Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Comfort Pease and her Gold Ring
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Mary E. Wilkins Freeman >> Comfort Pease and her Gold Ring
Comfort Pease
And her Gold Ring
By
Mary E. Wilkins
Author of Prembroke, Jane Field, A Humble Romance, etc., etc.
Fleming H. Revell Company
New-York Chicago Toronto
MDCCCXCV
One of the first things which Comfort remembered being told was that
she had been named for her Aunt Comfort, who had given her a gold
ring and a gold dollar for her name. Comfort could not understand
why. It always seemed to her that her aunt, and not she, had given
the name, and that she should have given the ring and the dollar; but
that was what her mother had told her. "Your Aunt Comfort gave you
this beautiful gold ring and this gold dollar for your name," said
she.
The ring and the dollar were kept in Mrs. Pease's little rosewood
work-box, which she never used for needlework, but as a repository
for her treasures. Her best cameo brooch was in there, too, and a
lock of hair of Comfort's baby brother who died.
One of Comfort's chiefest delights was looking at her gold ring and
gold dollar. When she was very good her mother would unlock the
rosewood box and let her see them. She had never worn the ring--it
was much too large for her. Aunt Comfort and her mother had each
thought that it was foolish to buy a gold ring that she could
outgrow. "If it was a chameleon ring I wouldn't care," said Aunt
Comfort; "but it does seem a pity when it's a real gold ring." So
the ring was bought a little too large for Comfort's mother. She was
a very small woman, and Comfort was a large baby, and, moreover,
favored her father's family, who were all well grown, and Aunt
Comfort feared she might have larger fingers.
"Why, I've seen girls eight years old with fingers a good deal bigger
than yours, Emily," she said. "Suppose Comfort shouldn't be able to
get that ring on her finger after she's eight years old, what a pity
'twould be, when it's real gold, too!"
But when Comfort was eight years old she was very small for her age,
and she could actually crowd two of her fingers--the little one and
the third--into the ring. She begged her mother to let her wear it
so, but she would not. "No," said she, "I sha'n't let you make
yourself a laughing-stock by wearing a ring any such way as that.
Besides, you couldn't use your fingers. You've got to wait till your
hand grows to it."
So poor little Comfort waited, but she had a discouraged feeling
sometimes that her hand never would grow to it. "Suppose I shouldn't
be any bigger than you, mother," she said, "couldn't I ever wear the
ring?"
"Hush! you will be bigger than I am. All your father's folks are, and
you look just like them," said her mother, conclusively, and Comfort
tried to have faith. The gold dollar also could only impart the
simple delight of possession, for it was not to be spent. "I am going
to give her a gold dollar to keep beside the ring," Aunt Comfort had
said.
"What is it for?" Comfort asked sometimes when she gazed at it
shining in its pink cotton bed in the top of the work-box.
"It's to keep," answered her mother.
Comfort grew to have a feeling, which she never expressed to anybody,
that her gold dollar was somehow like Esau's birthright, and
something dreadful would happen to her if she parted with it. She
felt safer, because a "mess of pottage" didn't sound attractive to
her, and she did not think she would ever be tempted to spend her
gold dollar for that.
Comfort went to school when she was ten years old. She had not begun
as early as most of the other girls, because she lived three quarters
of a mile from the school-house and had many sore throats. The
doctors had advised her mother to teach her at home; and she could do
that, because she had been a teacher herself when she was a girl.
Comfort had not been to school one day before everybody in it knew
about her gold ring and her dollar, and it happened in this way: She
sat on the bench between Rosy and Matilda Stebbins, and Rosy had a
ring on the middle finger of her left hand. Rosy was a fair, pretty
little girl, with long light curls, which all the other girls admired
and begged for the privilege of twisting. Rosy at recess usually had
one or two of her friends standing at her back twisting her soft
curls over their fingers.
Rosy wore pretty gowns and aprons, too, and she was always glancing
down to see if her skirt was spread out nicely when she sat on the
bench. Her sister Matilda had just as pretty gowns, but she was not
pretty herself. However, she was a better scholar, although she was a
year younger. That day she kept glancing across Comfort at her
sister, and her black eyes twinkled angrily. Rosy sometimes sat with
her left hand pressed affectedly against her pink cheek, with the
ring-finger bent slightly outward; and then she held up her
spelling-book before her with her left hand, and the same
ostentatious finger.
Finally Matilda lost her patience, and she whispered across Comfort
Pease. "You act like a ninny," said she to Rosy, with a fierce pucker
of her red lips and a twinkle of her black eyes.
Rosy looked at her, and the pink spread softly all over her face and
neck; but she still held her spelling-book high, and the middle
finger with the ring wiggled at the back of it.
"It ain't anything but brass, neither," whispered Matilda.
"It ain't," Rosy whispered back.
"Smell of it."
Rosy crooked her arm around her face and began to cry. However, she
cried quite easily, and everybody was accustomed to seeing her fair
head bent over the hollow of her arm several times a day, so she
created no excitement at all. Even the school-teacher simply glanced
at her and said nothing. The school-teacher was an elderly woman who
had taught school ever since she was sixteen. She was called very
strict, and the little girls were all afraid of her. She could ferule
a boy just as well as a man could. Her name was Miss Tabitha Hanks.
She did not like Rosy Stebbins very well, although she tried to be
impartial. Once at recess she pushed Charlotte Hutchins and Sarah
Allen, who were twisting Rosy's curls, away, and gathered them all up
herself in one hard hand. "I'd cut them all off if I were your
mother," said she, with a sharp little tug; but when Rosy rolled her
scared blue eyes up at her, she only laughed grimly and let go.
Now Miss Hanks just looked absently at Rosy weeping in the hollow of
her blue gingham arm, then went over to the blackboard and began
writing, in fair, large characters, "A rolling stone gathers no
moss," for the scholars to copy in their copy-books. The temptation
and the opportunity were too much for Comfort Pease. She nudged
Matilda Stebbins and whispered in her ear, although she knew that
whispering in school was wrong. "I've got a real gold ring,"
whispered Comfort.
Matilda turned astonished eyes upon her. "You ain't."
"Yes, I have."
"Who gave it to you?"
"My Aunt Comfort, for my name."
"Were you named for her?"
"Yes, and she gave me a real gold ring for it."
"Matilda Stebbins and Comfort Pease, stand out on the floor," said
Miss Tabitha Hanks, sharply. Comfort gave a great jump--the teacher
had been standing at the blackboard with her back toward them, and
how had she seen? Never after that did Comfort feel quite safe from
Miss Tabitha's eyes; even if they were on the other side of the wall
she could not quite trust it.
"Step right out on the floor, Matilda and Comfort," repeated Miss
Tabitha, and out the two little girls stepped. Comfort's knees shook,
and she was quite pale. Matilda looked very sober, but her black eyes
gave a defiant flash when she was out on the floor and saw that her
sister Rosy had lowered her arm and was looking at her with gentle
triumph. "You see what you've got because you called my ring brass,"
Rosy seemed to say; and Matilda gave a stern little nod at her, as if
she replied, "It is brass."
Poor little Comfort did not feel much sustained by the possession of
her real gold ring. It was dreadful to stand out there facing the
school, which seemed to be a perfect dazzle of blue and black eyes
all fastened upon her in her little red gown and gingham tier, in her
little stout shoes, which turned in for very meekness, with her
little dangling hands, which could not wear the gold ring, and her
little strained face and whispering lips, and little vain heart,
which was being punished for its little vanity.
They stood on the floor until recess. Comfort felt so weak and stiff
that she could scarcely move when Miss Hanks said harshly, "Now you
can go." She cast a piteous glance at Matilda, who immediately put
her arms around her waist and pulled her along to the entry, where
their hoods and cloaks hung. "Don't you cry," she whispered. "She's
awful strict, but she won't hurt you a mite. She brought me a whole
tumbler of currant jelly when I had the measles."
"I sha'n't whisper again as long as I live," half sobbed Comfort,
putting on her hood.
"I sha'n't, either," said Matilda. "I never had to stand out on the
floor before. I don't know what my mother will say when I tell her."
The two little girls went out in the snowy yard, and there was Rosy,
with Charlotte Hutchins and Sarah Allen, and she was showing them her
ring. It was again too much for sensible little Matilda, weary from
her long stand on the floor. "Rosy Stebbins, you are a great ninny,
acting so stuck up over that old brass ring," said she. "Comfort
Pease has a real solid gold one, and she don't even wear it."
Rosy and Charlotte Hutchins and Sarah Allen all stared at Comfort.
"Have you?" asked Charlotte Hutchins, in an awed tone. She was a
doctor's daughter, and had many things that the other little girls
had not; but even she had no gold ring--nothing but a chameleon.
"Yes, I have," replied Comfort, blushing modestly.
"Real gold?" asked Rosy, in a subdued voice.
"Yes."
Some other girls came up--some of the older ones, with their hair
done up; and even some of the boys, towering lankily on the
outskirts. Not one of these scholars in this country district school
fifty years ago had ever owned a gold ring. All they had ever seen
were their mothers' well-worn wedding-circlets.
"Comfort Pease has got a real gold ring," went from one to the other.
"Why don't she wear it, then?" demanded one of the big girls. She had
very red cheeks, and her black hair was in two glossy braids, crossed
and pinned at the back of her head, and surmounted by her mother's
shell comb she had let her wear to school that day. She had come out
to recess without her hood to show it.
"She's waiting for her hand to grow to it," explained Matilda, to
whom Comfort had shyly whispered the whole story.
"Hold up your hand," ordered the big girl; and Comfort held up her
little hand pink with the cold.
"H'm! looks big enough," said the big girl, and she adjusted her
shell comb.
"I call it a likely story," said another big girl, in an audible
whisper.
"The Peases don't have any more than other folks," said still another
big girl. The little crowd dispersed with scornful giggles. Comfort
turned redder and redder. Rosy and Charlotte and Sarah were looking
at her curiously; only Matilda stood firm. "You are all just as mean
as you can be!" she cried. "She has got a gold ring!"
Matilda Stebbins put her arm around Comfort, who was fairly crying.
"Come," said she, "don't you mind anything about 'em, Comfort. Le'ss
go in the school-house. I've got a splendid Baldwin apple in my
dinner-pail, and I'll give you half of it. They're mad 'cause they
haven't got any gold ring."
"I have got a gold ring," sobbed Comfort:
"Honest and true,
Black and blue,
Lay me down and cut me in two."
That was the awful truth-testing formula of the village children.
"Course you have," said Matilda, with indignant backward glances at
the others. "Le'ss go and get that Baldwin apple."
Comfort went with Matilda; but it took more than a Baldwin apple to
solace her; and her first day at school was a most unhappy one. It
was very probable that the other scholars, and especially the elder
ones, who had many important matters of their own in mind, thought
little more about her and her gold ring after school had begun; but
Comfort could not understand that. She had a feeling that the minds
of the whole school were fixed upon her, and she was standing upon a
sort of spiritual platform of shame, which was much worse than the
school-room floor. If she saw one girl whisper to another, she
directly thought it was about her. If a girl looked at her, her color
rose, and her heart began to beat loudly, for she thought she was
saying to herself, "Likely story!"
Comfort was thankful when it was time to go home, and she could
trudge off alone down the snowy road. None of the others lived her
way. She left them all at the turn of the road just below the
school-house.
"Good-night, Comfort," Matilda Stebbins sang out loyally; but the big
girl with red cheeks followed her with, "Wear that gold ring to
school to-morrow, an' let us see it." Then everybody giggled, and
poor Comfort fled out of sight. It seemed to her that she must wear
that ring to school the next day. She made up her mind that she would
ask her mother; but when she got home she found that her Grandmother
Atkins had come, and also her Uncle Ebenezer and Aunt Susan. They had
driven over from Barre, where they lived, and her grandmother was
going to stay and make a little visit; but her uncle and aunt were
going home soon, and her mother was hurrying to make some hot
biscuits for supper.
So when Comfort came in she stopped short at the sight of the
company, and had to kiss them all and answer their questions with shy
politeness. Comfort was very fond of her grandmother, but this time
she did not feel quite so delighted to see her as usual. As soon as
she had got a chance she slipped into the pantry after her mother.
"Mother," she whispered, pulling her apron softly, "can't I wear my
gold ring to school to-morrow?"
"No, you can't. How many times have I got to tell you?" said her
mother, mixing her biscuit dough energetically.
"Please let me, mother. They didn't believe I've got one."
"Let them believe it or not, just as they have a mind to," said her
mother.
"They think I'm telling stories."
"What have you been telling about your ring in school for, when you
ought to have been studying? Now, Comfort, I can't have you standing
there teasing me any longer. I've got to get these biscuits into the
oven; they must have some supper before they go home. You go right
out and set the table. Get the clean table-cloth out of the drawer,
and you may put on the best knives and forks. Not another word. You
can't wear that gold ring until your hand grows to it, and that
settles it."
Comfort went out and set the table, but she looked so dejected that
the company all noticed it. She could not eat any of the hot biscuits
when they sat down to supper, and she did not eat much of the company
cake. "You don't feel sick, do you, child?" asked her grandmother,
anxiously.
"No, ma'am," replied Comfort, and she swallowed a big lump in her
throat.
"She ain't sick," said her mother, severely. "She's fretting because
she can't wear her gold ring to school."
"O Comfort, you must wait till your hand grows to it," said her Aunt
Susan.
"Yes, of course she must," said her Uncle Ebenezer.
"Eat your supper, and your hand will grow to it before long," said
her father, who, left to himself, would have let Comfort wear the
ring.
"It wouldn't do for you to wear that ring and lose it. It's real
gold," said her grandmother. "Have another piece of the sweet-cake."
But Comfort wanted no more sweet-cake. She put both hands to her face
and wept, and her mother sent her promptly out of the room and to
bed. Comfort lay there and sobbed, and heard her Uncle Ebenezer's
covered wagon roll out of the yard, and sobbed again. Then she fell
asleep, and did not know it when her mother and grandmother came in
and looked at her and kissed her.
"I'm sorry she feels so bad," said Comfort's mother, "but I can't let
her wear that ring."
"No, you can't," said her grandmother. And they went out shading the
candle.
Comfort said no more about the ring the next morning. She knew her
mother too well. She did not eat much breakfast, and crept off
miserably to school at a quarter past eight, and she had another
unhappy day. Nobody had forgotten about the gold ring. She was teased
about it at every opportunity. "Why didn't you wear that handsome
gold ring?" asked the big girl with red cheeks, until poor Comfort
got nearly distracted. It seemed to her that the time to go home
would never come, and as if she could never endure to go to school
again. That night she begged her mother to let her stay at home the
next day. "No," said her mother; "you've begun to go to school, and
you're going to school unless you're sick. Now this evening you had
better sit down and write a letter to your Aunt Comfort. It's a long
time since you wrote to her."
So Comfort sat down and wrote laboriously a letter to her Aunt
Comfort, and thanked her anew, as she always did, for her gold ring
and the gold dollar. "I wish to express my thanks again for the
beautiful and valuable gifts which you presented me for my name,"
wrote Comfort, in the little stilted style of the day.
After the letter was written it was eight o'clock, and Comfort's
mother said she had better go to bed.
"You look tired out," said she; "I guess you'll have to go to bed
early if you're going to school."
"Can't I stay home to-morrow, mother?" pleaded Comfort, with sudden
hope.
"No," said her mother; "you've got to go if you're able."
"Mother, can't I wear it just once?"
"Don't you bring that ring up again," said her mother. "Take your
candle and go right upstairs."
Comfort gave a pitiful little sob.
"Now don't you go to crying over it," ordered her mother; and Comfort
tried to choke back another sob as she went out of the room.
Comfort's father looked up from the _Old Farmer's Almanac_. He was
going to Bolton the next day with a load of wood, and wanted to see
what the weather would be, and so was consulting the almanac.
"What was it Comfort wanted?" he inquired.
"She wanted to wear that gold ring her Aunt Comfort gave her to
school," replied Mrs. Pease. "And I've told her over and over again I
shouldn't let her do it."
"It's a mile too big for her, and she'd be sure to lose it off," said
Grandmother Atkins; "and it would be a pity to have anything happen
to it, when it's real gold, too."
"She couldn't wind a rag round her finger under it, could she?" asked
Comfort's father, hesitatingly.
"Wear a rag round her finger under it!" repeated Mrs. Pease. "I
rather guess she can wait till her finger grows to it. You'd let that
child do anything."
Mr. Pease did not say anything more, but studied the _Old Farmer's
Almanac_ again, and found out it was likely to be fair weather for
the season.
It was past midnight, and the hearth fire was raked down, and
Comfort's father and mother and grandmother were all in bed and
asleep, when a little figure in a white nightgown, holding a lighted
candle, padding softly on little cold bare feet, came down the
stairs. Comfort paused in the entry and listened. She could hear the
clock tick and her father snore. The best parlor door was on the
right. She lifted the brass catch cautiously, and pushed the door
open. Then she stole into the best parlor. The close, icy air smote
her like a breath from the north pole. There was no fire in the best
parlor except on Thanksgiving day, and perhaps twice besides, when
there was company to tea, from fall to spring. The cold therein
seemed condensed and concentrated; the haircloth sofa and chairs and
the mahogany table seemed to give out cold as stoves did heat.
There were two coffin-plates and funeral wreaths, which had belonged
to the uncles of Comfort who had died before she was born, in frames
on the wall, and these always scared Comfort.
She kept her eyes away from them as she went swiftly on her little
bare feet, which had no feeling in them as they pressed the icy
floor, across to the mahogany card-table, whereon was set the
rosewood work-box.
Comfort set her candle on the table, and turned the key of the box
with her stiff fingers. Then she raised the lid noiselessly, and
there lay the ring in a little square compartment of the tray. Next
to it, in the corner square, lay the gold dollar.
Comfort took the ring out, shut the box-lid down, turned the key, and
fled. She thought some one called her name as she went upstairs, and
she stopped and listened; but all she heard was the clock ticking and
her father snoring and her heart beating. Then she kept on to her own
chamber, and put out her candle, and crept into her feather-bed under
the patchwork quilts. There she lay all night, wide awake, with the
gold ring clasped tightly in her little cold fist.
When Comfort came downstairs the next morning there was a bright red
spot on each cheek, and she was trembling as if she had a chill.
Her mother noticed it, and asked if she was cold, and Comfort said,
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well, draw your stool up close to the fire and get warm," said her
mother. "Breakfast is 'tmost ready. You can have some of the pancakes
to carry to school for your dinner."
Comfort sat soberly in the chimney-corner until breakfast was ready,
as her mother bade her. She was very silent, and did not say anything
during breakfast unless some one asked her a question.
When she started for school her mother and grandmother stood in the
window and watched her.
It was a very cold morning, and Mrs. Pease had put her green shawl on
Comfort over her coat; and the little girl looked very short and
stout as she trudged along between the snow-ridges which bordered the
path, and yet there was a forlorn air about her.
"I don't know as the child was fit to go to school to-day," Mrs.
Pease said, doubtfully.
"She didn't look very well, and she didn't eat much breakfast,
either," said Grandmother Atkins.
"She was always crazy after hot pancakes, too," said her mother.
"Hadn't you better call her back, Em'ly?"
"No, I won't," said Mrs. Pease, turning away from the window. "She's
begun to go to school, and I'm not going to take her out unless I'm
sure she ain't able to go."
So Comfort Pease went on to school; and she had the gold ring in her
pocket, which was tied around her waist with a string under her dress
skirt, as was the fashion then. Comfort often felt of the pocket to
be sure the ring was safe as she went along. It was bitterly cold;
the snow creaked under her stout shoes. Besides the green shawl, her
red tippet was wound twice around her neck and face; but her blue
eyes peering over it were full of tears which the frosty wind forced
into them, and her breath came short and quick. When she came in
sight of the school-house she could see the straight column of smoke
rising out of the chimney, it was so thin in the cold air. There were
no scholars out in the yard, only a group coming down the road from
the opposite direction. It was too cold to play out of doors before
school, as usual.
Comfort pulled off her mittens, thrust her hand in her pocket
dangling against her blue woolen petticoat, and drew out the gold
ring.
Then she slipped it on over the third and fourth fingers of her left
hand, put her mittens on again, and went on.
It was quite still in the school-house, although school had not
begun, because Miss Tabitha Hanks had arrived. Her spare form, stiff
and wide, and perpendicular as a board, showed above the desk. She
wore a purple merino dress buttoned down the front with dark black
buttons, and a great breastpin of twisted gold. Her hair was looped
down over her ears in two folds like shiny drab satin. It scarcely
looked like hair, the surface was so smooth and unbroken; and a great
tortoise-shell comb topped it like a coronet.
Miss Tabitha's nose was red and rasped with the cold; her thin lips
were blue, and her bony hands were numb; but she set copies in
writing-books with stern patience. Not one to yield to a little fall
in temperature was Tabitha Hanks. Moreover, she kept a sharp eye on
the school, and she saw every scholar who entered, while not seeming
to do so.
She saw Comfort Pease when she came shyly in, and at once noticed
something peculiar about her. Comfort wore the same red tibet dress
and the same gingham apron that she had worn the day before; her
brown hair was combed off her high, serious forehead and braided in
the same smooth tails; her blue eyes looked abroad in the same sober
and timid fashion; and yet there was a change.
Miss Tabitha gave a quick frown and a sharp glance of her gray eyes
at her, then she continued setting her copy. "That child's up to
something," she thought, while she wrote out in her beautiful shaded
hand, "All is not gold that glitters."
Comfort went forward to the stove, which was surrounded by a ring of
girls and boys. Matilda Stebbins and Rosy were there with the rest.
Matilda moved aside at once when she saw Comfort, and made room for
her near the stove.