Sunshine Jane Read online

  CHAPTER II

  EVERYBODY GETS THERE

  JANE sat on the rear seat with old Mr. Cattermole, who was coming hometo his daughter, Mrs. Mead.

  "Ever been here before?" old Mr. Cattermole asked her.

  "No, never."

  "Hey?"

  "No, never."

  "Once?"

  "Never."

  "What?"

  "Never!"

  "I'll tell you what it is," said Mr. Cattermole, beaming benevolently,"it's the jolting. It keeps me from hearing what you say."

  Jane nodded, smiling.

  But old Mr. Cattermole wasn't long inconvenienced by the jolting.

  "Who you going to stop with?" he asked next.

  "Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."

  "Who?"

  "Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."

  "Who? I don't hear you."

  "Miss Drew."

  "The Crews?--There ain't no such people in town."

  "Miss Drew!" Jane became slightly crimson.

  "I'll tell you," said Mr. Cattermole, "we'll wait. I can't hear. ReallyI can't."

  The next minute they arrived at Mrs. Cowmull's, since she lived in thefirst house on the street. Lorenzo Rath, the artist, who had beensitting on the middle seat with Madeleine, now pressed her hand, twistedabout and shook Jane's, nodded to old Mr. Cattermole, leaned forward anddragged his suit-case from under the seat, and then wriggled out, overtwo boxes and under a flapping curtain, and down on to the sidewalk.Mrs. Cowmull was standing on the porch, trying to look hospitable andunconscious at the same time. "Here," said the stage driver, suddenlydelivering Lorenzo's trunk on to the top of his head,--"and here's thelampshade and the codfish,--they get down here, too."

  Lorenzo couldn't help laughing. "Au revoir," he cried, waving thelampshade as the steps began to move.

  "We'll meet again soon," Madeleine cried, her face full of bright color.

  "Yes, of course."

  Then they were off.

  "Seemed a nice young feller," said old Mr. Cattermole to Jane.

  "Yes." She tried to speak loudly.

  "Hey!"

  "Yes."

  "I'll tell you," said old Mr. Cattermole benevolently, "you come and seemy granddaughter Emily, and then we'll talk. My granddaughter's a greatstudent. You'll like her. She's full of the new ideas and new books andall that. We're very proud of her. Only she don't get married."

  Then the stage stopped, and Mrs. Mead came running out. "Oh, Father, didyou buy the new magazines,--on the train, you know?"

  Old Mr. Cattermole was descending backwards with the care of a cat in anapple-tree. "It's my daughter," he said to Jane. "I can always hear herbecause she speaks so plain. Yes, Emma, it _was_ dusty, very dusty."

  "This lawn-sprinkler is your's, ain't it?" said the stage driver,jerking it off the roof into Mrs. Mead's arms. "Here's his bag, too."

  And then they went on again. Madeleine now had space to turn about."You'll come and see me?" she asked Jane earnestly; "it'll be so nice.We're both strangers here."

  "I'll try," Jane answered, "but I shall be closely tied to the house.Aunt Susan is an invalid, you see. I'll not only have all the work, butif I go out, that poor sick woman will be left helpless and aloneup-stairs."

  "Perhaps I can come and see you, then," said Madeleine. "I'll have thetime to come, if you'll have the time to see me."

  "I don't know anything about what my life will be," said Jane. "As Itold you on the train, I've only seen my aunts once in my life and thatwas fifteen years ago. But I should think that you could come and seeus. I should think that a little company would do Aunt Susan a lot ofgood. I'm sure that it would, in fact. But she may not like to seestrangers. I really don't know a thing about it. I'm all in the dark."

  "I'll come and ask if I may come," said Madeleine brightly. "If she seesme, maybe she'll like me. Most everybody does." She laughed.

  "I'm sure of that," Jane said, laughing, too. Then the stage stopped atMiss Debby Vane's, and Miss Debby came flying down to embrace hercousin. "Thanks be to God that you're here safe, my dear. These awfulstorms at sea have just about frightened me to death."

  "But I was on land, Aunt Deborah." Madeleine, in getting down, hadgotten into a warm embrace at the same time.

  "I know, dear, I know. But one can't remember that all the time--canone?" Miss Debby was kissing her over and over.

  "Your step-ladder. Look out!" cried the stage driver, and they hadbarely time to jump from under.

  Then Madeleine reached up and clasped Jane's hand. "We shall befriends," she said earnestly; "I've never met any one whom I've likedquite in the same way that I like you. Do let us see all that we can ofone another."

  "_I_ want to, I know," Jane answered.

  The stage driver was already remounting his seat.

  "Au revoir," Madeleine cried, just as Lorenzo had done.

  "Just for a little," Jane called back, and then she was alone in thestage, rattling down the long, green-arched street to its furthest end.

  "There goes the stage," Katie Croft called out to her mother-in-law inthe next room. "Now Miss Drew'll have her niece and be able to get awayfor a little rest."

  "If it was a daughter-in-law, she couldn't, maybe," said a voice fromthe next room; "the rest is going to be poor, sweet Susan Ralston's,anyhow. Oh, my Susan Ralston, my dear, sweet Susan Ralston, my lovingSusan Ralston, where I used to go and call!"

  "Why, Mother, you haven't so much as thought of Mrs. Ralston for years."Katie's voice was very sharp.

  "Nobody knows what I think of," wailed the voice from the other room."My thoughts is music. They fly and sing all night. They sing Caw, Caw,and they fly like feathers."

  Katie Croft walked over and shut the door with a bang. Katie was almostbeside herself.

  The stage now drew up before the Ralston house.

  Miss Matilda quitted the window, where she had stood watching for anhour, and went to the gate. Her emotions were quite tumultuous--for her.Single-handed she had tended her sister for five years, and now she wasgoing to have a rest. She had had very trying symptoms, and the doctorhad advised a rest,--three weeks of freedom, night and day. She wasgoing away on a real holiday, going back to the place where she hadtaught school before the summons had come to cherish, love, and protecther only sister, who was not strong and had property. It seemed like adream,--a wild, lively, and joyful dream. She almost smiled as shethought of what was at hand.

  Jane descended, her small trunk came bang down beside her in the sameinstant, and the driver was paid and drove off. The aunt and niece thenturned to go into the house.

  "Well, and so it's you!" Matilda's tone and glance were slightlyinquisitorial, and more than slightly dictatorial. "I'm glad to seeyou're strong. You'll need be. She's an awful care. She ain't up muchnow. Isn't up at all sometimes for weeks. Sleeps considerable. Take offyour hat and coat and hang them there. That's the place where theybelong."

  Jane obeyed without saying anything. But her smile spoke for her.

  "Hungry?" inquired Matilda.

  "A little."

  "I surmised you would be and waited supper. Thought you'd see how Ifixed hers then. She's eating very little. Less and less all the time.There's a garden to weed, too. Awful inconvenient out there across twostiles. But she won't give it up. She pays me to tend it, or I'd let thedandelions root it out in short order. But I tend it."

  They had gone into the kitchen, where a kettle stewed feebly over ahalf-dead fire. "Sit down," said Matilda. "I'll fix her supper first.She takes her tea cold, so I save it from morning and heat it up with alittle boiling water, _so_. Then there's this bit of fish I saved fromday before yesterday, and I cut a piece of bread. No butter, because herstomach's delicate. You'll see that she'll hardly eat this. Watch now."

  Jane sat and watched, still smiling.

  "Mr. Rath, the artist, came down in the stage with you, didn't he?" MissMatilda went on. "What kind of a young man was he? Somebody'll tell you,so it might as well be me, what's bro
ught him here. Mrs. Cowmull'strying to marry off her niece, Emily Mead. There aren't any men in town,so she advertised. She gave it out that she wanted a boarder, buteverybody see through that. That's what marriage has come to these days,catching men to board 'em and then marrying them when they're thinkingof something else. I thank Heaven I ain't had nothing to do with anymarriage. They're a bad business. There, that's your supper."

  Jane started slightly. Her own cold fish and lukewarm tea sat beforeher. "Shan't I take Aunt Susan's up first?" she asked, recollecting thatshe still had some lunch in her bag, and that Matilda would be leavingearly in the morning.

  "No need. She likes things cold. You ought to see her face if she getsanything boiling in her mouth. It's no use to give her nothing hot.You'd think it was a snake. I give it up the third time she burnt her."

  "But I ought to go up and see her, I think; she hasn't seen me since Iwas such a little girl."

  "No need. You go ahead and enjoy your supper without bothering over her.She knows you're here, and she isn't one that's interested in things.She'll read an old shelf paper for hours, but carry her up a new paperand like as not when you get to the bed with it, you'll find her asleep.She sleeps a lot."

  Jane--thus urged--picked the chilled fish with a fork and considered.

  "I'll show you about the house after you've done eating," the auntcontinued presently; "it's easy taken care of, for I keep it all shutup. Just Susan's room and mine and the kitchen is open. The neighborswon't bother you, for I give them to understand long ago as I wasn't onewith time to waste. There isn't any one in the place that a woman withany sense would want to bother with, anyhow."

  "I don't fancy that I'll have time to be lonesome," smiled Jane, bravelyswallowing some tea.

  "You'd have if it wasn't for the garden. I don't know whatever in theworld makes Susan set such store by that garden. She will have it thatit shall be kept up in memory of her husband, and you never saw suchweeds. I've often sat down backwards when one come up--often."

  "I can't see it at all," with a glance out of the window.

  "You can't from here. And it's got to be watered, and she counts everypot full of water from her bed. She can hear me pumping. The birds digup the seeds as fast as I can plant 'em, and I never saw no sense inslaving in the sun over what you can buy in the shade any day.--Are youdone?"

  "Yes, I'm done."

  "Then come on."

  "Can I spread the tray?"

  "Tray! She doesn't have a tray. What should I fuss with a tray for, whenI've got two hands?"

  Jane rose and stood by the table in silence, watching the cup filledfrom the standing teapot and the plate ornamented with a lonely bit offish and a slice of bread. "Don't you butter the bread?"

  "She's in bed so much she mustn't have rich food," Matilda answered;"there, now it's ready. Come on."

  "Shan't I carry anything?"

  "I can take it, I guess. I've carried it alone for five years; I guess Ican manage it to-night."

  Jane followed up the stairs in silence; Matilda marched ahead with afirm, heavy tread.

  "Shall I knock for you?"

  "I don't know what for. She yells anyway, whenever I come in, whethershe's knocked or not. Just open the door."

  Jane opened the door gently, and they went in together. The room washalf darkened, and only a little sharp nose showed over the top of thebedquilt.

  "Here's your supper," said the affectionate sister, "and here's Jane."

  A shrill cry was followed by two eyes tipping upward beyond the nose."Oh, are you Jane?" There was a lot of pathos in the tone.

  The girl moved quickly to the bedside. "I hope that we're going to bevery happy," she said; "we must love one another very much, you know."

  The invalid hoisted herself on to an elbow and looked towards the platewhich Matilda was holding forth.

  "Oh, my! Fish again!" she wailed.

  Later--on their way back to the kitchen fire--Matilda saidsignificantly: "Most ungrateful person I ever saw, she is. But justdon't notice what she says. It's the only way to get on. I keep her roomtidy and I keep her house clean and I keep her garden weeded. I'mcareful of her money, and she's well fed. I don't know what more any onecould ask, but she ain't satisfied and she ain't always polite, butyou'll only have three weeks of what I've had for five years, so I guessit won't kill you."

  "Oh, I think that I'll be all right," Jane answered cheerfully.

  "The stage is ordered for seven in the morning, and I shall get up athalf-past four," the aunt continued. "You can sleep till five just aswell. I'm going to bed now, and you'd better do the same thing."

  "Yes, I think so," said Jane cheerfully; "good night."