*CHAPTER XIII*
*COUSIN ROXY TO THE RESCUE*
"We've forgotten to write Mr. McRae and tell him how much we like thehouse," Helen said a few days later.
"He doesn't know anything about the house, or care either," protestedKit, struggling with some raspberry canes that needed disentangling andtying back against the woodshed boards. "He's never even seen it. Doyou suppose he has the least bit of sentiment for it the way we have orPiney has? I wouldn't bother to write to him."
"Oh, I would," Helen answered serenely. She was down on her knees inthe clover diligently hunting four-leaved ones. "It isn't his faultthat he's never seen the place. Maybe we could coax him back."
"We don't want to coax him back. It must be our one endeavor to keephim right out there in Saskatoon forever. We must tell him the cellar'sdamp and the roof leaks and the whole place has gone to rack. If wedon't he may come East and take it away from us, and we want to save upand buy it and give it back to Piney and her Mother and Honey."
"What's Honey's real name?" asked Doris irrelevantly. "I never thoughtto ask him. Somehow it does seem to suit him, doesn't it?"
"He wants to study electrical engineering or else be a rancher," Kitsaid. "I never asked him what his real name is. You're awfullyinquisitive, Dorrie."
"What do all boys see in ranches, I wonder. Back at the Cove, OtisPhelps always wanted to be a cowboy and he's got to be a lawyer, hisfather says."
"Maybe he'll escape West some day and be whatever he likes. I think oneof the very worst things in life is to have to be something you don'twant to be." Kit surveyed her work admiringly. "Of course, in the upsand downs and uncertainties, as Cousin Roxy would remark, we must beprepared for all things, but if you can dig inside of yourself and findout what you're best fitted for, then you ought to aim everything atthat mark. If Honey wants to be an electrical engineer, he ought to getbooks now, and swallow them whole, and if he wants to be a rancher, heought to go West--"
A voice came from midair apparently, overhead on the woodshed roof whichHoney was patching with waterproof paint and tar. It was a mild andcheerful voice and showed plainly that Honey was personally interestedin the conversation.
"I can't go West just now, Mother needs me; but I'm going as soon as Ican."
The three girls stared up at him with laughing faces.
"Honey Hancock," exclaimed Doris, "why didn't you sing out to usbefore?"
"Wanted to hear what you had to say," said Honey simply. "Thought maybeI'd get some good advice. And my first name's Guilford. The wholething's Guilford Trowbridge Hancock. I'm named for my grandfather.Piney called me Honey when I was a little shaver, so I suppose I'll bethat all my life."
"Piney and Honey," repeated Helen musingly, "when you're reallyProserpine and Guilford. Nicknames are queer, aren't they? I think thatbabies should all be called pet names till they're old enough to choosetheir own. Still Guilford's a good name. It's a name to grow up to,Honey. You ought to be stout and dignified, don't you know, like Mr.Pickwick."
"Guess I don't know him, do I?" asked Honey. "Piney wants to besomething too, but girls can't do that. She wants to be a builder andlook after land. She wants to go to the State Agricultural College too,and take the forestry course. Do you know what she does? She read someplace that the chestnut trees were dying out, so she takes a pocketfulof sound chestnuts with her whenever she goes out for a walk in thewoods, and every once in a while she sticks her finger in the ground andplants a chestnut. What do you think of that?"
Kit drew in a deep breath.
"I think she's wonderful. We'll do that too. And acorns and walnuts. Idon't see why she can't go to the State College if she likes, or why shecan't take the forestry course. It isn't whether you're a boy or a girlthat matters in such things. It's just whether you can do the work thatcounts."
"She can shut her eyes and walk through the woods and tell the name ofevery tree just by feeling its leaves."
Jean appeared on the back porch and called down to them to come up andwash for dinner. This noon-time wash-up was really a function after onehad been working and grubbing in the garden all the morning. Honeywould bring in a fresh pail of well water first. Some day Kit intendeddemanding water piped into the house from Mr. McRae, but now they usedthe well.
Just as Honey came into the summer kitchen with the pail of water, EllaLou's white nose showed outside the door by the hitching post and CousinRoxana's voice called to them.
"No, thanks, I can't stop," she called. "I want Betty and Jean."
Mrs. Robbins came downstairs from her husband's room, cool and charmingin her black and white lawn, with her hair piled high on her head, andlittle close curls framing in her face.
"Why, Roxy, come in and have dinner with us," she exclaimed.
"Don't talk to me about things to eat, Betty," answered Cousin Roxanabriskly. "Never had such a set-to in my life. Why, I'm so turned overI can hardly talk. The poor thing, all alone up there on that hill withnothing but woods around her. Enough to make anybody lose heart, Ideclare it is. Get your bonnet right on, Betty. We can't stop foranything. I wouldn't eat dinner with King Solomon and the Queen ofSheba."
"What is it? Please tell us," Jean pleaded, and all three girls crowdedaround the carriage.
"Don't waste time, Jean. Get your hat on. She may be dead by now. It'sthat little Finnish woman up on the Parmelee place where you bought yourchickens. Her husband's only been dead a little while, took sick on theship coming over and died at Ellis Island, I heard. And she's pined andpined with four children on her hands, and this morning she just tied--Oh, my land, I can't talk about it. Do come along. Thank the Lord thewater wasn't very deep in the well and they've got her out. And we callourselves church folks and Christians."
"Had I better take anything with me, Roxy?" asked Mrs. Robbins, hurryingdown the porch steps with a motor cloak thrown around her. "Medicine, doyou think?"
"No, I've got everything. Always keep emergency things on hand. Younever can tell up around here what's going to happen. Bennie Peckhamran a big wooden splinter through his palm the other day, and didn't Ihave to get it out for him? And Hiram stepped square bang on a piece ofglass and cut his foot so he's still going around like oldLimpy-go-fetch-it. Have to be prepared for anything when you live outhere. This morning Hiram stood his fishing pole up against the side ofthe house and the line got loose, and one of my best ducks swallowed thebait. I got it out, though. Go long there, Ella Lou, pick up yourfeet."
Ella Lou started away as if she knew what lay ahead. Jean sat betweenher mother and Cousin Roxana, listening with wide eyes as the latter'stongue rambled on. It was a beautiful day. The air was heavy withfragrance. Bluebirds preened and fluttered on nearly every fence rail,and robins hopped along the meadows, chirping mate calls. In theroadside thickets the swamp apples were all in radiant pink blossom,whole bouquets of rare color, with overhead the white dogwood flowersand wild crab-apple.
"It seems fearful that anyone should want to die a day like this," saidMrs. Robbins. "How old is she, Roxy?"
"Old enough to know better, to my way of thinking, with all thosechildren dependent on her for love and care and upbringing," said Roxanapromptly. "But that's neither here nor there. We mustn't judge anotherbecause we don't know how we'd act in their place. There are fourchildren and her brother. The brother's been around peddlingvegetables, potatoes and apples, but everybody's got all they needaround here, and he didn't have the gumption to drive fourteen miles totown with them. If I'd been his sister, I'd have hitched up and takenthem myself. Men folks are all right in a way and I suppose if theproper one had come along, I'd have married the same as the rest ofwomen folks, but from what I can tell of them at a distance, they'refearful trying and uncertain."
The hill dipped into a deep valley mottled with cloud shadows. Whenthey came in sight of the old Parmelee place, there were the fourchildren grouped forlorn
ly around the barn door as if the presence oftragedy at the house had frightened them away from it. Cousin Roxywaved to them and smiled.
"Come here," she called. "Yes, that tallest boy. 'Most twelve, aren'tyou, son? Old enough to hitch a horse. What's your name?"
"Yahn," answered the boy shyly.
"Yahn? Guess that's Johnnie in plain American, isn't it?" She jumpedto the ground as nimbly as any girl, and handed him the hitch rope."Doctor got over yet?"
Johnnie shook his head sadly, and the youngest girl broke suddenly intofrantic, half-stifled sobbing.
"There's your work cut out for you, Jean," Roxana said briskly. "Youamuse these children while your Mother and I go into the house."
So Jean took the three youngest for a walk over into the woods, and toldthem stories until the frightened, blank look left their eyes and theyclung around her confidingly. Yahn and Maryanna, Peter and Rika. FromYahn, who could speak a little English, she found out that the familyhad only been in the wonderful new land a year, that their mother hadbeen sad for weeks, and would never smile.
"She says she don't know nobody and nobody want to know her. Too manywoods all around, too."
"Never mind, she's going to know everyone now," Jean promised hopefully.
Over in the house Cousin Roxy was promising about the same thing to thediscouraged little Finnish settler. Weak and listless, she lay on thebed in the room. A morning glory vine rambled up the window casing, andframed in a view of the orchard in full bloom. Pink and white petalsdrifted from their boughs like fairy snow. Mrs. Robbins looked at themwistfully and remorsefully. She had only lost in worldly goods. Thiswoman had lost husband and hope and happiness, and the old well back inthe orchard had been her solution of life's problem. If little Yahn hadnot seen her fall into it, she would have been dead now. When her eyesopened, and Cousin Roxy questioned her, she only shook her head, andwhispered: "Too tired."
"Upon my heart, Betty, I think I'll just bundle her up and take her homewith me for a while to rest and feed up, and you can take a couple ofthe children down with you. Maybe Johnnie and the other boy could stayhere with the uncle. Anyway, we'll pull her through."
When the old doctor came he agreed it was the very best thing to do.The Finnish brother had stood helplessly around in the kitchen, gettinghot water ready when he was told to and eyeing the form on the bed withperplexity.
"She haf plenty to eat," he kept saying, until Cousin Roxana took him bythe shoulder and almost shook him.
"Don't be so silly," she exclaimed. "Man can not live by bread alone,and neither can a woman. She needs to be heartened up once in a while.And put a cover on your old well."
Helen, Kit, and Doris were all watching for the return, and when Jeanhanded them out Maryanna and Rika, the two little Finns, Kit gasped.
"It's our first chance at what Mother's been telling us about," Jeandeclared, flushed and enthusiastic, as she turned her two charges out toplay with Doris. "It doesn't matter whether your neighbor happens to bea Finn or a Feejee. He's your neighbor and it won't do to let him or hissister take tumbles into old wells because they're strangers in astrange land."