“He went to town this morning, but he’ll be back pretty soon. He has done his best to make it pleasant for you. You’ll like Hugh. There, try to go to sleep,” and kind Aunt Eunice bustled from the room just as Densie entered it, together with Aunt Chloe. The old negress was evidently playing the hostess to Densie, for she was talking quite loud, and all about “Mas’r Hugh.” “Pity he wasn’t thar, ’twould seem so different; ’tain’t de same house without him. You’ll like Mas’r Hugh,” and she, too glided from the room.
Was this the password at Spring Bank, “You’ll like Mas’r Hugh?” It would seem so, for when at last Hannah brought up the waffles and tea, which Aunt Eunice had prepared, she sat down her tray, and after a few inquiries concerning Alice’s head, which was now aching sadly, she, too, launched forth into a panegyric on Mas’r Hugh, ending, as the rest had done, “You’ll like Mas’r Hugh.”
Alice began to believe she should, and with a silent thanksgiving that the great bugbear of Spring Bank was likely to prove so harmless, she waited and listened for any sounds which might herald Hugh’s approach. But the summer evening waned and the summer night closed quietly around Spring Bank, without bringing its master home. One by one the negroes went to their cabins, and when at last the clock struck twelve, Aunt Eunice, who had been waiting for her boy, lighted her tallow candle and stole noiselessly to her room, where by the open window she sat for a long, long time, listening to the howl of Rover, who, sat upon the steps and filled the air with his lonely cries. Aunt Eunice was not superstitious, but Rover’s howl sounded painfully in her ear, and when at last she crept slowly to her pillow there was a dread fear at her heart lest something had befallen Hugh.
CHAPTER XIX.
ALICE AND MUGGINS.
Had an angel appeared suddenly to the blacks at Spring Bank they would not have been more surprised or delighted than they were with Alice when she came down to breakfast looking so beautifully in her muslin wrapper, with a simple white blossom and geranium leaf twined among her flowing curls, and an expression of content upon her childish face which said that she had resolved to make the best of the place to which Providence had so clearly led her for some wise purpose of his own. She had arisen early and explored the premises in quest of the spots of sunshine which she knew were there as well as elsewhere, and she had found them, too, in the grand old elms and maples which shaded the wooden building, in the clean, grassy lawn and the running brook, in the well kept garden of flowers, and in the few choice volumes arranged in the old bookcase at one end of the hall. Who read those books? Not ’Lina, most assuredly, for Alice’ reminiscences of her were not of the literary kind; nor yet Mrs. Worthington, kind, gentle creature as she seemed to be. Who then but Hugh could have pored over those pages? And with a thrill of joy she was turning from the corner, when the patter of little naked feet was heard upon the stairs, and a bright mulatto child, apparently seven or eight years old, appeared, her face expressive of the admiration with which she regarded Alice, who asked her name.
Curtesying very low the child replied,
“I dunno, missus; Mas’r Hugh don nickname me Muggins, and every folks do that now. You know Mas’r Hugh? He done rared when he read you’s comin’; do this way with his boot, ‘By George, Ad will sell the old hut yet without ’sultin’ me,’” and the little darkey’s fist came down upon the window sill in apt imitation of her master.
A crimson flush overspread Alice’s face as she wondered if it were possible that the arrangements concerning her coming there had been made without reference to Hugh’s wishes.
“It may be; he was away,” she sighed; then feeling an intense desire to know more, and being only a woman and mortal, she said to Muggins, walking round her in circles, with her fat arms folded upon her bosom, “Your master did not know I was coming till he returned from New Orleans and found his mother’s letter?”
“Who tole you dat ar?” and Muggin’s face was perfectly comical in its bewilderment at what she deemed Alice’s foreknowledge. “But dat’s so. I hear Aunt Chloe say so, and how’t was right mean in Miss ’Lina. I hate Miss ’Lina! Phew-ew!” and Muggins’ face screwed itself into a look of such perfect disgust that Alice could not forbear laughing outright.