Part 46 (1/2)
”This is the dining-room,” said the Girl, leading the way.
Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes ranging over the floor, walls, and furnis.h.i.+ngs. She sank on a chair and said with a chuckle, ”Now you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what things are and why you fixed them, and how they are used.”
The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in delighted approval.
”It's the purtiest thing I ever saw,” she announced. ”A minute ago, I'd 'a' said them blue walls back there, jest like October skies in Indian summer, and the brown rugs, like leaves in the woods, couldn't be beat; but this green and yaller is purtier yet. That blue room will keep the best lookin' part of fall on all winter, and with a roarin' wood fire, it'll be capital, and no mistake; but this here is spring, jest spring eternal, an' that's best of all. Looks like it was about time the leaves was bustin' and things pus.h.i.+n' up. It wouldn't surprise me a mite to see a flock of swallers come sailin' right through these winders. And here's a place big enough to lay down and rest a spell right handy to the kitchen, where a-body gits tiredest, without runnin' a half mile to find a bed, and in the mornin' you can look down to the 'still waters'; and in the afternoon, when the sun gits around here, you can pull that blind and 'lift your eyes to the hills,' like David of the Bible says. My, didn't he say the purtiest things! I never read nothin' could touch him!”
”Have you seen the Psalms arranged in verse as we would write it now?”
”You don't mean to tell me David's been put into real poetry?”
”Yes. Some Bibles have all the poetical books in our forms of verse.”
”Well! Sometimes I git kind o' knocked out! As a rule I hold to old ways. I think they're the healthiest and the most faver'ble to the soul.
But they's some changes come along, that's got sech hard common-sense to riccomend them, that I wonder the past generations didn't see sooner.
Now take this! An hour ago I'd told you I'd read my father's Bible to the end of my days. But if they's a new one that's got David, Solomon, and Job in nateral form, I'll have one, and I'll git a joy I never expected out of life. I ain't got so much poetry in me, but it always riled me to read, '7. The law of the Lord is perfect, covertin' the soul. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean.' And so it goes on, 'bout as much figgers as they is poetry.
Always did worry me. So if they make Bibles 'cordin' to common sense, I'll have one to-morrow if I have to walk to Onabasha to get it. Lawsy me! if you ain't gathered up Marthy's old pink tea set, and give it a show, too! Did you do that to please David, or do you honestly think them is nice dishes?”
”I think they are beautiful,” laughed the Girl, sinking to a chair. ”I don't know that it did please him. He had been studying the subject, but something saved him from buying anything until I came. I'd have felt dreadfully if he had gotten what he wanted.”
”What did he want, honey?” asked the old lady in an awestruck whisper.
”Egg-sh.e.l.l china and cut gla.s.s.”
”And you wouldn't let him! Woman! What do you want?”
”A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures on them. They are so quaint and they would harmonize perfectly with this room.”
The old lady laughed gleefully.
”My! I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar,” she cried. ”It jest does my soul good. More'n that, if you really like Marthy's dishes and are going to take care of them and use them right, I'll give you mine, too.
I ain't never had a girl. I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment of her own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but the Lord may 'a'
saved me many a disappointment by sendin' all mine boys. Not that I'm layin' the babies on to the Lord at all----I jest got into the habit of sayin' that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty good idy how I got them. If a girl of mine wouldn't 'a' had more sense, raised right with me, I'd' a' been purty bad cut up over it. Of course, I can't be held responsible for the girls my boys married, but t'other day Emmeline----that's John's wife----John is the youngest, and I sort o' cling to him----Emmeline she says to me, 'Mother, can't I have this old pink and green teapot?' My heart warmed right up to the child, and I says, 'What do you want it for, Emmeline?' And she says, 'To draw the tea in.' Cracky Dinah! That fool woman meant to set my grandmother's weddin' present from her pa and ma, dishes same as Marthy Was.h.i.+ngton used, on the stove to bile the tea in. I jest snorted! 'No, says I, 'you can't! 'Fore I die,' says I, 'I'll meet up with some woman that 'll love dishes and know how to treat them.' I think jest about as much of David as I do my own boys, and I don't make no bones of the fact that he's a heap more of a man. I'd jest as soon my dishes went to his children as to John's. I'll give you every piece I got, if you'll take keer of them.”
”Would it be right?” wavered the girl.
”Right! Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen would bile tea in them, make grease sa.s.sers of them, and use them to dish up the bakin'
on! Wouldn't you a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's ma's is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was yours? I guess you would!”
”Well if you feel that way, and really want us to have them, I know David will build another little cupboard on the other side of the fireplace to put yours in, and I can't tell you how I'd love and care for them.”
”I'll jest do it!” said Granny Moreland. ”I got about as many blue ones as Marthy had an' mine are purtier than hers. And my l.u.s.tre is brighter, for I didn't use it so much. Is this the kitchen? Well if I ever saw sech a cool, white place to cook in before! Ain't David the beatenest hand to think up things? He got the start of that takin' keer of his ma all his life. He sort of learned what a woman uses, and how it's handiest. Not that other men don't know; it's jest that they are too mortal selfish and keerless to fix things. Well this is great! Now when you bile cabbage and the wash, always open your winders wide and let the steam out, so it won't spile your walls.”
”I'll be very careful,” promised the Girl. ”Now come see my bathroom, closet and bedroom.”
”Well as I live! Ain't this fine. I'll bet a purty that if I'd 'a' had a room and a trough like this to soak in when I was wore to a frazzle, I wouldn't 'a' got all twisted up with rheumatiz like I am. It jest looks restful to see. I never washed in a place like this in all my days. Must feel grand to be wet all over at once! Now everybody ought to have sech a room and use it at all hours, like David does the lake. Did you ever see his beat to go swimmin'? He's always in splas.h.i.+n'! Been at it all his life. I used to be skeered when he was a little tyke. He soaked so much 'peared like he'd wash all the substance out of him, but it only made him strong.”
”Has he ever been ill?”
”Not that I know of, and I reckon I'd knowed it if he had. Well what a clothespress! I never saw so many dresses at once. Ain't they purty? Oh I wish I was young, and could have one like that yaller. And I'd like to have one like your lavender right now. My! You are lucky to have so many nice clothes. It's a good thing most girls haven't got them, or they'd stand primpin' all day tryin' to decide which one to put on. I don't see how you tell yourself.”
”I wear the one that best hides how pale I am,” answered the Girl. ”I use the colours now. When I grow plump and rosy, I'll wear the white.”