"Poor little dear!" said grandmamma, taking her hands in hers; "Hitty shan"t scold you. Grandma knows you"ve been a good girl--the wind blew poor Gracie"s bonnet away;" and grandmamma wiped both eyes and nose, and gave her, moreover, a stalk of dried fennel out of her pocket; whereat Grace took heart once more.
"Mother always makes fools of Roxy"s children," said Mehetabel, puffing zealously under the tea kettle. "There"s a little maple sugar in that saucer up there, mother, if you will keep giving it to her," she said, still vigorously puffing. "And now, Gracie," she said, when, after a while, the fire seemed in tolerable order, "will you answer my question?
Where is d.i.c.k?"
"Gone over in the lot, to get my bonnet."
"How came your bonnet off?" said Aunt Mehetabel. "I tied it on firm enough."
"d.i.c.k wanted me to take it off for him, to throw up for liberty," said Grace.
"Throw up for fiddlestick! Just one of d.i.c.k"s cut-ups; and you was silly enough to mind him!"
"Why, he put up a flagstaff on the wood pile, and a flag to liberty, you know, that papa"s fighting for," said Grace, more confidently, as she saw her quiet, blue-eyed mother, who had silently walked into the room during the conversation.
Grace"s mother smiled and said, encouragingly, "And what then?"
"Why, he wanted me to throw up my bonnet and he his cap, and shout for liberty; and then the wind took it and carried it off, and he said I ought not to be sorry if I did lose it--it was an offering to liberty."
"And so I did," said d.i.c.k, who was standing as straight as a poplar behind the group; "and I heard it in one of father"s letters to mother, that we ought to offer up every thing on the altar of liberty--and so I made an altar of the wood pile."
"Good boy!" said his mother; "always remember every thing your father writes. He has offered up every thing on the altar of liberty, true enough; and I hope you, son, will live to do the same."
"Only, if I have the hoods and caps to make," said Aunt Hitty, "I hope he won"t offer them up every week--that"s all!"
"O! well, Aunt Hitty, I"ve got the hood; let me alone for that. It blew clear over into the Daddy Ward pasture lot, and there stuck on the top of the great rail; and I played that the rail was a fort, and besieged it, and took it."
"O, yes! you"re always up to taking forts, and any thing else that n.o.body wants done. I"ll warrant, now, you left Gracie to pick up every blessed one of them chips."
"Picking up chips is girl"s work," said d.i.c.k; "and taking forts and defending the country is men"s work."
"And pray, Mister Pomp, how long have you been a man?" said Aunt Hitty.
"If I ain"t a man, I soon shall be; my head is "most up to my mother"s shoulder, and I can fire off a gun, too. I tried, the other day, when I was up to the store. Mother, I wish you"d let me clean and load the old gun, so that, if the British should come----"
"Well, if you are so big and grand, just lift me out that table, sir,"
said Aunt Hitty; "for it"s past supper time."
d.i.c.k sprang, and had the table out in a trice, with an abundant clatter, and put up the leaves with quite an air. His mother, with the silent and gliding motion characteristic of her, quietly took out the table cloth and spread it, and began to set the cups and saucers in order, and to put on the plates and knives, while Aunt Hitty bustled about the tea.
"I"ll be glad when the war"s over, for one reason," said she. "I"m pretty much tired of drinking sage tea, for one, I know."
"Well, Aunt Hitty, how you scolded that pedler last week, that brought along that real tea!"
"To be sure I did. S"pose I"d be taking any of his old tea, bought of the British?--fling every teacup in his face first."
"Well, mother," said d.i.c.k, "I never exactly understood what it was about the tea, and why the Boston folks threw it all overboard."
"Because there was an unlawful tax laid upon it, that the government had no right to lay. It wasn"t much in itself; but it was a part of a whole system of oppressive meanness, designed to take away our rights, and make us slaves of a foreign power."
"Slaves!" said d.i.c.k, straightening himself proudly. "Father a slave!"
"But they would not be slaves! They saw clearly where it would all end, and they would not begin to submit to it in ever so little," said the mother.
"I wouldn"t, if I was they," said d.i.c.k.
"Besides," said his mother, drawing him towards her, "it wasn"t for themselves alone they did it. This is a great country, and it will be greater and greater; and it"s very important that it should have free and equal laws, because it will by and by be so great. This country, if it is a free one, will be a light of the world--a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid; and all the oppressed and distressed from other countries shall come here to enjoy equal rights and freedom. This, dear boy, is why your father and uncles have gone to fight, and why they do stay and fight, though G.o.d knows what they suffer, and----" and the large blue eyes of the mother were full of tears; yet a strong, bright beam of pride and exultation shone through those tears.
"Well, well, Roxy, you can always talk, every body knows," said Aunt Hitty, who had been not the least attentive listener of this little patriotic harangue; "but, you see, the tea is getting cold, and yonder I see the sleigh is at the door, and John"s come; so let"s set up our chairs for supper."
The chairs were soon set up, when John, the eldest son, a lad of about fifteen, entered with a letter. There was one general exclamation, and stretching out of hands towards it. John threw it into his mother"s lap; the tea table was forgotten, and the tea kettle sang unnoticed by the fire, as all hands crowded about mother"s chair to hear the news. It was from Captain Ward, then in the American army, at Valley Forge. Mrs. Ward ran it over hastily, and then read it aloud. A few words we may extract.
"There is still," it said, "much suffering. I have given away every pair of stockings you sent me, reserving to myself only one; for I will not be one whit better off than the poorest soldier that fights for his country. Poor fellows! it makes my heart ache sometimes to go round among them, and see them with their worn clothes and torn shoes, and often bleeding feet, yet cheerful and hopeful, and every one willing to do his very best. Often the spirit of discouragement comes over them, particularly at night, when, weary, cold, and hungry, they turn into their comfortless huts, on the snowy ground. Then sometimes there is a thought of home, and warm fires, and some speak of giving up; but next morning out come Washington"s general orders--little short note, but it"s wonderful the good it does! and then they all resolve to hold on, come what may. There are commissioners going all through the country to pick up supplies. If they come to you, I need not tell you what to do. I know all that will be in your hearts."
"There, children, see what your father suffers," said the mother, "and what it costs these poor soldiers to gain our liberty."
"Ephraim Scranton told me that the commissioners had come as far as the Three Mile Tavern, and that he rather "spected they"d be along here to-night," said John, as he was helping round the baked beans to the silent company at the tea table.
"To-night?--do tell, now!" said Aunt Hitty. "Then it"s time we were awake and stirring. Let"s see what can be got."
"I"ll send my new overcoat, for one," said John. "That old one isn"t cut up yet, is it, Aunt Hitty?"
"No," said Aunt Hitty; "I was laying out to cut it over next Wednesday, when Desire Smith could be here to do the tailoring.
"There"s the south room," said Aunt Hitty, musing; "that bed has the two old Aunt Ward blankets on it, and the great blue quilt, and two comforters. Then mother"s and my room, two pair--four comforters--two quilts--the best chamber has got----"
"O Aunt Hitty, send all that"s in the best chamber! If any company comes, we can make it up off from our beds," said John. "I can send a blanket or two off from my bed, I know;--can"t but just turn over in it, so many clothes on, now."
"Aunt Hitty, take a blanket off from our bed," said Grace and d.i.c.k at once.
"Well, well, we"ll see," said Aunt Hitty, bustling up.
Up rose grandmamma, with, great earnestness, now, and going into the next room, and opening a large cedar wood chest, returned, bearing in her arms two large snow white blankets, which she deposited flat on the table, just as Aunt Hitty was whisking off the table cloth.
"Mortal! mother, what are you going to do?" said Aunt Hitty.
"There," she said; "I spun those, every thread of "em, when my name was Mary Evans. Those were my wedding blankets, made of real nice wool, and worked with roses in all the corners. I"ve got _them_ to give!" and grandmamma stroked and smoothed the blankets, and patted them down, with great pride and tenderness. It was evident she was giving something that lay very near her heart; but she never faltered.
"La! mother, there"s no need of that," said Aunt Hitty. "Use them on your own bed, and send the blankets off from that; they are just as good for the soldiers."
"No, I shan"t!" said the old lady, waxing warm; ""tisn"t a bit too good for "em. I"ll send the very best I"ve got, before they shall suffer.
Send "em the _best_!" and the old lady gestured oratorically.
They were interrupted by a rap at the door, and two men entered, and announced themselves as commissioned by Congress to search out supplies for the army. Now the plot thickens. Aunt Hitty flew in every direction,--through entry pa.s.sage, meal room, milk room, down cellar, up chamber,--her cap border on end with patriotic zeal; and followed by John, d.i.c.k, and Grace, who eagerly bore to the kitchen the supplies that she turned out, while Mrs. Ward busied herself in quietly sorting and arranging, in the best possible travelling order, the various contributions that were precipitately launched on the kitchen floor.
Aunt Hitty soon appeared in the kitchen with an armful of stockings, which, kneeling on the floor, she began counting and laying out.
"There," she said, laying down a large bundle on some blankets, "that leaves just two pair apiece all round."
"La!" said John, "what"s the use of saving two pair for me? I can do with one pair, as well as father."