Meanwhile the landlord of the lodging-house turned Kitty into the streets, now that “her man” was gone, and the payment of the rent doubtful.  She got a place as a servant.  The family she lived with shortly moved to Boston, and she accompanied them; then they went abroad, but Kitty would not leave America.  Somehow she drifted to Rivermouth, and for seven long years never gave speech to her sorrow, until the kindness of strangers, who had become friends to her, unsealed the heroic lips.

Kitty’s story, you may be sure, made my grandparents treat her more kindly than ever.  In time she grew to be regarded less as a servant than as a friend in the home circle, sharing its joys and sorrows—­a faithful nurse, a willing slave, a happy spirit in spite of all.  I fancy I hear her singing over her work in the kitchen, pausing from time to time to make some witty reply to Miss Abigail—­for Kitty, like all her race, had a vein of unconscious humor.  Her bright honest face comes to me out from the past, the light and life of the Nutter House when I was a boy at Rivermouth.

Chapter Six—­Lights and Shadows

The first shadow that fell upon me in my new home was caused by the return of my parents to New Orleans.  Their visit was cut short by business which required my father’s presence in Natchez, where he was establishing a branch of the bankinghouse.  When they had gone, a sense of loneliness such as I had never dreamed of filled my young breast.  I crept away to the stable, and, throwing my arms about Gypsy’s neck, sobbed aloud.  She too had come from the sunny South, and was now a stranger in a strange land.

The little mare seemed to realize our situation, and gave me all the sympathy I could ask, repeatedly rubbing her soft nose over my face and lapping up my salt tears with evident relish.

When night came, I felt still more lonesome.  My grandfather sat in his arm-chair the greater part of the evening, reading the Rivermouth Bamacle, the local newspaper.  There was no gas in those days, and the Captain read by the aid of a small block-tin lamp, which he held in one hand.  I observed that he had a habit of dropping off into a doze every three or four minutes, and I forgot my homesickness at intervals in watching him.  Two or three times, to my vast amusement, he scorched the edges of the newspaper with the wick of the lamp; and at about half past eight o’clock I had the satisfactions—­I am sorry to confess it was a satisfaction—­of seeing the Rivermouth Barnacle in flames.

My grandfather leisurely extinguished the fire with his hands, and Miss Abigail, who sat near a low table, knitting by the light of an astral lamp, did not even look up.  She was quite used to this catastrophe.

There was little or no conversation during the evening.  In fact, I do not remember that anyone spoke at all, excepting once, when the Captain remarked, in a meditative manner, that my parents “must have reached New York by this time”; at which supposition I nearly strangled myself in attempting to intercept a sob.