Thanksgiving Day was celebrated with due observance. In the morning we all heard Dr. Lyman preach, and came home with the feeling that we and the country at large were prosperous. Mr. and Mrs. Jones, with Junior, dined with us in great state, and we had our first four-course dinner since arriving in Maizeville, and at the fashionable hour of six in the evening. I had protested against my wife"s purpose of staying at home in the morning, saying we would "browse around during the day and get up appet.i.tes, while in the afternoon we could all turn cooks and help her." Merton was excepted, and, after devouring a hasty cold lunch, he and Junior were off with their guns. As for Bobsey, he appeared to browse steadily after church, but seemed in no wise to have exhausted his capacity when at last he attacked his soup, turkey drum-stick, and the climax of a pudding. Our feast was a very informal affair, seasoned with mirth and sauced with hunger. The viands, however, under my wife"s skill, would compare with any eaten in the great city, which we never once had regretted leaving. Winifred looked after the transfers from the kitchen at critical moments, while Mousie and Winnie were our waitresses. A royal blaze crackled in the open fireplace, and seemed to share in the sparkle of our rustic wit and unforced mirth, which kept plump Mrs. Jones in a perpetual quiver, like a form of jelly.
Her husband came out strong in his comical resume of the past year"s experience, concluding: "Well, we owe you and Mrs. Durham a vote of thanks for reforming the Bagley tribe. That appears to me an orthodox case of convarsion. First we gave him the terrors of the law. Tell yer what it is, we was a-smokin" in wrath around him that mornin", like Mount Sinai, and you had the sense to bring, in the nick of time, the gospel of givin" a feller a chance. It"s the best gospel there is, I reckon."
"Well," I replied, becoming thoughtful for a moment with boyish memories, "my good old mother taught me that it was G.o.d"s plan to give us a chance, and help us make the most of it."
"I remembered the Bagleys to-day," Mrs. Jones remarked, nodding to my wife. "We felt they ought to be encouraged."
"So did we," my wife replied, sotto voce.
We afterward learned that the Bagleys had been provisioned for nearly a month by the good-will of neighbors, who, a short time since, had been ready to take up arms against them.
By eight o"clock everything was cleared away, Mrs. Jones a.s.sisting my wife, and showing that she would be hurt if not permitted to do so.
Then we all gathered around the glowing hearth, Junior"s rat-a-tat-snap! proving that our final course of nuts and cider would be provided in the usual way.
How homely it all was! how free from any attempt at display of style!
yet equally free from any trace of vulgarity or ill-natured gossip.
Mousie had added grace to the banquet with her blooming plants and dried gra.s.ses; and, although the dishes had been set on the table by my wife"s and children"s hands, they were daintily ornamented and inviting. All had been within our means and accomplished by ourselves; and the following morning brought no regretful thoughts. Our helpful friends went home, feeling that they had not bestowed their kindness on unthankful people whose scheme of life was to get and take, but not to return.
CHAPTER XLIV
WE CAN MAKE A LIVING IN EDEN
Well, our first year was drawing to a close. The 1st of December was celebrated by an event no less momentous than the killing of our pigs, to Winnie"s and Bobsey"s intense excitement. In this affair my wife and I were almost helpless, but Mr. Jones and Bagley were on hand, and proved themselves veterans, while Mrs. Jones stood by my wife until the dressed animals were transformed into souse, head-cheese, sausage, and well-salted pork. The children feasted and exulted through all the processes, especially enjoying some sweet spareribs.
I next gave all my attention, when the weather permitted, to the proper winter covering of all the strawberries, and to the cutting and carting home of old and dying trees from the wood lot.
The increasing cold brought new and welcome pleasures to the children.
There was ice on the neighboring ponds, and skates were bought as premature Christmas presents. The same was true of sleds after the first fall of snow. This white covering of the earth enabled Merton and Junior to track some rabbits in the vicinity, which thus far had eluded their search.
By the middle of the month we realized that winter had begun in all its rather stern reality; but we were sheltered and provided for. We had so far imitated the ants that we had abundant stores until the earth should again yield its bounty.
Christmas brought us more than its wonted joy, and a better fulfilment of the hopes and antic.i.p.ations which we had cherished on the same day of the previous year. We were far from regretting our flight to the country, although it had involved us in hard toil and many anxieties.
My wife was greatly pleased by my many hours of rest at the fireside in her companionship, caused by days too cold and wintry for outdoor work; but our deepest and most abiding content was expressed one evening as we sat alone after the children were asleep.
"You have solved the problem, Robert, that was worrying you. There is s.p.a.ce here for the children to grow, and the Daggetts and the Ricketts and all their kind are not so near as to make them grow wrong, almost in spite of us. A year ago we felt that we were virtually being driven to the country. I now feel as if we had been led by a kindly and divine hand." I had given much attention to my account-book of late, and had said, "On New Year"s morning I will tell you all the result of our first year"s effort."
At breakfast, after our greetings and good wishes for the New Year, all looked expectantly at me as I opened our financial record. Carefully and clearly as possible, so that even Winnie might understand in part, I went over the different items, and the expense and proceeds of the different crops, so far as I was able to separate them. Bobsey"s attention soon wandered, for he had an abiding faith that breakfast, dinner, and supper would follow the sun, and that was enough for him.
But the other children were pleased with my confidence, and tried to understand me.
"To sum up everything," I said, finally, "we have done, by working all together, what I alone should probably have accomplished in the city--we have made our living. I have also taken an inventory or an account of stock on hand and paid for; that is, I have here a list on which are named the horse, wagon, harness, cow, crates and baskets, tools, poultry, and pigs. These things are paid for, and we are so much ahead. Now, children, which is better, a living in the city, I earning it for you all? or a living in the country toward which even Bobsey can do his share?"
"A living in the country," was the prompt chorus. "There is something here for a fellow to do without being nagged by a policeman," Merton added.
"Well, children, mamma and I agree with you. What"s more, there wasn"t much chance for me to get ahead in the city, or earn a large salary.
Here, by pulling all together, there is almost a certainty of our earning more than a bare living, and of laying up something for a rainy day. The chief item of profit from our farm, however, is not down in my account-book, but we see it in your st.u.r.dier forms and in Mousie"s red cheeks. More than all, we believe that you are better and healthier at heart than you were a year ago.
"Now for the New Year. Let us make the best and most of it, and ask G.o.d to help us."
And so my simple history ends in glad content and hope.
THE END