"Yes, you always catch yourself a-thinkin' what if they all was true, and he had the right of it," answered Mrs.Todd."He's a good sight better company, though dreamy, than such sordid creatur's as Mari' Harris.""Live and let live," said dear old Mrs.Blackett gently."Ihaven't seen the captain for a good while, now that I ain't so constant to meetin'," she added wistfully."We always have known each other.""Why, if it is a good pleasant day tomorrow, I'll get William to call an' invite the capt'in to dinner.William'll be in early so's to pass up the street without meetin' anybody.""There, they're callin' out it's time to set the tables," said Mrs.Caplin, with great excitement.
"Here's Cousin Sarah Jane Blackett! Well, I am pleased, certain!" exclaimed Mrs.Todd, with unaffected delight; and these kindred spirits met and parted with the promise of a good talk later on.After this there was no more time for conversation until we were seated in order at the long tables.
"I'm one that always dreads seeing some o' the folks that Idon't like, at such a time as this," announced Mrs.Todd privately to me after a season of reflection.We were just waiting for the feast to begin."You wouldn't think such a great creatur' 's I be could feel all over pins an' needles.I remember, the day Ipromised to Nathan, how it come over me, just's I was feelin'
happy's I could, that I'd got to have an own cousin o' his for my near relation all the rest o' my life, an' it seemed as if die Ishould.Poor Nathan saw somethin' had crossed me,--he had very nice feelings,--and when he asked what 'twas, I told him.'I never could like her myself,' said he.'You sha'n't be bothered, dear,'
he says; an' 'twas one o' the things that made me set a good deal by Nathan, he did not make a habit of always opposin', like some men.'Yes,' says I, 'but think o' Thanksgivin' times an' funerals;she's our relation, an' we've got to own her.' Young folks don't think o' those things.There she goes now, do let's pray her by!"said Mrs.Todd, with an alarming transition from general opinions to particular animosities."I hate her just the same as I always did; but she's got on a real pretty dress.I do try to remember that she's Nathan's cousin.Oh dear, well; she's gone by after all, an' ain't seen me.I expected she'd come pleasantin' round just to show off an' say afterwards she was acquainted."This was so different from Mrs.Todd's usual largeness of mind that I had a moment's uneasiness; but the cloud passed quickly over her spirit, and was gone with the offender.
There never was a more generous out-of-door feast along the coast then the Bowden family set forth that day.To call it a picnic would make it seem trivial.The great tables were edged with pretty oak-leaf trimming, which the boys and girls made.We brought flowers from the fence-thickets of the great field; and out of the disorder of flowers and provisions suddenly appeared as orderly a scheme for the feast as the marshal had shaped for the procession.I began to respect the Bowdens for their inheritance of good taste and skill and a certain pleasing gift of formality.
Something made them do all these things in a finer way than most country people would have done them.As I looked up and down the tables there was a good cheer, a grave soberness that shone with pleasure, a humble dignity of bearing.There were some who should have sat below the salt for lack of this good breeding; but they were not many.So, I said to myself, their ancestors may have sat in the great hall of some old French house in the Middle Ages, when battles and sieges and processions and feasts were familiar things.
The ministers and Mrs.Blackett, with a few of their rank and age, were put in places of honor, and for once that I looked any other way I looked twice at Mrs.Blackett's face, serene and mindful of privilege and responsibility, the mistress by simple fitness of this great day.
Mrs.Todd looked up at the roof of green trees, and then carefully surveyed the company."I see 'em better now they're all settin' down," she said with satisfaction."There's old Mr.
Gilbraith and his sister.I wish they were sittin' with us;they're not among folks they can parley with, an' they look disappointed."As the feast went on, the spirits of my companion steadily rose.The excitement of an unexpectedly great occasion was a subtle stimulant to her disposition, and I could see that sometimes when Mrs.Todd had seemed limited and heavily domestic, she had simply grown sluggish for lack of proper surroundings.She was not so much reminiscent now as expectant, and as alert and gay as a girl.We who were her neighbors were full of gayety, which was but the reflected light from her beaming countenance.It was not the first time that I was full of wonder at the waste of human ability in this world, as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness of nature, the thousand seeds that die, the unused provision of every sort.
The reserve force of society grows more and more amazing to one's thought.More than one face among the Bowdens showed that only opportunity and stimulus were lacking,--a narrow set of circumstances had caged a fine able character and held it captive.
One sees exactly the same types in a country gathering as in the most brilliant city company.You are safe to be understood if the spirit of your speech is the same for one neighbor as for the other.
