Wheat and Huckleberries; Or, Dr. Northmore's Daughters

by Amanda M. Douglas

  CHAPTER XIII

  INTO THE WEST AGAIN

  The good cry which Kate had been longing for came before she got back toher grandfather's that morning. She took it with a girlish abandon,sitting on the meadow bridge. Then she rose up, bathed her face in thebrook and went on her way, half ashamed of what she had done, halfwondering that she had dared to do it, and wholly glad that it was over.Tom was waiting for her at the bars below the barn. It helped theappearance of things that she should go in with him to breakfast, and,though he would have scorned to own it, Tom had a healthy curiosity asto the outcome of this interview with Aunt Katharine.

  Kate's report of it was meagre; but the impression was left on his mindthat she had gotten rather the worst of it, especially as she made noconcealment of the fact that she had been summarily dismissed at theend. She owned frankly that she had been crying, and then showed plainlythat the spirit of controversy was not dead in her yet by the recklessmanner in which she threw in her "Westernisms" and defended them duringthe rest of their talk. On the whole, Tom felt relieved as to her stateof mind, and they went into the house quarrelling in the most naturalmanner; she having remarked that Aunt Katharine's fierce manner didn't"faze" her after she got started, and he protesting that there was nosuch word in the dictionary. He maintained his point as far as the oldWebster in the house was concerned, but she at least proved that herword came of good respectable stock, and stood firm on the propositionthat it _ought_ to be there if it wasn't.

  It was the last time for many a day that Kate spoke to any one of thatmorning's adventure. Not a suspicion of it dawned on Esther. The talkbetween the sisters the night before had been too nearly a quarrel foreither of them to wish to reopen the subject which had so disturbedthem, and it was out of consideration for Kate's uneasiness over theintimacy with Aunt Katharine that Esther went to her house less oftenthan usual during the next few days. But indeed it was not easy duringthe week that was left of Kate's stay at her grandfather's for either ofthe girls to find time for anything except the pleasurings which alwayscrowd the last days of a visit. Everything which had been omitted beforemust be done now, and there were all the little gifts to be prepared forthe family at home, tokens of special meaning for each one, and for Mrs.Northmore most of all.

  She had asked for a piece of flag-root from the old spot in the meadow,and enough was dug to satisfy her appetite for years, Aunt Elsiepreserving some of it in sugar, just as the grandmother used to in theold days, when children carried bits of it to church in their pockets tokeep them awake during sermon time. She had mentioned an apple from thecrooked tree in the lane, whose seeds always shook in their core like arattlebox by the first of September, and every apple which ripened onthe old farm in the summer had a place in Kate's trunk. There wereodors, too, which she loved; odors of pine, and sweet fern, and lifeeverlasting, to be gathered and sewed into silken bags and pillows; andthere was a little bunch--Aunt Elsie tucked it in--of dried hardhack andcatnip and spearmint.

  "I don't suppose she ever steeped those things for her own babies, beinga doctor's wife," she said; "but she knew the taste of them when she wasa baby herself, and I guess it'll bring back the old garret to her, andthe bunches that hung from the rafters when she and I used to play thereon rainy days."

  Such were the chief events of that last week, but there was one other ofsome importance, a call from Mr. Philip Hadley, who did not come thistime to inquire for his ancestors, but very distinctly for the youngladies, and the fact that their grandfather was absent did not preventhis making a decidedly long call. He seemed extremely interested in alltheir doings since he saw them last, and the look of pleasure with whichhe heard the announcement that Esther was to spend the winter in Bostonwould have convinced Tom, had he seen it, of the correctness of anopinion he had lately expressed to Kate. It did not affect her, however.It was no young man with soft white hands, but only a grim old woman,whose influence she feared for her sister.

  So the days went by, swift, hurrying days, and brought the morning ofKate's departure. Tom would have liked to go with her to the depot, butit was the grandfather, with the girls, of course, who made the trip.They said good-by to each other in a last interview at the barn, andthough each tried to be gay and off-hand, the effort was not verysuccessful. They made solemn compact to write to each other often, Tomfor his part agreeing to keep his "eye peeled" for any developmentsconcerning Esther, and Kate for hers promising to "watch out" foranything that could interest him in affairs at the West.

  "You must come out and see us, Tom," she said earnestly. "I want to showyou everything, and make you like our part of the country as well as--aswell as I like this. Your ways are different from ours, of course; butI've got a lot of new ideas, and I've had an awfully good time with you,Tom. I didn't know I _could_ feel so bad to go away."

  "I guess I should like it out your way too," said Tom, turning his headas if it were not quite safe to look into her eyes at that moment, "andperhaps sometime I can come. I guess it's good for folks to seesomething besides their own things, and--I _know_ I should like it outWest if _you_ were there."

  And then they parted, each of them having apparently some trouble withthe throat just then, and Tom drawing his sleeve across his eyes in asuspicious manner as he walked down the lane.

  "The Lord bless and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you," RuelSaxon said solemnly as he bade the girl good-by at the depot.

  It was the last word before the train pulled out, for Esther's heart wasfull, and she could say no more after sending her love for thethousandth time to them all at home. And then the beautiful New Englandvillage, with its lovely homes and shaded streets, faded from Kate'ssight; the hills and the little fields, crossed by the old stone walls,rushed past her, and it was the wide green stretches of the home countryfor which the eyes of her heart were straining as she flew on into theWest.

  It was a great day for the family when she reached home. The doctor wasat the depot, impatient as a boy over the three minutes' delay in thetrain that brought her in, and he almost forgot to secure her trunk, orset her bag into the carriage, in his delight at seeing her.

  "Well, I believe they must have treated you pretty well back there," hesaid, pinching her cheek. And he would have had her on the scales beforeshe left the depot if she had not protested that she could not spare asecond getting weighed.

  "I shall lose a pound for every minute we waste getting home," shecried, jumping into the carriage; and at this he laughed, and puttingthe reins into her hands, told her to get the gray filly over the groundas fast as she pleased. How they did go dashing down the road, and whatwonder that excitement was rife in the town that afternoon as to whatmember of the community was lying at the point of death that the doctorwas going at such a rate to see him!

  They were on the porch to greet her when she pulled up at the door, Mrs.Northmore and Virgie, with Aunt Milly gorgeous in her best cap andkerchief at the rear; and such a hugging and kissing, such a laughingand crying followed as might have made one wonder what _would_ havehappened if the girl had stayed away a year instead of a single summer.

  It was good to be back--so good; she realized it more with every minute,and the trite old saying that the best part of going away from home iscoming back again appealed to her as never before. The trunk wasunpacked with all the household gathered round, but no one, not evenMrs. Northmore, daring to help, lest some precious token, tucked safelyin by Kate's own hand, should be drawn prematurely from its corner orshaken unwarily from the folds of a dress. Oh, the joy of drawing themout, one after another, and the bursts of delight with which they werereceived!

  Virgie skipped about the room in glee over the trinkets which had beenbrought to her from Boston and the sea; Dr. Northmore declared he musthave coffee made at once to give him a chance of using the beautiful cupwhich Stella had painted with just such blossoming honeysuckles as grewover the door from which he had carried away his bride; Aunt Milly stoodagape over the glories of the black silk apron wh
ich her young ladieshad embroidered for her in figures of the gayest colors--Jack Hornerenjoying his Christmas pie in one corner, Miss Muffet frightened fromher curds by the wicked black spider in another, and the muffin man withhis tray on his head stalking proudly between; while as for Mrs.Northmore, she sat like a little child, her lap filling with treasures,nibbling now and then at the flag-root, or burying her face in thosedear old odors, and lifting it again with smiles shining through thetears in her eyes.

  Not till the very bottom of the trunk had been reached was it emptied ofits last gift, and then there was plenty of need for the mother's help;for the putting away of her scattered wardrobe was a task to which Katecould not quiet her excited nerves. She was almost too happy to eat, butthe supper Aunt Milly had made ready would have put the edge of appetiteon satiety itself.

  "Why, Aunt Milly, a body'd think I was a regular prodigal, to have sucha feast as this set out for me," she declared, at the close of the meal,when it seemed as if every one of her favorite dainties had been heapedupon her plate in turn, but the old woman shook her head at this withemphasis.

  "No ye ain't, honey," she said, "your Aunt Milly never did have no usefor prodigals" (she would probably not have recognized any member of herfamily in that character, however he might have wasted his substance),"but I allers did 'low that them that's a comfort to you were the onesto fix for. 'Pears to me that was a terrible mean-spirited man in theBible that never let 'em set out a kid or anything for the boy that wasso good 'n' steady. _I'd_ have done it, if I'd been cookin' for 'em,sure nuff I would."

  It was, perhaps, the devoted old servant who had pined most for Kate'sreturn, and it was certainly she who was most anxious to have the girlall to herself now that she had fairly come. Mrs. Northmore could wait.The things she cared most to know would be learned best in theunsolicited confidences of the days that were coming, and she feignedsome errand for herself in the edge of evening which gave the girl achance to sit for a little while in the kitchen, with the old womanquestioning her and crooning over her out of the depths of an aboundinglove.

  "We've missed you powerful bad, honey," she said, rocking back andforth, with her eyes fixed in a beaming content on the girl's face."'Spect they didn't put much of it into the letters, but I tell you yourma's been mighty lonesome some of the time. I could see it, if the restcouldn't; and your pa--you could tell how _he_ felt by the way he frettedif the letters didn't come jes' so often. And 'tween you 'n' me hedidn't like it much to have Esther stay all winter, only your ma workedhim round, the way she has, you know. Bless your heart, if they'd wanted_you_ to stay too, dunno what would 'a' happened to us. 'Spect this yerole woman would 'a' been dead 'n' gone before spring. I've been pinin'for you all summer."

  "But I shouldn't have stayed if they had wanted me," Kate saidcheerfully, and then she added with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes,"but really, Aunt Milly, you don't look as if you had been pining. Itrather seems to me you've grown a little stouter since we went away."

  "Laws now, Miss Kate," cried Aunt Milly, "that's jes' some o' yourjokin'." Then, smoothing her ample front with an uneasy expression, sheadded beseechingly: "But you can't tell by the looks o' folks what'sgoin' on inside of 'em. I was powerful puny a spell back. Your pa'lltell you how much medicine he giv' me." Then, her face brighteningagain: "But you or' to see the way I began to pick up when the day wasset for you to come home. 'Peared like the misery jes' cleared out ofitself, an' I reckon I did get back the flesh I lost, with maybe alittle more," she ended serenely.

  "Well, I hope the misery'll stay away for good, now I've come," saidKate, laughing. The sound of voices in the hall told her that a bevy offriends had come to welcome her home, and with another smile at Millyshe was off to meet them, and to begin all over again the account of herbeautiful summer.

  The warmth with which the Western town greets its returning children isone of the pleasant things to have known in one's journey through life.For the next few days Kate's time was full, responding to the welcome ofher friends, asking and answering questions, and adjusting herself againto her own place.

  There was one friend for whom she inquired early, and of him Mrs. Elwellbrought the fullest report when she brought her own greeting to the girlnext morning. Morton had hardly been at home all summer. He had beenbusy, first at one thing, then another, as Kate knew, and now--it wasquite a sudden move--he was with an engineering party in an adjoiningcounty. It seemed he had given some special attention to surveyingduring the last year in college, and, like everything else he gave hismind to, had it so well in hand that it turned to his use and advantage.The work would keep him a few weeks longer, which would make him late ingetting back to school, but the pay was so good he had felt he must makethe most of his chance. She gave one of those little sighs which everyone understood when she talked of her nephew, and then her facebrightened as she added, "But he'll certainly come home before he goesback to college, and we shall see him before so very long."

  At which Kate's face brightened too. There was no one now whom shewanted so much to see as Morton Elwell.