The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett [classic english novels .txt] 📗

spray don’t fly over in storms. No, ’tis a dreadful small place to make a world of; it has a different look from any of the other islands, but there’s a sheltered cove on the south side, with mud-flats across one end of it at low water where there’s excellent clams, and the big shell-heap keeps some o’ the wind off a little house her father took the trouble to build when he was a young man. They said there was an old house built o’ logs there before that, with a kind of natural cellar in the rock under it. He used to stay out there days to a time, and anchor a little sloop he had, and dig clams to fill it, and sail up to Portland. They said the dealers always gave him an extra price, the clams were so noted. Joanna used to go out and stay with him. They were always great companions, so she knew just what ’twas out there. There was a few sheep that belonged to her brother an’ her, but she bargained for him to come and get them on the edge o’ cold weather. Yes, she desired him to come for the sheep; an’ his wife thought perhaps Joanna’d return, but he said no, an’ lo’ded the bo’t with warm things an’ what he thought she’d need through the winter. He come home with the sheep an’ left the other things by the house, but she never so much as looked out o’ the window. She done it for a penance. She must have wanted to see Edward by that time.”

Mrs. Fosdick was fidgeting with eagerness to speak.

“Some thought the first cold snap would set her ashore, but she always remained,” concluded Mrs. Todd soberly.

“Talk about the men not having any curiosity!” exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick scornfully. “Why, the waters round Shell-heap Island were white with sails all that fall. ’Twas never called no great of a fishin’-ground before. Many of ’em made excuse to go ashore to get water at the spring; but at last she spoke to a bo’t-load, very dignified and calm, and said that she’d like it better if they’d make a practice of getting water to Black Island or somewheres else and leave her alone, except in case of accident or trouble. But there was one man who had always set everything by her from a boy. He’d have married her if the other hadn’t come about an’ spoilt his chance, and he used to get close to the island, before light, on his way out fishin’, and throw a little bundle way up the green slope front o’ the house. His sister told me she happened to see, the first time, what a pretty choice he made o’ useful things that a woman would feel lost without. He stood off fishin’, and could see them in the grass all day, though sometimes she’d come out and walk right by them. There was other bo’ts near, out after mackerel. But early next morning his present was gone. He didn’t presume too much, but once he took her a nice firkin o’ things he got up to Portland, and when spring come he landed her a hen and chickens in a nice little coop. There was a good many old friends had Joanna on their minds.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Todd, losing her sad reserve in the growing sympathy of these reminiscences. “How everybody used to notice whether there was smoke out of the chimney! The Black Island folks could see her with their spyglass, and if they’d ever missed getting some sign o’ life they’d have sent notice to her folks. But after the first year or two Joanna was more and more forgotten as an everyday charge. Folks lived very simple in those days, you know,” she continued, as Mrs. Fosdick’s knitting was taking much thought at the moment. “I expect there was always plenty of driftwood thrown up, and a poor failin’ patch of spruces covered all the north side of the island, so she always had something to burn. She was very fond of workin’ in the garden ashore, and that first summer she began to till the little field out there, and raised a nice parcel o’ potatoes. She could fish, o’ course, and there was all her clams an’ lobsters. You can always live well in any wild place by the sea when you’d starve to death up country, except ’twas berry time. Joanna had berries out there, blackberries at least, and there was a few herbs in case she needed them. Mullein in great quantities and a plant o’ wormwood I remember seeing once when I stayed there, long before she fled out to Shell-heap. Yes, I recall the wormwood, which is always a planted herb, so there must have been folks there before the Todds’ day. A growin’ bush makes the best gravestone; I expect that wormwood always stood for somebody’s solemn monument. Catnip, too, is a very endurin’ herb about an old place.”

“But what I want to know is what she did for other things,” interrupted Mrs. Fosdick. “Almiry, what did she do for clothin’ when she needed to replenish, or risin’ for her bread, or the piece-bag that no woman can live long without?”

“Or company,” suggested Mrs. Todd. “Joanna was one that loved her friends. There must have been a terrible sight o’ long winter evenin’s that first year.”

“There was her hens,” suggested Mrs. Fosdick, after reviewing the melancholy situation. “She never wanted the sheep after that first season. There wa’n’t no proper pasture for sheep after the June grass was past, and she ascertained the fact and couldn’t bear to see them suffer; but the chickens done well. I remember sailin’ by one spring afternoon, an’ seein’ the coops out front o’ the house in the sun. How long was it before you went out with the minister? You were the first ones that ever really got ashore to see Joanna.”

I had been reflecting upon a