THREE SUCCESSFUL GIRLS.

 

by

JULIA CROUCH.


New York:

Published by Hurd and Houghton.

Cambridge: Riverside Press.

1871

 

 

 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by

JULIA CROUCH,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

 

 

 

 

DEDICATION.

 

To

 

MY FATHER AND MOTHER,

 

whose affection for me, and interest in all my plans, have never failed; to my brother and sisters in this world, and in the world beyond, and to the dear old home where we have all lived and loved and been happy,

 

This Book,

 

with tender affection,

 

IS INSCRIBED.

 

 

 

Page 1

 

CHAPTER I.

WASHING DAY.

 

“HERE, Mary, is the last of this tubful. Tuck them into the boiler, please, and put a stick of wood into the stove.

“How red your face is, Kate! Don’t work over that hot suds any longer now, but help me rinse these clothes in this cold water.”

Hannah said this one charming Monday morning, the summer before she found herself in New York city.

Washing day may be considered an unfavorable time to introduce young ladies in their home; but in this case it is pardonable, as I am aware that my three girls never appeared to better advantage than on this, day, and were never in better spirits, or enjoyed themselves more intensely.

Monday morning is generally considered one of the bugbears of domestic life, and is looked forward to with dread and dislike, an unnecessary but lamentable fact. However, this was not the case with the Windsor family. There was no day during the whole week pleasanter or more enjoyed. The great copper boiler on the stove had a cheery, rather than a dismal look.

 

Page 2

 

The tubs, washboard, and other implements of washing placed in pompous array on the old shady porch made everybody laugh merrier, and step about with nimbler feet. No hired washerwoman ever came around to put restraint on the busy tongues that had so much more to communicate on this day than any other. Hannah, Kate, and Mary took the washing into their own hands, and left mother with the general housework; for she was not over strong, and had done enough hard work in her life, the girls declared, to warrant her a little rest. They were not remarkably early risers, which fact made known may be a detriment to them in the eyes of many farmers; but this was in part owing to the somewhat peculiar notion of their mother, that youth needed plenty of sleep, and one was not necessarily lazy who took a pleasant nap in the morning. Therefore it often occurred that neighbor Dyke’s clothes-line had a few fluttering white garments pinned to it before the Windsor wash was commenced; and the girls would espy them, laugh good- naturedly, and often hold a conversation something like the following: —

“Come here, girls, and look across the field! I should think Sally’s wash was half out, certain, and ours isn’t commenced,” was the very common remark of one of them.

“The clothes look white, too,” Hannah would say; “but, dear me! Sally doesn’t enjoy it at all, and I dare say she hardly gives herself time to eat her breakfast.”

Then Kate: —

“It is a day of ‘tremendous jerks,’ Adonijah says; ‘everything tubs, and hot water, and soft soap, and Sally in a fret and a worry, and nothing but crumbs for breakfast and dinner.’”

 

Page 3

 

“I like our way best,” says Mary, “because we have such a splendid time; and I’m sure we find as much leisure as Sally, if we don’t get up quite so early in the morning.”

“Sally makes everything hard work, and seems to think the beauty of life—if she thinks it has any beauty—is scrubbing floors white, etc. We try to combine work and pleasure together, and I think we succeed very well,” Hannah remarks; and so they chat away merrily.

I shall give a description of one washing day, which is similar to all the rest, and proves that even this much abused and dreaded day may be made pleasant and enjoyable. There they are, all three of them, on the porch in the midst of washing implements; no crinoline—short calico dresses, displaying little stout boots and clean stockings; arms and hands gleaming white, for somehow these girls would have white hands, in spite of all their housework; and, above all, smiling, intelligent faces, and the busiest tongues, that kept up such a continual clatter that a person hearing them at a distance would be impressed with the idea that a half-dozen magpies were somewhere in the vicinity. To say that no gossip entered into the conversation would be a ridiculous thing to say of three merry young girls, who went to meeting on Sunday; but gossip, though it entered in largely, was by no means the chief topic.

“There!” said Kate, “if this suds doesn’t look for all the world like that heap of clouds yonder!” straightening herself over the wash-tub, and looking first at the bubbles of snowy suds, and then up at the sky.

“What a comparison!” said Hannah, “soap-suds and floating clouds!”

 

Page 4

 

“That is only combining the ornamental with the useful,” said Kate; “and when I’m at work, I want to find as many beauties in the labor as possible.”

“You’ll find all there is to find, you little matter-of- fact,” said Mary. “I wonder if Sally ever thought of her soap-suds looking like the clouds.”

“Doubtful,” said Hannah. “Clouds receive very little of her attention, I’m thinking, except when they threaten to bring rain, and sprinkle her clothes more than is desirable. Yesterday, as I came along a little distance with her from church, I remarked that the sky appeared unusually attractive. She turned up her face quickly, scanned the whole heavens, and then said, ‘I do hope it will be pleasant to-morrow, so I can get my clothes out; for last week I was obliged to leave them in the rinsing water till Tuesday morning. I had a mind to ask her if nothing ever really pleased her eye or tickled her fancy, but I didn’t.”

“Well, I do pity Sally,” said Kate; “I don’t see how she can have any real enjoyment; for, really, if I couldn’t see beyond my work, if I couldn’t live above it, I mean, I should be perfectly miserable.”

“Why, no, you wouldn’t,” said Hannah; “you of course wouldn’t enjoy what you do now, but you wouldn’t have any taste or idea of it, and therefore wouldn’t long for it or miss it. Sally is happy enough in her way; but it cannot be the best or highest way I am sure.”

“I don’t see what ails Sally, to be so, entirely regardless of beauty and abstract ideas,” said Mary. “Adonijah is more appreciative than she is, and he often makes some original remark that causes me to feel like bursting out into laughter; but I never dare to even smile, he is so sensitive.”

 

Page 5

 

“He can combine the ornamental with the useful quite as well as Kate,” said Hannah. “Here is an apron for you to starch, Mary. That strawberry stain positively never will come out, for I gave it a dangerous rubbing.”

“Mother can get it out easy enough,” said Kate; “can’t you, mother?” she asked in a louder voice.

Mother was in the kitchen, but she went and looked out on the porch.

“What is it that I can do?” she said.

“Get the strawberry stain out of my apron,” said Kate. “Adonijah brought me a bunch of wild strawberries yesterday; and before I knew he had any, for he carried them behind him, he put them right into my apron.”

“Just like Adonijah,” laughed mother; “he wanted to surprise and please you at the same time; but the stain will come out easily by pouring hot water upon it.”

“So I thought,” said Kate, as she flung a snowy skirt into a white clothes-basket. There was silence for a short time, and then Hannah said abruptly, “Twenty dollars! what is that? only a drop in the bucket.”

“However, it’s five more than fifteen,” put in Mary understandingly.

“And it only lacks five of being twenty-five,” said Kate.

“O, that’s all plain enough to be seen; but because it’s more or less than something else don’t make it anything but twenty dollars,” said Hannah, “and what will twenty dollars do?”

“Why, it is a heap of money, and will do a good deal. It will pay your fare to New York, and board you quite a little time,” said Mary encouragingly.

“Yes, quite a little time, sure enough,” said Han-

 

Page 6

 

nah, smoothing her brown hair back with her wet hands, and leaning against the great blue tub. “Mamie is such a little goosie, I do believe she thinks twenty dollars would board me half the winter; but I know something about how money goes in cities. You might keep a dollar at home here six months, but a dollar in New York would vanish away before one was aware. Don’t you believe it, Kate?”

“Well, I suppose we should have to pay for everything in New York, and that would be different from what it would be at home; but we might be economical, and not make a purchase at every peanut stand we come to,” said Kate.

“I like peanuts most dreadfully,” said Mary, “but I’d no more spend a cent of my fifteen dollars for one than I would go a-begging. What are peanuts in comparison to music?” Mary had been exercising, and her cheeks were very red as she stood in the door that led from the porch to the kitchen, with her thumbs in the bib of her apron, and her eyes sparkling. The girls stood up and laughed merrily, and Mary joined them, but said, after the laughter had somewhat subsided, —

“Well, I don’t see what you are laughing at, after all. I mean that I wouldn’t spend my money for sweetmeats. I think it’s foolish, don’t you, mother?”

“Mary thinks she has advanced an original idea,” laughed Kate, “and goes to mother for sanction, when it is just what mother has always taught her.”

“I think you all understand the sweetmeat subject pretty well; but how is it about useless articles of dress?” said mother.

“Mary must answer that,”‘ said Hannah. “You all know I never trouble myself with such things.”

 

Page 7

 

“I think a charming little hat, trimmed in French pink rose buds, would tempt Mary before the peanuts would,” said Kate.

“Who was it that was longing for a black silk velvet dress and a diamond ring last night? You know, Hannah,” said Mary a little triumphantly.

“Well, I should think that was the height of extravagance,” said mother, looking at Kate, and laughing.

“Well, it was of course,” said Kate, “but I was only referring to the time when I shall be rich, and then it won’t be extravagance. I hardly think my twenty-five dollars will help get it.”

“Perhaps such fancies do no harm,” said mother, “but I don’t think a velvet dress would make you feel any happier than your white lawn one does, that you have just washed so nicely.”

“I guess it would,” said Mary; “for she said yesterday it was getting to be so old and thin, she was ashamed of it”—

“Mary is a little tell-tale, there!” said Kate, blushing and laughing. “I’m not really ashamed of it, but I was thinking I would like a new one. There! here is a basket of clothes to take to the line: who’ll go with me?”

“I will,” said Hannah, ‘“ if you‘ll pass me my sun-bonnet and gloves. Now, Mary, you take those clothes from the boiler while we are gone, and have them ready to rinse when we get back.”

In long sun-bonnets, and gloves with half of each finger gone, together the girls lifted the clothes-basket, and bore it out to the long clothes-line, beneath which the grass was fresh and green. Talking busily and earnestly, they pinned the white garments one by one

 

Page 8

 

to the line, and the June breeze swayed and folded and unfolded them; and the sun, yet in the east, flung warm rays upon them, and made them as white as snow.

When the last garment was gone from the basket, the two little washerwomen sat down under an old pear-tree near, and with their feet in the cool grass they plucked at the daisies and clover, and talked earnestly.

“I must go,” said Kate; “I must learn something. I am old enough, —as old as Daniel Stearns was when he went away from home, —two years older; and he is a rich man now. Shall I be a silly girl, and sacrifice the mines of knowledge I might explore? Shall the mere fact that I am a girl keep me from being what my heart yearns for?” The black eyes flashed. Firm lines settled around the red lips, as Kate changed her easy, idle position, and sat stiffly looking into her sister’s face. “I have always been sorry that I wasn’t a boy,” she continued; “but because I’m a girl, I won’t be a ninny. You may take note of that, Hannah.”

Very serious note was taken of it by Hannah, who tore the crimson clover-tops in pieces, and pushed her long bonnet a little back from her face. “ O, dear Kate,” she said, “if we only could go! If we were sure it would be best! You must go, Kate. I am sure you have talent, and here it will be cramped, and at last lost from sight. Take my money with yours, which, with that you expect to make before fall, will keep you a few months at least, and go to New York. We will all help you, and you can go comfortably.”

“No,” said Kate, shaking her head, “not a cent of your money when you are as anxious to go as I. Be-

 

Page 9

 

sides, money would not do me half the good that yourself would, and you must go with me.”

“It would be pleasanter,” said Hannah, “but it takes twice as much to support two as one. And then Mary never would stay at home if we should go.”

“Yes, that is just what worries me a little. Mary is so enthusiastic on the subject, and I don’t think she realizes the hardships we must endure; and then what can she do if she goes?”

There was a sudden spring behind the girls, a little sudden laugh, and Mary darted between them with her hands full of clover, which she tossed into their laps and faces.

“I’ve heard what you said about me, you lazy washerwomen, sitting in the shade while the sun is almost at the noon point, and the wash not out. You undoubtedly would have sat here till sunset without your dinner or supper, if I hadn’t come to break up your slanderous conversation. I shall go to New York, though; you may have as many sly talks about it as you please. I have got fifteen dollars toward it, and I can do as much as you can.”

“I wish you had stayed away a while longer, Miss Eavesdropper; but as you have forced your company upon us, we will not mind you, but keep on with our talk,” said Hannah. “I don’t know why Mary can’t stay at home this winter; she isn’t but eighteen and a half. By next winter, you know, Mary, we shall be accustomed to the city; and then it will be so much easier for you. Only think what a time we’ll have with you tagging us about, homesick and discouraged, hungry and everything!”

“Tagging you about!” said Mary scornfully. “I’ll do no such thing. I’ll take care of myself, and I shan’t

 

Page 10

 

get any more homesick, discouraged, or hungry than you will. Pooh! I guess I’m not quite a ninny, and I can live on crackers a good while; I like them.”

“How are you going to pay for your music lessons?” asked Kate.

“Father’ll give me the money. He will give all of us some, and I shall get a few scholars, and live quite respectably. I shall go; I’ve settled it thoroughly in my mind. So don’t waste your time trying to persuade me differently. I have no idea of being persuaded; but if we remain idle much longer the wash won’t be through till dinner time. There comes old Dan Pike and Maurice. I wonder where they’re going to.”

The girls took more dignified positions, and brushed the clover from their aprons as the rough old farmer and his son passed along through the green yard. “You’re a-takin’ it easy, gals, takin’ it easy,” said Daniel, in a voice which sounded much like the bark of a little spaniel. “Wal, I’ve no adjictions to’t though marm to hum keeps the gals there a-trottin’ smartly, then she scolds ‘em case they don’t get no more literary knowledge, like some of their neighbors; but I tell her how’t they don’t get time. A dryin’ day for yer close, but the sky looks a leetle too rainy to warrant us dry weather long.”

Daniel didn’t cease his heavy tramp as he relieved his mind of a thought or two, without giving the young ladies in the grass opportunity to reply. Maurice, full six feet tall, with his face burned and tanned, blood-red to the roots of his sandy hair, tramped on behind his father with a nod of his head, and a grunt of recognition. The girls were silent until they had well passed by; then Kate said, in low, musing tone, —

 

Page 11

 

“They think we are lazy. Don’t you know what Mrs. Daniel said about us? Maurice is the greatest tell-tale made, and he will tell all over the neighborhood about our lying on the grass Monday morning. He’ll be sure to say lying.”

“Let him tell then,” said Hannah. “I think we can manage our own affairs, and I guess we have a right to manage them as we please.”

“He was pretty short to-day, wasn’t he?” said Mary. “You see I snubbed him yesterday. Conceited fellow! His father has got a good deal more sense than he has, and that isn’t saying much. He’s the chap that said I wasn’t fit for a wife, but could only sit up and pound on that great ‘pianner.’ Ever since, I’ve taken every opportunity to snub him.”

“I think we have ‘taken it easy’ long enough now; let us hurry and finish our work. I want to see if I can make that gate look any better in my sketch,” said Kate, rising, and taking the clothes-basket.

They went back leisurely to the porch. The smell of savory meats came stealing out from the kitchen. They worked a little livelier than before, pounding, rubbing, and rinsing, but talking as busily as ever.

“This is the last,” shouted Hannah, after a little time, as she tossed a garment which she had been starching into the basket. “Three cheers, and honor to ourselves! Only eleven o’clock; plenty of time for clearing away things, making our toilets, and eating our dinners. All through, mother.”

“You have been very smart, and had very good luck,” said mother; “and now, mind you, don’t sit in the wind and take cold, but bring in the clothes that are already dry.”

“Nothing goes ‘contrairy’ to-day,” said Mary,

 

Page 12

 

“only you girls don’t want me to go to New York with you; but I shall, and I was careful of my gray poplin this spring, so I could have it for my travelling and street dress. I shall go in to see Madame Demorest, when I am there; not to employ her, of course, but because I want to see how the woman looks who designs such elegant toilets.”

“I opine that you’ll find something else to do, besides looking up a lady so little necessary to your happiness,” said Hannah.

“How high-flown and prudent you are!” said Mary.

At the dinner-table were three shining faces, not heated, or anxious, or disturbed, but placid and satisfied; and with appetites sharpened by pleasant labor, they partook of the palatable food before them, each declaring in her own mind what had been a settled fact with them years ago, —that mother was the best cook and the best mother in the world. Adonijah, who had come over with his great yoke of oxen to give father “a lift” about “breaking up” a piece of new land, thought that his hands must be all thumbs, or his knife and fork had the very  “deuce” in them, as they “slid around like eels,” and his fork at last dropped on the floor with a hot potato attached to it. By this time his face had become very red, for he never once lost sight of the fact that three pairs of bright eyes belonging to three young ladies were taking note of his awkwardness and confusion. Hannah, however, though like the rest, inwardly convulsed with laughter, helped him to regain his composure.

“Never mind that potato, ‘Nijah. Here’s another and a better one. Didn’t you find stones plenty in the north field to-day?”

 

Page 13

 

“Plenty? by—yes, thick’s hail-stuns. I thought the plough-nose must smell danger there one while.”

Of course, this speech allowed everybody an opportunity to give vent to their feelings, and the laugh went round.

After dinner, before going back to the field, Adonijah took occasion to slip into Kate’s hand a small roll, tied with a black thread, saying in a tone which meant to be a whisper, but which could be heard through from the porch to the sitting-room, “It’s the meetin’- house. I made it yesterday settin’ on an old stump in the brush paster. I haven’t showed it to a livin’ bein’, and I want you to see if you think it’s a bit nat’ral. Tell me to-night when I come round to supper.”

“Yes, I will, ‘Nijah,” said Kate kindly, as she slipped the roll into her pocket, and Adonijah cleared the door-steps with one leap, and strided off to take his “noonin’” under the apple-trees back of the house, where the oxen were lazily eating their dinner.

“That boy has got considerable ingenuity,” said Kate, as she unrolled the paper in the presence of the girls, and proceeded to examine the drawing; “but, really, I don’t believe he will ever make an artist.”

“However, I wish he could have an opportunity to develop his tastes,” said Hannah. “Why couldn’t he make a draughtsman? This isn’t a very bad-looking picture, Kate. I’m sure I should know he meant it for a meeting-house, though I should have no idea what he meant that for in the background.”

“O, what a looking thing!” laughed Mary. “Poor ‘Nijah never need attempt to be a Raphael. He would do better holding a plough in the north field. Dear me! Kate, what will you say to him?”

“O, something encouraging,” said Kate. “An at-

 

Page 14

 

tempt deserves appreciation at least, if it is ever so rude and untimely. ‘Nijah is more original than most people we meet, and he does have now and then a remarkably bright idea. He don’t have any opportunity to develop his refined notions, —the family are all so coarse, and think manual labor the only commendable thing.”

“Yes, and Sally never will give him an encouraging word; but it’s always ‘Here, ‘Nijah, bring me a pail of water, or an armful of wood, and don’t be droning over that old book.’ I’ve heard her many a time. She can’t understand him at all,” said Mary.

“He must suffer from being so bashful,” said Hannah, “and, instead of outgrowing it, I believe he grows into it. I never thought of his being so terribly awkward and bashful when we went to school. He is nearly as old as Kate—but good-day. I can’t spend my time moralizing or gossiping this afternoon. I am going to write a startling story, with Adonijah for hero.”

Hannah darted away, ran lightly up the old backstairs, and was soon comfortably seated in a retired corner, where she spent the entire afternoon in solitude, oblivious to all around her, even the continual drill on the piano in the parlor below, while she lived in an ideal world of her own, laughing or crying over her manuscript as the sentiment dictated.

Kate and Mary were also absorbed in their own favorite employment. Kate hid away in a flowery nook, where she could see in the distance the old farmhouse, and the tall, red gate leading into the barnyard; and with her book and pencil sketched away quietly, or sat back in her rough but comfortable seat, and looked dreamily around her, weaving her

 

Page 15

 

thoughts into visions of future opportunity and attainments. Mary, sitting at the piano, with the wind stealing in through the open window, lifting gently the stray curl at her neck, and adding a deeper tint to her cheek, run her fingers in quick succession over the keys, practicing the scales for hours, wholly forgetful of time or surroundings.

Thus passed away the afternoon of this washing day, which was similar to all of the rest, and, as the girls declared, was productive of more good results than almost any other day in the week.

Somehow, working together on the old porch, with the soft breeze fluttering the myriads of leaves on the numerous apple-trees, where the birds sang in a chorus of melody, making grand strains of oratorio music, as Mary said, had a tendency to draw their hearts nearer together, and call out those thoughts which inspired their souls to lofty hopes and desires. Each one was an inspiration for all; the hopes of one increased the hopes of the other; and the expression of these hopes, desires, and ambitions, which was unreserved on washing day, bound the hearts and the souls of the cheerful workers into a firmer and sweeter friendship, which was sure to do much toward developing their individual talents and tastes. Having from their own exertions and commendable perseverance, and the cheerful assistance of their parents, been educated far above the commonality of farmers’ daughters, they lived above the manual labor they performed, in a sphere of thought elevated, lofty, and pure.

Owing to their limited resources, to educate themselves respectably had taken more time than is usually given to finishing young ladies’ education; but their close application to their studies, their constant em-

 

Page 16

 

ployment, and their limited means, gave them little time or opportunity, even if they had desired it, to attend to the minor points of dress, fashion, looks, or the many frivolities which are attended to by too many young ladies, and therefore they were as fresh and merry and bright as girls of eighteen, while their minds were stored with useful knowledge, and their hopes and desires were far above those of a majority of their sex. Washing day came in with gladsome voices to welcome it, and went out with soft tones half weary, and eyelids drooping, but warm hearts blessing it, and stimulated to greater action and livelier ambition. Huddled together on the old sofa, in the soft country twilight, leaning upon each other, and filled with unutterable emotions, they watched dreamily the moonbeams lying white upon the carpet, and only spoke after long intervals of thought and silence.

The whippoorwill’s clear notes floating over the green dewy lawn from the still woods, gave a touch of pathos to their thoughts, and softened their ambitious dreams into gentle hopes of future usefulness and personal elevation.

 

Page 17

 

CHAPTER II.

AGAINST THE TIDE.

 

“Guess the oddest thing that ever could occur,” said Mary, as she rushed into the sitting-room one sultry September afternoon, where her sisters were reading and trying to keep cool—Kate lounging on the sofa, and Hannah sitting in a stiff rocker.

“A little air in motion; I am nearly suffocated with the heat,” said Hannah, without lifting her eyes from the book she was reading.

“A glass of iced lemonade brought to me on a silver salver,” said Kate lazily.

“O you selfish things! do give a thought to your neighbors. Self-abnegation, somebody says, forms the most heavenly trait of woman’s nature.”

“You mean human nature,” said Hannah.

“Well, woman’s nature and human nature are all the same,” said Mary, “ but why d6n’t you guess?”

“Is there really some news on the wing?” asked Kate, shutting her book with a finger between the leaves, and displaying a small amount of lazy interest.

“Of course there is; else why am I rushing around in this way?” said Mary.

“Good or bad?” asked Hannah.

“Startling because of its rarity,” said Mary.

“A cloud in the sky portending a shower of rain,” guessed Kate.

 

Page 18

 

“The mouse caught, that gnawed a hole through my scrap-book,” guessed Hannah.

“How many times must I refer you to your neighbors?” said Mary. “I don’t trouble myself about rats and mice just now, or showers of rain. It’s some- thing to do with the human race. Now guess with some sense and reason.”

“Perhaps Sally’s got a beau, or Deacon Price and old Aunt Patty are married, or Dan :Pike’s pigs have been destroying somebody’s fine garden,” said Kate.

“Or Maurice has invited you to a picnic,” put in Hannah, now thoroughly awake, and full of interest.

“Pooh! a Yankee ought to guess nearer right. Something odd, I told you.”

“Well, haven’t we guessed the oddest things in the world, except about the pigs?” asked Kate. “‘Tisn’t anything about New York, is it?”

“Not exactly. You are too lazy to have a keen thought; so listen.”

“We are giving the closest attention,” said Han- nah, closing her book, and laying it on the table.

“Why, it’s just this. Hark! do you hear that pounding?”

“Yes, I do, and I’ve been wondering what it was for the last hour. Is anybody putting up a new house in the vicinity?” said Kate.

“No, but Sally is going to have a tea-party next Thursday afternoon in the maple grove at the foot of the knoll south of the house, and ‘Nijah is making the table and seats.”

“I never should have guessed that, if I had tried from now till spring,” said Hannah.

“It is the very last thing that would have entered my mind,” said Kate. “Are we invited?”

 

Page 19

 

“Of course. I’ve just seen Sally. She says ‘Nijah put it into her head, and promised to do every- thing but the cooking. She wouldn’t hear a Word to it at first; but he ‘hung on so,’ to use Sally’s words, and seemed so set on it, and promised to make her a new kneading-board if she would, and churn the butter as early as she wanted him to for two weeks, and seemed so anxious about it, that she finally consented.”

“Good for ‘Nijah!” laughed Hannah. “A treat for us just before going to New York.”

“I half think ‘Nijah thought of it too,” said Kate. “He wouldn’t have told Sally if he had, and I’m conceited enough to believe this party is a farewell honor to us.”

“There, isn’t that a grand idea!” said Hannah, “too good to prove only a fancy of a surmising brain. Don’t let us get disenchanted, but accept the supposition as a fact, and act accordingly.”

“And dress in our best, and wear wreaths?” asked Mary.

“Dress in our best by all means,” said Kate; “but as for the wreaths, let each one decide for herself. For my part, I think it would look affected.”

“Imagine me in a wreath!” laughed Hannah. “How conspicuous it would make my high cheek- bones and freckles! Anything else but ornaments that will make those prominent.”

“O fie! don’t prate on that,” said Mary. “I don’t think your cheek-bones are so very high, and I’m sure from where I am now, I don’t see over half a dozen freckles; do you, Kate?”

“I can’t exert myself sufficiently to- count them,” said Kate, “but I think Hannah and I can both easily dispense with the wreath. Have you heard anything about wreaths that caused you to mention them?”

 

Page 20

 

“Well, just a hint. I think all the girls will wear them,” said Mary.

“Why, what makes you think so?” asked Hannah with a wise look, as if she suspected Mary to be the originator of the plan.

“Because I heard a hint that way. I don’t know much about it, but I think it would be fantastic, and rather fairy-like. I think I shall wear one, for I don’t like to be odd,” said Mary, pulling off her fingerless gloves.

“Confess now, Mary, that you originated the idea, and mentioned it to Sally,” said Kate, with a very sly twinkle in her eye, as she changed her position on the old sofa a little.

“Well, what if I did? Haven’t I as good a right to propose things as anybody? and isn’t it just as good an idea as if somebody else proposed it?” said Mary, a little chagrined that her secret had been divined, especially as she had proposed the wearing of wreaths because she had that afternoon made one, and, standing before the mirror with it poised on her head, had thought it exceedingly becoming, and wanted an excuse to wear one at the tea-party. Like the world at large, she had thought to gratify herself, and not appear strange by causing others to follow her example.

“Why, the idea is all the better because you proposed it,” said Hannah, taking up her book again as if to recommence her reading. ‘ I would like to see the girls all have wreaths on their heads, and flowers all about them; for we’ll not have much more time to play with and admire the beauties of summer.”

“But we shall see the great city, the thousand things we have read about,—street cars, omnibuses, Broadway stores, Fifth Avenue residences, magnifi-

 

Page 21

 

cent churches, crowds of people, ferry-boats, everything grand, exciting, and splendid; and we shall learn so much! For my part, I am tired of being an ignoramus,” said Mary, flinging herself by the side of Kate on the sofa, and lying back on its unoccupied arm. ‘6 I wish I knew what everybody thinks about it.”

“I can guess what everybody thinks of it in this neighborhood who has heard of it. They think it preposterous, rash, and dangerous, I am sure,” said Kate.

“It’s not a wonder, either, that they do. I suppose,” said Hannah, “they don’t know our plans and ideas as we do, nor how very anxious we are to learn something; besides, it’s a new thing for girls to do anything independent. If we were boys, now, it would be all right enough; but I think girls can do something as well as boys.”

“At least I have a curiosity to find out whether they can or not,” said Kate.

“We’ll show them what can be done,” said Mary, as she scrutinized the book Kate had been reading. “‘Marble Faun!’ Dear me! Kate, how many times are you going to read that odd story over?”

“I’m not decided,” said Kate, opening her book and looking over the pages. “Don’t talk any more now, Mary; it’s too warm.”

Thursday proved to be a very propitious and charming day, and the girls were delighted with the bright prospect of a gay afternoon. An undercurrent of news had stolen very slyly through the air that there would be a dance after supper, under the large maple, a little in the rear of the grove, after which the company was to be refreshed with sweetmeats and lemonade.

 

Page 22

 

A little later than most of the party had started (owing more to Mary’s bad luck with her hair, and Kate’s inability to find one of her slippers, than a desire to be like fine and showy ladies), the three girls at last ran down the front steps, and walked on toward the maple grove.

“Do keep on this side of me, Kate, toward the sun,” said Mary, “or my face will be blistered; besides, it looks awful green in me not to have a parasol. If Sally hadn’t bounced on mine so last Sunday, it would be in good working order now; but I do wish I had a better fan. I think it looks so elegant to see a lady with a handsome fan. I know I look like a dowdy, I feel so. My dress was starched too stiff, and these frills on’my sleeves are too limp to compare.”

“She looks very nice, don’t she, Kate?” said Hannah, looking with a half squint in her eyes at Mary’s airy little figure cap-a-pie.

“Why, I never saw you look better, Mary,” said Kate, holding her parasol so as to shade both of their faces as well as possible from the sun. “I don’t think your dress is too stiff. I like to see dresses stand out considerably. I think they make persons look more elegant and graceful.”

“Well, don’t Kate look just artistic in that new collar and scarlet bow, and the scarlet ribbon on her hair?” asked Mary, well pleased with her compliments, and ready to please others in turn.

Hannah was the one addressed, and replied, as usual on such matters, with little interest.

As they drew nearer the grove, they heard merry voices, and saw now and then a glimpse of an airy figure, the flutter of a white dress or crimson scarf, and their own faces began to shine with anima-

 

Page 23

 

tion. They were walking in a little narrow path through a clover field, and the “second crop” looked green and cool and delightful. At the end of the field was a pair of bars, half hidden by an old wild cherry- tree, and shrubbery forming a thicket drooped its dense foliage over the rude bar-posts, making it a charming place to linger and lean on the rustic rails. The girls were so busy with an animated conversation, that almost before they had thought of such a thing, the bars were dropped in a heap at one end, and there stood Adonijah blushing and laughing before them.

“Why, how you did startle us, ‘Nijah! Where did you whisk from so quick?” said Mary.

“Right there in the alders. I’ve been a-waitin’ for you here for full half an hour,” said ‘Nijah.

“I’m sure it’s very kind of you to wait for us, ‘Nijah; but hasn’t the company missed you, think, and wondered where you were?” said Kate.

“No, I guess not. Nobody seldom misses me. I’m allers an odd one at picnics and such things. Good many folks says you girls is ‘stuck up,’ but I don’t think so. I know I’m jest the awkwardest feller that ever was, and I’m sure I never see you turn up your nose at me, though I can’t help expectin’ it every time I see ye, ‘cause you understand the ways of the world so well,” said Adonijah, as the girls stood on the opposite side of the bars, and stopped while he put them up.

“O fie! ‘Nijah,” said Hannah; “who cares for awkwardness? We would be a silly mess of girls to turn up our noses at anybody as kind as you are. How many are there in the grove?”

“I guess everybody that was invited, ‘cept Martha an’ Jane Wood. They’ve got the measles,” said

 

Page 24

 

Adonijah. “I begun to be ‘fraid you wouldn’t come tall, and that would a been a bad hit, fur”—here Adonijah stopped, and blushed redder than ever.

“For what, ‘Nijah?” asked Mary, in a voice that betrayed great curiosity.

“Why, because the ‘time’ was got up on your accounts,” blurted out ‘Nijah, as he took long strides which threatened near separation, if the girls didn’t either walk faster, or he slacken his pace.

“Was it really all for us?” asked Kate; “and we must thank you for it too, because I know it was your invention. Besides, I don’t believe there is another young man in the neighborhood who has got enough enterprise to start such a thing.”

This one speech of Kate fully repaid Adonijah for all his trouble, and if the whole thing had been broken up then, he would have been perfectly satisfied. Even his labor with: the rough table and seats, the blood-blister on the end of his thumb, the working for his Uncle Jim, after the chores were done at home, to procure money for the sweetmeats and lemonade, sank into insipid insignificance by the side of Kate’s compliment. But he only walked faster than ever, with his long arms swinging by his side, and his new stiff boots squeaking tremendously at every step.

“Don’t go so fast, ‘Nijah,” called Hannah, in as low a tone as possible, that the picnickers might not hear.

Adonijah halted with a sudden jerk, and in his embarrassment and confusion stooped awkwardly, and picked up a stone, which he aimed, at a red squirrel ‘unning along the fence, without the least intention of nitting it.

“There’s Emma and Dill,” said Mary, as they neared the grove, and saw a merry group of young

 

Page 25

 

people walking, sitting, and enjoying themselves generally. “Don’t they make a beautiful picture?” said Kate.

In a few moments they were in the midst of the company themselves, laughing, asking questions, and making merry with the rest. Several of the company stood a little aloof, and looked on grimly.

“I hope they’re late enough,” Mary heard somebody say. “How they do try to put on style! Pa says their father and mother must be perfectly crazy to think of letting them go to New York; and pa knows just what New York is, for he stayed there nearly six weeks, once, when he was at work a-carpentering, and he says it’s no place for lone young girls; and he wonders their father will be so rash.”

Mary gave Kate’s sleeve a slight jerk, but Kate had not heard the gossip. She was too busily engaged; so, as soon as opportunity offered, Mary whispered the news to Hannah, who said she wasn’t at all surprised, and she thought they were treated rather coolly, but it wasn’t the least consequence. Not long after this, as the three sisters and several others sat in a group together, Maurice Pike approached them.

“Heard you was goin’ to New York,” he said, looking at Hannah, who, as the oldest, generally had all the questions to answer.

“We talk of it,” answered Hannah, who was with the other girls making a wreath of maple leaves for the table.

“You won’t stay there long, I’m thinkin’,” said Maurice. “It’s a bad enough place for men; most on ‘em gets their pockets picked, and some on ‘em gits murdered; but for girls to think of goin’ there, it’s like running into confusion and distress.”

 

Page 26

 

“O dear! how can you think of such a thing as going there?” said little pale-faced Dill, who sat at Hannah’s knee, and furnished her with bits of straw to pin the leaves together.

“We don’t intend to get robbed, or anything of the kind,” spoke up Kate, as if she intended to convince them all at once. “Daniel Stearns didn’t get injured by going there, and we—Hannah and I—are older than he was.”

“But you are girls,” said Maurice, as if that settled the whole matter on his side.

“But that don’t keep us from having common sense,” said Kate.

“Well, I wouldn’t resk a sister of mine there,” said Maurice.

Kate wanted to tell him that he would risk her to nearly work herself to death, and run and wait upon him when she was too tired to stand, while he sat and did nothing; but she wisely refrained from making any personal remarks.

“It’s a crazy thing to do, and no mistake,” said a tall, sharp-eyed girl, standing a little outside of the circle. “I wouldn’t make such a boy of myself, such a daring, bold girl, as one must be to go unprotected, without a single friend or relation, in the worst place in the world.”

The sisters’ faces grew red with indignation, and Hannah, who was sometimes a little hasty, was about to make a sharp reply, but she caught a glimpse of slender little Dill’s face, white sand anxious, and she said in as calm a voice as possible, “We have friends everywhere, among the good, and I am sure there are good people in New York. We shall attend to our own affairs, and I don’t think any one will harm us. Anyhow, I am not afraid.”

 

Page 27

 

“Nor I either,” said Mary; “we are going to New York for the good we can get out of it. We shah have no time to give any attention to the bad, even if we wished to.”

“I’ll tell you what I’ve heard lately, that happened right in the midst of the city,” said the black-eyed girl. “A young lady who was visiting there went out alone one day, only just a little ways, to match some ribbon, and never came back again in the world; and her poor mother went crazy, and is now in the insane asylum; and that is what New York is.”

To the three young girls who were anxious to seek their fortunes in the great city, this was an unpleasant story; and they made no reply, which seemed to give the speaker courage to continue.

“I heard of a man besides,” she said, “ who was killed in broad daylight, and robbed of all his money. Why, it would really take, I think, a week to tell all I have heard about the city, especially what a dreadful place it is for unprotected females.”

“Didn’t you never hear none of these stories?” asked Maurice, dropping an apple at the toe of his heavy boots, and then kicking it off in the distance. “They actually hain’t got no end. I’ve heard Uncle Blade tell one after another, hours at a time.”

“I don’t care about hearing so many frightful things,” said Kate, a little uneasy, and anxious to change the subject of the conversation. “Of course, cities are worse than the country, and no doubt, there is danger; but we shall try to keep out of it, and accomplish our purpose.”

“Strange purpose!” muttered the black-eyed girl. “ It would do better for a harum-scarum boy.”

“I suppose every one has a right to her own opin-

 

Page 28

 

ion,” said Hannah, sorry the next instant she had said it.

“Don’t talk this way any longer,” said Dill. “Look! Adonijah and Sally are coming to, set the table, and the wreath isn’t finished.”

“Yes it is, just finished,” said Hannah, holding it up to be admired; “it shall be placed in the middle of the table. Come, let us help Sally.”

Sally, with a covered dish, and Adonijah, with a large basket, drew near- them, and then preparations went on for supper. The snowy cloth was thrown over the rough boards which formed a temporary table, and busy hands made the earthenware fly, while their tongues followed the example.

“O Sally, you are just the best cook in the world,” said Mary, as she cut a light cake, with sharpened appetite.

“Wait’ll you’ve tasted of it,” said Sally, who was a stout buxom girl, with a very full red face, and hands which much resembled Adonijah’s in color and hardiness. “It’s all nonsense to set the table out here,” she continued. “Goodness! there’s a spider now, and the leaves keep a-dropping from the trees, and make the table look like confusion! It’ll keep somebody busy to keep them off.”

“O don’t mind if they come on; let us leave them,” said Kate; “they have begun to turn; here is one of a beautiful crimson dropped pat into this plate. How pure and sweet it looks, lying on the white china!”

While Kate was so busy admiring the stray leaf, Sally was brushing them off from the table with a napkin.

“Sally’s too neat,” said Mary. “Don’t, Sally, brush the wreath off. Don’t you think it is pretty?

 

Page 29

 

“O, it’s good enough for them who don’t have nothing else to do but make such things,” said Sally, busily engaged over a loaf of cake which she didn’t feel quite satisfied with, because it didn’t have the right “bake” on it.

“Say, Sally, are we going to dance after supper?” whispered Mary in the busy hostess’ ear, as they stood a little apart from the rest.

“So Adonijah says,” answered Sally; “why, do you want to? I thought you folks didn’t believe in it.”

“Well, they don’t believe in balls, or anything like that; but they think a little dance under the trees, when we are all acquainted, is well enough,” said Mary.

“Maurice has got his fiddle up to the house, I believe; so I guess there’ll be something after supper.”

And there was a merry good time, a genuine dance, not a dawdling, dreamy walk through the figures, but animated, though not altogether graceful movements. Maurice, sitting on a rough bench, played over and over the same old tunes on a violin of very inferior quality and harsh tone; but the hearts of the merry dancers were all in tune, and they balanced and turned, chasséed and promenaded, their faces all aglow with the exercise and enjoyment. The leaves on the maples continued to drop in gentle silence, the air grew cooler and sweeter as the twilight approached, and at last, in the glow of the brilliant tints of the west, they rested, and ate the sweetmeats Adonijah had prepared. It was altogether a pleasant party to the three girls; yet the talk about New York, the stories concerning the great city, though not unheard before, threw a little shadow across their hopes and their enjoyment.

 

Page 30

 

As they were about to depart, Sally called Hannah one side, and said in a low tone, “You don’t really intend to go to New York, do you, Hannah, without nobody in the world to protect you girls? I heard so, but I told the folks I couldn’t believe it.”

“We can’t tell about the future much,” said Hannah, “but we expect to go.”

“Adonijah was sure you was going, but I couldn’t be. I wish you could talk with pa ‘bout it. I shouldn’t really think you’d go for the world. I should think you’d rather stay at home this winter; there ain’t near so much to do in the winter, you know, as there is in the summer; and I should think you might enjoy yourselves here.”

“Why, Sally,” said Hannah, “we are not going to enjoy ourselves at all. We are going to learn something, or try to. There are no opportunities here, and we want to go where there are some.”

“What makes you be so different from all the other girls? There isn’t one but you that could be hired to go, and I do think it’s foolish; and I think it has a bad influence. Everybody kind of talks about it.”

“Well, Sally, we can’t help it if they do; and I can’t believe it will be in the end a bad influence. You have given us a great treat, you and ‘Nijah, and I think all have enjoyed it immensely. You had such a nice supper, and everything went off so well.”

“I think I had pretty good luck with everything but that one loaf of cake that had the kiss-candy in the middle. That didn’t bake just right, but it went off pretty well, after all. I hope you’ve all had a good time.”

Slowly the girls wended their way homeward, somewhat weary, but a little disturbed and unsatisfied on

 

Page 31

 

the New York question. Each one, as she gathered her skirts away from the cool moist clover, walked on silently, and thought of the dangers to be met in the city. Few words were spoken; and when they got home, they put away their “fixings,” unbound their hair, and took their accustomed place on the old sofa. The house was still, the twilight grew deeper, and the wind arose and sighed and moaned in the branches of the old cherry-trees. New York had never seemed to them before as it did that night; never so gloomy and dark and unfriendly. Whether it was the opposition they had met with at the party, or some unseen influence, they could not tell. Neither dared or wished to speak her thoughts to the others, and each hoped the others felt less discouragement. The shadows grew thicker, but they did not wish for a light; and when they were entirely hidden in the darkness, the door opened, and their father stood on the threshold and said, “Children, are you all here?”

“Yes,” answered Hannah, wondering what was coming, and taking a position a little more erect.

Steps and a deeper shadow told them that father had advanced into the room, and taken a seat in the stiff rocker.

“I have been thinking,” he said, as he settled himself in the chair, “that it’s a great undertaking for you to go to New York. It don’t seem quite the thing for three girls to go into a great city, and find their way around unprotected. If there was some one there who would take a little care of you; but there isn’t one in the whole city to depend on, and I am afraid it is rash. I didn’t think so much about it when it was first proposed, because the time to go was in the dis-

 

Page 32

 

tance, and I hardly realized that it would ever come around; but now the first of October is drawing near, and there isn’t much more time to consider. I suppose you have set your hearts on it, and I don’t wonder at all that you want to go somewhere to learn something; but if anything dreadful should happen to one or all of you, all the learning you would get wouldn’t be of much consequence. Why don’t you conclude to stay at home, after all? I hear that a portrait-painter is coming to town this winter; and Kate can go once a week and take lessons of him. Mary can go at the same time, and take her lessons as she did last winter; and Hannah can stay at home and write. Wouldn’t this be a better way than to go away off to New York when you are unused to cities, and are unsuspecting, and therefore liable to be imposed upon?”

He ceased to speak, but for a moment there was no answer from the old sofa, where three hearts were throbbing with disappointment, feeling that their hopes were about to be crushed. Then Kate said, in a voice which, in spite of her efforts to the contrary, betrayed somewhat her feelings, —

“We can depend on each other, father. We will take care of each other; three girls together are so different from one, you know.”

“Yes, of course, that is true. I wouldn’t have consented for a moment for one to go alone; but the question is whether you will really gain anything by going? Wouldn’t you do better to stay at home, and do as I said?”

“For my part,” said Mary, “I don’t feel as if I could take lessons any longer from Miss Branch. Besides, everything is so stale and ‘humdrummy’ here.”

 

Page 33

 

“I want to go where I can see some pictures,” said Kate, her ambition increasing as it came in contact with opposition.

Hannah said nothing, for she well knew that Kate and Mary were the ones to decide, because they had a very conspicuous object, to take lessons, and prepare themselves for lives of usefulness and activity, while her object was not so plainly to be seen, for she was to take no lessons in authorship, except those lessons which could be understood wholly only by her own heart.

They heard the gentle, undecided tap of father’s fingers against the arm of the rocker, and the crickets sung their solemn songs in their hidden nooks, and the wind continued to moan strangely in the boughs of the cherry-trees.

“I’m afraid it isn’t wise,” said father, at last, as he tapped louder against the chair arm. “If I had plenty of money, so that I could get you a good boarding-place, and leave you in the care of some responsible person—but there is no use to think of that, and you will have a hard time, and I’m afraid will regret you ever undertook such a thing. I’m afraid your ambition is too great. You can be comfortable at home, free from danger; and when you are older, you may have a better opportunity.”

“I am already twenty-two,” said Hannah,” and there are a plenty of girls older than I who stay in one place year after year, and have no better opportunities. I begin to think opportunities come to those who seek them and make them.”

“It does seem so in your case,” said father, “but there is such a thing as being rash and imprudent; and somehow this New York project has a very doubt-

 

Page 34

 

ful look. However, think it over carefully, and perhaps you’ll decide, after all, that staying at home is the wisest and best thing you can do.”

A few moments more, and father was gone; and the girls, after a moment of silence, arose, and, groping their way to their chamber, lighted a lamp, and without their usual merry laughs or little plans for the morrow, lay down upon their beds to think anxiously, and then fall asleep. They had settled themselves thoroughly for this, when they heard a slight squeak from the old back-stairs, a light step in the outer room, and the door soon opened, and there stood mother with a little lamp in her hand, and her face shining all over with that rare mother-look, as she advanced lightly into the room, and placed the lamp upon the stand.

“What is the matter?” asked all three together, bobbing their heads up from their pillows, and looking curiously into their mother’s face.

“O, nothing is the matter,” said mother; “only I thought I would come up a moment before you went to sleep. Your father has been talking rather discouraging about New York, hasn’t he?” She sat down on the side of one of the beds, where she could look into all their faces.

“Yes,” answered Kate, her black eyes searching her mother’s face to find some ray of hope; “he thinks we had better not go. Do you think so, mother?”

There was a world of anxiety and interest in her voice as she said this; for Kate had been thinking of New York for a long, long time, and it was crushing her brightest hopes to give up a winter there. Hannah and Mary waited anxiously for their mother’s answer, which, after all, would decide their fate.

 

Page 35

 

“I came up,” said mother, “to tell you not to worry about it, but to go to sleep; and in the morning we’ll talk about it. I don’t think it a very frightful thing to go to New York, three of you together; and if you don’t like it after you get there, you can come home again easy enough. You don’t know what you can do without trying. But whatever the future brings about, don’t let us borrow trouble; for if we do the best we know, our mistakes won’t really amount to much, and we shall come out well in the end. Morning is the time for thought and consideration; the night is the time to sleep.”

The three heads, wreathed around with unbound hair, began already to settle easily on their pillows, for the soothing, cheerful voice swept away all their burdens and fears, and the lips relaxed into half smiles; for they felt that the tide was turning in their favor, and the way no longer looked dark or frightful, but pleasant and quiet; for mother had a sweet and wonderful power of lifting burdens from her children’s hearts.

 

Page 36

 

CHAPTER III.

IN THE ORCHARD.

 

IT was all settled. The obstacles were overcome at last, and New York was destined to receive three unsophisticated and trusting young girls into its wicked heart.

Three little trunks were all packed even a day before their departure, and stood in a row in the great airy chamber which was soon to be vacated and lonely, —three old-fashioned little trunks, containing nearly all the personal effects of their owners; a small collection, but neat, clean, and in good order.

It was the last day of September, —a still, happy day, full of far-off sunshine, and deep, cool shadows. Until noon, there had been an unusual bustle and stir in the old farm-house, running up and down stairs, and to and fro from one room to another; numberless unnecessary steps taken, much forgotten and then remembered, things misplaced and searched for, and a general time of confusion. But afternoon found everything quiet, all things in order, and the girls ready for a pleasant time all, to themselves. They left the farm-house, and wandered to the old orchard, a favorite and delightful resort. The orchard! what a host of memories this one word calls up in the minds of men and women whose childhood was passed on a great rambling farm, free from the village smoke, and

 

Page 37

 

the city’s bustle, —memories of cool shadows, gay breezes, broken and twisted by the dense branches and foliage, and perfumed with the honey drops in the crimson clover, and the sweets from a world of blossoms; of tumbles in heaps of new-mown hay, of scrambles after golden fruit that an unexpected flurry in the air whisked from the branches down upon the cool grass; of innocence, freedom from care and sin, and of every sweet and pleasant thing that clusters round the childhood of a country lad or lass!

The orchard is not the least among the many things which guard the lives of those who wander from the warm home-nest out into a world of temptations; not the least to keep fragrant and green the beautiful fields of the heart, and preserve the seeds of the innocence and simplicity of childhood, to blossom in after years into delightful harvests of sincerity and good works. O that grand old orchard of the Windsor farm! long, and rolling, and wide, surrounded by a mossy stone wall, and shadowed by numerous apple- trees, —not the trim, stately apple-trees of modern times, but leaning, and crooked, and bent, with now and then a straggling limb brushing against the dark grass, and forming a mysterious nook, where long-stemmed dandelions sprang up, and, opened their charming crowns of gold in all modesty and simplicity. Such a long, shady orchard, with a clinging grape-vine at one end, coiled and twisted in and out of the branches of a tree distinguished for its longevity; a mossy ledge at the other end, where a bed of ferns fluttered their soft fronds, and sang unceasingly of the deep pleasant woods, —a ledge with inviting little seats, soft with moss, where oft and oft the Windsor girls had sat, and dreamed, and hoped, and planned.

 

Page 38

 

What more fitting place for them to wander on the memorable day before their journey away from all the sweet influences of a pure and quiet home, into a place darkened by ambition, love of gain, want, misery, and crime?

Here they came, walking one after the other in the autumn grass, that was decked no longer with the dandelion’s yellow disk, but with light still leaves from the apple-boughs, which were strewn about like glowing emeralds on a bright green vest. With slow steps and pensive looks they filed through the long orchard, taking note of the dropping leaves, but saying nothing concerning them, and, clambering up the old ledge, sat down side by side on the mossy seats, and looked off over the still pastures and deep woods which were already testimonies of summer’s departure. Intuitively hand sought hand, while each heart was filled with unspoken thoughts and feelings. Each had her own little musings of self, which would never be spoken.

Hannah had her romance of love, which in the years gone had been all her life, and joy, and hope: but it had faded; yet in her heart only as the planets fade; for as often as the fit of meditation was upon her, the dream came back fresh and strong to taunt her with its vanished joys and bright anticipations. She sat and looked over the landscape as she had done many times before. The scenery she had beheld in its every phase and variety; yet-never had it seemed quite so dear so her as on this day; never so beautiful and sweet.

“The old dream must be laid away now,” she thought; it was only selfishness to nourish and cherish it in her heart. There was no reality for the future in it, nothing to help her in her struggles upward through

 

Page 39

 

the thorny path to success, nothing in it to cheer and encourage her; but it only cloyed, and so she must lay it away, and, if possible, forget that she ever had hoped or dreamed of what she was now sure would never be realized.

Ah! the countless disappointments and crushed hopes that young hearts have been doomed to experience! where are they? Through all the ages of time, they have filled the air with their sighs so soft and subtle, that the inexperienced hear them not, and only the aching hearts suffer, and are silent. The tones of funereal bells proclaim to the world that a new-made grave must receive some earthly idol, and we listen solemnly, and are sad and sympathetic; the black dress and sweeping veil may tell us that we look upon a mourner; but only the keenest and most sensitive will guess what a fond young heart may suffer, that has dreamed a dream of happy love, and seen it fade away. The death of loved ones has a promise in it, —a promise of restoration, of future meetings more beautiful and sweet than those of the past, of freedom from all pain to the lost one, of a great gain in the unseen City; and hearts may look up smiling through their tears, and feel the sweet presence of the departed around them. But there is no hope like this to the trusting young heart, that in its freshness and simplicity has laid its tenderest first love on the altar of hope and perfect trustfulness, and seen it crumble away into ashes that can have no resurrection. Alone in its grief, there is no comfort but forgetfulness, from which it shrinks, as we all shrink from forgetting that which has been dearest to us, and has given us the liveliest joy. Are all these experiences nothing but a vanishing dream, a mere vision of beauty

 

Page 40

 

which we see for a moment as we pass along, and then lose forever? May we not hope that they are all remembered and treasured up in the great heart of God, to be returned, only far more beautiful than before, to our longing, unsatisfied hearts? Can we not cherish the dream, and forget the idol?

Hannah thought something of this, though vaguely, as she looked steadily, beyond wood and pasture, to the far-off silver rim of the ocean. Her sisters spoke to each other, but their voices seemed like distant sounds in her ears, uncertain and unreal. She was not unhappy. Her life had been too active and useful to give room for morbid sentimentality; there had been too much freshness, beauty, and blessed reality in her life, to make her desponding; it was only the sweet dream of love which she looked back upon in regretful silence, wondering if ever in the future it would be renewed.

“Hannah! Hannah! are you asleep? you haven’t spoken for a long time, and Kate and I have been jabbering close to you.”

At these words she started, and the present all came back to her.

“I believe I was looking at the ocean,” she said. “It is such a fathomless, endless thing to look at.”

“No more so than your thoughts have been, from the way you appeared,” said Kate. “I thought we were going to put by sentimentality for a time.”

“Did you?” answered Hannah. “I haven’t heard any such decision, but I suppose that was what I was thinking about so busily; or at least, summed up together, it would amount to that.”

“I imagine this is our last opportunity for sentimentality for some time to come, whether we decide to

 

Page 41

 

put it by or not,” said Mary. “Just to-morrow, only to-morrow, and we shall be gone.”

“And mother will miss us so much! that worries me some,” said Hannah. “However, we may be obliged to come back in a few weeks, you know. We may find that we have made a great mistake in going so helpless into the city.”

“As long as we have our health and minds unimpaired, the word helpless does not apply to us,” said Kate.

“Perhaps not,” answered Hannah, “in the sense you interpret it. I meant with little money and no friends, which is our case exactly.”

“Yes, I know it is; but we can try it, as mother says; there is no harm in that,” said Kate, expressing this sentiment for the twentieth time, to settle doubts, and restore ambition.

“We can be as seclusive as we like in New York,” said Mary, “and one won’t feel so embarrassed to wear one dress all the season, because we shall hardly see the same person twice.”

“Girls, do you think we shall be missed much in the neighborhood?” asked Hannah earnestly.

“There is one who will miss us,” said Mary, “or, at least, he will miss Kate; and that is Adonijah.”

“Yes, he will miss us, I am sure,” said Hannah, “not only for an hour, but for all the time we are gone. ‘Nijah is a good friend, but I hardly see why he takes to us so, and understands us so well. I have half a mind to believe he will make his mark in the world.”

“O how can he? there is no possible chance,” said Mary. “He has only a very tolerable education, speaks roughly and ungrammatically, and hasn’t the least encouragement at home.”

 

Page 42

 

“I know that,” said Kate, “but he is original and appreciative of fine things, and we cannot judge a person’s future by outward appearance. But there is another who will miss us; or rather, she will miss Hannah, —little Dill.”

“Dear little thing! so she will,” said Hannah, “and I shall miss her too. Her face is so pale, it makes me think that she will be missed from earth soon.”

“O no; she is stronger this fall, her father said, than she has been before for years. Did you see her crying last Sunday in church?” said Mary.

I did,” said Hannah, “and she told me after meeting that the sermon frightened her, causing her to fear that she could never be gathered with the redeemed in heaven, because of her sin. How wicked the world must be, if little Dill is wicked!”

“What did you tell her?” asked Kate.

“I can hardly tell you. I tried to comfort her, but I am so weak myself.”

“You are not so weak but that you know little Dill needn’t be afraid of future punishment, I hope,” said Kate.

“Well, but how could I make her believe it? I said all the encouraging and kind things I could to her, and promised to write long letters when in New York, and she seemed to feel better, but not convinced.”

“I generally feel oppressed whenever I listen to a sermon of Mr. Hayes’s,” said Mary, “and no wonder slender little Dill is so much influenced. I do wonder if such sermons are a benefit or not.”

Not,” said Kate emphatically, — “at least not for me. They always make me feel rebellious, they are so conservative. As if a particular creed would take a person to heaven, and as if God desired us all to be gloomy and afraid!”

 

Page 43

 

“As for me,” said Hannah, “I require and desire more light on the subject of religion, and I mean to think about it, and make investigations concerning it when I go to New York, and learn at least something more than I know, that I may talk with Dill with more confidence. I am now so ignorant that I can only say that I believe God will deal with us with tenderness and mercy, and such things as my faith causes me to believe; but as for any real knowledge which I can explain satisfactorily even to myself, I believe I do not possess it.”

“How can you find it in New York?” asked Mary in all earnestness.

“No better than I could anywhere, perhaps; but as I am to be there this winter, it must be there where I shall think of it. Were I to remain at home, I would do the same, perhaps.”

I shall go to hear Beecher. I do not think he will frighten any one,” said Kate.

“There is where we will all go,” said Hannah, “and see if we can learn at least what has made the man so popular.”

“And hear that great organ,” said Mary. “I find religion in music; but they drawl so in the church here, it makes me feel as if I were on nettles to listen to them, instead of being transported beyond the earth into visions of bliss, as I am sure I should be by the music in Beecher’s.”

“Let us not be too expectant. True religion is, after all, in our own hearts; and perhaps if we were just right, the hymns sung in the church here would inspire us.”

“They might inspire some, but not me,” said Mary. “I feel, every time I hear them sing, as though I

 

Page 44

 

wanted to spring into the midst of them, and with a baton in my hand rouse some life into them, and keep them from murdering such words as, —

 

‘Joy to the world! the Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing.’

 

Last Sunday they drawled through it so lazily, an intelligent person could not have believed them very joyful or glad, but thought they were lamenting over some misfortune. I do like to see anybody stand erect, and look, if they can’t sing, as though they meant and felt it.”

“However, I expect they are more sincere than most New York choirs,” said Hannah; “but I agree with you, Mary. I actually smiled last Sunday to see how entirely the singing disagreed with the hymn, and everybody looked so very solemn, as if a dirge was being chanted instead of a hymn of rejoicing sung. We haven’t seen much of the world yet, and probably are not good judges.”

“Undoubtedly we are not,” said Kate. “Wait till we try New York a while, then we shall be more competent to express our opinions. There comes ‘Nijah through the orchard with a couple of gray squirrels. Has he seen us, think?”

“I think not; but call him up here, Kate. I want to see those squirrels, they have such beautiful bushy tails,” said Mary, half rising in her seat, and gazing at the young rustic, who, with rapid strides was passing them by, without discovering their retreat.

“‘Nijah, don’t you see us?” called Kate. “Come up to the ledge, do, if you are not in a hurry, and let us see those squirrels.”

 

Page 45

 

‘Nijah heard the voice, stopped suddenly, looked down at his boots, then up at the sky, then at the game in his hand, and finally ascended the knoll, and threw the soft grays at the girls’ feet.

“O how cruel you were to kill them!” said Mary.

“O, they didn’t know what hurt ‘em,” said ‘Nijah; “caught ‘em under traps, and brought ‘em round—you see I thought you mightn’t get a chance to have a dinner of squirrels in New York; and they’re good fat ones, and will make a good meal well dressed, and so I brought ‘em round to give to you. Doubtful if you’ll get any in New York.”

“Yes, so it is, very doubtful,” said Kate, “and we will have a feast to-morrow. Won’t you come over and dine with us, ‘Nijah?”

“I’m ‘bliged,” said ‘Nijah, whipping at the ferns with a stick he carried in his hands, “but I can’t. I’m engaged to work fur Uncle Jim to chop down some trees, and put up some fence; and you see I have plenty of squirrel dinners. Sally knows exactly how to cook ‘em.”

“I’ve no doubt of that,” said Mary; “Sally can cook anything well. I haven’t forgotten the tea-party yet, have you?”

“Me? Catch a weasel ‘sleep fust. I thought it was just the thing to take comfort at, but some didn’t. Ye see it leaked out that ‘twas on your accounts.”

“Well, we shall soon be gone,” said Hannah; “tomorrow night we shall sleep on the water, and find ourselves in New York the next morning.”

“Blazes! wouldn’t I like that?” and ‘Nijah whipped more severely at the ferns; threatening. to demolish them entirely, to the great dissatisfaction of the girls. “Stay all winter, I s’pose?”

 

Page 46

 

“If we don’t get sick of it, and come back,” said Kate, smiling.

“No danger of your backing down; tell a feller, won’t you, what New York is made of, when you get back?”

“Yes, you come over, and we’ll have enough stories to last all summer,” said Mary.

“Be sure and notice how all the meetin’-houses is built, in what kind of shape I mean, and how Cendril Park is laid out.”

“You mean Central Park,” said Kate; “and we’ll be sure to tell you the whole, story.”

“Wal, I must be a-goin’, if these gray things gets their hides took off to-night, fur it’s very near sundown. I shan’t be likely to see ye agin; so take good care of yourselves, an’ don’t get too proud to speak to a feller when you get back.”

“Not a bit,” said Kate. “We’ll see who will improve most in drawing this winter, ‘Nijah.”

‘Nijah could laugh with the best, and at this speech of Kate’s, he laughed so uproariously, the girls were afraid, so they said, that there wouldn’t be a button left on his vest; and then what would Sally say?

“Well, agreed,” said he at last, after which he burst out again into laughter. “Blamed if I won’t try with ye,” he said.

“Of course you will,” said Kate; “I mean it, and we’ll compare notes when I get home.”

“All right,” said ‘Nijah, still laughing, as he took up his game. “Good-by, all of ye; take good care of yerselves, and come home in the spring.”

“We’ll try to,” said they all; “good-by; good-by, good-by.”

The sun had gone down when the girls left their

 

Page 47

 

seats in the orchard, and wended their way home. Dark shadows were creeping under the walls, and the wind had begun to moan in the apple-trees. The farm-house windows were aglow with the blazing reflection from the west, and the unseen autumn insects sung in a kind of cheerful sadness. Up through the front lawn the girls walked, where the fall blossoms were in their glory, but were tossed about by the fresh breeze blowing briskly from the west. They stopped on the rough old door-steps and looked back.

“Everything is beautiful,” said Kate. “Girls, how we shall long for home!”

“Don’t, Kate,” said Mary, turning away and brushing a tear from her eye.

“Well, suppose we do,” said Kate, sorry she had said anything to cause sadness. “Suppose we do; we are to come home any time we please, you know, and it would be strange if we forgot it entirely.”

“All of this beauty will soon be gone,” said Hannah, “and there will be nothing here to greet our eyes but bare trees and frozen ground; and when everything begins to grow lovely again, we are coming home; so don’t let us get homesick to-night.”

“We have been so determined to go,” said Kate, “that we mustn’t get sad and discouraged now, or father will begin to think surely that we are too much children or helpless girls to go into the city.”

“Well, I wouldn’t give up going,” said Mary, in a brave tone, “but it does seem rather dubious to-night; but I shall feel better in the morning. Of course, I’d not act so silly before any one but you.”

“Let us have a song,” said Kate.

“Yes, a song always does us good; what shall it be?” said Hannah.

 

Page 48

 

“‘Falling leaves,’ of course: what is there more appropriate?” said Kate, untying her hat-strings and entering the parlor. Mary at the piano, and Hannah and Kate on either side, they sang in sweet and subdued voices a song, the words to which Hannah had composed, and Mary the music.

 

FALLING LEAVES.

 

Dropping, dropping,

Crimson and yellow and red,

Sighing so softly and sadly

In the boughs over my head.

One by one they come fluttering,

Or fall in a tremulous shower,

Scarlet and amber and purple,

Dyed by an unseen Power.

 

Falling, falling,

Down, down in the purling stream;

The lovely summer is passing

Away like a happy dream;

And the water is gayly dancing

With the dying leaves on its breast,

Bearing them onward, onward,

Away to eternal rest.

 

Whispering, whispering

Words of a long farewell;

Nestling in heaps together,

To sleep in the woody dell.

Dying in wondrous beauty,

Whispering sad as they go,

O beautiful, beautiful leaflets,

We have loved and admired you so.

 

Dying, dying,

And leaving the forest trees bare,

The voices of unseen spirits

We seem to hear in the air.

Farewell, beautiful leaflets

The wind is a merciless foe,

And every heart that knows gladness,

Also deep sorrow must know.

 

Page 49

 

The music ceased, and the girls turned about to find their father and mother sitting in the shadow, where they had listened silently to the last strain of their three daughters, before they went out from their care into the world of intrigue and false allurements; and the wind moaned, the crickets sang, and the world moved on the same.

 

Page 50

 

CHAPTER IV.

“GOOD-BY.”

 

“WHY, Dill!”

Hannah stood on the old shadowy porch to rest a moment, and take a breath of fresh air. She had been busily at work since early morning; for when three young ladies are going on a journey, there is no end to the preparations until they are well started toward their destination. Unexpectedly, as she stood there, a delicate, slender young girl appeared before her. It was Dill—her face paler than usual, and her eyes brighter and darker.

“Did I startle you?” she asked. “I came to say good-by, and tell you this is my sixteenth birthday. What an easy way I shall have to remember your farewell! I haven’t had one present.”

“Here is one,” said Hannah, kissing the white cheek, “and with it my love, which is the most I can give.”

“And the best,” answered Dill, returning the caress. “It is the first kiss I have received to-day, and I shall remember it. Are you almost ready to start?”

“Yes, I suppose we are. Kate and Mary are in the garret, stowing away some things; and we have only to change our dresses, and then we are ready.”

“And, O dear, how lonesome it will be! ‘Nijah

 

Page 51

 

was over to our house last night, and seemed rather gloomy, and it was all because you were going. I told him he was cross, but I don’t suppose he meant to be. When will you write me the first letter?”

“When I am well settled, which will be in a week perhaps. What shall I write about first?”

“O, about the city, what you see that is beautiful, and—I suppose there are a great many ministers in New York. Suppose you tell me what some of them say. I have heard few sermons except Mr. Hayes’s, and I have thought perhaps all—I mean those who belong to the same denomination—may not believe just like him; and if there is anything true that is a little pleasanter, I would like it. Father says I am only rebellious against the will of God, and I suppose it is, true; but I don’t see a bit of chance to feel otherwise, so long as I see so much to dread and fear. I wonder that father, or even Mr. Hayes himself, can be happy.”

“I shall try to learn much more on this subject than I know now,” said Hannah, “and I will tell you all I learn. Sometimes I feel a bit unhappy, because you know I do not belong to the church; yet when I think it all over reasonably, I see nothing to fear. The sermon delivered at poor old Thomas Flat’s funeral affected me more than any I ever heard. Thomas didn’t belong to the church, you know, and Mr. Hayes made it such a terrible warning. I am trying to find if it would really help me to join any church, especially when I see so much which is to me censurable in all I know; but perhaps I ought not to talk thus to you, Dill.”

“Yes, I think it does me good, for I actually get confused at home. Father talks so much about eternal

 

Page 52

 

punishment, and sin, and how easily we may be lost to heaven; and my head swims so sometimes that I catch hold of it with my hands to steady it. I talk about it only to you, and I hope to feel peaceful soon; if I don’t, I shall be crazy. I actually told father so once when he had talked to me a long time; and he said the devil was tempting me, and if I didn’t fight against him, he would gain the whole power over me. That terrified me worse than ever, and I could hardly sleep that night for seeing strange, terrible images crawling around and glaring at me.”

“Why, Dill, I am sure that does not please Jesus Christ, who said, ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ Those words always comfort me, and make me feel peaceful; and what has an innocent little thing like you to fear? Do you suppose a kind, pitying Father would make you suffer eternally for sins you never dreamed of? Why, Dill, I believe this is a very absurd idea. Don’t grieve yourself any more about it; and so long as you are innocent of sin as now, I am sure you will be safe, and time will make things clear to you.”

Dill shook her head slowly, yet there was a gleam of hope in her eye.

“If only a minister would talk to me in that way,” she said; “but I am afraid you don’t know. Still, you do me good; and if only you will learn this winter if any ministers believe as you do, I think it would comfort me.”

“I will learn all I can, be assured of that, and you shall have the benefit of it all,” said Hannah.

“Thank you,” was the choking reply, and the unhappy young girl gave Hannah a parting kiss with

 

Page 53

 

trembling lips. “I cannot stay to see the girls,” she said. “Give my love to them, and tell them ‘Good- by.’ Don’t forget to write. Good-by.”

“Good-by, I’ll not forget,” answered Hannah, gazing sadly at the disappearing little figure, and wondering if she had not said just the wrong things to her, and if in this world she should ever behold her again. She left the porch, and went up to the old garret, where she found the girls sitting on the quaint blue chest. Now, that old garret was by no means the least useful or patronized part of the house, and the girls had known and realized its worth since early childhood. Here were heaps of papers, old-fashioned books, ancient and musty; but many times they had been thoroughly tumbled over, and their contents searched by curious eyes. Here was the old spinning-wheel that their mother had used in her young days, remnants of old-fashioned costume, a few curiosities from foreign shores, and a number of clean rag-bags, which made nice seats and even couches for the girls in their meditative or lazy moods. The small window at the west supplied the freshest and sweetest air on the farm, and it was sure to be cool and breezy, though the heat was often oppressive there under the low roof. Each of the girls had had her dreams here alone, and altogether they had spent here hours of blissful enjoyment, so that the old garret was destined to live forever in their memory, creating always pleasurable emotions. In the blue chest, there were their early efforts at writing, drawing, and music, —yellow manuscript, consisting of unfinished stories, melancholy strains of poetry, sketches commenced, but not ended, and one long poem called an “epic” by its author, and tied with a bit of blue ribbon, which was a sign

 

Page 54

 

of the high place it once had occupied in her mind. Here also were numerous pieces of drawing paper, with life sketches upon them, —a bird, a leaf, a flower, many a face which seemed to represent some living visage; glimpses of water, pleasant nooks, old farm. houses, well-sweeps, pictures full of comic suggestions, and numerous designs, all imperfectly drawn, but displaying considerable talent and ingenuity. Scraps of music blanks were also here, filled with strains of music, —notes imperfectly made and blotted, accompaniments difficult and intricate, little songs, a march commenced, but unfinished, variations to some simple piece, a chant, and the hint of an anthem.

Kate and Mary had been looking them over, and packing them neatly together; and when all were in order, they had closed the chest, and sat down upon it for a little talk.

“We have been looking in the blue chest,” said Kate, as Hannah made her appearance, “and we have tied everything snugly that belonged together, and we have been thinking how they will look to us years hence, when we come up here in the garret and examine them.”

“I thought I would burn that old manuscript of mine, —it is such a heap of nonsense. I should be ashamed to have it read outside the family,” said Hannah, sitting down in front of the girls on an old box. “What have you done with that heap of papers I left here by the chest? I was going to pack them into this box.”

“They are all in there,” said Mary, “but I should be afraid the rats would gnaw them.”

“I care very little if they do,” said Hannah. “There are only a few sketches of mine there that I

 

Page 55

 

am not ashamed of. I thought of burning them all up, but finally I concluded I’d stow them away, and let them be and mould. It’s a pity I ever had to write such stuff, or ever did do it. Somehow, if one starts on the wrong track, it’s hard work to change. If I had never seen one of those sensational papers, I don’t know but I should be better off, though I did try the first-class magazines, but I never could earn a cent. My great aim is to earn enough money this way to give me time and opportunity to write something better; and if that time ever comes, I’ll make a bonfire of the trash I have already written.”

“New York will open your heart,” said Mary; “there’s a good time coming, but I am opposed to the bonfire. I say keep all your old writings, just for future amusement and fun.”

“They never would give me any,” said Hannah; “and as to giving other people amusement in such a way as that, I have not enough generosity to do it. How long are you going to stay up here in the garret?”

“We ought not to stay another minute,” said Kate, springing up from the old chest, and starting toward the stairway. “Come, let us go down-stairs, and act rational, and not be hiding ourselves out of sight. It is almost time to start.”

Down into the kitchen they flew, one after the other, where the three trunks were locked and strapped, and ready to be tumbled into the wagon. Mother was busy and smiling, though the girls did not know what an anxiety the smile concealed, nor how the night before she had lain and thought until past midnight, picturing to herself every possible danger that might befall three young girls in a great city. Everything seemed so comfortable and cheery in

 

Page 56

 

the kitchen. The shiny tea-pot sent out an inviting flavor, and a basket of fair yellow apples on the table spoke of plenty, and peace too; while the tea-kettle sung blithely, and a cricket chirped under the hearth. It would have been strange if this pretty home picture had not met with appreciation in the young girls’ hearts, and held up to their fancy a cheerless room in the city. Why should they go, after all? Wasn’t it foolish to leave such a sweet, peaceful home, where they could live in happy retirement, supplied with all the necessaries of life? What could they expect to find in the world better or more satisfying? Why not settle down, and be content to do like the other girls of their acquaintance, sew and knit, and crochet tidies, collars, and edging; help about the house-work, and read newspapers, and now and then a book? Why couldn’t they be content? There were many charms at home. The fine rosewood piano, procured through Mary’s exertion and her father’s kindness and generosity, was a great charm of itself. Then there was the game of chess, which they often played in the long winter evenings; their slight knowledge of embroidery, and the merry and mysterious preparations for Christmas. Was it not almost a sin in them to leave so much from discontent, and go into a strange place to rely wholly upon themselves?

Thoughts similar to these passed like a flash through their minds, as they looked into the cozy, warm kitchen, and saw its comforts and enjoyments.

“Yes, blessings brighten as they take their flight,” Hannah said to herself; but she was heard distinctly by Kate, who gave the strap on her trunk an extra jerk, as if to make sure that it was sufficiently secured, and then proceeded to lay the cloth for supper without making any reply.

 

Page 57

 

“Go, now, girls, and change your dresses,” said mother; “you ought to start certainly in half an hour. I will have supper ready when you come down, and then the wagon will be ready.”

Reluctantly the girls obeyed; and in the great chamber together they donned the dresses which had been altered and remodeled for the occasion, plain, but neat and becoming. Somehow they dressed in a flutter of excitement, for the time was drawing so very near; and after all, how should they make out? what should they do? Mary’s teeth actually chattered, which could not have been owing altogether to the, weather, though it was a little chilly, and her voice trembled with excitement.

“O dear,” she exclaimed, “where is my collar? I laid it just here on the stand. Who has seen it?”

“Where are your eyes?” asked Kate. “There’s the collar in plain sight.”

“Well, I’m just stupid, and its awful cold. Do, Hannah, shut that window,” said Mary, trying with tremulous hands to fasten her collar. “This pin is such an old-fashioned thing; but then it is pure gold, that is one consolation.”

“Don’t work over that pin any longer,” said Kate. “Do see if I have tied this ribbon well on my neck, and see if you think my dress really seems too short.”

“Not a bit,” said Mary, taking a survey. “I should think it just the style from what I read about the last fashions; and the bow is all right.”

“Girls, are you ready?” called mother from the foot of the stairs.

“Almost,” answered Hannah, with her mouth full of pins.

They went down to the kitchen soon, and took their

 

Page 58

 

accustomed seats at the table. Everything was so fresh and good, —the golden butter and cheese, and the huge doughnuts, and soft, new bread. How longingly in the future they would look back to this meal! They ate almost in silence, or tried to eat, but somehow they were too full, and the food choked them. They tried to drink the tea which mother insisted would do them good; but it was too hot, they said, and left it almost untasted. Father took occasion to give a few more words of caution to the numberless ones which he had already said.

“Be sure and not trust to strangers,” he said, it seemed for the twentieth time. “No matter how kind a person may seem, or how respectable he may look, don’t trust him till you know something about him; and remember fine clothes often form the dress of a villain. Look out for your money, and don’t get careless after a while, and think there is no danger. That is just the time people get their pockets picked. Go together as much as possible, and don’t go out much evenings. Don’t rely upon any one to point out the way to you, but a policeman. Keep it fresh in your minds continually that no stranger is to be trusted, and don’t be careless about crossing the streets.”

This he said, and much more similar to it; and the girls, though they listened respectfully, and said “yes,” and “we will,” etc., over and over, thought, after all, that the advice was hardly necessary, as they should be careful enough with what little money they had, and never trust a stranger. The boy who was to take them to the depot cracked his whip impatiently, the trunks were placed in the express-wagon, and the girls hurried on their shawls and hats, drew on their gloves hastily, and were all ready to say good-by.

 

Page 59

 

“Remember all I have told you,” said mother, still smiling, “especially about your health; and if you are in want of anything, don’t hesitate about telling of it, for we can contrive some way to help you.”

Be sure and get your trunks checked, and don’t lose the checks,” said father.

They were in the wagon at last; and as the horse started onward they looked behind them, choked back the tears, said good-by, and were gone.

 

Page 60

 

CHAPTER V.

IN NEW YORK.

 

“SAFE so far,” said Kate, dropping into a chair.

“What a strange little room!” said Mary.

“Climbing four flights of stairs is enough to exhaust a person,” said Hannah, drawing a very long sigh, and sitting on the edge of a little white bed.

“Well, what do you think of our new quarters? How do you like appearances?” asked Kate.

“I am so glad to get by ourselves once more, that I’m not capable of judging yet. I thought one while we never should get here,” said Hannah, pulling off her gloves. “I knew cities were confusing, but I never supposed they would make one deaf and dumb and blind before. Once I thought we should surely get separated and lost; and I wanted to give Mary a good shaking, she stopped and gazed so much. All at once I would miss her, and then would wait and look, and grow frightened, and at last espy her completely absorbed in looking at some silly thing.”

“Well, if anybody could have avoided looking at that monkey, I would like to see the person. It actually had on a blue velvet basque, and it brought its cap to me for a penny,” said Mary.

“And of course you put one in,” laughed Kate. “That is one of the ways to spend money.”

“Yes, I did give him a penny; he was so cunning,

 

Page 61

 

I couldn’t refuse,” said Mary, going to the window and looking out into the street. “O, we’ve got a splendid view,” she said. “There is a man selling newspapers in a little hovel. It is so high, up here, it almost makes me dizzy to look down. Do see that car! it looks for all the world, viewed from here, like a great mud-turtle creeping along. I shall like this.”

“I am so tired,” said Kate, “that I can’t take another step at present, and I do believe my feet are blistered. I should think we walked at least three miles out of our way, and lost our way twenty times or more.”

“Let us take off our shoes, and lie down and rest us a while,” said Hannah. “It seems to me I never was so tired before in all my life. Why, we were up at four o’clock this morning. Don’t you feel tired, Mary?”

“Tired?” said Mary, turning away from the window, and putting on an exhausted look. “Now I have time to think of it, yes, —entirely ‘done out,’ as Debby Pike says; and I don’t doubt in the least but that my feet are blistered; and my eyes, —why, they feel as though they were full of pins; and my head, —well, you can’t imagine how that aches.”

“There are three little beds,” said Hannah, “one apiece. Mine will be first, Kate’s in the middle, and Mary’s against the wall. Let us take them for sofas, lie down upon them, and then take a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of the surroundings.”

“Agreed!” said Mary, taking off her boots with amazing quickness, throwing her hat one side, and dropping her head on the hair pillow with a long-drawn breath.

“Mercy, girls! what do you call this?” she ex-

 

Page 62

 

claimed, as soon as her head touched the pillow. “Harder than a brickbat! Kate, what is this, anyhow? Not feathers certain, and not straw either: what then is it?”

The pillows were thoroughly examined.

“I should call them decidedly flat at least,” said Kate; “and there is no shaking them up.”

“They are hair-pillows, I suppose,” said Hannah; “and for my part, if I can find any place to lay my head at present, I shall not complain.”

“But they are so decidedly comical,” said Mary. “No doubt but that we could rest on the floor to-day;” and down the three heads dropped on the hard pillows, three sighs mingled together, and then they were ready for a talk.

The room, which had been procured for them before they went to the city, was a small affair, and for furniture contained only three chairs, three single beds, a wash-stand, a little table, and a stove. The street which it overlooked was a respectable one, though exceedingly noisy and bustling. The house was let by a man who had a friend in the vicinity of the girl’s home, and through him the room had been procured. It was on the fourth floor; and though it was tedious to climb the four flights of stairs, yet when it was done, the air was found to be clearer, purer, and sweeter than below, and from the windows one could look over the great city and get a glimpse of the ocean, flecked with white sails. As the three girls are such inveterate talkers, I shall leave further description of their new situation for them to explain in conversation.

“A short time ago, and a long time ago, we were dreaming of this hour, and time at last has brought it along, and here we are in the great bewildering city, I should think about in the centre,” said Hannah.

 

Page 63

 

“Bewildering! yes, that is just the word,” said Mary. “I believe it would take a century to see all the sights, if one kept steadily looking all the time.”

“I keep thinking of ‘Tom Brown’s’ visit here, the result of which John G. Saxe sung about, and I begin to realize the truth of what he says about the city.”

“What is it? I don’t remember,” said Mary.

“I don’t recollect the first few lines of the stanza, but I remember these: —

 

‘Indeed, I’ll be bound that if Nature and Art

(Though the former, being older, has gotten the start)

In some new Crystal Palace of suitable size

Should show their chefs d’oeuvre, and contend for the prize,

The latter would prove when it came to the scratch,

Whate’er you may think, no contemptible match.

For should old Mrs. Nature endeavor to stagger her,

By presenting at last her majestic Niagara,

Miss Art would produce an equivalent work

In her great, overwhelming, unfinished New York.’”

 

“We shall realize the truth of those words more fully after we have been here at least a day or two,” said Kate. “Isn’t the stove a minute affair?”

“Everything is minute in these quarters,” said Mary; “and when our trunks arrive, there will be very little spare room left. We shall have to walk around on the beds, chairs, and trunks.”

“What would everybody say at home if they knew just where we are now?” asked Hannah.

“Nothing very agreeable, probably,” said Kate; “but there is one thing to encourage us. Though we have very little money, limited wardrobes, and this little bare room to live in, the whole city is ours as far as sight goes, and we can enjoy and learn a great deal for nothing.”

“Yes, and I am willing, for one, to live in close quarters, and dress exceedingly plain for such a privilege,” said Hannah.

 

Page 64

 

“I am too,” said Mary, “because no one will know anything about it here, and we can do just as we like.”

“A great advantage over a village or small town, and I am glad we are here,” said Kate; “but if we don’t learn any more than Emily Lawson did when she spent a winter here, we shall have our labor for our pains. During the whole time she was here, she didn’t go into the streets once alone, she said; and all she could talk about were theatres, and those she had a very superficial knowledge of.”

“Yes, and she said to me when I expressed a desire to see New York’s many curiosities, —‘I felt just so when I first went there; but you won’t see much, after all. I don’t know much more about New York than I did before I went there, and you won’t either. The fact is, it is a real task to get around the city, and find an escort whenever you want one; besides, when one is where she feels that she can go if she likes, she has less desire to do so, and postpones everything till the time comes to leave the city, and then she regrets that she didn’t make greater efforts to look around.’ I said to myself then that we would be our own escorts, and go wherever we desired, not asking the consent or opinion of any one; but of course I didn’t say a word of it to her.”

“No one disturbed us to-day, did they?” said Mary seriously, “but every one was exceedingly kind and obliging, I thought, —all but the old apple-women. They did nothing but mutter, and I’m sure I couldn’t understand a word they said. No one made any attempts to pick our pockets or impose upon us, and I don’t feel half so afraid as I thought I should.”

“I had no time to think of anything but the noise

 

 page 65

 

and confusion. What a thundering racket those stages make, rattling 6ver the stones, and the great carts, loaded with vegetables and everything else! Why, really a person can’t think in the street,” said Kate.

“What kind of people do you suppose live in this house?” asked Mary in a half whisper.

“Respectable ones, Mr. Arms said; that is as far as my curiosity goes at present,” answered Hannah. “There is a notice outside that says, ‘Rooms let with and without board.’ I hope no one will disturb us, and that is all I ask of them since I know they are respectable, which knowledge makes me feel easy. Do you think, girls, we could ever go to sleep here so long as that noise was kept up in the street?”

“It seems impossible now,” said Kate, “but people must necessarily get accustomed to it, else New York would be a sleepless place.”

“Which I think quite probable,” answered Hannah.

“I like my bed best of any,” Mary said, abruptly changing the subject. “I can look out of the window as I lie here, and see the corner of the street, and that stand of apples and oranges, and the tops of people’s heads as they pass along; so my bed is last, but not least.”

“I like my bed best,” said Hannah, “because I can’t see the dusty, noisy street, but can look straight up into the sky; and how delightful it will be at night to watch the stars, and perhaps at times to get a glimpse of the moon!”

“I like my bed best, because it is protected on both sides by two brave knights, and I can lie in all safety, and look over the tops of the buildings, and see the great tossing, billowy ocean, besides looking at the sky when I choose,” said Kate.

 

Page 66

 

“I can see the ocean also,” said Hannah.

“And I can see both ocean and sky,” said Mary.

“It is fortunate that we are all satisfied,” said Hannah, in a tone which was growing drowsy in spite of the clatter in the streets.

“Which shows,” answered Kate, “that possessions need not necessarily be the same in order to satisfy the possessors.

The sentences grew shorter, and the intervals between them longer, until closed eyes and regular breathing announced that all three had fallen asleep, though the commotion in the street grew no less, and notwithstanding their belief that sleep was impossible when noise was so prevalent. The night before, which was spent on a steamer, their slumbers had been broken and disturbed; besides, at four o’clock they had arisen, and gone to the outer deck to watch for the great city which they were rapidly approaching; and then their long walk on the pavements had wearied them to exhaustion, and they slept soundly.

For several hours they slept on, and at last were roused by a loud pounding on their door. They all started up in a trice, and looked at each other in bewilderment. The noise of the streets buzzed into their ears as soon as awakened, and the pounding on the door was continued.

“O, it is the trunks,” said Hannah at last, rubbing her eyes and springing toward the door.

She was right, and the three little trunks were soon tumbled into the room, and quiet again restored.

“O, dear; I am hungry,” said Mary. “Let us open the trunk, and get out some of the cold chicken.”

“No, don’t let us eat that the very first day,” said Hannah, as she unstrapped one of the trunks, and pro-

 

Page 67

 

ceeded to unlock it; “besides, it’s not time for supper yet, and you know we must commence with some regularity in our meals, or we shall all get the dyspepsia, just as mother said.”

“There’s one thing certain, and that is I shall have dyspepsia very shortly if I don’t have something to eat. Talk about supper! We haven’t had any regular dinner yet,” said Mary, looking with longing eyes at the bundles of food Hannah took from the trunks.

“Well, let us have some boiled eggs, and bread and butter. Don’t you think that will be good, Kate?” asked Hannah.

“As for me,” said Kate, “I could eat anything, even raw codfish; so don’t consult my wishes, but bring along anything there is there. It is all excellent, thanks to mother.”

“Well, I’ll give up the chicken if I can get anything else,” said Mary. “Shall we set the table?”

“Yes, here is the cloth; spread it on the table. We might as well commence being orderly first as last,” said Hannah, as she rolled out the boiled eggs, and bread and butter.

“Apples for dessert,” she continued, taking out three red-cheeked Baldwins and placing them in the centre of the table. “Now don’t be bashful, but take hold and help yourselves; we don’t stop for ceremonies here.”

“Thank you,” said Kate; “ it is well you don’t, for you would be obliged to stop some time before they would come, I fear. What shall we do after supper, —go into the street?”

“Yes, do let us, if we can ever find our way back again. I dread roaming all over everywhere, and getting frightened at last,” said Mary, picking at the shell of an egg.

 

Page 68

 

“I ought to go to Cooper’s this very day,” said Kate, “and see if I can attend the School of Design. Of course I can, but I want to feel settled and commence work as soon as possible. There isn’t any time to lose, you know.”

“Have you any idea which way it is from here, or how far?” asked Hannah. “Not the least,” replied Kate, “but a policeman will tell us. We must find it sometime, you know, and why not to-night?”

“We might go and learn the way,” suggested Hannah, “and go in or not as we like. For my part, I think we ought to have this day to rest in.”

“Well, then, we will only walk out for pleasure, and just see how Cooper’s looks,” said Kate. “I am wonderfully rested.”

“So am I,” said Hannah; “and this evening, when we return, we will write home, and I shall then consider the day well spent.”

“Now, Mary, don’t keep me continually looking after you when we get in the street,” said Hannah, as she locked the door after they had left their room, having started for their walk. “Keep at my elbow, and if there is anything you want to stop and see, nudge me, and I’ll stop; but don’t be lingering and loitering when I know nothing about it, for there is danger of getting separated. There is such a crowd passing and repassing all the time it is enough to scatter the wits of any one. I don’t know what to do with this key. What shall I? If I put it in my pocket, I may lose it, or somebody may pick it out; there’s no dependence.”

“Pin it in,” said Kate, “and I’ll risk it. Here is a large pin.”

 

Page 69

 

The key was secured, and the girls passed on through the long hall, down the four flights of stairs, and were soon on the pavement.

“Isn’t it lively?” whispered Mary, clinging to Hannah’s sleeve as commanded.

“I wonder if we appear like green country girls,” said Kate, “and if we act anything like the country girls we read about.”

“It isn’t easy to judge of our own actions correctly, but really I think we act quite respectably,” said Hannah.

“Nearly all the ladies glance at the shop windows or stop to look in them; and if they didn’t, what would be the use of the display? and we only do that, you know.”

“They don’t play tricks on girls as on men,” said Mary, “or else we might look out for pocket-books dropped in our way.

“It seems to me girls are much safer in the city than boys,” said Hannah, “notwithstanding most people’s different opinions. We are not tempted to enter mock auction rooms, as honest Tom Brown was, and all the gilded saloons in the city could not induce us to take a glass of liquor; and yet people are all crying out on every side of a girl who goes into the city, the dangers, and risks, and inconsistencies of such a course. For my part, I don’t believe it was originally designed for women to be conventuals; but I do believe, if they really desire it, they can make their mark in the world, and, if possible, I shall confirm my belief by experience.”

“No one seems to take any notice of us,” said Mary; “and how can there be any danger when there are so many people on every side of us?”

 

Page 70

 

“I suppose there is danger everywhere,” said Kate, “and it is our business to avoid it. If we took no precautions, we might all be run over by some of these great lumbering teams; and even at home we might get burned up if we didn’t keep out of the fire. The fact is, girls, we must keep our eyes open, or we shall be sure to fall into danger. Isn’t it nice that we neither smoke, nor drink wine, nor play billiards, nor have any desire to do either?”

“It is a mercy,” said Hannah; “and if we don’t get infatuated with fashion and dress, we shall undoubtedly go on briskly.”

“We shall not be likely to do that, for we have no money to spend in that way; so I think we are safe there,” said Kate.

“It is a temptation,” said Mary, “to see so many pretty things, and so many women in becoming costumes; for one would like to look pretty.”

“Yes, but when we reason on the subject, we find it is much more to our advantage as regards happiness, convenience, health, and comfort, to clothe our minds with beauties which can never escape us,” said Hannah. “The study of dress and fashion must be a very shallow enjoyment, and give people a great deal of uneasiness, especially if their purse is light.”

“There is time enough for us,” said Kate, “when we make our fortunes; then I’m to have a black velvet dress, you know.”

And so the girls talked and walked, and often a policeman turned, when Hannah lightly touched his arm, to behold three pairs of bright eyes looking innocently into his face while inquiries were made. Cooper Institute was pointed out to them at last, that great building, so suggestive of human benevolence and appreciation of the wants and needs of the people.

 

Page 71

 

“I believe,” said Kate, looking at the building with shining eyes, —“I believe I feel enough gratitude for that building and its advantages, to pay for its erection. I really feel like expressing my gratitude to Mr. Cooper personally; but I suppose it would only trouble him. Are such men and their benevolent acts appreciated?”

“No, not as they should be, I am sure,” said Hannah, “though they often get applauded, and gain notoriety; but I suppose it is impossible for people to fully realize the good such a building as this does to generation after generation.”

They entered the Institute, and roamed about from one room to another, taking note of everything they saw, and becoming bewildered as they wandered upstairs and down. The reading-room was to them the chief attraction, where many men were reading the news; and though they were busy with their thoughts, they kept silent until they were again in the hall.

“I don’t see why people need complain of a lack of opportunities to improve their minds, if they can visit this place,” said Hannah.

“Did you notice,” said Kate, “not one woman was there reading, but a large number of men? What do you think is the meaning of it?”

“Perhaps the women don’t find time to go there,” suggested Mary.

“A poor set of slaves they are then,” said Hannah. “It seems more probable that they choose to go somewhere else, —shopping perhaps, or parading the streets; and men, you know, must keep a little posted on the news of the day, if they have any pride or self- respect.”

“We, are not going to allow,” said Kate, “that

 

Page 72

 

women haven’t the ability to grow as wise as men, nor that they have no natural taste for knowledge and literature, until we have proved our own powers thoroughly; so it becomes necessary to devise some reason for the absence of women from the public libraries and reading-rooms, besides a natural disinclination to visit such places.”

“False education,” said Mary. “Wouldn’t I have been just as uninterested in these matters, and just as interested in dress and all the pretty things of a fashionable life, as the most insipid you can find, had I been bred in luxury, and taught that to work was a disgrace to a girl, and making herself attractive and getting a rich husband must be her one aim in life?”

“It might have been so with us all, and I think Mary has the right key to the mystery,” said Hannah; “and it is such a pity that women are so educated. They surely cannot enjoy life so well as they otherwise would; and how grateful we should be that we are bred to higher aims and objects!”

“I think,” said Kate, “we are a great help and strength to each other, and one alone would be much more liable to fall. Now we talk these subjects over and over, which causes us to think more and more; and in time perhaps we shall become strong enough to stand alone against the temptations and allurements of the whole world.”

“What a delightful picture that calls to my mind!” said Hannah.

This conversation was carried on as they descended side by side the long, heavy stairs. When they found themselves in the street again, they were undecided which way to turn, and the twilight was stealing on. No policeman was in sight, as is often the case when most needed.

 

Page 73

 

“Let us ask a woman,” said Mary. “I think it is safe to ask women the way, and there is one who looks good-natured.”

A corpulent, broad-faced woman drew near; but after several vain attempts to make her understand, as she proved to be very deaf, the girls gave up all hope, and with red faces passed on.

“This is a warning never to make inquiries of fat old women,” said Kate.

“It was too comical for me to keep quiet,” said Mary. “I had hard work to keep from bursting out laughing to see you two trying to make her hear, first one and then the other.”

“Yes, I knew you were behind us tittering. It’s a wonder the old lady didn’t keep us screaming to her an hour or so. I was really afraid she would,” said Hannah.

After several adventures similar to this, they found themselves well on their way home, congratulating each other on their good luck.

“I hope we are near home,” said Mary, after they had walked a considerable distance, “for it is getting dark, and look! there is a man lighting a street lamp. I wish—only for the danger—that we could stay out until all the lamps are lighted, just to see the effect.”

“Some evening we can, when better acquainted,” said Hannah, and they hurried on.

“Good evening, misses,” said a man at Kate’s elbow.

They all looked up, and perceived that they had never seen the man before, and understood the situation at once.

“I must say something to him,” whispered Kate;

 

Page 74

 

“I cannot resist the temptation;” and so she said in the most cutting, sarcastic tone possible, —

“Let us alone, if you please, sir; we neither know you nor wish to know you.”

A moment after this, they glanced behind them, but he had vanished.

“The impudent thing!” said Hannah. “It does one good to speak up to them so; but they say it is better not to notice them at all.”

“He has left us, any way,” said Kate, “and that is all we ask of him.”

“He may follow us slyly and rob us,” said Mary.

“O fie!” laughed Kate. “I’m not afraid of him, and it’s not the least consequence; and here we are at home, so there is no more danger or cause for fear.”

A couple was ascending the steps before them, —an old lady dressed in black, and a young man leaning upon her arm. He seemed feeble, and ascended very slowly; and at last, turning his head, the girls caught sight of a very thin, pale face, and large mournful eyes.

“Poor boy!” sighed Mary.

“Mother and son, no doubt, and if so, he has the best of care.”

“But what a sad, pitiful face he has!” whispered Hannah. “It is intelligent, too. I shall be haunted with it now for a long time. I wonder if they are poor, and if he has consumption.”

“I hope not,” said Kate; “perhaps he is recovering from some fever.”

“His eyes looked as though his soul was full of poetry,” said Mary. “I hope we, shall meet him some time.”

They entered the hall just after the interesting

 

Page 75

 

couple, and, ascending three flights of stairs, saw them enter a room just beneath their own and close the door after them; then they climbed another flight, and, when in their own room, soon lay down upon their little beds to rest, for they were very tired.

 

Page 76

 

CHAPTER VI.

ADVERTISING.

 

THE second day in New York was to the three sisters a day of work. They could not afford to be idle when there was so much to be accomplished, so many hopes to beckon them on, so much dependent upon their exertions. They expected no ease or idle pleasure; their object was to benefit themselves and prepare for future usefulness: yet there is no heart so prescient as fully to comprehend what it has anticipated, except through a thorough realization of the anticipation; and though they knew trials and disappointments must overtake them, yet they could not understand or discern how very disheartened and weary they would become as the days advanced.

They went to work, therefore, with brave hearts, and a determination to overcome all obstacles. Their means were limited, and they were therefore obliged to make the increase of them their first consideration. However anxious they might be to commence their studies and observations at once, and go on improving without interruption, their desires could not be gratified; but they must build the ladder as they climbed, and they commenced with willing hands and hopeful hearts. And so when the morning light stole in upon the little white beds, and the busy stir had commenced in the streets, three pairs of eyes opened one after the

 

Page 77

 

other, three hearts gave sudden bounds of recognition of things around them after an instant’s bewilderment, and then the tongues were loosed, and the thoughts busy.

Full of hope and ambition, they arose and prepared themselves for a day of activity. One little looking-glass was all they had in which to view their bright faces; but the eyes were keen and sparkling, and a few glances were sufficient to show them that they were presentable, though their ornaments were few and modest. The noise and bustle in the street excited and animated them; they had never been where there was so much commotion before, so much hurry and confusion; and the sound of many feet upon the pavement below was to them an incitement; for were not numberless people busy and active, and are not we influenced by that which is going on around us?

The time, however, was destined to come to them when the continuous tramp and hurry in the streets would discourage instead of animate, would weary instead of excite; for the strongest and bravest, who are striving for high and worthy attainments, must find shadows as well as sunshine along their way. They ate their breakfasts in the liveliest and brightest moods, and declared they had never felt, better appetites at home when there were hot coffee and toast to tempt them.

After the meal was finished, and the things cleared away, Hannah procured paper and pen, saying, “Now for the advertisement.”

Advertising, it is said, is the key to wealth and worldly distinction. It is certainly an avenue through which unknown persons may make their desires known to the public, and gain people’s attention and interest.

 

Page 78

 

The three sisters had little money, but much faith; no experience, but great hopes and tireless energy; and though they tried to anticipate many failures, yet they could not but believe that the advertisement, which they could hardly afford, would bring to Mary a sufficient number of scholars to insure her a living, at least, in the city.

“Now,” said Hannah, taking a seat by the table, “now we must have the ‘Herald’ to look at. I have been told that that is the paper to advertise in.”

“Well, then, I will go down to the stand below here and get one,” said Mary. “It will be a good time to get out into the street alone. I want to try it.”

“You don’t think you would get lost, do you?” asked Kate.

“No indeed, how could I?” said Mary, preparing to go down.

“Don’t linger, and forget everything but the ‘sights,’” said Hannah. “I will stay at the window and watch for you, and see you buy the paper at the stand, and also if you start the right way to come back again.”

Mary started bravely on her way; but her heart beat faster when she reached the street and passed along with hurrying feet to the first corner, then on to the second, where was the news-stand on which the window of their room looked, and from which Hannah watched for the trim, little figure in gray poplin, half afraid some harm would come to the child, she said, even in that little walk; but Mary was successful, and with the damp sheet of the “Herald” in her hand, walked around the corner again without stopping to look into the showy shop windows, though the temptation was strong to do so. She entered the house safely,

 

Page 79

 

and the girls in their room were soon much surprised to see the door burst open, and Mary fly through with her face flushed and expressive of great excitement.

“O dear, I’m just mortified beyond description,” she said, flinging the “Herald” on the table and herself into a chair. “I have just disgraced myself, and I don’t see what makes me blunder so. I really thought I had got up four flights of stairs, and so I must rush into the room just below this and make a dunce of myself. As soon as I unlatched the door, I must scream out, ‘All safe! here’s the paper; now for the advertisement;’ and then looking in, there sat the pale young man, looking at me with his great melancholy eyes, and a smile about his lips; while I was so completely amazed, I stopped still an instant and looked straight into his face, and then, as if I had never been taught a particle of politeness, I rushed away, slammed the door, and here I am. O dear! these horrid houses, with so many flights of stairs!”

“Was he the young man we saw with his mother last night?” asked Hannah.

“Yes, of course; I knew him in an instant,” answered Mary, “and I am so ashamed of myself.”

“Well, you are not to blame,” said Kate, “though I should have thought you would have apologized.”

“So should I,” said Mary; “and he must think me so very green, or silly, or something. Suppose I should go down now and apologize. Is it too late?”

“I think it better to let it pass by now. We want to avoid making any acquaintances, and so the least said the better; you have done him no injury, and he will understand it to be a mistake, and will excuse you,” said Hannah. “How did it look in his room—anything like ours?”

 

Page 80

 

“O no, not at all. I don’t know one thing it contained; only there was more room, and it had a cozy look. I could see nothing but the pale face and great brown eyes of the young man, and I do pity him.”

“So do I,” said Kate; “but don’t let us get interested; we can’t afford it. If we don’t concentrate our minds wholly on the object for which we left home and came to the city, we shall surely miss of acquiring it. I am going to Cooper’s, and alone too, and you may write the advertisement. I shall be no help to you.”

After some discussion about the propriety of Kate’s going alone, and a decision that she could safely do so, Hannah and Mary commenced the study of the advertising sheet of the “Herald.”

“Good-by, girlies,” said Kate, with her hands on the door-knob; “don’t go to the ‘Herald’ office till I come back, and don’t worry about me in the least, for I can take care of myself. I want to see the advertisement before it goes into the paper.”

“Don’t stay long, then,” said Mary; “and do be careful and count the flights of stairs when you come back. I have a mind to carry a card with me after now, and keep an account as I rise.”

“Don’t lose yourself in thought while in the street,” said Hannah ; “and when you display those drawings, don’t act as though you were ashamed of them. I think they are good. Good-by; come back as soon as possible.”

“Now,” said Mary, as soon as Kate had gone, “here is an advertisement that suits me pretty well.”

“That is very good,” said Hannah, reading it; “and I will now write one, and then we will see how it sounds.” There was a silence for some time, while

 

Page 81

 

Hannah thought and Mary read; and at last with a long breath Hannah announced that she had written something, but she didn’t suppose it was good; whereupon she proceeded to read it. It ran thus: —

“A thorough and competent teacher of music would like to obtain a few scholars. She will be faithful in her instructions and reasonable in her charges. Address, W. M., ‘Herald’ office.”

“Well,” said Mary, after she had heard it for the fourth time, “that is probably as well as we can do. I wish I could get at least eight scholars; that would help us all a good deal.”

“We will see what can be done, or what this advertisement will do,” said Hannah, as she copied it carefully in preparation for its appearance in the columns of the “Herald.”

Kate was absent until nearly noon; and her sisters had begun to grow somewhat uneasy, when they heard her decisive step in the hall, and very shortly she stood before them, smiling and apparently well satisfied.

“What luck?” asked Mary the first thing.

“Excellent,” answered Kate; “I had no trouble at all in the street, and was very pleasantly received at the Institute, and shall commence my lessons there tomorrow. My sketches were pronounced very good; and I am so much encouraged and feel so free, now it is all settled. I went in among the alcoves, where the busts and easels were; and I know it is a delightful place to draw.”

“I wonder if we can’t go in some day,” said Hannah. ‘“I knew your sketches would be considered good.”

It was afternoon when the three girls started for

 

Page 82

 

the “Herald” office; and the merchant who sends in his advertisement to the amount of a thousand dollars, does not feel it of such importance as did they the slip of paper on which was only a few lines, costing them only fifty cents per day.

“Dear me! I’m afraid I shall meet the pale young man,” said Mary, drawing her veil closely over her face. “I couldn’t endure to see him; so let us hurry out of the hall as soon as possible.”

It was a long walk down to the “Herald” office; but the distance seemed short to the girls, who took note of all around them, and chattered merrily on the way. At one of the advertising windows they left the slip of paper, and the clerk smiled, and took the fifty cents; and with great expectations, they turned their steps homeward.

 

“Only one letter!” said Mary despondingly, on her return from the “Herald” office, whither she had gone to hear from her advertisement. She threw the letter on the table, and looked the very picture of discouragement. “That’s all the good advertising does. I expected at least a dozen letters, and have received only just one, and that is of no consequence. I only read the first line, which informs me that my services are not required, but only my attention for a moment.”

“Maybe the letter is of some consequence; you don’t know, if you haven’t read it,” said Hannah, drawing the letter from the envelope, and unfolding it.

“What consequence can it be,” said Kate, “if it brings her no scholars? If advertising will do no good what will? We have no influence, no acquaintances, and no recommendations.”

Here was a disappointment, so soon after their ar-

 

Page 83

 

rival; and the girls sat a moment and looked at each other in silence. “Let us see what this one letter says; perhaps there is some encouragement in it,” said Hannah.

She read it aloud and here is a copy of it: —

 

“NEW YORK, October 5th.

“W. M., —I do not address you to obtain your services, but your attention for a few moments. This morning, in looking over the advertising sheet of the ‘Herald,’ I noticed your advertisement, and was particularly attracted toward it. The reason for the attraction is unknown to me, as the advertisement is exceedingly commonplace, and gives no hint whether you are young or old, in comfortable or trying circumstances. However, I am through some means impressed that you are a young lady with little experience, and that is why I address you with a few words of advice. I think from my experience in advertising that this is the only letter you will receive at the ‘ Herald’ office; and if you are anxious to obtain scholars, you must make your desire known to the public in a more attractive manner. You must offer some inducement. Place your terms a little below the common price, and you will be noticed.

“I thought that by writing there might be a possibility of doing you a favor; and if my suggestion is not needed, it surely will do no harm. If you should wish to ask me for any information or favor, address

“A. B., Box 320.”

 

“Well!” exclaimed Hannah, dropping the letter in her lap.

“Indeed!” said Kate, in the tone she always used when suddenly struck with surprise.

 

Page 84

 

“If I had mistrusted what the letter contained, I should have read it long ago,” said Mary, throwing aside somewhat her despondent air.

“Who knows but this may be worth the dozen letters expected?” said Hannah.

“Perhaps,” said Kate; “but what a mystery! It is well-timed advice, and how near he guessed Mary’s circumstances! He must be a man of wonderful impressions.”

“A man? how do you know that?” asked Mary. “It may have been written by a woman.”

“I never thought of it’s being a woman,” said Hannah, looking the letter over again, “but it may be: however, it doesn’t seem like one.”

“I have no idea it is a woman,” said Kate. “It neither seems like a woman to write it, nor sounds like a woman’s composition. The writer is no doubt a man, and he has made an excellent suggestion.”

“And why didn’t we think of it before? Here we were discouraged about advertising, just because we were not keen enough to write a suitable advertisement. This shows how often failures come from inability instead of bad luck, as we often think,” said Hannah.

“Well, shall we try our luck again, on the advised plan?” asked Mary, with a lighter heart.

“Of course we are not going to give up so easily as this,” said Kate.

“O dear!” said Mary, “a few moments ago I was afraid I should be obliged to go home; I can’t go home any way, girls, now I have come. Something must be done. Let us write another advertisement now, and take it down for the morning’s paper.”

“Too late,” said Hannah; “yet, as we have nothing else to do, we can write it to-night, and carry it in to-

 

Page 85

 

morrow. I wanted to see if I could dispose of any of those sketches of mine, but I can’t go to-night. It really makes me shiver to think of it. I begin to realize how much bravery is necessary to push our way through the world. While at home, I thought it would be a pleasure to go into the publishing houses, and talk with the publishers; but I think so no longer. I shrink from it so, and I wonder if it is all in me or if such a thing would affect any one. Do you suppose a man would have such feelings?”

“I don’t know,” said Kate, “but I think it doubtful. It is really harder for a woman than a man, any way. In the first place, most of the publishers or all of them are men, and they stare at a girl so, and embarrass her; but then there is no use in shrinking or dreading it.”

“I know it, and I must overcome these feelings; “but it will be exceedingly hard work, especially as I have no confidence in the sketches I have to dispose of.”

“Well, it will do you good probably to make an effort even if you do not succeed, and perhaps you can find out some of the faults in your sketches, and then make improvements.”

“O, I am determined to try, though I have little hope of success. When Mary is well settled, I shall commence to write; and I am determined to write something that will sell. I must, you know, or go home, and it is a kind of necessity.”

“Well, if you are determined to do it, you can do it, there is no doubt about that,” said Kate. “If the paper you write for now would only take more of your sketches, you could be quite independent; but they have so very many writers.”

“O, I can’t depend on that paper at all, though

 

Page 86

 

the money I received from it seemed quite an income while at home, with so few expenses; but here it would not half support me, even in the economical way we are living; and there must be other ways for me than that, and I shall do all I can to find them out.”

“I did not intend,” said Kate, “to make any reference to my condition, until Mary was well settled; but I suppose I ought to be looking about for some kind of employment; for although my lessons at the Institute are free, thanks to Peter Cooper, yet it costs something to live; and my money will not last very long.”

“For the present, though, you are safe,” said Hannah; “and your chief aim should be now to learn as fast as possible; for the time will come probably when your attention will necessarily be called to earning your support. You must give all your attention to your studies now. I can’t help having a hope that I can assist in supporting us all soon.”

“You are generally having hopes that way,” said Kate, laughing; “but we haven’t come to want yet; so let us be joyful; there is time enough for despondency. Mary, what are you thinking about?”

“My advertisement, of course,” said Mary, starting suddenly from the reverie into which she had fallen.

“Well, have you come to any conclusion?” asked Hannah.

“No; you are the one to conclude in the matter; but I think it very singular that this letter was written to me, and I have a curiosity to know who wrote it.”

“But there is no way to learn,” said Kate; “so we might as well take the advice, and drown our curiosity.”

 

Page 87

 

“Mine cannot be drowned,” said Hannah “and I am in favor of dropping the writer a line expressing our gratitude for his timely suggestion.”

“It may not turn out well,” said Kate. “It looks too much like an adventure.”

“And what is the harm in adventures, if they are good ones?” asked Mary.

“But how are we to know whether they are good or not? Our motives are to learn, and fit ourselves for future usefulness; and we can’t afford the time to attend to everything which comes along,” said Kate.

“I know that,” answered Hannah; “but somehow I feel that it might be a benefit to us to write to the author of this letter. I don’t see how any harm could come from it.”

“Well, I don’t either,” said Kate, poising her head on one side to look at the sketch she was drawing. “Neither can I see what good may come from it; but then you and Mary are the advertisers, and can do as you like.”

“As that is the case,” said Mary, “let us design another advertisement, and make my terms nine dollars for twenty lessons.”

“Too little,” said Kate.

“I know that,” answered Mary; “but ten dollars is quite a common price, and according to this letter, I must make my terms low enough to induce people to engage me.”

“It seems hard,” said Hannah ; “but we must sacrifice much in order to do anything at last.”

The next morning Hannah and Mary went again to the “Herald” office; and this time their advertisement ran thus: —

“A young lady, who is a stranger in the city, in

 

Page 88

 

order to obtain scholars in music, will give lessons at the reduced rate of nine dollars for twenty lessons. She is a thorough and competent teacher, and those who wish to secure her services should address W. M., ‘Herald’ office.”

This was sure to, be noticed; and the young man who took it, together with the fifty cents, smiled and told them so; adding that there would be enough letters for them the next day.

Filled with hope, they went home to their little room, to talk and make further plans. Not dull of apprehension, quick to observe and discriminate, they had already become somewhat accustomed to the city, and could find their way about the streets with considerable ease. Though unsophisticated country girls, their intelligence, shrewdness, and elevated ideas prevented them from appearing green or ignorant, and secured to them an independent passport through the crowded streets.

As was so hopefully expected, more than a dozen letters came in answer to the last advertisement; and Mary, dancing into the room, threw them into Hannah’s lap, exclaiming, “Read, read! I could hardly wait to get home, and I ran pat against a half-dozen persons, in my haste. Now break the seals, quick.”

“Fourteen letters!” said Hannah, counting them.

“There must be some hope for business,” said Kate. “Do read one of them as soon as possible.”

Hannah broke one seal after another, and read the letters, to the delight and amusement of them all. A half-dozen of them were good, earnest letters; the rest were doubtful. Some were exceedingly laughable, and the room rang with merry voices when they were read; others were somewhat insinuating, and were therefore treated with contempt.

 

Page 89

 

“Here are six, which seem to me honest ones,” said Hannah, when she had read them all; “and you will have business for a while, Mary, to answer them all and make engagements.”

“You will have a task to find them all too, I imagine,” said Kate, examining the letters. “Here is one from Perry Street,” she continued; “and where that is, is more than I know. I must say, Mary displays more bravery thus far than I thought she would; but then it’s not time to be homesick yet.”

“I don’t know but she will succeed better than you or I, Kate,” said Hannah, “in spite of our fears to the contrary. She beats me now in finding her way around the city.”

“You are good for making acknowledgments at least,” said Mary, looking over the six letters carefully. “Six scholars at nine dollars a piece will be fifty-four dollars for ten weeks, or five dollars and forty cents per week. A pretty good income, isn’t it?”

“How fortunate we are, thus far!” said Kate.

The next day after the reception of these letters, Mary called at the places where she thought there would be hope of obtaining scholars; and among the six which she felt so sure of obtaining she engaged only four. Somewhat disappointed that all had not proved bond fide, yet after all delighted with her success, she walked briskly homeward deep in thought, and anxious to tell her adventures and experiences to her sisters. At the foot of the steps she again saw the young man with the pale face and great melancholy eyes, leaning on the arm of the old woman who had been pronounced by the girls his mother.

“Let me rest a moment,” she heard the young man say. “I can’t climb those steps now, I am so weary.”

 

Page 90

 

Mary forgot her embarrassment in her pity and sympathy for the invalid; and quite unlike her usual diffident and bashful manner, she stopped, and said respectfully, “Can I render you any assistance?”

“Thanks for your kindly offer,” said the old lady in the tone of a gentlewoman. “My son, I fear, has walked a little too far for his strength. If you would give him your arm, it would assist him much in ascending the steps.”

“I will do so with pleasure,” said Mary, stepping to the side of the young man and offering her arm. He rested his hand, as slender and white as her own, upon it, smiling and thanking her feebly. Slowly they ascended the steps, Mary’s heart gathering more and more sympathy, as the hand upon her arm trembled slightly; and the old woman said in a tender motherly tone, as if talking to a child; “We will rest in the hall, Davie, and we are almost there.”

In the hall the young man sat down to rest before attempting the first flight of stairs. He seemed exhausted, and closed his great beautiful eyes; and Mary glanced at him in timid pity, received again the old woman’s thanks, and then fled to her room.

 

Page 91

 

CHAPTER VII.

PLYMOUTH CHURCH.

 

SUNDAY morning never fails to make its appearance every seventh day, no matter what is the state of affairs in village or nation. Its pleasant peaceful light steals up from the eastern hills, and spreads itself out like a benediction over city and country, exposing the want and shame and misery in the dens of the busy towns, as well as the purity and glory of Nature’s delightful country.

This Sabbath morning of which I speak dawned with all the beauty and sweetness that October in her happiest mood can give. The group of maples on the Windsor farm appeared in their brightest array, and stood up in their brilliant robes against a sky rosy with the tints of the expected sun.

The hidden nooks of the old orchard began to grow visible; and the delicate ferns, cooled and dried by the night’s brisk breeze, looked as fresh and bright as on the summer mornings long passed away. The old farm-house, hedged in with apple-trees, stood still and gave no sign of the absence of the three young hearts which for years had awakened on these blessed mornings to greet the quiet Sabbath with throbs of peace and happiness. It told no tales, unless by its uncommon stillness, of the lone old chamber where the quilts were smooth upon the beds, and the snowy pillows, unpressed

 

Page 92

 

by placid cheeks, and free from tangled hair, looked stiff and cheerless. It spoke neither of the mother’s daily visits to this dear old room, hushed and silent, disturbed no more by the merry laughs of her happy girls, nor of the tender light of her mild eye as she patted a pillow complacently, or stooped over the little vase of dried asters, with a prayer for her absent daughters. The gleaming white church on the hill, with its silent bell poised in the quaint steeple, was kissed all over by the coming sunlight; and Adonijah, thus early in his Sunday suit, sat on the rough rails of a pair of bars not many rods away, and whittled dexterously at a piece of pine, his heart drinking in the stillness and beauty around him, though his uncultivated mind could not form his vague thoughts and feelings into the fullest and highest appreciation of the picturesque scenery around him, and the sweet, divine influence of the dawning Sabbath, that seemed to permeate every leaf and flower.

At an open window, behind a row of maples, appeared a little pale sad face with golden locks streaming down on either side, and pensive gray eyes peering through the gay rustling foliage toward the brightening east, where the sun was coming up in all his pageantry and pride. It was Dill, kneeling there in her snowy night-robe, longing for that peace to fill her heart which breathed so sweetly in all around her.

Nature strove to drive all fears away by her teachings of peace and simplicity; but the cold, hard teachings of man refused to withhold its impressions, and so the innocent young heart, which should have been filled with the most joyful emotions, throbbed painfully against its iron bars, catching glimpses of the fair sunshine of simple holiness, but unable to lift the latch of the iron gate.

 

Page 93

 

The little blue-veined hands were clasped on the window-sill, and the delicately moulded ear caught the low peculiar whistle of Adonijah, whittling on the bars. She knew just where he sat, —though she could not discover him through the maples, —for many a Sabbath morning before he had sat there in the same listless manner, whistling very soft and low some quaint old hymn, and whittling absently at a stick of pine.

Across the great square field, scattered here and there with brown and golden leaves, Sally bustled about in the cool milk-room, skimming the milk, and piling the pans into heaps to be washed. The coming up of the great sun was not to her a scene of wonder and admiration, but only an incitement to labor the faster, that the work might be “out of the way” in good season.

Everything was viewed from a stand-point so matter-of-fact and worldly wise that—

 

“God might have made the earth bring forth

     Enough for great and small,

The-oak-tree and the cedar-tree

     Without a flower at all,”

 

without deducting a particle from Sally’s desires or happiness. The cool blue asters by the well she had flung away because troublesome, she said; and the sprigs of golden-rod, which ‘Nijah with vague appreciation dropped upon the white pine table, she threw from the window with unappreciative ejaculations, and gave no thought to the glorious golden beauty of that fair October Sabbath. And so, while everything was so still and sweet and beautiful on and around the Windsor farm, there was apparently no lull in the noisy streets of New York city. The car-bells jingled lazily, the heavy stages

 

Page 94

 

rumbled along over the rough streets, the tramp of numberless feet made a continual clatter on the sidewalks, and the signs of the Sabbath were mostly in the hearts of those who loved the day of rest. In the rude little room, high up in the dull brick building, the sombre sweetness of the morning twilight softened angular lines into curves of beauty, and kissed with its dusky lips the sleeping faces of the three young girls who were to spend the first Sabbath in the great city. All night they had slept calmly and sweetly, —for the clatter in the streets no longer disturbed them, —and their dreams were of home and its many comforts. They had retired to rest with unexpressed but homesick feelings at their hearts, and had comforted themselves with the thought of Beecher’s on the morrow, and a whole day to forget all cares and feel justified, aye, sanctified in a rest from all their labors. They no longer laughed at the hard hair pillows, but slept as soundly upon them as they were wont to sleep on the downy ones at home.

Hannah had resolved, as she lay looking up into the fathomless patch of blue sky studded with the cool stars of October, that the morrow should find her in thorough search for some consolation in religion, for little Dill and for herself. Perhaps Beecher would say just what she needed, or inspire her to understand the hidden things.

Kate had gazed in silent meditation off to where the ocean lay, and her thoughts were a medley of past experiences and future hopes.

Mary turned her face to the wall, and tried to stifle back the tears that would creep under the eyelids and moisten her cheeks, as she thought of the blessed peace at home, and the beautiful Sabbath the morning would

 

Page 95

 

bring, and gather together the familiar faces in the old church; but not one of them spoke, and slumber stole upon them at last, and the night was passed in refreshing sleep; and so the morning twilight found them calm and peaceful, and the coming light and active life renewed swept away the sad feelings of the evening, and made them happy and merry again. Breakfast was eaten, the room put in nice order, and the toilets nearly completed, when some quick, stiff-sounding steps approached their door, and a sudden, decisive knock warned them that some one sought admittance. Curious looks passed from one to the other; and Mary, who was least engaged, opened the door, and displayed to the astonished gaze of them all a very prim-looking woman, with sharp gray eyes and sallow cheeks. She was tall and spare, with a peculiar garb of dull brown, and carried in her hand a hymn-book and Bible. She made a very stiff bow, and said good-morning in a very stiff way. She looked around the room with quick, curious glances, and said “Pardon me,” and “I beg pardon,” several times before she made known her errand.

“Walk in,” said Hannah after a little pause, not knowing what else to say. “We haven’t much room, but here is a chair.”

“Thank you, thank you,” said she, entering the room, and taking the offered chair. “I felt it my duty, as a Christian woman, to call on you this morning, the holy Sabbath day, and look after your souls. I hear you are strangers here in the city, and no doubt you need advisers, and I thought maybe you would go to church with me. I am a boarder in this house. My name is Desire Brechandon, and I am an unworthy member of the __________ Street Church.”

 

Page 96

 

“We are very much obliged to you,” said Hannah, “for your interest in us, and your kind invitation; but we had decided to go to Brooklyn this morning, to hear Henry Ward Beecher.”

“Like all the rest,” said Miss Brechandon, throwing up her skinny hands in holy horror, — “like all the rest who come to the city and desecrate the holy Sabbath by going to the theatre!”

“Indeed, madam, you misunderstand us,” said Kate. “We are not going to the theatre, but to Plymouth Church, to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach.”

“Just like the rest!” repeated the woman, shaking her head and showing the whites of her eyes. “The Sabbath is the day for piety, but none can be found in the pulpit of Plymouth Church. You’ll get no religion there, and I don’t suppose you go there for the purpose of getting any.”

“Why,” spoke up Mary, with large eyes. “I thought Mr. Beecher was a common preacher, and had sermons like other ministers.”

“An error many fall into,” said Miss Brechandon. “The Sabbath is too holy a day, young ladies, to parade about the city, cross the river, and listen at last to Henry Ward Beecher. In the first place, I consider it breaking the Sabbath to go over in the ferry-boat, and—I hope you will understand that I talk for duty’s sake. I have an interest in the souls of all humanity, and it is my aim to bring all I can into the fold of Christ.”

“Breaking the Sabbath to cross the river?” said Hannah, in a tone of surprise. “Indeed, Miss Brechandon, I can see no religion in such strictness as that. I cannot but have a higher idea of Christianity.”

“Please tell us,” said Mary, “ why you think it wrong to do so. I cannot understand it.”

 

Page 97

 

“You cannot understand it, because your hearts are not ready for it,” said Miss Brechandon, with a sigh; “but such a conversation as this is sacrilegious on the Sabbath.”

“Did you ever hear Beecher?” asked Kate.

“No, and I never intend to. His sermons are not religious, but secular; and laughter is a common thing among his congregation.”

“You never heard Beecher?” said Mary; “and live in New York?”

“There are a great many people who live in New York, and even in Brooklyn, who never heard him. Country people get high notions about him, and rush to hear him when they come to the city, as they would go to a Jim Crow performance.”

“But how can you judge him so harshly when you have never heard him?” asked Hannah.

“I don’t judge any one harshly. I only state facts. I am not obliged to go to a circus, am I, to know it is not a fit place to go to?”

“Well, but this is quite a different thing,” said Kate. “Won’t you go over with us just this once, and hear for yourself’?”

Miss Brechandon arose from her chair with a jerk.

“Well, I don’t know what kind of people will come into this house next. In the room below they are Roman Catholics, mother and son, and I’ve tried all I can to convert them to the true religion; but they are as stubborn as mules, and there is the young man on the brink of the grave with those false ideas. I’m sure I’ve prayed over him, and besought him to come into the true church; but these Catholics are so set in their ways, there is no doing anything with them.”

The girls were full of interest on hearing this bit of

 

Page 98

 

news, and full of surprise that the pale young man, with his beautiful, melancholy eyes, was a Catholic; for there were associated in their minds with Catholics, cloistered walls, dreadful penances, false priests, and wicked father confessors.

“I cannot believe but that he is good, however,” said Hannah. “His face is so spiritual.”

“Good!” repeated Miss Brechandon; “if he had the true Christian religion, he would be a saint. He is as patient as Job and as harmless as a lamb.”

“Poor boy! I thought so,” said Kate. “Is he an American?”

“His father was a Frenchman of high blood; his mother, an American. He was born in France; but I never gossip on the Sabbath. I would like to have you go with me to church. Nothing will comfort us on our dying beds but religion.”

“We are very much obliged to you for calling,” said Hannah, “and we hope you will call again. We are not opposed to religion, but rather desire to possess it in truth and purity; but we go somewhat on the plan of investigation.”

“Just the plan that has ruined thousands,” said Miss Brechandon. “Beecher will do you no good, mark my words; he will drive you farther away from Christ, instead of bringing you nearer to him. He is a novelist and a joker.”

There was silence a moment, then Miss Brechandon continued—

“Sometime you will see that what I have told you is true. I have already said too much, and should have been engaged in holy meditation and prayer; but I see that you are lone young girls, in the midst of wickedness. Call on me if you will; my room is the first at the right, on the second floor.”

 

Page 99

 

“Thank you,” said Hannah. “We shall no doubt be glad to do so, and you will always be welcome to our room.”

“Thank you, thank you. Good morning; may you learn the true way that leads to life everlasting.” With these words and a stiff bow, she was gone; and the girls turned, looked at each other, and then very irreverently burst out into subdued laughter.

“I suppose we shouldn’t laugh,” said Hannah, “but she is such an odd character. I am glad she called; I rather like her; she possesses genuine goodness, I am sure, though it is crusted over rather stiffly.”

“What a name—Desire Brechandon,” said Mary.

“We should start immediately, if we are going to Beecher’s,” said Kate, who for a wonder was first ready, and waiting at the door for a start. “I do wish people would leave us more to ourselves. If we begin to make acquaintances, what will become of our independence?”

They passed out into the hall and down the first flight of stairs, and there they met the pale young man and his mother coming home from mass; and his eyes seemed brighter, and his step a trifle stronger. He recognized Mary, smiled and bowed pleasantly, and received in return a flushed but happy look, while his mother made some pleasant remark.

“They don’t look at all like Catholics, do they?” asked Mary in a whisper, as they passed on. The Catholics she had been accustomed to see were the low Irish, and this fair-faced young man, with the air of a gentleman and scholar, could not be associated in her mind with the brawny, brawling Irish she was accustomed to meet.

 

Page 100

 

And now they were well on their way to the Plymouth Church, a place unrivaled in all the country in fame and popularity, and in the number of its weekly attendants. Troops of strangers in the city went there, as Miss Brechandon had said, with the same or almost the same purpose that they attended a place of amusement, —for pleasure and curiosity; but this fact, contrary to Miss Brechandon’s ideas, was in no way a hindrance or detriment to religion, or a fault of the church or its pastor. Henry Ward Beecher, with his native tact, eloquence, and good nature, could no more help being popular than a rose could help being sweet. It is born in some men to be great, the same as it is born in some men to be small; and as there are many who cannot be lifted out of obscurity, so there are some who cannot be kept from notoriety; but popularity is not a synonym with perfection, and a person’s own identity alone is the only thing, after all, that will keep his mind clear and vigorous, and bear him straight on in the path of life. A person must think for himself, and never accept a statement as truth because made by a great man or stated in an eloquent manner; for originality of thought alone will bring people towards an intellectual equality. Great and even good men sometimes fall into errors; and a person who talks much and often, not unfrequently makes mistakes, and sometimes grave ones. Desire Brechandon’s words of disparagement concerning Beecher were a benefit to the sisters, though not in the way she had anticipated. Having been accustomed to hear only praise of this orator of the pulpit, they had set him up in their hearts as almost an object of perfection, and Hannah had long dreamed of his church as a place to find the true religion.

 

Page 101

 

Originality of thought is never perfected until the mind has met with the spirit of opposition; and the belief of one person earnestly expressed has a greater influence than is generally understood. That is why earnestness is eloquence, because we are bound to respect the honest opinions of individuals; for if a person seems truly converted to a belief, we cannot help thinking he has some reason for his conversion, and are influenced accordingly. Miss Brechandon’s words, then, from their opposition to the three girls’ ideas and sentiments, had prepared them to be more independent judges of what they should see and hear in the famous church. The morning was cool and delightful, and of the nature to give activity to the highest and best part of the mind, and lift the soul nearer to its Creator. The noisy streets of the city, however, are not the places to awaken the purest and most divine aspirations; and this way of going to church was so different from the way the girls had always known, that they failed to catch the Sabbath’s soothing influence, and busied themselves as they rode or walked in noticing the various objects that met their vision, and making comments. This was such a contrast from going to church in the country, where the sky and the meadows were silent, but full of sacred and sweet influence, and where the one bell in the quaint steeple awakened the green little valleys and rolling hills, and the pathway was strewn with flowers. The girls always had declared the journey to and from church by far the most beautiful and inspiring duty of the Sabbath, and the best sermons they listened to were those which Nature preached to them; but now, as they walked through Fulton Market, with its stands of sweetmeats and refreshments, and that far from in-

 

Page 102

 

vigorating smell of vegetables and decayed fruit, they were not sufficiently heedless of things around them to pass on thinking only of the spiritual. However, when they walked up Hicks Street in the shadow of the numerous old trees that mingle their boughs together from sidewalk to sidewalk, something of those pleasant feelings came over them; for the fallen leaves rustled under their feet, and the wind made a pleasant, familiar sighing in the spreading branches.

“This seems like Sunday,” said Hannah, “and I am grateful for the seeming, for I was just thinking it would be terrible to lose those dear old Sunday feelings.” They soon turned the corner on to Orange Street, and their hearts began to beat high; for they knew they were near the church of which they had long heard, but never seen.

People were passing up the steps in front of a great brick building; but it couldn’t be Beecher’s church, they thought, it was so entirely plain, and had no steeple at all. Only a great square red structure, blocked in on each side, with no prominent feature, nothing to tell of its popularity and world-wide renown. Still the crowd increased around it; and, drawing near, the girls looked up over the great doors, and read, “Plymouth Church, 1848.” They looked at each other in astonishment, and felt somewhat disappointed. Thicker and faster the people came; and, fearing they should find no seats, they entered the hall, and saw that on each side of the church door there were crowds of people, and the gray-haired usher in his elegant black suit, and a tuft of rare blossoms attached to his coat, was saying over and over, making gestures with his hands, “Strangers, please step one side and wait till the pew-holders take their seats;” and so the girls,

 

Page 103

 

stepping aside, soon found themselves blocked in and squeezed by the fast increasing crowd. At last the great bell began to ring, and then the pew-holders came pouring in; and O, what a variety and elegance of costume they represented! These simple country girls had never witnessed any display of dress so rich and costly. Sweeping trains of richest silk, flashing bracelets, and diamond pins, satins and laces, and costly trimmings of every variety. Somehow this great display of attire didn’t seem much like religion; and then the most of them passed on with such important and sweeping airs that the girls, even in their bewilderment, didn’t quite admire, and thought how very plain and simple their own very best dresses were, and what heaps of money it must have taken to fit out so many in such elegant style. The usher now began to give the strangers seats; and the girls in a kind of dream followed him through the aisle, and fortunately received seats very near together. When fairly seated, they looked around them, and to their astonishment beheld no pulpit, but only a plain platform with a miniature desk, a quaint-looking chair, and a little stand, but O the beautiful flowers drooping over the high and elegant vases on each side of the desk! At these they gazed with lips apart. Such huge bouquets, and such a rich variety of colors! What wouldn’t they give to go near them and touch them? In their enthusiasm over the flowers, they forgot to watch for the eloquent preacher; and before they were aware he had taken his seat behind the desk, and suddenly there came a peal from the mammoth organ that made them start from their seats and look up. None of them had ever seen before an organ so great and powerful as this; and as it gave forth strain after strain, under the

 

Page 104

 

fingers of the organist, of wonderful, startling, and ravishing music, Hannah and Kate mutely pressed each other’s hands and listened, awe-stricken and entranced. Mary, who sat in the pew behind them, involuntarily clasped her hands together, and overcome with unutterable emotions, the tears rolled down her cheeks, while the blood in her veins seemed to grow cold, and she shivered as if in an ague fit. The organist never played better or made a better selection, and a new world was open to Mary; her soul seemed to leap forth into delightful places, before unknown, into endless fields, and beauties untold, and discerned only when the spirit seemed to escape for a moment from its house of clay. The voices of the choir awakened her from the enchanted state of delirious joy into which she had fallen; but the enchantment lingered still as the grand oratorio, with its solos and duets, filled the great house with its power and melody. The prayer was offered in a low tone, and the sisters forgot, in their curiosity and excitement, to pay due reverence, and silently join in the petition. Hannah was busy examining the preacher’s physique, and thinking how little of the spiritual there was in his looks, but how much there was of animal life and vitality. Kate was thinking of the boyish look about his mouth, the thin light hair put so smoothly behind his ears, and how much his pictures resembled him. Mary was busy in counting the pipes of the organ, the number of which she made out to be twenty-seven, and looking at the trumpets on each side, at the top, and the little brown angel perched in the middle, and wondering if ever she could touch the keys of a similar instrument.

The sermon did not bid fair, at first, to be anything but ordinary; but it grew more and more interesting

 

Page 105

 

and absorbing as the speaker continued, and the great audience was soon almost breathless with interest. Its tone and import, and the impression it made upon the sisters, is better expressed in a letter from Hannah to Dill than I can express it; and as the letter is inserted in the next chapter, I will pass the discourse by for the present.

When the services were closed, and the people arose en masse to leave the church, the sisters remained quiet until the greater part had gone, and then, according to previous agreement, they passed on toward the platform. They went close to the flowers, touched them, and inhaled their fragrance; and then they waited for an opportunity to shake hands with Mr. Beecher. Hannah was determined. She had seen great men only at a distance; and though she would have much preferred an introduction, yet to speak with him at all seemed a great privilege; and so she lingered and lingered near, with Kate and Mary a little behind, feeling somewhat shy and backward. Several times Mr. Beecher glanced at them as if suspecting their object and desire; but there were so many filing along to speak with him, he had no time to make advances, but could only attend to those made upon himself. At last, however, Hannah saw an opportunity; and, stepping forward, she offered her hand, saying, “I wanted to speak with you very much, Mr. Bee her, and have been waiting some time for an opportunity to do so. These are my sisters.”

How heartily the great preacher pressed those maidens’ hands, and how pleasantly he spoke, inquiring after their health! They never forgot it, but the memory of it was a blessing to them always. No doubt great men have much to do, and much to try them,

 

Page 106

 

but no one should voluntarily take upon himself too much to allow him sufficient time to be pleasant and kind, and attentive always to little “acts of kindness.”

Great men, especially those known as philanthropists, should make it one of their chief aims in life to spare enough time always to treat individuals with gentleness as well as politeness. It is a duty; for many a heart has lost confidence in professors of philanthropy, through being repulsed or ignored by some one before worshipped almost as a god.



Return to QUAKERTOWN Online