are your shoes warming by the fire,” said aunt Jane. “Slip them right on while you talk.”
Chapter XIX.
Deacon Israel’s Successor
“It was a very small meeting, aunt Miranda,” began Rebecca, “and the missionary and his wife are lovely people, and they are coming here to stay all night and to-morrow with you. I hope you won’t mind.”
“Coming here!” exclaimed Miranda, letting her knitting fall in her lap, and taking her spectacles off, as she always did in moments of extreme excitement. “Did they invite themselves?”
“No,” Rebecca answered. “I had to invite them for you; but I thought you’d like to have such interesting company. It was this way”—
“Stop your explainin’, and tell me first when they’ll be here. Right away?”
“No, not for two hours—about half past five.”
“Then you can explain, if you can, who gave you any authority to invite a passel of strangers to stop here over night, when you know we ain’t had any company for twenty years, and don’t intend to have any for another twenty,—or at any rate while I’m the head of the house.”
“Don’t blame her, Miranda, till you’ve heard her story,” said Jane. “It was in my mind right along, if we went to the meeting, some such thing might happen, on account of Mr. Burch knowing father.”
“The meeting was a small one,” began Rebecca “I gave all your messages, and everybody was disappointed you couldn’t come, for the president wasn’t there, and Mrs. Matthews took the chair, which was a pity, for the seat wasn’t nearly big enough for her, and she reminded me of a line in a hymn we sang, ‘Wide as the heathen nations are,’ and she wore that kind of a beaver garden-hat that always gets on one side. And Mr. Burch talked beautifully about the Syrian heathen, and the singing went real well, and there looked to be about forty cents in the basket that was passed on our side. And that wouldn’t save even a heathen baby, would it? Then Mr. Burch said, if any sister would offer entertainment, they would pass the night, and have a parlor meeting in Riverboro to-morrow, with Mrs. Burch in Syrian costume, and lovely foreign things to show. Then he waited and waited, and nobody said a word. I was so mortified I didn’t know what to do. And then he repeated what he said, an explained why he wanted to stay, and you could see he thought it was his duty. Just then Mrs. Robinson whispered to me and said the missionaries always used to go to the brick house when grandfather was alive, and that he never would let them sleep anywhere else. I didn’t know you had stopped having them because no traveling ministers have been here, except just for a Sunday morning, since I came to Riverboro. So I thought I ought to invite them, as you weren’t there to do it for yourself, and you told me to represent the family.”
“What did you do—go up and introduce yourself as folks was goin’ out?”
“No; I stood right up in meeting. I had to, for Mr. Burch’s feelings were getting hurt at nobody’s speaking. So I said, ‘My aunts, Miss Miranda and Miss Jane Sawyer would be happy to have you visit at the brick house, just as the missionaries always did when their father was alive, and they sent their respects by me.’ Then I sat down; and Mr. Burch prayed for grandfather, and called him a man of God, and thanked our Heavenly Father that his spirit was still alive in his descendants (that was you), and that the good old house where so many of the brethren had been cheered and helped, and from which so many had gone out strengthened for the fight, was still hospitably open for the stranger and wayfarer.”
Sometimes, when the heavenly bodies are in just the right conjunction, nature seems to be the most perfect art. The word or the deed coming straight from the heart, without any thought of effect, seems inspired.
A certain gateway in Miranda Sawyer’s soul had been closed for years; not all at once had it been done, but gradually, and without her full knowledge. If Rebecca had plotted for days, and with the utmost cunning, she could not have effected an entrance into that forbidden country, and now, unknown to both of them, the gate swung on its stiff and rusty hinges, and the favoring wind of opportunity opened it wider and wider as time went on. All things had worked together amazingly for good. The memory of old days had been evoked, and the daily life of a pious and venerated father called to mind; the Sawyer name had been publicly dignified and praised; Rebecca had comported herself as the granddaughter of Deacon Israel Sawyer should, and showed conclusively that she was not “all Randall,” as had been supposed. Miranda was rather mollified by and pleased with the turn of events, although she did not intend to show it, or give anybody any reason to expect that this expression of hospitality was to serve for a precedent on any subsequent occasion.
“Well, I see you did only what you was obliged to do, Rebecca,” she said, “and you worded your invitation as nice as anybody could have done. I wish your aunt Jane and me wasn’t both so worthless with these colds; but it only shows the good of havin’ a clean house, with every room in order, whether open or shut, and enough victuals cooked so ‘t you can’t be surprised and belittled by anybody, whatever happens. There was half a dozen there that might have entertained the Burches as easy as not, if they hadn’t ‘a’ been too mean or lazy. Why didn’t your missionaries come right along with you?”
“They had to go to the station for their valise and their children.”
“Are there children?” groaned Miranda.
“Yes, aunt Miranda, all born under Syrian skies.”
“Syrian grandmother!” ejaculated Miranda (and it was not a fact). “How many?”
“I didn’t think to ask; but I will get two rooms ready, and if there are any over I’ll take ‘em into my bed,” said Rebecca, secretly hoping that this would be the case. “Now, as you’re both half sick, couldn’t you trust me just once to get ready for the company? You can come up when I call. Will you?”
“I believe I will,” sighed Miranda reluctantly. “I’ll lay down side o’ Jane in our bedroom and see if I can get strength to cook supper. It’s half past three—don’t you let me lay a minute past five. I kep’ a good fire in the kitchen stove. I don’t know, I’m sure, why I should have baked a pot o’ beans in the middle of the week, but they’ll come in handy. Father used to say there was nothing that went right to the spot with returned missionaries like pork ‘n’ beans ‘n’ brown bread. Fix up the two south chambers, Rebecca.”
Rebecca, given a free hand for the only time in her life, dashed upstairs like a whirlwind. Every room in the brick house was as neat as wax, and she had only to pull up the shades, go over the floors with a whisk broom, and dust the furniture. The aunts could hear her scurrying to and fro, beating up pillows and feather beds, flapping towels, jingling crockery, singing meanwhile in her clear voice:—
“In vain with lavish kindness
The gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness
Bows down to wood and stone.”
She had grown to be a handy little creature, and tasks she was capable of doing at all she did like a flash, so that when she called her aunts at five o’clock to pass judgment, she had accomplished wonders. There were fresh towels on bureaus and washstands, the beds were fair and smooth, the pitchers
