"Well--I will tell you the story of the _worm-eaten traveler_. It is half singing, half talking, and a powerful story it is. I would act it out, too, if you would sit down in the corner till I"ve done. Let go of me, if you want to hear it."
"Please Miss Thusa," said the excited child, drawing her stool into the corner, and crouching herself upon it, while Miss Thusa rose up, and putting back her wheel, prepared to commence her heterogeneous performance. She often "_acted out_" her stories and songs, to the great admiration of children and the amus.e.m.e.nt of older people, but it was very seldom this favor was granted, without earnest and reiterated entreaties. It was the first time she had ever spontaneously offered to personate the Sibyl, whose oracles she uttered, and it was a proof that an unusual fit of inspiration was upon her.
She was very tall and spare. When in the att.i.tude of spinning, she stooped over her distaff, she lost much of her original height, but the moment she pushed aside her wheel, her figure resumed its naturally erect and commanding position. She usually wore a dress of dark gray stuff, with immense pockets, a black silk neckerchief folded over her shoulders, a white tamboured muslin cap, with a black ribbon pa.s.sed two or three times round the crown. To preserve the purity of the muslin, and the l.u.s.tre of the ribbon, she always wore a piece of white paper, folded up between her head and the muslin, making the top of the cap appear much more opaque than the rest.
The _worm-eaten traveler_! What an appalling, yet fascinating communication! Helen waited in breathless impatience, watching the movements of the Sibyl, with darkened pupils and heaving bosom.
At length when a sudden gust of wind blew a naked bough, with a sound like the rattling of dry bones against the windows, and a falling brand scattered a shower of red sparks over the hearth-stone, Miss Thusa, waving the bony fingers of her right hand, thus began--
"Once there was a woman spinning by the kitchen fire, spinning away for dear life, all living alone, without even a green-eyed cat to keep her from being lonely. The coals were all burnt to cinders, and the shadows were all rolled up in black bundles in the four corners of the room. The woman went on spinning, singing as she spun--
"Oh! if I"d good company--if I"d good company, Oh! how happy should I be!"
There was a rustling noise in the chimney as if a great chimney-swallow was tumbling down, and the woman stooped and looked up into the black flue."
Here Miss Thusa bowed her tall form, and turned her beaked nose up towards the glowing chimney. Helen, palpitating with excitement followed her motions, expecting to see some horrible monster descend all grim with soot.
"Down came a pair of broad, dusty, skeleton feet," continued Miss Thusa, recoiling a few paces from the hearth, and lowering her voice till it sounded husky and unnatural, "right down the chimney, right in front of the woman, who cried out, while she turned her wheel round and round with her bobbin, "What makes your feet so big, my friend?" "Traveling long journeys. Traveling long journeys," replied the skeleton feet, and again the woman sang--
"Oh! if I"d good company--if I"d good company, Oh! how happy should I be!"
Rattle--rattle went something in the chimney, and down came a pair of little mouldering ankles. "What makes your ankles so small?" asked the woman. "Worm-eaten, worm-eaten," answered the mouldering ankles, and the wheel went merrily round."
It is unnecessary to repeat the couplet which Miss Thusa sang between every descending _horror_, in a voice which sounded as if it came through a fine-toothed comb, in little trembling wires, though it gave indescribable effect to her gloomy tale.
"In a few moments," continued Miss Thusa, "she heard a shoving, pushing sound in the chimney like something groaning and laboring against the sides of the bricks, and presently a great, big, bloated body came down and set itself on legs that were no larger than a pipe stem. Then a little, scraggy neck, and, last of all, a monstrous skeleton head that grinned from ear to ear. "You want good company, and you shall have it,"
said the figure, and its voice did sound awfully--but the woman put up her wheel and asked the grim thing to take a chair and make himself at home.
""I can"t stay to-night," said he, "I"ve got a journey to take by the moonlight. Come along and let us be company for each other. There is a snug little place where we can rest when we"re tired.""
"Oh! Miss Thusa, she didn"t go, did she?" interrupted Helen, whose eyes, which had been gradually enlarging, looked like two full midnight moons.
"Hush, child, if you ask another question, I"ll stop short. She didn"t do anything else but go, and they must have been a pretty sight walking in the moonlight together. The lonely woman and the worm-eaten traveler.
On they went through the woods and over the plains, and up hill and down hill, over bridges made of fallen trees, and streams that had no bridges at all; when at last they came to a kind of uneven ground, and as the moon went behind a cloud, they went stumbling along as if treading over hillocks of corn.
""Here it is," cried the worm-eaten traveler, stopping on the brink of a deep, open grave. The moon looked forth from behind a cloud, and showed how awful deep it was. She wanted to turn back then, but the skeleton arms of the figure seized hold of her, and down they both went without ladder or rope, and no mortal ever set eyes on them more.
"Oh! if I"d good company--if I"d good company, Oh! how happy should I be!""
It is impossible to describe the intensity with which Helen listened to this wild, dark legend, crouching closer and closer to the chimney corner, while the chillness of superst.i.tious terror quenched the burning fire-rose on her cheek.
"Was the spinning woman _you_, Miss Thusa?" whispered she, afraid of the sound of her own voice; "and did you see _it_ with your own eyes?"
"Hush, foolish child!" said Miss Thusa, resuming her natural tone; "ask me no questions, or I"ll tell you no tales. "Tis time for the yellow bird to be in its nest. Hark! I hear your mother calling me, and "tis long past your bed-time. Come."
And Miss Thusa, sweeping her long right arm around the child, bore her shrinking and resisting towards the nursery room.
"Please, Miss Thusa," she pleaded, "don"t leave me alone. Don"t leave me in the dark. I"m not one bit sleepy--I never shall go to sleep--I"m afraid of the worm-eaten man."
"I thought the child had more sense," exclaimed the oracle. "I didn"t think she was such a little goose as this," continued she, depositing her between the nice warm blankets. "n.o.body ever troubles good little girls--the holy angels take care of them. There, good night--shut your eyes and go to sleep."
"Please don"t take the light," entreated Helen, "only just leave it till I get to sleep; I"ll blow it out as soon as I"m asleep."
"I guess you will," said Miss Thusa, "when you get a chance." Then catching up the lamp, she shot out of the room, repeating to herself, "Poor child! She does hate the dark so! That _was_ a powerful story, to be sure. I shouldn"t wonder if she dreamed about it. I never did see a child that listens to anything as she does. It"s a pleasure to amuse her. Little monkey! She really acts as if "twas all true. I know that"s my master piece; that is the reason I"m so choice of it. It isn"t every one that can tell a story as I can--that"s certain. It"s my _gift_--I mustn"t be proud of it. G.o.d gives some persons one talent, and some another. We must all give an account of them at last. I hope "twill never be said I"ve hid mine in a napkin."
Such was the tenor of Miss Thusa"s thoughts as she wended her way down stairs. Had she imagined half the misery she was entailing on this singularly susceptible and imaginative child, instead of exulting in her _gift_, she would have mourned over its influence, in dust and ashes.
The fears which Helen expressed, and which she believed would prove as evanescent as they were unreal, were a grateful incense to her genius, which she delighted with unconscious cruelty in awakening. She had an insane pa.s.sion for relating these dreadful legends, whose indulgence seemed necessary to her existence, and the happiness of the narrator was commensurate with the credulity of the auditor. Without knowing it, she was a vampire, feeding on the life-blood of a young and innocent heart, and drying up the fountain of its joys.
Helen listened till the last sound of Miss Thusa"s footsteps died away on the ear, then plunging deeper into the bed, drew the blankets over head and ears, and lay immovable as a snow-drift, with the chill dew of terror oozing from every pore.
"I"m not a good girl," said the child to herself, "and G.o.d wont send the angels down to take care of me to-night. I played going to meeting with my dolls last Sunday, and Miss Thusa says that was breaking the commandments. I"ll say my prayers over again, and ask G.o.d to forgive me."
Little Helen clasped her trembling hands under the bed-cover, and repeated the Lord"s Prayer as devoutly and reverentially as mortal lips could utter it, but this act of devotion did not soothe her into slumber, or banish the phantom that flitted round her couch. Finding it impossible to breathe under the bed-cover any longer, and fearing to die of suffocation, she slowly emerged from her burying-clothes till her mouth came in contact with the cool, fresh air. She kept her eyes tightly closed, that she might not see the _darkness_. She remembered hearing her brother, who prided himself upon being a great mathematician, say that if one counted ten, over and over again, till they were very tired, they would fall asleep without knowing it. She tried this experiment, but her heart kept time with its loud, quick beatings; so loud, so quick, she sometimes mistook them for the skeleton foot-tramps of the traveler. She was sure she heard a rustling in the chimney, a clattering against the walls. She thought she felt a chilly breath sweep over her cheek. At length, unable to endure the awful oppression of her fears, she resolved to make a desperate attempt, and rush down stairs to her mother, telling her she should die if she remained where she was. It was horrible to go down alone in the darkness, it was more horrible to remain in that haunted room. So, gathering up all her courage, she jumped from the bed, and sought the door with her nervous, grasping hands. Her little feet turned to ice, as their naked soles scampered over the bare floor, but she did not mind that; she found the door, opened it, and entered a long, dark pa.s.sage, leading to the stairway. Then she recollected that on the left of that pa.s.sage there was a lumber-room, running out slantingly to the eaves of the house, with a low entrance into it, which was left without a door.
This lumber-room had long been her especial terror. Whenever she pa.s.sed it, even in broad daylight, it had a strange, mysterious appearance to her. The twilight shadows always gathered there first and lingered last; she never walked by it--she always ran with all her speed, as if the avenger of blood were behind her. Now she would have flown if she could, but her long night dress impeded her motions, and clung adhesively round her ankles. Once she trod upon it, and thinking some one arrested her, she uttered a loud scream and sprang forward through the door, which chanced to be open. This door was directly at the head of the stairs, and it is not at all surprising that Helen, finding it impossible to recover her equilibrium, should pa.s.s over the steps in a quicker manner than she intended, swift as her footsteps were. Down she went, tumbling and b.u.mping, till she came against the lower door with a force that burst it open, and in rolled a yellow flannel ball into the centre of the illuminated apartment.
"My stars!" exclaimed Mrs. Gleason, starting up from the centre table, and dropping a bundle of snowy linen on the floor.
"What in the name of creation is this?" cried Mr. Gleason, throwing down his book, as the yellow ball rolled violently against his legs.
Louis Gleason, a boy of twelve, who was seated with the fingers of his left hand playing hide and seek among his bright elf locks, while his right danced over a slate, making algebra signs with marvelous rapidity, jumped up three feet in the air, letting his slate fall with a tremendous crash, and destroying many a beautiful equation.
Mittie Gleason, a young girl of about nine, who was deep in the abstractions of grammar, and sat with her fore-fingers in her ears, and her head bent down to her book, so that all disturbing sounds might be excluded, threw her chair backward in the fright, and ran head first against Miss Thusa, who was the only one whose self-possession did not seem shocked by the unceremonious entrance of the little visitor.
"It"s n.o.body in the world but little Helen," said she, gathering up the bundle in her arms and carrying it towards the blazing fire. The child, who had been only stunned, not injured by the fall, began to recover the use of its faculties, and opened its large, wild-looking eyes on the family group we have described.
"She has been walking in her sleep, poor little thing," said her mother, pressing her cold hands in both hers.
Helen knew that this was not the case, and she knew too, that it was wrong to sanction by her silence an erroneous impression, but she was afraid of her father"s anger if she confessed the truth, afraid that he would send her back to the dark room and lonely trundle-bed. She expected that Miss Thusa would call her a foolish child, and tell her parents all her terrors of the _worm-eaten traveler_, and she raised her timid eyes to her face, wondering at her silence. There was something in those prophetic orbs, which she could not read. There seemed to be a film over them, baffling her penetration, and she looked down with a long, laboring breath.
Miss Thusa began to feel that her legends might make a deeper impression than she imagined or intended. She experienced an odd mixture of triumph and regret--triumph in her power, and regret for its consequences. She had, too, an instinctive sense that the parents of Helen would be displeased with her, were they aware of the influence she had exerted, and deprive her hereafter of the most admiring auditor that ever hung on her oracular lips. She had _meant_ no harm, but she was really sorry she had told that "powerful story" at such a late hour, and pressed the child closer in her arms with a tenderness deepened by self-reproach.
"I suspect Miss Thusa has been telling her some of her awful ghost stories," said Louis, laughing over the wreck of his slate. "I know what sent the yellow caterpillar crawling down stairs."
"Crawling!" repeated his father, "I think it was leaping, bouncing, more like a catamount than a caterpillar."
"I would be ashamed to be a coward and afraid of ghosts," exclaimed Mittie, with a scornful flash of her bright, black eyes.
"Miss Thusa didn"t tell about ghosts," said Helen, bursting into a pa.s.sion of tears. This was true, in the _letter_, but not in the _spirit_--and, young as she was, she knew and felt it, and the wormwood of remorse gave bitterness to her tears. Never had she felt so wretched, so humiliated. She had fallen in her own estimation. Her father, brother and sister had ridiculed her and _called her names_--a terrible thing for a child. One had called her a _caterpillar_, another a _catamount_, and a third a _coward_. And added to all this was a sudden and unutterable horror of the color of yellow, formerly her favorite hue.
She mentally resolved never to wear that horrible yellow night dress, which had drawn upon her so many odious epithets, even though she froze to death without it. She would rather wear her old ones, even if they had ten thousand patches, than that bright, new, golden tinted garment, so late the object of her intense admiration.
"I declare," cried Louis, unconscious of the Spartan resolution his little sister was forming, and good naturedly seeking to turn her tears into smiles, "I do declare, I thought Helen was a pumpkin, bursting into the room with such a noise, wrapped up in this yellow concern. Mother, what in the name of all that"s tasteful, makes you clothe her by night in Chinese mourning?"
"It was her own choice," replied Mrs. Gleason, taking the weeping child in her own lap. "She saw a little girl dressed in this style, and thought she would be perfectly happy to be the possessor of such a garment."
"I never will put it on again as long as I live," sobbed Helen. "Every body laughs at it."
"Perhaps somebody else will have a word to say about it," said her mother, in a grave, gentle voice. "When I have taken so much pains to make it, and bind it with soft, bright ribbon, to please my little girl, it seems to me that it is very ungrateful in her to make such a remark as that."
"Oh, mother, don"t," was all Helen could utter; and she made as strong a counter resolve that she would wear the most hideous garment, and brave the ridicule of the whole world, rather than expose herself to the displeasure of a mother so kind and so indulgent.