menu_book Chapter 4

chapter four of diana this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by bridget gage diana by susan warner chapter four mother bartlett the little house unpainted like many others had no fenced enclosures on this side a wide field stretched away from the back door lying partly upon a hillside and several cattle were pasturing in it farm fields and meadows were all around except where this one hill rose up behind the house it was wooded at the top below the ranks of a cornfield sloped aspiringly up its base a narrow footpath which only the tread of feet kept free from weeds and grass went off obliquely to a little enclosed garden which lay beyond the corner of the house in some arbitrary and independent way not adjoining it at all it was a sweet bit of country soft and mellow under the summer sun still as grasshoppers and the tinkle of a cow-bell could make it and very far from most of the improvements of the nineteenth century

but the smell of the pasture and the fragrance that came from the fresh shades of the wood and the freedom of the broad fields of pure ether made it rich with some of nature's homely wealth which is not by any means the worse there is diana knew the place very well her eyes were looking now for the mistress of it and not long in the out-of-the-way lying garden she discerned her white cap and at the gate met her bringing a head of lettuce in her hands i knew you liked it dear she said and i had forgot all about it and then it flashed on me and i thought diana will like to have it for her dinner and i guess it'll have time to cool just put it in a tin pail dear and hang it down in the well and it'll be fresh this was done and diana came in and took a seat by her old friend you needn't do that for me mother bartlett i don't care what i have to eat most folks like what is good said the old lady supposin they know it yes and so do i but i made a pot-pie for ye the old lady went on contentedly and i suppose you have left nothing at all for me to do as usual it is too bad mother bartlett you shall do all the rest said her friend and now you may talk to me

she was a trim little old woman not near so tall as her visitor very wrinkled but fresh-skinned and with a quick gray eye her dress was a common working dress of some dark stuff coarse but tidy and neat looking her cap white and plain she sat in her arm-chair setting her little feet to the fire and her fingers merrily clicking her needles together a very comfortable vision the kitchen and its furniture were neat as a pin i don't see how you manage mother bartlett diana went on glancing around you ought to have some one to live with you and help you it looks as if you had half a dozen not much said the old lady laughing a half-dozen would soon make a muss of one sort or another there's nothing like having nobody but you might be sick i might be but i ain't said mrs bartlett running one end of a knitting needle under her cap and looking placidly at diana but you might want somebody when i do i send for em i sent for you to-day child and here you are but you are quite well to-day said diana a little anxiously i am always well never better

how old are you mother bartlett seventy-three years child well i do think you oughtn't to be here alone it don't seem right and i don't think it is right what's to do child there ain't nary one to come and live with me they're all gone but joe my lord knows i'm an old woman seventy-three years of age what then mother bartlett diana asked curiously he'll take care of me my dear but then we ought to take care of ourselves said diana now if joe would marry somebody joe ain't lucky in that line said the old lady laughing again and may be what he might like i mightn't before you go to wishin for changes you'd better know what they'll be i'm content child there ain't a thing on earth that i want that i haven't got now what's the news diana began and told her the whole story of the sewing meeting and the accident and the nursing of the injured girl mrs bartlett had an intense interest in every particular and what diana failed to remember her questions brought out and how do you like the new minister haven't you seen him yet nay he hain't been down my way yet in good time he will he's had sick folks to see arter joe told me old jemmy claffin and joe simmons boy and mis atwood and eliza

i think you'll like him said diana slowly he's not like any minister ever i saw what's the odds it isn't so easy to tell he don't look like a minister for one thing nor he don't talk like one not a bit have we got a gay parson then said the old lady slightly raising her eyebrows gay oh no not in the way you mean in one way he is gay he is very pleasant not stiff or grum like mr hardenberg and he is amusing too in a quiet way but he is amusing he is so cool and so quick oh no he's not gay in the way you mean i guess he's good do you like him mrs bartlett asked yes said diana thinking of the night of eliza delamiter's accident he is very queer i don't seem to make him out by your telling child i'll have to wait i guess i've got no sort of an idea of him so far now dear if you'll set the table dinner's ready and then we'll have some reading diana drew out a small deal table to the middle of the floor and set on it the delft plates and cups and saucers the little salt cellar of the same ware and the knives and forks that were never near sheffield in fact were never steel but the lettuce came out of the well crisp and fresh and cool and mrs bartlett's pot-pie crust came out of the pot as spongy and light as possible and the loaf of seconds bread was sweet as it is hard for bread to be that is not made near the mill

and if you and i had been there i promise you we would not have minded the knives and forks or the cups either mrs bartlett's tea was not of corresponding quality for it came from a country store however the cream went far to mend even that the back door was open for the heat and the hillside could be seen through the doorway and part of the soft green meadow slope and the grasshopper's song and the bell tinkle were not bad music and who was that came with you dear mrs bartlett asked as i sat at table with me did you see me come surely i was in the garden what should hinder me who was it druv you dear it was an accident young mr knowlton had got into some trouble with his horse riding out our way and came to ask how he could get home so i brought him that's evan knowlton him they are making a soldier of he's made he's done with his education he is at home now ain't goin to be a soldier after all oh yes he is a soldier but he has got a leave to be home for a while well what sort is he i don't see what they wanted to make a soldier of him for his granthar would ha been the better of his help on the farm seems to me and now he'll be off to the ends of the earth and doing nobody knows what

it's the wisdom of this world but how has he turned out di i don't know well i should think and his sisters at home would have been the better of him by and by mr bowdoin will di and then who will look after the farm or the girls still mother it's something more and something better to be educated as he is and to know the world and all sorts of things as he does than just to live on the farm here in the mountains and raise corn and eat it and nothing else isn't it why should it be better child it is nice to be educated said diana softly and she thought much more than she said a man can get as much eddication as he can hold and live on a farm too i've seen sich some folks can't do no better than hoe corn like my joe but there ain't no necessity for that but arter all what does folks live for diana i never could make out mother bartlett the old lady looked at her thoughtfully and wistfully but said no more diana cleared the table and washed the few dishes and when all was straight again took out a newspaper she had brought from home and she and the old lady settled themselves for an afternoon of enjoyment for it was that to both parties at home diana cared little about the paper here it was quite another thing

mrs bartlett wanted to hear all there was in it public doings foreign doings city news editors gossip and even the advertisements came in for their share of pleasure giving new inventions had an interest tokens of the world's movements or the world's wants in other notices were found suggestive of thought or provocative of wonder sitting with her feet put towards the fire her knitting in her hands the quick gray eyes studied diana's face as she read never needing to give their supervision to the fingers and the coarse blue yarn-stocking which was doubtless destined for joe grew visibly in length while the eyes and thoughts of the knitter were busy elsewhere the newspaper filled a good part of the afternoon for the reading was often interrupted for talk which grew out of it when at last it was done and mrs bartlett's eyes returned to the fire there were a few minutes of stillness then she said gently now our other reading dear you like this the best mother bartlett don't you said diana as she rose and brought from the inner room a large volume the book as any one might know at a glance carefully covered with a sewn cover of coarse cloth

where shall i read now the place indicated was the beginning of the revelation a favourite book with the old lady and as she listened the knitting grew slower though true to the instinctive habit of doing something the fingers never ceased absolutely their work but they moved slowly and the old lady's eyes no longer on the fire went out of the open window and gazed with a far-away gaze that went surely beyond the visible heaven so rapt and steady it was diana sitting on a low stool at her feet glanced up sometimes but seeing that gaze looked down and went on again with her reading and would not break the spell at last having read several chapters without a word of interruption she stopped the old lady's eyes came back to her knitting which began to go a little faster do you like all this so much diana asked i know you do but i can't see why you do you can't understand it i guess i do said the old lady i seem to anyhow it's queer if i don't but you can't make anything of all those horses why it's just what you've been readin about in the afternoon

in the newspaper cried diana it's many a year that i've been lookin at it said the old lady ever sin i heard it all explained by a good minister i've been lookin at it ever sin she spoke dreamily it's all words and words to me said diana there's a blessin belongs to studyin them words though those horses are the works and judgments of the lord that are goin on in all the earth to prepare the way of his comin who's comin the lord's comin said the old lady solemnly the white horse that's victory that's goin on conquering an to conquer that's the truth an power of the lord bring in his kingdom the red horse that's war ah how that red horse is tramped round the world he's left the marks of his hoofs on our own ground not long sen and now you've been readin to me about his goin's on elsewhere the black horse that's famine and not downright starvation the minister said but just want grindin and pressin people down ain't there enough o that in the world not just so bad in pleasant valley but all over and the pale horse what is it the book calls him that's death and he comes to pleasant valley as he comes everywhere they've been goin those four ever sin the world was a world of fallen men

but what do they do to prepare the way for the lord's coming said diana what do i know that'll be known when the book shall come to be read i s'pose i'm waitin i'll know by and by only i can seem to see so much as this the old lady went on after a pause the lord won't have folk to settle down accordin to their will into a contented forgetfulness o him so he won't let there be peace till the king o peace comes oh i'd be glad if he'd come but that will be the end of the world said diana well said mrs bartlett it might be the end of the world for all i care if it would bring him what do i live for you know i don't understand you mother bartlett said diana gently well what do you live for child i don't know said diana slowly nothing i help mother make butter and cheese and i make my clothes and do the housework and next year it'll be the same thing and the next year after that it don't amount to anything and do you think the lord made you you pretty creature said the old lady softly passing her hand down the side of diana's face for nothin better than to make cheese and butter diana smiled and blushed brightly at her old friend a lovely child's smile

i may come to be married you know one of these days but after all that don't make any difference it's the same thing married or not married people all do the same things day after day till they die if that was all said the old lady meditatively looking into the fire and knitting slowly it is all except that here and there there is somebody who knows more and can do something better i suppose life is something more to them but they are mostly men eddication's a fine thing mrs bartlett went on in the same manner but there's two sorts there's two sorts diana i hain't got much o one kind i never had no chance to get it so i've done without it and now my life's so near done it don't seem much matter but there's the other sort that ain't learned at no academy the lord put me into his school forty-four years ago where he puts all his children and if they learn their lessons he takes em up and up some of the lessons is hard to learn but he takes em up and up till life ain't a puzzle no longer and they begin to know the language o heaven where his courts be and that's eddication that's worth havin when one's just goin there as i be how do you get into that school mother bartlett diana asked thoughtfully and yet with her mind not all upon what she was saying

you are in it my dear the good lord sends his lessons and his teachers to every one but it's no use to most folks they won't take no notice what teachers said diana smiling there's a host of them said mrs bartlett and of all sorts why i seem to be in the midst of em diana the sun is a teacher to me every day and the clouds and the air and the colours the hill and the pasture ahint the house i've learned a heap o lessons from em and i'm learnin em all the time till i seem to be rich with what they're tellin me so rich some days i most wonder at myself no doubt to hear all them voices one must hear the voice o the word and then there's many other voices but they don't come just so to all i could tell you some o mine but the ones that'll come to you'll be sure to be different so you couldn't learn from them child and folks thinks i'm a lonesome old woman well how can they help it said diana it's natural said mrs bartlett i can't help your seeming so to me that ain't natural for you had ought to know better they think folks does i know i'm a poor lone old woman just goin to die but isn't that nearly true said diana gently

there was a slight glad smile on the withered lips as mrs bartlett turned towards her you have the book there on your lap dear just find the eleventh chapter of the gospel of john and read the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses and when you feel inclined to think that o me again just wait till you know what they mean diana found and read jesus said unto her i am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die chapter four