Viny

'Tenty turned away to her work, hardly convinced by Miss' Viny's wisdom, and inwardly thinking she should like to try her own way for all that.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

So she sat in Miss 'Viny's bed-room in an old rush-bottomed rocking-chair, sewing and sewing, day after day, the persistent will and intent to die working out its own fulfilling, her white lips growing more and more bloodless, her transparent cheek more wan, and the temples, from which her lustreless hair was carelessly knotted away, getting more hollow and clear and sharp-angled.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

They went to Master Solon's singing-school, it is true; but they never got home to Aunt 'Viny's till half past nine, and' Tenty never could remember what tunes they sang; and the singers in church next Sunday asked her why she didn't come in when she got as far as the door, and

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

Then Aunt 'Viny's care diverted her sad thoughts from herself, by sending her upon daily errands to the poor and the sick, so that' Tenty's pleasant face and voice became the hope of the hour to more than one poverty-stricken or dying woman; and so her own grief, measured by theirs, shrank and withdrew itself day by day, and became something she could now and then forget.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

Content would have given anything to go and nurse him; but she, too, was stunned, and in the whirl of that great grief even Aunt 'Viny's demands were no more to her than a dull mechanic routine that she could hardly force her trembling steps to carry through.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

Strange to say, -- yet not all strange, -- before it was a year old, the baby had found its way quite down into the middle of Aunt 'Viny's heart.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

Sorry am I to betray this weakness of Aunt 'Viny's, -- sorry to know how many strong-minded, intellectual, highly educated and refined women will object to this mean and jealous sentiment in a woman of like passions with themselves.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

So 'Tenty sewed, and ached, and made Aunt' Viny's bed and her gruel, read her Bible and prayed for Ned Parker, and thought she was growing very old, till one night he asked her to go to singing-school with him; whereupon she put on a pink calico dress, and began to recover her youth most wonderfully.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

She was last to leave the church; and when she got home, and went to make Miss 'Viny's tea, as she tilted the long well-sweep down and up to draw her pail of water, she looked earnestly down the depths of crystal, as if to see what lay below, then quietly opened her left hand above it; -- something bright fell, dashed the clear drops from a fern that grew half-way down, tinkled against a projecting stone, made a little splash, and was gone.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various

-- and under all Miss 'Viny's rough exterior, her heart was as sweet as the kernel of a butternut, though about as hard to discover.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various