step was to look to his gun; and from that time, so long as he
stayed, the table was plentifully supplied with all kinds of
game the season and the country could furnish. Wild ducks and
partridges banished pork and bacon even from memory; and Fleda
joyfully declared she would not see another omelette again
till she was in distress.
While Charlton was still at home came a very urgent invitation
from Mrs. Evelyn, that Fleda should pay them a long visit in
New York, bidding her care for no want of preparation, but
come and make it there. Fleda demurred, however, on that very
score. But before her answer was written another missive came
from Dr. Gregory, not asking so much as demanding her
presence, and enclosing a fifty dollar bill, for which he said
he would hold her responsible till she had paid him with, not
her own hands, but her own lips. There was no withstanding the
manner of this entreaty. Fleda packed up some of Mrs.
Rossitur's laid-by silks, to be refreshed with an air of
fashion, and set off with Charlton at the end of his furlough.
To her simple spirit of enjoyment the weeks ran fast; and all
manner of novelties and kindnesses helped them on. It was a
time of cloudless pleasure. But those she had left thought it
long. She wrote them how delightfully she kept house for the
old doctor, whose wife had long been dead, and how joyously
she and the Evelyns made time fly And every pleasure she felt
awoke almost as strong a throb in the hearts at home. But they
missed her, as Barby said, "dreadfully;" and she was most
dearly welcomed when she came back. It was just before New
Year.
For half an hour there was most gladsome use of eyes and
tongues. Fleda had a great deal to tell them.
"How well how well you are looking, dear Fleda!" said her
aunt, for the third or fourth time.
"That's more than I can say for you and Hugh, aunt Lucy. What
have you been doing to yourselves?"
"Nothing new," they said, as her eye went from one to the
other.
"I guess you have wanted me!" said Fleda, shaking her head, as
she kissed them both again.
"I guess we have," said Hugh, "but don't fancy we have grown
thin upon the want."
"But where's uncle Rolf? you didn't tell me."
"He is gone to look after those lands in Michigan."
"In Michigan! When did he go?"
"Very soon after you."
"And you didn't let me know! Oh, why didn't you? How lonely
you must have been!"
"Let you know, indeed!" said Mrs. Rossitur, wrapping her in
her arms again; "Hugh and I counted every week that you
stayed, with more pleasure each one."
"I understand!" said Fleda, laughing under her aunt's kisses.
"Well, I am glad I am at home again to take care of you. I see
you can't get along without me."
"People have been very kind, Fleda," said Hugh.
"Have they?"
"Yes thinking we were desolate, I suppose. There has been no
end to aunt Miriam's goodness and pleasantness."
"Oh, aunt Miriam, always!" said Fleda. "And Seth."
"Catherine Douglass has been up twice to ask if her mother
could do anything for us; and Mrs. Douglass sent us once a
rabbit, and once a quantity of wild pigeons that Earl had
shot. Mother and I lived upon pigeons for I don't know how
long. Barby wouldn't eat 'em she said she liked pork better;
but I believe she did it on purpose."
"Like enough," said Fleda, smiling, from her aunt's arms where
she still lay.
"And Seth has sent you plenty of your favourite hickory nuts,
very fine ones; and I gathered butternuts enough for you near
home."
"Everything is for me," said Fleda. "Well, the first thing I
do shall be to make some butternut candy for _you_. You wont
despise that Mr. Hugh?"
Hugh smiled at her, and went on.
"And your friend Mr. Olmney has sent us a corn-basket fill of
the superbest apples you ever saw. He has one tree of the
finest in Queechy, he says."
"_My_ friend!" said Fleda, colouring a little.
"Well, I don't know whose he is, if he isn't yours," said
Hugh. "And even the Finns sent us some fish that their brother
had caught, because, they said, they had more than they
wanted. And Dr. Quackenboss sent us a goose and a turkey. We
didn't like to keep them, but we were afraid, if we sent them
back, it would not be understood."
"Send them back!" said Fleda. "That would never do! All
Queechy would have rung with it."
"Well, we didn't," said Hugh. "But so we sent one of them to
Barby's old mother, for Christmas."
"Poor Dr. Quackenboss!" said Fleda. "That man has as near as
possible killed me two or three times. As for the others, they
are certainly the oddest of all the finny tribes. I must go
out and see Barby for a minute."
It was a good many minutes, however, before she could get free
to do any such thing.
"You han't lost no flesh," said Barby, shaking hands with her
anew. "What did they think of Queechy keep, down in York?"
"I don't know I didn't ask them," said Fleda. "How goes the
world with you, Barby?"
"I'm mighty glad you are come home, Fleda," said Barby,
lowering her voice.
"Why?" said Fleda, in a like tone.
"I guess I aint all that's glad of it," Miss Elster went on,
with a glance of her bright eye.
"I guess not," said Fleda, reddening a little "but what is
the matter?"
"There's two of our friends ha'n't made us but one visit
apiece since oh, ever since some time in October!"
"Well, never mind the people," said Fleda. "Tell me what you
were going to say."
"And Mr. Olmney," said Barby, not minding her, "he's took and
sent us a great basket chock full of apples. Now, wa'n't that
smart of him, when he knowed there wa'n't no one here that
cared about 'em ?"
"They are a particularly fine kind," said Fleda.
"Did you hear about the goose and turkey?"
"Yes," said Fleda, laughing.
"The doctor thinks he has done the thing just about right,
this time, I 'spect. He had ought to take out a patent right
for his invention. He'd feel spry if he knowed who ate one on
'em."
"Never mind the doctor, Barby. Was this what you wanted to see
me for?"
"No," said Barby, changing her tone. "I'd give something it
was. I've been all but at my wit's end; for you know, Mis'
Rossitur aint no hand about anything I couldn't say a word
to her; and ever since he went away, we have been just winding
ourselves up. I thought I should clear out, when Mis' Rossitur
said, maybe you wa'n't a-coming till next week."
"But what is it, Barby? what is wrong?"
"There ha'n't been anything right, to my notions, for a long
spell," said Barby, wringing out her dish-cloth hard, and
flinging it down, to give herself uninterruptedly to talk;
"but now you see, Didenhover, nor none of the men, never comes
near the house to do a chore; and there aint wood to last
three days; and Hugh aint fit to cut it if it was piled up in
the yard; and there aint the first stick of it out of the
woods yet."
Fleda sat down, and looked very thoughtfully into the fire.
"He had ought to ha' seen to it afore he went away; but he
ha'n't done it, and there it is."
"Why, who takes care of the cows?" said Fleda.
"Oh, never mind the cows," said Barby, "they aint suffering
I wish we was as well off as they be; but I guess, when he
went away, he made a hole in our pockets for to mend his'n. I
don't say he hadn't ought to ha' done it, but we've been
pretty short ever sen, Fleda we're in the last bushel of
flour, and there aint but a handful of corn meal, and mighty
little sugar, white or brown. I did say something to Mis'
Rossitur, but all the good it did was to spoil her appetite, I
s'pose; and if there's grain in the floor, there aint nobody
to carry it to mill nor to thrash it nor a team to draw
it, fur's I know."
"Hugh cannot cut wood," said Fleda, "nor drive to mill either,
in this weather."
"I could go to mill," said Barby, "now you're to hum; but
that's only the beginning, and it's no use to try to do
everything flesh and blood must stop somewhere."
"No, indeed!" said Fleda. "We must have somebody immediately."
"That's what I had fixed upon," said Barby. "If you could get
hold o' some young feller that wa'n't sot up with an idee that
he was a grown man and too big to be told, I'd just clap to
and fix that little room up-stairs for him, and give him his
victuals here, and we'd have some good of him; instead o'
having him streaking off just at the minute when he'd ought to
be along."
"Who is there we could get, Barby?"
"I don't know," said Barby; "but they say there is never a
nick that there aint a jog some place; so I guess it can be
made out. I asked Mis' Plumfield, but she didn't know anybody
that was out of work; nor Seth Plumfield. I'll tell you who
does that is, if there is anybody Mis' Douglass. She keeps
hold. of one end of most everybody's affairs, I tell her.
Anyhow, she's a good hand to go to."
"I'll go there at once," said Fleda. "Do you know anything
about making maple sugar, Barby?"
"That's the very thing," exclaimed Barby, ecstatically.
"There's lots o' sugar-maples on the farm, and it's murder to
let them go to loss; and they ha'n't done us a speck o' good
ever since I come here. And in your grandfather's time, they
used to make barrels and barrels. You and me and Hugh, and
somebody else we'll have, we could clap to and make as much
sugar and molasses in a week as would last us till spring come
round again. There's no sense into it All we'd want would be
to borrow a team some place. I had all that in my head long
ago. If we could see the last of that man, Didenhover, oncet,
I'd take hold of the plough myself, and see if I couldn't make
a living out of it. I don't believe the world would go now,
Fleda, if it wa'n't for women. I never see three men, yet,
that didn't try me more than they were worth."
"Patience, Barby!" said Fleda, smiling. "Let us take things
quietly."
"Well, I declare, I'm beat, to see how you take 'em," said
Barby, looking at her lovingly.
"Don't you know why, Barby?"
"I s'pose I do," said Barby, her face softening still more
"or I can guess."
"Because I know that all these troublesome things will be
managed in the best way, and by my best Friend, and I know
that He will let none of them hurt me. I am sure of it isn't
that enough to keep me quiet?"
Fleda's eyes were filling, and Barby looked away from them.
"Well, it beats me," she said, taking up her dish-cloth again,
"why you should have anything to trouble you. I can understand
wicked folks being plagued, but I can't see the sense of the
good ones."
"Troubles are to make good people better, Barby."
"Well," said Barby, with a very odd mixture of real feeling
and seeming want of it, "it's a wonder I never got religion,
for I will say that all the decent people I ever see were of
that kind, Mis' Rossitur aint, though, is she?"
"No," said Fleda, a pang crossing her at the thought that all
her aunt's loveliness must tell directly and heavily in this
case to lighten religion's testimony. It was that thought, and
no other, which saddened her brow as she went back into the
other room.
"Troubles already!" said Mrs. Rossitur. "You will be sorry you
have come back to them, dear."
"No, indeed," said Fleda, brightly; "I am very glad I have
come home. We will try and manage the troubles, aunt Lucy."
There was no doing anything that day, but the very next
afternoon Fleda and Hugh walked down through the snow to Mrs.
Douglass's. It was a long walk and a cold one, and the snow
was heavy; but the pleasure of being together made up for it
all. It was a bright walk, too, in spite of everything.
In a most thrifty-looking well-painted farm-house, lived Mrs.
Douglass.
"Why, 'taint you, is it'?" she said, when she opened the door
"Catharine said it was, and I said I guessed it wa'n't, for
I reckoned you had made up your mind not to come and see me at
all. How do you do?"
The last sentence in the tone of hearty and earnest
hospitality. Fleda made her excuses.
"Ay, ay I can understand all that just as well as if you
said it. I know how much it means, too. Take off your hat."
Fleda said she could not stay, and explained her business.
"So you ha'n't come to see me, after all? Well, now, take off
your hat 'cause I wont have anything to say to you till you
do. I'll give you supper right away."
"But I have left my aunt alone, Mrs. Douglass; and the
afternoons are so short now, it would be dark before we could
get home."
"Serve her right for not coming along! and you sha'n't walk
home in the dark, for Earl will harness the team, and carry
you home like a streak the horses have nothing to do. Come,
you sha'n't go."
And as Mrs. Douglass laid violent hands on her bonnet, Fleda
thought best to submit. She was presently rewarded with the
promise of the very person she wanted a boy, or young man,
then in Earl Douglass's employ; but his wife said, "she
guessed he'd give him up to her;" and what his wife said,
Fleda knew Earl Douglass was in the habit of making good.
"There aint enough to do to keep him busy," said Mrs.
Douglass. "I told Earl he made me more work than he saved; but
he's hung on till now."
"What sort of a boy is he, Mrs. Douglass."
"He aint a steel-trap, I tell you beforehand," said the lady,
with one of her sharp intelligent glances; "he don't know
which way to go till you show him; but he's a clever enough
kind of a chap he don't mean no harm. I guess he'll do for
what you want."
"Is he to be trusted?"
"Trust him with anything but a knife and fork," said she, with
another look and shake of the head. "He has no idee but what
everything on the supper-table is meant to be eaten straight
off. I would keep two such men as my husband as soon as I
would Philetus."
"Philetus!" said Fleda "the person that brought the chicken,
and thought he had brought two?"
"You've hit it," said Mrs. Douglass. "Now you know him. How do
you like our new minister?"
"We are all very much pleased with him."
"He's very good-looking, don't you think so?"
"A very pleasant face."
"I ha'n't seen him much yet except in church; but those that
know, say he is very agreeable in the house."
"Truly, I dare say," answered Fleda, for Mrs. Douglass's face
looked for her testimony.
"But I think he looks as if he was beating his brains out
there among his books. I tell him he is getting the blues,
living in that big house by himself."
"Do you manage to do all your work without help, Mrs.
Douglass?" said Fleda, knowing that the question was in
"order," and that the affirmative answer was not counted a
thing to he ashamed of.
"Well, I guess I'll know good reason," said Mrs. Douglass,
complacently, "before I'll have any help to spoil _my_ work.
Come along, and I'll let you see whether I want one."
Fleda went, very willingly, to be shown all Mrs. Douglass's
household arrangements and clever contrivances, of her own or
her husband's devising, for lessening or facilitating labour.
The lady was proud, and had some reason to be, of the very
superb order and neatness of each part and detail. No corner
or closet that might not be laid open fearlessly to a
visitor's inspection. Miss Catharine was then directed to open
her piano, and amuse Fleda with it while her mother performed
her promise of getting an early supper a command grateful to
one or two of the party, for Catharine had been carrying on
all this while a most stately tête-à-tête with Hugh, which
neither had any wish to prolong. So Fleda filled up the time
good naturedly with thrumming over the two or three bits of
her childish music that she could recall, till Mr. Douglass
came in, and they were summoned to sit down to supper; which
Mrs. Douglass introduced by telling her guests "they must take
what they could get, for she had made fresh bread and cake and
pies for them two or three times, and she wasn't a-going to do
it again."
Her table was abundantly spread, however, and with most
exquisite neatness; and everything was of excellent quality,
saving only certain matters which call for a free hand in the
use of material. Fleda thought the pumpkin pies must have been
made from that vaunted stock which is said to want no eggs nor
sugar, and the cakes, she told Mrs. Rossitur afterwards, would
have been good if half the flour had been left out, and the
other ingredients doubled, The deficiency in one kind,
however, was made up by superabundance in another; the table
was stocked with such wealth of crockery that one could not
imagine any poverty in what was to go upon it. Fleda hardly
knew how to marshal the confusion of plates which grouped
themselves around her cup and saucer, and none of them might
be dispensed with. There was one set of little glass dishes
for one kind of sweetmeat, another set of ditto for another
kind; an army of tiny plates to receive and shield the
tablecloth from the dislodged cups of tea, saucers being the
conventional drinking vessels; and there were the standard
bread and butter plates, which, besides their proper charge of
bread and butter, and beef, and cheese, were expected, Fleda
knew, to receive a portion of every kind of cake that might
happen to be on the table. It was a very different thing,
however, from Miss Anastasia's tea-table, or that of Miss
Flora Quackenboss. Fleda enjoyed the whole time without
difficulty.
Mr. Douglass readily agreed to the transfer of Philetus's
services.
"He's a good boy!" said Earl he's a good boy; he's as good a
kind of a boy as you need to have. He wants tellin'; most boys
want tellin'; but he'll do when he is told, and he means to do
right."
"How long do you expect your uncle will be gone?" said Mrs.
Douglass.
"I do not know," said Fleda.
"Have you heard from him since he left?"
"Not since I came home," said Fleda. "Mr. Douglass, what is
the first thing to be done about the maple-trees in the sugar
season?"
"Why, you calculate to try makin' sugar in the spring?"
"Perhaps at any rate I should like to know about it."
"Well, I should think you would," said Earl, "and it's easy
done there aint nothin' easier, when you know the right way
to set to work about it; and there's a fine lot of sugar trees
on the old farm I recollect of them sugar trees as long ago
as when I was a boy I've helped to work them afore now, but
there's a good many years since has made me a leetle older;
but the first thing you want is a man and a team, to go about
and empty the buckets the buckets must be emptied every day
and then carry it down to the house."
"Yes, I know," said Fleda; "but what is the first thing to be
done to the trees?"
"Why, la! 'tain't much to do to the trees all you've got to
do is to take an axe and chip a bit out, and stick a chip a
leetle way into the cut for to dreen the sap, and set a trough
under, and then go on to the next one, and so on; you may
make one or two cuts in the south side of the tree, and one or
two cuts in the north side, if the tree's big enough, and if
it aint, only make one or two cuts in the south side of the
tree; and for the sap to run good, it had ought to be that
kind o' weather when it freezes in the day and thaws by night;
I would say! when it friz in the night and thaws in the day;
the sap runs more bountifully in that kind o' weather."
It needed little from Fleda to keep Mr. Douglass at the maple-
trees till supper was ended; and then, as it was already
sundown, he went to harness the sleigh.
It was a comfortable one, and the horses, if not very handsome
nor bright-curried, were well fed and had good heart to their
work. A two-mile drive was before them, and with no
troublesome tongues or eyes to claim her attention, Fleda
enjoyed it fully. In the soft clear winter twilight, when
heaven and earth mingle so gently, and the stars look forth
brighter and cheerfuller than ever at another time, they slid
along over the fine roads, too swiftly, towards home; and
Fleda's thoughts as easily and swiftly slipped away from Mr.
Douglass, and maple-sugar, and Philetus, and an unfilled
woodyard, and an empty flour-barrel, and revelled in the pure
ether. A dark rising ground covered with wood sometimes rose
between her and the western horizon; and then a long stretch
of snow, only less pure, would leave free view of its
unearthly white light, dimmed by no exhalation, a gentle,
mute, but not the less eloquent, witness to earth of what
heaven must be.
But the sleigh stopped at the gate, and Fleda's musings came
home.
"Good night!" said Earl, in reply to their thanks and adieus;
" 'taint anything to thank a body for let me know when
you're a-goin' into the sugar-making, and I'll come and help
you."
"How sweet a pleasant message may make an unmusical tongue!"
said Fleda, as she and Hugh made their way up to the house.
"We had a stupid enough afternoon," said Hugh.
"But the ride home was worth it all!"