Hagar Read online

  CHAPTER V

  MARIA

  Thomasine and Maggie and Corker arrived and filled the overseer's housewith noise. They were a blatantly healthful, boisterous set, onlyThomasine showing gleams of quiet. They wanted at once to play on theridge, but now Hagar wouldn't play on the ridge. She said she didn'tlike it any more. As she spoke, her thin shoulders drew together, andher eyes also, and two vertical lines appeared between these. "What youshakin' for?" asked Corker. "Got a chill?"

  So they played down by the branch where the willows grew, or in theold, disused tobacco-house, or in the orchard, or about a haystack on ahillside. Corker wanted always to play robbers or going to sea. Maggieliked to jump from the haystack or to swing, swing, swing, holding tothe long, pendant green withes of the weeping willow, or to climb theapple trees. Thomasine liked to make dams across the streamlet belowthe tobacco-house. She liked to shape wet clay, and she saved everypebble or bit of bright china, or broken blue or green glass with whichto decorate a small grotto they were making. She also liked to playring-around-a-rosy, and to hunt for four-leaved clovers. Hagar liked toplay going to sea, but she did not care for robbers. She liked to swingfrom the willows and to climb a particular apple tree which she loved,but she did not want to jump from the haystack, nor to climb all trees.She liked almost everything that Thomasine liked, but she was notso terribly fond of ring-around-a-rosy. In her own likings she foundherself somewhat lonely. None of the three, though Thomasine more thanthe others, cared much for a book. They would rather have a sugar-cakeany day. When it came to lying on the hillside without speaking andwatching the clouds and the tree-tops, they did not care for that atall. However, when they were tired, and everything else failed, theydid like Hagar to tell them a story. "Aladdin" they liked--sitting inthe shadow of the haystack, their chins on their hands, Thomasine'seyes still unconsciously alert for four-leaved clovers, Corker with aJune apple, trying to determine whether he would bite into it now orwait until Aladdin's mother had uncovered the jewels before the Sultan.They liked "Aladdin" and "Queen Gulnare and Prince Beder" and "SnowWhite and Rose Red."

  And then came the day that they went after raspberries. That morningHagar, turning the doorknob of her mother's room, found the door softlyopened from within and Phoebe on the threshold. Phoebe came out,closing the door gently behind her, beckoned to Hagar, and the twocrossed the hall to the deep window. "I wouldn't go in this mahnin' efI were you, honey," said Phoebe. "Miss Maria done hab a bad night. Shecouldn't sleep an' her heart mos' give out. Oh, hit's all right now,an' she's been lyin' still an' peaceful since de dawn come up. But wewants her to sleep an' we don' want her to talk. An' Old Miss thinksan' Phoebe thinks too, honey, dat you'd better not go in this mahnin'.Nex' time Old Miss 'll let you stay twice as long to make up for it."

  Hagar looked at her large-eyed, "Is my mother going to die, AuntPhoebe?"

  But old Phoebe put her arms around her and the wrinkles came out allover her brown face as they did when she laughed. Phoebe was a goodwoman, wise and old and tender and a strong liar. "Law, no, chile--Whatput dat notion in yo' po' little haid? No, indeedy! We gwine pull MissMaria through, jes' as easy! Dr. Bude he say he gwine do hit, and whatDr. Bude say goes for sho! Phoebe done see him raise de mos' dead.Law, no, don' you worry 'bout Miss Maria! An' de nex' time you goes inde room, you kin stay jes' ez long ez you like. You kin sit by her erwhole hour an' won't nobody say you nay."

  Downstairs Captain Bob was sitting on the sunny step of the sunny backporch, getting a thorn out of Luna's paw. "Hi, Gipsy," he said, whenHagar came and stood by him; "what's the matter with breakfast thismorning?"

  "I don't know," said Hagar. "I haven't seen grandmother to-day. UncleBob--"

  "Well, chicken?"

  "They'd tell you, wouldn't they, if my mother was going to die?"

  Captain Bob, having relieved Luna of the thorn, gave his attentionfully to his great-niece. He was slow and kindly and unexacting andincurious and unimaginative, and the unusual never occurred to himbefore it happened. "Maria going to die? That's damned nonsense,partridge! Haven't heard a breath of it--isn't anything to hear. Nobodydies at Gilead Balm--hasn't been a death here since the War. Besides,Medway's away.--Mustn't get notions in your head--makes you unhappy,and things go on just the same as ever." He pulled her down on the stepbeside him. "Look at Luna, now! She ain't notionate--are you, Luna?Luna and I are going over the hills this morning to find Old Miss'sguineas for her. Don't you want to go along?"

  "I don't believe I do, thank you, Uncle Bob."

  Mrs. LeGrand came out upon the porch, fresh and charming in a figureddimity with a blue ribbon. "Mrs. Ashendyne and Serena are talking toDr. Bude, and as you men must be famished, Captain Bob, I am going toring for breakfast and pour out your coffee for you--"

  In the hall Hagar appealed to her. "Mrs. LeGrand, can't I go intograndmother's room and hear what Dr. Bude says about my mother?" ButMrs. LeGrand smiled and shook her head and laid hands on her. "No,indeed, dear child! Your mother's all right. You come with me, and haveyour breakfast."

  The Bishop appearing at the stair foot, she turned to greet him. Hagar,slipping from her touch, stole down the hall to Old Miss's chamber andtried the door. It gave and let her in. Old Miss was seated in the bigchair, Dr. Bude and the Colonel were standing on either side of thehearth, and Miss Serena was between them and the door.

  "Hagar!" exclaimed Miss Serena. "Don't come in now, dear. Grandmotherand I will be out to breakfast in a moment."

  But Hagar had the courage of unhappiness and groping and fear for themost loved. She fled straight to Dr. Bude. "Dr. Bude--oh, Dr. Bude--ismy mother going to die?"

  "No, Bude," said the Colonel from the other side of the hearth.

  Dr. Bude, an able country doctor, loved and honoured, devoted andfatherly and wise, made a "Tchk!" with his tongue against the roof ofhis mouth.

  Old Miss, leaving the big chair, came and took Hagar and drew her backwith her into the deep chintz hollows. No one might doubt that Old Missloved her granddaughter. Now her clasp was as stately as ever, but hervoice was quite gentle, though of course authoritative--else it couldnot have belonged to Old Miss. "Your mother had a bad night, dear, andso, to make her quiet and comfortable, we sent early for Dr. Bude. Sheis going to sleep now, and to-morrow you shall go in and see her. Butyou can only go if you are a good, obedient child. Yes, I am tellingyou the truth. I think Maria will get well. I have never thoughtanything else.--Now, run away and get your breakfast, and to-day youand Thomasine and Maggie and Corker shall go raspberrying."

  Dr. Bude spoke from the braided rug. "No one knows, Hagar, what'sgoing to happen in this old world, do they? But Nature has a way oftaking care of people quite regardless and without waiting to consultthe doctors. I've watched Nature right closely, and I never give upanything. Your mother's right ill, my dear, but so have a lot of otherpeople been right ill and gotten well. You go pick your raspberries,and maybe to-morrow you can see her--"

  "Can't I see her to-night?"

  "Well, maybe--maybe--" said the doctor.

  The raspberry patches were almost two miles away, past a number ofshaggy hills and dales. A wood road led that way, and Hagar andThomasine and Maggie and Corker, with Jinnie, a coloured woman, to takecare of them, felt the damp leaf mould under their feet. A breeze,coming through oak and pine, tossed their hair and fluttered the girls'skirts and the broad collar of Corker's voluminous shirt. The sky wasbright blue, with two or three large clouds like sailing vessels withall sail on. A cat-bird sang to split its throat. They saw a blacksnake, and a rabbit showed a white tip of tail, and a lightning-blastedpine with a large empty bird-nest in the topmost crotch, ineffablylonely and deserted against the deep sky, engaged their attention. Theyhad various adventures. Each of the children carried a tin bucket forberries, and Jinnie carried a white-oak split basket with dinner init--sandwiches and rusks and a jar with milk and snowball cakes. Theywere going to stay all day. That was what usually they loved. It was soadventurous.

&
nbsp; Corker strode along whistling. Maggie whistled, too, as well as a boy,though he looked disdain at her and said, "Huh! Girls can't whistle!"

  "Dar's a piece of poetry I done heard," said Jinnie,--

  "'Er whistlin' woman an' er crowin' hen, Dey ain' gwine come ter no good end.'"

  Thomasine hummed as she walked. She had filled her bucket with variousmatters as she went along, and now she was engaged in fashioning outof the green burrs of the burdock a basket with an elaborate handle."Don't you want some burrs?" she asked Hagar, walking beside her.Thomasine was always considerate and would give away almost anythingshe had.

  Hagar took the burrs and began also to make a basket. She was beinggood. And, indeed, as the moments passed, the heavy, painful feelingabout her heart went away. The doctor had said and grandmother hadsaid, and Uncle Bob and Phoebe and every one.... The raspberries.She instantly visualized one of the blue willow saucers filled withraspberries, carried in by herself to her mother, at supper-time.Yarrow was in bloom and Black-eyed Susans and the tall white Jerusalemcandles. Coming back she would gather a big bouquet for the grey jaron her mother's table. She grew light-hearted. A bronze butterflyfluttered before her, the heavy odour of the pine filled her nostrils,the sky was so blue, the air so sweet--there was a pearly cloud likea castle and another like a little boat--a little boat. Off went herfancy, lizard-quick, feather-light.

  "Swing low, sweet chariot--"

  sang Jinnie as she walked.

  The raspberry patches were in sunny hollows. There was a span-widestream, running pure over a gravel bed, and a grazed-over hillside,green and short-piled as velvet, and deep woods closing in, shuttingout. Summer sunshine bathed every grass blade and berry leaf, summerwinds cooled the air, bees and grasshoppers and birds, squirrels in thewoods, rippling water, wind in the leaves made summer sounds. It wasa happy day. Sometimes Hagar, Thomasine, Maggie, Corker, and Jinniepicked purply-red berries from the same bush; sometimes they scatteredand combined in twos and threes. Sometimes each established a cornerand picked in an elfin solitude. Sometimes they conversed or bubbledover with laughter, sometimes they kept a serious silence. It was amatter of rivalry as to whose bucket should first be filled. Hagarstrayed off at last to an angle of an old rail fence. The berries, asshe found, were very fine here. She called the news to the others, butthey said they had fine bushes, too, and so she picked on with a worldof her own about her. The June-bugs droned and droned, her fingersmoved slower and slower. At last she stopped picking, and, lying downon a sunken rock by the fence, fell to dreaming. Her dreams werealready shot with thought, and she was apt, when she seemed most idle,to be silently, inwardly growing. Now she was thinking about Heavenand about God. She was a great committer of poetry to memory, and now,while she lay filtering sand through her hands as through an hourglass,she said over a stanza hard to learn, which yet she had learned somedays ago.

  "Trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home--"

  When she had repeated it dreamily, in an inward whisper, the problem ofwhy, in that case, she was so far from home engaged her attention. The"here" and the "there--" God away, away off on a throne with angels,and Hagar Ashendyne, in a blue sunbonnet here by a Virginia rail fence,with raspberry stain on her hands. _Home_ was where you lived. God waseverywhere; then, was God right here, too? But Hagar Ashendyne couldn'tsee the throne and the gold steps and floor and the angels. She couldmake a picture of them, just as she could of Solomon's throne, orPharaoh's throne, or Queen Victoria's throne, but the picture didn'tstir anything at her heart. She wasn't homesick for the court. She washomesick to be a good woman when she grew up, and to learn all the timeand to know beautiful things, but she wasn't homesick for Heaven whereGod lived. Then was she wicked? Hagar wondered and wondered. The yellowsand dropped from between her palms.... God in the sand, God in me, Godhere and now.... Then God also is trying to grow more God.... Hagardrew a great sigh, and for the moment gave it up.

  Before her on the grey rail was a slender, burnished insect, allgold-and-green armour. Around the lock of the fence came, like agold-and-green moving stiletto, a lizard which took and devoured thegold-and-green insect.... God in the lizard, God in the insect, Goddevouring God, making Himself feed Himself, growing so.... The sunsuddenly left the grass and the raspberry bushes. A cloud had hiddenit. Other cloud masses, here pearly white, here somewhat dark, wereboiling up from the horizon.

  Jinnie called the children together. "What we gwine do? Look like erstorm. Reckon we better light out fer home!"

  Protests arose. "Ho!" cried Corker, "it ain't going to be a storm. Ihaven't got my bucket more'n half full and we haven't had a picnicneither! Let's stay!"

  "Let's stay," echoed Maggie. "Who's afraid of a little bit of stormanyhow?"

  "It's lots better for it to catch us here in the open," arguedThomasine. "They're all tall trees in the wood. But _I_ think theclouds are getting smaller--there's the sun again!"

  The sunshine fell, strong and golden. "We's gwine stay den," saidJinnie. "But ef hit rains an' you all gets wet an' teks cold, I'sgwine tell Old Miss I jus' couldn't mek you come erway!--Dar's de oldcow-house at de end of de field. I reckon we kin refugee dar ef deworst comes to de worst."

  While they were eating the snowball cakes, a large cloud came up anddeterminedly covered the sun. By the time they had eaten the lastcrumb, lightnings were playing. "Dar now, I done tol' you!" criedJinnie. "I never see such children anyhow! Old Miss an' Mrs. Green jus'ought-ter whip you all! Now you gwine git soppin' wet an' maybe delightning'll strike you, too!"

  "No, it won't!" cried Corker. "The cow-house's my castle, an' we'vebeen robbing a freight train an' the constable an' old Captain Towneyand the army are after us--I'm going to get to the cow-house first!"

  Maggie scrambled to her feet. "No, you ain't! I'm going to--"

  The cow-house was dark and somewhat dirty, but they found a tolerablesquare yard or two of earthen floor and they all sat close togetherfor warmth--the air having grown quite cold--and for company, athunderstorm, after all, being a thing that made even train robbers andcastled barons feel rather small and helpless. For an hour lightningsflashed and thunders rolled and the rain fell in leaden lines. Thenthe lightnings grew less frequent and vivid, and the thunder travelledfarther away, but the rain still fell. "Oh, it's so stupid and dark inhere!" said Corker. "Let's tell stories. Hagar, you tell a story, andJinnie, you tell a story!"

  Hagar told about the Snow Queen and Kay and Gerda, and they liked thatvery well. All the cow-house was dark as the little robber girl's hutin the night-time when all were asleep save Gerda and the littlerobber girl and the reindeer. When they came to the reindeer, Corkersaid he heard him moving behind them in a corner, and Maggie said sheheard him, too, and Jinnie called out, "Whoa, dere, Mr. Reindeer! Youdes er stay still till we's ready fer you!"--and they all drew closertogether with a shudder of delight.

  The clouds were breaking--the lines of rain were silver insteadof leaden. Even the cow-house was lighter inside. There was noreindeer, after all; there were only brown logs and trampled earth andmud-daubers' nests and a big spider's web. "Now, Jinnie," said Corker,"you tell a ghost story."

  Thomasine objected. "I don't like ghost stories. Hagar doesn't either."

  "I don't mind them much," said Hagar. "I don't have to believe them."

  But Jinnie chose to become indignant. "You jes' hab to believe dem.Dey're true! My lan'! Goin' ter church an' readin' de Bible an' dendoubtin' erbout ghosts! I'se gwine tell you er story you's got terbelieve, 'cause hit's done happen! Hit's gwine ter scare you, too! Deytell me hit scare a young girl down in de Hollow inter fits. Hit'sgwine ter mek yo' flesh crawl. Sayin' ghos' stories ain't true, wheneverybody knows dey's true!"

  The piece of ancient African imagination, traveller of ten thousandyears through heated forests, was fearsome enough. "Ugh!" said thechildren and shivered and stared.--It took the sun, indeed, to drivethe creeping, mistlike thoughts away.

  Going home through the rain-s
oaked woodland, Hagar began to gatherflowers. Her bucket of berries on her arm, she stepped aside for thisbloom and that, gathering with long stems, making a sheaf of blossoms."What you doin' dat for?" queried Jinnie. "Dey's all wet. You'll jes'ruin dat gingham dress!" But Hagar kept on plucking Black-eyed Susans,and cardinal flowers, and purple clover and lady's-lace.

  They came, in the afternoon glow, in sight of Gilead Balm. They camecloser until the house was large, standing between its dark, funerealcedars, with a rosy cloud behind.

  "All the blinds are closed as though we'd gone away!" said Hagar. "Inever saw it that way before."

  Mrs. Green was at the lower gate, waiting for them. Her old, kind,wrinkled face was pale between the slats of her sunbonnet, but hereyelids were reddened as though she had been weeping. "Yes, yes,children, I'm glad you got a lot of berries!--Corker and Maggie andThomasine, you go with Jinnie. Mind me and go.--Hagar, child, you andme are goin' to come on behind.... You and me are goin' to sit herea bit on the summer-house step.... The Colonel said I was the bestone after all to do it, and I'm going to do it, but I'd rather take akilling! ... Yes, sit right here, with my arm about you. Hagar, child,I've got something to tell you, honey."

  Hagar looked at her with large, dark eyes. "Mrs. Green, why are all theshutters closed?"