Chapter 7: POOR MAGGIE AND SOME OTHERS

It was half an hour later, when Mr. Smith and Benny were walking across the common together, that Benny asked an abrupt question.

“Is Aunt Maggie goin’ ter be put in your book, Mr. Smith?”

“Why—er—yes; her name will be entered as the daughter of the man who married the Widow Blaisdell, probably. Why?”

“Nothin’. I was only thinkin’. I hoped she was. Aunt Maggie don’t have nothin’ much, yer know, except her father an’ housework—housework either for him or some of us. An’ I guess she’s had quite a lot of things ter bother her, an’ make her feel bad, so I hoped she’d be in the book. Though if she wasn’t, she’d just laugh an’ say it doesn’t matter, of course. That’s what she always says.”

“Always says?” Mr. Smith’s voice was mildly puzzled. “Yes, when things plague, an’ somethin’ don’t go right. She says it helps a lot ter just remember that it doesn’t matter. See?”

“Well, no, —I don’t think I do see,” frowned Mr. Smith.

“Oh, yes,” plunged in Benny; “‘cause, you see, if yer stop ter think about it—this thing that’s plaguin’ ye—you’ll see how really small an’ no-account it is, an’ how, when you put it beside really big things it doesn’t matter at all—it doesn’t really matter, ye know. Aunt Maggie says she’s done it years an’ years, ever since she was just a girl, an’ somethin’ bothered her; an’ it’s helped a lot.”

“But there are lots of things that do matter,” persisted Mr. Smith, still frowning.

“Oh, yes!” Benny swelled a bit importantly, “I know what you mean. Aunt Maggie says that, too; an’ she says we must be very careful an’ not get it wrong. It’s only the little things that bother us, an’ that we wish were different, that we must say ‘It doesn’t matter’ about. It does matter whether we’re good an’ kind an’ tell the truth an’ shame the devil; but it doesn’t matter whether we have ter live on the West Side an’ eat dinner nights instead of noons, an’ not eat cookies any of the time in the house, —see?”

“Good for you, Benny, —and good for Aunt Maggie!” laughed Mr. Smith suddenly.

“Aunt Maggie? Oh, you don’t know Aunt Maggie, yet. She’s always tryin’ ter make people think things don’t matter. You’ll see!” crowed Benny.

A moment later he had turned down his own street, and Mr. Smith was left to go on alone.

Very often, in the days that followed, Mr. Smith thought of this speech of Benny’s. He had opportunity to verify it, for he was seeing a good deal of Miss Maggie, and it seemed, indeed, to him that half the town was coming to her to learn that something “didn’t matter”—though very seldom, except to Benny, did he hear her say the words themselves. It was merely that to her would come men, women, and children, each with a sorry tale of discontent or disappointment. And it was always as if they left with her their burden, for when they turned away, head and shoulders were erect once more, eyes were bright, and the step was alert and eager.

He used to wonder how she did it. For that matter, he wondered how she did—a great many things.

Mr. Smith was, indeed, seeing a good deal of Miss Maggie these days. He told himself that it was the records that attracted him. But he did not always copy records. Sometimes he just sat in one of the comfortable chairs and watched Miss Maggie, content if she gave him a word now and then.

He liked the way she carried her head, and the way her hair waved away from her shapely forehead. He liked the quiet strength of the way her capable hands lay motionless in her lap when their services were not required. He liked to watch for the twinkle in her eye, and for the dimple in her cheek that told a smile was coming. He liked to hear her talk to Benny. He even liked to hear her talk to her father—when he could control his temper sufficiently. Best of all he liked his own comfortable feeling of being quite at home, and at peace with all the world—the feeling that always came to him now whenever he entered the house, in spite of the fact that the welcome accorded him by Mr. Duff was hardly more friendly than at the first.

To Mr. Smith it was a matter of small moment whether Mr. Duff welcomed him cordially or not. He even indulged now and then in a bout of his own with the gentleman, chuckling inordinately when results showed that he had pitched his remark at just the right note of contrariety to get what he wanted.

For the most part, however, Mr. Smith, at least nominally, spent his time at his legitimate task of studying and copying the Blaisdell family records, of which he was finding a great number. Rufus Blaisdell apparently had done no little “digging” himself in his own day, and Mr. Smith told Miss Maggie that it was all a great “find” for him.

Miss Maggie seemed pleased. She said that she was glad if she could be of any help to him, and she told him to come whenever he liked. She arranged the Bible and the big box of papers on a little table in the corner, and told him to make himself quite at home; and she showed so plainly that she regarded him as quite one of the family, that Mr. Smith might be pardoned for soon considering himself so.