CHAPTER XVIII
IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY
WHEN Susan, looking out of the window, saw the two whom she had leftbehind coming across the grass, she knew instantly.
"They've settled it somehow," she exclaimed in supremest joy, andwhirled to whisk the bacon off the stove.
"Auntie," said Jane, from outside the window, the minute after, "I amjust dumb. I don't believe I'll ever be able to lift up my head in lifeagain."
"Auntie," said Lorenzo, over her shoulder, "she's inherited herfortune."
Susan gave a scream. "Oh, good mercy!"
"Yes, dear," said her niece, now in the doorway, "only I can't believeit. I think that it's a dream."
"You see she still isn't able to rise to the proper heights of trust,"laughed her lover, also now in the doorway, "but I have hopes of yetteaching her to believe what she believes."
"Come straight in and help me set all this on the table, so that I canlisten with a free mind." Susan's appeal was pathetic in the extreme."Where _did_ she get it, anyhow?"
"Oh, Auntie, it's the most wonderful thing you ever heard of." Jane tookup the coffee-pot and led the way.
"I did it all, except I didn't provide the money," said Lorenzo, and thenext minute they were all seated, and he could tell the whole story.
Susan didn't scream. She sat still, a bit of toast in her hand,listening breathlessly. When Lorenzo had finished, "Oh, that newreligion!" she murmured in an awed voice, and then, "Nothing like thisever happened in this town before, I know."
"I'm more bewildered over it's being there for me and my not being ableto believe than I am by the money," said Jane. "Oh, Auntie, what alesson, what a lesson!"
"You would limit yourself, you see," said Lorenzo; "you wouldn'tbelieve."
"How could I ever imagine such a thing?"
"You didn't have to imagine,--you only had to expect."
"You laid limits, you see," said Susan, suddenly beginning to pour outthe coffee, and pouring with a glad dash that swept over cup and saucertogether. "I expect if God hadn't been patient--like Mr. Rath--He couldhave very well hid that will forever. There may be a lot of such goingson in the world, for all we know. My goodness, suppose I'd been likeMatilda and not have had old Mrs. Croft around for one minute,--it makesme ill to think of it! It's a lesson for me, too."
"Life is all lessons," said Jane. "Dear me, think of Aunt Matilda'ssurprise!"
"Think of it! Good mercy, how can I wait to tell her!" Susan's wholeface beamed. "I don't mind a bit her coming back now. That shows thegood of making that declaration about her. Those declarations are agreat thing. I've told myself Matilda was coming back in a perfectlyright way so many times that now, however she came back, I'd be positiveit was perfectly right."
"Ah, Auntie," said Jane, "you've got hold of another great truth. Everyone seems quicker than me."
"Well, you started us at it, anyhow," said Susan kindly. "Oh my, but I'mhappy! Why, I believe I'm really in a hurry now for Matilda to comeback, just so I can tell her. Think of that--me really and truly anxiousto see Matilda again! My, you Sunshine Jane, you--what a lot ofdifference you've made in me."
"When is your aunt coming?" Lorenzo asked Jane.
"She went for three weeks," said Jane; "it will be three weeks nextThursday."
"Goodness, only three weeks, and it seems like three years?" observedSusan. "What a lot has happened! There's Jane--and her religion--and meup and well--and old Mrs. Croft here and gone--and you, Mr. Rath,--andthen you and Jane--and now this money."
"I can't believe any of it," said Jane; "I try, but I just can't. Iguess I'm hopelessly limited. I'm too bewildered, I--"
"I'll tell you what ails you," said her aunt warmly. "It's that you'vespread yourself too much; you've given such a lot away everywhere thatyou've got to just stop and let the tide run backwards into you yourselffor a while. It's nature. Nature and the new religion combined."
"I feel overwhelmed by the coming-back tide then," said Jane; "I don'tdeserve it all."
Her aunt started to reply, but was stopped by a sudden loud bangoutside.
"Goodness, what's that?" she exclaimed.
"Auto tire burst, I think. I'll go and see," said Lorenzo, jumping upand going out.
"Jane," said Susan solemnly, "that's a young man in a million. Think ofhis finding that will. My, but he'll make a good husband!"
"I just can't realize any of it," said her niece. She seemed to betotally unequal to any other view of her present situation.
"Well, you'd better realize it," said her aunt, "because it's comingright along. What will Mrs. Mead say, I wonder! Dear me, how every onewill wish they'd tried to get up a plane or two by having old Mrs. Croftto visit them. If that poor old thing could only come back, the wholetown would just adore to have her on a visit now, and every one wouldsit up all night and listen to _Captain Jinks_ so cheerfully. She usedto sing _Rally round the flag, boys_ too,--I forgot that. She used tosing it when she heard the roosters begin to crow. But nobody would haveminded, whatever she sang now."
"Oh, there's--" Jane hesitated and blushed.
Lorenzo stood in the door. "It wasn't a burst tire," he explainedbriefly; "it's a new kind of siren they're using. It's friends from outof town, Mr. and Mrs. Beamer."
"They've got the wrong house," said Susan. "I don't know any Beamers."
"They asked for Mrs. Ralston."
"Then they're selling something, grape-wine or hand-knit lace, orsomething. I don't want to see 'em."
"I'll go," said Jane. And went at once. In the pretty, changedsitting-room she found the visitors--Mrs. Beamer tall and of largebuild, with a handsome motor-costume. Mr. Beamer also large, very wiry,and with rampant gray hair. Mrs. Beamer was Matilda.
But what a changed Matilda! "Well, Jane," coming forward and holding outboth hands, "did you and Susan feel it?"
Jane staggered and laid hold of a chair. "Feel--" she stammered--"feelwhat? Oh, Aunt Matilda!"
"Did you feel the good I've been doing you? How's my sister?"
"She--oh, she's all right."
"Up and dressed?"
"Yes."
"There, you see!" Matilda turned to Mr. Beamer, triumph radiating herwhole figure. "It worked,--oh, Matthew, it worked." Then she turned backto Jane. "Get up right off, didn't she? Same day I left?"
"Y--yes." Jane clung more tightly to the chair. She began to doubt theground beneath her feet.
"Perfectly well, strong, able-bodied,--isn't she?"
"Yes."
"You see?--" to Mr. Beamer. Then, "Oh, it's too splendid! I s'pose thecat's stopped snooping, too, hasn't he?"
"Y--yes."
"House all clean? Garden growing fine?"--
"Yes, indeed."
"And you, Jane, how are you?"
"Oh, I'm all right. I--I've become engaged."
"You hear that, Matthew? And the town?"
"Everybody's well."
"Did you ever in all your life!"
"Oh, old Mrs. Croft died!"
"Did she indeed. Katie happy?--"
"Katie was away. She died here."
"How nice! I expect she enjoyed every minute of it. Oh, Jane, you don'tknow how happy your every word is making me!"
"Shan't I call auntie?"
"No, we'll go out and have breakfast with you. We had one breakfast soas to make it easy for you to have us have it with you."
"Do come right out to the table." Jane led the way. "I can't think whatAunt Susan will say!"
"Never mind what she says--it'll be just right. Everything always is.Come, Matthew;" then Mrs. Matilda Beamer led off, and Mr. Matthew Beamerfollowed, smiling cheerfully. He seemed to be a very cheerful man.
"Perhaps I'd better go first and just prepare auntie," Jane suggestedhastily.
"No need. She always yelled when she saw me suddenly, and this time itwill be for joy. Life is going to be all joy for Susan now."
Jane turned the button of the dining-room door. "Auntie Susan, it's AuntMatil
da and Mr. Beamer."
Susan justified her sister's views by forthwith giving the yell of herwhole life. "Ma--tilda!--And Mr. Beamer!--"
Matilda went up to her, seized her, gave her a good hug and a real kiss."I've made lots of mistakes," she said, with a big tear in each eye,"but somehow it was written that I should be allowed to make them right.Susan, this is Matthew. Sit down, Matthew. Sit down, every one."
Lorenzo hastily pushed up chairs, and they all sat down.
"I'll get some more dishes," Jane exclaimed, hurrying into the pantry.
"Matilda!" Susan looked almost ready to faint. "Are you--are you--"
"I'm married," said Matilda. "I don't know what I've ever done todeserve it, but I'm married. It's the most beautiful romance that everwas in the world, and we've come to tell you all about it."
"Oh, do!" Susan exclaimed. "Jane, come back! Think of another romance,and Matilda, too! Well, what next!"
Matilda smiled quite radiantly. "We met on the train the day I lefthere," she began; "it was right off. He took me out on the back platformof the car and opened my eyes to life, and we just suited, didn't we,Matthew?"
"Tell it all," said Mr. Beamer; "tell the beginning."
"Yes," said his wife, "I will, I'll tell it all. It's so splendid itwould be a pity to skip anything. You see, he looked at me and--well,really, Matthew, I think you'd better tell the first part."
"No, you tell," said Mr. Beamer.
"No, Matthew, you tell it, and I'll help anywhere I can."
"Well," said her husband, "then I'll begin with saying, Sister Susan,Niece Jane, and young man, that I'd better tell you what I am, first ofall, because I'm the only one of the kind in the world so far as I know.You see, one of those Bible miracles, that no one can seem to lay holdof any more, got into me, and I'm the result."
"That is all true," interposed Matilda, her plain face quitemetamorphosed, as she looked at her husband and then at them. "Everyword he says is true, and it's all miracles."
"You see I was just a plain, ordinary man, with a nice business and agood disposition," Mr. Beamer went on, "and I did get so awful tired ofthings as they were going, and I used to wish everything was different,and then one day, all of a God-blessed sudden, it came over me, with ashock like lightning, that wanting things different is the first step togetting 'em different, and that if you've got the brain to see what'slacking, you've got the body to turn to and help fill up the hole. Ididn't get religion out of a book; I got it just like that. I wassitting in a rocking-chair with a palm-leaf fan, and I got up and putthe fan on the shelf and knew I was all made new. The very next day Iread about a doctor as set up some nurses--"
"Oh, my goodness," Susan cried, "hear that, Jane!"
"--as was to spread sunshine, and I thought that was a good idea, only Icouldn't see a place in it for me, 'cause I wasn't young and wasn't nogirl to go 'round spreading nothing. I looked upon it that being a man,my business wasn't to spread things--a man's business is to get thestuff to spread; so I figured out that being as I was a man, I couldmaybe help make the sunshine, and then any one could slather it on thatpleased. So I began to look about for some sunshine to make, and thehandiest field I see was folks with hard lines around their mouths;there's a powerful lot of them around, you know,--ain't nothin' so hardto break up in life as hard lines around mouths. So I set out to plowfields of hard lines." He paused. It was a picture, a picture painted inheavenly colors to see his face at the moment, full of its ownheartfelt, tried, and true enthusiasm, and the faces of those of hisfour listeners, each touched with the spiritual light shed by recentevents over his or her own individual path.
"Do go on," Jane whispered softly.
"Well, whenever I'd see a hard man sitting alone, I'd go up to him andhold out my hand and say, 'Well, I ain't laid eyes on you, I don't knowwhen!' That wasn't no lie, and 'most always we'd get a-talking. Then I'dsay, 'I'm a harmless crank that likes to go round making friends, and Itook a fancy to you right off.' It was wonderful all I come up against.Why, the hardest folks was just aching to sit down and explain that theywasn't hard at all. It was the most interesting thing I ever got holdof. I got arrested once for a gold-brick man, and it give me a finechance at the jailers and some of the men in prison. Pretty sooneverything that turned up seemed to just come along to give me a chanceto make a little sunshine. Pretty soon life was all nothing but sunshinechances. I got hold of some books that showed me that lots of otherswere trying some similar games, and all working hard, and I picked outone book that 'most anybody could understand, and I used to carry it toread from. Would you believe that I wore out that book about a hundredtimes and sold it more'n five hundred times and give it away 'most athousand times. I got where hard lines was just play to me. I've now gotwhere they're flowers in my garden. I just fly at 'em. If they don'tgive up to one course, they do to another. I travel about looking for'em. I was on my last trip when I see Matilda sittin' across the aislefrom me, and I said to myself right off, 'What fine lines!' So I wentright over and shook hands with her--"
"He said he feared maybe he'd made a mistake," interrupted his wife,"and I said--God forgive me!--'If you speak to me again, I'll call outto the conductors!'"
"And I said: 'Madam, excuse me, I'm only a harmless crank as is tryingto help folks as is sick or in trouble, and you look like a woman ascould tell me of some I could help, maybe!'"
"Then I thought of you, Susan," said the sister; "you see, I'd beenlooking out of the window, and the view was so pretty, and it kind ofcome over me how awful hard it was to lie in bed--and--and I felt kindof bad, and his face looked kind, and I said: 'Well, sit down. I do knowsomebody sick.'"
"So I set down," went on Mr. Beamer, "and in just a little while she letup like everybody does and told me the whole story, and then I took herout on the back platform and we was swinging 'round curves of mightylovely scenery, and I got out my book and I begin to read aloud to her."
"And I got hold of the idea like mad," said Matilda. "I said right off:'Then Susan's really all well now?' an' he said: 'She's been wellalways,' and I says: 'And my arm's well,' and he said: 'Nothin' ain'tever ailed your arm except your own innard feelings, and they're gonenow,' and then I just put my hands over my face and says: 'Oh, God,forgive me for lots and lots and lots of things.'"
There was another little pause, and then Susan said very low: "And Goddid it."
"And then," said Mr. Beamer, "I says to her: 'Now, if you want to seehow true everything I've been saying is, we'll just put this to apractical proof.' I'd noticed a woman with lines back there in the carslapping two sleepy children, and I told Matilda we'd each take a childfor an hour and give her lines a chance to smooth out a little, and thenwe'd come back on the platform and talk it over."
"So we did it," said Matilda, "and when I took the baby back to thewoman, she burst out crying and said she'd tried to hold in all day andjust couldn't any longer, cause her mother was sick and had been sick solong, and she couldn't leave the children to go to her 'cause thechildren was the neighbor's and left with her to board, and she'd neverliked children and only took 'em 'cause her mother needed the money."
"Showing," interrupted Mr. Beamer, "how we'd misjudged her and her hardlines, which is another feature of my crusade, as lots don't thinkenough about."
"But what come next was just like a story, too," Matilda said. "When Igot to Mrs. Camp's at last, I found Mrs. Camp so changed that if Ihadn't met Matthew on the train and got something to hold on to, Icouldn't have stayed in the house an hour."
"Why, what was the matter with Mrs. Camp?" Susan asked anxiously.
"Why, all Mrs. Camp's family is married now, and it seems she was solonely she's turned into a social settler or some such thing, and hernice, quiet house where I'd looked to rest was one swarm of Italianslearning English and girls learning sewing and women asking advice andsuch a chaos of Bedlam you never dreamed. If it hadn't been for my justhaving got religion that way, I'd have turned around and come straightback home. But as i
t was, I didn't have time to do anything but get intomy blue print and take hold right with her and get some order intothings in general."
"Oh, Aunt Matilda!" Jane's face was radiant.
"Afternoons Matthew came with an auto, and he'd take me off with theback seat full of children, and we'd hunt hard lines anywhere theylooked likely."
"And then, of course, we soon got married," said Mr. Beamer.
"Yes, and that's all," said Matilda. "_Now did you ever?_"
There was a sudden hush, until finally Susan said, through tears: "Oh,Matilda,--it's like something in heaven's got loose and fell right downover us, isn't it?"
"I think it's all too wonderful," said Jane.
"Of course there really is something out of heaven spread over earthevery day," said Lorenzo, low, and very reverently; "only people don'tsee it."
"But nowadays, everybody's beginning to recognize it," Jane murmured.
"It's like it says in one of my books," said Mr. Beamer. "God's areservoir and we're all pipes, just as soon as we're willing to bepipes, and then He pours through us according to how willing we are,because you're big or little just according to how willing you are."
"Let us all be very willing," said Jane.
"Oh, Jane," said Susan, "that sounds like a blessing to ask at thetable. Let's ask a blessing after this and just say: 'Let us all be verywilling!'"
"Amen," said Lorenzo.