Chapter 20
chapter twenty of eban holden chapter twenty we went back to our work again shortly the sweetness and the bitterness of life fresh in our remembrance when we came back hook and line for another vacation the fields were aglow with color and the roads where dr bigsby had felt the sting of death that winter day were now drifted with meadow music and the smell of clover i had creditably taken examination for college where i was to begin my course in the fall with a scholarship hope had made remarkable progress in music and was soon going to ogdensburg for instruction a year had gone nearly since jed feary had cautioned me about falling in love i had kept enough of my heart about me to do business with but i had continued to feel an uncomfortable absence in the region of it young men at hillsborough many of whom i felt sure had a smarter look than i had bid stubbornly for her favor
i wondered often it did not turn her head this tribute of rustic admiration but she seemed to be all unconscious of its cause and went about her work with small conceit of herself many a time they had tried to take her from my arm at the church door a good-natured phrase of youthful rivalry there in those days but she had always said laughingly no thank you and clung all the closer to me now jed feary had no knowledge of the worry it gave me or of the peril it suggested i knew that if i felt free to tell him all he would give me other counsel i was now seventeen and she a bit older and had i not heard of many young men and women who had been engaged ay even married at that age well as it happened a day before she left us to go to her work in ogdensburg where she was to live with her uncle i made an end of delay i considered carefully what a man ought to say in the circumstances and i thought i had near an accurate notion
we were in the garden together the playground of our childhood hope i have a secret to tell you i said a secret she exclaimed eagerly i love secrets a great secret i repeated as i felt my face burning why it must be something awful not very i stammered having missed my cue from the beginning i was now utterly confused william she exclaimed what is the matter of you i-i am in love said i very awkwardly is that all she answered a trace of humor in her tone i thought it was bad news i stooped to pick a rose and handed it to her well she remarked soberly but smiling a little as she lifted the rose to her lips is it any one i know i felt it was going badly with me but caught a sudden inspiration you have never seen her i said if she had suspected the truth i had turned the tables on her and now she was guessing a quick change came into her face and for a moment it gave me confidence is she pretty she asked very seriously as she dropped the flower and looked down crushing it beneath her foot
she is very beautiful it is you i love hope a flood of color came into her cheeks then as she stood a moment looking down at the flower in silence i shall keep your secret she said tenderly and hesitating as she spoke and when you are through college and you are older and i am older and you love me as you do now i hope i shall love you too as i do now her lips were trembling as she gave me that sweet assurance dearer to me far dearer than all else i remember of that golden time and tears were coursing down her cheeks for myself i was in a worse plight of emotion i dare say she remembered also the look of my face in that moment do not speak of it again she said as we walked away together on the shorn sod of the orchard meadow now sown with apple blossoms until we are older and if you never speak again i shall know you-you do not love me any longer the dinner horn sounded we turned and walked slowly back do i look all right she asked turning her face to me and smiling sweetly
all right i said nobody would know that any one loved you except for your beauty and that one tear track on your cheek she wiped it away as she laughed mother knows anyway she said and she has given me good advice wait she added stopping and turning to me your eyes are wet i felt from a handkerchief take mine she said elder whitmarsh was at the house and they were all sitting down to dinner as we came in hello said uncle eb here's a good-looking couple we've got a chicken-pie and a baptist minister for dinner and both good take your pew next to the minister he added as he held the chair for me then we all bowed our heads and i felt a hearty amen for the elder's words o lord may all our doing and saying and eating and drinking of this day be done as in thy sight for our eternal happiness and for thy glory amen End of chapter 20.
Recording by Roger Moline.
