When the vegetable-man knocked, Jessamine went to the door wearily.
She felt quite well acquainted with him. He had been coming all the
spring, and his cheery greeting always left a pleasant afterglow
behind him. But it was not the vegetable-man after all--at least, not
the right one. This one was considerably younger. He was tall and
sunburned, with a ruddy, smiling face, and keen, pleasant blue eyes;
and he had a spray of honeysuckle pinned on his coat.
"Want any garden stuff this morning?"
Jessamine shook her head. "We always get ours from Mr. Bell. This is
his day to come."
"Well, I guess you won't see Mr. Bell for a spell. He fell off a loft
out at his place yesterday and broke his leg. I'm his nephew, and I'm
going to fill his place till he gets 'round again."
"Oh, I'm so sorry--for Mr. Bell, I mean. Have you any green peas?"
"Yes, heaps of them. I'll bring them in. Anything else?"
"Not today," said Jessamine, with a wistful glance at the honeysuckle.
Mr. Bell, junior, saw it. In an instant the honeysuckle was unpinned
and handed to her. "If you like posies, you're welcome to this. I
guess you're fond of flowers," he added, as he noted the flash of
delight that passed over her pale face.
"Yes, indeed; they put me so in mind of home--of the country. Oh, how
sweet this is!"
"You're country-bred, then? Been in the city long?"
"Since last fall. I was born and brought up in the country. I wish I
was back. I can't get over being homesick. This honeysuckle seems to
bring it right back. We had honeysuckles around our porch at home."
"You don't like the city, then?"
"Oh, no. I sometimes feel as if I should smother here. I shall never
feel at home, I am afraid."
"Where did you live before you came here?"
"Up at Middleton. It was an old-fashioned place, but pretty--our house
was covered with vines, and there were trees all about it, and great
green fields beyond. But I don't know what makes me tell you this. I
forgot I was talking to a stranger."
"Pretty little woman," soliloquized Andrew Bell, as he drove away.
"She doesn't look happy, though. I suppose she's married some city
chap and has to live in town. I guess it don't agree with her. Her
eyes had a real hungry look in them over that honeysuckle. She seemed
near about crying when she talked of the country."
Jessamine felt more like crying than ever when she went back to her
work. Her head ached and she was very tired. The tiny kitchen was hot
and stifling. How she longed for the great, roomy kitchen in her old
home, with its spotless floors and floods of sunshine streaming in
through the maples outside. There was room to live and breathe there,
and from the door one looked out over green wind-rippled meadows,
under a glorious arch of pure blue sky, away to the purple hills in
the distance.
* * * * *
Jessamine Stacy had always lived in the country. When her sister died
and the old home had to go, Jessamine could only accept the shelter
offered by her brother, John Stacy, who did business in the city.
Of her stylish sister-in-law Jessamine was absolutely in awe. At first
Mrs. John was by no means pleased at the necessity of taking a country
sister into her family circle. But one day, when the servant girl took
a tantrum and left, Mrs. John found it very convenient to have in the
house a person who could step into Eliza's place as promptly and
efficiently as Jessamine could.
Indeed, she found it so convenient that Eliza never had a successor.
Jessamine found herself in the position of maid-of-all-work and
kitchen drudge for board and clothes.
She never complained, but she grew thinner and paler as the winter
went by. She had worked as hard on the farm, but it was the close
confinement and weary routine that told on her. Mrs. John was exacting
and querulous. John was absorbed in his business worries and had no
time to waste on his sister. Now, when the summer had come, her
homesickness was almost unbearable.
The next day Mr. Bell came he handed her a big bunch of sweet-brier
roses.
"Here you are," he said heartily. "I took the liberty to bring you
these today, seeing you're so fond of posies. The country roads are
pink with them now. Why don't you get your husband to bring you out
for a drive some day? You'd be as welcome as a lark at my farm."
"I will when he comes along, but I haven't seen him yet."
Mr. Bell gave a prolonged whistle. "Excuse me. I thought you were Mrs.
Something-or-other for sure. Aren't you mistress here?"
"Oh, no. My brother's wife is the mistress here. I'm only Jessamine."
She laughed again. She was holding the roses against her face, and her
eyes sparkled over them roguishly. The vegetable-man looked at her
admiringly.
"You're a country rose yourself, miss, and you ought to be blooming
out in the fields, instead of wilting in here."
"I wish I was. Thank you so much for the roses, Mr. ---- Mr. ----"
"Bell--Andrew Bell, that's my name. I live out at Pine Pastures. We're
all Bells out there--can't throw a stone without hitting one. Glad you
like the roses."
After that the vegetable-man brought Jessamine a bouquet every trip.
Now it was a big bunch of field-daisies or golden buttercups, now a
green glory of spicy ferns, now a cluster of old-fashioned garden
flowers.
"They keep life in me," Jessamine told him.
They were great friends by this time. True, she knew little about him
but she felt instinctively that he was manly and kind-hearted.
One day when he came Jessamine met him almost gleefully. "No, nothing
today. There is no dinner to cook."
"You don't say. Where are the folks?"
"Gone on an excursion. They won't be back until tonight."
"They won't? Well, I'll tell you what to do. You get ready, and when
I'm through my rounds we'll go for a drive up the country."
"Oh, Mr. Bell! But won't it be too much bother for you?"
"Well, I reckon not! You want an excursion as well as other folks, and
you shall have it."
"Oh, thank you so much. Yes, I'll be ready. You don't know how much it
means to me."
"Poor little creature," said Mr. Bell, as he drove away. "It's
downright cruelty, that's what it is, to keep her penned up like that.
You might as well coop up a lark in a hen-house and expect it to
thrive and sing. I'd like to give that brother of hers a piece of my
mind."
When he lifted her up to the high seat of his express wagon that
afternoon he said, "Now, I want you to do something. Just shut your
eyes and don't open them again until I tell you to."