Chapter 17 When Malansi had lived for a week at Roaring Aples,
She felt as if years had separated her from her old life and all the people she had known in it.
They were beginning to seem remote,
Dreamlike,
Far away,
And as the days went on they seemed still more so,
Until they ceased to matter altogether.
She was happy.
Nobody ever bothered her with conundrums or insisted on giving her purple pills.
Nobody called her doors or worried her about catching cold.
There were no quilts to piece,
No rubber plant to water,
No ice-cold maternal tantrums to endure.
She could be alone whenever she liked,
Go to bed when she liked,
Sneeze when she liked.
In the long wondrous northern twilights,
When Sissi was asleep and Roaring Aple away,
She could sit for hours on the shaky back,
Veranda steps,
Looking out over the barrens to the hills beyond,
Covered with the fine purple bloom,
Listening to the friendly wind singing wild,
Sweet melodies in the little spruces,
And drinking in the aroma of the sun-grasses,
Until darkness flowed over the landscape like a cool welcome wave.
Sometimes of an afternoon,
When Sissi was strong enough,
The two girls went into the barrens and looked at the wood-flowers,
But they did not pick any.
When Ansi had read to Sissi the gospel thereof,
According to John Foster,
It is a pity to gather wood-flowers,
They lose half their witchery away.
From the green and the flicker,
The way to enjoy wood-flowers is to track them down to their remote haunts,
Gloat over them,
And then leave them with backward glances,
Taking with us only the beginning memory of their grace and fragrance.
Valancy was in the midst of realities after the lifetime of unrealities,
And busy,
Very busy.
The house had to be cleaned,
Not for nothing had Valancy been brought up in the sterling habits of neatness and cleanliness.
If she found satisfaction in cleaning dirty rooms,
She got her fill of it there.
Roaring Abel thought she was foolish to bother doing so much more than she was asked to do,
But he did not interfere with her.
He was very well satisfied with his bargain.
Valancy was a good cook.
Abel said she got a flavor into things.
The only fault he found with her was that she did not sing at her work.
Folk should always sing at their work,
He insisted.
Sounds cheerful-like.
Not always,
Retorted Valancy.
Fancy a butcher sing at his work,
Or an undertaker.
Abel burst into his great broad laugh.
There is no getting the better of you.
You've got an answer every time.
I should think the sterlings would be glad to be rid of you.
They don't like being sassed back.
During the day Abel was generally away from home,
If not working,
Then shooting or fishing with Barney's maid.
He generally came home at nights,
Always very late and often very drunk.
The first night they heard him come howling into the yard,
Sissi had taught Valancy not to be afraid.
Father never does anything,
He just makes a noise.
Valancy lying on the sofa in Sissi's room,
Where she had elected to sleep,
Lest Sissi should need attention,
In the night.
Sissi would never have caught her and was not at all afraid,
And said so.
By the time Abel had got his horses put away,
The roaring stage had passed and he was in his room at the end of the hall,
Crying and praying.
Valancy could still hear his dismal moans,
When she went calmly to sleep.
For the most part,
Abel was a good-natured creature,
But occasionally he had a temper.
Once Valancy asked him coolly,
What is the use of getting in a rage?
It is such a relief,
Said Abel.
They both burst out laughing together.
You are a great little sport,
Said Abe admiringly.
Don't mind my bad French,
I don't mean a thing by it,
Just habit.
Say I like a woman that ain't afraid to speak up to me.
Sister was always too meek,
Too meek,
That is why she got a drift.
I like you.
All the same,
Said Valancy,
There is no use in sending things to hell,
As you are always doing,
And I am not going to have you trackling mud all over the floor,
I have just scrubbed.
You must use the scraper,
Whether you consign it to perdition or not.
Sissy loved the cleanliness and neatness.
She had kept it so,
Too,
Until her strength failed.
She was very pitifully happy,
Because she had Valancy with her.
It had been so terrible,
The long lonely days and nights with no companionship,
Save those dreadful old women who came to work.
Sissy had hated and feared them.
She clung to Valancy like a child.
There was no doubt that Sissy was dying,
Yet at no time did she seem alarmingly ill.
She did not even cough a great deal.
Most days she was able to get up and dress,
Sometimes even to work about in the garden or the barrens for an hour or two,
For a few weeks after Valancy's coming.
She seemed so much better that Valancy began to hope she might get well,
But Sissy shook her head.
No,
I cannot get well.
My lungs are almost gone,
And I don't want to.
I am so tired,
Valancy.
Only dying can rest me,
But it's lovely to have you here.
You'll never know how much it means to me,
But Valancy,
You work too hard.
You don't need to.
Father only wants his meals cooked.
I don't think you are strong yourself.
You turn so pale sometimes,
And those drops you take.
Are you well,
Dear?
I am all right,
Said Valancy lightly.
She would not have Sissy worried,
And I am not working hard.
I'm glad to have work to do,
Something that really wants to be done.
Then Sissy slipped her hand wistfully into Valancy's.
Don't let's talk anymore about me being sick.
Let's just forget it.
Let's pretend I am a little girl again,
And you have come here to play with me.
I used to wish that a long ago,
Wish that you would come.
I knew you couldn't,
Of course,
But how I wish it.
You always seemed so different from the other girls,
So kind and sweet,
And as if you had something in yourself nobody knew about,
Some dear pretty secret.
Had you,
Valancy?
I had my blue castle,
Said Valancy,
Laughing a little.
She was pleased that Sissy had thought of her like this.
She had never suspected that anybody liked or admired or wondered about her.
She taught Sissy all about her blue castle.
She had never told anyone about it before.
Everyone has a blue castle,
I think,
Said Sissy softly.
Only everyone has a different name for it.
I had mine once.
She put her two thin little hands over her face.
She did not tell Valancy then,
Who had destroyed her blue castle.
But Valancy knew that whoever it was,
It was not Barney Snape.
