“Father was not home, but I am sure he would not have prevented me if he had been. Father has no hard feelings against you, Uncle Richard.”
“Humph!” said Uncle Richard. “Well, since you’ve cooked the dinner you must stop and help me eat it. It smells good, I must say. Mrs. Janeway always burns pork when she roasts it. Sit down, Prissy. I’m hungry.”
They sat down. Prissy felt quite giddy and breathless, and could hardly eat for excitement; but Uncle Richard had evidently brought home a good appetite from Navarre, and he did full justice to his New Year’s dinner. He talked to Prissy too, quite kindly and politely, and when the meal was over he said slowly:
“I’m much obliged to you, Prissy, and I don’t mind owning to you that I’m sorry for my share in the quarrel, and have wanted for a long time to be friends with your father again, but I was too ashamed and proud to make the first advance. You can tell him so for me, if you like. And if he’s willing to let bygones be bygones, tell him I’d like him to come up here with you tonight when he gets home and spend the evening with me.”
“Oh, he will come, I know!” cried Prissy joyfully. “He has felt so badly about not being friendly with you, Uncle Richard. I’m as glad as can be.”
Prissy ran impulsively around the table and kissed Uncle Richard. He looked up at his tall, girlish niece with a smile of pleasure.
“You’re a good girl, Prissy, and a kind-hearted one too, or you’d never have come up here to cook a dinner for a crabbed old uncle who deserved to eat cold dinners for his stubbornness. It made me cross today when folks wished me a happy New Year. It seemed like mockery when I hadn’t a soul belonging to me to make it happy. But it has brought me happiness already, and I believe it will be a happy year all the way through.”
“Indeed it will!” laughed Prissy. “I’m so happy now I could sing. I believe it was an inspiration — my idea of coming up here to cook your dinner for you.”
“You must promise to come and cook my New Year’s dinner for me every New Year we live near enough together,” said Uncle Richard.
And Prissy promised.
White Magic
One September afternoon in the year of grace 1840 Avery and Janet Sparhallow were picking apples in their Uncle Daniel Sparhallow’s big orchard. It was an afternoon of mellow sunshine; about them, beyond the orchard, were old harvest fields, mellowly bright and serene, and beyond the fields the sapphire curve of the St. Lawrence Gulf was visible through the groves of spruce and birch. There was a soft whisper of wind in the trees, and the pale purple asters that feathered the orchard grass swayed gently towards each other. Janet Sparhallow, who loved the outdoor world and its beauty, was, for the time being at least, very happy, as her little brown face, with its fine, satiny skin, plainly showed. Avery Sparhallow did not seem so happy. She worked rather abstractedly and frowned oftener than she smiled.
Avery Sparhallow was conceded to be a beauty, and had no rival in Burnley Beach. She was very pretty, with the obvious, indisputable prettiness of rich black hair, vivid, certain colour, and laughing, brilliant eyes. Nobody ever called Janet a beauty, or even thought her pretty. She was only seventeen — five years younger than Avery — and was rather lanky and weedy, with a rope of straight dark-brown hair, long, narrow, shining brown eyes and very black lashes, and a crooked, clever little mouth. She had visitations of beauty when excited, because then she flushed deeply, and colour made all the difference in the world to her; but she had never happened to look in the glass when excited, so that she had never seen herself beautiful; and hardly anybody else had ever seen her so, because she was always too shy and awkward and tongue-tied in company to feel excited over anything. Yet very little could bring that transforming flush to her face: a wind off the gulf, a sudden glimpse of blue upland, a flame-red poppy, a baby’s laugh, a certain footstep. As for Avery Sparhallow, she never got excited over anything — not even her wedding dress, which had come from Charlottetown that day, and was incomparably beyond anything that had ever been seen in Burnley Beach before. For it was made of an apple-green silk, sprayed over with tiny rosebuds, which had been specially sent for to England, where Aunt Matilda Sparhallow had a brother in the silk trade. Avery Sparhallow’s wedding dress was making far more of a sensation in Burnley Beach than her wedding itself was making. For Randall Burnley had been dangling after her for three years, and everybody knew that there was nobody for a Sparhallow to marry except a Burnley and nobody for a Burnley to marry except a Sparhallow.
“Only one silk dress — and I want a dozen,” Avery had said scornfully.
“What would you do with a dozen silk dresses on a farm?” Janet asked wonderingly.
“Oh — what indeed?” agreed Avery, with an impatient laugh.
“Randall will think just as much of you in drugget as in silk,” said Janet, meaning to comfort.
Again Avery laughed.
“That is true. Randall never notices what a woman has on. I like a man who does notice — and tells me about it. I like a man who likes me better in silk than in drugget. I will wear this rosebud silk when I’m married, and it will be supposed to last me the rest of my life and be worn on all state occasions, and in time become an heirloom like Aunt Matilda’s hideous blue satin. I want a new silk dress every month.”
Janet paid little attention to this kind of raving. Avery had always been more or less discontented. She would be contented enough after she was married. Nobody could be discontented who was Randall Burnley’s wife. Janet was sure of that.
Janet liked picking apples; Avery did not like it; but Aunt Matilda had decreed that the red apples should be picked that afternoon, and Aunt Matilda’s word was law at the Sparhallow farm, even for wilful Avery. So they worked and talked as they worked — of Avery’s wedding, which was to be as soon as Bruce Gordon should arrive from Scotland.
“I wonder what Bruce will be like,” said Avery. “It is eight years since he went home to Scotland. He was sixteen then — he will be twenty-four now. He went away a boy — he will come back a man.”
“I don’t remember much about him,” said Janet. “I was only nine when he went away. He used to tease me — I do remember that.” There was a little resentment in her voice. Janet had never liked being teased. Avery laughed.
“You were so touchy, Janet. Touchy people always get teased. Bruce was very handsome — and as nice as he was handsome. Those two years he was here were the nicest, gayest time I ever had. I wish he had stayed in Canada. But of course he wouldn’t do that. His father was a rich man and Bruce was ambitious. Oh, Janet, I wish I could live in the old land. That would be life.”
Janet had heard all this before and could not understand it. She had no hankering for either Scotland or England. She loved the new land and its wild, virgin beauty. She yearned to the future, never to the past.
“I’m tired of Burnley Beach,” Avery went on passionately, shaking apples wildly off a laden bough by way of emphasis. “I know all the people — what they are — what they can be. It’s like reading a book for the twentieth time. I know where I was born and who I’ll marry — and where I’ll be buried. That’s knowing too much. All my days will be alike when I marry Randall. There will never be anything unexpected or surprising about them. I tell you Janet,” Avery seized another bough and shook it with a vengeance, “I hate the very thought of it.”
“The thought of — what?” said Janet in bewilderment.
“Of marrying Randall Burnley — or marrying anybody down here — and settling down on a farm for life.”
Then Avery sat down on the rung of her ladder and laughed at Janet’s face.
“You look stunned, Janet. Did you really think I wanted to marry Randall?”
Janet was stunned, and she did think that. How could any girl not want to marry Randall Burnley if she had the chance?
“Don’t you love him?” she asked stupidly.
Avery bit into a nut-sweet apple.
“No,” she said frankly. “Oh, I don�
�t hate him, of course. I like him well enough. I like him very well. But we’ll quarrel all our lives.”
“Then what are you marrying him for?” asked Janet.
“Why, I’m getting on — twenty-two — all the girls of my age are married already. I won’t be an old maid, and there’s nobody but Randall. Nobody good enough for a Sparhallow, that is. You wouldn’t want me to marry Ned Adams or John Buchanan, would you?”
“No,” said Janet, who had her full share of the Sparhallow pride.
“Well, then, of course I must marry Randall. That’s settled and there’s no use making faces over the notion. I’m not making faces, but I’m tired of hearing you talk as if you thought I adored him and must be in the seventh heaven because I was going to marry him, you romantic child.”
“Does Randall know you feel like this?” asked Janet in a low tone.
“No. Randall is like all men — vain and self-satisfied — and believes I’m crazy about him. It’s just as well to let him think so, until we’re safely married anyhow. Randall has some romantic notions too, and I’m not sure that he’d marry me if he knew, in spite of his three years’ devotion. And I have no intention of being jilted three weeks before my wedding day.”
Avery laughed again, and tossed away the core of her apple.
Janet, who had been very pale, went crimson and lovely. She could not endure hearing Randall criticized. “Vain and self-satisfied” — when there was never a man less so! She was horrified to feel that she almost hated Avery — Avery who did not love Randall.
“What a pity Randall didn’t take a fancy to you instead of me, Janet,” said Avery teasingly. “Wouldn’t you like to marry him, Janet? Wouldn’t you now?”
“No,” cried Janet angrily. “I just like Randall, I’ve liked him ever since that day when I was a little thing and he came here and saved me from being shut up all day in that dreadful dark closet because I broke Aunt Matilda’s blue cup — when I hadn’t meant to break it. He wouldn’t let her shut me up! He is like that — he understands! I want you to marry him because he wants you, and it isn’t fair that you — that you—”
“Nothing is fair in this world, child. Is it fair that I, who am so pretty — you know I am pretty, Janet — and who love life and excitement, should have to be buried on a P.E. Island farm all my days? Or else be an old maid because a Sparhallow mustn’t marry beneath her? Come, Janet, don’t look so woebegone. I wouldn’t have told you if I’d thought you’d take it so much to heart. I’ll be a good wife to Randall, never fear, and I’ll keep him up to the notch of prosperity much better than if I thought him a little lower than the angels. It doesn’t do to think a man perfection, Janet, because he thinks so too, and when he finds someone who agrees with him he is inclined to rest on his oars.”
“At any rate, you don’t care for anyone else,” said Janet hopefully.
“Not I. I like Randall as well as I like anybody.”
“Randall won’t be satisfied with that,” muttered Janet. But Avery did not hear her, having picked up her basket of apples and gone. Janet sat down on the lower rung of the ladder and gave herself up to an unpleasant reverie. Oh, how the world had changed in half an hour! She had never been so worried in her life. She was so fond of Randall — she had always been fond of him — why, he was just like a brother to her! She couldn’t possibly love a brother more. And Avery was going to hurt him; it would hurt him horribly when he found out she did not love him. Janet could not bear the thought of Randall being hurt; it made her fairly savage. He must not be hurt — Avery must love him. Janet could not understand why she did not.
Surely everyone must love Randall. It had never occurred to Janet to ask herself, as Avery had asked, if she would like to marry Randall. Randall could never fancy her — a little plain, brown thing, only half grown. Nobody could think of her beside beautiful, rose-faced Avery. Janet accepted this fact unquestioningly. She had never been jealous. She only felt that she wanted Randall to have everything he wanted — to be perfectly happy. Why, it would be dreadful if he did not marry Avery — if he went and married some other girl. She would never see him then, never have any more delightful talks with him about all the things they both loved so much — winds and delicate dawns, mysterious woods in moonlight and starry midnights, silver-white sails going out of the harbour in the magic of morning, and the grey of gulf storms. There would be nothing in life; it would just be one great, unbearable emptiness; for she, herself, would never marry. There was nobody for her to marry — and she didn’t care. If she could have Randall for a real brother, she would not mind a bit being an old maid. And there was that beautiful new frame house Randall had built for his bride, which she, Janet, had helped him build, because Avery would not condescend to details of pantry and linen closet and cupboards. Janet and Randall had had such fun over the cupboards. No stranger must ever come to be mistress of that house. Randall must marry Avery, and she must love him. Could anything be done to make her love him?
“I believe I’ll go and see Granny Thomas,” said Janet desperately.
She thought this was a silly idea, but it still haunted her and would not be shaken off. Granny Thomas was a very old woman who lived at Burnley Cove and was reputed to be something of a witch. That is, people who were not Sparhallows or Burnleys gave her that name. Sparhallows or Burnleys, of course, were above believing in such nonsense. Janet was above believing it; but still — the sailors along shore were careful to “keep on the good side” of Granny Thomas, lest she brew an unfavourable wind for them, and there was much talk of love potions. Janet knew that people said Peggy Buchanan would never have got Jack McLeod if Granny had not given her a love potion. Jack had never looked at Peggy, though she was after him for years; and then, all at once, he was quite mad about her — and married her — and wore her life out with jealousy. And Peggy, the homeliest of all the Buchanan girls! There must be something in it. Janet made a sudden desperate resolve. She would go to Granny and ask her for a love potion to make Avery love Randall. If Granny couldn’t do any good, she couldn’t do any harm. Janet was a little afraid of her, and had never been near her house, but what wouldn’t she do for Randall?
Janet never lost much time in carrying out any resolution she made. The next afternoon she slipped away to visit Granny Thomas. She put on her longest dress and did her hair up for the first time. Granny must not think her a child. She rowed herself down the long pond to the row of golden-brown sand dunes that parted it from the gulf. It was a wonderful autumn day. There were wild growths and colours and scents in sweet procession all around the pond. Every curve in it revealed some little whim of loveliness. On the left bank, in a grove of birch, was Randall’s new house, waiting to be sanctified by love and joy and birth. Janet loved to be alone thus with the delightful day. She was sorry when she had walked over the stretch of windy weedy sea fields and reached Granny’s little tumbledown house at the Cove — sorry and a little frightened as well. But only a little; there was good stuff in Janet; she lifted the latch boldly and walked in when Granny bade. Granny was curled up on a stool by her fireplace, and if ever anybody did look like a witch, she did. She waved her pipe at another stool, and Janet sat down, gazing a little curiously at Granny, whom she had never seen at such close quarters before.
Will I look like that when I am very old? she thought, beholding Granny’s wizened, marvellously wrinkled face. I wonder if anybody will be sorry when you die.
“Staring wasn’t thought good manners in my time,” said Granny. Then, as Janet blushed crimson under the rebuke, she added, “Keep red like that instead o’ white, and you won’t need no love ointment.”
Janet felt a little cold thrill. How did Granny know what she had come for? Was she a real witch after all? For a moment she wished she hadn’t come. Perhaps it was not right to tamper with the powers of darkness. Peggy Buchanan was notoriously unhappy. If Janet had known how to get herself away, she would have gone without asking for anything.
Then a sound c
ame from the lean-to behind the house.
“S-s-h. I hear the devil grunting like a pig,” muttered Granny, looking very impish.
But Janet smiled a little contemptuously. She knew it was a pig and no devil. Granny Thomas was only an old fraud. Her awe passed away and left her cool Sparhallow.
“Can you,” she said with her own directness, “make a — a person care for another person — care — very much?”
Granny removed her pipe and chuckled.
“What you want is toad ointment,” she said.
Toad ointment! Janet shuddered. That did not sound very nice. Granny noticed the shudder.
“Nothing like it,” she said, nodding her crone-like old grey head. “There’s other things, but noan so sure. Put a li’l bit — oh, such a li’l bit — on his eyelids, and he’s yourn for life. You need something powerful — you’re noan so pretty — only when you’re blushing.”
Janet was blushing again. So Granny thought she wanted the charm for herself! Well, what did it matter? Randall was the only one to be considered.
“Is it very — expensive?” she faltered. She had not much money. Money was no plentiful thing on a P.E.I. farm in 1840.
“Oh, noa — oh, noa,” Granny leered. “I don’t sell it. I gives it. I like to see young folks happy. You don’t need much, as I’ve said — just a li’l smootch and you’ll have your man, and send old Granny a bite o’ the wedding cake and fig o’ baccy for luck, and a bid to the fir-r-st christening! Doan’t forget that, dearie.”
Janet was cold again with anger. She hated old Granny Thomas. She would never come near her again.
“I’d rather pay you its worth,” she said coldly.
“You couldn’t, dearie. What money could be eno’ for such a treasure? But that’s the Sparhallow pride. Well, go, see if the Sparhallow pride and the Sparhallow money will buy you your lad’s love.”
Granny looked so angry that Janet hastened to appease her.
“Oh, please forgive me — I meant no offence. Only — it must have cost you much trouble to make it.”
The Complete Works of L M Montgomery Page 740