Aunt Cynthy Dallett
by
I.
“No,” said Mrs. Hand, speaking wistfully,–“no, we never were in the habit of keeping Christmas at our house. Mother died when we were all young; she would have been the one to keep up with all new ideas, but father and grandmother were old-fashioned folks, and–well, you know how ‘t was then, Miss Pendexter: nobody took much notice of the day except to wish you a Merry Christmas.”
“They did n’t do much to make it merry, certain,” answered Miss Pendexter. “Sometimes nowadays I hear folks complainin’ o’ bein’ overtaxed with all the Christmas work they have to do.”
“Well, others think that it makes a lovely chance for all that really enjoys givin’; you get an opportunity to speak your kind feelin’ right out,” answered Mrs. Hand, with a bright smile. “But there! I shall always keep New Year’s Day, too; it won’t do no hurt to have an extra day kept an’ made pleasant. And there ‘a many of the real old folks have got pretty things to remember about New Year’s Day.”
“Aunt Cynthy Dallett ‘s just one of ’em,” said Miss Pendexter. “She ‘s always very reproachful if I don’t get up to see her. Last year I missed it, on account of a light fall o’ snow that seemed to make the walkin’ too bad, an’ she sent a neighbor’s boy ‘way down from the mount’in to see if I was sick. Her lameness confines her to the house altogether now, an’ I have her on my mind a good deal. How anybody does get thinkin’ of those that lives alone, as they get older! I waked up only last night with a start, thinkin’ if Aunt Cynthy’s house should get afire or anything, what she would do, ‘way up there all alone. I was half dreamin’, I s’pose, but I could n’t seem to settle down until I got up an’ went upstairs to the north garret window to see if I could see any light; but the mountains was all dark an’ safe, same ‘s usual. I remember noticin’ last time I was there that her chimney needed pointin’, and I spoke to her about it,–the bricks looked poor in some places.”
“Can you see the house from your north gable window?” asked Mrs. Hand, a little absently.
“Yes ‘m; it’s a great comfort that I can,” answered her companion. “I have often wished we were near enough to have her make me some sort o’ signal in case she needed help. I used to plead with her to come down and spend the winters with me, but she told me one day I might as well try to fetch down one o’ the old hemlocks, an’ I believe ‘t was true.”
“Your aunt Dallett is a very self-contained person,” observed Mrs. Hand.
“Oh, very!” exclaimed the elderly niece, with a pleased look. “Aunt Cynthy laughs, an’ says she expects the time will come when age ‘ll compel her to have me move up an’ take care of her; and last time I was there she looked up real funny, an’ says, ‘I do’ know, Abby; I ‘m most afeard sometimes that I feel myself beginnin’ to look for’ard to it!’ ‘T was a good deal, comin’ from Aunt Cynthy, an’ I so esteemed it.”
“She ought to have you there now,” said Mrs. Hand. “You ‘d both make a savin’ by doin’ it; but I don’t expect she needs to save as much as some. There! I know just how you both feel. I like to have my own home an’ do everything just my way too.” And the friends laughed, and looked at each other affectionately.
“There was old Mr. Nathan Dunn,–left no debts an’ no money when he died,” said Mrs. Hand. “‘T was over to his niece’s last summer. He had a little money in his wallet, an’ when the bill for funeral expenses come in there was just exactly enough; some item or other made it come to so many dollars an’ eighty-four cents, and, lo an’ behold! there was eighty-four cents in a little separate pocket beside the neat fold o’ bills, as if the old gentleman had known before-hand. His niece could n’t help laughin’, to save her; she said the old gentleman died as methodical as he lived. She did n’t expect he had any money, an’ was prepared to pay for everything herself; she ‘s very well off.”