The Old Gray Homestead | Page 9

The usual board around here is five dollars a week, isn't
it?' And what could I say again but 'Yes, Mrs. Cary'? though you may
believe I fairly itched to ask, 'Send _where_?' and, 'For the love of
Heaven, how many horses have you?'"
"I could stand her actin' as if things was all settled," replied his wife; "I
like to see folks up an' comin', even if I ain't made that way myself, an'
it's a satisfaction to me to see the poor child kinder pickin' up an' takin'
notice again; but what beats me is, she acts as if all these things were
special favors to her! The garden an' the horse is all very well, but what
do you think she lit into me to-day for? 'You'll let me stay all summer,

won't you, Mrs. Gray?' she said, comin' into the kitchen, where I was
ironin' away for dear life, liftin' a pile of sheets off a chair, an' settlin'
down, comfortable-like. 'Bless your heart, you can stay forever, as far
as I'm concerned,' says I. 'Well, perhaps I will,' says she, leanin' back
an' laughin'--she's got a sweet-pretty laugh, hev you noticed,
Howard?--'and so you won't think I'm fault-findin' or discontented if I
suggest a few little changes I'd like to make around, will you? I know
it's awfully bold, in another person's house--an' such a lovely house, too,
but--'"
"Well?" demanded her husband, as she paused for breath.
"Well, Howard Gray, the first of them little changes is to be a great big
piazza, to go across the whole front of the house! 'The kitchen porch is
so small an' crowded,' says she, 'an' you can't see the river from there; I
want a place to sit out evenings. Can't I have the fireplaces in my rooms
unbricked,' she went on, 'an' the rooms re-papered an' painted? An',
oh,--I've never lived in a house where there wasn't a bathroom before,
an' I want to make that big closet with a window off my bedroom into
one. We'll have a door cut through it into the hall, too,' says she, 'an'
isn't there a closet just like it overhead? If we can get a plumber
here--they're such slippery customers--he might as well put in two
bathrooms as one, while he's about it, an' you shan't do my great
washin's any more without some good set-tubs. An' Mrs. Gray,
kerosene lamps do heat up the rooms so in summer,--if there's an
electrician anywhere around here--' 'Mrs. Cary,' says I, 'you're an angel
right out of Heaven, but we can't accept all this from you. It means two
thousand dollars, straight.' 'About what I should pay in two months for
my living expenses anywhere else,' says she. 'Favors! It's you who are
kind to let me stay here, an' not mind my tearin' your house all to pieces.
Thomas is goin' to drive me up to Wallacetown this evenin' to see if we
can find some mechanics'; an' she got up, an' kissed me, an' strolled
off."
"Thomas thinks she's the eighth wonder of the world," said his father;
"she can just wind him around her little finger."
"She's windin' us all," replied his wife, "an' we're standin' grateful-like,

waitin' to be wound."
"That's so--all except Austin. Austin's mad as a hatter at what she got
him to do Sunday morning; he doesn't like her, Mary."
"Humph!" said his wife.

CHAPTER III
"Good-bye, Mrs. Gray, I'm going for a ride."
"Good-bye, dearie; sure it ain't too hot?"
"Not a bit; it's rained so hard all this week that I haven't had a bit of
exercise, and I'm getting cross."
"Cross! I'd like to see you once! It still looks kinder thunderous to me
off in the West, so don't go far."
"I won't, I promise; I'll be back by supper-time. There's Austin, just up
from the hayfield--I'll get him to saddle for me." And Sylvia ran
quickly towards the barn.
"You don't mean to say you're going out this torrid day?" he demanded,
lifting his head from the tin bucket in which he had submerged it as she
voiced her request, and eyeing her black linen habit with disfavor.
"It's no hotter on the highroad than in the hayfield."
"Very true; but I have to go, and you don't. Being one of the favored
few of this earth, there's no reason why you shouldn't sit on a shady
porch all day, dressed in cool, pale-green muslin, and sipping iced
drinks."
"Did you ever see me in a green muslin? I'll saddle Dolly myself, if you
don't feel like it."

She spoke very quietly, but the immediate consciousness of his stupid
break did not improve Austin's bad temper.
"Oh, I'll saddle for you, but the heat aside, I think you ought