Suddenly an idea popped into Prissy"s head. Dared she? Oh, she never could! But he would never know--there would be plenty of time--she would!
Prissy hurried home, put her matches away, took a regretful peep at her unopened book, then locked the door and started up the road to Uncle Richard"s house half a mile away. She meant to go and cook Uncle Richard"s dinner for him, get it all beautifully ready, then slip away before he came home. He would never suspect her of it. Prissy would not have him suspect for the world; she thought he would be more likely to throw a dinner of her cooking out of doors than to eat it.
Eight years before this, when Prissy had been nine years old, Richard and Irving Baker had quarrelled over the division of a piece of property. The fault had been mainly on Richard"s side, and that very fact made him all the more unrelenting and stubborn. He had never spoken to his brother since, and he declared he never would. Prissy and her father felt very badly over it, but Uncle Richard did not seem to feel badly at all. To all appearance he had completely forgotten that there were such people in the world as his brother Irving and his niece Prissy.
Prissy had no trouble in breaking into Uncle Richard"s house, for the woodshed door was unfastened. She tripped into the hostile kitchen with rosy cheeks and mischief sparkling in her eyes. This was an adventure--this was fun! She would tell her father all about it when he came home at night and what a laugh they would have!
There was still a good fire in the stove, and in the pantry Prissy found the dinner in its raw state--a fine roast of fresh pork, potatoes, cabbage, turnips and the ingredients of a raisin pudding, for Richard Baker was fond of raisin puddings, and could make them as well as Mrs. Janeway could, if that was anything to boast of.
In a short time the kitchen was full of bubbling and hissings and appetizing odours. Prissy enjoyed herself hugely, and the raisin pudding, which she rather doubtfully mixed up, behaved itself beautifully.
"Uncle Richard said he"d be home by one," said Prissy to herself, as the clock struck twelve, "so I"ll set the table now, dish up the dinner, and leave it where it will keep warm until he gets here. Then I"ll slip away home. I"d like to see his face when he steps in. I suppose he"ll think one of the Jenner girls across the street has cooked his dinner."
Prissy soon had the table set, and she was just peppering the turnips when a gruff voice behind her said:
"Well, well, what does this mean?"
Prissy whirled around as if she had been shot, and there stood Uncle Richard in the woodshed door!
Poor Prissy! She could not have looked or felt more guilty if Uncle Richard had caught her robbing his desk. She did not drop the turnips for a wonder; but she was too confused to set them down, so she stood there holding them, her face crimson, her heart thumping, and a horrible choking in her throat.
"I--I--came up to cook your dinner for you, Uncle Richard," she stammered. "I heard you say--in the store--that Mrs. Janeway had gone home and that you had n.o.body to cook your New Year"s dinner for you.
So I thought I"d come and do it, but I meant to slip away before you came home."
Poor Prissy felt that she would never get to the end of her explanation. Would Uncle Richard be angry? Would he order her from the house?
"It was very kind of you," said Uncle Richard drily. "It"s a wonder your father let you come."
"Father was not home, but I am sure he would not have prevented me if he had been. Father has no hard feelings against you, Uncle Richard."
"Humph!" said Uncle Richard. "Well, since you"ve cooked the dinner you must stop and help me eat it. It smells good, I must say. Mrs. Janeway always burns pork when she roasts it. Sit down, Prissy. I"m hungry."
They sat down. Prissy felt quite giddy and breathless, and could hardly eat for excitement; but Uncle Richard had evidently brought home a good appet.i.te from Navarre, and he did full justice to his New Year"s dinner. He talked to Prissy too, quite kindly and politely, and when the meal was over he said slowly:
"I"m much obliged to you, Prissy, and I don"t mind owning to you that I"m sorry for my share in the quarrel, and have wanted for a long time to be friends with your father again, but I was too ashamed and proud to make the first advance. You can tell him so for me, if you like.
And if he"s willing to let bygones be bygones, tell him I"d like him to come up here with you tonight when he gets home and spend the evening with me."
"Oh, he will come, I know!" cried Prissy joyfully. "He has felt so badly about not being friendly with you, Uncle Richard. I"m as glad as can be."
Prissy ran impulsively around the table and kissed Uncle Richard. He looked up at his tall, girlish niece with a smile of pleasure.
"You"re a good girl, Prissy, and a kind-hearted one too, or you"d never have come up here to cook a dinner for a crabbed old uncle who deserved to eat cold dinners for his stubbornness. It made me cross today when folks wished me a happy New Year. It seemed like mockery when I hadn"t a soul belonging to me to make it happy. But it has brought me happiness already, and I believe it will be a happy year all the way through."
"Indeed it will!" laughed Prissy. "I"m so happy now I could sing. I believe it was an inspiration--my idea of coming up here to cook your dinner for you."
"You must promise to come and cook my New Year"s dinner for me every New Year we live near enough together," said Uncle Richard.
And Prissy promised.
White Magic
One September afternoon in the year of grace 1840 Avery and Janet Sparhallow were picking apples in their Uncle Daniel Sparhallow"s big orchard. It was an afternoon of mellow sunshine; about them, beyond the orchard, were old harvest fields, mellowly bright and serene, and beyond the fields the sapphire curve of the St. Lawrence Gulf was visible through the groves of spruce and birch. There was a soft whisper of wind in the trees, and the pale purple asters that feathered the orchard gra.s.s swayed gently towards each other. Janet Sparhallow, who loved the outdoor world and its beauty, was, for the time being at least, very happy, as her little brown face, with its fine, satiny skin, plainly showed. Avery Sparhallow did not seem so happy. She worked rather abstractedly and frowned oftener than she smiled.
Avery Sparhallow was conceded to be a beauty, and had no rival in Burnley Beach. She was very pretty, with the obvious, indisputable prettiness of rich black hair, vivid, certain colour, and laughing, brilliant eyes. n.o.body ever called Janet a beauty, or even thought her pretty. She was only seventeen--five years younger than Avery--and was rather lanky and weedy, with a rope of straight dark-brown hair, long, narrow, shining brown eyes and very black lashes, and a crooked, clever little mouth. She had visitations of beauty when excited, because then she flushed deeply, and colour made all the difference in the world to her; but she had never happened to look in the gla.s.s when excited, so that she had never seen herself beautiful; and hardly anybody else had ever seen her so, because she was always too shy and awkward and tongue-tied in company to feel excited over anything. Yet very little could bring that transforming flush to her face: a wind off the gulf, a sudden glimpse of blue upland, a flame-red poppy, a baby"s laugh, a certain footstep. As for Avery Sparhallow, she never got excited over anything--not even her wedding dress, which had come from Charlottetown that day, and was incomparably beyond anything that had ever been seen in Burnley Beach before. For it was made of an apple-green silk, sprayed over with tiny rosebuds, which had been specially sent for to England, where Aunt Matilda Sparhallow had a brother in the silk trade. Avery Sparhallow"s wedding dress was making far more of a sensation in Burnley Beach than her wedding itself was making. For Randall Burnley had been dangling after her for three years, and everybody knew that there was n.o.body for a Sparhallow to marry except a Burnley and n.o.body for a Burnley to marry except a Sparhallow.
"Only one silk dress--and I want a dozen," Avery had said scornfully.
"What would you do with a dozen silk dresses on a farm?" Janet asked wonderingly.
"Oh--what indeed?" agreed Avery, with an impatient laugh.
"Randall will think just as much of you in drugget as in silk," said Janet, meaning to comfort.
Again Avery laughed.
"That is true. Randall never notices what a woman has on. I like a man who does notice--and tells me about it. I like a man who likes me better in silk than in drugget. I will wear this rosebud silk when I"m married, and it will be supposed to last me the rest of my life and be worn on all state occasions, and in time become an heirloom like Aunt Matilda"s hideous blue satin. I want a new silk dress every month."
Janet paid little attention to this kind of raving. Avery had always been more or less discontented. She would be contented enough after she was married. n.o.body could be discontented who was Randall Burnley"s wife. Janet was sure of that.
Janet liked picking apples; Avery did not like it; but Aunt Matilda had decreed that the red apples should be picked that afternoon, and Aunt Matilda"s word was law at the Sparhallow farm, even for wilful Avery. So they worked and talked as they worked--of Avery"s wedding, which was to be as soon as Bruce Gordon should arrive from Scotland.
"I wonder what Bruce will be like," said Avery. "It is eight years since he went home to Scotland. He was sixteen then--he will be twenty-four now. He went away a boy--he will come back a man."
"I don"t remember much about him," said Janet. "I was only nine when he went away. He used to tease me--I do remember that." There was a little resentment in her voice. Janet had never liked being teased.
Avery laughed.
"You were so touchy, Janet. Touchy people always get teased. Bruce was very handsome--and as nice as he was handsome. Those two years he was here were the nicest, gayest time I ever had. I wish he had stayed in Canada. But of course he wouldn"t do that. His father was a rich man and Bruce was ambitious. Oh, Janet, I wish I could live in the old land. That would be life."
Janet had heard all this before and could not understand it. She had no hankering for either Scotland or England. She loved the new land and its wild, virgin beauty. She yearned to the future, never to the past.
"I"m tired of Burnley Beach," Avery went on pa.s.sionately, shaking apples wildly off a laden bough by way of emphasis. "I know all the people--what they are--what they can be. It"s like reading a book for the twentieth time. I know where I was born and who I"ll marry--and where I"ll be buried. That"s knowing too much. All my days will be alike when I marry Randall. There will never be anything unexpected or surprising about them. I tell you Janet," Avery seized another bough and shook it with a vengeance, "I hate the very thought of it."
"The thought of--what?" said Janet in bewilderment.
"Of marrying Randall Burnley--or marrying anybody down here--and settling down on a farm for life."
Then Avery sat down on the rung of her ladder and laughed at Janet"s face.
"You look stunned, Janet. Did you really think I wanted to marry Randall?"
Janet was stunned, and she did think that. How could any girl not want to marry Randall Burnley if she had the chance?
"Don"t you love him?" she asked stupidly.