The Great ExpeditionMRS.TODD never by any chance gave warning over night of her great projects and adventures by sea and land.She first came to an understanding with the primal forces of nature, and never trusted to any preliminary promise of good weather, but examined the day for herself in its infancy.Then, if the stars were propitious, and the wind blew from a quarter of good inheritance whence no surprises of sea-turns or southwest sultriness might be feared, long before I was fairly awake I used to hear a rustle and knocking like a great mouse in the walls, and an impatient tread on the steep garret stairs that led to Mrs.Todd's chief place of storage.She went and came as if she had already started on her expedition with utmost haste and kept returning for something that was forgotten.When I appeared in quest of my breakfast, she would be absent-minded and sparing of speech, as if I had displeased her, and she was now, by main force of principle, holding herself back from altercation and strife of tongues.
These signs of a change became familiar to me in the course of time, and Mrs.Todd hardly noticed some plain proofs of divination one August morning when I said, without preface, that I had just seen the Beggs' best chaise go by, and that we should have to take the grocery.Mrs.Todd was alert in a moment.
"There! I might have known!" she exclaimed."It's the 15th of August, when he goes and gets his money.He heired an annuity from an uncle o' his on his mother's side.I understood the uncle said none o' Sam Begg's wife's folks should make free with it, so after Sam's gone it'll all be past an' spent, like last summer.
That's what Sam prospers on now, if you can call it prosperin'.
Yes, I might have known.'Tis the 15th o' August with him, an' he gener'ly stops to dinner with a cousin's widow on the way home.
Feb'uary n' August is the times.Takes him 'bout all day to go an'
come."
I heard this explanation with interest.The tone of Mrs.
Todd's voice was complaining at the last.
"I like the grocery just as well as the chaise," I hastened to say, referring to a long-bodied high wagon with a canopy-top, like an attenuated four-posted bedstead on wheels, in which we sometimes journeyed."We can put things in behind--roots and flowers and raspberries, or anything you are going after--much better than if we had the chaise."Mrs.Todd looked stony and unwilling."I counted upon the chaise," she said, turning her back to me, and roughly pushing back all the quiet tumblers on the cupboard shelf as if they had been impertinent."Yes, I desired the chaise for once.I ain't goin'
berryin' nor to fetch home no more wilted vegetation this year.
Season's about past, except for a poor few o' late things," she added in a milder tone."I'm goin' up country.No, I ain't intendin' to go berryin'.I've been plottin' for it the past fortnight and hopin' for a good day.""Would you like to have me go too?" I asked frankly, but not without a humble fear that I might have mistaken the purpose of this latest plan.
"Oh certain, dear!" answered my friend affectionately."Oh no, I never thought o' any one else for comp'ny, if it's convenient for you, long's poor mother ain't come.I ain't nothin' like so handy with a conveyance as I be with a good bo't.Comes o' my early bringing-up.I expect we've got to make that great high wagon do.The tires want settin' and 'tis all loose-jointed, so Ican hear it shackle the other side o' the ridge.We'll put the basket in front.I ain't goin' to have it bouncin' an' twirlin'
all the way.Why, I've been makin' some nice hearts and rounds to carry."These were signs of high festivity, and my interest deepened moment by moment.
"I'll go down to the Beggs' and get the horse just as soon as I finish my breakfast," said I."Then we can start whenever you are ready."Mrs.Todd looked cloudy again."I don't know but you look nice enough to go just as you be," she suggested doubtfully."No, you wouldn't want to wear that pretty blue dress o' yourn 'way up country.'Taint dusty now, but it may be comin' home.No, Iexpect you'd rather not wear that and the other hat.""Oh yes.I shouldn't think of wearing these clothes," said I, with sudden illumination."Why, if we're going up country and are likely to see some of your friends, I'll put on my blue dress, and you must wear your watch; I am not going at all if you mean to wear the big hat.""Now you're behavin' pretty," responded Mrs.Todd, with a gay toss of her head and a cheerful smile, as she came across the room, bringing a saucerful of wild raspberries, a pretty piece of salvage from supper-time."I was cast down when I see you come to breakfast.I didn't think 'twas just what you'd select to wear to the reunion, where you're goin' to meet everybody.""What reunion do you mean?" I asked, not without amazement.
