"Well," said Mrs. Ripwinkley, a.s.senting in full faith, beforehand; for Mrs. Ripwinkley, if I need now to tell you of it, was not an ordinary woman, and did not take things in an ordinary selfish way, but grasped right hold of the inward right and truth of them, and believed in it; sometimes before she could quite see it; and she never had any doubt of Luclarion Grapp. "Well! And now tell me all about it."
"You see," said Luclarion, sitting down in a chair by the window, as Mrs. Ripwinkley suspended her occupation and took one by the bedside, "there"s places in this town that folks leave and give up.
As the Lord might have left and give up the world, because there was dirt and wickedness in it; only He didn"t. There"s places where it ain"t genteel, nor yet respectable, to live; and so those places grow more disrespectable and miserable every day. They"re left to themselves. What I think is, they hadn"t ought to be. There"s one clean spot down there now, in the very middle of the worst dirt.
And it ain"t bad to live in. _That"s_ started. Now, what I think is, that somebody ought to start another, even if its only a little one.
Somebody ought to just go there and _live_, and show "em how, just as I took and showed Mrs. Scarup, and she"s been living ever since, instead of scratching along. If some of them folks had a clean, decent neighbor to go to see,--to drink tea with, say,--and was to catch an idea of her fixings and doings, why, I believe there"d be more of "em,--cleaned up, you know. They"d get some kind of an ambition and a hope. Tain"t enough for ladies--though I bless "em in my soul for what I"ve seen "em do--to come down there of a Fridays, and teach and talk awhile, and then go home to Summit Street and Republic Avenue, and take up _their_ life again where they left it off, that is just as different as heaven is from "tother place; somebody"s got to come right down _out_ of heaven, and bring the life in, and live it amongst them miserable folks, as the Lord Jesus Christ came and did! And it"s borne in upon me, strong and clear, that that"s what"s got to be before all"s righted. And so--for a little piece of it, and a little individual stump--I"m going to swarm, and settle, and see what"ll come."
Mrs. Ripwinkley was looking very intently at Luclarion. Her breath went and came hurriedly, and her face turned pale with the grand surprise of such a thought, such a plan and purpose, so simply and suddenly declared. Her eyes were large and moist with feeling.
"Do you _know_, Luclarion," she exclaimed at last, "do you realize what this is that you are thinking of; what a step it would be to take,--what a work it would be to even hope to begin to do? Do you know how strange it is,--how almost impracticable,--that it is not even safe?"
""Twasn"t _safe_ for Him--when He came into the world," Luclarion answered.
"Not to say I think there"s any comparison," she began again, presently, "or that I believe there"s anything to be really scared of,--except dirt; and you _can_ clean a place round you, as them Mission people have done. Why, there ain"t a house in Boston nicer, or sweeter, or airier even, than that one down in Arctic Street, with beautiful parlors and bedrooms, and great clean galleries leading round, and skylighted,--_sky_ lighted! for you see the blue heaven is above all, and you _can_ let the skylight in, without any corruption coming in with it; and if twenty people can do that much, or a hundred,--one can do something. "Taint much, either, to undertake; only to be willing to go there, and make a clean place for yourself, and a home; and live there, instead of somewheres else that"s ready made; and let it spread. And you know I"ve always looked forrud to some kind of a house-keep of my own, finally."
"But, Luclarion, I don"t understand! All alone? And you couldn"t use a whole house, you know. Your neighbors would be _inmates_. Why, it seems to me perfectly crazy!"
"Now, ma"am, did you ever know me to go off on a tangent, without some sort of a string to hold on to? I ain"t goin" to swarm all alone! I never heard of such a thing. Though if I couldn"t _swarm_, and the thing was to be done, I say I"d try it. But Savira Golding is going to be married to Sam Gallilee, next month; and he"s a stevedore, and his work is down round the wharves; he"s cla.s.s-leader in our church, and a first-rate, right-minded man, or else Savira wouldn"t have him; for if Savira ain"t a clear Christian, and a doing woman, there ain"t one this side of Paradise. Now, you see, Sam Gallilee makes money; he runs a gang of three hundred men. He can afford a good house, and a whole one, if he wants; but he"s going in for a big one, and neighbors. They mean to live nice,--he and Savira; and she has pretty, tasty ways; there"ll be white curtains, and plants blooming in her windows, you may make sure; she"s always had "em in that little up-stairs dress-making room of hers; and boxes of mignonette and petunias on the ledges; and birds singing in a great summer cage swung out against the wall. She"s one of the kind that reaches out, and can"t be kept in; and she knows her gifts, and is willing to go and let her light shine where it will help others, and so glorify; and Sam, he"s willing too, and sees the beauty of it. And so,--well, that"s the swarm."
"And the "little round G.o.damighty in the middle of it,"" said Mrs.
Ripwinkley, her face all bright and her eyes full of tears.
"_Ma"am_!"
Then Mrs. Ripwinkley told her Miss Craydocke"s story.
"Well," said Luclarion, "there"s something dear and right-to-the-spot about it; but it does sound singular; and it certainly ain"t a thing to say careless."
Desire Ledwith grew bright and excited as the summer came on, and the time drew near for going to Z----. She could not help being glad; she did not stop to ask why; summer-time was reason enough, and after the weariness of the winter, the thought of Z---- and the woods and the river, and sweet evenings and mornings, and gardens and orchards, and road-side gra.s.s, was lovely to her.
"It is so pleasant up there!" she would keep saying to Dorris; and somehow she said it to Dorris oftener than to anybody else.
There was something fitful and impetuous in her little outbursts of satisfaction; they noticed it in her; the elder ones among them noticed it with a touch of anxiety for her.
Miss Craydocke, especially, read the signs, matching them with something that she remembered far back in the life that had closed so peacefully, with white hairs and years of a serene content and patience, over all unrest and disappointment, for herself. She was sorry for this young girl, for whom she thought she saw an unfulfilled dream of living that should go by her like some bright cloud, just near enough to turn into a baptism of tears.
She asked Desire, one day, if she would not like to go with her, this summer, to the mountains.
Desire put by the suggestion hastily.
"O, no, thank you, Miss Craydocke, I must stay with mamma and Helena. And besides," she added, with the strict, full truth she always demanded of herself, "I _want_ to go to Z----."
"Yes," said Miss Craydocke.
There was something tender, like a shade of pity, in her tone.
"But you would enjoy the mountains. They are full of strength and rest. One hardly understands the good the hills do one. David did, looking out into them from Jerusalem. "I will look to the hills, from whence cometh my strength.""
"Some time," said Desire. "Some time I shall need the hills, and--be ready for them. But this summer--I want a good, gay, young time. I don"t know why, except that I shall be just eighteen this year, and it seems as if, after that, I was going to be old. And I want to be with people I know. I _can_ be gay in the country; there is something to be gay about. But I can"t dress and dance in the city.
That is all gas-light and get-up."
"I suppose," said Miss Craydocke, slowly, "that our faces are all set in the way we are to go. Even if it is--" She stopped. She was thinking of one whose face had been set to go to Jerusalem. Her own words had led her to something she had not foreseen when she began.
Nothing of such suggestion came to Desire. She was in one of her rare moods of good cheer.
"I suppose so," she said, heedlessly. And then, taking up a thought of her own suddenly,--"Miss Craydocke! Don"t you think people almost always live out their names? There"s Sin Scherman; there"ll always be a little bit of mischief and original naughtiness in her,--with the harm taken out of it; and there"s Rosamond Holabird,--they couldn"t have called her anything better, if they"d waited for her to grow up; and Barb _was_ sharp; and our little Hazel is witchy and sweet and wild-woodsy; and Luclarion,--isn"t that shiny and trumpety, and doesn"t she do it? And then--there"s me. I shall always be stiff and hard and unsatisfied, except in little bits of summer times that won"t come often. They might as well have christened me Anxiety. I wonder why they didn"t."
"That would have been very different. There is a n.o.bleness in Desire. You will overlive the restless part," said Miss Craydocke.
"Was there ever anything restless in your life, Miss Craydocke? And how long did it take to overlive it? It doesn"t seem as if you had ever stubbed your foot against anything; and I"m _always_ stubbing."
"My dear, I have stubbed along through fifty-six years; and the years had all three hundred and sixty-five days in them. There were chances,--don"t you think so?"
"It looks easy to be old after it is done," said Desire. "Easy and comfortable. But to be eighteen, and to think of having to go on to be fifty-six; I beg your pardon,--but I wish it was over!"
And she drew a deep breath, heavy with the days that were to be.
"You are not to take it all at once, you know," said Miss Craydocke.
"But I do, every now and then. I can"t help it. I am sure it is the name. If they had called me "Hapsie," like you, I should have gone along jolly, as you do, and not minded. You see you have to _hear_ it all the time; and it tunes you up to its own key. You can"t feel like a Dolly, or a Daisy, when everybody says--De-sire!"
"I don"t know how I came to be called "Hapsie,"" said Miss Craydocke. "Somebody who liked me took it up, and it seemed to get fitted on. But that wasn"t when I was young."
"What was it, then?" asked Desire, with a movement of interest.
"Keren-happuch," said Miss Craydocke, meekly. "My father named me, and he always called me so,--the whole of it. He was a severe, Old-Testament man, and _his_ name was Job."
Desire was more than half right, after all. There was a good deal of Miss Craydocke"s story hinted in those few words and those two ancient names.
"But I turned into "Miss Craydocke" pretty soon, and settled down. I suppose it was very natural that I should," said the sweet old maid, serenely.
XVII.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
The evening train came in through the little bend in the edge of the woods, and across the bridge over the pretty rapids, and slid to its stopping-place under the high arches of the other bridge that connected the main street of Z---- with its continuation through "And."
There were lights twinkling in the shops, where they were making change, and weighing out tea and sugar, and measuring calico, although outside it was not yet quite dark.
The train was half an hour late; there had been a stoppage at some draw or crossing near the city.
Mr. Prendible was there, to see if his lodgers were come, and to get his evening paper; the platform was full of people. Old Z---- acquaintances, many of them, whom Desire and her mother were pleased, and Helena excited to see.