CHAPTER IV
JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING
THE stage came for Matilda at eight o'clock. For half an hour before itcould possibly be due, the traveler sat ready on a chair in the hall,with her umbrella tightly gripped in both hands, delivering bits ofuseful information as they occurred to her.
"Be careful to lock up well every night."
"Remember if she dies sudden, I shall want to know at once."
"Don't look to enjoy yourself, but remember you're doin' a act ofChristian charity."
Jane sat on a small, hard ottoman in the corner by the whatnot and said:"I'll try," or "Yes, indeed," every time.
"You're a good girl," the aunt said finally. "I'm glad to know you.Those Rainy-day Cooks or whatever you call yourself--"
"Sunshine Nurse."
"Yes, of course,--well, it's a good idea. I feel perfectly sure you'lldo everything you know how."
"Yes, I will," said Jane, resolving all over fresh that everything wasgoing to come out fine, even to the return of Matilda herself.
"There, I hear the stage on the bridge," said her aunt, jumping to herfeet suddenly. "I must go and say good-by to Susan."
"Isn't she still asleep?"
"It doesn't matter. She's my only living sister, and it's my duty towake her up."
She rushed up-stairs, and a feeble little yell from above soon announcedher duty done. Then followed a brief hum and jabber, and then she camerunning down again.
"Feels bad to see me go," she said briefly. "That's natural, as she'sturned over to you body and soul and ain't the least idea what you'relike. I told her it was no more chances than every child run just beingborn, and a third of them lived, but she never could see reason,--kindof clung to my arm,--she's my only sister, and it makes me feel bad."With which hasty statement Matilda gave a brief dab to each eye, put upher pocket-handkerchief, and opened the front door. Jane had her bag inher hand, and they had carried the trunk to the gate before.
The stage was empty, and the driver was tying the trunk-strap with arope.
"Well, good-by," said Matilda; "remember to lock up well every night."
"Yes, I will," said Jane. "I hope you'll have a good time and a splendidchange."
"I'm sure of the change," said Matilda, swinging herself up with anagility bred of her liberal diet on stiles. "Five years,--will you onlythink of it?"
The driver picked up the reins, gave them a slap, and the expedition wasoff.
Matilda Drew was really "gone off on a visit."
"Think of it," said Katie Croft, who, despite her town-name of "Katie,"was a gray-haired woman of fifty. "Think of it! A vacation! What lucksome folks have. I shall never have a vacation in all--" her voiceceased, and she continued sweeping down the steps, the stage passing outof sight as she did so.
Meanwhile Jane had re-entered the house and carefully closed the doorafter her. She felt curiously freed in spirit, and that subtly supremejoy of seeing a helplessly bad situation delivered bound and gagged intoone's hands to be mended was hers.
"I'll go straight and ask about auntie's breakfast first," she thought,mounting the staircase. To her light tap at the door, a feeble "come in"responded. She entered then and observed, with a slight start, that theinvalid had just been up. The blind was drawn, and a pair of kicked-offslippers betrayed a hasty jump back into bed. Her eyes sought Susan's inexplanation. "I didn't know that you could move about," she said, with apleased look.
Susan's little, sharp nose had an apologetic appearance, as it showedover the sheet-fold. "I can get about a little, days when I'm strong,"she explained, "and I wanted to see her off. I wanted to see if shereally did go." She paused, gave a sharp choke and gasp, and thenwaited.
Jane leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I will try very hard to makeyou comfortable and happy," she said gently.
Susan rather shrunk together in the bed. "What kind of a girl are you,anyhow?" she asked suddenly and sharply. "Are you really religious, ordo you only just go to church?"
"I try to do what's right," her niece answered simply.
The invalid contemplated her intently. "It can be pretty hard livingwith any one that tries to do right," she said. "My experience is thatgood people is often more trying than bad ones. Maybe it's just thatI've had more to do with them, though. I suppose Matilda told you abouteverything and the garden and all?"
"Yes, I think I know what to see to."
"And the cat?--and his stealing?"
"Yes, she told me about him."
"The garden must be weeded," Susan pronounced, sinking down deep intothe bed. "Don't you ever forget that. And that cat has got to befed--and well fed, too--even if he does steal."
Jane watched her disappear beneath the bedclothes.
"Auntie," she said, "I've got lots of funny ideas, and one of them isthat it's wicked not to be just as happy as possible every minute. NowI'm to be here three weeks, and I think that I ought to be able to makethem a real change for you as well as for Aunt Matilda. We'll begin withyour breakfast. You tell me what you like best, and I'll fix it foryou--"
Susan's head came up out of the bed-clothes with the suddenness of a boyrising from a dive. "If I can have anything I want," she cried, "I wantsome hot tea--some boiling hot tea, some tea made with water that'sboiling as hard as it can boil. And I want the pot hot. Burning hotbefore the tea goes in."
Jane started. "I thought you liked your tea cold."
Susan's eyes fairly snapped. "Well, I don't. I don't like nothing cold.I like everything hot."
Jane moved towards the door. "I'll go and make some right away," shesaid.
Susan's small, bright eyes looked after her very hard indeed. "I wonderif you really mean what you say about my doing what I please."
"Of course I mean what I say."
"Then I want to go back into my own room."
The niece stopped. "Isn't this your room?" she asked in surprise.
"No, this is the nearest room to the top of the stairs. I'll show youwhich is my room." With a quick leap she was out of bed.
"Barefooted!" cried Jane.
"I'll get into slippers quick enough, and I always wear stockings inbed. It's one of my peculiar ways. I'm very peculiar." She was runningout of the room. Jane followed, astonished at the strength andsteadiness of the bedridden.
"But I thought that--that you were always in bed," she stammered.
Susan stopped short and turned about. "It was the pleasantest way to getalong," she said briefly. "I guess that you've a really kind heart, soI'll trust you and tell you the truth. Matilda wasn't here very longbefore I see that if her patience wasn't to give out, I'd got to beginto fail. I went to bed, and I've failed ever since. I've failed steady.It's been the only thing to do. It wasn't easy, but it was that or havethings a lot harder. So I failed."
Jane stared in amazement, and then suddenly the fun of it all overcameher, and she burst out laughing. Susan laughed, too. "It was all I coulddo," she repeated over and over.
"And so you failed," said her niece, still laughing.
"Yes, and so I failed."
"Mercy on us, it's the funniest thing I ever heard in all my life,"exclaimed the Sunshine Nurse.
"It ain't always been funny for me," said Susan, "but come, now, I wantto show you my room."
She opened a door as she spoke and led the way into a dark,musty-smelling place. It was the work of only a minute to draw the blindand throw up the window. "Right after we've had breakfast, we'll cleanit," the aunt declared, "and then I'll move right back in. Husband andme had this room for twenty long years together. He was a saving man,and most of what he was intending to save when I wanted to buy thingswas told me in this room. Whatever I wanted he always said I could have,and then when it came night, he said I couldn't. The room is full ofmemories for me--sad memories--but after he was mercifully snatched toeverlasting blessedness, I grew fond of it. It's a nice room."
"I think I'll get your tea," said Jane, "and then I'll clean this roomand help you move in
to it. We'll have you all settled before noon."
She turned and ran down to the kitchen. The kettle was singing, and shestuffed more wood in under it and began to hunt for a tray and the otherconcomitants of an up-stairs breakfast. Things were not easily found.
"Well, I declare!" a voice at the window behind her exclaimed, as shewas down on her knees getting a tray-cloth out of a lower drawer. Thevoice gave her a violent start, being a man's. She sprang to her feetand faced about.
"I'm sorry; I thought you'd know me." It was the artist of the daybefore, the young man who had come down in the stage.
"It's so early." She went to the window and shook hands. "But I'm gladto see you, anyhow."
"I always get up at six and walk five miles before breakfast when I'm inthe country," he explained.
"Do you really? What enterprise!"
"And so this is where you've come. Why, it's the quaintest old placethat I ever saw. A regular tangle of picturesque possibilities. Who areyou visiting?"
"I'm taking care of my invalid aunt while my other aunt has a littlerest."
"Is she very ill?"
"Oh, no. But this is her tea that I'm making, and I must take it up toher now."
"I'll go, then. But may I come again--and sketch?"
"I can't have company. I'll be too busy."
"Can't I help with the work?"
He was so pleasant and jolly that she couldn't help laughing. "I'mafraid not," she said, shaking her head.
He stood with his hand on the window-sash. "Do you know my name?" heasked.
"No."
"It's Lorenzo, Lorenzo Rath. I've to grow famous with that name. Thinkof it."
She laughed again.
"I can draw the outside of the house, anyhow--can't I?"
"Dear me, I suppose so,"--she picked up the tray,--"you must go now,though. Good-by."
"Good-by," he cried after her.
"Oh, see the steam," was Susan's exultant exclamation, as she enteredher room. "I ain't seen steam coming out of a teapot's nose for upwardsof three years. Matilda just couldn't seem to stand my taking my teahot, and she's my only sister, and I humor her. Who was you talking to?"
"A man who came down on the stage yesterday. He was out walking anddidn't know that I lived here."
"Oh, a love affair!" cried Susan, in high-keyed ecstasy. "He's fallen inlove with you, and like enough was prowling around all night. Oh! Howinteresting! I ain't seen a love affair close to for years." She was sogenuinely joyful that Jane felt sorry to dampen the enthusiasm.
"I don't believe you'll see one now," she said, smiling good-humoredly."You see, I don't mean to marry, Auntie. I'm a Sunshine Nurse, and theyhave their hands too full for that kind of thing."
"A nurse! I didn't know you were a nurse."
"A Sunshine Nurse is a person who does what doctors can't alwaysdo,--who makes folk well."
"Are you going to make me well?"
"Yes," said Jane, resolutely.
Susan stopped eating and looked at her with an expression full ofcontradictory feelings. "I shall like it," she said slowly. "But, oh my!Matilda won't. Why, she--" she paused. "Oh, I _do_ wonder if I can trustyou?"
"Anybody can trust me," said Jane. "It's part of my training to behonest."
"Dear me, but that's a good idea," said Susan, with sincerest approval."Well, if I can trust you, I don't mind telling you that it's takenconsiderable care for me to live along with Matilda. I don't meananything against her--not rat-poison nor anything like that, youknow?--but she hasn't just approved of my living; she's looked upon itas a waste of her time. And I've had to manage pretty careful inconsequence. You see, she's my only sister, and she'd have my propertyanyhow, but if I had to have a nurse or a woman to look out for me long,there'd be no property to leave. She's real sensible, and we both knowjust how it is, but it's been pleasantest for me to stay more and morein bed and kind of catch at things as I walk, and once in a while Idon't eat all day, and so it keeps up her hope and keeps thingspleasant."
Jane looked paralyzed. "How can you go without food all day?"
Susan considered a little. Then she took a big drink of hot tea andconfessed. "I don't really. I watch till she goes to the garden, andthen I skip down-stairs and make a good meal and lay it all on the cat."
Jane sank down on the foot of the bed and burst out laughing again.Again she just couldn't help it. Susan laughed, too; first softly andgingerly, then in a way almost as hearty as her niece's.
"Oh me, oh my," the latter declared, after a minute, wiping her eyes."Well, we'll have a very lively three weeks, I see."
"Oh, yes," Susan exclaimed, "and we'll have liver and bacon, and I'llsee the neighbors when they come in. I give up seeing them because itmade so much trouble, and the way I'm made is--'Anything for peace.'That's what I always used to say to husband, whatever he said. Firstalong I used to say real things, but all the last years I just saidwhatever he said; anything for peace."
"You've finished your tea now," said Jane, rising. "I'll take the traydown while you dress a bit, and then we'll move you into the otherroom."
"Oh, and _how_ I will enjoy it," cried Susan, clasping her hands inecstasy. "Oh, you Sunshine Jane, you--how glad I am you've come."
"I'm glad, too," said Jane. "We'll have an awfully nice time."
She ran down-stairs with the tray and found Madeleine sitting in thekitchen, waiting. "Why, how long have you been here?" she asked.
Madeleine lifted a rather mournful countenance and tried to smile. "Oh,Miss Grey. I'm so blue. I can't stand this place at all, I don'tbelieve. My situation is going to be unbearable."
"What's the matter with it?"
"It's so small and petty and spiteful. All last evening I had to sit andlisten to gossip. I hate personalities. Why, whatever I do is going tobe seen and talked about the minute I do it."
Jane looked grave. "That nice woman who came out to meet you didn't looklike a gossip."
"She isn't, but she sits and listens, and every once in a while shethrows oil on the fire by saying, '_I_ never believed the story.'"
"Who did the talking?"
"The neighbors--a woman named Mrs. Mead, who came in with her daughter.The mother was old-fashioned in her ideas, and the daughter was new.That old man in the stage stopped there, you know."
"My aunt spoke of them last evening," said Jane; "she said that EmilyMead was picked out to marry that young man who came down with us."
Madeleine laughed and then blushed. "I'm afraid not," she said. "I knowhim. He won't marry anybody here."
Jane turned and began to put away the breakfast things.
"Don't be bored," she said gently. "Put on this extra apron, and help mewash these dishes; and then I'll set the kitchen to rights and get readyto move my aunt into another bedroom. She's an invalid, you know."
"What kind of a person is your aunt?"
"Awfully nice," began Jane, but was stopped by the sudden opening of thehall door.
There stood Susan, all dressed.
"It seems good to have clothes on again," she remarked calmly; "I ain'tbeen dressed for upwards of three years."
Then she saw Madeleine. "How do you do," she said, holding out her hand."I suppose you're the Miss Mar from Deborah's?"
"Yes, I am," Madeleine admitted, smiling.
"My, but you look good to me," said Susan; "it's so nice to see astrange face. You see, I've been in bed for a long time, and I give upseeing strangers long before that." She sat down on one of the kitchenchairs and beamed on them both, turn and turn about. "Husband alwaysthought that strangers was pickpockets," she said, "but I like to lookat 'em. My, but I will enjoy these next weeks. You see, I live with mysister," she explained to Madeleine, "and I've had a pretty hard time.My sister's got a good heart, but maybe you know how awful hard it is tolive with that kind of people. It's been pleasanter to stay in bed."
"But you won't do that any more, Auntie," said Jane, moving busilyabout.
"No, indeed I won't. You see," a
gain to Madeleine, "she was my onlysister, so I humored her. It's the only way to get on with some people.But you can even humor folks too much, and she got a disease they callthe Euphrates all up and down her ear and her elbow, just from beinghumored too much. So she's gone off for a change."
"What are you doing?" Madeleine asked Jane.
"Making waffles. I thought it would be fun to eat them hot right now."
Susan fairly shrieked with joy. "I ain't so much as smelt one sincehusband died. Waffles in the morning, and I'm so awful hungry, too. Oh,Jane, the Lord will surely set a crown of glory on your head the minuteHe sees it. Your feet won't be into heaven when the crown goes on. Howdid you ever think of it?"
Jane brought out the iron, laughing as she did so. "Why, Auntie, it'spart of my training."
"Cooking waffles in the morning?"
"No. Giving joy. If I think of any way to give pleasure and don't do it,I count it a sin. To make more happiness is all the work of a SunshineNurse."
"Isn't that splendid?" Susan appealed to Madeleine.
Madeleine's great, beautiful eyes were lifted towards the other girl'sface with an expression mysterious in its longing. "Teach me the gift,"she said; "I want to make more happiness, too."
"We'll be her class," exclaimed Susan, "just you and me."
"The first lesson is eating waffles," Jane announced solemnly.
"And me, too," cried a voice in the kitchen window, and there wasLorenzo Rath back for his second call that day, and it not yet teno'clock. "I've been to Mrs. Cowmull's and eaten breakfast, and I'm ashungry as a wolf." He came in through the window as he spoke.
"Oh, a young man!" cried Susan. "I ain't seen a young man since the lasttime the pump broke. Oh, my! Ain't this jolly? Ain't this fun?"
"You show Madeleine where to find plates and forks and knives, Auntie,"said Jane. "Here, Mr. Rath, I'll break two more eggs and you can beatthem. I haven't made enough batter, if there's a man to eat, too."
"I feel as if I'd leave Mrs. Cowmull's to-morrow and come here toboard," said Lorenzo. "Could I?" His tone was very earnest.
"No, you couldn't," said Jane firmly.
"Oh, let him," exclaimed Susan, from the pantry, where she was gettingout plates. "It'll make Mrs. Cowmull so mad, and I ain't made any onemad for years and years. I'd so revel to be human again. And it would beso nice having a man about, too."
"I couldn't think of it," said Jane, getting very crimson.
Madeleine looked at the artist.
"Then I shall leave Mrs. Cowmull's, anyway," said Lorenzo, decidedly; "Ishall look up another place at once. Why, that woman would drive me mad.She says something ridiculous every time she opens her mouth. She askedme this morning if I'd ever climbed to the top of the Kreutzer Sonata."
"What did you say?" Madeleine asked.
"I told her no, but I'd been to the bottom of the Campanile and seenthem getting out coal from the mine there."
"Well, that showed you'd seen some sights, anyhow," said Susan,placidly.
"The waffles are done!" Jane announced. They all drew up round thetable.
"This is living," the invalid exclaimed. "If my sister would only nevercome back!"
"Maybe she won't!" suggested Lorenzo.
"I wouldn't like her to die," said Susan, gravely. "I'm sensitive overfeeling people better off dead. But if she'd marry, it would be nice."
"For the man?" queried Lorenzo.
"For us all," said Susan, gravely.
"Just exactly the right thing is going to happen to her and everybody,"said Jane, firmly--dividing the waffles as she spoke.
"Are you so sure?" the artist asked, looking a little amused.
Susan noticed the look. "She's a Sunshine Nurse," she explained quickly."It's her religion to be like that. She can't help it. She's promised."