She thought it good for them to see that she could make an excellent lather while she corrected their blunders "without looking,"--that a woman with her sleeves tucked up above her elbows might know all about the Subjunctive Mood or the Torrid Zone--that, in short, she might possess "education" and other good things ending in "tion," and worthy to be pronounced emphatically, without being a useless doll. When she made remarks to this edifying effect, she had a firm little frown on her brow, which yet did not hinder her face from looking benevolent, and her words which came forth like a procession were uttered in a fervid agreeable contralto.
Certainly, the exemplary Mrs. Garth had her droll aspects, but her character sustained her oddities, as a very fine wine sustains a flavor of skin.
Towards Fred Vincy she had a motherly feeling, and had always been disposed to excuse his errors, though she would probably not have excused Mary for engaging herself to him, her daughter being included in that more rigorous judgment which she applied to her own ***.
But this very fact of her exceptional indulgence towards him made it the harder to Fred that he must now inevitably sink in her opinion.
And the circumstances of his visit turned out to be still more unpleasant than he had expected; for Caleb Garth had gone out early to look at some repairs not far off. Mrs. Garth at certain hours was always in the kitchen, and this morning she was carrying on several occupations at once there--****** her pies at the well-scoured deal table on one side of that airy room, observing Sally's movements at the oven and dough-tub through an open door, and giving lessons to her youngest boy and girl, who were standing opposite to her at the table with their books and slates before them.
A tub and a clothes-horse at the other end of the kitchen indicated an intermittent wash of small things also going on.
Mrs. Garth, with her sleeves turned above her elbows, deftly handling her pastry--applying her rolling-pin and giving ornamental pinches, while she expounded with grammatical fervor what were the right views about the concord of verbs and pronouns with "nouns of multitude or signifying many," was a sight agreeably amusing.
She was of the same curly-haired, square-faced type as Mary, but handsomer, with more delicacy of feature, a pale skin, a solid matronly figure, and a remarkable firmness of glance.
In her snowy-frilled cap she reminded one of that delightful Frenchwoman whom we have all seen marketing, basket on arm.
Looking at the mother, you might hope that the daughter would become like her, which is a prospective advantage equal to a dowry--the mother too often standing behind the daughter like a malignant prophecy--"Such as I am, she will shortly be."
"Now let us go through that once more," said Mrs. Garth, pinching an apple-puff which seemed to distract Ben, an energetic young male with a heavy brow, from due attention to the lesson.
"`Not without regard to the import of the word as conveying unity or plurality of idea'--tell me again what that means, Ben."(Mrs. Garth, like more celebrated educators, had her favorite ancient paths, and in a general wreck of society would have tried to hold her "Lindley Murray" above the waves.)"Oh--it means--you must think what you mean," said Ben, rather peevishly.
"I hate grammar. What's the use of it?"
"To teach you to speak and write correctly, so that you can be understood," said Mrs. Garth, with severe precision.
"Should you like to speak as old Job does?""Yes," said Ben, stoutly; "it's funnier. He says, `Yo goo'--that's just as good as `You go.'"
"But he says, `A ship's in the garden,' instead of `a sheep,'"said Letty, with an air of superiority. "You might think he meant a ship off the sea.""No, you mightn't, if you weren't silly," said Ben. "How could a ship off the sea come there?""These things belong only to pronunciation, which is the least part of grammar," said Mrs. Garth. "That apple-peel is to be eaten by the pigs, Ben; if you eat it, I must give them your piece of pasty.
Job has only to speak about very plain things. How do you think you would write or speak about anything more difficult, if you knew no more of grammar than he does? You would use wrong words, and put words in the wrong places, and instead of ****** people understand you, they would turn away from you as a tiresome person.
What would you do then?"
"I shouldn't care, I should leave off," said Ben, with a sense that this was an agreeable issue where grammar was concerned.
"I see you are getting tired and stupid, Ben," said Mrs. Garth, accustomed to these obstructive arguments from her male offspring.
Having finished her pies, she moved towards the clothes-horse, and said, "Come here and tell me the story I told you on Wednesday, about Cincinnatus.""I know! he was a farmer," said Ben.
"Now, Ben, he was a Roman--let ME tell," said Letty, using her elbow contentiously.
"You silly thing, he was a Roman farmer, and he was ploughing.""Yes, but before that--that didn't come first--people wanted him,"said Letty.
"Well, but you must say what sort of a man he was first,"insisted Ben. "He was a wise man, like my father, and that made the people want his advice. And he was a brave man, and could fight.
And so could my father--couldn't he, mother?""Now, Ben, let me tell the story straight on, as mother told it us,"said Letty, frowning. "Please, mother, tell Ben not to speak.""Letty, I am ashamed of you," said her mother, wringing out the caps from the tub. "When your brother began, you ought to have waited to see if he could not tell the story. How rude you look, pushing and frowning, as if you wanted to conquer with your elbows!