"I am a poor man."
"No girl could be poorer than I am."
"After what you"ve endured, you ought to have rest and comfort."
"I shall have both--in you!" This with eyes, all wet, lifted to Ivory"s.
"My mother is a great burden--a very dear and precious, but a grievous one."
"She needs a daughter. It is in such things that I shall be your helpmate."
"Will not the boy trouble you and add to your cares?"
"Rod? I love him; he shall be my little brother."
"What if my father were not really dead?--I think of this sometimes in the night!--What if he should wander back, broken in spirit, feeble in body, empty in purse?"
"I do not come to you free of burdens. If my father is deserted by all, I must see that he is made comfortable. He never treated me like a daughter, but I acknowledge his claim."
"Mine is such a gloomy house!"
"Will it be gloomy when I am in it?" and Waitstill, usually so grave, laughed at last like a care-free child.
Ivory felt himself hidden in the beautiful shelter of the girl"s love.
It was dark now, or as dark as the night ever is that has moonlight and snow. He took Waitstill in his arms again reverently, and laid his cheek against her hair. "I worship G.o.d as well as I know how," he whispered; "worship him as the maker of this big heaven and earth that surrounds us. But I worship you as the maker of my little heaven and earth, and my heart is saying its prayers to you at this very moment!"
"Hush, my dear! hush! and don"t value me too much, or I shall lose my head--I that have never known a sweet word in all my life save those that my sister has given me.--I must tell you all about Patty now."
"I happen to know more than you, dear. I met her at the bridge when I was coming home from the woods, and I saw her safely to Uncle Bart"s door.--I don"t know why we speak of it as Uncle Bart"s when it is really Aunt Abby"s!--I next met Mark, who had fairly flown from Bridgton on the wings of love, arriving hours ahead of time. I managed to keep him from avenging the insults heaped upon his bride, and he has driven to the Mills to confide in his father and mother. By this time Patty is probably the centre of the family group, charming them all as is her custom."
"Oh, I am so glad Mark is at home! Now I can be at rest about Patty. And I must not linger another moment, for I am going to ask Mrs. Mason to keep me overnight," cried Waitstill, bethinking herself suddenly of time and place.
"I will take you there myself and explain everything. And the moment I"ve lighted a fire in Mrs. Mason"s best bedroom and settled you there, what do you think I am going to do? I shall drive to the town clerk"s house, and if he is in bed, rout him out and have the notice of our intended marriage posted in a public place according to law. Perhaps I shall save a day out of the fourteen I"ve got to wait for my wife.
"Mills," indeed! I wonder at you, Waitstill! As if Mrs. Mason"s house was not far enough away, without your speaking of "mills.""
"I only suggested mills in case you did not want to marry me," said Waitstill.
"Walk up to the door with me," begged Ivory.
"The horse is all harnessed, and Rod will slip him into the sleigh in a jiffy."
"Oh, Ivory! do you realize what this means?"--and Waitstill clung to his arm as they went up the lane together--"that whatever sorrow, whatever hardship comes to us, neither of us will ever have to bear it alone again?"
"I believe I do realize it as few men could, for never in my five-and-twenty years have I had a human creature to whom I could pour myself out, in whom I could really confide, with whom I could take counsel. You can guess what it will be to have a comprehending woman at my side. Shall we tell my mother? Do say "yes"; I believe she will understand.--Rod, Rod! come and see who"s stepping in the door this very minute!"
Rodman was up in his bedroom, attiring himself elaborately for sentry duty. His delight at seeing Waitstill was perhaps slightly tempered by the thought that flashed at once through his mind,--that if she was safe, he would not be required to stand guard in the snow for hours as he had hoped. But this grief pa.s.sed when he fully realized what Waitstill"s presence at the farm at this unaccustomed hour really meant. After he had been told, he hung about her like the child that he was,--though he had a bit of the hero in him, at bottom, too,--embracing her waist fondly, and bristling with wondering questions.
"Is she really going to stay with us for always, Ivory?" he asked.
"Every day and all the days; every night and all the nights. "Praise G.o.d from whom all blessings flow!"" said Ivory, taking off his fur cap and opening the door of the living-room. "But we"ve got to wait for her a whole fortnight, Rod. Isn"t that a ridiculous snail of a law?"
"Patty didn"t wait a fortnight."
"Patty never waited for anything," Ivory responded with a smile; "but she had a good reason, and, alas! we haven"t, or they"ll say that we haven"t. And I am very grateful to the same dear little Patty, for when she got herself a husband she found me a wife!"
Rodman did not wholly understand this, but felt that there were many mysteries attending the love affairs of grown-up people that were too complicated for him to grasp; and it did not seem to be just the right moment for questions.
Waitstill and Ivory went into Mrs. Boynton"s room quietly, hand in hand, and when she saw Waitstill she raised herself from her pillow and held out her arms with a soft cry of delight.
"I haven"t had you for so long, so long!" she said, touching the girl"s cheek with her frail hand.
"You are going to have me every day now, dear," whispered Waitstill, with a sob in her voice; for she saw a change in the face, a new transparency, a still more ethereal look than had been there before.
"Every day?" she repeated, longingly. Waitstill took off her hood, and knelt on the floor beside the bed, hiding her face in the counterpane to conceal the tears.
"She is coming to live with us, dear.--Come in, Rod, and hear me tell her.--Waitstill is coming to live with us: isn"t that a beautiful thing to happen to this dreary house?" asked Ivory, bending to take his mother"s hand.
"Don"t you remember what you thought the first time I ever came here, mother?" and Waitstill lifted her head, and looked at Mrs. Boynton with swimming eyes and lips that trembled. "Ivory is making it all come true, and I shall be your daughter!"
Mrs. Boynton sank farther back into her pillows, and closing her eyes, gave a long sigh of infinite content. Her voice was so faint that they had to stoop to catch the words, and Ivory, feeling the strange benediction that seemed to be pa.s.sing from his mother"s spirit to theirs, took Rod"s hand and knelt beside Waitstill.
The verse of a favorite psalm was running through Lois Boynton"s mind, and in a moment the words came clearly, as she opened her eyes, lifted her hands, and touched the bowed heads. "Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth forever!" she said, slowly and reverently; and Ivory, with all his heart, responded, "Amen!"
x.x.xIII. AARON"S ROD
"IVORY! IVORY!"
Ivory stirred in a sleep that had been troubled by too great happiness.
To travel a dreary path alone, a path leading seemingly nowhere, and then suddenly to have a companion by one"s side, the very sight of whom enchanted the eye, the very touch of whom delighted the senses--what joy unspeakable! Who could sleep soundly when wakefulness brought a train of such blissful thoughts?
"Ivory! Ivory!"
He was fully awake now, for he knew his mother"s voice. In all the years, ever thoughtful of his comfort and of the constant strain upon his strength, Lois had never wakened her son at night.
"Coming, mother, coming!" he said, when he realized she was calling him; and hastily drawing on some clothing, for the night was bitterly cold, he came out of his room and saw his mother standing at the foot of the stairway, with a lighted candle in her hand.
"Can you come down, Ivory? It is a strange hour to call you but I have something to tell you; something I have been piecing together for weeks; something I have just clearly remembered."
"If it"s something that won"t keep till morning, mother, you creep back into bed and we"ll hear it comfortably," he said, coming downstairs and leading her to her room. "I"ll smooth the covers, so; beat up the pillows,--there, and throw another log on the sitting-room fire. Now, what"s the matter? Couldn"t you sleep?"
"All summer long I have been trying to remember something; something untrue that you have been believing, some falsehood for which I was responsible. I have pursued and pursued it, but it has always escaped me. Once it was clear as daylight, for Rodman read me from the Bible a plain answer to all the questions that tortured me."
"That must have been the night that she fainted," thought Ivory.
"When I awoke next morning from my long sleep, the old puzzle had come back, a thousand times worse than before, for then I knew that I had held the clue in my own hand and had lost it. Now, praise G.o.d! I know the truth, and you, the only one to whom I can tell it, are close at hand."