"Don"t you know? It"s always so in the country. First they ring the bell, as it"s ringing now. That"s to set people a-going. Then they toll it. You"ll hear in a few minutes. That means, the time"s up."
Ford Foster"s city training had not taught him as much as that, but he was glad to know it.
Mrs. Myers once more urged upon them the necessity of making haste.
"It won"t do to be late," she said. "I never allow myself to be a minute behind time."
The last clause sounded a very, very little impatient; but Ford once more politely expressed his sorrow, and abstained from putting on his coat. At that moment, too, d.i.c.k Lee came tiptoeing in from his cheerless garret, and looking astonishingly spruce. The "shine" on his shoes was a brilliancy to be remembered; and so was the shine on his face, and the sunset glow of his necktie.
"Sh! d.i.c.k," said Dab. "Hold still a minute. The bell"s beginning to toll."
"I fear Almira and I will be compelled to start," said Mrs. Myers regretfully. "Perhaps you can overtake us if you hurry."
"Perhaps we could," replied Ford, "but I beg you will not let yourself be late on our account. We"re coming."
He began to put his coat on as she and Almira went through the gate. In such a village as that, no one was afraid to leave a house alone for an hour or two. Not only was the door-lock "on the latch" as usual, but d.i.c.k Lee had been vaguely expected to stay at home. There, again, Mrs.
Myers had taken too much for granted; and she had not said a word to him about it.
Just as she heard the bell give its last few rapid and warning strokes, and disappeared through the church-door, she might have seen, had she turned back and looked once more towards her own front gate, four well-dressed youngsters hurrying from it across the street as if a great deal depended on their reaching church before service could begin.
"It"s very kind of Mrs. Myers to invite us," remarked Ford, "but she never thought how bashful we"d be about it."
They were quickly within the ample porch of the roomy and not at all overcrowded edifice, and were greeted by two or three benevolent-looking elderly gentlemen, with a degree of prompt cordiality which left little to be asked for.
The deacons were awake to their duty relating to new scholars,--"students" they called them; and every attention was paid these four who had begun so well their first Sunday.
So it would be at every church on that green; and it would really be about the middle of the term before stray "academy boys" would be left to find their own way to well-whittled benches in the galleries.
One of the best pews in the house, well forward in the middle aisle, and they had it all to themselves. There was not another pew in church that morning which seemed to attract so large a share of the attention of the congregation. Mrs. Myers and Almira were several pews behind, and on the other side of the house; and there had been no opportunity to capture her four boarders, or any of them, while they were marching in.
"Almira! If they haven"t brought d.i.c.k with them."
"Yes, mother; but how very well they look! Mr. Kinzer is really quite handsome."
That was hardly Dab"s opinion of himself, and n.o.body had ever taken pains to tell him so; but the four of them, standing up together, and all singing, made quite a picture. d.i.c.k Lee was between Dab Kinzer and Frank Harley, and seemed to feel in honor bound to sing his best. That was very well too.
If Glorianna could but have had a look at her boy that morning, there is no such thing as telling how proud she would have felt about him. It was too bad she could not have done so, especially as d.i.c.k was most loyally thinking of her, and wishing that she could.
There was no fault to be found by Mrs. Myers, or anybody else, with the strict decorum of her boarders, and their profound attention to the service and sermon; but she felt that she had a duty to perform, and she only waited the proper time for its performance.
The last hymn had been duly sung, and the boys were drifting along with the tide in the aisle towards the door, when Dabney nudged Ford with his elbow.
"We"re nabbed, Ford."
"No escape this time, that"s a fact. Don"t let"s try. She means it all for politeness."
They would have been quite willing to have been allowed to get out and go home unnoticed; but there in the porch awaiting them were Mrs. Myers and Almira, and there was no possibility of an escape. It would have been unkind to try in the face of so much smiling. Besides, they did board with her; and she had her rights of property, one of which was to show them off, and introduce them. She proceeded to exercise it at once; and it was to the credit of the three white boys that they came promptly to her a.s.sistance, and added any little matter she might happen to miss in the hurry of the moment.
"Deacon Short, this is Mr. Dabney Kinzer, of Long Island; this is Mr.
Frank Harley, of Rangoon, son of Rev. Dr. Harley, our well-known missionary; this is Mr. Ford Foster, son of the eminent New-York lawyer."
"Delighted"--began the deacon, rapidly grasping and shaking hand after hand, with a peculiar lift of his elbow, that placed most of what might be called the "action" at the point of it; but Ford was thinking of the thing Mrs. Myers had omitted, and he promptly added,--
"Glad to meet you, Deacon Short; and this is my friend Mr. Richard Lee, of Long Island."
To do the good deacon justice, his grasp of d.i.c.k"s hand was every bit as cordial as any other of his grasps; and he beamed on the smiling black boy in a way that gave him back, after the manner of a reflection, a great glow of the best and broadest "beaming."
Mrs. Myers did not stop a moment in the repet.i.tion of her formula, and there was sharp work before her; but Dab"s tongue was also loose now, and Elder Potter had hardly time to hear who he was before Deacon Short had to let go of d.i.c.k, and hear Dab say,--
"How d"ye do, Elder Potter? and this is my near neighbor and friend, Mr.
Richard Lee."
"Mrs. Sunderland," began Mrs. Myers, to a lady whose face and dress declared her a social magnate, "my new boarder, Mr. Frank Harley:" and the rest of her introduction speech followed; and stately Mrs.
Sunderland had just time to utter a few words of gracious inquiry about the "precious health" of Frank"s father and mother, when he, too, took up the "omission," and d.i.c.k Lee"s introduction stepped into the place of any other answer for a moment.
It was a good thing for d.i.c.k, as Mrs. Sunderland was a member of a society for promoting emigration to Liberia, and was seized at once with a dim idea that a part of her "mission" was standing before her in very brilliant shoes and a new red necktie. She did not know how utterly she and the other good people and those three boys were demolishing a curious vision of Almira"s and her mother"s, of some social advantage they might derive, thenceforward, from having "a colored servant" in their employ. d.i.c.k"s own chance was coming right down upon him, a little before he was quite ready for it; for the minister and his wife came out a few moments later, and Mrs. Sunderland took upon herself the duty of presenting Richard Lee to them, very much if as she would have said,--
"My dear Mr. Fallow,--my dear Mrs. Fallow,--see what I"ve found! Is he not remarkable?"
The words she really uttered were somewhat more formal; but the good, quiet-looking little minister and very quiet-looking little wife were still shaking hands with d.i.c.k, that is, with his right hand, when he turned almost eagerly, and caught hold of Dab Kinzer with his left.
"Yes, sir, an" dis is Cap"n Dab--I mean, this is my friend Mr. Dabney Kinzer, of Long Island,--de bes"--"
"How do you do, Mr. Kinzer? Glad to make your acquaintance," said Mr.
Fallow; and d.i.c.k"s success was complete, except that he was saying to himself,--
"I jes" can"t trus" my tongue wid de oder boys. Dey"s got to take dar chances."
"Now, Mr. Kinzer," said Miss Almira, at that moment, "it"s time we were going home."
"Yes, Frank," said her mother patronizingly, "I think we had better be going."
If such an exercise as "introduction" could earn it, they were both ent.i.tled to good appet.i.tes; and, after all, it had been quite a nice little affair.
Dabney was quite as tall as Miss Almira; but as they walked across the green, side by side, he could not avoid a side-glance that gave him a very clear idea of the difference between his present company and Annie Foster. It was at that very moment that it occurred to Frank that he had last walked home from church under the protecting wing of the portly and matronly Mrs. Kinzer; and he could but draw some kind of a comparison between her and Mrs. Myers.
"They"re both widows," he thought; "but there isn"t any other resemblance."
Ford and d.i.c.k brought up the rear; and for some reason, or there may have been more than one, they were both in capital good spirits.
"Tell you wot," exclaimed d.i.c.k: "if goin" to de "cad"my is all like dis yer--I am very glad indeed that I ever came."
"Oh! you"re all right," said Ford; "but there"s more good people in this village than I"d any idea of. I"m glad we came to church."
"d.i.c.k," said Mrs. Myers a little sharply, when they reached the gate, "I want some wood and a pail of water. You"d better hurry up stairs, and put on your every-day clothes."