A DOUBLE KNOT.
THE next few days in the High Valley were too full of excitement and
discussions to be quite comfortable for anybody. Imogen was seized with
compunctions at leaving Lionel without a housekeeper, and proposed to
Dorry that their wedding should be deferred till the others were ready
to be married also,--a suggestion to which Dorry would not listen for a
moment. There were long business-talks between the ranch partners as to
hows and whens, letters to be written, and innumerable confabulations
between the three sisters, in which Imogen took part, for she counted as
a fourth sister now. Clover and Elsie listened and planned and advised,
and found their chief difficulty to consist in hiding and keeping in the
background their unfeigned and flattering joy over the whole
arrangement. It made matters so delightfully easy all round to have
Imogen engaged to Dorry, and it was so much to their own individual
advantage to exchange her for Johnnie that they really dared not express
their delight too openly.
The great question with all was how papa would take the announcement,
and whether he could be induced to carry out his half promise of leaving
Burnet and coming to live with them in the Valley. They waited anxiously
for his reply to the letters. It came by telegraph two days before they
had dared to hope for it, and was as follows:--
God bless you all four! Genesis xliii. 14.
P. CARR.
This Biblical addition nearly broke John's heart. Her sisters had to
comfort her with all manner of hopeful auguries and promises.
"He'll be glad enough over it in time," they told her. "Think what it
would have been if you had been going to marry a Californian, or a man
with an orange plantation in Florida. He'll see that it's all for the
best as soon as he gets out here, and he _must_ come. Johnnie, you must
never let him off. Don't take 'no' for an answer. It is so important to
us all that he should consent."
They primed her with persuasive messages and arguments, and both Clover
and Elsie wrote him a long letter on the subject. On the very eve of the
departure came a second telegram. Telegrams were not every-day things in
the High Valley, the nearest "wire" being at the Ute Hotel five miles
away; and the arrival of the messenger on horseback created a momentary
panic.
This telegram was also from Dr. Carr. It was addressed to Johnnie,--
Following just received: "Miss Inches died to-day
of pneumonia." No particulars.
P. CARR.
It was a great shock to poor Johnnie. She and "Mamma Marian," as she
still called her god-mother, had been warm friends always; they
corresponded regularly; Johnnie had made her several long visits at
Inches Mills, and she had written to her among the first with the news
of her engagement.
"She never got it. She never will know about Lionel," she kept repeating
mournfully. "And now I can never tell her about any of my plans, and she
would have been so pleased and interested. She always cared so much for
what I cared about, and I hoped she would come out here for a long visit
some day, and see you all. Oh dear, oh dear! what a sad ending to our
happy time!"
"Not an ending, only an interruption," put in the comforting Clover. But
John for a time could not be consoled, and the party broke up under a
cloud, literal as well as metaphorical, for the first snow-storm was
drifting over the plain as they drove down the pass, the melting flakes
instantly drunk up by the sand; all the soft blue of distance had
vanished, and a gray mist wrapped the mountain tops. The High Valley was
in temporary eclipse, its brightness and sparkle put by for the moment.
But nothing could long eclipse the sunshine of such youthful hearts and
hopes. Before long John's letters grew cheerful again, and presently she
wrote to announce a wonderful piece of news.
"Something very strange has happened," she began. "I am an heiress! It
is just like the girls in books! Yesterday came a letter from a firm of
lawyers in Boston with a long document enclosed. It was an extract from
Mamma Marian's will; and only think,--she has left me a legacy of thirty
thousand dollars! Dear thing! and she never knew about my engagement
either, or how wonderfully it was going to help in our plans. She just
did it because she loved me. 'To Joanna Inches Carr, my namesake and
child by affection,' the will says; and I think it pleases me as much as
having the money. That frightens me a little, it seems so much. At first
I did not like to take it, and felt as if I might be robbing some one
else; but papa says that she had no very near relations, and that I need
not hesitate. Oh, my darling Clover, is it not wonderful? Now Lion and
I need not wait two years, unless _he_ prefers it, and can just go on
and make our plans happily to suit ourselves and all of you,--and I
shall love to think that we owe it all to dear Mamma Marian; only it
will be a sore spot always that she never got the letter telling of our
engagement. It came just after she died, and they returned it to me.
"Ned has his orders at last. He goes to sea in April, and Katy writes to
papa that she will come and spend a year with him if he likes, while Ned
is away. But papa won't be here. He has quite decided, I think, to leave
Burnet and make his home for the future with us in the High Valley.
Three different physicians have already offered to buy out his practice,
and it is arranged that Dorry shall rent the old house of him, and the
furniture too, except the books and a few special things which papa
wishes to keep. He is going to write to you about the building of what
he is pleased to call 'a separate shanty;' but please don't let the
shanty be really separate; he must be in with all of us somehow, or we
shall never be satisfied. Did Lionel decide to move the Hutlet? Of
course Katy will spend her year in the Valley instead of Burnet. I am
beginning to get my little trousseau together, and have set up a
'wedding bureau' to put the things in; but it is no fun at all without
any sisters at home to help and sympathize. I am the only one who has
had to get ready to be married all by herself. If Katy were not coming
in two months I should be quite desperate. The chief thing on my mind is
how to arrange about the two weddings with the family so scattered as it
is."
This difficulty was settled by Clover a little later. Both the weddings
she proposed should take place in the Valley.
"It is a case of Mahomet and mountain," she wrote. "Look at it
dispassionately. You and papa and Katy and Dorry have got to come out
here any way,--the rest of us _are_ here; and it is clearly impossible
that all of us should go on to Burnet to see you married,--though if
you persist some of us will, inconvenient and expensive as it would be.
But just consider what a picturesque and romantic place the Valley is
for a wedding, with the added advantage that you would be absolutely the
first people who were ever married in it since the creation of the
world! I won't say what may happen in the remote future, for Rose Red
writes that she is going to change its name and call it henceforward
'The Ararat Valley,' not only because it contains 'a few souls, that is
eight,' but also because all the creatures who go into it seem to enter
pell-mell and come out two by two in pairs. You will inaugurate the long
procession at all events! Do please think seriously of this, dear John.
'Consider, cow, consider,--' and write me that you consent.
"We are building papa the most charming little bungalow ever seen,--a
big library and two bedrooms, one for himself and one to spare. It is
just off the southwest corner, and a little covered way connects it with
our piazza; for we are quite decided that he is to take his meals with
us and not have the bother of independent housekeeping. Then if you
decide to put _your_ bungalow on the other side of his, as we hope you
will, we shall all be close together. Lion will do nothing about the
building till you come. You are to stay on indefinitely with us, and
oversee the whole thing yourself from the driving of the first nail. We
will all help, and won't it be fun?
"There is something very stately and comforting in the idea of a
'resident physician.' Elsie declares that now Phillida may have croup or
any other infant disease she likes, and I sha'n't lie awake at night to
wonder what we should do in case Geoffey was thrown from the burro and
broke a bone. I am not sure but we may yet attain to the dignity of a
'resident pastor' as well, for Geoff has decided not to move the Hutlet,
but leave it as it is, putting in a little simple furniture, and offer
it from time to time to some invalid clergyman who needs Colorado air
and would be glad to spend a few months in the Valley. Who knows but it
may grow some day into a little church? Then indeed we should have a
small world of our own, with the learned professions all represented;
for of course Phil by that time will be qualified to do our law for us,
in case we quarrel and require writs and replevins or habeas corpuses,
or any last wills and testaments drawn up.
"I have begun on new curtains for Katy's room already, and Elsie and I
have all manner of beautiful projects for the weddings. Now Johnnie
darling, write at once and say that you agree to this plan. It really
does seem a perfect one for everybody. The time must of course depend on
when Dorry can get his leave, but we will be all ready whenever it
comes."
Clover's arguments were unanswerable, and every one gradually gave in to
the plan which she had so much at heart. Dorry got a fortnight's
holiday, beginning on the 15th of June; so the twentieth was fixed as
the day for the double wedding, and the preparations went merrily on.
Early in May Katy arrived in Burnet; and after that Johnnie had no need
to complain of being unsistered, for Katy was a host in herself, and
gave all her time to helping everybody. She sewed and finished, she
packed and advised, she assisted to box her father's books, and went
with Dorry to choose the new papers and rugs which were to make the old
house freshly bright for Imogen; she exclaimed and rejoiced over each
wedding present that arrived, and supplied that sweet atmosphere of
mutual interest and sympathy which is the vital breath of a family
occasion. All was ready in time; the old home was in exact and perfect
order for its new mistress, the good-bys were said, and on the morning
of the fifteenth the party started for Colorado.
Quite a little group waited for them on the platform of the St. Helen's
station three days later. Lionel had of course come in to meet his
bride, and Imogen her bridegroom; and Geoff had come, and Clover, to
meet her father and Katy, and Phil was also in waiting. It was truly a
wonderful moment when the train drew up, and Johnnie, all beautiful in
smiles and dimples, encountered Lionel; while Dorry jumped out to greet
Imogen, who was in blooming health again, and very pleased to see him.
"We have brought the two carryalls," Clover explained. "Geoff got a new
one the other day, that the means of transportation may keep pace with
the increase of population, as he says. I think, Geoff, we will put the
brides and bridegrooms together in the new one. Then the 'echoes' from
the back seat can mix with the 'echoes' from the front seat; and it will
be as good as the East Canyon, and they will all feel at home."
So it was arranged, and the party started.
"Katy," cried Clover, looking at her sister with eyes that seemed to
drink her in, "I had forgotten quite how dear you are! It seems to me
that you have grown handsome, my child; or is it only that you are a
little fatter?"
"I am afraid the latter," replied Katy, with a laugh. "No one but Ned
was ever so deluded as to call me handsome."
"Where is Ned? It is such a _shame_ that he can't be here,--the only one
of the family missing!"
"He is on his way to China," said Katy, with a little suppressed sigh.
"Yes, it is too bad; but it can't be helped. Naval orders are like time
and tide, and wait for no man, and most of all for no woman." She paused
a moment, and changed the subject abruptly. "Did I tell you," she asked,
"that after I broke up at Newport I went to Rose for a week?"
"Johnnie wrote that you were to go."
"It was such a bright week! Boston was beautiful, as it always is in
spring, with the Public Garden a blaze of flowers, and all the pretty
country about so green and sweet! Rose was most delightful; and I saw
ever so many of the old Hillsover girls, and even had a glimpse of Mrs.
Nipson!"
"That must have been rather a bad joy."
"N--o, not exactly. I was rather glad, on the whole, to meet her again.
She isn't as bad as we made her out. School-girls are almost always
unjust to their teachers."
"Oh, come, now," said Clover, making a little face. "This is a happy
occasion, certainly, and I am in a benignant frame of mind, but really I
can't stand having you so horridly charitable. 'There is no virtue,
madam, in a mush of concession.' Mrs. Nipson was an unpleasant old
thing,--so there! Let us talk of something else. Tell me about your
visit to Cousin Helen."
"Oh, that was a sweet visit all through. I stayed ten days, and she was
better than usual, it seemed to me. Did I write about little Helen's
ball?"
"No."
"She is just nineteen, and it was her first dance. Such a pretty
creature, and so pleased and excited about it! and Cousin Helen was
equally so. She gave Helen her dress complete, down to the satin shoes,
and the fan and the long gloves, and a turquoise necklace, and turquoise
pins for her hair. You never saw anything so charming as the way in
which she enjoyed it. You would have supposed that Helen was her own
child, as she lay on the sofa, with such bright beaming eyes, while the
pretty thing turned round and round to exhibit her finery."
"There certainly never was any one like Cousin Helen. She is embodied
sympathy," said Clover. "Now, Katy, I want you to look. We are just
turning into our own road."
It was a radiant afternoon, with long, soft shadows alternating with
golden sunshine, and the High Valley was at its very best as they slowly
climbed the zigzag pass. With every turn and winding Katy's pleasure
grew; and when they rounded the last curve, and came in sight of the
little group of buildings, with their picturesque background of forest
and the splendid peak soaring above, she exclaimed with delight:--
"What a perfect situation! Clover, you never said enough about it!
Surely the half was not told me, as the Queen of Sheba remarked! Oh, and
there is Elsie on the porch, and that thing in white beside her is
Phillida! I never dreamed she could be so large! How glad I am that I
didn't die of measles when I was little, as dear Rose Red used to say."
Katy's coming was the crowning pleasure of the occasion to all, but most
of all to Clover. To have her most intimate sister in her own home, and
be able to see her every day and all day long, and consult and advise
and lay before her the hopes and intentions and desires of her heart,
which she could never so fully share with any one else, except Geoff,
was a delight which never lost its zest, and of which Clover never grew
weary.
To settle Dr. Carr in his new quarters was another pleasure, in which
they all took equal part. When his books and microscopes were unpacked,
and the Burnet belongings arranged pretty much in their old order, the
rooms looked wonderfully homelike, even to him. The children soon
learned to adore him, as children always had done; the only trouble was
that they fought for the possession of his knee, and would never
willingly have left him a moment for himself. His leisure had to be
protected by a series of nursery laws and penances, or he would never
have had any; but he said he liked the children better than the leisure.
He was born to be a grandfather; nobody told stories like him, or knew
so well how to please and pacify and hit the taste of little people.
But all this, of course, came subsequently to the double wedding, which
took place two days after the arrival of the home-party. The morning of
the twentieth was unusually fine, even for Colorado,--fair, cloudless,
and golden bright, as if ordered for the occasion,--without a cloud on
the sky from dawn to sunset. The ceremony was performed by a clergyman
from Portland, who with his invalid wife were settled in the Hutlet for
the summer, very glad of the pleasant little home offered them, and to
escape from the crowd and confusion of Mrs. Marsh's boarding-house,
where Geoff had found them. Two or three particular friends drove out
from St. Helen's; but with that exception the whole wedding was
"valley-made," as Elsie declared, including delicious raspberry
ice-cream, and an enormous cake, over which she and Clover had expended
much time and thought, and which, decorated with emblematical designs in
icing and wreathed with yucca-blossoms, stood in the middle of the
table.
The ceremony took place at noon precisely, when, as Phil facetiously
observed, "the shadows of the high contracting parties could never be
less." There was little that was formal about it, but much that was
reverent and sweet and full of true feeling. Imogen and Johnnie had both
agreed to wear white muslin dresses, very much such dresses as they
were all accustomed to wear on afternoons; but Imogen had on her head
her mother's wedding-veil, which had been sent out from England, and
John wore Katy's, "for luck," as she said. Both carried a big bouquet of
Mariposa lilies, and the house was filled with the characteristic
wild-flowers of the region most skilfully and effectively grouped and
arranged.
A hospitably hearty luncheon followed the ceremony, of which all
partook; then Imogen went away to put on her pretty travelling-suit of
pale brown, and the carry-all came round to take Mr. and Mrs. Theodore
Carr to St. Helen's, which was the first stage on their journey of life.
The whole party stood on the porch to see them go. Imogen's last word
and embrace were for Clover.
"We are sisters now," she whispered. "I belong to you just as much as
Isabel does, and I am so glad that I do! Dear Clover, you have been more
good to me than I can say, and I shall never forget it."
"Nonsense about being good! You are my Dorry's wife now, and our own
dear sister. There is no question about goodness,--only to love one
another."
She kissed Imogen warmly, and helped her into the carriage. Dorry sprang
after her; the wheels revolved; and Phil, seizing a horseshoe which hung
ready to hand on the wall of the house, flung it after the departing
vehicle.
"It's more appropriate than any other sort of old shoe for this Place of
Hoofs," he observed. "Well, the Carr family are certainly pretty well
disposed of now. I am 'the last ungathered rose on my ancestral tree.' I
wonder who will tear me from my stem!"
"You can afford to hang on a while longer," remarked Elsie. "I don't
consider you fairly expanded yet, by any means. You'll be twice as well
worth gathering a few years from now."
"Oh, very fine!--years indeed! Why, I shall be a seedy old bachelor!
That would never do! And Amy Ashe, whom I have had in my eye ever since
she was in pinafores, will be married to some other fellow!"
"Don't set your heart on Amy," said Katy. "She's not seventeen yet; and
I don't think her mother has any idea of having her made into Ashes of
Roses so early!"
"There's no harm in having a girl in one's eye," retorted Phil,
disconsolately. "I declare, you all look so contented and so satisfied
with yourselves and one another, that it's enough to madden a fellow,
left out, as I am, in the cold! I shall go back to St. Helen's with Dr.
and Mrs. Hope."
The others, left to themselves in their happy loneliness, gathered
together in the big room after the last guest had gone. Geoff touched a
match to the ready-laid fire; Clover wheeled an armchair forward for her
father, and sat down beside him with her arm on his knee; John and
Lionel took possession of a big sofa.
"Now let us enjoy ourselves," said Clover. "The world is shut out, we
are shut in; there are none to molest and make us afraid; and, please
Heaven, there is a whole, long, happy year before us! I never did
suppose anything so perfectly perfect could happen to us all as this.
Now, papa,--dear papa,--just say that you like it as much as we all do."
Elsie perched herself on the arm of her father's chair; Katy stood
behind, stroking his hair. Dr. Carr held out his hand to Johnnie, who
ran across the room, knelt down, caught it in both hers, and fondly laid
her cheek upon it.
"I like it _quite_ as much as you do," he said. "Where my girls are is
the place for me; and I am going to be the most contented old gentleman
in America for the rest of my days."
THE END
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fruitful of devices to help him along, even having
an auction of the pretty things that had been
given her from time to time, and realizing a neat
little sum. Then her father was accused of
peculation; and she, sweetly ignorant of the ways
of justice, went to the judge and labored with
him, to no effect, though he was wondrous kind.
Then in court she gave just the wrong evidence,
because it showed how poor her father was, and so
established a presumption of his great necessity
and desperation. But the _Deus ex machina_--the
wicked partner--arrived at the right moment, and
owned up, and the good father was cleared, and
little Daughter Dorothy was made glad. But this
meagre summary gives but a poor idea of the ins
and outs of this charming story, and no idea of
the happy way in which it is told.--_Christian
Register._
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.
_By the Author of "Jolly Good Times."_
THEIR CANOE TRIP.
By MARY P. W. SMITH,
AUTHOR OF THE "BROWNS."
[Illustration]
A story founded on the actual experiences of two Roxbury boys, during
canoe trip on the Concord, Merrimac, Piscataquog, and other rivers.
_16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.25._
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
PRINCE VANCE.
=A Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box.= By ELEANOR
PUTNAM and ARLO BATES. Illustrated by Frank Myrick.
[Illustration]
_"Prince Vance" is an Entertaining Fairy Story of the wildest and most
fantastic adventures and of amusing and original impossibilities, which,
however, carry with them a stern puritan moral. This allegiance of
unfettered imagination and straightforward, wholesome, moral teaching is
unusual, and gives the little book a special value._
Small 4to. Cloth gilt. Price, $1.50.
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
FLIPWING, THE SPY.
=A Story for Children.=
BY LILY F. WESSELHOEFT,
_Author of "Sparrow, the Tramp," "The Winds, the Woods, and
the Wanderer," etc._
[Illustration]
The story represents the action of certain animals, the characters of
which are depicted in accordance with their natures and the exigencies
of the story. The object is to cultivate the love of animal nature,
which most children feel, and especially for such creatures as bats,
toads and others, which children are often improperly taught to regard
with disgust. The human characters introduced talk and act naturally,
and the book will be found very entertaining to young people.
_16mo. Cloth. Price. $1.25._
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
_Uniform with "The Joyous Story of Toto."_
[Illustration]
TOTO'S MERRY WINTER.
BY LAURA E. RICHARDS.
With Illustrations. 16mo. Price, $1.25.
ROBERTS BROTHERS, _Publishers_, BOSTON.
NONSENSE BOOKS.
[Illustration: "THERE WAS AN OLD DERRY DOWN DERRY," ETC.]
By EDWARD LEAR.
COMPRISING
"A BOOK OF NONSENSE,"
"NONSENSE SONGS, STORIES," ETC.
"MORE NONSENSE PICTURES, RHYMES," ETC.
"LAUGHABLE LYRICS," ETC.
With all the original illustrations. In one square 16mo volume. Handsome
cloth. Price, $2.00.
* * * * *
ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers.
BOSTON
SUSAN COOLIDGE'S POPULAR BOOKS.
[Illustration]
NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN.
By SUSAN COOLIDGE, author of "What Katy Did," "The
Barberry Bush," "A Guernsey Lily," etc. 16mo.
Cloth. Illustrated. Price, $1.25
* * * * *
ROBERTS BROTHERS. PUBLISHERS, BOSTON, MASS.
Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications.
NELLY'S SILVER MINE.
BY H. H.
With Illustrations. 16mo, cloth. Price $1.50.
"The sketches of life, especially of its odd and
out-of-the-way aspects, by H. H. always possess so
vivid a reality that they appear more like the
actual scenes than any copy by pencil or
photograph. They form a series of living pictures,
radiant with sunlight and fresh as morning dew. In
this new story the fruits of her fine genius are
of Colorado growth, and though without the antique
flavor of her recollections of Rome and Venice,
are as delicious to the taste as they are tempting
to the eye, and afford a natural feast of
exquisite quality."--_N. Y. Tribune._
"This charming little book, written for children's
entertainment and instruction, is equally
delightful to the fathers and mothers. It is life
in New England, and the racy history of a long
railway journey to the wilds of Colorado. The
children are neither imps nor angels, but just
such children as are found in every happy home.
The pictures are so graphically drawn that we feel
well acquainted with Rob and Nelly, have travelled
with them and climbed mountains and found silver
mines, and know all about the rude life made
beautiful by a happy family, and can say of Nelly,
with their German neighbor, Mr. Kleesman, 'Ach
well, she haf better than any silver mine in her
own self.'"--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
"In 'Nelly's Silver Mine' Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson
has given us a true classic for the nursery and
the school-room, but its readers will not be
confined to any locality. Its vivid portraiture of
Colorado life and its truth to child-nature give
it a charm which the most experienced cannot fail
to feel. It will stand by the side of Miss
Edgeworth and Mrs. Barbauld in all the years to
come."--_Mrs. Caroline H. Dall._
"We heartily commend the book for its healthy
spirit, its lively narrative, and its freedom from
most of the faults of books for
children."--_Atlantic Monthly._
* * * * *
_Our publications are to be had of all Booksellers. When not to be
found, send directly to_
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 69, word "in" inserted into text (For in spite of)
Page 138, word "to" inserted into text (sit next to you)
Page 237, "daguerrotype" changed to "daguerreotype" (Grandpapa Carr's
daguerreotype)
Varied hyphenation was retained. This includes:
bedroom bed-room
carryall carry-all
homesick home-sick
housekeeping house-keeping
pigtail pig-tail
postpaid post-paid
straightforward straight-forward
zigzag zig-zag