Laughing Last - Jane Abbott (portable ebook reader .txt) š
- Author: Jane Abbott
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āIs it squareāand whiteāand on an eminence?ā
āEh? If itās a hill you mean, youāre right. I told Elizy after Iād made my last vāyage she could build anything she had her heart set on but itād got to be where I could smell the harbor. Got a lookout atop where you can see the boats when they sail round the Point.ā A faintly wistful note shaded the rugged voice. āYou tell folks in Provincetown that youāre a friend of Capān Phin Davies and I guess you can just about have anything you want in the town. Thereās a few of us old fellows left!ā
As the train carried them further upon the Cape a boyish excitement seized the old man. He declared that, though heād only been in Boston three or four days, it was as good as āmoorinā from a long vāyage.ā He pointed out to Sidney the places and things of interest they were passing. Through his eyes Sidney saw the beauty of the old, elm-shaped villages, the rich meadow lands, the low-lying salt marshes, the sand-bars gleaming against stretches of blue water. Capān Phin Davies seemed to know something, and it was nearly always funny, about every one who lived in the quaint houses set here and there under century old trees. Wellfleet came all too soon.
āNow donāt forget, Missy, youāre coming to visit old Phin Davies. Iāll tell Elizy. And keep an eye to windāard for those pirates!ā
āGosh all fish hooks,ā he exclaimed to his Elizy a half hour later, as he divested himself of his Sunday coat and vest and sprawled his great hulk in his own easy chair, ādonāt know as Iāve ever seen a cuter little girlāand cominā all this way by herself to visit whatās left of Zeke Greenās folks.ā
In her way Elizy Davies registered sincere horror. āYou donāt say! Why, all there is is old Achsa and that poor Lavender! Now, you donāt say! The little thingāā
With Capān Phinās going Sidney was engulfed in a terrifying loneliness. The lump swelled in her throat again. She tried desperately to rally something of that splendid excitement with which she had started on her journey, to thrill again over the assembled belongings in the old satchel, some things Isoldeās and some Trudeās and some even Vickās. The girls had been very kind and generous with her. But in spite of her valiant efforts her spirits sank lower and lower. She had come so far, she had sat through so many lonely hours that all that had happened back at Middletown seemed now to belong to someone elseāsome other Sidney Romley. Strong within her mounted an apprehension at what awaited her at her journeyās end.
But there was a chance the ābabyā had lived; Capān Davies had said itād be about sixteen. Sidney hoped it was a boyāa boy cousin would be such fun. And heād be more likely to have a boat. In order to keep from thinking that the low dunes of sand and marsh, shrouded in twilight haze, through which they now were passing were very dreary she held stubbornly to her speculations concerning the ābaby.ā She was tired and hungry. The lump was growing very big and hurt. When, as she finally followed her fellow passengers off the train and along a bustling platform she heard a pleasant voice ask: āIs this Sidney Romley?ā she gave an involuntary little gasp of relief.
āOh, are you my cousin?ā
Dugald Allan took her bag. āWell, yes, if both of us belonging to Aunt Achsa can make us cousins. Are you tired? Itās an endless journeyāyou think you are never going to get here, donāt you? Did you have any fears that youād just ride off into the ocean? You had a coolish day.ā As he talked he piloted her through the crowd, a crowd that startled Sidney after those miles of twilight loneliness. āItās always like this toward the week-end,ā he apologized. āBut Sunset Lane is quiet enough. Iāve old Dobbin here and the one-hoss shay. Hoist this up, will you, Toby?ā he addressed a lanky barefooted boy who slouched upon the driverās high seat.
As they creaked and swayed down the sandy road Sidney turned searching eyes again upon her companion.
āI meanāare you the baby that was born? You see, Captain Phin Davies told meāā
āOh, you mean Lavender. NoāI am not Lavender. I just live with Aunt Achsa summers; wouldnāt that make me aāsort of half-nephew?ā
āBut there is a cousin?ā Sidney drew a quick breath. āYou see everythingās so strange to me that I have to put it all together, like a picture puzzle. And it will be nice having someone young in the picture. Then youāreāyouāreāa sort of boarder?ā Her voice rose, hesitatingly.
āI suppose so. Though Aunt Achsa holds me as one of the family and I hope you will, too, when you get that picture put together. What do you think of our Cape?ā
āOh, itās wonderful! Onlyāā Sidney had to be honest. āI didnāt like it so well until Captain Phin Davies made me see what was so nice about it. You see I expected to see a stern and rock-bound coast.ā
At this Allan laughed. āWeāll have to find one for you, wonāt we? Well, wait until you see the back shore. Tobyās taking a short-cut home. I expect he knows Aunt Achsa has the finest dinner you ever tasted waiting for usāweāll be there in two seconds now.ā
Two secondsāand her journey would be over, her adventure begun. Again that apprehension mounted sweeping before it even her hope of the big house on an eminence. She was scarcely conscious of anything they were passing. The dusk had deepened, enveloping them like a heavy veil. She heard her companion say: āThis is Sunset Lane.ā Then, with a great jolt, the ancient equipage stopped. āHere we areāand thereās Aunt Achsa watching for us!ā
They were so close to the house that Sidney almost could have jumped from the step of the carriage to the threshold. All about her she felt rather than saw crowding flowers. And in the open door silhouetted against a glow of lamplight waited a very small, brown old lady.
Ascha Green fluttered out to meet Sidney and touched the girl with shy hands.
āWell, well, youāre here. Donāt seem true. Let old Achsa look at you, child. Annieās girl. Come in. Come right in. I expect youāre tuckered out and hungry, too. Lavender, come and meet your new cousin.ā
Sidneyās glance shot across the room to the boy who huddled back of the stove, regarding her with shy dark eyes. And as quickly it dropped before what she saw. Ascha Green, watching, sensed her involuntary shudder.
āHeās strange,ā Aunt Achsa hurried to explain, a tremble in her voice, ābut heāll make friends fast ānough. Goodness knows he aināt talked of much else than a new cousinās cominā sence we got your letter. This is your room, Sidney, right here handy and mebbe youāll like to wash up while I put supper on the table. Here, take this candle; itās darkened up fast.ā
The āboarderā had already carried Sidneyās bag into the little room that opened directly out of the parlor. Aunt Achsa, after bustling her in, closed the door quickly between them.
It was the smallest room Sidney had ever seen. Why, she could reach out from just where she was standing and touch the ceiling or anyone of the walls. And it was the neatest. The small panes of the window twinkled at her between starched muslin curtains, coarse but immaculate towels covered the washstand and the highboy that stood at each side of the window. Another white towel Achsa had tacked on the wall behind the washbowl and under the oval mirror. A cushion, much faded from many washings, she had tied to the back of the straight rush-bottomed chair at the foot of the bed. A smell of strong soap hung in the air.
Sidney could not know that the highboy was priceless, that the two blue vases which Achsa had risked leaving on top of it had come from a Spanish port a century before, that the woven cover on the bed had the date of its making in one corner, that the hooked rug on the floor could have brought Achsa a hundred dollars any time she wanted to sell it; her eyes were too brimming with tears to notice the flowers that grew to her window-sill and peeped over it at her their bright heads nodding to the candle gleam. The lump that had been growing and growing mastered her. She drew a long-quivering breath. She had come all the way from home for this. This was her great adventure!
Oh, it was too humiliating, too cruel! That dreadful old womanāif sheād only had a broom she would have looked just like a witch. And in a few minutes sheād open the door and make her go out into the kitchen and eat supper with them. They were going to eat in the kitchen. She had seen the table. And the boarderānice people in Middletown did not keep boarders. And, oh, that dreadful Lavender and his big eyes, staring at herāthat was the cousin! And she could not telegraph Trude until tomorrow at the earliestā
She could not cry. She must not. If she began sheād never stop. She knew now that the tears had been starting deep down within her miles back on her long journey. Her teeth bit into her quivering lip. She went to the little window and leaned her face against its frame. The fragrant salt-laden air caressed her hot face and soothed her.
āShame on you, Sidney Romley,ā she finally muttered. āRemember youāre fifteen. And you wanted to comeāno one made you! Anywayāā She addressed a rose that was wagging its pink head at her in an understanding way and that certainly had not been there a moment before! āAnyway, Iāll bet it wonāt be a bit worse than traveling with fat, cross old Godmother Jocelyn!ā
MR. DUGALD EXPLAINS
Sidney had fallen asleep on that first night at Cousin Achsaās with the resolution to escape at the earliest moment possible from her humiliating situation; she would telegraph Trude in the morning.
But with errant sunbeams, as yellow as gold, dancing across oneās face, with a tang of salt and pine in the air, fifteen is certain to rise up strong-hearted, despite all accumulated woe. Forgetting her bitter disappointment of the night before Sidney sprang from her bed and rushed to the window to look out upon her new surroundings.
There was not really much she could see, for the lane turned at Mrs. Ephraim Calkinsā house and beyond her house a hillock of sand rose steeply to an azure blue sky. But Aunt Achsaās riotous flowers were smiling their brightest, at the opening of the hedge crouched Nip and Tuck regarding the morning with dignified satisfaction, over everything shone the alluring sun.
A sudden whiff of tobacco caught Sidneyās attention. At the same moment the boarder emerged from the back of the house and walked slowly along the clam-shell path that skirted the bit of garden. He was evidently deep in thought. Suddenly he bent and picked a flower. As he straightened his glance interrupted Sidneyās curious speculations.
āGood morning, little half-cousin.ā
āGood morning,ā Sidney answered, quite cheerfully, thinking as she spoke that he was nicer looking in the garden
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