"Oh, goody!" said the children; "that"s just like Christmas." And they ran off as fast as they could go. In an hour they had heaped the whole floor with piles of the vine. The more they brought, the more beautiful it looked: the leaves shone like satin, and there were great mats of it nearly two yards long. Mrs. March had never seen it before, and did not know its name. Afterward she found out that it was the kinnikinnick vine, and that the Indians used it to smoke in their pipes. Some of the branches had beautiful little red berries like wintergreen berries on them. Nelly sorted these all out by themselves; then Mrs. March stood up on a chair, and some of the time on a table, and nailed a thick border of these vines all round the top of the room; then she took the branches which had red berries on them; and, wherever there was an upright beam in the wall, she nailed on one of these boughs with the red berries and let it hang down just as it would. Then she trimmed the fireplace and the door and the windows. It took her about two hours to do it. When it was all done, you would hardly have known the room. It looked lovely: the yellow pine boards looked much prettier with the green of the vines than any paper in the world could have looked. Rob and Nelly fairly danced with delight.
"Oh, mamma! mamma! it"s prettier than any Christmas we ever had: isn"t it?"
"Yes," said Mrs. March; "if the vines will only last, it is all we need to keep our walls pretty till summer time."
"Well, I never!" said Zeb, who came in at that moment. "If wimmen folks don"t beat all! Why, mum, ye look"s if you was goin" to have an ice-cream festival."
Zeb"s only experience of rooms decorated with green vines had been when he had attended ice-cream festivals, given by churches to raise money.
"Well, we"ll have one some day, Zeb," said Mrs. March, laughing; "and we won"t charge you any thing. I can make very good ice-cream."
"Oh, to-night! to-night! mamma," exclaimed the children.
"Can"t to-night," Mrs. March said; "for the freezer"s in the big box with all the other kitchen things."
"I might make some crullers," said Mrs. Plummer.
"Do! do! do!" cried Rob. "Mrs. Plummer"s famous for crullers!" And he ran off, singing--
"Plummer!
Cruller!
Plummer!
Cruller!"
at the top of his lungs.
It was nearly dark before Mr. March returned. Rob was the first to spy him.
"Why, there"s Pumpkinseed!" he exclaimed. "And what in the world"s papa got in the wagon?" And he ran down the road to meet him. All the others ran too. The wagon did indeed present a very singular appearance. Four red wooden legs stuck far out in front; Mr. March was wedged in between them; high above his head bulged out a great roll of bolsters and pillows; and as far as you could see, away back in the wagon, there seemed to be nothing but bed-ticking, and legs of furniture.
"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Mrs. March; "What did I tell you, Mrs.
Plummer? That"s what he went off for,--to buy furniture. Mr. March always must have things just right. Dear me! I wish he hadn"t done it."
But, as I told you long ago, it was Mrs. March"s way always to make the best of what couldn"t be helped. So she went forward to welcome her husband as pleasantly as if she were delighted to see all this new furniture.
"Ah, Robert," she said, "now I know why you wouldn"t take me. You wanted to surprise us all."
"Yes," said Mr. March, his face beaming all over with satisfaction, "I didn"t mean you should spend another night in such a desolate hole. There"s another wagon load behind."
At this Mrs. March could not help groaning.
"Oh, Robert! Robert!" she said, "what did you buy so much for?"
"Oh, part of the other load is feed for the cattle," said Mr.
March. "That I"m responsible to Deacon Plummer for. Those were his orders."
When the two wagons were unloaded, the s.p.a.ce in front of the little house looked like an auction. Rob and Nelly ran from one thing to another, exclaiming and shouting. Mr. March had indeed furnished the whole house. He had bought two pretty little single bedsteads for Rob and Nelly, and a fine large bedstead for himself and Mrs. March; he had bought mattresses and pillows and bolsters and blankets; a whole piece of pretty rag-carpet, in gray and red stripes; two large rocking-chairs with arms, two without, and two small low chairs; a work-table with drawers, two bureaus, a wardrobe, and two sets of book-shelves to hang on the walls; two student lamps, and a table with leaves that could open out. Then he had bought a whole piece of pretty chintz in stripes of black and green.
"There, wife," he said, as he showed her this, last of all, "now we can make a decent little home out of it, after a few days."
As he spoke, he stepped into the kitchen: he started back with surprise.
"Why, how perfectly lovely!" he exclaimed; "where did you get it?
And what is it? I never saw a place so transformed. Why, it looks even elegant."
"I thought you would like it," said Mrs. March, much pleased.
"Perhaps if you had seen it so before you went away, you wouldn"t have bought so many new things."
"Why, Sarah, I haven"t bought a thing that wasn"t absolutely necessary," said Mr. March.
"They are all very nice, dear," replied Mrs. March; "and of course we shall be much more comfortable with them. It was very kind of you. But haven"t you spent a great deal of money?" she asked anxiously.
"Oh, no!" said Mr. March, "I think not; though things are much higher here than at home. I didn"t get the bills; but I don"t believe it"s over two hundred dollars."
This seemed a great deal to Mrs. March; but she said no more. And the next day, when all the things were arranged, a square of the rag-carpet laid on the floor, and the pretty chintz curtains at the window, she could not help admitting to herself that life looked much easier and pleasanter than it had before.
"And I ought to be thankful that he did not buy more," she thought; "and that he could not find a servant to bring out here."
On inquiring after servants, Mr. March had found that it was almost impossible to get any good ones; and their wages were so high, he had at once given up all idea of hiring one now.
"I"ll let you try it, Sarah, for the present," he said, "but, if I see you in the least breaking down, I shall have a servant, if I have to send home for one."
"I won"t break down," said Mrs. March; "I never felt so well in my life. I am never tired. I suppose it is the air."
"Yes," said Mr. March; "it must be. I, too, feel like another man. I can draw such full, long breaths; I shouldn"t know there was such a thing as asthma in the world."
As day after day went on, they all came to like their new home better and better. The little room which had been a lumber room was made into a sitting-room, and trimmed all round with the kinnikinnick vines; the big table with leaves stood in the centre, and the book-shelves hung on the walls. Zeb and Deacon Plummer built pine shelves across one end of the room, way to the top; these were filled with Mr. March"s books. There were two small school-desks by the east window; and at these Rob and Nelly sat for two hours every morning, and studied and recited their lessons to Mr. March. In the afternoon, they played out of doors; they climbed the hills and the rocks; and, at four o"clock, they went after the cows. This was something they were never tired of, because they never knew just where they should find the cows: they rambled into so many little nooks and corners among the hills; but three of the cows had bells on their necks, and the rest never went far from them. Watch always went with Rob and Nelly, and he seemed to have a wonderful instinct to tell where to look for a cow. Whenever it stormed too much for the children to be out, Zeb went. Sometimes Watch went all alone. He could bring the cows home as well as anybody. But Nelly and Rob never liked to miss it. It was the great pleasure of their day; and the out-door air and the exercise were making them brown and strong.
They looked like little Italian peasant children: wherever they went they sang; up hill and down, and on the tops of the highest rocks, their merry voices rang out. Felix--that Frenchman I told you about that they saw in the cars, the one who was servant to the English gentleman--had taught Rob how to make the cry which the Swiss hunters make in the Alps. It is called the "Jodel"--and it sounds very fine among high hill-tops. It is something like this:--
[Ill.u.s.tration: _He would ring out such a "jodel", that the people would stop and look up amazed. Page 132._]
"Yo-ho! yo-ho! yo-ho!" The syllables are p.r.o.nounced one after the other just as fast as you can, in a high shrill tone, and there is a sort of tune to it which I could not describe; but perhaps you know some traveller who has been in Switzerland, who can describe it to you. Rob used to "jodel" beautifully; and many a time when he was on a high rock, way up above the road, and saw people riding or driving below him, he would ring out such a "jodel," that the people would stop and look up amazed. They could not believe they were in America. Rob was fast growing as strong and well as Nelly. He never had sore throats here: and Mr. and Mrs. March often said that they would be glad they had come to Colorado, if it were for nothing except that it had made Rob so well. As he grew stronger, he grew to be a much better boy. He was not selfish nor cross as he used to be at home; and he was as full of fun as a squirrel, all day long. One thing he very much enjoyed doing, was taking Fox and Pumpkinseed up to the tops of the high hills to graze. The best gra.s.s grew very high up on the hills; but neither Fox nor Pumpkinseed had ever been used to such steep hills, and they both hated to climb them. Deacon Plummer was very droll about it. "Don"t blame "em," said he, "don"t blame "em a mite. Who"d want to be for ever climbing up garret to get a mouthful of something to eat?" However, since the food was chiefly "up garret," as the Deacon called it, "up garret" the horses must go; and it was somebody"s duty every morning to lead them up.
Often, in the course of the day, they would ramble slowly down: then they would have to be taken up again; and Rob was always on the lookout for a chance to do this. He always took Fox; he was easier to lead than Pumpkinseed. You had to lead only one: the other would follow; and it was a funny sight to see Rob way up on the steep hill, tugging away at Fox"s halter, and Fox half holding back, half going along, and Pumpkinseed behind, following on slowly with a most disgusted expression, every now and then stopping short and looking up at Rob and Fox, as much as to say, "Oh, dear! why will you drag us up this horrible hill?"
The hill opposite the house was so high that when Rob was at the very top of it with the horses, he didn"t look bigger than a "Hop-o"-my-thumb," and the horses looked like goats. After he got them fairly up, and saw them grazing contentedly, Rob would run down the hill at full speed. At first he got many a tumble flat on his nose doing this; but after a while he learned how to slant his body backwards, and then he did not tumble.
But while Rob and Nelly were growing well and strong, and having such a good time that they never wanted to go back to Mayfield, I am sorry to say that the grown people were not so contented. In the first place, good old Mrs. Plummer could not sleep. Her cough was all gone; and if she could only have slept, she would have been as well as anybody; but her heart beat too fast all the time, and kept her awake at night. She did not know that she had any trouble with her heart when she was at home; and n.o.body had told them that people with heart-trouble could not live in Colorado: but that is the case; the air which is so pure and dry is also so light that it makes your pulse beat a good many times more a minute, and it takes a good strong heart to bear this. You know your heart is nothing but a pump that pumps blood to go through your veins, just as water goes through pipes all over a house; and the pump has to be very strong to pump so many strokes a minute as it does in Colorado. So poor Mrs. Plummer, instead of growing better, was growing worse; and this made them all unhappy.
Then Deacon Plummer and Mr. March had to acknowledge that they were paying out more money than they took in, and this worried them both.
"We"ve got to get out on"t somehow, that"s clear and sartin," said the Deacon. "It won"t take very long at this rate to clear us both out. I hate to give up. I"m sure there must be better places in the country somewhere for stock raisin" than this is; but we won"t stir till warm weather sets in. Then we"ll look round."
The last week in April and the first in May were hard weeks.
Snow-storm after snow-storm fell. At one time, all travel through the Pa.s.s was cut off for two days. The snow lay in great drifts in the narrowest places. In such weather as this, all the cattle had to be kept in the barns and yards, and fed; hay was very dear; and as Deacon Plummer said, "It don"t take a critter very long to eat his own head off, and after it"s eaten it off six times over, its head"s on all the same for you to keep a feedin"."
When June came in, matters brightened. The cows had plenty of gra.s.s, gave good milk, and Mrs. March and Mrs. Plummer made a good many pounds of b.u.t.ter each week, which they sold at Manitou without difficulty. Here at last was a regular source of income; but it was small: "a mere drop in the bucket," Mrs. March said when she was talking over matters with Mrs. Plummer. I must tell you how this b.u.t.ter was made, because it was such a pleasure to Rob and Nelly to watch it. It was made in a little shed which joined on to the old saw-mill, and the old saw-mill wheel did the churning. Wasn"t that a funny way? We must give Zeb the credit of this. He was turning the grindstone one day for Deacon Plummer to sharpen up his axes. It is very hard work to turn a grindstone, and Zeb was very tired before the axes were half ground. Suddenly the thought popped into his head, "Why shouldn"t I make that old water-wheel turn this grindstone for us?" After dinner he went up to the saw-mill and looked at it. There was the old wooden wheel as good as ever; the gate which had shut the water off and let it on was gone; "but that"s easy fixed," said Zeb, and to work he went; and before sundown, he had the water-wheel bobbing round again as fast as need be. The next day he took the grindstone and sunk it in between two old timbers in a broken place in the floor, just back of the wheel; then he put a strap round the grindstone and fastened it to the water-wheel; then he pulled up the little gate, and let the water in the water-wheel. Hurrah! round went the water-wheel, and round went the grindstone keeping exact pace with it! Zeb clapped his knee, which was the same thing as if he had patted himself on the shoulder. "Good for you, Abe Mack!" he said. Then he looked around frightened, to see if anybody had heard him. No one was near. He drew a long breath. "Lord!" he said; "to think o" my saying that name out loud after all this time!" and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "I"d better be more keerful than that," he said. "I"ll get tracked yet, if I don"t look out." Two years before, in a fight in a mining town a great many miles north of his present home, Zeb had had the misfortune to kill a man. He never intended to do such a thing. He really drew his pistol in self-defence; but he could not prove this, and he had fled for his life, and had been ever since living hidden away on this lonely farm in the mountains.
He had intended to go still farther away where there would be no possibility of his ever being seen by any of the men who had known him before, but he had fallen so in love with these hills he could not tear himself away from them. But he had never told his true name to any one, and when he p.r.o.nounced it now the sound of it frightened him almost as if it had been a sheriff who was calling him by it.