The deacon sat down, and Tom Drake, his finger on the pea-shooter, a.s.sured himself, in acute mental triumph, that he had almost done it that time.
Then followed certain incidents eminently pleasing to the boys. To their unbounded relief, Sarah Frances Giles rose to speak, weeping as she began. She always wept at prayer meeting, though at the very moment of a.s.serting her joy that she cherished a hope, and her grat.i.tude that she was so nearly at an end of this earthly pilgrimage and ready to take her stand on the sea of gla.s.s mingled with fire. The boys reveled in her testimony. They were in a state of bitter uneasiness before she rose, and gnawed with a consuming impatience until she began to cry. Then they wondered if she could possibly leave out the sea of gla.s.s; and when it duly came, they gave a sigh of satiated bliss and sank into acquiescence in whatever might happen. This was a rich occasion to their souls, for Silas Marden, who was seldom moved by the spirit, fell upon his knees to pray; but at the same unlucky instant, his sister-in-law, for whom he cherished an unbounded scorn, rose (being "nigh-eyed" and ignorant of his priority) and began to speak. For a moment, the two held on together, "neck and neck," as the happy boys afterward remembered, and then Silas got up, dusted his knees, and sat down, not to rise again at any spiritual call. "An" a madder man you never see," cried all the Hollow next day, in shocked but gleeful memory.
Taking it all in all, the meeting had thus far mirrored others of its cla.s.s. If the droning experiences were devoid of all human pa.s.sion, it was chiefly because they had to be expressed in the phrases of strict theological usage. There was an unspoken agreement that feelings of this sort should be described in a certain way. They were not the affairs of the hearth and market; they were matters pertaining to that awful ent.i.ty called the soul, and must be dressed in the fine linen which she had herself elected to wear.
Suddenly, in a wearisome pause, when minds had begun to stray toward the hayfield and to-morrow"s churning, the door was pushed open, and the Widow Prime walked in. She was quite unused to seeking her kind, and the little a.s.sembly at once awoke, under the stimulus of surprise. They knew quite well where she had been walking: to Sudleigh Jail, to visit her only son, lying there for the third time, not, as usual, for drunkenness, but for house-breaking. She was a wiry woman, a ma.s.s of muscles animated by an eager energy. Her very hands seemed knotted with clenching themselves in nervous spasms. Her eyes were black, seeking, and pa.s.sionate, and her face had been scored by fine wrinkles, the marks of anxiety and grief. Her chocolate calico was very clean, and her palm-leaf shawl and black bonnet were decent in their poverty. The vague excitement created by her coming continued in a rustling like that of leaves. The troubles of Hannah Prime"s life had been very bitter--so bitter that she had, as Deacon Pitts once said, after undertaking her conversion, turned from "me and the house of G.o.d." A quickening thought sprang up now in the little a.s.sembly that she was "under conviction,"
and that it had become the present duty of every professor to lead her to the throne of grace. This was an exigency for which none were prepared. At so strenuous a challenge, the old conventional ways of speech fell down and collapsed before them, like creatures filled with air. Who should minister to one set outside their own comfortable lives by bitter sorrow and wounded pride? What could they offer a woman who had, in one way or another, sworn to curse G.o.d and die? It was Deacon Pitts who spoke, but in a tone hushed to the key of the unexpected.
"Has any one an experience to offer? Will any brother or sister lead in prayer?"
The silence was growing into a thing to be recognized and conquered, when, to the wonder of her neighbors, Hannah Prime herself rose. She looked slowly about the room, gazing into every face as if to challenge an honest understanding. Then she began speaking in a low voice thrilled by an emotion not yet explained. Unused to expressing herself in public, she seemed to be feeling her way. The silence, pride, endurance, which had been her armor for many years, were no longer apparent; she had thrown down all her defenses with a grave composure, as if life suddenly summoned her to higher issues.
"I dunno"s I"ve got an experience to offer," she said. "I dunno"s it"s religion. I dunno what "t is. Mebbe you"d say it don"t belong to a meetin". But when I come by an" see you all settin" here, it come over me I"d like to tell somebody. Two weeks ago I was most crazy"--She paused of necessity, for something broke in her voice.
"That"s the afternoon Jim was took," whispered a woman to her neighbor.
Hannah Prime went on.
"I jest as soon tell it now. I can tell ye all together what I couldn"t say to one on ye alone; an" if anybody speaks to me about it arterwards, they"ll wish they hadn"t. I was all by myself in the house.
I set down in my clock-room, about three in the arternoon, an" there I set. I didn"t git no supper. I couldn"t. I set there an" heard the clock tick. Byme-by it struck seven, an" that waked me up. I thought I"d gone crazy. The figgers on the wall-paper provoked me most to death; an" that red-an"-white tidy I made, the winter I was laid up, seemed to be talkin" out loud. I got up an" run outdoor jest as fast as I could go. I run out behind the house an" down the cart-path to that pile o" rocks that overlooks the lake; an" there I got out o" breath an" dropped down on a big rock. An" there I set, jest as still as I"d been settin" when I was in the house."
Here a little girl stirred in her seat, and her mother leaned forward and shook her, with alarming energy. "I never was so hard with Mary L.
afore," she explained the next day, "but I was as nervous as a witch. I thought, if I heard a pin drop, I should scream."
"I dunno how long I set there," went on Hannah Prime, "but byme-by it begun to come over me how still the lake was. "Twas like gla.s.s; an" way over where it runs in "tween them islands, it burnt like fire. Then I looked up a little further, to see what kind of a sky there was. "T was light green, with clouds in it, all fire, an" it begun to seem to me as if it was a kind o" land an" water up there--like our"n, on"y not solid. I set there an" looked at it; an" I picked out islands, an"
ma"sh-land, an" p"ints running out into the yeller-green sea. An"
everything grew stiller an" stiller. The loons struck up, down on the lake, with that kind of a lonesome whinner; but that on"y made the rest of it seem quieter. An" it begun to grow dark all "round me. I dunno"s I ever noticed before jest how the dark comes. It sifted down like snow, on"y you couldn"t see it. Well, I set there, an" I tried to keep stiller an" stiller, like everything else. Seemed as if I must. An" pretty soon I knew suthin" was walkin" towards me over the lot. I kep" my eyes on the sky; for I knew "twould break suthin" if I turned my head, an" I felt as if I couldn"t bear to. An" It come walkin", walkin", without takin" any steps or makin" any noise, till It come right up "side o" me an" stood still. I didn"t turn round. I knew I mustn"t. I dunno whether It touched me; I dunno whether It said anything--but I know It made me a new creatur". I knew then I shouldn"t be afraid o" things no more--nor sorry. I found out "t was all right. "I"m glad I"m alive," I said. "I"m thankful!" Seemed to me I"d been dead for the last twenty year. I"d come alive.
"An" so I set there an" held my breath, for fear "twould go. I dunno how long, but the moon riz up over my left shoulder, an" the sky begun to fade. An" then it come over me "twas goin". I knew "twas terrible tender of me, an" sorry, an" lovin", an" so I says, "Don"t you mind; I won"t forgit!" An" then It went. But that broke suthin", an" I turned an" see my own shadder on the gra.s.s; an" I thought I see another, "side of it.
Somehow that scairt me, an" I jumped up an" whipped it home without lookin" behind me. Now that"s my experience," said Hannah Prime, looking her neighbors again in the face, with dauntless eyes. "I dunno what "twas, but it"s goin" to last. I ain"t afraid no more, an" I ain"t goin"
to be. There ain"t nuthin" to worry about. Everything"s bigger"n we think." She folded her shawl more closely about her and moved toward the door. There she again turned to her neighbors.
"Good-night!" she said, and was gone.
They sat quite still until the tread of her feet had ceased its beating on the dusty road. Then, by one consent, they rose and moved slowly out.
There was no prayer that night, and "Lord dismiss us" was not sung.
HONEY AND MYRRH
The neighborhood, the township, and the world had been snowed in. Snow drifted the road in hills and hollows, and hung in little eddying wreaths, where the wind took it, on the pasture slopes. It made solid banks in the dooryards, and buried the stone walls out of sight. The lacework of its fantasy became daintily apparent in the conceits with which it broidered over all the common objects familiar in homely lives.
The pump, in yards where that had supplanted the old-fashioned curb, wore a heavy mob-cap. The vane on the barn was delicately sifted over, and the top of every picket in the high front-yard fence had a fluffy peak. But it was chiefly in the woods that the rapture and flavor of the time ran riot in making beauty. There every fir branch swayed under a tuft of white, and the brown refuse of the year was all hidden away.
That morning, no one in Tiverton Hollow had gone out of the house, save to shovel paths and do the necessary ch.o.r.es. The road lay untouched until ten o"clock, when a selectman gave notice that it was an occasion for "breakin" out," by starting with his team, and gathering oxen by the way until a conquering procession ground through the drifts, the men shoveling at intervals where the snow lay deepest, the oxen walking swayingly, head to the earth, and the faint wreath of their breath ascending and cooling on the air. It was "high times" in Tiverton Hollow when a road needed opening; some idea of the old primitive way of battling with the untouched forces of nature roused the people to an exhilaration dashed by no uncertainty of victory.
By afternoon, the excitement had quieted. The men had come in, reddened by cold, and eaten their noon dinner in high spirits, retailing to the less fortunate women-folk the stories swapped on the march. Then, as one man, they succ.u.mbed to the drowsiness induced by a morning of wind in the face, and sat by the stove under some pretense of reading the county paper, but really to nod and doze, waking only to put another stick of wood on the fire. So pa.s.sed all the day before Christmas, and in the evening the shining lamps were lighted (each with a strip of red flannel in the oil, to give color), and the neighborhood rested in the tranquil certainty that something had really come to pa.s.s, and that their communication with the world was reestablished.
Susan Peavey sat by the fire, knitting on a red mitten, and the young schoolmaster presided over the other hearth corner, reading very hard, at intervals, and again sinking into a drowsy study of the flames. There was an impression abroad in Tiverton that the schoolmaster was going to be somebody, some time. He wrote for the papers. He was always receiving through the mail envelopes marked "author"s proofs," which, the postmistress said, indicated that he was an author, whatever proofs might be. She had an idea they might have something to do with photographs; perhaps his picture was going into a book. It was very well understood that teaching school at the Hollow, at seven dollars a week, was an interlude in the life of one who would some day write a spelling-book, or exercise senatorial rights at Washington. He was a long-legged, pleasant looking youth, with a pale cheek, dark eyes, and thick black hair, one lock of which, hanging low over his forehead, he twisted while he read. He kept glancing up at Miss Susan and smiling at her, whenever he could look away from his book and the fire, and she smiled back. At last, after many such wordless messages, he spoke.
"What lots of red mittens you do knit! Do you send them all away to that society?"
Miss Susan"s needles clicked.
"Every one," said she.
She was a tall, large woman, well-knit, with no superfluous flesh. Her head was finely set, and she carried it with a simple unconsciousness better than dignity. Everybody in Tiverton thought it had been a great cross to Susan Peavey to be so overgrown. They conceded that it was a mystery she had not turned out "gormin"." But that was because Susan had left her vanity behind with early youth, in the days when, all legs and arms, she had given up the idea of beauty. Her face was strong-featured, overspread by a healthy color, and her eyes looked frankly out, as if a.s.sured of finding a very pleasant world. The sick always delighted in Susan"s nearness; her magnificent health and presence were like a supporting tide, and she seemed to carry outdoor air in her very garments. The schoolmaster still watched her. She rested and fascinated him at once by her strength and homely charm.
"I shall call you the Orphans" Friend," said he.
She laid down her work.
"Don"t you say one word," she answered, with an air of abject confession. "It don"t interest me a mite! I give because it"s my bounden duty, but I"ll be whipped if I want to knit warm mittens all my life, an" fill poor barrels. Sometimes I wisht I could git a chance to provide folks with what they don"t need ruther"n what they do."
"I don"t see what you mean," said the schoolmaster. "Tell me."
Miss Susan was looking at the hearth. A warmer flush than that of firelight alone lay on her cheek. She bent forward and threw on a pine knot. It blazed richly. Then she drew the cricket more securely under her feet, and settled herself to gossip.
"Anybody"d think I"d most talked myself out sence you come here to board," said she, "but you"re the beatemest for tolin" anybody on. I never knew I had so much to say. But there! I guess we all have, if there"s anybody "t wants to listen. I never"ve said this to a livin"
soul, an" I guess it"s sort o" heathenish to think, but I"m tired to death o" fightin" ag"inst poverty, poverty! I s"pose it"s there, fast enough, though we"re all so well on "t we don"t realize it; an" I"m goin" to do my part, an" be glad to, while I"m above ground. But I guess heaven"ll be a spot where we don"t give folks what they need, but what they don"t."
"There is something in your Bible," began the schoolmaster hesitatingly, "about a box of precious ointment." He always said "your Bible," as if church members held a proprietary right.
"That"s it!" replied Miss Susan, brightening. "That"s what I al"ays thought. Spill it all out, I say, an" make the world smell as sweet as honey. My! but I do have great projicks settin" here by the fire alone!
Great projicks!"
"Tell me some!"
"Well, I dunno"s I can, all of a piece, so to speak; but when it gits along towards eight o"clock, an" the room"s all simmerin", an" the moon lays out on the snow, it does seem as if we made a pretty poor spec" out o" life. We don"t seem to have no color in it. Why, don"t you remember "Solomon in all his glory"? I guess "t wouldn"t ha" been put in jest that way if there wa"n"t somethin" in it. I s"pose he had crowns an"
rings an" purple velvet coats an" brocade satin weskits, an" all manner o" things. Sometimes seems as I could see him walkin" straight in through that door there." She was running a knitting needle back and forth through her ball of yarn as she spoke, without noticing that some one had been stamping the snow from his feet on the doorstone outside.
The door, after making some bl.u.s.ter of refusal, was pushed open, and on the heels of her speech a man walked in.
"My land!" cried Miss Susan, aghast. Then she and the schoolmaster, by one accord, began to laugh.
But the man did not look at them until he had scrupulously wiped his feet on the husk mat, and stamped them anew. Then he turned down the legs of his trousers, and carefully examined the lank green carpet-bag he had been carrying.
"I guess I trailed it through some o" the drifts," he remarked. "The road"s pretty narrer, this season o" the year."
"You give us a real start," said Susan. "We thought be sure "t was Solomon, an" mebbe the Queen o" Sheba follerin" arter. Why, Solon Slade, you ain"t walked way over to Tiverton Street!"
"Yes, I have," a.s.serted Solon. He was a slender, sad-colored man, possibly of her own age, and he spoke in a very soft voice. He was Susan"s widowed brother-in-law, and the neighbors said he was clever, but hadn"t no more s.p.u.n.k"n a wet rag.
Susan had risen and laid down her knitting. She approached the table and rested one hand on it, a hawk-like brightness in her eyes.
"What you got in that bag?" asked she.
Solon was enjoying his certainty that he held the key to the situation.