Mary Cary: "Frequently Martha"Bosher, Kate Langley
General
Mary Cary: "Frequently Martha"
Bosher, Kate Langley
Children -- Juvenile fiction; Orphans -- Juvenile fiction
She walked in, just as natural, humming a little tune, and I walked
behind her, for I wanted to see it. I will never be as ready for glory
as I was that minute. I could have folded my hands and sailed up, but I
didn't sail. It's well I didn't, for they didn't meet at all like I
expected, and I was so surprised I just said, "Well, sir!" and sat right
down on the floor and looked up at them.
They didn't see me. They didn't see anything but each other; but if
they'd had the smallpox they couldn't have kept farther apart, just
bowing formal, and not even offering to shake hands.
My, I was set on! I didn't think they'd meet that way; but Miss Becky
Cole, who's kinder crazy, says God Almighty don't know what a woman is
going to do or when she's going to do it. Miss Katherine proved it. She
didn't fool me, though, with all her quietness and coolness. I knew her
heart was beating as hard as mine, and I jumped up and said:
"I think you all have been waiting long enough to make up, and it's no
use wasting any more time." And I flew out, slamming the door tight, and
shut them in.
I don't know what happened after I shut that door. But, oh, he's grand!
He is thirty-six, and big and splendid. He and Miss Katherine are in the
parlor now. Miss Jones says everybody in Yorkburg knows he's here, and
all talking. All!
I've been so excited since the first day he came that I've had little
sense. But my natural little is coming back, and I'm trying not to talk
too much. Of course, I had to say a good deal, because everybody had to
know how it happened that Doctor Alden came back to Yorkburg so suddenly
after thirteen years' being away. And why he hadn't been before, and
what he came for and when he was going away, and if he were going to
take me with him.
And then everybody remembered how he and Miss Katherine used to be
sweethearts when they were young. I tell you, the talking that's been
going on in Yorkburg in the last few days would fill a barrel of books.
By the end of the week a whole lot more will be known about Uncle Parke
than he knows about himself. If Yorkburg had a coat of arms it ought to
be a question-mark.
They've had time to talk over everything that ever happened since Adam
and Eve left Paradise, in the long walks they take, and in the evenings
when he calls, which he does as regular as night comes. And now I'm
waiting for the news. I'll have to be so surprised. And I guess I will
be. Love does very surprising things.
Miss Katherine knew where Uncle Parke was all the time. She knew who I
was, too; that is, she found out after she nursed me at the hospital.
But what that fuss was about I don't know. Nothing much, I reckon; but
the more you love a person the madder you can get with them. And from
foolishness they've wasted years and years of together-ness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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