From this style of hair dressing it is evident that Granny was not a member of any plain sect. She was, as she said, "An Evangelical, one of the old kind yet. I can say Amen to the preacher"s sermon and stand up in prayer-meeting and tell how the Lord has blessed me."
There were some who doubted the rich blessing of which Granny spoke. "I wouldn"t think the Lord blessed me so much," whispered one, "if I had a man like Old Aaron, though I guess he"s good enough to her. And that boy of theirs never comes home; he must have a funny streak in him too."
"But think of this," one would answer, "how the Lord keeps her cheerful, kind and faithful through all her troubles."
Granny"s was a wonderful garden. She and Old Aaron lived in a little gray cube of a house that had its front face set straight to the edge of Charlotte Street. However, the north side of the cube looked into a great green yard where tall spruce trees, overrun with trumpet vines and woodbine, shaded long beds of flowers that love semi-shady places. The rear of the house overlooked an old-fashioned garden enclosed with a white-washed picket fence. Always were there flowers at Granny"s house.
In the cold days of winter blooming ma.s.ses of geraniums, primroses and gloxinias crowded against the little square panes of the windows and looked defiantly out at the snow; while all the old favorites grew in the garden, from the first March snowdrop to the late November chrysanthemum. In June, therefore, the garden was a "Lovesome spot"
indeed.
"It vonders me now if Granny"s home," thought Phbe as she opened the wooden gate and entered the yard.
"Here I am," called Granny. "Back in the garden. I-to-goodness, Phbe, did you come once! I just said yesterday to Aaron that I didn"t see none of you folks for long, and here you come! You haven"t seen the flowers for a while."
"Oh!" Phbe breathed an ecstatic little word of delight. "Oh, your garden is just vonderful pretty!"
"Ain"t," agreed Granny. "Aaron and me"s been working pretty hard in it these weeks. There he is, out in the potato patch; see him?"
Phbe stood on tiptoe and looked where Granny"s finger pointed to the extreme end of the long vegetable garden, where the white head of Old Aaron was bending over his hoeing.
"He"s hoeing the potatoes," Granny explained. "He don"t see you. But he"ll soon be done and come in."
"What were you doin"?" asked the child.
"Weeding the flag."
"Weedin" the flag--what do you mean?" Phbe"s eyes lighted with eagerness. "I guess you mean mendin" the flag, Granny." She looked toward the porch as if in search of Old Glory.
"I said weeding the flag," the woman insisted. "It"s an idea of Aaron"s and I guess I"ll tell you about it, seeing your eyes are open so wide.
See the poppies, that long stretch of them in the middle of the garden?"
"Um-uh," nodded Phbe.
"Well, that patch at the back is all red poppies, the buds just coming on them nice and big. Then right in front of them is another patch of white poppies; the buds are thick on them, too. And right in front of them--you see what"s there!"
"Larkspur, blue larkspur!" cried Phbe. "Oh, I see--it"s red, white and blue! You"ll have it all summer in your garden!"
"Yes. When it blooms it"ll be a grand sight. I said to Aaron that we"ll have all the children of Greenwald in looking at his flag and he said he hopes so, for they couldn"t look at anything better than the colors of Old Glory. Aaron"s crazy about the flag."
""Cause he fought for it, mebbe."
"Yes, I guess. His father died for it at Gettysburg, the same place where Aaron lost his leg. . . . The only thing is, the larkspur"s getting ahead of the poppies--seems like the larkspur couldn"t wait"--her voice continued low--"I always love to see the larkspur come."
"I too," said the child. "I like to pull out the little slippers from the middle of the flowers and fit "em into each other and make circles with "em. I made a lot last summer and pressed "em in a book, but Aunt Maria made me stop."
"That"s just what Nason used to do. I have some pressed in the big Bible yet that he made when he was a little boy." She spoke half-absently, as though momentarily forgetful of the child"s presence.
"Who"s Nason?" asked Phbe.
Granny started. "I-to-goodness, Phbe, I forgot! You don"t know him, never heard of him, I guess. He"s our boy. We had a little girl, too, but she died."
"Did the boy die too, Granny?"
"No, ach no! You wouldn"t understand. He"s living in the city. He writes to me often but he don"t come home. He and his pop fell out about the flag once when Nason was young and foolish and they"re both too stubborn to forget it."
"But he"ll come back some day and live with you, of course, won"t he?"
Phbe comforted her.
"Yes--some day they"ll see things different. But now don"t you bother that head of yourn with such things. You forget all about Nason. Come now, sit on the bench a little under the arbor."
"Just a little. I must go to the store yet."
"You have lots to do."
"Yes. And I almost forgot what I come for. Aunt Maria wants you should come out to our place to-morrow early and help with the strawberries if you can."
"I"ll come. I like to come to your place. Your Aunt Maria is so straight out, nothing false about her. I like her. But now I bet you"re thinking of how many berries you can eat," she added as she noted the child"s abstracted look.
"No--I was thinkin"--I was just thinkin" what a funny name Nason is, like you tried to say Nathan and got your tongue twisted."
"It"s a real name, but you must forget all about it."
"If I can. Sometimes Aunt Maria tells me to forget things, like wantin"
curls and fancy things and pretty dresses but I don"t see how I can forget when I remember, do you?"
"It"s hard," Granny said, a deeper meaning in her words than the child could comprehend. "It"s the hardest thing in the world to forget what you want to forget. But here comes Aaron----"
"Well, well, if here ain"t Phbe Metz with her eyes shining and a pink rose pinned to her waist and matching the roses in her cheeks!" the old soldier said as he joined the two under the arbor. "Whew! Mebbe it ain"t hot hoeing potatoes!"
"You"re all heated up, Aaron," said Granny. His fifteen years seniority warranted a solicitous watchfulness over him, she thought. "Now you get cooled off a little and I"ll make some lemonade. It"ll taste good to me and Phbe, too."
"All right, Ma," Aaron sighed in relaxation. "You know how to touch the spot. Did you tell Phbe about the flag?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I think it"s fine!" cried the child. "I can"t wait till all the flowers bloom. I want to see it."
"You"ll see it," promised the man. "And you bring all the boys and girls in too."
"And then will you tell us about the war and the Battle of Gettysburg?
David Eby says he heard you once tell about it. I think it was at some school celebration. And he says it was grand, just like being there yourself."
"A little safer," laughed the old soldier. "But, yes, when the poppies bloom you bring the children in and I"ll tell you about the war and the flag."
"I"ll remember. I love to hear about the war. Old Johnny Schlegelmilch from way up the country comes to our place still to sell brooms, and once last summer he came and it began to thunder and storm and pop said he shall stay till it"s over and then he told me all about the war. He said our flag"s the prettiest in the whole world."
"So it is," solemnly affirmed Old Aaron.
"I wonder if anybody it belongs to could help liking it," said the child, remembering Granny"s words.
"Well," the veteran answered slowly, "I knew a young fellow once, a nice fellow he seemed, too, and his father a soldier who fought for the flag.