CHAPTER XIV.
Our friends had a delightful voyage through the Gulf of St. Lawrence,down the coasts of New Brunswick, Maine, Massachusetts, and RhodeIsland as far as Newport on Narragansett Bay. They left the yacht lyingin the harbor there for the present, and taking hired carriages droveout to the cottages of which their cousin, Mrs. Embury, had written,where they found her and Mr. Embury, with their children, also Mr.and Mrs. Cyril Keith, forming a large and interesting family party,and filling one of the cottages; but the other was still vacant, andlarge enough to accommodate very conveniently the entire party from the_Dolphin_.
Their welcome was of the warmest. They found their new temporary abodecomfortably, though not elegantly, furnished, open and well aired;for, though their friends had been uncertain of the exact time oftheir arrival, they had expected them daily and made ready, as far aspossible, for their comfort and enjoyment.
"Ah, if we had only known just when you would get here, your suppershould have been ready," said Isadore, when greetings had beenexchanged and the excitement of the arrival had calmed down somewhat."But I will have it on the table as soon as possible. I am housekeeperthis week. Molly and I take the position week about, each trying tooutdo the other in catering for the united family."
"Oh, thank you! but we had supper on the yacht just before leavingher," said Violet. "Besides, we consider ourselves at home and do notexpect or wish to be treated as company."
"And we have brought a supply of provisions of various kinds, which wehope you may be willing to share with us," said the captain.
"That was very kind and thoughtful in you, cousin captain," returnedIsadore with a pleased look, "and I hardly think any of us will feelinclined to reject your dainties; though we have fared very well indeedsince coming here."
"Please accept my thanks also, and those of our husbands and children,"said Molly. "Aunt Rose and Cousin Elsie, please sit down here with thegentlemen and let us younger ones attend to the unpacking and arrangingof the contents of your trunks. If you will trust us, I can assure youwe shall enjoy doing it. At least I am sure I shall."
"That is a kind offer, Molly," said Mrs. Travilla, "but we have donenothing to-day to tire us and I, for one, am not in the least fatigued;so ought not to indulge my love of ease at your expense."
"Your love of ease, Cousin Elsie!" laughed Molly. "I never discoveredthat you had any."
"No; but she has a daughter who is both able and willing to attend tothe duty in question," said Rosie Travilla. "So sit you down, motherdear, and enjoy this pleasant company, while we younger folks unpackand find places for your goods and chattels."
"Yes, do, mother," said Captain Raymond, bringing forward an easy chairfor her. "Can't you trust me to oversee and assist these younger folks?If not we will seat you in state in some spot convenient for you to dothat part in person."
"Thanks, captain," she returned with a smile of amusement "ascommanding and giving directions has been your business for so manyyears, I think you may be trusted to attend to the matter even withoutmy added supervision."
"Yes, come along, sir," said Rosie, leading the way, "but please toremember that you and we girls are not in the schoolroom."
"I shall endeavor to keep that fact in mind, my sage young sister," hesaid in return.
"But it won't make any difference in your authority over your owndaughters, I am happy to know, papa," Lucilla said, with a loving,smiling look up into his face.
"No; they are mine and under my orders always and under allcircumstances," he returned; "and I think would not have it other wiseif they might."
"Indeed we would not," said Grace, who, as usual, was near her fatherand sister. "May I help, papa?"
"Well, Gracie, I think you are not really needed, and would enjoyyourself better out yonder on the porches or on the grass with yourlittle brother and sister and the others, telling them stories, singingthem little songs or playing games with them."
"Yes; do try that, Gracie, and I shall be much obliged," Violet said,joining them at the moment. "I have just left them with the promise toask it of you."
Grace acquiesced, went back at once, and for the next half hour devotedherself to the amusement of the children, to their great satisfactionand enjoyment.
"And you, Madam Raymond, would do well to go back to the societyof your older friends and exercise your many gifts for theirentertainment," remarked the captain, speaking in playful tones to hisyoung wife, as Grace disappeared.
"No, my dear, I prefer to exercise them for yours, if you will permitit," she returned.
"Ah, you fear to trust me to do the work without the supervision of mycapable young wife?" he returned laughingly.
"Possibly it may be done a trifle better, or, at least, more to mymind, with that," she retorted, with becoming gravity. "At all events,I shall know better where to look for what I want, so that, in the end,I shall save myself trouble."
"Ah, then, I will make no further objection, but freely acknowledgethat the work will be twice as enjoyable if done under my young wife'ssupervision."
"Thank you, sir," laughed Violet; "How glad I am now that I insisted oncoming to share it. As our stay is likely to be so short, I think, donot you, it will be best to unpack only such things as we are prettysure to want while here?"
"Very well, my dear; as concerns that matter, you have only to giveyour orders and see them carried out; while I do likewise in regard toanother; namely, that all the manual labor is to be left to other handsthan yours."
"Oh, Captain Raymond, how you do spoil me!" laughed Violet. "Who shallsay that you won't be sorry for it one of these days, and wish you hadencouraged me to be industrious and energetic."
"I am willing to take the risk," he said, placing a chair for her.
"No, I am not ready to sit down yet," she said. "We must first settlewho are to be the occupants of each room; and Cousin Annis and Ronaldshould have the first choice."
"Decidedly they must have of the best; yet, I think it may be thebetter plan for us to choose for them, or they will not take the best.There are three comfortable rooms on this first floor. Shall we notassign their use to your mother, grandparents, and the Lilburn cousins?"
"By all means," returned Violet. "Then Rosie will share with mamma,Evelyn and our two girls take one of the third story rooms, you andI and our little ones another, and Walter the remaining one. He, youknow, must leave us in a few days for college. Oh, the house willaccommodate us all very nicely!"
"So I think," he returned, leading the way to the third story; "andnow I insist on your having the first choice of the rooms on thisfloor."
Violet hesitated, glancing inquiringly at Evelyn and Lucilla, who hadfollowed them up the stairway.
"Yes, Cousin Vi, that is only right, and what we would prefer to haveyou do," said Evelyn.
"I see hardly any choice; they all look pleasant," added Lucilla, "andif there is a difference, of course, we would all prefer that you andpapa should have the best."
Violet still seemed to hesitate, and Walter, who had come up in therear of the others, said, "I see I'll have to decide this knottyquestion. My big brother, the captain, being the largest, oldest, best,and most distinguished of this party, besides having a better half andtwo children to share with him, should be assigned the largest room;the three young ladies should take the next in size, and I--'lone andlorn' bachelor of sixteen--will occupy the smallest, which is quitelarge enough and good enough for me. So there the knotty question issolved."
"Many thanks for your wise decision, my dear young bachelor brother,"laughed Violet. "And now, if you and your big brother will see tothe bringing up of the trunks, I think we will soon make an end ofunpacking and arranging their contents, and be ready to join thepleasant company on the porches."
"Yes, I think we need not do much of that work to-night," said herhusband; "it is now almost time to get our little ones to bed, andto-morrow will give us another and better opportunity."
With that he and Walter hasten
ed down the stairway, and not manyminutes later all were ready to rejoin the friends and relativessitting at ease on the porches below.
Most of the evening was passed in conversation, for they found agreat deal to hear and to tell of the scenes they had visited, andoccurrences in the family connection since last they had been together.
They had been talking of Viamede, Mrs. Travilla asking some questionsof Mr. Cyril Keith about the condition of things there, of which he wasable to render a very favorable report, in which Mr. Lilburn, amongothers, seemed to be much interested.
"You visited Viamede some time ago, I remember, sir?" remarked Cyril,turning to him.
"Yes; some few years ago, and found it a lovely place--a sort ofearthly paradise," returned the old gentleman, adding, with a look ofamusement, "I am pleased to perceive that you have not forgotten meentirely, though we were not, at that time, related by marriage as weare now. I have no objection in the world to being called uncle, evenby a man of your age, seeing you are own nephew to my bonny young wife."
Annis laughed, saying with a mirthful look, "Hardly young to anyone butyourself, my dear; only a trifle younger than my dear friend and cousinElsie, who is grandmother to quite a number of fine children."
"But still almost youthful in appearance, auntie, dear," said Cyril,giving Mrs. Travilla a look of heart-felt affection. Then turning toMr. Lilburn, "I shall avail myself in the future of the privilegeyou have accorded me, Uncle Ronald," he said. "It is a pleasant nameto speak, and a dear old gentleman who gives me the privilege of soaddressing him."
"Couldn't you give us all the same privilege, sir?" asked Mr. Embury."My wife is own cousin to your new niece, Mrs. Isadore Keith--I think,too, that she is the bright, attractive sort of woman anybody might beproud to claim kin with--and we would all feel just so about claimingit with you. Besides that, Uncle Ronald is a good, agreeable, handyname to use and to hear."
"Ah ha! ah ha! um h'm! so I think myself; also that this is a handycompany to own as nieces and nephews. But what say you, Annis, my bonnybride?" turning to her, with a look that spoke proud ownership.
"That I am entirely willing you should be uncle and I aunt to the wholecrowd of good people here, if they desire it," Annis answered, with alook of amusement. "It will not make us really any older in feeling orappearance. And I am quite accustomed to having nieces and nephews notvery many years younger than myself."
"And have not found it a nearly unendurable trial, I hope, Aunt Annis?"Cyril said inquiringly.
"No; quite the contrary," she answered. "But, to change the subject;there is a good deal that is interesting to be seen about here, isthere not?"
"Yes, indeed! This is Middletown; it was formerly a part of Newport,and known in those times as 'ye woods.' It has an area of twelve and ahalf square miles. There are five schoolhouses, three churches, and atown hall."
"Why, I thought it was country!" exclaimed Rosie. "As we drove alongI noticed little groups of houses here and there, but there seemed tobe farms, orchards, and fields; also a good many rocky-looking hills;some that didn't seem to be cultivated at all."
"Yet, there is so much beauty that it seems to me worthy of itsname--Paradise Valley," remarked her mother.
"I think so," said Cyril, "and I expect to enjoy taking you all to itsvarious places of interest--Purgatory Rocks, Sachuest and Easton'sBeaches, Hanging Rocks, and the site of the former residence of BishopBerkeley."
"Who was he?" asked Grace.
"A clergyman, born in Ireland, educated in England; a learned man andauthor of a number of books; a good Christian man too; one of whoseprojects was the founding of a college in the Bermudas for the trainingof ministers to supply churches and teach Christianity to the savagesof America. The English government was to supply the means, but failedto do so, and Berkeley came on here to Newport in January, 1729, boughta farm, built a small house upon it, and there lived and studied,preaching occasionally, while waiting for the performance of thepromise of the English government. He waited about three years; then,convinced that the promise would never be kept, went back to England."
"And he left the income of his property here to be used in educatingstudents of Yale College, did he not?" asked Violet.
"Yes; gave books too--a valuable collection donated by himself andfriends--and most of the volumes are still there. He had a share in theformation of Redwood Library here in Newport, also. He was both a verygood and very distinguished man."
"Did he name this Paradise Valley?" asked Grace.
"No, I have been told it was named by Mr. Isaac Barker, who owned alarge part, if not all of it, in Revolutionary days. By the way, hisdescendants still live here, one of them in the very house owned andoccupied by him at that time."
"Oh, yes," said Molly; "we must take you to see that house, sointeresting because a relic of the Revolution, and the dear old ladywho is now its mistress. I know you will be much interested in her,Cousin Elsie, and all she can tell of events here in this valley duringthat war."
"I shall be glad to call to see her, if you are quite sure she will notdeem it an intrusion," replied Mrs. Travilla.
"No, I am sure she will not; she is very kind and hospitable, and seemsto really enjoy telling the story of those times to one who shows adeep interest in it."
"As we all would do," said Mr. Dinsmore, glancing at his watch as hespoke. "But it is growing late now. Shall we not have our eveningworship together and then retire to rest? Cousin Cyril, as you are aminister, the rest only laymen, suppose you lead our devotions."