OCTOBER HUES AND HARVESTS
Burt's interview with his parents, their mingled surprise, pleasure, and
disappointment, and their deep sympathy, need not be dwelt upon. Mr.
Clifford was desirous of first seeing Amy, and satisfying himself that
she did not in the slightest degree feel herself slighted or treated in
bad faith, but his wife, with her low laugh, said: "Rest assured, father,
Burt is right. He has won nothing more from Amy than sisterly love,
though I had hoped that he might in time. After all, perhaps, it is best.
We shall keep Amy, and gain a new daughter that we have already learned
to admire and love."
Burt's mind was too full of the one great theme to remember what Mr.
Hargrove had said about the Western land, and when at last Miss Hargrove
came to say good-by, with a blushing consciousness quite unlike her usual
self-possession, he was enchanted anew, and so were all the household.
The old people's reception seemed like a benediction; Amy banished the
faintest trace of doubt by her mirthful ecstasies; and after their
mountain experience there was no ice to break between Gertrude and
Maggie.
The former was persuaded to defer her trip to New York until the morrow,
and so Amy would have her nutting expedition after all. When Leonard came
down to dinner, Burt took Gertrude's hand, and said, "Now, Len, this is
your only chance to give your consent. You can't have any dinner till you
do."
His swift, deprecating look at Amy's laughing face reassured him. "Well,"
he said, slowly, as if trying to comprehend it all, "I do believe I'm
growing old. My eyesight must be failing sadly. When _did_ all this take
place?"
"Your eyesight is not to blame, Leonard," said his wife, with much
superiority. "It's because you are only a man."
"That's all I ever pretended to be." Then, with a dignity that almost
surprised Gertrude, he, as eldest brother, welcomed her in simple,
heartfelt words.
At the dinner-table Miss Hargrove referred to the Western land. Burt laid
down his knife and fork, and exclaimed, "I declare, I forgot all about
it!"
Miss Hargrove laughed heartily as she said, "A high tribute to me!" and
then made known her father's statement that the Clifford tract in the
West adjoined his own, that it would soon be very valuable, and that he
was interested in the railroad approaching it. "I left him," she
concluded, "poring over his maps, and he told me to say to you, sir" (to
Mr. Clifford), "that he wished to see you soon."
"How about the four-leaved clover now?" cried Amy.
In the afternoon they started for the chestnut-trees. Webb carried a light
ladder, and both he and Burt had dressed themselves in close-fitting
flannel suits for climbing. The orchard, as they passed through it,
presented a beautiful autumn picture. Great heaps of yellow and red cheeked
apples were upon the ground; other varieties were in barrels, some headed
up and ready for market, while Mr. Clifford was giving the final cooperage
to other barrels as fast as they were filled.
"Father can still head up a barrel better than any of us," Leonard
remarked to Miss Hargrove.
"Well, my dear," said the old gentleman, "I've had over half a century's
experience."
"It's time I obtained some idea of rural affairs," said Gertrude to Webb.
"There seem to be many different kinds of apples here. Can you easily
tell them apart?"
"Yes, as easily as you know different dress fabrics at Arnold's. Those
umbrella-shaped trees are Rhode Island greenings; those that are rather
long and slender branching are yellow bell-flowers; and those with short
and stubby branches and twigs are the old-fashioned dominies. Over there
are Newtown pippins. Don't you see how green the fruit is? It will not be
in perfection till next March. Not only a summer, but an autumn and a
winter are required to perfect that superb apple, but then it becomes one
of Nature's triumphs. Some of those heaps on the ground will furnish
cider and vinegar. Nuts, cider, and a wood fire are among the privations
of a farmer's life."
"Farming, as you carry it on, appears to me a fine art. How very full
some of the trees are! and others look as if they had been half picked
over."
"That is just what has been done. The largest and ripest apples are taken
off first, and the rest of the fruit improves wonderfully in two or three
weeks. By this course we greatly increase both the quality and the bulk
of the crop."
"You are very happy in your calling, Webb. How strange it seems for me to
be addressing you as Webb!"
"It does not seem so strange to me; nor does it seem strange that I am
talking to you in this way. I soon recognized that you were one of those
fortunate beings in whom city life had not quenched nature."
They had fallen a little behind the others, and were out of ear-shot.
"I think," she said, hesitatingly and shyly, "that I had an ally in you
all along."
He laughed and replied, "At one time I was very dubious over my
expedition to Fort Putnam."
"I imagine that in suggesting that expedition you put in two words for
yourself."
"Call it even," he said.
"I wish you might be as happy as I am. I'm not blind either, and I wonder
that Amy is so unconscious."
"I hope she will remain so until she awakens as naturally as from sleep.
She has never had a brother, and as such I try to act toward her. My one
thought is her happiness, and, perhaps, I can secure it in no other way.
I feared long since that you had guessed my secret, and am grateful that
you have not suggested it to Amy. Few would have shown so much delicacy
and consideration."
"I'm not sure that you are right, Webb. If Amy knew of your feeling, it
would influence her powerfully. She misjudges you now."
"Yes, it was necessary that she should misunderstand me, and think of me
as absorbed in things remote from her life. The knowledge you suggest
might make her very sad, for there never was a gentler-hearted girl. You
have remarkable tact. Please use it to prevent the constraint which might
arise between us."
Burt now joined them with much pretended jealousy, and they soon reached
the trees, which, under the young men's vigorous blows, rained down the
prickly burrs, downy chestnuts, and golden leaves. Blue jays screamed
indignantly from the mountain-side, and squirrels barked their protest at
the inroads made upon their winter stores. As the night approached the
air grew chilly, and Webb remarked that frost was coming at last. He
hastened home before the others to cover up certain plants that might be
sheltered through the first cold snap. The tenderer ones had long since
been taken up and prepared for winter blooming.
To Amy's inquiry where Johnnie was, Maggie had replied that she had gone
nutting by previous engagement with Mr. Alvord, and as the party returned
in the glowing evening they met the oddly assorted friends with their
baskets well filled. In the eyes of the recluse there was a gentler
expression, proving that Johnnie's and Nature's ministry had not been
wholly in vain. He glanced swiftly from Burt to Miss Hargrove, then at
Amy, and a faint suggestion of a smile hovered about his mouth. He was
about to leave them abruptly when Johnnie interposed, pleading: "Mr.
Alvord, don't go home till I pick you some of your favorite heart's-ease,
as you call my pansies. They have grown to be as large and beautiful as
they were last spring. Do you know, in the hot weather they were almost
as small as johnny-jumpers? but I wouldn't let 'em be called by that
name."
"They will ever be heart's-ease to me, Johnnie-doubly so when you give
them," and he followed her to the garden.
In the evening a great pitcher of cider fresh from the press, flanked by
dishes of golden fall pippins and grapes, was placed on the table. The
young people roasted chestnuts on hickory coals, and every one, even to
the invalid, seemed to glow with a kindred warmth and happiness. The city
belle contrasted the true home-atmosphere with the grand air of a city
house, and thanked God for her choice. At an early hour she said good-by
for a brief time and departed with Burt. He was greeted with stately
courtesy by Mrs. Hargrove herself, whom her husband and the prospective
value of the Western land had reconciled to the momentous event. Burt and
Gertrude were formally engaged, and he declared his intention of
accompanying her to the city to procure the significant diamond.
After the culminating scenes of Burt's little drama, life went on very
serenely and quietly at the Clifford home. Out of school hours Alf,
Johnnie, and Ned vied with the squirrels in gathering their hoard of
various nuts. The boughs in the orchard grew lighter daily. Frost came as
Webb had predicted, and dahlias, salvias, and other flowers, that had
flamed and glowed till almost the middle of October, turned black in one
morning's sun. The butternut-trees had lost their foliage, and countless
leaves were fluttering down in every breeze like many-hued gems. The
richer bronzed colors of the oak were predominating in the landscape, and
only the apple, cherry, and willow trees about the house kept up the
green suggestion of summer.