A VALLEY IN THE MOUNTAINS.
High up among the emerald breasted hills,
There lay a village, cradled in their green.
Surrounded by such loveliness as thrills
The poetry within us--and the sheen
Of a broad river kissed the mountain's foot
Where stately hemlocks found primeval root.
Judge Sharp's carriage stopped in front of a noble mansion near the
centre of the village. I think it must have been one of the oldest
houses in the place. But modern improvements had so transfigured and
beautified it, that it bore the aspect of a noble suburban villa,
rather than a mountain residence. The roof lifted in a pointed gable,
and supported by brackets, shot several feet over the front, resting
on a row of tall, slender columns which formed a noble portico along
the entire front.
In order to leave the first family homestead ever built in those
mountains entire in its simple architecture, this portico shaded the
double row of windows first introduced into the dwelling; and the main
building remained entire within and without, as it had been left years
before by its primitive architect. But modern wings had been united to
the old building on the left and in the rear pointed with gables, and
so interspersed with chimneys that the whole mass formed a gothic
exterior singular and beautiful as it was picturesque.
Noble old trees, maple, elm and ash, shaded the green lawn which fell
far back from the house, terminating on one side in a fine fruit
orchard bending with ripened peaches and purple plums, and broken up
on the south by a flower-garden gorgeous with late summer blossoms,
shaded with grape arbors and clumps of mountain ash, all flushed and
red with berries.
This noble garden lost itself in the deep green of an apple orchard
full of singing birds. The waters of a mountain brook came leaping
down from the broken hills beyond, and gleamed through the thick
foliage, mingling their sweet perpetual chime with the rising breath
of that little wilderness of flowers.
This was the dwelling at which Judge Sharp's carriage stopped. It
seemed like a Paradise to the little girls, who longed to get out and
enjoy a full view of its beauties from the lawn. But Mrs. Farnham was
a guest, for the time; and well disposed to use her privileges, she
refused to descend, though hospitably pressed, and seemed to think the
few moments required by the Judge to enter his own home, an
encroachment on her rights and privileges.
But the Judge cared little for this, and was far more engaged with a
venerable old house-dog, toothless, grey and dim-eyed, who arose from
his sunny nook upon the grass, and came soberly down to welcome his
master, than he was with the lady's discontent.
"Ha, Carlo, always on hand, old fellow," he said, patting the grizzly
head of his old favorite, "glad to see me, ha!"
Carlo looked up through his dim eyes and gave a feeble whine, which,
in his young days, would have been a deep-mouthed bay of welcome.
Then, with grave dignity, he tottered onward by his master's side,
escorted him up to the entrance door, and lay down in a sunny spot
which broke through the honeysuckle branches on the balcony, satisfied
by the soft rush of feet and the glad female voices within, that his
master was in good hands.
"I wonder," said Mrs. Farnham, leaning back with an air of ineffable
disgust, and talking to no one in particular--"I wonder how the Judge
can allow that old brute to prowl after him in that manner, but there
is no medium in some people. I'm sure if he were at my house I would
have him shot before morning--laying down on the portico indeed!"
"But he seems so glad," said Mary Fuller, struck with a thrill of
sympathy for the dog, rendered repulsive to that silly woman by his
age, as she was by her homeliness.
"Isn't it the duty of every ugly thing to be still?" replied Mrs.
Farnham, casting a look of feeble spite at the child. "But the Judge
has a fancy for uncouth pets."
"Perhaps because they feel kindness so much," answered Mary, in a
trembling voice.
"Indeed!" drawled the lady; "then I wish he would be kind enough to
send us on. This tiresome waiting, when one is worn out and half
famished, is too much."
Just then the Judge appeared at the front door cheerful and smiling,
and, in the shaded background of the hall, two fair forms were
visible, hovering near, as if reluctant to part with him again so
soon.
"Not quite out of patience, I hope?" he said, leaning into the
carriage, while the ladies of his family came forth with offers of
hospitality. But Mrs. Farnham muttered something about fatigue, dust,
and the strong desire she had to see her own home--a desire in which
the ladies soon heartily, but silently, joined, for it needed only a
first sentence to convince them that the interesting widow would make
but a sorry acquisition to the neighborhood.
"Then, if you absolutely insist, madam, the next best thing is to
proceed," cried Enoch Sharp, and, springing into his seat, he waved an
adieu to his family, and the rather reluctant horses proceeded briskly
down the street.
The river which we have mentioned, skirted the village with its bright
waters; two or three fine manufacturing buildings stood back from its
banks, and, having supplied them with its sparkling strength, it swept
on wildly as before, curving and deepening between its green or rocky
banks with low, pleasant murmurs, like a troop of children let loose
from school.
The highway ran along its banks, sometimes divided from the waters by
clumps of hoary old hemlocks, that had escaped the axe from their
isolation perhaps, and again separated only by thickets of wild
blackberries and mountain shrubs.
As they proceeded the hills crowded down close to the highway, that
ran along the steep banks of the river; here the stream rushed on with
fresh impetuosity, and gathering up its waves in a sudden curve of the
channel, leaped down the valley in one of the most beautiful
waterfalls you ever saw.
"Oh, one minute; do, do stop one minute," cried Mary, as the broad
crescent of the fall flashed before her. "Isabel, Isabel, did you ever
see any thing like that?"
"Really, Judge, your pet is very forward, and so tiresome," said Mrs.
Farnham, gazing down upon the waters with a weak sneer; "one would
think she had never seen a mill-dam before."
This sent the poor child back to her corner again. But Mrs. Farnham
had struck the Judge on a sensitive point when she sneered at that
beautiful crescent-shaped fall, rolling in a sheet of crystal over its
native rocks, the sparkling waters all in sunshine; the still basin
beneath, green with stilly shadows cast over it from masses of tall
trees that crowded around the brink.
"Madam," he said, "that mill-dam made its channel when the hills
around had their first foundation. You must not find fault with the
workmanship, for God himself made it."
"Indeed, you surprise me," cried the lady, taking out her glass and
leaning forward, "I really supposed it must be the result of some of
those logging bees that we hear of in these back settlements. I quite
long to witness something of the kind; it must be gratifying, Judge,
to see your peasantry enjoy themselves on these rustic occasions."
"My peasantry," laughed the Judge, as much ashamed of the angry
feelings with which his last speech had been given, as if he had been
caught whipping a lap-dog--"my constituents, you mean."
"Oh, yes, of course, I mean anything that you call that sort of
people--constituents, is it?"
"My wife and I call that sort of people neighbors."
"Indeed," cried Mrs. Farnham, dropping her glass and leaning back as
one who bends beneath a sudden blow; "I thought you were to be _my_
neighbors."
"If you will permit us," said the Judge, laughing; "but here is your
house, and there stands the housekeeper ready to receive you."
Mrs. Farnham brightened, and began to gather up her shawl and
embroidered satchel, like one who was becoming weary of her
companions.
"This is really very nice," she said, looking up to the huge square
building lifted from the road by half a dozen terraces, and crowned
with a tall cupola; "depend on it, I shall make it quite a Paradise,
Judge. I'm glad it's out of sight of your mill--your waterfall--I hate
sounds that never stop."
"How she must hate her own pattering voice," thought the Judge, as he
helped the lady in her descent from the carriage.
"And the housekeeper, I thought she was here."
"And so I am, ma'am," answered a slight, little woman, with a freckled
complexion, and immense quantities of red hair gathered back of her
head in the fangs of a huge comb that had been fashionable twenty-five
years before; "been a-waiting at that identical front door full on to
an hour, expecting you every minet; but better late than never. You're
welcome, ma'am, as scraps to a beggar's basket."
It was laughable--the look of indignant astonishment with which the
widow regarded her housekeeper, as in the simple honesty of her heart
she uttered this welcome.
"And pray, who engaged you to take charge here? Could no more suitable
person be found?"
"Who engaged me, ma'am, me? why I grew up here--never was engaged in
my hull life, and never will be till men are more worth having."
"But how came you here as my housekeeper?"
"Well, sort of nat'rally, ma'am, as children take the measles; bein'
as I was in the house, I just let 'em call me what they're a mind to;
hain't quite got used to the name yet, but it'll soon fit on with
practice. Come, now, walk in, and make yourself to home."
All the time Mrs. Farnham had been standing by the carriage, with her
shawl and travelling satchel on one arm. She refused to surrender them
to Enoch Sharp, and stood swelling with indignation because the
housekeeper did not offer to relieve her. She might as well have
expected the cupola to descend from its roof, as any of these menial
attentions from Salina Bowles, who possessed very original ideas of
her duties as a housekeeper.
"Gracious me! I hadn't the least notion that you had children along!"
cried the good woman, totally oblivious of Mrs. Farnham's flushed
face, and pressing closely up to the carriage.
"But allow me to hope that you will grant permission, now that they
have come!" said the widow with an attempt at biting satire, which
Salina received in solemn good faith.
"It ain't the custom hereabouts to turn any thing out of doors, ma'am,
expected or not; and I calcurlate there'll be room in the house for a
young 'un or two if they ain't over noisy. Come, little gal, give a
jump, and let's see how spry you are."
Isabel obeyed, and impelled by Miss Bowles' vigorous arm, made a
swinging leap out of the carriage.
"Gracious sakes, but she's as hornsome as a pictur, ain't she though?
Not your own darter, marm. I calcurlate."
The flush deepened on the widow's face, and she began to bite her
nether lip furiously, a sure sign that rage was approaching to white
heat with her. For occasionally Mrs. Farnham found it difficult to
retain a just medium, when her temper was up.
"Come, child, move on, let us go into the house, if this woman will
get out of the way and permit us"---
"Out of the way, goodness knows I ain't in it by a long chance," cried
Salina, waving her hand toward the house; "as for permitting, why the
path is open straight to the front door; and the house just as much
yours as it is mine, I reckon."
"Is it indeed?" sneered the lady, lifting a fold of her travelling
skirt, as she prepared to ascend the first terrace; "we shall decide
that to-morrow."
But Salina Bowles sent an admiring glance after them, directed at the
beautiful child rather than the lady.
"Well, now, she is a purty critter, ain't she, Judge? them long curls
do beat all."
But the Judge was at Mrs. Farnham's side assisting her to mount the
terrace. When Salina became aware of this, her glance fell inside the
carriage again, and she saw Mary Fuller leaning forward and gazing
after Isabel with her eyes full of tears. Instantly a change came over
the rough manner of the woman--she remembered her encomiums on
Isabel's beauty with a quick sense of shame, and leaning forward
reached out both hands.
"Come, little gal, let me lift you out; harnsome is as harnsome does,
you know. I hope you ain't tired, nor nothing."
Mary began to weep outright. She tried to smile and force the tears
back with her eyelids; but the woman's kind words had unlocked her
little grateful heart, and she could only sob out--
"Thank you--thank you very much; but I suppose I'm not to stop here,
it's only Isabel."
"And is she your sister?"
"No; but we've been together so long, and now she's gone; and--and"--
"Gone without speaking a word, or saying good bye?--well, I never
did!"
Away darted Miss Bowles up the terraces, leaping from step to step
like an old greyhound till she seized on Isabel, and giving her a
light shake, bore her back in triumph, much to the terror of both
children and the astonishment of the widow, who stood regarding them
from the upper terrace in impatient wrath; while the Judge softly
rubbed his hands and wondered what would come next.
"There now, just act like a Christian, and say good-bye to the little
gal that's left behind," cried Salina, hissing out a long breath as
she plumped little Isabel down into the carriage. "What's the use of
long curls and fine feathers if there's no feeling under them? There,
there, have a good kiss and a genuine long cry together; it'll be a
refreshment to you both."
Without another word the house-keeper marched away and ascended the
terraces, her freckled face glowing with rude kindness, and the
sunbeams glancing around her red hair as we see it around some of the
ugly saints, that the old masters stiffened on canvas before Raphael
gave ease of movement and freedom of drapery to these heavenly
subjects.
"What have you done with the child?" almost shrieked Mrs. Farnham, as
the house-keeper drew near with a broad smile on her broader mouth.
"Just put her in her place, that's all," replied Salina; "she was a
coming off without bidding t'other little thing good-bye. There she
sot with her two eyes as wet as periwinkles, looking--looking after
you all so wishful. I couldn't stand it; nobody about these parts
could. We ain't wolves and bears, if we were brought up under the
hemlocks. 'Little children should love one another,' that's genuine
Scripter, or ought to be if it ain't."
"What on earth shall I do with this creature?" cried Mrs. Farnham,
half overpowered by the higher and stronger character with which she
had to deal. "She almost frightens me!"
"Still she seems to me about right in her ideas, if a little rough in
her way of enforcing them. Believe me, madam, Salina Bowles will prove
a faithful and true friend."
"Friend! Mr. Sharp, I do not hire my friends!"
The Judge made a slightly impatient movement. He was becoming weary of
throwing away ideas on the well-dressed shell of humanity before him.
"You will find the prospect very delightful," he said, casting a
glance toward the mountains, at whose feet the river wound brightening
in the sunshine, and seeming deeper where the shadows lengthened over
it from the hills. "See, the spires and cupolas are just visible at
the left; though not close together, we shall be near enough for good
neighbors."
The lady looked discontentedly around on the hills, covered with the
golden sunset, the river sleeping beneath them, and the distant
village rising from masses of foliage, and pencilling its spires
against the blue sky, where it fell down in soft, wreathing clouds at
the mouth of the valley.
"I dare say it is what you call fine scenery, and all that; but really
I cannot see what tempted Mr. Farnham to think of forbidding the sale
of this place; and, above all, to make it a condition that I should
live here now and then while Fred is in college."
"Your husband started life here, madam," answered the Judge, almost
sternly; "and we love the places where our first struggles were made."
"Yes, but then I didn't start life here with him, you know. Poor, dear
Mr. Farnham was so much older, and his tastes so different, I
sometimes wonder how he managed to win me, so young, so--so--but you
comprehend, Judge!"
"He had managed to get a handsome property together before that, I
believe," said the Judge, with a demure smile.
"But what is property without taste, and a just idea of style? Mr.
Farnham became quite aware of his deficiency in these points when he
married me."
"There does seem to have been a deficiency," muttered the Judge, and
having appeased himself with this bit of internal malice, he turned an
attentive ear to the end of her speech.
"His mother you know, was a commonish sort of person"
Here Salina, who stood upon the broad door-step with the front door
open, strode down and confronted Mrs. Farnham. She remained thus with
those little grey eyes searching the lady's face, and with her long,
bony hand tightly clenched, as if she waited for something else before
her wrath would be permitted to reach the fighting point. But Mrs.
Farnham remained silent, only muttering over "a very commonish sort of
person indeed," and with hound-like reluctance, Salina retreated
backward, step by step, to her position at the door.