Jan Karon - In the Company of Others

Keegan says it came about the day before the Feast-he had passed through the kitchen & nicked off a chunk of dough to mollify his famishing hunger. When caught in the act he says a large woman flew at him with an iron rolling pin which she vowed to use if he laid another hand on her rising dough. He replied that he would make her dough rise, bedad. Thus commenced a chase down the stairs & through the lower halls & when she was nearly upon him he surrendered by waving a scullery rag. He says he was taken prisoner then & they fell down together laughing. I did not press him for Details.

I am eager to have Sukey’s Philadelphia Cookery book put to use here. A freed mulatto slave brought from Jamaica to America by Uncle, Sukey was a cook like nothing known before or since. Thus my earnest inquiry of Keegan-Can Fiona read? He assures me with a gushing pride that she can both read & sign her name with a flourish.

I have found Keegan a decent judge of character but suggest he move forward with caution. He says he has waited many years for such a stirring as Fiona provokes & declines the proper use of either Patience or Common Sense. He is merry as a whiskey priest- & this a man inclined to be sour as a Protestant.

Two large roasting hens, a pike & the greater portion of a ham employed this late afternoon at our supper for eight. The infant was brought to table with his mother & cried bitterly the whole duration. The lad has hardly spoken a word & looks at me with doleful eyes.

As C passed up to bed this evening with another of her Headaches, I observe her lips & fingers moving. What are you doing? I ask.

I am counting the days, she says.

20 September

Mild

I cannot but wonder why the War between the American States is of such grave concern, disturbing my sleep. C says it is a simple matter-I thrived on the Hospitality of that Soil for thirty-three years & became the ardent supporter of its many just causes. Yet in these years at Lough Arrow I have sought to invest all my powers-of hope & strength & knowledge & affection-in the dire needs of my own people. If this incendiary conflict were indeed roused by the right or wrong of slavery I would side with the North. But as in everything in this world it is but Greed & more Greed which requires the issue of slavery to mask the wicked truth.

May God have mercy upon Union & Confederate troops alike, & upon President Lincoln in this crucifying Struggle.

Balfour’s condition appears remedied. I would have him feel indebted to me-but we shall see. I have diagnosed his wife’s condition as stemming from a disreputable kitchen & have advised the frequent sterilizing of knife blades, basins & tableware. This counsel met with eyebrows raised to the brim of her cap. Thus any good I might have done with Balfour may be undone by my bold come-uppance of their Yorkshire cook & scullery maids.

As Nephew has lodged with us many days beyond the month, I ask when he intends returning home. He says he is having difficulty getting the carriage brought out. I say I will send Keegan to inquire though it will be some days hence, as Keegan is to wed tomorrow at noon.

I believe Keegan expected me to rouse a celebration but C & I not yet recovered from the one roused earlier. I will provide a fair portion of whiskey, & tobacco to lift a haze over the celebrants. C will send ahead a large pot of Apple Dumplings. I’ve no more to give, she says-I am given out.

21 September

A grand day

I took some time in making my toilet this morning & was dashed when I looked in the mirror to comb my graying beard. It is every morning of every day that I look upon this face & yet this time saw it more soberly.

My brow displays the furrows of a potato field! I examine my pate-tis growing as bald as Uncles- & recall that Father possessed a head of hair to equal any privet hedge. It must be true that the persecution of baldness travels down the maternal line. At the long mirror in the upper hall, I pause to judge my physique. Taller, in the main, than most & fit enough-with no paunch thanks to God. I do heartily despise the paunch.

Having a few minutes to spare I sit to this journal-it has become a warm friend who hears all, sees all & forgives all.

Keegan’s Bride will be moving into the little room next to the Surgery as she’s ‘after being close to the housekeeping.’ It was never meant to lodge two people, but we have nonetheless furnished these tight Quarters with a good bed, a floor mat, two chairs & a bureau. The turnips & potatoes have more room in their cellar than the newlyweds will enjoy in this cranny. Fiona to bring ‘a wee drop’ of her own things, according to Keegan. We will then be at full house until Nephew & his legions depart, please God.

Speaking of the legions, they wish to accompany us to the Wedding today. How on earth we are all to be transported I cannot say-I shall not risk the ruination of my Carriage by adding even one more passenger to the load over four miles of rough track. As to why they must attend the Wedding of a complete stranger, I posit they are following the scent of Whiskey & Apple Dumplings.

Late evening-

As Adam cast a shoe this morning & no time to remedy the circumstance, there was naught to do but walk, as Little Dorrit is not yet broke to the Carriage. I had managed to round up a wagon for the Multitudes but the women of that party declined such a rough amenity & then C was stricken with the Headache. All this whittled our party to Nephew & the lad & myself. Knowing that A had looked forward eagerly to the occasion, I asked C if I might take her along. C was lying on the chaise & did not turn her head. As you please, she said.

The lad who seldom utters a sound became a regular magpie along the route.

Do ye have th’ Wee Folk? he says, casting his gaze about in the hedges. He wore his stubbed shoes slung about his neck by means of the laces tied together.

I’m afraid I don’t believe in Wee Folk, I say.

He looks at me with astonishment, then recovers himself & says deferentially, They’re there nonetheless.

We walk on & he says, Aren’t they, Aoife?

A looks at me, suppressing a smile. I wager she believes in them.

Twas the peach frock she wore & the shoes her Father made.

23 September

God have mercy. The wee drop that accompanied Fiona was a wagon load piled to the heavens. I have never seen such a look on C’s face as the whole of it appeared in the lane pulled by a horse nearly dead from privation. Then came more than several of the Missus Keegan’s women friends & their children skipping along behind with a passel of dogs & a pig at the rear.

I insisted C leave the surgery & rest herself in our Bedchamber.

I cannot, she said, the oul Flanagan Sisters have waited since early morning & the Bailey infant has a miserable case of Thrush. She stood rigid as a broom handle, but I persisted, for the wagon load & all the rest would soon be spilling into the little room near the Surgery, surely provoking another of her Headaches.

Send A to see me through, I said & wondered at the look she gave me for the relief I offered.

God help us, there is no strength to tell the rest of it-a farce if ever there was one. The jumble is forced into the small room as a sausage into a casing-one might fear to open the door lest the flotsam of cupboards & coat pegs & crockeries spew forth & strike one down.

Arrival of the Passiflora anxiously awaited. Though found to be salubrious in Philadelphia, Valerian & Peppermint Oil now have but weak effect.

A now complaining of blisters raised by the wearing of shoes on Wedding Day.

They’re from your father’s own last, I chide. Tis a discredit to fling about the talk of blisters.

I am lately persuaded that we are overly insular here-I have no Discourse with anyone save Keegan & our patients. C has but A for company & the work of two upon her shoulders, though I pray the Missus Keegan will lift the burthen. There remains the issue however, of the several unfinished guestchambers. Thus if more guests are attracted than we can immediately handle, we’ll be hanging them up by a horseshoe nail.