There wuz a long table stretched acrost one end of the settin"
room, and I stood behind it some as if I wuz a dry goods merchant or grocery, and some like a preacher.
And the women would come up to me and talk. There wuz one woman who got real talkative to me before the evenin" wuz out. She said her home wuz over two miles beyond Zoar.
She had a young babe with her, a dark complexioned babe, with a little round black head, that looked some like a cannon ball. She said she had shingled the child that day about eight o"clock in the forenoon; she talked real confidential to me.
She said the babe had sights of hair, and she told her husband that day that if he would shingle the babe she would come to the party and if he wouldn"t shingle it she wouldn"t come. It seemed they had had a altercation on the subject; she wanted it shingled and he didn"t. But it seemed that ruther than stay away from the party -- he consented, and shingled it. So they come.
They brought a eight pound loaf of maple sugar and two dozen eggs.
They did well. Then there wuz another woman who would walk her little girl into the bedroom every few minutes, and wet her hair, and comb it over, and curl it on her fingers. The child had a little blue flannel dress on, with a long plain waist, and a long skirt gethered on full all round. Her hair lay jest as smooth and slick as gla.s.s all the time, but five times did she walk her off, and go through with that performance. She brought ten yards of factory cloth, and a good woollen petticoat for the old grandma.
She did first-rate.
And then there wuz another woman who stayed by the table most all the evenin". She would gently but firmly ask everybody who brought anything, what the price of the article wuz -- and then she would tackle the different women who come up to the table for patterns. I do believe she got the pattern of every bask waist there wuz there, and every mantilly.
And Abram Gee brought twenty-five loaves of bread -- of different sizes, but all on "em good. And he looked at Ardelia Tutt every minute of the time. And Ardelia brought a lot of verses, -- "Stanzas on a Grandmother." I didn"t think they would do Grandma Smedley much good, and then on the other hand I didn"t s"pose they would hurt her any.
But we had a splendid good time after the things wuz all brought in -- of course, bein" a board the fore part of the evenin" I naturally had a harder time than I did the latter part, after I had got over it.
The children, Thomas J., and Tirzah Ann, and Ardelia Tutt, and Abram Gee, and some of the rest of the young folks sung and played some beautiful pieces, and they had four tablows, which wuz perfectly beautiful.
And then we pa.s.sed good nice light biscuit and b.u.t.ter, and hot coffee, and pop corn and apples. And it did seem, and all the neighbors said so, that it wuz the very best party they had ever attended to.
And before they went away they made a motion some of the responsable men did -- some made the motions and some seconded "em -- that they would adjourn till jest one year from that night, when if the Smedleys was still alive and in need -- we would have jest such a party ag"in.
And at the last on"t Elder Minkley made a prayer -- a very thankful and good prayer, but short. And then they went home.
Wall, the next mornin" we started to carry the things to the Smedleys. It wuz very early, for Josiah had got to go clear to Loontown on business, and I wuz goin" to stay with the childern till he got back.
It wuz a very cold mornin". We hadn"t heard from the Smedleys for two or three days, because we wanted to surprise "em, so we didn"t want to give "em a hint beforehand of what we wuz a doin". So, as I say, it wuz a number of days sense we had heard from "em, and the weather wuz cold.
When we got to the door it seemed to be dretful still there inside. And there wuz some white frost on the latch jest as if a icy, white hand had onlatched the door, and had laid on it last.
We rapped, but n.o.body answered. And then we opened the door and went in, and there they all lay asleep. The children waked up.
But old Grandma didn"t.
There wuzn"t any fire in the room, and you could see by the freezing coldness of the air that there hadn"t been any for a day or two.
Grandma Smedley had took the poor old coverin"s all off from herself, and put "em round the youngest baby, little Jim. And he lay there all huddled up tight to his Grandma, with his red cheek close to her white one, for he loved her.
Josiah cried and wept, and wept and cried onto his bandana -- but I didn"t.
The tears run down my face some, to see the childern feel so bad when Grandma couldn"t speak to "em.
But I knew that the childern would be took care of now, I knew the Jonesvillians would be all rousted up and sorry enough for "em, and would be willin" to do anything now, when it wuz some too late.
And I felt that I couldn"t cry nor weep (and told Josiah so), the tears jest dripped down my face in a stream, but I wouldn"t weep -- for as I said to myself:
While the Jonesvillians had been a disputin" back and forth, and wrestin" Scripter, and the meanin" of Providence in regard to helpin" Grandma Smedley and gittin" her a comfortable place to stay in, and somethin" to eat, the Lord himself had took the case in hand and had gin her a home and the bread that satisfies."
IV.
ARDELIA AND ABRAM GEE.
Wall, I don"t s"pose there had been a teacher in our deestrict for years and years that gin" better satisfaction than Ardelia Tutt. Good soft little creeter, the scholars any one of "em felt above hurtin" on her or plagin" her any way. She sort a made "em feel they had to take care on her, she wuz so sort a helpless actin", and good natured, and yet her learnin" wuz good, fust-rate.
Yes, Ardelia was thought a sight on in Jonesville by scholars and parents and some that wuzn"t parents. One young chap in perticiler, Abram Gee by name, who had just started a baker"s shop in Jonesville, he fell so deep in love with her from the very start that I pitied him from about the bottom of my heart.
It wuz at our house that he fell.
The young folks of our meetin"-house had a sort of a evenin"
meetin" there to see about raisin" some money for the help of the steeple -- repairin" of it. Abram is a member, and so is Ardelia, and I see the hull thing. I see him totter and I see him fall. And prostrate he wuz, from that first night. Never was there a feller that fell in love deeper, or lay more helpless. And Ardelia liked him, that wuz plain to see; at fust as I watched and see him totter, I thought she wuz a sort o"
wobblin" too, and when he fell deep, deep in love, I looked to see her a follerin" on. But Ardelia, as soft as she wuz, had an element of strength. She wuz ambitious. She liked Abram, but she had read novels a good deal, and she had for years been lookin" for a prince to come a ridin" up to their dooryard in disguise with a crown on under his hat, and woo her to be his bride.
And so she braced herself against the sweet influence of love and it wuz tuff -- I could see for myself that it wuz, when she had laid out to set on a throne by the side of a prince, he a holdin"
his father"s scepter in his hand -- to descend from that elevation and wed a husband who wuz a moulder of bread, with a rollin" pin in his hand. It wuz tuff for Ardelia; I could see right through her mind (it wuzn"t a great distance to see), and I could see jest how a conflict wuz a goin" on between love and ambition.
But Abram had my best wishes, for he wuz a boy I had always liked. The Gees had lived neighbor to us for years. He wuz a good creeter and his bread wuz delicious (milk emptin"s). He wuz a sort of a hard, sound lookin" chap, and she, bein" so oncommon soft, the contrast kinder sot each other off and made "em look well together.
He had a house and lot all paid for, with no inc.u.mbrances only a mortgage of 150 dollars and a lame mother. But he laid out to clear off the mortgage this year, and I wuz told that mother Gee wuz a goin" to live with her daughter Susan, who had jest come into a big property -- as much as 700 dollars worth of land, besides cows, 2 heads of cow, and one head of a calf.
I knew Mother Gee and she wuz goin" to stay with Abram till he got married and then she wuz goin" to live with Susan. And I s"pose it is so. She is a likely old woman with a milk leg.
Wall, Abram paid Ardelia lots of attention, sech as walkin" home with her from protracted meetin"s nights, and lookin" at her durin" the meetin"s more protracted than the meetin"s wuz fur.
And 3 times he sent her a plate of riz biscuit sweetened, sweetened too sweet almost, he went too fur in this and I see it.
Yes, he done his part as well as his condition would let him, paralyzed by his feelin"s -- but she acted kinder offish, and I see that sonthin" wuz in the way. I mistrusted at first, it might be Abram"s inc.u.mbrance, but durin" a conversation I had with her, I see I wuz in the wrong on"t. And I could see plain, though some couldn"t, that she liked Abram as she did her eyes.
Somebody run him down a little one day before me and she sprouted right up and took his part voyalent. I could see her feelin"s towards him though she wouldn"t own up to "em. But one day she came out plain to me and lamented his condition in life.
Somebody had attact her that day before me about marryin" of him -- and she owned up to me, that she had laid out to marry somebody to elevate her. Some one with a grand pure mission in life.
And I spoke right up and sez, "Why bread is jest as pure and innocent as anything can be, you won"t find anything wicked about good yeast bread, nor," sez I, cordially, "in milk risin", if it is made proper."
But she said she preferred a occupation that wuz risin", and n.o.ble, and that made a man necessary and helpful to the ma.s.ses.
And I sez agin -- "Good land! the ma.s.ses have got to eat. And I guess you starve the ma.s.ses a spell and they"ll think that good bread is as necessary and helpful to "em as anything can be. And as fer its bein" a risin" occupation, why," sez I, "it is stiddy risen" -- risin" in the mornin," and risin" at night, and all night, both hop and milk emptin"s. Why," sez I, "I never see a occupation so risin" as his"n is, both milk and hop." But she wouldn"t seem to give in and encourage him much only by spells.
And then Abram didn"t take the right way with her. I see he wuz a goin" just the wrong way to win a woman"s love. For his love, his great honest love for her made him abject, he groveled at her feet, loved to grovel.
I told him, for he confided in me from the first on"t and bewailed her coldness to me, I told him to sprout up and act as if he had some will of his own and some independent life of his own. Sez I, "Any woman that sees a man a layin" around under her feet will be tempted to step on him," sez I. "I don"t see how she can help it, if she calcerlates to get round any, and walk."
Sez I, "Sprout up and be somebody. She is a good little creeter, but no better than you are, Abram; be a man."
And he would try to be. I could see him try. But one of her soft little glances, specially if it wuz kind and tender to him, es it wuz a good deal of the time, why it would just overthrow him ag"in. He would collapse and become nothin" ag"in, before her. Why I have hearn him sing that old him, a lookin" right at Ardelia stiddy:
"Oh to be nothin", nothin"!"
And thinks I to myself, "if this keeps on, you are in a fairway to git your wish."
He wuz a good singer, a beartone, and she a secent. They loved to sing together. They needed some air, but then they got along without it; and it sounded quite well, though rather low and deep.