Saxe Holms Stories | Page 8

thing you want, an' none o' my talk; but you see Mis' Melville 'n
me's so intimate that I feel's if I'd known you always, 'n I'm real glad to
see you here, real glad; 'n I'll bring the tea right over; the kettle was a
boilin' when I run out, 'n I'll send Jim right down town for Captain
Melville; he's sure to be to the library. Oh, but won't Mis' Melville be
beat," she continued, half way down the steps; and from the middle of
the street she called back, "'an she ain't coming home till to-morrow

night."
Reuben and Jane and Draxy sat down with as bewildered a feeling as, if
they had been transported to another world. The house was utterly
unlike anything they had ever seen; high ceilings, wainscoted walls,
wooden cornices and beams, and wooden mantels with heads carved on
the corners. It seemed to them at first appallingly grand. Presently they
observed the bare wooden floors, the flag-bottomed chairs, and faded
chintz cushions, the row of old tin utensils, and plain, cheap crockery in
the glass-doored cupboard, and felt more at home.
"You know Aunt Emma said they were poor, too," said Draxy,
answering her own unspoken thought as well as her father's and
mother's.
Reuben pushed his hair off his warm forehead and sighed.
"I suppose we might go up-stairs, mother," he said; "that's to be our
house, as I understand it"
Draxy bounded at the words. With flying steps she ascended the stairs
and opened the first door. She stood still on the threshold, unable to
move from astonishment. It was still light enough to see the room.
Draxy began to speak, but broke down utterly, and bursting out crying,
threw herself into the arms of her father who had just reached the top of
the stairs.
"Oh, father, it's all fixed for a sitting-room! Father dear, I told you!"
This was something they had not dreamed of. They had understood the
offer to be merely of rooms in which they could live rent-free. In fact,
that had been Captain Melville's first intention. But his generous
sailor's heart revolted from the thought of stripping the rooms of
furniture for which he had no use. So Emma had rearranged the plain
old-fashioned things, and adding a few more which could be spared as
well as not, had fitted up a sitting-room and two bed-rooms with all that
was needed for comfort. Reuben and Jane and Draxy were all crying
when Mrs. Carr came back with her pitcher of smoking tea. Reuben

tried to explain to her why they were crying, but she interrupted him
with,--
"Well, now, I understand it jest's if 'twas to me it'd all happened; an' I
think it's lucky after all that Mis' Melville wasn't here, for she's dreadful
easy upset if people take on. But now you drink your tea, and get all
settled down's quick's you can, for Captain Melville 'll be here any
minute now I expect, an' he don't like tantrums."
This frightened Draxy, and made a gloomy look come on Reuben's face.
But the fright and the gloom disappeared in one minute and forever
when the door burst open, and a red-faced, white-haired old man,
utterly out of breath, bounced into the room, and seizing Reuben by the
hand gasped out, puffing between the words like a steam-engine:--
"Wreck me, if this isn't a hard way to make port. Why, man, we've been
looking for some hail from you for two weeks, till we began to think
you'd given us the go-by altogether. Welcome to Melville Harbor, I say,
welcome!" and he had shaken Reuben's hand, and kissed Jane and
turned to Draxy all in a breath. At the first full sight of Draxy's face he
started and felt dumb. He had never seen so beautiful a woman. He
pulled out a red silk handkerchief and wiped his face nervously as she
said, "Kiss me too, uncle," but her warm lips were on his cheek before
he had time to analyze his own feelings. Then Reuben began to say
something, about gratitude, and the old sailor swore his favorite oath
again: "Now, may I be wrecked if I have a word o' that. We're glad
enough to get you all here; and as for the few things in the rooms,
they're of no account anyhow."
"Few things! Oh, uncle," said Draxy, with a trembling voice, and
before he knew what she was about to do she had snatched his fat,
weather-beaten old hand and kissed it. No woman had ever kissed John
Melville's hand before. From that moment he looked upon Draxy as a
princess who had let him once kiss hers!
Captain Melville and Reuben were friends before bed-time. Reuben's
gentle simplicity and unworldliness,