TIFF'S GARDEN.
Would the limits of our story admit of it, we should gladly linger many
days in the shady precincts of Magnolia Grove, where Clayton and Nina
remained some days longer, and where the hours flew by on flowery feet;
but the inevitable time and tide, which wait for no man, wait not for
the narrator. We must therefore say, in brief, that when the visit was
concluded, Clayton accompanied Nina once more to Canema, and returned to
the circle of his own duties.
Nina returned to her own estate, with views somewhat chastened and
modified by her acquaintance with Anne. As Clayton supposed, the
influence of a real noble purpose in life had proved of more weight than
exhortations, and she began to feel within herself positive aspirations
for some more noble and worthy life than she had heretofore led. That
great, absorbing feeling which determines the whole destiny of woman's
existence, is in its own nature an elevating and purifying one. It is
such even when placed on an unworthy object, and much more so when the
object is a worthy one. Since the first of their friendship, Clayton had
never officiously sought to interfere with the growth and development of
Nina's moral nature. He had sufficient sagacity to perceive that,
unconsciously to herself, a deeper power of feeling, and a wider range
of thought, was opening within her; and he left the development of it to
the same quiet forces which swell the rosebud and guide the climbing
path of the vine. Simply and absolutely he lived his own life before
her, and let hers alone; and the power of his life therefore became
absolute.
A few mornings after her return, she thought that she would go out and
inquire after the welfare of our old friend Tiff. It was a hazy, warm,
bright summer morning, and all things lay in that dreamy stillness,
that trance of voluptuous rest, which precedes the approach of the
fiercer heats of the day. Since her absence there had been evident
improvement in Tiff's affairs. The baby, a hearty, handsome little
fellow, by dint of good nursing, pork-sucking, and lying out doors in
the tending of breezes and zephyrs, had grown to be a creeping creature,
and followed Tiff around, in his garden ministrations, with
unintelligible chatterings of delight.
At the moment when Nina rode up, Tiff was busy with his morning work in
the garden.
His appearance, it is to be confessed, was somewhat peculiar. He usually
wore, in compliment to his nursing duties, an apron in front; but, as
his various avocations pressed hard upon his time, and as his own
personal outfit was ever the last to be attended to, Tiff's nether
garments had shown traces of that frailty which is incident to all human
things.
"Bress me," he said to himself, that morning, as he with difficulty
engineered his way into them, "holes here, and holes dar! Don't want but
two holes in my breeches, and I's got two dozen! Got my foot through de
wrong place! Por old Tiff! Laws a massy! wish I could get hold of some
of dem dar clothes dey were telling 'bout at de camp-meeting, dey wore
forty years in de wilderness! 'Mazing handy dem ar times was! Well, any
how, I'll tie an apron behind, and anoder in front. Bress de Lord, I's
got aprons, any how! I must make up a par of breeches, some of dese yer
days, when de baby's teeth is all through, and Teddy's clothes don't
want no mending, and de washing is done, and dese yer weeds stops a
growing in de garden. Bress if I know what de Lord want of so many
weeds. 'Pears like dey comes just to plague us; but, den, we doesn't
know. May be dere's some good in 'em. We doesn't know but a leetle, no
way."
Tiff was sitting on the ground weeding one of his garden-beds, when he
was surprised by the apparition of Nina on horse-back coming up to the
gate. Here was a dilemma, to be sure! No cavalier had a more absolute
conception of the nature of politeness, and the claims of beauty, rank,
and fashion, than Tiff. Then, to be caught sitting on the ground, with a
blue apron on in front, and a red one on behind, was an appalling
dilemma! However, as our readers may have discovered, Tiff had that
essential requisite of good breeding, the moral courage to face an
exigency; and, wisely considering that a want of cordiality is a greater
deficiency than the want of costume, he rose up, without delay, and
hastened to the gate to acknowledge the honor.
"Lord bress yer sweet face, Miss Nina!" he said, while the breezes
flapped and fluttered his red and blue sails, "Old Tiff's 'mazin' happy
to see you. Miss Fanny's well, thank ye; and Mas'r Teddy and the baby
all doing nicely. Bress de Lord, Miss Nina, be so good as to get down
and come in. I's got some nice berries dat I picked in de swamp, and
Miss Fanny'll be proud to have you take some. You see," he said,
laughing heartily, and regarding his peculiar costume, "I wasn't looking
for any quality long dis yer time o' day, so I just got on my old
clothes."
"Why, Uncle Tiff, I think they become you immensely!" said Nina. "Your
outfit is really original and picturesque. You're not one of the people
that are ashamed of their work, are you, Uncle Tiff? So, if you just
lead my horse to that stump, I'll get down."
"Laws, no, Miss Nina!" said Tiff, as with alacrity he obeyed her orders.
"Spects, if Old Tiff was 'shamed of work, he'd have a heap to be 'shamed
of; 'cause it's pretty much all work with him. 'Tis so!"
"Tomtit pretended to come with me," said Nina, as she looked round; "but
he lagged behind by the brook to get some of those green grapes, and I
suspect it's the last I shall see of him. So, Tiff, if you please to tie
Sylphine in the shade, I'll go in to see Miss Fanny."
And Nina tripped lightly up the walk, now bordered on either side by
china asters and marigolds, to where Fanny was standing bashfully in the
door waiting for her. In her own native woods this child was one of the
boldest, freest, and happiest of romps. There was scarce an eligible
tree which she could not climb, or a thicket she had not explored. She
was familiar with every flower, every bird, every butterfly, of the
vicinity. She knew precisely when every kind of fruit would ripen, and
flower would blossom; and was so _au fait_ in the language of birds and
squirrels, that she might almost have been considered one of the
fraternity. Her only companion and attendant, Old Tiff, had that quaint,
fanciful, grotesque nature which is the furthest possible removed from
vulgarity; and his frequent lectures on proprieties and
conventionalities, his long and prolix narrations of her ancestral
glories and distinctions, had succeeded in infusing into her a sort of
childish consciousness of dignity, while at the same time it inspired
her with a bashful awe of those whom she saw surrounded with the actual
insignia and circumstances of position and fortune. After all, Tiff's
method of education, instinctive as it was, was highly philosophical,
since a certain degree of self-respect is the nurse of many virtues, and
a shield from many temptations. There is also something, perhaps, in the
influence of descent. Fanny certainly inherited from her mother a more
delicate organization than generally attends her apparent station in
life. She had, also, what perhaps belongs to the sex, a capability of
receiving the mysteries and proprieties of dress; and Nina, as she stood
on the threshold of the single low room, could not but be struck with
the general air of refinement which characterized both it and its little
mistress. There were flowers from the swamps and hedges arranged with
care and taste; feathers of birds, strings of eggs of different color,
dried grasses, and various little woodland curiosities, which showed a
taste refined by daily intercourse with nature. Fanny herself was
arrayed in a very pretty print dress, which her father had brought home
in a recent visit, with a cape of white muslin. Her brown hair was
brushed smoothly from her forehead, and her clear blue eyes, and fair,
rosy complexion, gave her a pleasing air of intelligence and refinement.
"Thank you," said Nina, as Fanny offered her the only chair the
establishment afforded; "but I'm going with Tiff out in the garden. I
never can bear to be in the house such days as this. You didn't expect
me over so early, Uncle Tiff; but I took a notable turn, this morning,
and routed them up to an early breakfast, on purpose that I might have
time to get over here before the heat came on. It's pleasant out here,
now the shadow of the woods falls across the garden so. How beautifully
those trees wave! Tiff, go on with your work--never mind me."
"Yes, Miss Nina, it's mighty pleasant. Why, I was out in dis yer garden
at four o'clock dis morning, and 'peared like dese yer trees was waving
like a psalm, so sort o' still, you know! Kind o' spreading out der
hands like dey'd have prayers; and dere was a mighty handsome star a
looking down. _I_ spects dat ar star is one of de very oldest families
up dar."
"Most likely," said Nina, cheerily. "They call it Venus, the star of
love, Uncle Tiff; and I believe that is a very old family."
"Love is a mighty good ting, any how," said Tiff. "Lord bress you, Miss
Nina, it makes everyting go kind o' easy. Sometimes, when I'm studding
upon dese yer tings, I says to myself, 'pears like de trees in de wood,
dey loves each oder. Dey stands kind o' locking arms so, and dey kind o'
nod der heads, and whispers so! 'Pears like de grape-vines, and de
birds, and all dem ar tings, dey lives comfortable togeder, like dey was
peaceable, and liked each oder. Now, folks is apt to get a stewin' and a
frettin' round, and turning up der noses at dis yer ting, and dat ar;
but 'pears like de Lord's works takes everyting mighty easy. Dey just
kind o' lives along peaceable. I tink it's mighty 'structive!"
"Certainly it is," said Nina. "Old Mother Nature is an excellent
manager, and always goes on making the best of everything."
"Dere's heaps done dat ar way, and no noise," said Tiff. "Why, Miss
Nina, I studies upon dat ar out here in my garden. Why, look at dat ar
corn, way up over your head, now! All dat ar growed dis yer summer. No
noise 'bout it--'pears like nobody couldn't see when 'twas done. Dey
were telling us in camp-meeting how de Lord created de heaven and de
earth. Now, Miss Nina, Tiff has his own thoughts, you know; and Tiff
says, 'pears like de Lord is creating de heaven and de earth all de
time. 'Pears like you can see Him a doing of it right afore your face;
and dem growing tings are so curus! Miss Nina, 'pears for all de world
like as if dey was critters! 'Pears like each of 'em has der own way,
and won't go no oder! Dese yer beans, dey will come up so curus right
top o' de stalks; dey will turn round de pole one way, and, if you was
to tie 'em, you couldn't make 'em go round t'oder! Dey's set in der own
way--dey is, for all dey's so still 'bout it! Laws, Miss Nina dese yer
tings makes Tiff laugh--does so!" he said, sitting down, and indulging
in one of his fits of merriment.
"You are quite a philosopher, Tiff," said Nina.
"Laws, Miss Nina, I hopes not!" said Tiff, solemnly; "'cause one of de
preachers at de camp-meeting used up dem folk terrible, I tell you! Dat
ar pretty much all I could make out of de sermon, dat people mustn't be
'losophers! Laws, Miss Nina, I hope I an't no sich!"
"Oh, I mean the good kind, Uncle Tiff. But how were you pleased, upon
the whole, at the camp-meeting?" said Nina.
"Well," said Tiff, "Miss Nina, I hope I got something--I don't know
fa'rly how much 'tis. But, Miss Nina, it 'pears like as if you had come
out here to instruct us 'bout dese yer tings. Miss Fanny, she don't read
very well yet, and 'pears like if you could read us some out of de
Bible, and teach us how to be Christians"--
"Why, Tiff, I scarcely know how myself!" said Nina. "I'll send Milly to
talk to you. She is a real good Christian."
"Milly is a very nice woman," said Tiff, somewhat doubtfully; "but, Miss
Nina, 'pears like I would rather have white teaching; 'pears like I
would rather have you, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"Oh, no, Uncle Tiff! If you want to hear me read, I'll read to you now,"
said Nina. "Have you got a Bible, here? Stay; I'll sit down. I'll take
the chair and sit down in the shade, and then you needn't stop your
work."
Tiff hurried into the house to call Fanny; produced a copy of a
Testament, which, with much coaxing, he had persuaded Cripps to bring on
his last visit; and, while Fanny sat at her feet making larkspur rings,
she turned over the pages, to think what to read. When she saw Tiff's
earnest and eager attention, her heart smote her to think that the book,
so valuable in his eyes, was to her almost an unread volume.
"What shall I read to you, Tiff? What do you want to hear?"
"Well, I wants to find out de shortest way I ken, how dese yer chil'en's
to be got to heaven!" said Tiff. "Dis yer world is mighty well long as
it holds out; but, den, yer see, it don't last forever! Tings is passing
away!"
Nina thought a moment. The great question of questions, so earnestly
proposed to her! The simple, childlike old soul hanging confidingly on
her answer! At last she said, with a seriousness quite unusual with
her:--
"Tiff, I think the best thing I can do is to read to you about our
Saviour. He came down into this world to show us the way to heaven. And
I'll read you, when I come here days, all that there is about Him--all
he said and did; and then, perhaps, you'll see the way yourself.
Perhaps," she added, with a sigh, "I shall, too!"
As she spoke, a sudden breeze of air shook the clusters of a
prairie-rose, which was climbing into the tree under which she was
sitting, and a shower of rose-leaves fell around her.
"Yes," she said to herself, as the rose-leaves fell on her book, "it's
quite true, what he says. Everything is passing!"
And now, amid the murmur of the pine-trees, and the rustling of the
garden-vines, came on the ear of the listeners the first words of that
sweet and ancient story:--
"Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod
the King, behold there came wise men from the East, saying, 'Where is
_He_ that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the
East, and are come to worship Him.'"
Probably more cultivated minds would have checked the progress of the
legend by a thousand questions, statistical and geographical, as to
where Jerusalem was, and who the wise men were, and how far the East was
from Jerusalem, and whether it was probable they would travel so far.
But Nina was reading to children, and to an old child-man, in whose
grotesque and fanciful nature there was yet treasured a believing
sweetness, like the amulets supposed to belong to the good genii of the
fairy tales. The quick fancy of her auditors made reality of the story
as it went along. A cloudy Jerusalem built itself up immediately in
their souls, and became as well known to them as the neighboring town of
E----. Herod, the king, became a real walking personage in their minds,
with a crown on his head. And Tiff immediately discerned a resemblance
between him and a certain domineering old General Eaton, who used
greatly to withstand the cause of virtue, and the Peytons, in the
neighborhood where he was brought up. Tiff's indignation, when the
slaughter of the innocents was narrated, was perfectly outrageous. He
declared "He wouldn't have believed that of King Herod, bad as he was!"
and, good-hearted and inoffensive as Tiff was in general, it really
seemed to afford him comfort, "dat de debil had got dat ar man 'fore
now."
"Sarves him right, too!" said Tiff, striking fiercely at a weed with his
hoe. "Killing all dem por little chil'en! Why, what harm had dey done
him, any way? Wonder what he thought of hisself!"
Nina found it necessary to tranquillize the good creature, to get a
hearing for the rest of the story. She went on reading of the wild
night-journey of the wise men, and how the star went before them till it
stood over the place where the child was. How they went in, and saw the
young child, and Mary his mother, and fell down before him, offering
gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
"Lord bless you! I wish I'd a been dar!" said Tiff. "And dat ar chile
was de Lord of glory, sure 'nough, Miss Nina! I hearn 'em sing dis yer
hymn at de camp-meeting--you know, 'bout cold on his cradle. You know it
goes dis yer way." And Tiff sung, to a kind of rocking lullaby, words
whose poetic imagery had hit his fancy before he knew their meaning.
"Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining,
Low lies his head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore, in slumber reclining,
Maker, and Saviour, and Monarch of all."
Nina had never realized, till she felt it in the undoubting faith of her
listeners, the wild, exquisite poetry of that legend, which, like an
immortal lily, blooms in the heart of Christianity as spotless and as
tender now as eighteen hundred years ago.
That child of Bethlehem, when afterwards he taught in Galilee, spoke of
seed which fell into a good and honest heart; and words could not have
been more descriptive of the nature which was now receiving this seed of
Paradise.
When Nina had finished her reading, she found her own heart touched by
the effect which she had produced. The nursing, child-loving Old Tiff
was ready, in a moment, to bow before his Redeemer, enshrined in the
form of an infant; and it seemed as if the air around him had been made
sacred by the sweetness of the story.
As Nina was mounting her horse to return, Tiff brought out a little
basket full of wild raspberries.
"Tiff wants to give you something," he said.
"Thank you, Uncle Tiff. How delightful! Now, if you'll only give me a
cluster of your Michigan rose!"
Proud and happy was Tiff, and, pulling down the very topmost cluster of
his rose, he presented it to her. Alas! before Nina reached home, it
hung drooping from the heat.
"The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of our God
shall stand forever."