Blue ribbons

Front matter

f

V o

The author of “Harvest of Years/' “ Lovett e,” “ Tr if y, Maid of Copp’s Cliff/9 “Papa's Madcap/9 &c., &c.

Chapter I

f LEASE to walk in, Jane, if you’re a going to stay, for my lame ankle gives me a powerful sight of pain when I stand. I'm free to Say you’re welcome.”

“Excuse me,” said I, stepping inside at once, “lam unpardonably forgetful of your lameness,” and I took the chair Mrs. Chubbuck offered, feeling glad to get once again into the presence of the dear, old lady, whom I had known since childhood, the one whose arm had lain around me when mother died, as her kindly face looked into my tear-filled eyes, and blessed comfort fell from her lips.

“ Have hope, dear child, and remember as long as Charity Chubbuck lives, you may depend on her for a friend, and a home, too, if you have no better place offered to you.” The world held for me no relative nearer than cousins and uncles. A place I should have, for I was not left penniless, but a home, ah ! never again, and in the months that succeeded my bereavement no place was so pleasant to me as this same little Sitting-

BLUE RIBBONS.

room, where to-day, as in the days before, waited the -wooden rocker with its home-made cushions, filled with hens’ feathers, and covered uniquely with bits of different colored flannels set together in box-work, and adorned with polka dots in green and gold.

To me it was as handsome as Paris embroidery, and, as I seated myself, over me fell the same old feeling of happy security which helped me through the dark days of the past.

“I am sorry you are so lame, Mrs. Chubbuck,” I said.

“Well, its been a long road, this rheumatiz trouble, and, you see, the older I grow the less life there is in me. My joints are all dretful bad, they’ re flat and stiff, and the doctor says there’ s no help for it, for the oil-bags are all dry that feed them. I expect it is so, still, I have so little to do I can get along, and just now I’ve got company.”

“ Which makes it pleasant, but am I to be turned out of the synagogue \ I have dreamed of a week of perfect rest with you.”

“No, no, Jane; you can stay and you’ll like her so much. I’ll call her,” and stepping to the stairs which led directly into to the back chamber, phe called, “Violet, comedown,”

BLUE RIBBONS.

“In a moment,” was the silvery response, and, in less time, she stood before me, with a pale, sweet face, framed in long, loose curls; her form slight and willowy, clad in. blue muslin, and around her shoulders, shrouding a neck and arms, which, although pleasantly shaped, were too thin for beauty, she wore a worsted shawl, whose color rhymed exactly with her dress, and made her look like a bit of blue crowned with an earnest, expressive face.

Taking in the pleasant picture, and noticing her quaint salutation, which came naturally and sweetly from her lips : “Are you going to stay at Apple Rest a while?” I loved her in a moment, and answered spiritedly:

“Indeed, I am, whether the Gods are willing or not. I shall enjoy it more for your being here, Miss Leavitt.”

“Call her Violet,” said Mrs. Chubbuck, “she likes it better than Miss Leavitt. Don’t you, Violet?”

“Certainly, I do, the other seems too stiff, and is illy suited to a little girl like me.”

“ Too little she is, Jane ; just look at her hands, they look more like bird’s claws than anything else. I do hope she’ll get some flesh on her bones; she is small-boned like her mother, and I remember when she wasn’t any bigger than Violet, but,

BLUE KIBB0NS.

good land, she weighs .one hundred and seventy pounds good to-day, and has done no end of work in her day.

“Her first husband was a shiftless fellow, a tailor by trade, and forty years ago, when they were married, he had a good farm and everything for a good start; four men on the bench to w7ork fo'r him; and they come for miles ’round to be measured and fitted; he was the best tailor in the country, but the temptation to laziness that he inherited from three generations back would stick its head out, and the fair weather sailin’ only helped it along, and when, after a few years, his love of new rum and hard cider crept along to lock arms with laziness everything was as good as killed.

‘ ‘ Mercy, how the rails fell around the pasture, and in less than two years the place looked like a dragged-out centurion, (centennarian she meant,) and Violet’s mother, poor thing, with her spunk and work stuck to the wreck till her fifth child was goin’ on seven years, and then she left him, for she couldn’ t get another meal to save her life there, and seven years after leaving him she married Violet’s father, a steady-going, honest man, who works along by the side of her, and they’ll be prospered, I know,” and Mrs. Chubbuck wiped

JJLTTE RIBBONS, her spectacles preparatory to picking up the magazine I had brought her, in whose pictures I knew she would be interested.

Violette had sat during the recital with apparent unrest ; she was a sensitive, nervous girl, and although there were no reflections cast on her by the story told, still I knew her nature was such that she never would have pulled aside the dead leaves that covered the skeleton of the past, and I began at once to talk of the blossoms which were falling all about “Apple Rest,” as she had aptly named it.

The house always seemed to me the embodiment of rest, and in the long winter evenings when I sat with Mrs. Chubbuck before the fire place, my sorrows went upward with the flames, and comfort grew in the glowing coals, and like them lived, through the night of my discontent, under the ashes, to wake with the morning dawn, at the touch of a friendly hand. This home was surrounded on three sides with thriving apple trees, whose fruitage was both full and fair, looking as if by chance some stranger hand had dropped a human nest among the odor of apple blossoms, to woo sweet rest and peace, and this name of Violet’s seemed a most becoming title.

Violet was an easy, graceful talker, and while

BLUE RIBBONS.

Mrs. Cubbuck was reading the tales which the the pictures told her, we talked of flowers, birds, poetry and music.

Her blue eyes were filled with changing light, and when she repeated some veres of Felicia Hemans, I had no doubt in my heart, that the dreamy far-off look which filled her eyes bespoke the poetry of her nature, and I thought ‘ ‘ if she lives, she will be of importance to the world;” but she looked so frail, a chill ran over me, and I almost knew she would die, like all who are so pure and beautiful.

At this moment three loud raps on the door leading to the little side verandah caused us all to jump, and before I could respond to the call for entrance, and thereby save Mrs. Chubbuck a step, the door opened, and an awkward youth entered, closing the door after him with a threatening emphasis.

“Oh! George,” said Mrs. Chubbuck, “is this you V’

He put both hands in his pockets, and standing before us, with his hat still on his head, answered slowly :

“ It is I, be not afraid;” then clearing his throat, he drew up his shoulders in a peculiar way, as if to make some terrible announcement.

BLUE RIBBONS.

“Have a chair, George.” He bowed his head, as if in partial disparagement of the invitation, and said, “I know enough to sit down if I want to another awkward silence ensued, and at last he spoke.

“My respected friend, I have come to impart to you the saddening intelligence that the comfort of my literal presence must be dispensed with ; I am about to withdraw; to leave this town of my nativity.”

“ Going away, George ; what for?”. I shall miss you more than almost anyone else. Where are you goin’ ?”

A smile curved the corners of his mouth, and another peculiar shrug of his shoulders, preluded an answer, as deeper into his pockets went his hands, the working of whose restless fingers was plainly distinguishable.

“True to the feminine instinct, your sentence contains three distinct parts, the intermediate one, being the most salutary of the three, I must attend to that first and render my gratitude for the friendliness which prompts you to say I “shall be missed.” “ I am exceedingly glad that you appreciate my undiluted friendship, for one who is an honor to her sex,” and taking a long breath, he threw back his head and looked to the ceiling,

BLUE EIBB0NS.

as if in search of another mode of expression; presently his eyes fell, and he continued :

‘ ‘ And now the two questions which you propounded, must be answered; but Mrs. Chubbuck, I forgot to eat my dinner to-day, and a bowl of bread and milk would be most grateful.”

“You certainly shall have it, George ; but how on earth did you manage to forget your dinner?”

“Oh! that was just no trick at all. I had a problem in my head, and when my forenoon’s work was finished, I worked it out on the barn floor, and the loss of my dinner did not occur to me till this very moment ;” and while I was wondering what manner of an individual he was, Mrs. Chubbuck was getting the bowl of bread and milk.

He took a chair near the table, on which she sat a large yellow bowl filled with rich creamy milk, and beside it a wooden trencher of considerable size, filled with appetizing slices of rye bread and some home-made doughnuts.

I almost envied him the repast. He bowed graciously, and invited Violet and myself to partake with him, saying, if we could “hunt around among the dishes and find two bowls of lesser size, he would share the wealth of the lacteal fluid, and rejoice.”

We, of course, declined, and taking his hat from

BLUE RIBBONS.

his head as carefully as if it were very precious, set it under the table, on which he placed both his hands ; and with a comic air bowed low his head, and uttered a gutteral “ amen,” which caused merry laughter we could not suppress, Mrs. Chubbuck joining with us in a quiet way; she was evidently well acquainted with the hero, who to us was a marvel.

Our laughter was increased, when with an unlucky move of his limbs, the hat he had so tenderly removed from his head, was upset, and a motley mass of papers deposited on the floor.

“Hurrah! there,” he cried, “the very dickens and all.”

I sprang to the rescue and gathered them up for him, placing his hat on a stand, instead of where it might again be upset, for which I received a compliment, and I really began to enjoy the strange visit.

“ Well, I must eat slowly, since that is conducive to health, and I will endeavor to answer those two questions. Let me see, you asked me where I am going, and why I go. First, I go to the metropolis of the country to enter upon the duties of a clerk in the grocery store of Ephraim Crane, a tolerably good man I think, but not the place I desire by any manner of means, ‘ ‘ and with a furtive

BLUE RIBBONS.

look at Violetteand myself, as if lie would rather not have us hear, he added, ‘ ‘ the man sells liquor, but perhaps I can reform him.”

I leave these hills and valleys because I desire to be in the shadow of a library, where I can borrow books, or pay a nominal sum for their use, since I am too poor to buy, and losing time daily. I am almost as big a fool as my father, and he is determined I shall supplant him in lack of knowledge. I tell you, Mrs. Chubbuck, I am alone and single-handed, and I must crawl on my knees and beg for the bread of knowledge I so hunger for.”

‘‘How old a man is this Mr. Crane V’

“Fifty, or thereabouts, I should judge, portly and evidently not abstemious, but a lover of condiments and unnatural living ; the wrong habits of men are going to ruin the world ; literally ruin us all ;” and he groaned in despair, biting at the same time into one of the motherly doughnuts.

“ You have been talking about books, George ; I meant to tell you before this, that there are some books in our garret, left by Mr. Chubbuck. I put a box full up there after he died, and never have looked at them since. I don’t want them and nobody will prize them as much as you. I guess you had better have them now. Violet or Jane will go up with you; my ankle keeps me from going over

BLUE PwIBBONS.

the stairs, but the land knows there’s need enough of it, dirt an inch thick all the way.”

u 4 The old cat and all her kittens,’ I shall be in town after all ; which of these girls is to go with me ?”

“I will go,” said Violet, rising, and the last half of the doughnut vanishing, they were off instanter.

“ Who is he,” said I, when they were fairly on the stairs ?

“ His name is George Bean, one of the best souls in the world ; but so set on learnin’, that if he gets a book in his hand, or a problem in his head, it seems as if he was dead to everything and everybody. He started for meetin’ about a month ago, and just as he got within a stone’ s-throw of the meetin’ -house, some idee about tiggers come into his head, and he stopped by “Aaron’s Rock,” as we call the old stone in front of where Aaron Downing’s house used to be, and marked out the tiggers, in his head, with chalk ; and when I come out of meetin’, I see him settin’ there with his hat off, and lookin’ as melancholy as if he’d stole a goose, and I went up to ask the trouble. The rock was completely covered with tiggers, and he looked up with a sickly smile at me, muttering something about an apostrophe, I thought, and I said 4 George,

BLUE RIBBONS.

what ails you V He jumped up as if I’ d shot him, and running his fingers through his hair, almost screamed out, “ That is correct— triangles are just what we want ; now I’ll go on to meetin’.”

I laughed till tears run down my face, and told him the sermon on the mission of Christ was over, and everybody goin’ home. He was mightily set back, but put on his hat and started along home with me, saying, ‘ Well, never mind, I guess I shall get to the celestial city in good season, nevertheless.’

His father is bound to make a farmer and a cobbler of him, and the poor fellow has had an up-hill row to hoe, so far as books and schooling. I am really glad for him, he is going away, though the people round here say he’s fit to teach the school at the foot of West Mountain, and I wish he could have it, and get good pay. I shall miss him, for every deep snow since Nehemiah died, has found him here digging paths all around for me.

We sat a full hour waiting for the two explorers to appear with the books, and at last Violette camedown alone, her faceglowing with enthusiasm.

“ Where is George,” said Mrs. Chubbuck?

“Oh ! he is going crazy over his windfall; he has only looked at three of the books, and one was an English Reader; he said he had one, but he

BLUE RIBBONS.

might lose it, and needed two; wished he could have two of everything.

He reads beautifully. I wish you could hear him. I sat down on an old tea chest, and listened intently, forgetting we were staying so long ; but he will not come down at present. His eyes are like two stars ; he is the nicest young man I ever saw, and his soul is as white as snow ; I wish I had power to help him ; he ought not to have one bit of care ; and it is too bad he must work for the plain fare he asks in this world. I could almost cry for him ; but I must not stop to do that now, for you will be singing, “ Violet, put the kettle on I am Mrs. Chubbuck’s help just now, she said, turning to me with a naive smile, and apparently understanding the management of affairs, flitted out of the room singing 4 4 Blue Eyed Mary.”

Supper was on the table, cream toast and befrizzled beef, dainty bits of cheese on an old-fashioned glass cheese plate, rye bread cut in thin slices and laid temptingly near a creamy butter roll, some patty cakes and doughnuts. Oh ! what a refreshing sight w^as that supper table to me, coming, as I did, from boarding school, where for five long years I had taught.

We were ready to sit down, only waiting for the coming of George Bean, who came at last with

BLUE RIBBONS.

his arms full of books, the personification of human happiness ; he looked so differently, I should hardly have recognized the awkward youth in the bright eyed young man, who, with a wonderfully melodious combination of verbs and adjectives, rendered thanks for Mrs. Chubbuck’s gifts, and almost gracefully accepted a seat at the table. I shall never forget that supper, which was a perfect feast to me in more than one sense.

A win to winged day seemed my solitary week at Apple Best, just sweet and pure enough to give me an appetite for more, and inasmuch as I had engaged to go back to teaching, afforded me an opportunity for exercising patience, and exorcising tears and regrets.

Violet Leavitt was my principal study ; long talks and rambles together, brought me in close contact with her nature, and I marvelled constantly that I found so little in her that was common to others of my acquaintance.

She seemed so perfectly good all through, as Mrs. Chubbuck phrased it — “ no whited sepulchre about her;” and her spirit in its pureness filled the earthly tabernacle so completely, that every look and action reflected the innate purity ; yet with all this refreshing innocence, which covered fier as a perfect shield, there was great strength

BLUE RIBBONS.

and a charming originality of expression, which made her like an ever changing picture. If aroused, her indignation at any evidence of unprincipled acts was powerfully expressed ; and upon all general subjects she was posted, held not only by the beautiful thoughts which rose like tides within her to fall from lip or pen, but interested in matters concerning life’s every day problems, and sat often at Mrs. Cliubbuck’s side kitting her shoe thread stockings, and talking of prospective crops with as much interest as if she were a farmer’s wife, and had a large brood of children to care for.

She had queer ideas concerning names and insisted on naming me Millicent ; said it suited me exactly, and when she shortened it to Millie it became a musical title, and I acquiesced in her selection.

4 4 Good bye, Millie, let me kiss you once more ; come back soon, poor Millie ; how you hate to leave us !”

44 1 do, indeed,” said I, and gathered her close to my heart ; then kissed the comely cheek of my good, old friend, who whispered, 44 Come back if you can fix it,” and turned away with that poor, worn-out travelling bag of mine to walk alone the half mile between Apple Rest and the railway station,

BLUE RIBBONS.

It takes little time to alter one’ s opinion of men and conditions when a full blaze of light comes in contrast with a glimmer, and when I got back into my pleasant room at school and greeted the bevy of girls fresh from home and vacation holidays, over it all came the picture of Violet at Apple Rest, and the third day after my arrival, I wrote to Mrs. Chubbuck just these words: “May I come and stay with you always ?”

I had an answer in four days, written by Violet, and saying I might come by telegraph, trunk, carpet bag and all, and I went.

Perhaps, I did not consider whether I might not be of service there at Rose Seminary, and it might have been better for the world had I done so, still the world has never grumbled at it in the least, and I, well, I was consulting my own desires — and no respect for the brief school term, through which I was expecting to serve — the one week of spring vacation had proved too great a temptation, and my comfortably filled purse helped me to the sequel. Jennie Grey, who came to take my place, was poor and needed the work, and upon this fact I quieted my conscience.

Violet was at the station to meet me, and I was sorry— she felt it, and regretted her coming. I loved ker too well to meet and kiss her before

BLUE RIBBON'S.

the merciless crowd of wonder-seekers, that forever were loitering about this station, which was on the line of the Albany road, and where all Canadian passengers changed cars.

Domiciled for life in the south-west chamber, which was allotted to me, Mrs. Chubbuck took me for better or worse, and the birds went right on singing as if nothing strange had happened, and, likewise, the right arm of the brook, which, two miles and a-half from Apple Rest, turned the old grist mill, and on its way down stopped to sing in the woods, and stretched lovingly across the orchard on the east of the house, and, being appreciated, was turned to good account, and kept a basin of stone well-tilled with pure and sparkling liquid.

In this delightful spot I fell into and out of existence, and now, for the sake of telling about others, I desire to cover myself up in apple blossoms and remain as if the pronoun I had not once been spoken.

CHAPTER It tHAVE a letter from George Bean,” said Violet, delightedly. “A good, fat letter, too, but do, for pity’s sake, read the superscription, Mrs. Chubbuck.”

“Miss Violet Leavitt,

“ Sojourner with good , old

“Mbs. Nehemiaii Chubbuck.”

“That is exactly like him, Violet ; no one ever saw such a queer boy,” and she laughed heartily and arranged her spectacles for a long look at the well covered envelope, saying: “Do read the letter loud if you will ; I want to hear how he gets on.”

“ So be it,” said Violet, and in clear, full tones and with earnestness she read :

“I, George Bean, now a sojourner in the metropolis of Duke County, whose name it bears, give greeting to my new-found friend, Violet Leavitt, in whom I am well pleased, and to my old and highly esteemed well-wisher, Charity Chubbuck, widow of good, old Nehemiah, whose death "Will never cease to be lamented.

BLUE RIBBONS.

“ Sisters : I remember the promise which I made you, and since it is one of my strongest convictions that he who promises should ever fulfill, refusing to annul even the slightest contract to which his word is given, I sit here in my attic room, (12 x 15 feet in dimensions, and large enough for me to sleep in at least, since being always sober there is no fear of my hitting my head against its slopingsides,) and by the light of a single candle, thread my way over the paper whose lines can hardly be seen distinctly.

“ My eyes are tired, for I have read two hours since closing the store, and it is now midnight.

“ My situation here is neither utterly deplorable or enviable. The man I work for is a good natured sinner, who buys his potatoes by one measure and sells them by another, and although the latter is smaller and tends to make the stock last longer, I have contrived to lose it, and hardly think it can be found — so much for that.

“He obliges me to deal out the accursed drams which people persist in buying, although they know it will ruin both soul and body. I content myself for the present with reading them all a lecture on being temperate, and the hope of being able to reform some of them makes partial reparation for my unjust position, which is only one

BLUE RIBBONS.

proof among thousands of the slavery we are obliged to endure.

“This city is a cess-pool of iniquity, not full by any means, since its population is now only 28,500> and the area it occupies determines its inevitable growth ; rum and its horrors skirt its southern limit, and I watch nightly for some poor sot whom I may lead to his home, rather than see him abused by being arrested by the very law which permits him to buy his liquor at any corner. If I see a rich man drunk I let the police attend to him, but the poor ones I must help, since impi'isonment and tine only render it harder for their wives and families.

“My pockets are full of pledges, and I enclose one, hoping to see it filled with the names of the old soakers when I come again. The young, white face of my new friend, whose eyes, I suppose, are responsible for her name, will be a mute appeal which few can resist, and, armed with a pledge, she will do much good. See to it that this is not neglected.

“God has done enough for this city to make it beautiful in his sight, and acceptable as a blessed gift to man, but the success of its merchants and manufacturers is to me a direful omen. It forebodes a perfect moral apoplexy.

BLUE FvIBBOKS.

“The books Mrs. Chubbuck gave me are precious friends, whose lives will become identical with my own.

“If you have time, and can confer with me through correspondence, your missives will be sunbeams along the road, and cheer the path of a fellow traveller.

“I had intended bringing up some hemlock boughs for Mrs. Chubbuck, to use as a specific for rheumatism — they are efficacious. The proper way to use them is to steam the parts afflicted.

“Yours, for the redemption of man.

“ George Beax."

“What does he say about the apoplexy? I should think it was unhealthy there, Vilit.”

“Oh! it is a moral apoplexy; he means that they are so prosperous in business, they will forget to do good as it comes along, losing in the pos session of the bright gold they covet, the higher aims and purposes of life.”

“Well, that is just the same everywhere, 1 guess, but nobody would ever think of calling that general complaint the apoplexy;” and while the old lady sat pondering upon the strange and well prized friend, Yiolet hastened to the little cherry stand in one corner of her room, to obey a 2

BLUE RIBBONS.

loving impulse, and write a good, long letter in reply. It read just like her :

“My Dear Friend, Mr. Bean,

“ Yours of was received only an

hour ago, and since I feel impelled to write you, I will not try to crowd back the impulse, but go right along talking to you just as if you were here beside me.

“Mrs. Chubbuck is delighted at hearing from you, and we will try and find the balm in hemlock of wdiich you so kindly speak.

“We are anxious to prescribe a different business for you, and a more comfortable room ; one which is nearer earth than your present lofty condition. It is a shame for an honest man to be subservient to the will of one who is not only mentally inferior, but morally dwarfed also. I cannot believe you will staj’’ there long, and Mrs. C. has been talking with Deacon Rayne concerning the school in this district. He is desirous of your having it, and when the present term expires, we trust the fates will bring you hither.

“As for me, lam to be Mrs. C.’s right-hand assistant, a sort of Lieut. -General (or in general as you prefer.) My parents are going to the West, on an extended visit to father's old friends, and I tsttite ribbon-*. S?

am, by choice, to remain during their absence, in “ Apple Rest.” Millie Dean is with ns as a boarder. She is growing literary, that is to say, she is literally good for nothing except newspaper hunting, writing profusely in her diary, whose dimensions suggest an encyclopaedia, and then for a diversity, she begs me weekty to go to the graveyard with her, and sit forlorn on table tomb - stones while she copies at length the queer inscriptions, and now and then she prefaces them with a copy of the grotesque figures supposed to represent angels. The wings come right out from be^ hind the ears, and I cannot accept them as a divine pattern. If I am to look like that, I never want to be an angel.