Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Eunice By Margaret Murray Robertson Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row, London. This edition dated 1890. Eunice, by Margaret Murray Robertson. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ EUNICE, BY MARGARET MURRAY ROBERTSON. CHAPTER ONE. GOING HOME. One fair morning, a good many years ago, a number of schoolgirls were waiting at a little wayside station on the banks of the Connecticut River. They had crossed the river in a ferry-boat and were waiting for more of their number who were coming after them. They were waiting patiently enough. It was a good place in which to wait, for the scene around them was very lovely. They were standing at the foot of Mount Tom, glorious in the morning sunshine, and looking over on the shadows which still lingered on the face of Mount Holyoke. From the far north flows the Connecticut River broadening on its way, as Green Mountain and White send down on either hand, from melting snow-drifts and hidden springs, their tribute to its waters. Through forests and broken hill country, through meadows, sometimes broad and sometimes narrow, past town and village and lonely farmhouse, it flows before it makes a bend to pass between Mounts Tom and Holyoke, but in all its course it flows through no fairer landscape than that which spreads itself around the base of these two historic mountains. Over all the land lay the promise of spring in the glory of cloudless sunshine. Only the promise as yet. The mountains were still bare and brown, with patches of snow lingering in hollow and crevice; and the great elms that were everywhere--in the village streets, along the roads that wound between the hills, and around the white farmhouses--showed no tinge of green as yet, but their brown buds were ready and waiting to burst; the meadows were growing green and the catkins were large and full on the willows by the brooks that hastened through them to the river. There was a soft tinge, half green, half golden, on earlier trees growing in sheltered places; and the promise of the spring was everywhere--more joyfully welcomed after a long winter than spring in the full glory of leaf and blossom. They were thinking and speaking of other things--these waiting schoolgirls. Some of them walked about, softly speaking last words to each other, and some of them were watching the coming of the boat over the swollen waters of the river. But the beauty around them, the sweetness of the spring morning, the restful quiet on mountain and valley, were present with them all. "Nellie Austin," said a voice from the group that watched the boat, "do you see? Your `Faithful' is coming after all." "My Faithful!"--and a young girl sprang forward as the boat touched the bank. A slender girl, very plainly dressed, stepped out first--a girl with grave dark eyes and a firm mouth, which yet trembled a little as she answered her companion's greeting. "Faithful! my Faithful! you are coming home with me after all?" "No, dear; I am going home to my Eunice. I thought I had better." "Have you heard again? Is she not well?" "I have not heard again; but she is not very well, I am afraid. I must go and see." "But you will come back again? You will never, never think of not coming back!" "Oh, yes, I hope so! I think so--unless she is really sick." "Oh, she is not so very sick, or you would have heard! What should I ever do without you? Now you must sit with me as far as I go. Here are the cars!" There was no time to lose. The "cars" had come which were to carry the schoolgirls home for a fortnight's rest and holiday. From the windows a good many people looked out with interest on the group of girls, and one said to his friend-- "They are from the seminary over the river yonder. We saw it as we came on." "Schoolgirls? No; they don't look like schoolgirls. The greater part of them must be out of their teens, I should say." "Possibly, but all the same they are schoolgirls, though there may be a teacher or two among them." "Well, friend, after all that you have been telling me about your wonderful common school system, I should have supposed that the education of these sedate young persons might have been finished before the age of twenty." "Oh, I have no doubt that these young persons have had the benefit of common school and high school too, before they aspired to a place in the seminary over yonder; and the chances are that some of them since then have earned, either with hands or head, the means to carry them further on; and for these there can be no better place than the plain brick seminary on the other side of the river!" "Well," said his friend, "I can only repeat what I have said to you more than once already--you are a curious people in some ways--with your boys who are men, and your prim grave-faced young women who are schoolgirls. I should like to put a question or two to some of them, if I might." His friend shook his head. "You may have a chance to do so before you leave the country, but not to-day, I think. You have no grown-up schoolgirls in _Old_ England? Out of _New_ England I don't suppose we have so very many even in this country; and there are probably more in the seminary over there than in schools generally among us. It was built by special means for a special purpose. A woman built it--a woman who never owned a dollar that she had not first earned--a great and good woman. She gave herself, body, soul, and spirit, to the work of helping her countrywomen--her sisters, she called them all--who were hungering and thirsting, as she herself in her youth had hungered and thirsted, for knowledge." "With a view to making learned ladies of them all?" "Learned ladies? Well, yes, perhaps--as a means to an end. You may think it strange, as others have thought; but this woman really believed His word who said, `Ye are not your own. Ye are bought with a price.' `None of us liveth to himself.'" "In a way, we all believe them, I suppose." "Yes, in a way. Well, she believed them in another way. She believed them and lived them all her life long. Learned ladies! Yes; but the keynote of all her teaching was this: `Not your own, but His who bought you. His for service or for suffering, for watching or warfare, for life or death.'" "Well?" said his friend, as the speaker paused. "Well, she is dead, and `her works do follow her.'" There was no time for more. The train stopped, and several of the "schoolgirls" rose to leave. The travellers heard one "Good-bye" spoken. "Oh, if you would come with me even yet, dear Faithful!" "Another time I hope to go with you; but not this time." "Well, good-bye, my Faithful, good-bye. No, I am not going to cry, but I _will_ kiss you, whatever any one may think about it." And then the speaker was gone. No one saw her companion's face for some time after that. Nor did she see the receding mountains on which she seemed to be gazing. Her eyes were dim with tears which must not be allowed to fall. "Fidelia Marsh," said her companion at last, "what are you thinking about? Not little Nellie Austin all this time, surely?" The young girl turned round. "I was trying to think how it would seem if I were never to see her or any of you all again;" and then she turned her face to the window, and sat silent till her turn had come to say "Good-bye." "Yes, this is my stopping-place." She smiled and nodded to those who were not within reach of her hand, and seemed to be cheerful enough in her good-bye, but she did not linger near the window when she reached the platform, as Nellie Austin and her friend had done. It was a dreary little station, standing at the foot of a broken stony slope, with only one unfurnished house in sight. One lank official moved about at his leisure, and one embryo trader hastened to display his boxes of lozenges, and his basket of unwholesome peanuts and last year's apples. There were doubtless prosperous villages along the wide road that crossed the railway, and pleasant farmhouses amid the high pastures and moist meadow lands hid away among the hills beyond; but the dingy house and the dull little station were all that could be seen from the windows of the cars, and Fidelia's companions said to one another that the place looked forlorn. "And poor dear Fidelia! Does she not look forlorn as well?" They had time to watch her as she went to claim her trunk, and they saw her shake hands with the leisurely official, who was evidently an acquaintance. But when she turned at last to the window she did not look "forlorn." A beautiful face looked up from under a big bonnet--a rarely beautiful face, delicate yet strong. There were slight hollows and a darkened shade beneath the lovely grey eyes set wide apart under a low broad forehead, and the pale rose-tint on her cheeks might have been deeper with advantage. The look of delicacy was due to the hard work she had been doing, but the strength was real, and she would last through harder work than ever she was likely to have at school. Forlorn? No. Her face was radiant! The solemn-looking station-master had wrought the change. "Well, Fidelia, you've got home, haven't you? Folks don't expect you, do they?" "I didn't write that I was coming. I was not sure till the last minute. Are they all well about here?" "Yes, I guess so. Eunice is well, any way. She was to meeting Sunday; and seems to me Lucinda said she was at the sewing-circle at the doctor's the other day. She'll be glad to see _you_, sick or well." "I'm glad and thankful that she is well," said Fidelia softly. "I must say good-bye to the girls." She turned quickly towards the faces at the windows. "Have you heard good news, Fidelia?" called some one. There was no time for words, but the joy on the girl's upturned face was better than any last words could have been, even though her lips trembled and her eyes were dim with tears. And then the train swept on among the hills, and she who had been called "Faithful" turned her face toward her home, to get the first glimpse of the work which awaited her there. Not the work which she had been planning for herself during the last year, but her work all the same-- the work which God had appointed her to do. Declining the station-master's invitation to "go in and see Lucinda and wait for a chance to ride home," she went on her way with a cheerful heart. She followed the wide road, leading westward, only a little way. Then she went in at an open gate, and across a stony pasture, till she came to a narrow road leading at first through a thicket of spruce and cedar, where it was necessary carefully to pick her steps over the wet moss and stones, and over the network of brown roots which the spring freshets had laid bare. After a while the road began to ascend, and then the cedars and spruces were left behind, and birch and poplar and dogwood, but chiefly great maple trees, with branches high above all the rest, covered the hillside. It was up hill and down again all the way after that till the journey was done. But she did not mind the hills or the roughness of the way. The fresh air and the free movement were delightful to her in her new freedom, and everything about her seemed beautiful. She caught sight of many a green thing growing among the dead leaves; and more than once she paused and stopped as if she would have liked to pick them. But her hands were full, and the nearer she drew to her home the more eager she grew to reach it. "I'll come again," she murmured. "Oh, I am so glad that Eunice is well!" She reached the top of a hill steeper and higher than the rest, at a point from which could be seen a few miles of the railway, passing along the valley. Her thoughts came back to her companions, and she sighed, and all at once began to feel tired; and then she sat down to rest, and, as she rested, she took a book from the bag which she had been carrying in her hand. "I am so glad that Eunice is well," she said to herself as she turned over the leaves. "She was at meeting, he said, and at the sewing-circle. Well, I am glad I came home all the same. And I can do something at `The Evidences' while I am here." She glanced on a page or two, and in her interest in them she might have forgotten her haste, and lingered, had not the sound of approaching wheels disturbed the silence a little. She rose in time to see the leisurely approach of an old grey horse and an old-fashioned weather-stained chaise. They were familiar objects to her, and some of the pleasantest associations of her life were connected with them; but her heart beat hard and her face grew pale as she watched their slow approach. "Dr Everett," said she, "are you going to see Eunice?" "Is it you, Fidelia? Are you just come home? No, I am not going to see Eunice. Is she not well? She'll be glad to see _you_, sick or well," added the doctor, as her other friend had done. He was out of the chaise by this time, and offering his hand to help her over the crooked fence. But, instead of taking it, she gave one glance in the kind good face, and laid her own down on the rough bark of the cedar rail and burst out crying. "It was full time for you to come home, I think, if that is the best greeting you have to give your friends. You've been overdoing, and have got nervous, I guess," said the doctor, moving aside first one rail and then another from the fence, to make it easier for her to get over. "Oh, no, Dr Everett, it is not that! Nervous indeed! I don't know what it means. Only I'm so glad to get home, and--so glad that Eunice is well--" If she had said another word she must have cried again. "Well, never mind. Get into the chaise, and I'll drive you home; and then I'll see about Eunice and you too." It was ridiculous, Fidelia told herself. It had never happened in all her life before. But it was more than she could do for awhile to command her voice or stop her tears. The doctor made himself busy with the harness for a little, and, having left his whip behind him, he cut a switch from a hickory-tree beside the road; and by the time he was ready to get into the chaise Fidelia was herself again. "Have you been having a good time?" asked the doctor presently. "Yes, indeed! I have enjoyed every minute of it. And I have been perfectly well, Dr Everett. I have never lost one recitation." "I suppose you have been at the head of the class and have got the medal." Fidelia laughed. "I'm not the best scholar by a good many. But I have got on pretty well." "Well, you have got up a step, I hear." "I have been taking some of the studies of the second year. My Latin helped me on, and--other things. And--I mean to graduate next year." "Do in two years what other girls are expected to do in three or four, and injure your health for life doing it? That would be a poor kind of wisdom, little girl." "Oh, I haven't been doing too much, and I don't mean to! But you know, two years means more to Eunice and me than it does to most people. Oh, it will be all easy enough! I was well prepared. You see Eunice knew just what was needed." "Yes, and Eunice is a good teacher." "Isn't she?" said Fidelia eagerly. "I haven't seen one yet to compare with her. Oh, if Eunice had only had my chance!" "Softly, little girl! Your chance, indeed! Dear Eunice is far beyond all that sort of thing. She has had better teaching." "Yes; but Eunice would have liked it. You know she was at the seminary one of its first years. And she would have gone on. She told me the last night I was at home that it was years before she could quite give up the hope of going there again. And I don't see why she shouldn't. She is not thirty-two years old yet; and it was not just for young girls that the seminary was built; and--" "My dear, Eunice has got past the need of all that. It would be like sending you and Susie back again to the old red schoolhouse, to send Eunice there." The doctor had cut his hickory stick, but he had not used it, and old Grey had been moving on but slowly. There was still a long hill to climb before they reached the spot where Fidelia could catch a first glimpse of home. Old Grey moved slowly still, but neither of them spoke another word till he stood still at the door. It was a low wooden house, which had once been painted brown; but the weather-stains on the walls, and the green moss and the lichens on the roof, made its only colouring now. It had wide eaves, and many small-paned windows, and a broad porch before the door. A wild vine covered the porch and one of the windows, and the buds were beginning to show green upon it. The house stood in a large garden, which might be a pretty garden in the summer-time, but nothing had been done to it yet. The sunshine was on it, however, and it was beautiful in Fidelia's eyes. She had lived in this old brown house more than half of the eighteen years of her life; she had been faithfully cared for and dearly loved; and there were tears in her eyes, though her face was bright, as she went in at the door. "You are coming in, Dr Everett?" said she. "Yes, I am coming in. Do you suppose Eunice has a glass of buttermilk for me this morning?" "If she has not, she has got cream for you, I am quite sure," said she, laughing. Then they went in, and, finding no one, they went through the house to the garden beyond, where a woman with a large white sun-bonnet on her head was stooping over some budding thing at her feet. She raised herself up in a little, and came towards them, closely examining something which she held in her hand. So she did not see them till she came near the door where they stood. As she glanced up and saw them a shadow seemed to pass over her face. The doctor saw it; but Fidelia only saw the smile that chased it away. "My little girl!" said Eunice softly. Fidelia hid her face on her sister's shoulder, and no word was spoken for a minute or two. Then they went into the house, and Fidelia said, with a little laugh,-- "I got homesick at the last minute, dear, and so I came home." "All right, dear. If you could spare the time, it was right to come. I am very glad." The doctor got his buttermilk and cream as well, but he sat still, seeming in no hurry to go away. He listened, and put in a word now and then, but listened chiefly. He lost no tone or movement of either; and when Fidelia went, at her sister's bidding, to take off her bonnet and shawl, he rose and took the elder sister's hand, putting his finger on her pulse. "Are you as well as usual these days, Eunice?" said he. For an instant she seemed to shrink away from him, and would not meet his eye. Then she said, speaking very slowly and gently,-- "I cannot say that I am quite as well as usual. I meant to see you in a day or two. Now I will wait a little longer." "Had you better wait?" "Yes, I think so. I am not going to spoil Fidelia's pleasure, now that she is at home for a few days, and I will wait. It won't really make any difference." "Eunice," said the doctor gravely, "are you afraid of--anything?" A sudden wave of colour made her face for the moment beautiful. Tears came into her eyes, but she smiled as she said,-- "No, not afraid; I hope I should not be afraid even if I should be going to suffer all that I saw her suffer." "Eunice, why have you not told me before? It was hardly friendly to be silent with any such thought in your mind." "Well, it is as I said. A little sooner or later could make no difference." "And because you did not like to make your friends unhappy you ran this risk." The doctor was standing with his face to the door at which Fidelia at the moment entered, and his tone changed. "Well, to-morrow you must send your little girl down to see my little girls, unless they should hear of her home-coming, and be up here this afternoon. No; they shall not come, nor any one else. You shall have this day to yourselves. And mind one thing--there must be no school-books about during vacation time. Miss Eunice, I will trust to you to see to that." And then he went away. CHAPTER TWO. THE SISTERS. "Are you really well, Eunice? You don't look very well," said Fidelia, kneeling down beside her sister, and looking wistfully into her face. "Are you sure that you are well?" "I am pretty well, dear. I have been about all the winter pretty much as usual. Who has been telling that I have not been well?" "No one has written, in so many words, that you were sick. But you don't seem to have been about among the neighbours as much as usual, and you have given up your class in the Sunday school." "Yes, I gave it up for a while, but I have taken it again. I thought I had better give it up in the beginning of the winter, as I could not be quite regular, because of the bad roads. And Mr Fuller--the new teacher--could take it as well as not. He was glad to take it; and he is a born teacher. He has done good work among the boys on Sundays and week-days too. But he has gone away, and I have my class again. Was it because you thought I was sick that you came home, dear?" "Well, I wanted to be sure about you. And I got homesick when I saw the other girls going. I am glad I came: I can help in the garden." "Yes; and ten days in the garden will do more good to your summer work than ten days at your books could do. I am very glad you have come home." "I only brought one book. I must take a little time for it. Now I will get dinner if you will tell me what to do. I am hungry." "Of course you are. And I can scarcely wait to hear all you have to tell me." She did not need to wait. Fidelia laid the table, talking all the time as she went from pantry to cupboard; and Eunice listened as she prepared the dinner with her own hands--as she did every day, for there was no "help" in the house. It was a very simple meal, and it was spread in the room in which it was prepared. It was the winter kitchen and the summer dining-room--a beautiful room, perfect in neatness and simplicity, and in the tasteful arrangement of its old-fashioned furniture. There was a "secretary" of dark wood, which might have "come over in the _Mayflower_" between the windows, with a bookcase above it; there were a tall clock and two carved armchairs, a chintz-covered sofa which looked new beside the rest of the things, and a rocking-chair or two. There were pretty muslin curtains on the windows, and pictures on the walls; and except for the stove that stood against the chimney-place one might easily have mistaken the room, and called it the parlour, for there was no trace of kitchen utensil or kitchen soil to be seen. The utensils were all in the "sink room" which opened near the back door, and the soil was nowhere. All the house was beautiful in its perfect neatness. Everything in it was old, and some of the things were ancient, and had a history. A story could be told of oak chest and bookcase and bureau. Some association, sad or sweet, clung to every old-fashioned ornament and to every picture on the wall. "I don't believe there is so pleasant a house in all the state as this is," said Fidelia gravely. Her sister smiled. "You have not seen many of the houses in the state," said she. "But I have seen several. And I think I know." They had the long afternoon to themselves. The elder sister had something to tell about the quiet winter days, many of which she had spent alone. She said nothing of loneliness, however; she called it restful quiet. She had had visitors enough, and every one had been mindful and kind, from Judge Leonard, who had sent his sleigh to take her to church on stormy Sundays, to Jabez Ainsworth, who had shovelled her paths and fed her hens and cow all the winter, and left her nothing troublesome or toilsome to do. She told of the work which had occupied her, the books she had read, and the letters she had received and written, and enlarged on several items of neighbourhood news which she had only had time to mention in her letter. Then Fidelia had her turn: nothing that she could tell could fail to interest her sister as to the months in which they had been separated. Her studies, her friends, her room-mate, little Nellie Austin, the youngest pupil in the school; the teachers, the school routine, household affairs--all were full of interest to Eunice, who had been a pupil herself long ago; but she listened in silence to it all. Even when Fidelia began to plan a new life for them when her school days should be over, and she ready for work, she only said "Yes" and "No," and "We must wait and see." Fidelia was too eager in her speech and in her plans to notice the silence at the moment, but she remembered it afterwards. The next morning Fidelia was awakened by a kiss from the smiling lips of her sister. "Breakfast is ready," said she. "You don't say so? And I meant to be up to get the breakfast myself?" "You did better to sleep on." "I woke at five; and, oh, it did seem so good to shut my eyes with no dread of the bell, and so I went to sleep again!" Eunice went out and in while her sister dressed; and the talk flowed on till breakfast was over and all the things put away. Eunice listened to it all with mingled feelings, rejoicing in her sister's eager interest and in her success, but at the same time missing something for which she had longed and prayed, and for which she was telling herself that she must wait patiently a while. Then Fidelia went out to the garden to see what was to be done there. She walked up and down the broad path, considering ways and means of planning how the very most could be accomplished during the fortnight of her stay. "It will take most of my time; but I am glad I came, and I shan't oversleep another day. For, whatever Eunice may say, she is not strong." The garden could not be neglected. Half their living came from the garden and the adjoining fields, where their pretty brown cow was patiently searching among the last year's tufts of grass for some sweeter morsel. The pretty creature came to the fence to be petted and praised, and her mistress did not disappoint her. "How much do you suppose your cow understands of all you're sayin' to her?" said a voice at her elbow. Fidelia started. "Oh, she understands! Good morning, Jabez;" and she held out her hand to a tall loose-jointed lad, with a sunburnt, boyish, but very pleasant face, who had come up the hill from the meadow unseen by her. "You look _well_," said he, after a moment's examination of her face. "Thank you," said Fidelia, laughing. "I mean, you don't look sick," said he. "Why should I? What have _you_ been doing this winter?" "I have been at school. We had a new teacher--a chap from Amherst--one who has to teach and pay his own way. Yes, I got along pretty well-- studied hard, if you can believe it." "Well, what have you done?" "_Oh_, a little Latin and history of the United States! I could pass on that _now_, I guess. And I've got through the first three books of Euclid, and in Algebra I got through quadratic equations." She had spoken in a cool, indifferent way, but his eyes sparkled as he looked up. "Well done, Jabez! I am glad. I must examine you some day." "Come on!" cried Jabez, throwing down the hoe he had been carrying. "I'm ready. Examine all you want to." "Oh, I don't mean just this minute, but some time before I go! How is your grandmother these days?" "She's pretty well. And that makes me think that I promised her to help churn; I'll have to be going. I came up to talk a little to Miss Eunice and you about the garden. I don't suppose she'll do much in it this year, since you won't be here." "I shall help to make it while I am at home, if the weather will let me. But your help will be needed after. Come and speak to my sister." They went into the house, and found Eunice preparing to make the bread which she had mixed early in the morning. Fidelia set the rocking-chair for her sister, and took the making of the bread into her own hands. "About the garden, Miss Eunice? What are you going to do about it?" said Jabez. "I shall want some help, I suppose--a good deal of help. Can I depend on you, Jabez?" "Well, I've been talking a little with grandpa about what I want to do this summer. He wants me to work along with Mr Grimes for a spell. You know, Fidelia, Grimes has got grandpa's farm on shares this year, and he would like to hire me." "Well, and why not?" "I can do better--that's about it." "And what do you wish to do?" "Well, that's just what I want to talk about." "I shall be glad to have your help when you can be spared," said Eunice. Jabez seemed to have a difficulty in sitting quietly in his chair. He fidgeted about, and let his hoe fall, and then picked it up and carried it out into the porch; then laid his cap on the floor, and straightened himself up, and said gravely,-- "Look here, Miss Eunice, I guess it won't hurt anybody just to have a little talk about it. I want you to let me have your garden this summer--on shares if you say so; but I'd rather pay rent for it." "Why, Jabez, you surprise me!" said Eunice gently. Fidelia laughed. "Go on, Jabez. Tell us all about it." "Well, I will. In the first place, I want to show grandpa that I _can_ do something; and, in the second place, I want to make some money this summer. I think I see my way clear to do both, if things happen right." "And what do you want money for?" asked Fidelia. "Oh, well, I guess 'most everybody wants money! But look here now. I have not told grandpa yet--it wouldn't help me with him, but I'd as lief tell _you_ two as not. Supposin' we have Mr Fuller here again next winter, I'm willing to go to school here, and do chores for Miss Eunice and at grandpa's next winter, as I have this winter. But if he doesn't come here, I'm going to Scranton Academy. And if I _do_ go, I expect I'll have to help pay my own way." Fidelia nodded and smiled. "But your grandfather? You must consult him, Jabez," said Miss Eunice, gravely. "I mean to--after a spell. But it isn't best to worry him with too many new ideas at once. Now see here, Miss Eunice--this is the whole concern. There was a lot of city company in our town last summer, and the cry among them was for fresh fruit and garden sass. There's going to be more of them here this summer, down the street in the hotel, and over at the Corners, and all around. This part of the state's got to be quite popular with city folks, and I should like to have the chance to supply them early." "But do you know anything about a garden?" asked Fidelia, greatly interested. "Well, yes. Grandpa has kept me pretty close to work in ours. I've been down to the judge's some, too; and Sandy Scott, his gardener, has given me a good many hints, and has promised to see to my work a little. I am not afraid, not a mite. And if you'll let me have your garden, grandpa'll let me have his, I guess; and between the two I can make something, I know." "I should have to think about it first, Jabez." "Oh, yes. I am not in a hurry for a day or two." "And I shouldn't like to do anything that your grandfather might object to. I should have to talk with him about it." "And what about your grandmother's churn in the meantime?" Fidelia added. "That's so! I'd 'most forgot it. I must hurry up. Here's the doctor!" Fidelia was gently patting the loaf she had just put into the pan as the doctor came in. "Good morning, Miss Eunice! Fidelia, _that_ is after all the true woman's work. `Loaf-maker'--or is it loaf-giver?--is the true derivation of `lady,' they say. But I hope you have nearly done. Her mother could not spare Susie to come up this morning, so I promised I would send you down." "I should like to go, but--" "Cannot you spare her, Miss Eunice? You can walk, Fidelia, you know, and when I come back from the Corners I'll bring your sister down with me, if she will let me; and Susie shall drive you both home in the evening." When the doctor had driven off, Jabez once more looked in at the door. "There is no particular hurry, Miss Eunice. Only I've had my hot-beds all agoing three weeks ago, and I'd like to know as soon as ever you've made up your mind." "To-morrow, perhaps, I'll let you know about it," said Miss Eunice. When her sister had gone, Eunice moved about the house, giving a touch here and another there, till her bread was ready for the oven; and then she set the front door wide open and sat down in the porch, for the day was as bright and warmer than yesterday had been. She had much to think about. It did not take her long to decide that Jabez should have the garden, if his grandfather did not object. She had not strength for the garden now, and Fidelia would have a better visit. How bright and eager the child was, and how much she had accomplished! "I knew she would do well; and I must not be discouraged, though she has not yet caught the spirit of the place. She has been so intent on her work, that she has given herself no time to think of higher things. But His time will come. `One thing have I desired of the Lord' for my darling, and He will grant it, _that_ I know, whether I shall see it in this world, or wait till we meet in the next, where her mother and mine await us both." She closed her eyes, and sat motionless till the sound of wheels reached her ears. "The doctor! I will not go down with him, and I hope he will be willing to wait till Fidelia goes before he speaks. I will go out to the gate, and he may not come in to-day." She rose and stood waiting for him at the gate. "Well, Miss Eunice, what do you think about going down with me? Do you feel like it?" Eunice smiled, and shook her head. "I think not, doctor. My bread is not all baked yet." "What is this I hear about the garden? Are you going to let Jabez have it, as he wishes it so much?" "Hadn't I better, doctor? Without Fidelia it would be too much for me, I am afraid. I could work in it a little for exercise, even if Jabez had it." "Yes, I see. I should not wonder," said the doctor; but his eyes were turned to the clouds that hung over the distant mountains, and he was thinking not at all of Jabez and the garden. His face was very grave. "What a good face it is!" thought Eunice, as she watched it--"a true friend's face!" It was a good face, strong and kindly--a face to inspire confidence. It was brown and weather-beaten, and showed many wrinkles, and the soft waving hair above it was as white as snow. But it was not an old face. The eyes were soft and bright, and the smile that came and went so readily upon it gave it a look of youth. Eunice could not remember the time when he had not been good and kind to her, and she loved him dearly. But she was a little afraid of him to-day. In a little, his eyes returned to her, standing at the gate. "Miss Eunice, what am I thinking about? You must not stand there in the wind. I will go in with you. I am not in haste to-day. What is this I hear about your garden?" But Eunice knew that it was not of Jabez or the garden he was thinking, as he followed her into the house. She went out of the room, and returned with a glass of milk on a tray, and her hand trembled as she set it down. It was of Jabez and the garden that they spoke first, however. Eunice told all that he had said, and the good reason he had for wishing to make money during the summer. "And he'll do it too--school and college and all--I should not wonder!" said the doctor. "There seems to be a terrible hunger for knowledge among our young people these days. I am not sure that I like it. I am afraid of it." "Oh, doctor, you do not mean that?" said Eunice. "In a way I do. Knowledge! No, I don't object to the knowledge. But I have a great respect for many of the tanned faces about us, and for the hands that have been hardened by the plough and the axe. `The profit of the earth is for all. The king himself is served by the field.' And I have no respect at all for those lads who take to their books and to a profession because it seems a step upward, or because such a life seems to promise an easier time. I don't like to see our farmers' boys turning their backs on the fields their fathers have tilled." "But there are more boys than there are farms, I doubt," said Eunice, with a smile. "Yes, that is so. But there are farms enough in the country for them all. And there is no one to take the deacon's farm but Jabez. However, we may hope that `the profit of the earth' will seem more to him after he has sowed and reaped for his own benefit." "I think Jabez would make a scholar. It is in him to succeed." "Possibly. Oh, yes, he is a smart boy! If he has got the notion, he'll go ahead with it. He's not a bad boy either, though the grandfather has had--or rather has dreaded--trouble with him!" And so they talked on for a while about the garden and other things, till the doctor rose as if to go away; and then he said, speaking very gently, just what Eunice had all along known that he came to say--"Do you think you had better wait any longer, Eunice?" "I suppose it will make me no worse to know just how it is," she said faintly. "It will be far better to know all that can be known. I cannot but think you may be dreading what will never come to you. You have had a lonesome winter. And you have had a hard life, dear." Eunice smiled, but shook her head. "I don't think I have been very lonesome. And I have not had a hard life--taking it all together. Think how happy my life was till I was twenty!" "Yes, dear, I know. And since then it has been more than happy. It has been a blessed life of help to others. But it has been a hard life too, in one way. Let us see now how it is with you." "But first let me say one word," said Eunice, laying her hand on the doctor's arm. "I don't think I am afraid. I think I am willing that it shall be as God wills. But it may be long; and I will not, while I can help it, have my Fidelia know what is before me. And, doctor, I shall need your silence and your help--" "To deceive her?" The doctor sat down again and covered his eyes with his hand for a moment. "To deceive her," repeated he, "and to break her heart afterwards with unavailing regret?" "Oh, she will have to know after a while, but--not as long as we can keep it from her!" There was silence for a minute or two. "Well, we will wait and see. I will not speak to her till you shall give me leave to do so." Then there were a few grave questions, and a few quiet replies; and then the doctor said,-- "Take courage, Eunice! I would say to almost any one else, `There is no cause for anxiety.' But having known so well the last years of your grandmother's life, I can hardly say you have nothing to fear from the disease that was fatal to her; but I do say that, as far as I can judge from your present condition, you may reasonably hope for a good many years of comfortable health. You should have spoken to me sooner, and spared yourself a time of anxiety." He did not see the look of relief on which he had counted--at least he did not see it for a moment. "Thank you, Dr Everett," she said at last. "And now nothing need be said to Fidelia." "Why do you fear for Fidelia? Your sister is braver and stronger than you think." "Oh, I think she is brave and strong! It is not that. But I want her to have two or three untroubled years before the work of her life begins; and then--" "And what is the work of her life to be? Is she to choose it for herself, or is it to be chosen for her, as your work has been? Eunice, don't you think you may be too tender with your sister? Don't you think that the Lord has her and her life in His keeping, and that you need not take that burden on you?" Eunice smiled. "We are bidden to `bear one another's burdens,' you know." "Yes; and we are told that `every one shall bear his own burden.' You cannot shield your sister from all the troubles of life, and it is not well that she should be so shielded. However, all this will keep for another time; and I am more than thankful that there is nothing specially painful to tell her now." And then he asked--"Will you come down with me, as I promised the girls you should?" "Not to-day, I think. I will rest, and be ready for Fidelia." She was very tired, the doctor knew by the wavering colour on her cheek; and he shrank from the thought of telling her something which he wished no one but himself to tell. Afterwards, when he had spoken, he said to himself that he need not have been so much afraid. "Eunice, I heard from my brother Justin lately. He is coming home. He is on his way. He may be here any day." "Is he coming home at last? I am glad--for you especially. All his friends will be glad to see him again." She spoke quietly and cordially, just as any of his friends might have spoken. Then there were a few more words, and then he went away. Eunice waited till she heard the latch of the gate fall, and waited still till the sounds of his wheels died away in the distance. Then she rose and took her last loaves from the oven, and carried them away to their own place. Then she went slowly upstairs and laid herself down on her bed to rest. And there Fidelia found her sleeping, with the traces of tears on her face, but with God's own peace resting upon it also. CHAPTER THREE. EUNICE. Eunice Marsh might well say that the first seventeen years of her life had been happy years. Her father, a man useful and much beloved, had during that time been minister of the only church in Hopeville, a town in the southern part of the state. She had lost her mother when she was a little child, but her loss had been well supplied by the love and care of her mother's mother, with whom she had lived, in the house that was now her home, till the time of her father's second marriage. Her new mother did not love her own little daughter, when she came, more dearly than she loved Eunice, and so the happy years moved on to a sorrowful ending. Suddenly, in the midst of happiness and usefulness, with no warning which those who loved him could understand, the minister died. Then Eunice returned to her grandparents home on the hill, and her stepmother, with her little daughter, came there also, to stay for a little while; and they never went away again. It was not a very large house, and the old people were far from being rich, but they offered the widow a home while she needed one. She did not need it long. She never quite recovered from the shock of her husband's death, and she died within the year, leaving her little girl to her sister Eunice, "to love and care for always--to be her very own." "And, dear, I am not afraid to leave my little darling with you," said the dying mother with a smile. After a while happy days came again to Eunice. Why should she not be happy? Those who had gone from her had only "gone before," and those who remained were very dear; and life was before her--a mystery!--but a mystery of gladness and blessing, as she believed. Dr Everett had been the minister's classmate in college, and his life-long friend; and when the minister died, he became the guardian and the life-long friend of his daughters. In his house they found a second home, and from him Eunice had the counsel and the guidance which
{'title': 'Eunice by Margaret M. Robertson', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}