Miss Pike was the most entertaining of guests, and had brought a story with her, written expressly for the Quintette Club—so she informed them as they all gathered about her in a delighted group after dinner.
“Oh let’s have it now, this moment. Oh, Miss Pike, you are a darling.”
“Well, you may bring my hand-bag, Mary. And will Julia read aloud while I sew? For I’m rather hurried, you see.”
She had already been over to Old Bluff, measured Pecy Pancake with her eye, and found she was about Fanny’s size; and now the dear soul began to baste a calico frock for the machine, while Julia read.
A Family Mystery,
Revealed by a Chimney.
Here I am, at my last gasp. I’ve stood it thirty-five years without flinching, but now my time is come. Pleasant sky, you and I must part. Bright sun, good by. Remember I am but a “humble instrument,” and forgive me for smoking in your face. Look, iron-hearted men,—see how a hero dies! For I’m dying in a good cause, and it’s not I that will cry “Quarter.”
Well, what would you do? Here I am alone,—shovel, tongs, cooking-stove, all gone, that made life desirable! Yesterday, sir, you climbed atop of the house, tore off the tin roof, and rolled it up into parcels like so much jelly-cake. I looked on and saw you, but the bitterness was past. The time I could have wept was the day my family had notice to leave. Now they are gone, and what care I what happens? I saw you pull down the walls, till the air was so thick with plaster you could almost cut it with a knife. I saw you rip up the chamber-floor as if it had been a rag carpet. I saw you pull away the door-steps, where she used to stand, looking up and down the street.
I saw women and children coming to carry away shingles and clapboards for kindlings. Little by little, crash by crash, down went the house, till there was nothing left standing but the other chimney and me—and this morning he was taken. Now I’m sole survivor. I’m red as far down as the chamber fireplace; the rest of the way I’m white. Some of you laughed, seeing me standing up alone, with a white body and red head, and said I looked “like a monument smiling at grief.”