The Morgesons | Page 8

my shapeless mind, to be reproduced afterward by
faculties then latent. But what satisfaction was that? Doubtless the ideal
faculty was active in Veronica from the beginning; in me it was
developed by the experience of years. No remembrance of any ideal
condition comes with the remembrance of my childish days, and I
conclude that my mind, if I had any, existed in so rudimental a state
that it had little influence upon my character.
CHAPTER IV.
One afternoon in the following July, tired of walking in the mown
fields, and of carrying a nest of mice, which I had discovered under a
hay-rick, I concluded I would begin a system of education with them;
so arranging them on a grape-leaf, I started homeward. Going in by the
kitchen, I saw Temperance wiping the dust from the best china, which
elated me, for it was a sign that we were going to have company to tea.
"You evil child," she said, "where have you been? Your mother has
wanted you these hours, to dress you in your red French calico with
wings to it. Some of the members are coming to tea; Miss Seneth Jellatt,
and she that was Clarissa Tripp, Snow now, and Miss Sophrony G.
Dexter, and more besides."
I put my mice in a basket, and begged Temperance to allow me to
finish wiping the china; she consented, adjuring me not to let it fall.
"Mis Morgeson would die if any of it should be broken." I adored it,
too. Each piece had a peach, or pear, or a bunch of cherries painted on
it, in lustrous brown. The handles were like gold cords, and the covers
had knobs of gilt grapes.
"What preserves are you going to put on the table?" I asked.
"Them West Ingy things Capen Curtis's son brought home, and

quartered quince, though I expect Mis Dexter will remark that the surup
is ropy."
"I wish you wouldn't have cheese."
"We must have cheese," she said solemnly. "I expect they'll drink our
green tea till they make bladders of themselves, it is so good. Your
father is a first-rate man; he is an excellent provider, and any woman
ought to be proud of him, for he does buy number one in provisions."
I looked at her with admiration and respect.
"Capen Curtis," she continued, pursuing a train of thought which the
preserves had started, "will never come home, I guess. He has been in
furen parts forever and a day; his wife has looked for him, a-twirling
her thumb and fingers, every day for ten years. I heard your mother had
engaged her to go in the new house; she'll take the upper hand of us all.
Your grandfather, Mr. John Morgeson, is willing to part with her; tired
of her, I spose. She has been housekeeping there, off and on, these
thirty years. She's fifty, if she is a day, is Hepsy Curtis."
"Is she as stingy as you are?" I asked.
"You'll find out for yourself, Miss. I rather think you won't be allowed
to crumble over the buttery shelves."
I finished the cup, and was watching her while she grated loaf-sugar
over a pile of doughnuts, when mother entered, and begged me to come
upstairs with her to be dressed.
"Where is Verry, mother?"
"In the parlor, with a lemon in one hand and Robinson Crusoe in the
other. She will be good, she says. Cassy, you won't teaze me to-day,
will you?"
"No, indeed, mother," and clapping my hands, "I like you too well."
She laughed.

"These Morgesons beat the dogs," I heard Temperance say, as we shut
the door and went upstairs.
I skipped over the shiny, lead-colored floor of the chamber in my
stockings, while mother was taking from the bureau a clean suit for me,
and singing "Bonny Doon," with the sweetest voice in the world. She
soon arrayed me in my red calico dress, spotted with yellow stars. I was
proud of its buckram undersleeves, though they scratched my arms, and
admired its wings, which extended over the protecting buckram.
"It is three o'clock; the company will come soon. Be careful of your
dress. You must stand by me at the table to hand the cups of tea."
She left me standing in a chair, so that I might see my pantalettes in the
high-hung glass, and the effect of my balloon-like sleeves. Then I went
back to the kitchen to show myself to Temperance, and to enjoy the
progress of tea.
The table was laid in the long keeping-room adjoining the kitchen,
covered with a striped cloth of crimson and blue, smooth as satin to the
touch. Temperance had turned the plates upside-down around the table,
and placed in a straight line through the middle a