Jane Field Part 24

"About three months."

"Look here! I dunno what you'll say, but I think Mis' Green thought real favorable of it. Do you know how cheap you can go down to Boston an' back now?"

Amanda looked up. "No. Why?" said she.

Mrs. Babc.o.c.k stopped fanning and leaned forward. "Amanda Pratt, you can go down to Boston an' back, an' be gone a week, for--three dollars an' sixty cents."

Amanda stared back at her in a startled way.

"Let's you an' me an' Mis' Green go down an' see Mis' Field an'

Lois," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k, in a tragic voice.

Amanda turned pale. "They don't live in Boston," she said, with a bewildered air.

"We can go down to Boston on the early train," replied Mrs. Babc.o.c.k, importantly. "Then we can have all the afternoon to go round Boston an' see the sights, an' then, toward night, we can go out to Mis'

Field's. Land, here's Mis' Green now! She said she'd come over as soon as Abby got home from school. I'm jest tellin' her about it, Mis' Green."

Mrs. Green stood in the doorway, smiling half-shamefacedly. "I s'pose you think it's a dreadful silly plan, Mandy," said she deprecatingly.

Amanda got up and pushed the rocking-chair in which she had been sitting toward the new-comer.

"Set down, do," said she. "I dunno, Mis' Green. I ain't had time to think it over, it's come so sudden." Amanda's face was collected, but her voice was full of agitation.

"Well," said Mrs. Green, "I ain't known which end my head is on since Mis' Babc.o.c.k come in an' spoke of it. First I thought I couldn't go nohow, an' I dunno as I can now. Still, it does seem dreadful cheap to go down to Boston an' back, an' I ain't been down more'n four times in the last twenty years. I ain't been out gaddin' much, an'

that's a fact."

"The longer you set down in one corner, the longer you can," remarked Mrs. Babc.o.c.k. "I believe in goin' while you've got a chance, for my part."

"I ain't ever been to Boston," said Amanda, and her face had the wishful, far-away look that her grandfather's might have had when he thought of the sea.

"It does seem as if you'd ought to go once," said Mrs. Green.

"I say, let's start up an' go!" cried Mrs. Babc.o.c.k, in an intense voice.

The three women looked at each other.

"Abby could keep house for father a few days," said Mrs. Green, as if to some carping judge; "an' it ain't goin' to cost much, an' I know father'd say go."

"Well, I guess I can cook up enough victuals to last Adoniram and the boys whilst I'm gone," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k defiantly; "I guess they can get along. Adoniram can make rye puddin', an' they can fill up on rye puddin' an' mola.s.ses. I'm a-goin'."

"I dunno," said Amanda, trembling. "I'm dreadful afraid I hadn't ought to."

"Well, I should think you could go, if Mis' Green an' I could," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k. "Here you ain't got n.o.body but jest yourself, an' ain't got to leave a thing cooked up nor nothin'."

"I would like to see Mis' Field an' Lois again, but it seems like a great undertakin'," sighed Amanda. "Then it's goin' to cost something."

"It ain't goin' to cost but jest three dollars an' sixty cents," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k. "I guess you can afford that, Mandy. There your tenement didn't stay vacant two weeks after the Fields went; the Simmonses came right in. I guess if I had rent-money, an' n.o.body but myself, I could afford to travel once in a while."

"Now you'd better make up your mind to go, Mandy," Mrs. Green said.

"I think Mis' Field would be more pleased to see you than anybody in Green River. That's one thing I think about goin'. I know she'll be tickled almost to death to see us comin' in. Mis' Field's a real good woman. There wa'n't anybody in town I set more by than I did by her."

"When did you hear from her last, Mandy?" interposed Mrs. Babc.o.c.k.

"About a month ago."

"I s'pose Lois is a good deal better?"

"Yes, I guess she is. Her mother said she seemed pretty well for her.

I s'pose it agrees with her better down there."

"I s'pose there was a good deal more fuss made about her when she was here than there was any need of," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k, her whole face wrinkled upward contemptuously; "a great deal more fuss. There wa'n't nothin' ailed the girl if folks had let her alone, talkin' an'

scarin' her mother to death. She was jest kind of run down with the spring weather. Young girls wilt down dreadful easy, an' spring up again. I've seen 'em. 'Twa'n't nothin'."

"Well, I dunno; she looked dreadfully," Mrs. Green said, with mild opposition.

"Well, you can see how much it amounted to," returned Mrs. Babc.o.c.k, with a triumphant sniff. "Folks ought to have been ashamed of themselves, scarin' Mis' Field the way they did about her. Seemed as if they was determined to have Lois go into consumption whether or no, an' was goin' to push her in, if they couldn't manage it in no other way. I s'pose you've sent all Mis' Field's things down there, Mandy?"

"The furniture is all up garret," said Amanda. "All I've sent down was their clothes. Mis' Field had me pack 'em up in their two trunks, an' send 'em down to Lois. I didn't see why she didn't have me mark 'em to her."

"I should think it was kind of queer," said Mrs. Green. "Now s'pose we go, what had we better carry for clothes? We don't need no trunk."

"Of course we don't," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k promptly. "We can each carry a bag. We ain't going to need much."

"I guess, if I went," said Amanda, "that I should carry this sacque to slip on, if it's as hot weather as 'tis now. I should have to do it up, but that ain't much work."

Mrs. Babc.o.c.k eyed it. "Well, I dunno," said she; "it's pretty long in the shoulders seams. I dunno how much they dress down there where Mis' Field lives. Mebbe 'twould do."

"There's one thing I've been thinkin' about," Mrs. Green said, with an anxious air. "If we go down on that early train, an' stay all day in Boston, we shall have to buy us something to eat; we should get dreadful faint before we got out to Mis' Field's, and things are dreadful high in those places."

"Oh, land!" cried Mrs. Babc.o.c.k in a superior tone. "All we've got to do is to carry some luncheon with us. I'll make some pies, and you can bake some cookies, an' then we'll set down in Boston Common an'

eat it. That's the way lots of folks do. That ain't nothin' to worry about. Well, now, I think it's about time for us to decide whether or no we're goin'. I've got to go home an' git supper."

"I'll do jest as the rest say," said Mrs. Green. "I s'pose I can go.

I s'pose father'll say I'd better. An' Abby she was all for it, when I spoke about it to her. She thinks she can have the Fay girl over to stay with her, an' she wants me to buy her a dress in Boston, instead of gettin' it here."

"Well," said Amanda, with a sigh--she was quite pale--"I'll think of it."

"We've got to make up our minds," said Mrs. Babc.o.c.k sharply. "There ain't time for much thinkin'. The excursion starts a day after to-morrow."

"I'll have my mind made up to-morrow mornin'," said Amanda. "I've got to think of it over-night, anyhow. I can't start right up an' say I'll go, without a minute to think about it." Her voice trembled nervously, but decision underlay it.

"I don't see why it ain't time enough if we decide to-morrow morning.

I'd ruther like to think of it a little while longer," said Mrs.

Green.

Mrs. Babc.o.c.k got up. "Well," said she, "I'll send Adoniram round to-morrow mornin', an' you tell him what you've decided. I guess I shall go whether or no. I've got three men folks to leave, an' it's a good deal more of an undertakin' for me than some, but I ain't easy scart. I b'lieve in goin' once in a while."

"Well, I'll let you know in the mornin'. I jest want to think of it over-night," repeated Amanda, with dignified apology.