Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Nono and the princess]
[Illustration: Vignette]
THE GOLDEN HOUSE
BY MRS. WOODS BAKER
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS
1903
_CONTENTS_
I. Black Eyes and Blue
II. Karin's Flock
III. Aneholm Church
IV. No Secrets
V. An Artist
VI. The Boys
VII. A Young Teacher
VIII. In Alma's Room.
IX. Karin's Fête
X. The Little Cottage
XI. The Slide
XII. A Pedestrian Trip
XIII. The Princess
XIV. Where?
XV. The Birthday Gift
XVI. Spectacles
XVII. Questionings
XVIII. Nono's Plans, and Plans for Nono
XIX. Pietro
XX. The Opened Door
_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._
Nono and the princess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece.
Nono's gift to Alma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vignette.
"He thrust out both hands as if throwing gifts in lavish profusion"
The baptismal service
"The first verse of a hymn was dictated to him"
The model house
Frans admonished
"She had seen the hand-organ man from the window"
THE GOLDEN HOUSE.
CHAPTER I.
BLACK EYES AND BLUE.
A dreary little group was trudging along a Swedish highroad one bright
October morning. It was a union between north and south, and like many
other unions, not altogether founded on love. The bear, the prominent
member of the party, was a Swede, and a Swede in a very bad humour.
The iron ring in his torn nose, and the stout stick in the hand of one
of his Italian masters, showed very plainly that he needed stern
discipline. Now he dragged at the strong rope attached to the iron
ring, and held back, moving his clumsy legs as if his machinery were
out of order, or at least as if goodwill were lacking to give it a fair
start.
The broad hats of the two men were gloomily slouched over their eyes;
for they were thoroughly chilled, having passed the night in the open
air for want of shelter. The woman, brown, thin, and bare-headed,
coughed, and pressed her hand to her breast, where a stiff bundle was
hidden under her shawl.
They rounded a little turn in the road, hitherto shut in by high
spruces, and came suddenly in sight of a cottage of yellow pine, that
glowed cheerfully against its dark background of evergreens.
"We stop at the golden house," said the older of the men, the bearer of
the organ, and evidently the leader as well as the musician of the
party.
The younger Italian laughed a scornful laugh as he said in his own
language, "Only poor people live there."
"We stop at the golden house!" commanded his companion, adding, "It
brings good luck to play for the poor."
The cottage had its gable end to the road, while its broadside was
turned towards the southern sunshine, the well-kept vegetable-garden
and the pretty flower-beds in front of the windows.
The gate was open, and the Italians came in stealthily--an art they had
learned to perfection. One little turn of the hand-organ and the bear
rose to his hind legs. The open door of the cottage was suddenly
filled. Round-faced, rosy, fair-haired, and eager were they
all--father and mother and six boys. They had evidently been disturbed
at a meal, for in their hands they held great pieces of hard brown
bread, in various stages of consumption.
Eyes and mouths opened wide as the performance went on, and Bruin had
every reason to be satisfied with his share of the praise bestowed on
the entertainment, as well as on his personal appearance. He was a
young bear, and his brown coat looked as soft as plush, and it was no
wonder that two-year-old Sven whispered to his mother, "Me want to kiss
the pretty bear!"
Sven judged Bruin by his clothing, not by his wicked little eyes or his
ugly mouth, which was by no means kissable.
The performance over, bread and milk were liberally passed round to the
strangers, the bear having more than his fair portion.
"Come in and sit a bit," said the tidy mother to the dark young woman.
The answer was a pointing to the ear and a shaking of the head, which
said plainly, "I don't understand Swedish."
The kindly beckoning that followed could not be mistaken, and the
Italian woman went into the cottage, glad to sit down in the one room
of which the interior consisted. One room it was, but large, and airy
too; for it not only stretched from outer wall to outer wall, but from
the floor to the high slanting roof. The rafters that crossed it here
and there were hung with homely stores--bags of beans and pease, and
slender poles strung with flat cakes of hard bread, far out of the
reach of the children.
The Italian opened her shawl and took out a little brown baby, wrapped
up as stiff as a stick. It was evidently hungry enough, and not at all
satisfied when it was again tucked away under the shawl.
Half by single words and half by signs the two mothers managed to talk
together. Swedish Karin soon knew that Francesca was ill, and was
going home to Italy as soon as her husband had money enough to pay
their passage. There was a wild look in the dark woman's eyes and a
fierceness in her gestures that made Karin almost afraid of her. When
the stranger had put into her pocket a bottle of milk that had been
given her, and a big cake of bread, she got up suddenly to go.
It was evident there was to be another performance--a kind of
expression of thanks for the hospitality received. The bear stood up
and shook paws with the men, we may say; for the brown hands of the
Italians had a strange kind of an animal look about them. The clumsy
creature walked hither and thither, and then towered proudly behind his
two masters, looking down on their heads as if it gave him satisfaction
to prove that he was their superior in size at least.
Francesca now took out her baby, and began to toss it high in the air,
catching it as it fell, and dancing meanwhile as if in delight.
Perhaps the bear took offence that the attention of all beholders was
turned from himself. He made one stride towards the descending baby,
and opened and shut his great mouth with a wicked snap close to the
child.
The Italian mother laughed a loud, wild laugh, and turned her back to
the bear, who put his two strong paws on her shoulder. A heavy blow
from the stout stick of the younger Italian brought him down on all
fours in a state of discontented submission.
Karin had swept her children inside the wide door of the cottage, and
then Francesca was hurried in too with her baby.
The leader of the party pointed after her, and then to his own head,
moving his thin hands first rapidly backwards and forwards, and
afterwards round and round, so describing the confusion in the poor
woman's brain as well as if he had said, "She is as crazy as a loon."
Karin's eyes grew large with horror. She drew her husband round the
corner of the house and said, "Jan, I can't see that crazy woman go off
with the baby. Let me keep it!"
"We have mouths enough to feed already," said the husband, and the
sturdy giant looked down, not unkindly, into the appealing eyes. His
face softened as he saw the little black bow at her throat, her only
week-day sign of mourning for her own little baby, so lately laid in
the grave.
"He will cost us almost nothing for a long time," she said, "and he can
wear my little Gustaf's clothes. Perhaps God has let our little boy up
in heaven send this baby to me to take his place."
"You are a good woman, Karin, and you ought to have your way," said the
husband; and she knew she had his consent.
Francesca looked back with approval on the cheerful room as she came
out, then stooped to pick a bit of mignonnette that grew by the steps.
Karin stretched out her hands, took the little brown baby in her arms,
pointed to the black bow at her throat, and quickly made a sign of
laying a baby low in a grave. Then she pressed the little stranger
close, close to her heart, and moved as if she would go into the
cottage with him.
A light gleamed in Francesca's eyes, and a tear actually glittered on
her husband's black eyelashes.
"I keep the child," said Karin distinctly, turning to the man.
He bowed his head solemnly, and said, "I leave him." Then he pointed
suddenly up to the sky, stretching his arm to its full length; then he
thrust out both hands freely towards her again and again, as if
throwing gifts in lavish profusion.
[Illustration: "He thrust out both hands, as if throwing gifts in
lavish profusion."]
Karin understood his "God will reward you abundantly" as well as if it
had been spoken in words. She kissed the little brown baby in reply,
and the father knew that crazy Francesca's child had found a mother's
love.
The men bowed and waved their hands, and the bear followed them
lumberingly out through the gate. Francesca lingered a moment, then
caught up a stick from within the enclosure, where Jan had been lately
chopping. She wrapped it hastily in her shawl, and went off with a
long, wild laugh.
The Swedes watched the party make their way along the road, until they
came to a turn that was to hide them from sight. There the Italians
swung their broad hats, and Francesca threw the stick high in the air
and caught it in her hands, as a parting token.
Karin pressed the little stranger to her mother's heart, and thanked
God that he was left to her care.
So the little Italian came to the golden house--the black eyes among
the blue.