Farm life -- Fiction; Love stories; New England -- Fiction
There is no berry so fascinating nor so delicious to me as a raspberry,
especially at breakfast, half hidden under golden cream. There is
something soft and cool and wild about it; it is the feline of berries.
As we planted, I could almost smell the fruit. I could fancy the joy
of walking between these dewy rows in the fresh morning sun and picking
my breakfast. I could imagine the crates of ripe fruit sent to market.
In the pleasures of my fancy and the monotony of measured planting,
I lost track of time, nor did I think of Miss Goodwin. But thought of
her returned at noon, however, when Mrs. Bert told me her head had
felt better and she had gone off for a day's trolley trip to see the
country. After all, it was rather selfish of me not to show her the
country! Besides, I hadn't seen it myself. I had been too busy. Why
shouldn't I take a day off? But I couldn't do that till the berries
were all in, and that afternoon was not enough to finish them. It took
all of the next day as well, and most of the day following, for we
had the double rows of wire to mount as supports for the vines, and the
currant bushes to set in as a border to the garden six feet south of
the rose trellis. Most of this work I did alone, leaving Mike free for
other tasks, and Joe free to cut the pea brush. I saw Miss Goodwin
only at meals. After supper I had to drive myself to my manuscripts.
"It will be you who will need a rest soon," she said the second
morning, as she came down to breakfast and found me hard at work out
on the front porch.
"I'm going to take one--with you!" said I. "I want to see the
country, too."
She smiled a little, and picked a lilac bud, holding it to her nose.
She seemed quite far away now. The first few days of our rapid intimacy
had passed, and now she was as much a stranger to me as on that first
meeting in the pines. I said nothing about her coming to the farm; I
don't know why. Somehow, I was piqued. I wished her to make the first
move. In some way, it was all due to my asking her to choose the paint
for my dining-room, and that seemed to me ridiculous. I fear my manner
showed my pique a trifle, for I did not see her anywhere about when I
left after breakfast.
That evening I found the second coat of paint practically dry in the
south room, and there was no reason why I shouldn't install my desk at
last, order some kerosene for my student lamp, and do my work there, in
my own new home, by my twin fires. The wind was east as I walked back
to supper, and there was no sun to wake me in the morning, so that I
slept till half-past six. Outside the rain was pouring steadily down,
and I found Bert rejoicing, for it was badly needed. After breakfast I
waylaid Miss Goodwin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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