Things common and uncommon

Contents

The Home Visit

CHAPTER L

• • • • *

Chapter I. A Home Visit

HE winds of March blew fiercely, sounding its bugle call through all the land, by lake and river and mountain. Each leaf which had defied the blasts of winter to tear it from the parent stem now yielded to a resistless force, and danced in wildest measure at the bidding of its master.

“ This is the kind of weather that tells on z

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a fellow,” exclaimed Mason Stuart, who was walking with his cousin, Dick Fielding. “ Hasn’t been any thing like it this winter, and I hope there wont be any more. Yesterday that beech tree Aunt Margaret thinks so much of had lots of leaves on it, and now they’re all gone. Say, Dick, do you believe there’s any sign in it ? ”

“In what ? ” was asked in reply.

“In the leaves staying on. I’ve heard folks say, that, when d good many leaves stay on the trees, it’s a sign we shall have an open winter. Is it so ? ’

“ I don’t know. I think I’ve heard something of the kind, but that is all I know about it.”

“ Well, now, I wish folks were sure about things. It’s a great bother to ask questions, and not find out what you want to know ; and a fellow can’t study out every thing himself.”

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“ Why not?”

“ Because there’s so much, he don’t have time. Seems to me everybody ought to know something certain. I thought you knew all about trees.”

“ Then you were mistaken. I know moie about them than some other people, but that is very little. I can tell you how you can find out about the truth of the sign, as you call it. For the next ten or twenty years, notice the difference in the falling of the leaves, and see if there is a corresponding difference in the winters. In that way you can form a pretty correct judgment about it.”

“ I suppose I could do that ; but it’s a good while to wait, and I’ve got a great many other things to look after. I’ll write it down, though, in my book.”

“ What book ? ”

Oh ! a book I’ve got, where I keep a list of tilings T want to know. I’ve been keeping it ever since Aunt Margaret went away. When I see her, I expect she’ll help me. She knows most every thing. If the rest of us were as smart as she is, there’d be something done in the family.”

“ I think there would. I am as ready to praise Aunt Margaret as you can be.”

“ Shouldn’t wonder, but I don’t a bit believe you love her as well as I do. Tell you what, Dick, I wish there were some girls growing up just like her. You can laugh if you want to, but that’s a sensible wish.”

“ So it is, Mason, a very sensible wish. I should like to see such girls, although just now I should rather see Aunt Margaret herself.”

“Well, you can’t. You’ll see somebody else if you go into the house ; and, as we are here, we might as well go in, though it’s

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awful lonesome. It don’t seem a bit as it used to when Aunt Margaret was here ; but then it’s her house, and that’s some comfort.”

Cousin Rachel greeted her guests cordially, and brought forward some choice apples which she rightly judged would be acceptable.

“ There are apples like these at Austenville,” remarked Mason.

“ So your aunt said in her last letter. I suppose you are expecting to see Edward before long.”

“ He’s coming some time this week. Mother thinks he’ll be here to-morrow, but that will depend upon the luck he has in market.”

“ I don’t think there’s any danger but what he’ll have good luck. I want him to come and make his visit, so your Aunt Margaret can come home and stay a while.”

She wont come till every thing’s all right up there,” said Mason confidently. “ She runs that mill herself. I suppose Ed helps her, but she’s at the head of it.”

There was no disposition on the part of the elder brother to dispute such an assertion as this ; but, when they met on the following day, Mason mentally confessed that five months had wrought a wondrous change in “ Ed.” The young business man who had won marked favor for himself, and for the goods he had exhibited, was quite unlike the student who had abandoned his books under the pressure of a strong necessity.

“Are you willing to remain in Austenville ? ” asked his mother after she had listened to a detailed account of what had been done there.

“ I am willing to remain there for the present,” was replied. “ There is a great deal I wish to see done there, and I should

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be sorry not to have some part in its accomplishment. Aunt Margaret, too, has the same feeling.’’

“ I am glad she has, and I am glad you are satisfied with your position ; although it seemed to me a terrible calamity which sent you there.”

“I seldom think of it, mother ; and, when I do, I am half inclined to consider it a blessing in disguise. When you see Margie, you will see at once that she has no need of sympathy. There’s not a bit of a careworn look in her face.”

“ You have written to her since you have been away ? ”

“ Certainly I have. I wrote her as soon as I had made arrangements for the sale of our goods. She understands the business as well as I do, and she has a greater interest in it.”

44 Well, we’re going up there this summer, aint we?” now exclaimed Mason, who had listened silently to a long conversation of which these few sentences formed a part.

“ You are all expected, and Aunt Fielding’s family with you.”

“ That means the children, don’t it ? If Uncle Fielding goes, he’ll be finding fault all the time about something. He’s worse than ever lately. I pity Dick, but I suppose they get used to their father’s fretting.”

“ Mason, that’s not a proper way for you to speak,” said Mrs. Stuart in a tone of reproof.

“ Well, it’s the truth, mother; but, if you say so, I ought not to tell of it. Some time, Ed, I want you to tell me all about your society, and those two boys Aunt Margie thinks so much of. I must go to work now. Mother and I thought ’twas best to buy a cow, and of course I have to take care of her. Clarke likes the milk and cream, but

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yon wouldn’t catch him soiling his hands in the barn. For my part, I never was afraid of clean dirt. Mother and I own the cow, and let the family have the use of it. I promised to take all the care of it without complaining, and we’ve had it a week now.”

“ How about your lame ankle ? I wonder you assumed any new duties.”

“ Oh ! that’s pretty near well, except when I forget, and start off full speed. We had a chance to buy the cow, and it’s always best to improve a good opportunity.”

“ Mason is the same independent boy he always was,” remarked Edward, looking from his window as his brother crossed the yard with a slightly perceptible limp.

“ Just the same,” replied the mother. “ But he is so good and truthful, I sometimes think I ought never to find fault with him. He is as loyal to his friends as any armored knight. I bought the cow to please him. It is Mrs. Brown’s Clover Top ; and, whenever she can refund the money advanced on it, the cow will be hers again. This last winter Mason has manifested a decided friendship for Rufus, which I have not discouraged. Rufus cut his foot soon after Christmas, so that he couldn’t work for several weeks ; and that obliged his mother to run in debt. Week before last, she was so pressed for payment, and so troubled, that she decided to sell Clover Top ; and of course Rufus told Mason all about it. That is the explanation of our ownership of a cow. We shall probably keep her but a few weeks. Rufus is at work again, and has already paid something towards redeeming the family pet. There was no hay in Mrs. Brown’s barn, or we should not have taken her away. I think Mason has a plan for helping Rufus earn money, but he has not told me so.”

Here Clarke, who had been from home at

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the time of his brother’s arrival, came in ; and amid their hearty greetings supper was announced by Lilia.

“ We got the supper,” she added, regarding Edward a little shyly. “ Aunt Comfort’s gone visiting, and we do the work.”

“ How much do we do ? ” was asked.

“ Ever so much. Ask mother if we don’t. We wash and wipe all the dishes, and set the table, and do ever so many other things, besides doing errands for Madge.”

“ And how long is this order of things to continue ? ”

“ Till Aunt Comfort comes back ; and, if she didn’t ever come, perhaps we should do it always, so mother could save her money.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. We are not so poor as that. We can afford to keep Aunt Comfort, and save your strength for something better than wash-

18 THINGS CO Mill ON AND UNCOMMON .

in g dishes and ever so many other things, Aunt Comfort is one of our family.”

“So she is,” chimed in Mason. “We can’t spare her long ; but it wont hurt the girls to work some, any more than it hurts me. ’Twouldn’t hurt Clarke to work either. Can’t you find something for him to do ? I guess he’s thinking about it himself ; but he spends a good deal too much time fixing his necktie, and blacking his boots.”

“No one will make such a complaint of you,” responded the brother thus criticised.

“No, sir: I don’t intend to give any occasion for it. I’ve got more important business on hand ; and ’twould be a good thing if you had.”

“ Perhaps so,” was the good-natured reply. “We shall know better about that in ten years from now.”

“We shall know something about it before that time, if we both live.”

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As housekeeper, Madge had been so absorbed in making preparations for the entertainment of her brother, that her face did not lose its anxious expression until she was heartily complimented upon the success of her efforts.

“ Madge don’t like to be dictated. She wants to be mistress herself; and mother told her she might, as long as she kept things straight. I tell you, she’s a pretty nice housekeeper, though we all help her,” explained Mason.

“ I think she is, if this supper is a speci - men of her skill,” replied Edward. “ Aunt Margaret will be astonished to hear of such ability in her namesake.”

“ Oh ! you see we’re all learning to do something. Aunt Margaret and you aint the only smart ones in the family, if you have started a mill. You don’t deserve much credit for that either. You wouldn’t thought of doing such a thing if Aunt Margaret hadn’t told you.”

“ That is true, Mason. She deserves all the credit. I have only been helping her.”

“Well, now, that’s a sensible way to talk. I knew it all the time ; but I didn’t know as you’d own it. You’re improved since you went to Austenville, and you’ve grown better looking too.”

This climax of criticism provoked shouts of laughter from all except the critic, who didn’t “see any thing to laugh at.”

The girls were still busy in the kitchen, when their cousins came to see “ the manufacturer, and hear the news.” It was well for Edward Stuart, that, when interested in a subject, he did not soon tire of it; for it was quite certain that he must talk of Austenville, unless he positively refused to do so. No one could be more desirous to learn of every thing pertaining to the old mill

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and its surroundings than was Dick Fielding.

“ I almost envy you the privilege of being there, Cousin Edward ; but I am very glad the property was not allowed to go out of the family. That would have been a sad mistake. I wish I had been of age, and could have taken mother’s portion. Next to having it myself, I would rather Aunt Margaret should have it. I hope she will make a fortune, and you too.”

“ Thank you for that. We hope to make the mill profitable.”

“ I don’t doubt you will. That mill ought to have been run through the war ; but there was nobody to do it. It’s a grand old place about there, isn’t it ? ”

“ It seems so to me. Uncle William builded well, and Nature had done a great deal for the place before he began his improvements.”

“ It seems strange that he should allow so much property to lay idle. I don’t think it was right.”

“In one sense, he had a right to do what he pleased with his own. But our people think it was wrong for him to abandon the mill as he did ; although not one of them is disposed to blame him. He was very popular, and he is still remembered gratefully. This summer you are coming up to see for yourself, and then you can judge of our prospects.”

“ I hope to go. I believe I am as impatient for the visit as Sadie is. I wonder sometimes where you will find room for us all.”

“ Your wonder will cease when you have once tested the capacity of the great house. There is plenty of room for you all ; and, if you don’t find every chamber luxuriously furnished, you can imagine that you are rus-

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ticating in a new country. Aunt Margaret and Mrs. Bumstead will manage to make you comfortable. Mason can sleep in the barn if necessary.”

“ I suppose I could; but you needn’t think Aunt Margaret will turn me into any worse place than she does the rest of you. She knows I like things nice, as well as anybody ; only I aint going to be silly about it. I think, too, there’s something for folks to do in this world besides prinking up,” said the boy sturdily. “I say, Dick, shouldn’t you like to camp out a week, just to see how ’twould seem ? Ed, haint you got somebody up there that can go with us ? Aint there somebody that knows enough about the woods to give us a fair start ? ”

“ I presume there is. Harold Dorsey knows more about the woods than many people ever learn. I can’t promise him for camping out : but, if you can make friends with him, he will tell you a good many things it would be well for you to know. He is reticent and shy ; but perhaps you can gain his confidence.”

“He’s a boy, same as the rest of us, aint he?”

“ He is a boy sixteen years old ; or perhaps we ought to call him a young man. But he is not like young men in general.”

“Well, no matter if he aint. There’s almost always something you don’t like about boys in general. I aint a bit afraid but what I shall find him as near right as the rest. If Aunt Margaret says so, we shall camp out. You can go, and Clarke too, if you aint afraid of wearing old clothes. I’ve got some all ready that Aunt Comfort mended for me ; so mother wont have any trouble about that.”

Thus the evening passed in conversation, sometimes serious, and sometimes mirthful.

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Mason’s voice, as usual, being often heard. Soon after the visitors had left, Mrs. Stuart and her daughters retired, while the brothers remained in the sitting-room. Of these, the youngest was first to decide that it was “ bedtime,” and with some parting word of counsel to Clarke said “ Good-night.”

For once our irrepressible brother is right,” was the comment he did not stay to hear. u He always speaks the truth, but it would sometimes be better if he would leave it unspoken. This time I am obliged to him for introducing the subject uppermost in my mind. I don’t think it is best for me to go on with my studies in school much longer. As Mason says, I don’t care enough about study, to have it pay for anybody to make a great sacrifice to send me through college. If every thing had gone on as w< expected, I shouldn’t have thought mucl about it. But you see there was a change and with it a new departure. I have as good a business education as I shall get from books ; and, in plain English, I think it is time for me to go to work. What do you think about it? What shall I do? As Mason would say, 4 You’ve done pretty well yourself : now give a fellow some good advice.’ ”

“ What do you wish to do ? What are 3^ou willing to do constantly and faithfully, giving to it your best energies ? ”

“ Those questions sound very much like some of Aunt Margaret’s. I’d rather she would ask them than you ; but I’m not going to find fault. If you could give up the prospect of being a great scholar when 70U really cared about it, you’ve a right to ;ay what you’ve a mind to to me, especially since I asked you. But, to answer your questions, I don’t know what I do want to do. One thing, though : when I’ve made up

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my mind, and taken the work in hand, I’ll do it well. Isn’t there a place for me at Austenville ?*”

“ None you could fill with advantage to yourself or others. Neither do I think you would be contented to stay there, except fov a few weeks.”

“ Why not ? You have always represented it as a delightful place.”

“ So it is, but you would soon tire of it. I am sure I should, unless I had an absorbing interest in the mill, and a positive responsibility which I could not delegate to another.”

“ I might sell the goods.”

“You might ; but a well-established house can sell them better than you could. If you wished to enter such a house as clerk, it might not be a bad idea ; but you will do well to give the subject careful consideration. There is no necessity for making a hasty decision. Finish your course in the seminary, and then see what is best. When you have spent two months in Austenville, you can judge whether you would wish to cast in your lot with the company there. You are disappointed/’ remarked the elder brother after a short silence.

“ Perhaps I am. We all look to Austenville as a sort of Eldorado. I’m not such a downright reliable fellow as you are, any way. It’s a good thing for me that I have not a gold spoon in my mouth.”

“ No better for you than for me. We both of us needed something to rouse our ambition in a new direction. I shall never go back to my books, and now this gives me no unhappiness.”

“It is too bad that you were obliged to leave them when you were such a tiptop scholar ; but of course you’ll do a good deal more hard studying.”

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« j i10pe to. I have learned how to study , and, that once learned, there is no limit to one’s x^ogress. I hope to have more leisure some time, but even in that I may be disappointed. As for yourself, do the best you can for the next three months ; and, when you have graduated with honor, then think of business. Mason says you have improved, as well as I ; and he is authority in such matters.”

« So he is. But what will he be when he grows up ? ”

“ A man of whom we shall have no reason to be ashamed. It is safe to predict that, and also that he will occasionally remind us that we are not faultless. I used to consider him a disturbing influence in the family, but I am convinced that he is just the influence we need. If he takes us down from some high position not over gently, he softens the fall with a cushion of good nature, so that we cannot be angry.

Chapter II. A Glad Welcome

R. FIELDING did not call upon his nephew. The latter, however, saw him at his place of business, and constrained him to something like courtesy.

“ You’ve sunk a good deal of money at Austenville,” he remarked at length.

“We are floating considerable money there,” was the reply.

“ So much that, if you fail, your mother will be a poor woman.”

“ So much that, if we succeed, she may be a wealthy woman. That is the view I (.hoose to take. It is best to look on the bright side.”

so

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“ That is some of Margaret’s philosophy ; but men who understand business know that the bright side will take care of itself. It is the dark side that needs attention. I never heard of any thing more absurd than this last project of Margaret’s.”

“It does not seem absurd to her, and every one must admit that she has a way of carrying out her projects very successfully. Come up to Austenville, and see for yourself what a beginning we have made.”

“ I have no time to spend in travelling about the country,” was the ungracious response to this invitation; following which came the. question, —

“ When do you expect to enter college ? ” “ Never,” replied Edward Stuart. “ I think I have found my vocation elsewhere.”

“ Then you are mistaken. There was just one chance for you to do something in the world, and that was as a scholar.”

“ I am sure I could have been a fine scholar, and ten years will decide whether that was my only chance. Good-morning.”

His “ good-morning ” was as bland when he left the counting-room, as when he entered it ; and yet the young man did not care to prolong this interview. Mr. Fielding was in his most unreasonable mood ; and the fact that only that morning he had been reminded of his mistake in selling his wife’s share of the old mill, served to increase the displeasure with which he regarded the present owners.

Mrs. Fielding greeted Edward cordially, notwithstanding her whole appearance expressed weariness and despondency. She was interested to hear of Margaret’s happiness, and glad to know that there was a prospect of good fortune in store for her sisters. She did not say that she wished she might share their fortune, but she did

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say that she was inclined to wish with Sadie, that “a little bit of Austenville was her very own.”

“ I don’t see how Margaret can do justice to two homes. She has always superintended every thing on the old place since father died.”

“ And she will continue to do so. She is 3oming here in a few weeks,” responded her aephew, quite ignoring the characteristic sigh which had supplemented the words spoken so sadly.

“I am glad she has so much strength. For my part, it is impossible for me to understand such tireless energy. She does every thing easy too. When she is with you young people, she is as young as the youngest. I don’t know as she will ever grow old.”

“She never will in the way most people grow old. But you ought to see her in

Austenville to see her at her best. There’s not one on the place but looks upon her with something like worship, and knows her for a friend. She has devised liberal things for our people, and they appreciate her. But you must come and see for yourself.”

To this invitation Mrs. Fielding did not reply as her husband had done. “ I shall come if I can ; but I shall allow nothing to prevent the children going if Margaret wishes to see them,” she said decidedly.

Edward Stuart’s visit at home was necessarily short, and yet he parted from his family cheerfully. He was anxious to be at his work ; and when Mr. Bumstead met him at the railway station with the hearty grip of a toil-hardened hand, and a welcome which owed nothing of its cordiality to conventional etiquette, he forgot that he had ever looked back longingly to other days.

“ Sure, I’m as glad to see you, as I be to

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see the sun after a three-da ys’ storm in winter. And didn’t I tell you the goods were all right ? ”

This question, emphasized with the crack of a whip, was a reply to itself. Nevertheless, Avhen the rattling of wheels was lost in the oozy mud, the younger man answered, u You told me so, and I believed you. But I was glad to have your opinion indorsed at headquarters.”

“ You may well be that. There’s where the money’s coming from, and we want money. Every thing’s right. Elliot’s done your part well.”

“I knew he would. And Aunt Margaret ? ”

“ Just the same. She read your letter to me, and I told the hands. You ought to have seen them then, when they threw up their caps, and gave a grand hurrah. I told Elliot yesterday I wished there was another ftf TBfNOC UOM VON 4 VO UNCOMMON

.mu. W eve help enough offered to run it, and there’s plenty of water. I think, Mr. Stuart, we’ll be wanting the second mill before many years.”

“ Perhaps we may, but we must make the money to build it first.”

“ That’ll not take long. We’re just well started, and I count the hard part over. There’s money in the mill.”

“ And in the land too. We must get that into better condition before we build another mill.”

“ Sure, and you may do that. I’ve nothing to say against the land. It’s well enough. But water’s of more account than land when you want to drive shuttles and spindles. It’s likely, though, you’ll be wanting a farmhouse.”

“We shall, unless we can spare a cottage for Mr. Gray.”

“You can’t do that. We’ve nearly all

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family men, and not enough houses for them now, let alone the boarding of the women help. You see they’re not liking to be crowded. They’re getting new notions, and it takes room to be tidy and fine. Mrs. Rady spreads her table with a bright cloth every evening, an'd sits down like a lady. Perhaps you didn’t mind how things was working, Mr. Stuart.”

“ I didn’t mind about such things.”

“ No more did I, till my wife told me. The society meetings and the talking of the mistress has done it. It’s not like the old country, where you’d put the hands together like so many blocks.”

“ I hope not. I’m glad Mrs. Rady spreads her table very nicely every evening.”

“ Sure, and she’d have no choice since her grandchild is there. Norah Borine is as quick to see as a bird, and as quick to do too. She’s a handsome gypsy, as like her father in looks as like can be.”

“ Was he a Frenchman ? ”

“I’m thinking he was. He was good looking, and that was all the good there was about him. He was a bold fellow, they say ; but Norah’s as shy of strangers as a fawn. Jessie Elliot’s trying to make friends with her ; but when she’s left alone, with her mother and grandmother in the mill, you’ll hardly get the door opened. There ! now you can catch a glimpse of the old mill. It’s the best place in the world to me, and we’ll make it the finest. Gatchell told me yesterday it seemed as though there’d been a miracle worked here since last summer ; and I told him ’twas like breathing the breath of life into the dry bones of the valley. I aint a Bible man, but I’ve heard of something like that being done in Bible times. Had a strange meeting last Sunday night, Mr. Stuart.”

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“ How was it strange? ”

44 Well, it was strange; that’s all I can tell. Everybody said a verse. Would you believe it, Mr. Stuart, I said one myself. Harold Dorsey cried, and everybody was all melted down some way. The mistress talked, and sure I think she’d better be the preacher. She’d find a man’s conscience if he had one. Elliot’s not the same at all these few days, but you’ll see it for yourself. I’m talking to you as though you’d been away for a year, and it’s only a day more than a week. You’ve been missed, Mr. Stuart.”