A NEW EXPERIENCE
With the closing in of the fog, twilight settled about the cabin. The old
woman, still in her black bonnet with the veil thrown back, drew a wooden
armed chair close to the stove and held her hands out toward the warmth.
“Open up the box of supplies, Dories,” she commanded, “and get out some
candles. Then you can fill a hot-water bottle for me and I’ll go right to
bed. No use making a fire in the front room until tomorrow. You girls are
to sleep upstairs. You’ll find bedding in a bureau up there. It may be
damp, but you’re young. It won’t hurt you any.”
Dories, having opened up the box of supplies, removed each article,
placing it on the table. At the very bottom she found a note scribbled on
a piece of wrapping paper: “Out of candles. Send some tomorrer.”
Miss Moore sat up ramrod-straight, her sharp gray eyes narrowing angrily.
“If that isn’t just like that shiftless, good-for-nothing Simon Strait.
How did he suppose we could get on without light? I wish now I had
ordered kerosene, but I thought, just at first, that candles would do.”
In the dusk Nann had been looking about the kitchen. On a shelf she saw a
lantern and two glass lamps. “O, Miss Moore!” she exclaimed, “Don’t you
think maybe there might be oil in one of those lamps?”
“No, I don’t,” the old woman replied. “I always had my maid empty them
the last thing for fear of fire.” Nann, standing on a chair, had taken
down the lantern. Her face brightened. “I hear a swish,” she said
hopefully, “and so it must be oil.” With a piece of wrapping paper she
wiped off the dust while Dories brought forth a box of matches.
A dim, sputtering light rewarded them. “It won’t last long,” Nann said as
she placed the lantern on the table, “So, Miss Moore, if you’ll tell us
what to do to make you comfortable, we’ll hurry around and do it.”
“Comfortable? Humph! We won’t any of us be very comfortable with such a
wet fog penetrating even into our bones.” The old woman complained so
bitterly that Dories found herself wondering why her Great-Aunt Jane had
come at all if she had known that she would be uncomfortable. But she had
no time to give the matter further thought, for Miss Moore was issuing
orders. “Dories, you work that pump-handle over there in the sink. If it
needs priming, we won’t get any water tonight. Well, thank goodness, it
doesn’t. That’s one thing that went right. Nann, you rinse out the tea
kettle, fill it and set it to boil. Now you girls take the lantern and go
to my bedroom. It’s just off the big front room, so you can’t miss it;
open up the bottom bureau drawer and fetch out my bedding. We’ll hang it
over chairs by the stove till the damp gets out of it.”
Nann took the sputtering lantern and, being the fearless one of the two,
she led the way into the big front room of the cabin. The furniture could
not be seen for the sheetlike coverings. In the dim light the girls could
see a few pictures turned face to the wall. “Oh-oo!” Dories shuddered.
“It’s clammily damp in here. Think of it, Nann, can you conceive _what_
it would have been like for _me_ if I had come all alone with Aunt Jane?
Well, I know just as well as I know anything that I would never have
lived through this first night.”
Nann laughed merrily. “O, Dori,” she exclaimed as she held the lantern
up, “Do look at this wonderful, huge stone fireplace. I’m sure we’re
going to enjoy it here when we get things straightened around and the sun
is shining. You see if we don’t.” Nann was opening a door which she
believed must lead into Miss Moore’s bedroom, and she was right. The dim,
flickering light revealed an old-fashioned hand-turned bed with four high
posts. Near was an antique bureau, and Dori quickly opened the bottom
drawer and took out the needed bedding. With her arms piled high, she
followed the lantern-bearer back to the kitchen. Miss Moore had evidently
not moved from her chair by the stove. “Put on another piece of wood,
Dori,” she commanded. “Now fetch all the chairs up and spread the bedding
on it.”
When this had been done, the teakettle was singing, and Nann said
brightly, “What a little optimist a teakettle is! It sings even when
things are darkest.”
“You mean when things are hottest,” Dori put in, actually laughing.
The old woman was still giving orders. “The dishes are in that cupboard
over the table,” she nodded in that direction. “Fetch out a cup and
saucer, Dories, wash them with some hot water and make me a cup of tea.
Then, while I drink it, you can both spread up my bed.”
Fifteen minutes later all these things had been accomplished. The old
woman acknowledged that she was as comfortable as possible in her warm
bed. When they had said good-night, she called, “Dories, I forgot to tell
you the stairway to your room leads up from the back porch.” Then she
added, as an afterthought, “You girls will want to eat something, but for
mercy sake, do close the living-room door so I won’t hear your clatter.”
Nann, whose enjoyment of the situation was real and not feined, placed
the sputtering lantern on the kitchen table while Dories softly closed
the door as she had been directed. Then they stood and gazed at the
supplies still in boxes and bundles on the oilcloth-covered table. “I
never was hungrier!” Dories announced. “But there isn’t time to really
cook anything before the light will go out. Oh-oo! Think how terrible it
would be to have to climb up that cold, wet outside stairway to a room in
the loft and get into cold, wet bedding, and all in the dark.”
Nann laughed. “Well, I’ll confess it _is_ rather spooky,” she agreed,
“and if I believed in ghosts I might be scared.” Then, as the lantern
gave a warning flicker, the older girl suggested: “What say to turning
out the light and make more fire in the stove? It really is quite bright
over in that corner.”
“I guess it’s the only thing to do,” Dori acknowledged dolefully. “O
goodie,” she added more cheerfully as she held up a box of crackers.
“These, with butter and some sardines, _ought_ to keep us from starving.”
“Great!” Nann seemed determined to be appreciative. “And for a drink
let’s have cambric tea with canned milk and sugar. Now the next thing,
where is a can opener?”
She opened a drawer in the kitchen table and squealed exultingly, “Dories
Moore, see what I’ve found.” She was holding something up. “It’s a little
candle end, but it will be just the thing if we need a light in the night
when our oil is gone.”
“Goodness!” Dories shuddered. “I hope we’ll sleep so tight we won’t know
it is night until after it’s over.”
Nann had also found a can opener and they were soon hungrily eating the
supper Dories had suggested. “I call this a great lark!” the older girl
said brightly. They were sitting on straight wooden chairs, drawn close
to the bright fire, and their viands were on another chair between them.
“The kitchen is so nice and warm now that I hate plunging out into the
fog to go upstairs,” Dori shudderingly remarked. “I presume that is where
Aunt Jane’s maid used to sleep. Mumsie said she had one named Maggie who
had been with her forever, almost. But she died last June. That must be
why Aunt Jane didn’t come here this summer.”
When the girls had eaten all of the sardines and crackers and had been
refreshed with cambric tea, they rose and looked at each other almost
tragically. Then Nann smiled. “Don’t let’s give ourselves time to think,”
she suggested. “Let’s take a box of matches. You get one while I relight
the lantern. I have the candle end in my pocket. Now, bolster up your
courage and open the door while I shelter our flickering flame from the
cold night air that might blow it out.”
Dories had her hand on the knob of the door which led out upon the back
porch, but before opening it, she whispered, “Nann, you don’t suppose
that ghost over in the ruin ever prowls around anywhere else, do you?”
“Of course not, silly!” Nann’s tone was reassuring. “There isn’t a ghost
in the old ruin, or anywhere else for that matter. Now open the door and
let’s ascend to our chamber.”
The fog on the back porch was so dense that it was difficult for the
girls to find the entrance to their boarded-in stairway. As they started
the ascent, Nann in the lead, they were both wondering what they would
find when they reached their loft bedroom.