FullReads

Isabel lifted out a small brown paper package, labeled in a cramped handwriting. She held it to the fading light. “‘Slippery elm left by my dear father from his last illness,'” she read, with difficulty. “‘The broken piece used by him on the day of his death.'”

“My land!” exclaimed aunt Luceba weakly. “Now what’d she want to keep that for? He had it round all that winter, an’ he used to give us a little mite, to please us. Oh, dear! it smells like death. Well, le’s lay it aside an’ git on. The light’s goin’, an’ I must jog along. Take out that dress. I guess I know what ‘t is, though I can’t hardly believe it.”

Isabel took out a black dress, made with a full, gathered skirt and an old-fashioned waist. “‘Dress made ready for aunt Mercy,'” she read, “‘before my dear uncle bought her a robe.’ But, auntie,” she added, “there’s no back breadth!”

“I know it! I know it! She was so large they had to cut it out, for fear ‘t wouldn’t go into the coffin; an’ Monroe Giles said she was a real particular woman, an’ he wondered how she’d feel to have the back breadth of her quilted petticoat showin’ in heaven. I declare I’m ‘most sick! What’s in that pasteboard box?”

It was a shriveled object, black with long-dried mould.

“‘Lemon held by Timothy Marden in his hand just before he died.’ Aunt Luceba,” said Isabel, turning with a swift impulse, “I think aunt Eliza was a horror!”

“Don’t you say it, if you do think it,” said her aunt, sinking into a chair and rocking vigorously. “Le’s git through with it as quick ‘s we can. Ain’t that a bandbox? Yes, that’s great-aunt Isabel’s leghorn bunnit. You was named for her, you know. An’ there’s cousin Hattie’s cashmere shawl, an’ Obed’s spe’tacles. An’ if there ain’t old Mis’ Eaton’s false front! Don’t you read no more. I don’t care what they’re marked. Move that box a mite. My soul! There’s ma’am’s checked apron I bought her to the fair! Them are all her things down below.” She got up and walked to the window, looking into the chestnut branches, with unseeing eyes. She turned about presently, and her cheeks were wet. “There!” she said; “I guess we needn’t look no more. Should you jest as soon burn ’em?”

“Yes,” answered Isabel. She was crying a little, too. “Of course I will, auntie. I’ll put ’em back now. But when you’re gone, I’ll do it; perhaps not till Saturday, but I will then.”

She folded the articles, and softly laid them away. They were no longer gruesome, since even a few of them could recall the beloved and still remembered dead. As she was gently closing the lid, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Aunt Luceba was standing there, trembling a little, though the tears had gone from her face.

“Isabel,” said she, in a whisper, “you needn’t burn the apron, when you do the rest. Save it careful. I should like to put it away among my things.”

Isabel nodded. She remembered her grandmother, a placid, hopeful woman, whose every deed breathed the fragrance of godly living.

“There!” said her aunt, turning away with the air of one who thrusts back the too insistent past, lest it dominate her quite. “It’s gittin’ along towards dark, an I must put for home. I guess that hoss thinks he’s goin’ to be froze to the ground. You wrop up my soap-stone while I git on my shawl. Land! don’t it smell hot? I wisht I hadn’t been so spry about puttin’ on’t into the oven.” She hurried on her things; and Isabel, her hair blowing about her face, went out to uncover the horse and speed the departure. The reins in her hands, aunt Luceba bent forward once more to add, “Isabel, if there’s one thing left for me to say, to tole you over to live with us, I want to say it.”