Sweet Cicely | Page 2

me wus married, Maria wusn't well, and
the doctor ordered her out into the country for her health; and she and
little Cicely spent the hull of that summer with us. Cicely wus about ten;
and how we did love that girl! Her mother couldn't bear to have her out
of her sight; and I declare, we all of us wus jest about as bad. And from
that time they used to spend most all of their summers in Jonesville.
The air agreed with 'em, and so did I: we never had a word of trouble.
And we used to visit them quite a good deal in the winter season: they
lived in the city.
Wall, as Cicely got to be a young girl, I used often to set and look at
her, and wonder if the Lord could have made a prettier, sweeter girl if
he had tried to. She looked to me jest perfect, and so she did to Josiah.
And she knew so much, too, and wus so womanly and quiet and deep. I
s'pose it wus bein' always with her mother that made her seem older
and more thoughtful than girls usially are. It seemed as if her great dark
eyes wus full of wisdom beyend--fur beyend--her years, and sweetness
too. Never wus there any sweeter eyes under the heavens than those of
our niece Cicely.
She wus very fair and pale, you would think at first; but, when you
would come to look closer, you would see there was nothing sickly in
her complexion, only it was very white and smooth,--a good deal like
the pure white leaves of the posy Sweet Cicely. She had a gentle, tender
mouth, rose-pink; and her cheeks wuz, when she would get rousted up
and excited about any thing; and then it would all sort o' die out again
into that pure white. And over all her face, as sweet and womanly as it
was, there was a look of power, somehow, a look of strength, as if she
would venture much, dare much, for them she loved. She had the gift,
not always a happy one, of loving,--a strength of devotion that always
has for its companion- trait a gift of endurance, of martyrdom if
necessary.
She would give all, dare all, endure all, for them she loved. You could

see that in her face before you had been with her long enough to see it
in her life.
Her hair wus a soft, pretty brown, about the color of her eyes. And she
wus a little body, slender, and sort o' plump too; and her arms and
hands and neck wus soft and white as snow almost.
Yes, we loved Cicely: and no one could blame us, or wonder at us for
callin' her after the posy Sweet Cicely; for she wus prettier than any
posy that ever blew, enough sight.
Wall, she had always said she couldn't live if her mother died.
But she did, poor little creeter! she did.
Maria died when Cicely wus about eighteen. She had always been
delicate, and couldn't live no longer: so she died. And Josiah and me
went right after the poor child, and brought her home with us.
[Illustration: CICELY.]
She lived, Cicely did, because she wus young, and couldn't die. And
Josiah and me wus dretful good to her; and many's the nights that I
have gone into her room when I'd hear her cryin' way along in the night;
many's the times I have gone in, and took her in my arms, and held her
there, and cried with her, and soothed her, and got her to sleep, and
held her in my arms like a baby till mornin'. Wall, she lived with us
most a year that time; and it wus about two years after, while she wus
to some of her father's folks'es (they wus very rich), that she met the
young man she married,--Paul Slide.
He wus a handsome young man, well-behaved, only he would drink a
little once in a while: he'd got into the habit at college, where his mate
wus wild, and had his turns. But he wus very pretty in his manners,
Paul was, --polite, good-natured, generous-dispositioned,--and very
rich.
And as to his looks, there wuzn't no earthly fault to find with him, only

jest his chin. And I told Josiah, that how Cicely could marry a man with
such a chin wus a mystery to me.
And Josiah said, "What is the matter with his chin?"
And I says, "Why, it jest sets right back from his mouth: he hain't got
no chin at all hardly," says I. "The place where his chin ort to be is
nothin' but a holler place all filled up with irresolution and weakness.
And