CHAPTER IV
GRANTLY
Since our girls were to become quite intimate with the peculiar oldsisters and their home, perhaps it would be just as well for me to givemy readers some idea of what Grantly was like.
The first thing that struck a visitor was the wonderful box bushes inthe hedge enclosing the yard and in a labyrinth in the garden. Thesebushes were so thick that one could really walk on the tops of them ifthey were kept clipped, which they were not. In the labyrinth thebushes met overhead and even after a heavy rain the paths between wereperfectly dry. It took days of soaking rain to make those winding pathswet. Beyond the labyrinth was an old-fashioned garden, but now inOctober chrysanthemums and late roses and cosmos were all that was leftof the riot of color that could be seen there during the spring andsummer.
The house was of a very peculiar architectural design: a long, low bodywith a tower at each end. In each tower was a square room with manywindows overlooking the country for miles around. Miss Ella claimed oneof these rooms as her own especial property; Miss Louise the other. Toapproach Miss Ella's sanctum sanctorum it was necessary to climb anarrow spiral stairway; Miss Louise's was more accessible by reason ofa broad stairway of many landings, but the ceilings at the landingswere so low that anyone of ordinary stature must stoop to ascend.
These rooms were used only as sitting-rooms by the erratic sisters as,strange to say, the two old ladies slept in the same room and in thesame great four-posted tester bed. There were many other bedrooms in themansion, but they both preferred the great chamber leading from theparlor, and there they slept and no doubt quarreled in their sleep.
"This is my sitting-room up here," said Miss Ella as she showed herguests over the quaint old house. "You may come up if you like. I hadthe steps made this way so Louise can't get up here and worry my soulout of me with her eternal chatter. She's too fat for the spiralstairway. Elephant!"
"Yes, and my sitting-room is in the other tower, and thank goodness,Ella would find it a back-breaking job to get up my steps," retaliatedMiss Louise. "Giraffe!"
Those strange old ladies had actually had the original steps to thetowers changed to suit their particular grouches! They really spent verylittle time in their tower fastnesses, however, as they were muchhappier when together and quarreling.
A tale was told in the neighborhood that once Miss Ella had neglected orforgotten to contradict Miss Louise on some vital subject such aswhether it was or was not going to rain, and Miss Louise was so uneasythat she sent post haste for Dr. Allison.
"I was afraid it was a stroke or something," whimpered Miss Louise. Sheworried herself into a sick headache before the doctor arrived, andthen the fat one had to go to bed and take the medicine and Miss Ellawas forced to repent of her misbehavior by nursing her sister. Dr.Allison left strict injunctions that she was not to worry her poorsister again by agreeing with her.
Grantly was filled with fine old furniture and all kinds of curios. Agreat-uncle had been a traveler in the Orient and many were theteakwood cabinets and jade ornaments; curious Japanese prints; Chineseembroidered fans and screens; bronze Buddhas; rare vases with inlaidflowers and birds; Toby jugs and lacquered teapots; quaint armor, swordsand daggers; everything in fact that might be found in an old house thata traveler had once called home.
"Does Tempy dust all these beautiful things?" asked Mrs. Carter, who wasquite carried away by the wonders in her landladies' home.
"Bless you, no! She doesn't dare to touch a one of them," laughed MissLouise. "Ella dusts the high ones, I dust the low." She said it quitewith the air of the song:
"You take the high road, I'll take the low."
With all of its beauties, Grantly was undergoing a process of slowdecay. Lack of paint and neglected leaks were getting in their insidiouswork. There never seemed to be money enough for the owners to afford theneeded repairs, and if there ever was any money at all, they could nevercome to an agreement on which repairs were the most urgent.
The overseer's house was suffering in the same way. A kind of dry rothad attacked portions of it. Weather-boarding was so loose in placesthat Bobby could pull it off. Steps groaned and floors creaked; shuttershad lost fastenings; putty had dropped from the window panes, which wereinsecurely held in place with tacks; mop-boarding and floors had partedcompany many years before. All of these little details had escaped theinexperienced eyes of Douglas and Helen when they decided that thiswas the place of all others to spend the winter. Dr. Wright, who hadaccompanied them, had been more noticing, but had wisely decided to saynothing, as he wanted his patient to become interested in tinkering atsmall jobs, and he could see that this little farm would keep Mr. Carterbusy.
The ladies of Grantly had promised to have everything in order beforethe tenants should arrive, but disagreeing on which workman they shouldemploy, the time had slipped by and nothing had been done.
The pump to the well had lost its sucker and had to be primed beforewater could be got. This meant that the person who pumped must rememberto fill a can of water and leave it for the next pumper. The yard gateshut with difficulty and opened with more. The stovepipe in the kitchenhad a large hole in one side and if the wind shifted, so did the smoke,seeking an outlet through the nearest aperture.
All of these disagreeable features dawned gradually on our girls. Theysaw nothing to be complained of in those rare October days. Accustomedas they had become to camp life, they made light of any inconveniences.Their father was happy and getting better every day, so any smallhardships that might fall to their share were to be lightly borne.