Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/119

Rh given up going out: patients came to the house, but he was too feeble to ride.

One night he went to his room; and, when Susanna went in to see that he was made comfortable for the night, he said, "Sit down here by me, Susanna, I want to talk with you a little." Susanna gave him an anxious look. "Don't be worried, child," he said: "you know I can't live long. I have passed by my days of usefulness, and I have no desire to live longer." — "Oh, don't say so, grandfather! You are all I have," said Susanna, "Well, dear, when I am gone, you will live here just the same, of course. I have made all legal arrangements. Mollie and Peter won't last long. I want you to keep Sorrel and Bluff as long as they live, and give them a decent burial. There, that is all, now go to bed. Peter will see to the fire." Susanna bent over and kissed his forehead, and took his shrunken hand in hers. "Now go, Susanna. I shall soon sleep."

In the morning Peter knocked at Susanna's door, and said, "Somethin' is the matter with massa, he don't answer me." Susanna's heart seemed to stop as she walked into her grandfather's room. Just as she had left him, lying on his side: not a struggle had he made when death came. He had met the stern messenger fearlessly, and had gone into a better life. Susanna felt that he was ripe for the harvest, and that he longed to be with those who had crossed before.

Patty came into the sitting-room one morning with an armful of sheets, and said, "Miss Susanna, where shall I put these fine sheets? in the press in the attic? Mollie always kept them there." — " Yes, I think so," said Susanna.

"I will go up with you, and we will look them over." Standing in one end of the attic was a large press filled with homespun linen, sheets, towels, and table-cloths: they were yellow with age, and Patty said, "Hadn't I better bleach these on the grass?" — "Yes, I think so," said Susanna, and they piled them out to take down. "What's in this great chist?" asked Patty. "Things of by-gone days," answered Susanna, as she went along to open the heavy oaken lid.

"Here is my mother's wedding-dress," she said, as she unfolded a stiff white brocade. "Grandfather always said that he wanted me to be married in it." With a sigh she took out a thin white gown, and a pair of white spangled slippers. "There, Patty, this was my only party dress. I wore it to 'Squire Ricker's ball. You know the old 'Squire Ricker house? The whole upper story is a hall. I wore this dress there full twenty years ago, and I was as happy then as a mortal ever was."

Susanna lived on with Patty. Peter and Mollie had died very near each other, and Susanna cared for them as tenderly as they had watched over her in her childhood. Sorrel and Bluff were sleeping in company under the pines where Bluff had shown so much sympathy for Susanna in her hour of trial.

Susanna grew old beautifully. She mellowed, and ripened, and shed happiness in her pathway. The young people in the old town came to her for counsel; and many a disappointed maiden and jilted lover found comfort in talking with "Miss Susanna." She cared for the poor; and Patty expected always to cook extra "for stragglers," she said. The sick felt that her presence was a medicine to them, and the