But I happened to speak sort of axidently as it were to Mr. Freeman one day, and told him my niece wuz a-comin" to spend a week with me, jest as quick as Miss Planks step-sister"s daughter"s cousin got away. (Miss Plank, like the rest of Chicago freeholders, had relations back to the 3d and 4th generation come onto "em like flocks of ravenin"
gra.s.shoppers or locusses, durin" the Fair.)
And I sez--though I am the one that hadn"t ort to say it, mebby--"She is one of the sweetest girls on earth."
Sez I, "I call her a girl, though I spoze I ort to call her a woman, for she is one in years. But because she hain"t never been married," sez I presently, "hain"t, no reason that she couldn"t be, for she has had offers, and offers, and might be married any day now.
"But," sez I, "she kep single from duty once, and now it seems to be from choice."
He sort of smiled with his eyes. He wuz used to such talk, I spoze. Good land! the wimmen all made perfect fools of themselves about him.
But he sez in his pleasant way, "I shall be very glad to meet your niece. I shall be sure to like her, if she is any like her aunt."
Pretty admirin" talk, that wuz. But good land! Josiah sot right there, and he wuzn"t jealous a mite. Mr. Freeman wuz young enough to be my boy, anyway. And then Josiah knew what I had in my mind.
But I told my pardner that night, sez I--
"I hain"t mentioned Mr. Freeman"s name to Isabelle, and hain"t a-goin"
to; for one reason, she wouldn"t come nigh the house if she knew what I wuz a-thinkin" on, and for another reason, I am a-goin" to try to stop a-thinkin" on"t. He took it so beautiful, and he has match-makers a-besettin" him so much, I dare presoom to say he mistrusted what I wuz up to in my own mind. And, like as not, Isabelle wouldn"t look at him, or any other man, anyway.
"But I wouldn"t have thought on"t in the first place," sez I, "if Isabelle hadn"t been such a born angel, and seemed cut out a purpose for him by Providence. But I shall try to stop a-thinkin" on"t."
And sez Josiah, "You had better have done that in the first place."
Wall, I wuz as good as my word. I didn"t say another word _pro_ nor _con_. But I kep up a-thinkin" inside of me, bein" but mortal, and havin" two eyes in my head.
Wall, as I say, finally Gertrude Plank had left her room vacant, and our niece had come to us with a cheerful face and one small trunk full of neccessaries for her week"s visit.
I call her our niece, though she wuzn"t quite that relationship to us.
But it is quite hard sometimes to git the relationship headed right, and marshal "em out into company before you--specially when they are fifth or sixth cousins.
And I thought, bein" our ages wuz such, and our affections wuz so strong, back and forth, that it would be jest as well to jest use that plain term aunt and uncle and niece--it looked better, anyway, as our ages stood. And I didn"t think it wuz anything wrong, for good land! we are called uncle and aunt, my Josiah and me are, by lots of folks that hain"t no sort of kin to us, and Isabelle wuz related to us anyway by kin and by soul ties.
Wall, to resoom: the evenin" after Isabelle got there it wuz burnin"
warm in my room. And her room wuz still worse, way up on top of the house; but it wuz the best room that we could git for her, and she wuz contented with it for the sake of bein" with her Uncle Josiah and me.
After we got up from the supper-table--Mr. Freeman wuz away that day, but I felt free to take her into that big, cool room, and so we went into that beautiful place.
And then, all of a sudden, as Isabelle stood there in front of that pretty girl down by the medder brook amongst the deep gra.s.ses--
All of a sudden it come to me who the girl looked like: it wuz Isabelle.
As she stood in front of it, in her long white dress, with her white hands clasped loose in front of her, and her auburn hair pushed back careless from her beautiful face, I see the girl in the picture, or as she would be if she had grown refined and beautiful by sorrow and a sweet patience and reasonableness, which is the twin of Patience, both on "em the children of Pain.
As I stood there a-lookin" at her in admiration and surprise, I heard a sound behind me. It wuzn"t a cry nor a sithe, but it wuz sunthin"
different from both, more eager like, and deadly earnest, and dumbfoundered.
And then it wuz Mr, Freeman"s voice I knew that said--
"My G.o.d! am I a-dreamin"?"
And then Isabelle turned, and her face filled with a rapturous surprise and joy, and everything.
And sez she--
"Tom!"
And he jest rushed forward, and in a secent had her in his arms. And I bust out a-cryin", and turned my back to "em, and went out.
But it wuzn"t more than a few minutes before they rapped at my door, and their faces looked like the faces of two angels who have left the sorrows of earth and got into Heaven at last.
And I cried agin, and Isabelle cried as I held her in my arms silently, and kissed her a dozen times, and I presoom more.
And Mr. Freeman kissed me on my left cheek, and wrung my hand that hard that that right hand ached hard more"n a hour and a half. And I bathed it in arneky and water long enough after Isabelle had gone to her room, and Mr. Freeman to hisen.
For till this mortal has put on immortality folks have to eat and sleep, and if their hands are wrung half off, either through happiness or anger, flesh, while it is corruptible, will ache, and bones will cry out if most crushed down.
But arneky relieved the pain, and the light of the mornin" showed the faces of these reunited lovers, full of such a radiant bliss that it did one"s soul good even to look at "em.
It seems that Isabelle had told him in that long-ago time when they parted that she wouldn"t keep up a correspondence with him. She felt that she had ort to leave him free. And he wuz poor, and he would not fetter her with a memory she might perhaps better forgit. Poor things!
lovin" and half broken-hearted, and both hampered with duties, and both good as gold.
So they parted, she to take care of her feeble parents, and he to take care of his invalid mother and the two little ones.
But lo and behold! after they had lived in that Western city for a few years, Tom a-workin" hard as he could to keep the wolf from the door, and from devourin" the three helpless ones, his brother returned from California as rich as a Jew, and he took his two little girls back with him and put "em in school, and give Tom the money to start in business, and he wuz fortunate beyend any tellin"--got independent rich; then his ma wuz took sick and died, he a-waitin" on her devoted to the very last.
Then, heart-hungry and lonesome, he broke through the vow he had made, and writ to Isabelle; but Isabelle had gone from the old place--she didn"t git the letters.
Then he writ agin, for his love wuz strong and his pride weak--weak as a cat. True Love will always have that effect on pride and resolve, etc.
But no answer came back to his longin" and waitin" heart.
And then, I spoze, Pride kinder riz up agin, and he said to himself that he wouldn"t worry her and weary her with letters that she didn"t think enough of to answer.
And he had about made up his mind that all he should ever see of Isabelle would be the shadder of her beauty in the girl by the old medder bars, standin" in the fresh gra.s.ses, by the laughin" brook, all lookin" so like the dear old farm when he won her love so long ago.
That dead, mute, irresponsive picture wuz more to him than any livin", breathin" woman could ever be.
So he camped down before it, as you may say, for life--that is, he thought so; but Providence wuz a-watchin" over him, and his thoughtful, unselfish kindness to a stranger, or strangers, wuz to be rewarded with the prize of love and bliss.
Wall, the World"s Fair wuz, I spoze, looked on by many a pair of glad eyes. Hearts that throbbed high with happiness beat on through them majestic rooms. But happier hearts and gladder eyes never glowed and rejoiced in "em than Isabelle"s and her handsome lover"s.
And wuzn"t Krit glad? Wuzn"t he glad of soul to see Isabelle"s happiness? Yes, indeed! And Maggie and Thomas Jefferson.
Why, of course we wouldn"t sing out loud in public, not for anything. We knew it wouldn"t do to go along the streets or in the halls and corridors of the World"s Fair, a-singin" as loud as we could--
"Joy to the World!"
Or, "What amazin" bliss is this!" or anything else of that kind--no, we wuz too well-bread to attempt it; but inside of us we jest sung for joy, the hull set and caboodle of us.