Lizzie Doten - Hesper, the Home-Spirit

“So I would for poor Hesper’s sake,” said aunt Nyna. “She has just as much as she can attend to, and it is hard work where there is so much to do and nothing to do with. I am taking Johnny home with me to keep him awhile, and if thou wouldst just take the other two boys a few days, it would be a great help to Hesper.”

“Mercy me!” exclaimed aunt Betsey, raising her hands in astonishment, “I should as soon think of taking two wild Indians into my house – besides I should never get my bed-quilt done in the world.”

“Well, and what if thee shouldn’t? It would be of little consequence compared to helping the poor girl.”

“Really!” replied aunt Betsey, very tartly, “I should like to know!” She commenced sewing again very diligently, without looking up or speaking another word, so aunt Nyna turned away.

“There, I am glad she’s gone!” said aunt Betsey. “Somehow or other I never could bear that woman, with her theeing and thouing.” She tried to settle down to her work and feel as quiet and comfortable as before, but her conscience troubled her sorely.

“Well, if I must, I must,” she said at last, starting up. “I’ll go and bring them home with me, and bear it like a martyr.” She rolled up her bits of satin, drove all her cats out of the room, and then put on her bonnet and shawl.

“It won’t do,” she said, “to go into such a family empty-handed, though where their wants are so many, it seems almost entirely useless to give them anything.”

She gathered together some broken victuals – tied up a bundle of old cast-off garments, and with this under her arm, she set out.

“O Fred! Here comes aunt Betsey, with a great budget,” said Charlie, who was looking out of the window. “Let’s hide under the bed till she is gone. She never stays long;” and without another word under they went.

“What do you want to hide for?” asked Hesper.

“O, because we know she don’t like us,” and Fred drew his head back quickly, for she was just opening the door.

“Well-a-day, Hesper!” said aunt Betsey, with a doleful countenance, “I hear you are in trouble again, and I have come down to see what I can do for you. How is your father, this morning? I declare I never knew he had hurt him till just now. Where is he?”

“In there,” said Hesper, pointing to the little bed-room where Mose and Johnny usually slept. “He has been restless all night, but he is asleep now.”

“Well, then I won’t disturb him, for I am so hurried with work that I can’t stop a minute. I left everything in a heap and came down directly, when I heard of your trouble. I declare I am all out of breath with hurrying,” and she threw herself into a chair by the bed.

“Well, Susan,” she said to Hesper’s mother, “I should think you would get all tired out with being sick so long, but I think Hesper looks almost as frail as you, and I shouldn’t wonder at all if she should give out.”

“I am afraid she will,” said her mother, and she sighed deeply.

“O, no!” replied Hesper, cheerfully, “I haven’t the least idea of it. I didn’t sleep much last night, and am rather tired to-day, but I don’t feel sick at all.”

“Well,” said aunt Betsey, “there’s no use in undertaking too much, and I have really come down with the intention of doing something to help you.”

Here she hesitated, for she really dreaded to make the proposition.

“You, Charlie;” whispered Fred – “if I should catch at her foot how she would jump.”

The thought of aunt Betsey’s surprise quite overcame Charlie, and in spite of his efforts he could not restrain a laugh.

“Mercy me!” exclaimed aunt Betsey. “What’s that?” and she looked directly under the bed. Her expressions of wonder, and the angry manner in which she eyed them over her spectacles, was perfectly irresistible, and laughing with all their might, they crept out.

“Well, I declare!” said she, “you act as though you weren’t half civilized, and I almost repent of my resolution. As I was just saying to Hesper, I came down to take you home with me, to spend a few days. It will be a great relief to your mother and sister, for I know you are bad boys, and are dreadfully troublesome.”

The boys were sober in a moment. Fred looked at Charlie and Charlie at Fred, but neither of them spoke a word. Now that aunt Betsey had given the invitation, she was quite determined they should go.

“Well, what is the matter?” said she, “I don’t want you to work for me. I only want you to behave yourselves, if you can, and I will do all I can to please you. You shall have some apples to roast, and if your Uncle Nathan is willing, I will give you one of his great pumpkins for a jack-o’lantern.”

It was evident that she had touched the right chord, for the boys assented immediately. Hesper was much pleased, and began to prepare them as soon as possible. Soon all was ready, and they set out, with the parting injunction from Hesper, to be good boys.

It was so quiet and peaceful after they were gone, and Hesper’s mind was so much relieved, that after making some gruel for her father’s dinner, she sat down in the great rocking chair, and in a few moments was fast asleep. Poor Hesper was almost sick. Mose watched her from day to day, and when he saw her cheek grow pale, his heart failed him. He sat very often upon the old log by the mill-dam, but it was not to think over his own troubles. They were all forgotten in his care for Hesper, and knowing not what else to do, he prayed for her most earnestly.

Aunt Betsey did not find the boys so much of a hindrance as she had expected. They sat very quietly by the fire, looking at the pictures in a book of Natural History, while she continued sewing upon her bed-quilt as before. She soon had occasion though, to stir up the fire, and as she did so, she spied a great muddy foot-mark directly across the white rose in the centre of her rug. “O dear!” she exclaimed, “did I ever see such dirty children?” She was just beginning to scold, when she checked herself, for she thought that she was most to blame, for not telling them to clean their feet well when they came in. Charlie said he was very sorry, and Fred proposed that they should go out and scrape their boots directly. Meanwhile Aunt Betsey took the rug into the kitchen, and after a little drying and brushing it looked as well as ever.

“Well,” said she, “it isn’t so bad after all, and if I don’t meet with anything worse, I’ll not complain.”

When she went back she found that the boys after they had cleaned their boots, had left them in the entry, which pleased her very much. She gave them some apples to roast, and then she concluded to go down to her husband’s store of an errand.

“Be very careful,” said she, as she went out, “and behave yourselves properly till I come back.” When the boys had roasted their apples, they set them aside to cool, and began to play with the cats.

“Fred,” said Charlie, “shouldn’t you think that Aunt Betsey would be afraid that her cats would eat the birds?”

“O no,” said Fred, “for they hang so high they cannot get at them.”

“But,” continued Charlie, whose curiosity was always wide awake, “I wonder what the birds would do if they should see this old grey cat close to the cage?”

“Let’s try;” said Fred. “I’ll hold her tight,” and the “next moment he was standing up in a chair, under the cage, with the cat in his arms.

“I can’t reach,” said he. So he got down and looked about for something higher. Now that he had undertaken, he was quite determined to see the result of the experiment. While Charlie looked out for Aunt Betsey, Fred rolled the dining table into the middle of the floor, placed a chair on top, and then climbed up again with the cat. Of course the birds fluttered about in a great fright, and as might have been expected, the cat sprang at them. In his struggle to hold the cat, Fred lost his footing. He grasped at the cage to save himself, but the hook gave way, and down they all came together. Charlie opened the door and rushed out into the entry, followed by all of the cats. At first he thought he would take his cap and start for home immediately, and then he concluded to go back and see what had become of Fred. There he sat among the ruins looking very much bewildered.