when the first shock was over, hilda was rather glad than otherwise to learn that there was to be no delay in carrying out the odious plan. "the sooner the better," she said to herself. "i certainly don't want to see any of the girls again, and the first plunge will be the worst of it."
"what clothes am i to take?" she asked her mother, in a tone which she mentally denominated "quiet and cold," though possibly some people might have called it "sullen."
"your clothes are already packed, dear," replied mrs. graham; "you have only to pack your dressing-bag, to be all ready for the start to-morrow. see, here is your trunk, locked and strapped, and waiting for the porter's shoulder;" and she showed hilda a stout, substantial-looking trunk, bearing the initials h.g.
"but, mamma," hilda began, wondering greatly, "my dresses are all hanging in my wardrobe."
"not all of them, dear!" said her mother, smiling. "hark! papa is calling you. make haste and go down, for dinner is ready."
wondering more and more, hildegarde made a hasty toilet, putting on the pretty pale blue cashmere dress which her father specially liked, with silk stockings to match, and dainty slippers of bronze kid. as she clasped the necklace of delicate blue and silver venetian beads which completed the costume, she glanced into the long cheval-glass which stood between the windows, and could not help giving a little approving nod to her reflection. though not a great beauty, hildegarde was certainly a remarkably pretty and even distinguished-looking girl; and "being neither blind nor a fool," she soliloquized, "where is the harm in acknowledging it?" but the next moment the thought came: "what difference will it make, in a stupid farm-house, whether i am pretty or not? i might as well be a hottentot!" and with the "quiet and cold" look darkening over her face, she went slowly down stairs.
her father met her with a kiss and clasp of the hand even warmer than usual.
"well, general!" he said, in a voice which insisted upon being cheery, "marching orders, eh? marching orders! break up camp! boot, saddle, to horse and away! forces to march in different directions, by order of the commander-in-chief." but the next moment he added, in an altered tone: "my girl, mamma knows best; remember that! she is right in this move, as she generally is. cheer up, darling, and let us make the last evening a happy one!"
hilda tried to smile, for who could be angry with papa? she made a little effort, and the father and mother made a great one,—how great she could not know; and so the evening passed, better than might have been expected.
the evening passed, and the night, and the next day came; and it was like waking from a strange dream when hilda found herself in a railway train, with her father sitting beside her, and her mother's farewell kiss yet warm on her cheek, speeding over the open country, away from home and all that she held most dear. her dressing-bag, with her umbrella neatly strapped to it, was in the rack overhead, the check for her trunk in her pocket. could it all be true? she tried to listen while her father told her of the happy days he had spent on his grandfather's farm when he was a boy; but the interest was not real, and she found it hard to fix her mind on what he was saying. what did she care about swinging on gates, or climbing apple-trees, or riding unruly colts! she was not a boy, nor even a tomboy. when he spoke of the delights of walking in the country through woodland and meadow, her thoughts strayed to fifth avenue, with its throng of well-dressed people, the glittering equipages rolling by, the stately houses on either side, through whose shining windows one caught glimpses of the splendors within; and to the park, with its shady alleys and well-kept lawns. could there be any walking so delightful as that which these afforded? surely not! ah! madge and helen were probably just starting for their walk now. did they know of her banishment? would they laugh at the thought of queen hildegardis vegetating for three months at a wretched—
"glenfield!" the brakeman's voice rang clear and sharp through the car. hilda started, and seized her father's hand convulsively.
"papa!" she whispered, "o papa! don't leave me here; take me home! i cannot bear it!"
"come, my child!" said mr. graham, speaking low, and with an odd catch in his voice; "that is not the way to go into action. remember, this is your first battle. so, eyes front! charge bayonets! quick step! forward, march!"
the train had stopped. they were on the platform. mr. graham led hilda up to a stout, motherly-looking woman, who held out her hand with a beaming smile.
"here is my daughter, mrs. hartley!" he said, hastily. "you will take good care of her, i know. my darling, good-by! i go on to dashford, and home by return train in an hour. god bless you, my hilda! courage! up, guards, and at them! remember waterloo!" and he was gone. the engine shrieked an unearthly "good-by!" and the train rumbled away, leaving hilda gazing after it through a mist which only her strong will prevented from dissolving in tears.
"well, my dear," said dame hartley's cheery voice, "your papa's gone, and you must not stand here and fret after him. here is old nancy shaking her head, and wondering why she does not get home to her dinner. do you get into the cart, and i will get the station-master to put your trunk in for us."
hilda obeyed in silence; and climbing into the neat wagon, took her seat and looked about her while dame hartley bustled off in search of the station-master. there was not very much to look at at glenfield station. the low wooden building with its long platform stood on a bare spot of ground, from which the trees all stood back, as if to mark their disapproval of the railway and all that belonged to it. the sandy soil made little attempt to produce vegetation, but put out little humps of rock occasionally, to show what it could do. behind, a road led off into the woods, hiding itself behind the low-hanging branches of chestnut and maple, ash and linden trees. that was all. now that the train was gone, the silence was unbroken save by the impatient movements of the old white mare as she shook the flies off and rattled the jingling harness.
hilda was too weary to think. she had slept little the night before, and the suddenness of the recent changes confused her mind and made her feel as if she were some one else, and not herself at all. she sat patiently, counting half-unconsciously each quiver of nancy's ears. but now dame hartley came bustling back with the station-master, and between the two, hilda's trunk was hoisted into the cart. then the good woman climbed in over the wheel, settled her ample person on the seat and gathered up the reins, while the station-master stood smoothing the mare's mane, ready for a parting word of friendly gossip.
"jacob pooty smart!" he asked, brushing a fly from nancy's shoulder.
"only middling," was the reply. "he had a touch o' rheumatiz, that last spell of wet weather, and it seems to hang on, kind of. ketches him in the joints and the small of his back if he rises up suddin."
"i know! i know!" replied the station-master, with eager interest. "jest like my spells ketches me; on'y i have it powerful bad acrost my shoulders, too. i been kerryin' a potato in my pocket f'r over and above a week now, and i'm in hopes 't'll cure me."
"a potato in your pocket!" exclaimed dame hartley. "reuel slocum! what do you mean?"
"sounds curus, don't it?" returned mr. slocum. "but it's a fact that it's a great cure for rheumatiz. a grea-at cure! why, there's barzillay smith, over to peat's corner, has kerried a potato in his pocket for five years,—not the same potato, y' know; changes 'em when they begin to sprout,—and he hesn't hed a touch o' rheumatism all that time. not a touch! tol' me so himself."
"had he ever hed it before?" asked dame hartley.
"i d'no as he hed," said mr. slocum, "but his father hed; an' his granf'ther before him. so ye see—"
but here hilda uttered a long sigh of weariness and impatience; and dame hartley, with a penitent glance at her, bade good-morning to the victim of rheumatism, gave old nancy a smart slap with the reins, and drove off down the wood-road.
"my dear child," she said to hilda as they jogged along, "i ought not to have kept you waiting so long, and you tired with your ride in the cars. but reuel slocum lives all alone here, and he does enjoy a little chat with an old neighbor more than most folks; so i hope you'll excuse me."
"it is of no consequence, thank you," murmured hildegarde, with cold civility. she did not like to be called "my dear child," to begin with; and besides, she was very weary and heartsick, and altogether miserable. but she tried to listen, as the good woman continued to talk in a cheery, comfortable tone, telling her how fond she had always been of "miss mildred," as she called mrs. graham, and how she had the care of her till she was almost a woman grown, and never would have left her then if jacob hartley hadn't got out of patience.
"and to think how you've grown, hilda dear! you don't remember it, of course, but this isn't the first time you have been at hartley's glen. a sweet baby you were, just toddling about on the prettiest little feet i ever saw, when your mamma brought you out here to spend a month with old nurse lucy. and your father came out every week, whenever he could get away from his business. what a fine man he is, to be sure! and he and my husband had rare times, shooting over the meadows, and fishing, and the like."
they were still in the wood-road, now jolting along over ridges and hummocks, now ploughing through stretches of soft, sandy soil. above and on either side, the great trees interlaced their branches, sometimes letting them droop till they brushed against hilda's cheek, sometimes lifting them to give her a glimpse of cool vistas of dusky green, shade within shade,—moss-grown hollows, where the st. john's-wort showed its tarnished gold, and white indian pipe gleamed like silver along the ground; or stony beds over which, in the time of the spring rains, little brown brooks ran foaming and bubbling down through the woods. the air was filled with the faint cool smell of ferns, and on every side were great masses of them,—clumps of splendid ostrich-ferns, waving their green plumes in stately pride; miniature forests of the graceful brake, beneath whose feathery branches the wood-mouse and other tiny forest-creatures roamed secure; and in the very road-way, trampled under old nancy's feet, delicate lady-fern, and sturdy hart's-tongue, and a dozen other varieties, all perfect in grace and sylvan beauty. hilda was conscious of a vague delight, through all her fatigue and distress how beautiful it was; how cool and green and restful! if she must stay in the country, why could it not be always in the woods, where there was no noise, nor dust, nor confusion?
her revery was broken in upon by dame hartley's voice crying cheerily,—
"and here we are, out of the woods at last! cheer up, my pretty, and let me show you the first sight of the farm. it's a pleasant, heartsome place, to my thinking."
the trees opened left and right, stepping back and courtesying, like true gentlefolks as they are, with delicate leaf-draperies drooping low. the sun shone bright and hot on a bit of hard, glaring yellow road, and touched more quietly the roofs and chimneys of an old yellow farm-house standing at some distance from the road, with green rolling meadows on every side, and a great clump of trees mounting guard behind it. a low stone wall, with wild-roses nodding over it, ran along the roadside for some way, and midway in it was a trim, yellow-painted gate, which stood invitingly open, showing a neat drive-way, shaded on either side by graceful drooping elms. old nancy pricked up her ears and quickened her pace into a very respectable trot, as if she already smelt her oats. dame hartley shook her own comfortable shoulders and gave a little sigh of relief, for she too was tired, and glad to get home. but hilda tightened her grasp on the handle of her dressing-bag, and closed her eyes with a slight shiver of dislike and dread. she would not look at this place. it was the hateful prison where she was to be shut up for three long, weary, dismal months. the sun might shine on it, the trees might wave, and the wild-roses open their slender pink buds; it would be nothing to her. she hated it, and nothing, nothing, nothing could ever make her feel differently. ah! the fixed and immovable determination of fifteen,—does later life bring anything like it?
but now the wagon stopped, and hilda must open her eyes, whether she would or no. in the porch, under the blossoming clematis, stood a tall, broad-shouldered man, dressed in rough homespun, who held out his great brown hand and said in a gruff, hearty voice,—
"here ye be, eh? thought ye was never comin'. and this is little miss, is it? howdy, missy? glad to see ye! let me jump ye out over the wheel!"
but hilda declined to be "jumped out;" and barely touching the proffered hand, sprang lightly to the ground.
"now, marm lucy," said farmer hartley, "let's see you give a jump like that. 'tain't so long, seems to me, sence ye used to be as spry as a hoppergrass."
dame hartley laughed, and climbed leisurely down from the cart. "never mind, jacob!" she said; "i'm spry enough yet to take care of you, if i can't jump as well as i used."
"this missy's trunk?" continued the farmer. "let me see! what's missy's name now? huldy, ain't it! little huldy! 'pears to me that's what they used to call ye when ye was here before."
"my name is hildegardis graham!" said hilda in her most icy manner,—what madge everton used to call her empress-of-russia-in-the-ice-palace-with-the-mercury-sixty-degrees-below-zero manner.
"huldy gardies!" repeated farmer hartley. "well, that's a comical name now! sounds like hurdy-gurdys, doosn't it? where did mis' graham pick up a name like that, i wonder? but i reckon huldy'll do for me, 'thout the gardies, whatever they be."
"come, father," said dame hartley, "the child's tired now, an' i guess she wants to go upstairs. if you'll take the trunk, we'll follow ye."
the stalwart farmer swung the heavy trunk up on his shoulder as lightly as if it were a small satchel, and led the way into the house and up the steep, narrow staircase.
