Deephaven | Page 3

house is very near
Aunt Katharine's, so we shall not be lonely; though I know you're no
more afraid of that than I. O Helen, won't you go?"
Do you think it took me long to decide?
Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster sailed the 10th of June, and my Aunt Mary
went to spend her summer among the Berkshire Hills, so I was at the
Lancasters' ready to welcome Kate when she came home, after having
said good by to her father and mother. We meant to go to Deephaven in
a week, but were obliged to stay in town longer. Boston was nearly
deserted of our friends at the last, and we used to take quiet walks in
the cool of the evening after dinner, up and down the street, or sit on
the front steps in company with the servants left in charge of the other
houses, who also sometimes walked up and down and looked at us
wonderingly. We had much shopping to do in the daytime, for there
was a probability of our spending many days in doors, and as we were
not to be near any large town, and did not mean to come to Boston for
weeks at least, there was a great deal to be remembered and arranged.
We enjoyed making our plans, and deciding what we should want, and
going to the shops together. I think we felt most important the day we
conferred with Ann and made out a list of the provisions which must be
ordered. This was being housekeepers in earnest. Mr. Dockum
happened to come to town, and we sent Ann and Maggie, with most of
our boxes, to Deephaven in his company a day or two before we were
ready to go ourselves, and when we reached there the house was
opened and in order for us.
On our journey to Deephaven we left the railway twelve miles from
that place, and took passage in a stage-coach. There was only one
passenger beside ourselves. She was a very large, thin, weather-beaten
woman, and looked so tired and lonesome and good-natured, that I
could not help saying it was very dusty; and she was apparently
delighted to answer that she should think everybody was sweeping, and

she always felt, after being in the cars a while, as if she had been taken
all to pieces and left in the different places. And this was the beginning
of our friendship with Mrs. Kew.
After this conversation we looked industriously out of the window into
the pastures and pine-woods. I had given up my seat to her, for I do not
mind riding backward in the least, and you would have thought I had
done her the greatest favor of her life. I think she was the most grateful
of women, and I was often reminded of a remark one of my friends
once made about some one: "If you give Bessie a half-sheet of
letter-paper, she behaves to you as if it were the most exquisite of
presents!" Kate and I had some fruit left in our lunch-basket, and
divided it with Mrs. Kew, but after the first mouthful we looked at each
other in dismay. "Lemons with oranges' clothes on, aren't they?" said
she, as Kate threw hers out of the window, and mine went after it for
company; and after this we began to be very friendly indeed. We both
liked the odd woman, there was something so straightforward and
kindly about her.
"Are you going to Deephaven, dear?" she asked me, and then: "I
wonder if you are going to stay long? All summer? Well, that's clever! I
do hope you will come out to the Light to see me; young folks 'most
always like my place. Most likely your friends will fetch you."
"Do you know the Brandon house?" asked Kate.
"Well as I do the meeting-house. There! I wonder I didn't know from
the beginning, but I have been a trying all the way to settle it who you
could be. I've been up country some weeks, stopping with my mother,
and she seemed so set to have me stay till strawberry-time, and would
hardly let me come now. You see she's getting to be old; why, every
time I've come away for fifteen years she's said it was the last time I'd
ever see her, but she's a dreadful smart woman of her age. 'He' wrote
me some o' Mrs. Lancaster's folks were going to take the Brandon
house this summer; and so you are the ones? It's a sightly old place; I
used to go and see Miss Katharine. She must have left a power of
china-ware. She set a great deal by the house, and she kept everything
just as it used to