CHAPTER VI.

SAL FURBUSH.

The next morning between nine and ten, as Mary sat by Alice’s cradle rocking her to sleep, she was sensible of an unusual commotion in and around the house.  First there was the sound as of some one dancing in the dark passage.  Then there was the same noise in the kitchen below, and a merry voice was heard singing snatches of wild songs, while occasionally peals of laughter were heard mingled with Mrs. Grundy’s harsher tones.  Mary’s curiosity was roused, and as soon as Alice was fairly asleep, she resolved to go down and ascertain the cause of the disturbance, which had now subsided.

As she opened her door, she saw advancing towards her from the farthest extremity of the hall, a little, shrivelled up woman, with wild flashing eyes, and hair hanging loosely over her shoulders.  She was shaking her fist in a very threatening manner, and as she drew nearer Mary saw that her face was going through a great variety of changes, being at first perfectly hideous in its expression, and then instantly changing into something equally ridiculous, though not quite so frightful.  Quickly divining that this must be Sal Furbush, Mary sprang back, but had not time to fasten her door ere the wild woman was there.  In a tremor of terror Mary ran under the bed as the only hiding-place the room afforded, but her heart almost ceased beating as she saw her pursuer about to follow her.  Springing out with a bound she would perhaps have made her egress through the open window, had not Sally prevented her by seizing her arm, at the same time saying, “Don’t be alarmed, duckey, I shan’t hurt you; I’m Sal.  Don’t you know Sal?”

The voice was low and musical, and there was something in its tones which in a measure quieted Mary’s fears, but she took good care to keep at a respectful distance.  After a while Sally asked, “Have you come here to board?”

“I have come here to live,” answered Mary, “I have no other home.”

“Well, for your sake I hope there’ll be an improvement in the fare, for if there isn’t I declare I won’t stay much longer, though to be sure you don’t look as if you’d been used to any thing better than skim-milk.  What ails your teeth, child?”

Involuntarily Mary’s hand went up to her mouth, and Sally, who if she expected an answer, forgot to wait for it, continued.  “Do you know grammar, child?”

Mary replied that she had studied it a few months in Worcester, and a few weeks in Chicopee.

“Oh, I am so glad,” said Sal, “for now I shall have an associate.  Why, the greatest objection I have to the kind of people one meets with here, is that they are so horribly vulgar in their conversation and murder the Queen’s English so dreadfully.  But won’t you and I have good times saying the rules in concert?”

Unfortunately Mary’s knowledge of grammar was rather limited, and as she did not exactly fancy Sal’s proposition, she answered that she had nearly forgotten all she ever knew of grammar.