A COUNTRY SUNDAY
Hitherto the Sabbaths had been stormy and the roads bad, and we had
given the days to rest and family sociability. But at last there came a
mild, sunny morning, and we resolved to find a church-home. I had heard
that Dr. Lyman, who preached in the nearest village had the faculty of
keeping young people awake. Therefore we harnessed the old bay-horse to
our market-wagon, donned our "go-ter-meetin's," as Junior called his
Sunday clothes, and started. Whatever might be the result of the
sermon, the drive promised to do us good. The tender young grass by the
roadside, and the swelling buds of trees, gave forth delicious odors; a
spring haze softened the outline of the mountains, and made them almost
as beautiful as if clothed with foliage; robins, song-sparrows, and
other birds were so tuneful that Mousie said she wished they might form
the choir at the church. Indeed, the glad spirit of Spring was abroad,
and it found its way into our hearts. We soon learned that it entered
largely also into Dr. Lyman's sermon. We were not treated as strangers
and intruders, but welcomed and shown to a pew in a way that made us
feel at home. I discovered that I, too, should be kept awake and given
much to think about. We remained until Sunday-school, which followed
the service, was over, and then went home, feeling that life both here
and hereafter was something to be thankful for. After dinner, without
even taking the precaution of locking the door, we all strolled down
the lane and the steeply sloping meadow to our wood lot and the banks
of the Moodna Creek. My wife had never seen this portion of our place
before, and she was delighted with its wild beauty and seclusion. She
shivered and turned a little pale, however, as she saw the stream,
still high and swift, that had carried Bobsey away.
Junior joined us, and led the children to a sunny bank, from which soon
came shouts of joy over the first wildflowers of the season. I placed
my wife on a rock, and we sat quietly for a time, inhaling the fresh
woody odors, and listening to the murmurs of the creek and the song of
the birds. Then I asked: "Isn't this better than a city flat and a
noisy street? Are not these birds pleasanter neighbors than the
Daggetts and the Ricketts?"
Her glad smile was more eloquent than words could have been. Mousie
came running to us, holding in her hand, which trembled from
excitement, a little bunch of liverworts and anemones. Tears of
happiness actually stood in her eyes, and she could only falter, "O
mamma! just look!" and then she hastened away to gather more.
"That child belongs to nature," I said, "and would always be an exile
in the city. How greatly she has improved in health already!"
The air grew damp and chill early, and we soon returned to the house.
Monday was again fair, and found us absorbed in our busy life, each one
having plenty to do. When it was safe to uncover the raspberries,
Merton and I had not lost a moment in the task. At the time of which I
write we put in stakes where they were missing, obtaining not a few of
them from the wood lot. We also made our second planting of potatoes
and other hardy vegetables in the garden. The plants in the kitchen
window were thriving, and during mild, still days we carried them to a
sheltered place without, that they might become inured to the open air.
Winnie already had three hens sitting on their nests full of eggs, and
she was counting the days until the three weeks of incubation should
expire, and the little chicks break their shells. One of the hens
proved a fickle biddy, and left her nest, much to the child's anger and
disgust. But the others were faithful, and one morning Winnie came
bounding in, saying she had heard the first "peep." I told her to be
patient and leave the brood until the following day, since I had read
that the chicks were stronger for not being taken from the nest too
soon. She had treated the mother hens so kindly that they were tame,
and permitted her to throw out the empty shells, and exult over each
new-comer into a brief existence.
Our radishes had come up nicely; but no sooner had the first green
leaves expanded than myriads of little flea-like beetles devoured them.
A timely article in my horticultural paper explained that if little
chickens were allowed to run in the garden they would soon destroy
these and other insects. Therefore I improvised a coop by laying down a
barrel near the radishes and driving stakes in front of it to confine
the hen, which otherwise, with the best intentions, would have
scratched up all my sprouting seeds. Hither we brought her the
following day, with her downy brood of twelve, and they soon began to
make themselves useful. Winnie fed them with Indian-meal and mashed
potatoes and watched over them with more than their mother's
solicitude, while Merton renewed his vigilance against hawks and other
enemies.
With this new attraction, and wildflowers in the woods, the tying up of
raspberries became weary prose to Winnie and Bobsey; but I kept them at
it during most of the forenoon of every pleasant day and if they
performed their task carelessly, I made them do it over. I knew that
the time was coming when many kinds of work would cease to be play to
us all, and that we might as well face the fact first as last. After
the morning duties were over, and the afternoon lessons learned, there
was plenty of time for play, and the two little people enjoyed it all
the more.
Merton, also, had two afternoons in the week and he and Junior began to
bring home strings of sweet little sunfish and winfish. Boys often
become disgusted with country life because it is made hard and
monotonous for them.