Queechy Volume I Part 65

"Well, I guess I'll stand that," said aunt Miriam, smiling ?

"you wouldn't mind carrying this under your cloak, would you?"

"I have no doubt I shall go home lighter with it than without it, Ma'am, ? thank you, dear aunty! ?dear aunt Miriam!"

There was a change of tone, and of eye, as Fleda sealed each thank with a kiss.

"But how is it? ? does all the charge of the house come upon you, dear?"

"Oh, this kind of thing, because aunt Lucy doesn't understand it, and can't get along with it so well. She likes better to sew, and I had quite as lief do this."

"And don't you sew, too?"

"Oh, a little. She does as much as she can," said Fleda, gravely.

"Where is your other cousin?" said Mrs. Plumfield, abruptly.

"Marion? ? she is in England, I believe ? we don't hear from her very often."

"No, no ? I mean the one who is in the army?"

"Charlton! ? Oh, he is just ordered off to Mexico," said Fleda, sadly, "and that is another great trouble to aunt Lucy.

This miserable war!"

"Does he never come home?"

"Only once since we came from Paris ? while we were in New York. He has been stationed away off at the West."

"He has a captain's pay now, hasn't he?"

"Yes, but he doesn't know at all how things are at home; he hasn't an idea of it ? and he will not have. Well, good-bye, dear aunt Miriam ? I must run home to take care of my chicken."

She ran away; and if her eyes many a time on the way down the hill filled and overflowed, they were not bitter nor dark tears; they were the gus.h.i.+ngs of high and pure and generous affections, weeping for fullness, not for want.

That chicken was not wasted in soup; it was converted into the nicest possible little frica.s.see, because the toast would make so much more of it; and to Fleda's own dinner, little went beside the toast, that a greater portion of the rest might be for her aunt and Hugh.

That same evening, Seth Plumfield came into the kitchen, while Fleda was there.

"Here is something belongs to you, I believe," said he, with a covert smile, bringing out from under his cloak the mate to Fleda's fowl ? "mother said somethin' had run away with t'other one, and she didn't know what to do with this one alone. Your uncle at home?"

The next news that Fleda heard was, that Seth had taken a lease of the saw-mill for two years.

Mr. Didenhover did not disappoint Fleda's expectations. Very little could be got from him, or the farm under him, beyond the immediate supply wanted for the use of the family; and that in kind, not in cash. Mrs. Rossitur was comforted by knowing, that some portion of rent had also gone to Dr.

Gregory ? how large or how small a portion, she could not find out. But this left the family in increasing straits, which narrowed and narrowed during the whole first summer and winter of Didenhover's administration. Very straitened they would have been, but for the means of relief adopted by the two _children_, as they were always called. Hugh, as soon as the spring opened, had a quiet hint through Fleda, that if he had a mind to take the working of the saw-mill he might, for a consideration merely nominal. This offer was immediately and gratefully closed with; and Hugh's earnings were thenceforward very important at home. Fleda had her own ways and means. Mr.

Rossitur, more low-spirited and gloomy than ever, seemed to have no heart to anything. He would have worked, perhaps, if he could have done it alone; but to join Didenhover and his men, or any other gang of workmen, was too much for his magnanimity. He helped n.o.body but Fleda. For her he would do anything, at any time; and in the garden, and among her flowers in the flowery courtyard, he might often be seen at work with her. But nowhere else.

CHAPTER XXII.

"Some bring a capon, some a rurall cake, Some nuts, some apples; some that thinke they make The better cheeses, bring 'hem; or else send By their ripe daughters, whom they would commend This way to husbands; and whose baskets beare An embleme of themselves in plum or pears."

BEN JOHNSON.

So the time walked away ? for this family was not now of those "whom time runneth withal" ? to the second summer of Mr.

Didenhover's term.

One morning Mrs. Rossitur was seated in the breakfast-room at her usual employment, mending and patching ? no sinecure now.

Fleda opened the kitchen door and came in, folding up a calico ap.r.o.n she had just taken off.

"You are tired, dear," said Mrs. Rossitur, sorrowfully; ? you look pale."

"Do I?" said Fleda, sitting down. "I am a little tired!"

"Why do you do so?"

"Oh, it's nothing," said Fleda, cheerfully; "I haven't hurt myself. I shall be rested again in a few minutes."

"What have you been doing?"

"Oh, I tired myself a little before breakfast in the garden, I suppose. Aunt Lucy, don't you think I had almost a bushel of pease? ? and there was a little over a half bushel last-time, so I shall call it a bushel. Isn't that fine?"

"You didn't pick them all yourself?"

"Hugh helped me a little while; but he had the horse to get ready, and I was out before him this morning ? poor fellow, he was tired from yesterday, I dare say."

Mrs. Rossitur looked at her, a look between remonstrance and reproach, and cast her eves down without saying a word, swallowing a whole heartful of thoughts and feelings. Fleda stooped forward till her own forehead softly touched Mrs.

Rossitur's, as gentle a chiding of despondency as a very sunbeam could have given.

"Now, aunt Lucy! ? what do you mean? Don't you know it's good for me? ? And do you know, Mr. Sweet will give me four s.h.i.+llings a bushel? and, aunt Lucy, I sent three dozen heads of lettuce this morning besides. Isn't that doing well? and I sent two dozen day before yesterday. It is time they were gone, for they are running up to seed, this set; I have got another fine set almost ready."

Mrs. Rossitur looked at her again, as if she had been a sort of terrestrial angel.

"And how much will you get for them?"

"I don't know exactly ? threepence, or sixpence, perhaps ? I guess not so much ? they are so easily raised; though I don't believe there are so fine as mine to be seen in this region.

If I only had somebody to water the strawberries! ? we should have a great many. Aunt Lucy, I am going to send as many as I can without robbing uncle Rolf ? he sha'n't miss them; but the rest of us don't mind eating rather fewer than usual? I shall make a good deal by them. And I think these morning rides do Hugh good; don't you think so?"

"And what have you been busy about ever since breakfast, Fleda?"

"Oh ? two or three things," said Fleda, lightly.

"What?"

"I had bread to make ? and then I thought, while my hands were in, I would make a custard for uncle Rolf."

"You needn't have done that, dear, it was not necessary."