Years pass on. Some of the children have been bound out, others Death
has more mercifully indentured into his own service. Rose has grown
tall. Her step is slow and feeble, and her form has lost its roundness;
but her eyes are beautiful from the light within, and her wee mouth has
a grieved look which makes the beholder long to clasp her to his heart.
Even the ugly charity-school bonnet which Markham has just tied under
her chin, can not make her look ugly.
Dolly stands waiting to take her to Difftown; she has no bundle to pack
up, she has no regrets at leaving the Asylum, she has no hope for the
future, for she has looked into Dolly's face with her clear calm eyes,
and read her doom.
"Rose, come and kiss me, darling, before you go," said Markham. "I
always feel _so_ melancholy," she added, in an aside, to Dolly, "at
parting with these dear children. It is quite impossible not to feel a
motherly interest and solicitude after being with them so long. Good-by,
dear Rose--don't _quite_ forget me."
Rose thought there was little fear of that, as she followed Dolly out
of the house.
"A very nice woman, that Mrs. Markham," said Dolly, as they walked to
the stable where she had left her horse and chaise, "a very nice woman."
Rose made no reply.
"I dare say though, you don't like her at all, do you?"
"No," said Rose.
"Why not, I should like to know?" asked Dolly, tartly.
"I had rather not tell, if you please," answered Rose.
The civil manner in which the refusal was couched irritated Dolly.
"You are as like your mother as two peas," said she, angrily; "you look
just like her, and speak just like her."
"Do you think so?" asked the child, her whole face brightening.
"I don't know why you should look so pleased about it. Maria was a
thriftless creature. No learning but book learning."
"Please don't speak so of my mamma," and the tears stood in Rose's eyes.
"I shall speak just as I please of her," said Dolly; "she was my sister
before she was your mother, by a long spell, and I don't know why I am
bound to love her for that reason, when there was nothing to love in
her."
"But there was," said Rose. "She was sweet, and gentle, and loving, and
oh, Aunt Dolly, she was every thing to _me_," and the hot tears trickled
through Rose's slender fingers.
"Fiddle-faddle! Now ain't you ashamed, you great baby, to be bawling
here in the street, as if I was some terrible dragon making off with
you? That's all the thanks I get for taking you out of the church-yard
and putting you in that nice Orphan Asylum."
"If you had only left me in the church-yard," sobbed Rose.
Dolly was quite too angry to reply. The very bows on her bonnet trembled
with rage.
After a pause, she turned round, and laying her hands on Rose's
trembling shoulders, said,
"Now, look here, Rose Clark, now just take a fair and square look at me.
I don't look much like your _gentle_ mother, as you call her, do I?"
"No, no," sobbed Rose, with a fresh burst of tears.
"Well, I ain't like her in any thing. I ain't a-going to pet you, nor
make of you, nor spoil you, as she did. You are bound out to me, and you
have got your bread and butter to earn. I have no taste for cry-babies
nor idlers, and if you don't work and mind too, the committee of the
Orphan Asylum shall know the reason why; you may find worse quarters
than my milliner's shop," and Dolly stopped, not that the subject, but
her breath, was exhausted.
The morning was calm and serene, and the road through which Dolly's old
horse plodded, very lovely. There had been heavy rains for days before,
and now, as they left the city behind them, the sun shone out, and
bright drops hung glistening on the trees, shrubs, and grass blades, and
the spicy pines and way-side flowers sent forth their sweetest odors.
The little birds, too, came out, pluming their wings for a sunny flight
far--far into the clear blue ether, whither Rose longed to follow them.
_Such_ a burst of song as they went!
It thrilled through every fibre of the child's frame.
Rose glanced at the frowning face beside her. There was no appreciation
there. No, Dolly was thinking how much work she could get out of the
feeble child by her side, the helpless orphan in whose veins her own
blood flowed.
On they went--the old horse, and Dolly, and Rose.
Wreaths of mist rolled up from the valleys, crept along the hill-sides,
and were eagerly drunk up by the sun's warm breath, leaving the earth
fresh and fair as when it first came from the forming hand of God.
Cottages they passed, nestled among the trees, on whose happy thresholds
children clambered on a mother's knee.
Churches too, whose glistening spires pointed to that Heaven where Rose
longed to be at rest; and far, far away, the silver lake gleamed in the
bright sunlight; oh, how gladly, on its peaceful bosom, would the child
have floated away!
"For mercy's sake, what are you thinking about," asked Dolly, "with that
curious look in your eyes, and the color coming and going in your face
that way?"
"I was thinking," said the child, her eyes still fixed on the silver
lake, "how beautiful God made the earth, and how sad it was there should
be--"
"_What_ now?" asked Dolly tartly.
"Any sorrow in it," said Rose.
"The earth is well enough, I s'pose," said Dolly. "I never looked at it
much, and as to the rest of your remark, I hope you will remember it
when you get home, and not plague my life out, when I want you to work.
Let's see; you will have the shop to sweep out, the window shutters to
take down and put up, night and morning, errands to run, sewing,
washing, ironing, and scrubbing to do, dishes to wash, beside a few
other little things.
"Of course you will have your own clothes to make and to mend, the
sheets and towels to hem, and be learning meanwhile to wait on customers
in the shop; I shan't trust you with the money-drawer till I know
whether you are honest."
Rose's face became crimson, and she involuntarily moved further away
from Dolly.
"None of that now," said that lady, "such airs won't go down with me.
It is a pity if I can't speak to my own sister's child."
Rose thought this was the only light in which she was likely to view the
relationship, but she was too wise to reply.
"There's no knowing," said Dolly, "what you may have learned among those
children at the Asylum."
"You put me there, Aunt Dolly," said Rose.
"Of course I put you there, but did I tell you to learn all the bad
things you saw?"
"You didn't tell me not; but I never would take what belonged to
another."
"Shut up now--you are just like your mother ex--actly;" and Dolly
stopped here, considering that she could go no further in the way of
invective.
And now they were nearing the village. Rose thought it looked much
prettier at a distance than near.
There was an ugly, dirty tavern in the main street, on whose gaudy
sign-board was painted "The Rising Sun;" and on whose piazza were
congregated knots of men, smoking, chewing, swearing, and bargaining, by
turns; for it was cattle-fair Monday, and the whole population was
astir.
Herds of cattle; sheep, cows, calves, oxen, and pigs, divided off into
little crowded pens, stood bleating and lowing in the blazing sun, half
dead with thirst, while their owners were chaffering about prices.
On the opposite side of the street were temporary booths, whose owners
were making the most of the day by opening oysters, and uncorking
bottles for the ravenous farmers; little boys stood by, greedily
devouring the dregs of the glasses whenever they could dodge a boxed
ear. A few sickly trees were planted here and there, at the sides of the
road, which seemed to have dwindled away in disgust at their location.
On a small patch of green, dignified by the name of the Park, an
ill-assorted, heterogeneous company were drilling for 'lection,
presenting arms, etc., in a manner that would have struck Napoleon dumb.
Dolly's house was on the further side of "the Park," a two story wooden
tenement, of a bright red color, planted on a sand bank close to the
road side, unornamented with a single green thing, if we may except some
gawky boys who were eyeing the tin soldiers and peppermint candy in the
milliner's window, and who had been attentively listening to the
swearing cattle-dealers and picking up stray lobster-claws which good
fortune had thrown in their way.
"That _her_?" whispered Daffodil (Dolly's factotum), pointing to Rose,
as she assisted Dolly to alight. Dolly nodded.
"Why--she'd be a real beauty if she was only a little fatter, and
didn't stoop, and her eyes weren't so big, and she wasn't so pale."
"I don't see any beauty," mumbled Dolly, "she looks exactly like her
mother."
"O no--of course she isn't a beauty," said Daffy, retracting her
involuntary mistake, "she don't favor you in the least Dolly; I said she
would be pretty if--"
"Never mind your ifs now, I'm as hungry as a catamount, give me
something to eat, and then I'll talk; some of that cold ham, and warm
over some tea; goodness, how faint I am, that young one has tired me all
out argufying--she's just like her mother--exactly."
"Shall I set a plate for her too?" asked Daffy.
"Of course not, till I get through; children always cram all before
them, there wouldn't be a mortal thing left for me--let her wait till I
have done. Rose--here! take off your bonnet, sit down and unpack those
boxes, don't break the strings now, untie the knots carefully, the
strings may do to use again, and don't litter up the shop floor, and
don't----Lord-a-mercy, Daffy, if she ain't undone the wrong boxes, I
knew she would."
"T-h-o-s-e," she thundered in Rose's ear, pulling her along to the right
pile, and bending her over till her nose touched the boxes; "now see if
you can see them, and don't make another mistake _short_ of ten
minutes," and Dolly threw off her bonnet and sat down to her tea.
Rose stooped down as she was bid, and commenced her task, but the
excitement she had undergone, so different from the monotonous life she
had led, the heat of the day, and her insufficient breakfast before
starting, brought on a sudden vertigo, and as she stooped to execute her
task, she fell forward upon the floor.
"Sick now, the very first day," exclaimed Dolly, turning to Daffy, "now
ain't that enough to provoke any body? Her mother used to be just so,
always fainting away at every thing; she's got to get cured of that
trick; get up Rose!" and Dolly shook her roughly by the arm.
"I really think she can't," said Daffy, looking at her white lips and
relaxed limbs.
Dolly seized a pitcher of water near, and dashed it with rather more
force than was necessary in the child's face.
"That's warm water," said Daffy.
"How did I know that?" muttered Dolly, "bring some cold then;" and Dolly
repeated the application, at a different temperature.
Rose shivered slightly, but did not open her eyes.
"She intends taking her own time to come to," said Dolly, "and I have
something else to do, beside stand by to wait for it."
"But it won't do for her to lie here," said Daffy. "Suppose Mrs. John
Meigs should come in after that new bonnet of hern? It don't look well."
Dolly appreciated that argument, and Daffy had permission to carry her
out of sight, into a back sitting-room, on the same floor.
"She _does it_ remarkable, if she _is_ making believe," soliloquized
Daffy, as she laid Rose on the bed; "and she _is_ pretty, too, I can say
it now Dolly isn't round, pretty as a waxen doll, and not much heavier;
she is not fit for hard work anyhow, with those bit-fingers. I shouldn't
wonder if Dolly is too hard on the child, but I daren't say so. What can
that little scar be on her left temple?" and Daffy lifted the curls to
look at that indelible proof of Mrs. Markham's affection on Rose's
initiation day.
"Well, she's a pretty cretur!" said Daffodil again, as she took one more
glance at her from the half open door. "I couldn't find it in my heart
to speak cross to the poor motherless thing; but it won't do for me to
stay up here."
"Shall I make a cup of tea for Rose, agin she wakes up?" asked Daffy.
"Sick folks ought not to eat and drink," said Dolly, sarcastically; "no,
of course not; clear away the table, and put things to rights here. Our
Maria was always acting just so; if she didn't have her breakfast ready
to put in her mouth the minute she got out of bed, she'd up and faint
away; she'd faint if it was hot, and she'd faint if it was cold. She'd
faint if she was glad, and faint if she was sorry. She was always
a-fainting; I never fainted in my life."
"Sisters are different, you know;" said Daffy, polishing a tea-cup with
a towel.
"I believe you," said Dolly. "It is lucky they are; I am glad I ain't
such a miserable stick; but Rose has got to get out of that," added she.
"You don't really believe she, nor Maria, as you call her, could help
it, do you?" asked Daffy.
"Help a fiddlestick," said Dolly, jerking down her pea-green paper
window-curtain; "ridikilis!"
Daffy knew that word was Dolly's ultimatum, and pursued the subject no
further.