Golden Wedding
by
The land dropped abruptly down from the gate, and a thick, shrubby growth of young apple orchard almost hid the little weather-grey house from the road. This was why the young man who opened the sagging gate could not see that it was boarded up, and did not cease his cheerful whistling until he had pressed through the crowding trees and found himself almost on the sunken stone doorstep over which in olden days honeysuckle had been wont to arch. Now only a few straggling, uncared-for vines clung forlornly to the shingles, and the windows were, as has been said, all boarded up.
The whistle died on the young man’s lips and an expression of blank astonishment and dismay settled down on his face–a good, kindly, honest face it was, although perhaps it did not betoken any pronounced mental gifts on the part of its owner.
“What can have happened?” he said to himself. “Uncle Tom and Aunt Sally can’t be dead–I’d have seen their deaths in the paper if they was. And I’d a-thought if they’d moved away it’d been printed too. They can’t have been gone long–that flower-bed must have been made up last spring. Well, this is a kind of setback for a fellow. Here I’ve been tramping all the way from the station, a-thinking how good it would be to see Aunt Sally’s sweet old face again, and hear Uncle Tom’s laugh, and all I find is a boarded-up house going to seed. S’pose I might as well toddle over to Stetsons’ and inquire if they haven’t disappeared, too.”
He went through the old firs back of the lot and across the field to a rather shabby house beyond. A cheery-faced woman answered his knock and looked at him in a puzzled fashion. “Have you forgot me, Mrs. Stetson? Don’t you remember Lovell Stevens and how you used to give him plum tarts when he’d bring your turkeys home?”
Mrs. Stetson caught both his hands in a hearty clasp.
“I guess I haven’t forgotten!” she declared. “Well, well, and you’re Lovell! I think I ought to know your face, though you’ve changed a lot. Fifteen years have made a big difference in you. Come right in. Pa, this is Lovell–you mind Lovell, the boy Aunt Sally and Uncle Tom had for years?”
“Reckon I do,” drawled Jonah Stetson with a friendly grin. “Ain’t likely to forget some of the capers you used to be cutting up. You’ve filled out considerable. Where have you been for the last ten years? Aunt Sally fretted a lot over you, thinking you was dead or gone to the bad.”
Lovell’s face clouded.
“I know I ought to have written,” he said repentantly, “but you know I’m a terrible poor scholar, and I’d do most anything than try to write a letter. But where’s Uncle Tom and Aunt Sally gone? Surely they ain’t dead?”
“No,” said Jonah Stetson slowly, “no–but I guess they’d rather be. They’re in the poorhouse.”
“The poorhouse! Aunt Sally in the poorhouse!” exclaimed Lovell.
“Yes, and it’s a burning shame,” declared Mrs. Stetson. “Aunt Sally’s just breaking her heart from the disgrace of it. But it didn’t seem as if it could be helped. Uncle Tom got so crippled with rheumatism he couldn’t work and Aunt Sally was too frail to do anything. They hadn’t any relations and there was a mortgage on the house.”
“There wasn’t any when I went away.”
“No; they had to borrow money six years ago when Uncle Tom had his first spell of rheumatic fever. This spring it was clear that there was nothing for them but the poorhouse. They went three months ago and terrible hard they took it, especially Aunt Sally, I felt awful about it myself. Jonah and I would have took them if we could, but we just couldn’t–we’ve nothing but Jonah’s wages and we have eight children and not a bit of spare room. I go over to see Aunt Sally as often as I can and take her some little thing, but I dunno’s she wouldn’t rather not see anybody than see them in the poorhouse.”