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Page 24
The poor shiftless thing having placed the baby on the floor again,
began to stir about and make ready.
Ad�le sat poking and turning over the chubby little Johnny with her
foot.
At last, Pat appeared with a moderate quantity of hemlock boughs,
which Ad�le told him to throw upon the floor,--then to hand her the
knife and sit down by her side and learn to make a broom. She
selected, clipped, and laid together the boughs, until she had made
quite a pile; sent Pat for a strong piece of twine and an old broom
handle and then secured the boughs firmly upon it.
"Now Pat", she said, "here is a nice, new jack-knife. If you will
promise me that you will cut boughs and make your mother two new
brooms, just like this, every week, the knife shall be yours".
Pat, with eyes that stood out an unmentionable distance, and mouth
stretched from ear to ear, promised, and Ad�le proceeded vigorously to
sweep the apartment. In the course of half an hour, the room wore a
wholly different aspect.
"And who tould the like of ye, how to make a brum like that, hinny?"
said Bridget, looking on in admiration of her skill.
"Nobody told me. I saw Aunt Patty McNab do it once. You see it is easy
to do. Now, Bridget, remember. Have your house clean after this, or I
will not come to see you".
"Yes, shure, I'll have them blessed brums as long's there's a tree
grows".
And true it was, that Ad�le's threat not to visit her cabin proved
such a salutary terror to poor Bridget, that there was a perceptible
improvement in her domestic arrangements ever after.
As Ad�le grew older, the ascendency she had obtained in her obscure
empire daily increased. At twelve, she was sent to a convent at
Halifax, where she remained three years. At the end of that period,
she returned to Miramichi, and resumed at once her regal sceptre. The
sway she held over the people was really one of love, grounded on a
recognition of her superiority. Circulating among them freely, she
became thoroughly acquainted with their habits and modes of living,
and she was ever ready to aid them, under their outward wants and
their deeper heart troubles. A community must have some one to look up
to, whether conscious of the want or not. Hero-worship is natural to
the human soul, and the miscellaneous group of women and children
scattered over the settlement, found in Ad�le a strong, joyous,
self-relying spirit, able to help them out of their difficulties, who
could cheer them when down-hearted, and spur them up when getting
discouraged or inefficient.
But, added to this were the charms of her youthful beauty, which even
the humblest felt, without perhaps knowing it, and an air of authority
that swept away all opposition, and held, at times, even Aunt Patty
McNab at arms' length. Yes, it must be confessed that the young lady
was in the habit of queening it over the people; but they were
perfectly willing to have it so, and both loved and were proud of
their little despot.
In the mean time, the Dubois family were living a life within a life,
to the _locale_ of which the render must now be introduced.
It has been said that the outward aspect of their dwelling was
respectable, and in that regard was not greatly at variance, except in
size, with the surrounding habitations. Within, however, there were
apartments furnished and adorned in such a manner as to betoken the
character and tastes of the inmates.
In the second story, directly over the spacious dining room already
described, there was a long apartment with two windows reaching nearly
to the floor. It was carpeted with crimson and black Brussels,
contained two sofas of French workmanship, made in a heavy, though
rich style, covered with cloth also of crimson and black; with chairs
fashioned and carved to match the couches, and finished in the same
material. A quaint-looking piano stood in one corner of the room. In
the centre was a Chinese lacquered table on which stood a lamp in
bronze, the bowl of which was supported by various broadly-smiling,
grotesque creatures, belonging to a genus known only in the domain of
fable.
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