XVIIHUNGER-FORDSuch a line of communication as was soon established between Mount Hunger and New York, Mount Hunger and Cambridge, the Lost Nation and Barton's River, Hunger-ford--the Fords' new name for the old Morris farm--and the Blossom homestead on the Mountain!Uncle Sam's post, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the American Express, a line of freight, saddle horses, sleds, and the old apple-green cart on runners were all pressed into service; in all the United States of America there were no busier young people than those belonging to the Lost Nation.They wrote notes to one another with an air of great mystery; they drove singly, in couples, or all together to Barton's River with Chi; they smuggled in bundles and express packages of all sorts and sizes; looked guilty if caught whispering together in the pantry; took many a sled-ride over to Hunger-ford, and audaciously remained there three hours at a time without giving Mrs. Blossom any good reason either for their going or remaining.The acquaintance formed between the Blossoms and the Fords just after Thanksgiving, was fast ripening into friendship. March, usually shy with strangers, fairly adored the tall, quiet son with the wonderful smile, and expanded at once in his genial presence. With Ruth Ford he had much in common; and regularly once a week since Thanksgiving he had drawn and painted with her in her studio, the room that Aunt Tryphosa had so graphically described. His gift was far more in that direction than hers; and Ruth, recognizing it, encouraged him, spurred his ambition, and placed all her materials at his disposal.Rose's sweet voice had proved a delight to them all, and Hazel's violin was being taught to play a gentle accompaniment to Alan Ford's, that sang, or wept, or rejoiced according to the player's mood."I am so thankful, Ben, that our Rose can have the advantage of such companions just at this time of her life," said Mrs. Blossom, on the afternoon before Christmas when the two eldest, with Hazel, had gone over to Hunger-ford with joyful secrets written all over their happy faces."So am I, Mary. When I see young men like Ford, I realize what I lost in being obliged to give up college on father's account," said Mr. Blossom, with a sigh."I do, too, Ben; and what I 've lost in opportunity when I see that gifted woman, Mrs. Ford. She has travelled extensively, she reads and speaks both German and French, she is a really wonderful musician, and keeps up with every interest of the day, besides being a splendid housekeeper and devoted to her children.""Do you regret it, Mary?" said her husband, looking straight before him into the fire."Not with you, Ben," was Mary Blossom's answer. Taking her husband's face in both her hands and turning it towards her, she looked into his eyes, and received the smile and kiss that were always ready for her."If we did n't have all this when we were young people, Mary, we 'll hope that we may have it in our children," he said, earnestly.Just then Chi came in, and gave a loud preliminary, "Hem!" for to him, Ben and Mary Blossom would always be lovers. "Guess 't is 'bout time to hitch up, if you 're goin' clear down to Barton's to meet the train, Ben; I 've got to go over eastwards with the children.""All right, Chi, I 'd rather drive down to the station to-night; it's good sleighing and our Mountain is a fine sight by moonlight.""Can't be beat," said Chi, emphatically. "S'pose you 'll be back by seven, sharp? I kind of want to time myself, on account of the s'prise.""We 'll say seven, and I 'll make it earlier if I can. You 're off for Aunt Tryphosa's now?""Just finished loadin' up--There they are!" and in rushed the whole troop, hooded and mittened and jacketed and leggined, ready for their after-sunset raid."Good-bye, Martie!" screamed Cherry, wild with excitement, and made a dash for the door; then she turned back with another dash that nearly upset May, and, throwing her arms around her mother's neck, nearly squeezed the breath from her body. "O Mumpsey, Dumpsey, dear! I 'm having such an awfully good time; it's so much happier than last Christmas!""And, O Popsey, Dopsey, dear!" laughed Rose, mimicking her, but with a voice full of love, and both mittens caressing his face, "it's so good to have you well enough to celebrate this year!"Hazel slipped her hand into Chi's, and whispered, "Oh, Chi, I wish I had a lot of brothers and sisters like Rose. Anyway, papa's coming to-night, so I 'll have one of my own," she added proudly."Guess we 'd better be gettin' along," said Chi, still holding Hazel's hand. "It's goin' to be a stinger, 'n' it's a mile 'n' a half over there.""Come on all!" cried March; "we 'll be back before you are, father.""We 'll see about that," laughed his father, as he caught the merry twinkle in his wife's eye.But March was right by the margin of only a minute or two; for just as the merry crowd entered the house on their return from their errand of "goodwill," they heard Mr. Blossom drive the sleigh into the barn. In another moment Hazel had flung wide the door and was caught up into her father's arms.In the midst of their cordial greetings there was a loud knock at the door. They all started at the sound, and Budd, who was nearest, opened it."Please, Budd, may I come in, too?" said a voice everyone recognized as the Doctor's.Then the whole Blossom household lost their heads where they had lost their hearts the year before. Rose and Hazel and Cherry fairly smothered him with kisses; Budd wrung one hand, March gripped another; May clung to one leg, and the monster of a puppy contrived to get under foot, although he stood two feet ten.Jack Sherrill, looking in at the window upon all this loving hominess, felt, somehow, physically and spiritually left out in the cold. "What a fool I was to come!" he said to himself. Nevertheless he carried out his part of the program by stepping up to the door and knocking. This time Mrs. Blossom opened it."Have you room for one more, Mrs. Blossom?" he said with an attempt at a smile, but looking sadly wistful, so wistful and lonely that Mary Blossom put out both hands without a word, and, somehow,--Jack, in thinking it over afterwards, never could tell how it happened so naturally--he was giving her a son's greeting, and receiving a mother's kiss in return.In a moment Hazel's arms were around his neck;--"Oh, Jack, Jack! I 've got three of my own now; I 'm almost as rich as Rose!"Rose, hearing her name, came forward with frank, cordial greeting, and May transferred her demonstrations of affection from the Doctor's trousers to Jack's; Cherry's curls bobbed and quivered with excitement when Jack claimed a kiss from "Little Sunbonnet," and received two hearty smacks in return; March took his travelling bag; Budd kept close beside him, and the puppy, who had been christened Tell, nosed his hand, and, sitting down on his haunches, pawed the air frantically until Jack shook hands with him, too.By this time the wistful look had disappeared from Jack's eyes, and his handsome face was filled with such a glad light that the Doctor noticed it at once. He shook his head dubiously, with his eyebrows drawn together in a straight line over the bridge of his nose, and, from underneath, his keen eyes glanced from Jack to Rose and from Rose back again to Jack. Then his face cleared, and explanations were in order."Why, you see," the Doctor said to Mrs. Blossom, "my wife had to go South with her sister, and could not be at home for Christmas--the first we 've missed celebrating together since we were married--and when I found John was coming up to spend it with you, I couldn't resist giving myself this one good time. But Jack here has failed to give any satisfactory account of how or why he came to intrude his long person just at this festive time. I thought you were off at a Lenox house-party with the Seatons?" he said, quizzically.Jack laughed good-naturedly. "I don't blame you for wondering at my being here; but I've been here before," he said, willing to pay back the Doctor in his own coin."The deuce you have!" exclaimed the Doctor. "I say, Johnny, are we growing old that these young people get ahead of us so easily?""I don't know how you feel, Dick, but I 'm as young as Jack to-night.""That 's right, Papa Clyde," said Hazel, approvingly, softly patting her father on the head; "and, Jack, you 're a dear to come up here to see us, for you 've just as much right as the Doctor."The Doctor pretended to grumble:--"Come to see you, indeed, you superior young woman--youindeed! As if there weren't any other girls in the world or on Mount Hunger but you and Rose--much you know about it.""Well, I 'd like to know who you came to see, if not us?" laughed Hazel, sure of her ultimate triumph."Why, my dear Ruth Ford, to be sure.""Ruth Ford!" they exclaimed in amazement."Why not Ruth Ford? You did n't suppose I would come away up here into the wilds of Vermont in the dead of winter, did you? just to see--" But Hazel laid her hand on his mouth."Stop teasing, do," she pleaded, "and tell us how you knew our Ruth.""OurRuth! Ye men of York, hear her!" said the Doctor, appealing to Mr. Clyde and Jack. "The next thing will be 'our Alan Ford,' I suppose. How will you like that, Jack?""I feel like saying 'confound him,' only it would n't be polite. You see, Doctor, I thought I had preëmpted the whole Mountain, and was prepared to make a conquest of Miss Maria-Ann Simmons even; but if Mr. Ford has stepped in"--Jack assumed a tragic air--"there is nothing left for me in honor, but to throw down the gauntlet and challenge him to single combat--hockey-sticks and hot lemonade--for her fair hand."At the mention of Maria-Ann, Rose and Hazel, Budd and Cherry and March went off into fits of laughter. They laughed so immoderately that it proved infectious for their elders, and when Chi entered the room Budd cried out, "Oh, Chi, you tell about the--we can't--the rooster and the hoods, and--Oh my eye!--" Budd was apparently on the verge of convulsions."I stuffed snow into my mouth and made my teeth ache so as not to laugh out loud," said Cherry; at which there was another shout, and still another outburst at the table when Chi described the scene in the hen-house."Now, children," said Mrs. Blossom, after the somewhat hilarious evening meal was over, the table cleared, the dishes were wiped and put away, "we 're going to do just for this once as you want us to--hang up our stockings; but I want all of you to hang up yours, too. If you don't, I shall miss the sixes and sevens and eights so, that it will spoil my Christmas.""We will, Martie," they assented, joyfully; for, as March said, it would not seem like night before Christmas if they did not hang up their stockings."Yes, and papa, and you," said Hazel, turning to the Doctor, "must hang up yours, and you, too, Jack.""Why, of course," said Mrs. Blossom, "everybody is to hang up a stocking to-night, even Tell.""Oh, Martie, how funny!" cried Cherry, "but he has n't a truly stocking.""No, but one of Budd's will do for his huge paw--won't it, old fellow?" she said, patting his great head.Then Budd must needs bring out a pair of his pedal coverings and try one brown woollen one on Tell, much to his majesty's surprise; for Tell was a most dignified youth of a dog, as became his nine months and his famous breed.Early in the evening the stockings were hung up over the fireplace, all sizes and all colors:--May's little red one and Chi's coarse blue one; Mr. Clyde's of thick silk, and Budd's and Tell's of woollen; Hazel's of black cashmere beside Jack's striped Balbriggan. What an array!Then Mrs. Blossom and May went off into the bedroom, and Mr. Blossom and his guests were forced to smoke their after-tea cigars in the guest bedroom upstairs, while the young people brought out their treasures and stuffed the grown-up stockings till they were painfully distorted."Don't they look lovely!" whispered Hazel, ecstatically to March, who begged Rose to get another of their mother's stockings, for the one proved insufficient for the fascinating little packages that were labelled for her."Let's go right to bed now," suggested Budd, "then mother 'll fill ours--Oh, I forgot," he added, ruefully, "we are n't going to have presents this year--""Why, yes, we are, too, Budd," said Rose, "we 're going to give one another out of our own money.""Cracky! I forgot all about that--" Budd tore upstairs in the dark, and tore down again and into the bedroom, crying:--"Now all shut your eyes while I 'm going through!" which they did most conscientiously.Soon they, too, were invited laughingly to retire, and by half-past ten the house was quiet."'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Stretched out on the hearth-rug lay Tell snoring loudly,And above from the mantel the stockings hung proudly;When down from the stairway there came such a patterOf stockingless feet--'t was no laughing matter!As the good Doctor thought, for he sprang out of bedTo see if 't were real, or a dream iii its stead.But no! with his eye at a crack of the doorHe discovered the truth--'t was the Blossoms, all four,With Hazel to aid them, tiptoeing aboutLike a party of ghosts grown a little too stout.They pinched and they fingered; they poked and they squeezedEach plump Christmas stocking--then somebody sneezed!Consternation and terror!! The tall clock struck oneAs the ghosts disappeared on the double-quick run!"'T WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Without in the moonlight, the snow sparkled bright;The Mountain stood wrapped in a mantle of white,With a crown of dark firs on his noble old crestAnd ermine and diamonds adorning his breast;And the stars that above him swung true into lineOnce shone o'er a manger in far Palestine.What a Christmas morning that was!Chi was up at five o'clock, building roaring fires, for it was ten degrees below zero.With the first glint of the sun on the frosted panes the household was astir. At precisely seven the order was given to take down the thirteen stockings. But bless you! You 're not to think the stockings could hold all the gifts. In front of each wide jamb were piled the bundles and packages, three feet high!Rose hesitated a moment when the children sat down on the rug with their stockings, as was their custom every Christmas morn; then she plumped down among them, saying, laughingly:"I don't care if Iamgrowing up, Martie--it's Christmas."Upon which Jack, hugging his striped Balbriggan, sat down beside her.Such "Ohs" and "Ahs"! Such thankings and squeezings! Such somersaults as were turned by March and Budd at the kitchen end of the long-room! Such rapturous gurgles from May! Such hand-shakes and kisses! Such silent bliss on the part of Chi, who, though suffering as if in a Turkish bath, had donned his new, blue woollen sweater, drawn on his gauntleted beaver gloves, and proceeded to investigate his stocking with the air of a man who has nothing more to wish for. And through all the chaotic happiness a sentence could be distinguished now and then."Chi, these corn-cob pipes are just what I shall want after Christmas when I give my Junior Smoker.""Oh, Martie, it can't be for me!" as the lovely white serge dress, ready made and trimmed with lace, was held up to Rose's admiring eyes.Budd was caressing with approving fingers a regular "base-ball-nine" bat and admiring the white leather balls."I say, it's a stunner, Mr. Sherrill; but how did you know I wanted it?"Mr. Clyde, who was touched to his very heart's core by Hazel's gift of a dollar pair of suspenders which she had earned by her own labor, felt a small hand slipped into his, and found Cherry Bounce looking up at him with wide, adoring, brown eyes, which, for the first time, she had taken from her beautiful Émilie Angélique, whom she held pressed to her heart:--"I want to whisper to you," she said, shyly. Mr. Clyde bent down to her;--"After I said my prayers to Martie, I asked God to give me Émilie Angélique--every night," she nodded--"but I only told Budd, so howdidyou know?"March was lost to the world in his volume of foreign photographs, in his boxes of paints and brushes, and a whole set of drawing materials. He had not as yet thanked Hazel for them.Everybody was happy and satisfied. Everybody said he or she had received just exactly the thing. Tell alone could not express his gratification in words. He had been given his woollen stocking, and nosed about till he had brought forth three fat dog-biscuit, a deliciously juicy-greasy beef bone, wrapped in white waxed paper and tied at one end with a blue ribbon, a fine nickelplated dog collar with a bell attached, and last, from the brown woollen toe, three lumps of sugar.One by one he took the gifts and laid them down at Mrs. Blossom's feet; putting one huge paw firmly on the waxed-paper package, he waved the other wildly until she took it and spoke a loving word to him. Then, taking up his beloved bone, he retired with it to the farthest end of the long-room, under the kitchen sink, and licked it in peace and joy.Jack and Chi in the joyful confusion had slipped from the room.Soon there was a commotion in the woodshed, and the two made their appearance dragging after them a brand-new double-runner and a real Canadian toboggan, which Jack had ordered from Montreal for March.Breakfast proved to be a short meal, for the whole family was wild to try the new toboggan with Jack to engineer it. Then it was up and down--down and up the steep mountain road; Jack and Doctor Heath, Mr. Clyde, Mr. Blossom and Chi, all on together--clinging for dear life, laughing, whooping, panting, hurrahing like boys let out from school, while March and Budd and Rose and Hazel and Cherry flew after them on the double-runner, the keen air biting rose-red cheeks, and bringing the stinging water to the eyes.But what sport it was!"Now, this is something like," panted Jack, drawing up the hill with Chi, his handsome face aglow with life and joy."By George Washin'ton! it's the nearest thing to shootin' Niagary that I ever come," puffed Chi."Didn't we take that water-bar neatly?" laughed Jack."'N inch higher, 'n' we 'd all been goners;--I had n't a minute to think of it, goin' to the rate of a mile a minute; but if I had--I 'd have dusted! Guess I 'll make it level before I try it with the children,--'n' I want you to know there 's no coward about me, but I 'm just speakin' six for myself this time."So the morning sped. Even Mrs. Blossom and May were taken down once, and the Doctor stopped only because he wanted to make a morning call on his patient, Ruth Ford; for it was by his advice the family had come to live for three years in this mountain region.The horn for the mid-day meal sounded down the Mountain before they had thought of finishing the exciting sport, and one and all brought such keen appetites to the Christmas dinner, that Mrs. Blossom declared laughingly that she would give them no supper, for they had eaten the pantry shelves bare.Such roast goose and barberry jam! Such a noble plum-pudding set in the midst of Maria-Ann's best wreath, for she and Aunt Tryphosa had sent over their simple gifts by an early teamster. Such red Northern Spies and winter russet pears! And such mirth and shouts and jests and quips to accompany each course!It was genuine New England Christmas cheer, and the healths were drunk in the wine of the apple amid great applause, especially Doctor Heath's:"Health, peace, and long life to the Lost Nation--May its tribe increase!"And how they laughed at Chi, when he proposed the health of the Prize Chicken (which, by the way, he had kept for the next season's mascot,) and recounted the episode in the barn.What shouts greeted Budd, who, rising with great gravity, his mouth puckered into real, not mock, seriousness--and that was the comical part of it all--said earnestly:"To my first wife!" and sat down rather red, but gratified not only by the prolonged applause, but by the enthusiasm with which they drank to this unexpected toast from his unsentimental self.Directly after dinner Mr. Clyde declared that a seven-mile walk was an actual necessity for him in his present condition, and invited all who would to accompany him to call in state on Mrs. Tryphosa Little and Miss Maria-Ann Simmons. Only Doctor Heath and Jack went with him, for Mr. Blossom and Chi had matters to attend to at home, and Rose and Cherry and Hazel were needed to help Mrs. Blossom. Even March and Budd turned to and wiped dishes."I 'll set the table now, Martie," said Rose, "then there will be no confusion to-night--there are so many of us.""No need for that to-night, children," replied Mrs. Blossom, with a merry smile. "'The last is the best of all the rest,' for we were all invited a week ago to take tea and spend Christmas evening at Hunger-ford.""Oh, Martie!" A joyful shout went up from the six, that was followed by jigs and double-shuffles, pas-seuls and fancy steps, in which dish-towels were waved wildly, and tin pans were pounded instead of wiped.When the din had somewhat subsided there were numberless questions asked; by the time they were all answered, and Rose and Hazel had donned their white serge dresses, the gentlemen had returned from their walk, and it was time to go."That's why Mrs. Ford had us learn all those songs," said Rose to Hazel. "Don't forget to take your violin."A merrier Christmas party never set forth on a straw-ride. Mr. and Mrs. Blossom and May went over in the sleigh, but the rest piled into the apple-green pung, and when they came in sight of the seven-gabled-house, a rousing three times three, mingling with the sound of the sleigh-bells, greeted the pretty sight.Every window was illumined, and adorned with a Christmas wreath. In the light of the rising moon, then at the full, the snow that covered the roof sparkled like frosted silver. The house, with its background of sharply sloping hill wooded with spruce and pine, its twinkling lights and the surrounding white expanse, looked like an illuminated Christmas card.Within, the hall was festooned with ground hemlock and holly; a roaring fire of hickory logs furnished light and to spare. In the living-room and dining-room, Mr. Clyde and Jack Sherrill found, to their amazement, all the elegance and refinement of a city home combined with country simplicity. The tea-table shone with the service of silver and sparkled with the many-faceted crystal of glass and carafe. For decoration, the rich red of the holly berries gleamed among the dark green gloss of their leaves.At first, the younger members of the Blossom family felt constrained and a little awed in such surroundings; for although they had been several times in the house, they had never taken tea there. But the Fords and the other city people soon put them at their ease, and, as Cherry declared afterwards, "It was like eating in a fairy story." There was a real pigeon pie at one end and a Virginia ham at the other, as well as cold, roast duck with gooseberry jam. There were sparkling jellies, and the whole family of tea-cakes--orange, cocoanut, sponge, and chocolate; and, oh, bliss!--strawberry ice-cream in a nest of spun cinnamon candy, followed by Malaga grapes and hot chocolate topped with a whip of cream.After tea there was the surprise of a beautiful Christmas Tree in the library. Ruth Ford had occupied many a weary hour in making the decorations--roses and lilies fashioned from tissue paper to closely copy nature; gilded walnuts; painted paper butterflies; pink sugar hearts, and cornucopias of gilt and silver paper, in each of which was a bunch of real flowers--roses, violets, carnations, and daisies, ordered by Jack Sherrill from New York. On the topmost branch, there was a waxen Christ-child. The tree was lighted by dozens of tiny colored candles. When the door was opened from the living-room, and the children caught sight of the wonderful tree, they held their breath and whispered to one another.But more lovely than the tree in the eyes of the older people were the radiant faces of the young people and the children. Rose, with clasped hands, stood gazing up at the Christ-child that crowned the glowing, glittering mass of dark green. She was wholly unconscious of the many pairs of eyes that rested upon her in love and admiration. There was nothing so beautiful in the whole room as the young girl standing there with earnest blue eyes, raised reverently to the little waxen figure. Her lips were parted in a half smile; a flush of excitement was on her cheeks; the white dress set off the exquisite fairness of her skin; the shining crown of golden-brown hair, that hung in a heavy braid to within a foot of the hem of her gown, caught the soft lights above her and formed almost a halo about the face.Suddenly there was a burst of admiration from the children, and, under cover of it, Doctor Heath turned to Mr. Clyde, who was standing beside him:--"By heavens, John! That girl is too beautiful; she will make some hearts ache before she is many years older, as well as your own Hazel--look athernow!"The father's eyes rested lovingly, but thoughtfully, on the graceful little figure that was busy distributing the cornucopias with their fragrant contents. Yes, she, too, was beautiful, giving promise of still greater beauty. He turned to the Doctor and held out his hand:--"Richard, I have to thank you for this transformation.""No--not me," said the Doctor, earnestly, "but," pointing to Mrs. Blossom, "that woman there, John. Hazel needed the mother-love, just as much as Jack does at this moment."Jack had turned away when the Doctor began to speak of Rose, and, joining her, said, "Won't you wear one of my roses just to-night, Miss Blossom?""Your roses! Why, did you give us all those lovely flowers?""Yes, I wanted to contribute my share, and flowers seemed the most appropriate offering just for to-night.""They 're lovely," said Rose, caressing the exquisite petals of a La France beauty. "Of course I 'll wear one--" she tucked one into her belt; "but why--why!--has n't anyone else roses?" She looked about inquiringly."No,--the roses were for their namesake," said Jack, quietly.Rose laughed merrily,--a pleased, girlish laugh. "Then won't the giver of the roses call their namesake, 'Rose'?--for the sake of the roses?" she added mischievously.Now Jack Sherrill had seen many girls--silly girls, flirty girls, sensible girls, charming girls, smart girls, nice girls, and horrid girls, and flattered himself he knew every species of the genus, but just this once he was puzzled. If Rose Blossom had been an arrant flirt, she could not have answered him more effectively; yet Jack had decided that she had too earnest a nature to descend to flirting. Somehow, that word could never be applied to Rose Blossom--"My Rose," he said to himself, and knew with a kind of a shock when he said it, that he was very far gone. But in the next breath, he had to confess to himself that he had "been very far gone" many a time in his twenty-one years, so perhaps it did not signify.Indeed, in the next minute, he was sure it did not signify, for, before he could gather his wits sufficiently to reply to her, Rose had slipped away to the other side of the room, where she was busying herself in fastening one of Jack's roses into the buttonhole of Alan Ford's Tuxedo. In consequence of which, Jack turned his batteries upon Ruth Ford with such effect, that she declared afterwards to her mother he was one of the most fascinatingyoungmen--for Ruth was twenty-one!--she had ever met.Mrs. Ford and Hazel and Mr. Ford had done their best to persuade Chi to remain with them for the tree. Even Rose urged--but in vain. True, the girls had insisted upon his taking one look, then he had begged off, saying, as he patted Hazel's hand that lay on his arm:"Not to-night, Lady-bird. I don't feel to home in there. I 'll sit out here and hear the music, then I can beat time with my foot if I want to." He remained in the hall, just outside the living-room door, enjoying all he heard.First there was a lovely piano duet, an Hungarian waltz by Brahms, Mrs. Ford and the grave, quiet son playing with such a perfect understanding of each other, as well as of the music, that it proved a delight to all present. Then there was a carol by all the children, Rose leading, and Mrs. Ford playing the accompaniment:"'Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!Laugh, while with yule-wreath thy temples are bound;Drain the spiced bowl now, cheer thy old soul now,"Christmaswaes hael!" pledge the holy toast round.Broach butt and barrel, with dance and with carolCrown we old Winter of revels the king;And when he is weary of living so merry,He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring.Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring!'"This won great applause, and a loud thumping could be heard in the hall. Jack went out to try his powers of persuasion with Chi, and found him sitting close to the door with one knee over the other and a La France rose (!) in his buttonhole."Come in, Chi, do.""Ruther 'd sit here.""Oh, come on.""Nope."Jack laughed at the decided tone. "Where did you get this?" he asked, touching the boutonniere."Rose-pose," answered Chi, laconically, but with a happy smile."Out of her bunch?""Nope--took it out of her belt," said Chi, with a curious twist of his mouth.Jack went back crestfallen, and Chi smiled."I 'm afraid I cut him out, just for once; kind of rough on him, but 't won't hurt him any to have a change. He 's had his own way a little too much," said Chi to himself.Again there was music, a Schubert serenade, with the two violins, and after that, the children begged Hazel to dance the Highland Fling as she did once in the barn. Hazel, nothing loath, borrowed a blue Liberty-silk scarf from Ruth Ford; the rugs being removed and Alan Ford tuning his violin, she made her curtsy, and, entering heart and body into the spirit of the thing, danced like thistle-down shod with joyousness.It was a pretty sight! and Chi edged into the room, while the company made believe ignore him in order to induce him to remain there; but when the singing began, he slipped out again. Such singing! Everybody joined in it. They sang everything;--"Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?";--"Star-spangled Banner";--"Marching Along";--"John Anderson, my Jo";--"Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie Doon";--"Twinkle, twinkle, little star";--"Annie Laurie";--"A grasshopper sat on a sweet-potato vine";--"Ben Bolt";--"Fair Harvard" and, finally, "Old Hundred."It had been arranged that Mr. Blossom should take his wife and the younger children home in the pung; the rest were to walk. Chi, meanwhile, had driven home in the single sleigh.On the walk home Jack tried what he had been apt to term--of course, to himself--his "confidential scheme" with Rose. He had tried it before with many another, and it had never failed to work. The thought of one of his roses in Alan Ford's buttonhole still rankled, and the best side of Jack's manhood was not on the surface when he entered upon the homeward walk."Miss Blossom,"--somehow Jack had not quite the courage to say "Rose," although he had been so frankly invited to--"I want to tell you why I came up here; it must have seemed almost an intrusion."[image]"'I want to tell you why I came up here'""Oh, no, indeed," said Rose, earnestly, "and I know why you came; Hazel told me.""Oh, she did," said Jack, rather inanely, and a little uncertain as to his footing, figuratively speaking; for he had given her the chance to ask "Why?"--and she had n't taken it; in which she proved herself different from all those other girls of his acquaintance. To himself he thought, "Well, for all the cordial indifference, commend me to this girl.""Yes, I 'm sure it would have seemed like anything but Christmas to you in New York with your father in Europe; you must miss him so."Jack felt himself blush in the moonlight at the remembrance that he had seen his father but little in the last three years, and did not know what it was in reality to miss him. He never remembered to have missed anything or anybody but his mother, and that indefinite something in his life which he had not yet put himself earnestly to seek."I suppose you 'll be shocked, Miss Blossom, but I don't really miss my father. I 'm only awfully glad to see him when I get the chance--which is n't often. He 's such a busy man with railroads and syndicates and real estate interests. I wonder often how he can find time to write me even twice a month, which he has done regularly ever since--" he stopped abruptly."Since what?" asked Rose, innocently."Since my mother died," said Jack, in a hard, dry voice that served to cover his feeling."Yes," Rose nodded sympathetically, "Hazel told me." Then--for Rose's love for her own mother was something bordering on adoration--she said softly, under her breath, but with her whole heart in her voice; "Oh, I don't see how you could bear it--how you can live without her!""I don't," Jack replied with a break in his voice, "not really live, you know. I've always felt it, but never realized it until last night, when I stood out on the veranda and looked in at the window at you--all. Then I knew I 'd been hungry for that sort of thing for the last seven years--"Now Rose's heart was swelling with pity for the loneliness of the tall, young fellow swinging along beside her, and at once her inner eyes were opened to see a, to her, startling fact. She turned suddenly towards him."Is that why you kissed Martie last night, and came up here to us?" she demanded rather breathlessly."Yes;" Jack had forgotten his scheme, and was in dead earnest now."Then," cried Rose, impulsively--but at the same time thinking, "I don't care if he is engaged to that Miss Seaton"--"I hope you 'll come to us whenever you feel like it; for," she added earnestly, "I 'm beginning to understand what Chi means when he talks about Hazel's being poor and our being rich, and--and I 'd love to share mine with you.""You 're awfully good," said Jack, rather awkwardly for him; for, suddenly, in the presence of this young girl, as yet unspoiled by the world, he realized that Life was dependent upon something other than polo and club theatricals, railroad syndicates and Newport casinos, stocks and bonds and marketable real estate.Jack was young, and the moonlight was transfiguring the face that, framed in a white, knitted hood, was turned towards him full of a frank, loving sympathy for him in his "poverty."---And, seeing it, Jack suddenly braced himself as if to meet some shock, thinking, as he strode along in silence, "Oh, I 'm gone!--for good and all this time."Rose, a little surprised at the prolonged silence, welcomed the sound of sleigh-bells behind them."Why, that's Chi!" she exclaimed. "I thought he was at home long before this. I 'm sure he left long before we did. Where have you been, Chi?" she called so soon as the sleigh was within hailing distance."I 've been Chris'musin'," said Chi. "It ain't often you get just such a night on the Mountain as this, and I 've made the most of it. Can I give you a lift?""No, thank you, Chi, we 're almost home," said Rose."Well, then I 'd better be gettin' along--it's pretty near midnight--chk, Bob--" And Chi drove away down the Mountain, chuckling to himself:"Ain't a-goin' to give myself away before no city chap that has cut me out as he has. George Washin'ton! When I peeked into the window 'n' saw Marier-Ann sittin' there in front of that kitchen table with all those presents on it, 'n' the little spruce set up so perky in the middle of 'em, 'n' she a-wearin' a great handful of those red, spice pinks in her bosom, 'n' her cheeks to match 'em, 'n' her eyes a-shinin'--I knew he 'd come it over me; he 'd made the first call, 'n' given her the first posies. Guess I won't crow over him after this." Chi undid his greatcoat, and bent his face until his nose rested upon Jack's rose:--"It ain't touched yet, but it's a stinger; must be twenty below, now." Suddenly Chi gave a loud exclamation: "I must be a fool!--I 've broken one of the N.B.B.O.O. rules not to be afraid of anything, and did n't dare to give my posy to Marier-Ann!--Anyhow, she don't know I was goin' to give it to her, so I need n't feel so cheap about it--Go-long, Bob!"XVIIIBUDD'S PROPOSALBefore Mr. Clyde and Jack left the next day, Budd sought an opportunity to interview the latter on a subject, that, for a few weeks past, had been occupying many of his thoughts. The applause, with which his Christmas-day toast had been greeted, had encouraged him to seek an occasion for acquiring more definite knowledge on a subject which lay near his heart. It came when Jack was packing his dress-suit case in the guest chamber.There was a knock on the half-opened door."Come in," said Jack, and Budd made his appearance."Halloo, Budd! What can I do for you? Any commissions in New York, or Boston?""Don't know what you mean by commissions," replied Budd, cautiously, thrusting both hands deep into the pockets of his knickerbockers, and spreading his sturdy legs to a wide V."Anything I can buy with that hen-and-jam money you helped to earn?--you did well, Budd, on that. I congratulate you.""I have n't any of that money left. You see, we voted to give it to March to go to college with. But I 've got two quarters an' a dollar--Christmas presents, you know; an' that 'll do, won't it?" he asked rather anxiously."Well, that depends on what you buy," said Jack, with due seriousness."You 'll keep mum, Mr. Sherrill, if I tell you?" said Budd, inquiringly."Mum's the word, if you say so, Budd; out with it.""Well, I want two things; one thing to make me feel grown up, an' I 've wanted it for a year.""What's that, Budd?" asked Jack, immensely amused at Budd's swelling manhood--"A pair of long trousers?""No--" Budd hesitated for a moment, then went on in rather an aggrieved tone; "I hate to wear waists with buttons; it's just like a baby, an' a fellow can't feel grown up when he has to button everything on. I want to hitch things up the way March an' Chi do, an' I want you to buy me a shirt like that one you 're rolling up--only not flannel,--with a flap, you know, to tuck in.""Oh, that's it, is it?" said Jack, endeavoring to keep his face and voice from betraying his inward amusement. "Well, I think you can get one for seventy-five cents--plain or striped?""I like those narrow blue striped ones like yours best," he replied, pointing to one of Jack's."Like mine it shall be, Budd; but you 'll want a pair of suspenders, or there 'll be too much hitching to be agreeable to you.""March has an old pair, an' I 'm going to borrow them.""That's an idea; now, what's the second thing?""A ring.""A ring?" Jack looked amazed.Budd nodded."For yourself?" Jack questioned further."No--for somebody else.""Do you mean a finger ring?"Budd nodded again emphatically."Engagement?" laughed Jack, at last, the fun getting the better of him.Budd's mouth puckered into solemnity; "No--wedding."Jack gave up the packing, and sat down, shaken with laughter, on the first convenient chair."Pardon me for laughing, Budd, but I can't help it. What do you want of a wedding ring? Is it for that 'first wife' of yours you toasted yesterday at dinner?"Budd nodded again. "I don't see anything to laugh at," he said, with a reproachful glance. "You would n't if you was me.""No, I don't think I should; you 're right there, Budd," he replied, sobering suddenly after his outburst of laughter. "When is the wedding to be?"Budd looked thoughtful. "I have n't proposed yet," was his matter-of-fact answer."Well, why don't you?" Jack, sinner that he was, scented some fun at Budd's expense."I 'm going to when I know how," said Budd, humbly."Why don't you take lessons?" suggested Jack."I have.""Of whom?""Chi."Jack shouted. "What did Chi say?" he demanded when he had regained his breath."He said if he wanted to marry a girl, he 'd say what he wanted to--tell 'em he was fond of 'em.""'Fond of them'--hm," repeated Jack, thoughtfully."What doyousay?" questioned Budd, turning the tables rather suddenly on Jack."I don't say--never said," replied Jack, shortly."That's what Chi said. He said if I begun early I 'd find out how.""You seem to be on the right road for it.""Would you say 'fond of her'?" persisted Budd."Yes, I think I should," Jack replied with a peculiar smile; "but, of course, it would depend on the girl.""Why, that's just what Chi said!""He did, did he!" Jack laughed; "Chi knows a thing or two.""But I thought you 'd know more." Budd's face began to wear a puzzled look.Just then Jack heard Rose's voice in the long-room asking where Mr. Sherrill was, and the sound brought home to him a realizing sense of the fact that there was but an hour before they left for the station, and every moment too precious to be wasted on Budd. Rising, and proceeding with his packing, he said with perfect seriousness:--"Well, Budd, all I can say is, that if I were going to ask a girl to marry me, I should ask her if she thought enough of me to take me with all my imperfections and--""Where are you, Jack?" called Hazel, at the foot of the stairs; "Chi has to go an hour earlier than he said, and the sleigh is at the door."In the hurry of Jack's good-byes and departure, the sentence was never finished, and the ring forgotten by him. But Budd remembered.He was a sturdy little chap, broad of shoulder, strong of limb. His sandy red hair bristled straight up from his full forehead. His pale blue eyes, with thick reddish-brown lashes, were round and serious. His nose was a freckled pug, and his small mouth puckered, when he was very much in earnest, to the size of a buttonhole. From the time he had championed Hazel's coming to them, nearly a year ago, he had never wavered in his allegiance to her, and in his small-boy way showed her his entire devotion. Hazel had been so grateful to him for his whole-souled welcome of her, that she took pains to make his boy's heart happy in every way she could.For Hazel, Budd was never in the way; never asked too many questions for her patience; never teased her beyond endurance. He found in her a ready listener, a good sympathizer, a capital playmate, and a loving girl-friend, who reproved him sometimes and, at others, praised him. What wonder that his ten-year-old heart had warmed towards her with its first boy-love? and that in his manly, practical way, he made of her an ideal?"I love Hazel, and when I am big enough, I shall marry her," was what he said to himself whenever he stopped his play long enough to think about it at all. Naturally it seemed the wisest thing to tell her this when he should find the opportunity, and at the same time recall the fact.Fortified by the testimony of Chi and Jack, he bided his time.One Saturday afternoon in January, Rose said suddenly to Hazel: "I wish I could do some of the things that you do, Hazel." Hazel looked up from her book in surprise."What can I do that you can't do, Rose?""You dance so beautifully, and I 've always wanted to know how. I feel so awkward when I see you dance the Highland Fling.""Is that all?" Hazel laughed a happy laugh. "I can teach you to dance as easy as anything, if you 'll let me.""Let you!" Rose exclaimed, flushing with pleasure; "just you try me and see. But where can we practise?""Oh, out in the barn," cried Hazel. "It'll be lots of fun; of course, it's awfully cold, but the skipping about will keep us warm. I 'll tell you what--I 'll play on the violin, and you and March and Budd and Cherry can learn square dances first.""What fun!" said Rose."What's the joke?" asked March, coming in at that moment with Budd and Cherry."We 're going to have a dance in the barn; Hazel's going to teach us. She says she can do it easy enough.""Oh, bully!" Budd threw up his tam-o'-shanter, and Cherry, attempting to charge up and down the long-room as she had seen Hazel at the Fords', tripped on the rug and fell her length. When March had picked her up she rubbed her nose, which was growing decidedly pink, and sniffed a little, then asked suddenly:--"Who 's going to be my partner? They always have partners in the story books.""Sure enough," Rose laughed. "Whatever will we do, Hazel?""I never thought of that," said Hazel, ruefully. "Of course, it takes eight.""Why can't we have chairs for partners?" said Cherry. "We can bow to them just as if they were alive, and make them move round, can't we?"They all laughed at Cherry's inspiration."You 're a brick, Cherry Bounce?" said March, approvingly. "All choose your partners!" And, thereupon, he seized one of the kitchen chairs, and the rest followed his example. Hazel took her violin, and hooded and mittened and coated and mufflered, they trooped out to the barn, each lugging a wooden chair."Now I 'll give you the first four changes," said Hazel, illustrating, as well as she could in trying to be two couples at once, the first movements. "Form your square and get ready."They obeyed with alacrity, and Hazel drew her bow across the strings."All curtsy to your partners!" she shouted, and the chair-partners received a bow, and, in turn, were made to thump the floor by being laid over on their backs, and righted suddenly."First couple forward and back!" shouted Hazel, and away went Rose dragging her chair after her to meet March and his chair--thumpity-thump--thumpity-thump.They were in dead earnest, and the chairs were made to behave in a most human way.All went well until they came to the Grand Right and Left; then there arose such a medley of shrieks of laughter, wild wails from the violin, thumps from sixteen chair-legs, and stampings from eight human ones as was never heard before. In a few minutes all was inextricable confusion, and the noise might have been best compared to a Medicine Dance among the Sioux Indians.Upon this scene Mr. Blossom and Chi, on their return from the wood, looked with amazement."They seem to be havin' a regular pow-wow," Chi remarked dryly, as the exhausted dancers and musician sat down, panting for breath, on their wooden partners. "Rose-pose is about as young as any of 'em--but it beats all, how she's shootin' up into womanhood.""She 's no longer my little Rosebud Blossom," said her father, rather sadly. "I dread the time when the birds begin to fly from the nest, and I see it coming with March and Rose."Just then Rose caught sight of her father, and ran to him linking her arm in his. "We 've had such fun, father! We 're learning to dance; you must be my partner sometime, for Hazel's going to teach us the schottische next."Rose never forgot the look of love her father gave her, nor the feel of his hand as he laid it on her hooded head: "Be my little Rose-pose, as long as you can, dear; you 're growing up too fast."She recalled afterwards that this first dance in the barn marked the last time that she abandoned herself to the children's fun with a girl's careless heart.The winter twilight was fast closing about the Mountain and the children just returning to the house, when Chi went out to milk. Leaving his lantern, stool, and pails in the first stall, he entered the third one to tie one of the cows to a shorter stanchion. Before he had finished he heard Budd's voice, and, looking over the partition, saw him standing with Hazel in the circle of light about the lantern. In another minute he began to feel like an eavesdropper."What did you want me to come here for, Budd?" said Hazel, dancing on the barn floor to warm her feet."I want to tell you something," said Budd, blowing on his cold fingers."Well, hurry up and tell; it's simply freezing here. Is it a secret?""Kinder," replied Budd, blowing harder; then, suddenly ceasing the bellows movement, he drew a step nearer to Hazel, and, putting the tips of his pudgy fingers together to make a triangle, he puckered his mouth solemnly and said, looking up at her with earnest eyes:--"I 'm very fond of you."Hazel laughed merrily. "Why, of course you are, you funny boy; you 've always been fond of me, have n't you? I 'm sure I 've always been fond of you. Isthatwhat you kept me out here in the cold to say?""Not all;" Budd nodded seriously. "I 'm very fond of you, an'--an' if you 'll take me with all my perfections--I think that's the way it goes--if I have n't got the ring yet, it will be just the same, you know." He paused, and in the circle of light Chi could see the entire earnestness of his attitude."Goodness me, Budd! What do you mean about rings and things?""I want to marry you when I 'm big--an' I thought I 'd speak 'fore anyone else did to get ahead of 'em." Budd hastened to explain, as Hazel showed signs of impatience."Oh, is that all!" Hazel breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought something was the matter with you. Why, of course you 're fond of me, Budd; but I could n't marry you, for I 'm older than you, you know.""I never thought of that," said Budd, beginning to blink rather suspiciously, "I thought--""Now, look here, Budd," said Hazel, in a business-like way; "I think everything of you, too, and I 'll tell you what you can be--""What?" interrupted Budd, eagerly, balancing himself on the tips of his toes."My knight!" said Hazel, triumphantly, "and wear my colors. I 'll give you a bow of crimson ribbon--I 'm Harvard, you know--and you must wear it till you die. And I have a white kid party glove I 'll give you, too, and that will mean I 'm your lady-love, and it will be just like the days of chivalry, you know we were reading about them the other day.""And you won't mind about the ring?" queried Budd, rather wistfully."Not a bit--a glove is much nicer than a ring, and--""Moo--oo--oo--" came from the next stall."Oh, goodness gracious! How that made me jump. I 'm not going to stay out here another minute; so come along if you 're coming"--and the knight meekly followed his lady-love into the house.
XVII
HUNGER-FORD
Such a line of communication as was soon established between Mount Hunger and New York, Mount Hunger and Cambridge, the Lost Nation and Barton's River, Hunger-ford--the Fords' new name for the old Morris farm--and the Blossom homestead on the Mountain!
Uncle Sam's post, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the American Express, a line of freight, saddle horses, sleds, and the old apple-green cart on runners were all pressed into service; in all the United States of America there were no busier young people than those belonging to the Lost Nation.
They wrote notes to one another with an air of great mystery; they drove singly, in couples, or all together to Barton's River with Chi; they smuggled in bundles and express packages of all sorts and sizes; looked guilty if caught whispering together in the pantry; took many a sled-ride over to Hunger-ford, and audaciously remained there three hours at a time without giving Mrs. Blossom any good reason either for their going or remaining.
The acquaintance formed between the Blossoms and the Fords just after Thanksgiving, was fast ripening into friendship. March, usually shy with strangers, fairly adored the tall, quiet son with the wonderful smile, and expanded at once in his genial presence. With Ruth Ford he had much in common; and regularly once a week since Thanksgiving he had drawn and painted with her in her studio, the room that Aunt Tryphosa had so graphically described. His gift was far more in that direction than hers; and Ruth, recognizing it, encouraged him, spurred his ambition, and placed all her materials at his disposal.
Rose's sweet voice had proved a delight to them all, and Hazel's violin was being taught to play a gentle accompaniment to Alan Ford's, that sang, or wept, or rejoiced according to the player's mood.
"I am so thankful, Ben, that our Rose can have the advantage of such companions just at this time of her life," said Mrs. Blossom, on the afternoon before Christmas when the two eldest, with Hazel, had gone over to Hunger-ford with joyful secrets written all over their happy faces.
"So am I, Mary. When I see young men like Ford, I realize what I lost in being obliged to give up college on father's account," said Mr. Blossom, with a sigh.
"I do, too, Ben; and what I 've lost in opportunity when I see that gifted woman, Mrs. Ford. She has travelled extensively, she reads and speaks both German and French, she is a really wonderful musician, and keeps up with every interest of the day, besides being a splendid housekeeper and devoted to her children."
"Do you regret it, Mary?" said her husband, looking straight before him into the fire.
"Not with you, Ben," was Mary Blossom's answer. Taking her husband's face in both her hands and turning it towards her, she looked into his eyes, and received the smile and kiss that were always ready for her.
"If we did n't have all this when we were young people, Mary, we 'll hope that we may have it in our children," he said, earnestly.
Just then Chi came in, and gave a loud preliminary, "Hem!" for to him, Ben and Mary Blossom would always be lovers. "Guess 't is 'bout time to hitch up, if you 're goin' clear down to Barton's to meet the train, Ben; I 've got to go over eastwards with the children."
"All right, Chi, I 'd rather drive down to the station to-night; it's good sleighing and our Mountain is a fine sight by moonlight."
"Can't be beat," said Chi, emphatically. "S'pose you 'll be back by seven, sharp? I kind of want to time myself, on account of the s'prise."
"We 'll say seven, and I 'll make it earlier if I can. You 're off for Aunt Tryphosa's now?"
"Just finished loadin' up--There they are!" and in rushed the whole troop, hooded and mittened and jacketed and leggined, ready for their after-sunset raid.
"Good-bye, Martie!" screamed Cherry, wild with excitement, and made a dash for the door; then she turned back with another dash that nearly upset May, and, throwing her arms around her mother's neck, nearly squeezed the breath from her body. "O Mumpsey, Dumpsey, dear! I 'm having such an awfully good time; it's so much happier than last Christmas!"
"And, O Popsey, Dopsey, dear!" laughed Rose, mimicking her, but with a voice full of love, and both mittens caressing his face, "it's so good to have you well enough to celebrate this year!"
Hazel slipped her hand into Chi's, and whispered, "Oh, Chi, I wish I had a lot of brothers and sisters like Rose. Anyway, papa's coming to-night, so I 'll have one of my own," she added proudly.
"Guess we 'd better be gettin' along," said Chi, still holding Hazel's hand. "It's goin' to be a stinger, 'n' it's a mile 'n' a half over there."
"Come on all!" cried March; "we 'll be back before you are, father."
"We 'll see about that," laughed his father, as he caught the merry twinkle in his wife's eye.
But March was right by the margin of only a minute or two; for just as the merry crowd entered the house on their return from their errand of "goodwill," they heard Mr. Blossom drive the sleigh into the barn. In another moment Hazel had flung wide the door and was caught up into her father's arms.
In the midst of their cordial greetings there was a loud knock at the door. They all started at the sound, and Budd, who was nearest, opened it.
"Please, Budd, may I come in, too?" said a voice everyone recognized as the Doctor's.
Then the whole Blossom household lost their heads where they had lost their hearts the year before. Rose and Hazel and Cherry fairly smothered him with kisses; Budd wrung one hand, March gripped another; May clung to one leg, and the monster of a puppy contrived to get under foot, although he stood two feet ten.
Jack Sherrill, looking in at the window upon all this loving hominess, felt, somehow, physically and spiritually left out in the cold. "What a fool I was to come!" he said to himself. Nevertheless he carried out his part of the program by stepping up to the door and knocking. This time Mrs. Blossom opened it.
"Have you room for one more, Mrs. Blossom?" he said with an attempt at a smile, but looking sadly wistful, so wistful and lonely that Mary Blossom put out both hands without a word, and, somehow,--Jack, in thinking it over afterwards, never could tell how it happened so naturally--he was giving her a son's greeting, and receiving a mother's kiss in return.
In a moment Hazel's arms were around his neck;--"Oh, Jack, Jack! I 've got three of my own now; I 'm almost as rich as Rose!"
Rose, hearing her name, came forward with frank, cordial greeting, and May transferred her demonstrations of affection from the Doctor's trousers to Jack's; Cherry's curls bobbed and quivered with excitement when Jack claimed a kiss from "Little Sunbonnet," and received two hearty smacks in return; March took his travelling bag; Budd kept close beside him, and the puppy, who had been christened Tell, nosed his hand, and, sitting down on his haunches, pawed the air frantically until Jack shook hands with him, too.
By this time the wistful look had disappeared from Jack's eyes, and his handsome face was filled with such a glad light that the Doctor noticed it at once. He shook his head dubiously, with his eyebrows drawn together in a straight line over the bridge of his nose, and, from underneath, his keen eyes glanced from Jack to Rose and from Rose back again to Jack. Then his face cleared, and explanations were in order.
"Why, you see," the Doctor said to Mrs. Blossom, "my wife had to go South with her sister, and could not be at home for Christmas--the first we 've missed celebrating together since we were married--and when I found John was coming up to spend it with you, I couldn't resist giving myself this one good time. But Jack here has failed to give any satisfactory account of how or why he came to intrude his long person just at this festive time. I thought you were off at a Lenox house-party with the Seatons?" he said, quizzically.
Jack laughed good-naturedly. "I don't blame you for wondering at my being here; but I've been here before," he said, willing to pay back the Doctor in his own coin.
"The deuce you have!" exclaimed the Doctor. "I say, Johnny, are we growing old that these young people get ahead of us so easily?"
"I don't know how you feel, Dick, but I 'm as young as Jack to-night."
"That 's right, Papa Clyde," said Hazel, approvingly, softly patting her father on the head; "and, Jack, you 're a dear to come up here to see us, for you 've just as much right as the Doctor."
The Doctor pretended to grumble:--"Come to see you, indeed, you superior young woman--youindeed! As if there weren't any other girls in the world or on Mount Hunger but you and Rose--much you know about it."
"Well, I 'd like to know who you came to see, if not us?" laughed Hazel, sure of her ultimate triumph.
"Why, my dear Ruth Ford, to be sure."
"Ruth Ford!" they exclaimed in amazement.
"Why not Ruth Ford? You did n't suppose I would come away up here into the wilds of Vermont in the dead of winter, did you? just to see--" But Hazel laid her hand on his mouth.
"Stop teasing, do," she pleaded, "and tell us how you knew our Ruth."
"OurRuth! Ye men of York, hear her!" said the Doctor, appealing to Mr. Clyde and Jack. "The next thing will be 'our Alan Ford,' I suppose. How will you like that, Jack?"
"I feel like saying 'confound him,' only it would n't be polite. You see, Doctor, I thought I had preëmpted the whole Mountain, and was prepared to make a conquest of Miss Maria-Ann Simmons even; but if Mr. Ford has stepped in"--Jack assumed a tragic air--"there is nothing left for me in honor, but to throw down the gauntlet and challenge him to single combat--hockey-sticks and hot lemonade--for her fair hand."
At the mention of Maria-Ann, Rose and Hazel, Budd and Cherry and March went off into fits of laughter. They laughed so immoderately that it proved infectious for their elders, and when Chi entered the room Budd cried out, "Oh, Chi, you tell about the--we can't--the rooster and the hoods, and--Oh my eye!--" Budd was apparently on the verge of convulsions.
"I stuffed snow into my mouth and made my teeth ache so as not to laugh out loud," said Cherry; at which there was another shout, and still another outburst at the table when Chi described the scene in the hen-house.
"Now, children," said Mrs. Blossom, after the somewhat hilarious evening meal was over, the table cleared, the dishes were wiped and put away, "we 're going to do just for this once as you want us to--hang up our stockings; but I want all of you to hang up yours, too. If you don't, I shall miss the sixes and sevens and eights so, that it will spoil my Christmas."
"We will, Martie," they assented, joyfully; for, as March said, it would not seem like night before Christmas if they did not hang up their stockings.
"Yes, and papa, and you," said Hazel, turning to the Doctor, "must hang up yours, and you, too, Jack."
"Why, of course," said Mrs. Blossom, "everybody is to hang up a stocking to-night, even Tell."
"Oh, Martie, how funny!" cried Cherry, "but he has n't a truly stocking."
"No, but one of Budd's will do for his huge paw--won't it, old fellow?" she said, patting his great head.
Then Budd must needs bring out a pair of his pedal coverings and try one brown woollen one on Tell, much to his majesty's surprise; for Tell was a most dignified youth of a dog, as became his nine months and his famous breed.
Early in the evening the stockings were hung up over the fireplace, all sizes and all colors:--May's little red one and Chi's coarse blue one; Mr. Clyde's of thick silk, and Budd's and Tell's of woollen; Hazel's of black cashmere beside Jack's striped Balbriggan. What an array!
Then Mrs. Blossom and May went off into the bedroom, and Mr. Blossom and his guests were forced to smoke their after-tea cigars in the guest bedroom upstairs, while the young people brought out their treasures and stuffed the grown-up stockings till they were painfully distorted.
"Don't they look lovely!" whispered Hazel, ecstatically to March, who begged Rose to get another of their mother's stockings, for the one proved insufficient for the fascinating little packages that were labelled for her.
"Let's go right to bed now," suggested Budd, "then mother 'll fill ours--Oh, I forgot," he added, ruefully, "we are n't going to have presents this year--"
"Why, yes, we are, too, Budd," said Rose, "we 're going to give one another out of our own money."
"Cracky! I forgot all about that--" Budd tore upstairs in the dark, and tore down again and into the bedroom, crying:--"Now all shut your eyes while I 'm going through!" which they did most conscientiously.
Soon they, too, were invited laughingly to retire, and by half-past ten the house was quiet.
"'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Stretched out on the hearth-rug lay Tell snoring loudly,And above from the mantel the stockings hung proudly;When down from the stairway there came such a patterOf stockingless feet--'t was no laughing matter!As the good Doctor thought, for he sprang out of bedTo see if 't were real, or a dream iii its stead.But no! with his eye at a crack of the doorHe discovered the truth--'t was the Blossoms, all four,With Hazel to aid them, tiptoeing aboutLike a party of ghosts grown a little too stout.They pinched and they fingered; they poked and they squeezedEach plump Christmas stocking--then somebody sneezed!Consternation and terror!! The tall clock struck oneAs the ghosts disappeared on the double-quick run!"'T WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Without in the moonlight, the snow sparkled bright;The Mountain stood wrapped in a mantle of white,With a crown of dark firs on his noble old crestAnd ermine and diamonds adorning his breast;And the stars that above him swung true into lineOnce shone o'er a manger in far Palestine.
"'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Stretched out on the hearth-rug lay Tell snoring loudly,And above from the mantel the stockings hung proudly;When down from the stairway there came such a patterOf stockingless feet--'t was no laughing matter!As the good Doctor thought, for he sprang out of bedTo see if 't were real, or a dream iii its stead.But no! with his eye at a crack of the doorHe discovered the truth--'t was the Blossoms, all four,With Hazel to aid them, tiptoeing aboutLike a party of ghosts grown a little too stout.They pinched and they fingered; they poked and they squeezedEach plump Christmas stocking--then somebody sneezed!Consternation and terror!! The tall clock struck oneAs the ghosts disappeared on the double-quick run!"'T WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"Without in the moonlight, the snow sparkled bright;The Mountain stood wrapped in a mantle of white,With a crown of dark firs on his noble old crestAnd ermine and diamonds adorning his breast;And the stars that above him swung true into lineOnce shone o'er a manger in far Palestine.
"'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,
NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"
Stretched out on the hearth-rug lay Tell snoring loudly,
And above from the mantel the stockings hung proudly;
When down from the stairway there came such a patter
Of stockingless feet--'t was no laughing matter!
As the good Doctor thought, for he sprang out of bed
To see if 't were real, or a dream iii its stead.
But no! with his eye at a crack of the door
He discovered the truth--'t was the Blossoms, all four,
With Hazel to aid them, tiptoeing about
Like a party of ghosts grown a little too stout.
They pinched and they fingered; they poked and they squeezed
Each plump Christmas stocking--then somebody sneezed!
Consternation and terror!! The tall clock struck one
As the ghosts disappeared on the double-quick run!
"'T WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,
NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE;"
Without in the moonlight, the snow sparkled bright;
The Mountain stood wrapped in a mantle of white,
With a crown of dark firs on his noble old crest
And ermine and diamonds adorning his breast;
And the stars that above him swung true into line
Once shone o'er a manger in far Palestine.
What a Christmas morning that was!
Chi was up at five o'clock, building roaring fires, for it was ten degrees below zero.
With the first glint of the sun on the frosted panes the household was astir. At precisely seven the order was given to take down the thirteen stockings. But bless you! You 're not to think the stockings could hold all the gifts. In front of each wide jamb were piled the bundles and packages, three feet high!
Rose hesitated a moment when the children sat down on the rug with their stockings, as was their custom every Christmas morn; then she plumped down among them, saying, laughingly:
"I don't care if Iamgrowing up, Martie--it's Christmas."
Upon which Jack, hugging his striped Balbriggan, sat down beside her.
Such "Ohs" and "Ahs"! Such thankings and squeezings! Such somersaults as were turned by March and Budd at the kitchen end of the long-room! Such rapturous gurgles from May! Such hand-shakes and kisses! Such silent bliss on the part of Chi, who, though suffering as if in a Turkish bath, had donned his new, blue woollen sweater, drawn on his gauntleted beaver gloves, and proceeded to investigate his stocking with the air of a man who has nothing more to wish for. And through all the chaotic happiness a sentence could be distinguished now and then.
"Chi, these corn-cob pipes are just what I shall want after Christmas when I give my Junior Smoker."
"Oh, Martie, it can't be for me!" as the lovely white serge dress, ready made and trimmed with lace, was held up to Rose's admiring eyes.
Budd was caressing with approving fingers a regular "base-ball-nine" bat and admiring the white leather balls.
"I say, it's a stunner, Mr. Sherrill; but how did you know I wanted it?"
Mr. Clyde, who was touched to his very heart's core by Hazel's gift of a dollar pair of suspenders which she had earned by her own labor, felt a small hand slipped into his, and found Cherry Bounce looking up at him with wide, adoring, brown eyes, which, for the first time, she had taken from her beautiful Émilie Angélique, whom she held pressed to her heart:--
"I want to whisper to you," she said, shyly. Mr. Clyde bent down to her;--"After I said my prayers to Martie, I asked God to give me Émilie Angélique--every night," she nodded--"but I only told Budd, so howdidyou know?"
March was lost to the world in his volume of foreign photographs, in his boxes of paints and brushes, and a whole set of drawing materials. He had not as yet thanked Hazel for them.
Everybody was happy and satisfied. Everybody said he or she had received just exactly the thing. Tell alone could not express his gratification in words. He had been given his woollen stocking, and nosed about till he had brought forth three fat dog-biscuit, a deliciously juicy-greasy beef bone, wrapped in white waxed paper and tied at one end with a blue ribbon, a fine nickelplated dog collar with a bell attached, and last, from the brown woollen toe, three lumps of sugar.
One by one he took the gifts and laid them down at Mrs. Blossom's feet; putting one huge paw firmly on the waxed-paper package, he waved the other wildly until she took it and spoke a loving word to him. Then, taking up his beloved bone, he retired with it to the farthest end of the long-room, under the kitchen sink, and licked it in peace and joy.
Jack and Chi in the joyful confusion had slipped from the room.
Soon there was a commotion in the woodshed, and the two made their appearance dragging after them a brand-new double-runner and a real Canadian toboggan, which Jack had ordered from Montreal for March.
Breakfast proved to be a short meal, for the whole family was wild to try the new toboggan with Jack to engineer it. Then it was up and down--down and up the steep mountain road; Jack and Doctor Heath, Mr. Clyde, Mr. Blossom and Chi, all on together--clinging for dear life, laughing, whooping, panting, hurrahing like boys let out from school, while March and Budd and Rose and Hazel and Cherry flew after them on the double-runner, the keen air biting rose-red cheeks, and bringing the stinging water to the eyes.
But what sport it was!
"Now, this is something like," panted Jack, drawing up the hill with Chi, his handsome face aglow with life and joy.
"By George Washin'ton! it's the nearest thing to shootin' Niagary that I ever come," puffed Chi.
"Didn't we take that water-bar neatly?" laughed Jack.
"'N inch higher, 'n' we 'd all been goners;--I had n't a minute to think of it, goin' to the rate of a mile a minute; but if I had--I 'd have dusted! Guess I 'll make it level before I try it with the children,--'n' I want you to know there 's no coward about me, but I 'm just speakin' six for myself this time."
So the morning sped. Even Mrs. Blossom and May were taken down once, and the Doctor stopped only because he wanted to make a morning call on his patient, Ruth Ford; for it was by his advice the family had come to live for three years in this mountain region.
The horn for the mid-day meal sounded down the Mountain before they had thought of finishing the exciting sport, and one and all brought such keen appetites to the Christmas dinner, that Mrs. Blossom declared laughingly that she would give them no supper, for they had eaten the pantry shelves bare.
Such roast goose and barberry jam! Such a noble plum-pudding set in the midst of Maria-Ann's best wreath, for she and Aunt Tryphosa had sent over their simple gifts by an early teamster. Such red Northern Spies and winter russet pears! And such mirth and shouts and jests and quips to accompany each course!
It was genuine New England Christmas cheer, and the healths were drunk in the wine of the apple amid great applause, especially Doctor Heath's:
"Health, peace, and long life to the Lost Nation--May its tribe increase!"
And how they laughed at Chi, when he proposed the health of the Prize Chicken (which, by the way, he had kept for the next season's mascot,) and recounted the episode in the barn.
What shouts greeted Budd, who, rising with great gravity, his mouth puckered into real, not mock, seriousness--and that was the comical part of it all--said earnestly:
"To my first wife!" and sat down rather red, but gratified not only by the prolonged applause, but by the enthusiasm with which they drank to this unexpected toast from his unsentimental self.
Directly after dinner Mr. Clyde declared that a seven-mile walk was an actual necessity for him in his present condition, and invited all who would to accompany him to call in state on Mrs. Tryphosa Little and Miss Maria-Ann Simmons. Only Doctor Heath and Jack went with him, for Mr. Blossom and Chi had matters to attend to at home, and Rose and Cherry and Hazel were needed to help Mrs. Blossom. Even March and Budd turned to and wiped dishes.
"I 'll set the table now, Martie," said Rose, "then there will be no confusion to-night--there are so many of us."
"No need for that to-night, children," replied Mrs. Blossom, with a merry smile. "'The last is the best of all the rest,' for we were all invited a week ago to take tea and spend Christmas evening at Hunger-ford."
"Oh, Martie!" A joyful shout went up from the six, that was followed by jigs and double-shuffles, pas-seuls and fancy steps, in which dish-towels were waved wildly, and tin pans were pounded instead of wiped.
When the din had somewhat subsided there were numberless questions asked; by the time they were all answered, and Rose and Hazel had donned their white serge dresses, the gentlemen had returned from their walk, and it was time to go.
"That's why Mrs. Ford had us learn all those songs," said Rose to Hazel. "Don't forget to take your violin."
A merrier Christmas party never set forth on a straw-ride. Mr. and Mrs. Blossom and May went over in the sleigh, but the rest piled into the apple-green pung, and when they came in sight of the seven-gabled-house, a rousing three times three, mingling with the sound of the sleigh-bells, greeted the pretty sight.
Every window was illumined, and adorned with a Christmas wreath. In the light of the rising moon, then at the full, the snow that covered the roof sparkled like frosted silver. The house, with its background of sharply sloping hill wooded with spruce and pine, its twinkling lights and the surrounding white expanse, looked like an illuminated Christmas card.
Within, the hall was festooned with ground hemlock and holly; a roaring fire of hickory logs furnished light and to spare. In the living-room and dining-room, Mr. Clyde and Jack Sherrill found, to their amazement, all the elegance and refinement of a city home combined with country simplicity. The tea-table shone with the service of silver and sparkled with the many-faceted crystal of glass and carafe. For decoration, the rich red of the holly berries gleamed among the dark green gloss of their leaves.
At first, the younger members of the Blossom family felt constrained and a little awed in such surroundings; for although they had been several times in the house, they had never taken tea there. But the Fords and the other city people soon put them at their ease, and, as Cherry declared afterwards, "It was like eating in a fairy story." There was a real pigeon pie at one end and a Virginia ham at the other, as well as cold, roast duck with gooseberry jam. There were sparkling jellies, and the whole family of tea-cakes--orange, cocoanut, sponge, and chocolate; and, oh, bliss!--strawberry ice-cream in a nest of spun cinnamon candy, followed by Malaga grapes and hot chocolate topped with a whip of cream.
After tea there was the surprise of a beautiful Christmas Tree in the library. Ruth Ford had occupied many a weary hour in making the decorations--roses and lilies fashioned from tissue paper to closely copy nature; gilded walnuts; painted paper butterflies; pink sugar hearts, and cornucopias of gilt and silver paper, in each of which was a bunch of real flowers--roses, violets, carnations, and daisies, ordered by Jack Sherrill from New York. On the topmost branch, there was a waxen Christ-child. The tree was lighted by dozens of tiny colored candles. When the door was opened from the living-room, and the children caught sight of the wonderful tree, they held their breath and whispered to one another.
But more lovely than the tree in the eyes of the older people were the radiant faces of the young people and the children. Rose, with clasped hands, stood gazing up at the Christ-child that crowned the glowing, glittering mass of dark green. She was wholly unconscious of the many pairs of eyes that rested upon her in love and admiration. There was nothing so beautiful in the whole room as the young girl standing there with earnest blue eyes, raised reverently to the little waxen figure. Her lips were parted in a half smile; a flush of excitement was on her cheeks; the white dress set off the exquisite fairness of her skin; the shining crown of golden-brown hair, that hung in a heavy braid to within a foot of the hem of her gown, caught the soft lights above her and formed almost a halo about the face.
Suddenly there was a burst of admiration from the children, and, under cover of it, Doctor Heath turned to Mr. Clyde, who was standing beside him:--
"By heavens, John! That girl is too beautiful; she will make some hearts ache before she is many years older, as well as your own Hazel--look athernow!"
The father's eyes rested lovingly, but thoughtfully, on the graceful little figure that was busy distributing the cornucopias with their fragrant contents. Yes, she, too, was beautiful, giving promise of still greater beauty. He turned to the Doctor and held out his hand:--
"Richard, I have to thank you for this transformation."
"No--not me," said the Doctor, earnestly, "but," pointing to Mrs. Blossom, "that woman there, John. Hazel needed the mother-love, just as much as Jack does at this moment."
Jack had turned away when the Doctor began to speak of Rose, and, joining her, said, "Won't you wear one of my roses just to-night, Miss Blossom?"
"Your roses! Why, did you give us all those lovely flowers?"
"Yes, I wanted to contribute my share, and flowers seemed the most appropriate offering just for to-night."
"They 're lovely," said Rose, caressing the exquisite petals of a La France beauty. "Of course I 'll wear one--" she tucked one into her belt; "but why--why!--has n't anyone else roses?" She looked about inquiringly.
"No,--the roses were for their namesake," said Jack, quietly.
Rose laughed merrily,--a pleased, girlish laugh. "Then won't the giver of the roses call their namesake, 'Rose'?--for the sake of the roses?" she added mischievously.
Now Jack Sherrill had seen many girls--silly girls, flirty girls, sensible girls, charming girls, smart girls, nice girls, and horrid girls, and flattered himself he knew every species of the genus, but just this once he was puzzled. If Rose Blossom had been an arrant flirt, she could not have answered him more effectively; yet Jack had decided that she had too earnest a nature to descend to flirting. Somehow, that word could never be applied to Rose Blossom--"My Rose," he said to himself, and knew with a kind of a shock when he said it, that he was very far gone. But in the next breath, he had to confess to himself that he had "been very far gone" many a time in his twenty-one years, so perhaps it did not signify.
Indeed, in the next minute, he was sure it did not signify, for, before he could gather his wits sufficiently to reply to her, Rose had slipped away to the other side of the room, where she was busying herself in fastening one of Jack's roses into the buttonhole of Alan Ford's Tuxedo. In consequence of which, Jack turned his batteries upon Ruth Ford with such effect, that she declared afterwards to her mother he was one of the most fascinatingyoungmen--for Ruth was twenty-one!--she had ever met.
Mrs. Ford and Hazel and Mr. Ford had done their best to persuade Chi to remain with them for the tree. Even Rose urged--but in vain. True, the girls had insisted upon his taking one look, then he had begged off, saying, as he patted Hazel's hand that lay on his arm:
"Not to-night, Lady-bird. I don't feel to home in there. I 'll sit out here and hear the music, then I can beat time with my foot if I want to." He remained in the hall, just outside the living-room door, enjoying all he heard.
First there was a lovely piano duet, an Hungarian waltz by Brahms, Mrs. Ford and the grave, quiet son playing with such a perfect understanding of each other, as well as of the music, that it proved a delight to all present. Then there was a carol by all the children, Rose leading, and Mrs. Ford playing the accompaniment:
"'Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!Laugh, while with yule-wreath thy temples are bound;Drain the spiced bowl now, cheer thy old soul now,"Christmaswaes hael!" pledge the holy toast round.Broach butt and barrel, with dance and with carolCrown we old Winter of revels the king;And when he is weary of living so merry,He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring.Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring!'"
"'Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!Laugh, while with yule-wreath thy temples are bound;Drain the spiced bowl now, cheer thy old soul now,"Christmaswaes hael!" pledge the holy toast round.Broach butt and barrel, with dance and with carolCrown we old Winter of revels the king;And when he is weary of living so merry,He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring.Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring!'"
"'Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!
Laugh, while with yule-wreath thy temples are bound;
Drain the spiced bowl now, cheer thy old soul now,
"Christmaswaes hael!" pledge the holy toast round.
Broach butt and barrel, with dance and with carol
Crown we old Winter of revels the king;
And when he is weary of living so merry,
He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring.
Cheery old Winter! merry old Winter!
He 'll lie down and die on the green lap of Spring!'"
This won great applause, and a loud thumping could be heard in the hall. Jack went out to try his powers of persuasion with Chi, and found him sitting close to the door with one knee over the other and a La France rose (!) in his buttonhole.
"Come in, Chi, do."
"Ruther 'd sit here."
"Oh, come on."
"Nope."
Jack laughed at the decided tone. "Where did you get this?" he asked, touching the boutonniere.
"Rose-pose," answered Chi, laconically, but with a happy smile.
"Out of her bunch?"
"Nope--took it out of her belt," said Chi, with a curious twist of his mouth.
Jack went back crestfallen, and Chi smiled.
"I 'm afraid I cut him out, just for once; kind of rough on him, but 't won't hurt him any to have a change. He 's had his own way a little too much," said Chi to himself.
Again there was music, a Schubert serenade, with the two violins, and after that, the children begged Hazel to dance the Highland Fling as she did once in the barn. Hazel, nothing loath, borrowed a blue Liberty-silk scarf from Ruth Ford; the rugs being removed and Alan Ford tuning his violin, she made her curtsy, and, entering heart and body into the spirit of the thing, danced like thistle-down shod with joyousness.
It was a pretty sight! and Chi edged into the room, while the company made believe ignore him in order to induce him to remain there; but when the singing began, he slipped out again. Such singing! Everybody joined in it. They sang everything;--"Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?";--"Star-spangled Banner";--"Marching Along";--"John Anderson, my Jo";--"Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie Doon";--"Twinkle, twinkle, little star";--"Annie Laurie";--"A grasshopper sat on a sweet-potato vine";--"Ben Bolt";--"Fair Harvard" and, finally, "Old Hundred."
It had been arranged that Mr. Blossom should take his wife and the younger children home in the pung; the rest were to walk. Chi, meanwhile, had driven home in the single sleigh.
On the walk home Jack tried what he had been apt to term--of course, to himself--his "confidential scheme" with Rose. He had tried it before with many another, and it had never failed to work. The thought of one of his roses in Alan Ford's buttonhole still rankled, and the best side of Jack's manhood was not on the surface when he entered upon the homeward walk.
"Miss Blossom,"--somehow Jack had not quite the courage to say "Rose," although he had been so frankly invited to--"I want to tell you why I came up here; it must have seemed almost an intrusion."
[image]"'I want to tell you why I came up here'"
[image]
[image]
"'I want to tell you why I came up here'"
"Oh, no, indeed," said Rose, earnestly, "and I know why you came; Hazel told me."
"Oh, she did," said Jack, rather inanely, and a little uncertain as to his footing, figuratively speaking; for he had given her the chance to ask "Why?"--and she had n't taken it; in which she proved herself different from all those other girls of his acquaintance. To himself he thought, "Well, for all the cordial indifference, commend me to this girl."
"Yes, I 'm sure it would have seemed like anything but Christmas to you in New York with your father in Europe; you must miss him so."
Jack felt himself blush in the moonlight at the remembrance that he had seen his father but little in the last three years, and did not know what it was in reality to miss him. He never remembered to have missed anything or anybody but his mother, and that indefinite something in his life which he had not yet put himself earnestly to seek.
"I suppose you 'll be shocked, Miss Blossom, but I don't really miss my father. I 'm only awfully glad to see him when I get the chance--which is n't often. He 's such a busy man with railroads and syndicates and real estate interests. I wonder often how he can find time to write me even twice a month, which he has done regularly ever since--" he stopped abruptly.
"Since what?" asked Rose, innocently.
"Since my mother died," said Jack, in a hard, dry voice that served to cover his feeling.
"Yes," Rose nodded sympathetically, "Hazel told me." Then--for Rose's love for her own mother was something bordering on adoration--she said softly, under her breath, but with her whole heart in her voice; "Oh, I don't see how you could bear it--how you can live without her!"
"I don't," Jack replied with a break in his voice, "not really live, you know. I've always felt it, but never realized it until last night, when I stood out on the veranda and looked in at the window at you--all. Then I knew I 'd been hungry for that sort of thing for the last seven years--"
Now Rose's heart was swelling with pity for the loneliness of the tall, young fellow swinging along beside her, and at once her inner eyes were opened to see a, to her, startling fact. She turned suddenly towards him.
"Is that why you kissed Martie last night, and came up here to us?" she demanded rather breathlessly.
"Yes;" Jack had forgotten his scheme, and was in dead earnest now.
"Then," cried Rose, impulsively--but at the same time thinking, "I don't care if he is engaged to that Miss Seaton"--"I hope you 'll come to us whenever you feel like it; for," she added earnestly, "I 'm beginning to understand what Chi means when he talks about Hazel's being poor and our being rich, and--and I 'd love to share mine with you."
"You 're awfully good," said Jack, rather awkwardly for him; for, suddenly, in the presence of this young girl, as yet unspoiled by the world, he realized that Life was dependent upon something other than polo and club theatricals, railroad syndicates and Newport casinos, stocks and bonds and marketable real estate.
Jack was young, and the moonlight was transfiguring the face that, framed in a white, knitted hood, was turned towards him full of a frank, loving sympathy for him in his "poverty."---And, seeing it, Jack suddenly braced himself as if to meet some shock, thinking, as he strode along in silence, "Oh, I 'm gone!--for good and all this time."
Rose, a little surprised at the prolonged silence, welcomed the sound of sleigh-bells behind them.
"Why, that's Chi!" she exclaimed. "I thought he was at home long before this. I 'm sure he left long before we did. Where have you been, Chi?" she called so soon as the sleigh was within hailing distance.
"I 've been Chris'musin'," said Chi. "It ain't often you get just such a night on the Mountain as this, and I 've made the most of it. Can I give you a lift?"
"No, thank you, Chi, we 're almost home," said Rose.
"Well, then I 'd better be gettin' along--it's pretty near midnight--chk, Bob--" And Chi drove away down the Mountain, chuckling to himself:
"Ain't a-goin' to give myself away before no city chap that has cut me out as he has. George Washin'ton! When I peeked into the window 'n' saw Marier-Ann sittin' there in front of that kitchen table with all those presents on it, 'n' the little spruce set up so perky in the middle of 'em, 'n' she a-wearin' a great handful of those red, spice pinks in her bosom, 'n' her cheeks to match 'em, 'n' her eyes a-shinin'--I knew he 'd come it over me; he 'd made the first call, 'n' given her the first posies. Guess I won't crow over him after this." Chi undid his greatcoat, and bent his face until his nose rested upon Jack's rose:--
"It ain't touched yet, but it's a stinger; must be twenty below, now." Suddenly Chi gave a loud exclamation: "I must be a fool!--I 've broken one of the N.B.B.O.O. rules not to be afraid of anything, and did n't dare to give my posy to Marier-Ann!--Anyhow, she don't know I was goin' to give it to her, so I need n't feel so cheap about it--Go-long, Bob!"
XVIII
BUDD'S PROPOSAL
Before Mr. Clyde and Jack left the next day, Budd sought an opportunity to interview the latter on a subject, that, for a few weeks past, had been occupying many of his thoughts. The applause, with which his Christmas-day toast had been greeted, had encouraged him to seek an occasion for acquiring more definite knowledge on a subject which lay near his heart. It came when Jack was packing his dress-suit case in the guest chamber.
There was a knock on the half-opened door.
"Come in," said Jack, and Budd made his appearance.
"Halloo, Budd! What can I do for you? Any commissions in New York, or Boston?"
"Don't know what you mean by commissions," replied Budd, cautiously, thrusting both hands deep into the pockets of his knickerbockers, and spreading his sturdy legs to a wide V.
"Anything I can buy with that hen-and-jam money you helped to earn?--you did well, Budd, on that. I congratulate you."
"I have n't any of that money left. You see, we voted to give it to March to go to college with. But I 've got two quarters an' a dollar--Christmas presents, you know; an' that 'll do, won't it?" he asked rather anxiously.
"Well, that depends on what you buy," said Jack, with due seriousness.
"You 'll keep mum, Mr. Sherrill, if I tell you?" said Budd, inquiringly.
"Mum's the word, if you say so, Budd; out with it."
"Well, I want two things; one thing to make me feel grown up, an' I 've wanted it for a year."
"What's that, Budd?" asked Jack, immensely amused at Budd's swelling manhood--"A pair of long trousers?"
"No--" Budd hesitated for a moment, then went on in rather an aggrieved tone; "I hate to wear waists with buttons; it's just like a baby, an' a fellow can't feel grown up when he has to button everything on. I want to hitch things up the way March an' Chi do, an' I want you to buy me a shirt like that one you 're rolling up--only not flannel,--with a flap, you know, to tuck in."
"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Jack, endeavoring to keep his face and voice from betraying his inward amusement. "Well, I think you can get one for seventy-five cents--plain or striped?"
"I like those narrow blue striped ones like yours best," he replied, pointing to one of Jack's.
"Like mine it shall be, Budd; but you 'll want a pair of suspenders, or there 'll be too much hitching to be agreeable to you."
"March has an old pair, an' I 'm going to borrow them."
"That's an idea; now, what's the second thing?"
"A ring."
"A ring?" Jack looked amazed.
Budd nodded.
"For yourself?" Jack questioned further.
"No--for somebody else."
"Do you mean a finger ring?"
Budd nodded again emphatically.
"Engagement?" laughed Jack, at last, the fun getting the better of him.
Budd's mouth puckered into solemnity; "No--wedding."
Jack gave up the packing, and sat down, shaken with laughter, on the first convenient chair.
"Pardon me for laughing, Budd, but I can't help it. What do you want of a wedding ring? Is it for that 'first wife' of yours you toasted yesterday at dinner?"
Budd nodded again. "I don't see anything to laugh at," he said, with a reproachful glance. "You would n't if you was me."
"No, I don't think I should; you 're right there, Budd," he replied, sobering suddenly after his outburst of laughter. "When is the wedding to be?"
Budd looked thoughtful. "I have n't proposed yet," was his matter-of-fact answer.
"Well, why don't you?" Jack, sinner that he was, scented some fun at Budd's expense.
"I 'm going to when I know how," said Budd, humbly.
"Why don't you take lessons?" suggested Jack.
"I have."
"Of whom?"
"Chi."
Jack shouted. "What did Chi say?" he demanded when he had regained his breath.
"He said if he wanted to marry a girl, he 'd say what he wanted to--tell 'em he was fond of 'em."
"'Fond of them'--hm," repeated Jack, thoughtfully.
"What doyousay?" questioned Budd, turning the tables rather suddenly on Jack.
"I don't say--never said," replied Jack, shortly.
"That's what Chi said. He said if I begun early I 'd find out how."
"You seem to be on the right road for it."
"Would you say 'fond of her'?" persisted Budd.
"Yes, I think I should," Jack replied with a peculiar smile; "but, of course, it would depend on the girl."
"Why, that's just what Chi said!"
"He did, did he!" Jack laughed; "Chi knows a thing or two."
"But I thought you 'd know more." Budd's face began to wear a puzzled look.
Just then Jack heard Rose's voice in the long-room asking where Mr. Sherrill was, and the sound brought home to him a realizing sense of the fact that there was but an hour before they left for the station, and every moment too precious to be wasted on Budd. Rising, and proceeding with his packing, he said with perfect seriousness:--
"Well, Budd, all I can say is, that if I were going to ask a girl to marry me, I should ask her if she thought enough of me to take me with all my imperfections and--"
"Where are you, Jack?" called Hazel, at the foot of the stairs; "Chi has to go an hour earlier than he said, and the sleigh is at the door."
In the hurry of Jack's good-byes and departure, the sentence was never finished, and the ring forgotten by him. But Budd remembered.
He was a sturdy little chap, broad of shoulder, strong of limb. His sandy red hair bristled straight up from his full forehead. His pale blue eyes, with thick reddish-brown lashes, were round and serious. His nose was a freckled pug, and his small mouth puckered, when he was very much in earnest, to the size of a buttonhole. From the time he had championed Hazel's coming to them, nearly a year ago, he had never wavered in his allegiance to her, and in his small-boy way showed her his entire devotion. Hazel had been so grateful to him for his whole-souled welcome of her, that she took pains to make his boy's heart happy in every way she could.
For Hazel, Budd was never in the way; never asked too many questions for her patience; never teased her beyond endurance. He found in her a ready listener, a good sympathizer, a capital playmate, and a loving girl-friend, who reproved him sometimes and, at others, praised him. What wonder that his ten-year-old heart had warmed towards her with its first boy-love? and that in his manly, practical way, he made of her an ideal?
"I love Hazel, and when I am big enough, I shall marry her," was what he said to himself whenever he stopped his play long enough to think about it at all. Naturally it seemed the wisest thing to tell her this when he should find the opportunity, and at the same time recall the fact.
Fortified by the testimony of Chi and Jack, he bided his time.
One Saturday afternoon in January, Rose said suddenly to Hazel: "I wish I could do some of the things that you do, Hazel." Hazel looked up from her book in surprise.
"What can I do that you can't do, Rose?"
"You dance so beautifully, and I 've always wanted to know how. I feel so awkward when I see you dance the Highland Fling."
"Is that all?" Hazel laughed a happy laugh. "I can teach you to dance as easy as anything, if you 'll let me."
"Let you!" Rose exclaimed, flushing with pleasure; "just you try me and see. But where can we practise?"
"Oh, out in the barn," cried Hazel. "It'll be lots of fun; of course, it's awfully cold, but the skipping about will keep us warm. I 'll tell you what--I 'll play on the violin, and you and March and Budd and Cherry can learn square dances first."
"What fun!" said Rose.
"What's the joke?" asked March, coming in at that moment with Budd and Cherry.
"We 're going to have a dance in the barn; Hazel's going to teach us. She says she can do it easy enough."
"Oh, bully!" Budd threw up his tam-o'-shanter, and Cherry, attempting to charge up and down the long-room as she had seen Hazel at the Fords', tripped on the rug and fell her length. When March had picked her up she rubbed her nose, which was growing decidedly pink, and sniffed a little, then asked suddenly:--
"Who 's going to be my partner? They always have partners in the story books."
"Sure enough," Rose laughed. "Whatever will we do, Hazel?"
"I never thought of that," said Hazel, ruefully. "Of course, it takes eight."
"Why can't we have chairs for partners?" said Cherry. "We can bow to them just as if they were alive, and make them move round, can't we?"
They all laughed at Cherry's inspiration.
"You 're a brick, Cherry Bounce?" said March, approvingly. "All choose your partners!" And, thereupon, he seized one of the kitchen chairs, and the rest followed his example. Hazel took her violin, and hooded and mittened and coated and mufflered, they trooped out to the barn, each lugging a wooden chair.
"Now I 'll give you the first four changes," said Hazel, illustrating, as well as she could in trying to be two couples at once, the first movements. "Form your square and get ready."
They obeyed with alacrity, and Hazel drew her bow across the strings.
"All curtsy to your partners!" she shouted, and the chair-partners received a bow, and, in turn, were made to thump the floor by being laid over on their backs, and righted suddenly.
"First couple forward and back!" shouted Hazel, and away went Rose dragging her chair after her to meet March and his chair--thumpity-thump--thumpity-thump.
They were in dead earnest, and the chairs were made to behave in a most human way.
All went well until they came to the Grand Right and Left; then there arose such a medley of shrieks of laughter, wild wails from the violin, thumps from sixteen chair-legs, and stampings from eight human ones as was never heard before. In a few minutes all was inextricable confusion, and the noise might have been best compared to a Medicine Dance among the Sioux Indians.
Upon this scene Mr. Blossom and Chi, on their return from the wood, looked with amazement.
"They seem to be havin' a regular pow-wow," Chi remarked dryly, as the exhausted dancers and musician sat down, panting for breath, on their wooden partners. "Rose-pose is about as young as any of 'em--but it beats all, how she's shootin' up into womanhood."
"She 's no longer my little Rosebud Blossom," said her father, rather sadly. "I dread the time when the birds begin to fly from the nest, and I see it coming with March and Rose."
Just then Rose caught sight of her father, and ran to him linking her arm in his. "We 've had such fun, father! We 're learning to dance; you must be my partner sometime, for Hazel's going to teach us the schottische next."
Rose never forgot the look of love her father gave her, nor the feel of his hand as he laid it on her hooded head: "Be my little Rose-pose, as long as you can, dear; you 're growing up too fast."
She recalled afterwards that this first dance in the barn marked the last time that she abandoned herself to the children's fun with a girl's careless heart.
The winter twilight was fast closing about the Mountain and the children just returning to the house, when Chi went out to milk. Leaving his lantern, stool, and pails in the first stall, he entered the third one to tie one of the cows to a shorter stanchion. Before he had finished he heard Budd's voice, and, looking over the partition, saw him standing with Hazel in the circle of light about the lantern. In another minute he began to feel like an eavesdropper.
"What did you want me to come here for, Budd?" said Hazel, dancing on the barn floor to warm her feet.
"I want to tell you something," said Budd, blowing on his cold fingers.
"Well, hurry up and tell; it's simply freezing here. Is it a secret?"
"Kinder," replied Budd, blowing harder; then, suddenly ceasing the bellows movement, he drew a step nearer to Hazel, and, putting the tips of his pudgy fingers together to make a triangle, he puckered his mouth solemnly and said, looking up at her with earnest eyes:--
"I 'm very fond of you."
Hazel laughed merrily. "Why, of course you are, you funny boy; you 've always been fond of me, have n't you? I 'm sure I 've always been fond of you. Isthatwhat you kept me out here in the cold to say?"
"Not all;" Budd nodded seriously. "I 'm very fond of you, an'--an' if you 'll take me with all my perfections--I think that's the way it goes--if I have n't got the ring yet, it will be just the same, you know." He paused, and in the circle of light Chi could see the entire earnestness of his attitude.
"Goodness me, Budd! What do you mean about rings and things?"
"I want to marry you when I 'm big--an' I thought I 'd speak 'fore anyone else did to get ahead of 'em." Budd hastened to explain, as Hazel showed signs of impatience.
"Oh, is that all!" Hazel breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought something was the matter with you. Why, of course you 're fond of me, Budd; but I could n't marry you, for I 'm older than you, you know."
"I never thought of that," said Budd, beginning to blink rather suspiciously, "I thought--"
"Now, look here, Budd," said Hazel, in a business-like way; "I think everything of you, too, and I 'll tell you what you can be--"
"What?" interrupted Budd, eagerly, balancing himself on the tips of his toes.
"My knight!" said Hazel, triumphantly, "and wear my colors. I 'll give you a bow of crimson ribbon--I 'm Harvard, you know--and you must wear it till you die. And I have a white kid party glove I 'll give you, too, and that will mean I 'm your lady-love, and it will be just like the days of chivalry, you know we were reading about them the other day."
"And you won't mind about the ring?" queried Budd, rather wistfully.
"Not a bit--a glove is much nicer than a ring, and--"
"Moo--oo--oo--" came from the next stall.
"Oh, goodness gracious! How that made me jump. I 'm not going to stay out here another minute; so come along if you 're coming"--and the knight meekly followed his lady-love into the house.