Part 15 (1/2)

”'Oh, yes, it will, child; I understand,' says he.

”Just as he spoke, the basket riz up and stood, and they could see old Tom's long legs.

”'I'll make him stay down, confound him,' says the Parson, for you see, parsons is men, like the rest on us, and the Doctor had got his s.p.u.n.k up.

”'You jist hold him a minute, and I'll get something that'll make him stay, I guess; and out he went to the fence and brought in a long, thin, flat stone, and laid it on old Tom's back.

”'Oh, my eggs!' says Huldy. 'I'm afraid he's smashed 'em!'

”And sure enough, there they was, smashed flat enough under the stone.

”'I'll have him killed,' said the Parson. 'We won't have such a critter 'round.'

”Wall next week, Huldy, she jist borrowed the minister's horse and side-saddle and rode over to South Parish to her Aunt Bascome's-- Widder Bascome's, you know, that lives there by the trout-brook--and got a lot o' turkey eggs o' her, and come back and set a hen on 'em, and said nothin'; and in good time there was as nice a lot o' turkey- chicks as ever ye see.

”Huldy never said a word to the minister about his experiment, and he never said a word to her; but he sort o' kep more to his books and didn't take it on him to advise so much.

”But not long arter he took it into his head that Huldy ought to have a pig to be a-fattin' with the b.u.t.termilk.

”Mis' Pipperidge set him up to it; and jist then old Tom Bigelow, out to Juniper Hill, told him if he'd call over he'd give him a little pig.

”So he sent for a man, and told him to build a pig-pen right out by the well, and have it all ready when he came home with his pig.

”Huldy said she wished he might put a curb round the well out there, because in the dark sometimes a body might stumble into it; and the Parson said he might do that.

”Wal, old Aikin, the carpenter, he didn't come till 'most the middle of the afternoon; and then he sort o' idled, so that he didn't get up the well-curb till sundown; and then he went off, and said he'd come and do the pig-pen next day.

”Wal, arter dark, Parson Carryl, he driv into the yard, full chizel, with his pig.

”'There, Huldy. I've got you a nice little pig.'

”'Dear me!' says Huldy; 'where have you put him?'

”'Why, out there in the pig-pen, to be sure.'

”'Oh, dear me!' says Huldy,'that's the well-curb--there ain't no pig- pen built,' says she.

”'Lordy ma.s.sy!' says the Parson; 'then I've thrown the pig in the well!'

”Wal, Huldy she worked and worked, and finally she fished piggy out in the bucket, but he was as dead as a doornail; and she got him out o' the way quietly, and didn't say much; and the Parson he took to a great Hebrew book in his study.

”After that the Parson set sich store by Huldy that he come to her and asked her about everything, and it was amazin' how everything she put her hand to prospered. Huldy planted marigolds and larkspurs, pinks and carnations, all up and down the path to the front door; and trained up mornin'-glories and scarlet runners round the windows. And she was always gettin' a root here, and a sprig there, and a seed from somebody else; for Huldy was one o' them that has the gift, so that ef you jist give 'em the leastest of anything they make a great bush out of it right away; so that in six months Huldy had roses and geraniums and lilies sich as it would take a gardener to raise.

”Huldy was so sort o' chipper and fair spoken that she got the hired men all under her thumb: they come to her and took her orders jist as meek as so many calves, and she traded at the store, and kep' the accounts, and she had her eyes everywhere, and tied up all the ends so tight that there wa'n't no gettin' 'round her. She wouldn't let n.o.body put nothin' off on Parson Carryl 'cause he was a minister.

Huldy was allers up to anybody that wanted to make a hard bargain, and afore he knew jist what he was about she'd got the best end of it, and everybody said that Huldy was the most capable girl they ever traded with.

”Wal, come to the meetin' of the a.s.sociation, Mis' Deakin Blodgett and Mis' Pipperidge come callin' up to the Parson's all in a stew and offerin' their services to get the house ready, but the Doctor he jist thanked 'em quite quiet, and turned 'em over to Huldy; and Huldy she told 'em that she'd got everything ready, and showed 'em her pantries, and her cakes, and her pies, and her puddin's, and took 'em all over the house; and they went peekin' and pokin', openin'

cupboard doors, and lookin' into drawers; and they couldn't find so much as a thread out o' the way, from garret to cellar, and so they went off quite discontented. Arter that the women sat a new trouble a-brewin'. They began to talk that it was a year now since Mis'