Katy had a peculiar gift with children which is not easy to define. Some people possess it, and some do not; it cannot be learned, it comes by nature. She was bright and firm and equable all at once. She both amused and influenced them. There was something about her which excited the childish imagination, and always they felt her sympathy. Amy was a tractable child, and intelligent beyond her age, but she was never quite so good with any one as with Katy. She followed her about like a little lover; she lavished upon her certain special words and caresses which she gave to no one else; and would kneel on her lap, patting Katys shoulders with her soft hand, and cooing up into her face like a happy dove, for a half-hour together. Katy laughed at these demonstrations, but they pleased her very much. She loved to be loved, as all affectionate people do, but most of all to be loved by a child.
At last, the long convalescence ended, Walter was carried away to his father, with every possible precaution against fatigue and exposure, and an army of workpeople was turned into Mrs. Ashes house. Plaster was scraped and painted, wall-papers torn down, mattresses made over, and clothing burned. At last Dr. Carr pronounced the premises in a sanitary condition, and Mrs. Ashe sent for her little girl to come home again.
Amy was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing her mother; but at the last moment she clung to Katy and cried as if her heart would break.
I want you too, she said. Oh, if Dr. Carr would only let you come and live with me and Mamma, I should be so happy! I shall be so lone-ly!
Nonsense! cried Clover. Lonely with Mamma, and those poor children of yours who have been wondering all these weeks what has become of you! Theyll want a great deal of attention at first, I am sure; medicine and new clothes and whippingsall manner of things. You remember I promised to make a dress for Effie Deans out of that blue and brown plaid like Johnnies balmoral. I mean to begin it tomorrow.
Oh, will you?forgetting her griefthat will be lovely. The skirt neednt be very full, you know. Effie doesnt walk much, because of only having one leg. She will be so pleased, for she hasnt had a new dress I dont know when.
Consoled by the prospect of Effies satisfaction, Amy departed quite cheerfully, and Mrs. Ashe was spared the pain of seeing her only child in tears on the first evening of their reunion. But Amy talked so constantly of Katy, and seemed to love her so much, that it put a plan into her mothers head which led to important results, as the next chapter will show.
CHAPTER 2
An Invitation
It is a curious fact, and makes life very interesting, that, generally speaking, none of us have any expectation that things are going to happen till the very moment when they do happen. We wake up some morning with no idea that a great happiness is at hand, and before night it has come, and all the world is changed for us; or we wake bright and cheerful, with never a guess that clouds of sorrow are lowering in our sky, to put all the sunshine out for a while, and before noon all is dark. Nothing whispers of either the joy or the grief. No instinct bids us to delay or to hasten the opening of the letter or telegram, or the lifting of the latch of the door at which stands the messenger of good or ill. And because it may be, and often is, happy tidings that come, and joyful things which happen, each fresh day as it dawns upon us is like an unread story, full of possible interest and adventure, to be made ours as soon as we have cut the pages and begun to read.
Nothing whispered to Katy Carr, as she sat at the window mending a long rent in Johnnies school coat, and saw Mrs. Ashe come in at the side gate and ring the office bell, that the visit had any special significance for her. Mrs. Ashe often did come to the office to consult Dr. Carr. Amy might not be quite well, Katy thought, or there might be a letter with something about Walter in it, or perhaps matters had gone wrong at the house, where paperers and painters were still at work. So she went calmly on with her darning, drawing the ravelling, with which her needle was threaded, carefully in and out, and taking nice even stitches without one prophetic thrill or tremor; while, if only she could have looked through the two walls and two doors which separated the room in which she sat from the office, and have heard what Mrs. Ashe was saying, the school coat would have been thrown to the winds, and for all her tall stature and propriety, she would have been skipping with delight and astonishment. For Mrs. Ashe was asking Papa to let her do the very thing of all others that she most longed to do; she was asking him to let Katy go with her to Europe!
I am not very well, she told the Doctor. I got tired and run down while Walter was ill, and I dont seem to throw it off as I hoped I should. I feel as if a change would do me good. Dont you think so yourself?
Yes, I do, Dr. Carr admitted.
This idea of Europe is not altogether a new one, continued Mrs. Ashe. I have always meant to go some time, and have put it off, partly because I dreaded going alone, and didnt know anybody whom I exactly wanted to take with me. But if you will let me have Katy, Dr. Carr, it will settle all my difficulties. Amy loves her dearly, and so do I; she is just the companion I need; if I have her with me, I shant be afraid of anything. I do hope you will consent.
How long do you mean to be away? asked Dr. Carr, divided between pleasure at these compliments to Katy and dismay at the idea of losing her.
About a year, I think. My plans are rather vague as yet; but my idea was to spend a few weeks in Scotland and England firstI have some cousins in London who will be good to us; and an old friend of mine married a gentleman who lives on the Isle of Wight; perhaps we might go there. Then we could cross over to France and visit Paris and a few other places; and before it gets cold go down to Nice, and from there to Italy. Katy would like to see Italy. Dont you think so?
I dare say she would, said Dr. Carr, with a smile. She would be a queer girl if she didnt.
There is one reason why I thought Italy would be particularly pleasant this winter for me and for her too, went on Mrs. Ashe; and that is, because my brother will be there. He is a lieutenant in the navy, you know, and his ship, the Natchitoches, is one of the Mediterranean squadron. They will be in Naples by and by, and if we were there at the same time we should have Ned to go about with; and he would take us to the receptions on the frigate, and all that, which would be a nice chance for Katy. Then toward spring I should like to go to Florence and Venice, and visit the Italian lakes and Switzerland in the early summer. But all this depends on your letting Katy go. If you decide against it, I shall give the whole thing up. But you wont decide against it,coaxinglyyou will be kinder than that. I will take the best possible care of her, and do all I can to make her happy, if only you will consent to lend her to me; and I shall consider it such a favor. And it is to cost you nothing. You understand, Doctor, she is to be my guest all through. That is a point I want to make clear in the outset; for she goes for my sake, and I cannot take her on any other conditions. Now, Dr. Carr, please, please! I am sure you wont deny me, when I have so set my heart upon having her.
Mrs. Ashe was very pretty and persuasive, but still Dr. Carr hesitated. To send Katy for a years pleasuring in Europe was a thing that had never occurred to his mind as possible. The cost alone would have prevented; for country doctors with six children are not apt to be rich men, even in the limited and old-fashioned construction of the word wealth. It seemed equally impossible to let her go at Mrs. Ashes expense; at the same time, the chance was such a good one, and Mrs. Ashe so much in earnest and so urgent, that it was difficult to refuse point blank. He finally consented to take time for consideration before making his decision.
I will talk it over with Katy, he said. The child ought to have a say in the matter; and whatever we decide, you must let me thank you in her name as well as my own for your great kindness in proposing it.
Doctor, Im not kind at all, and I dont want to be thanked. My desire to take Katy with me to Europe is purely selfish. I am a lonely person, she went on; I have no mother or sister, and no cousins of my own age. My brothers profession keeps him at sea; I scarcely ever see him. I have no one but a couple of old aunts, too feeble in health to travel with me or to be counted on in case of any emergency. You see, I am a real case for pity.
Mrs. Ashe spoke gayly, but her brown eyes were dim with tears as she ended her little appeal. Dr. Carr, who was soft-hearted where women were concerned, was touched. Perhaps his face showed it, for Mrs. Ashe added in a more hopeful tone:
But I wont tease any more. I know you will not refuse me unless you think it right and necessary, and, she continued mischievously, I have great faith in Katy as an ally. I am pretty sure that she will say that she wants to go.
And indeed Katys cry of delight when the plan was proposed to her said that sufficiently, without need of further explanation. To go to Europe for a year with Mrs. Ashe and Amy seemed simply too delightful to be true. All the things she had heard about and read aboutcathedrals, pictures, Alpine peaks, famous places, famous peoplecame rushing into her mind in a sort of bewildering tide as dazzling as it was overwhelming. Dr. Carrs objections, his reluctance to part with her, melted before the radiance of her satisfaction. He had no idea that Katy would care so much about it. After all, it was a great chanceperhaps the only one of the sort that she would ever have. Mrs. Ashe could well afford to give Katy this treat, he knew; and it was quite true what she said, that it was a favor to her as well as to Katy. This train of reasoning led to its natural results. Dr. Carr began to waver in his mind.
But, the first excitement over, Katys second thoughts were more sober ones. How could Papa manage without her for a whole year, she asked herself. He would miss her, she well knew, and might not the charge of the house be too much for Clover? The preserves were almost all made, that was one comfort; but there were the winter clothes to be seen to; Dorry needed new flannels, Elsies dresses must be altered over for Johnnie; there were cucumbers to pickle, the coal to order! A host of housewifely cares began to troop through Katys mind, and a little pucker came into her forehead, and a worried look across the face which had been so bright a few minutes before. Strange to say, it was that little pucker and the look of worry which decided Dr. Carr.
She is only twenty-one, he reflected; hardly out of childhood. I dont want her to settle into an anxious, drudging state and lose her youth with caring for us all. She shall go; though how we are to manage without her I dont see. Little Clover will have to come to the fore, and show what sort of stuff there is in her.
Little Clover came gallantly to the fore when the first shock of surprise was over, and she had relieved her mind with one long private cry over having to do without Katy for a year. Then she wiped her eyes, and began to revel unselfishly in the idea of her sisters having so great a treat. Anything and everything seemed possible to secure it for her; and she made light of all Katys many anxieties and apprehensions.
My dear child, I know a flannel undershirt when I see one, just as well as you do, she declared. Tucks in Johnnies dress, forsooth! Why, of course. Ripping out a tuck doesnt require any superhuman ingenuity! Give me your scissors, and Ill show you at once. Quince marmalade? Debby can make that. Hers is about as good as yours; and if it wasnt, what should we care, as long as you are ascending Mont Blanc, and hob-nobbing with Michaelangelo and the crowned heads of Europe? Ill make the spiced peaches! Ill order the kindling! And if there ever comes a time when I feel lost and cant manage without advice, Ill go across to Mrs. Hall. Dont worry about us. We shall get on happily and easily; in fact, I shouldnt be surprised if I developed such a turn for housekeeping, that when you come back the family refused to change, and you had just to sit for the rest of your life and twirl your thumbs and watch me do it! Wouldnt that be fine? and Clover laughed merrily. So, Katy darling, cast that shadow from your brow, and look as a girl ought to look whos going to Europe. Why, if it were I who were going, I should simply stand on my head every moment of the time!
Not a very convenient position for packing, said Katy, smiling.
Yes, it is, if you just turn your trunk upside down! When I think of all the delightful things you are going to do, I can hardly sit still. I love Mrs. Ashe for inviting you.
So do I, said Katy, soberly. It was the kindest thing! I cant think why she did it.
Well, I can, replied Clover, always ready to defend Katy even against herself. She did it because she wanted you, and she wanted you because you are the dearest old thing in the world, and the nicest to have about. You neednt say youre not, for you are! Now, Katy, dont waste another thought on such miserable things as pickles and undershirts. We shall get along perfectly well, I do assure you. Just fix your mind instead on the dome of St. Peters, or try to fancy how youll feel the first time you step into a gondola or see the Mediterranean. There will be a moment! I feel a forty-horse power of housekeeping developing within me; and what fun it will be to get your letters! We shall fetch out the Encyclopaedia and the big Atlas and the History of Modern Europe, and read all about everything you see and all the places you go to; and it will be as good as a lesson in geography and history and political economy all combined, only a great deal more interesting! We shall stick out all over with knowledge before you come back; and this makes it a plain duty to go, if it were only for our sakes. With these zealous promises, Katy was forced to be content. Indeed, contentment was not difficult with such a prospect of delight before her. When once her little anxieties had been laid aside, the idea of the coming journey grew in pleasantness every moment. Night after night she and Papa and the children pored over maps and made out schemes for travel and sightseeing, everyone of which was likely to be discarded as soon as the real journey began. But they didnt know that, and it made no real difference. Such schemes are the preliminary joys of travel, and it doesnt signify that they come to nothing after they have served their purpose.
Katy learned a great deal while thus talking over what she was to see and do. She read every scrap she could lay her hand on which related to Rome or Florence or Venice or London. The driest details had a charm for her now that she was likely to see the real places. She went about with scraps of paper in her pocket, on which were written such things as these: Forum. When built? By whom built? More than one? What does Cenacola mean? Cecilia Metella. Who was she? Find out about Saint Catherine of Siena. Who was Beatrice Cenci? How she wished that she had studied harder and more carefully before this wonderful chance came to her. People always wish this when they are starting for Europe; and they wish it more and more after they get there, and realize of what value exact ideas and information and a fuller knowledge of the foreign languages are to all travellers; how they add to the charm of everything seen, and enhance the ease of everything done.