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. ’T was 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 firking 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 spy-glass, 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 every-day 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 ’t was 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 state of society which admitted such personal freedom and a voluntary hermitage. There was something mediæval in the behavior of poor Joanna Todd under a disappointment of the heart. The two women had drawn closer together, and were talking on, quite unconscious of a listener.
“Poor Joanna!” said Mrs. Todd again, and sadly shook her head as if there were things one could not speak about.
“I called her a great fool,” declared Mrs. Fosdick, with spirit, “but I pitied her then, and I pity her far more now. Some other minister would have been a great help to her,—one that preached self-forgetfulness and doin’ for others to cure our own ills; but Parson Dimmick was a vague person, well meanin’, but very numb in his feelin’s. I don’t suppose at that troubled time Joanna could think of any way to mend her troubles except to run off and hide.”
“Mother used to say she didn’t see how Joanna lived without having nobody to do for, getting her own meals and tending her own poor self day in an’ day out,” said Mrs. Todd sorrowfully.
“There was the hens,” repeated Mrs. Fosdick kindly. “I expect she soon came to makin’ folks o’ them. No, I never went to work to blame Joanna, as some did. She was full o’ feeling, and her troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I couldn’t when I was young.”
“I suppose in old times they had their shut-up convents for just such folks,” said Mrs. Todd, as if she and her friend had disagreed about Joanna once, and were now in happy harmony. She seemed to speak with new openness and freedom. “Oh yes, I was only too pleased when the Reverend Mr. Dimmick invited me to go out with him. He hadn’t been very long in the place when Joanna left home and friends. ’T was one day that next summer after she went, and I had been married early in the spring. He felt that he ought to go out and visit her. She was a member of the church, and might wish to have him consider her spiritual state. I wa’n’t so sure o’ that, but I always liked Joanna, and I’d come to be her cousin by marriage. Nathan an’ I had conversed about goin’ out to pay her a visit, but he got his chance to sail sooner ’n he expected. He always thought everything of her, and last time he come home, knowing nothing of her change, he brought her a beautiful coral pin from a port he’d touched at somewheres up the Mediterranean. So I wrapped the little box in a nice piece of paper and put it in my pocket, and picked her a bunch of fresh lemon balm, and off we started.”
Mrs. Fosdick laughed. “I remember hearin’ about your trials on the v’y’ge,” she said.
“Why, yes,” continued Mrs. Todd in her company manner. “I picked her the balm, an’ we started. Why, yes, Susan, the minister liked to have cost me my life that day. He would fasten the sheet, though I advised against it. He said the rope was rough an’ cut his hand. There was a fresh breeze, an’ he went on talking rather high flown, an’ I felt some interested. All of a sudden there come up a gust, and he give a screech and stood right up and called for help, ’way out there to sea. I knocked him right over into the bottom o’ the bo’t, getting by to catch hold of the sheet an’ untie it. He wasn’t but a little man; I helped him right up after the squall passed, and made a handsome apology to him, but he did act kind o’ offended.”
“I do think they ought not to settle them landlocked folks in parishes where they’re liable to be on the water,” insisted Mrs. Fosdick. “Think of the families in our parish that was scattered all about the bay, and what a sight o’ sails you used to see, in Mr. Dimmick’s day, standing across to the mainland on a pleasant Sunday morning, filled with church-going folks, all sure to want him some time or other! You couldn’t find no doctor that would stand up in the boat and screech if a flaw struck her.”
“Old Dr. Bennett had a beautiful sailboat, didn’t he?” responded Mrs. Todd. “And how well he used to brave the weather! Mother always said that in time o’ trouble that tall white sail used to look like an angel’s wing comin’ over the sea to them that was in pain. Well, there’s a difference in gifts. Mr. Dimmick was not without light.”
“ ’T was light o’ the moon, then,” snapped Mrs. Fosdick; “he was pompous enough, but I never could remembe
r a single word he said. There, go on, Mis’ Todd; I forget a great deal about that day you went to see poor Joanna.”
“I felt she saw us coming, and knew us a great way off; yes, I seemed to feel it within me,” said our friend, laying down her knitting. “I kept my seat, and took the bo’t inshore without saying a word; there was a short channel that I was sure Mr. Dimmick wasn’t acquainted with, and the tide was very low. She never came out to warn us off nor anything, and I thought, as I hauled the bo’t up on a wave and let the Reverend Mr. Dimmick step out, that it was somethin’ gained to be safe ashore. There was a little smoke out o’ the chimney o’ Joanna’s house, and it did look sort of homelike and pleasant with wild mornin’-glory vines trained up; an’ there was a plot o’ flowers under the front window, portulacas and things. I believe she’d made a garden once, when she was stopping there with her father, and some things must have seeded in. It looked as if she might have gone over to the other side of the island. ’T was neat and pretty all about the house, and a lovely day in July. We walked up from the beach together very sedate, and I felt for poor Nathan’s little pin to see if ’t was safe in my dress pocket. All of a sudden Joanna come right to the fore door and stood there, not sayin’ a word.”
14.
The Hermitage.
MY COMPANIONS AND I had been so intent upon the subject of the conversation that we had not heard any one open the gate, but at this moment, above the noise of the rain, we heard a loud knocking. We were all startled as we sat by the fire, and Mrs. Todd rose hastily and went to answer the call, leaving her rocking-chair in violent motion. Mrs. Fosdick and I heard an anxious voice at the door speaking of a sick child, and Mrs. Todd’s kind, motherly voice inviting the messenger in: then we waited in silence. There was a sound of heavy dropping of rain from the eaves, and the distant roar and undertone of the sea. My thoughts flew back to the lonely woman on her outer island; what separation from humankind she must have felt, what terror and sadness, even in a summer storm like this!
“You send right after the doctor if she ain’t better in half an hour,” said Mrs. Todd to her worried customer as they parted; and I felt a warm sense of comfort in the evident resources of even so small a neighborhood, but for the poor hermit Joanna there was no neighbor on a winter night.
“How did she look?” demanded Mrs. Fosdick, without preface, as our large hostess returned to the little room with a mist about her from standing long in the wet doorway, and the sudden draught of her coming beat out the smoke and flame from the Franklin stove. “How did poor Joanna look?”
“She was the same as ever, except I thought she looked smaller,” answered Mrs. Todd after thinking a moment; perhaps it was only a last considering thought about her patient. “Yes, she was just the same, and looked very nice, Joanna did. I had been married since she left home, an’ she treated me like her own folks. I expected she’d look strange, with her hair turned gray in a night or somethin’, but she wore a pretty gingham dress I’d often seen her wear before she went away; she must have kept it nice for best in the afternoons. She always had beautiful, quiet manners. I remember she waited till we were close to her, and then kissed me real affectionate, and inquired for Nathan before she shook hands with the minister, and then she invited us both in. ’T was the same little house her father had built him when he was a bachelor, with one livin’-room, and a little mite of a bedroom out of it where she slept, but ’t was neat as a ship’s cabin. There was some old chairs, an’ a seat made of a long box that might have held boat tackle an’ things to lock up in his fishin’ days, and a good enough stove so anybody could cook and keep warm in cold weather. I went over once from home and stayed ’most a week with Joanna when we was girls, and those young happy days rose up before me. Her father was busy all day fishin’ or clammin’; he was one o’ the pleasantest men in the world, but Joanna’s mother had the grim streak, and never knew what ’t was to be happy. The first minute my eyes fell upon Joanna’s face that day I saw how she had grown to look like Mis’ Todd. ’T was the mother right over again.”
“Oh dear me!” said Mrs. Fosdick.
“Joanna had done one thing very pretty. There was a little piece o’ swamp on the island where good rushes grew plenty, and she’d gathered ’em, and braided some beautiful mats for the floor and a thick cushion for the long bunk. She’d showed a good deal of invention; you see there was a nice chance to pick up pieces o’ wood and boards that drove ashore, and she’d made good use o’ what she found. There wasn’t no clock, but she had a few dishes on a shelf, and flowers set about in shells fixed to the walls, so it did look sort of homelike, though so lonely and poor. I couldn’t keep the tears out o’ my eyes, I felt so sad. I said to myself, I must get mother to come over an’ see Joanna; the love in mother’s heart would warm her, an’ she might be able to advise.”
“Oh no, Joanna was dreadful stern,” said Mrs. Fosdick.
“We were all settin’ down very proper, but Joanna would keep stealin’ glances at me as if she was glad I come. She had but little to say; she was real polite an’ gentle, and yet forbiddin’. The minister found it hard,” confessed Mrs. Todd; “he got embarrassed, an’ when he put on his authority and asked her if she felt to enjoy religion in her present situation, an’ she replied that she must be excused from answerin’, I thought I should fly. She might have made it easier for him; after all, he was the minister and had taken some trouble to come out, though ’t was kind of cold an’ unfeelin’ the way he inquired. I thought he might have seen the little old Bible a-layin’ on the shelf close by him, an’ I wished he knew enough to just lay his hand on it an’ read somethin’ kind an’ fatherly ’stead of accusin’ her, an’ then given poor Joanna his blessin’ with the hope she might be led to comfort. He did offer prayer, but ’t was all about hearin’ the voice o’ God out o’ the whirlwind; and I thought while he was goin’ on that anybody that had spent the long cold winter all alone out on Shell heap Island knew a good deal more about those things than he did. I got so provoked I opened my eyes and stared right at him.
“She didn’t take no notice, she kep’ a nice respectful manner towards him, and when there come a pause she asked if he had any interest about the old Indian remains, and took down some queer stone gouges and hammers off of one of her shelves and showed them to him same’s if he was a boy. He remarked that he’d like to walk over an’ see the shell-heap; so she went right to the door and pointed him the way. I see then that she’d made her some kind o’ sandal-shoes out o’ the fine rushes to wear on her feet; she stepped light an’ nice in ’em as shoes.”
Mrs. Fosdick leaned back in her rocking-chair and gave a heavy sigh.
“I didn’t move at first, but I’d held out just as long as I could,” said Mrs. Todd, whose voice trembled a little. “When Joanna returned from the door, an’ I could see that man’s stupid back departin’ among the wild rose bushes, I just ran to her an’ caught her in my arms. I wasn’t so big as I be now, and she was older than me, but I hugged her tight, just as if she was a child. ‘Oh, Joanna dear,’ I says, ‘won’t you come ashore an’ live ’long o’ me at the Landin’, or go over to Green Island to mother’s when winter comes? Nobody shall trouble you, an’ mother finds it hard bein’ alone. I can’t bear to leave you here’—and I burst right out crying. I’d had my own trials, young as I was, an’ she knew it. Oh, I did entreat her; yes, I entreated Joanna.”
“What did she say then?” asked Mrs. Fosdick, much moved.
“She looked the same way, sad an’ remote through it all,” said Mrs. Todd mournfully. “She took hold of my hand, and we sat down close together; ’t was as if she turned round an’ made a child of me. ‘I haven’t got no right to live with folks no more,’ she said. ‘You must never ask me again, Almiry: I’ve done the only thing I could do, and I’ve made my choice. I feel a great comfort in your kindness, but I don’t deserve it. I have committed the unpardonable sin; you don’t understand,’ says she humbly. ‘I was in great wrath and tro
uble, and my thoughts was so wicked towards God that I can’t expect ever to be forgiven. I have come to know what it is to have patience, but I have lost my hope. You must tell those that ask how ’t is with me,’ she said, ‘an’ tell them I want to be alone.’ I couldn’t speak; no, there wa’n’t anything I could say, she seemed so above everything common. I was a good deal younger then than I be now, and I got Nathan’s little coral pin out o’ my pocket and put it into her hand; and when she saw it and I told her where it come from, her face did really light up for a minute, sort of bright an’ pleasant. ‘Nathan an’ I was always good friends; I’m glad he don’t think hard of me,’ says she. ‘I want you to have it, Almiry, an’ wear it for love o’ both o’ us,’ and she handed it back to me. ‘You give my love to Nathan,—he’s a dear good man,’ she said; ‘an’ tell your mother, if I should be sick she mustn’t wish I could get well, but I want her to be the one to come.’ Then she seemed to have said all she wanted to, as if she was done with the world, and we sat there a few minutes longer together. It was real sweet and quiet except for a good many birds and the sea rollin’ up on the beach; but at last she rose, an’ I did too, and she kissed me and held my hand in hers a minute, as if to say good-by; then she turned and went right away out o’ the door and disappeared.
“The minister come back pretty soon, and I told him I was all ready, and we started down to the bo’t. He had picked up some round stones and things and was carrying them in his pocket-handkerchief; an’ he sat down amidships without making any question, and let me take the rudder an’ work the bo’t, an’ made no remarks for some time, until we sort of eased it off speaking of the weather, an’ subjects that arose as we skirted Black Island, where two or three families lived belongin’ to the parish. He preached next Sabbath as usual, somethin’ high soundin’ about the creation, and I couldn’t help thinkin’ he might never get no further; he seemed to know no remedies, but he had a great use of words.”
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Selected Short Fiction Page 10