Ruth Hall Part 4

"But, Mr. Hall?" said John, hesitatingly, leaning on his hoe-handle.

"Harry? Oh, never mind him. He has seen more ledgers than corn. Corn?

Ha! that's good. You can go cart that load of gravel up the hill. What a fortunate thing for Harry, that I am here to oversee things. This amateur farming is pretty play enough; but the way it sinks the money is more curious than profitable. I wonder, now, if that tree is grafted right. I'll take off the ligatures and see. That hedge won't grow, I'm certain; the down-east cedars thrive the best for hedges. I may as well pull these up, and tell Harry to get some of the other kind;" and the doctor pulled them up by the roots, and threw them over the fence.

CHAPTER XVI.

"Time for papa to come," said little Daisy, seating herself on the low door-step; "the sun has crept way round to the big apple-tree;" and Daisy shook back her hair, and settling her little elbows on her knees, sat with her chin in her palms, dreamily watching the shifting clouds. A b.u.t.terfly alights on a blade of gra.s.s near her: Daisy springs up, her long hair floating like a veil about her shoulders, and her tiny feet scarce bending the clover blossoms, and tiptoes carefully along in pursuit.

He's gone, Daisy, but never mind; like many other coveted treasures, he would lose his brilliancy if caught. Daisy has found something else; she closes her hand over it, and returns to her old watch-post on the door-step. She seats herself again, and loosing her tiny hold, out creeps a great, bushy, yellow caterpillar. Daisy places him carefully on the back of her little, blue-veined hand, and he commences his travels up the polished arm, to the little round shoulder. When he reaches the lace sleeve, Daisy's laugh rings out like a robin's carol; then she puts him back, to retravel the same smooth road again.

"Oh, Daisy! Daisy!" said Ruth, stepping up behind her, "what an _ugly_ playfellow; put him down, do darling; I cannot bear to see him on your arm."

"Why--_G.o.d_ made him," said little Daisy, with sweet, upturned eyes of wonder.

"True, darling," said Ruth, in a hushed whisper, kissing the child's brow, with a strange feeling of awe. "Keep him, Daisy, dear, if you like."

CHAPTER XVII.

"Please, sir, I'll be afther leaving the night," said John, sc.r.a.ping out his hind foot, as Harry drew rein on Romeo, and halted under a large apple-tree.

"Leave?" exclaimed Harry, patting Romeo's neck; "you seemed a contented fellow enough when I left for the city this morning. Don't your wages suit? What's in the wind now? out with it, man."

John scratched his head, kicked away a pebble with the toe of his brogan, looked up, and looked down, and finally said, (lowering his voice to a confidential whisper, as he glanced in the direction of the doctor's cottage;) "It's the ould gintleman, sir, savin' yer presence.

It is not _two_ masthers Pat would be afther having;" and Pat narrated the affair of the plough.

Harry bit his lip, and struck Romeo a little quick cut with his riding-whip. Harry was one of the most dutiful of sons, and never treated his father with disrespect; he had chosen a separate home, that he might be master of it; and this old annoyance in a new shape was very provoking. "Pat," said he at length, "there is only one master here; when _I_ give you an order, you are to stick to it, till you get a different one from me. D'ye understand?"

"By the Holy Mother, I'll do it," said Pat, delightedly resuming his hoe with fresh vigor.

CHAPTER XVIII.

"That's the fourth gig that has been tied to Harry's fence, since dinner," said the old lady. "I hope Harry's business will continue to prosper. Company, company, company. And there's Ruth, as I live, romping round that meadow, without a bit of a bonnet. Now she's climbing a cherry-tree. A _married woman_ climbing a cherry-tree! Doctor, do you hear that?"

"Shoot 'em down," said the doctor, abstractedly, without lifting his eyes from the Almanac.

"Shoot _who_ down?" said the old lady, shaking him by the shoulder. "I said that romp of a Ruth was up in a cherry-tree."

"Oh, I thought you were talking of those thievish robins stealing the cherries," said the doctor; "as to Ruth I've given her up long ago; _she_ never will settle down to anything. Yesterday, as I was taking a walk over Harry's farm to see if things were not all going to the dogs, I saw her down in the meadow yonder, with her shoes and stockings off, wading through a little brook to get at some flowers, which grew on the other side. Half an hour after she came loitering up the road, with her bonnet hanging on the back of her neck, and her ap.r.o.n crammed full of gra.s.ses, and herbs, and branches, and all sorts of green trash. Just then the minister came along. I was glad of it. Good enough for her, thinks I to myself; she'll blush for once. Well, what do you think she did, Mis. Hall?"

"_What?_" said the old lady, in a sepulchral whisper, dropping her knitting-needles and drawing her rocking-chair within kissing distance of the doctor.

"Why, she burst out a-laughing, perched herself on top of a stone wall, took a great big leaf to fan herself, and then invited the minister to sit down 'long side of her, _jest_ as easy as if her hair wasn't all flying round her face like a wild Arab's."

"I give up now," said the old lady, dropping her hands in an att.i.tude of the extremest dejection; "there's no hope of her after that; and what is worse, it is no use talking to Harry; she's got him so bewitched that he imagines everything she does is right. How she did it, pa.s.ses me. I'm sure she has no beauty. I've no patience to see Harry twisting those yellow curls of hers round his fingers, and calling them 'threads of gold;' threads of fiddlesticks! She'd look a deal more proper like, if she'd wear her hair smooth behind her ears, as I do."

"But your hair is false," said the literal doctor.

"Doctor," said the old lady, snapping her eyes, "I never can argue with you but you are sure to get off the track, sooner or later; there is no need of your telling all, you know. Suppose I was always alluding to your wig, how would you like it?"

CHAPTER XIX.

Winter had set in. The snow in soft, white piles, barred up the cottage door, and hung shelving over the barn-roof and fences; while every tiny twig and branch bent heavily, with its soft fleecy burthen. "Papa" was to go to the city that morning in a sleigh. Daisy had already heard the bells tinkling at the barn-door, as Pat necklaced Romeo, who stood pawing and snorting, as if it were fine fun to plough five miles of unbroken road into the city. Daisy had turned Papa's over-coat sleeves inside out, and warmed them thoroughly at the fire; she had tied on his moccasins, and had thrown his fur collar round his neck; and now she stood holding his warm cap and furred gloves, while he and mamma were saying their usual good-bye.

"Take care of that cough, Daisy," said Harry; "don't come to the door, darling, to breathe in this keen air. Kiss your hand to papa, from the window;" and Harry scratched the frost away with his finger nails from the window-pane, that Daisy might see him start.

"Oh, how pretty!" exclaimed the child, as Pat tossed the bright, scarlet-lined buffalo robe into the sleigh, and tucked the corners snugly over his master's feet, and Romeo, inspirited by the merry tinkle of the bells and the keen frosty air, stood on his hind legs and playfully held up his fore feet; "Oh, how pretty!" Harry turned his head as he gathered the reins in his hand; his cap was crowded down so snugly over his forehead, and his fur collar turned up so closely about his chin, that only a glimpse of his dark eye and fine Roman nose was visible. One wave of the hand, and the light, feathery snow flew, on either side, from under Romeo's flying heels--and Papa was out of sight.

CHAPTER XX.

"Why in the world, Ruth, are you wandering about there, like a ghost, in the moonlight?" said Harry, rubbing open his sleepy eyes.

"Hist, Harry! listen to Daisy's breathing; it sounds as if it came through a brazen tube. She must be ill."

"Little wife, don't torment yourself. She has only a bad cold, which, of course, appears worse at night. Her breathing is irregular, because her head is too low. Give her this pillow: there; now she's comfortable.

What a frightened little puss you are! Your hand trembles as if you had the palsy; now go to sleep; it must be near two o'clock; you'll be sick yourself to-morrow:" and Harry, wearied out with an annoying day of business, was soon fast asleep.

Only the eye of G.o.d watches like a mother's. Ruth could not sleep. She was soon again at Daisy's side, with her fingers upon her wrist, and her eye fixed upon the child's face; marking every contortion of feature, noting every change of posture.

"What is it, darling?" asked her mother, as Daisy grasped her throat with both hands.

"It hurts," said the child.

Ruth glanced at Harry. He was so weary, it were a pity to wake him needlessly. Perhaps her fears were groundless, and she was over-anxious; and then, perhaps, Daisy really needed _immediate_ medical aid.

Ruth's fears preponderated.

"Dear Harry," said she, laying her hand softly on his forehead, "do call up Pat, and send for the doctor."