"Harley and I could lift that couch just as easy."
"Why, I don"t know," said Shirley, hesitating. "You know she isn"t strong, and she will worry about your lifting her."
"Oh Shirley, let her come," pleaded Carol. "We could all take hold and wheel the couch out here; you know the floor is real smooth since those new boards were put in, and there are good castors on the couch."
"Mother! Mother! You"re coming out to supper!" they chorused, rushing back to the living-room; and before the invalid realized what was happening her couch was being wheeled carefully, gleefully into the brilliantly lighted dining-room, with Doris like a fairy sprite dancing attendance, and shouting joyously:
"Mudder"s tumin" to suppy! Mudder"s tumin" to suppy adin!"
The mother gazed in amazement at the royally spread table, so smothered in flowers that she failed to recognize the cracked old blue dishes.
"Children, I insist," she raised her voice above the happy din. "I insist on knowing immediately what all this means. Where are we, and what is this? A hotel? And who was the person who brought us here? I cannot eat anything nor stay here another minute until I know. People can"t rent houses like this for ten dollars a month anywhere, and I didn"t suppose we had come to charity, even if I am laid up for a few days."
Shirley could see the hurt in her mother"s eyes and the quick alarm in her voice, and came around to her couch, smiling.
"Now, mother dear, we"ll tell you the whole thing. It isn"t a hotel we"re in, and it isn"t a house at all. It"s only an old barn!"
"A barn!" Mrs. Hollister sat up on her couch alertly, and looked at the big bowl of roses in the middle of the table, at the soft, flowing curtains at the window and the great pot of Easter lilies on the little stand in front, and exclaimed, "Impossible!"
"But it is, really, mother, just a grand old stone barn! Look at the walls. See those two over there are just rough stones, and this one back of you is a part.i.tion made of common boards. That"s only an old brown denim curtain over there to hide the kitchen, and we"ve got the old red chenille curtains up to part.i.tion off the bedrooms. The boys are going to sleep up in the hay-loft, and it"s going to be just great!"
Mrs. Hollister looked wildly at the stone walls, back at the new part.i.tion, recognized one by one the ancient chairs, the old bookcase now converted into a china-closet, the brown denim curtain that had once been a cover for the dining-room floor in the little brick house.
Now it was washed and mended, and was doing its faded part to look like a wall and fit into the scheme of things. She darted questioning glances at the wealth of flowers, and the abundantly set table, then settled back on her pillow but half satisfied.
"They don"t have curtains in a barn!" she remarked dryly.
"Those are a present from Elizabeth, the little sister of the landlord.
She was out here with him when he came to see about things, and she got acquainted with Carol. She has put up those curtains, and brought the flowers, and fixed the table, for a surprise. See, mother!" and Shirley brought the card on which Elizabeth had printed her crude welcome.
Mrs. Hollister took the card as if it were some sort of a life-preserver, and smiled with relief.
"But this is a great deal to do for strangers," she said tremblingly, and tears began to glitter in her eyes. "They must be wealthy people."
"Yes, mother, I think they are," said Shirley, "and they have been most kind."
"But, daughter, wealthy people do not usually take the trouble to do things like that for nothing. And ten dollars a month for a barn could be nothing to them."
"I know, mother, but he seems very well satisfied with the price," said Shirley with a troubled brow. "I----"
"Something"s burning!" yelled Harley at the top of his lungs from the kitchen, and immediately they all rushed out to rescue the supper, which took that moment to a.s.sert itself.
"Now, mother," said Shirley, coming in with a big tureen of soup, "we"ve got to eat this supper or it will spoil. You"re not to ask another question till we are through."
They all settled expectantly down at the table, Doris climbing joyously into her high chair, calling:
"Suppy! Suppy! Oh goody!"
Such a clatter and a clamor, such shoutings over the sandwiches and such jumpings up and down to carry something to mother! Such lingering over the delicious ice-cream and fresh strawberries that were found in the freezer! Think of it! Real strawberries for _them_ that time of year!
Then, when they had eaten all they could, and began to realize that it was time to get mother to bed, they pushed the chairs back, and all fell to clearing off the table and putting things away. It was Carol who discovered the big roasted fowl and the bowl of salad set away in the tiny ice-box ready for to-morrow. How had Elizabeth, who never kept house in her life, known just what would be nice for a family were all tired out with moving, and needed to lie back and rest before starting on with living?
The dishes were almost washed when the cart arrived with the last load of things, and the drayman helped George to put up mother"s bed.
They wheeled the couch into the living-room after the big doors were closed and safely fastened for the night. Before the glowing fire Shirley helped mother to undress, then rolled her couch into the bedroom and got her to bed.
"Do you mind very much that it is only a barn, mother dear?" questioned Shirley, bending anxiously over her mother after she was settled.
"I can"t make it seem like a barn, dear; it seems a palace!" said the mother with a tremble in her voice. "I"m glad it"s a barn, because we could never afford a house with s.p.a.ce like this, and air!" She threw out her hands as if to express her delight in the wide rooms, and drew in a breath of the delicious country air, so different from air of the dusty little brick house in the city.
"Daughter!" she drew Shirley down where she could whisper to her.
"You"re sure he is not looking on us as objects of charity, and you"re sure he understands that you are a self-respecting girl earning her honorable living and paying her way? You know this is a wicked, deceitful world we live in, and there are all sorts of people in it."
"Mother dear! I"m sure. Sure as anybody could be. He has been a perfect gentleman. You didn"t think he looked like one of those--those people--that go around misunderstanding girls, did you mother?"
The mother remembered the gentle, manly way in which the young man had lifted her and carried her to and from the car, and her heart warmed to him. Yet her fears lingered as she watched her sweet-eyed girl.
"No-o-o," she answered slowly; "but then, you can"t always judge. He certainly was a gentleman, and he was very nice-looking." Then she looked sharply at Shirley.
"You won"t go to getting any notions in your head, dear child?" Her eyes were wistful and sad as she searched the sweet, weary face of the girl. "You know rich young men follow whims sometimes for a few days.
They don"t mean anything. I wouldn"t want your heart broken. I wish he was an old man with white hair."
"Oh mother dear!" laughed Shirley with heart-free ring to her voice, "did you think you had a young fool for a daughter? He was only being nice because he is a perfect gentleman; but I know he is not in the same universe as I am, so far as anything more than pleasant kindliness is concerned. We shall probably never see him again now that we are settled. But don"t you think I ought to go and telephone thanks to his little sister? They will be home by this time, and it seems as if we ought to make some acknowledgment of her great kindness."
"By all means, dear; but how can you? Is there a pay-station near here? I thought you said this was out in the country."
"Why, we have a telephone of our own, muddy dear! Just think of the luxury of it! Us with a telephone! Mr. Graham had it put into the barn when he was making some repairs, so he could communicate with his workmen; and he said if we would like it we might keep it. It is one of those "pay-as-you-go" phones, with a place to drop nickels and dimes in; so we are perfectly independent. Mr. Graham thought it would be a comfort to you when George or I had to stay late in town."
"How thoughtful of him! He must be a _wonderful_ rich man! By all means telephone at once, and tell the little girl to say to her brother from me that I shall esteem it a privilege to thank him personally for all that he has done for my children, sometime when he is out this way.
Think. A real rose by my bed!" She reached out a frail hand, and touched the exquisite petals lovingly. "It is wonderful!"
So Shirley went into the living-room to telephone, while all the children stood about to watch and comment and tell her what to say.
Doris sat on a little cushion at her feet in awe, and listened, asking Carol with large eyes: "Is Sirley tautin to Dod? Vy doesn"t see sut her yeyes?" for Shirley"s conversation over the telephone sounded to the little sister much like a prayer of thanksgiving; only she was not accustomed to hearing that joyous laughter in the voice when people prayed.
Then Doris was put to bed in her own little crib, and the light in mother"s room was switched off amid Doris"s flood of questions.
"Vat makes it light? Vy did it do avay? Will it tum adin?"
At last she was asleep, and the other children tiptoed excitedly about preparing for bed, going up and downstairs softly, whispering back and forth for this or that they could not find, till quiet settled down upon the tired, happy household, and the bullfrogs in the distant creek droned out the nightly chorus.
CHAPTER XIII
It was beautiful to wake the next morning with the birds singing a matin in the trees, and a wonderful Sabbath quiet over everything.
Tired out as she was and worn with excitement and care, Shirley was the first to waken, and she lay there quiet beside Carol for a little while with her eyes closed, listening, and saying a prayer of thanksgiving for the peace of the place, and the wonder that it had come into her life. Then suddenly a strange luminousness about her simply forced her to open her eyes.
The eastern window was across the room from her bed, and the sky was rosy, with the dawn, and flooding the room. It was the first time in years she had watched the sun rise. She had almost forgotten, in the little dark city house, that there was a sun to rise and make things glorious. The sun had seemed an enemy to burn and wilt and stifle.