My mother lived till eighty, a canty dame to the last
“Look, Miss!” I exclaimed, pointing to a nook under the roots of one twisted tree. “Winter is not here yet. Theres a little flower up yonder, the last bud from the multitude of bluebells that clouded those turf steps in ber up, and pluck it to show to papa?”
How life will be changed, how dreary the world will be, when papa and you are dead
Cathy stared a long time at the lonely blossom trembling in its earthy shelter, and replied, at length-“No, Ill not touch it: but it looks melancholy, does it not, Ellen?”
“Yes,” I observed, “about as starved and sackless as you: your cheeks are bloodless; let us take hold of hands and run. ”
“No,” she repeated, and continued sauntering on, pausing at intervals to muse over a bit of moss, or a tuft of blanched grass, or a fungus spreading its bright orange among the heaps of brown foliage; and, ever and anon, her hand was lifted to her averted face.
“Catherine, why are you crying, love?” I asked, approaching and putting my arm over her shoulder. “You mustnt cry because papa has a cold; be thankful it is nothing worse.”
“Oh, it will be something worse,” she said. “And what shall I do when papa and you leave me, and I am by myself? I cant forget your words, Ellen; they are always in my ear. ”
“None can tell whether you wont die before us,” I replied. “Its wrong to anticipate evil. Well hope there are years and years to come before any of us go: master is young, and I am strong, and hardly forty-five. And suppose Mr. Linton were spared till he saw sixty, that would be more years than you have counted, Miss. And would it not be foolish to mourn a calamity above twenty years beforehand?”
“Aunt Isabella had not you and me to nurse her,” I replied. “She wasnt as happy as Master: she hadnt as much to live for. All you need do, is to wait well on your father, and cheer him by letting him see you cheerful; and avoid giving him anxiety on any subject: mind that, Cathy! Ill not disguise but you might kill him if you were wild and reckless, and cherished a foolish, fanciful affection for the son of a person who would be glad to have him in his grave; and allowed him to discover that you fretted over the separation he has judged it expedient to make.”
“I fret about nothing on earth except papas illness,” answered my companion. “I care for nothing in comparison with papa. And Ill never-never-oh, never, while I have my senses, do an act or say a word to vex him. I love him better than myself, Ellen; and I know it by this: I pray every night that I may live after him; because I would rather be miserable than that he should be: that proves I love him better than myself.”
“Good words,” I replied. “But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you dont forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear.”
As we talked, installment loans Lawrenceburg IN we neared a door that opened on the road; and my young lady, lightening into sunshine again, climbed up and seated herself on the top of the wall, reaching over to gather some hips that bloomed scarlet on the summit branches of the wild-rose trees shadowing the highway side: the lower fruit had disappeared, but only birds could touch the upper, except from Cathys present station. In stretching to pull them, her hat fell off; and as the door was locked, she proposed scrambling down to recover it. I bid her be cautious lest she got a fall, and she nimbly disappeared. But the return was no such easy matter: the stones were smooth and neatly cemented, and the rosebushes and blackberry stragglers could yield no assistance in re-ascending. I, like a fool, didnt recollect that, till I heard her laughing and exclaiming-“Ellen! youll have to fetch the key, or else I must run round to the porters lodge. I cant scale the ramparts on this side!”