Part 18 (1/2)
”There's water laid on,” she said; ”you don't have to pump any. Here's the washtubs in the shed. That's a real nice tin boiler for the clothes,--I never see a nicer. Mis Starkey had that heater in the dining-room set the very week before she went away. 'Winter's coming on,'
she says, 'and I must see about keeping my husband warm;' never thinking, poor thing, how 't was to be.”
”Does this chimney draw?” asked the practical Clover; ”and does the kitchen stove bake well?”
”First-rate. I've seen Mis Starkey take her biscuits out many a time,--as nice a brown as ever you'd want; and the chimney don't smoke a mite. They kep' a wood fire here in May most all the time, so I know.”
Clover thought the matter over for a day or two, consulted with Dr. Hope, and finally decided to try the experiment. No. 13 was taken, and Mrs.
Kenny engaged for two days' work each week, with such other occasional a.s.sistance as Clover might require. She was a widow, it seemed, with one son, who, being employed on the railroad, only came home for the nights.
She was glad of a regular engagement, and proved an excellent stand-by and a great help to Clover, to whom she had taken a fancy from the start; and many were the good turns which she did for love rather than hire for ”my little Miss,” as she called her.
To Phil the plan seemed altogether delightful. This was natural, as all the fun fell to his share and none of the trouble; a fact of which Mrs.
Hope occasionally reminded him. Clover persisted, however, that it was all fair, and that she got lots of fun out of it too, and didn't mind the trouble. The house was so absurdly small that it seemed to strike every one as a good joke; and Clover's friends set themselves to help in the preparations, as if the establishment in Piute Street were a kind of baby-house about which they could amuse themselves at will.
It is a temptation always to make a house pretty, but Clover felt herself on honor to spend no more than was necessary. Papa had trusted her, and she was resolved to justify his trust. So she bravely withstood her desire for several things which would have been great improvements so far as looks went, and confined her purchases to articles of clear necessity,--extra blankets, a bedside carpet for Phil's room, and a chafing-dish over which she could prepare little impromptu dishes, and so save fuel and fatigue. She allowed herself some cheap Madras curtains for the parlor, and a few yards of deep-red flannel to cover sundry shelves and corner brackets which Geoffrey Templestowe, who had a turn for carpentry, put up for her. Various loans and gifts, too, appeared from friendly attics and store-rooms to help out. Mrs. Hope hunted up some old iron firedogs and a pair of bellows, Poppy contributed a pair of bra.s.s-k.n.o.bbed tongs, and Mrs. Marsh lent her a lamp. No. 13 began to look attractive.
They were nearly ready, but not yet moved in, when one day as Clover stood in the queer little parlor, contemplating the effect of Geoff's last effort,--an extra pine shelf above the narrow mantel-shelf,--a pair of arms stole round her waist, and a cheek which had a sweet familiarity about it was pressed against hers. She turned, and gave a great shriek of amazement and joy, for it was her sister Katy's arms that held her.
Beyond, in the doorway, were Mrs. Ashe and Amy, with Phil between them.
”Is it you; is it really you?” cried Clover, laughing and sobbing all at once in her happy excitement. ”How did it happen? I never knew that you were coming.”
”Neither did we; it all happened suddenly,” explained Katy. ”The s.h.i.+p was ordered to New York on three days' notice, and as soon as Ned sailed, Polly and I made haste to follow. There would have been just time to get a letter here if we had written at once, but I had the fancy to give you a surprise.”
”Oh, it is _such_ a nice surprise! But when did you come, and where are you?”
”At the Shoshone House,--at least our bags are there; but we only stayed a minute, we were in such a hurry to get to you. We went to Mrs. Marsh's and found Phil, who brought us here. Have you really taken this funny little house, as Phil tells us?”
”We really have. Oh, what a comfort it will be to tell you all about it, and have you say if I have done right! Dear, dear Katy, I feel as if home had just arrived by train. And Polly, too! You all look so well, and as if California had agreed with you. Amy has grown so that I should scarcely have known her.”
Four delightful days followed. Katy flung herself into all Clover's plans with the full warmth of sisterly interest; and though the Hopes and other kind friends made many hospitable overtures, and would gladly have turned her short visit into a continuous _fete_, she persisted in keeping the main part of her time free. She must see a little of St. Helen's, she declared, so as to be able to tell her father about it, and she must help Clover to get to housekeeping,--these were the important things, and nothing else must interfere with them.
Most effectual a.s.sistance did she render in the way of unpacking and arranging. More than that, one day, when Clover, rather to her own disgust, had been made to go with Polly and Amy to Denver while Katy stayed behind, lo! on her return, a transformation had taken place, and the ugly paper in the parlor of No. 13 was found replaced with one of warm, sunny gold-brown.
”Oh, why did you?” cried Clover. ”It's only for a few months, and the other would have answered perfectly well. Why did you, Katy?”
”I suppose it _was_ foolish,” Katy admitted; ”but somehow I couldn't bear to have you sitting opposite that deplorable mustard-colored thing all winter long. And really and truly it hardly cost anything. It was a remnant reduced to ten cents a roll,--the whole thing was less than four dollars. You can call it your Christmas present from me, if you like, and I shall 'play' besides that the other paper had a.r.s.enic in it; I'm sure it looked as if it had, and corrosive sublimate, too.”
Clover laughed outright. It was so funny to hear Katy's fertility of excuse.
”You dear, ridiculous darling!” she said, giving her sister a good hug; ”it was just like you, and though I scold I am perfectly delighted. I did hate that paper with all my heart, and this is lovely. It makes the room look like a different thing.”
Other benefactions followed. Polly, it appeared, had bought more Indian curiosities in Denver than she knew what to do with, and begged permission to leave a big bear-skin and two wolf-skins with Clover for the winter, and a splendid striped Navajo blanket as a portiere to keep off draughts from the entry. Katy had set herself up in California blankets while they were in San Francisco, and she now insisted on leaving a pair behind, and loaning Clover besides one of two beautiful j.a.panese silk pictures which Ned had given her, and which made a fine spot of color on the pretty new wall. There were presents in her trunks for all at home, and Ned had sent Clover a beautiful lacquered box.
Somehow Clover seemed like a new and doubly-interesting Clover to Katy.
She was struck by the self-reliance which had grown upon her, by her bright ways and the capacity and judgment which all her arrangements exhibited; and she listened with delight to Mrs. Hope's praises of her sister.
”She really is a wonderful little creature; so wise and judgmatical, and yet so pretty and full of fun. People are quite cracked about her out here. I don't think you'll ever get her back at the East again, Mrs.