As soon as we got calm enough we took Harriet upstairs; her pretty
muslin was fluttering around her in yellow rags, and the slight burns
needed attention; she was also exhausted with the nervous shock, and
was trembling like a leaf, her cheeks white and her eyes big with
terror. Caroline Liscom and her mother came too, and Caroline
concealed her burns until Harriet's were dressed. Luckily, the doctor
was there. Then Harriet was induced to lie down on the north chamber
bed on the old blue-and-white counterpane that Mrs. Sim White's
mother spun and wove.
Rev. Henry P. Jacobs did not read his poem; we were too much
perturbed to listen to it, and nobody mentioned it to him. Flora
Clark whispered to me that if he began she should go home; for her
part, she felt as if she had gone through enough that day without
poetry. The poem was delivered by special request at our next sewing
circle, but I think the minister was always disappointed, though he
strove to bear it with Christian grace. However, within three months
he had to console him a larger wedding fee than often falls to a
minister in Linnville.
The centennial dissolved soon after the burning accident. There was
nothing more to do but to put the Shaw house to rights again and
restore the various articles to their owners, which, of course, could
not be done that day, nor for many days to come. I think I never
worked harder in my life than I did setting things to rights after
our centennial; but I had one consolation through it, and that was
the happiness of the two young things, who had had indirectly their
love tangle smoothed out by it.
Caroline Liscom and Mrs. Jameson were on the very best of terms, and
Harriet was running over to Caroline's house to take lessons in
housekeeping, instead of to mine, before the week was out.
There was a beautiful wedding the last of October, and young Mrs.
Harry Liscom has lived in our midst ever since, being considered one
of the most notable housekeepers in the village for her age. She and
her husband live with Caroline Liscom, and Louisa says sometimes that
she believes Caroline loves the girl better than she does her own
son, and that she fairly took her into her heart when she saved her
life.
"Some women can't love anybody except their own very much unless they
can do something for them," says Louisa; and I don't know but she is
right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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