VI
SUSAN CLEGG UPROOTED
Many things against which we protest bitterly at first we eventuallycome to accept and possibly even to enjoy. It was that way, to a degreeat least, with the reconstruction of the houses of Susan Clegg and herfriend Mrs. Lathrop, neither lady being particularly charmed with theidea when it was originally presented, and Miss Clegg being even franklydispleased with the plans that were sent down for approval. But theplans were accepted, nevertheless, after some alterations, and by easystages Susan Clegg and Mrs. Lathrop arrived at that degree of philosophywhich enabled them to face with commendable composure the fact that theymust vacate their dwellings for an indefinitely extended period.
It was not that Miss Clegg had ceased to entertain doubts as to theadvisability of "being renovated," nor was it that Mrs. Lathrop lookedforward gladly to a temporary transplanting of herself and her rocker.But Jathrop's glory as a millionaire was now so strongly to the fore intheir minds that both bowed, more or less resignedly, to his wishes.
"I must say I d'n know how this thing is going to work out in the end,"Susan observed to Mrs. Lathrop, as the date set for the beginning of thework drew nearer. "I'm against it myself, but I ain't against Jathrop,so I'm giving up my views just to see what will happen. My own opinionis as it's all very well to build over most anything, but if your houseis to be built over, you've got to get out of it, and I must say as Idon't just see as yet when we get out of our houses what we're going toget into. Jathrop says we can go to the hotel, and that he'll pay thebill. Well, I must say it's good he'd pay the bill, for I'd never go toany hotel if somebody else didn't pay the bill--I know that. But evenif I haven't got the bill to pay, I don't feel so raving, raring mad togo to the hotel. It wouldn't matter to you, Mrs. Lathrop, for nothingever does matter to you, and anyway, even if anything had mattered toyou before, you'd not mind it now that Jathrop's come back. But just thesame a hotel does matter to me. They take very little interest in theirhousekeeping in hotels, and no matter who's eat off of what, if they canuse it again--and they generally can--they always do. Why, they churn upthe melted odds and ends of ice-cream and serve 'em out as fresh-madewith that cheerful countenance as loveth no giver. And what we'd throwto the cat they scrape right back into the soup pot, and glad enough toget it. I don't suppose you'd mind what you ate, nor what kind of acloth had dusted your plate, but I was brought up to be clean, and Idon't want to sleep with spiders swinging themselves down to see how Ido it. No, Mrs. Lathrop, I can't consider no hotel, not even in commonaffection for Jathrop. I'd go down a well on my hands and knees to digcoal for him if necessary, or I'd do any other thing as a woman asrespects Jathrop might do if she didn't respect herself more. But livein a hotel I will not, and you can write and tell him so, for _I_ don'twant to hurt his feelings. But all kindness has its limits, and if I leta boy architect run through the heart of my house, I consider as I'vedone enough to prove my Christian spirit for one year."
"What--?" ventured Mrs. Lathrop, but Susan Clegg went right on.
"I don't see where we're ever going to put our things while they haulour walls down and rock our foundations. That young man says there won'tbe a room as won't have to have something done to it, and I don't wantmy furniture spoiled, even if I do have to have my house built overagainst my will. My furniture is very good furniture, Mrs. Lathrop. It'sbeen oiled, and rubbed, and polished ever since it was bought, and noneof the chairs has ever had their middles stepped on, and nothing ofmine has got a sunk hole from sitting,--no, sir! My mattresses is allslept even, from side to side, and there ain't a bottle-mark in thewhole house. It's a sin to take and wreck a happy home like mine. Ishall have untold convenience hereafter, but I shall never take any morereal comfort. That's what I see a-coming. And where under the sun we aregoing to put our things the Lord only knows."
Mrs. Lathrop was one of those who rarely take a question as a personalmatter. She made no suggestion; she just rocked.
"I can see what I've got to be doing," said Susan, a clearer lightbreaking. "I've got to be getting up and seeing where you and me can go,and where we can put our goods. I don't want to live under the same roofwith you if I can possibly help it. And not to do it's going to be hard,for knowing we're such friends, folks is going to naturally plan to takeus together. I don't want to hurt your feelings, Mrs. Lathrop, and yet Ican't in Christian courtesy deny that to live with you would drive medistracted, and so I shan't consider it for a minute. Not for one singleminute. Still, I can't live far from you, for we are old friends, andthe brother that leaveth all else to cleave to his brother wasn't moreclose when he done it than I am to you. Besides, if they're building ourhouses over, I shall naturally be pretty lively in watching them do it,and as one of the houses is yours, you'll like to be where I can easytell you how it's being done. And so it goes without saying we've got tobe close together. But not too close together."
All these premises were so undeniably true that the passive Mrs. Lathropcould not have gainsaid them even had she been so disposed; which shewasn't.
Accordingly, upon the very next day, Susan began her search for anabiding place, and the right abiding place was--as she hadpredicted--not to be easily found.
"There's plenty of places," said Susan, when she returned from her task,"but they don't any of them suit my views. You're easily suited, Mrs.Lathrop, but I'm not and never will be. I'm of a nature that never is tobe lightly took in vain, nor yet to be just lightly took either. And noone isn't going to put me in a room that'll be sunny in July, nor yet inone that will be shady in September. No room as is pleasant in Septembercan help being most hot in summer; and although I'm willing to be hot inmy own house, I will not be hot in any place where I pay board. You'lldo very well almost anywhere, Mrs. Lathrop, for Lord knows whateverother virtues you may have, being particular could never be left at yourdoor in no orphaned basket. But I'm different. Mrs. Brown would take usuntil young Doctor Brown and Amelia gets back, and Mrs. Allen would beglad of the very dust of our feet; but I couldn't go to either of thosetwo places. Mrs. Brown would have to have both of us, for there's no oneelse to take you, and Mrs. Allen would want to read us her poetry. It'sall right to write if you ain't got brains or time for nothing better,but I have, and I ain't going to knowingly board myself with no one ashasn't."
Mrs. Lathrop made no comment. She merely rocked and waited.
"As for our things," Susan continued, "I've found where we can put_them_. It wasn't easy, but I never give up, and Mr. Shores says he'swilling we should have all the back of his upper part. I told him as Ishould want to be able to go to 'em any time, and he said far be it fromhim to desire to prevent no woman from visiting what was her own. Icould see from his tone as he was thinking of his wife as run off withhis clerk, and it does beat all how you can even make a misery out of awoman's visiting her furniture if you feel so inclined. So the goods isoff our minds, and now it's just us as has got to be put somewheres tillour own doors is opened to us again. I must say I'd like to know wherewe'll end."
On the very next day the solution was effected.
"I've got it all fixed," said Susan, returning, dovelike, with theevening shadows. "Mrs. Macy'll take one of us and Gran'ma Mullins theother. Gran'ma Mullins says with Hiram gone to the Klondike and Lucygone to her father, either you or me can have their room; only for thelove of heaven we mustn't look like Hiram in bed; for her heart isaching and breaking, and the car-wheels of his train ain't grinding onany track half as much as they're grinding in her tenderest spot. Nowthe question is, Mrs. Lathrop, which'll go which, and it's a thing as Imust consider very carefully, for Lord knows I don't want to be no moremiserable than I've got to be. And it goes without saying I wouldn'tchoose to live with Gran'ma Mullins, nor Mrs. Macy, nor nobody else if Ihad my choice. I'm too much give to liking to live alone with myself. Ofcourse, Mrs. Macy is a pleasanter disposition than Gran'ma Mullins, forshe ain't got Hiram to wear my bones into skin over; but I feel asliving with Mrs. Macy all summer will surely lead to her try
ing to makeit come out even for the rent up to next January, so I would have toworry over that. Then, too, even if Gran'ma Mullins is wearing, she'ssoothing too, and I shall need soothing this summer. I declare, Mrs.Lathrop, I can't well see how I'm ever going to pack up my things. Ican't see what's to keep 'em from getting scratched and the cornersknocked. How can I fix a toilet set smooth together? A toilet set don'tnever fit smooth together; the handles always stick out. And thefrying-pan's got a handle too, and a clothesbar ain't any ways adaptableto nothing. Chair legs is very bad and table legs is worse, and there'sMother's wedding-present clock as found its level years ago and ain'tbeen stirred since. Father give it to her, and it's so heavy I couldn'tstir it if I wanted to, anyhow. But I don't want to stir it. It's mydead mother's last wish, and as such is sacred. I wasn't to stir Fathernor the clock. It's a French clock, and it's marble. It's a handsomeclock. It was Father's one handsome present to Mother. And now I've gotto put it in storage. And then there's our hens. I don't know but whatit'd be wisest to set right to eating them. I know one thing--I'll neverboard chickens. Oh, Mrs. Lathrop, this is going to be an awful business!Think of the carpets! Think of the window shades, and my dead mother'slamberquins! Think of the things in the garret! And the things in thecellar! And the things in the closets! I don't know, I'm sure, how we'llever get moved."
As the days went on, the slow trend of life brought the problem stillmore pressingly to the front. Susan decided to lodge herself withGran'ma Mullins. Gran'ma Mullins, whose heart was still very heavy overHiram's escape from the home nest, would have preferred Mrs. Lathrop.Mrs. Lathrop's capacity for listening would have meant much to Gran'maMullins in these hours of bitter loneliness; but Mrs. Macy wanted Mrs.Lathrop, and Susan didn't want Mrs. Macy, so the outcome of thatquestion was a fore-gone conclusion.
When all was settled, Jathrop dispatched emissaries who, with a deftnessand dexterity possessed only by the hirelings of millionaires, descendedon Mrs. Lathrop, and in the course of a single afternoon transferredher, her rocker, and the whole contents of her bedroom to Mrs. Macy's.The emissaries offered to do the same thing for Susan Clegg, but sherejected their aid. Alone and unassisted Susan wrestled with herpacking, and no one ever knew just how she accomplished it. It took herseveral days, and it introduced a new order of things into not only herlife but her speech. Her struggle was valiant, but towards the end shehad to call on Felicia Hemans and Sam Durny for help. When, on Saturdaynight, Susan arrived at Gran'ma Mullins's, her first observation wasthat when the Lord got through with the creation it was small wonder Hearranged to rest on the seventh day.
"I d'n know as I shall ever get up again," she said to Gran'ma Mullins,who was watching her take off her bonnet. "A apron as has been used tocarry things in for six days is bright and starched beside me. Oh,Gran'ma Mullins, pray on your folded knees as Hiram won't come back richand want to build you over! Anything but that."
"Oh, if he'll only come back, it's all I'll ask!" returned Gran'maMullins sadly. "To think he can't get there for four weeks yet. Andthink of Hiram in a boat! Why Hiram can't even see a mirror tipped backand forth without having to go right where he'll be the only company.And then to be in a boat! A boat is such a tippy thing. I read about oneman being drowned in one last week. They're hooking for him withdynamite to see if they can even get a piece of him back for his wife.His wife isn't much like Lucy, I guess. Oh, Susan, you'll never knowwhat I've stood from Lucy! Nobody will."
Miss Clegg shook her head and looked about her quarters with an eye thatwas dubious.
"I've got some eggs for supper," said Gran'ma Mullins, "one for you andone for me, and one for either of us as can eat two."
"I can eat two," said Susan, who thought best to declare herself at theoutset.
"Is your things all out of the house?" Gran'ma Mullins asked, as theyseated themselves at the table.
"Oh, yes," answered Susan, "everything is out! Towards the last we actedmore like hens being fed than anything else, but we got everythingfinished."
"Did you get the clock out safe?"
Susan's expression altered suddenly. "The clock! Oh, the clock! What_do_ you think happened to that clock? And I didn't feel to mind it,either."
"Oh, Susan, you didn't break it!"
"I did. And in sixty thousand flinders. And I'm glad, too. Very glad.It's a sad thing as how we may be found out, no matter how careful wesweep up our trackings. And I don't mind telling you as the bitterestpill in my cup of clearing out has been that very same clock."
"It was such a handsome clock," said Gran'ma Mullins, opening hernaturally open countenance still wider. "Oh, Susan! What did happen?"
"You thought it was a handsome clock," said Susan, "and so did I. It wassuch a handsome clock that we weren't allowed to pick it up and look atit. Father screwed it down with big screws, so we couldn't, and he wet'em so they rusted in. I had a awful time getting those screws outto-day, I can tell you. You get a very different light on a dead andgone father when you're trying to get out screws that he wet thirty-fiveyears ago. Me on a stepladder digging under the claws of a clock for twomortal hours! And when I got the last one out, I had to climb down andwake my foot up before I could do the next thing. Then I got a block anda bed-slat, and I proceeded very carefully to try how heavy thathandsome clock--that handsome marble clock--might be. I put the blockbeside it, and I put the bed-slat over the block and under the clock.Then I climbed my ladder again, and then I bore down on the bed-slat.Well, Gran'ma Mullins, you can believe me or not, just as you please,but it's a solemn fact that nothing but the ceiling stopped that clockfrom going sky-high. And nothing but the floor stopped me from fallingthrough to China. I come down to earth with such a bang as broughtFelicia Hemans running. And the stepladder shut up on me with suchanother bang as brought Sam Durny."
"The saints preserve us!" ejaculated Gran'ma Mullins.
"It wasn't a marble clock a _tall_," confessed Susan. "It was paintedwood. That was why Father screwed it down. Oh, men are such deceivers!And the best wife in the world can't develop 'em above their naturalnatures. I expect it was always a real pleasure to Father to think asMother and me didn't know that marble clock was wood. I don't know whatthere is about a man as makes his everyday character liking to deceiveand his Sunday sense of righteousness satisfied with just calling itfooling. Well, he's gone now, and the Bible says 'to him as hath shallbe given,' so I guess he's settling up accounts somewheres. Give me theother egg!"
After supper they stepped over to Mrs. Macy's, which was next door, andthe four sat on the piazza in the pleasant spring twilight. Mrs. Macywas so happy over having Mrs. Lathrop instead of Susan Clegg that shesmiled perpetually. Mrs. Lathrop sat and rocked in her old-gold-plushrocker. Gran'ma Mullins and Susan Clegg occupied the step at the feet ofthe other two.
"Well, Susan," Mrs. Macy remarked meditatively, "I never looked to seeyou leave your house any way except feet first. Well, well, thiscertainly is a funny world."
"Yes," returned Susan, brief for once, "it certainly is."
"It's a very sad world, I think," contributed Gran'ma Mullins with aheavy, heavy sigh. "My goodness, to think this time last spring Hiramwas spading up the potato patch! And now where is he?"
"Nobody knows," answered Susan. "See how many years it was till Jathropcome back. But I do hope for your sake, Gran'ma Mullins, that when Hiramdoes come back he won't take it into his head to buy this house andbuild it over for you."
Gran'ma Mullins looked at Mrs. Macy, and Mrs. Macy looked back atGran'ma Mullins, and a message flashed and was answered in the glances.
"Well, Susan," said Gran'ma Mullins with neighborly interest, "you dosee that the house needs fixing up, don't you?"
Susan was the owner and Mrs. Macy only the tenant, and the implicationwas not at all pleasing to her. She turned with the air of the weariestworm that had ever done so and gave Gran'ma Mullins a look that couldonly be translated as an admonition to mind her own business. WhereuponGran'ma Mullins promptly subsided, and the subject did n
ot come upagain.
It was on a Monday--the very next Monday--that the workmen arrived andset to work to demolish the outer casing of the homes of Susan and Mrs.Lathrop. Susan went up and stood about for an hour, viewing the way theydid it with great but resigned scorn. She went every day thereafter, andher heart was rent at the sight of the sacrilege. Then, to add to herwoe, Gran'ma Mullins proved less soothing than had been expected, andSusan suffered keenly at her hands.
"Oh, Mrs. Lathrop," she said one morning, when the exigencies ofshopping left the two old friends full freedom of intercourse, "if I'mgoing to live in that house for this whole summer, the first thing thatI'll have to do is either to change Gran'ma Mullins or change me! I cansee that. Why, I never heard anything like Gran'ma Mullins' views onHiram. You've heard Mrs. Macy, and I've told you what Lucy's told mewhenever I've met her, but I never had no idea it was anything likewhat it is. I'm stark, raving crazy hearing about Hiram. Gran'ma Mullinssays no child was ever like Hiram, and I begin to wonder if it ain't so.No child ever made such an impression on his mother before,--I can takemy Bible oath on that, for she's talking about him from the time I waketill long after I'm asleep,--and she remembers things in the stillnessof the night and wakes me up to hear 'em for fear she'll forget 'embefore morning. Last night she was up at two to tell me how Hiram usedto shut his eyes before he went to sleep when he was a baby. She said hehad a different way of doing it from any other child that's ever beenborn. He picked it all up by himself. She couldn't possibly tell me justhow he did it, but it was most remarkable. He had it in May and wellinto June the year he was born, but along in July he began to lose it,and by October he opened and shut just like other people's babies.That's what I was woke up to hear, Mrs. Lathrop, and Herod was a sweetand good-tempered mother of ten compared to me as I listened. And thenat daybreak if she didn't come in again to explain as Hiram was sodifferent from all other babies that he crept before he walked, and thefirst of his trying to walk he climbed up a chair leg."
"Why, Jathrop--" volunteered Mrs. Lathrop.
"Of course. They all do. But I must say I don't see how I'm going tostand it till my house is ready to receive me back with open bosom ifthis is the way she's going on straight along. I wouldn't stay with Mrs.Macy because I was tired of hearing what she said Gran'ma Mullins saidabout Hiram, but it never once struck me that if I stayed with Gran'maMullins I'd have it all to hear straight from the fountain mouth. Mylands alive, Mrs. Lathrop, you never hear the beat! Hiram used towrinkle up his face when she washed it, and he never wanted to have abath. And he used to bring mud turtles into the house; and when shethinks of that and how now he's off for the Klondike, she says she feelslike going straight after him. She says she could be very useful in theKlondike. She could polish his pick and his sled-runners, and hang uphis snowy things, and wash out his gold and his clothes. She says shecan't just see how they wash out gold, but she knows how to polishsilver, and she says mother-love like hers can pick up anything. Shegoes on and on till I feel like going to the Klondike myself. I'mgetting a great deal of sympathy for Lucy. Lucy always said she couldhave been happy with Hiram--maybe--if it hadn't been for his mother.Lucy's got no kind of tender feeling for Gran'ma Mullins, and Icertainly don't feel to blame her none."
"Is your--?" asked Mrs. Lathrop, striving towards pleasanter paths.
"Well, it ain't burnt up yet," answered Susan. "I stopped at Mr. Shores'coming back and took a look at it, and I was far from pleased to findthe door as opens into the next room to the room as my furniture islocked up in a little open. Goodness knows who'd opened it, but itlooked very much like some one had been trying my door, to me. I askedMr. Shores, and I saw at a glance as it was news to him, which showsjust how much interest he's taking in looking out for my things. He saidmaybe the cat had pushed it open. The cat! I unlocked my door and wentin. The furniture's all safe enough, but it's enough to put anyhousekeeper's heart through the clothes wringer only to see how it'spiled. The beds is smashed flat along the wall, and wherever they couldturn a table or a chair upside down and plant something on the wrongside of it, they've done it. As for the way the dishes is combined, Ican only say that the Lord fits the back to the burden, so thewash-bowls is bearing everything. They've put Mother's picture in acoal-hod for safety, and the coal-hod is sitting on the bookcase. It's afar from cheering sight, Mrs. Lathrop, but you know I was against beingbuilt over from the start. When I see the walls of my happy home beingsmashed flat and then picked over like they was raisins to see what'lldo to use again, and then when I see my furniture put together in a wayas no one living can make head or tail of, and when I see myself woke upat three in the night to be told that sometimes when Hiram was a baby hewould go to sleep and sometimes he wouldn't, why I feel as if that Romanas they rolled down hill in a barrel because he wouldn't stay anywhereelse where they put him was sitting smoking cross-legged compared to me.I d'n know what I'm going to do this summer. It would just drive anordinary woman crazy. But I presume I'll survive."
Mrs. Lathrop looked slightly saddened. "Well, Susan,--" she began tomurmur sympathetically.
"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Susan. "Of course, if it gets where Ican't stand it, we'll just have to change houses, that's all."