The Coopers, or, Getting under way
page: 0 (TitlePage) [View Page 0 (TitlePage) ] THE COOPERS; OR, GETTING UNDER WAY. BY ALICE B. HAVEN, ' AUTHOR OF "NO SUCH WORD AS FAIL," "ALL'S NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS," ETC., ETC., ETC. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COIMPANY 346 & 348 BROADWAY. 1858. page: 0[View Page 0] ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by D. APPLETON & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. I DARE say that I am not alone in noticing hew many young people, in these rapid days,--marry, without the faintest idea of the cares and responsibilities involved, or with any definite aim in life, after the wedd:ng, the bridal tour, and the gayety that usually follows. My friends the oopers are, perhaps, a fair example of this large class; and in following their history I have kept in mind the wise saying of Sir Thomas More, be- hind which I have more than once shielded myself: "Even as some sick men will take no medicine unless some pleasant thing be put amongst their potins, al- though it be somewhat hurtful, yet the physician suffereth them to have it: so because many will not hearken to serious and grave documents, unless they be mingled with some fable or jest, therefore reason willeth us to do the like." The Willows, 1858. page: 0 (Table of Contents) [View Page 0 (Table of Contents) ] CONTENTS. PAGE THE STOCKS, .. . . .7 FINDING THE LEAK . . . . 30 "FETCH "AND CARRY, .. 47 "AYING THE KEEL, . . . . . . . 71 THE LAUNCH, . . . . . . 93 DAILY TRIALS, . . . . . 131 THE CRISIS, . . . .160 j A MOTHER'S WAGES, . . . . 185 "1 THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE,! . . . 207 MATCH-MAKING, . . . . . . . 227 THE SERVANT QUESTION, . . . . . . 255 GIFT-MAKING, . . . . . . 280 UNDER FULL SAIL, . . 310 page: 0[View Page 0] CHAPTER I. TH E STOCKf. "DEAR me, how comfortable you look! Well, this is worth while now," remarked Mr. Sam itself apparent to the dullest bachelor perception. in daildget , warming first one hand and then the other at tupe cheerful fire, which lighted the sit- ting-room of his friends the Coopers, quite as much as the drop-light over the centre-table. aso woseatedr tinhat very cosinmit of the room madhis wife; but itself appard been dullest bachelor perception. "The bed and wash-stand were snugly bestowed in a curtainer's, alcove; pictures hung aboutn the walls; a work-stand, with a work-box ev idently in daily use, stood at one corner of the lounge, drawn up before the fire, on which Mr. Cooper was seated, in very close proximity to his Wife; but they had been married but two months, and thea honeymoon was not quite left out of sight "The fellows," who were accus etomed to meet at Sinclair's, a favorite restaurant on a neig loring draw up bwe th fireonvicMrmgooe was seated, in very close proximity to his wife; page: 8-9[View Page 8-9] 8 THE COOPERS. corner, were very much astonished when Murray Cooper, returning from a short trip to Albany, brought a wife with him. He was rather aston- ished himself, fir it must be acknowledged that the whole transaction of courtship and marriage had covered but three weeks, divided into two visits six months apart. On the first he had acci- dentally met Miss Smith, and in his usual reckless manner, proposed at the end of his stay, for which presumption he deserved to have been refused, but was not. The most sensible women proverbi- ally astonish their friends in their love affairs, and Martha Smith had said "for better for worse," before she commenced to study the character, which was to develop in one of these respects. "It's a wonder your landlady allows you such fires," remarked Mr. Blodget. "We don't consult her. I take the credit of that combustion!" and Mr, Cooper surveyed his handiwork admiringly. "' Imade that fire." "He actually chose every large lump out of the hod," said Mrs. Cooper, laughing, " and built it up piece by piece. It kept him still for half an hour after dinner." THE STOCKS. 9 "The fact is, Sam, I never meant go to housekeeping till we can afford to have frst-rate fires, and a good table. Stint in any thing else, but give me a good fire and a decent table. Be as economical as you please in other things-but fires!" "I don't believe he has the first idea of econ- omy, Mr. Blodget,-has he?" "I ought to have; we used to see enough of it at Needham's-didn't we, Sam " "Oh! our landlady is ten times worse than Needham! No, thank you, Mrs. Cooper, posi- tively can't sit down, though-only looked round for a minute." "There it comes now," sighed Mrs. ooper, mentally. "Why," continued their visitor," Po er, as we call our present mistress of ceremonie, only allows one hod to the whole range of sky p rlos, no matter how hard we ring for more; I the onse- quence is, the fire goes out, and if we hap en to be in, which doesn't often happen, fortun tely, we are obliged to go to bed in self-defence I ten o'clock; so the gas doesn't suffer. Don't yo see, 1* page: 10-11[View Page 10-11] 10 THE COOPERS. Mrs. Cooper? 'Pon my word, I always stumble over that word yet; it does seem pingular." "So do I," said the newlylYde husband. "When people say to me down town, ' How's Mrs. Cooper?' I always have to stop and think who they mean. First along, I always used to wonder why the -- "S-h-u!" said Mrs. Cooper, warningly, with her forefinger on her lip, and a bright smile, as if recalling some matrimonial compact to her hus- band. "I beg your pardon, Matty; I wacs going to say something. The fact is, Sam-pshaw! I don't mind telling him-the fact 4s, my wife has under- taken to cure me of some of my little bachelor habits." "Don't you allow even an innocent little 'deuce?'" inquired Mr. Sam Blodget, thinking it would be a long time before he came into har- ness. "Innocent!" said Mrs. Cooper, playfully. "Somehow, it never occurred to me that any thing can be innocent which paves the way for such very naughty words as I have heard." THE STOCKS. " Oh, that's the dodge I ' thought the gentle- man in the lond waistcoat, smoothing his already wonderfully fitting gloves, in the attempt to sup- press a whistle that 'would have relieved him under the circumstances, but might not have been exactly the thing, considering the same. It was the perpetual aim of r. Blodget to avoid all that might be pronounced "not the thing;" it stood in the place of a code of honor with him. "Why, Needham used to hear every touch of the poker," said Murray, losing sight of his last remark in the comfortable glow of the fire. That small chambermaid-don't you know, Sam? Wee used to call her the Marchioness after Dick Swiveler-used to insert her head at the door, and say, 'If you please, young gentlemen, nobody's to touch the fire but me on no ac- count."'" What miserable beings you must have been, according to your own stories!" said Mrs. Mur- ray, d laying dwn her book reluctantly. She was frequently the listener to some such agreeable and entertaining reminiscences; they seemed to be the staple of Mr. Blodget's conver- page: 12-13[View Page 12-13] 12 THE COOPERS. sation after he had exhausted the weather and his stock of compliments to her. "He ought to be extremely obliged to you for coming to the rescue, 'pon honor." That's so! Pity some one wouldn't do as much for you," observed'the happy man, patron- izingly. "I often say to Matty, 'I only wish Sam was as well off as I am.' ' "Henderson been round to see you yet, Mrs. Cooper? '2 inquired their visitor at this juncture, declining a third offer of a chair. "No," Mr. Cooper answered for his wife. "Steve's no lady's man. He came round -to-day to say he wished me well, but he made it a rule not to go into society." "Queer 'stick!" and Mr. Blodget shrugged his shoulders; "never could make him out; by the way,' he added, with a degree of recollection pleasant to behold, when Mrs. Cooper had been waiting to hear the remark ever since the waiter's tap at their door had announced his arrival,--" by the way, going 'round to Bob's awhile?" "Well, I don't know, we were just settled for the evening. Matty was going to read me some- THE STOCKS. 13 thing-wasn't you, Matty? and we were going to have some nuts and apples to top off with. Matty generally keeps something stowed away in the side closet. She looks after me so well, that I don't have to think for myself any more." A pleasant smile at this acknowledgment ought to have settled the question of going out at once. "She must sing for you soie night, won't you, Matty?" continued Murray, glancing at the piano. "I don't think I care much about music," said Mr. Blodget, reflectively, admiring the dog's head on the top of his walking-stick, "unless it's a jolly good chorus, like ' Vive l'Amour,' or ' Old Dog Tray,' or 'Wilikens.' You used to sing a good thing, Murray-' Little Pigee.' I've seen all the fellows in a roar lots of times, Mrs. Cooper, when your husband was on that; 'pon honor, it's the most laughable thing!" and, considering that he had turned a very neat compliment indeed, the young gentleman made a sudden pause. "Oh! Matty doesn't care about that sort of thing," said Murray, looking a little annoyed. page: 14-15[View Page 14-15] " THE COOPERS. He knew by the slight flush on his wife's face, that she did not particularly care to imagine her husband singing comic songs at a table full of jolly good fellows, which to her conveyed but one idea-their having emptied too many sherry and champagne bottles for their own respectability, or the good of general society. "Who's going-round to-night? ' "Oh! most of the boys; it's about time we were off!" remarked the visitor, a little sulkily, at having his delicate endeavors to be agreeable nipped in the bud after this fashion. Down in the bottom of his heart, there was a lurking desire to stand well in the eyes of his friend's wife. He had to confess to himself that he waf, a little afraid of her, not that she was backward in her welcome, or " cut him up "-to use his own phrase. On the contrary, she al- ways did her best to entertain her husband's former associates. There was no pettishness of manner, no "married woman's" frown thrown out from under a masked battery of smiles and civility; but Mr. Blodget never walked off with his old comrade, as on this occasion, without feel- THE STOCKS. 15 ing that he had much better not have done so, and that he never would ask Murray to " come round" again. It required a strong effort of will on the part of Mrs. Cooper to acquiesce pleasantly to the al- ternative of a lonely evening, or the society of such loungers as she might find in the general parlor below; and to smile back into Murray's face as she brought his cap and overcoat from the closet. He took them, a little ashamed of resist- ing the strong impulse of excusing himself, after all, and said, "You won't mind this once, will you, Matty? Here's a good fire, and a new book -you want to read that book, you know! And you can send round for some oysters, if you'd like them, 'round to Weller's." The "I shall do very well-never mind me," of the reply, was said without bitterness, though a great deal might have been thrown into those simple words by a person so disposed; but she closed the door after them with a sigh that she kept back no longer, now that it would not inter- fere with his evening's pleasure. The small crimson velvet chair, which had page: 16-17[View Page 16-17] 16 THE COOPERS. been one of her bridal presents, with the book and paper-knife on the table before it, stood exactly as it had done when she came up from dinner, looking forward to a pleasant evening alone with her husband: they had not enjoyed one for a long time, from the multiplicity of their engagements. She seated herself in it, and leaned towards the cheerful blaze, to think nrore seriously than she had done, in all the whirl and excitement of the past eight months. Was she going to be' a happy wife? Could she make Murray happy, without perpetual self-sacrifice? Why had they married each other? Where was the busy tide of life whirling them to? She knew that her husband had been set adrift on a world of boarding-houses at a tender age, in common with most of the set of young men with whom he associated. Those who had comfortable homes she could not so readily excuse for haunt- ing restaurants and billiard-saloons, and using night-keys as freely as if it was a cross, grumpy old landlady they were disturbing, instead of their own mothers and sisters. She was conscious of a great disappointment -A THE STOCKS. and a very heavy heart, the first time Murray had gone out with them after their marriage, but then his excuse seemed reasonable: It won't do to let them think you hold too tight a rein." This was the third time in a fortnight that Mr. Blodget had introduced himself and his "bangup over- coat" to the peaceful life into which they were fast subsiding; this third and lalst call had brought into exercise her whole stock of wifely patience and submission, darling theories -of hiers, in com- mon with many other untried young brides. Using Mr. Sam Blodget's phrase, her husband was "innocent" enough of any actual wrong do- ing. He had never cared for wine, being betrayed into excess by good fellowship alone, the few times he had been guilty in that particular. He was honorable, kind-hearted, and too fond of her to cause her anxiety, if he once could be made to understand it; but when she knew what his former life had been, she saw it always with the knowl- edge of his capabilities for better things, and the hope of winning him to sympathy with her own i ore refined tastes and pursuits. But how was this to be accomplished with such perpetual interrup- page: 18-19[View Page 18-19] 18 THE COOPERS. tions, and without breaking at once the chain of old associations? She knew that the most delicate touch was necessary to sever these links withput defeating - her own object; and, while she shrank from un- dertaking it, and half resolved to let matters take their course, enjoy herself, in her own way, with her books and music, the "inndeent deuce" of I Mr. Blodget called up still more serious reflec- tions. Hitherto, her husband could offer as good an excuse as the best of them for these evening raids upon places of public resort; but now he stood without any, and if the habit shold grow upon him, and be confirmed into evil c'urses, the offence would lie with her. Some inexperienced young wives, full of good intentions, "a wife's influence," and "a husband's duty," would have hesitated but a short time in using all the feminine artillery at command-in- junctions, entreaties, tears, reproaches-and all with a sincere desire for the real good of their husbands, and to discharge their own wifely duty; but there are dangerous rocks in these rapids of reform, and she must be a skilful pilot who ven- THE STOCKS. 19 tures upon them. Mrs. Cooper had all these mo- tives to influence her; but she knew that, in order to make the desired change and progress real, it must be built' upon a stable foundation of taste and principle, and not hurried into by importu- nity, or a desire to please her. The young wife's face had a weary, anxious look, not pleasant to behold so early in married life. It was not selfishness or caprice that actu- ated her, but an earnest feeling that now was a perilous turning-point in her husband's character, and that her influence would be responsible for the result. The little time-piece on the mantel ticked loudly in the stillness of the room; the cold wind came, and shook the blinds. The new book had not been reopened, and she had no heart to touch the keys of her open piano, the only old, familiar face in her new home. "I wonder how many such evenings I must spend this winter," she thought, bitterly, for she began to have an undefined fear that her marriage had been," a leap in the dark "-to end in disap- pointment. With all her earnest thinking, she as !, page: 20-21[View Page 20-21] 20 THE COOPERS. yet had found no clue to the labyrinth. Left only to her own influence, she had ro fears, but where would these perpetual interruptions and counter- acting influences end! s "I wish I could crotchet, or cared for fancy- work, like other girls; I always despised it as such a waste of time; but people get so absorbed in it; I don't suppose I should know whether Murray was at home or not then, but I never did any thing of the sort, not even a pair of slippers." The fire-light, or the warm glow of the drapery, seemed to brighten her face presently, and the book to her regained its original charm; that she had arrived at some conclusion was evident, and that she had great faith, or at least hope, in what she had decided on, was not to be doubted. Yet Mrs. Cooper began her reforms by having a secret from her husband, the first thing she had voluntarily kept back. We do not excuse her for this breach of confidence, for the first article in our matrimonial creed is, that without the utmost frankness on both sides, there can be no lasting happiness in so close a friendship; nevertheless, her heart did not condemn her, though she put )I0 THE STOCKS. 21 on her bonnet with a little tremor the morning that she started out on her mysterious errand, was fairly out of the house. A needless caution, for her unsuspecting husband was at his busy post in the Marine Bank, with scarcely tim to remember her existence until three o'clock should release him. And, on her return, more mystery. The cham- bermaid, coming with clean towels, found the door locked on the inside, and Mrs. Cooper's face so flushed when it was opened, that she remarked to the young lady on the next floor, that She guessed " some people could blow each other up as well as others!" Her husband noticed, from the opposite side of the street when he came home, that the blinds were drawn down, and sprang up the steps with a quicker bound thlan usual, fearful of some sudden illness or unlooled for misfortune. She was wiser next day, and re- membered how impossible it was for a person on the side-walk to see into a third story window. Once it happened that the unsuspicious h s- i page: 22-23[View Page 22-23] 22 THE COOPERS. band was on the very point of iscovering how abuse and misplaced his confidence had been. It was a dull December evening, and he had not found "the boys" so entertaining as usual; so, bethinking himself of "Matty," and the fresh pecan-nuts in the side-closet, his wandering steps were turned home two hours earlier than usual. The atmosphere was damp, and the shop-win- dows lighted the slippery pavement indifferently through the blur of mist and darkness. The re- turning husband withdrew, turtle-wise, into the friendly depths of his coat-collar, and thought how stupid he was to expose himself to such dis- agreeable surroundings when his own parlor was always so pleasant, and his wife the most enter- taining and agreeable companion he had ever met, if she- was his wife. "That's because she reads so much, I suppose. She can talk over the news of the day as sensibly as any body at 'Bob's,' and seems to take an in- terest. I hate a woman who shuts you up always on foreign news, and expects you to talk millinery and gossip. She manages to pick up a great deal more out of the papers than I have time to; that THE STOCKS. 23 was a very interesting thing she read ott of Household Words last night-just the scrt of thing I like; I wonder how she knew it. I should go to sleep in ten minutes over oie of iI your regular love stories. Wouldn't I like to have a wife like,Joe Draper's, always telling him where to go, and when to come home! I'd show her!" and, finding himself nearing a familiar lamp-post at this emphatic break in his soliloquy, he wound up with a species of penitence, by no means an unfamiliar sensation, at leaving his wife so much alone, mixed with a sudden recollection and admiration of the amiable way in which she bore such desertions. "You are home very early to-night. I did not expect you for two hours at least," wa not exactly the surprised and delighted greeting whicli he had promised himself. He could not see how she had been employed, either, to take his absence and arrival so coolly, There was not so much as a book on the table be- fore her, when he opened the door; she sat boltI upright on the lounge, doing nothing at all, but! her cheeks were flushed, and her manner a littl! page: 24-25[View Page 24-25] 24 THE COOPERS. nervous. However, the chill went off presently, with that of the outer atmosphere, and Mrs. Cooper exerted herself most successfully to enter- tain her unlooked-for husband. New-Year's morning; and the ever lavish Murray Cooper presented his wife with an ele- gantly wrought bracelet, receiving a cigar-stand in return. It was a very pretty bronze trifle, and looked extremely well on the etagere; but, for all that, he was disappointed. It was what anybody might have given him, and somehow he had ex- pected more thought from ,his wife; but he smoth- ered his injured feelings under a plentiful break- fast, and started on his round of calls in a toilet that would have done credit to Murray Cooper, the bachelor. Reaching home again at night, tired and bored, sick of the confectionery and champagne, the oys- ters and boned turkey he had surfeited himself with, out of politeness, in the course of the day, he indulged in certain fervent wishes that " every- body had been there, and he should find Matty and a cup of hot coffee alone." He found the table laid in the morning for [::! THE STOCKS. 25 visitors, cleared of its debris, and his wife still in her best dress; and her best looks, though she had counted fifty-one calls, brewing the coffee in a pretty French urn, with the t6te-a-t^te set belong- ing to it neatly arranged for his benefit,-more than that, a dressing-gown aired itself leisurely before the fire, and appeared to be contemplating with evident approval, a pair of slippers that it was destined to see a great deal of. "Holla, Matty," he ejaculated, arrested in the midst of a matrimonial salute by the sight of this unexpected array. Who sent 'em to me? Where X did the dressing-gown come from? Just what I wanted; I never had one in my life. Singular, isn't it? when I've had 'most every thing!" "I don't know when you ever had any use for one," responded Mrs. Murray, making herself very busy in the removal of wrappers, and suggesting that it might as well be tried on at once. Never was a first ball-dress considered more ii becoming! -Mr. Cooper stood still for his wife to turn down the cuffs to precisely the proper point, tightened the handsome cord and tassels with es- pecial unction, and thrust a fresh white handker- 2 page: 26-27[View Page 26-27] 26 THE COOPERS. chief into the breast-pocket as he marched toward the pier-glass admiringly. "Splendid fit I Very neat pattern, not too showy, just right! I hate any thing too exten- sive, like Sam's now, red flowers on a bright yel- low ground. Silk lining, too ; no sham about it " and he slapped his fine broad chest, inclosed in this admirable dressing-gown, with a heartiness pleasant to behold. "And those slippers; just hand them here, will you, Matty? But where in the world did these things come from a " "Better try them on, too," suggested Matty, likewise radiant with satisfaction; " and then I'll tell you." The damp, mud-splashed boots were kicked off unceremoniously; and, walking to the rug, the unconscious man deliberately set his feet into the snare! Deep blue, what's that on the toe?--a puss curled up to sleep, remarkably well done, quite catty; out with it, they came by express from Baltimore, and you've kept the secret. High time the girls remembered they had a brother. Why they haven't sent me a pair of slippers for two : &THE STOCKS. 27 size. Like them To be sure I do. Ionlywish yod worked them for me, Matty," and uehis voice sank into a more tender cadence as he stooped down and patted her head, while she still knelt on the hearth-rug. " "Well, I did, Murray, every stitch," she said, with a sudden trembling in her voice that she felt very much ashamed of, and tried to control. iYou? Why I thought you said you had never worked a pair in your life, and hated worsted work beyond measure; I thought of asking you to do me a pair, only I remembered that." "I never did," said his wife, not unwillingly encircled by his arm, and accepting his kiss of thanks. rI made such blunders! 1 worked so hard, and had to shut myself up, you know, fear you would find out and spoilall. Don't you remember one night you came home early, and found me doing nothing Well, I only had time to throw my canvas and worsteds under the table; page: 28-29[View Page 28-29] 28 THE COOPERS. and there they lay until next morning, before I could get a chance to put them away without your seeing me. I was so afraid you would drop something that evening, or find out somehow!" "By - ! I beg your pardon, Matty," Mur- ray broke out, suddenly; " but if you only knew how much more I think of these slippers because you never worked a pair for any body else! Regular beauties, ain't they?"And, seated in his own lounging-chair, he elevated his feet ad- miringly on the background of the black marble mantel. "Going round awhile a" inquired the highly original and entertaining Mr. Blodget, one windy evening towards spring. Mr. Blodget was unaltered by the course of time, except that the ends of his cravat "flared" in an extremely demonstrative manner, instead of being gathered into the subdued and rather re- served bow which fashion demanded when we first made his acquaintance. "No, thank you, Mrs. Cooper; only looked in; couldn't think of sitting down." THE STOCKS. l29 "I guess you'd better," said his friend, lazily; "you might find worse quarters such a night as this. Seems to me I did promise Joe to look in awhile, but I guess I won't; it', too much trouble toput on my boots." His wife glanced up, and down again as quickly to her work; but he caught the peculiar smile of meaning that she could not repress. j The domesticated husband began to have a faint glimmering of the truth; but he did not return the look. "Did it ever occur to you, Sam," said he, ad- dressing himself deliberately and exclusively to his visitor, "that slippers might be regarded in the light of man-traPs .?" "Never!" returned the unconscious Blodget. "Really, I can't say that they ever did! Quite an idea, ain't it, though? Remarkably handsome ones those of yours." page: 30-31[View Page 30-31] CHAPTER II. FINDING THE LEAK. "HoME's home, isn't it, now?" said Mr. Murray Cooper, complacently, as he seated himself at an inviting supper-table, and admired his wife sitting opposite to him busied with the tray. Mrs. Cooper was by no means intended for a burning and shin- ing light in society, but she made a very pleasant and mellow radiance, so to speak, in the more limited circle of her own fireside. And though it was "a furnished house" which she had at length persuaded her husband to take as an experiment, she enjoyed the relief from the publicity of board- ing, and the complete change in Mr. Cooper's habits, which time had wrought, aided by her prudent tact. Perhaps the advent of the young gentleman asleep in the little nursery up stairs had something to do with it. Mr. Cooper had " tastes " and a precedent for Pl :: FINDING THE LEAK. 31 all his likings and aversions in some of the dis- tinguished family o: which he Awas a member. Te "Murray" was a family name, and his soul I aspired to the scale o living to which it belonged ; but his means were several thousand a year short of its gratification. Indeed, if Mrs. Cooper had not been practical in an extreme degree, and ex- perienced, as to the, vlue of money in itself con- sidered, it is doubtful whether they could have got : on at all. The recklessness with which her husband i5 assumed matrimonial charge and responsibility, and the style in which his bachelor expenditures had been conducted, were rather alarming to one who had always had need to calculate ways and means closely. Foi- Mrs. Cooper, though very proud of her family in a certain way, was only a Smith-Martha Smith; and it is well known that the Smiths cannot subsist upon their name and connections as a Murray or a Cooper might do. X Poverty among the Coopers was being well dressed-living in a large house, waited on by plenty of servants, but always troubled by an ac- cumulation of liabilities. Still, as Mr. Coopel Sen., often remarked, "people must live," by page: 32-33[View Page 32-33] 32 THE COOPERS. which he meant that he must, whatever became of the tradesmen he employed. Poverty, as known to the Smiths, included self-denial, indus- try, and a great many " wants reduced to must haves," before they were satisfied. The younger branches of the Bird Coopers, the De Lancy Coop- ers, and the Griswold Murrays looked down upon their cousin as having sunk several degrees in the social scale when he left one room in the third story of a fashionable city boarding-house for the whole of a small but comfortable house beyond Seventh Avenue, whereas, inasmuch as he man- aged, with his wife's oversight, to live somewhere within the range of his income, and paid for most of the clothes he wore and the food he ate, some unprejudiced persons might have ranked him as morally in the ascendant. Literally, Mrs. Cooper did not know where to commence her financial experiments when her husband's idiosyncrasy as to money matters first was made apparent, which was not until a mother's duties had been added to a wife's cares; but she came to the conclusion that the starting- point of charity was a good place to commence I' FINDING THE LEAK. 33 enforcing its respectable relative, economy, and so began with her own personal expenditures. Her husband had a few prejudices to overcome before he could be induced to set aside the ex- tremely modest amount she proposed from his salary. "He didn't believe in an allowance. What was the good in knowing what you spent? It did'nt make it any less, and, in fact, it was de- cidedly uncomfortable to be posted on the subject. He never had an allowance; the girls and mother never had one. No; they always got whatever t they chose, and the bills were sent to the store. It wasi't their business when they were paid. To be sure, the governor always grumbled when they came in, and threatened all sorts of things, but nobody ever minded." "But I should," interposed the governor's daughter-in-law. "I would have gone without, first-and would now, rather than see you worried. It's a great deal better to know just what you can afford to get; only try it, Murray, or let me, for baby and myself. If you only knew how I hate to say, 'charge it!'" "Poh. poh, Martha, I didn't think you were page: 34-35[View Page 34-35] 34 TIE COOPERS. such a goose! Why, most women would jump at it. I never had an 'expense-book,' as you call it, since I was born. Books are bothers enough at the bank. Who always wants to be marching up a column of figures, and ruminating on a 'sum total,' except it's a balance in one's favor, which I believe I never yet have had the pleasure of expe- riencing. When I have the pmoney, you're wel- come to it, you know that. These private purses make a wife altogether too independent. They are the very-I beg your pardon, the mischief, X you know!" - "But suppose," said Mrs. Cooper, "I should I wish to make my husband another present, how unsentimental it would sound!-' My love, please give me ten dollars to buy you a gold pencil!' or to have my nice little surprise spdiled by the bill being presented beforehand at the office! or, hav- X ing to manage Mrs. Green's fashion, and take what I wanted from your pocket, little by little, after you were asleep at night! To be sure, you never would miss it." "Now, that's rather hard on a fellow, Martha, after all my reforms! Don't I even stop in an FINDING THE LEAK. 35 omnibus to count change? Haven't I done won- ders in not bringing home-all sorts of things, you know? I'll bet you two to one-" "I never bet, recollect," interrupted Mrs. Mur- ray, in a grave tone that belied the mischief of her smile-at the idea of her husband's reforms! "Well, I wouldn't be afraid to-that I can tell to a dot every cent I've got about me to-night." "Suppose I agree to give up the allowance if you can?" suggested the unbelieving help- mate. "Done I "And the porte-monnaie was drawn forth triumphantly. It so happened that a little boot-bill of two or three years' standing had been presented that evening, which had caused an in- spection of cash on hand, ending in an invitation the collector was perfectly accustomed to-to call again. "There's two fives-Butcher & Drover's-do you see? and a ten, Rhode Island money, a three and a one, and seventy-five cents in change. No allowance carries the day, madam." ! Not quite so close. I can see; and bank notes never are quite Cologne. Now suppose- you look in your pockets." ; page: 36-37[View Page 36-37] 36 THE COOPERS. : "Oh, I'm quitecured of that --no more change lying around loose.' Two of these convenient receptacles emptied presented only a knife, pencil, two small screws, and a box of leads. In the breast pocket of his coat the hand made a sudden pause. I Mrs. Cooper was in turn triumphant, as she saw a flush of discomposure rise to her husband's face. "Stupid!-oh, I remember now the change at Delmonico's for my lunch, you know!"And the discomforted man drew forth two cigars, a gold dollar, a bill, and some small change. This was the history of the allowance, impor- tant, since, from its practical working, Mr. Cooper first began to understand a faint glimmer of the important truth, "a penny saved is twopence got;" and, as is often common with enthusiastic minds, he plunged into reforms on his own account to a most alarming extent. Tlis was, after their essay at housekeeping, Mrs. Cooper's plan again, though he often ignored that fact, and congratulated himself on the bril- liant idea. He gave up smoking for two months and a FINDING THE LEAK. 37 half; then had a few cigars some one had given him down town; afterwards a bunch of some choice brand, Lopgr, a friend of his, who was in the business, had desired him to try; and finally a half box was smuggled in quietly, and replaced at intervals. He wore really shabby clothes through the hot weather, but brought home a choice assortment of white jean, Marseilles, and a fancy check suit, the very last three days of Sep. tember heat. He undertook self-shaving in the most virtuous manner, and annoyed Mrs. Cooper three days in the week by forgetting to do so, and presenting quite too stiff an upper lip to please any one neat almost to fastidiousness. He talked a great deal about table economy, inspected the ash heap to see that the cook threw away no avail- able lump of coal, and even was accustomed to inquire "what had become of that beef bone," having heard accidentally that a good family soup might be made of a beef bone with a few vege- tables. In fact, these last symptoms had grown very troublesome, and Mrs. Cooper began to wish most devoutly that Murray would " let her keep house," as was her lawful right, and even suggested that, page: 38-39[View Page 38-39] 38 THE COOPERS. if he would give the reins entirely into her hands, she would undertake to drive safely through the year's losses and expenses. She had failed in con- verting him to one of her principal doctrines, however, that of paying ready money for every thing. July and January were still rendered miserable by the successive arrival of yellow envelops, known at once by their having no post- mark and the extreme briefness of their address. They always gave her a headache, for she knew precisely the effect they would produce when her husband caught sight of them, no matter how amiable or cheerful he might be at the moment. This very evening, when Mr. Cooper so emphati- cally pronounced "home to be home"-and in- deed it looked so in the bright neatness of her household ways, and especially in contemplation of the well-spread supper-table, at which they were seated-his wife was inwardly disquieted by knowing that her own hands would be obliged to "put rancor in the vessel of his peace" by bring- ing forth the grocer's half-yearly account, at the amount of which she had not ventured to glance. "Now, what shall I do for your comfort or P FINDING THE LEAK. 39 amusement this evening, old lady?" inquired this really devoted Benedict, as he bit off the end of a cigar, and fumbled behind an engraving by Landseer for the match-box, that he always insisted on having there, just where he could reach it. ' There's the paper-but that I've read; and I looked through 'Harper' as I came along. Shall I crack some nuts. That reminds me that I must get one of those patent-lever nut-crackers. I saw one at Smith's to-day, and a gridiron, the most complete arrangement you ever saw for do- ing a steak-catches the smoke and the gravy at the same time." "How much was it? You know ours came with the stove, and isn't two years old yet. "Oh, a dollar or so, I suppose-a mere trifle. Must you sew to-night? Always that everlasting work-basket! Why don't you have a seamstress 2 How much would it cost now to have all that pile sewed up for once?" "A dollar or so," retorted Mrs. Murray, play- fully; and, as she drew out her thimble and page: 40-41[View Page 40-41] 40 THE COOPERS. needle-book, the grocer's communication was dis- covered on top of her work-box. "Had any letters to-day? who is that from? I say, Matty, suppose we should begin to think of a little place in the country, next spring? Law- ton was talking about that lot on the bend of the Bronx, you know, again, to-day." And two or three satisfactory puffs filled up a short pause, as Mr. Cooper threw himself back in his own par- ticular easy chair. "We must have saved some- thing this year towards it, you're such an indus- trious little woman, and deserve to have a house of your own, and every thing nice about you, if anybody- does. Whom did you say that was from? It's time you heard from your aunt, isn't it?" And a hand was stretched past her, as, with the most complacent air, Mr. Cooper pos- sessed himself of the missive. His wife's spirits had gradually been sinking since the opening of her work-box. She knew perfectly well that she was considered as respon- sible for every item of the account, as if each barrel of flour and pound of coffee had been pur- chased for her sole individual benefit. Mr. Coop- FINDING THE LEAK. 41 er's face, clouded with the direction of the letter, darkened with breaking open the envelop; the storm burst with his first glance at the sum total. "A hundred and fifteen dollars! did you see that, Martha?-a hundred dollars and over, when it ought not to have been thirty-five, with all I paid in July. What in the world did you order when I was away in the fall I never had these things charged." "Only what was necessary." "Necessary! 1 should think so, with all the waste that goes on in that kitchen. I wish you'd see after your cook, Martha, as I've told you a hundred times. It would be a great deal cheaper to put out this everlasting sewing, and attend to your house a little more." "I try to do both," said Mrs. Cooper, mildly, bending before the gust, as it were, knowing it to be inevitable. "Try! yes, I dare say; it looks like it, with all the bread Isee thrown out-enough to feed a dozen poor families. Three barrels of flour! no wonder." "There is quite half of the last one yet." page: 42-43[View Page 42-43] 42 THE COOPERS. "And sugar and coffee; don't tell me. There's ; Lawton says they use only a half barrel of white sugar every year. fis wife does her jelly in coffee crushed." So had Mrs. Cooper until she found that it was cheaper to use that which did not rieed refining, and her husband never thought he could touch mutton or game without currant-jelly, and had almost a juvenile fondness for sweetmeats of every description. She knew perfectly well what be- came of the sugar. "And butter-yes, it's the butter. How much do you think we've had since October?" said her husband, presently, with the air of a virtuous judge condemning a criminal found guilty in every point of an indictment. ' I told you Ann wasted butter from the first. How can you ex- pect we shall ever get along in the world, Martha, if you don't see after your servants a What's the use of my denying myself every thing F-for Mr. Cooper here recollected a cane, a pair of fur-lined gloves, and a fancy travelling-cap that he had severally dismissed from his thoughts in the most resolute manner-" every thing, I may say, for - " ' "I FINDING THE LEAK. 43 your sake and the boy's, if this is the way you are to go on." It was certainly an unexpected amount to Mrs. Cooper, who, invariably economical, thought she had been especially careful the last six months. She was very sorry. It was hard when she too could enumerate self-denials of time and patience, and had braved cross looks, and spoiled dinners, and " warnings," with a house full of company, in the inspection of Ann's closets and safes, and re- peated rebukes and corrections of her carelessness. There was nothing she shrank from so much as an approach to meanness, or being considered so by others. Perhaps it was her own special weakness, this dread; but even that she tried to put down in doing a housekeeper's duty faithfully. Her husband, not in the least pacified by her admission that "it might have been the butter," replaced the bill in its envelop with the air of a man whose substance is "wasted by riotous liv- ing," and sent it skimming on to the table-to the floor, indeed, under the lounge, where his wife found it in dusting the next morning. She was rather heavy hearted, for the evening, which page: 44-45[View Page 44-45] " THE COOPERS. promised so much, closed very uncomfortably, she stitching away in silence, and her husband, de- ! dining to amuse himself or be entertained, gloom- : ed over the fire, after his cigar was finished, and. stalked off to bed an hour earlier than usual. "Really I cannot understand it. I thought I had been so very careful. I don't wonder Murray is discouraged; and yet I don't see how I could have done without any thing we have had." Mrs. Cooper laid down her duster, and opened the uncomfortable account. It was a very "long face," and a very perplexed one that the opposite mirror reflected; but it brightened visibly before she had finished her inspection of the various items, and her cheerfulness had entirely returned, ? even to gayety, before she had finished copying off some of them on a sheet by themselves. If she had made any discoveries, she kept them to herself that evening; but, when her husband hung up his overcoat at the bank in which he was teller the next day, and felt in the outside pocket for a clean handkerchief, he found with it a note, in his wife's handwriting, addressed to himself. It was odd. Perhaps he had been too hasty FINDING THE LEAK. 45 in condemning her, or too severe rather, consider- ing how very fond she was of him, and how she felt even a word. Poor child! He would over- look it, this once; and so he broke the seal. He thought it was another bill, at first glance, and that she had been afraid to give it to him after his late outhurst; but it was in his wife's handwriting, and headed- "WASTE"FOR 1856! 1 bottle of brandy, $1 25 1 box of cigars, 4 50 1 gallon of brandy, 5 00 1 demijohn, 1 00 1 box of cigars, 4 20 1 case of claret, 5 00 1 gallon of Sherry wine, 6 00 1 box of cigars, 4 50 1 box of cigars, 4 20 $35 65 He could not understand it at all at first; but, as he glanced at the dates, each one made it clearer and clearer. Really he could not have believed that these little "stores," laid in, from time to time, for himself and'a friend or so, who was ac- page: 46-47[View Page 46-47] " THE COOPERS. ag customed to "drop in," could amount to so much. :. Mrs. Cooper did not drink brandy, or Sherry wine, or smoke cigars, so the "waste" lay at his own door after all. Mrs. Cooper, sitting by the front window, at twelve o'clock, saw an errand boy arrive with a return dispatch. It was very short, but quite to the point. "DEAR WIFE: I own up. Sold! Yours truly, MURRAY COOPER.' CHAPTER III. FETCH"AND CARRY. The dog that will fetch will carry.--Old Proverb. IT is not to be supposed that we labor under the delusion common among fond parents in re- garding any of our heroines perfect. Mrs. Murray Cooper was industrious and cheerful, and, as far as she knew how to be, eco- nomical; but she had her own human weakness. When she commenced housekeeping, she had still every thing to learn. Conscious of this fact, and that her sway as Miss Smith had been con- fined almost entirely to the unruly urchins of her aunt's nursery, she was afraid of her servants, and occasionally altogether too yielding and con- ciliating for their relative position of mistress and maid. She dreaded open insubordination; she dreaded change; she believed that her household page: 48-49[View Page 48-49] 48 THE COOPERS. kingdom would go to ruins if Ann, the cook, should leave her, and shut her eyes entirely to Julia's de- linquencies, though fretted daily by the neglect of her duties as combined nurse and chambermaid, which she could not avoid feeling if she would not see. "Pitchers empty, as usual," said Mr. Cooper, grasping the handle of the article in question, which flew up in his hand, as light weight always will. "Oh, I am so sorry! Here, let me get it for you." And A Mrs. Cooper knotted her dressing- gown about her waist, and twisted up the long hair she had just brushed free of every tangle. "Indeed, you'll .do no such thing! Ring in Julia, and blow her up. It's an every-day matter now. I wonder you--" "But Johnny has been so wakeful all day; and it's washing-day, too, you know, and she has to help Ann." "Julia!" shouted Mr. Cooper over the ban- isters, unheeding the interruptive apology for what was by no means a casual neglect. From below came up a great sound of kitchen merriment, where Julia was promoting the health - FETCH "ANTD CARRY. 49 of Master Johnny by letting him stifle in the smoke from the mutton-chops broiling and drip- ping over the fire, and rattling two nutmegs in a pint measure to keep him quiet, while she gos- siped with the cook. "My dear Murray! ihere, Murray; there was plenty of water in the nursery,' said Mrs. Cooper, in a tremor, lest Julia, by any accidental pause, should hear, and so receive a piece of her hus- band's present mind. "Well, if you will wait on your girls, it's none of my business; only, I say, Martha, don't let it happen again; and row her up well this time. Here she comes.. Let's hear you now. '. Mr. Cooper being perfectly aware of his wife's deficiency of commander-in-chief qualities, sub- sided into good-humor at having her thus cor- nered. The nurse, a stout, careless-looking girl, sauntered lazily into the room with the child in her arms. Mr. Cooper gave his wife a quizzical look from behind the towel, which said: "Go on; have it over with," as plain as print. 3 page: 50-51[View Page 50-51] 50 THE COOPERS. "Julia," began Mrs. Murray, with an unusual dash of resolution in her tone. The girl turned with a stare of impertinent wonder. "Oh, dear, if she should walk off and leave me! Johnny never will let me get him to sleep; and I don't know any thing about his food," thought Johnny's unpractised mother. "The pitcher was not filled to-night;" the tone was considerably more quavering-"don't let it happen again. Meekness herself could not have spoken more mildly than the concluding sentence was uttered. Mr. Cooper hurried down I stairs to prevent an explosion of laughter. The girl did not reply, but began getting out the child's night-clothes with a sullen air of offended dignity, which made her mistress thoroughly un- comfortable. "I do wish Murray would not mind things as he does. I'm sure I'm willing to wait'on myself, or him either, for that matter. I declare I never will speak to Julia again! I wish she was more amiable." . "Well, my dear, what a blast it was!" greeted - .X "FETCH"ALND CARIY. 51 her as she entered the dining-room. "Really, I wonder the poor creature bore up under it. You should have been a man, and a sea-captain at that. What splendid discipline you would keep!" "I don't see any use in lecturing an hour for a trifling forgetfulness," retorted Mrs. Cooper, crossly. It was a sore point between them; and what with her husband's toilet interrupted for want of water the third time within a week, the girl's unpardonable neglect and annoying imper- tinence, she was on the verge of downright ill- humor. "You are only making yourself more trouble." "I don't think so at all. I should have trouble enough if she left me. You never would find anybody else so devoted to Johnny." "Fiddlestick!" "She has him in her arms from morning till night. Sometimes it's four o'clock before she gets a chance to finish our room." "So much the worse. Will you ring for din- ner, Martha?-just because she likes to shoulder him musket fashion, and walk around, rather than do her work. He's altogether too large to be page: 52-53[View Page 52-53] 52 THE COOPERS. nursed as he is. He never will walk at this rate. Russel says his baby can go all around the room, holding on by the chairs; and it's a month younger." "And a girl. Girls are always more forward than boys." "But Johnny does not even try to creep." "I trust he never will-ruining all his clothes on the floor!" "How will he ever get the use, of his limbs, if he doesn't? Do be reasonable, Martha; you know the old proverb-a man must creep before he can walk. Come, now, don't get blue, only be de- cided; be a little more firm, that's all I ask of you; you will get along a great deal better. Dear knows, I've no wish to deprive you of such a daily comfort and blessing as the devoted Julia!" Mrs. Cooper knew in her heart that she was nothing of the kind; on the contrary, " smoke to the eyes, and vinegar to the teeth ",would have been more ruly descriptive. But, though she chafed at daily and hourly trials of temper, she had not the courage to rid herself of the cause. The young person in question took the trouble C FETCHE AND TA RRY. 53 off of her hands by giving most unexpected and incofvenient "notice." It is quite remarkable with what nicety domestics always hit the busiest and most preoccupied moment for giving "a warning." In the midst of house-cleaning, pick- ling, and preserving, Miss Julia settled upon her wedding-day, and walked off with Patrick to the priest, where she had the pleasure of paying her own marriage fee, a cheerful omen of the abun- dance and comfort she might expect for the future. But Patrick was, out of employment, and had been for a month; and another noticeable fact in Milesian customs and manners is,-that this is the time they usually prefer in which to insist on taking their betrothed from a comfortable home, and good wages, to pay the way, as long as it lasts, with her savings; fortune-hunting below stairs, and perhaps not more reprehensible than on the larger scale with which one meets it in society. Mrs. Cooper had very little sympathy from her husband, when she met him at the door with her doleful intelligence. "Right in the middle of the day!-our room all in disorder-not even the bed made; and page: 54-55[View Page 54-55] 54 THE COOPERS. Johnny just waking up as cross as possible-after the many times I've put myself out on her ac- count! Why, i've done half the work myself to keep peace, ever since she has been here" " "Exactly what you might expect for having done so." "But what am I to do now?" "Good fish in the sea as ever were brought to Fulton Market, my love." It was finally arranged that Mr. Cooper should dine down town so as to give the cook leisure to see after :Maiter Johnny, next day: while Mrs. Cooper, with the Herald as her chart, should go on a voyage of discovery. She set out, feeling more than bereaved; she returned flushed with success; for once, fortune had favored her; and Julia's successor was already engaged to come the following morning. "She's just as neat as Julia was careless. "fow do you know?" inquired Mr. Cooper, incredulous, but glad to have the matter so quickly disposed of. He had expected at least a week of search and lamentation. FETCH"AND CARRY. 55 "How? By her dress, of course. She was dressed as well as I am." "Very unsuitably for her position, then, I should say." "Well, not so good materials, of course; not so expensive, perhaps; but the effect was just the same; and she had velvets in her hair, really quite stylish." "Oh!" That's nothing, I'm sure; every body wears velvets now." "Then I should take mine out, if I were you." "Don't be provoking, Murray! I wish you could have seen her; and she's a girl of such good education and manners. She was boarding, you know, and there lay her testament and prayer- book on the table. Only think how fortunate we are to have a communicant in our own church I That was in the advertisement, and what made me notice it first. Don't you think we are very fortunate to find a girl of such good principles " "That doesn't always follow. How about her recommendations " page: 56-57[View Page 56-57] 5r66 ITHE COOPERS. "Oh, that's the best of all! She has always lived with her mother, and sewed, you know " "I didn't know it before." "Well, she has; and has never lived out but in one place; and whom do you think she lived ! with? .Mrs. Miller." "Charlie Miller's wife? You don't tell me so!u She wouldn't say any thing but the truth to help along any girl in Christendom. What did : she say?" "I believe you think Mrs. Miller perfection. It's very strange she never took the trouble to call on your wife. Going to the same church, too!" There was a slight shade of pique in this re- mark, for Mrs. Miller was both stylish and fash- ionable; and, though Mrs. Murray admired her greatly at a distance, and would have been de- lighted to exchange visits, a bow was the utmost civility that had ever passed between them. Mr. Cooper had known her well in his bachelor days, for she belonged to the circle in which he then re- volved. "But what did she say of-what's her name, Lucy" FETCH "AND CARRY. 57 "Yes, Lucy; it's so refined after the Bridgets and Anns I had seen. Oh, she had no written character, as they call it, for she left there when very ill! Otherwise, Mrs. Miller never would have parted with her, she says; and she never thought to get her to write one afterwards." "So you had to call on Mrs. Miller first, after all! Good!" "Indeed, I did not!" "You have not engaged her without inquiring her character?" "Certainly I have. If you could have seen her, so modest and well-bred, and such a good seamstress, you would have done so too. Why, I felt as if it was an insult to her, asking for a refer- ence! But I always do when engaging a girl. It is as much as to say I doubt their word, poor things!" "The bank had no such scruples when your respected husband was required to give a ten thou- sand dollar bond before he could get the tellership." "But that was a different thing. You were a young man when you first went there, and was to be trusted with money." 3* "^ page: 58-59[View Page 58-59] 58 r THE COOPERS. "I suppose Johnny is a less precious deposit. I tell you what, Martha, it seems to me that, if I was a woman, which I'm thankful I am not, you know, I'd sooner trust a person with my cash than my boy. You can do as you please, but I do wish you would get over this ridiculous notion of hurt- ing people's feelings. A nice time I should have with our porter's boy if I stopped to consult his before I requested him to get a hod of coal, or go an errand!" "I don't believe she'll make her appearance," was Mr. Cooper's parting remark, as he stood on the front door-step, and signalled the omnibus. Unbelieving to the last. But when his ring was answered at night by a modest, " genteel," active girl, such a contrast to the indolent Julia, he could but give a gracious assent to his wife's inquiry as to how he liked the change. ' How does she wear?" he inquired, when handing out her wages at the end of the first t month. "Better and better. I never have had so much time to myself since Johnny was born. , She flies through the work, mornings, and has PS, "EETCH' AND CARRY. 59 him dressed and off for his walk before eleven o clock. Lucy thinks it's so much better for chil- dren to be in the open air. I never could get Julia to carry him more than a square." "The devoted Julia Is it possible?" "You need not commence on that now. She's gone, poor thing'! and she really was very good to him. He never will be as fond of Lucy, with all her coaxing." "Perhaps she neglects him out of sight. Where does she take him when she goes out?" "Dear me, Murray, I would not be as sus- picious as you are for the world! Why, she just walks! with him, of course!" "And is gone all the morning? You needn't tell me she carries that great, heavy boy all the morning." "She goes to Washington Square, I suppose, and sits down to rest, as all other nurses do. I should be ashamed to question a girl like her. Why, just see how strict she is about going to church, now she has an opportunity! Only think! She says she lived with Mrs. Miller ten months, and only got to church once. If I was Mrs. Mil- , M page: 60-61[View Page 60-61] 60 THE COOPERS. ler, I should stafy at home once in a while, and remember that my girls had souls, as well as my- self." "Perhaps she didn't want to go." ( She couldn't get away; they had so much dinne company. Lucy knows how I feel about Sund dinners. For my part, I should much prefer to have a cold joint. Lucy says there is hardly a Sunday of their lives that they do not have two or three gentlemen to dine. Oh, Mur- ray, I forgot to tell you: she says the Morrisons came there a great deal. Mrs. Morrison is quite intimate; and she has heard'her say such things about other people-their acquaintances, you know, when she has been doing up Mrs. Miller's room. Girls see a great deal behind the scenes in families." Mr. Cooper did not respond, but sat piling the i seven gold dollars on the table before him, and a knocking them down again, with an expression about his mouth his wife could not exactly under- stand, when she looked up to see if he heard her. "Don't you think so?" she resumed. . !T "So it seems," he answered, dryly. I t... "FETCH"ANSD CARRY. 61 "And Lucy says-only think, dear-that Mrs. Miller is one of the most extravagant persons she ever saw. Such scenes when the bills came in! I always thought she dressed a great deal. And there's her sister, Miss Vandervort-Mrs. Miller gives her half she wears, they are so straitened for all she holds her head so high. And Mr. Mil- ler, he's out four evenings out of the week, for all his wife-" Mrs. Cooper paused abruptly, checked by a very significant cough from her listener; and her face 'rew scarlet. ":lw, that's what the advertisements call 'Intefting to Ladies,' isn't it? You seem com- pleely booked up, Martha. What a very intelli- gent and observing person Lucy must be, as well as high principled! I should think you would be afraid to have her about your house.", "How so?"Mrs. Cooper could not see why they need fear. "Why, her next mistress will be entertained with our peculiarities and weak points, that's all. I suppose you believe this stuff." page: 62-63[View Page 62-63] 62 TIa COOPERS. "I don't see any reason to doubt it, I'm sure. Lucy isn't one to tell a falsehood." "I'm not so certain of that." "You have no reason to speak so," said his wife, warmly; " injuring a poor girl's character." "'Tattle and Fib,' as the children say, are very near relations." And, to change the sub- ject, Mr. Cooper fished in his overcoat pocket for the Evening Express. "But, Murray, you never will believe any- body." . " To balance our account, my love, you always believe everybody. Now, do you suppose Mrs. Miller would keep a girl ten months from church, if she showed the least disposition to attend?" "I 'suppose' only what I'm told." And Mrs. Cooper laid a tolerable emphasis on the last word, indicative of rising mercury in the thermometer of her temper and disposition. It was not the first time she had been taken to task for repeating pri- vate histories of her acquaintances, gleaned from feminine sources. Mr. Cooper hated personal gos- sip as he did January bills, which is the strongest comparison one could make in his case; and, mFETOH n AND CARRY. 63 though his wife was not especially inclined that way, she sometimes left the law of charity- "thinking no evil"-a little out of sight. "Just take my word for it, Martha--I'm very good-natured to-night--cleared the year's rent this week, by an outside speculation, and I don't want to be upset-if that girl tells you unpleasant things of Mrs. Miller, she will entertain the next person that will listen"--Mr. Cooper made an expressive pause-" with quite as disagreeable stories of us." "What could she say?" Mrs. Cooper was quite in earnest aboui it. "I'm sure, dear, there's nothing goes on in this house but that I should be willing the whole world should see." "That's so, through an honest medium; but not through smoked glass, Martha!-that's the thing; and just this story has made me suspicious of Lucy. I haven't half the confidence in her I had an hour ago; for I must say I never have seen any thing in her to find fault with." In spite of a resolution not to mind it, Mrs. Cooper herself felt a secret uneasiness from that moment. She noticed Johnny was far more fret- ful; but that was his teeth, Lucy said. He did page: 64-65[View Page 64-65] " THE COOPERS, not take to her as he had done to Julia; but then it was a work of time to wean a child from its nurse. Sometimes she would hear the fretfulness suddenly cease, when Lucy was alone with him in her own room, to be resumed, in a quarter of an hour or so, more distracting than ever. Johnny began to droop, and had little appetite for his bread and milk; but his sleepless nights did away- with all suspicions of an opiate privately admin- istered, which a friend kindly suggested. Trifling discrepancies gradually crept into Miss Lucy's ac- count of their daily walks, and the touching his- tory of her own orphanhood, the incidents of which found a sympathizing listener in her new mistress. It never had occurred to her to doubt a word of it heretofore; and Lucy had been re- lieved of much drudgery that Julia dragged through with in the course of the week, because Mrs. Cooper could not make up her mind to ask a girl who "really looked as much like a lady as herself," and "had seen better days," to do it. She waited on' herself more than ever, and was i becoming as much a slave to Lucy's suggestions '! "FETCH"AND CARRY. 65 and opinions as she had been to Julia's sullenness, in spite of her determination to the contrary. Mr. Cooper, having no such fear before his eyes, noted various symptoms of humanimpelrfec- tion in their "all-accomplished maid;" but, though his wife acknowledged some of them, and felt an uncomfortable surveillance over herself and her visitors, these new bonds were still harder to break than the last. Mr. Cooper, passing through an obscure street, one morning, to arrive sooner at a friend's count- ing-house, met him a square's distance from it, and stopped to discuss the business arrangement on which he was bent. "Fifty cents on a dollar!" said Mr. Allen; "well, I'm sorry for poor Brown. I'll see. Just look at that girl, Cooper! How little fathers and mothers know what become of their children out of sight! See, that's a gentleman's child, evi- dently. What a filthy alley he's been taken to. I've seen her before, though; she stays by the hour when she comes; and of course the mother thinks the boy is taking the air." "Taking small-pox, more likely," Mr. Cooper page: 66-67[View Page 66-67] " THE COOPERS. returned, carelessly. But what was his friend's astonishment ti see him spring forward, the next moment, and snatch the child away, to the girl's astonishment as well as his own. It was Lucy who stood before him in speechless confusion, conscious that, only the day before, she had as- sured Mrs. Cooper that she never saw an ac- quaintauce from one week's end to another, and would as soon give him poison as candy, with which his little thin hand was filled when she so suddenly encountered his father. Mr. Cooper had Mr. Allen's unconscious testi- mony that it was nothing new. He paid her wages to the day, and discharged her on the spot, taking Johnny home himself, before she should come for her trunk, and have an opportunity to tell her story to his wife. Contrary to his expectations, Mrs. Cooper seemed to feel it a relief; and she did indeed breathe more freely, when the sobbing Lucy had kissed Master Johnny good-by, and followed her trunk out of the house. "Lucy has got a place, ma'am," said Ann, the cook, a few days after a new girl had been in- ' FETCH' AND CARRY. 67 stalled in the neat little nursery. " saw her at the corner, last evenin', ma'am; an' the lady said she wouldn't ask any character of such a tidy- lookin' one. It's a lady as comes here some- times; and she lives in Twentieth street, Lucy says." "Mrs. Gregory!"And Mrs. Cooper instantly felt a secret uneasiness at being served up to Mrs. Gregory as Mrs. Miller had been to her. "But, dear me, there's nothing she could say against us." She had just discovered a secret hoard of sugar in one of the nursery-drawers, with which her boy had evidently been coaxed and bribed, and which accounted for his pallor and loss of appetite. So she was forced to doubt her late handmaid in more ways than one. She met Mrs. Gregory that same afternoon at Stewart's, and imagined that she was purposely avoided. Weeks went by, and her last call in Twentieth street was still unreturned. "You have not seen Jane lately, have you?" said a mutual acquaintance and Mrs. Cooper's most intimate friend, Lizzie Grant, wh6, worsted- work in hand, was passing a sociable evening. page: 68-69[View Page 68-69] 68 THE COOPERS. "No," returned Mrs. Cooper, coldly, hoping in her heart the subject might be dropped. "If you won't be vexed, I'll tell you the rea- son; now promise." "I'll promise for her," said her husband. Mrs. Cooper had devoutly trusted he was safe in the depths of "John Halifax, Gentleman," when the conversation began; but suspecting what was to follow, he laid down the volume with wonderful alacrity. "Why, that pretty girl you used to have here -what was her name?" "Lucy," Mrs. Cooper was forced to say. "Well, she's been telling Jane the most unac- countable stories-she went to her, you know, from here-about you and Mr. Cooper. Yes, in- deed, you had your share, Mr. Cooper. She said you kept back her wages, and discharged her on a moment's notice." A "Half and half," said Mr. Cooper, laughing. "The last is all correct. I have Allen for witness i that I paid her wages, though." "But what did she say about me " / "Yes, let's have it all, Miss Lizzie. I'll A--- . "FETCH"AND CARRY. 69 share the compliments, Martha; I'm not at all greedy." "Oh, that you talked over people with your servants, and said hard things of them!" "How 's that, Martha?" "I did say Mrs. Miller ought to have let her go to church," said the conscience-stricken Mrs. Cooper. "iMrs. Miller? Why, you know how she left there, don't you?" "Yes, she told me; she was sick." "Very. So sick that Mrs. Miller refused to give her a character for helping herself acciden- tally to Georgie's silver pap-spoon and a French worked collar that were found in her trunk. Her brother, Harry Vandervort, happened to tell me at the time. He and Albert dine there on *Sundays always." "Horrible woman to have her brothers dine with her on Sunday!" said Mr. Cooper, glancing at his wife. "They found out she never went to church while she lived there, though she always made a point of starting. A perfect little piece of decep- ' to page: 70-71[View Page 70-71] 't 70 THE COOPERS. tion; and I told Jane so when she said Lucy told i her that you neglected Johnny. So I was deter- mined you should know about it; for really it's dreadful to have one's character at the mercy of such a person." Mr. Cooper, with remarkable self-denial, for- bore to say: "I told you so!" when their visitor had departed. But his wife never saw Mrs. Miller or Mrs. Gregory again without having an olden precept called to mind-"With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and, with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." * X, ' i CHAPTER IV. "AYING THE KEEL. "Every man is the architect of his own fortune." "When we get rich, Say the bells at Shoreditch." THERE are some dark days when it seems im- possible for the best disciplined mind to be serene and cheerful. Not when heavy misfortunes are to be borne, for their own measure of strength is often dealt out by the same loving hand that never "afflicts or grieves willingly;" but days when petty trials ruffle the temper, and cloud the spirits; when we are not satisfied to let the morrow care for itself, but heap up the burdens of the present with gloomy anticipations for the future. If we could only live up to the divine philosophy that forbids this useless task-work, as well as assent to it with a mental acknowledgment of its wisdom, i * - ' -- page: 72-73[View Page 72-73] 72 THE COOPERS. our strength would not so often fail us, or doubts of (xod's good providence cloud our faith. Mrs. Cooper had gone wearily through such a day. Her child had been fretfully clingingto her since morning. Her. thimble and scissors were still lying on a half-finished apron. She had not been able to set more than a dozen stitches at once, and now sat rocking her boy, though he had fallen asleep, too much discouraged to lay him down, and go about any thing. Even the fire was dull and choked, obstinately refusing all improve- ment from blower or fresh coal. The cheerful, even temper of her girlhood had changed to a sad variableness of late, as cares and anxieties ac- cumulated day by day. It was a very unusual thing for Mr. Cooper to find his wife not dressed for dinner; but the dark afternoon had faded so imperceptibly into twilight, that she was still indulging in her reverie when she heard his step in the hall. "Dear me, Martha! what's the matter? John- ny sick?"For, as young fathers will, he had a habit of prognosticating croup from the,least hoarseness, and scarlet fever from the faintest flush. M "AYNG TjE XEEL. "No," said Mrs. Cooper, in a tone as dreary as her thoughts. " le 's well enough, only so fretful that I've scarcely had him out of my arms a minute. There, Johnny, mother's arms ache. See, he's bright enough, now you have come." Mrs. Cooper did not intend to speak complain. ingly; but, as every mother knows, children have a habit of bestowing all their fretfulness and 'little ailings on their much-enduring maternalrelative, and brightening into good humor the instant their father appears. Johnny's nap had quieted and rested him, so, as he raised his curly little head and stared about, he was quite ready to smile, in answer to his father's "iHalloo, old boy! come to papa." "e 's well enough; nothing the matter with hm. Yhou must not let yourself get so nervous, Martha," said Mr. Cooper, returning from the nur- sery, whither he had given the young gentleman a pig-a-back" ride. The child had gone off in a -provokingly good humor after a hearty romp. It did not add to Mrs. Cooper's good nature, how. ever, after all the trouble she had had with him throug e day. She helped the soup in silence, 4s' page: 74-75[View Page 74-75] :i^ *j Tfii U9Uit- .tTo and persisted in thinking she had no appetite, when her husband noticed that she took none1 herself. "Come, make an effort, Mrs. Chick; or was it , Mrs. Dombey requested by Mrs. Chick to exert herself? Headache eh?" "No." And Mrs. Cooper nearly choked her- self with a dirymorsel of bread. Her husband made no further attempt at con- solation until the table was cleared, when he comn- menced setting things right by giving the fire a few vigorous pokes, piling on fresh coal, and nursing it with great perseverance, till'a ruddy glow filled the whole room, and began to thaw Mrs. Cooper's spirits, and at the same time her conversational powers. "I guess it was the fire, wasn't it, Martha? 'Fire wouldn't burn the stick,' eh?"For "Mother Goose" was a favorite classic with- this egentleman, i and, in fact, took the place the Spirit of the Times M had once occupied in his desultory reading. t( '- Not only fire, but the whole story," said Mrs. Cooper, brightening up in spite of herself. "It it ; .e ili - L.75*X has been one of those days when 'pig wouldn't go,' from beginning to end." "Tell us the whole story. Iknowyou want to. Out with it." "There's not much to tell; but Johnny has fretted so all day; and Ellen broke the slop-jar in our room and I find this carpet is going so fast, the crumb-cloth never will cover it up another season." "Well we must have a new one." "That's easy to say; but you know Mr. Brown never would get one; and there's no use of our doing it whenwe may not live here another year, and have a room the carpet would not suit at all. That's the worst of living in a furnished house. Things will give out, andyou are all the time having to buy." "That's a fact, Mrs. Cooper; but you would keep house, recollect. We paid enough last year with the rent for the furniture, and buying things, to furnish a house of our own." "But you know I proved to you that, after all, it did not cost any more than to board, and have to dress, and put out washing, and all that." page: 76-77[View Page 76-77] ^- .^ - 76. THE COOPERS. "Yes ; but if we owned the furniture, that two hundred could be laid by; and we shouldn't mind getting things so much. It seems all out of pocket now; for, if we should go to boarding again, there be such a lot of traps-no kind of use." "I never want to board again, and trust we last; and Johnl y noy:~rwcould bear being shut up in one room, ter haing had the run of the house." " Don't yo wish we had a nice little place of our own wa " "We couldn't even furnish one out of what we have now, let alone buying a house." rs. Coop- er's tone was exteely disconsolate, or one of the day's burdens had been the prospect of living on in this way year after year, spending her time ad strength in trying to ake both ends meet. If I was only in business for myself, now, as I might have been if I hadn't thrown money away so when I was getting a big salary. Bt it can't be helped now. Young men will do o. spent five hundred a year,-yes, seven hundred-more "AITNG THE KEEL. than I needed to." And Mr. Cooper tried to con- sole himself for this painful retrospect by break- ing off the conversation, and humming, "If I was only young again, I'd lead a diff-er ent life." - But that doesn't help the matter now, does - it A man can't do any thing without capital; and none of my rich relation seeim inclined to help a fellow. The Gov or can't. He 's got his hands full in driving his own team." "Your Uncle Murray-though you are his namesake-did you ever ask him He always seems very fond of you." "Oh, it's you he comes to see. He was prais- ing you up sky-high the other day; even asked me-I didn't tell you, did I?-lhow such a sensi- ble woman came to throw herself away on me. Don't get vain, now. I read myself out of the old gentleman's books, years ago, by using up my spending-money too fast. He's as careful as a Scotchman; besides, he hasn't got much: and what he has got is left to all sorts of charitable so- cieties. The Governor witnessed the will, and read me a lecture afterwards." I!: page: 78-79[View Page 78-79] 7't8 THE COOPERS. "You know that sweet little house we used to admire at Tarrytown." Mrs. Cooper broke off a sigh, at her husband's blasted prospects, so far as Uncle Murray's help was concerned, with a sudden recollection of the only call she had received that day. "Well, Mrs. Elder was in, and says the fam- ily have moved away, and it is going to be sold." "That wouild b- just the place for us, wouldn't it now Come, let ui amuse ourselves by 'suppos- ing,' as the children sa. I used to have famous times with Jim, poor fellow! when we were boys. We'd suppose the Governor would launch out a ten dollargold-piece at Christmas-which he never did-and we'd spend it in advance." "I dare say. That's your way, Murray." , Well, what of it? We might as well amuse ourselves that way as any other. I'd have a niew fence around the lawn and garden for one thing. That old fence was always an eyesore to me: and then we'd set out choice fruit-trees, you know, and a few grape-vines and raspberries. Raspberries and cream-only think-of that, madam! for, of i course, we should keep a row. Raspberries, and currants, and all that sort of thing, and any quan- E "AYING THE KEEL. 79 tity of rosebushes for you. There's a basement kitchen, isn't there?" "Quite a transition from roses 1" "Oh, one can't live out of doors all the time P" "I began tothink you intended to." "Don't go to sharp-shooting. We'd have that : overhauled. Basements are alway damp in the country; and that's a side :hl.- "Dear me! it's no use. Wea:shall have that, or any other house." I " v "You're way down, down in the- depths to- night; I see that, my dear." I suppose I am. But, dear Murray-" And. here the tired spirits gave way into something like a sob. Mrs. Cooper felt inclined to lay her head down on her husband's shoulder, and have "a real good cry." "Come, now, none of that nonsense," he said, in a tone as cheerful as hers was diconsolate. "I've set out to amuse myself going to housekeep- ing on paper, and you must help me. Where shall we begin to furnish, parlor or kitchen?" "Oh, kitchen!" said Mrs. Cooper, brightening up again. "Aunt Agnes used to say: Do have page: 80-81[View Page 80-81] bO THE COOPERS. your kitchen well furnished when you go to house- keeping, Martha, and your chambers, whether you have any thing in the parlorsor not. If you don't, you will always be in some trouble, and put to double the expense in the end." "Sensible woman, that aunt of yours. Now, ? we had to get a cook-stove when we moved here; so eighteen dollas are saved. A cook-stove and sundry traps-belon:g!" ' "Yes; two gridirons, for instance." "Something like that celebrated cat with two tails I used to hear so much about when I was a boy. We had a nurse that would send it up to us whenever we asked for any thing. 'Now. boys, walk out of the nursery this minute,' I can hear her now. 'You don't want it any more than a cat j wants two tails." ' "; Mr. -Cooper's imitation of Nurse Dicky, with whom his wife was by this time tolerably well ac- j quainted, was admirable, and she gave him a sheet of foolscap to make his calculations upon. The4 would have amused any experienced person; for i: neither of them had any great degree of knowl- edge on the subject, and their estimates were ty no "- , 1^I vNx THE KEEL. 81 means proportioned to the well-filled rooms fur- nished so completely and tastefully in imagination. 3Mr. Cooper, for the time being, was as well satis- fied as if he had been master of this cottage in Cloud-land; and it gave his wife food for many a reverie over her needle, sometimes cheerful, some- times sad; for-she knew too well how faint a pros- pect there was of its ever being.realed. As her husband frankly said, and as fia another young married man has found to hi sorowif the prodi- galities of the five years of his bachelorhood could be recalled, the home theylonged for might have been their own. Another of her Aunt Agnes's max- ims had been thatnoman evergot on in life who did not make a tolerable beginning, before he was thir- ty, towards having a roof over his head in his old age. Sometimes Mrs. Cooper thoughton this wise: "I do not believe it is for money's sake I wish Murray to slcceed, though I know there is some selfishness in wanting to see him beyond close pe- cimiary care. I don't care for dress, either, or to make a show. I've seen enough of that. But I can't bear to think of having to bring up children in a boarding-house, and just getting enough to- page: 82-83[View Page 82-83] 82 T'E COOPERS. gether every month to pay the board and Stewart's bill, as I know the Newtons did; and he must be all of forty. And then there are schools, getting more expensive every day, and a hundred m and one expenses we have not commenced to think of, to be met by this same income. Besides, there is the pleasure of giving to others who have less, and seeing your husband have his friends about him. Murray isloe who never will accept hospi- tality he cannot return. But, dear me! it's no use; and we must do the best we can." They were doing so now, to the best of their knowledge, though habit and custom were often- made necessity. And there were many domestic, economies of which Mrs. Cooper was still pro- foundly ignorant, although Political Economy had been a prominent "branch" at the celebrated fe- male seminary she had attended. She often pinched when she might have spared, but for this lack of practical experience, and wasted sums that would have grieved her deeply had she been con- scious of it. But in many things she could go without, better than she saved. "I can do my own sewing; but I can't go into "AYING THE KEEL. 83 the kitchen and cook," she said to herself one day. Ann must manage. But it does seem to me our marketing comes to a great deal. And Murray, with all he says, can't bear a poor table." Mrs. Cooper forgot one important fact, that a plain table is not alwqys a poor one. However, that was a revelation for the future to disclose. Mr. Murray, the uncle for whom Mr. Cooper had been named, was a bachelor,of sixty, upright, keen-eyed, and bade fair for' a; vigorous old age, inasmuch as he had always taken the same care of his health that he did of his money. Great, there- ": fore, was the surprise of the whole family when his landlady telegraphed to Mr. Cooper, Senior, one cold February morning, that she considered I his brother-in-law seriously ill, and had taken the responsibility of sending for a physician. Mr. Cooper, arriving from Baltimore next day, found him up, and seated in an arm-chair, insisting on toasting his own bread, as he did every morning, although his hand shook so that he could scarcely hold the fork. Never was there a more deter- mined patient, until his friend and physician, Dr. Parry, told him that a summons had beene served page: 84-85[View Page 84-85] 84 THE COOPERS. from which there was no escape. Then it was strange to see how this strong human will yielded to what he clearly recognized as divine. He lay down quietly as a child at night, and died without a struggle or a groan. His namesake returned from the unostentatious funeral more sobered than he had ever been in his life. For the first time, he began to comprehend that this is not " the be all, and the end all." The solemn words of the burial-service had gone home to oie heart. among those whom custom and relationship had assembled around the open grave. "Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. "He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower. " He fleeth as it were a shadow. "In the midst of life, we are in death." His wife was watching for his return, and opened. the door silently, for this revered man had been a friend to her since her marriage; and she felt his loss as if he had been of her own kith and kin. ' "Poor Uncle Murray!" said Mr. Cooper, lay- ing down his hat, which, for the first time sinc he gI : LNLAYING T'IE EEEL. 85 could remember, bore the conventional token of loss and mourning. "I did not suppose I cared so much about him. But he always was good to me after a fashion of-his own. I believe all his lectures were meant for kindness. lie acted up to all he preached, at any rate; and that is more than most of us do, Matty." And his voice shook a little as he stooped to kiss her. "Well, Matty, you have brought me good fortune; did you know it? So never lament that I did not marry Miss Alexander, as the girls always wanted me to." "I? How, dear Murray?"And she looked up eagerly in his face. :;? "There was a codicil, added only two months ago; father, none of them but Doctor Parry, and the lawyer knew of it. He has left us-you and me, Matty, for your name stands first-five thou- sand dollars. He says I have begun to learn how to make a right use of money; and he is per- suaded you will not see it squandered." Mrs. Cooper may be pardone if a flush of plea- sure crossed the sombre current of her grief for this good friend. There was the capital Murray t I ' page: 86-87[View Page 86-87] 86 THE COOPERS. had sighed for; home, competence, the realization of many a day-dream was before her. "Oh, Murray, how kind it was!" "Do you know I never thought I could care so little at having money left me? I wanted to get away from them all, and home to you. Father meant it all right when he said it ought to have been twice that; but it seemed very hard and un grateful to me. They may thank you for it al- though, as I told them. I said there never was-" "Yes, I dare say you gave me out as perfection. But I'm glad he cared about me." "And you shall have that little house, now it's just the sum; and I see the place is advertised yet. That you shall; for, if anybody deserves it, you do. Please God, we may live there together many a year." For, athwart this bright prospect, and the pleasure of possession, fell the shadow of the presence he had that day so fully realized; i and he thought, for the first time, of the possibili- ty of losing this irue and constant friend, and going on drearily without her. t The executor, tardy as executors proverbially are, had finished his simple duties. Uncle Muiray IJAYING THE KEEL. 87 had kept his house "well ordered;" and a few le. gal formalities were all that devolved upon him. Mr. Cooper received the draft which he had intended, from the first, to invest in the Tarrytown cottage, and settle it upon his wife; but, strange to say, she opposed the plan he had thought filled her mind as much as it did his own. "Why, I've seen Homer Morgan, twice, Matty, and I've got a plan of the house and ground in my pocket. I never supposed you would have any objection." "But what is going to furnish and keep the house, if you pay it all out in purchasing 2" "Oh, part can remain on bond and mortgage- half; if I like; Morgan said so. Why, he considers it a splendid thing; says property is going up tre- mendously all along the railroad." "But there would be interest to pay: I hate mortgages. Uncle's house was mortgaged; and Aunt Agnes used to say, thha hat, ith interest, and taxes, and repairs, it was cheaper to hire a house." "Oh, we could pay that off in a year or two!" For Mr. Cooper, with a draft for five thousand page: 88-89[View Page 88-89] 88 THE COOPERS. , clear in his pocket, felt far richer than the inher- itor of John Jacob Astor, whose soul is vexed by title-deeds, insurance policies, and losses and cross- es innumerable. "How? on fifteen hundred a year, every cent of which is made way with now?" "Oh, bother, Matty! don't pin a man down so. Can't you let me 'splurge' for once? What do you want a fellow to do? Put it in the Green- wich Savings Bank, and draw three per cent?" "I thought you wanted to go in business." "Poh! what would five thousand do for a capital in New York City a?" "Didn't you tell me that the Goddards began with five and sixpence, and that Slocum & Bro- thers were peddlers?" "Oh, that was in old times, when the Van Coulters lived in a back parlor behind a shop, where you couldn't turn round, I 've heard father tell! and the Bretons had a cabbage-garden, and the Pollards sold snuff and tobacco. All worthy people, you know, only I'm afraid the family por- traits wouldn't command much from their descend- i ants. People worked in those days, and so did r - i "AYING THE EEL. .89 their wives and children, you know. We can't manage in that style, and there's no use talking." "But I heard you say, Murray, that the sto- rage business did not require much capital, only business friends; and you made so many in the bank." "By-! beg pardon, Matty, I never thought of it. And there was Steve Henderson talking about it only the other day. He's got loads of people; but he can't have any money. He takes care of his mother, and all that. I've,a great mind to talk it over with him." "Then you could take out enough to furnish a house, and hire one for the present. There are plenty of houses in the country, advertised every spring." "But there's the risk, you see," said Mr. Cooper, sobering down suddenly; for, in the very prospect of business for himself, he had passed, in the last five minutes, from storage to a commission business, and thence to an extensive shipping- house, of which he was the head, but quite at his ease, driving in at his own haour every morn- ing, his own horses, with his own man in a hat- : IT, - page: 90-91[View Page 90-91] 90 t THE COOPERS. band, seated at his side. It was quite a descent to what seemed a paltry sum-total in comparison. 'There's risk in every business, isn't there? And I know you said there was less in this than most others. Don't you know the night we were talking about the Masons, and how they had got on? "Still," urged Mr. Cooper, "there would be a long while to wait for profits, perhaps profits which might never come, and the house would be something tangible; and it would be so nice -to talk about 'my place' and 'my grounds,' as Char- lie Miller, and Van Alstyne, and the other men of his set did, and such a pleasure in laying it out and seeing it improve; but, as Martha said, im- provements cost money; and interest did eat up principal at a marvellous rate, as he had had occa- sion to see in the transactions of certain others of his family. Then, too, it would be almost as de- lightful to say, 'my counting-room,' and 'step round and see me atNo. 29 ;' or, 'help us along, old fellow. Send your friends, and we'll take care of them." I Martha generally did have sensible ideas; al- though, to be sure, women know nothing about business. X"X "AYING THE KEEL. 91 Mr. Cooper "prevented kthe night-watches" with these reflections, and asked Johnny, in the morning, "how he should like to have papa get a store of his own, and have him (the juvenile) for his little clerk, with a pen behind his ear ;" when that young gentleman crept over the crib-rails, and his sleeping mamma, for the matutinal frolic, to which he was accustomed. Johnny's response was in the affirmative; indeed, he approved the suggestion by most emphatic signs of satisfaction; and his father bore the whisker-pulling, and suffo- cating squeezes lavished upon him, with exempla- ry fortitude, having lapsed into the shipping rev- erie once more. Business versus real estate carried the day. Mr. Henderson's friends, and Mr. Henderson's judgment, which was much more to the purpose, advised the measure. And, one very sloppy March morning, Mrs. Cooper waded, by invita- tion, through two inches of mud, across the nar- row, blockaded street, to gaze on a huge sign, and read, in all the freshness of blue and gilt letter- ing, X COOPER& HENDERSON. ;?-' . :.,S page: 92-93[View Page 92-93] 92 d THE COOPERS. Her husband, in a high state of excitement, proceeded to show her over the huge, empty lofts, guiltless of all occupancy save dust and cobwebs, but far more delightful to his sight than even the rustic trellises and grape arbors of the Tarrytown cottage. There was a charm about the very stone inkstand on the desk in the counting-room, the tall stools, and three Windsor chairs, which com- pleted its luxurious garnishing, if we except a plan of the Lake Shore Railroad, duly framed and glazed, over which freights were supposed to be pouring in. Mrs. Cooper went home with a circular, signed n by the new firm, in her pocket, and presented two of their business cards to friends that she met in the omnibus. Altogether, it was a memorable day in her calendar; and for once she equalled her husband in building castles, over the lofty portals of which was blazoned, COOPER & HENDERSON, STORAGE AND COMMSSION MERCOANTS. i ;^IA, n' - '" CHAPTER V. fTHE LAUNCH. "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for one's own comfort, and not for the comments of their neighbors." Besides, we 'are young, have but few wants, and can easily reduce our wants to our havings.-JOHN HALIFAXs I' VE got some bad news for you," said Mr. Cooper, recognizing his wife in the midst of a group of ladies on Stewart's steps, and following her to the linen counter. Mrs. Cooper looked up, with a sudden start, from the bird's-eye she was comparing with the scrap she had brought to match. "Not business, surely." For. she was already the recipient of the fluctuations affecting the new firm. She could tell you the last quotations in flour and grain, knew something of pork before'it found its way to Fulton Market, and that, when wool advanced, it was neither "Berlin" nor yet "Saxony," which the papers alluded to. ; A .-'" ' page: 94-95[View Page 94-95] " THE COOPERS. "No, not exactly. I have just heard that your Tarrytown house is sold. I met Newhold on my way up." Mrs. Cooper gulped down a sound-half sob, half sigh. She had given up all hopes of the house voluntarily; and yet, so long as it did not pass into other hands, it was pleasant to dwell there in imagination. It stood, with its little pleasure-grounds, in full view of the lodgings where the first summer of their married life had been passed, and was associated with so many golden memories that it was hard to think of j others, to whom it was only a convenient habi- tation, coming into entire possession. "Do you know who has it?" she said, with a little quiver of the lip, which her husband very well understood. Mr. Cooper considered his wife "fanciful;" but, though he could not always enter into these fancies, he did not ridicule or cry out against them. To him, one comfortable, well- built house was much the same as another; but he knew she would feel the sale of this particular domicil, notwithstanding she had advised him against purchasing in the present state of their THE LAUNCH. . 95 affairs; so he had thought best to come out with it at once. "The Presbyterians have bought it for a par- sonage, Newhold says; 'and, as he was on the com- mittee, I advised him to have that fence down' at once." "This piece, I think you said." The hurried, yet polite shopman had other customers yet to at- tend to, and thought thus to recall the lady to the business in hand. Mrs. Cooper concluded that none she had seen was fine enough. The linen was for her boy's aprons; and she held to the faith that the materials put into an infant's wardrobe should be of the very best. She forgot that Johnny was no longer in arms, and might reasonably be expected to give his clothes some wear and tear the year to come. "Any thing else to-day--towels, table linen?" said the shopman, again, as, the purchase being completed, the ubiquitous "Cash " was summoned with a sharp tap of the cedar pencil upon the counter. If there was one thing above another that tempted Mrs. Cooper at Stewart's, it was the ". , page: 96-97[View Page 96-97] 96 THE COOPERS. housekeeping department. She cared very little for dress, and could look at the gorgeous brocades, suspended in the rotunda, as quietly as she did at the painted window-shades of her opposite neigh- bor. It cost no effort to pass by the lace and em- broideries of the intervening room, or to turn her back upon the enticing cloaks and mantles be- yond; but those fleecy blankets, those serviceable table-covers, the rolls of towelling, and, above all, the snowy damask piled endwise, as children do their cob-houses, were a sore temptation. It had arisen, in part, from womanly instinct, but, in a great measure, from the straits she had been put to in her housekeeping. "Bed linen" was professedly included in the catalogue of the house they rented; and it was not considered "worth while " to pur- chase a store of costly articles to be packed away and moth-eaten if they should return to boarding. "I might get some tea napkins, you know, Murray, just by way of commencement." "Just as you like. I've heard of the man who saved horse-shoes in hopes that he'd pick up a horse some day." [, THE LAUNCH. 97 "But we really are going to housekeeping on our own account, Sou know, dear." "I don't believe you'll like the country if you try it." "Well, a dollar and a half won't make much difference, any way. Yes, this snow-drop pattern -a dozen." Mrs. Cooper felt as if she was several steps nearer her purpose, as she slipped her hand under her husband's arm, while he tucked the little par- cel under the other. A walk up town with him was a rare and real pleasure; and this afternoon there was a faint breath of the coming spring in tihe air, a softness suggestive of straw bonnets and China silks to city people, and of budding foliage to country dwellers. "You know it's high time we decided, Murray. It's the third of April, and nothing: done towards finding a house, let alone the furnishing."' "What's going to decide us?" asked Mr. Cooper, catching sight, at the, moment, of a toy- shop, and remembering an indefinite promise to Johnny of a horse and cart. "Something must. Oh, what a lovely little 5 l a. he'i page: 98-99[View Page 98-99] 98 THE COOPERS. work-table! and see those oak chairs. I should like to have oak in the dining-room. "Too common. Oak and green are inevitable - now in a dining-room as much so as Turkey red in a railroad depot." "Suppose we go in, and just look around a little." "Oh, get your house first!"And Mr. Cooper drew his wife past the tempting upholstery set out upon the door-step of a fashionable estab- lishment. "But won't you begin to look for a house, Murray? I see plenty advertised." So do I. But all beyond our mark, however. I 've no idea what we do want; have you?" , "A house and garden, I thought." "And a stable." "What for a? A horse, to be sure. How's a man going to get to the depot mornings?" " "Oh, if we live on the river, you can easily walk to the boat, as you did at Tarrytown." "But suppose we don't live on the river." "Oh, we must!" ' THE LAUNCH. 99 "Must / hum!" "Why, so I can get to town by a boat. The cars are so terribly dusty, you know, Murray; and I wouldn't give a fig for the country without water." "There's the Sound." "Oh, I don't know any thing about that; it's all flat, and chills and fever, and I hate the Sound." "In other words, you 've set your heart upon the river. By the way, you are walking too far. Sha'n't I hail an omnibus?" "Oh, no! I rode down; and, besides, I can talk better. I 'm not tired, really, Murray." "'But you 'must' live on the Hudson River; that 's one point settled. The direction we are to live in-how would you like Jersey?" "More chills. No, I don't like Jersey." "I tell you what you do like, Martha-your own way." "I dare say; most of us do," returned Mrs. Cooper, a little pettishly. She thought her hus- band was very indifferent when the matter was so important to them, and, accustomed as she was to his teazing, never suspected that he had made it page: 100-101[View Page 100-101] 100 THE COOPERS. the day's business to collect advertisements of i houses to let, and had his coat-pockets stuffed with papers containing them. She found the table spread, however, when she came down from the nursery that evening, and Mr. Cooper already armed with the scissors from her work-box to commence his clipping. "They're all so 'desirable,' you see, Matty; there's the difficulty. You know we can't rent them all. Here's five with 'unsurpassed advan- tages;' here's another in the neighborhood of good schools. That's a strong point, Johnny being eighteen months old. Here's another; ice- house, stables, grapery, and greenhouse-quite as indispensable in the present state of our finances. Rent, eight hundred." "We might as well pass over that," said Mrs. Cooper, joining the search. "Here's a cottage, five minutes' walk from the depot; that 's more to the purpose." "Whereabouts?" - "On the New Haven Railroad. Oh, that won't do! How 's this? house to let with three THE LAUNCH, 101 acres, garden, out-buildings, shrubbery, slade- trees; and only three hundred a year." "That looks like it-on the beloved Hudson." "Yes, but rather high up-at Cold Spring." "Rather. I should be half the day on the road. Let me see; I know somebody at Cold Spring." "Why, of course you do--the Jacksons. Only a think what nice neighbors! And neighbors are so much in the country. Is it really too far up Mr. Jackson does business in town." "Yes, so he does; but they stay down in the winter." "So could we for that matter." "I thought you hated boarding." "So I do; but for three months only, that would be different; and then we should have a house where we could leave every thing but what we really needed. That would make a great dif- ference; don't you see?" ' "There's ten houses to rent on the Sound to one on the North River," observed her husband, instead of being convinced. "That shows nobody wants to live there." page: 102-103[View Page 102-103] 102 THE COOPERS. "Or that so many people prefer it that it is worth while to build houses for them." "But you'll look at the Cold Spring house, won't you? Shade-trees and shrubbery," she re- peated, enticingly. "How could I tell whether you liked it or not? Better go with me if I do." The prospect of such a jaunt was delightful; but, alas, it was not a solitary trip! The close of the first week's house-hunting found Mrs. Cooper quite disheartened. The Cold Spring place was ! discovered to be two miles from the landing, over f a bare, dusty road, where the sun would be blis- tering at the hour of Mr. Cooper's arrival from IS' town; besides, it was an old house, and so conm- pletely given up to shade-trees and shrubbery that one shivered with damp in the low, old-fashioned parlor. The next on the list, set forth in the ad- vertisement as " perfectly new," certainly was as bare and modern as cheap lumber and white and green paint could make it; quarter of an acre of sand, fenced in, was dignified into a garden; and, to crown all, it was one of a row of similar hab- itations on a newly laid out avenue in Yonkers. , THE LAUNCH. 103 The idea of "a row" set flight to all rural fancies at once ; and number three came under consider- ation. Perched on a high bleak hill, overlooking the river, it would have been a very comfortable summer house; but, as Mrs. Cooper waded round from the front door to the rear, through drifts of muddy snow gradually disappearing under a hot April sun, she was obliged to acknowledge that, though the view was all the heart could desire (" in the midst of picturesque scenery," the adver- tisement said), it must be subject to Siberian colds in winter; and the soil did seem rather too heavy for a garden to do well. Number five was a charming old-fashioned stone house, rambling, but not devoid of comfort and even elegance. The garden was verdant with high box borders; and groups of fir and spruce brightened the lawn. There were rows upon rows of good old-fashioned currant and goose- berry bushes, plenty of fruit trees, some recently grafted, good out-buildings, and a low rent, cer- tainly the most hopeful place yet. Mrs. Cooper urged her husband to secure it forthwith, and in imagination was already elbow deep in currant- page: 104-105[View Page 104-105] 104 THE COOPERS. jelly and damson-jam; while Mr. Cooper began to consider garden seeds and a dovecote for Johnny. Other people had; however, perceived the same advantages, for the stone house had been rented, just half an hour before his application, at 49 Cedar street. X "Rather expensive business, this," said Mi Cooper, as he footed up a memorandum on th 3 back of a Hudson River "time-table;" "nearl eleven dollars, including lunches. We shall have to make up our minds pretty soon, or there wil! be nothing left to furnish the house with when we get it." "I'm tired of looking." And Mrs. Cooper laid down the paper she now searched habitually for "country houses to let or to lease." "Therel isn't a new advertisement to-day. I know every one of these places." "I 'm afraid you'll have to give up the North ' River." : "For that matter, I don't care where it is, so I it's a decent house. I'm sick of this uncertainty." "Really? quite a concession. But I'll be amiable, for I see you are tired and worried. I'll THE LAUNCH. 105 tell you what I think we have made out of our eleven dollars, some idea of what we really do want." "How so? "Why, we don't want a high rent, or so much ground that it will take all we can raise to keep it up; we don't want a house so old that the roof leaks, or so new that there is not a leaf or blade of grass to blest ourselves with. We do want a healthy situation, cheerful and warm living rooms, a short distance from the depot, as we have con- cluded to go on the 'no horse' principle, a toler- able plot of ground for a garden, and at least two trees that have been long enough out of the nur- sery-Prince's, you know-to grow alonre." "Murray "-Mrs. Cooper's face expressed sud- den determination-" let's give up the whole thing, and take country board for the summer." "Any thing for a quiet life ; it's all one to me. Sha'n't we try once more? Now listen to this dear little pet of an advertisement I've been saving up all day. You didn't find it in the paper, you see, because I cut it out." "-To rent, from the first of May, a small coun- 5* "\ t page: 106-107[View Page 106-107] 106 THE COOPERS. try-house, nearly new, garden attached, well shaded, healthy location." n "Where is it?" - ' On your beloved Hudson, at Irvington."9' "Oh, do find out about it, Murray!" "Then we won't advertise for board -on Mon- l day." Mrs. Cooper smiled at her own infirmity of purpose. "But, dear Murray, this waiting is so j tiresome when I have so much to see to; not even i a pillow-case or sheet made." :il They had drawn the prize at last; and late enough it was, considering that they had given up the house they were in, and the first of May was I so close at hand. Only a fortnight for furnishing; and, in the midst of all, the cook had given warn- ing, as "the country did not suit her"-cook i having a lover in the shape of a tall policeman, who looked quite as fascinating to Ann, in his star and uniform, as the Emperor of Russia would have done in his. "Advertise for a cook, instead of country board," suggested Mr. Henderson, who was now a constant visitor, and frequently admitted to THE LAUNCH. 107 family councils. "They might as well come to you as to have you walking after them. You will have to take steps enough in furnishing." Mrs. Cooper had looked forward to that part of the business as very delightful. Every woman likes to spend money; and, as the thousand re- served for furnishing was safely lodged in bank, she thought nothing would be easier than to select pretty furniture, and have Murray give checks for the amount. A rough' plan of the house was drawn for Mr. Henderson's benefit. It was a low, irregular building, somewhat fanciful, but with more conveniences than might be expected from a cottage ornele. "Here's the front; see; and this hall comes between the parlor and the wing built on for a dining-room; back of that a store-room and an excellent kitchen. Here are the stairs; see," said Mr. Cooper again, making a quantity of pen- cil-strokes, which required a vivid imagination to fill up. ' Only one parlor; but then there's an off-shoot, on this side, susceptible of improvement into a smoking-toom I say-library, Martha says. page: 108-109[View Page 108-109] 108 THE COOPERS. There's a piazza the whole width, and some climb- ers already planted." ' Oh yes, about the garden!" said Mr. Hen- X derson, who was country born, and knew a spade i from a pitchfork. Mr. Cooper certainly did not know much more; but he had invested already- - they had rented the house two days before-in poultry and gardening handbooks, subscribing for the Horticulturist and Country Gentleman by way of finishing this part of .his education at - leisure. He had grand "raising-your-own-butter-" and eggs" theories, never considering that fowls eat as well as laid eggs; and was eloquent on the economy of fresh vegetables; that planting, weed- ing and hoeing came before gathering in his har- vest of peas and pumpkins, was a trifling consid- eration. "You have never lived in the country," said Mr. Henderson, as Mrs. Cooper listened with great satisfaction to these remarks from her once prodigal husband, now suddenly converted into this most careful of householders. "Never; but I long for it. I am sure I shall be happy. No visits to take up my time, no gos- *, THE LAUNCH. 109 sip, no hot bricks and mortar to make the air like a furnace. I expect Johnny to play on the grass all day." ' Put Murray's travelling-blanket under him, then, if you don't want him lamed for life with rheumatic fever," returned Mr. Henderson, laugh- ing. "The country is delightful, Mrs. Cooper, particularly when the cistern gives out in June, and the well in July; when drought burns up your garden one year, and the wet weather spoils it the next. You'll sigh for Croton and Fulton before the year is out. Ask my mother; she can tell you all about it. Then there's fresh meat- that's another blessing; a solitary butcher's cart twice a week, which all your neighbors for three miles have had the choice of." Mrs. Cooper began to feel uncomfortable in spite of herself. "And chills-to be polite-' fever an' agur,' as they say, where I was raised. Wait till you get a good hard 'shake.'" "Oh, there are no chills on the North River!" said Mrs. Cooper, eagerly. "Don't you believe it. Lay in the quinine, page: 110-111[View Page 110-111] "O THE' COOPERS. Murray, when you get your stores, and don't foir get Brandreth's pills, with the pepper. There' I ague anywhere within twenty miles of New York. Not a bit more on the Sound than the Hudson." ' "Poh! don't talk nonsense, Henderson!" ISi Mr. Cooper was annoyed as he saw his wife's spirits sink under this prospect. "The house is taken, and we must make the best of it. Don't borrow trouble, Matty; it's more expensive than borrowing money. See, this is your room over = the hall; only I sha'n't ask you out if you don't behave yourself better. Our chamber is quite large; and then there are servants' rooms very comfortable. That puts me in mind-here's Berian's housekeeping list you asked me to bring up, Martha. Great note, that; isn't it, Steve? All you have to do is to order a thirty, fifty, or seventy dollar set, and there's your kitchen all furnished." ,: "That's High Dutch to me, though I listened very attentively. Shovel and tongs are about all I recognize," said Mr. Henderson, as his host read one of these labor-saving lists aloud. "X[ost people have all those things to cook a beef-steak THE LAUNCH. 1" and boil a dish of potatoes. What's a patent coffee-roaster, I wonder. My mother used to have hers done in a great iron-baking-pan on top of the stove." "Oh, we must have good coffee. And I'm determined to have the best of every thing in my kitchen, as Murray says it will save so much time having this list. There's the kitchen completely furnished at once." "I did not hear any thing about chairs or tables in it," said Mr. Henderson. "I suppose the mod- ern race of domestics neither eat nor rest." "Ours do a great deal in both lines. Sure enough, table and chairs, Matty; put that down." "And diihes, I suppose, since they do eat, and knives and thrks," added Mr. Henderson, who was particularly practical, and knew very well that Mr. Cooper was not. The purchases were not as easy as Mrs. Cooper imagined; prices range4 up and up; trifles added to bills so immensely. Berian's alone being nearly a tenth of their whole fund before it was com- pleted. Stewart's for house linei--though, by what rule blankets and Marseilles quilts are in- page: 112-113[View Page 112-113] "2 THE COOPERS. eluded in "house linen," we never could discover -was even more; what with chamber window- curtains, table-covers, and drugget, Mr. Cooper began to think "ready money" was by no means as lasting as he had imagined. China, too-Mrs. Cooper chose plain white ware as the cheapest, I being more readily matched; but she selected the most graceful, and of course the most expensive patterns; and, when the clerk, who had made the u bill as large as possible out of duty to his employer, suggested plated ware, for coffee, tea, etc., there were a few more costly items entirely forgotten in : their estimate, but not the less necessary. . "Dear me, what will Murray say!" thought Mrs. Cooper, as she reached the door for the sec- ond time. The clerk had laid his hand upon the lock with a bow. "I presume you have selected your glass already, as you did not mention it." "Glass? - "Goblets, carafes, wines, and so on," suggested the ready salesman. "Goblets, to be sure; wines we have. Let me see some." - "And lemonade glasses, finger-bowls, a fruit THE LAUNCH. 113 bowl for dessert. The order is for the country, I think you said. For strawherries, we sell this style, a high stem, you see, five dollars. Many people prefer glass pitchers for cream; there is less danger of turning, I believe. Which set? Those are four dollars. Oh, and egg-cups-new laid eggs in the country, ma'am, delightful." Shall I ever get away?"Mrs. Cooper said to herself, in despair. "Another hundred here at the very least. I wish I dared ask the amount already." For Mrs. Cooper's lack of moral courage made her hesitate at this simple proceeding, which her husband would undoubtedly have done as a matter of course. Once more they returned to the lower floor. "Any thing in the way of lamps or candel- abras? Some beautiful bronzes just open." Mrs. Cooper longed to put her hands over her ears, and fly from any more suggestions. They had been so accustomed to gas that lamps had not been for a moment considered. She managed to say, " Not to-day" in a toler- ably indifferent tone, and walked rapidly up Broadway, reminded by every furniture-store she page: 114-115[View Page 114-115] "4 THE COOPERS. passed that they had not yet commenced their - . meexpensive purchases. ?-T h't'- he day she had advertised to rece ve hi eeof cooks; and this she entirely forlot until she found herself face to face with two da m- sels seated in remarkably upright- positions on he extreme edge of the hall chairs. They were re- garding each other with no very amiable glances, and presented as complete a contrast as could be found. ' Mrs. Cooper looked from one to the other in dismay. How shquld she begin the domestic catechism with such an interested spectator as either would prove? t The parlor door stood ajar, and a happy thought suggested itself. "Which of you came first?" "Me, ma'am." And the face of the younger brightened with a pleasant smile that made Mrs. Cooper incline very much towards her. "Good- natured, I am sure, and neat," she thought, as she glanced at the girl's dress. "And what is your name?" "Tiny, if you please, ma'am." THE L-AUNOC. 115 Mrs. Cooper could not check a smile, with all' , her dignity as "the mistress," when she lokdi at ; ^1 the strong figure and stout rosy face. :, N V: "Christiana it is, ma'am; but it's long, vi/i, ; and most calls me Tiny," added the girl,:-in ex- planation. "Well, Tiny, come into the parlor, and let me hear what you can do. Cai you wash?" "It's I that can, ma'am." "And iron " "The master's shirts, and all but the finery." "Oh, my nurse always does the muslins!" And Mrs. Cooper grew every moment more pre- possessed in favor of the clear gray eyes raised to hers so honestly. "Do you like the country? We are going to the country." ' "Is it for the summer, ma'am " "No; for the whole year." The question sounded like a damper. Ann, the present incumbent, had gratuitously informed her mistress that she never would be able to get a girl " that thought any thing of themselves" to wash where the water did not come into the house, I ' te , .. page: 116-117[View Page 116-117] 16 THE COOPErS. : or to stay in the country under any capacity after the leaves fell. "Well, I likes the country, ma'am," said the girl, after a moment's consideration. Mrs. Cooper was enraptured. Notwithstand- ing her late experience, she was ready to engage X the applicant at once without an inquiry for char- acter-washing and liking the country having been her "lions in the way."' "You understand your business thoroughly, I hope." "Ma'am?"a "You can do all you undertake, I mean; be- cause I know nothing whatever of the kitchen; and it would all come upon you." ( Short-sighted Mrs. Cooper to make this con- fession to one who was nevertheless to be under F her orders! "Yes, ma'am," said Tiny, apparently a little mystified. "Do you understand breakfast-cakes, rolls, and all these things?" Ann's real or pretended ignorance in this branch of art had caused Mr. Cooper to stipulate THE LAUNCH. 117 that her successor should be fully qualified to make the best use of the anticipated fresh milk. and eggs. "No, ma'am." The girl was honest, at any rate. "Then, I suppose, you have lived where meats were put first. You can boil and roast, of course. Have you been accustomed to desserts?" "Is it the pies an' puddin's, ma'am? Sure it's not a cook I am at all." "Not a cook?" "No, ma'aam. It was not me that saw the ad- vertisement, but my first cousin; an' she just sent me. It was laundress I was in my last place." Mrs. Cooper was really disappointed. Every time the girl spoke, her face gained upon her, so civil, so tidy, withal; and now tat she offered her "recommends" without any hesitancy, but as a matter of course that the lady would wish to see them, they all spoke of her honesty and good temper. "I could learn, ma'am. There was a French cook in my last place; and I helped him in the hurries." 1 ' ' page: 118-119[View Page 118-119] "8 THE COOPERS. "But I don't know enough myself to teach you." And Mrs. Cooper made an inward vow to learn before the year was out. She never had re- gretted her ignorance so much before. "Might I call in the mornin', ma'am? m w. sure I should like to go wid yous." Mrs. Cooper hesitated for a moment. She 1 caught sight of the tall, sharp-featured applicant awaiting her turn, and looking tolerably impatient. The time was so short, too, and there was so much to be done. "Yes, you may call; but I'm afraid I could not engage you. I'm sorry, too." And she looked so. So did the girl. And, though Mrs. Cooper was well aware that the standing phrase, "I think by your looks I should like to live wid yez, ma'am," was stereotyped, among her class, to be brought forward on these occasions, she was sure she told her husband, when relating the afternoon's expe- rience, that Tiny really meant it. "Gullible as ever; swallow things quite s easily. But how did your marine turn out?" " Just the name for her; but I really felt I ought to engage her. She was a professed cook, It: THE LAUNCH. 119 though. She said she would come for eight dol- lars when I told her that was my price. She un- derstood breakfast-cakes especially, and desserts, every thing, in fact; and that's why I told Tiny that I especially wanted some one capable in these things, as I did not understand them." "And the parlor-door was probably left open; and the giantess heard you say so." ' Why, so it was! Why, I never thought of that! And I've been half vexed ever since to think I should let her looks decide against her. But she had such a cross face; and she was so tall and determined I really was afraid of her." "Why don't you take the one you liked so much, and teac her?" "I don't know myself." "You can't learn younger; and you can't ex- pect to have a professed cook all your life at your elbow. Isn't there any quantity of books about cooking, Miss Leslie's, and Mrs. Hale's, and lots of others? Why, what did I know about garden- ing a week ago a? What did he know now? Mrs. Cooper glanced at his complacent face page: 120-121[View Page 120-121] 120 THE COOPERS. and his pile of instructive volumes, and thought theory all very well in its way; but practice and judgment were much more to be relied on. However, she made a desperate resolve; and, X as places were plenty, and no more satisfactory person made her appearance, Tiny was engaged, and Mr. Cooper commissioned with adding cook- ery-books to their country library. So his wife's mind was once more comparatively free to finish her purchases. . Chamber furniture came next under considera- tion, according to the practical advice of "Aunt a Agnes" to "have chambers well furnished whe- ther there was any thing in the parlors or not" and very little was left for drawing-room elegan- cies by the time they came to consider them. Bedsteads could not be used without mattresses and pillows-another bill unprovided for in the original calculation; and then there was the large hall they had congratulated themselves upon as a delightfully cool sitting-room in summer. The oil-cloth to cover so many square feet cost as much as a parlor carpet; and it would look mis- ' * *' ' " " , I j ,THE LAUNCH. 121 erably bare, they both acknowledged, without chairs and a table. "I hadn't the least idea it took so many things to go to housekeeping with-had you? ' said Mrs. Cooper, disconsolately. "Where in the world are the carpets and curtains to come from? We must have stores to begin with-no running to the cor- ner grocery there, you know-and coal and wood. Good gracious, Martha! why, there's nothing at all'for the parlor and dining-room furniture! We shall have to make some bills, anyhow." Mrs. Cooper had foreseen this difficulty, for she kept a much better account of what they were spending than her husband had. She knew pretty well, also, how he would propose to meet it. But no, they must not set out with bills, or bills it would be to the end of their housekeeping; and one of the agreements of the new firm was that neither party should draw more than twelve hun- dred dollars for the first year. She had pondered many a perplexed hour, and revolved more than one scheme, before she settled on any thing. "What are we going to do then? live in empty 6 page: 122-123[View Page 122-123] 122 THE CooPERS. rooms "Mr. Cooper said, as she objected to the credit system. "No; go as far as we can with the money, and wait til next year for the rest." "We may be no better off next year." "Well, get what is absolutely necessary, and go without until you do get ahead." ) "But it will look so very odd," "Who to?" i "Why, everybody-the neighbors." 8 "We don't know any thing about them." "But we shall know them." "Now, Murray, it's not at all like you to care what people say; that's my weakness." i , "It's for you I should feel it; and there are our own friends, at any rate." i "They know exactly how we are situated. And we shall have the comfort of knowing that we have not pinched ourselves in what was really necessary." ' But we must have carpets and curtains. I've heard you say often that your idea of the country was roses and vines out of the window, and full muslin draperies inside." THE LAUNCH. 123 "Yes; I believe it was harder to give up the curtains than any thing. It always was a pet fancy of mine; and, as to carpets, we must be content with ingrain. The chambers will do very well with matting for the present." "Ingrain! Why, it's scarcely considered the thing on a bedroom floor nowadays! I heard you and Lizzie Grant discussing it that evening you told her we were going into the country." I know it; but I detest a cheap carpet; and a good Brussels or velvet is beyond us entirely. At any rate, there is nothing pretentious about an ingrain. It may be 'poor;' but it's not shabby genteel; that is my horror." "But, even with ingrain carpets and Holland shades, there will be very little left for furniture," said Mr. Cooper. "The cheapest sofa we sta yesterday was thirty-five; and the chairs were four-those very ugly mahogany chairs. I know you did not like them." "Oh, I've altered my mind since! I think those we bought for the spare room will do for the parlor; and we can get some like the two hall chairs for the dining-room." page: 124-125[View Page 124-125] 124 THE COOPERS. Mr. Cooper responded with a whistle, and then: "Who ever sees a parlor without stuffed chairs-mahogany at the very least?" "I can't help it. I'd rather have those grace- ful chamber chairs than ugly or cheap ones that would hurt my eyes as long as they lasted, and want gluing every time any one sat down in a hurry. Besides, it's the only way I can possibly think of. And you don't know how I've worried over it." Mrs. Cooper's mental worry and physical exer- tion had indeed worn upon her; and, when the last week came, and she -began to think over her packing-of the getting settled when they were moved-she was ready to sit down in despair. Mr. Cooper could not be expected to comprehend itfof course, and came home nightly in the high- est good humor, and as pleased as a child with a new toy, at the idea of being in "his own house," as he chose to call it, the very next week. Mrs. Cooper would have found it harder still if all the furniture had to be packed. Fortunately, there were but very few things to go from the house. Even putting up their clothes, mantel ornaments, THE LAUNCH. 125 and the thousand and one little things gathered in the last two years, were almost too much for her, with the prospect of a disordered, unfurnished house, with cleaning and whitewashing for two weeks'to come. The last two days, she was unde- niably cross. Johnny, of course, was neglected, and took cold in the general uproar. She packed her keys at the bottom of the largest trunk; and lost a whole morning in searching the house over-. before her nurse suggested that perhaps she had? done so. An hour of car time; the new tenant moving in trunks and boxes, her own going out; no din- ner, not even lunch, and the :urse gone an hour for Johnny's milk. Was there ever so much to try a woman's temper A Mr. Cooper, in the bland- est of humors, fairly'picked up mother and child, and carried them to the cab, piled perilously with trunks. Mrs. Cooper pulled her veil over her face as soon as she was seated in the cars, and cried, her usual resource in all emergencies. She was cold and tired, and faint for want of food. Worse still; the much trusted Tiny, who -was to have met them at the depot, and who would at least page: 126-127[View Page 126-127] 126 THE COOPERS. have been capable of boiling a tea-kettle, was nowhere to be found. Of course, there was a de- tention. The engine gave out five miles from Irvington, and a weary hour was passed, while impatient passengers slammed the door every other moment, jarring her aching head, and let- ting in a damp east wind. 1 Johnny was hungry and tired as well as Jfohnny's mamma. To crown the discomforts of the flitting, the milk had been put up in the yeast bottle, and was as bitter as-hops! Johnny's roars were redoubled by hungry dis- appointment. Passengers indulged in remarks which were uncomfortably audible in the stillness. Mr. Cooper alone sustained himself, and grew almost jubilant. "All pretence, Murray's good spirits, or igno- rance. Little he knows of getting settled." And : Mrs. Cooper drew a mental picture of what awaited her: rooms blockaded by unpacked fur- niture, cold and comfortless; darkness, withal, when they should have had two hours of day- light; chaia -tobe 'unpacked and washed before THE LAUONH. 127 they could eat, and bedsteads to be set up before she might rest. She thought of Mr. Henderson's predicted chills, and shivered as they forlornly emptied themselves at last on the platform of the depot. The fences were brown and gray in the twilight, the trees almost leafless, the roads muddy. "Here we are!" said Mr. Cooper, as the shabby-looking public conveyance drew up for them. He could not have rubbed his hands with more outward satisfaction if it had been the Astor House carriage to bear them to rooms secured in advance, and an unquestionable table d'hote. ; I wonder if we can find some candles; un- / fortunate, this arriving so late. Come, cheer up, Matty; it's all in a lifetime." But Mrs. Cooper would not even look out until they lpped in front of the gate. What could it mean? There were lights in the house above and below. Mr. Cooper did not give her time to ask, but lifted her out of the vehicle, and would not set her down except upon the threshold; and there stood the missing Tiny, neat; and cheerful, with her hearty salutation: "You 're welcome page: 128-129[View Page 128-129] 128 iTHE COOPERS. home, ma'am." And beyond her, through the open door of the dining-room, a fire lighted up, a tea-table already spread, and an appetizing odor of broiled ham, unsentimental, but acceptable, was diffused through the hall. "Run right up to your room, Matty. Don't stop here," said Mr. Cooper, reappearing with Johnny. "All right up there, Tiny? Bring some milk for the boy." Mrs. Cooper was dumb. No wrecks of pack- ing-boxes obstructed the hall. The stairs were carpeted, so was her own room, and a cheerful fire there also. No stranger would have known that it had been uninhabited. The furniture was arranged oddly, perhaps, but very comfortably; and before the fire stood a pretty work-table she had longed for, but denied herself wheu pur- chasing the rest, and her own nursery chai: "There," said Mr. Cooper, putting her into it, "what do you think of me for a house- keeper?" Ever thoughtful of her comfort and pleasure, this pattern husband had concocted and carried out his little plot with the aid of the ex-laundress, ' 5 THE LAUNCH. 129 Tiny, who proved to have inexhaustible good humor and a little knowledge of every thing. Already she had relieved the tired nurse of her fractious charge, and was feeding him as handily as possible. Mrs. Cooper, completely exhausted, slept until long after sunrise the next morning. A fresh soft air greeted her as she threw up the window. The sky was blue as in midsummer; the springing grass had already brightened the little lawn; and crocuses bloomed in the flower borders; birds were singing, as though summer was already come; and she heard her boy call out with de- light, and clap his hands, as he was borne about on his father's shoulder. They came in as she entered the dining-room, and took her place at the neatly spread breakfast- table, The child laid the first flower his plump little hands had ever gathered beside her plate; and her husband stooped and kissed her forehead softly at the same time. Mrs. Cooper looked up with a loting, grateful smile. 6* M * page: 130-131[View Page 130-131] 130 130 THE COOPERS. "But I can scarcely believe it yet, Murray. It is all so like a story-book." And her husband felt more than repaid for his three days' stolen and unaccustomed task-work. . w CHAPTER VI. DAILY TRIALS. One can bear the laceration of a severe wound heroically. It is the re- peated sting of swarming gnats that drives us to distraction.--My Novel. "T seems to me we have a great deal of broiled ham lately," said Mr. Cooper, seating himself at the dinner-table. He professed himself to be as hungry as a hunter; and no doubt he was, for he had hurried to" town without any breakfast that morning, eaten a superficial lun- cheon, and had been zealously at work in the gar- den since the arrival of the early afternoon train. "Let me see: we had ham on Saturday." "Yes, I know," explained Mrs. Cooper, a little nervously. "We were so busy getting the kitchen closets in order." ' And ham on Monday." "Wash-day, Murray; and there were so many ', o C page: 132-133[View Page 132-133] 132 THE COOPERS. clothes left over, last week, that I told Tiny not to mind about dinner for one day." "Yes. Well, to-day is Thursday; what's the matter with Thursday?" t "We had beefsteak yesterday." "I know it. Beefsteak is about as regular as the ham." "But there was roast beef on Sunday; and you know you never want any but the very best piece; and we must be economical." "Beefsteak-porter-house steaks-such as we have, are quite as expensive," said Mr. Cooper, helping himself to a potato. "But they are so easy to do." "Ah! how about the cookery-books Now we begin to get at it. lam is 'easy to do,' isn't it?" I should like to know what time I have for cookeiy-books or any thing else," said Mrs. Cooper, who had been toiling all day in that department of " settling," which is so tiresome, and yet makes so little show-getting boxes and drawers in order. "We've been here three weeks now. It's "' " DAILY TRIALS. 133 pretty near time we were through, Martha. Think how much I did in three days." Mrs. Cooper was silent. She knew he had ac- complished a great deal. But, when she came to inspect his arrangements, some of them had to be entirely remodelled, others dispensed with alto- gether; and, when all was granted, when carpets and matting were down, beds up, and chairs set about the room, that was the least, because the most quickly accomplished in the toil of getting to rights. "We had to take down every dish in the china-closet for one thing, and clean the shelves, this morning," she said, presently; " and my arm aches now with dusting books and putting them up; then I unpacked my piece-trunk and the box with your winter clothes, and hacdto contrive a place for the bed-linen. "What? with all these closets 2? "Every one is full." "How did we ever live in two rooms of a boarding-house?" "I'm sure I don't know. I've thought of it a dozen times to-day. Oh, and Murray, please page: 134-135[View Page 134-135] 134 THE COOPERS. bring up some clothes-pins to-morrow, and a fish- kettle! and I wanted to make some cake to-day, and there 's no rose-water." "I wonder if we shall ever get finished. I 'm always loaded with packages. They will begin to call me 'the man with the parcel' in the cars; though, for that matter, every man carries a bun- dle. I never saw any thing like it." Mr. Cooper had managed to "crowd down," as he expressed it, "two large slices of the deli- cately broiled ham, four potatoes, two spoonsful of rice and a plate of spinach," and now leaned back in one of the new chairs waiting for the cloth to be removed, lamenting, as he often did, at this stage of the, proceedings, his constitutional lack of appetite. The complaint of parcels was more just. Everry4y had revealed some new necessity despite the labor-saving list of Berian. The first time they sat down to dinner they noticed that something was wanting in the general contour of the table. Mr. Cooper remarked it; his wife agreed; and they discovered what it was when he stretched out his hand habitually for the pepper. They had forgotten a castor; and the tin pepper- DAILY TRIALS. 135 box from the kitchen was pressed into'service for the meal. Tiny made no allusion to the lack of wooden pins on the first washing-day, for the line was missing also, and the clothes were dried on the bushes and garden-fence; but they could not well be smoothed without irons; and that part of her labor was put off for two days, waiting for Mr. Cooper to bring them out. The first day he had too many other things; the second, he forgot them, having been busy at the store up to the last mo- , ment. So, as his wife had told him, the washing was sadly behind-hand; and every housekeeper knows how that interferes with all other arrange- ments, particularly when the laundress is also cook and waiter. As for the nurse, Catherine, or t-'.Taty," as her charge called her, she was constantly busy in looking after him. She considered it necessary to spend just as much time on his toilet as if he was going out on Broadway or Washington Square. Mrs. Cooper had never before realized how much of every day was taken up with it until she needed Kate's assistance. Johnny's hair did not curl nat- page: 136-137[View Page 136-137] 136 THE COOPERS. urally; but an hour of every morning was spent in coaxing it into the ringlets prescribed by fash- ion, with the aid of soap and water, a curling-stick and brush. The same operation was gone through with at night before his father came home. He still wore white dresses, one a day, and two aprons barely sufficing to keep him respectable, with the house in so much confusion and the kitchen-porch so accessible. His short white petticoats, his low patent-leather shoes, and thread socks, the flying shoulder-knots of broad ribbon, and the sash for afternoon wear, were all equally suitable to John- ny's present state and condition; his walks being confined to a back country road, and visitors, so far, a thing unknown. Of course, it occupied no small time to keep this extensive wardrobe in order; but Ars. Cooper had always considered herself very economical with Johnny, because he wore stout threadlace where the children of her friends appeared in Valenciennes. -The deep Eng- lish embroidery on his pantalettes was done by her own needle, for her first essay in fancy-work had been followed up industriously. He had but one pair of sleeve-ribbons to every four soiled by DAILY TRIALS. 37 his cousin, Frank Murray, and a cashmere coat instead of a velvet one. That embroidery, Valen- ciennes, and sleeve-ribbons could be dispensed with altogether had not entered into his mother's calculations. A good dark mering coat would outlast two of pale ashes-of-roses in fine cashmere, which showed every touch, and faded at every sunbeam; but "nobody put such young children into plain merinoes; they had such an old look." As for colored frocks, nothing could be endured before the plaid cashmeres which he was to have -:^ when he came to sacks the next winter. The . chamber-work fell to Kate's share, as in town; ' but Mrs. Cooper often made gp her room rather than see it in disorder until after lunch-time, as in the days of the lamented Julia; and, in that ap- pointed for her servants' occupancy, she did not care to look, for her reprimands were sure to be met with the excuse that " there was no time;" and the girls as well as herself did seem busy all day. Notwithstanding the well-filled bookcase, and her piano, their parlor had an uncomfortably new look after the heavier furniture to which she had page: 138-139[View Page 138-139] * 138 - THE COOPERS. been so long accustomed; and the dining-room was plainer still, containing only such things as were absolutely necessary to the ceremony of daily meals. There was a lack of " cosiness," the home look ]Mrs. Cooper particularly prized; and, when visitors began to pay " first calls " on the " new family," as they were designated, she found her- self feeling an inward necessity for apologizing. which made her stiff and constrained, instead of frank and cordial, which was her natural disposi- tion. One cannot throw cold water on offered courtesies, after this fashion, without getting a share of the spray back again; and Mrs. Cooper, not considering herself at fault, wrote to her inti- mate friend, Lizzie Grant, that the neighbors were very reserved and formal, and she never should make any friends among themt. In town, she had railed not a little at the frittering away of time which morning calls and society generally made necessary. "Hollow," "formal," " worldly," "artificial"-all these epithets had tripped very freely into her discussion of the outer set or circle of her acquaintances. In the country, good feel- ing, like her husband's green peas,lwas to thrive DAILY TRIALS. 139 spontaneously; and she was as ignorant of its cul- tivation as Mr. Cooper was of the soil he had un- dertaken to make "blossom as the rose" in a sin- gle season. One may be perfectly well aware that stimu- lants-even the morning cup of coffee-are hurt- ful; yet, when given up at once, they are missed and craved for. Simple beverages are insipid and unsatisfactory, so much so that one is at first tempted to go without altogether. Thus it was with Mrs. Cooper and city life. When the nov- elty of getting her house in order was over, time began to hang heavily. There was plenty to do; but, if she sat sewing, her thoughts, revolvingin an undisturbed routine, grew wearisome. John- ny's pranks were amuing; but, after all, she could not interchange a single idea with her most constant companion apart from his food and naps; and she wearied even of Tiny's good-natured face, and Kate's more refined but less amiable. As for Mr. Cooper, none of these things troubled him. In the cars and at business, the social part of his nature was kept from stagnation; and he could not see what people wanted of company at home. I,A .;i page: 140-141[View Page 140-141] "O THE COOPERS. Home was the place to rest in; to get out of the way of the world. It was such a relief to have no one to entertain evenings; to be able, when he came in from the garden at dark, to "put up his feet, and think of nothing," as the old farmer said of his church-going. If his wife wanted news, there was the paper-pocket-crumpled, smoke- scented; but that was a trifle. So Mr. Cooper's repose oftenest ended in a sound nap; while his wife read items that were stale to him by twelve hours-an age to a Gothamite. Out-of doors, his energy expended itself. He dibbled in a few gar- den-seeds; for successions, he walked around the lieas the village gardener had laid out, and thought how much better he could have done it all himself if he had t'ie He would have time next year; lie could commence earlier in the sea- son, and he would get up earlier mornings. Hab- its of late rising could not be broken off at once. He made vigorous resolutions over night, but slept them all off again, started off fifteen minutes be- fore the late train was due, hurried his toilet, scalded his throat with his coffee, and scarcely had time to kiss his wife good-by. '. DAILY TRIALS. 141 One of the chief pleasures they had promised themselves as country dwellers was the fresh morning walk to the depot, such as they had en- joyed in the days of their summer at Tarrytown. But, as Mrs. Cooper took her solitary breakfast day after day, watching from the window her hus- band's rapid flight, she concluded that it would not be worth while attempting to play Mrs. Gilpin in such a foot-race. It was beautiful to behold Mr. Cooper's energy in out-of-door pursuits. The garden was his pet economy, a fowl-house being scarcely secondary to it. He commenced by ordering " a few things" from a well-known nursery-garden. "A rosebush / or so, a few roots of pie-plants, a root of pinks, a handful of grape-vine :? ngs, you know," was his concise and limited direction. "Oh yes, certainly, sir!" The man under- stood him perfectly. The order was filled out--so was the bill- which came just to forty-five dollars. Mr. Cooper did not think it necessary to mention the amount of this little transaction at once to his wife, ana tnerefore his qualms were in secret when he heard her congratulate herself and him on hav- page: 142-143[View Page 142-143] "2 THE COOPERS. ing saved at least fifty dollars in going without almost necessaries the present year. Seeds, dig- ging and planting, pea-bushes, bean-poles, a few half days' extra work at weeding and thinning out, and in the flower borders, made a tolerable offset to the vegetable department. Mr. Cooper turned for consolation to his fowls. Poultry-shows were fashionable that season. He attended by way of gaining information, and could not resist the temptation of a few "fancies," just to improve the plain domestic couples with which he had com- menced his collection. Internal wars ensued; dis- cords were the order of the day; they fought, they bled, they did every thing but what was expected of them, lay eggs by the dozen, and bring up their families in a painstakiiiAid affectionate manner. The fancy fowls "did not do vell," in short; and, as they died off one by one from various causes, Mr. Cooper did not mourn them deeply, though he did regret the sums they had cost him. The "Complete Handbooks" had stated that the-fowls were to be supported on the refuse ot the kitchen, and the range of the barnyard, not only comfortably but elegantly. As there was no DAILY TRIALS. 143 barnyard, corn by the bushel took the place of "pickings ;" and Tiny, not being over-scrupulous in the management of peelings and parings, al- lowed them to become a sad temptation to all the dogs of the neighborhood, who were so much de- lighted with the bones they found in the collec- tion, that they paid nightly domiciliary visits, to the upsetting of pails, and a wide distribution of their contents on the back porch and its imme- diate neighborhood. Presently, there was a knocking together of packing-boxes for coops, Mr. Cooper fancying that the juveniles of the chicken-house would do better under immediate surveillance; and the thirty or forty young chickens that began to promenade anywhere in Tiny's domain, and their scream- ing, scolding mammas protruding their luckless heads through the slats of their cottage residences, completed the neatness and quietness of the back- door yard. Tiny's delinquencies were especially trying. She was cleanly, but she had not the slightest appreciation of order or management. She liked to wash and iron, for that she understood. Get- page: 144-145[View Page 144-145] "4 THE COOPtRS. ting breakfast or dinner she considered as so much thrown into the bargain that was of very little consequence, and the sooner and easier it was managed the better. She could boil potatoes, and boil or roast a plain steak or joint. Gravies were a step beyond her experience, and desserts an altogether unexplored region. In cooking, she seized the first utensil that presented itself, boiled milk for the baby in the quart measure, washed the dishes in the bread-pan, swept the porch clear of chickens with the carpet-broom, kept a general assortment of odds and ends on the corner of the mantel-piece, and in every corner 'of the closets, though she cleaned them laboriously once a week, and set the cups and plates of pieces, drippings, cold tea, egg-shells, and.:mieat scraps immediately back again. Her sewing found a neat and conve- nient receptacle in the salt-box. The salt col- lected dust in an uncovered cake-pan. The spice soon mingled its various odors and flavors in one; while the pump, the cistern-top, the railing of the back piazza, and the garden-fence always presented a collection of dusters, brooms, scrubbing-brushes, kitchen-towels, and scrubbing-cloths of every pat- DAILY TRIALS. 145 tern and color. Withal, she was so good-natured, so ready to promise amendment, though as quick to forget, so steadily occupied, half the time, in "making herself work," by her bad management, so patient with interruptions, so good-natured to Johnny, that Mrs. Cooper could not make up her mind to change. The accumulation of sewing, which their sud- den going to housekeeping had thrown upon her hands; the lack of cheerful society; the gradually increasing domestic disorder, which she lacked the skill and the courage to check; the strain, above all, to limit their outlay to their diminished in- come; the mental worry of making one dollar do the duty of three, and the unusual tax upon thought as well as nerve in finishing what Katy would not find time to accomplish, and Tiny could not, about the house, began to tell upon Mrs. Cooper's health, and seriously to affect her once cheerful spirits. In town, she had often excused herself from out-of-door exercise by the trouble and time occu- pied in dressing for the street. "It would be so easy when they were once in the country," she 7 ; - page: 146-147[View Page 146-147] "6 THE COOPERS. often said to Murray; she "would only have to throw on her bonnet, and she should have so much more leisure." Now, she had less than i ever; and, when worn and fatigued with the cares of housework, or bending over her needle, it was so much easier to take a book, and throw herself on the bed, that she constantly gave up to the " temptation; and, before she knew it, afternoon , naps were stealing the strength which fresh air and a change of the monotonous landscape would have brought to her. Waking languid and un refreshed, Johnny, even when good-natured, dis- o turbed her with his incessant activity and noise. So, though she would have been startled if the charge had been made against her, she was fast becoming a careless housekeeper, a neglectful mother, a fretful, discontented wife. This much trying to economize and build up her husband's fortunes had done for her so far. It was very hard that Murray could not be made to see things exactly from her point of view. He would complain when he found the meal for his young brood mixed in the wash-basin, or when the scrubbing-cloths were hung to dry on his DAILY TRIALS. 147 young Antwerp raspberry or his standard rose- bushes. He scolded her for tiring herself out; yet he was the first to notice when any thing was left undone. He still groaned over ham and plain rice-puddings, when, perhaps, she had given up her original plan for the dinner because the butcher, having the whole village at his mercy, asked three cents a pound more than they did in- Fulton Market for lamb; and there was not the fruit and flavoring in the house to attempt the Eve's pudding he was so fond of, and which she had carefully studied out of the cookery-book. This edifying volume was her constant companion; it peeped out from her work-basket, it lay upon her dressing-table. She studied as hard over the ingredients, weights, and measures, as she had once done upon the axioms and problems of Euclid; and yet she made very little advance in the variety or excellence of their table. It was very easy in town to say, "We will have a plain soup, with a la4 zode beef, Ann, and a Charlotte Russe." But neither Tiny nor herself could un- dertake the first; and, as for the "Charlotte," where were the Savoy biscuit to come from to f page: 148-149[View Page 148-149] "8 THE COOPERS. begin with? It was quite a descent to a bread- pudding; and then Murray would be sure to en- tertain her with boarding-house tales stale as col- lege jokes, but which doubtless had happened at some time, relating to this "frugal housewife" dessert, his favorite one being Sam iBlodget's ad- venture, who resolved his suspicions that the brushings of the table entered into its composition, by breaking up bits of his boxwood napkin-ring one day, and, sure enough, the particles were plainly recognized, by some person in the secret, as among the ingredients of his saucer of pudding. He had also an uncomfortable way of inquir- ing, now and then-though always doing full jus- tice to what was set before him-when she was going to have a harico, a curry, fish done in that way he described to her-" stewed with wine and things," as they used to have them at Delmonico's or some of those nice little side-dishes Ann used to make by way of variety. It was in vain to urge Tiny's ignorance; "you eere going to show her, you know," or, "if she doesn't suit, get another," being the ready response. Mrs. Cooper had never before known how DAILY TRIALS. 149 much a housekeeper's peace of mind depended upon her cook. Fortunately, they had had no one staying with them so far, Mrs. Cooper having no im- mediate relatives in the city, and their friends being either in preparation for summer jaunts, or already at watering-places. Mr. Henderson, her husband's partner, was the exception. He was in danger, through a standing invitation, and Mr. Cooper's repeated urging, of raining down upon them at any time; and, though he was the best-hearted, most home-like person she had ever known, even Mr. Henderson's unexpected arrival fluttered her. She was never sure of Tiny's culinary operations, or her own experiments, held her breath involun- tarily until Murray had pronounced on whatever was set before him, and felt as though Mr. Hen- derson had conferred an especial favor upon her if he seemed to enjoy his dinner or breakfast. Mr. Cooper, who was not celebrated for his self-denying efforts in entertaining guests, enjoyed these visits because Mr. Henderson made himself so entirely at home. He listened to his gardening and poultry theories with commendable patience and a great deal of real interest; besides, his sug- page: 150-151[View Page 150-151] 150 THE COOPERS. gestions were always practical, and therefle F valuable; and, when dinner was out of the way, and Johnny not fretting overhead, and breakfast provided for the next morning, Mrs. Cooper al- ways liked to listen to him; he was so entirely sincere, so hearty in his likes and dislikes, so for- getful of himself and his own aChieveme'ts, past, present, or to come; and, above all, his warm heart, unspoiled and unchilled by conventionalities, shone out in his smile, in his eyes, in his whole face, when he talked of his mother and sisters. Mrs. Cooper knew that he was their chief de- pendence. He had spoken of it himself before her; and she had been struck with his manner of doing so. Not as if their lack of means was any thing to be ashamed of, or as if the dependence on him was burdensome, or in any way reflecting credit on himself, but of the pleasure of admin- istering to those one loved, and his gratitude that he had thus far been able to do so. Even this much was inferred, not spoken. "That 's what I like him for," said Mr. Cooper, when his wife remarked it to him after one of Mr. Henderson's pleasantest little visits. "That's the DAILY TRIALS. 151 way we first became friends. One of the boys told me that Steve declined joining the celebrated U. V. Club that I have told you about, because he had to take care of his mother and the girls. He was our book-keeper in the 'Marine,' then, you know, and had less salary than I had. So I asked him how he managed, one day, over a sociable mutton-chop, for I was always head over heels on pay-day, with only myself to look after." " How did he?" asked Mrs. Cooper, as her husband made a pause. "Oh, well, he said he had to go in for cheap pleasures! and that took the wind out of my sails for a moment, because I thought cheapness and meanness were one and the same, somehow." "I begin to believe they are." And Mrs. Cooper thought disconsolately on the few under- price investments she had been tempted into when furnishing. "Not his sort. There's nothing mean about Steve. No. He explained that he had books 'from the 'Mercantile,' and went to their reading- room instead of our club, tooted on the flute, you know, painted a little-and you ought to see that : page: 152-153[View Page 152-153] 152 THE COOPERS. copy he's just made of the Old Farm-Gate we saw at Williams & Stevens's. So he never had time to smoke, or for late suppers, or any of our per- formances. He used to get run for it. Sam always called him the Grand Mufti." "That sounds like Sam Blodget," said Mrs. Cooper. "But he never minded. Perhaps he did; way down, but no one found it out. I remember,' said Mr. Cooper, growing energetic in his admira- tion of his friend's good behavior, now that he could appreciate something of the self-denial and moral courage it must have involved-"I remem- ber once making a bet that I 'd have Steve out on the avenue, behind a fast horse, that afternoon; and some of the fellows were to be at the 'Red House,' to receive us with three cheers. So there he was, dabbling away on a miserable little land- scape, for he d just begun then. "'Come, come,' said H" ' Oh, fie, Murray, to try and turn him off!" "Just you listen. He picked up a piece of chalk, and began making marks on the wall, never saying a word. So, when I got through, DAILY TRIALS. 153 J/ he pointed to it, and, said he, 'there's your an- swer, old fellow-common metre. I'll give you the pitch, if you'd like to sing it.' And there it was- 'Idle men and boys are found Standing on the devil's ground; He will give them work to do; He will pay their wages too."' "A great pity you hadn't laid it to heart," said Mrs. Cooper, who was industriously employed in drawing threads, and marking a piece of towel- ling into lengths. "There, cut those off for me; won't you, Murray? That will save a few minutes of 'idle hands,' and mine a blister, perhaps. I've done so much cutting out, lately." "I've been thinking "-and Mr. Cooper amia- bly responded to this invitation-" that we ought to ask his mother here for a month or so." Mrs. Cooper's smiles vanished. "She's so far off; and he gets to see her so seldom. He can't leave, any way, just now," added Mr. Cooper, without looking up, and so all unconscious of the gathering clouds. "She's a perfect stranger to us, Murray. 7* page: 154-155[View Page 154-155] 154 TtHE COOPERS. / Why, what are you thinking of? How in the world can we have company?" "Why can't we as well as anybody else?" "The girls have their hands full now, and I 'm sure I have." "One person can 't make much difference." Mrs. Cooper said nothing. "Besides "-Mr. Cooper was getting more in love with his little project every moment-"I think we owe it to Steve; and he would enjoy it beyond every thing, having his mother so near." "We can't afford to have company. We should have to make some difference." "Not a bit of it. The way to make people feel perfectly at home is to let them see that they don't put one out by a pin. Besides, she's been accustomed to living plainly, you know." "Yes; and she's a good housekeeper; and H" "Don't know any more about it-" "Than you do about poultry," said his wife, abruptly, to spare herself a less comfortable com- parison. "I do my best." "Well, then, what are you fussing qbout?" And Mr. Cooper began to sing. DAILY TRIALS. 155 "An atgel, you know, can't do more." '"But we must have Mrs. Henderson here, un- less you have some better reason than any I 've heard yet; and, if you don't know about things, and she does, have her show you." '"A stranger can't come into another person's house, and manage for them." I /Mrs. Cooper stooped down, and began to fold up the lengths of "huckabuck," for fear she should say something still more unamiable. She was frightened at herself at the angry retorts and miserable feelings that sprang up in her heart. She could not explain to her husband that, jaded as she was in mind and body/it would be uncom- fortable to have any one, even Lizzie Grant, to entertain, much more a stranger so much older than herself, and one she had grown to regard an incarnation of all household virtues from her son's loving and oftentimes unconscious praise. He would have thought it foolish, and said so. He did not understand " nervousness ;" what man does It is with them but another name for ill-temper and self-indulgence. Perhaps it is too much so with ourselves. But oftentimes it becomes a real, page: 156-157[View Page 156-157] 156 THE COOPERS. almost insurmountable, because intangible evil, far harder to cope with and subdue than bodily pain. We can only console ourselves with the wish that they might "'try it once "-they who complain of a headache, brood over a light in- fluenza, and want nursing for a sore throat. i Taking silence for consent, Mr. Cooper, who ' really saw no good reason why he 'should not give his friend the pleasure of having his mother near him, despatched an invitation to that effect, the next morning, without further consultation; and, when Mrs. Cooper knew of it, the natter was past recall. She felt ashamed of her own inhospitality when Mr. Henderson came out, the Saturday fol- lowing, expressly to thank her for her thought- fulness, for Mr. Cooper had sent the message in his wife's name; and that morning its acceptance had arrived. She was punished With a painful j feeling of insincerity while listening to the extract from Mrs. Henderson's letter, in which her name was so kindly mentioned. "It is such an unexpected bessing seeing you this fall, my dear son, that I scarcely know how to be sufficiently thankful," wrote this good /.I DAILY, TRIALS. 157 mother. "I know it would be impossible for you to leave your business, or to add the expense of my stay at your boarding-house to that of the journey, should I come to you. So I had tried to give up this long-looked-for happiness cheerfully; for you know what your yearly visits home have ever been to me; and now, when I least expected it, it is more than made up to me; for I shall know these good friends you write so much about, and especially Mrs. Cooper, to whom I have long felt grateful for making you so welcome in her home. Tell her this, with my ready acceptance of her kind invitation." "There, didn't I tell you so?" said Mr. Coop- er, the first moment they were alone together. Steve has scarcely been able to attend to any thing this week until he found out whether his mother was coming. I should think it was a lady- love, instead of a mother, he expects. Brilliant idea of mine, wasn't it? You'd better let her get these girls of yours in order for you, Martha." M rs. Cooper had been softened by the knowl- edge that they had made Mr. Henderson and his mother happy; but this suggestion threw her page: 158-159[View Page 158-159] 158 THE COOPERS, back into her original mood; and she inwardly resolved that, on the contrary, her visitor should never know, or suspect even, her inexperience. "Not if I work myself into a fever," she said to herself. "She shall never know whether I have a kitchen or not." She really meant to accomplish a miracle of order and regularity by redoubling her own exer- tions. She forgot that both for ourselves and others " there is no taking a leap in virtue." Her boy woke from his first sleep, arid cried fretfully as she came to this heroic conclusion. "How Henderson does love his mother!" said Mrs. Cooper, as she stooped over the crib. "Some- how, you don't often see it in a man. I wonder if Johnny will ever love me so! I thought of it, to-night, when he was talking." ; The child had been so little with her of late that he was getting beyond her control. ' Do way; me want Taty," he said, pushing away the glass of water she held to his lips, "That doesn't lok look much like it," Mr. Cooper said, to add to the complacent feeling with which she saw that he had spilled thel water over his , I I f DAILY TRIAL. 159 bed and night-dress, so that, tired as she was, both must be changed; and when Mrs. Cooper finally lay down. herself, it was with the firm belief that the trials of no wife and mother equalled her own. i page: 160-161[View Page 160-161] CHAPTER VII. THE CRISIS. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall- Down comes baby, and cradle, and all. MOTHER GoosE. THERE is a crisis in every fever, a culmination to all misfortunes, a crowning-point to all mishaps. Such a day came to Mrs. Cooper's housekeeping experience. There is one beauty of living in the country which Mr. Sparrowgrass has forgotten to mention, and which proves most conclusively that he has never put his hand to the domestic mill. "Afternoons out" are the dread and abhor- rence of every woman who employs a female as- sistant, from the young mother who is condemned to a half Sunday of church-going from the time she is' a mother, to the' mistress of a house com- ! #I THE CRISIS. 161 pelled to pause in inviting guests, and think I "whose afternoon it is." If the cook's, supper may be a failure; if the waiter's, it is impossible; if the chambermaid's, both cook and waiter are "out of sorts " with the division of duty and their particular share. But in the country these holi- days extend themselves. "It isn't worth while to pay a dollar, ma'am, and not stay over night." True; the mistress agrees, more or less amiably. And then it is so easy not to know "when the train started," to "be hindered by the storm," to "get belated in the omnibus," to "have a sick sister, or mother, or grandfather." The causes for detention are as numerous as the necessities that are constantly arising for the trip itself. i Mrs. Cooper, was aroused by the dreaded re- quest, "Could you spare me the day, ma'am?" from reading a long and sympathizing letter in Lizzie Grant's lady-like hand-writing, which she was just preparing to answer. Her writing mate- rials were laid out. A fresh quire of delicate paper, a new pen, her favorite inkstand and port- folio occupied the deep window-seat. She felt page: 162-163[View Page 162-163] 162 THE COOPERS.! that she should enjoy her chat; she was just in the mood for letter-writing. "To-day! Mrs. Cooper echoed the request with a startled confusion of ideas. "What day is it?" "Friday, ma'am; an' Johnny 's asleep." " ow long do you want to be gone, Kate?" "Me sister is in, that I haven't seen in five years, ma'am; an' me cousin s come wid her; an' I've the makin' of a driss to buy, an' some shoes; an' a boy from our place - "Pray, don't be so long!" said Mrs. Cooper, impatiently. "Do you want to stay till the last train " "Till the first train, if it 's all the same, ma'am." "The first train?" "Monday mornin'." "What! all day to-morrow and Sunday? No; I can't spare you so long," said Mrs. Cooper, decidedly. The girl was evidently bent on her plan. "I hurried an' done the cleanin', ma'am, all the rooms up stairs, an' washed the windies. Cook THE CRISIS. 163 says she 'll see to Master Johnny, for she 's over wid the heaviest until wash-day; an' thin it's the first train I 'll be out in." i Mrs. Cooper had noticed and commended her unusual activity but an hour before. It was one thing which contributed to the cheerful mood in which she proposed to herself the pleasant task of letter-writing instead of the basketful of mend- ing, which made its appearance as regular as the fish on Friday. "Katy is certainly improving," she said to her- I self. "I always thought she could find more time if she chose to." And now it was very provoking to discover that self-interest lay at the root of the matter. It was an unlucky argument for Kate's cause. "Sure you said I could go the next time," mut- tered the girl, retreating sullenly from a second l and still more irritable denial. Mrs. Cooper took up her pen, endeavored to soothe her ruffled spirits, and wrote "Dearest Lizzie" in a very determined manner; but Kate's last shot had told. There was no denying the promise; for Mrs. Cooper, feeling particularly un- i page: 164-165[View Page 164-165] 164 THE COOPERS. equal to the care of Johnny, the la t time she had applied for leave of absence, bought her off with the promise of going next time, and staying long- er when she did go. How she wished now that she had not put off the evil day I fol it was almost time for Mrs. Henderson's expected visit; and then she could not be spared under any press of circumstances. It was the last opportunity. Mrs. Henderson had not been able to say exactly when she would leave, as it depended upon her escort, a friend with whom she was to travel, but by the last of the next week certainly. Katy must go. Mrs. Cooper forced herself to the conclusion very unwillingly. Johnny had takein cold, as he always did when "any thing in pai'ticular" was going on. They had not considered him a delicate child, nor was he so naturally, if he had been left to himself; but, nursed so constantly, he felt the least neglect, and suffered from it. So his cough, and the slight fever with it-all of which his father set down under the general head of "teeth- ing"-had kept her awake more than usual for several nights. "Johnny was asleep," Kate THE CRISIS. 165 said. "If he would only sleep till Monday morn- ing!" Mrs. Cooper went up stairs to give the desired permission, in much the same frame of mind as if she had sentenced herself to six months in a penitentiary. She dreaded to undertake Johnny. His bath, his food, his toilet had of late been trusted entirely to his nurse. He would be sure to look like a fright, for she never had been suc- cessful in soap and water curls; and he had be- come so refractory of late that it needed an ex- hausting amount of coaxing, singing, and Mother Goosing generally to get him comfortably through the operation. Nor was Master Johnny so much to be blamed, by an impartial observer, in declin- ing to sit up for two hours a day with a wet towel pinned tight around his neck, soapsuds dripping in his eyes, and admonished to "kape still," or "howld his head around," every attempt he made at amusing himself. No wonder that Johnny had colds. It was not until the next morning that Mrs. Cooper fully realized what she had undertaken. The blessed morning nap, to which the mother is page: 166-167[View Page 166-167] 166 THE COOPERS. as much entitled as the carver to his ten minutes' grace, was usually secured by Kate's removal of the young gentleman, who, of course, was broad awake with the first streak of daylight. Mrs. Cooper roused herself sufficiently to prop him up securely in his crib, and presented him her slip- pers for playthings. Lapsing softly into dream- land, a tolerably heavy blow from one of them roused her again. He had finished the slippers to his own satisfaction, pulling the bow off of one, and sucking the cherry-colored embroidery of the other. Fortunately, his mamma was too sleepy to realize the mischief; and, reaching towards the dressing-table, she tossed him a brush and comb, a half-empty cologne bottle, and an extinguisher. Five minutes of quiet, two of delightful uncon- sciousness on his mother's part, was broken in upon by a wilful cry of "More! more!" from the insatiable juvenile, tugging a night-cap string, and the half-asleep exclamation from his papa- "Can't you stop that child's noise' Matty? What is to pay? Why don't you wake up and attend to him?" "Why don't you?" was the quick -mental re- THE CRISIS. 167 tort. "I have been fussing this hour with him. There, Johnny, you tiresome child. Oh, dear! I declare, if he hasn't upset my fine German cologne all on this counterpane! It has taken the color out; it is ruined." "And cut his mouth with the bottle into the bargain. His face is covered with blood! Good fathers, Martha, how could you give it to him?" Mr. Cooper, thoroughly roused, sprang up, and snatched Johnny from the crib. His wife, who saw the unharmed flask lying on the floor, com- prehended the cause of the red stains at once; and her happiness and amiability were not in- creased at finding her new slippers hopelessly de- faced. It was a bad beginning for a busy day. The only hope was that Johnny would take an unusually long nap to make amends for his morn- ing sleeplessness. But this he did not incline to do. Tired out with bathing and dressing him, there was the chamberwork to be done, with the boy to amuse at the same time; and, exhausted with her morning's exertions, and the unusual heat of the day, which seemed like a fervid back- ward glance of the departed summer, Mrs. Cooper page: 168-169[View Page 168-169] 168 THE COOPERS. took him in her arms, and descended to the kitchen in the hope of finding Tiny almost through, and ready to amuse him, while she tried to rest. But Tiny's dominions, never famous for their order, seemed in unusual confusion. The clock pointed to twelve; but the breakfast dishes still stood piled up on one table, the silver soaking in cold suds in the cedar tub, vegetables partially prepared for soup, apples half peeled for pies, with a knife standing upright, and blackening in each pan, flour sifted for the paste, butter melting in the heat instead of hardening on the ice as it should have been. Friday's extra wash of towels and aprons, covered with a swarm of flies, on the clothes'-horse, and an unswept floor, completed the dreary picture. Tiny herself was the dreariest object of all. Never before had Mrs. Cooper seen any thing but a smile on her face in the busiest or most burdened moment. Now she was sitting quite still,. her head bent down on her folded arms, lying in an attitude of discourage- ment and helplessness on the table. A small woollen shawl was tied around her, warm as the I . THE CRISIS. 169 day had proved; and her arms were wrapped in her check apron. The reprimand died on Mrs. Cooper's lips. She was really alarmed. "Are you sick, Tiny? What is the matter?" The girl lifted up her face with a blank ex- pression. "Yes; it's me head. It feels quarely," "Have you been sick long? - Were you sick yesterday when Katy went away?" A sudden recollection of her unfortunate posi- tion, if Tiny should prove seriously ill, in Kate's absence, made Mrs. Cooper all ready to feel ag- grieved if the answer was affirrfiative. "No, ma'am; it was the mornin' I took it, wid feelin' wake an' quare-like." "Isn't there any thing you can take? Did you ever feel so before?" "Sure I don't know, ma'an." "Perhaps you had better lie down." Mrs. Cooper faltered as if she were suggesting a bastinado for herself. Her arms ached already with holding Johnny; and she felt as if she could scarcely keep up herself, much less amuse him, page: 170-171[View Page 170-171] 170 THE COOPERS. e. and attempt to reduce the mountain of work be- fore her. It was a great relief that, instead of accepting the proposition, Tiny stood up, and pro- fessed herself feeling a little better, and ready to return to her manifold tasks. It was a peculiarity of the unmethodical Tiny to get "all her irons in the fire " at once, and give each a rub, so toispeak, in turn. I But it was a short relief. Half an hour after, the girl fairly gave out; and Mrs. Cooper saw that it was useless for her to attempt keeping up any longer. Her pulse was quick and hard; her face flushed with fever. The only hope was that a sleep might benefit her. She thought it would. Mrs. Cooper's first attempt was to induce Johnny to try the same experiment; but for two a hours he obstinately resisted all inducements. The bed, the crib, the rocking-chair, were tried in turn; the blandishments of fut!re sugar-plums when he woke, the soothing meloly of " hush, my dear," were tried in vain. Johnny missed his Katy, and her invariable "Nelly ly." He could not go to sleep on any other tune. Novelty did not agree with him. But at length exhaustion THE CRISIS. 171 prevailed where coaxing could not; and Mrs. Cooper was free to commence her operations below stairs. It was a depressing survey. The chickens had taken advantage of Tiny's absence to transform the kitchen into a Central Park for their after- noon promenade, pecking at the apples and pota- toes by way refreshments. The hour hand of the clock had advanced from twelve to three; the sun shone fiercely in at the windows; and the fire had taken its departure for lack of fuel. She had seen Tiny clear out the cinders and ashes with her hands. She looked at her own in dismay. Mrs. Cooper's one 'weakness was her hands. The kindlings were in the cellar; so was the coal; and the hod was empty. She turned to the loaded table, the littered chairs. Literally, she did not know where to begin. "Oh, Murray!" The sigh of relief came from the bottom of her heart as she heard the gate click, and saw her husband coming up the path with his usual assort- ment of Saturday parcels under his arm. He often took half holiday, school-boy fashion, and page: 172-173[View Page 172-173] 172 THE COOPERS. came up in the early train, leaving Mr. Hender- son to do double duty, and satisfying himself with the demands of the garden upon his time. He had never received such an energetic welcome before, for Mrs. Cooper rather! dreaded his busy days at home. It was "Martha, where's the -ham- mer?" "Can you get me some twine as well as not?" "Just run up and look in the left pocket of my gray coat, and see if my garden knife is there," every five minutes. She always resigned herself to a series of these and similar interrup- tions to the business of the day, one of which was an urgent invitation to "just come out a minute, and see how that great squash has grown the last two days ;" or, " don't you want to hold the string for me while I tie up those tomatoes?" It was Mr. Cooper's turn to be pressed into service now; and very useful and consoling he made himself. "Never mind. bothering about the dinner, if that's all. Any thing will do for me. I'll fix it. Oysters, Matty." And he held up a little tin can. "Was n't it lucky? the first of the sea- son. And I thought they'd taste a great deal THE CRISIS. 173 nicer here at home. I'm splendid at an oyster stew. Here, you just empty up these pans. I'll make that fire. We 'll have our dinner and sup- per together, right off; and then you can have the afternoon to put things to rights in." Mrs. Cooper went to the dining-room to lay the table; but even this, simple as it seemed, was more of a task than she counted on. The " salts" were to be filled, the knives had not been cleaned since breakfast, she did not know where half the things were kept, and lost time in hunting for them. She had no idea, before, how many steps lay between the china-closet and the dining-room; and, of course, Johnny woke up in the midst of it. Mr. Cooper was in his element. He was help- ing his wife; he was experimenting as to how things ought to be done; he was enjoying a favor- ite supper dish in advance, as the fire burned up freshly, and a savory odor streamed from the saucepan he so carefully tended. Mrs. Cooper acknowledged the stew was deli- cious; but-she was so tired and worried that she could not do more than taste it, much to her hus- band's disappointment. Johnny's busy little hands page: 174-175[View Page 174-175] 174 THE COOPES. fished for bits of cracker as! she held him before her on her lap ; and, taking advantage of what he scarcely comprehended, growing bolder, he upset the salt, and made dangerous passes at the water- goblet, fork, knife-in short, every thing within reach of his mother's plate. "I'll tell you," said his father, after one of these lively sallies on Johnny's part; " set him up in his high chair, and let him feed himself. Give him some of the soup on some cracker in a saucer of his own. Johnny, want to sit up, like a little man, by papa? Well, Johnny shall." "But he's never tried to feed himself' in the least, Murray," said Mrs. Cooper, with an appre- hension of fresh disasters. "Oh, let him try! He's old enough." "He 'll slop himself from head to foot." Nevertheless, Mrs. Cooper yielded up her charge not unwillingly, and began to rub the weary arm that had been around him. She agreed to his father's opinion that he could not look much worse than he did; but Johnny's sub- sequent appearance proved to the contrary. He had managed not only to "slop" his clothes, but THE CRISIS. 175 to besmear face, eyes, and his long uncurled hair in the most liberal manner. Mr. Cooper undertook the child's toilet, and to carry him off awhile. Mrs. Cooper, in the mean time, paid a visit to Tiny in the hope of finding her able at least to clear away their informal meal. But, alas! Tiny lay moaning and tossing in such a fever as Mrs. Cooper had never before seen; and her answers were so incoherent that, in alarm, Johnny and his father were dispatched immediately for the physician. I. "Oh, Murray! what shall I do? I don't know any tiing about sickness; and we can't get at Katy in any way before Monday morning; and the house in such a state! I'm so tired, I could cry." I 1)Mrs. Cooper fairly wrung her hands; and her husband acknowledged that it was a very hard case. "Is n't there any washerwoman or somebody in the village you could get for a day or two Suppose I ask the doctor." "Men never know about such things. Oh, page: 176-177[View Page 176-177] 176 THE COOPERS. dear! I wish I was intimate enough with any one in the neighborhood to ask them.' Mrs. Cooper had heiself, together with her husband's disinclination to visiting, to thank that she was not. The true, social, good feeling of a country neighborhood was, as yet, beyond her comprehension. ' The doctor was out; but he would be in before dark, and come round directly. Mr. Cooper evi- dently had something else on his mind besides this message when he returned. Mrs. Cooper looked towards the window, following his slyly . uneasy glance. A light trolling wagon, with a pair of fine gray horses, stood under the great walnut-tree. A gentleman, in a plaid "cut- away," leaned forward, touching the flies that set- tied on the fine creatures, aiming scientifically 3 with the extreme tip of his long whip-lash. "It's Sam. I happened to meet him on my way home. He's brought his horses up, and is staying over Sunday at Tarrytown. I wouldn't ask him in, you see, knowing what a fix you were in. "I 'll take Johnny, then," said Mrs. Cooper, B THE CRSIS. 1" amiably, considering her antipathy for Mr. Blodget, and the state of the case generally. "I guess he'll go to bed pretty soon. He seems tired and sleepy. I won't be gone long; that is, Sam wants me to see that off horse in harness; it's a new one; and it's such a splendid evening. Is there any thing more I can do for you, Matty, before I go?" Mr. Cooper did not feel altogether at ease as he bowled away over the smooth hard road, and thought of his wife's despairing negative to his last question. "She said I could n't help her," he reflected, by way of easing his conscience; "and that she knew I had so few opportunities for a drive. That 's a fact; I 've given up a great deal; and I don't know what she would have done without me, if I hadn't happened to come home this afternoon. She was foolish to let that girl go. Jehu!"And the original Murray Cooper in his fast days roused up, as the horse began todisplay its points. "A stunner, is n't she Perfect Lady Gay Spanker! That ought to be her name!" It was almost dark before the Doctor arrived. 8* page: 178-179[View Page 178-179] 178 THE COOPERS. Mrs. Cooper could only hold Johnny and watch for him from the dining-room window. She could hear Tiny toss and moan overhead, and Johnny coughed harder than ever, from having been car- ried out by his father without his sack, she thought. It was a relief when she recognized the physician, who had called upon her with his wife, coming towards the house. i "Not the boy, I hope," he said, pleasantly, as she went to the door to meet him. "Oh, no!"And she ushered him up to his patient's room, and walked her own wearily, with Johnny lying over her shoulder, screaming and coughing alternately; he had arrived at that in- teresting period, "being afraid of strangers ;" and the Doctor's good-natured advances, at making his acquaintance, had set him off afresh. Don't, Johnny; don't, mamna's little man; there, there! Oh, -if Murray would only come home! Oh, how he coughs!' groaned Mrs. Cooper. D m l It was quite dark as the Doctor made his ap- pearance at the door of her rooml i "Pretty sick!-pretty ligh fever!-will make THE CRISIS. 179 it all right, though! Now, if you will give me a light, Mrs. Cooper." A light! It flashed into her mind that the lamps were not trimmed; and there was not a candle in-the house! "Won't he come to me?" said the Doctor, as she stood still in her forced promenade. But Johnny declined, as he did having his mother sit down, with the most violent screams of combined fatigue and terror; which brought on a renewed attack of coughing, almost strangulation. "I 'n afraid I can't get you one." "Oh, never mind, it's not of the least conse- quence; I shall do very welt by the window." And the Doctor, scarcely able to distinguish rhu- barb from ipecac, took out his pocket-case of remedies. "A bit of paper, if you please! This powder immediately, and here, I will prepare two more, to be given an hour apart; and then I will send some pills to be taken every two hours through the night, after the fever breaks; and don't let her exert herself for two or three days; she's got a tremendous constitution, and the chill must have been p'etty heavy." * page: 180-181[View Page 180-181] 180 THE COOPERS. "The chill!" "Yes; it's a pretty bad case of chills and fever. It's about as hard as any that's come under my notice this year." "But is there ague here, Doctor?" Mrs. Cooper felt her heart sink within her. This was the terrible scourge of the country then, that she dreaded scarcely less than cholera. "Oh, yes; oh, yes; sometimes arising here, and sometimes brought from the city. A little of it, at times. I dare say she 's been careless and exposed herself," said the Doctor, straining his eyes in the thick darkness that settled down upon them. "Let your other girl give her one of these every hour. "But she's gone to town I'm quite alone," explained Mrs. Cooper. "Ah, that's unfortunate! I thought it best to give very active remedies; and she ought not to get about for several days. How long has your little boy had his cough? Yoi know it is whoop- ing-cough, I suppose?" - Mrs. Cooper felt stunned! She followed the doctor to the door, mechanically, trying to corn- O I 9 THE CRISI5. 181 prehend his directions for Tiny's medicines, and the soothing mixture he was to send over for Johnny. "The whooping-cough! A six months' trial! Chills and fever! What next?" She had scarcely asked herself the question, when a roll of wheels sounded along the smooth hard road, and ceased before the house. Her husband at last; and he would hold Johnny while she got a light. She hurried into the hall, and fairly threw herself into his arms, ready to pour out her dismal history. But no!-it was Mr. Hen- derson-and she regained her equilibrium to find him trying to introduce his fnother in the dark, and to explain that she had arrived unexpectedly after Mr. Cooper left, and so he had brought her out himself in the last train! There was but one orderly room in the house, the parlor, and thither she led the way; bethink- ing herself, in the emergency, of a solitary candle, which had been used to light a porcelain trans- parency, and a box of matches which .Mr. Coop- er's peculiar notions of convenience had installed behind a picture on the mantle where it stood. 4 page: 182-183[View Page 182-183] 182 THE COOPERS. Mr. Henderson, familiar. with the premises, and entirely unconscious of the position of household affairs, seated his mother on a lounge, and hurried to her assistance. The light fell on her disordered dress-on Johnny, worse than unpresentable. She thought of the kitchen that was to have been so neat, of the table still standing, and nothing to offer her guests, of the unprepared chambers, of the help- less, suffering Tiny; all rushed to her mind, as it is said a lifetime is compressed into the last moment of consciousness to a drowning ,man! She began an apology, but her voice failed, and she could only sink into an easy chair, bend her head down on Johnny's shoulder, and fairly sob aloud. Mr. Henderson stood confounded, and no won- der. His mother's quick comprehension took in something ,more of Mrs. Cooper's hysteric burst, especially as she recognized the dreaded explosive gasp in Johnny's renewed cough. "Never mind, my dear; we shall do very well. There, there," she added, crossing the room, and patting her shoulder as she would have ji THE CRISIS. 183 soothed a child. "I was afraid we should in- terfere with your arrangements, but Stephen thought not. You must let us take care of our- selves." The effect of the touch and kindly tone was indescribable. Mrs. Cooper could not remember her mother; but, as she looked up into those friendly soft brown eyes, she felt that she could trust Mrs. Henderson as if she stood in that most comforting of all relations. Even Johnny seemed under the same kindly spell, and went to her out- stretched arms as if it had been Katy herself, after a moment or two of very contradictory emo- tions, which were plainly visible in his rapidly changing face. Mrs. Cooper thought of her resolution tiat Mrs. Henderson should never know "whether she had a kitchen or not," an hour later, as her guest stood in the midst of its disorder, reducing it to respectability with her own hands, dis- playing a readiness and ease that were mar- vellous to Mrs. Cooper, as she worked under her directions. page: 184-185[View Page 184-185] 184 THE COOPERS. "So much for pride and obstinacy," she thought; but the acknowledgment was to herself 1 mentally. "Strictly private and confidential," as her husband would have said. CHAPTER VIII. A MOTHERS' WAGES. "Take this child away, and nurse it for me; and I will give thee thy wages." MRS. COOPER'S own room was partially dark- ened. September had deepened into brown Oc- tober; the foliage was fluttering softly to the lawn, which was still green and bright as velvet; while the borders were gay with a few late roses and cheerful chrysanthemums of every color. The sun, at mid-day, streamed through the branch- es now thinned from the summer luxuriance of their foliage; and, as we have said,the curtains were drawn to exclude them. A wood fire, made necessary by the coolness of the early morning, was dying out in red and still glowing embers upon the hearth. The scru- pulous neatness of every thing in the arrangement I. page: 186-187[View Page 186-187] 186 THE COOPES. I of the room was especially grateful to the occu- pant of the nicely made bed with its fresh linen and exactly folded counterpane. Mrs. Cooper was an invalid, the mother of a little girl, John- ny's little sister; and her white face, as it turned languidly to the pillow, had an expression of thankful rest that it had not worn for many a day. The frail little creature, whose unexpected ad- vent had changed the unwelcome guest into the faithful nurse and friend, now began to gather strength daily, and promised to overcome the threatened dangers that made its life seem at first but a fluttering, transient breath. It was Mrs. Henderson's watchfulness and care, the good phy- sician said, to which Mr. Cooper owed the safety of both wife and child; and his gratitude was un- bounded. Under ordinary circumstances, she might have departed as she had come, a genial, useful, pleasant guest; but this had made them friends for life, and established an almost mater- nal influence over both the young people; towards whom her heart was warmed, even before she had seen them, for her son's sake. Mrs. Henderson sat before the fire, in a low A MOTHER'S WAGES. 187 chair, with the little one, in its soft flannel wrap- pers, lying in her lap. She had just bathed and dressed it for the day; while Mrs. Cooper lay watching her silently, and envying the ease and skill with which her difficult task was accom- plished, and fhe pleasure she seemed to take in it. Then her eyes wandered to the neat gingham morning-d'ess and apron, the snow-white linen collar pinned so exactly at the throat, the silver- thridded hair smoothed back from her low, broad forehead, and the soft brown eyes bent upon the' child as tenderly as if it had been her own. The whole face spoke of a peaceful cheerfulness Mrs. Cooper envied, but could not understand, when she remembered the many trials and hardships of Mrs. Henderson's early life, and the straitened circumstances in which she was still placed, de- pendent chiefly upon her son's exertions and gen- erosity. She exercised the same influence over her, and had done ever since her arrival; yet not by counsel-example, rather. "What should we have done Without her?" she thought for the one hundredth time. "How much I have to be thankful for! How kind page: 188-189[View Page 188-189] 188 THE COOPERS. Murray is!" Her eyes rested on the vase of i rosebuds and faintly odorous heliotrope he had - gathered, and placed on the little round table, by i her bedside, the evening before. "And Johnny is so lonely, I hope he will be fond of his sister. Two dear children!"And a new mother-love, her boy had failed to call forth, first born as he was, rose up in her heart. "Do you think I am well enough to have Johnny here a little while?" she asked, in a voice so low that it told of the extreme weakness from which she still suffered. Mrs. Henderson looked up, as if from some pleasant reverie. "If you wish it, certainly. I have only been afraid of your head. We can have a little visitor daily now; and it will do you both good. I do not think there is any danger from the cough." "Is baby asleep? He might wake. her." And a shadow, the old anxious, weary look, came over the invalid's face as she thought: "' How am I to manage with two children?" "Oh, there's no fear of that! A baby at this age doesn't wake so easily. Children, if they are A MOTHER'S WAGES. 189 well, sleep the first three months of their lives with very little consideration of what is going on around them. By that time, Johnny will be quite a little man ; and you can teach him that he is to have quiet plays while his sister takes her naps." Mrs. Henderson laid the baby down, and folded the crib blanket warmly but lightly over her. "W What helpless little creatures they are!" she said, seeing that Mrs. Cooper's eyes followed her movements still. "I was thinking iof it when you spoke to me. How unconsciously they win their way to our love! It's well they do, poor little things!" "Do you really love little babies, little crying, troublesome babies, Mrs. Henderson?" "Babies? Certainly." But Mrs. Cooper was not to talk. That Was the physician's especial caution. It was only within the last three days that she had found the least desire to disobey him. Johnny was a bright, noble-looking little fel- low, as Mrs. Henderson took him from Kate's hands, fresh from his toilet. He was still thin from his cough; but his fine eyes, broad, high page: 190-191[View Page 190-191] 190 THE COOPERS. forehead, and golden hair, in the large smooth curls of laty's manufacture, were "set off," as the phrase is, by a dress of crimson mering, over which he wore a clean linen apron, fine and white, though the long sleeves came to his wrists, and covered the round arms his mother had taken such pride in displaying. He had been kept as much as possible from his mother's room, for the least noise or exertion was hurtful in the utter nervous and physical prostration of the first two weeks; and now he was told that he must only look at his little sister, not kiss her, lest she should "get a naughty cough too." Johnny was quite ready and eager to go. Little children, as well as old ones, find a wonder- ful enchantment in forbidden ground; and then, too, there were certain delicacies usually to be seen on his mamma's tray, in which he had shared on each visit, as contributing to that state of quiet which was desirable on his part while there. Mrs. Cooper had been too ill, heretofore, for more than a single kiss and caress; but, this cool, bracing day, she seemed to gather up strength with every breath; and, yearning over the boy in A MOTHER'S WAGES. 191 his lonely banishment, she awaited his coming with feverish expectation. She thought he had never looked so beautiful; she never had loved him so well; and she held out her arms, as Mrs. Henderson set him down upon the bed beside her, to fold him close to her heart. But Johnny, with all a child's waywardness, turned away, and put back her white outstretched hands with a wilful "No, no." It was a little thing. He had caught sight of the pretty Parian sugar-dish, and the un- tasted plate of toast on his mother's breakfast tray. Johnny had an eye to these first, and would be quite willing to repay the expected treat in kisses, no doubt; but, weak, and yearning over him as she had been, the slight repelling move- ment went to her heart with a pang of pain. r @s. Henderson's quickness served to divert the hard thought. "Do you see what I have taken upon myself?" And she touched the crimson frock and long sleeve of the child's apron. "The Doctor thought he would be so much better clothed more warmly. So Mr. Cooper shopped for me; and Katy has made themi very nicely, I think; the dresses, that page: 192-193[View Page 192-193] 192 T'HE COOPERS. is. The aprons 1 found cut out in your basket, and only added the sleeves." They had been there ever since the spring. Mrs. Cooper had never found the time to make up the set she had purchased the day they decided to go to housekeeping. Long sleeves and colored frocks! It was against her creed for a child not yet two years old, or scarcely that; still, it was not so very disfiguring after all, and would save the washing of those eight white cambric dresses a week, which was no trifle now that there were the baby's clothes to be done. She could scarcely have made up her mind to do it herself, though, and was really thankful that she could not be con- sulted at the time. How soft and bright those long ringlets were in the shaded room. Those were left of her baby-boy, at least; and that com- forted her. (The Doctor thinks he is having the cough very lightly," continued Mrs. Henderson, in an encouraging tone; "and that, being so warmly clothed, especially his neck and arms covered, has a great deal to do with it. He urges one other thing, though." A MOTHERkS WAGES. 193 Mrs. Cooper felt instinctively what it was, but, would not ask. No, indeed, nothing should per- suade her to sacrifice Johnny's curls until he was five years old, at least. She had often pictured him to herself, at that age, in a plaid poplin sack, a jaunty velvet cap, with the curls falling in a golden shower around his fair face, and had seen, in imagination, herself leading him by the hand down Broadway, while people turned to look again, saying, involuntarily, "What a beautiful child!" as she had done of others. "Doctor Graham thinks, and Mr. Cooper agrees with him, that this constant dampness is not good for the child; though, even if they were perfectly natural, the curls would be better cut off." "They shall stay just as they are," said Mrs. Cooper, so shortly that Mrs. -Henderson looked surprised and then pained; but the momentary flush passed away when she remembered the irri- table mood so often the consequence of extreme debility. She was a woman, and understood nerves;;" so she said nothing as she held Johnny down to kiss his mother good-by, and carried him from the room, for she saw signs of boisterous con- 9 page: 194-195[View Page 194-195] 194 THE COOPERS. duct on being denied a second spoonful of calves'- foot jelly. She was gone some time, long enough for Mrs. Cooper to be ashamed and sorry for her quick words, and to wonder if she were staying away because offended. It cost her an effort to say as much when Mrs. Henderson returned. ' I do not know what is the matter with me lately," she said, so humbly that Lizzie Grant would have opened her eyes in astonishment if she could have heard her. "I always used to think I was amiable; everybody used to call me so; but this summer I have been so cross that I sometimes wonder how Murray can love me." "' I have not thought of it since." And Mrs. Henderson, having covered the tray with a fresh napkin, for which she had been to the kitchen, drew the low chair so that she could have a watch over baby and its mamma. "I know just how little things touch one at times." "Were you ever fretful, Mrs. Henderson?" "My dear?" was the answer, in a tone of the most extreme surprise; not that Mrs. Cooper could imagine her guilty of the infirmity so com- I A MOTHER'S WAGES. 195 mon to our sex, but that she should suppose the possibility of her being exempt. "It wasn't about Johnny's hair so much; but he turned away from me, and did not want to kiss me. I loved him so, too, and was so glad to see him; but he never loved me, not as I thought children loved their mothers." And a grieved sigh finished the confession. "Children are children," said Mrs. Henderson, sententially; "and we must not expect too much of them. Johnny saw the jelly that moment, and he wanted it; that's all. As soon as he had finished it, he would have been ready. I dare say he loves you quite as much as most children do their mothers." "Oh, you don't know! This isn't the first time. He will go to Kate or his father any minute from me; he has all summer. .It has been one of the things, the worries, you know. Murray did not understand. He only laughed at me, and called me jealous." "Now you are talking too long," said Mrs. enderson, warningly. "I'17 talk, and you lis- ten; that is, if listening will not be too much page: 196-197[View Page 196-197] 196 THE COOPERS. itself. People listen themselves into fevers as often as they worry themselves sick. Tell me, honestly." "Please do say something; I'm so tired of lying here-think, thinking all day." "Well, you said: 'As other children love.' Of course, there's a certain natural instinct of love between parent and child; but did you never notice that the little ones always take a fancy, as it is called, to those who do the most for them, those who are always meeting their wants? I suppose you have been obliged to leave Johnny chiefly to Katy's care this summer, which accounts for the preference." "Obliged!"Mrs. Henderson laid an excusing stress upon the word; but her listener's conscience would not suffer her to apply it fully. She knew that she had many a time been only too glad of the excuse of hurry or languor, to send the child away from her as much as possible. She had none of that "feminine love for babies" which many young girls have as naturally as an ear for music; and every step of nursery experience had cost something of self-denial and effort. The nov- A MOTHER'S WAGES. 197 elty of the thing, the dainty wardrobe, the pride in showing off her pretty baby, in his best moods, to her fellow-boarders, or the visitors who made " it a part of their morning call to ask for him, helped wonderfully at first. Then, too, the cham- bermaid of the floor took care of the rooms; and the nurse had nothing to do but amuse the baby, or walk out with him all day, so that she had nearly as much time to herself as before. But when the wakeful nights of teething began, and the restless stage when constant exertion is neces- sary to the amusement of the little tyrants-when they will not stay in your arms five minutes toge- ther, or on the floor three, then Mrs. Cooper began to shrink from maternal duties, and look, with the most intense pity, on the mothers of large little families. She was not to be condemned as un- natural in this. It is an every-day experience, if those who undergo it could be brought to a frank confession. But Mrs. Cooper had given way to it; there lay the fault; and now, when she looked further on in life, and saw how softly filial love brightened the barrenness of middle life, and lighted up its evening, she began to wonder if page: 198-199[View Page 198-199] 198 THE COOPERS. such love and cherishing would ever fall to her lot; and she drew back from the pain of self-con- demnation, ready to lay the blame on any thing rather than herself. The germ of that which is "cruel as the grave " embittered " the well-spring of pleasure." "But there is a difference," she said, slowly. "I am sure Mr. Henderson cares more for you than most sons do for their mothers. I believe he loves you better than any one in the world. We have always noticed it in him. He shows it in every thing." Such a light as shone for an instant in the clear brown eyes that met Mrs. Cooper's questioning look! It seemed to her even more beautiful than the soft flush that witnesses to the confession of a lover's most entire devotion. "You will not think me selfish or foolish, Mrs. Cooper, if I tell you that I believe what you say. I have such constant evidence of it. He is the best of sons." "And has the best of mothers-no wonder.!" said Mrs. Cooper to herself. The thought had answered her own questioning of " why it was so." I , A MOTHER'S WAGES. 199 If "I have thought a great deal about it, my dear, how I came to have such a great blessing as my son.' There was an unconscious accent of just pride as she spoke the words. "And some- times it seems to me that we are more fully re- warded in those things for which we exert the most self-denial. I was obliged to, understand, in Stephen's case. His father died when he was so young, only six, and Helen a baby in my arms; Sarah was but three,-all babies, you may say; and there was little or nothing left to take care of them with." "Oh, how hard I "Mrs. Cooper felt her own burden, the care of two, shrink into nothing. "What did you do?" "The best I could; but, as an old Quaker friend of mine once said, I did not walk in silver slippers, I tell thee.' At first, I was perfectly overwhelmed, naturally enough. Stephen is much like his father; so you can tell what I had lost. With that ever present, the actual physical care of my babies, and having to provide for them in a great measure, I was only a little older than you are now-two years. Perhaps that will be a con- page: 200-201[View Page 200-201] 200 THE COOPERS. fort to you some day, when you feel that you have a great deal to accomplish." It was not Mrs. Henderson's way to speak much of her own experience. She had learned that " love vaunteth not itself;" but she did so now, knowing that Mrs. Cooper felt weighed down by the care she was so soon to take up again; and she knew, by experience, that trials are often lightened by comparison. "I should have given up in despair. I wish you would tell me all about it. I have often wished to know what made you always so cheer- ful. Oh, dear, I wish I was! but I can't be. Things go wrong; and I get worried, and wish I was dead-I do, indeed. Don't look so shocked. I say so, I mean; and Murray feels as if I did not love him; and I can't bear to think of living on so, only worse and worse for years." Mrs. Cooper spoke eagerly. What was this hidden strength and stay? It baffled her compre- hension. Mrs. Henderson saw something of this, and did hot seek to divert the thought. It is being made fully conscious of our weakness and need, that leads us to our cure. 1t - A MOTHER'S WAGES. - 20 "I do not pity people who seem to be pressed down by accumulated misfortunes as much as many do, for I know, in my own case, one helped :: me to bear the other. I did not have time to dwell on my own loss, and so cherish rebellion Ad against the hand which had dealt it out to me. That is a temptation the rich have to struggle with, which the poor, who look to them with envy, do not understand. I thought it very hard, then-the necessity for exerting myself when I had never looked forward to such a life, and knew not what to turn to; but I see that it was an actual blessing now." "But if you had been sure of a maintenance, Mrs. Henderson-if you had had a father or broth- er to rely on. Stephen told us about it one evening; and he seemed so proud of what you did then." "I had-the best reliance. I remember, one day, that very thought came into my mind as I sat over my work with aching heart and weary hands. It was for the children more particularly. I thought what if I should die, and they be left entirely destitute, or if my health should give out, page: 202-203[View Page 202-203] 202 THE COOPERS. for I was willing to work for them as long as I could. It was the common temptation of adding to-morrow's burden to the day's." "If you could only have seen the future really, and how nicely it would all turn out; if people could only have their fortunes told!" "Yes," said Mrs. Henderson; "but we do know; that is, if we follow the path marked out for us. I was going to tell you how I found my help that day; and I believe I never entirely lost sight of it afterwards. I laid my work down in the middle of a seam, and took up my Bible, ask- ing, in my heart, for some pledge of the future; and I found this, which I never doubted be- longed to me: 'my God shall supply all thy needs '-not all my wants, you know. I have been denied them sometimes, but my needs always. I never had a wholly dark day after that." Mrs. Cooper wondered more than ever. There was an earnest conviction of the reality of what she said, in Mrs. Henderson's tone and manner, - which left no room to doubt her sincerity; yet the elegantly bound Bible, lying on her dressing- .. table, had never spoken thus to her. She held its : j A MOTHER'S WAGES. 203 pages in a certain awe and reverence, more the effect of education than feeling. She read it at times, especially dull Sundays, when there was no church-going; but it was a dead letter; no living inspiration passed from its pages into her heart; the volume closed, the remembrance faded, "as a tale that is told," in which she had no part nor lot. Nay, she had often held those who spoke of it differently as hypocrites or self-deceived. Mrs. Henderson could be neither: her consistency had witnessed to the truth and soundness of her prin- ciples. "I don't mean to say that I never doubted or desponded," said Mrs. Henderson, looking up, presently. Her pause had been filled with over- flowing thankfulness in the retrospect thus traced. "I 4ad often temptations to both, and suffered for yielding to them; but the Golden Key of Promise has helped me ot f many a dungeon in Doubt- ing Castle." And she murmured softly to her- self: ' What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." "It has all ended so nicely now," said Mrs. Cooper again. She could not venture upon a ground so new to her. page: 204-205[View Page 204-205] 204 THE COOPERS. "Yes, Stephen is all I could have desired; and Helen is teaching, you know; Sarah is our housekeeper. I have the great comfort of seeing my children in peace and love with each other, and still turning to me with more than their childish love and confidence." "The reward, as well as the comfort," thought her listener, for she knew of the toiling days and weary nights Mrs. Henderson had not even al- luded to; and her mind passed on to the division, and ingratitude, and indifference, if not open vice, which she knew embittered the lives of many rich men, and fashionable mothers, who had sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. "So, my dear," said Mrs. Henderson, cheer- fully, "don't be discouraged about Johnny or Johnny's sister. It might be worse, you know. A mother's life, at best, is one, of unavoidable pain, and care, and anxiety; but, when once ac- cepted heartily, it has its own helps and comforts in abundance. It seems to me that too many young mothers look on their children only as accessories to their own pride and pleasure. They foster van in them by indulging their own, in A MOTHER'S WAGES. 205 their dress and education, instead of putting the good of the child and its real happiness always uppermost. Peevishness and discontent don't need much cultivation; drop the seed, and that's all sufficient. I used to be very fond of riding. I was brought up on a farm, you know.. A child is something like a horse-the firmest but the gentlest hand is the most readily yielded to. Give to the motion as much as you can, but don't loose your hold on the reins." The doctor's daily visit broke in upon the shortest morning Mrs. Cooper had passed since her illness ; and she was pronounced as decidedly convalescent. "How's the boy, Mrs. Heneder- son?" he asked, as he turned to leave the room; and the invalid heard him say, in the hall: "I wish you could persuade her all that soaking is a miserable thing for him. If he was my child, I should have that hair off at once. I don't wonder he's fretful.' Mrs. Cooper woke, strangely refreshed from her mid-day nap. She had slept much longer than usual, and more soundly. It was almost time 4' I'* . page: 206-207[View Page 206-207] 206 THE COOPERS. for the welcome signal of the first train, in which her husband came regularly since her illness. "Can I sit up a little while, here, I mean, with the pillows?" she asked of Mjrs. Henderson, who was ministering gently as ever at her side. "And now I should like to have Johnny in again. I hear Katy with him in the hall." Mrs. Henderson opened the door; and the child stretched out his arms towards his mother with a pleased cry at the unexpected admittance. Such a kiss and embrace he had never before been welcomed with. "And now my scissors, if you please, in the rosewood box; indeed, I must do it myself, Mrs. Henderson. I could not bear to see any one else half so well." Mrs. Henderson ceased to remonstrate. The thin hands shook a little; and Mrs. Cooper's eyes were dim. She could not help it; but very soon the curls lay a bright and tangled mass on the snow-white counterpane before her. They were the first sacrifice laid on the new altar of a self- denying mother's love, which wise counsel and penitent thoughts had that morning helped to rear. j llT CHAPTER IX. I /i 'THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE. "The origin of wealth is in a moral feeling--self-denial. 'Hiere is some- thing I will not consume or throw away; I will take care of it, store it up for the future use of myself and others.' The man who first said and acted thus, laid the foundation of a virtue upon earth. The savings of each man are a diffusive blessing to all; and, therefore, so far, frugality is a thing which all may and ought to applaud." "Drive your work steadily, or it will drive you in the end." "THE neighbors have been very kind; don't you think so, Mrs. Henderson w?" said M drs. Cooper, as she sent a message of acknowledgment to the door. Katy had just brought up a basket with two prints of fresh butter, so yellow, so delicately moulded, that they were in themselves sufficient to provoke an appetite. "Mrs. Lawrence sends her compliments, and wants to know how Mrs. Cooper and the baby are," drawled Kate, with the indifference of one :! i)F I page: 208-209[View Page 208-209] 208 THE COOPERS. who repeats a thrice-told tale. She had brought much the same message, and often with a similar substantial token of good will, from some one of the neighbors every day for a fortnight. "I think they have. That's one blessing of living in the country-neighbors." "Most people do not think so. That was one thing we dreaded when we came out here. I had always heard and read so much of the gossip and interference of a country neighborhood, and con- gratulated myself that I lived where the person next door scarcely knew my name; and I could keep my affairs to myself." "I have not heard much gossip from the ladies who have called on you, or to inquire for you," said Mrs. Henderson. "We have seen a great deal of Mrs. Lawrence, and Mrs. Phillips, too." Oh, I shall never forget how kind Mrs. Phil- lips was that day I was so very ill! Why, I never should have thought of offering to do what she did, if I had pitied people ever so much, or even letting her do it, if I had been asked." t So much for being a countirywoman myself," said Mrs. Henderson. "We were very much in '[ ;41 TIE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 209 ;; need of help that day,lwith you and the baby both so ill, such help as could not be had on the instant for any payment. She offered it frankly; and I accepted it for you. She seems a very sincere and kindly person." "She must be, I am sure. I think you can always tell by a person's face whether they mean what they say. Can't you? Thank you; I am so comfortable! You know exactly what I want always. How did you learn to be suclh a capital nurse, Mrs. Henderson?" Mrs. Cooper had not yet left her room, though her husband, after due consultation with the doc- tor, had promised her, if she would be "a very good girl," she should dine down stairs on the next Thursday, her birthday. To tell the truth, she was not in any haste to "get about." She had such a dread of the care and worry that would come upon her when she was where she could see things going wrong again; and it was so pleasant in her neat, well-ordered chamber, enlivened by Johnny's frequent presence, Mrs. Henderson's cheerful conversation, and the evening chat, now that her husband had no out-door pursuits to call page: 210-211[View Page 210-211] 210 THE COOPERS. him away from her. He had never been more attentive and lover-like; and she had an instinc- tive dread of breaking the pleasant spell of conva- lescence. "What the eye does not see, the heart does not rue," thought Mrs. Cooper, as she walked slowly around the room, pausing to look into drawers whose contents she had almost forgotten, or out on the dreary November landscape. '" r suppose the kitchen and door-yard look as usual, and Kate is as idle as ever." "Two days more to be a prisoner," said Mrs. Henderson, who had appropriated the mending- basket, and was rapidly diminishing the pile of garments and stockings it contained. She thought Mrs. Cooper began to feel the restraint irksome. "It might be two weeks, and I should not cry over it," she said, turning to! the lounge, made very inviting with its pile of pillows. "Oh, this is so nice! No, I don't think I want to go down stairs at all." "Let me throw this shawl over your feet, there. Now you may be as idle as you like." "I know I ought not to be lying. here so help- THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 2" less, seeing you work for me; that is the only trouble I have just now. Murray said last night that we had allowed you to do altogether too much; and he wished that he had insisted on having a nurse." "I think now, just as Hdid then, since we could not get one when most needed, she would only have been in the way afterwards, with me about at the same time, I mean. She would have 7 fawanted her fashion of doing things, and I mine; and we might not have agreed. Old ladies like myself are fanciful, or 'notional,' as they say in Rockland, and very 'set,' which usually means obstinate." I Mrs. Cooper felt that she never could repay, in any shape, the peculiar service Mrs. Henderson had rendered thew; but even that acknowledg- ! ment could not be made except by implication. j "I think I could mend those stockings; that 1 * would be doing something," said Mrs. Cooper, looking about for her long unused work-tox. "I think you will just lie still for the present." "But doing nothing so long; and there's so much to be done-all my fall sewing." page: 212-213[View Page 212-213] 212 THE COOPERS. "You are getting well, and strong too, I hope; that's of much more consequence. You cannot have so much work on hand." "Oh, but there is-you don't know-I did not accomplish any thing this summer. There's that lower drawer half full yet, things I had com- menced, and had to put by again for something I was in a hurry for. It has given me a headache every time I have looked at it. Some days last summer I used to feel as if I was crushed down by it." "Why didn't you give it out?" Mrs. Cooper hesitated a moment. "You know just how Murray and Mr. Hen- derson began," she said, " and that we have had to be as economical as possible." , "Suppose I should tell you that, in this case, I did not think it economy." Mrs. Cooper looked her amazement at this un- expected proposition. "I do not, indeed," said her friend. "You see what it ended in. Doctor Grahami told me at once that he knew you had worried yourself sick, from the state your nerves were in." pi4 I THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 213 -R "'I want to help Murray so much7oh, you don't know!" "Do you think it is much help to any man to have a sick, broken-down wife, always irritable and complaining?2 That was what you were making yourself." "But I was always brought up to think that it was great extravagance to give out family sew- : ing. I did not know how else to save." "I think," said Mrs. Henderson, drawing off her spectacles-she only wore them when sewing or reading-" that every mother of a family must- have her own way of economizing; but there is one thing always to be kept in mind. That is not true economy which wastes your best capital, health and cheerfulness. I know that hard neces- sity often obliges men and women to work beyond their strength; but I am speaking now of people in moderate circumstances, where it is not a mat- ; : ter of daily bread. A mother especially, needs, Af ; every bit of. strength and cheerfulness she can hoard to do her duty by her children and their father." -' ' page: 214-215[View Page 214-215] 214 THE COOPERS. "But I should only be too glad to be idle, Mrs. Henderson. We all like that;" ' I did not say any thing about idleness; no, nor yet self-indulgence." And the spectacles re- ceived a gentle polish, more from habit than pres( ,t need. "I do not believe in either when people have an abundance of means. Somebody says: 'True economy is not pinching in a few expenses, but a watch over all, and especially a wise regulation of larger outlays.' What do you suppose I was thinking when you showed me that pretty silk you are to have fitted when you go in town?" "You can't call that extravagant! bnly a dol- lar a yard-the cheapest thing I could find. Why, in the city, I should scarcely have thought it would answer-such prices as people pay nowadays! That is one of my pet economies, I'm sure." "The twelve or fourteen dollars it cost would have paid for all your sewing, a seamstress for two months, board and all." "But I needed the dress." "You showed me two good silks, besides, and a nice cashmere." \. ,':" "s-. 'THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.) 215 "'I have had the blue one ever since I was married; and it 's such an old-fashioned style, that plain dress, when every one wears flounces. The other is a year old." But perfectly fresh and good. I think you take excellent care of your wardrobe. You know I have had to be inspector of closets and drawers." Mrs. Cooper had always been a wonder to Lizzie Grant on that account. She looked quite as well dressed; but her clothes did not cost half as much, and looked fresh to the last. ' I have always had to take care of my things," she explained to Mrs. Henderson. "Aunt Agnes i was obliged to-and of every thing else, for that matter; but I never knew much about the house. ' Uncle gave me an allowance every year for my clothes; and I had to make it go as far as possible." "You must take just the same principle in t H managing your house expenses." !"I have tried to." "I am sure you have; but, when you first began to have an allowance, you made some mis- takes, I suppose." L- I "Quantities. I remember that I was going to il ! page: 216-217[View Page 216-217] 216 THE COOPERS. make up a set of underclothes, and I prided my- self on paying two cents a yard less for the cloth than Aunt Agnes herself did. I made them beau- tifully; and they were gone in less time than I spent on them, it seems to me; and all the com- fort Aunt gave me was to say that she knew it would be so when I showed her the thin, uneven cloth." "There, you see, was a waste of time and money both in saving fifty or seventy-five cents ; for, of course, they had to be renewed." "But then, Mrs. Henderson, it taught me tlat Aunt Agnes was right in saying 'the best was al- ways the cheapest.' " "There it is again," said Mrs. Henderson. "An excellent rule when you don't carry it to ex- tremes. For instance, the bird's-eye in those aprons of Johnny's." "Yes, I thought of that then. It was sixty- two cents." "And that at fifty would have been quite fine enough for a boy of his size, and would wear just as long, if not longer. Let me see; there were about eight yards in the set," I suppose." T THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 217 - " 6 Nine." "Well, and nine times twelve are a hundred and eight. A dollar and eight cents. It would almost pay for the making that has worried you so much." "I never thought of that. But Mrs. Hender- son, I cannot bear to see coarse material on babies." "Johnny is not baby any longer." Mrs. Cooper looked with a glad, loving smile, towards the crib to which the baby had that day been promoted. Mrs. Henderson, strangely enough for a matron of the old school, did not believe in cradles or feather beds for even an infant, and "! had advised the anti-rocking principle from the first. It was one of the "notions" she pleaded guilty to, that children could be taught regular habits and regular hours in a great degree from the first moment of consciousness, and that they were many times spoiled for good behavior be- fore they were generally supposed to be old enough for any training. Consequently, she often denied herself and Mrs. Cooper the pleasure of "tending" the little one when quiet, of s0othing 10 page: 218-219[View Page 218-219] 218 THE COOPERS. its restlessness by walking about, or administering anodynes. It was dressed and undressed at very nearly the same hour every day, nd expected to be in bed and sound asleep forl the evening at dark. So far, the system had answered admirably, to Mrs. Cooper's wonder, when she recollected all the trouble there was with Johnny, his colic and his catnip-tea, paregoric and incessant cradle-rock- ing. Whether it was the effect of " the system," or the young lady's natural amiability, she had not yet decided. "What were we talking about? Oh, Johnny's aprons!" said Mrs. Cooper, recalling herself from some such speculation. "I believe it is partly taste; there seems to me such a fitness in having every thing for a little child as delicate as possi- ble; and then I was boarding when I first began to shop for him; and I did not know any thing about it. Mrs. Paul-you have heard me talk about her. Well, I used to go to her. She always showed me her purchases, and I carried mine into her room regularly when I came home from Stew- art's. Her boy was only three months older than Johnny; and she made such a point of having - 'THE PRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 219 every thing as fine as possible. Why, you conld hardly tell hlarlie's aprons from plain linen-a little way off." "I've heard you say, too, that people who boarded were always extravagant in dress, be- cause they had to keep up with others in the holuse." "Yes, indeed, it makes the greatest difference. Murray thought it was all nonsense when I first began to tell him about it." "I don't know much about extravagance in dress," said Mrs. Ilenderson; "but it seems to me that you have not left your boarding-house principle quite out of sight when you purchased a thir tird silk dress because one had no flounces, and the other had been worn a year. But, here it is lunch-time; and the butter from Mrs. Lawrence will make its first appearance." "I will think it over while you get the tray," said Mrs. Coope, good-naturedly, though she felt a little crest-fallen at finding herself not quite so wise and prudent as she had imagined. You won't mind my plain dealing, will you, my dear," Mrs. Henderson returned, with a sec- page: 220-221[View Page 220-221] 220 THE COOPERS. ond thought, from the head of the stairs. "You seem to me so much like one )f my own daugh- ters, that it comes natural to speak to you as I do to them." "Oh, not at all! not in the least, I assure you. It is just such help as Aunt Agnes would give me if I could go to her. I can't write about such things; and I have often wished I could talk them over with some one who was really experienced, and who could understand our affairs." "Which I do, with Stephen in the firm." Mrs. Henderson seemed to forget her errand in the interest of the conversation, as ladies of mid- dle age frequently will,. and sat down again. ' You see this, my dear; you wanted to be eco- nomical, but you began by making the most un- comfortable, and, in your case, needless sacrifice. The will is a great thing; but experience must b( added before it can be of essential service. ] know how accumulated work, one thing bein@ decidedly wrong, sets every thing else out ol order. It is a weight always hanging over you If youhad had a seamstress, and cleared youi hands of the sewing, you would have brough ::9 mI ETHE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 221 more energy anAd spirit to your nursery and domes- tic cares, and had ample time for both. Almost any woman can compass this, if she will deny her- self one or two expensive articles of dress or orna- ment in a year. It always does vex me when I see people wasting time and strength in little pinching economies, and immediately spending it on some article of dress or furniture, only made necessary by the ' speech of people.'" "I never have thought of it before, I am sure, and thought I was doing my duty very hard as a good wife," said Mrs. Cooper, playfully. "But that was just where you were wrong. An irritable temper, for one thing, comes of over- work; and that is in itself enough to upset all domestic peace. And then, my dear, just think of it! that cannot be. duty which absorbs time and strength belonging to other things. You are to be your husband's best friend and helper in all moral and intellectual progress. You are to set your children an example that will not contradict your teachings,-of all patience, and gentleness, and firmness. You cannot do this with a mind constantly distracted by household cares, and page: 222-223[View Page 222-223] 222 THE COOPERS. your strength spent in toil that gives you no space for recreation." "But, Mrs. Henderson, many and many a poor woman has to work herself ill." "I know it; but don't you remember we are talking about people who do not need to sacrifice all comfort, only 'to cut off needless expenditures of time and money,' as one of my best advisers has it. That was what you were trying to do." "There, how can a person be economical? that's it!" said Mrs. Cooper, sitting upright with sudden energy. "If you save in your table, peo- ple call you mean. I never would, and never will, pinch in servants' wages, and cheapen things, espe- cially the price of work, from sewing to house- cleaning." "Neither should you. If there is one thing urged above the rest in our duty towards others, it is, 'The laborer is worthy of his hire."' "'But the hand of the diligent maketh rich."' Mrs. Cooper had never known herself use a quotation from this authority before; but it flashed suddenly into her mind in the heat of argument. THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE."' 223 "Exactly," said Mrs. Henderson, smiling; " you will find room enough for diligence if you try to keep ahead of your work when it is once arranged, so as not to have that harassed, driven feeling which wears upon the nerves so dreadfully -if you oversee your household thoroughly, and give the time to your children and social duties which they require." "Social duties 2?' "You do not leave thofe out of sight alto- gether." "I 'n afraid I have, if there are any. Since we stopped going to parties; and, indeed, I never did care about them, since there was nothing par- ticular to dress for-since I was married, I mean, and ceased to care about general admiration.?' Mrs. Henderson liked the, frankness which ad- mitted she had once done so; it was one point of Mrs. Cooper's character which led her to hope and expect much from her in the future. "You know what we were saying about neigh- bors, this morning?" she returned. "Suppose Mrs. Phillips had been so loaded down by her own cares that she could not have given us that page: 224-225[View Page 224-225] 224 THE COOPERS. most seasonable aid, or Mrs. Lawrence too much absorbed in her own family to remember that she had a sick neighbor to inquire for, and send some- thing, too, by way of a kindly remembrance." g i "Oh, never mind lunch just yet!"-as this reminded Mrs. Henderson of her forgotten errand. "I'm afraid we shall not get back just where we are again; and I really want to know what sacri- fice I can make: really, I am very much in earnest, Mrs. Henderson. Do what I would to i be economical, some person wold call it mean, , whether I save in dress, or the table, or work." "Don't live for the opinion of others, to begin with. I should not think you cared a great deal for it, from what you told me about furnishing. A But you know these alr two things quite distinct, braving public opinion, pride :n another form, and that just consciousness of your own purity of intent which can only come from high motives, and a careful scrutiny of your own conduct to guard against mistakes-as the one we have been talking of-and self-deception." "I certainly did deceive iyself. I never thought I was going to bring sich an illness on ,1 4i C THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE." 225 myself, and risk-two lives," she said, softly. "Poor baby! what a frail little creature she was!" "As far as I understand economy," said Mrs. Henderson, pausing to sum up in her mind the whole conversation, which had lengthened itself far beyond any they had ever held before, " it is not in any one grand sacrifice or demonstration, but a constant, careful exactness in all expendi- ture of time, health, and money. Most people think it applies to money alone; but, as you said, it is the hand of the diligent, and not of the nig- gard, or the slothful, or the proud, that maketh rich. You will have to use a double diligence in watching all these avenues, than that required to hoard in one expense that the amount may be recklessly or even thoughtlessly wasted in others." "I know I wasted time, for one thing," said Mrs. Cooper, self-accusingly. "I used'to be so tired out that I did not feel like walking or play- ing with Johnny, or any thing but taking a book and going to bed." "The worst thing in the world for your health." "I know it-for my temper, at any rate-for 10* page: 226-227[View Page 226-227] 226 THE COOPERS. it was so hard to rouse myselfi at the right time; and things would go wrong in the kitchen; and Murray said, and I felt, that I was not at all like my old self; and then I would give up trying for days together." "Well, in preaching order and regularity, I have let you go without your chocolate half an hour longer than you should have done; so there is an example of being over-zealous to take with you as a warning. Not another word; you really must have it at once." And Mrs. Cooper was left to lay to heart what she chose of all that had been spoken with an earnest purpose, convinced of one thing at least, that, but for Mrs. Henderson's wil- ling help, this long sickness and uselessness would have drained their income of far more than she had saved in bringing it on. "2 CHAPTER X. MATCH-MAKING. The best laid schemes of mice and men Gang aft agley.--BTjns. Few people can realize all they arrange.-BAYEY. M R. HENDERSON was quite "the friend of the family," and especially, since his mother had been !I jstaying with the Coopers, began to be considered as entirely one of themselves. It was a matter of course that he should come out to dinner on Mrs. i{j! Cooper's birthday, the 20th of November; and she had almost forgotten to give the invitation, JJ until reminded of it by her husband, a few even- igs before. I am to be down stairs for the first y :time, you know-quite a grand occasion; so you must be sure to come," she said to him. "Without fail-especially as mother thinks she must leave for home the next Tuesday." g ni eine'fi y e ubn, e vn W lg eoe." Ia obedw tis o h is page: 228-229[View Page 228-229] 228 THE COOPERS. Mrs. Cooper's sigh was audible. "Yes, I know; but what in the world am I going to do without her?" "As you did before you knew her, I suppose," said Mr. Cooper. "Though I must say I feel just as you do." "Better than then, I hope ; but I don't know." Mrs. Cooper was slow to trust her good resolu- tions] they had been broken through so often. "If she was only going to be in the neighbor- hood, where I could see her once in a while, and go to her with my bothers. I wish you would marry, Mr. Henderson, and bring her to live here. I wonder you don't marry. I often say so; don't I, Murray?." It did seem a strange thing that a man of Mr. Henderson's domestic habits, with gentlemanly manners and refined taste, should continue to live on so quietly, without even a preference. "Shall I tell you why? My chief reason is that I should not desire to choose a wife' purely for her economical qualities-a good thing in a housekeeper; but that's not my idea of a wife. MATCH-MAKtNO. 229 Still, it would be all I could afford to look to on six hundred a year." Mrs. Cooper's cheeks flushed with the thought that she had made a very inconsiderate speech, when she knew that half of his income was rigidly devoted to his mother and sisters. "You ought to look out for the spoons," said Mr. Cooper. "As you did," said his wife, knowing very well that he never had a mercenary thought in his life, and perfectly understood that she had no property before he addressed her. "That I never would dod" said Mr. Henderson, with a very decided emphasis. "I would never be indebted to any woman for a dollar. It is re- versing the order of things. I should despise my- self, and expect her to share in the feeling. Be- sides, inequality of this sort always makes unhap- piness. I never forget the man whose wife always threw up the odd two and sixpence whenever they quarrelled." "I believe we are happier for the charming equality of our fortunes," said Mr. Cooper, "ex- pressed by a cipher on both sides." page: 230-231[View Page 230-231] 230 THE COOPERS, "You had only yourselves to think for." "That's so, Henderson." "And I could not expect to be helped in one duty if I neglected another very plain one to take it up. No. As I am rather fastidious, and desire taste, and refinement, and education, and good principles in any one I choose, or who would choose me as a lifelong friend, I suppose I shall go on, as little Johnny's bachelor uncle, till the end of the chapter." "Or till Cooper & Henderson make their for- tunes," said the other partner of this recently es- tablished house. "Perhaps he thinks that amounts to the same thing." Mrs. Cooper spoke jestingly; but did so to cover the feeling that was very evident in Mr. Henderson's face. Her careless wdrds had called up an old struggle, in which he had done battle many times. Always, when with them, seeing his friends' content and happinessrlonging, rather than envy, was stirred in his heart. He never doubted that Providence had appointed him this isolated life; but it was none the less hard to human nature to crush the yearning for his own MATCH-MAKING. 231 fireside, for the dream-wife and children that oftentimes haunted his lonely hours. Fortunately, he was thrown so seldom into the society of culti- vated women, that, as yet, he had not been forced to sacrifice real affection; and this was in part owing to the jealous watch which he kept over any word or deed that might lead him into the temptation. Of late, he had grown very weary of this constant battle between duty and inclina- tion. He suffered himself to think of the time when he too might have a home, and in it see his mother winning the love and confidence of his wife-her daughter-there was music in the two words-as he knew she had done with Mrs. Cooper. "Whoever I might choose, she could not fail to be a noble woman with mother for a friend and example," he said, to himself, that night, every long repressed hope and desire springing up afresh; and a lonely, desolate yearning clamored to be heard and satisfied, warning him tlat youth, nay, that the prime of his manhood, was passing. It was very hard to kneel down and pray, ere he slept, as he had done ever since he hala been a page: 232-233[View Page 232-233] 232 THE COOPERS. little child at his mother's knee, "Thy will be done." But it was a remembrance of that child- hood, and his mother's self-denying, toiling life for him and his little sisters, that gave him the victory; and he put the temptation aside, with the resolve that, so long as she lived, she should never know another hour of care so far as he could shield her from it. Mr. Cooper took up the book of house expenses as Mr. Henderson left the room. He was very exact in his entries now, and laid great stress on having every dime included. "Mrs. Henderson was talking about him, the other day, and wishing he would marry," said his wife, returning to the conversation. "He's not a marrying man. He would not care to give up his ways for any woman; and children would drive him distracted. He's in a perpetual ' frame of mind,' at the office, because I don't lay every pen straight, and cut the postage- stamps to a hair." I "I don't believe it is that so much," said Mrs. Cooper, with a woman's penetration. Mrs. jen- derson said it was the chief anxiety she had now, iS MATCH-MAKING. 233 being a weight upon him, and keeping him single. I thought they couldill make one family, and so perhaps he could afford it; but she doesn't believe in that." - "No; nor I, either. There never was a house large enough yet for a mother and daughter-in- law." "I think it's a great pity. He would make such an excellent husband! I wish" "What?" asked Mr. Cooper, with his finger upon an entry. "Lamb, one dollar and fifty cents!" "Well, it came into my mind what a good thing it would be if he could fancy Lizzie Grant." "Don't turn into match-making, Matty. Hor- rors! It would be the worst thing he could do, for she never would fancy him." "I know they are not in the least alike; but she only needs some one to control her. She has an excellent heart. You know how I love Lizzie." ," She would get the whip hand of me. 'Con- trol!' I should think she did! a rij that has had her own money and her own way for six years! If Steve Henderson ever marries, it will page: 234-235[View Page 234-235] 234 THE COOPERS. be some one built on his mother's model-sensible to the last degree, as steady as a mill-race." "Well, I don't suppose they would fancy each other. She's so gay and lively; but then she 's so like a sister, and always has been, that it would make me perfectly happy. And she has money enough for both of them." "You heard what he said to-night about that; and he never says any thing he doesn't mean." Mrs. Cooper was forced to confess to herself that there was very little probability of such an event; yet she could not put the fancy out of her mind. Lizzie's property seemed to solve the whole difficulty; not that she would desire any one to marry for money-far from it; only, if they should fall in love with each other, how nice it would be to have Lizzie as good as a relation, and Mr. Henderson relieved of all pecuniary care! There was no harm in bringing them together, at any rate; for, strange. as it might seem, they had never happened to meet, though both were per- fectly familiar with each other through their mu- tual friends. "Don't fail to come on the 20th--Murray, re- - Id MATCH-MAKING. 235 mind him of it-the day before Thanksgiving; so you need not think of going back to town be- fore Friday. Miss Grant is to be here. That's all besides yourself." "Miss Grant? is she-oh!" The tone ex- pressed disappointment, and even annoyance. It would be so near the time for his mother to leave them, that he had looked forward to having her all to himself. A stranger would destroy the familiar household talk he so much enjoyed, and be a restraint upon every thing. Moreover, he had-taken a prejudice against Mrs. Cooper's inti- mate friend. From little things he had heard discussed in her character and conduct, he fancied that she was a trifling, fashionable girl, one with whom he could never feel at ease, and who would be very likely to hold himself and his mother in that well-bred indifference so nearly amounting to contempt. Still, what right had he to object? And Thanksgiving day he could go quietly to church with his mother. The family were not likely to join them; and they would have a long walk, afterwards, all to themselves. Mrs. Cooper anticipated her friends' arrival page: 236-237[View Page 236-237] 236 THE COOPERS. with all the eagerness of a child. She had been an invalid so long, it was nearly two months since she had left her room, or seen any one out of the neighborhood. She wanted to show Lizzie the house and the baby. To be sure, she would think the house very small and plain; land she did not care much about children, though she was con- tinually bestowing some dainty piece of finery on Johnny, and had already sent her: namesake that was to be, Miss Lizzie Grant Cooper, "the sweet- est breath of a cap" that Valenciennes and em- broidery could contribute to fashion. She came up from the city in the noon train, with Mr. Cooper, who struck for a half-holiday in honor of the grand occasion, and was to have the pleasure of taking his wife down stairs for the first time. Mr. Cooper was fond of surprises; and his heart had been set, for a week past, in getting some pretty curtains, made and p'it up in place of the brown holland shades that had looked very bare and cool in the parlor ever since the grate had come into use. Mrs. Cooper, on the verge of impatience, thought Mrs. Henderson never would be through I MATrH-IMAKIRG. 237 down stairs that morning. Plum-puddings mlust take a great deal more time than she had any idea of, especially when all the fruit was prepared days beforehand. Oh dear, if Lizzie should come before the baby and Johnny were dressed, she should be miserable for the day! Babies were nothing in their night-clothes, especially to people who did not understand them. She walked to the head of the stairs, and listened. Every thing was quiet in the kitchen. She hoped dinner was not going wrong. Lizzie was so accustomed to the best of every thing, she was thankful that the responsibility did not come on her. But Mrs. Henderson-came back just in time, and emerged from the parlor, instead of the kitchen, when she did make her appearance. Fortunately, Mrs. Cooper had gone to her room, and did not see it. She was quite dressed, her wrapper laid aside for the first time, and resting on the lounge, after the little fatigue consequent upon accomplishing this unassisted, when the whistle announced the arrival of the train. It was delightful to feel so like herself again; and, but for Murray's express prohibition, she would have flown down the stairs O * ;' page: 238-239[View Page 238-239] 238 THE COOPERS. to welcome them. Mrs. Henderson, who had just completed the baby's toilet, and had not given a thought to her own, watched the e ting between the two friends, her soft brown eyes bent upon Miss Grant, half in pleasure at the affection the two expressed for each other, and half in scrutiny to see whether the younger lady was worthy of it, as she first became conscious of hIr presence. "This is Mrs. Henderson, Lizze," said Mrs. Cooper, quickly, lest her kind fiiend, in her plain morning-dress and apron, should be taken for the nurse, and an unpleasant contretemP s be brought about. She was a little uneasy about the meeting, too. Mrs. Henderson's manner was so very plain, though distinguished by that true courtesy which springs from right principle; and her natural tact supplied the place of much intercourse with formal society. Still, Lizzie was very gay, ery fashion- able; and of course she could not be expected to know or appreciate -Mrs. Henderson's good quali- ties. Miss Grant was all this,-a little vain and selfish besides,--a little spoiled by prosperity; and her naturally wilful disposition was entirely unchecked. Still, she was not supercilious; and MATCH-MAKING. 239 she gave her hand to Mrs. Henderson with frank cordiality. "My dear, isn't that the mother of your 'Ad- mirable Crichton'?" said she, a moment after, as the elder lady left them to themselves. Mr. Cooper had hurried down stairs again, after kissing his wife, to have every thing ready for her descent, he told her. "It's really odd I never have happened to meet that remarkable piece of masculine perfec- tion." "You will have a chance, then. We expect him out to dinner to-day." Miss Grant's liveliness vanished for a moment. Mrs. Cooper thought how very like the disap- pointed expression was to Mr. Henderson's when he was told that she would be a guest. Miss Grant did not consider it necessary to be silent as to hers, however. In fact, one thing, often brought against her by those who did not like her-and they were not a few-was that she always said every thing that came into her mind, without pausing to consider who might be hurt or offended by it. page: 240-241[View Page 240-241] 240 THE COOPERS. "It can't be helped, I suppose; but I shall be as dull as possible. I expected to have a grand good time with you and Murray, I haven't seen you in so long, and have such quantities to tell you, all about Newport and Saratoga. You haven't heard a word yet. Oh! and Ellen Schro- der's wedding-and Tom Nichols is engaged at last; did you know it? If it was any body in the world but him. I hate perfect people." Mr. Cooper appeared while she was rattling away, brushing out her bandeaux before the dress- ing-glass at the same time. "You see I have on my last new dress. Isn't it charming, that border around the flounces? You must have a green one I saw. No; you're too pale for green now. You can afford a pink hat this winter, if you keep up the invalid. Murray, how you neglect your wife Honly one kiss since you came home! She's as pale as a ghost." The charge of neglect was entirely unfounded, as Miss Grant was forced to acknowledge, when she saw, the next moment, how carefully he wrapped her shawl around her, slipping a crimson tea-rose into her hair-she wore no cap, to please MATCH-MAKING. 241 him-and then, lifting her in his arms as ten- derly as if she-had been a child, carried her off from Miss Grant, still talking nonsense, and ar- ranging her dress. "Now shut your eyes till I put you in your own chair. You will be dizzy-there." And she was desired, in the next breath, to "open them, and see what she could see." "Oh, Murray! curtains and a new piano cover i-how much they furnish the room!-how pretty they are!-how did you manage? Does Mrs. Henderson know?" "Rather," said Mr. Cooper rubbing his hands delightedly, and quite satisfied with her astonish- ment and pleasure. "Considering I had to leave her to finish: putting them up, this morning, you would keep me talking about that Rochester con- signment, and making me explain to you how we happened to make some money for once in our lives. I thought you were going to spoil it all, last night." "Last night " "Yes--wanting to know what the man was bringing in when I came from the depot. Mrs. " page: 242-243[View Page 242-243] 242 THE COOPERS. Henderson agreed to keep you from the window; but your ears are so terribly sharp!" "I wondered what you were opening and shut- ting the parlor for, when it was tea and soap. You are very kind, Murray. They are just what I wanted. It's the nicest of birthday presents." "Oh, those are only to coax you into house- keeping again, and because you've been a good patient wife, and two or three other things You shall choose your own birthday gift from me when you go to town. Here is Johnny, with his." Katy set her charge down by the door, with a parting twitch of his white apron, and shake of the little full skirts. Even the loss of his curls could not make Johnny a plain child; and his large eyes were full of surprise and pleasure at seeing his mother down stairs again. The little fellow ran straight towards her with open arms, holding out a bouquet he had been privately in- trusted with. His kiss and clinging arms were all the fondest mother could have desired. "She doesn't deserve the pretty flowers, John- ny; she slanders you; she says you're not fond of her," said Mr. Cooper, hanging over the two. MATCH-MAKING. 243 "Tableau vivant for the entertainment of in- vited guests,' called out Miss Grant, as she made her appearance. "It's a pity that I am the only audience. It's all very well before people." "And when they are away, as you'll come to know yet," said Mr. Cooper, who never lost an opportunity of threatening Miss Grant with matri- mony. Miss Grant drew out her crochet-work, and established herself on the lounge in a most defiant attitude. "If you've kissed your wife sufficiently for the present, Mr. Cooper, you will oblige us greatly by taking yourself off until we are forced to be bored with that paragon who is coming up in the early train. It must be almost time to escort him from the depot. Form yourself into a guard of honor, and march forthwith." "Come, Johnny; they don't want us here. Put mamma's flowers into the vase; and we will go and have a walk by ourselves. Johnny wants to ride in his little carriage, with papa for a pony, so he does. Tell Katy to get your hat and coat, my boy. Never stay where you are not wanted." page: 244-245[View Page 244-245] 244 THE COOPERS. And Johnny, nothing loth, was borne off on papa's shoulder to be equipped for an excursion. It was quite dusk, in the short November day, before Mr. Henderson was ushered into the par- lor where the two ladies still sat, Miss Grant pour- ing forth an exhaustless tide of news, nonsense, and clever criticism upon what she had seen and read since they were last together. Mr. Henderson could not account for the un- usual tremor which stole over him as he found himself at his fiiend's threshol. He was always diffident, at first, in the society of ladies; but this was an unusual amount of stupidity and self-con- sciousness, amounting to decided embarrassment, as he was presented in the dark to Miss Lizzie Grant. He saw, by the red glow of the fire, a slight, almost childish figure, curled up in a school-girl attitude, on one corer of the lounge, her feet hidden under her voluminous flounces. Miss Grant, starting from her careless attitude, could make out, in the shadowf, where he stood, only a tall dark figure, bowing in her direction. But his voice, as she sat and listened in the few minutes that passed while Katy brought lights, l MATCH-MAKING. 245 had a depth and manliness that interested her in spite of all resolves to dislike him, and made her wish Kate would move a little faster, that she might see what manner of man he was. Probably Mr. Henderson was- guilty of some such natural curiosity with regard to herself; for, when the lamp was brought in, she met his eyes; and, if Mr. Cooper had seen the start and withdrawal of both wandering glances, he would have "spared neither age nor sex" for the remainder of the evening. Fortunately for them, he was at that moment busily employed in dressing celery in the dining-room, to which they were summoned, di- rectly after. Mrs. Cooper seated herself beside her husband, declaring that she was only an invited guest, and that Mrs. Henderson's reign as housekeeper did not end before Saturday night, begging every one to understand that any fault of the dinner was not to be laid to her charge. "For once, I intend to enjoy a meal at my own table, irrespective of burned turkey and spoiled sauces. Don't appeal to me, Murray," she said, gayly. She had not felt so light-hearted in many a day; and the little page: 246-247[View Page 246-247] 246 THE COOPERS. excitement gave a tinge of color to her cheek, and brightness to her eyes, that replaced the freshness of her girlhood. Tiny was obliged still to be waiter as well as cook, Kate being detailed upon nursery duty. She was neatly dressed; her careless habits never betrayed themselves in her person; and the table was laid with a precision that betiayed Mrs. Hen- derson's watchful oversight. The whole dinner- thanks to the same-was a triumph, and show such a progress in Tiny's culinary skill, that her mistress began to take heart again. They had to wait an extremely fashionable length of time, it is true, between the courses, every thing depending on one pair of hands; but no one noticed it, in the light jests and badinage of Mr. Cooper and Miss Grant, kept from abso- lute folly by Mrs. Henderson's presence, and an occasional word from her, thrown in by way of ballast. It was as cosey a party as one would wish to see, lingering over their dessert, and all enjoying themselves much more than they expected; though a certain reserve in Mr. Henderson's manner to- MATCH-MAKING. 247 wards Miss Grant, whenever he had occasion to address her, gave her the uncomfortable suspicion, now and then, that he looked on her childish non- sense with the calmness of rebuke. But it was Miss Grant's disposition to resent any such un- called-for strictures by a gayer manner still; and she went on until Mrs. Cooper was forced to con- fess there was no hope whatever of her cherished scheme, and wondered what Mrs. Henderson would think of such "prattle and tattle." L Hark!" said she, as even Mr. Henderson's mirth was provoked by a wilder sally than ever. "I 'm sure I heard baby-hush, Lizzie!-did you, Mrs. Henderson?" "Now, pray, don't commence the Mrs. Fair- bairn, Matty. I shall give you up in despair. It is perfectly horrid; isn't it, Mr. Henderson, this listening with one ear up stairs all the while you are talking to a person? Don't you remember Mrs. Fairbairn 2?" "In 'Inheritance,' Miss Ferrier's hovel; is it not?" "Yes, Mrs. Fairbairn--one of those women who, from the time they become mothers, cease to be any thing else." page: 248-249[View Page 248-249] 248 THE COOPERS. "I remember. 'Their husbands are hence- forth only the father of their children, tleir brothers and sisters, their uncles and aunts,"' said Mr. Henderson, taking upthe quotation as they rose from the table. His mother stopped a moment to direct Tiny, and Mr. Cooper assisted his wife lp stairs to see for herself that the baby was not sufering from any cruel neglect or maltreatment. The visitors, as they came into the parlor, and stood on either side of the fire, found themselves quite alone for the time. "Matrimony is all very well at a distance," and Miss Grant shrugged her drooping shoulders; "tea-roses, and new curtains, and all that! But I've staid with people, and seen the other side of the picture." "Seen what?" said Mr. Cooper, coming back to them. "'Soap-box empty and flour out I ' How long have we had that barrel of flour, Julia?"' And Miss Grant's voice assumed the injured tone with which a man invariably puts that question. "' We use more soap in our family than ii ought to take MATCH-MAKING. 249 to wash for the whole city!' Yes, sir," and she made a sweeping courtesy to Murray; "when you find me obliged to listen to such little matri- monial compliments, I give you leave to tell me of it." "We shall see!" said Mr. Cooper, provoking- ly. All bravado, Henderson; she will turn out the most devoted wife and mother in the country, some day." "Not a bit of it, with poor Matty as an awful warning before my eyes." And she gave her flounces a composing flutter as she seated herself at the open piano, and began singing, defiantly, / "Liberty for me; No man's wife rl be!" "We shall live to see," chimed in her adversary. Whatever Mr. Henderson's opinion on the- subject was he kept it to himself, and took up a volume of plans for Cottages and Villas, and was deeply absorbed in them when the other ladies returned. As they gathered around the table, he found Miss Grant next to him, placed there by an innocent little manoeuvre of Mrs. Cooper. "* page: 250-251[View Page 250-251] 250 THE COOPERS. "Do you like the country?" he said, prosily enough, addressing her for the first time. "Don't ask her; she detests it next to matri- mony," said Mr. Cooper for her. "Oh, dear, yes! I should die of mud and ennui. I wonder Matty has survived it so long. They are both of them sick enough of it, if they would only confess." "Not I. We expect to have a charming win- ter; don't we, Murray?" "Of course we do; and my highest ambition is to have a little place of my own. I think I could improve on some of those things, Hender- son. It 's strange how a man alters as he grows old "-Mr. Cooper would be thirty on his next birthday!-" how people do throw themselves away; young men, I mean." Mr. Cooper looked as if he had attained to all the wisdom of the an- cients. After all, Henderson," and hei threw himself back in his chair, "what is there to live for but to take care of one's wife and children, and to get a snug little place to put them in ' Mrs. Henderson had taken up the volume her son laid down. MATOH-MAKING. 251 "Did you notice this last view of alla " she said to Mr. Cooper. "Yes; poetical fancy, isn't it? though rather a skeleton-at-the-feast idea, finishing up with a design for a grave." "Shocking!" said Miss Grant. "Let me see. It's lovely, though, isn't it?" "The last house appointed for the living," said Mr. Henderson, in his deep, rich voice; "it is very appropriate here." "There is more than an appropriate fancy in- tended by the designer, I think, to remind people that there is something else to live for besides planting and building." One thing had struck Mrs. Henderson pain- fully, in the tone, not only of the family, but the neighbors who dropped in most frequently. They seemed to live so entirely for this life ; their plans of thriftiness and reform all ended in the central point of self. "Wife and children, and a place to put them in." Mr. Cooper had expressed it exactly. They all said: "I will plant this year, I will build next, I will ornament and improve for years to come ;" as if they held their lives in fee, page: 252-253[View Page 252-253] 252 THE COOPERS. and no one could dispute the possession. She had lived to see wealth take wings, or wife and child snatched away, making every thing else valueless; and what provision were they making against the evil day, or to render " tithes of all they possessed" to Him who alone "giveth us the power to get wealth!" It had been a burden upon her heart, many a day, that the two she had come to love as her own children should so set aside the highest aims and motives. She could not tell, even then, whether hei grave earnestness had availed to call up one deep- er thought, for the evening passed in mirth and music, though scarcely so trifling as it had been before. Mr. Henderson talked more, though not to Miss Grant, and as Mrs. Cooper noticed their studied avoidance of each other, her little scheme flickered and died out. "Well, I suppose it is not to be," she said, when they were alone together. "Mr. Hender- son and Lizzie, I mean," she added. "Didn't F tell you so? You were foolish to think of it! They are not in the least alike. Are MATCH-MAKING. 253 you very tired, dear? Have you had a pleasant birthday? "Oh, yes, how could I help it? every thing went off so nicely. You are very kind, Murray." "Well, what is it?" said her husband, know- ing from her manner that there was an unspoken afterthought. "Don't you think that God has been very good to us this year?" she said, hesitatingly. "If I feel so grateful to you, I ought to be to Him for givig you to me, and the children, and this dear little home?" "I tell you what, Matty, when Mrs. Hender- son said that, about something else to live for, it made me feel-I can't tell you how-as I did that day when poor Uncle Murray was buried. What if I should lose you, or one of the children?" "Did you? Oh, I wish we were truly good, like her! and then we should not care so much. I feel as if I must go to church to-morrow, and thank God for saving me and baby, and making us all so happy. May I I don't think it would hurt me! Will you go with me?" Mr. Cooper stroked her hair, as she looked up page: 254-255[View Page 254-255] 254 THE COOPERS. eagerly in his face; his eyes were full of thought as well as tenderness. "She's a good woman; there must be some- thing in it. Yes, we'll go, Matty. But I never went to church on Thanksgiving day before in all my life." CHAPTER XI. THE SERVANT QUESTION. "The servant question is one of the social problems of the day." If thou wouldst have a good servant, let the servant find a good master. Be not angry with him too long, lest he think thee malicious; nor too soon, lest he conceive thee rash; nor too often, lest he count thee humorous.- Quarles. MRS. HENDERSON was really going. Her trunk was packed; her neat travelling-dress hung alone in the wardrobe, ready for the next mornings wear. Her gloves, veil, and handkerchiefs were laid out upon the dressing-table. Mrs. Cooper looked around the room, and thought how char- acteristic even these little preparations were. Nothing left until the last minute-nothing to be hunted up-no few stitches to be taken bonnet in hand. Mrs. Henderson was as much at liberty, this last evening, as if there was no journey in contemplation, and had gone down to the parlor page: 256-257[View Page 256-257] 256 THE COOPERS. to see Mrs. Phillips, whose neighborly offices had been so very acceptable during Mrs. Cooper's illness. Two books were lying upon the table, one of them opened, as if it had been laid down at the moment of going to the parlor. The other was a showily bound Bible, laid in the guest room, as a matter of course, much as Mrs. Cooper could have placed a mirror or a footstool there. Evi- dently, it was still as fresh as when one of her bridesmaids brought it to her, a wedding gift. Mrs. Henderson had used it that morning, her own being laid away. She had shown it to Mrs. Cooper the day before, a plain, well-worn copy, full of marks, and the margin pencilled with dates, or some striking thought, commenting on a text, as she had read. Mrs. Henderson's clear judg- ment, and genial philosophy of life, had been re- marked by all at " the Lodge," as Mrs. Cooper most frequently called their -home. Whether it should be "Chestnut," "Hawthorne," or "Elm- wood "Lodge, was still under discussion. Either might have been appropriate from the surrounding foliage. Miss Grant mockingly proposed "Sweet THE SERVANT QUESTION. 257 Syringa," as suggested by the lovely domestic harmony of the inmates, or "Cooper Institute," from the wisdom the head of the family was sup- posed to have attained to; but Lizzie Grant was a privileged person. Mrs. Henderson's wisdom was a reality; and here she had gained it. This was her text-book; prayer, her instructor. It was described in those very pages-" pure, peaceful, gentle" -"unto all, patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Mrs. Cooper felt it more and more to surpass all knowledge of society, all maxims of self-interest and worldly prudence; yet the very alphabet was still a mystery to her. She closed the door, and followed Mrs. Henderson to the parlor with a heavy-hearted feeling, very like the despondency of the past summer. The hopse was all in exact order, the baby asleep, and nny playing con- tentedly with a box of block \How long would tranquillity reign when her friend and adviser had gone? Even Mrs. Phillips noticed her de- pression, as she came into the room. "You will miss Mrs. Henderson very much," she said, coming forward to meet Mrs. Cooper with the cordiality page: 258-259[View Page 258-259] 258 THE COOPERS. of an old friend. "I have just been telling her that I wish she could be persuaded to make her home near us." Mrs. Phillips, though born and reared in afflu- ence, had, from the first, appreciated Mrs. Hen- derson fully; and this, more than any thing, had established the friendly feeling which her kind offices as a neighbor had brought out at the first of Mrs. Cooper's illness. "It is too delightful a plan ever to be realized." And both ladies felt that there was more than empty compliment in the rejoinder. "Mrs. Cooper dreads household cares," said Mrs. Henderson, pleasantly; " and I have relieved her from them in a measure. Oh, I did not say that was all!" she added, quickly. "Mrs. Phillips knows I am not quite so selfish." "Still, it is very natural, my dear. I well re- member how hard it was to look after my' children and servants, in the first years of my housekeep- ing. I had three so nearly of an age, that the nurse used to be asked if the two youngest were not twins, Mrs. Parker and my son George." "It is the servants, Mrs. Phillips. If I could THE SERVANT QUESTION. 259 only come upon somebody like your Joanna! I don't see where people find such treasures. I hear of them every now and then; but I never came across them." "They are not to be found," said Mrs. Phillips. "I agree with you there." And Mrs. Hender- son smiled, catching at once the meaning of this contradictory assertion. "But they are," said Mrs. Cooper, positively. "There's your cook. I heard you say she had been with you five years; and Mrs. Lawrence has had hers-oh, ages!" Three years, to speak within bounds." c Well, that's a great while. I have had five in the same length of time; and not one of them suited me." "Good evening, ladies." The door opened suddenly; and a well-dressed, self-assured looking lady came sailing into the room. o "I knocked, and no one heard me; so I took the liberty of waiting on myself. I heard Mrs. Phillips' voice." "I'm sorry it was raised so loud as to be dis- tinguished in the street." page: 260-261[View Page 260-261] 260 THE COOPERS. "But it wasn't in the street, only on the door- step." Mrs. Graves, the new comer, dropped her blanket-shawl, threw off a pretty rigolette, and made herself quite at home. It was her style, wherever she found herself; but she had taken a great fancy to Mrs. Cooper, who was nearer her own age than any one in the neighborhood, and had resolved to be "intimate." "I ran over for a moment's peace and quiet. The boys have a holiday; and then I regularly go distracted. Besides, the cook's given warning, because I took the liberty of inviting company without consulting her; and Ann is in the sulks because she's going. If ever you hear I'm in an insane asylum, you 'll know what put me there." "I've managed to bring up seven children, and keep out of one," said Mrs. Phillips, who had been the recipient of her neighbor's domestic dif- ficulties for a year past. - Oh, you 1 Your children are born with such immense bump of order, tha*ttheir very playthings walk off, and put themselves away ; and you have the luck of finding servants that aven't a fault. THE SERVANT QUESTION. 261 It's no trouble to you to keep a house; it keeps itself." "Mrs. Phillips just told me, though, that these wonders of servants are not to be found. I agree with her, so far as my own experience goes.3' "Well, mine is the ditto of yours," said Mrs. Graves, swinging her rigolette by the tassels. "They are an ungrateful, impudent, idle set, now- adays. All they want is high wages and a kitchen full of company. I'd go to board any moment; but Mr. Graves won't hear of it." "Well, I've tried my best." And, as Mrs. Cooper said it, she caught Mrs. Henderson's glance, and remembered that, by her own confession, she had done nothing of the kind. "Oh, dear, yes, so have I! I give tremendous wages, and indulge them every way. That doesn't do. Then I 'm horribly hard with the next set- screw them down a dollar a month--don't allow them to go out, or have a visitor; and they get sulky and discontented, and march off. But la, my dear, it's so all the world over Every body has the same trouble." "Not every body," said Mrs, Cooper, "for page: 262-263[View Page 262-263] 262 THE COOPERS. then I would not mind so much. Every now and then Mr. Cooper comes home with such a remark- able story that he has picked up among his busi- ness friends; and then you read about these old family servants, who are so devoted, and do such wonderful things. For my part, I don't see where people find them." "Mrs. Phillips just told you they were not to be found." "Well, where do they come from, then, Mrs. Henderson? 'I don't understand it more and more' as my Harry says." "They are made, trained," said Mrs. Phillips. "I wish you 'd enlighten us as to the process. Don't you, Mrs. Cooper? We would take some lessons." "Like every other study, you would have to bring patience to help you, and take experience for a teacher." "But -we must make a commencement," said Mrs. Cooper. "That is true; and-it is the c ief thing, after all--we must commence with ourselves." "I have had very little experie ce in 'servant THE SERVANT QUESTION. 263 troubles,'" said Mrs. Henderson, not hesitating to avow in saying this the limited scale of her house- hold. "In Rockland, we have 'help."' "The worst of all hindrances!"And Mrs. Graves threw up her eyes and her hands. "They often are, because living out is a choice with them; and places are more plenty than girls to fill them. They seldom stay long enough Vat one house to be trained." "How trained? I want to find girls that know their business before they come to you, and go straight through it, and make no trouble," said Mrs. Cooper. "And never desire to go out," added Mrs. Graves. "They have no business to go out. Com- pany ruins them. Extravagant, idle-" Do you know, Mrs. Graves, I always thought servants were human?" interrupted Mrs. Phillips. "Well, of course they are. Who denies it?" "It 's not a human trait to need no recreation and no society. Isn't it your place to see that both are well chosen?" "My place? No! What have I to do with my servants' visitors?" page: 264-265[View Page 264-265] 264 THE COOPERS. "What have you to do with the company your children keep?" "It isn't a parallel case." "But it is,* in a measure. You are responsible for every member of your family." "For my children Yes." Mrs. Graves al- lowed that, though conscious that she was often guilty of neglect. Mrs. Phillips knew that she professed, as well as herself, to be guided by the highest motives that can influence any one. "Guided" would scarcely express the position Mrs. Graves held, in common with many others. She was a church-goer, and a church-member, a Sunday Christian; but she never thought of re- ligion as having a positive connection with her daily life, further than an obedience to the out- ward rules of morality. "I don't see where you get it from." I rather think you will find it in the same book in which you learned your duty to your chil- dren. If we were not responsible for our servants, why should we be told to see that they hallow the Sabbath" - "But most people expect mnore on Sunday I , 1 THE SERVANT QUESTION. 265 than any other day," said Mrs. Cooper-" a better dinner, and the children more carefully dressed. Every one that I know does." Mrs. Graves said nothing. Her conscience could not clear her on the starting-point. "I have sometimes wished that there was no such responsibility." Mrs. Phillips' bright face clouded for a moment. "Here is something exactly to the point," said Mrs. Henderson, who had been turning over the leaves of an English magazine lying upon the table. She had come upon it several evenings before; and there was a pencil mark against the paragraph, which she had made in the hope that Mrs. Cooper would chance to see it after she left. "Shall I read it? I dare say you will think it very dull; but it goes to the root of the matter." "Oh, by all means, if it is going to help us!" "It will not lighten what Mrs. Phillips has found her burden. It insists upon the responsi- bility as something 'that cannot be shaken off, or delayed, or, in common circumstances, even dele- gated.' Shall I go on?"And Mrs. Henderson finished the paragraph in a clear, low voice, by 12 page: 266-267[View Page 266-267] 266 THE COOPERS. which its deep significance lost nothing: "A per- son is introduced into our household as a servant. She is young, we shall suppose, and therefore, to a considerable extent, of unformed character. Her very youth and inexperience, however, render her the more susceptible to the moral influences under which she may be brought, whether for good or evil. Here, then, is a connection for ed, the duties springing out of which are no mor optiolal than those of parents to their children. She has been brought into a peculiar society, of which you at are the responsible and recognized head, and over whose various members it is inpossible that you shall not exert an influence of some kind. All authcority over others is a talent with which we are intrusted; and, from the nature of the relation, this is emphatically true of the mistress of a family. How much may be done by you to check the growth of evil habits! to to encurge the formation of good ones! to engraft all upon a living root of Christian principle! How muc may be done by a system of kindly instruction to add to the young domestic's stock of religious knowledge! to com- mend religion by showing its blessed effects in sub- THE SERVANT QUESTION. 267 duing and sweeteniny your temper! in making the law of truth and kindness preside in your whole conversation! in giving you moderation in prosperity,. and resignation in affliction! in spread- ing a genial sunshine upon your countenance, the radiation of the pardoned soul, and the holy glad- ness that is within! and not the least in the hal- lowing and cementing influence of family prayer! The obligation is only deepened when, as often happens, the young servant is the daughter of poor parents, or when she is a poor orphan, cast inexperienced and penniless on the world.'" "Oh dear! groaned Mrs. Graves, as the book was laid down-:' worse and worse. It's all very fine that we are to turn parish school-teachers to every ignorant, awkward soul we stumble over at an intelligence office; but who believes it?" "It sounds as if you had written it yourself, and laid it there for our express benefit. Let me see the magazine. It's here, after all, Mrs. Graves; but, as you say, 'who believes it ' " "It is something forced upon us," said Mrs. Phillips, who was delighted with the extract. "I shall never forget the horror I felt when poor page: 268-269[View Page 268-269] 268 THE COOPERS. Eliza died. She had lived Mith me two years, and her illness was so rapid that we had scarcely realized her danger when she as gone! She was devoted to the children, and it was a great loss to me, personally ; but the most bitter feeling was, that I had not been a faithful mistress. I could not accuse myself of any great lack of kindness or consideration. I had cared for her body; and there it lay cold, rigid, stiffening in death. What had I done towards the life she had entered upon? I shall never forget that panig of self-reproach, never!' Mrs. Graves did not feel at! all comfortable at the serious turn the conversation had taken. She wanted to hear how to make her servants do their duty to her, and not that she failed in hers towards them. "Oh, if people choose to make themselves miserable, they could find a bed of nettles to walk over any day! I want to find out lhow to get at one of those perfect machines like your Jo!" "Do you suppose she has no failts? Or, that she came to me without any? ' "Well, tell us how you managed to cure her THE SERVANT QUESTION. 269 of them. No, she 's one of those monsters of per- fection! Faults! You'll be trying to make us believe that you have some next." Mrs. Phillips was accustomed to her neighbor's style of conversation, and took no notice, save by a smile, of this last speech, until Mrs. Cooper joined in the same request. "I wish you would tell us your way. How are we ever to learn? There's your cook, for in- stance; what was her trouble?" "She was very untidy; so much so that I thought the first month I should never be able to keep her. I used to go regularly e'very morning, while she was making up her own room, and set out every dish, that was not what it should be, on a table in the middle of the room." "I should have a very heterogeneous collection if I tried it with Tiny," said Mrs. Cooper. "You should have seen mine! Sauce-boats with two spoonfuls of gravy, bits of butter, slops of cold tea, unwashed saucepans! Oh, dear, such a state as those closets were in!" : "It wouldn't do to try the expenment with most girls," said Mrs. Graves. "Nancy would page: 270-271[View Page 270-271] 270 THE COOPERS. have ordered you out of the kitchen. Why, I never think of going near it when they are at their meals; she resents it so." "Then I should have to give her up, that is all. I should not be just to Mr. Phillips, if I allowed waste in any part of his house." "But I always feel so mean if I go poking and prying into things; and I always see so much I don't care to know about." "How are you going to correct them then? I always tell a new cook that once a day she may expect me to take a general survey of her regions; and I never spare commendations where they are deserved." Mrs. Cooper thought of her voyage of discovery on the day of Tiny's illness. How disheartened she had been to find the tin burned off the set of new saucepans they had bought at Berrian's; the handles melted from the measures in setting them on the coals to boil eggs for breakfast, when every thing else was unwashed; the ivory handles of the knives yellow ad cracked; a heap of broken dishes in clitellar; and a bundle of sheets and , \ THE SERVANT QUESTION. 271 pillow-cases stained with mildew from lying over after they had been damped for ironing. Mrs. Phillips's plan of daily inspection would have prevented much of this; but she lacked courage to undertake the search or the reproof. Like Mrs. Graves, she shut her eyes deliberately to many things. Her chief excuse to herself and her husband had been want of time i That family sewing, again! How much more had she lost by undertaking to do it herself! Only that very morning she had gone through the house-linen and bedding with Mrs. Henderson. The best blankets were soiled and dingy, by lying about in the dust, until it suited Kate's convenience, or Johnny's whims to have the beds made; the pil- low-cases were "melting," as Tiny expressed it, where she had used acid to remove the mildew; no set of towels or napkins was complete, not even the pretty " snow-drop" pattern; they had enlisted into foreign service, as dish-cloths and chamber towels. It was a disheartening review from first to last, convicting AM Cooper of neglect, and her servants of gross carelessnesi& "I often blamed the girls for'at was my ?^h'? ' page: 272-273[View Page 272-273] 272 THE COOPERS. own fault when I came to look into the matter," Mrs. Phillips was saying, when she recalled her thoughts from this disagreeable retrospect. "( I do so, now. But I mean it was more frequent when I began to look into the matter at first." "Well," said Mrs. Graves, "your talent for humility only equals your housekeeping propen- sities; mine don't run in either direction. I pro- test to the last that it's the place of my servants aI to know their business, and do it thoroughly. That's my parting shot; for I don't intend to stay and be lectured any longer. Mrs. Cooper, let me know when I have no such risk to run, and we 'll have a comfortable half hour together berating the whole tribe!" Mrs. Graves made a pretty movement of self- defence, as she gathered up her shawl, and hurried out of the room, using as little ceremony as when she had entered it. "If 'berating' would do any good," Mrs. Phillips called after her. "I wish it would," said Mrs. Cooper. "Why'not try the training process which Mrs. Phillips seems to succeed with?" THE SERVANT QUESTION. 273 "It's just as you say; girls never stay long enough to be trained." "I meant another class from those you have to deal with." "But you see how we city people change!" "It is a lack of patience and consideration on both sides, I think, Mrs. Henderson." "But it is impossible to take the time and trou- ble your plan requires," Mrs. Cooper said, in reply to Mrs. Phillips. "I don't think it would cost you more in the end than changing so frequently." "Nor I," said Mrs. Henderson.' "I have heard you say very often how you dreaded to change, the time, and trouble, besides having a stranger 1 in the household." "That's true." "And then, when there are children, you run sucli a risk of bringing them into contact with bad principles; a fault of temper is much less to be dreaded, or a failing that can be cured with time and patience. Your strictures will have to begin at home, though we are the gainers there, by any 12* page: 274-275[View Page 274-275] 274 THE COOPERS. thing indeed that enforces self-control and dili- Sr gence upon us." "But, Mrs. Phillips-" "Well, my dear, go on." "I was only going to say that I wanted to feel the girls had some interest in me and the children. I think that makes all things go smoothly." "It is very pleasant. I know how it is with Joanna, especially; but you must have time for such a feeling to grow. Bribes will not bring it, or gifts or indulgence, and then flving out at them when you find the next minute some trivial or real neglect. Time and uniform friendliness will, in most cases, 'fashion one of those trusty family servants' you fancy so much." "But they are such an ungrateful set, as Mrs. Graves says." "Not in general; and if a person proves un- principled and ungrateful, it is no more than our Master meets, and has infinite long-suffering with." Mrs. Henderson's face lighted with that pecu- liar expression Mrs. Cooper had so often noticed when she found her faith the mainspring of action or feeling in another. THE SERVANT QUESTION. 275 c If He should be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who of us could abide it!" she said, gently. "If we could but remember that, in all our daily and social trials of temper and taste! I often wonder when I see people exacting so much of others, passing over a hundred excellencies, and treasuring up a single error or failing." "It has checked many a quick word, and fret- ful fault-finding," said Mrs. Phillips, "for me. I believe it was the very foundation of my first at- temipt at training Eliza. But if we take only selfish motives, we are the gainers in the end. I am at perfect liberty to leave home at any moment, for I know that, unless something unusual occurs, every thing will go on much the same as when I am there." "I suppose I might say the same in another sense!" said Mrs. Cooper, laughing. "Tiny does wonders now-but it is only Mrs. Henderson's work; so does Katy, for that matter. I have been trying to study her magic, but I have not learned it yet. She never scolds, and is not forever fol- lowing them about. I can't see into it." "Perhaps she rules by 'the law of kindness,' i. page: 276-277[View Page 276-277] t- 276 THE COOPERS. a very different code from the absence of all re- straint," said Mrs. Phillips, as the deepening twilight warned her of the gathering about her v. own hearth at that hour. "I hope very much that we may see her again, and frequently." "I am very glad the conversation took this A- turn," said Mrs. Henderson, as they went up to the nursery, after their visitors' departure. Every thing was quiet there. The baby was in one of those long, unbroken naps that are such blessings to young mothers, and Katy carried Johnny to the dining-room for his bread and milk. Under Mrs. Henderson's rule, he seldom saw the interior of the kitchen; and it was wonderful how much more time Katy found for her work than when she had full liberty to stand gossiping with Tiny, or at Tiny, rather, under pretence of amusing Master Johnny. "There is one thing I notice about Mrs. Phil- lips," said Mrs. Cooper, as she began to lay the baby's night-clothes on the towel horse by the fire. "She always has something to say, something that does one good, I mean; not about other people's THE SERVANT QUESTION. 2" dress or affairs, and not often about her own. We asked her to-day, you know." ' I dare say she feels the responsibility of every such encounter as this, and tries to turn it to the best advantage." "I believe you do, Mrs. Henderson." Perhaps so. It becomes a habit after awhile; though every one knows how much they find to reproach themselves with daily." Mrs. Cooper sat down in her low nursery-chair, and shaded her face with her hands, leaning down as she did so. "You are tired; we did too much this morn- ing. Let me undress the baby." / "Oh, no, it is not that; but the more I try to do right, the more I see undone. You and Mrs. Phillips talk as if we were actually responsible for every thing we do, or think, or say, or have, or do not have! -That is what tires me. I am so weary, so very weary of myself, of every thing! I have been this long, long time!" Mrs. Henderson waited for this hysterical burst of feeling to subside. "I long more than you can believe to comfort you, my dear child," and she laid her hand upon the bowed head before her; I page: 278-279[View Page 278-279] 278 THE COOPERS. "but I cannot help you with this weight, or by telling you that it is imaginary." "But what am I to do 1 You are going to- morrow, and I shall just fall back into the old way, and make Murray miserable, as I did before." "You have depended on my help?" "Oh, you know I have." "Yes, I do; because you believed I was right, and could counsel and assist you; that I was 'dis- interested too-you felt that-and that my desire to help you was real." "Yes, that is it. I have iested on you so, you will never understand how much I or what a friend in need you have been." "I have a friend who never leaves me," said Mrs. Henderson, her voice trembling with the sud- den hope that she might lead one she loved so well to Him also. "One I can always trust and turn to; sometimes he allows us to feel just this need when he is ready to help us. We should not reach out for his strength if ours did not utterly fail us." But she said no more. Not when they sep- arated for the night, though the burden of her THE SERVANT QUESTION. 279 evening prayer was for a blessing on the home she was leaving; not even when they parted the next day, though it might be for a lifetime. Mrs. Cooper turned to the house again, with the self-same weight upon her heart, and saw Katy holding Johnny at the dining-room window, kiss- ing his hands after the vehicle which carried Mrs. Henderson to the depot. On the door-step stood Tiny gazing after it, while she held up the corner of her apron as if it had been applied to her eyes recently. "Ther' isn't many the likes of her, ma'am," she said, retreating into her own dominions. Mrs. Cooper went to her little one, agreeing with this voluntary sentiment in full. Mrs. Hen- derson had stolen in to kiss her little charge good- by, while the family were still at the breakfast- table. Mrs. Cooper found her own Bible lying beside the child, as if Mrs. Henderson had felt where she would first turn, and a bit of ribbon marked some page she had evidently intended to be searched for a parting message. She found it by the pencilled line lightly drawn against the verse: "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest." page: 280-281[View Page 280-281] e i CHAPTER XII. GIFT-MAKING. "It is by no means a misfortune to be born in that station of life where we cannot eat our cake, and have it too." MRS. COOPER had made a grand discovery. Somebody finds it out every day for themselves, and imagines it to be a perfectly original theory. It is this, that we enjoy doubly what we strive for, and that the pleasure the rich find in the gratification of every fancy is made up to those in moderate circumstances by the attainment of some single, long-desired object. "Don't you think so, too, Murray?" she said, when she had stated her proposition as clearly as the jar of the train and the hiss of the locomotive would allow. She was going to town for the first time since her little daughter's birth; and it was quite an event to her -goington a very pleasant errand, too-the fit- -' * i GIFT-MAKING. 281 ting of the silk she had shown Mrs. Henderson; :J and, though every woman exclaims against the annoyance of being fitted, every soul of them en- joys the near prospect of wearing a new and be- coming dress. Besides which, she was to choose her birthday present from her husband, according to his promise on the day of their dinner-party. After much grave deliberation, it was to be some- thing for the house. She had decided on a set of candelabras. She found, after being accustomed to gas and a chandelier, that it was almost impos- sible to light their parlor for any thing like an evening gathering with a solar lamp. "If there's any thing more than another which makes a stiff evening, it's an ill-lighted room. When I came down that night Lizzie and Mr. Henderson were here, I noticed at once how for- lorn it was." "I thought it very cheerful, for my part," said her husband. "Oh, I had candles set on the piano at onde l but we had nothing but the chamber candlesticks to put them in; and that would never do with strangers." page: 282-283[View Page 282-283] 282 THE COOPERS. "Any thing, you fancy. It's nothing to me. I only want something useful, of course, that will last; and things of that description are always economical, you know." "But how came you to be able to afford to give them to me?" "That's my affair. Have you any idea what they cost?" "Not exactly." Going to get those dingle-dangles?" "Oh dear, no! They've been out of fashion these ages. I could have had a set of those, for that matter. Aunt Agnes has a pair set away in her store-closet, no use to any one; but they are so antediluvian. I want a pair of pretty bronze figures. Gilt always seems tawdry to me; besides, it wears off; so bronze is really much cheaper." "I thought bronze ornaments were the most expensive of any. I don't believe they will come within my limits." "Oh, not real bronze, you know! Everybody has imitations that not one in twenty discovers. Mrs. Phillips has, and Mrs. Graves." ' V IBt aGIFT-MAKING. 283 "None of your imitations, Matty. I don't go in for shams in any thing." "But this is quite another thing. Everybody has them. No one expects the real thing." "Beautiful consistency! I always did admire it. Didn't I hear somebody defending mock dia- monds with that very argument, and you say that your own self-respect wouldn't allow it? Self- respect less stringent in bronze than diamonds!" And he teazingly drew out his pocket diary, as if to make a memorandum of it, but, in reality, to set down his wife's fare to the city. "You have a desperate memory, Murray." "And you a very convenient one. No shams! Come, now!" "But you just said you couldn't afford the real; you know you did." "I suppose I ought to say, then, go withoit till we can. But I don't intend to. You 've made yourself sick trying to save for me; and I've de- nied myself every thing, this year; and it's a great pity if I can't indulge such a good little woman once in a while. So she should have her cande- labras; there!" page: 284-285[View Page 284-285] 284 THE COOPERS. "Don't be nonsensical, Murray. But hav'n't we done wonders, this year? Our expenses have been fully a hundred less than last, and with the moving and two children, too. I think we deserve a great deal of credit." "We must do a great deal better, though, next year. What 's a hundred dollars?" "Nothing to spend, that is true, but a greatk deal when it was spared from twenty things that had always been held as absolute necessities." Mrs. Cooper experienced that cheerful glow of , a satisfaction which arises from the consciousness of moral exertion successfully put forth, and felt equal to writing ai appendix to Miss Beecher's "Domestic Economy." Indulging in this mental s glorification, she submitted to the silence al- w: imposed on the female part of the commu- from the moment the newsboy makes his appearance in the cars with the morning papers, and was handed out at Chambers street, with the settled opinion that very few women were more entirely devoted to their husbands' interests than herself. "We will take the candelabras first," said Mr. GIT-MAKING. 285 Cooper, as they walked up Chambers street; "for I must be at the store by half past ten. i Where shall you go? I believe there's an establishment near the Park?" "Hadn't we better go to Hlaughwout's, where we had our china and things?" "That's so far up town. Here, this place is as good as any other, I suppose. Yes; there are candelabras, Now, don't be all day choosing, i but suit yourself." Mrs. Cooper had been perfectly innocent in her decision--innocent of any extravagant intentions, that is. She thought a pair of lo*, plain candela- bras, in imitation bronze, could be had for about twelve dollars, and asked to have some shown her; ] but there were none at that price; some below it, dwarfed and inelegant in shape; others ranting higher, but with a mixture of gilt, or painted porcelain, which did not please her at all. "There, something like those," she said, pointing to a pair of single figures on marble pedestals, upholding a branch. They came very near to her ideal- simple, chaste, and elegant. "Those- are the real thing," said the shopman. page: 286-287[View Page 286-287] 286 THE COOPERS. "You can't find any thing like those in imita- tion." "That's what we want," said' Mr. Cooper, speaking for the first time. "Let us see some more." "Oh!" And the man's manper instantly showed an increase of animation, as if it were considerably better worth his while to attend to them. "Much cheaper in the end, sir. These twist and droop with a very little wear. Those are always the same, firm as iron, you see-heavier. Just try to lift it, ma'am."' "I should think they would break more easily then," said Mrs. Cooper, studying the figures, and admiring them more every moment. "Copies from celebrated antiques. There, sir! observe the poise of that figure. Break, ma'am? Oh it's possible! but bronze itself can easily be mended. The imitation is quite useless, after a hard knock; that 's the great advantage." "What's the price?" said Mr. Cooper, shortly. :The man spoke low. Mrs. Cooper, at a little distance understood him to say twenty-five dollars. They were quite out of her reach; but she liked them more than ever. Even her unpractised eye -, C . GIFT-MAKING. 287 could see their purity and grace beside the best of the imitations. Mr. Cooper took out his watch. Time was precious to Mrs. Cooper as well as himself. She could not leave her baby longer than the mid-day train. "Have you any others, a little less, some- thing this style " No. Unfortunately, that was the-only pair they had then at a medium price. All the rest were larger, and still more expensive. This pairwas unusually low; but they had marked every thing down; it was near the holiday season; and they wanted 'to make way for a new lot of goods they were just getting through the custom-house. "No, sir. Those are a tremendous bargain. They could not be imported for that price." Mrs. Cooper knew enough of such wares to be sure that this was true. Twenty-five dollars was little enough for any thing so handsome. "They are certainly very low, Murray. I wish we could afford it," she said, in a rapid aside; while the clerk, accustomed to such little colloquies between customers, politely turned a deaf ear to the whis- per, and appeared to be about replacing the coveted ? .... $"2 page: 288-289[View Page 288-289] 288 THE COOPERS. articles on the upper shelf from which he had produced them. "They suit me so exactly; every thing else will seem so shabby. I 'm almost sorry we looked at them." "Do they suit you? are you sure?" said Mr. Cooper, hastily. "You are giving yourself very little time for the dressmaker. The cars leave exactly at half past twelve, recollect. Are they just what you wanted " ' Oh, handsomer! There isn't a single pair here I would have but those; and, of course-" But her criticism was cut short by Mr. Cooper's abrupt call to the shopman: "You may pack those. Have them at the depot in time for the four o'clock train." "But, Murray!"His wife looked aghast at the order; but it was too late for expostulation. The shopman was busy writing down the address; and she could not expostulate before him. Iwas so very extravagant; but they were sol very hand- some. They ought not to afford it; but it was just Murray's old self when they were first mar-- ried. He never could bear to denjr her any thing she had set her heart on. Perhaps they would be t. IQ alBEGIFT-MAKING. 289 the cheapest in the end, as the man said; and she would not allow him to make her any Christmas or New-Year's gift. "I 'm so sorry," she began, the moment they set foot on the pavement again. "Sorry for what? Didn't you say you liked them?" "Yes, indeed; but you know as well as I do that-"' "Oh, don't let's talk any more about it! I know all you intend to preach; and I 've been a devout hearer for so long, I had to break out to be sure of my own identity. I set 'out to make you a present for the first time in a year; and I wanted you to be suited; if you are, it 's all right. I wouldn't give any of those other things house room." They separated at the corner; and Mrs. Cooper went her way, half pleased, half sorry, but think- ing, after all, that it was not such a very enormous "Iapsus" into past offences, as it might have been, and committed solely to give her pleasure; while some men would have wasted twice as much on selfish gratification. She had her own little secret, that morning-a plan to surprise Murray with a 13 page: 290-291[View Page 290-291] 290 THE COOPERS. Christmas gift, simple and inexpensive,-yes, in- deed, she must be more prudent than ever, now -but something that he had once expressed a wish for. Long ago, in the days of their courtship, they had read an Italian story together, of some hus- band lost in a shipwreck, and washed ashore clinging to driftwood, withl a band of hair, braided and clasped with gold, about the rigid arm. His wife's hair it proved to be when identified by the clasp; and it had never left his arm since the day she fastened it there. It was decidedly sentimen- tal; but Mr. Cooper had an unsuspected vein of romance hidden under his careless manner; and he liked the fancy very much, and had spoken of it several times since. "Only I should want-you to braid it yourself," he said, in one of these lover- like outhreaks. "It would destroy all the poetry to have it go through the gum and bobbins of those hair-workers." Mrs. Cooper was rather touched by this mani- festation, and secretly resolved to get up a bracelet, according to desire, and manage to place it on his arm Christmas morning. She had the braid * GrIT-MAKING. 291 with her, having shorn an ample tress of her wavy black hair; and a clasp would cost but little, as inexpensive as her most rigid resolutions required. The principal of the large Broadway estab- lishment which she turned to happened to wait on her himself. He required a little explanation. The bracelet would be so very large; she must have mistaken the size. No; she was positive; and, to convince him, she produced the tape- measure she had cleverly contrived to slip around Murray's arm without his detecting her. "It was to be worn very high up, quite out of sight," she explained-" a gentleman's arm.'5 She felt her face flush. "Ah, I understand!-a gage d'amour," said the jeweller, with a smile she did not like. "Mad- am wishes a very handsome clasp, with an in- scription." "A single word and initials; that is all." "What kind of braid?" And he produced several specimens of fanciful hair-work from a drawer close by. "'Ah, this! exactly as it is. I wish you to be very sure it is not touched." page: 292-293[View Page 292-293] 292 THE COOPERuS. "It will wear very easily in this style "-and the jeweller turned the braid over and over- "fray and fret out. Perhaps madam has plenty to replace it." Mrs. Cooper had not thought of this contin- gency. No, indeed; she could not make up her mind to spare any more with the present style of broad braids. She knew the man was right, too. Even the closely woven bracelet she wore showed symptoms of the fraying he spoke of. Is there no way to prevent it!" she said, glancing at the large clock over the show-case, which ticked warningly. Her morning was already half gone. The obliging jeweller suggested several ex- pedients, if she was entirely determined not to have a fancy braid. She had seen rings with the hair set in the centre of a gold band, perhaps? That would be too heavy and inflexible, she thought. How would some little links, lightly chased, which would make it more ornamental, do?"He had an idea."' And the dark eyes studied the tress awhile, with his forefinger laid meditatively on the side of a fine, prominent Roman nose. I GIFT-MAKING. 293 "Perhaps he should not be able to make it very clear to her. Suppose she left it to his taste and X judgment?" It was all she could do, for her time was almost up; and she could not stop for a lengthy expla- nation. She gave particular instructions as to the time it must be done, the initials, etc., and turned to leave the counter. But what would the ex- pense of this novel arrangement be She ought to ask; but she hesitated, and went towards the door. Perhaps he would think her very fussy J and particular. She wished one of the clerks had waited on her. She would notha-e minded them so much. But she summoned courage to turn back and make the inquiry, faltering a little, pos- sibly, as she saw the expression of those pene- trating eyes, which seemed to read her economical motives through and through, though she had en- deavored to put on a careless manner, as if it were not of the least consequence. "Really, it would be impossible to determine before the work is done. We have never manu- factured any thing of the kind. As reasonable as possible: madam may depend upon that." page: 294-295[View Page 294-295] 294 THE COOPERS. A dismal foreboding flitted across Mrs. Coop- er's mind. "Perhaps you had better leave out the chasing," she said, with a great effort. "Oh, if madam wished it! but it would quite destroy the effect we should desire to produce. Certainly." Mrs. Cooper, over sensitive, imagined that she detected the faintest perceptible sneer in tone and manner\ ' Just as you please, then," she said, quickly, "so it does not make it too expen- sive." "Oh, no, she could depend on that!" And, wishing she could, she left the store with an unde- fined apprehension of loss or disappointment. It went with her as she kept her engagement at the dressmaker's. It followed her home, where she arrived weary and jaded with the effort she had made to keep up to the time of the train. Even in its bare November aspect, the quiet of the vil- lage was a relief after the hurry and jostle of the city. All the gay elasticity with which she left home that morning had vanished. "I don't care if it's the last time I shall see New York this winter," she said to herself, as the garden-gate GIFr-MAING. 295 swung to behind her. She felt as if her holiday had been filled with vanity and vexation of spirit. The sight that greeted her as she went up stairs, and opened the nursery-door softly, lest she should disturb either of the children in a nap, was the best thing that could have happened to restore the tone of her mind. Johnny was still tucked under his crib blanket, tired with his long morn- ing's play; but the baby was up, and as quiet as a kitten, looking with round, astonished eyes, into the face of her new nurse, as if she had the sense to comprehend and be astonished at the fact that Lizzie Grant was, of her own fre6 will, actually holding a baby. "'Horrid little wretch! There! take it!" she called out, her face flushing at the discovery. "Of course, I could not let it scream itself into convulsions while Katy went to the kitchen for some milk and water, to make up for the detention of its unnatural mother. Pretty story for Mrs. Henderson to hear, so soon after her departure, too, that I came out to console you, and found you dancing off to the city after Mur- ray, and leaving the baby to its fate?" "If you only knew how interesting you looked! page: 296-297[View Page 296-297] 296 THE COOPERS. Oh, if Murray was here! How did you come a How long have you been here?" "Take this monkey first. There! she 's going to cry, of course. I never touched a child in my life that didn't scream immediately. Go to your mother, you ungrateful little thing!" "But when did you come!" asked Mrs. Cooper, as Katy appeared to the rescue, while she laid aside her things. "Since you left, of course. As a special act of charity, to find you comforting yourself other- whveres; next time I shall keep my condolence to myself." And, though greatly wondering what was the real motive for this uinpremeditated but most acceptable visit, Mrs. Cooper failed to dis- cover it in the chat which ensued. Lizzie per- sisted that she had come to comfort her after Mrs. Henderson's departure, and listened with great friendliness to Mrs. Cooper's eulogium, considering how little she fancied good people, and that the son of this "best of women" was her especial aversion. She managed to inform herself of the whole domestic history of the family, however, of Mrs. Henderson's widowhood, her struggles to -3 I GIFT:I-MAING. 297 bring up her-children, the names and ages of the girls, and the story of, Stephen's self-denial for their sakes. Mrs. Cooper talked away on this fa- vorite theme very willingly, with a few leading questions, and thought Lizzie extremely amiable to listen. The afternoon passed rapidly; and Mrs. Cooper, rested and diverted from her morning's adventures, was quite herself again by the time her husband came. I[ "So Matty imported you for the purpose of admiring her birthday present, did she?" was Mr. Cooper's salutation. "Did you run over each other at Stewart's or Thompson's? Here they i f are, Matty. The individual positively kept his word for once in his life. I hope they are all right. There! that will do, my man. Put it A down in the hall." "What a large box!" said Mrs. Cooper, walk- ing around it, a little uneasily. "Presents. Oh, I'm always ready to inspect and admire! Let 's unpack. Where's a hammer or something, Tiny. 'Collameres!' Oh, a French china tea-set!" 13' page: 298-299[View Page 298-299] 298 THE COOPERSI "I might have had one for the, same money," said Mr. Cooper, a little regretfully. Still, there was zest in the unpacking, which all three assisted in, making a great litter of tissue-paper and straw for Tiny to clear away at her leisure. Mrs. Cooper dusted, and her husband set up the very handsome addition to their little parlor. "You extravagant people!" said Miss Grant, dispatching Tiny for the candle-boi to see how they would light up. "But bronzes are not quite so costly as they were. -I chose a set for Jane Lawton, when she went to housekeeping, you see, and happen to know." "Oh, these were a tremendous bargain!"- Mrs. Cooper was very willing to believe it, as she looked around the room, and thought how much more she could have done with the same amount to add to its decoration and comfort-" only twenty-five dollars." "You couldn't get them for that, I know," said Miss Grant, essaying vainly to lift one. "But we did." And Mrs. Cooper appealed to her husband, who had gone for the candles him- self, delighted at this confirmation to the shop- I:j OIiMGIFT-MAKING. 299 man's assertions. "Lizzie won't believe that we only paid twenty-five dollars for them." "Forty-five!" said Mr. Cooper, with emphasis. "No, Lizzie; he's only teazing you. It was twenty, not forty. That's:bad enough. We have not quite lost our senses'" "But it was forty-five," said Mr. Cooper, se- riously. "I thought you understood it. There 's the bill, any way; and that's what I paid him." A faint, sick feeling made Mrs. Cooper sit down in the nearest chair, as she came to under- stand that her incautious admiration had really cost them so much. The room was a blaze of light a moment after; and Lizzie was calling her to admire the effect. She could scarcely force a smile in reply, or wait until her friend had gone up stairs to renew her toilet for dinner, to say-: "Oh, Murray, how could you! Oh, I never shall want to see them or hear of them again!" Mr. Cooper had meditated the gift so long, and had even involved his own conscience to gratify his wife entirely, that he felt aggrieved, naturally enough, at this reception of it. When Miss Grant page: 300-301[View Page 300-301] 300 THE COOPERS. came down again, she rallied them both on their long faces, and secretly wondered whether it was flour or soap out this time-coal, possibly, by their extreme gravity and mutual politeness. If the purpose of a gift is to make both parties happier, neither the one received nor premeditated had its due effect on Mrs. Cooper. She avoided the parlor as much as possible, for she was con- tinually computing what might have been done for it by the forty-five dollars stiffly t ransfixed on the corners of the mantelpiece; and, as she had said to Murray, no one thought of looking for the real thing, so they should never have the credit of possession. "Better hunt up the shop ticket, w:th the price in full, and hang on one of the bra ches," said Murray, tired of the bewailing that ould break forth, now and then, to him. A less aIiable man, under the circumstances, would have r torted with the threat of this being' the last time he should ever try to gratify her, or that she had no one to blame but herself. Then there was the uncertainty about the bracelet-whether it would be done in time- GIFT-MAKING. 301 whether Lizzie Grant, to whom the commission had been intrusted, would remember to call for it-and, above all, what would be the amount of the bill. Five dollars was the utmost limit she had first intended; but gradually she tried to ac- custom her mind to the idea of ten, though it might involve ier in some difficulty, and perhaps an appeal to Murray's purse, very annoying, con- sidering the circumstances. Christmas week came, and no package from Miss Grant. She did not like to write to her, for fear Murray might chance to receive and open the reply, so spoiling the surprise; and a message, if ever so carefully worded, might lead to the same result. Going in herself was out of the question, in a week so busy to all housekeepers, and with no ostensible excuse. But her suspense was ended at last. "There's a package somebody left at the office for you," said Murray, one evening. There were only three days to Christmas; and Mrs. Cooper had been resolving to go in at all hazards, if she did not hear that night. "It's Lizzie Grant's di- rection-a Christmas box for you or the children, page: 302-303[View Page 302-303] 302 THE COOPERS. I suppose; so I thought I would give you the pleasure of opening it." Mrs. Cooper caught at the neat little parcel. It was evidently the bracelet; and a note was slipped into the cord which secured the wrapper. "Read it first," suggested Mr. Cooper. "That will tell the whole story." It did! "MY DEAR MATTY : I despair of getting this to you by any one but Murray. Your friend, Mrs. Phillips, had left before I received it. ISo we must trust to fortune and the Evening Post as to the chance of a premature disclosure. I send the bill, which I paid at once, as I supposed you wished me to. "My devoted love to the nursery department. "In haste, LIZZIE." The bill, indeed. Mrs. Cooper opened it des- perately, quite oblivious, in her agitation, of her husband's movements. Unsuspicious that he was, in any degree, verging on forbidden ground, Mr. Cooper occupied himself in unloosing the parcel on the other side of the lamp. GIFT-MAKING. 303 Mrs. Cooper gave a little sigh of relief as she saw the sum total-three dollars and seventy.-five cents. She might have spared herself all that worry for such a pitiful sum, far less than she ex- pected at first. But no!as she looked again, to be sure it was all right. The figures danced be- fore her eyes, while the blood rushed to her face with fright and mortification. "$37 75" were the correct figures. There was no gainsaying it; and the only hope now was that the book-keeper ofTait & Co. might have made an error. But this dismal train of reflections, rapid as they were, had a sudden interruption. "Hallo, Matty! what's this? a dog-collar " A dog-collar, indeed! The article which Mr. Cooper had just freed from its bedding of pink and white cotton, and now held up with wonder- ing scrutiny, was, in size and shape, to be com- pared to no other known invention. Massive and richly wrought, nearly an inch in width, and at least nine in circumference, it seemed to her first amazed, disappointed, incredulous gaze. "It must be a mistake. Oh, I'm so glad! Yes, I guess it is a collar for a pet greyhound, or something of \, page: 304-305[View Page 304-305] 304 THE COOPERS. that sort; and they 've sent it to me y accident. Let me see." And she reached out her hand with a little nervous laugh of relief. "Wait a minute. Here are the 0w er's ini- tials, then: 'M. S. C. to M. C.' Why, what an odd coincidence! And here 's this dark line I thought was enamel. Why it 's hair? a braid of hair? Did you ever see any thing so mysterious " Mrs. Cooper had it in her own hands at last. There was a mistake, true enough, plenty of mis- takes, but not the one she had comforted herself with. The tape measure she had left had been used in its full length, not to the knot expressly pointed out to Mr. Tait. The bracelet was a heavy hoop of gold, something like those so much the fashion for ladies' wear, only twice the width, the outer surface relieved by a wreath of delicately wrought leaves, under which the braid was to be discovered, having precisely the effect of black enamel. The design was Well enougl in its way, the workmanship exquisite, but the misconception of her purpose and her order absolute. It would have encircled the brawny arm of " the village blacksmith;" and, as for all sentimental associa- GIFT-MAKING. 305 tions, the " dog-collar" had nipped them in the bud. Mrs. Cooper began to explain, but thought of the bill, and her great worry and disappointment after all. She could not go on. Her husband laughed till the tears stood in his eyes, when he at last began to have some glimmering of the truth, and then checked his mirth, and tried to console her, finding how really distressed she was. "Can't you wind it round with something, so that I could wear it after all, Matty, or pad it?"And then he slipped it up over his coat-sleeve, quite to the elbow. No; that would not do. "Perhaps the man can take a reef in it somehow. Never mind; there, 'the will for the deed,' you know, little one." But, as in many another case, this was no con- solation whatever; and Mrs. Cooper went to bed with a fast increasing nervous headache, leaving the " dog-collar" on the table with her untasted dinner. She passed a restless, miserable night, full of expedients to clear herself of the obligation to Miss Grant, without applying to her husband, all equally useless and visionary. She slept heavily I, page: 306-307[View Page 306-307] 306 THE COOPERS. towards morning; and, when she awoke, Murray had gone to town, leaving a note on her pillow, inclosing a check for the amount. "Don't worry any more, Matty. Set it down opposite to candelabras, and balance the account. Next time, we will consult each other-you in word, and I in deed." The generous forbearance made Mrs. Cooper far happier than the costhest gift could have done. But the next train found her speeding to town, with the parcel and the check, animated by the most courageous resolutions, and sustained by them when she entered Tait's, and inquired for the head of the establishment. He was sorry, very sorry, that he had not apprehended the lady's order; but he had taken great credit to himself for its execution. The mistake must assuredly lie with herself, and of course the loss. Such a trinket could never find sale, would be perfectly useless in his stock. "Is there any way of alteration, then?" in- quired Mrs. Cooper. "It might make a pair of bracelets for a lady." And, if the worst came to GIFTr-MAKING. 307 the worst, she could bestow them on Lizzie Grant, in return for some of her numerous gifts. Mr. Tait smiled loftily. "Impossible to bend without injuring," was his imperturbable reply. "What can be done with it?" said his cus- tomer, rapidly'losing every particle of interest in the unfortunate gage d'amour. The jeweller shrugged his shoulders. "It would be worthless to me, except its in- trinsic value as old gold." "How much would that be?"Happy thought! She might recover at least half her loss. "Was madam really in earnest T? Yes; never more so; not only earnest, but almost defiant. Half the amount of boldness that now came to her aid would have saved her the dilemma. The scales were adjusted, with a manner the reverse of Courteous. "Nine dollars and a half is all I could allow," said a voice so cold that it might have been that of Sir John Franklin wafted from the Arctic region on the bleak north wind, that had given Mrs. Cooper's cheeks a brilliant glow. There was j. page: 308-309[View Page 308-309] 308 THE COOPERS. a little of her old spirit, too, in the flush. The man's demeanor was rude almost to insult. "You charged me thirty-eight, nearly. Im- possible!" said Mrs. Cooper, at this revelation of business profits. The jeweller held out the bracelet, pointing to the chased work. "I explained that it would be expensive." Mrs. Cooper scorned an altercation, in which there was evidently nothing to be gained. You may pay me nine and a half." "Just as madam pleases." The dark eyes glowed; and the hand that counted down the money fairly trembled with suppressed anger. Then, before she could place it in her purse, he seized a heavy pair of iron pincers, and crushed the costly bauble hopelessly between them, as if it had been paper, sweeping the fragments into an open drawer. Whatever of fable may be inwrought with this family history, the scene thus ending is veritable, and "trade profits" still are realized over the counter which separated the negotiators in this rapid transaction. GIFT-MAKING. 309 Mrs. Cooper made her appearance at her hus- band's office with a lighter heart, if a lighter purse, than she had known since ordering the bracelet, and laid down the notes she had just received. "A trifle on account," she said, meeting his half questioning, half teazing look. Johnny's angola stockings were both crammed out of shape on Christmas morning; and a Noah's Ark from Mr. Henderson was hitched behind a toy locomotive, regardless of all precedent, and headed straight for the grate-pan, below the sus- pended sugar-plums and lady-apples. Even the baby's socks held a gift from Lizzie Grant, a set of corals that overflowed in a crimson rivulet on the dressing-table. But Mr. and Mrs. Cooper ex- changed only a very fond kiss, and the promise that even in gift-making they would hereafter let appropriateness and thoughtful consideration stand in the place of lavish expenditure. page: 310-311[View Page 310-311] CHAPTER XIII. UNDER FULL SAIL. "And so He bringeth them to the haven where they would be." THERE was a grave consultation in the little counting-house of Cooper & Henderson. The short winter's day had already given place to an uncom- fortable murky twilight. The gas had been called into service two hours before; and the partners still lingered over the thick ledgers and great balance-sheet which Mr. Henderson, as book- keeper, had prepared for his friend's inspection. It was the result of their second year of co-part- nership, to which Mr. Cooper had brought the few thousands, his Uncle Murray's bequest-and Mr. Henderson, experience, many friends, and un- bending integrity. It was a time fir grave and thoughtful faces. All the future depended upon the result; to Mr. Cooper, the little home, which UNDER FULL SAIL. 3" he was content to work for, and his wife to exer- cise the industry and self-denial which were grow- ing to be habitualnow, and therefore a yoke to be borne more easily. Yet Mr. Henderson showed the greater anxiety of the two. Usually so calm and self-possessed, his forehead was bent almost into furrows; and his hand shook as he went slowly over the result, proving to his friend that there was no possibility of an error in the sum total. Mr. Cooper, noisily demonstrative at other times, uttered only a- prolonged whistle, and sud- denly discovered that it was car time. The con- ference broke up in haste. But a wife's quick eyes were not to be deceived by outward composure. Mrs. Cooper and Johnny, watching for papa, were rewarded, at length, by the quick, well-known tread upon the gravel-walk; and the boy, forgetting "the moon " made by the lamp-shade upon the ceiling, and papa's slippers, which he had been keeping watch over for half an hour, trotted out into the hall, suddenly lighted by the opening of the dining-room door. "Halloo, youngster! you up at this time of night?" was the ungrateful salutation with which page: 312-313[View Page 312-313] 312 THE COOPERS the child's rapturous welcome was received, though it was by his father's especial desire that Master Johnny had made acquaintance with the evening lamp and a six o'clock bedtime. When was Johnny ever before found in the way? Johnny in a sack, too, for the first time in his life, with white trowsers, and brass buttons, and a belt-almost a boy. Mrs. Cooper was quite cut down at having failed in making a sensation, when Tiny in the kitchen, and Katy up stairs, had met this first appearance by a burst of admiration and applause; and even the baby, just advanced to Johnny's colored mering frocks of the last win- ter, shouted "Da da " in her best style at the bright buttons and shining belt. Mr. Cooper put his hand to his eyes as he came into the cheerful light of the dining-room; and his wife saw at once, by the tired haggard lines which she knew so well in the old times of their anxiety, that "something had happened," that in- definite conclusion which reacts so suddenly upon the lightest and most hopeful mood. She pointed to the slippers, and lifted Johnny quietly to her lap, steadying her voice before she said, "What UNDER FULL SAL. 313 is it, Murray 2'?-a simple question enough, but conveying all her anxiety and her desire to com- fort him in its cadence. "Matter? Why-what-what do you mean, Matty?" He stooped down, as he drew off his boots- she thought intentionally, so that she should not see the working of his face. "Oh, nothing! You do not look well, though." Don't I " She would rather have seen any other expres- sion than the sudden gayety with which he snatched Johnny from her arms, and began ad- miring his unusual accoutrements, which he had just caught sight of. "What's all this, Johnny? Where did all these buttons come from? and a potet? bless us, a potet just like papa's! Why, Johnny 's a little man now!"And, the gratified youngster was lifted on the table, in dangerous proximity to the castor and the lamp, where he commenced dis- playing all his glories forthwith. But his mother's promised enjoyment of the scene had vanished. This boisterous manner did not quiet her ever rest- " page: 314-315[View Page 314-315] 314 THE COOPERS. less apprehensions. Something of importance had happened, she was sure; and Murray was only putting her off. "There! that will do for to-night. Where 's Katy?" said Mr. Cooper, suddenly relapsing into the jaded manner which she had first noticed. "Katy has gone to the village with a message. I am to put him to bed," said Mrs. Cooper, not sorry to be alone for a moment before she heard the bad tidings, whatever they were. "Come up softly when you go to our room; the baby is a little restless." "Well, don't be all night. Good-by, Johnny. See who 'll be dressed first in the morning, you or papa." And, with a parting squeeze and kiss, Johnny was resigned to his mother's charge. The tired little hands dropped away; and the childish utterance of "Now I lay me down to sleep" died out at the first line of the boy's baby prayer. Yet his mother still knelt a she had done to teach him the faltered words. She was praying with an earnest vehemence of desir, though her lips did not move, which showed tha this was not her first petition, that she trusted in lim to whom UNDER FULL SAIL. 315 she opened her troubled heart for comfort and help, that had been received heretofore, and was ever ready for the humble asking to supply the need of the hour. She had come to this faith, wooed by the gentleness of the invitation sent by the hand of a well-beloved servant, "that she might have rest;" and she found not only rest, but strength, for all that might be before her. She met her husband with the serene, quiet look that F he noticed more and more often of late, as he some- times wondered from whence came the new love liness that he felt, but could scarcely define. Dinner was on the table, and Tiny moving about with bread and water pitcher. There was no time for an explanation then; besides, Mrs. ,Cooper never wanted the width of the table be- tween them when there were any confidences to be made. Mr. Cooper carved silently, with a pre- occupied, steadfast look, as if he were cutting his way through some unseen difficulty, instead of the breast of an innocent chicken. What could it be? IE Mrs. Coopr's quick imagination caught at the worst, fora^moment. She knew it was very near the time for their yearly settlement. No doubt page: 316-317[View Page 316-317] 316 THE COOPERS. they had gone behindhand; perhaps they were insolvent. Tiny had retreated to her own domains, moving the bell, significantly, a little nearer to her mistress. Mr. Cooper threw down his fork. "It 's no use; I hav'n't a bit of appetite." His wife left her seat, and came around behind his chair, drawing his head back, and pressing her hand to his throbbing temples. His face certainly looked very pale in the strong light. "Never mind, then; neither haye I. Come and sit on the sofa, and tell me all about it." "Can you bear it?"And she was followed unresistingly. "Oh yes, any thing but suspense! Is it business?" "Yes; I have been going over the balance- sheet with Henderson. - "To-day? It is a week to the first of the month." "I know it; but we could get at it near enough. You know, Matty, I never proposed going into business myself." "I know it! I know it!" she said, with quick foreboding. "It was my plan." UNDER FULL. SAIL. 317 "It was, Matty. I should have been content to purchase a little home for you and the children, and gone on with my salary to support it." "It was all my fault, I know," said Mrs. Cooper, her self-accusing spirit accepting the disappoint- ment she had herself prepared. "But we are no worse off than we were then; I hope not, at least. We can go back to the salary; can't we, Murray? Is it very bad?"And a new fear of liabilities over and above their little' capital came with a pang as she spoke. How much is it?" She almost held her breath for his reply. A vision of long, toilsome, burdened years rose up Ji suddenly before her. Nevertheless, if God had seen fit to send the trial, He would send the strength also. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." There was a promise that could never be made void. "Two thousand three hundred and odd, to the credit of each." "I don't understand." And the face, looking up so earnestly into his, changed suddenly. "Over and above our four thousand, of course," page: 318-319[View Page 318-319] 318 TIE COOPERS. said Mr. Cooper. "Good gracious, Matty! you ain't going to faint, are you?" "No." But the voice, the sudden drooping of the eyelids, and the quiver of the mouth seemed very much like it. "You see the twelve hundred last year and this, make more than as much again-pretty good profits for young beginners, hey? andi the safest kind of a business; you may be sure of that, with Steve in the concern," explained Mr. ooper, ea- gerly, nearly exhausted by the restraint he had imposed upon himself to carry out his passion for agreeable surprises. 'eSplendid prospects for next year, too. We never began to do the )usiness we are doing now; and a year from this, old lady, somebody is going to have a place of her own." "Oh, I don't care for that! not at l11." And, at the moment, she did not. It was enough to be relieved of her fears, and certain that her husband was solvent and prosperous. She sent a grateful upward thought, and, as when she had numbered their blessings the year before, said, aloud: "God has been very good to us." "You ought to have seen Steve, thou h, Matty," UNDER FULL SAIL. 319 said Mr. Cooper, breaking out again. Took it a great deal harder than I did, for all he has no wife -I and babies. I 'm uneasy about him. Positively, I 'm afraid something serious has happened to him. He was so shaky, eto-night, that, if it haq been anybody else, I should have thought he had been taking a flyer in stocks, and the market had turned against him." "I hope he is not sick, and keeping it from us. His- mother ought to know. Oh, Murray, how delighted she will be!"And the real enjoyment of their good fortune began slowly to dawn on Mrs. Cooper's mind. "What, that her son 's sick 2 " "You know what I mean. You know she's almost as much interested in us as in him." ' I shouldn't wonder-no!-there!-well, I shouldn't be in the least astonished if Steve was fond of somebody. There's that Miss Caswell, his mother used to talk about, up at Rockland." "Oh, yes, I remember! he calls her Sarah. Don't you know, they were saying how much good she was always doing?" "And he's going home next week, and was page: 320-321[View Page 320-321] 320 THE COOPERS. only waiting to find out how things stood before he proposed. That's it! clear as day! Won't I let him down hard to-morrow?" . "I suppose, from all they said, s e must be just suited to him." And Mrs. Cooper thought, with a sigh, of Lizzie Grant, who was not in the least; and yet it would have made her so happy if they had fancied each other. They had met frequently since the birthday dinner; but Mrs. Cooper's little scheme had been completely extin- guished there. It was her first and last attempt at match-making. "Isn't Mr. Henderson coming out before he goes home? Oh, and Murray, now I am so glad! I did want to send Mrs. Hender- son something; and now we can afford it." "There! that's the way! Now, how can a man get ahead in the world? The instant he gets a few hundred dollars, his wife rushes off, and spends it." Mrs. Cooper caught a momentary twinkle in her husband's eyes, and was not the least thrown back by this reception of her proposal. "But this is a debt, you know. We owe more UNDER FULL SAIL. 321 in dollars and cents than I should think of giving for all she did for us last fall." "That's so; but you 'll have to be in a hurry about it. This is Friday; and he goes on Monday." The time had been when Mrs. Cooper could, by no possibility, have left home on the last day of the week; but she had learned better than to let cleaning and baking accumulate until it was such a day of toil that the Sabbath was by no means a rest, simply physical and mental stagnation, as so many thrifty householders find it. A consultation with Tiny, growing stout and rosy since her final recovery from chills; unnunmbered charges to Kate; and an indefinite promise of good things to Johnny, covered her retreat from Saturday's domestic cares. She was not bent on any extrav- agant purchase. She thought of a great many costly things she should like to send; and Murray would have agreed heartily to any thing; but Mrs. Henderson's probable tastes and wishes were to be consulted; and she never had been guilty of an extravagant fancy in her life. Mrs. Cooper remembered having heard her say that her eyes were getting almost too old for the fine print of the "* page: 322-323[View Page 322-323] 322 THE COOPERS. pocket Bible she had used so long, though she dis- liked to lay aside such an old friend and comforter. To Appleton's, therefore, Mrs. Cooper betook her- self, and was presently busied with russet-bound quartos and duodecimos. "Fine white paper and clear type. It is not so much matter about the binding," she explained to the polite shopman, expatiating upon standard and Oxford editions; and, as she waited for his descent for the third time from the accommodating step-ladder, which brought the treasures of the alcove within her reach, she discovered, notwithstanding "the dim religious light" which befitted the space thus ap- propriated, a familiar figure, though the face was turned away. The sable cape, the ash-colored silk dress, the very toss of the plumes on the little vel- vet and lace apology for a bonnet, were unmis- takable. But why was Lizzie Grant 'uminiating among velvet-bound prayer-books? and what did her attendant oracle mean by reading from his list " one illustrated 'Pilgrim's Progre s, English edition?" Mrs. Cooper came very near dropping the two books she was comparing-Miss Grant turning UNDER FULL SAIL. 323 suddenly, flushed with a color almost as deep as the fuchsias in her bonnet; but the power of speech never deserted her in any emergency. "Don't think I've gone and turned 'good' after your fashion. I'm shopping for country friends, as usual; and I hate to make purchases thatI don't know any thing about; so you're just in time. Going to present that to Murray for New Year's?" But Miss Grant did not ask her friend's advice at all; on the contrary, her selections were com- pleted before Mrs. Cooper had decided between russet and Turkey bindings; and the two left their purchases to follow them. Miss Grant was in un- usual spirits even for her. She proposed escorting Mrs. Cooper to the depot, when she found that she was to return immediately. They were just in time; the first cars were moving out of the grace- less shed, which answers to that name, as they en- tered the last one, where they found abundance of room; and Mrs. Cooper proposed that her friend should ride up town and finish their chat. "You can easily get out at Fortieth street." And so they thought; but the halt was momentary; page: 324-325[View Page 324-325] 324 THE COOPERS. and they were so busily occupied, Miss Grant hav- ing to hear the whole story of their good fortune, that neither perceived the peril until the united train moved out steadily under steam. It was use- less to grieve over it then, though Miss Grant looked really vexed for a moment, and said some- thing about a special engagement to send off her morning's purchases. Nor did the restless, pre- occupied look pass from her face until, by consul- tation with the conductor, she found that an after- noon train would land her in the city a very little after dark. "So you see you might as well go on and enjoy yourself," said Mrs. Cooper; "and, speaking of engagements, what do you think Murray said, last night, after he told me all about the business? I was quite astonished. Though, when I came to think of it, he had made a great many inquiries about the expense of housekeeping, and so on, lately; Mr. Henderson, I mean." "And what remarkable discovery did Murray light on?" said Miss Grant, with a carelessness of her important news that would have vexed Mrs. Cooper had she not known of old how little Mur- UNDER FULL SAIL. 325 ray's partner was to her liking. "Is this River- dale?" she added, before the answer could be given. "Oh, it's only supposition!" Miss Grant turned from spelling out the station signs, and seemed more inclined to listen. "Murray thinks he is really interested in some one, and has oily been waiting to be sure the bl- siness would allow him to marry. Miss Caswell, we think it must be, the daughter of a lawyer in Rockland." "Oh!" said Miss Grant, "rustic and perfect, I suppose, given to soup-societies, and cutting out red flannel for the Dorcas. I wish you joy, my dear, of such a delightfully congenial friend.'& Mrs. Cooper declined any further communications. It was a sore point between Miss Lizzie and her- self, the lack of appreciation, the bombast, and even ridicule with which she always met any allu- sion to Mr. Henderson. For a few miles there was a most unusual silence between them; and, when the conversation recommenced, lit was with a strong resolution, on Mrs. Cooper's part, never page: 326-327[View Page 326-327] 326 THE COOPERS. to mention Mr. Henderson's name to Lizzie Grant again so long as they were friends. But the best resolutions are forgotten; and so it was that, this same afternoon, when Miss Grant was sitting by the parlor fire, with her cloak thrown around her, and bonnet in hand, waiting only Mr. Cooper's airival to be escorted to the down train, the conversation came round to Fair- view, the pretty place occupied by Mrs. Graves, who had fulfilled her threat of breaking up, and going to board. "It 's the most delightful house, so tasteful and well built. I only wish it was for sale a year later, or that Mr. Henderson would marry a rich wife, and settle down there. Dear me, with Murray doing so well and all, I don't think I should have a thing to ask!" "State your case. There's no knowing what he might do to oblige you." "He wouldn't do that to oblige his own mother," said Mrs. Cooper, with energy, and walk- ing quite out of sight of her resolve. "He never will marry any one with money. He has a per- fect horror of any thing mercenary. And, who- UNDER FULL SAIL. 327 ever his wife is, she will be fortunate among women." ' Isn't it a great pity you can't dispose of Mur- ray, and take him yourself " "There he is now, I verily believe," said Mrs. Cooper, distracted from this taunt by the appear- ance of two dark figures passing the window in the twilight. "Lizzie!"But Miss Grant had disappeared. Mrs. Cooper met Mr. Henderson with both hands extended, though glancing uneasily over her shoulder to see if there was a flutter of Miss Grant's dress in the dining-room beyond. "I did not think you would go without coming out for a quiet evening," she said. "But he can't stay over the next train," said Murray; "so make the most of him." "Oh, but you must! We shall not see you again in so long; and I have a hundred and one messages to send to your mother." "I 'n& sorry; but any other time-th-morrow being Sunday," said Mr. Henderson, hurriedly, as he came into the fire-light, and stooped down a little, rubbing his hands in the bright warmth. page: 328-329[View Page 328-329] 328 THE COOPERS. "Positively?" "Positively." "And I haven't written that note to your mother, or seen you to congratulate you." Mrs. Cooper said this very innocently; and, referring to the business, wondered greatly at the explosion that followed; Mr. Cooper thumping his friend unceremoniously on the back, with "She's got ahead of you, after all; out with it, old fellow! Here! what's the use of being bash- ful? Steve's in for it, Matty; he's engaged." "Engaged!" And Mrs. Cooper forgot the necessity there was for Murray to post directly back to the cars with Miss Grant, in the certainty of this overwhelming intelligence. "Positively done for, by telegraph, I expect -for I 'll answer for it, every thing hung on that balance-sheet, last night." "No wonder you are anxious to get to Rock- land," said Mrs. Cooper. ." But tell us all about her; is she young? is she pretty! is she so dread- fully, dreadfully good? am I going to be very much afraid of her?" Mr. Henderson smiled; yet his manner was UNDER FULL SAIL. 329 mor6 embarrassed than the position seemed to re- quire. "I have not her permission to tell even such close friends all about it. Don't think it strange; you shall know first of any one, even before my mother." "Pray don't make a stranger of me, good peo- ple!" * The voice sounded close at Mr. Henderson's elbow; and the window-curtain was thrown over a chair by the movement Miss Grant made in emerging suddenly from her concealment. "Lizzie! / Yes, positively Mr. Henderson said "Lizzie," and started as if somebody had thrown a torpedo under his feet; so did Mrs. Cooper, as he drew the delinquent's hand through his arm, the next moment, and kept it in his, moreover. "Well, what have you got to say? Why don't you congratulate ls!" said Miss Grant, dropping a defiant courtesy at Mr. Cooper; " or are you so very much afraid of her?"' And she caught the tone of Mrs. Cooper's query exactly. "I wash my hands of the business for one," page: 330-331[View Page 330-331] 330 THE COOPERS. said Mr. Cooper, regaining his mental equilibrium, and comprehending the position of a airs. "Don't expect me to sympathize when yor come to sep- arate six weeks after the wedding." "Keep your sympathy till it is c lled for; one thing at a time; where's your manners? you haven't congratulated us yet. Why, ] atty, what 's the matter?" But Mrs. Cooper was really hurt nd offended. That all this should have been going on, and she not even consulted, when they mig t thank her for it all, too! And Lizzie had been there all day, and was going, without so much as a hint of what had happened. No"; it was too un ind. "She would never forgive them as long as she lived." "I couldn't tell you I intended to marry the man before he asked me," said Miss erant, really disturbed by this unlooked-for emotion on Mrs. Cooper's part. And I couldn't tell you I thought she would, when she never allowed me even to guess what she intended to say." "My dear, he was the longest timle coming to UNDER FULL SAIL. 331 the point. Positively, I thought he intended to get out of it, after all." "Not many minutes after he found he could afford to propose I'll wager," said Mr. Cooper; "he couldn't stop for an omnibus, I recollect, when we left the office." "That's it; 'twas the man's dreadful anxiety. I was surprised into it. I fully intended to say "O. "Did you?" said Mr. Henderson, quietly. "But here she's been all day, yes, very much concerned about being brought out against her will." Mrs. Cooper was battling between her mortifi- cation at not having been made a confidant by either party, and the good sense which forced her to acknowledge that, just as Mr. Henderson had been situated, there was nothing to confide up to the last hour of his suit. "I didn't wish to hurt Mr. Cooper's feelings," said Miss Grant, demurely. "The fact of the business is, we were both so interested in each other's affairs, last night, that we forgot to ex- change permission to put it in the papers." page: 332-333[View Page 332-333] 332 THE COOPERS. And he was too honorable to tell names, as it was your secret; and you were afraid to. That's it; own up that you're afraid of him, Lizzie; and we 'll forgive you. That ever I should live to see the day Lizzie Grant acknowledging mortal man for her lord and master " "There's the train, now," said Mr. Henderson, as a faint, shrill shriek began to sound in the distance; yet he made no attempt to regain his hat. "I suppose we must ask you b th to stay un- til Monday, now." Mrs. Cooper came out of her pet with an effort. "You don't deserve it, either of you. Oh, you might as well make the best of it, Lizzie! You could not possibly reach the depot in time. I don't believe it in the least, even yet, after Mr. Henderson's long list of qcalifications." And, in the bottom of her heart, she wondered how he had overlooked the giddiness ard frivolity so opposite his staid gravity, oi' Lizzie contented herself to encounter what would be a strict though gentle rule if she became his wife. But then, as she said to herself, the next moment, how very unlike Mur- ray and herself were, in the opinion of their friends; 5i' -( UNDER FULL SAIL. 333 there was no accounting for these things, after all. "What possessed you, Lizzie?" she said, the mo- ment they were alone. "My dear, you don't think it's him! No ; I'm going to marry for a mother-in-law. I dote on his mother. I did from the first moment I saw her here. I never remember one of my own; and it's the only way I can get a claim on her; that's all. I shall make up my mind to endure his perfec- tions. They were dreadfully in the way, I assure you." "How about a rich wife " said Mr. Cooper, afterwards, in the same bantering/tone. The gentlemen had strolled out to smoke in the moonlight, frosty though it was. "It was hard to get over. I told her soat once. It kept me balancing the matter for months. But I said to myself, if the woman I loved had been so unfortunate as to have had the smallpox, or a cast in the eye, I could get over it." "And you wasn't going to let twenty thousand dollars stand between you and happiness? Mag- nanimous!" "Precisely; when I was sure of being able not : page: 334-335[View Page 334-335] 334 THE COOPERS. to touch it, in any way. If you knew how I felt when I was making out that balance sheet!" They were passing by Fairview at this moment; and, as things will come about in stories, and some- times in real life, Mrs. Cooper had the pleasure of superintending the arrangement of this charming place for its future mistress, not many months af- terwards. A part of the obnoxious money had been disposed of in its purchase, and something more in its comfortable plenishing. Miss Grant declared her utter indifference to all the prepara- tions, with the exception of a large bright chamber, which she called, from the first, " mother's room." And Mrs. Cooper bid fair to have all her wishes gratified when she found that Mrs. Henderson, well pleased at this unusual devotion in her son's bride, had consented to occupy it six months of every year, though she resisted every entreaty to unite the two families, and bring her daughters with her as permanent residents. "I really think I can manage it, " said Mrs. Cooper, talking of the intended wedding which was to take place at the house of Miss Grant's old guardian in Albany. "Tiny does so well, now, UNDER FULL SAIL. 335 I scarcely have to look after her; and all my spring sewing is done ; so the children's clothes are ready." "To be sure you can, and stop a week with your Aunt Agnes. Tiny is worth a dozen housekeepers. We 'll get along." "She really is quite a treasure. I remember how I used to wonder where people found their treasurres.' I understood what Mrs. Philips said, that they were not to be found." "Curious how things come about; isn't it now?" said Mr Cooper, reflectively. "Here we are married, and settled, and doing well in the world. Curious how Steve and I happened to go into business together. Anybody else might have made ducks and drakes of the little we had. Well, we shall know how to spend money now, when we get it; hey, Matty " "Thanks to him and his mother!" said Mrs. Cooper. "It is beautiful to see how devoted Lizzie is to her, just as she ought to be to such a mother. Oh, Murray!" she added, with sudden energy, "I do hope we shall have the same comfort in our children." And, with this hope, we leave them page: 336-337[View Page 336-337] 336 THE COOPERS. on the verge of that good fortune which they had so worthily won by the help of the ever-watchful Providence that had so strangely and happily mingled the lives of these trienes. THE END.
