ONE DAY.
"Well, surely there never was such a pokey family," exclaimed Ernestine,
lounging into the room where the girls were gathered, one bleak dreary
morning, early in November. "Nothing ever happens, any more than as if
we were in back-woods. Kittie, I'll change seats with you."
"I suppose you will," returned Kittie, keeping her chair and frowning
over her slate and book. "You'll always change if you get the best by
it; get out of my light will you."
"I wish you'd shut the door, Ernestine," growled Kat over the top of a
bandage bound round her head and face; "I wish your tooth was ready to
jump out of your mouth, and some one would leave the door open on you."
"I'd try and set you a good example, by being polite at least," laughed
Ernestine, who really never could be cross or blue, very long at a time.
"How grum we are; what's the matter Bea?"
"I've an awful headache," answered Bea, who shared in the general
depression, and was considerably ruffled over not being able to set a
puff straight on her skirt. "Be quiet, please, and sit down; it was
still enough before you came in."
"So I should think, from the way you all look like tomb-stones. Nobody
looks peaceful, but Jean, and she's asleep; and Olive is the only one
that looks natural, because she always looks solemn and cross, no matter
what's up."
Olive turned from the window with a jerk. She had such a cold, that she
could not go down to the store, and her face was swollen most
unbecomingly.
"Perhaps if you had a little more sense, you might be able to look at
least reasonably solemn sometimes," she said sharply.
"Oh, mercy," cried Ernestine, with her gay laugh, far more tantalizing
than the sharpest words. "If having sense would make me look like you,
I'd never want it,--never."
Olive jumped from her seat with a force that knocked the chair over, and
startled the whole company.
"Ernestine Dering," she cried fiercely, and as though the words almost
choked her. "You are the most heartless, selfish, senseless creature,
that ever lived; I never will forgive you! You haven't got a thought
above looking like a wax doll, and acting like a ninny, and I hate
you;--there!"
"Well--if--I--ever," cried Kittie, as Olive vanished with a bang of the
door that woke Jean and made Bea clap her hands to her aching head.
"You ought to be ashamed," exclaimed Kat, glaring over her bandage.
"Olive's the best one of the lot, and I've three minds to go and tell
her so."
"And have your head taken off for your pains," said Ernestine, walking
over to the glass, and smiling at her own unruffled image. "Olive's a
touchy goose, but I didn't mean to hurt her feelings, and I'm sorry for
it; so that's the best I can do now, isn't it?"
"I suppose so, unless it is to think once in a while, that there is some
one in the world with feelings, besides yourself," answered Bea, jerking
her unruly sewing, and getting crosser than ever as she ran her needle
into her finger.
"Dear me," cried Ernestine, throwing her hands up, and admiring them in
the glass. "It's a sure sign that something is going wrong with this
family, when you get cross, Bea."
"I'm not an angel," grumbled Bea, then threw her sewing down, and gave
herself a shake, both mentally and physically. "But there's no need of
my acting like a bear, and I'm really ashamed. Come sit on my lap, Jean,
you look terribly grieved."
"Well, 'tisn't very pleasant with mama gone, and you all fussing so,"
answered Jean, limping over with her crutch, and laying her head on
Bea's shoulder with a sigh. "If you all were lame awhile, you'd be so
glad to get straight again, that you never would fuss or scold, never."
Bea sucked her bruised thumb, and thought more heartily than ever, that
they ought to be ashamed; but a little witch of impatience and petulance
lurks in the gentlest of feminine hearts, and though Bea had resolved to
hush talking, and be patient, the little meddling temper was wide awake,
much aggravated at the gloomy weather, and bound to make mischief if
possible. Ernestine turned away from the glass in a moment, and strolled
over to the lounge.
"I don't see," she exclaimed, "why everything should be denied us. I'd
like to live for awhile just as I want to."
No one answered, for just then Kittie threw down her slate, and burst
into impatient tears.
"What's the use! I can't understand such fractions, and I never will;
I'd like to smash that slate, and burn this old book!"
"Doesn't Miss Howard show you?"
"O yes, she shows and shows, and talks and explains, 'till my head spins
like a top; but I can't understand, and after a while she says, in such
a surprised way, as if she thought I was the biggest dummy in the
world--'Why, Kittie, don't you see it yet?' and I don't see it any more
than ink in the dark, but I'm ashamed, so I pretend that I do, and
that's the way it always is," and Kittie cried despairingly.
"How the cheerfulness increases," laughed Ernestine, jumping up. "I'm
going down stairs, and I sha'n't come up again until I can say something
that will please you all. By-by," and away she went, nodding brightly.
The morning wore slowly away. Jean, with a pain in her back, lay in
Bea's arms until she fell asleep again; then after laying her down,
Beatrice went back to her sewing, made patient and penitent by contact
with that frail, peaceful little sister, and, after viewing her
unmanageable puff determinedly for a few minutes, saw her mistake, and
immediately went to work and finished it with no trouble. Kat, after
much grumbling, finally brought her tooth to comparative submission, and
went to sleep, while Kittie fled from the field of fractions, and spent
her morning in the swing, which hung in the shed.
Just before dinner, the door-bell rang, and in a minute Ernestine came
flying up stairs.
"There," she cried, waving a tinted paper. "I've something to please you
with. Just listen:--'Mrs. Richards would be pleased to see Miss Dering,
Miss Ernestine and Miss Olive for tea next Wednesday Eve!' I expect
they'll dance. Won't it be fun?"
"I don't see any use of your waking me up, I'm not invited;" exclaimed
Kat, sinking back on to her pillow, when she found that she was not
included in the coming bliss.
"I hope you didn't expect it, only a child," said Ernestine, as Bea took
the magic paper in great delight.
"Child, indeed!" cried Kat. "I'm tall as you."
"More's the pity, for you're only twelve, and as wild as a boy."
"I don't care; I'm going if mama says so; can't I Bea?"
"Why no; Mrs. Richards didn't ask you."
"What's the difference? She likes me just as well as she does you and
would be just as glad to see me."
"Of course; but girls of twelve are never invited out in the evening,"
expostulated Bea, re-reading the delightful invitation, for events were
rare in Canfield, and then it was so nice to be called "Miss Dering."
"I don't care, I think it's real mean!" and Kat vented her resentment by
punching her pillow into a helpless knot.
"Go, call Olive, Ernestine," continued Bea, all smiles and complacency;
"and just say, by the way, that you're sorry you hurt her feelings; it's
quite the proper thing to do, you know."
"All right," and Ernestine ran down the hall.
"Oh, Olive! come with us; here's an invitation from Mrs. Richards. I'm
sorry I hurt your feelings; come on."
"I don't care for anything that you said, and I've something to think
about besides invitations. Go away, will you?"
"Oh, certainly," and having glibly uttered her penitent speech, Ernestine
cared nothing about its reception, but hurried back to discuss their
dress with Beatrice.
"But mama has not said that we can go," said Bea, caressing the tinted
paper, as she interrupted an enthusiastic speech that was making
Ernestine's eyes glow like diamonds.
"But she will; why shouldn't she? Any how I'm going to believe that she
will, I will wear my silk and my new scarf, and borrow mama's laces for
the sleeves, and her white comb, and jewelry with the bracelets, if she
will loan them;--do you suppose she will?"
"No, I know she won't; she'll think it's too much dress for a young
girl. Wear flowers."
"Nonsense! I won't. I want the jewelry. What will you wear?"
"My cashmere; it's all I've got," and Bea sighed a little, for she did
love to look nice. "The sleeves are dreadfully worn, and the over-skirt
isn't the latest; but it can't be made over again, and I can't afford to
spend a cent."
"Never mind," said Ernestine, who could, and did readily advise what she
disliked to practice. "Brush it up good, put ink over the little hole in
the sleeve, and I'll loop the over-skirt so that it looks later in
style, and loan you my blue bows."
"I suppose you will," returned Bea petulantly, for the temper, though
appeased, was still awake and alert. "You're quick enough to loan me
what you don't want yourself, and to say for me to go in an
old-fashioned dress, with the holes inked up, and no jewelry; when you
want silk and laces, and all the jewelry; you are generous."
"Oh, well, you may have the--the things if she will loan them; don't get
fussy," said Ernestine, not a trifle abashed. "Who do you suppose will
be there?"
"Whoever she invites, I suppose," answered Bea, still ruffled.
"And I expect Dell will be dressed beautifully; oh, dear, how nice it
would be to be rich," sighed Ernestine.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have so much, and others to
have to scrimp and pinch, and then have nothing," cried Bea,
exaggerating her woes, as is usual, when one is determined to think
one's self the worst abused of all mortals. "I wonder if Olive is going,
and how she will dress."
"Just like she always does, I suppose, in that old green, with a big
white collar, and her hair pulled straight back, and as smooth as a
door-knob, no ornaments, and look fierce enough to chew every body up. I
do wonder what Olive is good for anyhow, she isn't any comfort to
anybody," and, as Ernestine spoke, her eyes went slyly over to the
glass, where her pretty attitude in Jean's chair, and the sunshine lying
warm on her hair, were reflected.
Usually, Bea would have taken up her sister's cause, and uttered some
conclusive defence, but now she felt abused, and didn't care much what
was said of anybody, so after a moment, Ernestine went on--
"I wish I knew the 'German,' I'm going to ask Dell to teach me, she does
it beautifully. I think it is so hateful in Olive not to dance, it
spoils a set for us, so that we can never dance quadrilles ourselves."
"I suppose she has a right to do as she pleases," answered Bea,
revelling in the questionable luxury of being as cross as she could. "I
don't care whether mama lets us go or not, I haven't a thing to wear,
and of course if I don't go, you can't."
"Oh, but she will, I'll fix you so pretty, that you'll blush to look at
yourself, and you know Mrs. Richards said last summer, that you looked
like an angel in white, and you may have quillings off my bolt of
footing to put in your basque, and around the pleatings;" and, with
these skilfully thrown in words, Ernestine ran off to look over her
little collection of ribbons and laces, while Bea turned her eyes slowly
to the glass, just as her pretty sister had done a moment before, only
not with such an air of perfect satisfaction.
"How pretty Ernestine is, and even if she is selfish, she's always so
willing to loan things, that any one doesn't think that it's just
because she doesn't happen to want them herself. I hope if Olive does
go, she will fix up a little," and with a sigh Bea turned away from her
reflection, and after covering Jean with a shawl, went down to see if
dinner was not nearly ready.
If they could have seen Olive, they would never needed to have asked if
she was going. All the afternoon she walked slowly up and down her room,
sometimes increasing her gait, as the thoughts crowded and doubled the
deep trouble in her face; and, in her mind was one thought that mastered
every other, and that often formed itself into words and crossed her
lips in a whisper of shivering dread.
"The sixty days are almost gone, and papa has not got the money! What
will he do? oh! what will he do?"
Being with him constantly in the store, Olive saw, what he struggled to
hide from those at home,--the utter despair that was mastering a patient
hope;--and she knew that as the days went so swiftly by, that to him,
the end was growing more certain. Once she saw him eagerly tear open a
letter, and after reading a few lines, drop his head on his hands, and,
unconscious of her nearness, groan despairingly. It weighed on her mind
terribly, and her great desire to be of help, faced by the fact of her
perfect inability, made her almost desperate, at times.
Beatrice spent the afternoon in fussing with her dress, and Ernestine in
watching for her mother, who was spending the day with a sick friend, so
as she was still absent, when the tea-bell rang, the meal was rather
gloomy; for the three older girls were busy with thoughts; Kat's tooth
still ached, Kittie had caught cold, and their resentment at not being
included in the invitation, being mutual, they devoted themselves
exclusively to each other, and Jean dismayed at the unusual silence, ate
her bread and milk with a pathetic air of loneliness, quite touching.
"Ernestine, won't you sing just a little something," she asked, as they
went into the sitting-room, where the fire burned low. "It's _so_
lonesome without mama, when you're all so still. Seems to me everything
has gone wrong all day, what's the matter?"
"Everybody's in the blues, it's in the air," laughed Ernestine, sitting
down to the piano, and skimming the keys. "Sit down chickie, and I'll
sing 'Three Fishers.'"
Jean curled in a chair, with a pleased smile, and Ernestine began the
plaintive song, with the firelight flitting over her face, showing that
she sang with more feeling than usual.
"For men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner 'tis over, the sooner to sleep."
The door-bell rang just there, and made them jump, then Bea went to the
door, for though quite dark, it was not seven yet.
A man stood just outside, a stranger, and as Bea opened the door with no
light, but the fire from the sitting-room, he did not seem to know what
to say.
"Is Mrs. Dering here,--that is,--is she home?"
"No, she is not, but will you come in, perhaps I will do," answered Bea,
peering beyond him, and starting, as she caught the outline of other
figures on the steps.
"I do not think you will, I,--in fact we,--" and there he paused, and
looked behind him, and a vague chilling alarm struck Bea, and made her
voice tremble as she asked--
"Is it anything so particular, any----,"
"Bad news," he said, as she hesitated. "Yes Miss,--Dering, I presume, I
do bring bad news, your father----;"
Ernestine stood in the sitting-room door, and as the words were uttered,
she saw Bea rush out, heard a faint scream, and a strange voice say,
"catch her, she's falling;" then there came a tramp of feet across the
porch, and four men crossed the hall, and came into the room with a
strange burden; a rude litter, with a motionless figure on a mattress!
Bea had fainted, for she had followed it, but as the men set their
burden down with pitying faces, there came a shrill scream and a fall,
for Ernestine dropped to the floor, and Jean continued to scream with
her face hid. The three girls from up stairs came flying down, Huldah
ran from the kitchen, and in the dire confusion, the strangers stood,
not knowing what to do, or whom to address, for every one seemed to have
lost self-possession in the overwhelming shock. So thought the gentleman
who seemed to be leader, but at that minute a hand touched his arm, and
a voice startlingly hushed, asked: "Is he _dead_?"
"He is, madam."
A spasm of pain crossed her set-white face, as her lips opened slowly,
and the next question came with a gasp of dread:
"By--by his own hand?"
"Oh, no, madam, no indeed," cried the gentleman eagerly, glad to give
that relief. "He was on the train going down to the city, which was
wrecked twenty miles this side of it. His death was instant and
painless, a blow on the left temple."
"Thank God!"
She uttered it slowly, and almost below her breath, then lifted her eyes
from the peaceful face so life-like in death, and looked around the
room. Ernestine lay moaning on the lounge, Kittie and Kat locked in each
others arms crouched in the corner, tearless, because paralyzed with
fright, Jean shook as with a spasm in Bea's lap, while Huldah stood by
the lounge, with her apron over her head; and the men stood hushed and
abashed with their eyes down.
"Take Jean out," Olive said again in that strange still voice. "Huldah
carry Ernestine to her room, and Kittie, you and Kat go out to the steps
and watch for mama."
How instantly they all obeyed her, as though recognizing one with
authority, and how curiously the gentleman scanned her stonily white
face, so worn in this brief moment of suffering, and listened to her
last words with wonder.
"Then you are not Mrs. Dering?"
"No!" Olive did not seem surprised at the question, but her eyes went to
his face slowly, and her lips began to twitch. "How will we ever tell
her; oh! how will we?" she murmured, clasping her hands tightly; but the
stranger heard the low words, and spoke hurriedly, with his eyes on the
dead face.
"If you are expecting her, some one had better go to prepare her, for
the shock might prove----"
Olive did not wait for more, but snatching a shawl from the chair,
saying as she vanished:
"I will go, only stay 'till we come back."
The moon was coming slowly through a bank of clouds, and the wind
sighing mournfully through the bare treetops, as she sped swiftly down
the path and through the gate, whose familiar slam sounded dreary and
dull, though it hardly reached her, as she ran down the quiet street.
In just a few minutes she saw another figure wearing a familiar shawl in
the moonlight.
"Why, Olive," cried Mrs. Dering. "Were you all worried about me. Mr.
Dane wanted to walk home with me, but I told him I would stop at the
store for papa, and when I got there, the boy told me he had taken the
afternoon train to the city; some sudden business I suppose. Why dear,
how you have run!"
"Oh, mama!" it was Olive's only utterance, but it told its own story,
for Mrs. Dering instantly grasped the hand held out to her and inquired
sharply:
"What is it, quick,--any trouble at home?"
"Yes,"--gaspingly.
"What,--I heard them talking of an accident,--Oh! Olive!"
"Papa," said Olive, growing calm as she saw her mother blanch and
tremble in the pale light; but Mrs. Dering waited for no more; grasping
Olive's hand still tighter, she broke into a swift run, that did not
slacken, until the steps were reached, and the sobbing within reached
their ears; then Olive forcibly held her back an instant.
"Oh, mama,--wait,--let me tell you,--"
"No,--he is dead, I know it;" and breaking from the detaining hold, Mrs.
Dering ran in, and when Olive reached the door, she was kneeling beside
the litter, with one dead hand pressed to her hidden face.
In a moment they knew that she was praying, and feeling in the presence
of something sacred, each man bent his head reverently, and covering her
face, Olive too, tried to pray, and shed her first tears.