Part 23 (1/2)
It was with a light heart that Wiseli ran up the path to the house, for she rejoiced that she was to see the man who had been so kind to her, and that this was to be her home for a few weeks. She understood what was expected of her, and she knew that the joiner was in bed, with no one else in the house, so she entered without ringing. How homelike everything seemed as she looked about! At the farther end of the room she noticed, through the parted curtains, a large bed freshly dressed with a white spread and pillows; she wondered who slept in that room. Then she tapped lightly on the joiner's door, which she opened as soon as she heard a response. The joiner raised himself on his elbow to see who was there.
”Wiseli!” he exclaimed, as if in doubt whether to be glad or sorry.
”Come over here and give me your hand.” Wiseli silently did as she was told.
”I am sorry that you had to come to me.”
”Why?”
”I only mean that perhaps you would a little rather not have come.
Mrs. Ritter is always so kind that you did it to please her, didn't you?”
”No, not at all. She never asked me to do it for her. She wanted to know if I cared to come, and I said, 'Yes.' There is no place in the whole world where I should have been so glad to go as to your house.”
This must have satisfied the joiner, for his head dropped back to the pillows, and he tried to look at Wiseli, but the tears persisted in filling his eyes.
”What must I do?” asked Wiseli, when he said nothing further.
”I am sure I don't know, Wiseli,” said the joiner, gently. ”I shall be glad to have you do exactly as you please, if you will stay with me a while first and keep me company.”
Wiseli could scarcely believe she had heard aright. n.o.body but her mother had ever spoken to her like that. Her first thought was that her mother would be glad if she knew how kind he was. There was the same tenderness in his tones that she used to feel in the mother's, and she unconsciously loved him in the same way. She took his hand in both of hers and chatted with him as freely as if she had always known him.
”I am afraid I ought to be getting dinner,” she said at length; ”what should you like to have me cook for you?”
”I want you to have just what you like,” replied the joiner.
This, however, did not satisfy Wiseli, for she desired above all else to please him, so she asked question after question until she found out what she wanted to know. She knew how to make the soup he said he liked, and she realized now that she had learned many useful things from her aunt, even if they had been taught without kindness. Wiseli prepared the joiner's dinner on a tray and carried it to him.
”I wish you would draw the little table over here and eat your dinner with me,” said the joiner. ”Mine will taste so much better if you will.”
Wiseli was again surprised, but she said, ”That is just what mamma would have said.”
What a pleasant dinner that was! The joiner was so considerate of Wiseli's comfort that it made the humblest task a pleasure to her.
”Now what are you going to do?” he asked, when they had finished dinner and Wiseli rose from the table.
”I am going to wash the dishes,” she replied.
”I suppose such things have to be done,” said the joiner, ”but I think, since this is your first day with me, that you might stack them up and do them to-morrow; you know there are only a few.”
”Why, I should be so ashamed if Mrs. Ritter should happen to come in that I shouldn't know what to do,” said Wiseli, and she turned such a serious face to him that he laughed.
”All right,” he said; ”only remember that you are to do just as you like while you are with me.”
Wiseli had not thought that it could be so much fun to do up the dinner work. When it was finished, she said to herself, ”Now this kitchen is nice enough for any one to inspect.”
She had been told that the alcove opening off from the living room was to be hers, so she hung her few garments in the closet opening from one corner of the room. When she returned to the joiner's room he said, ”Good, I have been waiting for you a long time.”