At sunset the next night, the March house was shut up; the tents were all gone; the whole place looked deserted and silent. Everybody had gone: Mr. and Mrs. Cook and Flora and Arthur in the carriage: Ralph and Thomas and Rob in the white-topped wagon; and Mr. and Mrs. March and Nelly in Mr. Scholfield"s buggy, which he had lent them. They drove up to Rosita in time to see the sunset from the top of the hill. Nelly looked at the mountains as they changed from blue to purple, and from purple to dusky gray: she did not speak. At last her mother said:--
"You won"t forget how the mountains look: will you, Nelly?"
"Not a bit more than I"ll forget how you and papa look!" said Nelly: "not a bit!"
After tea, Rob went to bid Mrs. Clapp and Mr. Kleesman and Ulrica and Jan good-by. Everybody spoke very cordially to him, and hoped he would have a good time; but n.o.body gave him any thing, and Rob was a good deal disappointed. He said nothing about it when he came home: he was ashamed to. But Nelly knew how he felt, just as well as if he had told her; and in her good little heart she was very sorry for him.
"Mamma," she said, "isn"t it too bad that none of them gave Rob any thing, when they gave me all those nice things?"
"Yes, I"m sorry," said Mrs. March; "but he has not been here so much as you have,--that is the reason: and he is so happy in the prospect of his journey, he will not mind it."
The stage from Rosita to Canyon City set off at seven o"clock in the morning. When it drove up to the hotel door, Mr. and Mrs. March and Rob and Nelly were all ready, sitting on the piazza. While they were getting in, Mr. Kleesman"s door opened, and he came running up, with his red cotton cap still on his head: in his hurry he had forgotten to take it off. He looked so droll that even Nelly laughed; and this reminded him of his nightcap.
"Ach!" he said, and s.n.a.t.c.hed it off and crammed it into his pocket.
In a moment more, who should come hurrying up the hill but Jan and Ulrica; and, behind them, Billy and Lucinda. Billy and Lucinda had come up to town the night before, and slept at Lucinda"s father"s house, so as to be on hand to see Nelly and Rob off.
None of the Cook family were up. Their horses would go so much faster than the stage horses, they were not going to set out until noon. Ralph and Thomas had started with the heavy wagon at daylight.
There were no other pa.s.sengers to go in the stage except the Marches: so the driver did not hurry them; and, after they had taken their seats, Jan and Ulrica and Billy and Lucinda all crowded around, saying last words.
Ulrica had brought two great bouquets of purple and white asters and golden-rod, the only flowers that were then in bloom.
"Dese are for you," she said to the children; but, when they reached out their hands to take them, she shook her head, and said: "No, I frow dem: it haf luck to frow dem."
Lucinda had brought a little parcel in which were two knit scarfs, which she had knit herself: one white and one red. The red one was for Rob and the white one for Nelly, she said. They were very pretty. Billy brought a knife for Rob: a capital knife, one with four blades. Rob"s face flushed with pleasure.
"Why, Billy," he said, "how"d you know I"d lost my knife?"
"Oh, I found out," said Billy. The truth was, that Billy had walked all the way down to the tents, a few days before, and asked Ralph and Flora if they knew of any thing Rob wanted; and Flora told him how Rob had lost his knife that very day,--had dropped it in the creek, while he was cutting willows to make whistles of. After Billy had given Rob the knife, he pulled out of his pocket a little parcel done up in white paper, and handed it to Nelly, saying:--
"I dunno "s it"ll be of any kind o" use to yer; but I thought "twas kind o" putty."
Nelly opened the paper. It held a queer little scarlet velvet pincushion, in a white ivory frame, which was made so that it could screw on a table.
"Oh, how pretty!" said Nelly. "Thank you, Billy. I"ll keep it on my table all winter."
Mr. Kleesman stood behind the others. He smiled and bowed, and said to Mr. March:--
"You haf goot day. The sun shine on your journey."
"Yes," said Mr. March. "I"m afraid it will not shine so bright when we come back without these little people."
"No, dat it vill not," said Mr. Kleesman. "Dat it vill not."
"Well," said the driver, gathering up the reins in his left hand, and lifting his whip, "I guess we"ll have to be movin" along, if you"re ready, sir."
"All ready," said Mr. March.
The driver cracked his whip, and the horses started off on a run, up the hill.
"Good-by! good-by!" shouted Rob and Nelly, leaning out.
"Goot-by!" cried Ulrica, and flung her bouquets into the stage, into Mrs. March"s lap, and Nelly"s.
"Good-by! good-by!" cried Billy and Lucinda.
"Goot-by!" cried Mr. Kleesman; "and goot luck go with you."
"That"s jest what will go with that Nelly wherever she goes," said Billy, turning to Mr. Kleesman.
"You haf known the child?" asked Mr. Kleesman.
"Well, yes," said Billy, leisurely, "I may say I know her. I brought "em here, three years ago last spring; an" me "n" my wife we lived with "em goin" on a year. Yes, I know "em. There ain"t any nicer folks in this world; but Nelly she"s the pick o" the hull on "em.
She ain"t no common child; she ain"t, now. She hain"t minded no more about that mine o" hern,--that mine she found,--I suppose you"ve heered all about it--"
"Yes, I know," said Mr. Kleesman.
"Well," continued Billy, "n.o.body but me knows how that little gal"s heart was set on to thet mine. She"d come an" stand by the hour an"
see me work in it. I worked there long o" Scholfield some six weeks: we was all took in putty bad. She"d come an" stand an" look an"
look, and talk about what her father "n" mother could do with the money; never so much "s a word about any thing she"d like herself; an" yet I could see her hull heart was jest set on it. And yet"s soon "s "twas clear an" sartin that the mine wan"t good for any thing, she jest give it all up; and there hain"t never come a complainin" or a disapp"inted word out o" her mouth. "Twas her own mine too,--and after her namin" it and all. I"ve seen many a man in this country broken all up by no worse a disappointment than that child had. She"s been jest a lesson to me: she has. I declare I never go by the pesky mine without thinking o" the day when she danced up and sez she, "I"ll name it! I"ll name it "The Good Luck!"""
"Ach, veil!" said Mr. Kleesman, "she haf better than any silver mine in her own self. She haf such goot-vill, such patient, such true, she haf always "goot luck." She are "Goot Luck mine" her own self."