He Fell In Love With His Wife, Edward Payson Roe [children's books read aloud .TXT] 📗
- Author: Edward Payson Roe
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“Well, well!” he concluded, “this marrying is a risky experiment at best, but
Tom Watterly’s talk and her manner seemed to shut me up to it. I was made to
feel that I couldn’t go on in any other way; and I haven’t done anything
underhanded or wrong, as I see, for the chance of going on. If I hadn’t
become such a heathen I should say there was a Providence in it, but I don’t
know what to think about such things any more. Time’ll show, and the prospect
is better than it has been yet. She’ll never be sorry if she carries out the
agreement made today, if kindness and good will can repay her.”
Thus it may be seen that, although two life currents had become parallel, they
were still very distinct.
By the time Holcroft approached the lane leading to his dwelling, Alida was
growing very weary, and felt that her endurance had almost reached its limit.
Her face was so white in the moonlight that he asked solicitously, “You can
stand it a little longer, can’t you?”
“I’ll try. I’m very sorry I’m not stronger.”
“Don’t you worry about that! You won’t know yourself in a week. Here we are
at the lane and there’s the house yonder. A moment or two more and you’ll be
by the fire.”
A loud barking startled old Jonathan Johnson out of his doze, and he hastened
to replenish the fire and to call off his rather savage dog. He was a little
surprised to see Holcroft drive toward the kitchen door with a woman by his
side. “He’s tried his luck with another of them town gals,” he muttered, “but,
Jerusalem! She won’t stay a week, an’ my old woman’ll have the washin’ an’
mendin’ all the same.”
He could scarcely believe his ears and eyes when he heard the farmer say,
“Alida, you must let me lift you out,” and then saw the “town gal” set gently
on the ground, her hand placed on Holcroft’s arm as she was supported slowly
and carefully to the rocking chair beside the fire. “Jonathan,” was the quiet
announcement, “this is Mrs. Holcroft, my wife.”
“Jeru—beg a pardon. Wasn’t ‘spectin; jis’ sich a turn o’ things. Respects,
missus! Sorry to see yer enj’yin’ poor health.”
“Yes, Jonathan, Mrs. Holcroft has been sick, but she’s much better and will
soon be well. She’s very tired now from the long drive, but quiet life and
country air will soon make her strong. I’ll just step out and care for the
horses, Alida, and soon be back again. You come and help me, Jonathan, and
keep your dog off, too.”
The old man complied with rather poor grace for he would have preferred to
interview the bride, at whom he was staring with all his weak, watery eyes.
Holcroft understood his neighbor’s peculiarities too well to subject his wife
to this ordeal, and was bent on dispatching Jonathan homeward as soon as
possible.
“I say, Jim,” said the old guardsman, who felt that he was speaking to the boy
he had known for thirty odd years, “where on airth did you pick up sich a
sickly lookin’ critter?”
“I didn’t pick her up,” replied the farmer laughingly. “I married her fair and
square just as you did your wife a hundred years ago, more or less. Haven’t I
as good a right to get married as you had?”
“Oh, I aint a-disputin’ yer right, but it seems so kind o’ suddint that it’s
taken what little breath I’ve left.”
“How do you know it’s sudden? Did you go around telling everyone how you were
getting on when you were a-courting?”
“Well, I swan! Yer got me. ‘Taint so long ago that I disremember we did it
on the sly.”
“Well, now, Uncle Jonathan, you’ve got nothing to say against me for I didn’t
marry on the sly, although I’ve gone on the principle that my business wasn’t
everybody’s business. When I saw your wife about my washing and mending I
didn’t know I was going to be lucky so soon. You know you can’t marry a woman
in this country till she’s willing. But tell your wife she shan’t lose
anything, and the next time I go to town I’ll leave that settin’ of eggs she
wanted. Now, Jonathan, honor bright, do you feel able to walk home if I give
you fifty cents extra?”
“Why, sartinly! S’pose I’d take yer away on sich a ‘casion? My wife wouldn’t
let me in if she knowed it.”
“Well, you and your wife are good neighbors, and that’s more’n I can say for
most people in these parts. Here’s the money. Mrs. Holcroft isn’t strong or
well enough to talk any tonight. You got yourself a good supper, didn’t you?”
“Yes, yes! Helped myself bount’fully. Good night, and good luck ter yer. I
can’t help thinkin’ it was kind o’ suddint though, and then she’s sich a
sickly lookin’ critter. Hope yer haven’t been taken in, but then, as you say,
the marryin’ business, like other kinds o’ business, is a man’s own business.”
“I hope everyone will take your sensible view, Uncle Jonathan. Good night.”
Chapter XXI. At Home
Alida was not so cold, weary, and almost faint but that she looked around the
old kitchen with the strongest interest. This interest was as unlike Mrs.
Mumpson’s curiosity as she was unlike the widow. It is true the thought of
self was prominent, yet hers were not selfish thoughts. There are some
blessed natures in the world that in doing the best for themselves do the best
that is possible for others.
The genial warmth of the fire was grateful to her chilled and enfeebled frame;
the homely kitchen, with its dresser of china ware, its tin closet and pantry,
the doors of which old Jonathan had left open, manlike, after helping himself
“bount’fully,” all suggested more comfort to this pallid bride, sitting there
alone, than wealth of ornament in elegant apartments has brought to many
others. She saw her chief domain, not in its coarse and common aspect, but as
her vantage ground, from which she could minister to the comforts of the one
who had rescued her. Few brides would care to enter the kitchen first, but
she was pleased; she who had scarcely hoped to smile again looked smilingly
around on the quaint, homelike room.
“And this is to be my home!” she murmured. “How strange, unexpected, yet
natural it all is! Just what he led me to expect. The little lonely
farmhouse, where I can be safe from staring eyes and unwounded by cruel
questionings. Yet that old man had a dozen questions on his tongue. I
believe HE took him away to save my feelings. It’s strange that so plain and
simple a man in most respects can be so considerate. Oh, pray God that all
goes on as it promises! I couldn’t have dreamt it this morning, but I have an
odd, homelike feeling already. Well, since I AM at home I may as well take
off my hat and cloak.”
And she did so. Holcroft entered and said heartily, “That’s right, Alida!
You are here to stay, you know. You mustn’t think it amiss that I left you a
few moments alone for I had to get that talkative old man off home. He’s
getting a little childish and would fire questions at you point-blank.”
“But shouldn’t you have taken him home in the wagon? I don’t mind being
alone.”
“Oh, no! He’s spry enough to walk twice the distance and often does. It’s
light as day outside, and I made it right with him. You can leave your things
upstairs in your room, and I’ll carry up your bundles also if you are rested
enough for the journey.”
“Oh, yes!” she replied, “I’m feeling better already.”
He led the way to the apartment that Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and said
regretfully, “I’m sorry the room looks so bare and comfortless, but that will
all be mended in time. When you come down, we’ll have some coffee and
supper.”
She soon reappeared in the kitchen, and he continued, “Now I’ll show you that
I’m not such a very helpless sort of man, after all; so if you’re sick you
needn’t worry. I’m going to get you a good cup of coffee and broil you a
piece of steak.”
“Oh! Please let me—” she began.
“No, can’t allow you to do anything tonight but sit in that chair. You
promised to mind, you know,” and he smiled so genially that she smiled back at
him although tears came into her eyes.
“I can’t realize it all,” she said in a low voice. “To think how this day
began and how it is ending!”
“It’s ending in a poor man’s kitchen, Alida. It was rather rough to bring you
in here first, but the parlor is cold and comfortless.
“I would rather be brought here. It seems to me that it must be a light and
cheerful room.”
“Yes, the sun shines in these east windows, and there’s another window facing
the south, so it’s light all day long.”
She watched him curiously and with not a little self-reproach as he deftly
prepared supper. “It’s too bad for me to sit idle while you do such things,
yet you do everything so well that I fear I shall seem awkward. Still, I
think I do at least know how to cook a little.”
“If you knew what I’ve had to put up with for a year or more, you wouldn’t
worry about satisfying me in this respect. Except when old Mrs. Wiggins was
here, I had few decent meals that I didn’t get myself,” and then, to cheer her
up, he laughingly told her of Mrs. Mumpson’s essay at making coffee. He had a
certain dry humor, and his unwonted effort at mimicry was so droll in itself
that Alida was startled to hear her own voice in laughter, and she looked
almost frightened, so deeply had she been impressed that it would never be
possible or even right for her to laugh again.
The farmer was secretly much pleased at his success. If she would laugh, be
cheerful and not brood, he felt sure she would get well and be more contented.
The desperate view she had taken of her misfortunes troubled him, and he had
thought it possible that she might sink into despondency and something like
invalidism; but that involuntary bubble of laughter reassured him. “Quiet,
wholesome, cheerful life will restore her to health,” he thought, as he put
his favorite beverage and the sputtering steak on the table. “Now,” he said,
placing a chair at the table, “you can pour me a cup of coffee.”
“I’m glad I can do something,” she answered, “for I can’t get over the
strangeness of being so waited on. Indeed, everything that was unexpected or
undreamt of has happened,” and there was just the faintest bit of color on her
cheeks as she sat down opposite him.
Few men are insensible to simple, natural, womanly grace, and poor Holcroft,
who so long had been compelled to see at his table “perfect terrors,” as he
called them, was agreeably impressed by the contrast she made with the Mumpson
and Malony species. Alida unconsciously had a subtle charm of carriage and
action, learned in her long past and happy girlhood when all her associations
were good and refined. Still, in its truest explanation, this grace is native
and not acquired; it is a personal trait. Incapable of nice analysis or fine
definitions,
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