He stooped down, expecting me to answer him; when he saw _her_ face all glowing with blushes.
"Ah!" says he, laughing, "we have got a little mixed here, Cousin Frost.
It will never answer to come between man and wife in this fashion, especially when they have been only three weeks married. Supposing we change round again?"
I arose--she arose--we exchanged glances, then exchanged seats.
The lights from these beer bottles were numerous, but not brilliant.
Under the shadows we concealed the emotions which disturbed us.
He looked funnily penitent, whenever his eyes caught mine, which was often, for somehow I could not keep looking on my plate all the time.
As for that young creature, she seemed to be br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with fun.
After a little, I began to feel myself smiling. It really was droll, but not so _very_ unpleasant.
XXII.
NEW YEAR"S DAY.
Dear sisters:--After all, this city of New York is a wonderful inst.i.tution. Vermont has its specialties, such as maple-sugar, pine shingles, and education; but in such things as style, fashion, and general gentilities, I must say this great Empire City isn"t to be sneezed at, even by a Green Mountainer. Of course we are ahead in religion, morality, decorum, and a kind of politics that consolidates all these things into great moral ideas--as rusticoats, greenings and Spitzenbergen apples are ground down into one barrel of such sweet cider as we used to steal through the bunghole with a straw. You will recollect the straws--a Down-east invention, which these degenerated Yorkers have stolen, and are now using unblushingly for mint-juleps, sherry-cobblers, and such awful drinks as New England has put her foot down against with a stamp that makes inebriating individuals shake in their boots. But New York won"t put her foot down, and the encroachment upon our patent-right for straws is just winked at.
Dear me, how one thing does lead a person"s mind into another! I took up my pen to write about New Year"s Day in New York, and here I am, back in that old cider-mill behind our orchard, with heaps of red and yellow apples piled up in the gra.s.s, and the old blind horse moving round and round in the mill-ring, dragging along that great wooden wheel, under which we could hear the soft-gushing squelch of the apples, while all the air smelt rich and fruity with them.
Do you remember the luscious juice dropping from the press, and the full barrels lying about, with the sweetness beginning to yeast through the bungholes? Then it was we pounced down upon them with our straws, and it was these straws that brought New Year"s Day in New York and the old cider-mill at home into my mind at once. Thus it is, my sisters, with us children of genius; thought is born of thought, feeling springs out of feeling, till creation and re-creation become spontaneosities.
Some people have said of Phmie Frost that she lacks philosophy and that transcendental essence which becomes the highest female type in New England. If any such caviler should reach our Society, have the moral courage to point out that last paragraph, and see if the wretches have forgotten to blush for themselves.
Christmas Day isn"t anything very particular outside of the Episcopal Church, in our parts. Somehow the Pilgrim Fathers took a notion against it when they cut away from the old country, and built square meeting-houses all over New England. But they set up the same thing under a new-fangled name. Thanksgiving was just the same to them, and showed their independence; so they roasted and baked and stewed, and made pumpkin-pies a specialty--because the cavaliers in England couldn"t get pumkins to compete with them--and went into their meeting-houses to thank G.o.d that they had good crops, instead of going down on their knees--which they didn"t, because of standing up to pray--in solemn grat.i.tude that the blessed Lord was born upon earth.
Sisters, as a New England female, it would be against nature to say that the Pilgrim Fathers wasn"t right in sinking Christmas in Thanksgiving, and thanking G.o.d for full crops, because the corn and potatoes were things they all could understand and accept with universal thankfulness; but about the birth of Christ, and its merciful object, no two sects that I ever heard of could agree, much less the Old Church and the New Covenanters.
There it is again; my pen is getting demoralized. Christmas has come and gone. What more have I got to say about it? Why, just nothing. Wise people accept the past and look forward.
Cousin Dempster insisted upon it, that I should come up and spend New Year"s Day with them. Cousin E. E. was going to receive calls, and wanted some distinguished friend to help her entertain.
I went.
Early in the morning the empty carriage came down to my boarding-house, with those two regimental chaps on the out seat.
I was all ready, with my pink silk dress on, and my front hair all in one lovely friz; but I just let the carriage wait that the boarders and people, with their faces against the window opposite, might have a good chance to look at it. Then I walked down the stairs with queenly slowness; the long skirt of my dress came a-rustling after, with a rich sound that must have penetrated to the boarding-house parlor, for the door was just a trifle open as I went by, and three faces, I could swear to, were peeping out as if they had never seen a long-trailed, pink silk dress before. Then I heard a scuttling toward the window, and, while I stood on the upper step, gathering up the back cataract of my dress, those same faces flattened themselves plump against the gla.s.s.
Of course I did not hurry myself on that account, but took an observation up and down the street while I tightened the b.u.t.tons of my glove, though one of the regimental chaps was a-standing there and holding the door wide open.
"Why shouldn"t I give the poor things just this one glimpse of the fashionable life to which genius has lifted me," says I to myself.
Influenced by this idea, I paused, perhaps, half a minute, with my foot on the iron step, and asked the regimental chap, with the air of a queen giving directions, if it was very cold? and if Mrs. Dempster was quite well, that morning?
He bowed when he answered both these questions, with the greatest respect; which was satisfactory, as the people on both sides must have seen him do it.
Then I stepped gracefully into the carriage and sat down, buried to my knees in billows of pink silk. Over that I drew the robe of white fur, and waved my hand, as much as to say: I am seated; you can close the door. Which he did.
One thing is curious about the streets of New York on New Year"s Day.
Not a woman or girl is to be seen on the sidewalks.
The garden of Eden, before Adam went into the spare-rib business, wouldn"t have been more completely given up to the desolation of manhood, unrefined by sweet female influence.
But every man that I saw, going up or down, looked bright and smiling, as if he expected to find an Eve of his own before the day was over, and I shouldn"t wonder if a good many of them did.
XXIII.
THE NEW YEAR"S RECEPTION.
Cousin E. E. Dempster was all ready, and standing as large as life in one end of her long parlor, when I went in. The first sight of that room made me start back and scream right out. I had left daylight outside, but found night there. The blinds were shut close to every window. Over them fell a snow-storm of white lace, and over that a cataract of silk that seemed to have been dyed in wine, its redness was so rich and wavy.
The two great gla.s.s balloons were just running over with brightness that scattered itself everywhere--on the chairs, the cushions, the carpet, and a great round sofa which stood, like a giant cheese, in the middle of the room, all covered with silk, and with a tall flower-pot standing up from the centre, running over with flowers, and vines, and things.
This queer sofa, that seemed to have burst out into blossom for the occasion, was a New Year"s present, Cousin E. E. said, and quite a surprise. "Then there is another," says she, a-pointing towards a marble man, dressed in a grape leaf, that seemed to have been firing something at the stone girl, and was watching to see if it had hit. "Of course you have seen the Apollo before?"
I looked at the stone fellow sideways, then dropped my eyes.
"I--I don"t know," says I; "maybe I should know him better if he had his clothes on."
"Look again. You must have seen him," says she.
"No," says I, a-turning my head away; "I--I"d rather not till he goes out and fixes himself up a little."
Cousin E. E. laughed till her face was red. While she was t.i.ttering like a chirping bird, that little creature Cecilia came tripping into the room, with a blue silk dress, ruffled over with white lace, just reaching to her knees, her yellow hair a-rippling over that, clear down behind, and a wreath of pink roses on her head. She looked at me from top to toe, gave her head a toss, and went up to her mother with the air of an injured princess.
"That old pink silk again! What did you let her wear it for? New Year"s Day, too. The idea!"
I heard every word of it, for the stuck-up thing didn"t trouble herself to speak low. My face had been hot enough before, but it burned like fire now, and my bosom heaved till it stormed against my dress and almost burst it.
"Hush!" said Cousin E. E., looking scared; "she will hear."
"Well, let her. As if I cared! The idea!"
I stepped forward, with my finger lifted, and my dress sweeping. It must have been an imposing sight, for E. E. raised both hands, imploringly, and says she, "Cecilia, come and see your father"s present."
"Oh, isn"t it gorgeous?" sang out the child, clasping her hands, and turning her back square on me while she went up to the stone fellow.
"Such a splendid mate for Venus!"