BILLY BENDER.
Just on the corner of Chicopee Common, and under the shadow of the
century-old elms which skirt the borders of the grass plat called by
the villagers the "Mall," stands the small red cottage of widow
Bender, who in her way was quite a curiosity. All the "ills which
flesh is heir to," seemed by some strange fatality to fall upon her,
and never did a new disease appear in any quarter of the globe, which
widow Bender, if by any means she could ascertain the symptoms, was
not sure to have it in its most aggravated form.
On the morning following the events narrated in the last chapter,
Billy, whose dreams had been disturbed by thoughts of Frank, arose
early, determined to call at Mrs. Howard's, and see if they were in
want of any thing. But his mother, who had heard rumors of the scarlet
fever, was up before him, and on descending to the kitchen, which with
all her sickness Mrs. Bender kept in perfect order, Billy found her
sitting before a blazing fire,--her feet in hot water, and her head
thrown back in a manner plainly showing that something new had taken
hold of her in good earnest. Billy was accustomed to her freaks, and
not feeling at all frightened, stepped briskly forward, saying,
"Well, mother, what's the matter now? Got a cramp in your foot, or
what?"
"Oh, William," said she, "I've lived through a sight but my time has
come at last. Such a pain in my head and stomach. I do believe I've
got the scarlet fever, and you must run for the doctor quick."
"Scarlet fever!" repeated Billy, "why, you've had it once, and you
can't have it again, can you?"
"Oh, I don't know,--I never was like anybody else, and can have any
thing a dozen times. Now be spry and fetch the doctor but before you
go, hand me my snuff-box and put the canister top heapin' full of tea
into the tea-pot."
Billy obeyed, and then, knowing that the green tea would remove his
mother's ailment quite as soon as the physician, he hurried away
towards Mrs. Howard's. The sun was just rising, and its red rays
looked in at the window, through which the moonlight had shone the
night before. Beneath the window a single rose-tree was blooming, and
on it a robin was pouring out its morning song. Within the cottage
there was no sound or token of life, and thinking its inmates were
asleep, Billy paused several minutes upon the threshold, fearing that
he should disturb their slumbers. At last with a vague presentiment
that all was not right, he raised the latch and entered, but instantly
started back in astonishment at the scene before him. On the little
trundlebed lay Frank, cold and dead, and near him in the same long
dreamless sleep was his mother, while between them, with one arm
thrown lovingly across her brother's neck, and her cheek pressed
against his, lay Mary--her eyelids moist with the tears which, though
sleeping she still shed. On the other side of Frank and nestled so
closely to him that her warm breath lifted the brown curls from his
brow, was Ella. But there were no tear stains on her face, for she
did not yet know how bereaved she was.
For a moment Billy stood irresolute, and then as Mary moved uneasily
in her slumbers, he advanced a step or two towards her. The noise
aroused her, and instantly remembering and comprehending the whole,
she threw herself with a bitter cry into Billy's extended arms, as if
he alone were all the protector she now had in the wide, wide world.
Ere long Ella too awoke, and the noisy outburst which followed the
knowledge of her loss, made Mary still the agony of her own heart in
order to soothe the more violent grief of her excitable sister.
There was a stir in the cradle, and with a faint cry the baby Alice
awoke and stretched her hands towards Mary who, with all a mother's
care took the child upon her lap and fed her from the milk which was
still standing in the broken pitcher. With a baby's playfulness Alice
dipped her small fingers into the milk, and shaking them in her
sister's face, laughed aloud as the white drops fell upon her hair.
This was too much for poor Mary, and folding the child closer to her
bosom she sobbed passionately.
"Oh, Allie, dear little Allie, what will you do? What shall we all do?
Mother's dead, mother's dead!"
Ella was not accustomed to see her sister thus moved, and her tears
now flowed faster while she entreated Mary to stop. "Don't do so,
Mary," she said. "Don't do so. You make me cry harder. Tell her to
stop, Billy. Tell her to stop."
But Billy's tears were flowing too, and he could only answer the
little girl by affectionately smoothing her tangled curls, which for
once in her life she had forgotten to arrange At length rising up, he
said to Mary, "Something must be done. The villagers must know of it,
and I shall have to leave you alone while I tell them."
In half an hour from that time the cottage was nearly filled with
people, some of whom came out of idle curiosity, and after seeing all
that was to be seen, started for home, telling the first woman who put
her head out the chamber window for particulars, that "'twas a
dreadful thing, and such a pity, too, that Ella should have to go to
the poor-house, with her pretty face and handsome curls."
But there were others who went there for the sake of comforting the
orphans and attending to the dead, and by noon the bodies were
decently arranged for burial. Mrs. Johnson's Irish girl Margaret was
cleaning the room, and in the bedroom adjoining, Mrs. Johnson herself,
with two or three other ladies, were busily at work upon some plain,
neat shrouds, and as they worked they talked of the orphan children
who were now left friendless.
"There will be no trouble," said one, "in finding a place for Ella,
she is so bright and handsome, but as for Mary, I am afraid she'll
have to go to the poor-house."
"Were I in a condition to take either," replied Mrs. Johnson, "I
should prefer Mary to her sister, for in my estimation she is much the
best girl; but there is the baby, who must go wherever Mary does,
unless she can be persuaded to leave her."
Before any one could reply to this remark, Mary, who had overheard
every word, came forward, and laying her face on Mrs. Johnson's lap,
sobbed out, "Let me go with Alice, I told mother I would."
Billy Bender, who all this while had been standing by the door, now
gave a peculiar whistle, which with him was ominous of some new idea,
and turning on his heel started for home, never once thinking, until
he reached it, that his mother more than six hours before had sent him
in great haste for the physician. On entering the house, he found her,
as we expected, rolled up in bed, apparently in the last stage of
scarlet fever; but before she could reproach him, he said "Mother,
have you heard the news?"
Mrs. Bender had a particular love for news, and now forgetting "how
near to death's door" she had been, she eagerly demanded, "What news?
What has happened?"
When Billy told her of the sudden death of Mrs. Howard and Frank, an
expression of "What? That all?" passed over her face, and she said,
"Dear me, and so the poor critter's gone? Hand me my snuff, Billy.
Both died last night, did they? Hain't you nothin' else to tell?"
"Yes, Mary Judson and Ella Campbell, too, are dead."
Mrs. Bender, who like many others, courted the favor of the wealthy,
and tried to fancy herself on intimate terms with them, no sooner
heard of Mrs. Campbell's affliction, than her own dangerous symptoms
were forgotten, and springing up she exclaimed, "Ella Campbell dead!
What'll her mother do? I must go to her right away. Hand me my double
gown there in the closet, and give me my lace cap in the lower draw,
and mind you have the tea-kettle biled agin I get back."
"But, mother," said Billy, as he prepared to obey her, "Mrs. Campbell
is rich, and there are enough who will pity her. If you go any where,
suppose you stop at Mrs. Howard's, and comfort poor Mary, who cries
all the time because she and Alice have got to go to the poor-house."
"Of course they'll go there, and they orto be thankful they've got so
good a place--Get away.--That ain't my double gown;--that's a cloak.
Don't you know a cloak from a double gown?"
"Yes, yes," said Billy, whose mind was not upon his mother's
toilet--"but," he continued, "I want to ask you, can't we,--couldn't
you take them for a few days, and perhaps something may turn up."
"William Bender," said the highly astonished lady what can you mean? A
poor sick woman like me, with one foot in the grave, take the charge
of three pauper children! I shan't do it, and you needn't think of
it."
"But, mother," persisted Billy, who could generally coax her to do as
he liked, "it's only for a few days, and they'll not be much trouble
or expense, for I'll work enough harder to make it up."
"I have said _no_ once, William Bender, and when _I_ say no, I mean
no," was the answer.
Billy knew she would be less decided the next time the subject was
broached, so for the present, he dropped it, and taking his cap he
returned to Mrs. Howard's, while his mother started for Mrs.
Campbell's.
Next morning between the hours of nine and ten, the tolling bell sent
forth its sad summons, and ere long a few of the villagers were moving
towards the brown cottage, where in the same plain coffin slept the
mother and her only boy. Near them sat Ella, occasionally looking with
childish curiosity at the strangers around her, or leaning forward to
peep at the tips of the new morocco shoes which Mrs. Johnson had
kindly given her; then, when her eye fell upon the coffin, she would
burst into such an agony of weeping that many of the villagers also
wept in sympathy, and as they stroked her soft hair, thought, "how
much more she loved her mother than did Mary," who, without a tear
upon her cheek, sat there immovable, gazing fixedly upon the marble
face of her mother. Alice was not present, for Billy had not only
succeeded in winning his mother's consent to take the children for a
few days, but he had also coaxed her to say that Alice might come
before the funeral, on condition that he would remain at home and
take care of her. This he did willingly, for Alice, who had been
accustomed to see him would now go to no one else except Mary.
Billy was rather awkward at baby tending, but by dint of emptying his
mother's cupboard, blowing a tin horn, rattling a pewter platter with
an iron spoon, and whistling Yankee Doodle, he managed to keep her
tolerably quiet until he saw the humble procession approaching the
house. Then, hurrying with his little charge to the open window, he
looked out. Side by side walked Mary and Ella, and as Alice's eyes
fell upon the former, she uttered a cry of joy, and almost sprang from
Billy's arms. But Mary could not come; and for the next half hour Mrs.
Bender corked her ears with cotton, while Billy, half distracted,
walked the floor, singing at the top of his voice every tune he had
ever heard, from "Easter Anthem" down to "the baby whose father had
gone a hunting," and for whom the baby in question did not care two
straws.
Meantime the bodies were about to be lowered into the newly made
grave, when Mrs. Johnson felt her dress nervously grasped, and looking
down she saw Mary's thin, white face uplifted towards hers with so
earnest an expression, that she gently laid her hand upon her head,
and said, "What is it, dear?"
"Oh, if I can,--if they only would let me look at them once more. I
couldn't see them at the house, my eyes were so dark."
Mrs. Johnson immediately communicated Mary's request to the sexton,
who rather unwillingly opened the coffin lid. The road over which they
had come, was rough and stony and the jolt had disturbed the position
of Frank, who now lay partly upon his mother's shoulder, with his cheek
resting against hers. Tenderly Mary laid him back upon his own
pillow, and then kneeling down and burying her face in her mother's
bosom, she for a time remained perfectly silent, although the
quivering of her frame plainly told the anguish of that parting. At
length Mrs. Johnson gently whispered "Come, darling, you must come
away now;" but Mary did not move; and when at last they lifted her up,
they saw that she had fainted. In a few moments she recovered, and
with her arms across her sister's neck, stood by until the wide grave
was filled, and the bystanders were moving away.
As they walked homeward together, two women, who had been present at
the funeral, discussed the matter as follows:--
"They took it hard, poor things, particularly the oldest."
"Yes, though I didn't think she cared as much as t'other one, until
she fainted, but it's no wonder, for she's old enough to dread the
poor-house. Did you say they were staying at widder Bender's?"
"Yes, and how in this world widder Bender, as poor as she pretends to
be, can afford to do it, is more than I can tell."
"Are you going to the other funeral this afternoon?"
"I guess I am. I wouldn't miss it for a good deal. Why as true as you
live, I have never set my foot in Mrs. Campbell's house yet, and know
no more what is in it than the dead."
"Well, I do, for my girl Nancy Ray used to live there, and she's told
me sights. She says they've got a big looking-glass that cost three
hundred dollars."
"So I've heard, and I s'pose there'll be great doin's this afternoon.
The coffin, they say, came from Worcester, and cost fifty dollars."
"Now, that's what I call wicked. Sposin' her money did come from
England, she needn't spend it so foolishly; but then money didn't save
Ella's life, and they say her mother's done nothing but screech and
go on like a mad woman since she died. You'll go early, won't you?"
"Yes, I mean to be there in season to get into the parlor if I can."
And now, having reached the corner, where their path diverged, with a
mutual "good day" they parted.