The Piper"s voice was very tender; the little dog lay still at his feet. She leaned against the crumbling wall, and turned her veiled face away.
""T is not for us to be happy without trying," continued the Piper, "any more than it is for a tree to bear fruit without effort. All the beauty and joy in the world are the result of work--work for each other and in ourselves. When you see a b.u.t.terfly over a field of clover, "t is because he has worked to get out of his chrysalis. He was not content to abide within his veil."
"Suppose," said Miss Evelina, in a voice that was scarcely audible, "that he couldn"t get out?"
"Ah, but he could," answered the Piper. "We can get out of anything, if we try. I"m not meaning by escape, but by growth. You put an acorn into a crevice in a rock. It has no wings, it cannot fly out, n.o.body will lift it out. But it grows, and the oak splits the rock; even takes from the rock nourishment for its root."
"People are not like acorns and b.u.t.terflies," she stammered. "We are not subject to the same laws."
"Why not?" asked the Piper. "G.o.d made us all, and I"m thinking we"re all brothers, having, in a way, the same Father. "T is not for me to hold myself above Laddie here, though he"s a dog and I"m a man. "T is not for me to say that men are better than dogs; that they"re more honest, more true, more kind. The seed that I have in my hand, here, I"m thinking "t is my brother, too. If I plant it, water it, and keep the weeds away from it, "t will give me back a blossom. "T is service binds us all into the brotherhood."
"Did you never," asked Evelina, thickly, "hear of chains?"
"Aye," said the Piper, "chains of our own making. "T is like the ancient people in one of my ragged books. When one man killed another, they chained the dead man to the living one, so that he was forever dragging his own sin. When he struck the blow, he made his own chain."
"I am chained," cried Evelina, piteously, "but not to my own sin."
""T is wrong," said the Piper; "I"m thinking there"s a loose link somewhere that can be slipped off."
"I cannot find it," she sobbed; "I"ve hunted for it in the dark for twenty-five years."
"Poor soul," said the Piper, softly. ""T is because of the darkness, I"m thinking. From the distaff of Eternity, you take the thread of your life, but you"re sitting in the night, and G.o.d meant you to be a spinner in the sun. When the day breaks for you, you"ll be finding the loose link to set yourself free."
"When the day breaks," repeated Evelina, in a whisper. "There is no day."
"There is day. I"ve come to lead you to it. We"ll find the light together and set the thread to going right again."
"Who are you?" cried Evelina, suddenly terror stricken.
The Piper laughed, a low, deep friendly laugh. Then he doffed his grey hat and bowed, sweeping the earth with the red feather, in cavalier fashion. "Tom Barnaby, at your service, but most folks call me Piper Tom. "T is the flute, you know," he continued in explanation, "that I"m forever playing on in the woods, having no knowledge of the instrument, but sort of liking the sound."
Miss Evelina turned and went into the house, shaken to her inmost soul.
More than ever, she felt the chains that bound her. Straining against her bonds, she felt them cutting deep into her flesh. Anthony Dexter had bound her; he alone could set her free. From this there seemed no possible appeal.
Meanwhile the Piper mowed down the weeds in the garden, whistling cheerily. He burned the rubbish in the road, and the smoke made a blue haze on the hill. He spaded and raked and found new stones for the broken wall, and kept up a constant conversation with the dog.
It was twilight long before he got ready to make the flower beds, so he carried the tools back into the shed and safely stored away the seeds.
Miss Evelina watched him from the grimy front window as he started downhill, but he did not once look back.
There was something jaunty in the Piper"s manner, aside from the drooping red feather which bobbed rakishly as he went home, whistling.
When he was no longer to be seen, Miss Evelina sighed. Something seemed to have gone out of her life, like a sunbeam which has suddenly faded. In a safe shadow of the house, she raised her veil, and wiped away a tear.
When out of sight and hearing, the Piper stopped his whistling. ""T is no need to be cheerful, Laddie," he explained to the dog, "when there"s none to be saddened if you"re not. We don"t know about the loose link, and perhaps we can never find it, but we"re going to try. We"ll take off the chain and put the poor soul in the sun again before we go away, if we can learn how to do it, but I"m thinking "t is a heavy chain and the sun has long since ceased to shine."
After supper, he lighted a candle and absorbed himself in going over his stock. He had made a few purchases in the city and it took some time to arrange them properly.
Last of all, he took out a box and opened it. He held up to the flickering light length after length of misty white chiffon--a fabric which the Piper had never bought before.
""T is expensive, Laddie," he said; "so expensive that neither of us will taste meat again for more than a week, though we walked both ways, but I"m thinking she"ll need more sometime and there was none to be had here. We"ll not be in the way of charging for it since her gown is shabby and her shoes are worn."
Twilight deepened into night and still the Piper sat there, handling the chiffon curiously and yet with reverence. It was silky to his touch, filmy, cloud-like. He folded it into small compa.s.s, and crushed it in his hands, much surprised to find that it did not crumple. All the meaning of chiffon communicated itself to him--the lightness and the laughter, the beauty and the love. Roses and moonlight seemed to belong with it, youth and a singing heart.
""T is a rare stuff, I"m thinking, Laddie," he said, at length, not noting that the dog was asleep. ""T is a rare, fine stuff, and well suited to her wearing, because she is so beautiful that she hides her face."
XII
A Grey Kitten
With her mouth firmly set, and a.s.suming the air of a martyr trying to make himself a little more comfortable against the stake, Miss Mehitable climbed the hill. In her capable hands were the implements of warfare--pails, yellow soap, and rags. She carried a mop on her shoulder as a regular carries a gun.
"Havin" said I would clean house, I will clean house," she mused, "in spite of all the ingrat.i.tude and not listenin". "T won"t take long, and it"ll do my heart good to see the place clean again. Evelina"s got no gumption about a house--never did have. I s"pose she thinks it"s clean just because she"s swept it and brushed down the cobwebs, but it needs more "n a broom to take out twenty-five years" dirt."
Her militant demeanour was somewhat chastened when she presented herself at the house. When the door was opened, she brushed past Miss Evelina with a muttered explanation, and made straight for the kitchen stove. She heated a huge kettle of water, filled her pail, and then, for the first time, spoke.
"I"ve come to finish cleanin" as I promised I would, and I hope it"ll offset your nursin" of Minty. And if that blackmailing play-doctor comes while I"m at work, you can tell him that I ain"t speakin" to Minty from the hall, nor settin" foot in her room, and that he needn"t be in any hurry to make out his bill, "cause I"m goin" to take my time about payin" it."
She went upstairs briskly, and presently the clatter of moving furniture fairly shook the house over Miss Evelina"s head. It sounded as if Miss Mehitable did not know there was an invalid in the house, and found distinct pleasure in making unnecessary noise. The quick, regular strokes of the scrubbing brush swished through the hall.
Resentment inspired the ministering influence to speed.
But it was not in Miss. .h.i.tty"s nature to cherish her wrath long, while the incense of yellow soap was in her nostrils and the pleasing foam of suds was everywhere in sight.
Presently she began to sing, in a high, cracked voice which wavered continually off the key. She went through her repertory of hymns with conscientious thoroughness. Then a bright idea came to her.
"There wa"n"t nothin" said about singin"," she said to herself. "I wa"n"t to speak to Minty from the hall, nor set foot into her room.
But I ain"t pledged not to sing in the back room, and I can sing any tune I please, and any words. Reckon Minty can hear."
The moving of the ladder drowned the sound made by the opening of the lower door. Secure upon her height, with her head near the open transom of the back room. Miss Mehitable began to sing.
"Araminta Lee is a bad, un-grate-ful girl," she warbled, to a tune the like of which no mortal had ever heard before. "She fell off of a step-lad-der, and sprained her an-kle, and the play-doc-tor said it was broke in or-der to get more mon-ey, breaks being more val-u-able than sprains. Araminta Lee is lay-ing in bed like a la-dy, while her poor old aunt works her fingers to the bone, to pay for doc-tor"s bills and nursin". Four dollars and a half," she chanted, mournfully, "and no-body to pay it but a poor old aunt who has to work her fin-gers to the bone. Four dollars and a half, four dollars and a half--almost five dollars. Araminta thinks she will get out of work by pretending to be sick, but it is not so, not so. Araminta will find out she is much mis-taken. She will do the Fall clean-ing all alone, alone, and we do not think there will be any sprained an-kles, nor any four dollars--"
Doctor Ralph Dexter appeared in the doorway, his face flaming with wrath. Miss Mehitable continued to sing, apparently unconcerned, though her heart pounded violently against her ribs. By a swift change of words and music, she was singing "Rock of Ages," as any woman is privileged to do, when cleaning house, or at any other time.
But the young man still stood there, his angry eyes fixed upon her.
The scrutiny made Miss Mehitable uncomfortable, and at length she descended from the ladder, still singing, ostensibly to refill her pail.
"Let me hide--" warbled Miss. .h.i.tty, tremulously, attempting to leave the room.
Doctor Ralph effectually barred the way. "I should think you"d want to hide," he said, scornfully. "If I hear of anything; like this again, I"ll send in that bill I told you of. I know a lawyer who can collect it."
"If you do," commented Miss Mehitable, ironically, "you know more "n I do." She tried to speak with a.s.surance, but her soul was quaking within her. Was it possible that any one knew she had over three hundred dollars safely concealed in the attic?
"I mean exactly what I say," continued Ralph. "If you so much as climb these stairs again, you and I will have trouble,"
Sniffing disdainfully, Miss Mehitable went down into the kitchen, no longer singing. "You"ll have to finish your own cleanin"," she said to Miss Evelina. "That blackmailing play-doctor thinks it ain"t good for my health to climb ladders. He"s afraid I"ll fall off same as Minty did and he hesitates to take more of my money."