THE BLACK AUNT.
Clare was yet in his tenth year when an unhealthy summer came. The sun
was bright and warm as in other summers, and the flowers in field and
garden appeared as usual when the hour arrived for them to wake and
look abroad; but the children of men did not fare so well as the
children of the earth. A peculiar form of fever showed itself in the
village. It was not very fatal, yet many were so affected as to be
long unable to work. There was consequently much distress beyond the
suffering of the fever itself. The parson and his wife went about from
morning to night among the cottagers, helping everybody that needed
help. They had no private fortune, but the small blanket of the
benefice they spread freely over as many as it could be stretched to
cover, depriving themselves of a good part of the food to which they
had been accustomed, and of several degrees of necessary warmth. When
at last the strength of the parson gave way, and the fever laid hold
of him, he had to do without many comforts his wife would gladly have
got for him. They were both of rather humble origin, having but one
relative well-to-do, a sister of Mrs. Porson, who had married a rich
but very common man. From her they could not ask help. She had never
sent them any little present, and had been fiercely indignant with
them for adopting Clare.
Neither of them once complained, though Mrs. Porson, whose strength
was much spent, could not help weeping sometimes when she was alone
and free to weep. They knew their Lord did not live in luxury, and a
secret gladness nestled in their hearts that they were allowed to
suffer a little with him for the sake of the flock he had given into
their charge.
The children of course had to share in the general gloom, but it did
not trouble them much. For Clare, he was not easily troubled with
anything. Always ready to help, he did not much realize what suffering
was; and he had Mary to look after, which was labour and pleasure,
work and play and pay all in one. His mother was at ease concerning
her child when she knew her in Clare’s charge, and was free to attend
to her husband. She often said that if ever any were paid for being
good to themselves, she and her husband were vastly overpaid for
taking such a child from the shuddering arms of the earthquake.
But John Porson’s hour was come. He must leave wife and children and
parish, and go to him who had sent him. If any one think it hard he
should so fare in doing his duty, let him be silent till he learn what
the parson himself thought of the matter when he got home. People talk
about death as the gosling might about life before it chips its
egg. Take up their way of lamentation, and we shall find it an
endless injustice to have to get up every morning and go to bed every
night. Mrs. Porson wept, but never thought him or herself
ill-used. And had she been low enough to indulge in self-pity, it
would have been thrown away, for before she had time to wonder how she
was to live and rear her children, she too was sent for. In this world
she was not one of those mothers of little faith who trust God for
themselves but not for their children, and when again with her
husband, she would not trust God less.
Clare was in the garden when Sarah told him she was dead. He stood
still for a moment, then looked up, up into the blue. Why he looked
up, he could not have told; but ever since that terrible morning of
which the vague burning memory had never passed, when the great dome
into which he was gazing, burst and fell, he had a way every now and
then of standing still and looking up. His face was white. Two slow
tears gathered, rolled over, and dried upon his face. He turned to
Mary, lifted her in his arms, and, carrying her about the garden, once
more told her his strange version of what had happened in his
childhood. Then he told her that her papa and mamma had gone to look
for his papa and mamma--“somewhere up in the dome,” he said.
When they wanted to take Mary to see what was left of her mother, the
boy contrived to prevent them. From morning till night he never lost
sight of the child.
One cold noon in October, when the clouds were miles deep in front of
the sun, when the rain was falling thick on the yellow leaves, and all
the paths were miry, the two children sat by the kitchen fire. Sarah
was cooking their mid-day meal, which had come from her own
pocket. She was the only servant either of them had known in the
house, and she would not leave it until some one should take charge of
them. The neighbours, dreading infection, did not come near
them. Clare sat on a little stool with Mary on his knees, nestling in
his bosom; but he felt dreary, for he saw no love-firmament over him;
the cloud of death hid it.
With a sudden jingle and rattle, up drove a rickety post-chaise to the
door of the parsonage. Out of it, and into the kitchen, came stalking
a tall middle-aged woman, in a long black cloak, black bonnet, and
black gloves, with a face at once stern and peevish.
“I am the late Mrs. Porson’s sister,” she said, and stood.
Sarah courtesied and waited. Clare rose, with Mary in his arms.
“This is little Maly, ma’am,” he said, offering her the child.
“Set her down, and let me see her,” she answered.
Clare obeyed. Mary put her finger in her mouth, and began to cry. She
did not like the look of the black aunt, and was not used to a harsh
voice.
“Tut! tut!” said the black aunt. “Crying already! That will never do!
Show me her things.”
Sarah felt stunned. This was worse than death! “If only the mistress
had taken them with her!” she said to herself.
Mary’s things--they were not many--were soon packed. Within an hour
she was borne off, shrieking, struggling, and calling “Clay.” The black
aunt, however,--as the black aunt Clare always thought of her--cared
nothing for her resistance; and Clare, who at her first cry was
rushing to the rescue, ready once more to do battle for her, was
seized and held back by Farmer Goodenough. Sarah had sent for him, and
he had come--just in time to frustrate Clare’s valour.
The carriage was not yet out of sight, when Farmer Goodenough began to
repent that he had come: his presence was an acknowledgment of
responsibility! Something must be done with the foundling! There was
nobody to claim him, and nobody wanted him! He had always liked the
boy, but he did not want him! His wife was not fond of the boy, nor of
any boy, and did not want him! He had said to her that Clare could not
be left to starve, and she had answered, “Why not?”! What was to be
done with him? Nobody knew--any more than Clare himself. But which of
us knows what is going to be done with him?
Clare was nobody’s business. English farmers no more than French are
proverbial for generosity; and Farmer Goodenough, no bad type of his
class, had a wife in whose thoughts not the pence but the farthings
dominated. She was one who at once recoiled and repelled--one of those
whose skin shrinks from the skin of their kind, and who are specially
apt to take unaccountable dislikes--a pitiable human animal of the
leprous sort. She “never took to the foundling,” she said. To have
neither father nor mother, she counted disreputable. But I believe the
main source of her dislike to Clare was a feeling of undefined reproof
in the very atmosphere of the boy’s presence, his nature was so
different from hers. What urged him toward his fellow-creatures, made
her draw back from him. In truth she hated the boy. The very look of
him made her sick, she said. It was only a certain respect for the
parson, and a certain fear of her husband, who, seldom angry, was yet
capable of fury, that had prevented her from driving the child, “with
his dish-clout face,” off the premises, whenever she saw him from door
or window. It was no wonder the farmer should be at his wits’ end to
know what, as churchwarden, guardian of the poor, and friend of the
late vicar--as friendly also to the boy himself--he was bound to do.
“Where are _you_ going?” he asked Sarah.
“Where the Lord wills,” answered the old woman. Her ark had gone to
pieces, and she hardly cared what became of her.
“We’ve got to look to ourselves!” said the farmer.
“Parson used to say there was One as took that off our hands!” replied
Sarah.
“Yes, yes,” assented Mr. Goodenough, fidgeting a little; “but the
Almighty helps them as helps themselves, and that’s sound
doctrine. You really must do something, Sarah! We can’t have you on
the parish, you know!”
“I beg your pardon, sir, but until the child here is provided for, or
until they turn us out of the parsonage, I will not leave the place.”
“The furniture is advertised for sale. You’ll have nothing but the
bare walls!”
“We’ll manage to keep each other warm!--Shan’t we, Clare?”
“I will try to keep you warm, Sarah,” responded the boy sadly.
“But the new parson will soon be here. Our souls must be cared for!”
said the farmer.
“Is the Lord’s child that came from heaven in an earthquake to be
turned out into the cold for fear the souls of big men should perish?”
“Something must be done about it!” said the farmer. “What it’s to
be I can’t tell! It’s no business o’ mine any way!”
“That’s what the priest, and the Levite, and the farmer says!”
returned Sarah.
“Won’t you ask Mr. Goodenough to stay to dinner?” said Clare.
He went up to the farmer, who in his perplexity had seated himself,
and laid his arm on his shoulder.
“No, I can’t,” answered Sarah. “He would eat all we have, and not have
enough!”
“Now Maly is gone,” returned Clare, “I would rather not have any
dinner.”
The farmer’s old feeling for the boy, which the dread of having him
left on his hands had for the time dulled, came back.
“Get him his dinner, Sarah,” he said. “I’ve something to see to in the
village. By the time I come back, he’ll be ready to go with me,
perhaps.”
“God bless you, sir!” cried Sarah. “You meant it all the time, an’ I
been behavin’ like a brute!”
The farmer did not like being taken up so sharply. He had promised
nothing! But he had nearly made up his mind that, as the friend of the
late parson, he could scarcely do less than give shelter to the child
until he found another refuge. True, he was not the parson’s child,
but he had loved him as his own! He would make the boy useful, and so
shut his wife’s mouth! There were many things Clare could do about the
place!