第1章 My Cousin Fanny(1)

We do not keep Christmas now as we used to do in old Hanover.

We have not time for it, and it does not seem like the same thing.

Christmas, however, always brings up to me my cousin Fanny;I suppose because she always was so foolish about Christmas.

My cousin Fanny was an old maid; indeed, to follow St.Paul's turn of phrase, she was an old maid of the old maids.No one who saw her a moment could have doubted it.Old maids have from most people a feeling rather akin to pity a hard heritage.They very often have this feeling from the young.

This must be the hardest part of all -- to see around them friends, each "a happy mother of children," little ones responding to affection with the sweet caresses of childhood, whilst any advances that they, their aunts or cousins, may make are met with indifference or condescension.

My cousin Fanny was no exception.She was as proud as Lucifer;yet she went through life -- the part that I knew of -- bearing the pity of the great majority of the people who knew her.

She lived at an old place called "Woodside", which had been in the family for a great many years; indeed, ever since before the Revolution.

The neighborhood dated back to the time of the colony, and Woodside was one of the old places.My cousin Fanny's grandmother had stood in the door of her chamber with her large scissors in her hand, and defied Tarleton's red-coated troopers to touch the basket of old communion-plate which she had hung on her arm.

The house was a large brick edifice, with a pyramidal roof, covered with moss, small windows, porticos with pillars somewhat out of repair, a big, high hall, and a staircase wide enough to drive a gig up it if it could have turned the corners.A grove of great forest oaks and poplars densely shaded it, and made it look rather gloomy; and the garden, with the old graveyard covered with periwinkle at one end, was almost in front, while the side of the wood -- a primeval forest, from which the place took its name --came up so close as to form a strong, dark background.During the war the place, like most others in that neighborhood, suffered greatly, and only a sudden exhibition of spirit on Cousin Fanny's part saved it from a worse fate.After the war it went down; the fields were poor, and grew up in briers and sassafras, and the house was too large and out of repair to keep from decay, the ownership of it being divided between Cousin Fanny and other members of the family.Cousin Fanny had no means whatever, so that it soon was in a bad condition.

The rest of the family, as they grew up, went off, compelled by necessity to seek some means of livelihood, and would have taken Cousin Fanny too if she would have gone; but she would not go.They did all they could for her, but she preferred to hang around the old place, and to do what she could with her "mammy", and "old Stephen", her mammy's husband, who alone remained in the quarters.She lived in a part of the house, locking up the rest, and from time to time visited among her friends and relatives, who always received her hospitably.She had an old piece of a mare (which I think she had bought from Stephen), with one eye, three legs, and no mane or tail to speak of, and on which she lavished, without the least perceptible result, care enough to have kept a stable in condition.In a freak of humor she named this animal "Fashion", after a noted racer of the old times, which had been raised in the county, and had beaten the famous Boston in a great race.She always spoke of "Fash"with a tone of real tenderness in her voice, and looked after her, and discussed her ailments, which were always numerous, as if she had been a delicate child.Mounted on this beast, with her bags and bundles, and shawls and umbrella, and a long stick or pole, she used occasionally to make the tour of the neighborhood, and was always really welcomed;because, notwithstanding the trouble she gave, she always stirred things up.

As was said once, you could no more have remained dull where she was than you could have dozed with a chinkapin-burr down your back.

Her retort was that a chinkapin-burr might be used to rouse people from a lethargy (she had an old maid's tongue).By the younger members of the family she was always welcomed, because she furnished so much fun.

She nearly always fetched some little thing to her host -- not her hostess --a fowl, or a pat of butter from her one old cow, or something of the kind, because, she said, "Abigail had established the precedent, and she was `a woman of good understanding' -- she understood that feeding and flattery were the way to win men." She would sometimes have a chicken in a basket hung on the off pummel of her old saddle, because at times she fancied she could not eat anything but chicken soup, and she did "not wish to give trouble." She used to give trouble enough; for it generally turned out that she had heard some one was sick in the neighborhood, and she wanted the soup carried to her.I remember how mad Joe got because she made him go with her to carry a bucket of soup to old Mrs.Ronquist.

Cousin Fanny had the marks of an old maid.She was thin ("scrawny" we used to call her, though I remember now she was quite erect until she grew feeble);her features were fine; her nose was very straight; her hair was brown;and her eyes, which were dark, were weak, so that she had often to wear a green shade.She used to say herself that they were "bad eyes".

They had been so ever since the time when she was a young girl, and there had been a very bad attack of scarlet fever at her home, and she had caught it.I think she caught a bad cold with it --sitting up nursing some of the younger children, perhaps --and it had settled in her eyes.She was always very liable to cold.

I believe she had a lover then or about that time; but her mother had died not long before, and she had some notion of duty to the children, and so discarded him.Of course, as every one said, she'd much better have married him.I do not suppose he ever could have addressed her.

She never would admit that he did, which did not look much like it.