CLOVER
by
SUSAN COOLIDGE
Author of "What Katy Did," "Mischief's Thanksgiving,""Nine Little Goslings," etc.
Illustrated by JESSIE McDERMOT
BostonLittle, Brown, and CompanyAlfred Mudge & Son, Inc., Printers,Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
1907
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. A TALK ON THE DOORSTEPS
II. THE DAY OF HAPPY LETTERS
III. THE FIRST WEDDING IN THE FAMILY
IV. TWO LONG YEARS IN ONE SHORT CHAPTER
V. CAR FORTY-SEVEN
VI. ST. HELEN'S
VII. MAKING ACQUAINTANCE
VIII. HIGH VALLEY
IX. OVER A PASS
X. NO. 13 PIUTE STREET
XI. THE LAST OF THE CLOVER-LEAVES
CHAPTER I.
A TALK ON THE DOORSTEPS.
It was one of those afternoons in late April which are as mild and balmyas any June day. The air was full of the chirps and twitters ofnest-building birds, and of sweet indefinable odors from half-developedleaf-buds and cherry and pear blossoms. The wisterias overhead werethickly starred with pointed pearl-colored sacs, growing purpler with eachhour, which would be flowers before long; the hedges were quickening intolife, the long pensile willow-boughs and the honey-locusts hung in a mistof fine green against the sky, and delicious smells came with every puffof wind from the bed of white violets under the parlor windows.
Katy and Clover Carr, sitting with their sewing on the door-steps, drew inwith every breath the sense of spring. Who does not know thedelightfulness of that first sitting out of doors after a long winter'sconfinement? It seems like flinging the gauntlet down to the powers ofcold. Hope and renovation are in the air. Life has conquered Death, and tothe happy hearts in love with life there is joy in the victory. The twosisters talked busily as they sewed, but all the time an onlyhalf-conscious rapture informed their senses,--the sympathy of that whichis immortal in human souls with the resurrection of natural things, whichis the sure pledge of immortality.
It was nearly a year since Katy had come back from that too brief journeyto Europe with Mrs. Ashe and Amy, about which some of you have read, andmany things of interest to the Carr family had happened during theinterval. The "Natchitoches" had duly arrived in New York in October, andpresently afterward Burnet was convulsed by the appearance of a tall youngfellow in naval uniform, and the announcement of Katy's engagement toLieutenant Worthington.
It was a piece of news which interested everybody in the little town, forDr. Carr was a universal friend and favorite. For a time he had been theonly physician in the place; and though with the gradual growth ofpopulation two or three younger men had appeared to dispute the groundwith him, they were forced for the most part to content themselves withdoctoring the new arrivals, and with such fragments and leavings ofpractice as Dr. Carr chose to intrust to them. None of the old establishedfamilies would consent to call in any one else if they could possibly getthe "old" doctor.
A skilful practitioner, who is at the same time a wise adviser, a helpfulfriend, and an agreeable man, must necessarily command a wide influence.Dr. Carr was "by all odds and far away," as our English cousins wouldexpress it, the most popular person in Burnet, wanted for all pleasantoccasions, and doubly wanted for all painful ones.
So the news of Katy's engagement was made a matter of personal concern bya great many people, and caused a general stir, partly because she was herfather's daughter, and partly because she was herself; for Katy had wonmany friends by her own merit. So long as Ned Worthington stayed, a sortof tide of congratulation and sympathy seemed to sweep through the houseall day long. Tea-roses and chrysanthemums, and baskets of pears and thebeautiful Burnet grapes flooded the premises, and the door-bell rang sooften that Clover threatened to leave the door open, with a cardattached,--"Walk straight in. _He_ is in the parlor!"
Everybody wanted to see and know Katy's lover, and to have him as a guest.Ten tea-drinkings a week would scarcely have contented Katy'swell-wishers, had the limitations of mortal weeks permitted such a thing;and not a can of oysters would have been left in the place if LieutenantWorthington's leave had lasted three days longer. Clover and Elsie loudlycomplained that they themselves never had a chance to see him; forwhenever he was not driving or walking with Katy, or having long_tete-a-tetes_ in the library, he was eating muffins somewhere, or makingcalls on old ladies whose feelings would be dreadfully hurt if he wentaway without their seeing him.
"Sisters seem to come off worst of all," protested Johnnie. But in spiteof their lamentations they all saw enough of their future brother-in-lawto grow fond of him; and notwithstanding some natural pangs of jealousy athaving to share Katy with an outsider, it was a happy visit, and every onewas sorry when the leave of absence ended, and Ned had to go away.
A month later the "Natchitoches" sailed for the Bahamas. It was to be asix months' cruise only; and on her return she was for a while to makepart of the home squadron. This furnished a good opportunity for herfirst lieutenant to marry; so it was agreed that the wedding should takeplace in June, and Katy set about her preparations in the leisurely andsimple fashion which was characteristic of her. She had no ambition for agreat _trousseau_, and desired to save her father expense; so her outfit,as compared with that of most modern brides, was a very moderate one, butbeing planned and mostly made at home, it necessarily involved thought,time, and a good deal of personal exertion.
Dear little Clover flung herself into the affair with even more interestthan if it had been her own. Many happy mornings that winter did thesisters spend together over their dainty stitches and "white seam." Elsieand Johnnie were good needle-women now, and could help in many ways. Mrs.Ashe often joined them; even Amy could contribute aid in the plainersewing, and thread everybody's needles. But the most daring andindefatigable of all was Clover, who never swerved in her determinationthat Katy's "things" should be as nice and as pretty as love and industrycombined could make them. Her ideas as to decoration soared far beyondKaty's. She hem-stitched, she cat-stitched, she feather-stitched, shelace-stitched, she tucked and frilled and embroidered, and generallyworked her fingers off; while the bride vainly protested that all thisfinery was quite unnecessary, and that simple hems and a little Hamburgedging would answer just as well. Clover merely repeated the words,"Hamburg edging!" with an accent of scorn, and went straight on in herelected way.
As each article received its last touch, and came from the laundry whiteand immaculate, it was folded to perfection, tied with a narrow blue orpale rose-colored ribbon, and laid aside in a sacred receptacle known as"The Wedding Bureau." The handkerchiefs, grouped in dozens, were strewnwith dried violets and rose-leaves to make them sweet. Lavender-bags andsachets of orris lay among the linen; and perfumes as of Araby werediscernible whenever a drawer in the bureau was pulled out.
So the winter passed, and now spring was come; and the two girls on thedoorsteps were talking about the wedding, which seemed very near now.
"Tell me just what sort of an affair you want it to be," said Clover.
"It seems more your wedding than mine, you have worked so hard for it,"replied Katy. "You might give your ideas first."
"My ideas are not very distinct. It's only lately that I have begun tothink about it at all, there has been so much to do. I'd like to have youhave a beautiful dress and a great many wedding-presents and everything aspretty as can be, but not so many bridesmaids as Cecy, because there isalways such a fuss in getting them nicely up the aisle in church and outagain,--that is as far as I've got. But so long as you are pleased, and itgoes off well, I don't care exactly how it is managed."
"Then, since you are in such an accommodating frame of mind, it seems agood time to break my views to you. Don't b
e shocked, Clovy; but, do youknow, I don't want to be married in church at all, or to have anybridesmaids, or anything arranged for beforehand particularly. I shouldlike things to be simple, and to just _happen_."
"But, Katy, you can't do it like that. It will all get into a snarl ifthere is no planning beforehand or rehearsals; it would be confused andhorrid."
"I don't see why it would be confused if there were nothing to confuse.Please not be vexed; but I always have hated the ordinary kind of wedding,with its fuss and worry and so much of everything, and just like all theother weddings, and the bride looking tired to death, and nobody enjoyingit a bit. I'd like mine to be different, and more--more--real. I don'twant any show or processing about, but just to have things nice andpretty, and all the people I love and who love me to come to it, andnothing cut and dried, and nobody tired, and to make it a sort of dear,loving occasion, with leisure to realize how dear it is and what it allmeans. Don't you think it would really be nicer in that way?"
"Well, yes, as you put it, and 'viewed from the higher standard,' as MissInches would say, perhaps it would. Still, bridesmaids and all that arevery pretty to look at; and folks will be surprised if you don't havethem."
"Never mind folks," remarked the irreverent Katy. "I don't care a buttonfor that argument. Yes; bridesmaids and going up the aisle in a longprocession and all the rest _are_ pretty to look at,--or were before theygot to be so hackneyed. I can imagine the first bridal procession up theaisle of some early cathedral as having been perfectly beautiful. Butnowadays, when the butcher and baker and candlestick-maker and everybodyelse do it just alike, the custom seems to me to have lost its charm. Inever did enjoy having things exactly as every one else has them,--allgoing in the same direction like a flock of sheep. I would like my littlewedding to be something especially my own. There was a poetical meaning inthose old customs; but now that the custom has swallowed up so much ofthe meaning, it would please me better to retain the meaning and drop thecustom."
"I see what you mean," said Clover, not quite convinced, but inclined asusual to admire Katy and think that whatever she meant must be right. "Buttell me a little more. You mean to have a wedding-dress, don't you?"doubtfully.
"Yes, indeed!"
"Have you thought what it shall be?"
"Do you recollect that beautiful white crape shawl of mamma's which papagave me two years ago? It has a lovely wreath of embroidery round it; andit came to me the other day that it would make a charming gown, with whitesurah or something for the under-dress. I should like that better thananything new, because mamma used to wear it, and it would seem as if shewere here still, helping me to get ready. Don't you think so?"
"It is a lovely idea," said Clover, the ever-ready tears dimming her happyblue eyes for a moment, "and just like you. Yes, that shall be thedress,--dear mamma's shawl. It will please papa too, I think, to have youchoose it."
"I thought perhaps it would," said Katy, soberly. "Then I have a widewhite watered sash which Aunt Izzy gave me, and I mean to have that workedinto the dress somehow. I should like to wear something of hers too, forshe was really good to us when we were little, and all that long time thatI was ill; and we were not always good to her, I am afraid. Poor AuntIzzy! What troublesome little wretches we were,--I most of all!"
"Were you? Somehow I never can recollect the time when you were not a bornangel. I am afraid I don't remember Aunt Izzy well. I just have a vaguememory of somebody who was pretty strict and cross."
"Ah, you never had a back, and needed to be waited on night and day, oryou would recollect a great deal more than that. Cousin Helen helped me toappreciate what Aunt Izzy really was. By the way, one of the two things Ihave set my heart on is to have Cousin Helen come to my wedding."
"It would be lovely if she could. Do you suppose there is any chance?"
"I wrote her week before last, but she hasn't answered yet. Of course itdepends on how she is; but the accounts from her have been pretty goodthis year."
"What is the other thing you have set your heart on? You said 'two.'"
"The other is that Rose Red shall be here, and little Rose. I wrote to herthe other day also, and coaxed hard. Wouldn't it be too enchanting? Youknow how we have always longed to have her in Burnet; and if she couldcome now it would make everything twice as pleasant."
"Katy, what an enchanting thought!" cried Clover, who had not seen Rosesince they all left Hillsover. "It would be the greatest lark that everwas to have the Roses. When do you suppose we shall hear? I can hardlywait, I am in such a hurry to have her say 'Yes.'"
"But suppose she says 'No'?"
"I won't think of such a possibility. Now go on. I suppose your principlesdon't preclude a wedding-cake?"
"On the contrary, they include a great deal of wedding-cake. I want tosend a box to everybody in Burnet,--all the poor people, I mean, and theold people and the children at the Home and those forlorn creatures at thepoor-house and all papa's patients."
"But, Katy, that will cost a lot," objected the thrifty Clover.
"I know it; so we must do it in the cheapest way, and make the cakeourselves. I have Aunt Izzy's recipe, which is a very good one; and if weall take hold, it won't be such an immense piece of work. Debby hasquantities of raisins stoned already. She has been doing them in theevenings a few at a time for the last month. Mrs. Ashe knows a factorywhere you can get the little white boxes for ten dollars a thousand, and Ihave commissioned her to send for five hundred."
"Five hundred! What an immense quantity!"
"Yes; but there are all the Hillsover girls to be remembered, and all ourkith and kin, and everybody at the wedding will want one. I don't think itwill be too many. Oh, I have arranged it all in my mind. Johnnie willslice the citron, Elsie will wash the currants, Debby measure and bake,Alexander mix, you and I will attend to the icing, and all of us will cutit up."
"Alexander!"
"Alexander. He is quite pleased with the idea, and has constructed animplement--a sort of spade, cut out of new pine wood--for the purpose. Hesays it will be a sight easier than digging flower-beds. We will set aboutit next week; for the cake improves by keeping, and as it is the heaviestjob we have to do, it will be well to get it out of the way early."
"Sha'n't you have a floral bell, or a bower to stand in, or something ofthat kind?" ventured Clover, timidly.
"Indeed I shall not," replied Katy. "I particularly dislike floral bellsand bowers. They are next worst to anchors and harps and 'floral pillows'and all the rest of the dreadful things that they have at funerals. No, wewill have plenty of fresh flowers, but not in stiff arrangements. I wantit all to seem easy and to _be_ easy. Don't look so disgusted, Clovy."
"Oh, I'm not disgusted. It's your wedding. I want you to have everythingin your own way."
"It's everybody's wedding, I think," said Katy, tenderly. "Everybody is sokind about it. Did you see the thing that Polly sent this morning?"
"No. It must have come after I went out. What was it?"
"Seven yards of beautiful nun's lace which she bought in Florence. Shesays it is to trim a morning dress; but it's really too pretty. How dearPolly is! She sends me something almost every day. I seem to be in herthoughts all the time. It is because she loves Ned so much, of course;but it is just as kind of her."
"I think she loves you almost as much as Ned," said Clover.
"Oh, she couldn't do that; Ned is her only brother. There is Amy at thegate now."
It was a much taller Amy than had come home from Italy the year before whowas walking toward them under the budding locust-boughs. Roman fever hadseemed to quicken and stimulate all Amy's powers, and she had grown veryfast during the past year. Her face was as frank and childlike as ever,and her eyes as blue; but she was prettier than when she went to Europe,for her cheeks were pink, and the mane of waving hair which framed them inwas very becoming. The hair was just long enough now to touch hershoulders; it was turning brown as it lengthened, but the ends of thelocks still shone with childish gold, and c
aught the sun in little shiningrings as it filtered down through the tree branches.
She kissed Clover several times, and gave Katy a long, close hug; thenshe produced a parcel daintily hid in silver paper.
"Tanta," she said,--this was a pet name lately invented for Katy,--"hereis something for you from mamma. It's something quite particular, I think,for mamma cried when she was writing the note; not a hard cry, you know,but just two little teeny-weeny tears in her eyes. She kept smiling,though, and she looked happy, so I guess it isn't anything very bad. Shesaid I was to give it to you with her best, _best_ love."
Katy opened the parcel, and beheld a square veil of beautiful old blonde.The note said:
This was my wedding-veil, dearest Katy, and my mother wore it before me. It has been laid aside all these years with the idea that perhaps Amy might want it some day; but instead I send it to you, without whom there would be no Amy to wear this or anything else. I think it would please Ned to see it on your head, and I know it would make me very happy; but if you don't feel like using it, don't mind for a moment saying so to
Your loving POLLY.
"Katy opened the parcel, and beheld a square veil ofbeautiful old blonde."]
Katy handed the note silently to Clover, and laid her face for a littlewhile among the soft folds of the lace, about which a faint odor of roseshung like the breath of old-time and unforgotten loves and affections.
"Shall you?" queried Clover, softly.
"Why, of course! Doesn't it seem too sweet? Both our mothers!"
"There!" cried Amy, "you are going to cry too, Tanta! I thought weddingswere nice funny things. I never supposed they made people feel badly. Isha'n't ever let Mabel get married, I think. But she'll have to stay alittle girl always in that case, for I certainly won't have her an oldmaid."
"What do you know about old maids, midget?" asked Clover.
"Why, Miss Clover, I have seen lots of them. There was that one at thePension Suisse; you remember, Tanta? And the two on the steamer when wecame home. And there's Miss Fitz who made my blue frock; Ellen said shewas a regular old maid. I never mean to let Mabel be like that."
"I don't think there's the least danger," remarked Katy, glancing at theinseparable Mabel, who was perched on Amy's arm, and who did not look aday older than she had done eighteen months previously. "Amy, we're goingto make wedding-cake next week,--heaps and heaps of wedding-cake. Don'tyou want to come and help?"
"Why, of course I do. What fun! Which day may I come?"
The cake-making did really turn out fun. Many hands made light work ofwhat would have been a formidable job for one or two. It was all donegradually. Johnnie cut the golden citron quarters into thin transparentslices in the sitting-room one morning while the others were sewing, andreading Tennyson aloud. Elsie and Amy made a regular frolic of thecurrant-washing. Katy, with Debby's assistance, weighed and measured; andthe mixture was enthusiastically stirred by Alexander, with the "spade"which he had invented, in a large new wash-tub. Then came the baking,which for two days filled the house with spicy, plum-puddingy odors; thenthe great feat of icing the big square loaves; and then the cutting up, inwhich all took part. There was much careful measurement that the slicesmight be an exact fit; and the kitchen rang with bright laughter and chatas Katy and Clover wielded the sharp bread-knives, and the others fittedthe portions into their boxes, and tied the ribbons in crisp little bows.Many delicious crumbs and odd corners and fragments fell to the share ofthe younger workers; and altogether the occasion struck Amy as soenjoyable that she announced--with her mouth full--that she had changedher mind, and that Mabel might get married as often as she pleased, if shewould have cake like _that_ every time,--a liberality of permission whichMabel listened to with her invariable waxen smile.
When all was over, and the last ribbons tied, the hundreds of little boxeswere stacked in careful piles on a shelf of the inner closet of thedoctor's office to wait till they were wanted,--an arrangement whichnaughty Clover pronounced eminently suitable, since there should alwaysbe a doctor close at hand where there was so much wedding-cake. But beforeall this was accomplished, came what Katy, in imitation of one of MissEdgeworth's heroines, called "The Day of Happy Letters."