The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary Read online

  CHAPTER NINETEEN - AUNT MARY'S RETURN

  Joshua was at the station to meet his mistress, and Lucinda, full to thebrim with curiosity, sat on the back seat of the carryall.

  Aunt Mary quitted the train with a dignity which was sufficientlyoverpowering to counteract the effect of her bonnet's being somewhat awry.She greeted Joshua with a chill perfunctoriness that was indescribable,and her glance glided completely over Lucinda and faded away in the opencountry on the further side of her.

  Lucinda did not care. Lucinda was of a hardy stock and stormy glancesneither bent nor broke her spirit.

  "I'm glad to see you come back looking so well," she screamed, when AuntMary was in and they were off.

  Aunt Mary raised her eyebrows in a manner that appeared a trifleindignant, and riveted her gaze on the hindquarters of the horse.

  "I thought it was more like heaven myself," she said coldly. "Not thatyour opinion matters any to me, Lucinda."

  Then she leaned forward and poked the driver.

  "Joshua!" she said.

  Joshua jumped in his seat at the asperity of her poke and her tone.

  "What is it?" he said hastily.

  "Jus' 's soon as we get home I want you to take the saw--that little, sharpone, you know--and dock Billy's tail. Cut it off as close as you can; doyou hear?"

  "I hear," was the startled answer.

  "Did you have a good time?" Lucinda had the temerity to ask, after aminute.

  "I guess I could if I tried," the lady replied; "but I'm too tired to trynow."

  "How did you leave Mr. Jack?"

  "I couldn't stay forever, could I?" asked the traveler impatiently. "Ithought that a week was long enough for the first time, anyhow."

  Lucinda subsided and the rest of the drive was taken in silence. When theyreached the house Aunt Mary enveloped everything in one glance of blendedweariness, scorn and contempt, and then made short work of getting to bed,where she slept the luxurious and dreamless sleep of the unjust until latethat afternoon.

  "My, but she's come back a terror!" Lucinda cried to Joshua in a highwhisper when he brought in the trunk. "She looks like nothin' was goin' tobe good enough for her from now on."

  "Nothin' ain't goin' to be good enough for her," said Joshua calmly.

  "What are we goin' to do, then?" asked Lucinda.

  "We'll have enough to do," said Joshua, in a tone that was portentous inthe extreme, and then he placed the trunk in its proper position forunpacking and went away, leaving Lucinda to unpack it.

  Aunt Mary awoke just as the faithful servant was unrolling the green plaidwaist, and the instant that she spoke it was plain that her attitudetoward life in general was become strangely and vigorously changed, andthat for Lucinda the rack was to be newly oiled and freshly racking.

  This attitude was not in any degree altered by the unexpected arrival ofArethusa that evening. Strange tales had reached Arethusa's ears, and shehad flown on the wings of steam and coal dust to see what under the sun itall meant. Aunt Mary was not one bit rejoiced to see her and the glarewhich she directed over the edge of the counterpane bore testimony to thetruth of this statement.

  "Whatever did you come for?" she demanded inhospitably. "Lucinda didn'tsend for you, did she?"

  Arethusa screamed the best face that she could onto her visit, but AuntMary listened with an inattention that was anything but flattering.

  "I don't feel like talkin' over my trip," she said, when she saw herniece's lips cease to move. "Of course I enjoyed myself because I was withJack, but as to what we did an' said you couldn't understand it all if Idid tell you, so what's the use of botherin'."

  Arethusa looked neutral, calm and curious. But Aunt Mary frowned and shookher head.

  "S'long as you're here, though, I suppose you may as well make yourselfuseful," she said a few minutes later. "Come to think of it, there's anerrand I want you to do for me. I want you to go to Boston the very firstthing to-morrow morning an' buy me some cotton."

  Arethusa stared blankly.

  "Well," said the aunt, "if you can't hear, you'd better take myear-trumpet and I'll say it over again."

  "What kind of cotton?" Arethusa yelled.

  "Not _stockin's!_" said Aunt Mary; "Cotton! Cotton! C-O-T-T-O-N! It beatsthe Dutch how deaf everyone is gettin', an' if I had your ears inparticular, Arethusa, I'd certainly hire a carpenter to get at 'em with abit-stalk. Jus's if you didn't know as well as I do how many stockin'sI've got already! I should think you'd quit bein' so heedless, an' useyour commonsense, anyhow. I've found commonsense a very handy thing intalkin' always. Always."

  Arethusa launched herself full tilt into the ear-trumpet.

  "What--kind--of--cotton?" she asked in that key of voice which makes thecrowd pause in a panic.

  Aunt Mary looked disgusted.

  "The Boston kind," she said, nipping her lips.

  Arethusa took a double hitch on her larynx, and tried again.

  "Do you mean thread?"

  Aunt Mary's disgust deepened visibly.

  "If I meant silk I guess I wouldn't say cotton. I might just happen to saysilk. I've been in the habit of saying silk when I meant silk and cottonwhen I meant cotton, for quite a number of years, and I might not havechanged to-day--I might just happen to not have. I might not have--maybe."

  Arethusa withered under this bitter irony.

  "How many spools do you want?" she asked in a meek but piercing howl.

  "I don't care," said Aunt Mary loftily. "I don't care how many--or whatcolor--or what number. I just want some Boston cotton, and I want to seeyou settin' out to get it pretty promptly to-morrow morning."

  "But if you only want some cotton," Arethusa yelled, with a force whichsent crimson waves all over her, "why can't I get it in the village?"

  Aunt Mary shot one look at her niece and the latter felt the concussion.

  "Because--I--want--you--to--get--it--in--Boston," she said, filling the breaksbetween her words with a concentrated essence of acerbity such as even shehad never displayed before. "When I say a thing, I mean it prettygenerally. Quite often--most always. I want that cotton and it's to bebought in Boston. There's a train that goes in at seven-forty-five, and ifyou don't favor the idea of ridin' on it you can take the express thatgoes by at six-five."

  Arethusa pressed her hands very tightly together and carried thediscussion no further. She went to bed early and rose early the nextmorning and Joshua drove her in town to the seven-forty-five.

  "It doesn't seem to me that my aunt is very well," the niece said duringthe drive. "What do you think?"

  "I don't think anything about her," said Joshua with great candor. "If Iwas to give to thinkin' I'd o' moved out to Chicago an' been scalpin'Indians to-day."

  "I wonder if that trip to New York was good for her?" Arethusa wonderedmildly.

  Joshua flicked Billy with the whip and refused to voice any opinion as toNew York's effect on his mistress.

  Arethusa was well on her way to Boston when Aunt Mary's bell, rung with asharp jangle, summoned Lucinda to open her bedroom blinds. While Lucindawas leaning far out and attempting to cause said blinds to catch on thehooks, which habitually held them back against the side of the house, hermistress addressed her with a suddeness which showed that she had awakenedwith her wits surprisingly well in hand.

  "Where's Joshua? Is he got back from Arethusa? Answer me, Lucinda."

  Lucinda drew herself in through the open window with an alacrityremarkable for one of her years.

  "Yes, he's back," she yelled.

  Aunt Mary looked at her with a sort of incensed patience.

  "Well, what's he doin'? If he's back, where is he? Lucinda, if you knewhow hard it is for me to keep quiet you'd answer when I asked things. Whyin Heaven's name don't you say suthin'? Anythin'? Anythin' but nothin',that is."

  "He's mowin'," Lucinda shrieked.

  "Sewin'!" exclaimed Aunt Mary. "What's he sewin'? Where's he sewin'? Haveyou stopped doin' his darnin'?"

  Lucinda
gathered breath by compressing her sides with her hands, and thenreplied, directing her voice right into the ear-trumpet:

  "He's mowin' the back lawn."

  Aunt Mary winced and shivered.

  "My heavens, Lucinda!" she exclaimed, sharply. "I wish't there was aschool to teach outsiders the use of an ear-trumpet. They can't seem tohit the medium between either mumblin' or splittin' one's ear drums."

  Lucinda was too much out of breath from her effort to attempt any audiblepenitence. Her mistress continued:

  "Well, you find him wherever he is, and tell him to harness up the buggyand go and get Mr. Stebbins as quick as ever he can. Hurry!"

  Lucinda exited with a promptitude that fulfilled all that her lady's heartcould wish. She found Joshua whetting his scythe.

  "She wants Mr. Stebbins right off," said Lucinda.

  "Then she'll get Mr. Stebbins right off," said Joshua. And he headedimmediately for the barn.

  Lucinda ran along beside him. It did seem to Lucinda as if in compensationfor her slavery to Aunt Mary she might have had a sympathizer in Joshua.

  "I guess she wants to change her will," she panted, very much out ofbreath.

  "Then she'll change her will," said Joshua. And as his steady gait wasmuch quicker than poor Lucinda's halting amble, and as he saw no occasionto alter it, the conversation between them dwindled into space then andthere.

  Half an hour later Billy went out of the drive at a swinging pace and anhour after that Mr. Stebbins was brought captive to Aunt Mary's throne.

  She welcomed him cordially; Lucinda was promptly locked out, and then theold lady and her lawyer spent a momentous hour together. Mr. Stebbins wastaken into his client's fullest confidence; he was regaled with enough ofthe week's history to guess the rest; and he foresaw the outcome as he hadforeseen it from the moment of the rupture.

  Aunt Mary was very sincere in owning up to her own past errors.

  "I made a big mistake about the life that boy was leadin'," she said inthe course of the conversation. "He took me everywhere where he was in thehabit of goin', an' so far from its bein' wicked, I never enjoyed myselfso much in my life. There ain't no harm in havin' fun, an' it does cost alot of money. I can understand it all now, an' as I'm a great believer insettin' wrong right whenever you can, I want Jack put right in my willright off. I want--" and then were unfolded the glorious possibilities ofthe future for her youngest, petted nephew. He was not only to bereinstated in the will, but he was to reign supreme. The other fourchildren were to be rich--very rich,--but Jack was to be _the_ heir.

  Mr. Stebbins was well pleased. He was very fond of Jack and had alwaysbeen particularly patient with him on that account. He felt that this wasa personal reward of merit, for it cannot be denied that Jack hadcertainly cashed very large checks on the bank of his forbearance.

  When all was finished, and Joshua and Lucinda had been called in and hadduly affixed their signatures to the important document, the buggy wasbrought to the door again and Mr. Stebbins stepped in and allowed himselfto be replaced where they had taken him from.

  Joshua returned alone.

  "There, what did I tell you!" said Lucinda, who was waiting for him behindthe wood-house,--"she did want to change her will."

  "Well, she changed it, didn't she?" said Joshua.

  "I guess she wants to give him all she's got, since that week in NewYork," said Lucinda.

  "Then she'll give him all she's got," said Joshua.

  Lucinda's eyes grew big.

  "An' she'll give it to you, too, if you don't look out and stay where youcan hear her bell if she rings it," Joshua added, with his usualfrankness, and then he whipped up Billy and drove on to the barn.

  Arethusa returned late in the afternoon, very warm, very wilted. Aunt Marylooked over the cotton purchase, and deigned to approve.

  "But, my heavens, Arethusa," she exclaimed immediately afterwards, "if youhad any idea how dirty and dusty and altogether awful you do look, youwouldn't be able to get to soap and water fast enough."

  At that poor Arethusa sighed, and, gathering up her hat, and hat-pins, andveil, and gloves, and purse, and handkerchief, went away to wash.