Bell had got the bedrooms into wonderful order for their accommodation at night, and this deprived kind neighbours of the pleasure they would have had in “putting up” for a few nights all or any of the family. Within a few days they all felt quite at home, and the additional work entailed by making the manse things go as far as they could, kept them so busy that they were surprised at their having got over the flitting, and especially the “leaving” of the manse, so soon and so quietly.
I did not think it possible that Bell could have wrought harder than I had always known her to do; but she did, and soon Knowe Park was as much to her, in as far as the garden and live stock were concerned, as the old homestead had been. And although Guy the beadle offered to bring out of the manse garden whatever she wished, Bell had enough and to spare, and told Guy to use for himself what he liked, and after that only to sell what was ripe or “near spoiling.”
True to his trust, Guy brought her a fair sum of money obtained in this way, which she handed to Mr. Barrie, not Mrs. Barrie as usual, telling him how it had come. Mr. Barrie was greatly pleased with Guy and Bell, and thanked them warmly; but to Bell’s astonishment he handed her back the money, and said: “Give it to the poor, Bell, and oh! let us be thankful we have something to give away.”
This was several steps in advance of Bell’s notions of what was called for, and she spoke to Mrs. Barrie about it. Mrs. Barrie was well aware that she would need to be very economical, but Mr. Barrie’s “thankful to have something to give away” was so like himself, and the money had come so unexpectedly, that she said:
“Certainly, Bell, we’ll carry out Mr. Barrie’s wishes; and when something has thus come that we can give, let us be thankful to get the more blessedness, for it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Bell could not quite go in with this doctrine. She thought for a little, and then said hesitatingly:
“Just so, mem; but you’ll surely no’ object to me selling whatever’s to spare at Knowe Park, mem, will ye? I think less o’ what comes frae the auld manse; an’ I’m aye gaun to ca’t that, an’ this house is to be the manse. No’ the new manse, but the manse—the manse.”
BOTH RIGHT.
“Do as you have always done, Bell; no directions I could give would serve you so well as your own good sense. And I have been so unsettled by the events of the past two months that I hardly know my own mind; but one thing I do know, and feel—” here Mrs. Barrie’s eyes filled, and she finished the sentence with a trembling voice, “and that is, that you have been a sister and a mother to us all,—a Deborah and a Ruth, a Martha and a Dorcas put together. May God reward you.”
This was nearly too much for Bell, but the necessity of getting on and getting through was pressing her strongly. She accordingly braced herself up, and said in a cheerful tone: