Ch. 16 - Mustered In

CHRISTIE'S return was a very happy one, and could not well be
otherwise with a mother, sister, and lover to welcome her back. Her
meeting with Letty was indescribably tender, and the days that
followed were pretty equally divided between her and her brother, in
nursing the one and loving the other. There was no cloud now in
Christie's sky, and all the world seemed in bloom. But even while
she enjoyed every hour of life, and begrudged the time given to
sleep, she felt as if the dream was too beautiful to last, and often
said:

"Something will happen: such perfect happiness is not possible in
this world."

"Then let us make the most of it," David would reply, wisely bent on
getting his honey while he could, and not borrowing trouble for the
morrow.

So Christie turned a deaf ear to her "prophetic soul," and gave
herself up to the blissful holiday that had come at last. Even while
March winds were howling outside, she blissfully "poked in the dirt"
with David in the green-house, put up the curly lock as often as she
liked, and told him she loved him a dozen times a day, not in words,
but in silent ways, that touched him to the heart, and made his
future look so bright he hardly dared believe in it.

A happier man it would have been difficult to find just then; all
his burdens seemed to have fallen off, and his spirits rose again
with an elasticity which surprised even those who knew him best.
Christie often stopped to watch and wonder if the blithe young man
who went whistling and singing about the house, often stopping to
kiss somebody, to joke, or to exclaim with a beaming face like a
child at a party: "Isn't every thing beautiful?" could be the sober,
steady David, who used to plod to and fro with his shoulders a
little bent, and the absent look in his eyes that told of thoughts
above or beyond the daily task.

It was good to see his mother rejoice over him with an exceeding
great joy; it was better still to see Letty's eyes follow him with
unspeakable love and gratitude in their soft depths; but it was best
of all to see Christie marvel and exult over the discoveries she
made: for, though she had known David for a year, she had never seen
the real man till now.

"Davy, you are a humbug," she said one day when they were making up
a bridal order in the greenhouse.

"I told you so, but you wouldn't believe it," he answered, using
long stemmed rose-buds with as prodigal a hand as if the wedding was
to be his own.

"I thought I was going to marry a quiet, studious, steady-going man;
and here I find myself engaged to a romantic youth who flies about
in the most undignified manner,