On the other:
HUNDRED-LEGGERS"
AND RED-ANTS"
HOUSE.
"You see," said euphemia, "if any individuals mentioned thereon apply for accommodation, we can say we are full."
This sign hung triumphantly for several days, when one morning, just as we had finished breakfast, we were surprised to hear the stage stop at the door, and before we could go out to see who had arrived, into the room came our own stage-driver, as we used to call him. He had actually left his team to come and see us.
"I just thought I"d stop an" tell ye," said he, "that ef ye don"t look out, Bill"ll get ye inter trouble. He"s bound to git the best o" ye, an"
I heared this mornin", at Lowry"s, that he"s agoin" to bring the county clerk up here to-morrow, to see about yer license fur keepin" a hotel.
He says ye keep changin" yer signs, but that don"t differ to him, for he kin prove ye"ve kept travelers overnight, an" ef ye haven"t got no license he"ll make the county clerk come down on ye heavy, I"m sure o"
that, fur I know Bill. An" so, I thought I"d stop an" tell ye."
I thanked him, and admitted that this was a rather serious view of the case. Euphemia pondered a moment. Then said she:
"I don"t see why we should stay here any longer. It"s going to rain again, and our vacation is up to-morrow, anyway. Could you wait a little while, while we pack up?" she said to the driver.
"Oh yes!" he replied. "I kin wait, as well as not. I"ve only got one pa.s.senger, an" he"s on top, a-holdin" the horses. He aint in any hurry, I know, an" I"m ahead o" time."
In less than twenty minutes we had packed our trunk, locked up the house, and were in the stage, and, as we drove away, we cast a last admiring look at Euphemia"s sign, slowly swinging in the wind. I would much like to know if it is swinging there yet. I feel certain there has been no lack of custom.
We stopped at Mrs. Carson"s, paid her what we owed her, and engaged her to go up to the tavern and put things in order. She was very sorry we were going, but hoped we would come back again some other summer. We said that it was quite possible that we might do so; but that, next time, we did not think we would try to have a tavern of our own.
CHAPTER XIX. THE BABY AT RUDDER GRANGE.
For some reason, not altogether understood by me, there seemed to be a continued series of new developments at our home. I had supposed, when the events spoken of in the last chapter had settled down to their proper places in our little history, that our life would flow on in an even, commonplace way, with few or no incidents worthy of being recorded. But this did not prove to be the case. After a time, the uniformity and quiet of our existence was considerably disturbed.
This disturbance was caused by a baby, not a rude, imperious baby, but a child who was generally of a quiet and orderly turn of mind. But it disarranged all our plans; all our habits; all the ordinary disposition of things.
It was in the summer-time, during my vacation, that it began to exert its full influence upon us. A more unfortunate season could not have been selected. At first, I may say that it did not exert its full influence upon me. I was away, during the day, and, in the evening, its influence was not exerted, to any great extent, upon anybody. As I have said, its habits were exceedingly orderly. But, during my vacation, the things came to pa.s.s which have made this chapter necessary.
I did not intend taking a trip. As in a former vacation, I proposed staying at home and enjoying those delights of the country which my business in town did not allow me to enjoy in the working weeks and months of the year. I had no intention of camping out, or of doing anything of that kind, but many were the trips, rides, and excursions I had planned.
I found, however, that if I enjoyed myself in this wise, I must do it, for the most part, alone. It was not that Euphemia could not go with me--there was really nothing to prevent--it was simply that she had lost, for the time, her interest in everything except that baby.
She wanted me to be happy, to amuse myself, to take exercise, to do whatever I thought was pleasant, but she, herself, was so much engrossed with the child, that she was often ignorant of what I intended to do, or had done. She thought she was listening to what I said to her, but, in reality, she was occupied, mind and body, with the baby, or listening for some sound which should indicate that she ought to go and be occupied with it.
I would often say to her: "Why can"t you let Pomona attend to it? You surely need not give up your whole time and your whole mind to the child."
But she would always answer that Pomona had a great many things to do, and that she couldn"t, at all times, attend to the baby. Suppose, for instance, that she should be at the barn.
I once suggested that a nurse should be procured, but at this she laughed.
"There is very little to do," she said, "and I really like to do it."
"Yes," said I, "but you spend so much of your time in thinking how glad you will be to do that little, when it is to be done, that you can"t give me any attention, at all."
"Now you have no cause to say that," she exclaimed. "You know very well--, there!" and away she ran. It had just begun to cry!
Naturally, I was getting tired of this. I could never begin a sentence and feel sure that I would be allowed to finish it. Nothing was important enough to delay attention to an infantile whimper.
Jonas, too, was in a state of unrest. He was obliged to wear his good clothes, a great part of the time, for he was continually going on errands to the village, and these errands were so important that they took precedence of everything else. It gave me a melancholy sort of pleasure, sometimes, to do Jonas"s work when he was thus sent away.
I asked him, one day, how he liked it all?
"Well," said he, reflectively, "I can"t say as I understand it, exactly.
It does seem queer to me that such a little thing should take up pretty nigh all the time of three people. I suppose, after a while," this he said with a grave smile, "that you may be wanting to turn in and help."
I did not make any answer to this, for Jonas was, at that moment, summoned to the house, but it gave me an idea. In fact, it gave me two ideas.
The first was that Jonas"s remark was not entirely respectful. He was my hired man, but he was a very respectable man, and an American man, and therefore might sometimes be expected to say things which a foreigner, not known to be respectable, would not think of saying, if he wished to keep his place. The fact that Jonas had always been very careful to treat me with much civility, caused this remark to make more impression on me. I felt that he had, in a measure, reason for it.
The other idea was one which grew and developed in my mind until I afterward formed a plan upon it. I determined, however, before I carried out my plan, to again try to reason with Euphemia.
"If it was our own baby," I said, "or even the child of one of us, by a former marriage, it would be a different thing; but to give yourself up so entirely to Pomona"s baby, seems, to me, unreasonable. Indeed, I never heard of any case exactly like it. It is reversing all the usages of society for the mistress to take care of the servant"s baby."
"The usages of society are not worth much, sometimes," said Euphemia, "and you must remember that Pomona is a very different kind of a person from an ordinary servant. She is much more like a member of the family--I can"t exactly explain what kind of a member, but I understand it myself. She has very much improved since she has been married, and you know, yourself, how quiet and--and, nice she is, and as for the baby, it"s just as good and pretty as any baby, and it may grow up to be better than any of us. Some of our presidents have sprung from lowly parents."
"But this one is a girl," I said.
"Well then," replied Euphemia, "she may be a president"s wife."
"Another thing," I remarked, "I don"t believe Jonas and Pomona like your keeping their baby so much to yourself."
"Nonsense!" said Euphemia, "a girl in Pomona"s position couldn"t help being glad to have a lady take an interest in her baby, and help bring it up. And as for Jonas, he would be a cruel man if he wasn"t pleased and grateful to have his wife relieved of so much trouble. Pomona!
is that you? You can bring it here, now, if you want to get at your clear-starching."
I don"t believe that Pomona hankered after clear-starching, but she brought the baby and I went away. I could not see any hope ahead. Of course, in time, it would grow up, but then it couldn"t grow up during my vacation.
Then it was that I determined to carry out my plan.
I went to the stable and harnessed the horse to the little carriage.
Jonas was not there, and I had fallen out of the habit of calling him.
I drove slowly through the yard and out of the gate. No one called to me or asked where I was going. How different this was from the old times!
Then, some one would not have failed to know where I was going, and, in all probability, she would have gone with me. But now I drove away, quietly and undisturbed.
About three miles from our house was a settlement known as New Dublin.
It was a cl.u.s.ter of poor and doleful houses, inhabited entirely by Irish people, whose dirt and poverty seemed to make them very contented and happy. The men were generally away, at their work, during the day, but there was never any difficulty in finding some one at home, no matter at what house one called. I was acquainted with one of the matrons of this locality, a Mrs. Duffy, who had occasionally undertaken some odd jobs at our house, and to her I made a visit.
She was glad to see me, and wiped off a chair for me.
"Mrs. Duffy," said I, "I want to rent a baby."