CHAPTER XIIIA DOOR OPENS
The stage stopped at the business end of Farmdale. Around three sides of a sandy square were grouped the village hotel, the post-office, and its few stores and shops; on the fourth side this square opened on a long stretch of velvety green turf, around which, set in deep yards, surrounded by trees, and embowered in shrubbery, were the comfortable, well-ordered village homes. In the centre of this green, and midway its length a fountain was falling into a circular stone basin and from that flowing into a stone watering-trough, where a white horse with a barefooted boy on its back was drinking. Beyond the fountain the ground rose slightly and crowning this gentle swell three white churches set side by side lifted their spires against the blue sky.
Posey walked slowly along the maple-shaded path, with bright colored leaves aboveher and bright colored leaves rustling under her feet, charmed with the peaceful air, the quiet beauty, and looking carefully for a house to answer Ben Pancost’s description. It was not long till she saw it—a modest white house with green blinds, the walls almost covered with climbing roses and honeysuckles, while over the front door hung the sign, its gilt lettering somewhat faded by time and storms,
MILLINERY AND DRESSMAKING.
A great lilac bush stood on each side of the small white gate by which she entered, while syringas, flowering quince, and thickets of roses gave promise of springtime bloom. The narrow, stone-flagged walk that led to the side door was fringed with flowers, and ran along the edge of a grassy bank or low terrace, below which were more flower beds bordered with China pinks, besides homelier beds of garden vegetables, while under sheltering rows of currant bushes a flock of white chickens rolled in the dirt at their ease. Beyond the house lay an orchard, and the side porch at which the walk ended was shaded bya great grapevine heavy with purple clusters. A Maltese cat, sunning itself in sleepy content on the steps, roused as she came up and rubbed against her with a friendly purr. Over all the sunny little homestead rested an air of thrift, order, peace, that filled Posey with a sense of restfulness; why she could hardly have told.
Her knock on the green-paneled door was answered by Miss Silence Blossom, one of the two whom Ben Pancost had described as “not young, or really old,” but with the brightness of youth still lingering in her eyes and her smile. The room into which she led Posey was large and sunny with windows facing the south. In one corner was an open sewing machine from which she had evidently just risen. In another corner stood a square table covered with boxes of flowers and ribbons beside which trimming a bonnet sat Mrs. Patience Bird, a younger sister of Miss Silence, her sweet, gentle face touched by a shade of sadness, reflected in the mourning dress she still wore for the young husband whose picture was in the little pin at her throat. Behind the low chairin which she sat was a tall case with long glass doors, filled with ribbons, flowers, and hats, all in orderly array, for though this was the work-room of busy workers there was no trace of litter or confusion.
Mrs. Blossom, the mother, with a strong but kindly face, was watering a stand of house plants. She, too, was a widow, but of more than half a lifetime. The years when she had gathered her fatherless children around her and, still a young woman, taken up a life alone and bravely for herself and them had left their lines of energy, decision, and firmness. And, last of the family group, in a large armchair by one of the sunny windows with some white knitting in her hands, sat an old lady, whose peaceful face not less than her drab dress, close white cap, and snowy, folded kerchief, told that she was of the Quaker faith.
Posey took the chair offered her, suddenly embarrassed and shy under the gaze of so many questioning eyes, and at last stammered abruptly, “Ben said you would know where the old lady lived.”
“Ben who; and what old lady?” demanded Miss Silence, who in spite of her name was the talker of the family.
“Why, the nice old lady who wants a girl to live with her. And you know Ben; he’s the boy who drives the red tin peddler’s cart.”
“I know who she means,” spoke Mrs. Patience. “It is the boy who came here last summer that Aunt Maria Ames took such a fancy to, and asked him if he hadn’t a sister to live with her. I think,” to her mother, “you and Grandmother were away that day. Don’t you remember, Silence, you mended his coat for him?”
By this time Posey had found her tongue. “Yes,” she hastened to add, “Ben said you did. He said he knew you were the best kind of Christians.”
Mrs. Blossom smiled. “I hope Ben was right, though that seems to have been a case of judging faith by works.”
“Well, Ben Pancost knows,” asserted Posey stoutly.
“He certainly impressed me as a very goodboy,” said Miss Silence, “truthful, frank, and manly. And so you wanted to come and live with Mrs. Ames?”
“Yes, ma’am, Ben was almost sure she would let me.”
“That is too bad, for she has gone to Chicago to spend the winter with her daughter.”
Posey’s face clouded with dismay. She had trusted implicitly to Ben. What should she do if his plan for her failed?
Mrs. Blossom saw the look. “What is your name?” she asked.
“Posey.”
“And whose Posey?” Mrs. Patience questioned looking up from her work with a gentle smile.
“Nobody’s,” was the mournful answer.
“And where is your home?” continued Mrs. Blossom.
“Nowhere,” answered Posey, a great sense of her forlornness rushing over her and filling her eyes with tears.
“Now, see here,” Miss Silence’s tone was brisk and incisive; “you want to tell the truth. Everybody has a surname and lives somewhere.”
“I have told the truth,” protested Posey hotly. “I haven’t anybody or any home anywhere.”
“But where have you been living?”
Now Posey had gathered from Ben Pancost’s manner that while he personally approved of her running away from Mrs. Hagood, he was doubtful of the impression it might make on others, and she had resolved to be very discreet and tell as little of that part of her story as possible. But her indignation at the implication of untruthfulness overmastered her prudence and she answered, “If you want to know where I’ve lived I can tell you. I’ve lived with a clairvoyant medium, and I’ve lived at the Refuge in Cleveland, and the last place I’ve lived was with a Mrs. Hagood in Horsham.”
“Why, Horsham is twenty miles from here.”
“I wish it was twenty million miles.”
“But why?”
“Because,” her voice rising shrill with passion, “Mrs. Hagood was horrid to me, and I ran away from her, I did; and I don’t care who knows it, I don’t; and I’ll never goback to her for anybody, never,” her cheeks flushing and her eyes flashing through her tears.
“In what way was Mrs. Hagood horrid to you?” questioned Mrs. Blossom.
For answer Posey tore open her collar and rolled up her sleeves showing the marks still visible on her neck and arms. It needed now hardly an inquiry to bring out the whole story, in which she omitted neither what she had said to Mrs. Hagood nor the bite she had given her hand. “And I’ll starve and die before I’ll go back to her,” she added in conclusion.
“It’s a burning shame to treat a child like that, I don’t care what she had done!” exclaimed Miss Silence. And Mrs. Patience added in her gentle tone, “Poor child! wouldn’t you like something to eat?” for Mrs. Patience had the idea that children were in a perpetual state of hunger.
“Was this Mrs. Hagood always cruel to you?” questioned Mrs. Blossom.
Posey hesitated a moment. “No, ma’am, I guess not. She gave me plenty to eat, but she scolded me from morning till night, andwanted me to work every minute. If she wasn’t always cruel she was never kind—” She paused and looked from face to face—“and now I’m away from her I’m going to stay away. The landlady at the hotel at Byfield will give me a dollar a week to wash dishes, but I wish you knew of some other place where I could live. I’d do everything I could to help, and I’d be real good. I’m not bad always, indeed I’m not.” She did not say, “If I might only stay here,” but her wistful eyes expressed the unspoken wish.
“Silence,” Mrs. Blossom spoke quickly, “will you go out in the orchard and get some sweet apples to bake; and Posey can go with you.”
“Now, mother,” Miss Silence laid down in her lap the work she held, “I don’t think it’s quite fair to send the child away while you and Grandmother talk her over, for she knows as well as I that’s what you would do. There’s only one thingIshall consent to—that she stay here till a suitable place is found for her.”
“Thee will always be the same impulsive, impetuous Silence as long as thee lives.”Grandmother Sweet’s face crinkled in a smile. Though an attentive listener she had not spoken before. She turned to her daughter, “I have nothing to say for my part, Elizabeth, that the young girl might not hear, indeed that I would not prefer she should hear.
“And in the first place, my dear,” to Posey, “thee is not free from blame thyself; from thy own words thee has failed in duty to one older than thyself, and yielded to the angry passion of thine own heart, and thus, it well may be, has failed of the lesson God meant for thee. For always remember, child, God puts us in no place he will not give us strength to fill, or sends us no trial that will not be for our good if rightly endured. At the same time if thy story is true, and thee has a truthful look, I do not think thee has been justly or rightly treated, or that thy return would be wise or best.”
Then turning again to her daughter, “The leading of the Lord seems to have brought her to our door. What is thy mind, Elizabeth?”
“Thee has spoken it exactly,” answeredMrs. Blossom, who often used the Friends’ language in talking with her mother. “As thee says, she seems to have been led to us, and I hope the time will never come when any of God’s children find ours a closed door.”
“Oh, if you will let me stay I’ll do my very best!” cried Posey. “Do you know I said yesterday that I didn’t believe God cared anything for me, but Ben Pancost said He did, that probably God sent him to help me then, and that He would take care of me again to-day, and I just think He has.”
“Dear child,” and Grandmother Sweet put one of her soft, tremulous hands on Posey’s head, “God’s love and care is over thee always; never doubt it, even if thee has not the outward evidence.”
“I am going out to Cleveland next week for goods,” remarked Mrs. Patience, “and I can go out to the Refuge and arrange about Posey.”
Miss Silence nodded. “Yes, and you know Cousin Allen Gloin’s wife has a sister in Horsham; she will doubtless know of this Mrs. Hagood.”
Posey lifted her head proudly, “I hope you will see everybody who knows me, and ask them all about me, for then you will find that I have told the truth.”
“We are not doubting your word,” Miss Silence assured her; “it is on your account as well as ours that we want to learn as much as possible.”
“All the same I want you to know that it is true,” she answered. “And—” hesitating a little, “if you know some one in Horsham couldn’t I send a word to Mr. Hagood? He will worry about me, I know he will, and he was always so kind that I wish he could know where I am and how good you are to let me stay. He won’t tell Mrs. Hagood anything about it. I am sure he won’t.”