Mr. Grant, wife and sister-in-law were "dear, nice old folks," who
liked to see young people enjoy themselves, prim and staid 'though they
were; and they had their fill of delight, that important Saturday; for
three merrier mad-caps Sunnybank never held. Ida was the ringleader in
the mirthful frolic.
"She's so pleased 'cause Mars' Charles is comin'," said Rachel, in
a pretended "aside" to Emma and Laura; and Ida laughed, instead of
reproving the gratuitous explanation. "I do want to see Charley--Bless
him!" said she.
"Is he a _very_ dear friend?" asked Laura.
"_Very_ dear!" Ida emphasized as strongly;--"almost on a par with
Carry. We will have fun while he is here;" and she launched into
a recital of some of his freaks and stories; eliciting bursts of
merriment from her listeners, which pealed even to the door of Miss
Betsey's room, and hurried Mrs. Grant down stairs, "to hear what the
joke was." The girls were upon the carpet in the middle of the large
parlor, cutting pink and white paper roses. The graceful running cedar,
they were to enliven, draped the walls, and hid the tarnished mouldings
of the old portrait frames;--geraniums and mignionette breathed
sweetly through the parted muslin curtains; but nothing was so fair
in the dame's eyes as the centre group. Laura was a brunette--black
eyes, nectarine bloom and pouting rosy lips--the handsomest of the
trio; Emma's dove-like eyes, classic oval face and varying complexion
placed her next. Ida sat between them, speaking with much animation of
voice and action--the glee of a child, and the modulations of a clever
elocutionist.
"Well!" said Mrs. Grant, when the narration was ended, "if you all
ain't a happy set, I'll give up my judgment!"
"Don't do that, I beg!" said Ida. "We need it this minute, to tell us
whether to mix these roses in the wreaths, or to dress this room with
white ones, and the dining-room with pink."
Mrs. Grant set her head to one side, and her hand upon her hip. It
was a serious question. "Well, I don't know exactly. Either way's very
pretty. What do _you_ say?"
"Oh! but we agreed to leave it to you. White ones look best by
lamplight."
"_So_ they do! Well 'spose you put them in here, as the party meets in
the parlor."
"Thank you, ma'am. I am of the same opinion myself."
"And I"--"and I"--said the others; and Mrs. Grant, pleased at having,
for once in her life, expressed a decided opinion, "reckoned Becky and
Molly wouldn't beat them beds half enough if she didn't follow them up."
The impromptu "rose case," upon which Emma and Laura rallied
Ida, was finished before dinner; and resolving themselves into a
"committee of inspection," they visited every room in a body, with
Miss Betsey and Mrs. Grant as rear guard. Even the wainscotted
chambers were cheerful--snow-drifts of beds--and window-hangings
lined with pink--stainless toilette covers; painted bouquets upon the
fire-screens, and real ones upon the dressing tables.
"Sunnybank deserves its name to-day," said Emma, leading Ida to a
window.
The October sun was everywhere; playing with the laughing cascade which
fell over the rock, at the foot of the sloping lawn; carpeting the
forest with tesselated gold; and the sheen of Ida's pine-grove was as
of millions of burnished needles.
"It is brighter here!" said Ida, laying her friend's hand upon her
breast.
"You need not say so;--your smile shows it. It is like sunshine itself."
"Shall I tell her?" thought Ida. "Not yet! he will be here in a few
days--and _then_!"--and the heart-bound threw the blood, in a scarlet
gush to her cheeks.
Love like hers is never selfish. When they were separating to dress,
she called Laura into her room. Two dresses--a rose-coloured challe,
and a white muslin were upon the bed. "No thanks, dear!" she said, as
the delighted creature clasped her arms about her neck, in speechless
gratitude. "You, who do so much for me and mine, deserve some token of
regard. What! tears! Dry them instantly, and try your dresses. Ah!
they fit! I thought we were nearly the same size,--so had them cut by
my patterns. Emma! step in here! Are we not proud of our pupil?"
"She does not require fine robes to win praise from me," said Emma.
"How handsome and becoming! just what one might expect from the donor."
"She is the best, dearest friend I have"--began Laura, smiling through
her tears.
"Hush!" said Ida, threateningly. "Flatterers! both of you! be off and
'beautify' as Charley says. And Laura--do you hear? don't have eyes and
dress to match! a contrast is better."
The main part of Sunnybank house was capped by a sort of belvidere,
accessible by steps from the garret. Why it had been built was one
of Ida's childish studies; and the acquisition of other knowledge
was no help to the elucidation of this mystery. Emma said the
founder of the mansion had an astronomical turn, and used it as an
observatory;--Laura, that it was a belfry, from which the alarm-bell
was sounded to collect the surrounding settlers, when an incursion was
made by the savages; Ida's more matter-of-fact belief was that her
ancestor had more fondness than taste for ornamental architecture, and
so planned this tuft to the conical crown of his habitation. On the
birth-night, this was to be illuminated; the brackets were prepared,
and some of the candles in the sockets. Nearer and faster descended the
darkness. Aunt Judy fidgeted from the kitchen to the house, and from
the house to the kitchen, in mortal fear for the credit of her supper.
Miss Betsey prognosticated upsettings and wheel-breakings, and "hoped
the horses were sure-footed. That hill, the other side of Tim's Creek
was _awful_ of a dark night."
"I say, girls!" exclaimed Ida, "we will light the belvidere! They can
see it six miles off. Anything but idle waiting!"
She was to stand in the yard, and direct the disposition of the
lights--Laura, Emma and Will, who thought no whim of his "mistis"
absurd, ascended to the roof. The breeze was at rest; and the rays shot
forth, clear and straight, down the avenue, magnifying the proportions
of the fantastic roof. The others came out to admire the effect with
her.
"Hist!" said she. "Music!"
But there was not a sound.
"I heard it--I know!" said she, positively. "Come into the porch."
Another note was repeated by the hills. "I said so! they are
coming--singing! Isn't that like Charley?" She distinguished
voices as they approached;--Carry's soft alto; Mrs. Dana's
soprano,--"Arthur--yes! that is his tenor--and Mr. Dana and Charley
have the base!"
"The tune changes!" said Emma. "Auld Lang Syne--oh! how sweet!"
Ida's eyes were streaming,--her heart aching with joy. The
carriages--two--and a buggy, drove up to the door; and with a scream
of rapture she lifted Carry to the ground,--not knowing who came
next--only that they were all there. All! no! where was Charley? She
stopped upon the steps; Elle holding to her dress; one hand in Carry's,
the other upon her guardian's arm.
"Charley! where are you?"
"Here!" with a muster-roll intonation. He raised her fingers to his
lips--an unprecedented action with him--and holding them still, looked
over his shoulder. "Here is a gentleman who is afraid you will shut
your doors upon him, for coming without a special invitation."
"Mr. Germaine!" thought Ida, fearfully;--but his was not the figure
that emerged from the shade,--nor the warm grasp, in which Charley,
with a movement full of grace and feeling, placed her hand;--nor his
the voice that said--"I do not doubt her hospitality, but my deserts."
"Do you forget your friends, that you expect a similar fate, Mr. Lacy?"
said Ida.
His actual presence was the roseleaf upon the mantling cup of bliss.
It did not overflow;--tumultuating passions were stilled into a calm,
delicious ecstacy. She was more composed than she had been at any time
since the reading of the letter,--saw everything, thought of everybody.
Carry and Emma went up-stairs arm in arm, and Ida, her baby namesake,
folded to her heart, was following Mrs. Dana, when she recollected
Laura. She was standing, alone and overlooked, in the hall.
"Here, Laura! I confide my darling to your keeping. Gently! don't wake
her. Is she not a lovely babe?"
"Beautiful!" said Laura, in proud gratification.
The sleepy children's suppers were brought up, and they were snug in
bed before their elders were prepared for their meal. The gentlemen
were in the yard, looking at the belvidere.
"Your beacon puzzled us considerably," said Charley to Ida. "It
appeared to be upon the summit of a huge, shapeless height. We thought
we had lost our road and wandered off to the Enchanted Mountains."
"Or that a remnant of Ghebers had an asylum among these hills," said
Mr. Lacy. "You should have heard Charley's
'Fierce and high
The death-pile blued into the sky,
And far away, o'er rock and flood,
Its melancholy radiance sent!'"
"Was I the only rhapsodizer?" retorted Charley. "Who said, when a
figure passed before the light--
"Hafed, like a vision, stood
Revealed before the burning pyre,
Tall, shadowy, like a Spirit of Fire,
Shrined in its own grand element?'"
"Why, that was uncle Will!" exclaimed Emma.
Amid the burst of laughter that replied, Charley pronounced
poetry--"done."
"And having descended to real life, perhaps you do not object to more
substantial food," said Ida. On the way to the house, some one took her
hand.
"Has my impatience offended? I could not wait!" said a hasty whisper.
"No."
"Am I welcome?"
"In every sense of the word," was the ingenuous response. This was
their plighting.
The sun was not up, when Ida raised the parlor windows next morning.
Above the dun zone of forest, rested another, of silvery grey vapor,
and higher, legions of fleecy cloudlets, from all parts of the
heavens, hung motionless, as angels may hover, in rapt adoration, over
the crystal walls of the New Jerusalem. He arose! the "bridegroom of
earth and brother of time!" and her simile changed--as assuming roseate
and golden robes, the expectant host wove themselves into a gorgeous
causeway, by which he seemed to mount the heavens. So "Jesus left the
dead!" the Sun of Righteousness burst His prison gates; and the shining
ones sang the consummation of a world's redemption. She was reading
her Bible, alternately with the resplendent leaf Nature unfurled this
autumnal Sabbath, when a step dispelled her trance.
"Good morning!" said Mr. Lacy. "You are an early riser."
"There is my reward!" pointing to the scene without.
"May I participate, in virtue of my second-best claim?" asked he, with
his own beaming smile, seating himself before she assented. Ida's
trifling embarrassment was transient. His behavior, open and free, as
of old, had not a tincture of reserve, or significance to indicate that
he thought of their new relation. The beauty of our lower sanctuary;
the upper, which it dimly shadows forth; Annie's sickness and death;
the Christian's work and hopes--were the matter of their conversation;
and as the rest assembled, they were spared the disagreeable sensation
one feels at interrupting a tete-a-tete.
"Is it time to ring the prayer-bell, Ida?" asked Emma, as the last
loiterer came in.
"I think so. We breakfast early on Sunday mornings, that we may be at
school in season," she said to Mrs. Dana.
It was her practice to lead in family worship, night and morning.
Arthur had performed this office the evening before, and the servants
having collected in the hall, she motioned him to the stand, where lay
the Bible.
"I am hoarse," he said. "Lacy!"
The person addressed reddened slightly, but conquering himself
instantly, did as he was requested; and Ida, too, although not so
easily, lost the identity of the man in the reader, and was prepared to
join, with solemnity and fervor of spirit, in his prayer.
By Charley's contrivance, they rode to church in the light buggy. Ida
condemned herself for the feeling of disappointment that fell suddenly
upon her, as the school-house appeared; and more for the fancies which
strayed--starry-winged butterflies into the machinery of her morning's
duties; but her pupils were unconscious of the visitants.
"Is that your regular pastor?" inquired Mr. Lacy, as they were driving
back.
"_Ir_-regular, rather--if you speak of the seasons of his
ministrations. Presiding over three--I am not certain it is not four
congregations, he preaches for us once a month."
"Who officiates the three other Sabbaths?"
"Sometimes the pastor of the Hill-side church. The second Sabbath is
his day in course; but he lives twelve miles off. If he is among the
missing, we catch up a circuit-rider, or go sermonless."
"'These things ought not so to be.'"
"I know it--but they _are_! Who is to remedy them? Palm-branch is a
free church."
"And as often free of preachers, as of sectarianism, it seems," said he.
"More frequently. The war of polemic debate is waged as furiously
there, as if the controversialists owned pulpit, pews and people. The
number of communicants of our persuasion, in this neighborhood, is
small; yet they are mostly persons in good circumstances, and able to
have a church of their own, if they would think so."
"They should purchase this Palm-branch. There is more euphony than
meaning in that name, when applied to a house."
"A free church, especially," answered Ida. "However, our Sabbath-school
has vanquished its enemies, and may lead the church on to victory."
"Dr. Hall awards the merits of this enterprise to you. Has your
residence here enlarged or contracted your sphere of usefulness?"
"Enlarged it. Not that this would be the case with most people. The
city presents more facilities for benevolence generally; but my family
had influence here; and my servants wanted a manager. There are more
deprivations than I anticipated; the separation from my friends; want
of general society; the dearth of books and intellectual recreations;
and last and worst--abridgement of my church privileges. Still I do not
repent my removal. My happiest days have been my Sunnybank life."
"Because you are in your right orbit. The evils you recount are not
irremediable; we will discuss them at length, some day."
This was the only reference to the future, as theirs--into which he was
betrayed all day; but it struck Ida dumb. She recovered her speech by
evening; for she and Charley strolled in the garden, in close converse,
until Mr. Dana sent Morton to warn them of the night dew. He perceived,
as did the whole party, traces of emotion in her countenance; and
Charley was very grave, although not melancholy. Music was proposed
after tea; and Ida unlocked the parlor organ, a gift to Mrs. Ross from
her husband, and still a fine instrument. Emma blushed so deeply at
her nomination as organist, that Ida recalled the motion and occupied
her accustomed place. Her fingers wandered; and Mr. Lacy, bending over
to adjust the book, said softly, "Do not attempt to play, if you are
indisposed." She smiled. "I am only weak and silly; I shall be better
directly." And ere the first hymn was concluded her clear voice led
the choristers, and the pealing chords rolled out in full strength and
harmony.
The bell rang for prayers. Arthur glanced at Ida, and was arrested in
the act of rising, by seeing her wheel a chair to the stand, and beckon
to Charley. Yet more astounded were all that he took it. Unclasping
the Bible, he read distinctly and reverently, a portion of its sacred
contents; and they knelt with him at the mercy-seat. A stifled sob, and
more than one sigh from surcharged bosoms, responded to his petitions;
and Carry wept aloud at the "Amen." Arthur was equally moved. "God
bless you, Charley!" was all he could say, as he wrung his hand.
"He _has_ blessed him, and us," said Morton, joyfully. "I thought this
would be the end of it, my good friend!"
"Not the end--the beginning!" said Ida, who stood by her adopted
brother. "Only the beginning! is it not, Charley?"
"_You_ were the beginning!" said he, smiling. "My mind has been made
up for some time; but it was proper that she should be the first
apprised of it. I was stubborn and rebellious; and the consistent
practice of one private Christian did more to convict me than the
preaching of the entire apostolic succession--Saints Paul and Peter to
head them--could have done."
"O, Charley! you are Charley still!" laughed Carry.
"And always will be, I hope!" rejoined Morton. "Religion, my dear Mrs.
Dana, does not _make_ but _mend_, the disposition."