The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe: or, There's No Place Like Home. Douglas Amanda M.
a quart of milk daily for driving the cows to and from the pasture, and doing odd chores.
"If you see the children, send them home," had been Hal's parting injunction. "Grandmother will soon be here."
She came before Joe returned. The oddest looking little old woman that you ever saw. Florence, at fourteen, was half a head taller. Thin and wrinkled and sunburned; her flaxen hair turning to silver, and yet obstinately full of little curls; her blue eyes pale and washed out, and hosts of "crows'-feet" at the corners; and her voice cracked and tremulous.
Poor Grandmother Kenneth! She had worked hard enough in her day, and was still forced to keep it up, now that it was growing twilight with her. But I don't believe there was another as merry a houseful of children in all Madison.
Joe's discovery was not far out of the way. The old woman, whose biography and family troubles were so graphically given by Mother Goose, died long before our childhood; but I think Granny Kenneth must have looked like her, though I fancy she was better natured. As for the children, many and many a time she had not known what to do with them, – when they were hungry, when they were bad, when their clothes were worn out and she had nothing to make new ones with, when they had no shoes; and yet she loved the whole six, and toiled for them without a word of complaint.
Her only son, Joe, had left them to her, – a troublesome legacy indeed; but at that time they had a mother and a very small sum of money. Mrs. Joe was a pretty, helpless, inefficient body, who continually fretted because Joe did not get rich. When the poor fellow lay on his death-bed, his disease aggravated by working when he was not able, he twined his arms around his mother's neck, and cried with a great gasp, —
"You'll be kind to them, mother, and look after them a little. God will help you, I know. I should like to live for their sakes."
A month or two after this, Dot was born. Now that her dear Joe was dead, there was no comfort in the world; so the frail, pretty little thing grieved herself away, and went to sleep beside him in the churchyard.
The neighbors made a great outcry when Grandmother Kenneth took the children to her own little cottage.
"What could she do with them? Why, they will all starve in a bunch," said one.
"Florence and Joe might be bound out," proposed another.
A third was for sending them to the almshouse, or putting them in some orphan asylum; but five years had come and gone, and they had not starved yet, though once or twice granny's heart had quaked for fear.
Every one thought it would be such a blessing if Dot would only die. She had been a sight of trouble during the five years of her life. First, she had the whooping cough, which lasted three times as long as with any ordinary child. Then she fell out of the window, and broke her collar-bone; and when she was just over that, it was the water-pox. The others had the mumps, and Dot's share was the worst of all. Kit had the measles in the lightest possible form, and actually had to be tied in bed to make him stay there; while it nearly killed poor Dot, who had been suffering from March to midsummer, and was still poor as a crow, and cross as a whole string of comparisons.
But Granny was patient with it all. The very sweetest old woman in the world, and the children loved her in their fashion; but they seldom realized all that she was doing for them. And though some of her neighbors appreciated the toil and sacrifice, the greater part of them thought it very foolish for her to be slaving herself to death for a host of beggarly grandchildren.
"Well, Hal!" she exclaimed in her rather shrill but cheery voice, "how's the day gone?"
"Pretty well: but you're tired to death. I suppose Mrs. Kinsey's company came, and there was a grand feast?"
"Grand! I guess it was. Such loads of pies and puddings and kettles of berries and tubs of cream" —
Granny paused, out of breath from not having put in any commas.
"Ice-cream, you mean? Freezers, they call 'em."
"You do know every thing, Hal!" And granny laughed. "I can't get all the new-fangled names and notions in my head. There was Grandmother Kinsey, neat as a new pin, and children and grandchildren, and aunts and cousins. But it was nice, Hal."
The boy smiled, thinking of them all.
"Half of the goodies'll spile, I know. Mrs. Kinsey packed me a great basket full; and, Hal, here's two dollars. I'm clean tuckered out."
"Then you just sit still, and let me 'tend to you. Dot's asleep; and if I haven't worried with her this afternoon! That child ought to grow up a wonder, she's been so much trouble to us all. Joe's gone after the cows, and Florence is busy as a bee. Oh, what a splendid basket full! Why, we shall feast like kings!"
With that Hal began to unpack, – a plate full of cut cake, biscuits by the dozen, cold chicken, delicious slices of ham, and various other delicacies.
"We'll only have a few to-night," said Hal economically. "'Tisn't every day that we have such a windfall. I'll put these out of the children's sight; for there they come."
The "children" were Charlie and Kit, with barely a year between; Kit being seven, and Charlie – her real name was Charlotte, but she was such a tomboy that they gave her the nickname – was about eight. Hal was ten, and Joe twelve.
"Children," said Hal, "don't come in till you've washed yourselves. Be quiet, for Dot is asleep."
Thus admonished, Charlie did nothing worse than pour a basin of water over Kit, who sputtered and scolded and kicked until Hal rushed out to settle them.
"If you're not quiet, you shall not have a mouthful of supper; and we've lots of goodies."
Kit began to wash the variegated streaks from his face. Charlie soused her head in a pail of water, and shook it like a dog, then ran her fingers through her hair. It was not as light or silken as that of Florence, and was cropped close to her head. Kit's was almost as black as a coal; and one refractory lock stood up. Joe called it his "scalp-lock waving in the breeze."
"Now, Charlie, pump another pail of water. There comes Joe, and we'll have supper."
Charlie eyed Joe distrustfully, and hurried into the house. Hal hung up Granny's sun-bonnet, and placed the chairs around.
"Come, Florence," he said, opening the door softly.
"My eyes!" ejaculated Joe in amaze. "Grandmother, you're a trump."
"Joe!" exclaimed Hal reproachfully.
Joe made amends by kissing Granny in the most rapturous fashion. Then he escorted her to the table in great state.
"Have you been good children to-day?" she asked, as they assembled round the table.
"I've run a splinter in my toe; and, oh! my trousers are torn!" announced Kit dolefully.
"If you ever had a whole pair of trousers at one time the world would come to an end," declared Joe sententiously.
"Would it?" And Kit puzzled his small brain over the connection.
"And Charlie preserves a discreet silence. Charlie, my dear, I advise you to keep out of the way of the ragmen, or you will find yourself on the road to the nearest paper-mill."
Florence couldn't help laughing at the suggestion.
"Children!" said their grandmother.
Full of fun and frolic as they were, the little heads bowed reverently as Granny asked her simple blessing. She would as soon have gone without eating as to omit that.
"I really don't want any thing," she declared. "I've been tasting all day, – a bit here and a bit there, and such loads of things!"
"Tell us all about it," begged Joe. "And who was there, – the grand Panjandrum with a button on the top. Children's children unto the third and fourth generation."
"O Joe! if you only wouldn't," began Granny imploringly.
"No, I won't, Granny;" and Joe made a face as long as your arm, or a piece of string.
"Of course I didn't see 'em all, nor half; but men and women and children and babies! And Grandmother Kinsey's ninety-five years old!"
"I