Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1882 — HER NEW NEIGHBOR. [ARTICLE]

HER NEW NEIGHBOR.

When one morning Mrs. Chiekwit, Bewing at her cottage window, observed that a family was moviug into the nearest house to hers, in the country place where she resided, she dropped her work and lifted up her hands in delight! Nobody had lived in the house since Mrs. Barley had moved away, and Mrs, Barley had been gone six months. “Somebody is moving in, and I shall have a neighbor to chat with without having to go a quarter of a mile every day. Mr. Chiekwit is away to the city every day, and little knows how lonesome I am, having nobody to speak to till he comes home, except the cnildreu. As soon as they get settled a little, I’ll go right over and invito them to come and see me. How pleasant it will be to have such near neighbors away out here in these lonely woods! I only hope they’ll be more neighborly than Mr. Barley was.”

The new neighbors proved to be a Mr. and Mrs. Bab, with two children not yet in their teens. When, in due time, Mrs. Chiekwit called, she found the house not in order, but was highly gratified to see that Mr. Bab was a very easy-going sort of a person, who seemed to refer everything to his wife, while he took his comfort on two chairs, smoking his pipe and letting his offspring shout at him and pull his hair. “ What a nice disposition that man has 1 ” thought Mrs. Chiekwit. “ Mrs. Bab must take a good deal of comfort with him.” Mrs. Bab appeared to be an equally easy-natured being, troubling herself little about the children, who turned everything topsy-turvy, as they pleased, while she occupied herself in reading novels and newspapers. “I do hope,” says Mrs. Chiekwit, “now that we are acquainted and such close neighbors, that you will be more neighborly, and give us a call often ; and not do as Mrs. Barley did, who was here before you. She and her husband seldom came in, as if they thought they would be shot if they came to see a body. Now do call! ” “ O, I’ll call,” said Mrs. Bab, smiling; “and I know we shall be the best of friends and neighbors. There’s no halfway about me. Where I like, I like.” Next day Mrs. Bab returned the call of Mrs. Chiekwit, and complimented her upon appearing to have everything comfortable about her. “ Your husband must be an excellent provider.” “He is indeed,” replied Mrs. Ohickwit, pleased. “And what beautiful children you have ! And that blessed baby ! O, it’s a cherub-beauty« yes it is—little darling ! ” And, in a sudden spasm of love, she took the infant in her arms and kissed it passionately, as if it were the first baby since the Christian era.

“ Mother’s idol! Yes it was I ” “That’s what Mrs. Barley never did,” said the gratified mother. “Never so much as took one of my children up, or said a coaxing word. What a difference there is in neighbors ! ” “ What, indeed! ” coincided Mrs. Bab. "Some are proud, and some are tattling, and some are quarreling, and some are thieving, and some are lying, and some are reserved, and some are—l don’t know what. ” “That’s just the way it is,” agreed Mrs. Bab. “Were you ever troubled with a neighbor that kept borrving all the time ?” “Well, I can’t say as I ever was,” returned Mrß. Ohiokwit, trying hard to recollect, out of politeness. * “I’ve been pestered and annoyed in that way sometimes,” said Mrs. Bab, rolling up her eyes, “ that it seemed as if my head would go off, and I couldn’t keep nothing together. The neighbors would borry, borry, borry, all the time. Now, I think it’s a Christian grace to lend things occasionally, when you know who you’re a lending to, and are sure they ll fetch things back; but I don’t like to lend everything I have, and then never see ’em agin.” " I shouldn’t like to myself.” “ Anythiug you would like to borry of me, Mrs. Chickwit, you’re entirely welcome to.” “Well, I’m sure !” * “You may borry my clothes off my back, if you want to,” pursued Mrs. Bab, “ and I’ll never indulge myself in an unkind murmur.” Mrs. Chickwit looked rather dubiously at the slattern dress worn by the accommodating Bab, and assured her that “she should never think of such a thing.” “ You must, you must—anything that I have,” insisted the generous Bab; “for when I have any particular friends, my neighbors, I’ve always held to it that what was mine was thine, and what was thine was mine. Ha, ha ! But I must be going. Now I think of it, our potatoes isn t coming this morning, and do you think I could bony the matter of a peck till our’n comes ?” “O, of course,” said Mrs. Chickwit, glad of an opportunity to prove the friendship she felt for her new neighbor. And, after kissing the baby once more, off went Mrs. Bab with a peck of potatoes in Mrs. Chickwit’s basket. “She’s a pleasant creetur,” mused Mrs. Chickwit “I hope she’ll come over agin to-day. There’s a knock; perhaps that’s her.” “Mother wants to know,” said Mrs. Bab’s oldest girl. Adeline, “if you won’t be kind enough just to fill the bag with flour, for our’n ain’t come.” “JVith the greatest pleasure,” said Mrs. Chickwit, filling the bag; and off went Adeline in high glee, but returned immediately, and said she had forgotten half of her .errand. And which half was it, dear?” said

Mrs. Chiekwit, smiling a whole world of amiability at her. “ She said she hated to borry, but if you would lend her two flatirons and a saraepan, for ours ain’t—” “O, yea indeed! ” “With three or fear eggs and a choDPinor -knife. ” “(Bad I can accommodate her.” “ And a hammer and a few nails.” “ There they are,” said Mrs. Chiekwit, kindly. And away went the girl again. “I know she’s no borryer, reflected Mrs. Chiekwit, innocently, “for I remember she said she hated borryers, and had been bothered to death by ’em. Poor soul! No doubt she has lent more than she will ever be able to get back agin. Ido like that woman, she’s so frank and sociable and don’t seem afraid she’s intruding. How different from Mrs. Barley. Why, she ain’t coming in 1” Mrs. Bab stood outside this time, and, with a familiar grin, talked through the window. “Come agin, like a bad penny, Mrs, Chiekwit. Now you must excuse me, on so short an acquaintance, but our wood ain’t come, and poor Mr. Bab, who hates borrying as bad as I do, felt ashamed to come over and ask you to lend us a few armfuls till ourn comes, and as—” “ Help yourself, help your—tell him to come right over this miuute and help himself or I shall bo affronted. I know how it is when folks are moving; they can’t get all their things together as soon as they uaut to. Tell him to come right over." “ Well, I will, since you say so, though I know he feels ashamed to borry, anti as I am going over, to savo a few stops, wou’t you just lend me half a dozen plates, for I’vc got to do our own baking to day and we haven’t unpacked the plates yet.” Mrs. Chiekwit gave her the plates and Mrs. JBab went home and told her husband, who soon came lazily sauntering across the field for the wood, of which he took no less than six good-sized armfuls, and the last time carried over a saw and an ax, which additions he borrowed without leave or license—perhaps because he was ashamed to ask. The clouds from his inevitable pipe prevented Mrs. Chiekwit from seeing whether he looked ashamed or not; but she did notice that it took him the remainder of the day to saw and split the wood he had carried over, and that when he had done he carried the ax and saw into his own house.

“I suppose they’ll return them all together,” surmised Mrs. Chiekwit, “kind, easy, good-natured souls ! It must mortify them to be obliged to borry, when they hate it so, aud when they’ve just moved in.” Just as the sun set Mrs. Bab’s other daughter, Arabella, came over to ask, if Mrs. Chickwit’s patience was not exhausted, if she would lend her mother enough pork to fry for supper, a pound or so of sugar, and a pint or so of milk, “as she hated to-borry, and their’n hadn’t come ; ” all of which Mrs. Chickwit, beginning to be a little—just a little —astonished, sent over to her social new neighbor, with her compliments, and an invitation for the whole family of Babs to come over and spend the evening, for her husband would be at home, and they could have such a nice time. The Bab family accordingly did come over, and a general introduction took place, and Mr. Chiekwit took quite a fancy to Mrs. Bab, not having heard anything of the incidents of the day, and became so attentive to her that Mrs. Chiekwit began to have a new sensation in regard to Mrs. Bab—jealousy, in short—which being unsuspected by the easy-going Mrs. Bab, she so cordially reciprocated the partiality-of Mr. Chickwit, that when the parties separated for the night quite a scene took place in the Chiekwit family, and Mrs. Chiekwit, knowing how her husband detested borrowers, disclosed all the borrowing incidents of the day. And that shocking revelation so disgusted the methodical Mr. Chiekwit that, as his wife expected, his whole feeling toward their new neighbor became one of distrust, and he expressed ardent hope that she would never call again, unless to return the articles she had borrowed. Having set herself at rest on the score of her husband’s affections, Mrs. Chickwit felt herself free to continue her intimacy with Mrs. Bab, which she craved by day for society’s sake—taking care not to invite her over in the evening. And ere the first week was over, beside sundry other articles of housekeeping too numerous to mention, Mrs. Bab had contrived to obtain, upon one pretext and another, the loan of a sheet, a shirt, a dress, a bonnet and a—baby! For it so happened that all the Bab “tilings had not come,” according to Mrs. Bab’s highly-frank and meek admission ; and the articles of dress she borrowed to make her first calls in the neighborhood,” that the people might know she wasn’t unsociable and stuck up ; and she felt she couldn’t wait “ till her things come.”

“ But what in the name of wonder do you want of my baby ?” inquired Mrs. Chickwit, who, just then reflecting that not a solitary article of all that had been borrowed had been returned, experienced a painful flash of doubt that perhaps her baby might be added to the list of the unreturning. “Why, we expect company to-day, Mrs. Chickwit—company from the city —ahem ! very rich ; and I want them to think your baby is mine, to make an appearance with, she is so pretty. ” Mrs. Chickwit was satisfied as far as the baby went, but she did think that, after all she had lent Mrs. Bab, she might have been polite enough just to have invited her over, too; which Mrs. Bab no doubt would have done, if she had not been afraid that the baby and mother together would betray her. Judging from the songs and loud laughter which Mrs. Chickwit heard proceeding from the Bab house during the afternoon and early part of the evening, they were having a very enviable and high-spirited time over there; and the more they seemed to enjoy them selves, the more angry she felt at not being invited, and the more worried about the baby; and when finally Mr. Chickwit came home and grumbled about the baby, and scolded her for letting it out in that way, she became first remorseful and then furious, and determined that as soon as that confounded Mrs. Bab came over to return the child she would give her “a hopping piece of her mind—that she would 1” At about 9 o’clock the tardy Mrs. B. came over with the baby, and a horrible sight presented itself, gratis, to the startled gaze of Mrs. Chickwit as her “bonwin ’’ neighbor entered the kitchen—Mr. Chick frit having gone to bed in disgust. Mrs. Bab’s face was unbecomingly flushed, her breath ginny, her eyes excited, and her voice husky. She had upon her person the borrowed dress, a light silk, highly prized, but now ruined by a multitude of spots, and additionally besmeared with mud; for, terrible to tell, Mrs. Bab, baby in arms, in coming over had tripped, staggered and fallen into a puddle, and, still more piteous'to relate, the baby’s right cheek had received a deep cut, from which the blood and mud now streamed, in equal parts well mixed. The infuriated mother seized the child, which was crying dismally, and while she cared for it at once, with all a mother’s expert compassion, she launched forth into such an amazing tirade against the inebriated Mrs. Bab that that woman could for awhile find no tongue to reply. She was taken by surprise, and had plenty of spirits but no strength. If we should undertake to give the exact language of Mrs. Chickwit upon that occasion, in her animadversion upon

“ borryers” in general, and Mrs. Bab in particular, it would require several columns of this paper. We will therefore pay a high compliment to the imagination of our readers, and suppose they can fancy the exact language of the exasperated Mrs. Chiekwit, when she found herself so egregiously imposed upon by the borrowing woman. But the borrowing at last found her tongue, and rallied in turn, vowing she wonld return everything, and more, on the morrow, and then shake the dust off her feet against the house of the Chick wits. “No great treat,” she concluded, “ to take care of the baby. Many disoonveuiences—many on ’em. I won’t say what they were—squalling all the time, for one thing, and scratching. I was ashamed to have them think the ugly thing was mine.” Hero there was a short, sharp fight about the baby’s beauty and behavior, in which tbe borrowing woman was worsted. “I’d like to know if you don’t want to borry something else before you go? What else do you want, I’d really like to kuow? Say quick—my head or my husband—and then go ! And, mind you, send evcrytlrng home to morrow morning, or we’ll have the constables after you if we have to call out the Governor of the State !” Mrs. Bab vanished, and silence and darkness hung over the neighborhood till the following day, when the Chickwits found nearly all (whieh was not eatable) piled up together at the door in a confused mass, and everything in a ludicrously damaged state—decidedly the wor.-e for having .been borrowed during tiie reign of Bab! It was a severe but a useful lesson to the simple-hearted Mrs. Chiekwit; and she thinks, althoug there is a scar on the child’s cheek yet, that she bought the experience cheaply. The Chickwita have a high l>oard fence around their houso now, and keep a bulldog chained at each gate, front and back.