Prudence of the Parsonage.
by Ethel Hueston.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCING HER
None but the residents consider Mount Mark, Iowa, much of a town, and those who are honest among them admit, although reluctantly, that Mount Mark can boast of far more patriotism than good judgment! But the _very most_ patriotic of them all has no word of praise for the ugly little red C., B. & Q. railway station. If pretty is as pretty does, as we have been told so unpleasantly often, then the station is handsome enough, but as an ornament to the commonwealth it is a dismal failure,--low, smoky and dust-grimed. In winter its bleakness and bareness add to the chill of the rigorous Iowa temperature, and in summer the sap oozing through the boards is disagreeably suggestive of perspiration. The waiting-room itself is "cleaned" every day, and yet the same dust lies in the corners where it has lain for lo, these many years. And as for the cobwebs, their chief distinction lies in their ripe old age. If there were only seven spiders in the ark, after the subsiding of the waters, at least a majority of them must have found their way to Mount Mark station in South-eastern Iowa.
Mount Mark is anything but proud of the little station. It openly scoffs at it, and sniffs contemptuously at the ticket agent who bears the entire C., B. & Q. reputation upon his humble shoulders. At the same time, it certainly does owe the railroad and the state a debt of grat.i.tude for its presence there. It is the favorite social rendezvous for the community! Only four pa.s.senger trains daily pa.s.s through Mount Mark,--not including the expresses, which rush haughtily by with no more than a scornful whistle for the sleepy town, and in return for this indignity, Mount Mark cherishes a most unchristian antipathy toward those demon fliers.
But the "pa.s.sengers"--ah, that is a different matter. The arrival of a pa.s.senger train in Mount Mark is an event--something in the nature of a C., B. & Q. "At Home," and is always attended by a large and enthusiastic gathering of "our best people." All that is lacking are the proverbial "light refreshments!"
So it happened that one sultry morning, late in the month of August, there was the usual flutter of excitement and confusion on the platform and in the waiting-room of the station. The habitues were there in force. Conspicuous among them were four gaily dressed young men, smoking cigarettes and gazing with lack-l.u.s.ter eyes upon the animated scene, which evidently bored them. All the same, they invariably appeared at the depot to witness this event, stirring to others no doubt, but incapable of arousing the interest of these life-weary youths. They comprised the Slaughter-house Quartette, and were the most familiar and notorious characters in all the town.
_The Daily News_ reporter, in a well-creased, light gray suit and tan shoes, and with eye-gla.s.ses scientifically balanced on his aquiline nose, was making pointed inquiries into the private plans of the travelers. _The Daily News_ reporters in Mount Mark always wear well-creased, light gray suits and tan shoes, and always have eye-gla.s.ses scientifically balanced on aquiline noses. The uninitiated can not understand how it is managed, but there lies the fact. Perhaps _The News_ includes these details in its requirements of applicants.
Possibly it furnishes the gray suits and the tan shoes, and even the eye-gla.s.ses. Of course, the reporters can practise balancing them scientifically,--but how does it happen that they always have aquiline noses? At any rate, that is the Mount Mark type. It never varies.
The young woman going to Burlington to spend the week-end was surrounded with about fifteen other young women who had come to "see her off." She had relatives in Burlington and went there very often, and she used to say she was glad she didn"t have to exchange Christmas presents with all the "friends" who witnessed her arrivals and departures at the station. Mount Mark is a very respectable town, be it understood, and girls do not go to the station without an excuse!
The Adams Express wagon was drawn close to the track, and the agent was rushing about with a breathless energy which seemed all out of proportion to his accomplishments. The telegraph operator was gazing earnestly out of his open window, and his hands were busily moving papers from one pigeon-hole to another, and back again. Old Harvey Reel, who drove the hotel bus, was discussing politics with the man who kept the restaurant, and the baggage master, superior and supremely dirty, was checking baggage with his almost unendurably lordly air.
This was one of the four daily rejuvenations that gladdened the heart of Mount Mark.
A man in a black business suit stood alone on the platform, his hands in his pockets, his eyes wandering from one to another of the strange faces about him. His plain white ready-made tie proclaimed his calling.
"It"s the new Methodist preacher," volunteered the baggage master, crossing the platform, ostensibly on business bound, but really to see "who all" was there. "I know him. He"s not a bad sort."
"They say he"s got five kids, and most of "em girls," responded the Adams Express man. "I"ve ordered me a dress suit to pay my respects in when they get here. I want to be on hand early to pick me out a girl."
"Yah," mocked the telegraph operator, bobbing his head through the window, "you need to. They tell me every girl in Mount Mark has turned you down a"ready."
But the Methodist minister, gazing away down the track where a thin curl of smoke announced the coming of Number Nine, and Prudence,--heard nothing of this conversation. He was not a handsome man. His hair was gray at the temples, his face was earnest, only saved from severity by the little cl.u.s.ters of lines at his eyes and mouth which proclaimed that he laughed often, and with relish.
"Train going east!"
The minister stood back from the crowd, but when the train came pounding in a brightness leaped into his eyes that entirely changed the expression of his face. A slender girl stood in the vestibule, leaning dangerously outward, and waving wildly at him a small gloved hand.
When the train stopped she leaped lightly from the steps, ignoring the stool placed for her feet by the conductor.
"Father!" she cried excitedly and small and slight as she was, she elbowed her way swiftly through the gaping crowd. "Oh, father!" And she flung her arms about him joyously, unconscious of the admiring eyes of the Adams Express man, and the telegraph operator, and old Harvey Reel, whose eyes were always admiring when girls pa.s.sed by. She did not even observe that the Slaughterhouse Quartette looked at her unanimously, with languid interest from out the wreaths of smoke they had created.
Her father kissed her warmly. "Where is your baggage?" he asked, a hand held out to relieve her.
"Here!" And with a radiant smile she thrust upon him a box of candy and a gaudy-covered magazine.
"Your suit-case," he explained patiently.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Run, father, run! I left it on the train!"
Father did run, but Prudence, fleeter-footed, out-distanced him and clambered on board, panting.
When she rejoined her father her face was flushed. "Oh, father," she said quite snappily, "isn"t that just like me?"
"Yes, very like," he agreed, and he smiled. "Where is your umbrella?"
Prudence stopped abruptly. "I don"t know," she said, with a stony face. "I can"t remember a blessed thing about the old umbrella. Oh, I guess I didn"t bring it, at all." She breathed long in her relief.
"Yes, that"s it, father, I left it at Aunt Grace"s. Don"t you worry about it. Fairy"ll bring it to-morrow. Isn"t it nice that we can count on Fairy"s remembering?"
"Yes, very nice," he said, but his eyes were tender as he looked down at the little figure beside him.
"And so this is Mount Mark! Isn"t it a funny name, father? Why do they call it Mount Mark?"
"I don"t know. I hadn"t thought to inquire. We turn here, Prudence; we are going north now. This is Main Street. The city part of the town--the business part--is to the south."
"It"s a pretty street, isn"t it?" she cried. "Such nice big maples, and such shady, porchy houses. I love houses with porches, don"t you?
Has the parsonage a porch?"
"Yes, a big one on the south, and a tiny one in front. The house faces west. That is the college there. It opens in three weeks, and Fairy can make freshmen all right, they tell me. I wish you could go, too.
You haven"t had your share of anything--any good thing, Prudence."
"Well, I have my share of you, father," she said comfortingly. "And I"ve always had my share of oatmeal and sorghum mola.s.ses,--though one wouldn"t think it to look at me. Fairy gained a whole inch last week at Aunt Grace"s. She was so disgusted with herself. She says she"ll not be able to look back on the visit with any pleasure at all, just because of that inch. Carol said she ought to look back with more pleasure, because there"s an inch more of her to do it! But Fairy says she did not gain the inch in her eyes! Aunt Grace laughed every minute we were there. She says she is all sore up and down, from laughing so much."
"We have the house fixed up pretty well, Prudence, but of course you"ll have to go over it yourself and arrange it as you like. But remember this: You are not allowed to move the heavy furniture. I forbid it emphatically. There isn"t enough of you for that."
"Yes, I"ll remember,--I think I will. I"m almost certain to remember some things, you know."
"I must go to a trustees" meeting at two o"clock, but we can get a good deal done before then. Mrs. Adams is coming to help you this afternoon. She is one of our Ladies, and very kind. There, that is the parsonage!"
Prudence gazed in silence. Many would not have considered it a beautiful dwelling, but to Prudence it was heavenly. Fortunately the wide, gra.s.sy, shaded lawn greeted one first. Great spreading maples bordered the street, and cl.u.s.tering rose-bushes lined the walk leading up to the house. The walk was badly worn and broken to be sure,--but the roses were lovely! The gra.s.s had been carefully cut,--the father-minister had seen to that. The parsonage, to Prudence"s gratified eyes, looked homey, and big, and inviting. In fact, it was very nearly gorgeous! It needed painting badly, it is true. The original color had been a peculiar drab, but most of it had disappeared long before, so it was no eyesore on account of the color. There were many windows, and the well-known lace curtains looked down upon Prudence tripping happily up the little board walk,--or so it seemed to her.
"Two whole stories, and an attic besides! Not to mention the bathroom!
Oh, father, the night after you wrote there was a bathroom, Constance thanked G.o.d for it when she said her prayers. And I couldn"t reprove her, for I felt the same way about it myself. It"ll be so splendid to have a whole tub to bathe in! I spent half the time bathing this last week at Aunt Grace"s. A tub is so bountiful! A pan is awfully insufficient, father, even for me! I often think what a trouble it must be to Fairy! And a furnace, too! And electric lights! Don"t you think there is something awe-inspiring in the idea of just turning a little k.n.o.b on the wall, and flooding a whole room with light? I do revel in electric lights, I tell you. Oh, we have waited a long time for it, and we"ve been very patient indeed, but, between you and me, father, I am most mightily glad we"ve hit the luxury-land at last. I"m sure we"ll all feel much more religious in a parsonage that has a bathroom and electric lights! Oh, father!"
He had thrown open the door, and Prudence stood upon the threshold of her new home. It was not a fashionable building, by any means. The hall was narrow and long, and the staircase was just a plain businesslike staircase, with no room for cushions, and flowers, and books. The doors leading from the hall were open, and Prudence caught a glimpse of three rooms furnished, rather scantily, in the old familiar furniture that had been in that other parsonage where Prudence was born, nineteen years before.
Together she and her father went from room to room, up-stairs and down, moving a table to the left, a bed to the right,--according to her own good pleasure. Afterward they had a cozy luncheon for two in the "dining-room."
"Oh, it is so elegant to have a dining-room," breathed Prudence happily. "I always pretended it was rather fun, and a great saving of work, to eat and cook and study and live in one room, but inwardly the idea always outraged me. Is that the school over there?"
"Yes, that"s where Connie will go. There is only one high school in Mount Mark, so the twins will have to go to the other side of town,--a long walk, but in good weather they can come home for dinner.--I"m afraid the kitchen will be too cold in winter, Prudence,--it"s hardly more than a shed, really. Maybe we"d----"
"Oh, father, if you love me, don"t suggest that we move the stove in here in winter! I"m perfectly willing to freeze out there, for the sake of having a dining-room. Did I ever tell you what Carol said about that kitchen-dining-room-living-room combination at Exminster?
Well, she asked us a riddle, "When is a dining-room not a dining-room?"
And she answered it herself, "When it"s a little pig-pen." And I felt so badly about it, but it did look like a pig-pen, with stove here, and cupboard there, and table yonder, and--oh, no, father, please let me freeze!"
"I confess I do not see the connection between a roomful of furniture and a pig-pen, but Carol"s wit is often too subtle for me."
"Oh, that"s a lovely place over there, father!" exclaimed Prudence, looking from the living-room windows toward the south. "Isn"t it beautiful?"