But before she died, "Pa" in another room wuz took with it, and pa.s.sed away a day before she did.
She worried all that mornin" about "Pa," and--"How bad he would feel if he knew she wuz so sick!" But along late in the afternoon, when the Winter sun wuz makin" a pale reflection on the wall through the south winder, she looked up, and sez she--
"Why, there stands Pa right by my bed, and he wants me to git up and go with him. And, Isabelle, I must go."
And she did.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Why, there stands Pa, and he wants me to git up and go with him."]
And Isabelle wuz left alone.
They wuz buried in one grave. And the funeral sermon, they say, wuz enough to melt a stun, if there had been any stuns round where they could hear it.
Isabelle didn"t hear it (don"t git the idee that I am a-wantin" to compare her to a stun; no, fur from it). She wuz a-layin" to home on a bed, with her sad eyes bent on nothin"ess and emptiness and utter desolation, so it seemed to her.
But after a time she begun to pick up a little, judgin" from her letters to her brother Krit. He had to leave her jest after the funeral on account of his business; for, civil as it wuz, it had to be tended to.
CHAPTER II.
Wall, we all enjoyed havin" Christopher there the best that ever wuz.
For he wuz very agreeable, as well as oncommon smart, which two qualities don"t always go together, as has often been observed by others, and I have seen for myself.
Wall, it wuzn"t more than a week or so after Krit arrived and got there, that another relation made his appearance in Jonesville.
It wuz of "em on his side this time--not like Krit, half hisen and half mine, but clear hisen. Clear Allen, with no Smith at all in the admixture.
Proud enough wuz my pardner of him, and of himself too for bein" born his cousin. (Though that wuz onbeknown to him at the time, and he ort not to have gloried in it.)
But tickled wuz he when word come that Elnathan Allen, Esquire, of Menlo Park, California, wuz a-comin" to Jonesville to visit his old friends.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Tickled wuz he when word come.]
That man had begun life poor--poor as a snipe; sometimes I used to handle that very word "Snipe" a-describin" Elnathan Allen"s former circ.u.mstances to Josiah, when he got too overbearin" about him.
For he had boasted to me about him for years, and years, and a woman can"t stand only jest about so much aggravatin" and treadin" on before she will turn like a worm.
That is Bible about "The Worm," and must be believed.
What used to mad me the worst wuz when he would git to comparin"
Elnathan with one of "em on my side who wuz shiftless. Good land!
"Zekiel Smith hain"t the only man on earth who is ornary and no account.
Every pardner has "em, more or less, on his side and on hern; let not one pardner boast themselves over the other one; both have their drawbacks.
But Elnathan had done well; I admitted it only when I wuz too much put upon.
He had gone fur West, got rich, invested his capital first rate, some on it in a big Eastern city, and had got to be a millionare.
He wuz a widower with one child, The Little Maid, as he called her; he jest idolized her, and thought she wuz perfect.
And I spoze she wuz oncommon, not from what her Pa said--no, I didn"t take all his talk about her for Gospel; I know too much.
But Barzelia Ann Allen (a old maid up to date) had seen her, had been out to California on a excursion train, and had staid some time with "em.
And she said that she wuz the smartest child this side of Heaven. With eyes of violet blue, big luminous eyes, that draw the hearts and souls of folks right out of their bodies when they looked into "em, so full of radiant joy and heavenly sweetness wuz they.
And hair of waving gold, and lips and cheeks as pink as the hearts of the roses that climbed all Winter round her winder--and the sweetest, daintiest ways--and so good to everybody, them that wuz poor and sufferin" most of all.
Barzeel wuz always most too enthusiastick to suit me, but I got the idee from what she said that she wuz a oncommon lovely child.
Good land! Elnathan couldn"t talk about anything else--like little babblin" brooks runnin" towards the sea, all his talk, every anecdote he told, and every idee he sot forth, jest led up to and ended with that child. Jest like creeks.
He worshipped her.
And he himself told me so many stories about her bein" so good to the poor, and sacrificin" her little comforts for "em--at her age, too--that I thought to myself, I wonder why you don"t take some of them object lessons to heart--why you don"t set down at her feet, and learn of her--and I wonder too where she took her sweet charity from, but spoze it wuz from her mother. Her mother had been a beautiful woman, so I had been told. She wuz a Devereaux--n.o.body that I ever knew, or Josiah.
Celeste Devereaux.
The little girl wuz named for her mother. But they always called her The Little Maid.
Wall, to resoom, and to hitch my horse in front of the wagon agin.
(Allegory.)
Elnathan had left The Little Maid and her nurse in that Eastern city where he owned so much property, and had come on to pay a flyin" visit to Jonesville, not forgittin" Loontown, you may be sure, where a deceased Aunt had jest died and left her property to him.
He wuz close.
He had left The Little Maid in the finest hotel in the city, so he said.
He had looked over more"n a dozen, so I hearn, before he could git one he thought wuz healthy enough and splendid enough for her. At last he selected one, standin" on a considerable rise of ground, with big, high, gorgeous rooms, and prices higher than the very topmost cupalo, and loftiest chimbly pot.
Here he got two big rooms for The Little Maid, and one for the nurse. He got the two rooms for the child so"s the air could circulate through "em.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Here he got two big rooms.]
He wuz very particular about her havin" air of the very purest and best kind there wuz made, and the same with vittles and clothes, etc., etc., etc.
Wall, while he wuz a-goin" on so about pure air and the values and necessities of it, I couldn"t help thinkin" of what Barzelia had told me about that big property of hisen in the Eastern city where he had left The Little Maid.
Here, in the very lowest part of the city, he owned hull streets of tenement housen, miserable old rotten affairs, down in stiflin" alleys, and courts, breeders of disease, and crime, and death.
At first some on "em fell into his hands by a exchange of property, and he found they paid so well, that he directed his agent to buy up a lot of "em.
Barzelia had told me all about "em, she was jest as enthusiastick about what she didn"t like as what she did; she said the money got in that way, by housin" the poor in such horrible pestilental places, seemed jest like makin" a bargain with Death. Rentin" housen to him to make carnival in.
And while he wuz talkin" to such great length, and with such a satisfied and comfortable look onto his face, about the vital necessities of pure air and beautiful surroundin"s, in order to make children well and happy, my thoughts kept a-roamin", and I couldn"t help it. Down from the lovely spot where The Little Maid wuz, down, down, into the dretful places that Barzelia had told me about. Where squalor, and crime, and disease, and death walked hand in hand, gatherin" new victims at every step, and where the children wuz a-droppin" down in the poisinous air like dead leaves in a swamp.