AUTUMN IN THE MOUNTAINS.
The children gazed with a grateful thrill,
'Twas a glorious sight I know--
Those cornfields sweeping o'er the hill--
Those meadow-slopes below!--
Tall mountain ridges rich with light,
Broke up the crimson skies,
Their refted blossoms burning bright,
With autumn's fervid dies.
It was fortunate for Isabel that Mrs. Farnham was unstable even in her
petty oppressions. While the country was a novelty she would not allow
the child out of her sight. But after a little her agent sent her up
from the city a dashing carriage and a superb pair of grey horses,
which she gloried in supposing excelled even the noble animals with
which Judge Sharp had brought her over the mountains.
These new objects soon drove Isabel from her position as chief
favorite, and she was allowed to run at large without much constraint.
This threw her a good deal with Salina Bowles, in whom she found a
rough but true-hearted friend. What was far better than this, it left
her free to visit Mary Fuller, and it was not long before the child
was almost as much at home with dear old uncle Nat, as Mary herself.
It was pleasant to watch the two girls meet in the garden when Mary
returned from school, and go about the household work together so
cheerfully. That working-time was the sunny hour of Isabel's day, she
did so love the order and quiet of the old homestead.
But the autumn drew on, and Mrs. Farnham began to talk of returning to
the city. It was time, she said, that Isabel should be placed at
boarding-school, where all her old vulgar associations might be
polished away, and that she might be taught the dignity of her present
position.
These threats, for they appeared to poor Isabel in this light, only
made her cling more tenaciously to her friend, and every moment she
could steal from the exactions of her benefactress was spent at the
Old Homestead or among the hills where Mary wandered with a deeper and
deeper interest as the autumn wore on.
One night, while the foliage was green and thrifty on the mountain
ridges, there came a sharp frost, and in the morning all the
hill-sides were in a blaze of gorgeous tints.
Never in their whole lives had the children seen anything like this.
It seemed to them as if the trees had laced themselves with rainbows
that must melt away when a cloud came over the sun.
It was Saturday. There was no school, and Uncle Nat insisted on doing
all the "chores" himself, that the little girls might have a
play-spell in the woods--but for this, I greatly fear the wild
creatures would have run off without leave, they were so crazy to see
what those gorgeous trees were like, close to.
Below Judge Sharp's house, and near the bold sweep of the highway that
led into the village, there was an abrupt hill, crested with a ledge
of rocks, which formed a platform high above the road--and back of
that the forest crowded up like an army in rich uniform--checked in
battle array upon the eminence.
A footpath wound up the face of this hill, and under a shelf of the
rocks that crowned it, gushed a spring of pure bright water, that lost
itself in diamond drops among the grass and ferns that hung over it.
To this spot, which commanded a fine expanse of the valley, Mary and
Isabel went for the first time, that Saturday afternoon.
They were tired with mounting the hill and sat down by the spring to
rest.
Mary caught a great yellow maple leaf as it floated by, and twisting
it over her hand, formed a fairy pitcher that looked like mottled
gold, out of which they both drank; laughing gleefully when the brim
bent and let the water dash over their dresses.
"Now," said Mary, flinging away her golden cup, which had transformed
itself into a leaf again, "let us take a good rest and look about
before we go into the woods. Look how grand and large Judge Sharp's
house is, down below us; and away off there, don't you see, Isabel--is
the old homestead? Stand up and you can see almost all of the orchard,
and a corner of the roof."
Isabel stood up, shading her eyes with one hand. The river was
sweeping its bright waves at her feet, enfolding the opposite mountain
at the base as with a belt of condensed sunshine. The village hidden
amid its trees, lay dreamily in the curve of the valley, and beyond
the river rose a line of broken hills, clothed to the top of their
lofty peaks with the glory of a first autumn frost.
"I am so happy, I can hardly breathe," said Mary Fuller, clasping her
hands. "It seems as if one could bathe in all that sea of colors! the
mist as it floats up seems to make them eddy in waves like the river,
Isabel. I am feeling strangely glad, everything is so bright, so
soft--oh! Isabel, Isabel, what a great, good God it was who made all
this!"
Isabel saw all the marvellous beauty that surrounded her, but she
could not feel it as Mary did--few on earth ever do so look upon
nature. To Isabel the scene was a pleasure, to Mary a thrilling
delight; she dwelt upon it with the eye of an artist and the spirit
of a Christian.
"Oh!" she said, in that sweet overflow of feelings, "I want to hide my
face and cry!"
She sat down upon a rock covered with scarlet woodbine, and allowed
the tears that were swelling up from her heart to flow softly as the
dew is shaken from a flower. It was pleasant to see deep feelings melt
away in tears, to that gentle and sweet serenity which soon fell upon
the child.
Isabel could not entirely comprehend this almost divine feeling, but
she respected it and sat down in silence, with an arm around her
friend, sorry that she had no power to share all her joy in its
fullness.
Thus, for a long time, they sat together in dreamy silence, with the
spring murmuring behind them, and a carpet of brake leaves, touched
with white by the frost, scattering its new-born perfume around their
feet.
It was a touching picture, those two girls so loving and yet so
unlike, the one so wonderfully beautiful, the other awaking a deeper
interest with her soul beauty alone.
They arose together and walked quietly to the woods. Once within its
gorgeous shades, all their cheerfulness came back, and the squirrels
that peeped at them through the branches, and rattled nuts over their
heads from the yawning chestnut buds, were not more full of simple
enjoyment than they were.
A light wind had followed the frost, and all the mossy turf was
carpeted with leaves crimson, green, russet and gold. Sometimes a
commingling of all these colors might be found on one leaf; sometimes,
as they looked upward, the great branches of an oak stooped over their
heads, heavy with leaves of the deepest green, fringed and matted with
blood-red, as if the great heart of the tree were broken and bleeding
to death, through all the veins of its foliage.
Again the maple trees shook their golden boughs above them, as if they
had been hoarding up sunshine for months, and poured it in one rich
deluge over their billowy and restless leaves.
They wandered on, picking up leaves with far more interest than they
had ever felt in searching for wild flowers. It was wonderful, the
infinite variety that they found. Now, Isabel would hold up a crimson
leaf, clouded with pink and veined with a brown so deep that it looked
almost black; again, she would hoard up a windfall from the gum tree,
shaped like a slender arrow-head, and with its glossy crimson so
thickly covered with tiny dark spots, that it seemed mottled with
gems; again, it would be an ash leaf, long, slender and of a pale
straw color, or a tuft of wood-moss, that contrasted its delicate
green with all this gorgeousness so strongly, that they could not help
but gather it.
Thus, filled with admiration of each leaf as it presented itself, they
wandered on overclouded with the same foliage in gorgeous masses. The
sunbeams came shining through it in a rich haze, as if the branches
were only throwing off their natural light, and the very wind as it
stirred the woods seemed sluggish with healthy scents flung off by the
dying undergrowth.
But even delight brings its own weariness, and at last the two girls
sat down upon a hemlock log, completely covered with moss, that lay
like a great round cushion among the ferns, and dropped into
conversation as they sorted over the treasure of leaves that each had
gathered in her apron.
"I suppose," said Isabel, "this will be almost our last day together
for a long, long time."
Isabel spoke rather sadly, for she was becoming thoughtful.
"I suppose so," answered Mary, dropping the leaf whose purplish brown
she had been admiring; "but," after a moment's thoughtfulness, she
added, quite cheerfully, "but, why should we fret about that; we can
practice hard and write to each other every week; I dare say, just
now, we might read each other's writing; it seems to me as if I would
make out some meaning even in a straight mark if you wrote it,
Isabel!"
"Yes," said Isabel, still sadly, "that is something; but if I could
only have stayed here, and gone to school with you, we should not have
to think about writing."
"But it'll be very nice to write letters," answered Mary; "you don't
know how proud I shall be with a whole letter all to myself; won't it
be pleasant to ask for it at the post office!"
"But, Mary," persisted Isabel, "do you know they mean to send me to a
great, grand school, where I'm to learn music and French, and
everything, and be with nothing but proud, stuck-up rich men's
daughters, that'll try to make me just as hateful as they are?"
"But, all rich men's daughters are not hateful, I dare say. Remember
Frederick, he was a rich man's son, and yet, he's almost as good as
Joseph!"
"No, I won't stand that, no one ever was so good as Joseph," persisted
Isabel; "besides, Fred is a Farnham, he's got his father's name, and
his father's blood too; I don't see how you can speak of Fred and
Joseph in the same day."
"At any rate," answered Mary, "we ought to be very grateful to young
Mr. Farnham, for he was good to us; only think how kind he was to
bring Joseph over to see us so often, after we came from the hospital,
and all without giving Mrs. Farnham a chance to scold!"
"Scold!" said Isabel, "I sometimes thought she liked Joseph better
than her own son--she always was glad to see him."
"That was because Frederick persuaded her."
"I don't believe that; she was always so hateful to Fred it was not to
please him that she took to Joseph, I am sure."
"Well, at any rate, she was very good to let him visit us so often."
"I don't know," said Isabel, determined not to give any credit to Mrs.
Farnham; "at any rate I don't like her and I won't try."
"This is wrong, Isabel--at first I thought I never could like aunt
Hannah she was so queer, but now I love her dearly, almost as well as
uncle Nathan, for all her hard way of speaking, she's as kind as kind
can be."
"Oh, aunt Hannah, I like her myself, anybody couldn't help liking her,
and there's Salina Bowles, she's just the best creature you ever knew,
both of 'em have got feelings, but I don't believe Mrs. Farnham has
got one bit."
"Don't let us talk of her faults," said Mary.
"Well, don't scold, I won't say a word against her, but there is one
thing, Mary, that I must speak about, for it poisons all the rest. I
cannot be content with Mrs. Farnham till that is settled. Mary, I am
sure Mr. Farnham killed my father--hush, hush, I know how it was. He
did not strike him dead, but it was his cruelty in driving him from
the police that did it in the end."
"Yes," said Mary, with quiet sadness, "I think it was Mr. Farnham that
did it."
"Is it right then, tell me, Mary, isn't it mean and cruel for me, his
own little girl, to live with these people and let them support
me--the father's murderers, as one might say supporting his child?"
Mary remained silent some time, not that this idea had never struck
her before, but the flood of remembrance it brought back affected her
painfully.
"I have thought of that a great many times, Isabel," she said, "for I
felt a good deal as you do at first, but it isn't a right feeling, and
so I did the best I could to conquer it without saying a word."
"Why is it a wrong feeling?" said Isabel quickly, "wouldn't it seem
horrid to any one? Every mouthful I eat belongs to the people who
murdered my own father."
"But Mr. Farnham was the only one to blame, and he was very, very
sorry before he died."
"How do you know that?"
A faint color came into Mary's face as she answered,
"Joseph Esmond told me, Mr. Farnham came to his father's only three
nights before he died, and he told Joseph with his own lips that he
did not mean to kill your father, and Joseph said he looked more
sorrowful than his words. It was the last time they ever saw each
other. Poor Joseph cried when he told me about it."
"Then Joseph believes he really was sorry," said Isabel, softening.
"Yes, and that he didn't mean to do it; but even if he did, and was
really sorry, we have nothing to do but forgive him, just as your
father would have done."
"Yes, forgive him, but not eat his bread."
Again Mary was thoughtful, she was pondering over the question in her
mind.
"I think," she said at last, "to take kindnesses willingly from those
that are sorry for a wrong is the best sort of forgiveness; God
forgives in that way when he lets us serve him, and strive by good
acts to make up for the evil thing we have done. I think you need only
remember that, when you wish to know the right."
"I did not think of it in that way," said Isabel.
"Then, there is Frederick," continued Mary, "who loved his father so
much, and who is so full of kindness to us both--he wishes to make up
for the wrong his father did."
"He has been kind to you, not to me; you are his pet, I am Mrs.
Farnham's," said Isabel, a little petulantly. "I shouldn't so much
mind if I were in your place, but from her"--
"He has been very kind to you, Isabel; was it nothing to buy all the
pretty things you have told me of in your chamber, out of his own
pocket-money too?"
"What, my pretty bed, and the lace curtains, and that carpet, did he
buy them?" exclaimed Isabel, eagerly.
"Yes, they were his choice, and for you."
"Who told you this, Mary? I--I'm so surprised--so glad. Who told you
about it, dear Mary?"
"Joseph Esmond. Fred made a confidant of him, and they went together
to look at the things."
"And that's what makes my room different from his mother's. Oh, Mary,
I wish you could see it--so white, so fresh and breezy, and hers so
hot looking and smothered up with silk. How I shall love that dear
room after this."
After a moment Isabel's face lost its sparkling expression. She was
accusing herself of selfishness.
"But why did he get nothing of the kind for you, Mary!" she said very
seriously.
"Oh, I'm to be brought up so differently, such things would look queer
enough at the Old Homestead, you know," answered Mary, laughing.
Isabel shook her head, but there was light in her eyes, and a rich
color in her cheeks. She no longer felt it wicked to receive kindness
from the Farnhams, and her little heart beat with gratitude to them,
the first she had ever felt, for the pretty things with which she was
surrounded.
"Come," she said cheerfully, gathering up her apron with its treasure
of leaves. "How long we have been sitting here. It is almost
sun-down."
Mary started up. True enough, the woods were flooded with a dusky
purple, and the sunset was shooting its golden arrows everywhere among
the trees around them.
It seemed as if some of the maple boughs had taken fire, they kindled
up so like living flame. The fruit of a frost-grape vine that had
clambered up one of the slender elms overhead, took a richness from
the atmosphere and hung amid the leaves like clustering amethysts
growing dusky in the shadow, and when they left it the hemlock log
which they had occupied was flecked with gleams of light, that lay
among its soft green like a delicate embroidery of gold.
"It is so very beautiful," said Mary, looking around, "I hate to go
yet."
"But it will be dark and the hill is steep," persisted Isabel, less
enthralled by the scene. "Do hurry, the sun is sinking fast--we will
come every day next week, just as soon as school is out."
Mary drew a deep breath and followed. Isabel led the way out of the
woods.
The next time Mary went there it was alone, for in the morning Mrs.
Farnham left for the city, with scarcely an hour's notice--and a week
from that time Isabel Chester was entered as a scholar in one of the
most fashionable boarding-schools in New York.
Mary Fuller continued in her school, pursuing a strangely desultory
course of studies, but improving greatly both in intellect and health.
Where her heart urged the effort, her progress was wonderful, and it
was not three months before the most neatly written letters that went
out from the village post-office, were known to be in Mary Fuller's
handwriting.
Joseph Esmond and Isabel Chester, these were her only correspondents,
and she was indeed a proud girl when the answers came directed
entirely to herself. That day was an epoch in Mary's life.
Sometimes Mary broke over the rules of the school by drawing profiles
and rude landscapes in her copy-book and on the slate, till the
teacher, detecting her one day, examined the productions with a smile,
and gave her a few rudimental lessons in drawing. These rough efforts
of her pencil happened to come under Judge Sharp's observation, and he
who never forgot the smallest thing that could make others happy,
brought her some brushes and a box of water-colors from the city.
True genius requires but little encouragement, and most frequently
develops itself against opposition. This little box of paints and
pencils was enough to bring forth a latent talent, and the enthusiasm
that had exhausted itself in tears of delight on the hill-side, grew
into a power of creation. This beautiful development became a strong
bond of sympathy between her and the boy-artist, Joseph Esmond. In
truth, Mary was drawing many sources of happiness around her, as the
good can never fail of doing.
But we cannot follow this strange child through her school life, so
monotonous, and yet full of incident, or what seemed such to her
inexperience. All studies that she undertook were singularly broken
up and independent. Indeed, I much doubt if regular methodical
teaching can ever be applied to a nature like hers. Such organisms
generally study through the taste and heart.
Certain it is, Mary Fuller, whom no one understood, except, it may be,
Enoch Sharp, through his acute observation, and uncle Nathan through
his great warm heart, had pretty much her own way, and oftener studied
poems and histories from Judge Sharp's library, than anything else
even in the schoolroom. Thus her mind grew and thrived in its own rich
fancies; and in the wholesome atmosphere of the old homestead her
heart expanded and lost nothing of its native goodness. It is
wonderful how soon the scholars forgot to think her plain, if anything
is wonderful which genius and goodness has the power to accomplish.
Thus three years wore on, and each day was one of progression to that
young mind.
Besides this, Mary began to grow; the invigorating air of the
mountains, wholesome food, and active habits, had overcome the
deficiencies of her former life, and though still slight and
unusually small, she ceased to look like a mere child.
I dare not say that Mary was beautiful, or even handsome, for she was
still a plain little creature, and persons who could not understand
her might cavil at the assertion; yet, to aunt Hannah and uncle
Nat--yes, and to the Judge also--one might venture to say that Mary
was a very interesting girl, and, at times really pretty; but, then,
these persons loved her very dearly, and affection is, proverbially,
a great beautifier of the face. Yes, on the day she received her
letters, almost any one would have thought the young girl pretty, but,
then, it was not her features that looked lovely, but the deep, bright
joy that broke over them.