第14章 IN WHICH KEZIAH ASSUMES A GUARDIANSHIP(3)

At the Daniels's door Keziah turned her new charge over to Matilda Snow,the hired girl.It was an indication of the family's social position that they kept hired help.This was unusual in Trumet in those days,even among the well to do.

Good night,said the young man,extending his hand.Good night,Miss--or is it Mrs.--Coffin?Mrs.Good night.

She's a widow,explained Matilda.Husband died 'fore she come back here to live.Guess he didn't amount to much;she never mentions his name.There was one thing I meant to tell her,mused the minister,hesitating on the threshold.I meant to tell her not to attempt any cleaning up at the parsonage to-night.To-morrow will do just as well.Heavens to Betsy!sniffed the hired help,speaking from the depths of personal conviction,nobody but a born fool would clean house in the night,'specially after the cleanin'she's been doin' at her own place.I guess you needn't worry.So Mr.Ellery did not worry.And yet,until three o'clock of the following morning,the dull light of a whale-oil lantern illuminated the rooms of the parsonage as Keziah scrubbed and swept and washed,giving to the musty place the lick and promiseshe had prophesied.If the spiders had prepared those ascension robes,they could have used them that night.

After breakfast the wagons belonging to the Wellmouth furniture dealer drove in at the gate of the little house opposite Captain Elkanah's,and Keziah saw,with a feeling of homesickness which she hid beneath smiles and a rattle of conversation,the worn household treasures which had been hers,and her brother's before her,carried away out of her life.Then her trunks were loaded on the tailboards of the wagons,to be left at the parsonage,and with a sigh and a quick brush of her hand across her eyes,she locked the door for the last time and walked briskly down the road.Soon afterwards John Ellery,under the eminently respectable escort of Captain Elkanah and Miss Annabel,emerged from the Daniels's gate and followed her.Mrs.Didama Rogers,thankful for a clear atmosphere and an unobstructed view,saw them pass and recognized the stranger.And,within a quarter of an hour,she,arrayed in a hurried calling costume,was spreading the news along the main road.The Trumet Daily Advertiserhad,so to speak,issued an extra.

Thus the new minister came to Trumet and thus Keziah Coffin became his housekeeper.She entered upon her duties with the whole-hearted energy peculiar to her.She was used to hard work,and,as she would have said,felt lonesome without it.She cleaned that parsonage from top to bottom.Every blind was thrown open and the spring sunshine poured in upon the braided mats and the rag carpets.Dust flew in clouds for the first day or two,but it flew out of windows and doors and was not allowed to settle within.The old black walnut furniture glistened with oil.The mirrors and the crockery sparkled from baths of hot water and soap.Even St.

Stephen,in the engravings on the dining-room wall,was forced to a martyrdom of the fullest publicity,because the spots and smears on the glass covering his sufferings were violently removed.In the sleeping rooms upstairs the feather beds were beaten and aired,the sheets and blankets and patchwork comforters exposed to the light,and the window curtains dragged down and left to flap on the clothesline.The smell of musty dampness disappeared from the dining room and the wholesome odors of outdoors and of good things cooking took its place.

Keziah,in the midst of her labors,found time to coach her employer and companion in Trumet ways,and particularly in the ways which Trumet expected its clergymen to travel.On the morning following his first night in the parsonage,he expressed himself as feeling the need of exercise.He thought he should take a walk.

Well,said his housekeeper from her station opposite him at the breakfast table,if I was you I wouldn't take too long a one.You'd better be back here by ten,anyhow.Where was you thinkin'of goin'?

Mr.Ellery had no particular destination in mind.He would like to see something of the village and,perhaps,if she could give him the names of a few of his parishioners,he might make a few calls.

Keziah shook her head.

Gracious goodness!she exclaimed.I wouldn't advise you to do that.You ain't been here long enough to make forenoon calls.If you should catch some of the women in this town with aprons and calico on,they'd never forgive you in this world.Wait till afternoon;they'll be expectin'you then and they'll be rigged out in their best bibs and tuckers.S'pose you found Annabel Daniels with her hair done up in curl papers;what do you think would happen?Mornin's are no time for ministers'calls.Even old Mr.Langley never made calls in the forenoon--and he'd been here thirty-odd years.All right,you know best.Much obliged for the advice.Then I'll simply take my walk and leave the calls until later.I'd be back by ten,though.Folks'll begin callin' on you by that time.They will?Doesn't the rule work both ways?Not with new ministers it don't.Cat's foot!You don't s'pose Didama Rogers and Laviny Pepper and their kind'll wait any longer'n they can help a fore they come to see what you look like,do you?Well,they must have seen me when I preached here before.