thirty-six hours later the albany train, running smoothly across the green levels beyond the mill dam, brought the travellers to boston.
katy looked eagerly from the window for her first glimpse of the city of which she had heard so much. "dear little boston! how nice it is to see it again!" she heard a lady behind her say; but why it should be called "little boston" she could not imagine. seen from the train, it looked large, imposing, and very picturesque, after flat burnet with its one bank down to the edge of the lake. she studied the towers, steeples, and red roofs crowding each other up the slopes of the tri-mountain, and the big state house dome crowning all, and made up her mind that she liked the looks of it better than any other city she had ever seen.
the train slackened its speed, ran for a few moments between rows of tall, shabby brick walls, and with a long, final screech of its whistle came to halt in the station-house. every one made a simultaneous rush for the door; and katy and mrs. ashe, waiting to collect their books and bags, found themselves wedged into their seats and unable to get out. it was a confusing moment, and not comfortable; such moments never are.
but the discomfort brightened into a sense of relief as, looking out of the window, katy caught sight of a face exactly opposite, which had evidently caught sight of her,—a fresh, pretty face, with light, waving hair, pink cheeks all a-dimple, and eyes which shone with laughter and welcome. it was rose herself, not a bit changed during the years since they parted. a tall young man stood beside her, who must, of course, be her husband, deniston browne.
"there is rose red," cried katy to mrs. ashe. "oh, doesn't she look dear and natural? do wait and let me introduce you. i want you to know her."
but the train had come in a little behind time, and mrs. ashe was afraid of missing the hingham boat; so she only took a hasty peep from the window at rose, pronounced her to be charming-looking, kissed katy hurriedly, reminded her that they must be on the steamer punctually at twelve o'clock the following saturday, and was gone, with amy beside her; so that katy, following last of all the slow-moving line of passengers, stepped all alone down from the platform into the arms of rose red.
"you darling!" was rose's first greeting. "i began to think you meant to spend the night in the car, you were so long in getting out. well, how perfectly lovely this is! deniston, here is katy; katy, this is my husband."
rose looked about fifteen as she spoke, and so absurdly young to have a "husband," that katy could not help laughing as she shook hands with "deniston;" and his own eyes twinkled with fun and evident recognition of the same joke. he was a tall young man, with a pleasant, "steady" face, and seemed to be infinitely amused, in a quiet way, with everything which his wife said and did.
"let us make haste and get out of this hole," went on rose. "i can scarcely see for the smoke. deniston, dear, please find the cab, and have katy's luggage put on it. i am wild to get her home, and exhibit baby before she chews up her new sash or does something else that is dreadful, to spoil her looks. i left her sitting in state, katy, with all her best clothes on, waiting to be made known to you."
"my large trunk is to go straight to the steamer," explained katy, as she gave her checks to mr. browne. "i only want the little one taken out to longwood, please."
"now, this is cosey," remarked rose, when they were seated in the cab with katy's bag at their feet. "deniston, my love, i wish you were going out with us. there's a nice little bench here all ready and vacant, which is just suited to a man of your inches. you won't? well, come in the early train, then. don't forget.—now, isn't he just as nice as i told you he was?" she demanded, the moment the cab began to move.
"he looks very nice indeed, as far as i can judge in three minutes and a quarter."
"my dear, it ought not to take anybody of ordinary discernment a minute and a quarter to perceive that he is simply the dearest fellow that ever lived," said rose. "i discovered it three seconds after i first beheld him, and was desperately in love with him before he had fairly finished his first bow after introduction."
"and was he equally prompt?" asked katy.
"he says so," replied rose, with a pretty blush. "but then, you know, he could hardly say less after such a frank confession on my part. it is no more than decent of him to make believe, even if it is not true. now, katy, look at boston, and see if you don't love it!"
the cab had now turned into boylston street; and on the right hand lay the common, green as summer after the autumn rains, with the elm arches leafy still. long, slant beams of afternoon sun were filtering through the boughs and falling across the turf and the paths, where people were walking and sitting, and children and babies playing together. it was a delightful scene; and katy received an impression of space and cheer and air and freshness, which ever after was associated with her recollection of boston.
rose was quite satisfied with her raptures as they drove through charles street, between the common and the public garden, all ablaze with autumn flowers, and down the length of beacon street with the blue bay shining between the handsome houses on the water side. every vestibule and bay-window was gay with potted plants and flower-boxes; and a concourse of happy-looking people, on foot, on horseback, and in carriages, was surging to and fro like an equal, prosperous tide, while the sunlight glorified all.
"'boston shows a soft venetian side,'" quoted katy, after a while. "i know now what mr. lowell meant when he wrote that. i don't believe there is a more beautiful place in the world."
"why, of course there isn't," retorted rose, who was a most devoted little bostonian, in spite of the fact that she had lived in washington nearly all her life. "i've not seen much beside, to be sure, but that is no matter; i know it is true. it is the dream of my life to come into the city to live. i don't care what part i live in,—west end, south end, north end; it's all one to me, so long as it is boston!"
"but don't you like longwood?" asked katy, looking out admiringly at the pretty places set amid vines and shrubberies, which they were now passing. "it looks so very pretty and pleasant."
"yes, it's well enough for any one who has a taste for natural beauties," replied rose. "i haven't; i never had. there is nothing i hate so much as nature! i'm a born cockney. i'd rather live in one room over jordan and marsh's, and see the world wag past, than be the owner of the most romantic villa that ever was built, i don't care where it may be situated."
the cab now turned in at a gate and followed a curving drive bordered with trees to a pretty stone house with a porch embowered with virginia creepers, before which it stopped.
"here we are!" cried rose, springing out. "now, katy, you mustn't even take time to sit down before i show you the dearest baby that ever was sent to this sinful earth. here, let me take your bag; come straight upstairs, and i will exhibit her to you."
they ran up accordingly, and rose took katy into a large sunny nursery, where, tied with pink ribbon into a little basket-chair and watched over by a pretty young nurse, sat a dear, fat, fair baby, so exactly like rose in miniature that no one could possibly have mistaken the relationship. the baby began to laugh and coo as soon as it caught sight of its gay little mother, and exhibited just such another dimple as hers, in the middle of a pink cheek. katy was enchanted.
"oh, you darling!" she said. "would she come to me, do you think, rose?"
"why, of course she shall," replied rose, picking up the baby as if she had been a pillow, and stuffing her into katy's arms head first. "now, just look at her, and tell me if ever you saw anything so enchanting in the whole course of your life before? isn't she big? isn't she beautiful? isn't she good? just see her little hands and her hair! she never cries except when it is clearly her duty to cry. see her turn her head to look at me! oh, you angel!" and seizing the long-suffering baby, she smothered it with kisses. "i never, never, never did see anything so sweet. smell her, katy! doesn't she smell like heaven?"
little rose was indeed a delicious baby, all dimples and good-humor and violet-powder, with a skin as soft as a lily's leaf, and a happy capacity for allowing herself to be petted and cuddled without remonstrance. katy wanted to hold her all the time; but this rose would by no means permit; in fact, i may as well say at once that the two girls spent a great part of their time during the visit in fighting for the possession of the baby, who looked on at the struggle, and smiled on the victor, whichever it happened to be, with all the philosophic composure of helen of troy. she was so soft and sunny and equable, that it was no more trouble to care for and amuse her than if she had been a bird or a kitten; and, as rose remarked, it was "ten times better fun."
"i was never allowed as much doll as i wanted in my infancy," she said. "i suppose i tore them to pieces too soon; and they couldn't give me tin ones to play with, as they did wash-bowls when i broke the china ones."
"were you such a very bad child?" asked katy.
"oh, utterly depraved, i believe. you wouldn't think so now, would you? i recollect some dreadful occasions at school. once i had my head pinned up in my apron because i would make faces at the other scholars, and they laughed; but i promptly bit a bay-window through the apron, and ran my tongue out of it till they laughed worse than ever. the teacher used to send me home with notes fastened to my pinafore with things like this written in them: 'little frisk has been more troublesome than usual to-day. she has pinched all the younger children, and bent the bonnets of all the older ones. we hope to see an amendment soon, or we do not know what we shall do.'"
"why did they call you little frisk?" inquired katy, after she had recovered from the laugh which rose's reminiscences called forth.
"it was a term of endearment, i suppose; but somehow my family never seemed to enjoy it as they ought. i cannot understand," she went on reflectively, "why i had not sense enough to suppress those awful little notes. it would have been so easy to lose them on the way home, but somehow it never occurred to me. little rose will be wiser than that; won't you, my angel? she will tear up the horrid notes—mammy will show her how!"
all the time that katy was washing her face and brushing the dust of the railway from her dress, rose sat by with the little rose in her lap, entertaining her thus. when she was ready, the droll little mamma tucked her baby under her arm and led the way downstairs to a large square parlor with a bay-window, through which the westering sun was shining. it was a pretty room, and had a flavor about it "just like rose," katy declared. no one else would have hung the pictures or looped back the curtains in exactly that way, or have hit upon the happy device of filling the grate with a great bunch of marigolds, pale brown, golden, and orange, to simulate the fire, which would have been quite too warm on so mild an evening. morris papers and chintzes and "artistic" shades of color were in their infancy at that date; but rose's taste was in advance of her time, and with a foreshadowing of the coming "reaction," she had chosen a "greenery, yallery" paper for her walls, against which hung various articles which looked a great deal queerer then than they would to-day. there was a mandolin, picked up at some eastern sale, a warming-pan in shining brass from her mother's attic, two old samplers worked in faded silks, and a quantity of gayly tinted japanese fans and embroideries. she had also begged from an old aunt at beverly farms a couple of droll little armchairs in white painted wood, with covers of antique needle-work. one had "chit" embroidered on the middle of its cushion; the other, "chat." these stood suggestively at the corners of the hearth.
"now, katy," said rose, seating herself in "chit," "pull up 'chat' and let us begin."
so they did begin, and went on, interrupted only by baby rose's coos and splutters, till the dusk fell, till appetizing smells floated through from the rear of the house, and the click of a latch-key announced mr. browne, come home just in time for dinner.
the two days' visit went only too quickly. there is nothing more fascinating to a girl than the menage of a young couple of her own age. it is a sort of playing at real life without the cares and the sense of responsibility that real life is sure to bring. rose was an adventurous housekeeper. she was still new to the position, she found it very entertaining, and she delighted in experiments of all sorts. if they turned out well, it was good fun; if not, that was funnier still! her husband, for all his serious manner, had a real boy's love of a lark, and he aided and abetted her in all sorts of whimsical devices. they owned a dog who was only less dear than the baby, a cat only less dear than the dog, a parrot whose education required constant supervision, and a hutch of ring-doves whose melancholy little "whuddering" coos were the delight of rose the less. the house seemed astir with young life all over. the only elderly thing in it was the cook, who had the reputation of a dreadful temper; only, unfortunately, rose made her laugh so much that she never found time to be cross.
katy felt quite an old, experienced person amid all this movement and liveliness and cheer. it seemed to her that nobody in the world could possibly be having such a good time as rose; but rose did not take the same view of the situation.
"it's all very well now," she said, "while the warm weather lasts; but in winter longwood is simply grewsome. the wind never stops blowing day nor night. it howls and it roars and it screams, till i feel as if every nerve in my body were on the point of snapping in two. and the snow, ugh! and the wind, ugh! and burglars! every night of our lives they come,—or i think they come,—and i lie awake and hear them sharpening their tools and forcing the locks and murdering the cook and kidnapping baby, till i long to die, and have done with them forever! oh, nature is the most unpleasant thing!"
"burglars are not nature," objected katy.
"what are they, then? art? high art? well, whatever they are, i do not like them. oh, if ever the happy day comes when deniston consents to move into town, i never wish to set my eyes on the country again as long as i live, unless—well, yes, i should like to come out just once more in the horse-cars and kick that elm-tree by the fence! the number of times that i have lain awake at night listening to its creaking!"
"you might kick it without waiting to have a house in town."
"oh, i shouldn't dare as long as we are living here! you never know what nature may do. she has ways of her own of getting even with people," remarked her friend, solemnly.
no time must be lost in showing boston to katy, rose said. so the morning after her arrival she was taken in bright and early to see the sights. there were not quite so many sights to be seen then as there are today. the art museum had not got much above its foundations; the new trinity church was still in the future; but the big organ and the bronze statue of beethoven were in their glory, and every day at high noon a small straggling audience wandered into music hall to hear the instrument played. to this extempore concert katy was taken, and to faneuil hall and the athenaeum, to doll and richards's, where was an exhibition of pictures, to the granary graveyard, and the old south. then the girls did a little shopping; and by that time they were quite tired enough to make the idea of luncheon agreeable, so they took the path across the common to the joy street mall.
katy was charmed by all she had seen. the delightful nearness of so many interesting things surprised her. she perceived what is one of boston's chief charms,—that the common and its surrounding streets make a natural centre and rallying-point for the whole city; as the heart is the centre of the body and keeps up a quick correspondence and regulates the life of all its extremities. the stately old houses on beacon street, with their rounded fronts, deep window-casements, and here and there a mauve or a lilac pane set in the sashes, took her fancy greatly; and so did the state house, whose situation made it sufficiently imposing, even before the gilding of the dome.
up the steep steps of the joy street mall they went, to the house on mt. vernon street which the reddings had taken on their return from washington nearly three years before. rose had previously shown katy the site of the old family house on summer street, where she was born, now given over wholly to warehouses and shops. their present residence was one of those wide old-fashioned brick houses on the crest of the hill, whose upper windows command the view across to the boston highlands; in the rear was a spacious yard, almost large enough to be called a garden, walled in with ivies and grapevines, under which were long beds full of roses and chrysanthemums and marigolds and mignonette.
rose carried a latch-key in her pocket, which she said had been one of her wedding-gifts; with this she unlocked the front door and let katy into a roomy white-painted hall.
"we will go straight through to the back steps," she said. "mamma is sure to be sitting there; she always sits there till the first frost; she says it makes her think of the country. how different people are! i don't want to think of the country, but i'm never allowed to forget it for a moment. mamma is so fond of those steps and the garden."
there, to be sure, mrs. redding was found sitting in a wicker-work chair under the shade of the grapevines, with a big basket of mending at her side. it looked so homely and country-like to find a person thus occupied in the middle of a busy city, that katy's heart warmed to her at once.
mrs. redding was a fair little woman, scarcely taller than rose and very much like her. she gave katy a kind welcome.
"you do not seem like a stranger," she said, "rose has told us so much about you and your sister. sylvia will be very disappointed not to see you. she went off to make some visits when we broke up in the country, and is not to be home for three weeks yet."
katy was disappointed, too, for she had heard a great deal about sylvia and had wished very much to meet her. she was shown her picture, from which she gathered that she did not look in the least like rose; for though equally fair, her fairness was of the tall aquiline type, quite different from rose's dimpled prettiness. in fact, rose resembled her mother, and sylvia her father; they were only alike in little peculiarities of voice and manner, of which a portrait did not enable katy to judge.
the two girls had a cosey little luncheon with mrs. redding, after which rose carried katy off to see the house and everything in it which was in any way connected with her own personal history,—the room where she used to sleep, the high-chair in which she sat as a baby and which was presently to be made over to little rose, the sofa where deniston offered himself, and the exact spot on the carpet on which she had stood while they were being married! last of all,—
"now you shall see the best and dearest thing in the whole house," she said, opening the door of a room in the second story.— "grandmamma, here is my friend katy carr, whom you have so often heard me tell about."
it was a large pleasant room, with a little wood-fire blazing in a grate, by which, in an arm-chair full of cushions, with a solitaire-board on a little table beside her, sat a sweet old lady. this was rose's father's mother. she was nearly eighty; but she was beautiful still, and her manner had a gracious old-fashioned courtesy which was full of charm. she had been thrown from a carriage the year before, and had never since been able to come downstairs or to mingle in the family life.
"they come to me instead," she told katy. "there is no lack of pleasant company," she added; "every one is very good to me. i have a reader for two hours a day, and i read to myself a little, and play patience and solitaire, and never lack entertainment."
there was something restful in the sight of such a lovely specimen of old age. katy realized, as she looked at her, what a loss it had been to her own life that she had never known either of her grandparents. she sat and gazed at old mrs. redding with a mixture of regret and fascination. she longed to hold her hand, and kiss her, and play with her beautiful silvery hair, as rose did. rose was evidently the old lady's peculiar darling. they were on the most intimate terms; and rose dimpled and twinkled, and made saucy speeches, and told all her little adventures and the baby's achievements, and made jests, and talked nonsense as freely as to a person of her own age. it was a delightful relation.
"grandmamma has taken a fancy to you, i can see," she told katy, as they drove back to longwood. "she always wants to know my friends; and she has her own opinions about them, i can tell you."
"do you really think she liked me?" said katy, warmly. "i am so glad if she did, for i loved her. i never saw a really beautiful old person before."
"oh, there's nobody like her," rejoined rose. "i can't imagine what it would be not to have her." her merry little face was quite sad and serious as she spoke. "i wish she were not so old," she added with a sigh. "if we could only put her back twenty years! then, perhaps, she would live as long as i do."
but, alas! there is no putting back the hands on the dial of time, no matter how much we may desire it.
the second day of katy's visit was devoted to the luncheon-party of which rose had written in her letter, and which was meant to be a reunion or "side chapter" of the s.s.u.c. rose had asked every old hillsover girl who was within reach. there was mary silver, of course, and esther dearborn, both of whom lived in boston; and by good luck alice gibbons happened to be making esther a visit, and ellen gray came in from waltham, where her father had recently been settled over a parish, so that all together they made six of the original nine of the society; and quaker row itself never heard a merrier confusion of tongues than resounded through rose's pretty parlor for the first hour after the arrival of the guests.
there was everybody to ask after, and everything to tell. the girls all seemed wonderfully unchanged to katy, but they professed to find her very grown up and dignified.
"i wonder if i am," she said. "clover never told me so. but perhaps she has grown dignified too."
"nonsense!" cried rose; "clover could no more be dignified than my baby could. mary silver, give me that child this moment! i never saw such a greedy thing as you are; you have kept her to yourself at least a quarter of an hour, and it isn't fair."
"oh, i beg your pardon," said mary, laughing and covering her mouth with her hand exactly in her old, shy, half-frightened way.
"we only need mrs. nipson to make our little party complete," went on rose, "or dear miss jane! what has become of miss jane, by the way? do any of you know?"
"oh, she is still teaching at hillsover and waiting for her missionary. he has never come back. berry searles says that when he goes out to walk he always walks away from the united states, for fear of diminishing the distance between them."
"what a shame!" said katy, though she could not help laughing. "miss jane was really quite nice,—no, not nice exactly, but she had good things about her."
"had she!" remarked rose, satirically. "i never observed them. it required eyes like yours, real 'double million magnifying-glasses of h'extra power,' to find them out. she was all teeth and talons as far as i was concerned; but i think she really did have a softish spot in her old heart for you, katy, and it's the only good thing i ever knew about her."
"what has become of lilly page?" asked ellen.
"she's in europe with her mother. i dare say you'll meet, katy, and what a pleasure that will be! and have you heard about bella? she's teaching school in the indian territory. just fancy that scrap teaching school!"
"isn't it dangerous?" asked mary silver.
"dangerous? how? to her scholars, do you mean? oh, the indians! well, her scalp will be easy to identify if she has adhered to her favorite pomatum; that's one comfort," put in naughty rose.
it was a merry luncheon indeed, as little rose seemed to think, for she laughed and cooed incessantly. the girls were enchanted with her, and voted her by acclamation an honorary member of the s.s.u.c. her health was drunk in apollinaris water with all the honors, and rose returned thanks in a droll speech. the friends told each other their histories for the past three years; but it was curious how little, on the whole, most of them had to tell. though, perhaps, that was because they did not tell all; for alice gibbons confided to katy in a whisper that she strongly suspected esther of being engaged, and at the same moment ellen gray was convulsing rose by the intelligence that a theological student from andover was "very attentive" to mary silver.
"my dear, i don't believe it," rose said, "not even a theological student would dare! and if he did, i am quite sure mary would consider it most improper. you must be mistaken, ellen."
"no, i'm not mistaken; for the theological student is my second cousin, and his sister told me all about it. they are not engaged exactly, but she hasn't said no; so he hopes she will say yes."
"oh, she'll never say no; but then she will never say yes, either. he would better take silence as consent! well, i never did think i should live to see silvery mary married. i should as soon have expected to find the thirty-nine articles engaged in a flirtation. she's a dear old thing, though, and as good as gold; and i shall consider your second cousin a lucky man if he persuades her."
"i wonder where we shall all be when you come back, katy," said esther dearborn as they parted at the gate. "a year is a long time; all sorts of things may happen in a year."
these words rang in katy's ears as she fell asleep that night. "all sorts of things may happen in a year," she thought, "and they may not be all happy things, either." almost she wished that the journey to europe had never been thought of!
but when she waked the next morning to the brightest of october suns shining out of a clear blue sky, her misgivings fled. there could not have been a more beautiful day for their start.
she and rose went early into town, for old mrs. bedding had made katy promise to come for a few minutes to say good-by. they found her sitting by the fire as usual, though her windows were open to admit the sun-warmed air. a little basket of grapes stood on the table beside her, with a nosegay of tea-roses on top. these were from rose's mother, for katy to take on board the steamer; and there was something else, a small parcel twisted up in thin white paper.
"it is my good-by gift," said the dear old lady. "don't open it now. keep it till you are well out at sea, and get some little thing with it as a keepsake from me."
grateful and wondering, katy put the little parcel in her pocket. with kisses and good wishes she parted from these new made friends, and she and rose drove to the steamer, stopping for mr. browne by the way. they were a little late, so there was not much time for farewells after they arrived; but rose snatched a moment for a private interview with the stewardess, unnoticed by katy, who was busy with mrs. ashe and amy.
the bell rang, and the great steam-vessel slowly backed into the stream. then her head was turned to sea, and down the bay she went, leaving rose and her husband still waving their handkerchiefs on the pier. katy watched them to the last, and when she could no longer distinguish them, felt that her final link with home was broken.
it was not till she had settled her things in the little cabin which was to be her home for the next ten days, had put her bonnet and dress for safe keeping in the upper berth, nailed up her red and yellow bag, and donned the woollen gown, ulster, and soft felt hat which were to do service during the voyage, that she found time to examine the mysterious parcel.
behold, it was a large, beautiful gold-piece, twenty dollars!
"what a darling old lady!" said katy; and she gave the gold-piece a kiss. "how did she come to think of such a thing? i wonder if there is anything in europe good enough to buy with it?"
