Read Online Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery - Free Book Online Page A

the key av the Poet’s room this time and if I catch that Snicklefritz prowling about the house it’s meself that’ll put a tin ear on that dog, if Joe takes a fit over it. And now, whin we’ve finished this lot av silver, ye’ll come out to the ould part and help me pick the damsons. Sure and I’m going to do up a big crock av baked damsons for yer Aunt Hazel. Hasn’t she always said there was nobody cud bake damsons like ould Judy Plum…more be token of me name perhaps.”
    â€œOh, hurry with the silver, Judy.”
    Pat loved picking damsons with Judy…and the green gages and the golden gages and the big purple-red egg plums.
    â€œOh, oh, I’m niver in a hurry, me jewel. There’s all the time in the world and after that there’s eternity. There’s loads and lashins av work if yer Aunt Hazel is to have the proper widding but it’ll all be done dacently and in order.”
    â€¢ • •
    Pat couldn’t help feeling pleasantly excited when she found that she was to be Aunt Hazel’s flower girl. But she felt so sorry for Winnie who was too old to be a flower girl and not old enough to be a bridesmaid, that it almost spoilt her own pleasure. Aunt Hazel was to have two bridesmaids and all were to be dressed in green, much to Judy’s horror, who declared green was unlucky for weddings.
    â€œOh, oh, there was a widding once in the Ould Country and the bridesmaids wore grane. And the fairies were that mad they put a curse on the house, that they did.”
    â€œHow did they curse it, Judy?”
    â€œI’m telling ye. There was niver to be inny more laughter in that house…niver agin. Oh, oh, that’s a tarrible curse. Think av a house wid no laughter in it.”
    â€œAnd wasn’t there ever any, Judy?”
    â€œNiver a bit. Plinty of waping but no laughing. Oh, oh, ’twas a sorryful place!”
    Pat felt a little uneasy. What if there never were to be any more laughter at Silver Bush…father’s gentle chuckles and Uncle Tom’s hearty booms…Winnie’s silvery trills…Judy’s broad mirth? But her dress was so pretty…a misty, spring-green crepe with smocked yoke and a cluster of dear pink rosebuds on the shoulder. And a shirred green hat with roses on the brim. Pat had to revel in it, curse or no curse. She did not realize…as Judy did…that the green made her pale, tanned little face paler and browner. Pat as yet had no spark of vanity. The dress itself was everything.
    The wedding was to be in the afternoon and the “nuptial cemetery,” as Winnie, who was a ten-year-old Mrs. Malaprop…called it, was to be in the old gray stone church at South Glen which all the Gardiners had attended from time immemorial. Judy thought this a modern innovation.
    â€œSure and in the ould days at Silver Bush they used to be married in the avening and dance the night away. But they didn’t go stravaging off on these fine honeymoon trips then. Oh, oh, they wint home and settled down to their business. ’Tis the times that have changed and not for the better I do be thinking. It used to be only the Episcopalians was married in church. Sure and it’s niver been a Presbytarian custom at all, at all.”
    â€œAre you a Presbyterian, Judy?”
    Pat was suddenly curious. She had never thought about Judy’s religion. Judy went to the South Glen church with them on Sundays but would never sit in the Gardiner pew…always up in the gallery, where she could see everything, Uncle Tom said.
    â€œOh, oh, I’m Presbytarian as much as an Irish body can be,” said Judy cautiously. “Sure and I cud niver be a rale Presbytarian not being Scotch. But innyhow I’m praying that all will go well and that yer Aunt Hazel’ll have better luck than yer grand-dad’s second cousin had whin she was married.”
    â€œWhat happened to granddad’s second cousin,