"I"ll stay and take care of you, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, delighted that her services were really to be called for, and with her heart at rest about her own poor little girl.
VI
GRANDMA BASCOM
"Deary me!" Grandma Bascom stopped shooing out the hens from her kitchen doorway, and leaned on the broom-handle. "If here don"t come Mis"
Henderson! Now I shall hear about that blessed little creeter and all the rest of them childern."
"Good-afternoon." The parson"s wife went swiftly up the flag-bordered path between the lilac bushes. "It"s a beautiful day, Mrs. Bascom."
"Hey?" Grandma"s shaking hand went up to her cap-border, so Mrs. Henderson had to say it over, that it was a beautiful day, as loud as she could.
"You"ve come to-day?" said Grandma.
"Yes, I see you have, an" I"m obleeged to you, I"m sure, for it"s mighty lonesome since that blessed little creeter, an" all the rest of them childern went away. Come in an" set down," and she led the way into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, the hens, seeing nothing to prevent it, had employed the time in slipping in under Grandma"s short gown, and were busily scratching around for any stray bits.
"Thank you." The parson"s wife nimbly found a chair, while Grandma bustled into the bedroom.
"Excuse me a minute, Mis" Henderson," she called; "I"m goin" to slip on t"other cap."
"Oh, don"t take the trouble," said Mrs. Henderson"s pleasant voice. But she might as well have said nothing, for Grandma didn"t hear a word.
""Tain"t proper to see your minister"s wife in your mornin" cap, nor your petticoat neither for that matter," said Grandma to herself, looking down at her short gown. So she concluded to put on her Sunday-go-to-meeting gown, as she called her best dress. This took her so long, because she hooked it up wrong three times, that Mrs. Henderson appeared in the doorway before the operation of dressing-up could be said to be finished.
"I"m very sorry," she began.
""Tain"t a bit o" trouble," said Grandma cheerfully, pulling at the second hook, which she had been trying for some time to get into the first eye; "you set down, Mis" Henderson, an" I"ll be out pretty soon."
"I must go very soon." The parson"s wife came quite close to say this, up under the frill of the best cap, which stood out very stiffly, as Grandma always kept it in a covered box on top of her high bureau.
"Hey?"
"I must go home soon. I have so many things to see to this afternoon."
It was a fatally long speech, for Grandma only attended to the last part.
"It"s aft-noon? I know it. I"m comin" "s soon "s I can git this hooked up"--with another pull at the mismated hooks and eyes. Seeing this, in despair the parson"s wife took the matter of hooking up into her own hands, and before long the Sunday-go-to-meeting gown could be said to be fairly on.
"Now that"s something like," observed Grandma, in great satisfaction. "I hain"t been hooked up by any one since Mis" Pepper went away. Deary me, how I should set by a sight o" her, an" th" blessed little creeter--there ain"t none other like that child."
Mrs. Henderson nodded, being sparing of words.
"I"ve some letters from them," she said loudly, "and if you come out to the kitchen, I will stay and read them to you."
"What did you say was the matter in the kitchen?" demanded Grandma, in alarm. "Oh, them dirty hens, I s"pose, has got in again."
"I have letters from the Pepper children, and they ask me to come over here and read them to you," shouted Mrs. Henderson. "Dear me!"--to herself--"what shall I do? I"m all tired out already, and three letters to read--she won"t hear a word."
But Grandma, having caught the word "letters," knew quite well what was in store, so, picking up her best gown by its side breadths, she waddled out and seated herself with great dignity in a big chair by the kitchen window.
It was next to the little stand in whose drawer she used to let Joel Pepper look for peppermints.
When the Pepper children shut up the little brown house to go to Mr.
King"s, Grandma moved the small mahogany stand from its place next to the head of her bed out into the kitchen. She kept her big Bible on it, and her knitting work, where she could "have "em handy." And it made her feel less lonesome to look up from her work to see it standing there.
"Seem"s though that boy was a-comin" in every minute," she said. "My land o" Goshen, don"t I wish he was!" for Grandma always had a soft spot in her heart for Joel.
Now she smoothed down her front breadth, and folded her hands in a company way. The parson"s wife drew up a kitchen chair close to her side and unfolded the first letter.
"Who writ that?" asked Grandma eagerly.
"That"s from Polly," said Mrs. Henderson.
"Bless her heart!" cried Grandma. "Well, what does she say?"
"Ma"--a light-haired, serious boy appeared in the doorway--"Pa wants you,"
he announced.
"Oh, Peletiah!" exclaimed the parson"s wife, in consternation, at his unlooked-for appearance, and, "Oh, Grandma!" in the same breath, "I"m so sorry I must go."
"So sorry? What"s ben a happenin" that Polly"s sorry?" said Grandma, supposing that was in the letter. "Now I know that blessed little creeter has got hurt, an" they wouldn"t let me know afore the rest."
"It isn"t in the letter," declared Mrs. Henderson, in a loud, hasty tone, hurrying out of her chair. "Peletiah, what does your father want, do you know?"
"I don"t know exactly," said Peletiah deliberately, "only Aunt Jerusha tumbled down the cellar stairs; maybe that"s it."
"Oh, dear me! dear me!" cried the parson"s wife, in a great fright.
"Peletiah, here are the letters from the Pepper children"--thrusting them into his hand--"do you stay and read them to Grandma. And be sure to tell her why I went home," and she actually ran out of the kitchen, and down the lilac-bordered path.
Peletiah, left alone with the letters, turned them over and over in his hands, as he stood quite still in the middle of the kitchen floor. He never thought of disobeying, and presently he pulled up another chair, just in front of Grandma, and sat slowly down.
"Oh, I know she"s got hurted bad," she kept groaning, "an" I shan"t never see her again. Oh, the pretty creeter! Hain"t she hurted bad?" she asked anxiously, bringing her cap frills to bear on the boy in front.
"Yes, I guess so," said Peletiah cheerfully; "she fell way down all over the cat sitting on the stairs."
"Where"d you say she fell?" screamed Grandma.
"Cellar stairs," Peletiah raised his voice, too, and sprawled out his hands to show how his Aunt Jerusha must have descended.
"Oh, me! oh, my!" exclaimed Grandma, in great sorrow, "that blessed little creeter! to think she"s fell and got hurted!"
"She ain"t little," said Peletiah, who was extremely literal, "she"s awful long and bony!" And he could think of no special reason for calling her blessed, but that might be Grandma"s fancy.