"We could just see her, dim, by the light o" the transom. She was on the sec.u.n.t pail, an" that was two-thirds full. She hed her back toward us, an" she didn"t hear us. She set all wrapped up in a shawl, a basket o"
cups side of her, an" the Jersey standin" there, quiet an" demure. An"
beyond, in the cut an" movin" acrost the Pump pasture, it was thick with lanterns.
"But before we three"d hed time to burst out like we wanted to, we sort o" scrooched back again. Because on the other side o" the cow we heard Timothy Toplady"s voice. He"d just got there, some breathless, an" with him, we see, was Eppleby.
""Amanda," says Timothy, "what in the Dominion o" Canady air you doin"?"
""I shouldn"t think you would know," says Mis" Toplady, short. "You don"t do enough of it."
"She hed him there. Timothy always _will_ go down to the d.i.c.k Dasher an"
shirk the ch.o.r.es.
""Amanda," says Timothy, "you"ve disobeyed me flat-footed."
""No such thing," s"she, milkin" away like mad for fear he"d use force; "I ain"t carried a drop o" milk here. I"ve drove it," she says.
"Timothy groaned.
""Milkin" in the church," he says.
""No, sir," says Amanda, back at him; "I"m outside on the sod, an" you know it."
"An" then my hopes sort o" riz, because I thought I heard Eppleby Holcomb laugh soft--sort of a half-an"-half chuckle. Like he"d looked under the situation an" see it wasn"t alike on both sides. An" "t the same time Mis" Toplady, she changed her way, an",--
""Timothy," s"she, "you hungry?"
""I"m nigh starved," says Timothy. "It must be eight o"clock," s"e, "but I ain"t the heart to think o" that."
""No," s"she, "so you ain"t. Not with them poor babies in there hungrier"n you be an" nowheres to go."
"With that she got done milkin" an" stood up an" picked up her two pails--we could smell the sweet, warm milk from where we was.
""Timothy," s"she, "the worst sacrilege that"s done in _this_ world is when folks turns their backs on any little bit of a chance that the Lord gives "em to do good in, like He told "em. Who was it, I"d like to know, said, "Suffer little children"? Who was it said, "Feed my lambs"? No "when" or "where" about that. Just _do it_. An" no occasion to hem an"
haw about it, either. The least you can do for your share in this, as I see it, is to keep your silence and drive the cow back home. The oven"s full o" bake" sweet potatoes an" they must be just nearin" done."
"I see Timothy start to wave his arms an" I donno what he would "a" said if it hadn"t been settled for "im. For then, like it was right out o"
the sky, the church organ begun to play soft. For a minute we all looked up, like the Shepherds must of when the voices of the night told "em the spirit o" G.o.d was in the world, born in a little child. It was Abel,--I knew right away it was Abel,--an" he was just gentlin" round soft on the keys, kind o" like he was askin" a blessin" an" rockin" a cradle an"
doin" all the little nice things music can. An" with that Mis" Sykes, she throws open the church door.
"I"ll never forget how it looked inside--all warm an" lamp-lit an" with them little things bein" fed an" chatterin" soft. An" up in the loft set Abel, playin" away on the foreign organ before it"d been dedicated. An"
then he begun singin" low--an" there"s somethin" about Abel "t you just _haf_ to listen, whatever he says or does. Even Timothy hed to listen--though I think he was some struck dumb, too, an" that kep" him controlled for a minute--like it will. An" Abel sung:--
""The Lord is my Shepherd--I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me--He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul...."
"An" at the first line, before we"d rilly sensed what it was he said, every one o" them little children in the midst o" their supper slips off the edge o" the cots an" kneeled down there on the bare floor, just like they"d been told to. Oh, wasn"t it wonderful? An" yet it wasn"t--it wasn"t. We found out, when folks come for "em the next mornin", it was the children"s prayer that they sung every day o" their lives at their Good Shepherd"s Orphans" Home--soft an" out o" tune an" with all their little hearts, just as they went ahead an" sung it with Abel, clear to the end. I guess they didn"t know everybody don"t kneel down all over the world when they hear the Twenty-third Psalm.
"Abel seen "em in the little lookin"-gla.s.s over the keyboard. An" when he"d got done he set there perfectly still with his head down. An" Mis"
Sykes an" Mis" Holcomb an" Eppleby an" I bowed our heads too, out there in the entry. An" so, after a minute, did Timothy. I couldn"t help peekin" to see.
"An" then, when the children was all a-rustlin" up, Mis" Toplady she jus" hands her two pails o" milk over to Timothy.
""You take "em in," she says to him, her eyes swimmin". "I"ve come off without my handkerchief."
"Timothy looks round him, kind o" helpless, but Eppleby stood there an"
pats him on the arm.
""Go in--go in, brother," Eppleby says gentle. "I guess the church"s been dedicated. I feel like we"d heard the big wind--an" I guess, mebbe, the Pentecostal tongues."
"An" Timothy--he"s an awful tender-hearted man in spite o" bein" so notional--Timothy just went on in with the milk, without sayin"
anything. An" Eppleby side of him. An" we "most shut the door on Silas Sykes, comin" tearin" up on account o" Timothy leavin" him urgent word to come, without explainin" why. An" when Silas see the inside o" the church, all lit up an" chicken supper for the children an" the other two elders there with the milk, he just rubs his hands an" beams like he see his sec.u.n.t term. I donno"s it"d ever enter Silas Sykes"s head"t there was anything wrong with anything, providin" somebody wasn"t snappin" him up for it. I guess it"s like that in politics.
"We took the milk around an", bake" sweet potatoes forgot, Timothy stood up by the stove, between Eppleby an" Silas, an" watched us--an" the Jersey must "a" picked her way home alone. An" Abel, he just set there to the organ, gentlin" "round soft on the keys so it made me think o"
G.o.d movin" on the face o" the waters. An" movin" on the face of everything else too, dedicated or not. It was like we"d felt the big wind, same as Eppleby said. An" somethin" in it kind o" hid, secret an"
holy."
VIII
THE GRANDMA LADIES
Two weeks before Christmas Friendship was thrown into a state of holiday delight. Mrs. Proudfit and her daughter, Miss Clementina, issued invitations to a reception to be given on Christmas Eve at Proudfit House, on Friendship Hill. The Proudfits, who had rarely entertained since Miss Linda went away, lived in Europe and New York and spent little time in the village, but, for all that, they remained citizens in absence, and Friendship always wrote out invitations for them whenever it gave "companies." The invitations the postmaster duly forwarded to some Manhattan bank, though I think the village had a secret conviction that these were never received--"sent out wild to a bank in the City, so." However, now that old courtesies were to be so magnificently returned, every one believed and felt a greater respect for the whole financial world.
The invitations enclosed the card of Mrs. Nita Ordway, and the name sounded for me a note of other days when, before my coming to Friendship Village, we two had, in the town, belonged to one happy circle of friends.
"I thought at first mebbe the card"d got shoved in the envelope by mistake," said Mis" Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss. "I know once I got a Christmas book from a cousin o" mine in the City, an" a strange man"s card fell out o" the leaves. I sent the card right straight back to her, an" Cousin Jane seemed rill cut up, so I made up my mind I"d lay low about this card. But I hear everybody"s got "em. I s"pose it"s a sign that it"s some Mis" Ordway"s party too--only not enough hers to get her name on the invite. Mebbe she chipped in on the expenses. Give a third, like enough."
However that was, Friendship looked on the Christmas party as on some unexpected door about to open in its path, and it woke in the morning conscious of expectation before it could remember what to expect.
Proudfit House! A Christmas party! It touched every one as might some giant Santa Claus, for grown-ups, with a pack of heart"s-ease on his back.
When Mrs. Ordway arrived in the village, the excitement mounted. Mrs.
Nita Ordway was the first exquisitely beautiful woman of the great world whom Friendship had ever seen--"beautiful like in the pictures of when noted folks was young," the village breathlessly summed her up. To be sure, when she and her little daughter, Viola, rode out in the Proudfits" motor, n.o.body in the street appeared to look at them. But Friendship knew when they rode, and when they walked, and what they wore, and when they returned.
It was a happiness to me to see Mrs. Ordway again, and I sat often with her in the music room at Proudfit House and listened to her glorious voice in just the songs that I love. Sometimes she would send for her little Viola, so that I might sit with the child in my arms, for she was one of those rare children who will let you love them.
"I like be made some "tention to," Viola sometimes said shyly. She was not afraid, and she would stay with me hour-long, as if she loved to be loved. She was like a little come-a-purpose spirit, to let one pretend.
A day or two after the invitations had been received, I was in my guest room going over my Christmas list. Just before Christmas I delight in the look of a guest room, for then the bed is spread with a brave array of pretty things, and when one arranges and wraps them, the st.i.tches of rose and blue on flowered fabrics, the flutter of crisp ribbons, and the breath of sachets make one glad. I was lingering at my task when I heard some one below, and I recognized her voice.
"Calliope!" I called gladly from the stairs, and bade her come up to me.
Calliope is one of the women in whose presence one can wrap one"s Christmas gifts. She came into the room, bringing a breath of Winter, and she laid aside her tan ulster and her round straw hat, and straightway sat down on the rug by the open fire.
"Well said!" she cried contentedly, "a grate fire upstairs! It"s one of the things that never seems real to me, like a tower on a house. I"d as soon think o" havin" a grate fire up a tree an" settin" there, as in my chamber. Anyway, when it comes Winter, upstairs in Friendship is just a place where you go after something in the bureau draw" an" come down again as quick as you can. I s"pose you got an invite to the party?"