Ah, me! if I had never left home, how much happier I might have been!
But then should I have rode so lightly, looked so pretty, or learned to dance minuets, and dress like a lady? Then would Norman ever have fancied me but for these things? I hope I shan"t be sick of home, and pining to go back again, the minute I"ve seen the dear old room and kissed them all round; that would break poor father"s heart. Well, after all, I should like to know who this stranger is--an Indian indeed--he looks more like a king."
But all these thoughts were soon driven out of the young girl"s head by the sight of objects that grew more and more familiar, as they neared home. Now an orchard, heavy with green fruit, crowded up to the wayside, where she had gathered harvest apples: then a gnarled old peach tree, with the moss of age creeping over its trunk, hung over the crook of a fence, and drooped a healthy limb or two over the turf that lined the highway on either side. Here was a thicket of blackberry bushes, where she had torn her dress a hundred times; then came a huge old stump, whose decay had given birth to cl.u.s.ters of red raspberry vines, which she had plundered time out of mind. Then came a young elm, bending over the wayside, from which frost grape-vines fell in garlands, that fluttered out into the sunshine and challenged the wind at every breath, its leaves singing, and its cl.u.s.ters of unripe fruit quivering over the wild flowers that slept dreamily below.
At last the house came in sight, with its great sheltering trees, its little square windows, and its rough logs, overrun with honeysuckles and morning-glory vines, the most picturesque little bird"s-nest of a place you ever set eyes upon. She began to hear the far-off sweep of the sea, and feel an invigorating saltness in the air, which brought life back to her with a glow of pleasure in it.
"Father, father, ride on, ride on--do strike into a canter. Let"s have a run for it. I want wings to get over this little bit of road with. Oh, father, do strike out of that irritating trot for once!"
No. Samuel Parris loved his child to dotage, but even she could not induce him to bring scandal on the church by an undignified movement.
Who ever saw a minister of the Presbyterian church cantering toward home in front of his own meeting-house door, and in sight of the burying-ground where he had laid half his parishioners down to sleep?
Notwithstanding all her impatience, the minister kept on at his old measured pace. With all that he most loved at his side, he felt no haste to get home which might compare with the breathless eagerness that gave wings to the heart of his daughter.
CHAPTER XXVI.
BACK TO THE HOMESTEAD.
Elizabeth broke loose at last, and darted off, leaving the man-servant far behind. Across the greenwood in front of the meeting-house, over hillocks and between frowning stumps, littered around with new-made chips, which flew beneath the spurning hoofs of her horse, she rode, her eyes kindling, and her heart on fire with the joy of a first return home.
Up she came to the door-yard fence, cast one eager glance around, expecting some one to rush forth and welcome her; then, seeing that all was still, she sprang from her saddle and ran into the house, calling out,
"Cousin Abby! Abby Williams, I say, where are you? Don"t you know that I"ve got home? Abby! Abby!--t.i.tuba! t.i.tuba! Dear me! where has everybody gone?"
She stood in the little sitting-room, looking around in breathless expectation. She ran into the kitchen: old t.i.tuba was there, kindling the fire.
"t.i.tuba, mammy dear, dear old mammy!" cried the young girl, springing forward, dropping upon her knees, and hugging the old woman with all her might.
"Oh! did I surprise you, mammy? Caught you napping, ha? How glad I am to see you, dear, blessed old soul! Why don"t you speak? Why don"t you kiss me to death? There, that seems something like. Now, where is cousin Abby? And how have you all got along without me? And where is the fawn?
I"ve got a new bell for him--and--and--"
Here the warm-hearted young creature burst into an April storm of smiles and tears, while old t.i.tuba untied her stylish bonnet, and took off her riding-cape with a sort of shy humility, for the entire love of nurse and child had been broken up, on the old woman"s part, by the confidence which she had reposed in Abby Williams, during the absence of her young mistress. Somehow the old creature felt as if she had been wronging the young girl who came back so frankly and kindly to her arms, by her conversation that night with her cousin.
"What ails you, mammy t.i.tuba? What on earth makes you look everywhere except in my face? Indeed you don"t seem half glad enough to see me!"
"Oh, yes, how can the child talk so!" cried the old woman, with a great effort at self-control. "But with all these fine clothes on, and that bonnet; dear me, one hardly knows one"s own child. Then, my dear, you"ve grown so proud and so handsome, it"s enough to make an old Indian think twice before she dares to kiss you, rough and hearty, in the old way."
"Poh--poh. I"m always the same old penny, brightened up a little, that"s all," said Elizabeth, blushing crimson. "So you think I am changed--improved a little," she added, glancing down at herself with graceful vanity. "What will cousin Abby think, I wonder? Oh! there she is."
Elizabeth darted forward, and threw her arms around the neck of Abigail Williams, so blinded by the joy of meeting her old playmate again that she did not observe the restraint with which all her enthusiasm was met.
At the time of their first parting, three months before, these two girls had never possessed an unshared thought; but now the hearts that beat against each other, in that close embrace, were swelling with secrets which could never be thoroughly understood. In that little time childhood had been left behind, and each had learned to tread alone the path, which, at this point, began, with them, to diverge into the wilderness of life.
But the old love would come swelling back, spite of the thoughts that lay in its channel, like rocks cast into the bed of a stream, which sparkles all the more from the obstruction.
"Abby--Elizabeth."
How different were the voices that uttered these words! Elizabeth"s was loving and brimful of affection; that of Abby Williams answered it almost with pathos; both wept, one bitterly, the other with quick gushes of joy.
"Oh, Abby, Abby, I have so much to tell you," cried Elizabeth, blushing crimson under the tears that trembled on her cheek. "Don"t ask me what it is yet, only wait a little, till we get into the woods together. Come along, here is father just getting off his horse at the door, with Gov.
Phipps"s servant doing the pompous in his new livery. Step into the entry way, or he will feel disappointed, as I did, at not seeing your face peeping out through the morning-glory vines."
Elizabeth felt the heart, which had been beating strongly against her own, recoil with a sudden shock, as she mentioned her father; and it was almost by force that she drew her cousin into the doorway in time to meet the minister, who came through the gate with his usual hesitating slowness, and held out his hand, gravely smiling as he approached his niece.
Her hand shook like an aspen, as she held it out, and the touch was cold as ice. But the minister simply said,
"Is any thing ailing you, Abigail?" and pa.s.sing on, he hung his hat on a peg in the wall, and placed his riding-whip behind the door.
With a sudden impulse, Abby drew her cousin out on the stepping-stone, leaving the pa.s.sage open.
"Come, come into the woods," whispered Elizabeth, clasping her cousin round the waist, and drawing her gently along. "I want to get into the shadows, where we can talk together."
Abby drew a deep breath, and hurried on, more eager to leave the house than her companion; for she was faint from the recoil of her whole nature against the old man, who had been more than a father to her.
Ready to flee anywhere to avoid the touch of that hand again, she hurried with her cousin to the woods.
So the two sped on, across the meeting-house green, by the tomb-stones rising from the tall gra.s.s behind it, and past those twin graves over which the old trees bent their whispering boughs. Elizabeth would have turned that way, for the vines were quivering with dew-drops, and the periwinkles trembled like cerulean stars among them, so deeply did the shadows lie there almost till noonday. But Abby hurried on, turning her eyes resolutely from the spot, and almost forcing her cousin into the gloom of the woods.
There was a ledge of rocks piled along the side of a ravine, choked up by dogwood trees, sa.s.safras, and wild honeysuckles, on which the girls had loved to play from childhood up. A lofty tulip tree sheltered it, and above that towered a hill-side, clothed with great hemlocks, through which the sun never penetrated, save in golden gleams that lost themselves in the topmost boughs. The different ledges of this little precipice were not only lined, but absolutely piled, with moss, which lay beautifully thick all around. On one shelf it lay in cushions, green as emerald, and soft as Genoa velvet; then another species, bright and feathery as the plumage of a bird, crept over a huge old log that lay in a parallel line with the edge, embroidering it with green lace-work, till there was a wild wood sofa erected by this simple freak of nature, more luxurious than the couch of an empress.
"See, see, how far the moss has crept since we were here before," cried Elizabeth, throwing herself on the sofa. "When I went away, that end of the log was bare; now every inch is green. See, all along the ledge at our feet, the buckthorn moss has spread into a crisp carpet; and the wild columbines have grown in a border all around it. Why, Lady Phipps"s drawing-room is not prettier."
"Yes," said Abby, looking vaguely around. "Every thing has grown and thrives since you went away, Elizabeth; but the place does not look so beautiful to me, as it did once; the loneliness seems dreary."
"Yes, yes, of course; then I was away. But now the woods will be cheerful as spring time again. Sit down, cousin. Why will you stand there, tall and still, like a ghost, when the moss fleeces are so soft and the shadows so cool? It is pleasant as sunset here. One almost gets sleepy, with the hum of the bees and blue flies. Come, sit close by me: I feel lonesome without your arm around my neck, cousin Abby."
Those tones, and that dear old name, brought quick tears into Abigail"s eyes. She drew gently to the side of her cousin, and sat down. As Elizabeth clasped her waist, the bosom beneath her arm began to heave; and all at once Abby burst into a great fit of crying: the first absolute storm of pa.s.sion that Elizabeth had ever seen her yield to.
"What is the matter, Abby dear? What are you crying for? How you tremble! What have they been doing to you, while I was away? Don"t, pray, don"t cry so!"
Abigail checked her tears as suddenly as they had commenced; and clasping her hands hard for a single instant, seemed to control her nerves by stern, mental force.
"Don"t mind me," she said, hoa.r.s.ely. "I have been alone so much--but you had something to tell me--about Lady Phipps, perhaps, or the governor; of course they were delighted to have you with them; come, tell me all about it; one gets so little real information from letters."
"Oh! I could not write, at least what I wished to tell you, any more than I could talk it all over in broad daylight. Besides, one must see a rainbow to judge how its colors rise out of each other; there is no describing it; and some things, that one knows and feels, are the same.
The best friend you have must guess at them."
"What is it you speak of?" questioned Abby, gradually withdrawing herself from the clasp of her cousin"s arm. "I do not understand. In this visit to Lady Phipps, have you been crushed down with secrets that must not be talked of? Has the memory of your mother stalked forth like a curse to haunt you?"
"The memory of my mother, the young creature who died when I was first laid in her bosom like a poor little flower broken by a sudden weight of dew, as I have often heard my father say!--What should there be in the memory of my mother which you and I cannot talk about?"
"Nothing," said Abigail, vaguely. "Were we talking of--our mothers? It is a dreary subject; let us think of something else. G.o.d help us!--something else, Elizabeth--the woods are too lonesome for talk about the dead. You were about to tell me something."
"Yes! but I cannot tell it; your voice is so strange! You look afar off, as if talking to some one in the distance. I can neither catch your eyes, nor feel the old touch of your hand. Abigail Williams, I am afraid of you!"
The low laugh, which broke from Abigail"s lips, was mournful as a wail.
"There it is. I knew it, I expected it: not an hour together, and she fears me already."