XXX
GOOD-BY, SUNNYBROOK
Will Melville drove up to the window and, tossing a letter intoRebecca's lap, went off to the barn on an errand.
"Sister 's no worse, then," sighed Aurelia gratefully, "or Jane wouldhave telegraphed. See what she says."
Rebecca opened the envelope and read in one flash of an eye the wholebrief page:--
Your aunt Miranda passed away an hour ago. Come at once, if your mother is out of danger. I shall not have the funeral till you are here. She died very suddenly and without any pain. Oh, Rebecca! I long for you so!
Aunt Jane.
The force of habit was too strong, and even in the hour of death Janehad remembered that a telegram was twenty-five cents, and that Aureliawould have to pay half a dollar for its delivery.
Rebecca burst into a passion of tears as she cried, "Poor, poor auntMiranda! She is gone without taking a bit of comfort in life, and Icouldn't say good-by to her! Poor lonely aunt Jane! What can I do,mother? I feel torn in two, between you and the brick house."
"You must go this very instant," said Aurelia; starting from herpillows. "If I was to die while you were away, I would say the verysame thing. Your aunts have done everything in the world for you,--morethan I've ever been able to do,--and it is your turn to pay back someo' their kindness and show your gratitude. The doctor says I've turnedthe corner and I feel I have. Jenny can make out somehow, if Hannah'llcome over once a day."
"But, mother, I CAN'T go! Who'll turn you in bed?" exclaimed Rebecca,walking the floor and wringing her hands distractedly.
"It don't make any difference if I don't get turned," replied Aureliastoically. "If a woman of my age and the mother of a family hasn't gotsense enough not to slip off haymows, she'd ought to suffer. Go put onyour black dress and pack your bag. I'd give a good deal if I was ableto go to my sister's funeral and prove that I've forgotten and forgivenall she said when I was married. Her acts were softer 'n her words,Mirandy's were, and she's made up to you for all she ever sinnedagainst me 'n' your father! And oh, Rebecca," she continued withquivering voice, "I remember so well when we were little girls togetherand she took such pride in curling my hair; and another time, when wewere grown up, she lent me her best blue muslin: it was when yourfather had asked me to lead the grand march with him at the Christmasdance, and I found out afterwards she thought he'd intended to ask her!"
Here Aurelia broke down and wept bitterly; for the recollection of thepast had softened her heart and brought the comforting tears even moreeffectually than the news of her sister's death.
There was only an hour for preparation. Will would drive Rebecca toTemperance and send Jenny back from school. He volunteered also toengage a woman to sleep at the farm in case Mrs. Randall should beworse at any time in the night.
Rebecca flew down over the hill to get a last pail of spring water, andas she lifted the bucket from the crystal depths and looked out overthe glowing beauty of the autumn landscape, she saw a company ofsurveyors with their instruments making calculations and laying linesthat apparently crossed Sunnybrook at the favorite spot where MirrorPool lay clear and placid, the yellow leaves on its surface no yellowerthan its sparkling sands.
She caught her breath. "The time has come!" she thought. "I am sayinggood-by to Sunnybrook, and the golden gates that almost swung togetherthat last day in Wareham will close forever now. Good-by, dear brookand hills and meadows; you are going to see life too, so we must behopeful and say to one another:--
"'Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be.'"
Will Melville had seen the surveyors too, and had heard in theTemperance post-office that morning the probable sum that Mrs. Randallwould receive from the railway company. He was in good spirits at hisown improved prospects, for his farm was so placed that its value couldbe only increased by the new road; he was also relieved in mind thathis wife's family would no longer be in dire poverty directly at hisdoorstep, so to speak. John could now be hurried forward and forcedinto the position of head of the family several years sooner than hadbeen anticipated, so Hannah's husband was obliged to exercise greatself-control or he would have whistled while he was driving Rebecca tothe Temperance station. He could not understand her sad face or thetears that rolled silently down her cheeks from time to time; forHannah had always represented her aunt Miranda as an irascible,parsimonious old woman, who would be no loss to the world whenever sheshould elect to disappear from it.
"Cheer up, Becky!" he said, as he left her at the depot. "You'll findyour mother sitting up when you come back, and the next thing you knowthe whole family'll be moving to some nice little house wherever yourwork is. Things will never be so bad again as they have been this lastyear; that's what Hannah and I think;" and he drove away to tell hiswife the news.
Adam Ladd was in the station and came up to Rebecca instantly, as sheentered the door looking very unlike her bright self.
"The Princess is sad this morning," he said, taking her hand. "Aladdinmust rub the magic lamp; then the slave will appear, and these tears bedried in a trice."
He spoke lightly, for he thought her trouble was something connectedwith affairs at Sunnybrook, and that he could soon bring the smiles bytelling her that the farm was sold and that her mother was to receive ahandsome price in return. He meant to remind her, too, that though shemust leave the home of her youth, it was too remote a place to be aproper dwelling either for herself or for her lonely mother and thethree younger children. He could hear her say as plainly as if it wereyesterday, "I don't think one ever forgets the spot where one lived asa child." He could see the quaint little figure sitting on the piazzaat North Riverboro and watch it disappear in the lilac bushes when hegave the memorable order for three hundred cakes of Rose-Red andSnow-White soap.
A word or two soon told him that her grief was of another sort, and hermood was so absent, so sensitive and tearful, that he could only assureher of his sympathy and beg that he might come soon to the brick houseto see with his own eyes how she was faring.
Adam thought, when he had put her on the train and taken his leave,that Rebecca was, in her sad dignity and gravity, more beautiful thanhe had ever seen her,--all-beautiful and all-womanly. But in thatmoment's speech with her he had looked into her eyes and they werestill those of a child; there was no knowledge of the world in theirshining depths, no experience of men or women, no passion, norcomprehension of it. He turned from the little country station to walkin the woods by the wayside until his own train should be leaving, andfrom time to time he threw himself under a tree to think and dream andlook at the glory of the foliage. He had brought a new copy of TheArabian Nights for Rebecca, wishing to replace the well-worn old onethat had been the delight of her girlhood; but meeting her at such aninauspicious time, he had absently carried it away with him. He turnedthe pages idly until he came to the story of Aladdin and the WonderfulLamp, and presently, in spite of his thirty-four years, the old taleheld him spellbound as it did in the days when he first read it as aboy. But there were certain paragraphs that especially caught his eyeand arrested his attention,--paragraphs that he read and reread,finding in them he knew not what secret delight and significance. Thesewere the quaintly turned phrases describing the effect on the once poorAladdin of his wonderful riches, and those descanting upon the beautyand charm of the Sultan's daughter, the Princess Badroulboudour:--
_Not only those who knew Aladdin when he played in the streets like avagabond did not know him again; those who had seen him but a littlewhile before hardly knew him, so much were his features altered; suchwere the effects of the lamp, as to procure by degrees to those whopossessed it, perfections agreeable to the rank the right use of itadvanced them to._
_The Princess was the most beautiful brunette in the world; her eyeswere large, lively, and sparkling; her looks sweet and modest; her nosewas of a just proportion and without a fault; her mouth small, her lipsof a vermilion red, and charmingly agreeable symmetry; in a word, allthe features of her f
ace were perfectly regular. It is not thereforesurprising that Aladdin, who had never seen, and was a stranger to, somany charms, was dazzled. With all these perfections the Princess hadso delicate a shape, so majestic an air, that the sight of her wassufficient to inspire respect._
"_Adorable Princess," said Aladdin to her, accosting her, and salutingher respectfully, "if I have the misfortune to have displeased you bymy boldness in aspiring to the possession of so lovely a creature, Imust tell you that you ought to blame your bright eyes and charms, notme._"
_"Prince," answered the Princess, "it is enough for me to have seenyou, to tell you that I obey without reluctance."_