CHAPTER XXIV
WHAT FOLLOWED THE RETURN
“Now, ole ’oman, I want you to go all over the house ’long o’ me, to see for yourself how I’ve done my duty,” said the lady from Wild Cats’, as she followed Mrs. Force from the breakfast room on the day after the return of the family to Mondreer.
“Indeed, Mrs. Anglesea, I have no doubt you have done perfectly well,” replied the mistress of the house, deprecatingly.
“Yes, but I want you to see that I have. Now come into the storeroom,” said the housekeeper, resolutely leading the way, while Mrs. Force obediently followed.
“Now look at them there rows of pickles and preserves, and jams and jellies, on them there shelves. All made by my own hands. Them on the top shelf is three years old, and all the better for their age. Them on the middle shelf was made last year, and is very good. Them on the bottom shelf is the newest, and wants a little more age on ’em.”
“I’m afraid you worked too hard in making up these things, and also denied yourself the use of them, since the shelves are so full.”
“Who? Me? Not much! I own I did work hard. I like work. But as to denying myself anything good to eat, jest you catch yours to command at it, if you can; and if you do, jest let me know, so I can consult a mad doctor to find out what’s the matter with my thinking machine. No, ma’am. I don’t deny myself nothing good to eat. You bet your pile on that. Fasting never was no means of grace to me. I had plenty of pickles and preserves at all the three meals of the day. And so had the two niggers. Lord! why, next to eating myself, I love dearly to see other people eat.”
“I am very glad you enjoyed yourself,” said Mrs. Force.
“You bet! And now look into this closet, and see the dried yerbs and roots and berries I have got here. See now!”
“A great store, indeed.”
“All gathered by my own hands, and with the dew on ’em, before the sun was up, and shaken and dried in the shade by me. And now look here at this shelf full of boxes of honey. I ’tended to it all myself. I hived eleven swarms of bees since you have been gone. And I did want to complete the dozen so much. But, Lord! it is always so. Just because I wanted to, they got away while I was at church one Sunday morning. You can’t beat any religion into bees. They didn’t mind breaking the Sabbath no more than a wild Indian. But I’ll more than make up that dozen next season, you bet.”
“You have done admirably well to have saved so many.”
“Think so? Well, now come out into the meat house, and see the barrels of salt pork and beef, all corned by my own hands, and the sugar-cured hams and the smoked tongues. Oh, I tell you!”
Mrs. Force followed her manager out of a back door into a paved yard and across it, to a small detached building of stone, set apart for the purpose to which the able housekeeper had put it.
We cannot follow the two women through all the round of inspection, into the smoke houses, meat houses, poultry yards, etc., but will only add that the lady was gratified by all she saw, and was liberal in commendation of her deputy.
“Now come into the house, and we’ll go upstairs into the linen room, and then up into the garret to look at the carpet and woolen curtains, and blankets and things, laid up in lavender for the summer, and if you find a hole unmended in anything whatsoever, or a patch put on crooked, jest you let me know it, will you, and I’ll go right straight off and consult that same mad doctor I mentioned before, to see if anything’s the matter with my headpiece.”
When the inspection of the house was entirely over Mrs. Force was very earnest in her expressions of satisfaction and gratitude to the faithful and capable manager.
“You are a much better housekeeper than I ever was, Mrs. Anglesea,” she said, as they came downstairs together.
“Why wouldn’t I be? Gifts is divers. You’ve got a gift of working in silks and worsteds, and beads and things, and playing on the pianoforty, and speaking in all the lingoes of the Tower of Babel. But you can’t keep house worth a cent. And the Lord knows what would a-become of you all if it had not been for ole Aunt Lucy. Now she’s a fairish sort of a manager, though she can’t come up to me. No, ma’am! I never graduated from no college. I can’t play on nothing but the Jew’s-harp, and I can’t speak any language but what I learned at my ole mother’s knee. But, Lord! as for good housekeeping and downright useful hard working, I can whip the coat offen the back of any man or any woman going.”
“I think that few can excel you,” said Mrs. Force, as they entered the little parlor.
“You bet!” said the lady from the diggings, as she dropped heavily into an armchair and panted. “And I didn’t learn to keep house at Wild Cats’, neither! Lord, no; there wasn’t much chance to keep house in a log cabin with a dirt floor, and not even a loft or a lean-to! It was from my good ole mother I learned all I know! And little use it was to me at Wild Cats’. And, oh! when I think of the gold diggings, and my poor ole man leaving of a comfortable home to go and live in a poor shanty, and dig in the bowels of the earth for nigh eleven years to make his pile, and then to die and leave it all behind for that grand vilyan to rob me of——But there! Lord, what’s the use of thinking of it when I’ve got as fine a goose in the roaster before the kitchen fire as ever swam upon a pond, as rich a green gooseberry pie in the oven as ever was baked! And so, ole ’oman, I’ll leave yer now, ’cause I can’t trust ole Luce! She ain’t the ’oman she used to be by a long shot. She’s sort o’ getting blind, I think,” concluded the housekeeper, as she arose and left the room.
Mrs. Force sat back in her chair to rest after her tour of the house and yard.
While thus resting she heard the sound of carriage wheels, and then a gay bustle before the front door, the voices of Wynnette and Elva mingled with the voices of a lady and gentleman, the laughing of a child, the crowing of a baby, and the barking of a dog.
Presently the hall door opened and all this merry confusion of sounds rolled into the hall and into the drawing room.
And before Mrs. Force could arise from her chair to go and see what could be the matter, her door was suddenly thrown open and Wynnette, all aglow with excitement, burst into the room, exclaiming:
“Oh, mamma! It is Natalie! Dear Natalie and—and two babies! Dr. Ingle brought them in his gig, and he is only waiting to speak to you, to leave them here while he goes his round among his patients, and then he will call and take them home! But, oh, mamma, I want you to make him promise to come back and stay to dinner and spend the evening—will you? Oh, mamma, Natty is looking so lovely, and her babies are just heavenly!”
“My dear, impetuous Wynnette, stop and take breath! Of course Natalie and her children must spend the day, and the doctor must return to dinner. Come! I will go to them,” said Mrs. Force, as she arose and went into the drawing room, followed by the delighted Wynnette.