FullReads

“No, sir!” said Mrs. Carson.”I am not going to have any strange servants on my place. I have just been able to prevail upon my own women to go into the house, and I don’t want any more trouble. I have had enough already!”

“But, my dear madam,” said I, “you don’t want me to go to the town, and you won’t allow me to have any cooking done here. What am I to do?”

“Well,” she said, “you can eat with us. It may be two or three days before I can hear from my son George, and in the meantime you can lodge in your own house and I will take you to board. That is the best way I can see of managing the thing. But I am very sure I am not going to be left here alone in the dreadful predicament in which you have put me.”

We had scarcely finished supper when Jack Brandiger came to see me. He laughed a good deal a about my sudden change of base, but thought, on the whole, my house had made a very successful move. It must be more pleasant in the valley than up on that windy hill. Jack was very much interested in everything, and when Mrs. Carson and her daughter appeared, as we were walking about viewing the scene, I felt myself obliged to introduce him.

“I like those ladies,” said he to me, afterwards.”I think you have chosen very agreeable neighbors.”

“How do you know you like them?” said I.”You had scarcely anything to say to Mrs. Carson.”

“No, to be sure,” said he.”But I expect I should like her. By the way, do you know how you used to talk to me about coming and living somewhere near you?How would you like me to take one of your rooms now?I might cheer you up.”

“No,” said I, firmly.”That cannot be done. As things are now, I have as much as I can do to get along here by myself.”

Mrs. Carson did not hear from her son for nearly a week, and then he wrote that he found it almost impossible to give her any advice. He thought it was a very queer state of affairs. He had never heard of anything like it. But he would try and arrange his business so that he could come home in a week or two and look into matters.

As I was thus compelled to force myself upon the close neighborhood of Mrs. Carson and her daughter,I endeavored to make things as pleasant as possible. I brought some of my men down out of the vineyard, and set them to repairing fences, putting the garden in order, and doing all that I could to remedy the doleful condition of things which I had unwillingly brought into the back yard of this quiet family. I rigged up a pump on my back porch by which the water of the well could be conveniently obtained, and in every way endeavored to repair damages.

But Mrs. Carson never ceased to talk about the unparalleled disaster which had come upon her, and she must have had a great deal of correspondence with her son George, because she gave me frequent messages from him. He could not come on to look into the state of affairs, but he seemed to be giving it a great deal of thought and attention.

Spring weather had come again, and it was very pleasant to help the Carson ladies get their flower-garden in order–at least, as much as was left of it, for my house was resting upon some of the most important beds. As I was obliged to give up all present idea of doing anything in the way of getting my residence out of a place where it had no business to be, because Mrs. Carson would not consent to any plan which had been suggested, I felt that I was offering some little compensation in beautifying what seemed to be, at that time, my own grounds.