 Section 1 of Uncollected Short Stories of L.M. Montgomery. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lola Janie of Virginia. Uncollected Short Stories of L.M. Montgomery by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Our Cherivari. When Jerry Boyer, Uncle Lyman's French servant boy, told us there was to be a Cherivari at Roderick Brown's that night, we were wild to go. We were Allison Hillier of New York. Aller Non Keefe from Nova Scotia and myself, Fred Harvey from Quebec. We were cousins and we were spending our vacation at Uncle Lyman Harvey's farm on Prince Edward Island. We were having a splendid time, but we were chiefly notorious for our scrapes. Our average was two and a half a week and Aunt Maria said time and time again, she never had a minute's peace, less one or the other of us should be brought in a corpse. And I'm obliged to confess that we generally got into trouble through our own headstrong doings and willful disregard of Uncle Lyman's advice. He was very patient, except in cases of outright disobedience. But he warned us solemnly every day that we would learn a lesson sooner or later if we didn't mend our ways. And Uncle Lyman's words came true to the letter, though we used to wink and grin at each other whenever his back was turned. But about this Cherivari, ever heard of one? Well, it is an old French Canadian custom and is kept up in a good many places in Canada yet. Whenever there's a wedding, the young fellows of the settlement call at the house, dressed in every queer costume they can contrive with horns and bells and so on, and keep up a racket for hours. When a Cherivari is well conducted and respectable, it is real fun. Sometimes the costumes are well got up and the Cherivariers don't do anything worse than make a noise. And mostly the people of the house invite them into the kitchen and treat them with cakes, which the bride herself comes out and hands around. Then they go off peaceably and orderly. That's one kind of Cherivari. But there are two kinds as we afterwards discovered. Well, we were crazy about the affair, but when we asked Uncle Lyman's permission, we got it decided no. He told us he didn't approve of the Cherivari's anyhow, and he knew from what he'd heard that this was going to be one of the worst kind. A lot of rouse from the back road were going and there'd be liquor in the crowd and we'd be certain to get into trouble. Uncle Lyman isn't one of the coaxible kind, so we went off pretty sulky and sat down on an old bench behind the barn to hold an indignation meeting. Say, you fellows, I'm going to the Cherivari yet. This was my contribution. How will you manage it? asked Allison. If we could hit on a plan, I'd go in for it, for it's likely the only chance we'll ever have of seeing a real Cherivari. No end of fun to tell the folks at home. Then we made our plans in cold blood. We agreed to smuggle the necessary things up to an old shed back of the barn during the day, each being responsible for so much. Algie was to get the lantern two morms, an old tin pan and a pot to get black off of, you see. I agreed to bring two old dresses of Veronica's. Veronica gallant with Aunt Maria's big fat French girl and Allison was to get Jerry's working clothes. Jerry and Veronica had gone home. It was a holy day, so we had a fine chance. Every now and then through the day you'd see a boy sneaking into the house when Aunt Maria wasn't round and rushing out again by the back way with something. No one would go near the old shed. How to get out at night bothered us most. Uncle Lyman not only locked all the doors at bedtime, but carried the key off with him because he discovered that Jerry had a habit of getting up and going out apple stealing after everyone was in bed. All the downstairs window made too loud a noise in opening to think of getting out of there for Uncle and Aunt slept on the ground floor. The only upstairs one that would serve was a little one in the closed room. It opened on the steep kitchen roof at the back of the house. We resolved to climb out of this, slide down the roof and jump off on the pile of seaweed that had been used for banking in winter and hadn't been removed. When we went to bed that night we could hear horns blowing all up the roads and it just made us tingle. It was a dusky starlit night and a new moon was low in the west, looking like a little crescent of reddish gold. After what seemed a dreadful long time, Allison and I concluded Uncle and Aunt were asleep and we got up. When we crept into Algie's room, of course he was sound asleep and such a time we had to wake him and then he was sleepy and stupid for half an hour. We took our shoes in our hands and tiptoed down the hall to the closed room door. Then Allison tripped on a rug and fell against the door. It flew open with a bang and his shoes went skating over the floor. We were sure every soul in the house would be up at the noise but, as all was still, Allison got up and after we had a laugh we got to the window. I thought we'd never get it up. It stuck and Allison shoved and shoved. All at once it gave way and went up so suddenly he nearly went through it. We fired our shoes down first, giving them a good fling to send them clear of the roof and then Allison went out. He slipped out and went down the roof like an eel. We heard him jump and then whistle softly as a signal. It was Algie's turn next. He crawled out boldly but the roof was slippery from the dew and first thing I heard him give a scramble and a yell and then he was gone. I heard him and Allison giggling below so I knew he wasn't hurt but I thought Uncle Lyman would certainly hear that yell and for quite ten minutes I didn't dare to climb out. When I did I forgot about the window and when I had wriggled halfway down the contrary thing fell with a force that fairly jarred the house. I suppose things sounded worse to us in the dark and silence but at the time I couldn't see why everyone didn't wake up. I lay there quaking till I heard Allison below say you up there are you going to get down tonight. So I crept down and jumped off on the seamied. When I got it all out of my mouth and ears I said have you fellows got all the shoes? And it turned out they couldn't find one of mine so we had to waste about 15 minutes rooting around for it till we discovered Algie had it with the rest after all. I relieved my feelings by saying well you idiot. And we started taking a shortcut through the spruce grove and nearly tearing our eyes out at the low bowels. Just then old Jip who was chained in the orchard began to bark furiously ending off each series with a long quivering howl. I'd like to choke that dog dead snarled Allison. I don't want to give you the impression that Allison was always this bloodthirsty mind. Generally he was quite amiable but his patience had been tried that night. Jip had stopped barking when we reached the shed and we lit the lantern and hurried back to work. Algie put on Jerry's trousers, hitched neatly to his shoulders and turned up to his knees, Jerry's coat wrong side out and an old straw hat. Then he blacked his face and hands with pot black and took a tin pan. Allison and I had a fearful time getting into Veronica's dresses. They were a mile too big for us and no matter how much we tucked them in at the waist we were sure to trip and fall every minute and have to pick each other up. It's a mystery to me how girls ever get round. I blacked my face and hands but Allison was too nice for that. So he put on a headdress he had made a fool's cap. It came down over his face and went up in a big peak with two long horns. He had blacked it in stripes and looked perfectly wild in it. We laughed at each other for a spell and then took a horn apiece and started. When we got to the house it was pretty late and the Cherivari was in full swing. We agreed to keep together but as soon as we mixed with the crowd we were quickly separated. There was a big crowd and such an array of costumes you never saw. They all had torches of birch bark and burning brooms and such yelling and horn blowing and pan hammering. I got jostled around roughly and besides I was beginning to be doubtful. Some of the fellows were acting pretty wild they had liquor that was plain to be seen and there was a good deal of fighting and pelting rocks at the house and they kept getting worse. I was out of breath blowing my horn and after I had been kicked and cuffed and knocked down once or twice my taste for Cherivari was a thing of the past. Then someone fired a pistol and I said to myself I'm for out of this and looked around for the boys. I was just despairing of finding them when the crowd opened before me and I saw Algie standing bare headed at the other end of the space. He started across and got in the way of a big Cherivari who lifted his foot and kicked the child. Algie was only a little fellow. Before I could move Allison sprang out and struck the bully fair in the face. Then I shouted and sprang forward. Someone tripped me and I fell. The next minute the whole crowd closed over me mad with liquor hooting and fighting. I thought the light was being trampled out of me and then I felt someone grab me by the arm and drag me out. It was Allison. His headdress had fallen off and he looked white and scared. Let's run he panted. Algie I gasped. Waiting for us up the lane. Quick now before they see us. We ran pal Mel up the lane. Algie falling into rank as we passed him and if you've ever tried to run in a girl's stress you know it was a serious time. At the road I just dropped down to get my breath and take off that dreadful skirt. Tell you we're lucky to get out of that puffed Allison as he struggled out of his. Uncle was right as he always is. What fools we've made of ourselves. You were brick Fred. That fellow would have downed me. He was a regular tough. I guess we're quits. I said feebly. Algie did the chump hurt you? My legs pretty sore he admitted. I wish we'd minded Uncle Lyman. Allison and I did too but that didn't mean matters so we started across the fields on the run. We were going at a furious rate when we came spraying up against something. It was a barbed wire fence and we hadn't seen it in the dark. Allison and I weren't hurt as our heads came above it but it took Algie right across the face and he was killed. We knew he must be badly scratched but the only thing to do was to get him home as soon as possible and we had to go around by the road. We didn't talk much but when we got to the seaweed again we stopped and looked at each other and Allison said, Well, it looks flat on paper but I never realized before how much expression could be crowded into a single syllable. In all our scheming, it had never occurred to us to ask how we were going to get up and in again. There was simply no way for it. We felt that we were sold. There was only one thing to do. Allison and I might have braved it out till morning but Algie's face had to be attended to. We marched around to the door and knocked. Soon we heard steps and Uncle Lyman opened the door holding the lamp above his head and peering out in wonder. The wonder changed to blank amazement when he saw us. We pushed each other in and stood there, a sorry trio, black, torn, ragged, hats gone and blood all over Algie's face. Uncle set the lamp down and went to the hall door. Maria, he called, Get up and come out here, will you? Then he said sternly, Now boys, I want to know the meaning of this. We stammered through it, piecing out each other's remarks shame-facedly. By the time we finished Aunt Maria came in and she took Algie in hand while Allison and I went out to scrub ourselves. What do you suppose Uncle Lyman will do? Questioned Allison as he helped me wash the back of my neck. Pack us off tomorrow? Like it's not, I answered dolefully. It'll serve us right. But I'm sick of this sort of thing and I'm going to turn over a new leaf. Same here, said Allison energetically and we went in to face our doom. But Uncle Lyman said not a word. He simply handed me the lamp and pointed to the stairs. We'll catch it tomorrow whispered Allison consolingly as we went upstairs. We were three pretty humble boys as we slipped down to breakfast next morning. We ate from our souls to our crowns. Allison had a black eye. I was all bruises. Algie came in after we did and his face looked dreadful and yet so comical. We were attached with sticking plaster. I didn't intend to laugh, but I happened to catch Allison's eye. Nothing could keep that boy down long and I snickered right out. Then I was more ashamed than ever. Aunt Maria sat with her lips shut forbiddingly, but we were nearly through breakfast before Uncle Lyman spoke. Then he asked, boys, have you had enough of this kind of fun? We had. Will you ever do the like again? Never, we all said. Algie said it twice. And that was every word Uncle Lyman ever said, even when Jerry came in and said a man had been seriously hurt the night before. But we kept our word. Uncle Lyman had no reason to complain of our obedience the rest of the summer. He referred to the affair, but once again, and that was when he saw all of us off at the station. Just before the train started, he came over to the edge of the platform. Boys, he said, you've had some queer experiences this summer. Now, which one of you are most ashamed of? As the train glided out, we poked our heads out of the car window. The Sherry Vary, we all replied together. End of section one. Section two of uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ayesha17, uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery by Lucy Maud Montgomery, a practical joke. Ever since we could remember anything, Will Handstead and I had spent our vacations at Grandpa Richardson's one. We were cousins, but as he lived in Maine and I lived in New Brunswick, we were together only when we went to the old farm in summer. We look forward to it all winter. Just as soon as school closed and we had stacked our dog ear textbooks in the darkest corner of the attic, we went to Grand Pass. It was a jolly place for boys, big woods, quite handy and a capital trout pond and a show where they fish for mackerel. Win and I used to put in two months of solid fun before we went back to football and Latin words. There was nobody at the farm, but Grandpa and Grandma and the hired man. But it wasn't the sort of place you'll get lonesome in. There was always something to do if there wasn't. We did it anyway. Grandpa kept us straight in essentials and was pretty indulgent though he detested my slang and what he called Win's Yankee twang. Grandpa was a rabbit old Scotchman, one of the regular Scotswaha and he hated anything that didn't smack off the heather. We went down this summer expecting to find things as usual and they were at first. Win and I were both 15 and no smarter than we fancied ourselves. We had a fairly good opinion of our own requirements. I don't know what other people shared it and above all we didn't want to have anyone else bothering around. So that when Grandpa told us that another cousin of ours was coming to spend his vacation at the farm, Win and I kicked each other under the table and when Grandpa said he was sickly and was coming down to see if the CA would do him any good, we nudged with our elbows. His name was Reggie Talbot and he was only 12. After dinner, Win and I went out to a bench under the apple trees and talked it over. We were pretty mad. Here we planned so much fun for the summer and now this child was coming to spoil everything for of course he won't be at our heels all the time and tagging around wherever we went and most likely he'd be one of the whining, petted kind and want as much looking after and humoring as a baby. The more we talked it over the worse we made him out and at last we got worked up into a white indignation and felt as if we were very much abused boys who ought to have lived when marchers were appreciated. We grumbled about it all the afternoon. By the bedtime we have reached the stage of resignation. We said if our vacation was spoiled it was spoiled and the statement was wonderfully consoling. After we went to bed we compared our mental photographs of Reggie. Win thought he had red hair, eyes between green and fishy blue and a squint. I leaned to the opinion that he was dark and that he started. After much discussion we decided we would see him when he came. By next day Win got so far as to say that since Reggie was coming he wished he was there and had it over. When Grandpa went to the station for him after dinner we put off our fishing excursion on the carefully explained grounds that it looked like a thundershower and stayed around home. We were at the door when Grandpa and Reggie drove up. Win said he looked exactly as he expected him to. I couldn't understand that since Reggie was pale and freckled with mouse grey hair and shy brown eyes. He was the thinnest boy I ever saw and his legs were no bigger than broomsticks. His appearance wasn't exactly taking but you never can judge of a person by their looks. Before a week was out Win and I began to think we had been rather previous in counting our vacation spoiled. In fact after we got used to Reggie we admitted he was a valuable addition. He wasn't a bit troublesome or in the way and such an obliging little job really quite useful. Win and I found it very convenient to have someone to run our errands and do lots of things we used to have to do ourselves. He was the most innocent youngster. Everything Win or I said he believed as gospel and when we discovered this would caught some fun out of it we would spin the most amazing yarns about our school and home life piling up statements regardless positively awful stretchers and Reggie would stand before us looking gravely up and taking it all in unsuspectingly and admirably. I suppose it was dreadful. With the Win nor I would have told a lie in earnest for the world but we never thought how really wrong it was to impose so on Reggie's innocence. We thought we saved our consciences when we winged at each other over his head. Not that we were bad to Reggie you know we were real kind to him but we did tease him a good deal. There was another thing for which we poked fun at him he was dreadfully afraid of the dark and he believed in course pure and simple he couldn't cocks Reggie to go anywhere alone after dark no not for anything and grandma always had to leave a lamp burning in his room till he went to sleep and mind you he was no coward either by daylight he was the spunkiest boy I ever saw there was as much spirit in his thin little body as Win and I had put together and he would go right through the things that even we could stop to think over Win and I said it was a pity such a spunky boy should be spoiled by one fault and we fixed up a plan to cure him as we thought it was agreed that I decoy Reggie to the shore after tea and keep him there till dark then coming home we were to pass the sheep house it was in a dismal spruce grove back of the worn and Win was to appear in the door dressed as a ghost then I was to yell and run as if I were frightened to death we expected Reggie would beat his record for speed and then we'd have a laugh at him and shame him out of his nonsense about ghost we devised a costume for Win and everything worked beautifully after tea I proposed to Reggie that we go to the shore for a swim and he agreed as unsuspicious as a lamb we had a pretty good time at the shore watching the fishing boats through a spyglass and diving off the rocks Reggie did some perfectly reckless things in this line I just have to own up I wouldn't dare attempt them he was alright till sunset and then he got anxious to go home I put him off by saying I wanted to wait till the mackerel boats came in and kept him there on one pretext or another till I thought it was dark enough then we started when we got up on the caves Reggie was terrified to find how dark it really was there was always a sort of lemon after light reflected from the water that kept the shore quite light long after it was dark above he clung tight to my hand shrinking closer and closer and I knew that every tree and fence corner we passed was just bristling with course for him and once when a harmless old white cow got up suddenly from where she had been lying by the fence I felt him trembling like a leaf I began to feel really guilty and uncomfortable with Reggie's cold clammy little fingers clinging to mine and I would really have packed out only for the thought of Wynn Wynn said afterwards that while he was waiting he felt real remorseful too but stuck to it on my account so there it was but I heartened my heart and when we reached the barn gate I whistled to Wynn and sure enough as we came around the shed corner there he stood in all his ghostly glory and you never in your life imagine a more unearthly sight than he presented if I hadn't known what it was I believe I should have taken a fit as it was I was actually creepish he had a long white sheet pinned around him and a pillow slipped stuffed stiff with shavings on his head this brought his face about in the middle of his body seemingly that he had rubbed matches over it till it shone and flared fearfully Wynn made a noise to attract Reggie's attention a dreadful hollow sort of groan and howl combined he'd been practising it all afternoon out behind the barn where nobody could hear him and I shouted and ran I went so fast that I couldn't stop till I got nearly down to the house I pulled up puffing and had just time to wonder why Reggie wasn't at my heels when I heard Wynn calling guy guy from the barn something in his voice made me go back quicker than I had come if that was possible I never want to feel again as I fell when I got up there I heard people wondering how a murderer must feel I know as near as I want to there lay Reggie just where he had cropped in a limb little heap with Wynn on his knees in that ridiculous rig begging him to speak he isn't dead I gasped I just went cold all over it seemed to me whole years and centuries before Wynn caught up cheekily and said no no no his heart is beating oh guy here let's carry him in quick I held his feet and I took his shoulder and we marched down to the house and into the kitchen with Reggie's white face hanging over my arm Grandma was setting bread and Grandpa was reading an amusing scotch story out allowed to her he sprang up as we stumbled in breathless and trembling Grandma screamed and said she'd always expected it boys what is this? asked Grandpa the tone he reserved for state occasions Wynn never heard it more than two or three times in our lives but those two or three times were sufficient we stammered a few words Grandpa waved his hand to the door go out he said we went dumb and repotent and sat on the doorstep till they brought Reggie to we gripped each other in joy and shame when we heard the poor child give a gasp and say in a shuddering wild voice oh don't let it catch me don't you poor dear Grandma saw no no those miserable boys and carried him upstairs Wynn and I were still skulking around when Grandpa came out and such a solemn talking to as he gave us he didn't say anything more than our own consciousness had said but it sounded worse put into words in a cold blood he pointed out what a mean cowardly thing it was to scare a little fellow like Reggie who was delicate and timid instead of protecting him all we could and showing forbearance to his little weaknesses he said Reggie's mother was a widow and Reggie was all she had to love we made him sicker than ever and give him a fright he'll never get over Grandpa said he noticed before several times that our behavior to Reggie wasn't all he could wish but he hoped it was more thoughtlessness than any real meanness and that this would be a lesson to us I tell you when he went in we were pretty sober Wynn said he felt like a downright sneak I said I guess there was a pair of us it seemed to us we could never wait till morning as soon as we knew Reggie was awake he slipped in the poor little chap was lying in bed as white as the pillow but he sat up when he saw us Wynn and I just dropped on the edge of the bed and each of us took one of his thin little hands oh Reggie, stammered Wynn my face was just as hot as fire I couldn't have spoken to save my life we were regular sneaks can you ever forgive us? of course said Reggie why I know you didn't mean it to be so bad you fellows honest I don't mind I know I am a goose and he smiled up at us we just sat there in silent for a while till grandma came in and sent us out saying Reggie was to stay in bed all day and she hoped we were ashamed of ourselves Wynn and I went up to the apple tree bench and made a solemn vow that our first practical joke should also be our last we had had enough of course in all conscious and we both said Reggie was a prick end of our practical joke Recording by Aisha17 Golden days for boys and girls October 17th, 1896 I never see a sorrel colored pony with a faded mane and tail without remembering a night adventurer that Sam Richards and I once had on account of just such an animal it happened long ago when I was teaching school in a well-to-do country district called Marbury I boarded at Old Ezwa Burks and I chomped a good deal with his hired boy Sam Richards I was a mere boy myself at the time being barely 18 and Sam was a few months my junior he was by no means an ordinary hired boy as the status of hired boys went immobrily but was several grades higher in the social scale Sam was an orphan and had been well brought up with an uncle's family upon the death of his uncle a few years previous to the date of my story Sam was thrown upon his own resources but he had any amount of pluck the only thing he knew anything about was farming and he stuck to it I don't believe in trying to fit a square pig into a round hole he once said to me I like farming and I didn't know how to do anything else so I didn't try of course I don't mean to be a hired boy all my life but so long as I am one I intend to be the very best it is possible to be I liked and respected Sam he was an active intelligent lad with a cheerful way of looking at things and unlimited good nature all the Marbury people were his friends and never dreamed of looking down on him because of his occupation Sam needed all of his good nature to get along with Ezra Burke I never knew a more disagreeable exacting, fault finding old commungin it was always a wonder to me how Sam could put up with him at all it was nothing unusual for old Ezra Burke to have three or four different hired boys in one season few of them could endure his unreasonable-ness and the few who could generally found themselves per-emptorily discharged for some trifling reason this was Sam's second summer with him a phenomenal record in Marbury Chronicles he looked with sour disapproval on my intimacy with Sam I was never a favorite with old Ezra and I fancy he imagined I did not exert any favorable influence over Sam one evening Sam was ordered to take back to Isaac Gardner a cart which Ezra Burke had borrowed I intended to go up to Gardner's along with him and borrow Isaac's two-wheeled gig in order to make a short trip to the nearest town on the following day at dusk we went out and hitched Major into the cart Major was a sorrel pony which Mr. Burke had bought a week before from Stephen Polak a farmer over at Maple Ridge the next district to Marbury we did not know much about him but he seemed a quiet, inoffensive little animal with not enough spunk to get into mischief old Ezra came out just as we were ready to start and finding we had taken Major he flew into a furious temper and abused us roundly in most unmeasured terms had we taken any other horse it would have amounted to the same thing he had been in an unbearable humor all day and was just in the mood for a tantrum he ended up with a peremptory command to unhook the pony instantly and take another horse Sam, who had listened to it all with praiseworthy calmness respectfully replied that the black mare's leg was so lame it was impossible to take her she had sprained it, if I remember or right and that the gray horse and the Baycoats were away in the back clearings where it would take a good hour to go and get them consequently either Major must be taken or the cart must be left where it was old Ezra grimly succumbed to these unanswerable arguments but he seemed to cherish a grudge against Sam for the stress of circumstances and evidently blamed him for it all you look out what you do with that pony he growled as he shuffled off I don't trust you if anything happens to him I'll send you pecking before morning Sam and I smothered a laugh over the old fellow's crustiness and rattled off down the lane in Isaac Gardner's road cart we were in high spirits and it was a delightful evening somewhere along between Hain and Harvest with an exhilarating sparkle in the air and a cool breeze it was about a mile to Isaac Gardner's where the post office was kept and which was a general rendezvous in the evening several of the boys from adjacent farms were in the habit of dropping in to discuss news or play gangs with the jolly crowd of Gardner boys and girls Sam and I frequently went over in the evenings to play checkers with Belle and Gertie Gardner and eat platefuls of their August apples and homemade taffy this evening after we had unharnessed Major from the cart and put it away in the shed we went in as usual leaving our pony securely tied as we fancied to the orchard fence there were a number of our friends there and as we were all very merry it was not until 11 o'clock that we dispersed we all went out in a jolly mood playing boyish pranks on each other and calling back joking messages to the Gardner's but Sam and I sobered down when we reached the spot where our pony should have been it was not the bridal was hanging to the fence but Major was gone at first we accused some of the others of having loosened him for a trick but as they all solemnly protested their innocence we concluded that the pony had somehow contrived to free himself and had taken French leave Isaac Gardner came out with a lantern and we searched the yard and outbuildings thoroughly but Major was not forthcoming too bad said Sam in a vexed tone Nonsense! replied Isaac Gardner banteringly surely two strong young fellows like you don't mind a mouse walk on a night like this your pony wanted to teach you a lesson on keeping early hours and has gone home before you you'll find him there when you get back I hope we will rejoin Sam seriously I wouldn't care if I were sure that he had gone home but you know Mr. Burke bought him only last week and he belonged to Stephen Polo he hasn't seen content since we bought him and I'm afraid he's gone back to Maple Ridge instead of home however there was nothing to do but go home and see we bade the rest good night and tramp mootily off Sam said little but he was visibly anxious old Eswa's threats were never empty ones and if Major did not turn up safe in Sam Sam would undoubtedly suffer for it cheer up Sam I said we'll find the pony home when we get there alright anyhow he can't have done anything worse than gone back to Maple Ridge and he'll be safe there old Eswa won't discharge you for that won't he? responded Sam gloomily you don't know old Eswa yet he's the biggest crank alive why he sent his last man off with an hour's notice because he accidentally dropped a bucket down the well one day it's been nothing short of a miracle that he's kept me so long I wouldn't stay with him except that he pays better wages than most if he is a crank we kept a sharp look out along the road for Major but saw nothing of him all was silent when we got home the family had long since gone to bed Sam and I went straight to the barnyard and searched the premises thoroughly even going through every building in the hope that Major had got home before old Eswa went to bed and had been put in there was not a dark corner on the place which we did not explore but we were not rewarded by finding the sorrow pony plainly he had not come home we met at the well and gazed at each other blankly in the pale light of the late rising moon Major's gone back to Maple Ridge said Sam at last and the only thing to do is to go straight there after him Sam I protested go to Maple Ridge at this hour of the night you're crazy why it's 12 o'clock now and it's six miles over there and back what time would it be before we got home if that miserable pony has gone there let him stay till morning it won't hurt him let's go to bed I didn't expect you to come for it of course you go in and go to bed but go I must and will I know old Eswa better than you do if Major isn't in his stable by daylight my place isn't worth a continental if you're bound to go Sam of course I'll go with you I wouldn't think of doing otherwise if it's necessary let's start then we've no time to lose it'll be rather a lark after all we went after I had overcome Sam's objections to my troubling myself our walk though long was not unpleasant the moon cast a mellow hazy light over the fields and road and the night breeze was cool and inspiring most of our way laid through woods of young Maple a second growth leafy and luxurant intersected by many woodland streams those liquid gurgle came musically to our ears in the silence of the night we walked along over a mosaic of light and fantastic shadow occasionally cutting across a pasture field or an overgrown blueberry common wet with dew in no very long time we found ourselves at the pollock farm at Maple Ridge all was dark and silent I knew they'd be all in bed Sam I said what are you going to do now you didn't suppose I was going to rouse them up this hour did you returned Sam you forget that I was hired here two summers ago and I know every nook about the place if Major is here he must be outside somewhere or in an open shed for he couldn't get in anywhere I know where to look don't make a noise Sam made a speedy and careful search about the place with precisely the same result as before we did not find Major Sam was getting decidedly worried for he had been quite sure the sorrow pony would be there we stopped in the open moonlit yard in front of the barn to discuss our next move go back home I suppose said Sam dejectedly it beats me where that pony has got himself too this is getting serious what will old good gracious a series of angry snarling barks burst out of the shadows at the end of the barn the next second a huge dark body with cruelly gleaming teeth came bounding across the yard run exclaimed Sam taking to his heels at the word and run we both did with all our speed to a big fir tree behind the barn up which we scrambled in headlong haste not a minute too soon either for the dog was close at our heels and sprang with a vicious snarl at my boot as I drew myself up into a place of safety beside the breathless Sam gracious what an escape he panted that brute would have torn us in pieces I believe I cling forgot all about him like the 80 pated idiot I am Mr. Pollock keeps him for the benefit of orchard raiders and he's the most vicious beast in the dog line you ever saw he must have broken his chain we're safe at present anyhow but how are we to get out of this I ask wait till I get my breath and we'll discuss that said Sam philosophically and I waited per force wondering how on earth we were ever to free ourselves the dog has settled down on his hunches under the tree and evidently meant to stay there at our slightest movement he bounded and snapped he was a huge brute of a mastiff and could almost have chewed us up at a mouthful the bowls of the fur were very thick and close so that our position was an extremely uncomfortable one I suppose said Sam we had better try shouting first and see if we can wake anybody up probably Mr. Pollock will shoot us for orchard thieves but that will be preferable to being eaten alive or dying a lingering death here by cramp we shouted accordingly I ventured to say that no two boys of our size ever made more or louder noise in a given time than we did the dog helped us by howling furiously and we whooped and shouted for about a quarter of an hour then I stopped and despair can't keep it up any longer Sam my voice is all gone and I am as hoarse as a crow the people in that house have died or immigrated we've raised a racket that would wake the seven sleepers Sam who was shouting with undiminished power and energy stopped also it's no use, he admitted cheerfully it was characteristic of Sam that the more desperate a situation got the more cheerful he became the house is too far away besides old man Pollock and his wife are both deaf as doornails and the hard man must be away well Fred, what is our next move? any suggestions we'll be thankfully receive I've none to make Sam my brains won't work in so cramped a position as this Sam twisted himself around and looked up the tree after a short scrutiny he said you see those big branches up there hang right over the barn can't we climb out on them and swing ourselves down to the roof what better off would we be the roof is 14 feet from the ground and if we could get off the dogs here hold on Fred I confess my landing you in this scrape doesn't argue much for my common sense but I'm not quite so idiotic as all that you only see one side of the roof there's a pig sty built against the barn on the other side and one roof serves for both it slopes down to within five feet of the ground if we could get down off it we'd be alright for there's a big pig pin underneath with a high board fence all around it and the dog can't get at us then there's a door opening from the pig sty into the barn and we could wait there till the dog got tired and went back to his kennel then we might get out on the other side of the barn and slip off it sounded feasible if we could only get on the roof I didn't know anything about the intricacies of Stephen Pollock's barns but Sam appeared to be thoroughly at home I'll try it, I assented heartily anything's better than this who'll go first? I will watch how I do it if I fall off and break my neck or get chewed up by the dog hang on where you are he climbed up and out along the swinging bowl the dog jumped in a frenzy of rage and howl furiously Sam swung himself down on the end of the bowl and dropped lightly to the roof he saved himself from slipping down his steep side by clutching one of the staging brackets that ran and rolls across it the barn had been recently shingled and the staging brackets had been left on it fortunately for us alright, said Sam, it's not so hard, come on I tore enumerable wrenths in my best black suit as I struggled up through the thick branches and my head fell off into the very jaws of the eager foe I have never seen that head since but at last I found myself on the roof beside Sam and slowly and with a good deal of difficulty for some of the brackets were rather riggedy we climbed up to the top and down the other side I'll drop first, said Sam and he did landing squarely among a group of fat porcars who were snoozing comfortably in the corner of their pen and who careered blindly about with terrified squills while the dog rampaged around outside the pen and added his voice to the general uproar Sam got up as I came sprawling down nearly escaping being carried off his feet by the frenzy dash of a big black porker and we shook hands in silent congratulation then we stumbled through the pigsty falling over things in the dark and alarming some more pigs Stephen Pollock must have kept an immense number of pigs and finally made our escape through a door into the barn tell you it's lucky I was hired here and know all the ins and outs of it said Sam complacently now we'll take our bearings there's a window over there looks out on the dog kennel we'll watch cautiously till he goes and then we can get out of that door opposite it opens from the inside fortunately at this point he stumbled again and fell over something with a clatter he picked himself up with a growl what's the matter I asked stifling a burst of laughter you seem unsteady tonight Sam if you weren't a member of the S of T in good and regular standing shut up interrupted Sam impatiently this is no joke here I stumbled into old Stephen Pollock's collection of paint cans oh what a mess smell the turban time will you I've got paint all over myself confound that major but if this isn't just like old Pollock setting paint cans around just where a person will fall into them don't be unreasonable Sam I suppose that if Mr. Pollock had known we were going to favor his barn with a midnight visit he'd have put his paint out of the way Sam never could stay provoked alone he went off into a shout of laughter and we perched ourselves upon the wheat bin and watched the kennel for what seemed an age what if that dog doesn't go back I suggested what do we do then stay here till morning and have Mr. Pollock coming out and demanding if we are burglars or old stillers he won't demand said Sam with a grin which the moonlight rendered absolutely ghastly he'll knock us over the head first and inquire after it that's old man Pollock's way but there goes that dog at last now for it we stole across the barn carefully unfastened the door and stepped out the coast was clear it would serve old Steven right for keeping such a dog if I were to leave this door open said Sam as he conscientiously put a stick against it but I won't since he built such a good pig pen fence after we had crept cautiously out of earshot we took to our heels and did not slag up until we reached the main road we were considerably worse off than when we left it but sound and limb which was more than we had expected Sam's anxiety returned as we trudged home I guess I can go home and pack up he said I wish I could find major don't mention that wretched beast again I said crossly isn't it all on his account we've gotten to this miserable scrape look at my clothes will you they're ruined and so are yours all for that red of a pony I wouldn't go through this again for a dozen majors by the time we got as far as Isaac Gardner's the eastern sky was rimmed with silver as we passed by the orchard fence Sam stopped and said with great earnestness well I am blessed and there calmly gazing at us from the corner of Isaac Gardner's orchard where the faint light of early dawn and waning moon shone over his damp sorrel sides stood major I never saw anybody so disgusted as Sam Richards I never once thought to look behind the cops of cherry trees in the first place he said the next time Ezra Burke calls me a fool I'll believe him we went in and captured the meek unresisting major and borrowed Mrs Gardner's clothesline to lead him home when he was finally safe in his stable it was open daylight and all the east was rosy and fire streaked old Ezra got up 15 minutes later and found Sam and me leaning meditatively over the barnyard fence he did not address us except by giving an inarticulate huh as he passed by and we did not feel called upon to relay our exports to him so we left him to suppose that we had merely been attacked with an acute spasm of early rising major kept his own counsel and the story never leaked out it is now several years since I saw Sam Richards last he was then a well-to-do farmer with a comfortable home presided over by the bail Gardner of other days and we had a hardy laugh over the recollection of the night we spent hunting for major and frightened old Stephen Pollock's pigs over at Maple Ridge end of section 3 section 4 of uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by D. Randall uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery by Lucy Maud Montgomery our Uncle Wheeler first published in Golden Days for Boys and Girls January 22nd, 1898 in reality he was our great uncle and we were very much in awe of him the rare times when he came to visit us usually popping down unexpectedly at some particularly inconvenient moment or periods of misery for us lively boys for Uncle Wheeler was a very precise old gentleman fidgety when boys were around and with all an old bachelor's decided opinions as to the training and behavior of those unavoidable evils consequently as Rod used to say we were as unhappy as a cat on hot bricks when Uncle Wheeler came he had befriended and aided father than once in trouble as times for he was really kind hearted at the core and hence we were instructed to regard him with gratitude and respect he was always Uncle Wheeler to us our other uncles were Uncle Tom, Dick or Harry but we would as soon have thought of calling Uncle Wheeler Uncle James as of saying hello to the minister Rod and I were the oldest of our family being 15 and 14 respectively we were hearty growing boys and found it very hard to tone down during Uncle Wheeler's surgery nevertheless we tried our best for we really liked the old man in spite of our fear of him when it was decided that Rod should go to college if it could be managed Uncle Wheeler wrote to father and mother a letter in which he denounced the project as absurd nonsense and railed at it for three pages or if he announced his intention of paying Rod's way through college if he were really bent upon going and hoped he wouldn't disgrace the family Rod was jubilant but it behooved him to be very careful for Uncle Wheeler was extremely touchy and sometimes got offended at very trifling things therefore we made up our minds to be more than usually sedate and proper on the occasion of his next visit about two months after this letter Rod and I received an invitation to a party at the house of one of our schoolmates during the afternoon, Sydney Hatfield a cousin of ours arrived and decided to stay overnight as he was going to Tracy's too mother intended to put him in the spare room to sleep but about thus a cutter drove up to the door and in it were the three Winslow boys from Bracebridge who came in and said they were also bound for the party and would afterwards remain with us until the next day we were a big family all told so that mother said to us just before we left I think boys you better take Sydney up to your room tonight and let the Winslow boys have the spare room we can accommodate you all if you won't mind a little crowding Lou Winslow said uninvited guests ought to be thankful to be taken in at all and for his part he thought it jolly to sleep three in a bed if it was a big one and we all drove off to the party in high spirits it was late when we returned and of course everybody was in bed mother had left a light burning for us and we tiptoed in cautiously so as not to disturb the sleepers while we were putting away our coats I noticed Rod and Dave Winslow talking earnestly and when I went out to lock the back porch door Rod followed me say Art, Dave's nervous he's afraid of the ghost and doesn't want to sleep in the spare room of course he's a nanny but arguing won't do any good what's to be done Dave Winslow was a delicate boy of nearly 15 and we always regarded him as babyish he was extremely sensitive and his nervous whims had to be indulged I don't know how he got wind of our ghost but he had may here remark that our spare room had the reputation of being haunted during the sojourn of the family who had preceded us none of us had ever seen or heard anything worse than ourselves in it and never felt in the least disturbed we had good healthy nerves and didn't worry about spooks but I knew Dave couldn't help his terror so feeling sorry I said well the three Winslow's had better go upstairs to our room and you and Sid and I will take the spare room we're equal to any ghost who may be on the hunting trail tonight this arrangement suited all hands so we showed the Winslow's upstairs and separated our house was an old fashioned one and the spare room opened off the end of the parlor the parlor was a long narrow room and the bed room was also long and narrow so that from the parlor door to the extreme end of the bed room where the bed was was quite a distance Sid, Rod and I went into the parlor and found it deliciously warm as there had been a fire in the stove we suppose mother had led it to warm the spare room for the Winslow's and we thought it rather a good joke that Dave's ghostly terrors should have put him out of a warm sleeping room we undressed by the fire quietly enough for we were tired but when we were ready for bed, Sid who was always up to mischief had a brilliant idea say you chaps let's start from the hall door and see which will get into bed first Rod and I thought it would be good fun so we didn't make a noise so having taken a vow of silence we put out the candle for the moonlight was streaming in at the windows ranged ourselves by the hall door and Sid gave the word go the bedroom door was open so we flew down the parlor shot through the door in the spare room and the whole three of us with one spring bounded on the bed at the same instant there was one awful moment in which we realized what had happened and then a wheezy sleepy well-known voice puffed out my bless my soul what's the matter it was Uncle Willer we had jumped upon that bed pretty quick but we jumped off three times quicker dashed out of the room and scuttled through the parlor never stopping for breath until we reached the kitchen Rod and I wished the floor would open and quietly let us into the cellar Sid being a stranger of course didn't appreciate the situation so kingly say you chaps that old duffer must have got his breath most lambed out of him what is it? Uncle Willer grown Rod and owned what will he say however did he come to be there and why didn't mother leave some way for us to know just then we heard a gasp and sigh and they sort of grown in the little breakfast room off the kitchen we all jumped great scott is that one of Dave Winslow's ghosts? exclaimed Sid but I had got a lamp lit and by its light we saw our 11 year old brother tad come shuffling out of the breakfast room rubbing his eyes say you fellows have you got back? mother told me to sit up and tell you tell us what? that Uncle Willer'd come and she put him in the spare room and that the Winslow boys must have your room and you chaps would have to sleep in the kitchen loft I meant to keep awake honest I did but I got so tired I went in there and laid down on the lounge I guess I went to sleep I guess you did grout Rod you've done for us now and after each of us had raided the still stupid and half asleep tad soundly by way of venting our ill humor we crept off shiveringly to the kitchen loft we were too tired and cold and crossed to talk it over then but by dawn Rod and I were sitting up in bed discussing our mishap and whispers so as not to awaken Sid nothing worse could have happened laminated Rod Uncle Willer would be piping mad you could hardly blame him I suppose what a rousing scare he must have got but he won't listen to any excuse and not a blessed scent need I expect for college if he finds out some men would just look on it as a joke but Uncle Willer isn't that sort after four lonely admitting that we got into a scrape beyond doubt we got up put on some old clothes and went down to sneak Sid's suit out of the parlor for him for needless to say we hadn't stopped to get our clothes in our stampede of the night before on our way through the hall we met the Winslow boys tiptoeing downstairs much to our surprise for it was barely daylight what's the rush? asked Rod with an attempt at hilarity been seeing any ghosts today it's beginning to rain announced Lou and it's setting in for a big thaw so we decided to get up rouse you out if we could and start just as soon as possible you know it's a lone drive home and a wretched road at the best of times it'll hardly be passable in a thaw they passed on out to the stables Rod and I looked at each other both struck by the same idea nobody else will be stirring for an hour yet said Rod voicing my thoughts rather shame facitely we'll light a fire and get some grub for the boys and they'll be gone before mother or Uncle Wheeler come on the scene they were supposed to be going to the spear room and if we just hold our tongs and get Sid to do the same Uncle Wheeler will think it was the Winslow's but Tad Tad didn't appear till too late so that won't give us away and he was half asleep and I'll bet a cent he'll never remember how many of us were there or that we hadn't our clothes on it hardly seems fair though to put it on the Winslow's that won't hurt there's nothing to Uncle Wheeler and he doesn't even know them so it won't do them any harm while it would do us a whole heaps we talked it over and decided to go ahead I left Rod to light the fire while I went up we can see it explain the whole affair and easily got him to promise silence we're not going to tell any fibs of course I see it virtuously if anybody asks us who it was we'll have to tell straight out but not likely anyone will and we'll just keep quiet see? Sid thought of the good joke and agreed to keep mom the Winslow's came in for breakfast and they started off just as they drove away mother came out at the hall door and Uncle Wheeler in dressing gown and slippers emerged from the sitting room he just looked as grumpy as Uncle Wheeler could look and that is saying a good deal mother didn't see him at first and merely asked us why we were up so early and where the Winslow boys were we explained and then mother saw Uncle Wheeler and said she hoped he slept well and found his pillows high enough for him slept well, growl Uncle Wheeler I wonder if you or anyone else Amelia or Jane Miller could sleep well if just when you had dropped off to sleep after a long and arduous journey you were suddenly awakened by half a dozen great lubbering louts of boys coming down on you like an ambulance in the dead of night I ask you how anybody could sleep well under such circumstances madam and Uncle Wheeler glanced at us boys as if he knew we were the guilty ones mother was greatly distressed oh dear me the Winslow boys went in after all didn't Tad tell you that Uncle was there? Tad went to sleep said Rob promptly nudging me with his elbow for fear I put in a word too many and complicate matters and didn't wake up till too late when he appeared the mischief was done you might have known he couldn't keep awake mother there was no one else to leave replied mother and I warned him not to go to sleep I'm very sorry this should have happened Uncle Wheeler Uncle Wheeler barely answered the Winslow boys had gone so he couldn't come down on them and he had no excuse for blaming anyone except Tad who kept religiously out of the way that morning so he felt defrauded of his right he was as snappish and crusty as he could be all through breakfast and kept making remarks about boys being out late at night and gadding about to parties and coming home to disturb respectable folks at unseemly hours he was never guilty of it in his young days and he felt very sorry to see that his nephews were and as for those three fools that had waken him up he liked to teach a lesson to boys who hadn't enough sense to get into bed properly but must race and tear like a pack of wild cubs there was no doubt that Uncle Wheeler was in a fearful humor and Rod and I realized that we had had a narrow escape Sid Hatfield having no particular interest at stake enjoyed the whole performance immensely and afterwards remarked in the seclusion of the kitchen loft it's a jolly good thing for you chaps that your respected uncle doesn't know that it was you who disturbed his peaceful slumbers he doesn't seem particularly aimable this morning but for all our success I really didn't feel comfortable and Rod looked awfully glum pretty soon he came out with it I feel like an out and out sneak art he confessed I never did anything like this before and I never will again we've deceived mother and uncle Wheeler my wish is that we hadn't same here Rod I said heartily for Rod had just put my own disquieting reflections into words Sid stared at us you're a pair of geese I think it's all a capital joke why you didn't say a thing never even stretched the truth itself and it can't hurt the Winslow boys one single mic that isn't the question replied Rod it's what we've done it's dishonorable but I suppose there's nothing more to be said now still we did feel mean uncle Wheeler got over his ill humor by next day and was as good as gold everything went well for a week outwardly but Rod went about kind of grim and sulky and as for me I felt somehow or other that I was a pretty mean sneaking sort of chap Rod and I had both been brought up strictly truthful and above board in everything and we felt that we had come short of mother's standard it wasn't that our evasion was going to harm anyone else but we had simply lost our self respect Sid had gone home so we hadn't him to bolster up our consciences and we got regularly blue and moody one night uncle Wheeler had another cranky fit on the wind was northeast and his criticism was always bad in a northeast wind finally he remarked to mother I had a letter today from Henry Winslow the father of those rascals he wants me to accommodate him with the loan for a short time I shan't I've worked hard for my money and I'm not going to risk it in doubtful loans not if he is honest and hard up I don't propose to help a man that can't bring his boys up better than he's done poke the fire viciously the memory of the towsing up he got that unlucky night was still vividly present with him Rod and I went softly out leaving mother trying to intercede for Henry Winslow with no very good success and went to our favorite roost in the kitchen loft here's a mess said Rod a bad one said I what's to be done done make a clean breath of it to uncle ruler of course it'll ruin my chances with him but I'm not going to have other people suffer for what isn't their fault if we'd only told him at first I said mournfully but even if he could forgive us for jumping over him he never will for bluffing him about it he'll think we were just fooling him for pure fun it's a blue show said Rod gloomily but we deserve it so I'm not going to flinch after all I don't know that I'm sorry we have to I felt like a regular sneak this week uncle ruler will be a furry of course but I think worse of how mother will feel she hates any crawly business we made up our minds to beard the lion in his den as soon as possible the afternoon of the next day we screwed up our courage and marched straight into the parlor where uncle ruler was writing letters before the table he shelved up his specs and looked at us sourly what do you youngsters want he demanded roughly we both knew by experience that it doesn't do to beat about the bush with uncle ruler you have to come straight to the point and say what you've got to say Rod took a header right in we've come uncle ruler to tell you what we should have told you before it wasn't the Winslow boys who woke you up the other night it was Sid Hetfield and Art and I then we waited for the outburst uncle ruler gazed at us over his specs quite calmly we knew he had a dozen different ways of getting mad and this might be one but if so it was brand new it was you was it he said at last you young scamps and you've the face to come and tell me so and why did you say it was the other boys please sir we didn't I venture to say mother just thought it was because she had told them to go there but Dave was scared of the ghost so we changed rooms Sid wanted us to race and see who'd get into bed first that's all we didn't know anybody was there and we are awfully sorry we were kind of scared too so we thought it wouldn't be any harm to let you all think it was the Winslow's but it wasn't right and we felt mean ever since Uncle Wheeler glared quite fiercely what do you think you deserve he asked and Rod spoke up manfully Uncle Wheeler we deserve a sound scolding for deceiving you and we will get it when mother finds out but as for the rest it was only in fun and I don't think anyone ought to regard it as a serious crime although it was very silly of us most people would merely look upon it as a joke oh they would would they said Uncle Grimly perhaps when you get to be my age young man and don't find it so easy to get to sleep as you do now you won't consider it much of a joke to have three great boys come sprawling over you in your first dose we're sorry we disturbed you Uncle said Rod firmly but respectfully we apologize for not owning it up right off like men that's all we can do and I hope you'll forgive us hmm go out and tell your mother I want her that was all the satisfaction we got but we weren't gladly for we had escaped wonderfully well mother went in and was closeted with Uncle Wheeler for half an hour when she came out she looked amused over something and though she tried to be severe it was a failure you deserve a scolding boys but I promised your Uncle I'd let you off this time he really seems in a good humor over it all but I wouldn't advise you to repeat the experiment what's he going to do about Mr. Winslow broken Rod anxiously he's going to help him I think since he found out the boys are not such louts as he thought them Rod and I felt a good deal better than you may be sure Uncle Wheeler went home the next day but he parted from us kindly told Rod to be ready for college in the fall and to remember mother's training and straight forwardness and finally left an envelope in our respective hands we found a $20 bill in each of them hooray for Uncle Wheeler said Rod he's a brick End of Section 4 Section 5 of Uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Larry Wilson Uncollected short stories of L. M. Montgomery by Lucy Maud Montgomery a pastoral call and how it brought happiness to this united family first published The Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times Part 1, April 13, 1898 Part 2, April 20, 1898 Mrs. Kennedy turned from the window where she had been smilelessly watching the golden red glow of sunset flush over the transitory softness and splendor of the harsh bear outlines of the late autumn landscape she was a spared little woman with a slight stoop and a quick nervous step her grey hair was drawn tightly back from her lined forehead and twisted into a hard little knot behind her eyes were keen and shrewd her thin long lips were tightly even obstinately set her face was shallow and wrinkled she looked much older than she was there is someone coming up the lane Miranda she said I think it's the new minister if it is go and open the parlor blinds and show him in there I don't want to see him a mite she muttered vindictively after Miranda had shuffled out into the hall I know what he's coming for just to rake those old bones over again I haven't a doubt I'm sick and tired of it the last minister soon found out I wasn't going to put up with his interference he learned to hold his tongue about in the end I guess now it'll have to be done all over again I wish folks would mind their own affairs what business has a man just because he is a minister to go poking and prying into what doesn't concern him I'll let that young man know it too if he says much you'll think it is his duty he'd buk me if he's heard of me and of course he has gossip and scandal is all that crowd down at Pawtucket live on she passed her hands over her hair and straightened her starched white apron then she listened attentively yes it's him I kind of hoped it wasn't well he'd better mind what he says to me she shut her lips in a way she loaded no good to the young man who was at that moment sitting by the parlor window where the warm rays of the sunset fell over his boy's face pale and thin as if from long study his eyes were large and dark with a singularly earnest and spiritual look his mouth was mobile and sensitive he looked very young younger than he really was and he was only a little over twenty-one Mrs. Kennedy coming in defiant and rigid felt a sort of protesting anger that this beardless boy should have any right to criticize or disapprove of her actions she shook hands coldly with him and sat down by the other window where the harsh gray light on her face brought out all its hard uncompromising lines the young man felt vaguely that she brought with her a spirit of hostility she sat upright the angularity and stiffness of her whole appearance in keeping with the arrangement of the little square room the chairs were set in a prim row along the walls the mats were laid precisely some faded photographs in old-fashioned frames adoring the walls and over the mantle hung a cheap promo of the prodigal son the windows were draped with strait stiffly starch white muslin curtains so crisp and crackly it expected them to snap off at a touch he wondered what he should say to her but she spoke first you're the new minister over at Patucket I suppose she said stiffly I'm pleased to see you perhaps you find it cold in here these fall days are real chilly I'm not cold at all thank you Mrs. Kennedy I know it is a rather late hour for a call but I wished to visit all the families I showed today and this is the last house you are quite a distance from any neighbor he smiled at her as he spoke a rare sudden smile that irradiated all his pale scholarly face with a warm magnetic glow the Reverend Cecil Douglas was still too young to have learned how much that sweet sympathetic smile did for him perhaps when he learned its value its charm would be less potent people thawed out unconsciously under it children smiled back to it with the perfect unreasoning confidence of childhood hardworking unsentimental men and their women felt their hearts warm to their boyish pastor when he looked into their eyes with that clear smile even Mrs. Kennedy felt its influence I do live considerably out of the world I suppose she said less rigidly not that I mind it keeps me from getting into rouse and quarrels with other folks pa-tukka people ain't angels I suppose you've discovered that I don't set up to be better than others but I keep to myself you look kind of young to be a minister the young man flushed sensitively I look younger than I am he said but I am young very young and very inexperienced I often wonder how I dare undertake the responsibilities of such a position as mine my heart is in my chosen work I desire to be not unworthy of my high calling I need all the patience and prayerful sympathy of my people a minister can do a great deal sometimes but the means of his usefulness is limited by the spirit of those whom he is appointed and to be taught by I have a great deal to learn I am willing to begin at the very beginning I hope I am sure that you will help me in my work Mrs. Kennedy was quite silent she had not expected this and had no answers ready the last minister had been in pa-tukka for 15 years he was an old man and a good man but he was very different from this he had grown a little too dogmatic and severe in his long experience with the contrary minded in pa-tukka the pa-tukka people were not easy to get along with in his own mind he had considered Mrs. Kennedy to be a hard worldly minded woman she had felt and resented this pa-tukka folks heard with relish of certain verbal conflicts between Mrs. Kennedy and the reverend Dayton conflicts in which Mrs. Kennedy had held her own with such spirit and energy that the poor pastor was feigned to resign her to the dominion of her own evil nature Mrs. Kennedy herself had grown to have a chronic spite against any and all ministers she had been thinking with a certain relish as she sat there what she would say to her caller if he should try to unlock the door for skeleton closet this concerted that he had taken so different a course the young minister looked compassionately at the pinched discontented face opposite him he felt instinctively that this woman required help if he were able to give it or if she would take it when offered you live all alone he said yes you may say so a servant girl ain't much company I'm as good as alone so as my mother now said the young man softly all alone and I'm so far away from her she misses me I know and I miss her more than words can say she is such a dear good mother the best a boy ever had I think I suppose every boy thinks that of his mother though you have no sons Mrs. Kennedy Mrs. Kennedy stiffened herself up and looked at him with angry suspicion she had an old resemblance to a watchful irritating cat ready to pounce at any movement but she saw nothing save kindly interest in the minister's open face yes I have one son she said deliberately or I had I don't consider him as a son now after the way he has behaved it's a wonder you haven't heard his name is Walter Kennedy he lives in that little shanty a way down at the corners you can see the end of it beyond that bush she pointed defiantly out the window behind him her eyes were angry and her breath became faster I was there this afternoon said Mr. Douglas slowly he felt surprised and was not sure of his ground I did not know you were his mother he has a very sweet wife and child that ain't nothing to me retorted Mrs. Kennedy accurately I ought to know how sweet she is I guess you needn't talk I've had enough lecturing on that subject already I don't want ever to have anything to do with them again I know what it is to have a child Walter Kennedy and his wife can go their own way for all of me I don't want to hear nothing about them I haven't no dealings with them and I don't want to have she paused with a cowering exaltation over her boldness and speaking so to the minister she expected a severe shocked rebuke but none came I am sorry he said simply you'll be better some day you don't know much about the Kennedy's if you think that we mean a thing when we say it I didn't drive Walter away he went of his own accord so I guess I won't ask him to come back again in a hurry she stopped abruptly and looked at him suspiciously it's queer you haven't heard about it before this ain't that what you came here for just to lecture me about that affair? Mrs. Kennedy I did not even know you had a son you need not tell me anything about it if you do not wish to I don't know if I care I ain't ashamed of my part somebody else will tell you if I don't and they'll put more to it some of the Pawtucket folks have great imaginations Walter's father died when he was a baby he was our only child I brought him up and did as well as I could for him I was a good mother to Walter if I do say it I worked hard and saved for him I won't say he wasn't a good son too he was I wouldn't ask for a better I never heard a crossword from him then he got married he married Esther Willis who was dead against it from the first but Walter wouldn't listen to me I hadn't nothing against Esther but she weren't brought up to be a farmer's wife she didn't know how to work she was as pretty as a picture and just as useless she was a flighty thing with a lot of highfalutin ideas it was nothing but trouble after Walter brought her here I ain't saying the blame was all on Esther's side I suppose I ain't any too easy to get along with a woman that's been at the head of a house for thirty years don't feel like knuckling under to any young chit Esther hadn't no consideration for me she'd come between me and Walter that's what she did she set him against me me, his mother that had slayed for him he always took her part everything she did was right he never made any allowance for me I wasn't going to stand it I wonder who'd expect me to the house was mine and so was the farm I told them that one day but I didn't suppose well, they just went that high-stepping wife of Walter's couldn't swallow my saying that he had a bit of land down at the corners and he put up a shanty on it and took Esther and the baby down there I told him if he went out of my house he went out of my heart and life he had his warning and I told Esther I'd never forgive her for taking my son away from me she made out she was sorry I knew she was just as glad as could be in her heart that was two years ago I ain't ever spoke to either of them since and I don't ever mean to I've got on well enough since they left and I've had some peace of my life I don't know why I'm telling you all this you ain't like Mr. Dayton though he used to make me mad he said it was wicked and sinful to show such an unforgiving un-Christian spirit I suppose it is wicked everybody's a good deal wickeder than they let on some show it more than others that's all the difference I ain't going to be trodden on and then be as meek as Moses I can tell you I suppose you think I'm unnatural and inhuman too Mr. Dayton did she threw the last sentence at him defiantly her thin little body trembled her naughty toil-worn fingers were tightly interlaced he reached forward and took one of the rough unsightly hands in his own it was an impulsive moment as of a son seeking to soothe his mother why should I think so, Mrs. Kennedy said Mr. Douglas gently everybody makes mistakes I'm only very sorry for you all you have suffered perhaps your son has too he loved you he must miss you bitterly he doesn't, said Mrs. Kennedy with an ominous stiffening he doesn't care he's got Esther that is all he wants no I don't think that is all he wants he was a good son, you say a good son never ceases to love his mother, Mrs. Kennedy I'm sure that your son repents what has passed even if he has given no sign if you were to go to him and say Mr. Douglas it ain't any use well, but you don't know we ain't that kind of people we never give in I don't want to give in for that matter if Walter can get along without me I can get along without him Mrs. Kennedy I had a letter from my mother today there were little blisters on the paper where her tears had fallen she wrote I miss you so much, my son I miss your voice, your face every hour no one can fill your place all good mothers are like I believe Mrs. Kennedy didn't you miss your boy when he went away for a minute there was no answer then she spoke in a low voice yes, Mr. Douglas I did I do I miss him dreadful I never said so before to a living mortal but it's true sometimes I feel as if I could give most anything to have them all back as to her and all she wasn't a bad little creature in some ways I suppose it was hard on her she was very young I might have made more allowances I guess I was just jealous Walter thought so much of her and then their little baby such a dear little thing as that baby was they called it Ellen after me Esther suggested that I haven't seen it for two years it used to love to have me nurse it and fuss around it I did set a heap of store by that child I ain't never talked like this so to anyone before, Mr. Douglas I was real mad when I saw you coming I know the Pawtucket crowd think I'm awful hard I suppose I am it's in my family where all as hard as flint I ain't very happy though if Walter would only let on he cared but he doesn't I believe he does I know he does it would break my heart if my mother were angry with me I'm sure your son feels the same I'm glad you have given me your confidence I shall pray for you I will ask my mother to pray for you you love your son still go to him and tell him so and you will find that his mother has never lost her place in his heart there was a silence in the dim room the last faint gleams of light fell over the world grey head by the window he was a wise and clear-sighted young minister in spite of his youth he knew when enough had been said he read the 23rd Psalm and made a simple earnest prayer then he went away with a cheery goodbye Mrs. Kennedy went with him to the door and watched him as he walked erectly down the garden path with the rough wind of the autumn night swirling the wrinkled brown leaves she did not go back into the house instead she carefully closed the hall door behind her and sat down on the step wrapping her red knitted shawl tightly around her sharp shoulders she sat there in the dark for a long while her thin pinched face looked more thin and pinched than ever in the faint cold light of the fall evening all the warm red glow of sunset had faded out of the sky there was only one savage fiery streak that ran low along the west against which a row of grim fire came out with black spectral distinctness the sky was all curdled over with little rolls of grey clouds between which a few pale stars glimmered uncertainly the chilly wind moaned around the house and the maple tree by the door tossed its gaunt branches wildly as if some passionate ghostly thing were ringing its fleshless hands in agony the row of lombardies at the foot of the garden stood up like a line of rigid sentinels the gate creaked dismally as it wavered to and fro in the raw gusts and the leaves went eddy and fitfully up and down the paths in weird uncanny dances of their own the whole outdoor world was bleak and unlovely in its leaflessness and gloom to the old woman crouching on the doorstep seemed the outward type of her own lonely loveless life she shivered and drew her shawl closer around her it's awful cold and raw tonight she muttered thinking aloud as was her habit since she had lived alone I believe it'll snow before long I wish it would I'm sick and tired of those old bare fields I don't know what makes me so miserable tonight I don't know what there was in that young minister to stir me up so he didn't say much he only looked it I don't know but what he's right I wish he was I wish Walter did care it was mostly my fault I was a contankerous and old thing I'd needn't have been so hard on Esther I guess Mr. Douglas's mother wouldn't have been I'd do different if I had the chance over again I just wonder what Walter would say if I were to go right down there now I guess he'd stare I suppose Esther wouldn't let him speak to me though I guess she's pretty bitter I suppose it ain't I just wonder if she is I believe I would go if I thought it would be in a use Walter's light gleamed suddenly out away down at the foot of the long hill she looked at it a minute uncertainly then she got up in a quick decided way and went into the house it was very dark and silent Miranda had gone out there was nothing alive in the house but herself she came off the parlor it was a small and immaculate apartment she looked at herself in the scroll-framed mirror by the pale flickering light I look awful cross and disagreeable she muttered I am fearful wrinkled it's all come these last two years I guess I don't look much like a minister's mother I know what she's like as well as if I saw her she's one of them little women with soft scrimpy hair and brown eyes like his and she'd wear something soft grey silk maybe and have a lace ruffle at your neck and her smile will be like his no I guess we don't look much like she smiled bitterly at her reflected self infancy she saw the sweet mild face of the minister's mother beside her own could that far away unknown woman ever treat her son as she had treated Walter there's a big difference in mothers she said aloud I am on the wrong side of the difference too it's too late to learn it now but perhaps not too late I shall go and see Walter if he does care anything for me I shall find it out I'll find that out too and so much the better she put on her best bonnet and shawl she blew out the light and put the matches by it on the table ready for lighting she locked the front door and put the key under the step Miranda'll find it there but I guess I'll be back before she is I won't stay long maybe I guess I'm an old fool to go but I don't want to look at that minister's eyes again and not be able to say I've done my part I'd hate to have him contrasting me with his own mother I declare I'm scared to go I wonder what they will think I expect Esther'll look me over in that top lofty way of hers if I stay here much longer thinking of it I'll get too nervous to go at all she went down the path with a little determined rush the winds whirled her black skirt about her and the leaves fled elfishly before her feet there was a shortcut down through the fields to the corners and she took it hurrying breathlessly along as if trying to get ahead of her own thoughts and fears it was very dark and bleak the moon had not risen and the night was full of weird eerie sounds the creaking of boughs above her the moaning of the wind and the dark tree tops the nestling of dead leaves the vibrations of strips of dried bark on the rail fences I never was out in such a ghostly night she panted timorously she was out of breath when she got to Walter's door she paused panting I don't dare knock she murmured supposing Walter should come and when he saw who it was shut the door in my face or if Esther should come I have a notion to go right back she hesitated wavering often on the steps a dark silhouette came out against the white blind it was the restless curly head of a little child she rapped on the door there was a moment silence within and then the sound of coming footsteps the door opened and Walter stood in the doorway peering curiously out the rush of light over his shoulder fell on the little shrinking figure and the anxious uplifted face Walter's look of curiosity gave way to one of astonishment an alarm mother? is it you? is there anything wrong? no, no Walter, nothing she said hurriedly the naturalness of his words gave her courage it's only I got so lonesome up there Miranda went out and I thought I'd run down and see you come right in, Ma said Walter heartily, but daisily he stepped aside to let her pass the room was warm and lighted the tea-table was spread and Esther was sitting at it she was a young pretty woman with a rather care-worn face she got up and came over to meet Mrs. Kennedy why? why I declare, mother I'm glad to see you sit up to the fire it's real chilly out tonight, isn't it? I shouldn't wonder if we'd have snow we're just at tea, you see I suppose you've had yours over hours ago Walter was away and we waited for him maybe you'll sit in and have a cup of tea with us she spoke nervously and hurriedly as if trying to bridge over an awkward situation gracefully the baby was holding her dress and peering around her at it's grandmother with it's round dark eyes Walter stood foolishly in the background he felt in the way I should think you'd feel more like turning me out of doors, Esther said Mrs. Kennedy tremulously I expected nothing else I guess you ain't overjoyed to see me Esther's lips were quivering don't talk so mother we ain't got no hard feelings Walter and me let me take your bonnet no, said Mrs. Kennedy resolutely not till I've said what I've come here to say, Esther I'm real ashamed of the way I acted to you I was a mean spiteful old thing it ain't much wonder that you and Walter got your backs up I'd do different if I'd had another chance if you and Walter can just forgive me Esther knelt and put her arms about the bout figure don't mother I've been so ashamed too I didn't behave right mother I've done some thinking since I came here I guess I've got a little more sense I never forgot how you said I'd come between you and Walter it was true and I had no right to I was real sassy and nasty to you and Walter he's most fretted to death you don't know how bad he's felt I've coached him to go up and see you but he said it was no use I didn't dare go alone Pa Tekka Folk said you was so bitter against us she laid her head in the older woman's lap Mrs. Kennedy stroked the fair waves of the hair with gentle fingers I'm real glad that you and me is friends again Esther I've missed you awful seemed as if I could never get over wanting to see that blessed baby around the house it's awful loads of up there I wish you were all back we wouldn't quarrel again Walter came forward and put the baby into his mother's lap then he stooped and kissed her that kiss meant much for Walter was not a demonstrative man he had not kissed his mother since childhood it was quite late when Mrs. Kennedy went home the wind had died away the moon had risen touching the hills with silverly glory and casting twinkly shadows of bare boughs and twig tracery Mrs. Kennedy stepped along briskly and cheerfully a light was gleaming from her house up on the hill there was a smile on her face as she thought of the near future the future of which she was to share with Walter and Esther and the baby and in the background of her dreams limbered the ideal of a sweet approving face a face with tender brown eyes framed in waves of soft silver sprinkled hair the minister's mother would be glad if she knew all her son has done for me whispered Mrs. Kennedy softly End of section 5