"Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord," burst from Little Wolfs white lips.
Is there not a curse which the liquor seller cannot escape?"
CHAPTER XIX.
NEIGHBORLY SYMPATHY--LITTLE WOLF"S BOSOM FRIEND--A DISAPPOINTED LOVER.
The news of the sudden and unexpected death of Dr. DeWolf, quickly spread among the few poor families living in the vicinity, casting a gloom over the little community, where he had been so long well known, and, before strong drink got the mastery of him, greatly respected and beloved. Many a sorrowful face looked out from doors and windows towards the old brown house on New Year"s morning, and one after another, the sympathising neighbors offered their a.s.sistance at the door of the bereaved, whose sunny face had often cheered their own quiet homes.
But poor Little Wolf at the time knew nothing of their kind intentions. After the first burst of grief, leaving all arrangements which the occasion required to Dr. Goodrich, she shut herself in her own room, and none dared intrude upon her night of sorrow, except indeed Daddy, who was indefatigable in his attentions. The kind hearted old man wrapped himself in blankets, and lay down near her door, and, at intervals, during the hours of that cold January morning, he crept in softly and replenished the fire, and, after lingering a moment in the vain hope that she would notice and speak to him, he would go away muttering pitifully to himself, "poor Pet, poor Honey."
About daylight, worn out with anxiety and fatigue, he fell asleep, and a few hours afterwas awakened by a hard thump on the head and starting up, he saw Sorrel Top, just gathering herself up from a fall.
Who told you to lie down there like a dog, for folks to stumble over?"
said she angrily, I thought you were going to take care of Little Wolf, and here I find you snoring away and she may be frozen to death, for all you know."
"Tween you an"me," said Daddy looking rather mortified, "I"m afeared that are fire has gin" out."
"Of course it has--there ain"t a good fire in the hull house. It takes Mrs. Hawley all the time to tend the door and tell the folks we don"t want their help, and when the funeral will be;--I tell ye, we ain"t hardly had a mite of rest since the doctor was brought home."
"Tell Miss Hawley I"ll be down there in five minutes," said Daddy decidedly.
"It don"t make much difference whether he"s here or not," said Mrs.
Hawley, when Sorrel Top had delivered his message.
"O he"ll be handy to talk," replied Sorrel Top with a grim smile.
"Tween you an" me, it ain"t no time fur to be jokin," said Daddy, who had come in time to catch a few words, and had a suspicion of what was pa.s.sing between the women, "I guess," he continued "if you could see how broke down the Honey is, you"d begin to think it was a serious matter."
"We do already think it a very serious matter, Daddy," said Mrs.
Hawley with great feeling, and I wish Miss DeWolf would let me do something for her."
"Taint no use saying a word to her, I don"t open my head when I go into the room, but I"d lay down my life fur to ease her," said Daddy the tears coming to his eyes. "Tween you and me, it ain"t no common trouble workin" on the pet," he said, coming close to the two and speaking low, "I"ve knowed her sence she was a baby, I"ve seen all of her putty ways, and none of her bad ways, fur she never had none; she hes growd up perfect and she allers treated the doctor dutiful, and she"s got nothin" to reproach herself fur. I"m afered," and he sank his voice to a whisper, "the Honey has got a separate trouble."
"What that trouble was Daddy did not define for he was interrupted by a knock at the door, which he opened and ushered in the Sherman family.
"Tween you and me, the Honey ain"t spoke nor slept, nor eat," said Daddy, in answer to Mrs. Sherman"s enquiry after Little Wolf, "but maybe it will ease her a leetle to know that you are here," he said, looking sideways at Edward.
Daddy fidgeted around Little Wolf for several moments, before he could muster courage to break the silence, and tell her who were waiting below, and he almost regretted having done so, when he saw the look of agony, which the information brought to her face.
"Daddy," said she in a choking voice, "ask Mrs. Sherman to my room, the others will excuse me to-day."
It was some alleviation to Edward"s disappointment, as he rode home with Louise, to know that his mother was to be Little Wolf"s companion and consoler until the arrival of her old friends, the Tinknors, who had been sent for, to be present at the funeral.
During the few days they were together, Mrs. Sherman strove by every means she could devise to give her young friend some relief from the distress of mind, under which it was evident she was laboring. But she was at length obliged to return home, leaving to Mrs. Tinknor"s skill the trying case, which had baffled her own benevolent efforts.
It was the day on which her father"s remains had been consigned to their last resting place in a secluded part of his grounds, beside the grave of her mother, that Little Wolf sat alone by her upper window looking sadly out towards the burial spot, which she had left only a few hours previously.
The Squire and Mrs. Tinknor were in the parlor below, engaged in conversation concerning the events of the past few days, and Tom Tinknor, to whom the solemnities of the occasion had been extremely irksome, was wandering aimlessly about the house with hands in his pockets, occasionally checking himself in the very act of whistling away the oppressive silence.
The sudden opening of a door gave him quite a start, and turning quickly, he saw Daddy, who said good naturedly, "I guess ye"re skeered ain"t ye? "Tween you an" me I"ve felt ruther shaky myself lately in this ere great big house, where there is so much spare room, fur ghosts and sperits of p.u.s.s.ens is apt fur to hang around the house where they die."
"O, that"s all nonsense, Daddy," said Tom, "I thought you knew too much to believe in such things."
"Wall, I don"t really believe in "em, but I did feel kinder queer like, last night when I went through that are long hall to the Honey"s room, but I never hev really seen a sperit yet, but I"ve seen shaders that looked mighty like "em, and I ain"t no doubt, if there is any, I sh.e.l.l see "em, fur the Honey says I"m uncommon sharp that are way.
Laws, she ain"t afeared of nothin: why, she went inter the doctor"s room, the next day after he was laid out, and stayed thar ever so long all alone, and wouldn"t even come out fur to see Mr. Sherman, "Tween you an" me, I guess the Honey is throwin off on that are Sherman, fur ye see I hed to go right inter the ball-room fur her, the night the doctor died, and I see her, with my own eyes, draw away from him as if he had hurt her, and I kinder hed a inklin that may be he"d been drinking a leetle too much, fur, to my sartin knowledge, she ain"t "lowed him fur to come nigh her sence. But I guess its affectin" her serious, fur she does "pear to feel the wust she ever did, and I used to say, sometimes, when the doctor was brung hum dead drunk, she couldn"t feel no wuss if he was really dead; but them times was nothin" to the way she broke down the night he died. "Tween you an"
me," said Daddy, as if suddenly recollecting himself, "it wouldn"t be best fur to say nothin" about this to n.o.body, fur the Honey likes to keep her own affairs strict."
"Certainly not," said Tom, and he walked straight to the parlor, and repeated to his parents every word he had heard.
"She certainly grieves more than is natural considering the circ.u.mstances," said the Squire, "and if the old man"s conjectures are correct, you are here just in the nick of time, Tom."
"I don"t know about that," said Tom, rather dubiously, "she will have to change wonderfully if she gives a fellow a chance to see or speak to her while we stay."
"I shall try to prevail upon the poor child to come down awhile this evening," said Mrs. Tinknor very gently.
"A handsome fortune is not to be obtained by marriage every day," said the Squire.
"A n.o.ble-hearted, whole-souled woman like Little Wolf is not to be obtained every day," said Mrs. Tinknor, "but, I never thought," said she affectionately regarding her son, "that Little Wolf cherished other than a sister"s love for Tom."
Tom was silent, and, after a short pause, Mrs. Tinknor said, "when you came in Tom, I was telling your father of a conversation I had with Little Wolf last evening, concerning her going home with us, but she thinks it best, on account of her dependent family, not to break up house-keeping before Spring."
"Displaying thereby very little financial ability," said Tom, rather contemptously.
"Tut, tut," said the Squire, "Little Wolf is posted. She knows just as much about her father"s affairs as I do, She would give me no rest months ago, until I spread out the whole thing before her, and I believe her to be as capable of managing the property, as a woman can be.
"I reminded her of the extra expense attending house-keeping," said Mrs. Tinknor, "but she said she felt it her duty to provide for those poor creatures in her employment. There"s Daddy, you know, cannot, more than earn his board, and Mrs. Hawley besides being feeble, has no other home, and n.o.body would do as well by an inefficient girl like Sorrel Top, as she does, and then she has decided to take f.a.n.n.y Green into her family for the winter."
"Now, who is f.a.n.n.y Green?" broke in Tom.
"Why, she is the little girl whose father killed his wife in a fit of intoxication, and then ran off leaving the child to the charity of strangers, and I think Little Wolf said, she was cruelly treated in the family where she is now living, and the family do not wish to be burdened with her.
"Well, _well_" said Tom, drawing a long breath, "I"m convinced Little Wolf will be a moping old maid, dressed in black, managing well her property, devising philanthropic plans for the benefit of paupers, she is getting too good for any man that lives."
"The best of it is, she does not even know she is doing a good thing,"
said Mrs. Tinknor smilingly.
Tom got up and walked impatiently to the window. Having accompanied his parents, with a view, to himself wipe away the few natural tears, that he imagined bedewed the rosy cheeks of Little Wolf, and pour into her willing ear a volume of cheering words, as he should ride by her side on their return trip, and, finally, to prevail upon her to reward his unequalled constancy, by becoming his wife, he was quite unprepared to meet the pale anguished face beneath the long black veil of which, for the first time, he caught a glimpse on the funeral day.
Having witnessed the quiver that shook her delicate frame, as the grave received its dead, he lost all confidence in his pre-arranged means of consolation, and the words of his mother, not having been calculated to rea.s.sure him he was now thoroughly annoyed at the course things had taken.
But as Mrs. Tinknor well knew that Tom"s feelings were evanescent, and seldom went beyond the surface, she immediately arose to go to Little Wolf, comforting herself with the reflection, that the storm she was leaving would be of short duration.