The Tree of Heaven

The Tree of Heaven

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Title: The Tree of Heaven
Author: May Sinclair
Release Date: October 27, 2004 [eBook #13883]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREE
OF HEAVEN***
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THE TREE OF HEAVEN
by
MAY SINCLAIR

Author of The Belfry, The Three Sisters, etc.
1918


PART I
PEACE

I
Frances Harrison was sitting out in the garden under the tree that her
husband called an ash-tree, and that the people down in her part of the
country called a tree of Heaven.
It was warm under the tree, and Frances might have gone to sleep there
and wasted an hour out of the afternoon, if it hadn't been for the
children.
Dorothy, Michael and Nicholas were going to a party, and Nicky was
excited. She could hear Old Nanna talking to Michael and telling him
to be a good boy. She could hear young Mary-Nanna singing to Baby
John. Baby John was too young himself to go to parties; so to make up
for that he was riding furiously on Mary-Nanna's knee to the tune of the
"Bumpetty-Bumpetty Major!"
It was Nicky's first party. That was why he was excited.
He had asked her for the third time what it would be like; and for the
third time she had told him. There would be dancing and a Magic
Lantern, and a Funny Man, and a Big White Cake covered with sugar
icing and Rosalind's name on it in pink sugar letters and eight little pink
wax candles burning on the top for Rosalind's birthday. Nicky's eyes
shone as she told him.

Dorothy, who was nine years old, laughed at Nicky.
"Look at Nicky," she said, "how excited he is!"
And every time she laughed at him his mother kissed him.
"I don't care," said Nicky. "I don't care if I am becited!"
And for the fifth time he asked, "When will it be time to go?"
"Not for another hour and a half, my sweetheart."
"How long," said Nicky, "is an hour and a half?"
* * * * *
Frances had a tranquil nature and she never worried. But as she sat
under her tree of Heaven a thought came that made a faint illusion of
worry for her mind. She had forgotten to ask Grannie and Auntie Louie
and Auntie Emmeline and Auntie Edie to tea.
She had come to think of them like that in relation to her children rather
than to her or to each other.
It was a Tuesday, and they had not been there since Friday. Perhaps,
she thought, I'd better send over for them now. Especially as it's such a
beautiful afternoon. Supposing I sent Michael?
And yet, supposing Anthony came home early? He was always kind to
her people, but that was the very reason why she oughtn't to let them
spoil a beautiful afternoon for him. It could not be said that any of them
was amusing.
She could still hear Mary-Nanna singing her song about the
Bumpetty-Bumpetty Major. She could still hear Old Nanna talking to
Michael and telling him to be a good boy. That could only end in
Michael being naughty. To avert naughtiness or any other disaster from
her children was the end of Frances's existence.

So she called Michael to come to her. He came, running like a little dog,
obediently.
* * * * *
Michael was glad that he had been sent across the Heath to Grannie's
house with a message. It made him feel big and brave. Besides, it
would put off the moment when Mary-Nanna would come for him, to
make him ready for the party. He was not sure that he wanted to go to
it.
Michael did not much like going to Grannie's house either. In all the
rooms there was a queer dark-greenness and creepiness. It smelt of
bird-cages and elder bushes and of Grandpapa's funeral. And when you
had seen Auntie Edie's Senegal wax-bills, and the stuffed fish, and the
inside of Auntie Louie's type-writer there was nothing else to see.
His mother said that Grandpapa's funeral was all over, and that the
green creepiness came from the green creepers. But Michael knew it
didn't. She only said things like that to make you feel nice and comfy
when you were going to bed. Michael knew very well