Miss Gibbie Gault | Page 8

and touched first
one and then the other, for a swift moment laid her cheek on the rough
bark as if to send a message to its heart.
From the shelter she drew out a rug, spread it close to her best-loved
tree, then sitting upon it leaned against the trunk, feet crossed and
hands clasped loosely behind her head. The chirp of sparrows and
twitter of small birds, the clear song of robin and the cat-bird's call fell
after a while unheeding on her ears, and the drowsy hum of insects was
lost in the dreaming that possessed her. From the garden of
old-fashioned flowers some distance off the soft breeze flung fragrance
faint and undefined, and for a while she was a child again--the child
who used to run away in the springtime and hide in the orchard, that
she might say her prayers before a shrine of unknown name.
Presently she sat upright and opened her portfolio. "And now to think it
is mine, Aunt Katherine, mine!" she began. "At last everything is ready,
everything is finished, and I am in my own home. I am still full of
wonder and unbelief, still not understanding how Tree Hill is my
property. The quaint old house is not degraded by its changes, and
already I love its every room, its every outlook; and if you and Uncle
Parke and the children do not soon come I shall be of all creatures the
most disappointed and indignant. I want you to see the beautiful things
Miss Gibbie has done. Of course, Yorkburg doesn't understand; doesn't
know why I am back, and why I am living alone save for the servants;
and some don't approve. That the once charity child who lived at the
asylum should now own Tree Hill is something of a trial, and that it
could happen without their knowledge or consent is grievous unto them.
But they have been so good to me, all the old friends; are glad, they say,
to have me back, and I am so happy to be back. There have been
changes, but not many. The mills and factories have brought new
people, some of the old ones have died, the little ones grown up,
several have married and gone away to live, but it is the same sunshiny
little place, and I love it. In the months spent with Miss Gibbie, waiting

for Tree Hill to be made ready to live in, there was the restless feeling
that belongs to temporary arrangement, but now I am home; here to
live and work, and the only shadow is that the big and little Aldens are
not here, too. And what a relief to Miss Gibbie to be once more by
herself! I couldn't keep people away, and I was constantly afraid she
would take a broom and sweep them out. How she does hate to have
people in her house unless she sends for them! Man may not have been
meant to live alone, but Miss Gibbie was--"
The rustle of skirts made her look up, and quickly she was on her feet,
her arms around her visitor's waist, cheek pressed close to cheek.
"Oh, dear, I am so glad you've come. I was going--"
"To choke me, crush me, knock me down and sit on me, were you?
Well, you're to do nothing of the kind. And it's too hot to embrace.
Stand straight and let me look at you. How did you sleep last night?"
"I don't know. Wasn't awake long enough to find out. Oh, Miss Gibbie,
if you were a little girl I'd play all around the green grass with you!
Apple-Blossom Land is the place to play it in, and this is
Apple-Blossom Land! And to think--to think that it is mine!"
"Why not? Why shouldn't what you want be yours? Heaven knows an
old house on a hilltop, with some twisted trees on the side and
cornfields at the back, isn't much to dance over; but things have in them
what we get out of them, and if you will stop hugging me and get me
something to sit on I will be obliged."
"Will the rug do?"
"Rug? How could I get up if I every got down? No. Get me a chair.
What are you out here for, anyhow? Bugs and bees and birds may like
such places, but being a mere human being I prefer indoors."
"Then we will go in. I came out here so as to be not at home if any one
came up to see me."

"Hiding, are you? If you don't want to see people, why see them?" She
waved her turkey-wing fan inquiringly. "Nonsense such as this will
force you on the roof, if you'd say your prayers