on thursday morning two leather coach trunks were brought down from the garret, and nancy was allowed, for the first time, to pack them, under till’s direction. besides the trunks, there was a handy whitford-made wooden box for shoes, as the poor mistress had to carry so many pairs. the bandboxes were to go inside the carriage.
by eleven o’clock on friday morning mrs. colbert was dressed and bonneted. all the household gathered round the carriage to see her off. fat lizzie brought the lunch-box, for light refreshment on the road to winchester. the miller came up from the mill to lift his wife into the carriage. nancy, in her sunday bonnet and shawl, stood by, expecting to sit on the box with uncle jeff, but mrs. colbert told her she was to ride inside. the servants called good wishes as jeff drove off, and henry walked beside the coach as far as the mill. nancy had cast an appealing glance at her mother when she learned she was to sit beside the mistress. but till knew the dodderidge manners; if the girl was taken as a companion, she would be treated as such.
after till had closed the mistress’s room, she went down to the mill to “straighten up” for mr. henry. she had her own sense of the appropriate, and she thought the miller’s room right for him, in the same way that captain dodderidge’s saddle room had always been right. she approved of the polished chestnut bedstead, and the counterpane in large blue and white squares, woven by the same mrs. cowper who made carpets. the four brass candlesticks, by which the miller read after dark, were clean and shining; only a little tallow from last night had dripped down the stems. the deep chair beside the reading-table was made of bent hickory withes, very strong and well fitted to the back. till had wanted to make cushions for this chair, but the master told her cushions were for women. she was glad to see that nancy had kept mr. henry’s copper pieces bright: she knew he set great store by these.
between the whitewashed uprights that held the board walls together, the miller had fitted wooden shelves. on these he kept sharp and delicate tools, which the mill-hands were on no account allowed to touch, and a row of copper bowls and tankards which had been his grandfather’s.
nancy had been keeping the mill room in order ever since she was twelve years old. there was nothing down there that could be damaged or broken, the mistress had remarked to till; yet the work would be training of a sort.
this morning till examined everything critically; the bed-cords, the sheets and blankets, the hand wash-basin, the drawer with soap and towels for the miller’s private use. she couldn’t have kept the room better herself, she thought. on her way back to the house till fell to wondering for the hundredth time why nancy had fallen out of favour with the mistress. to be sure, until lately miss sapphy had pampered the girl too much; but it wasn’t a dodderidge trait to turn on anybody they had once taken a fancy to. nancy herself, till knew, suspected fat lizzie as the troublemaker, but she had never said why.
old washington could have given till some hint as to how this change in the mistress had come about; but washington was close-mouthed. long service had taught him that tattling was sure to get a house-man into trouble.
nearly a year ago, in the month of may, an unfortunate incident had occurred. the mistress, sitting at the table after her husband had finished his breakfast and gone to the mill, heard loud voices from the kitchen. the windows and doors were open to let the fresh spring air blow through the house. she recognized fat lizzie’s rolling tones and suspected she was bullying one of the other servants. washington was standing behind the mistress’s chair. she beckoned him to help her rise, took his arm, and limped painfully to the back door.
this was what she heard (not lizzie’s voice, now, but nancy’s): “you dasn’t talk to me that way, lizzie. i won’t bear it! i’ll go to the master.”
then lizzie, with a big laugh: “co’se you’ll go to master! ain’t dat jest what i been tellin’ you? you think you mighty nigh owns dat mill. runnin’ down all times a-day and night, carryin’ bokays to him. oh, i seen you many a time! pickin’ vi’lets an’ bleedin’- hearts an’ hidin’ ’em under your apron. yiste’day you took him down de chicken livers fur his lunch i fried for missus! you’re sure runnin’ de mill room wid a high han’, miss yaller gal, an’ you’se always down yonder when you’se wanted.”
“‘tain’t so! i always hurries. i jest stays long enough to dust de flour away dat gits over everything, an’ to make his bed cumfa’ble fur him.”
“lawdy, lawdy! an’ you makes his bed cumfa’ble fur him? ain’t dat nice! i speck! look out you don’t do it once too many. den it ain’t so fine, when somethin’ begin to show on you, miss yaller face.”
through lizzie’s lewd laughter broke the frantic voice of a young thing bursting into tears.
“i won’t stay here to listen to your nasty tongue! an’ him de good kind man to every nigger on de place. shame on you, you bad woman!” nancy rushed out of the kitchen sobbing, her face buried in her hands. she did not see her mistress standing in the doorway.
that very night nancy was ordered to bring her straw tick up from till’s cabin and sleep on the floor outside mrs. colbert’s bedroom door. she had been sleeping there ever since.
through the summer, lying outside the mistress’s door was not a hardship, — the girl had always slept on the floor. but when the winter came on, drafts blew through the long hall up at the big house, and even when she went to bed with her yarn stockings on and had heavy quilts over her, the cold kept her awake in the long hours before daybreak.
on nights when the miller did not go down to the mill, but slept in the mistress’s room, and she was not supposed to need a servant ready at call, nancy was sent running across the back yard to till’s cabin, with her tick in her arms and a glad smile on her face. she loved that cabin, and all her mother’s ways. till and old jeff slept in the “good room” where there was a bedstead. nancy spread her mattress on the kitchen floor, where she could watch the firelight flicker on the whitewashed walls as the logs burnt down. there she felt snug, like when she was a little girl. and toward morning she could hear all the homelike noises close at hand: uncle jeff snoring, the roosters crowing, the barn dogs barking. her mammy would maybe come and put an extra quilt over her, and then she would drift off to sleep again.
a few days after nancy had begun to make her bed outside her mistress’s door, the miller came to his breakfast one morning with a grim face. he greeted his wife soberly, sat down, and began to eat his ham and eggs in silence. when his second cup of coffee had been put at his place, he said quietly:
“you may go, washington, until your mistress rings for you.”
as soon as they were alone he lifted his eyes and looked across the table at his wife.
“sapphira, do you know who has been coming down to clean the mill room lately?”
she looked up artlessly from her plate. “i think it was bluebell. don’t tell me she meddled with your things!”
“bluebell; the laziest, trashiest wench on the place!”
“she’ll learn, henry. if she doesn’t take hold, i’ll send till down to make her step lively.”
“she’ll do no stepping at all in the mill. if i see her there again, i’ll put her out. nancy is to look after the mill room, as she always has done.”
“but nancy is old enough now to be trained for a parlour maid. if you won’t have bluebell, try one of martha’s girls. till has all the housekeeping to do now, since i can’t get about. she needs nancy here.”
the miller was silent for a moment. his first flush of anger had passed. when he looked up again, he spoke quietly.
“of course the blacks on this place belong to you, and i have never interfered with your management of them. but i warn you, sapphira, that i will not have any of the wenches coming down to the mill. i don’t mean to break in another girl. nancy is quiet and quick. she knows how i want things, and she puts them that way. i must ask you to spare her to me for a little while every morning.”
mrs. colbert laughed lightly. “oh, certainly, if you feel that way about it. why take a small matter so seriously? it’s of no importance to me who makes my bed,” she added with just a shade of scorn.
“yes, it is. you wouldn’t have anybody but till fix your room. it’s not my bed i care about. it’s the girl’s quiet ways and respectful manner, and that she never stops to gossip with my mill-hands.”
he said no more, but went out into the hall and took up his wide-brimmed hat — this morning white with two days’ flour-dust.
when nancy first began to take care of the mill room, she usually went down while the master was at breakfast. sometimes she had to go earlier, to take his freshly ironed shirts and underwear and put them in his chest of drawers before he locked it for the day. after a while she fell into the habit of going early, because she got a smile, along with his “good morning, child.” after her mother and mrs. blake, there was no one in the world she loved so much as the master. she had never had a harsh word from him — not many words at any time, to be sure. but his kindly greeting made her happy; that, and the feeling she was of some use to him.
once, on a spring morning when the yellow easter flowers (jonquils) were just bursting into bloom, she had gathered a handful on her way to the mill and put them in one of the copper tankards on the shelf. she thought the yellow flowers looked pretty in the copper. the miller had already gone to breakfast. she didn’t know whether she ought to leave them there or not; he might not like her taking such a liberty.
the next morning the flowers were still in the tankard. the miller was stropping his razor. he turned round as she came in.
“good morning, child. i wonder who brought me some smoke-pipes down here?”
nancy’s yellow cheeks blushed pink. “i just happened to see ’em as i was runnin’ down, mr. henry. i put ’em in water to keep ’em fresh. an’ i reckon i forgot ’em.”
“just leave them there. i like to see flowers in that stein. my father used to drink his malt out of it.”
after that, when she could do so unobserved, nancy often stopped to pick a bunch of whatever flowers were coming on, and took them down to the mill under her apron.
the miller was a little disappointed when nancy did not tap at his door before he started for the house, but he never suggested that she come earlier, or delayed his departure by one minute. his silver watch was always beside him while he shaved, and when the hand reached five minutes to eight he put on his hat. the colbert men had a bad reputation where women were concerned. that was why, in spite of her resemblance to the portrait painter from cuba, nancy was often counted as one of the colbert bastards. some people said guy colbert was her father, others put it on jacob. although henry was a true colbert in nature, he had not behaved like one, and he had never been charged with a bastard.
the miller lived a rather lonely life, indeed. after supper he usually sat for an hour in the parlour with his wife, then went back to the mill and read. the pages of his bible were worn thin, and the margins sprinkled with cross-references. when he had lit the four candles on his table and settled himself in his hickory chair, he read with his mind as well as his eyes. and he questioned. he met with contradictions, and they troubled him. he found a comforter in john bunyan, who also had been troubled. sometimes he had a bad night, and was awake and dressed a long while before little zach ran down from the house with his kettle of shaving water. then he used to watch to see the yellow girl come winding along the garden path: so happy she was — free from care, like the flowers and the birds. he had never realized, until bluebell took her place for two days, how much love and delicate feeling nancy put into making his bare room as he liked it. even when she was scarcely more than a child, he had felt her eagerness to please him. as she grew older he came to identify her with mercy, christiana’s sweet companion. when he read in the second part of his book, he saw nancy’s face and figure plain in mercy.
