第79章

The Christmas forenoon was quite well-advanced before the fatigue of Rachel Bond's long ride was sufficiently abated to allow her to awaken.Then a soft hum of voices impressed itself upon her drowsy senses, and she opened her eyes with the idea that there were several persons in the room engaged in conversation.But she saw that there was only Aunt Debby, seated in a low rocking-chair by the lazily burning fire, and reading aloud from a large Bible that lay open upon her knees.The reading was slow and difficult, as of one but little used to it, and many of the longer words were patiently spelled out.But this labored picking the way along the rugged path of knowledge, stumbling and halting at the nouns, and verbs, and surmounting the polysyllables a letter at a time, seemed to give the reader a deeper feeling of the value and meaning of each word, than is usually gained by the more facile scholar.As Rachel listened she became aware that Aunt Debby was reading that wonderful twelfth chapter of St.Luke, richest of all chapters in hopes and promises and loving counsel for the lowly and oppressed.

She had reached the thirty-fifth verse, and read onward with a passionate earnestness and understanding that made every word have a new revelation to Rachel:

"Let your loins be girded up, and your lights burning;"And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately.

"Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

"And if ye shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and shall find them so, blessed are those servants.

"And this now that if the good man of the house had known what the hour the thief would come he would have watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through.

"Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not."Rachel stirred a little, and Aunt Debby looked up and closed the book.

"I'm afeared I've roused ye up too soon," she said, coming toward the bed with a look of real concern upon her sad, sweet face."Iraylly didn't intend ter.I jest opened the book ter read teh promise 'bout our Father heedin' even a sparrer's fall, an' forgot 'bout our Father heedin' even a sparrer's fall, an' forgot, an'

read on; an' when I read, I must read out loud, ter git the good of hit.Some folks pretend they kin understand jest ez well when they read ter themselves.Mebbe they kin.""O, no," replied Rachel cheerfully, "you didn't disturb me in the least.It was time that I got up, and I was glad to hear you read.

I'm only troubled with the fear that I've overslept myself, and missed the duty that I was intended for.""Make yourself easy on that 'ere score.Ye'll not be needed to-day, nor likely to-morrow.Some things hev come up ter change Jim's plans.""I am very sorry," said Rachel, sitting up in the bed and tossing back her long, silken mane with a single quick, masterful motion.

"I wished to go immediately about what I am expected to do.I can do anything better than wait."Aunt Debby came impulsively to the bedside, threw an arm around Rachel's neck, and kissed her on the forehead."I love ye, honey,"she said with admiring tenderness."Ye' 're sich ez all women orter be.Ye 'll make heroes of yer husband and sons.Ye 've yit ter l'arn though, thet the most of a woman's life, an' the hardest part of hit, is ter wait."In her fervid state of mind Rachel responded electrically to this loving advance, made at the moment of all others when she felt most in need of sympathy and love.She put her strong arms around Aunt Debby, and held her for a moment close to her heart.From that moment the two women became of one accord.Womanlike, they sought relief from their high tension in light, irrelevant talk and care for the trifling details of their surroundings.Aunt Debby brought water and towels for Rachel's toilet, and fluttered around her, solicitous, helpful and motherly, and Rachel, weary of long companionship with men, delighted in the restfulness of association once more with a gentle, sweet-minded woman.

The heavy riding-habit was entirely too cumbersome for indoor wear, and Rachel put on instead one of Aunt Debby's "linsey" gowns, that hung from a peg, and laughed at the prim, demure mountain girl she saw in the glass.After a good breakfast had still farther raised her spirits she ventured upon a little pleasantry about the dramatic possibilities of a young lady who couls assume different characters with such facility.

The day passed quietly, with Rachel studying such of the Christmas festivities as were visible from the window, and from time to time exchanging personal history with Aunt Debby.She learned that the latter had left her home in Rockcastle Mountains with the Union Army in the previous Spring, and gone on to Chattanooga, to assist her nephew, Fortner, in obtaining the required information when Mitchell's army advanced against that place in the Summer.When the army retreated to the Ohio, in September, she had come as far back as Murfreesboro, and there stopped to await the army's return, which she was confident would not be long delayed.