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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23215-h.zip b/23215-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e659ce --- /dev/null +++ b/23215-h.zip diff --git a/23215-h/23215-h.htm b/23215-h/23215-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..857da43 --- /dev/null +++ b/23215-h/23215-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8659 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Old Ebenezer, by Opie Read</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em; } + + p.main {font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; text-indent: 0em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both;} + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-family: serif} + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} /* small caps, normal size */ + .right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 2em; font-size: 70%; + text-align: left;} /* page numbers */ + + .totoc {position: absolute; left: 2em; font-size: 70%; + text-align: left;} /* Table of contents anchor */ + + .figcenter {margin: 3em auto 3em auto; text-align: center;} + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: + 0; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: + -0.5em; margin-right: 0.2em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + /* right align cell, with bottom vertical alignment */ + .tdl {text-align: left; padding-left: .25em;} + /* left align cell, with a small bit of left padding */ + .tdc {text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px; margin-top: 1em; clear: both;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 85%; } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old Ebenezer, by Opie Read</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Old Ebenezer</p> +<p>Author: Opie Read</p> +<p>Release Date: October 27, 2007 [eBook #23215]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD EBENEZER***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Sigal Alon, David T. Jones, Fox in the Stars,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>OLD EBENEZER.</h1> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h2>OPIE READ'S</h2> +<h2>SELECT WORKS</h2> + +<table align="center" border="0" summary=""> +<tr><td>Old Ebenezer</td></tr> +<tr><td>The Jucklins</td></tr> +<tr><td>My Young Master</td></tr> +<tr><td>A Kentucky Colonel</td></tr> +<tr><td>On the Suwanee River</td></tr> +<tr><td>A Tennessee Judge</td></tr> +</table> + +<h4>Works of Strange Power and Fascination</h4> + +<h5>Uniformly bound in extra cloth,<br /> +gold tops, ornamental covers, uncut<br /> +edges, six volumes in a box,</h5> + +<h3>$6.00</h3> + +<h5>Sold separately, $1.00 each.</h5> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 525px;"> +<img src="images/illus003.jpg" width="368" height="600" +alt="couple sitting under tree" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<h3>OPIE READ'S SELECT WORKS</h3> + + +<h1><span class="smcap">Old Ebenezer</span></h1> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>OPIE READ</h2> + +<h4>Author of "My Young Master," "The Jucklins," "On the Suwanee River,"</h4> +<h4>"A Kentucky Colonel," "A Tennessee Judge," "The Colossus,"</h4> +<h4>"Emmett Bonlore," "Len Gansett," "The Tear in</h4> +<h4>the Cup and Other Stories," "The</h4> +<h4>Wives of the Prophet."</h4> + +<br /><br /> +<h3>ILLUSTRATED</h3> +<br /><br /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="160" height="282" +alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>CHICAGO</h4> +<h4>LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyrighted 1897, by Wm. H. Lee</span>.</h4> + +<h5>(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)</h5> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a> + +<table summary="table of contents" border="0" width="70%"> +<tr> +<td width="10%" class="tdr">Chapter</td> +<td width="50%"> </td> +<td width="10%" class="tdr">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">1.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Sam Lyman</a></td> +<td class="tdr">7</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">2.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">The Noted Advocate</a></td> +<td class="tdr">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">3.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">The Timely Oracle</a></td> +<td class="tdr">21</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">4.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">A Fog Between Them</a></td> +<td class="tdr">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">5.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">The Belle of the Town</a></td> +<td class="tdr">49</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">6.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Humbled Into the Dust</a></td> +<td class="tdr">55</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">7.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The Wedding Breakfast</a></td> +<td class="tdr">63</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">8.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Suppressing the News</a></td> +<td class="tdr">70</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">9.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">At Church</a></td> +<td class="tdr">83</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">10.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">The Old Fellow Laughed</a></td> +<td class="tdr">91</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">11.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">In the Lantern Light</a></td> +<td class="tdr">100</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">12.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Wanted to Dream</a></td> +<td class="tdr">112</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">13.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">In a Magazine</a></td> +<td class="tdr">122</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">14.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Nothing Remarkable in It</a></td> +<td class="tdr">132</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">15.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Must Leave the Town</a></td> +<td class="tdr">143</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">16.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Sawyer's Plan</a></td> +<td class="tdr">155</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">17.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">At the Creek</a></td> +<td class="tdr">164</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">18.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">At the Wagon Maker's Shop</a></td> +<td class="tdr">174</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">19.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">A Restless Night</a></td> +<td class="tdr">181</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">20.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Afraid in the Dark</a></td> +<td class="tdr">191</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">21.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">With Old Jasper</a></td> +<td class="tdr">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">22.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">The "Boosy"</a></td> +<td class="tdr">207</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">24.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">After an Anxious Night</a></td> +<td class="tdr">222</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">24.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">At Mt. Zion</a></td> +<td class="tdr">235</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">25.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">At Nancy's Home</a></td> +<td class="tdr">249</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">26.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">Out in the Dark</a></td> +<td class="tdr">262</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">27.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">The Revenge</a></td> +<td class="tdr">270</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">28.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">A Gentleman Mule-Buyer</a></td> +<td class="tdr">278</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">29.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Gone Away</a></td> +<td class="tdr">294</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">30.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">The Home</a></td> +<td class="tdr">306</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">31.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">There Came a Check</a></td> +<td class="tdr">316</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">32.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">Laughed at His Weakness</a></td> +<td class="tdr">326</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">33.</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">The Petition</a></td> +<td class="tdr">338</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<h2>OLD EBENEZER.</h2> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Sam Lyman.</span></h4> + + +<p>In more than one of the sleepy neighborhoods that lay about the +drowsy town of Old Ebenezer, Sam Lyman had lolled and dreamed. He had +come out of the keen air of Vermont, and for a time he was looked upon +as a marvel of energy, but the soft atmosphere of a southwestern state +soothed the Yankee worry out of his walk, and made him content to sit +in the shade, to wait for the other man to come; and, as the other man +was doing the same thing, rude hurry was not a feature of any business +transaction. Of course the smoothing of Lyman's Yankee ruffles had +taken some time. He had served as cross-tie purchaser for a new +railway, had kept books and split slabs for kindling wood at a saw +mill; then, as an assistant to the proprietor of a cross-roads store, +he had counted eggs and bargained for chickens, with a smile for a +gingham miss and a word of religious philosophy for the dame in +home-spun. But he was now less active, and already he had begun to +long for easier employment; so he "took up" school at forty dollars a +month. In the Ebenezer country, the school teacher is regarded as a +supremely wise and hopelessly lazy mortal. He is expected to know all +of earth, as the preacher is believed to know all of heaven, and when +he has once been installed into this position, a disposition to get +out of it is branded as a sacrilege. He has taken the pedagogic veil +and must wear it. But Lyman was not satisfied with the respect given +to this calling; he longed for something else, not of a more active +nature, it is true, but something that might embrace a broader swing. +The soft atmosphere had turned the edge of his physical energy, but +his mind was eager and grasping. His history was that dear fallacy, +that silken toga which many of us have wrapped about +ourselves—the belief that a good score at college means +immediate success out in the world. And he had worked desperately to +finish his education, had taken care of horses and waited upon table +at a summer resort in the White Mountains. His first great and cynical +shock was to find that his "accomplishment" certificate was one of an +enormous edition; that it meant comparatively nothing in the great +brutal world of trade; that modesty was a drawback, and that +gentleness was as weak as timidity. And repeated failures drove him +from New England to a community where, it had been said, the people +were less sharp, less cold, and far less exacting. He was getting +along in years when he took up the school—past thirty-five. He +was tall, lean, and inclined toward angularity. He had never been +handsome, but about his honest face there was something so manly, so +wholesome, so engaging, that it took but one touch of sentiment to +light it almost to fascinating attractiveness. Children, oftener than +grown persons, were struck with his kindly eyes; and his voice had +been compared with church music, so deep and so sacred in tone; and +yet it was full of a whimsical humor, for the eyes splashed warm +mischief and the mouth was a silent, half sad laugh.</p> + +<p>It was observed one evening that Lyman passed the post-office with +two sheep-covered books under his arm, and when he had gone beyond +hearing, old Buckley Lightfoot, the oracle, turned to Jimmie Bledsoe, +who was weighing out shingle nails, and said:</p> + +<p>"Jimmie, hold on there a moment with your clatter."</p> + +<p>"Can't just now, Uncle Buckley. Lige, here, is in a hurry for his +nails."</p> + +<p>"But didn't I tell you to hold on a moment? Look here, Lige," he +added, clearing his throat with a warning rasp, "are you in such a +powerful swivit after you've heard what I said? I ask, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Well," Lige began to drawl, "I want to finish coverin' my roof before +night, for it looks mighty like rain. And I told him I was in a +hurry."</p> + +<p>"You told him," said the old man. "You did. I have been living here +sixty odd year, and so far as I can recollect this is about the first +insult flung in upon something I was going to say. Weigh out his nails +for him, Jimmie, and let him go. But I don't know what can be expected +of a neighborhood that wants to go at such a rip-snort of a rush. +Weigh out his nails, Jimmie, and let him go."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" Lige cried, and Jimmie dropped the nail grabs into the keg.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Uncle Buckley insisted. "Just go on with your headlong +rush. Go on and don't pay any attention to me."</p> + +<p>"Jimmie," said Lige, "don't weigh out them nails now, for if you do I +won't take 'em at all."</p> + +<p>"Now, Lige," the old man spoke up, "you are talking like a wise and +considerate citizen. And now, Jimmie, after this well merited rebuke, +are you ready to listen to what I was going to say?"</p> + +<p>"I am anxious and waiting," Jimmie answered.</p> + +<p>"All right," the old oracle replied. He cleared his throat, looked +about, nodded his head in the direction taken by Sam Lyman, and thus +proceeded: "Observation, during a long stretch of years, has taught me +a great deal that you younger fellows don't know. Do you understand +that?"</p> + +<p>"We do," they assented.</p> + +<p>"Well and good," the old man declared, nodding his head. "I say well +and good, for well and good is exactly what I mean. You know that's +what I mean, don't you, Jimmie?"</p> + +<p>"Mighty well, Uncle Buckley."</p> + +<p>"All right; and how about you, Lige?"</p> + +<p>"I know it as well as I ever did anything," Lige agreed.</p> + +<p>"Well and good again," said the old man. "And this leads up properly +to the subject. You boys have just seen Sam Lyman pass here. But did +you notice that he had law books under his arm?"</p> + +<p>"I saw something under his arm," Jimmie answered.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the old man, tapping his forehead. "Ah, observation, what a +rare jewel! Yes, sir, he had law books, and what is the meaning of +this extraordinary proceedin'? It means that Sam Lyman is studying +law, and that his next move will be to break away from the +school-teaching business."</p> + +<p>"Impossible," Lige cried.</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head. "It might seem so to the unobservant," he +replied, "but in these days of stew, rush and fret, there is no +telling what men may attempt to do. Yes, gentlemen, he is studying +law, and the first thing we know he will leave Fox Grove and try to +break into the town of Old Ebenezer. And it is not necessary for me to +point out the danger of leaving this quiet neighborhood for the +turmoil and ungodly hurry of that town. Now you can weigh out the +nails, Jimmie."</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Noted Advocate.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman must long have indulged his secret study before the observation +of old Buckley Lightfoot fell upon it, for, at the close of the school +term a few weeks later, the teacher announced that he had formed a +co-partnership with John Caruthers, the noted advocate of Old +Ebenezer, and that together they would practice law in the county +seat. He offered to the people no opportunity to bid him good-bye, for +that evening, with his law library under his arm, he set out for the +town, twenty miles away. Old Uncle Buckley, Jimmie and Lige followed +him, but he had chosen a trackless path, and thus escaped their +reproaches.</p> + +<p>The noted advocate, John Caruthers, had an office in the third story +of a brick building, which was surely a distinction, being so high +from the ground and in a brick house, too. There he spent his time +smoking a cob pipe and waiting for clients. His office was a small +room at the rear end of the building. The front room, the remainder of +the suite, was a long and narrow apartment, occupied by the Weekly +<i>Sentinel</i>, the county newspaper, published by J. Warren, not edited +at all, and written by lawyers and doctors about town. The great +advocate paid his rent with political contributions to the newspaper, +and the editor discharged his rental obligations by supporting the +landlord for congress, a very convenient and comforting arrangement, +as Caruthers explained to Lyman.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how we could be more fortunately situated," said he, the +first night after the co-partnership had been effected. "What do you +think of it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I could improve on an arrangement that doesn't cost +any money," Lyman answered. He sat looking about the room, at the +meager furniture and the thin array of books. "We've got a start, +anyway, and I don't think Webster could have done anything without a +start. Are all these our books?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Caruthers, shaking his sandy head. "That is, they are +ours as long as they are here. Once in awhile a man may come in and +take one; but the next day, or the next minute, for that matter, we +can go out and get another. The Old Ebenezer bar has a circulating +library." He yawned and continued: "I think we ought to do well here, +with my experience and your learning. They tell me you can read Greek +as well as some people can read English."</p> + +<p>"Yes, some people can't read English."</p> + +<p>"I guess you are right," Caruthers laughed. "But they say you can read +Greek like shelling corn, and that will have a big effect with a jury. +Just tell them that the New Testament was written in Greek, and then +give them a few spurts of it, and they've got to come. I had a little +Latin and I did very well with it, but a fellow came along who knew +more of it than I did and crowded me out of my place."</p> + +<p>Just then the editor came in. He looked about, nodded at Lyman, whom +he had met earlier in the day, and then sat down, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Well, I have got a good send off for you fellows—already in +type, but I lack eighty cents of having money enough to get my paper +out of the express office."</p> + +<p>No one said anything, for this was sad news. Warren continued: "Yes, I +lack just eighty cents. It's about as good a notice as I ever read, +and it's a pity to let it lie there and rust. Of course I wouldn't ask +either of you for the money: That wouldn't look very well. Eighty +cents, two forties. I could go to some of the advertisers, but an +advertiser loses respect for a paper that needs eighty cents."</p> + +<p>"Warren," said Caruthers, "I'd like to see your paper come out, for I +want to read my roast on the last legislature, but I haven't eighty +cents."</p> + +<p>Lyman sat looking about with a dozing laugh on his lips: "Are you sure +you'll not need eighty cents every week?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The editor's eyes danced a jig of delight. "I may never need it +again," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Well, but how often are you going to print a notice of the firm?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't know but your paper might get stuck in the express +office every time you have something about us. It's likely to go that +way, you know. I've got a few dollars—"</p> + +<p>The editor grabbed his hand: "I want to welcome you to our town," he +cried. "You come here with energy and new life. Now, Caruthers, what +the deuce are you laughing at? You know that no one appreciates a man +of force and ideas more than I do. Just let me have the eighty, Mr. +Lyman, for I've got a nigger ready to turn the press. Now, I'm ten +thousand times obliged to you," he effusively added as Lyman gave him +the money.</p> + +<p>He hastened out and Caruthers leaned back with a lazy laugh. "He told +the truth about needing the money. I've known his paper to be stuck in +the throat of the press, and all for the want of fifty cents. I'm glad +you let him have it. He's not a bad fellow. He lives in the air. Every +time he touches the earth he gets into trouble."</p> + +<p>"So do we all," Lyman replied, "and nearly always on account of money. +I wish there wasn't a penny in the world."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes there isn't, so far as I am concerned," Caruthers said. +"No, sir," he added, "they keep money out of my way. And I want to +tell you that I'm not a bad business man, either. But I'm close to +forty and haven't laid up a cent, and nothing that I can ever say in +praise of myself can overcome that fact. I don't see, however, why you +should be a failure. You have generations of money makers behind you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, hundreds of years behind me," said Lyman. "And the vein was +worked out long before I came on. There is no failure more complete +than the one that comes along in the wake of success. But I am not +going to remain a failure. I'll strike it after awhile."</p> + +<p>"I think you have struck it now," replied Caruthers. "Business will +liven up in a day or two. When a thing touches bottom it can't go any +further down, but it may rise."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "unless it continues to lie there."</p> + +<p>"But we must stir it up," Caruthers declared. "We've got the +enterprise all right—we've got the will, and now all that's +needed is something for us to take hold of."</p> + +<p>"That's about so," Lyman agreed. "Unless a man has something to lift, +he can never find out how strong he is."</p> + +<p>And thus they talked until after the midnight hour, until Caruthers, +his feet on a table, his head thrown back, his pipe between the +fingers of his limp hand, fell asleep. Lyman sat there, more +thoughtful, now that he felt alone. At the threshold of a new venture, +we look back upon the hopes that led us into other undertakings, and +upon many a failure we bestow a look of tender but half reproachful +forgiveness. The trials and the final success of other men make us +strong. And with his mild eyes set in review, Lyman thought that never +before had he found himself so well seasoned, so well prepared to do +something. He listened to the grinding of the press, to the midnight +noises about the public square, the town muttering in its sleep. "I am +advancing" he mused, looking about him. "I was not content to skimp +along in New England, nor to buy cross-ties, nor to singe the pin +feathers off a chicken at night, nor to worry with the feeble +machinery of a dull schoolboy's head. And I will not be content merely +to sit here and wait for clients that may never come. I am going to do +something."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Timely Oracle.</span></h4> + +<p>A year passed by. Caruthers dozed with his cob pipe between the +fingers of his limp hand, waiting for clients whose step was not heard +upon the stairs. But the office had not been wholly without business. +Once a man called to seek advice, which was given, free, as an +advertisement for more work from his neighborhood, and once Lyman had +defended a man charged with the theft of a sheep. The mutton was found +in the fellow's closet and the hide of the animal was discovered under +his bed; and with such evidence against him it was not expected that a +lawyer could do much, so, when the prisoner was sentenced to the +penitentiary, Caruthers congratulated his partner with the remark: +"That was all right. We can't expect to win every time. But we were +not so badly defeated; you got him off with one year, and he deserved +two. To cut a thief's sentence in two ought to help us."</p> + +<p>"Among the other thieves," Lyman suggested.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Caruthers spoke up cheerfully. "A lawyer's success depends +largely upon his reputation among thieves."</p> + +<p>"Or at least among the men who intend to stretch the law. Let me see; +we have been in business together just one year, and our books balance +with a most graceful precision. We are systematic, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Caruthers replied, letting his pipe fall to the floor, "system +is my motto. No business, properly systematized, is often better than +some business in a tangle."</p> + +<p>Warren, the editor, appeared at the door. "Are you busy?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, we are not in what you might call a rush," Lyman answered. "Are +you busy?" he inquired, with a twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>Before answering, Warren stepped into the room and sat down with a +distressful sigh. "I am more than that," he said, dejectedly. "I am in +hot water, trying to swim with one hand."</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a sort of summer, fall, spring and winter complaint." He took +out a note book, turned over the leaves, returned it to his pocket and +said: "I lack just sixty-five, this time."</p> + +<p>"Dollars?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>Warren gave him a quick, reproachful look. "Now, Judge, what airs have +I ever put on to cause you to size me up that way? Have I ever shown +any tax receipts? Have I ever given any swell dinners? Sixty-five +cents is the amount I am short, Judge, and where I am to get it, the +Lord only knows. My paper is lying over yonder in the express office, +doing no good to anybody, but they won't let me take it out and stamp +intelligence upon it. The town sits gaping for the news, with a bad +eye on me; but what can I do with a great corporation arrayed against +me? For sixty-five cents I could get the paper out, and it's full of +bright things. The account of your defense of the sheep thief is about +as amusing a thing as I ever read, and it will be copied all over the +country; it would put a nation in a good humor irrespective of party +affiliations, but sixty-five millions of people are to be cheated, and +all on account of sixty-five cents, one cent to the million."</p> + +<p>"Things are down to a low mark when you have to make your estimates +on that basis. One cent to the million," said Lyman with a quiet +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Distressful," Warren replied. "The country was never in such a fix +before. Why, last year about this time I raised eighty cents without +any trouble at all."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "you raised it of me."</p> + +<p>"That's a fact," Warren admitted. "But do you think the country is as +well off now as it was then?"</p> + +<p>"Not financially, but it may be wiser."</p> + +<p>"Now, look here, Judge, am I to accept this as an insinuation?"</p> + +<p>"How so?" Lyman asked, looking up, his eyes full of mischief.</p> + +<p>"Why, speaking of being wiser. I don't know but you meant—well, +that you were too wise to help me out again. You can't deny that the +notice of the partnership was all right."</p> + +<p>"We have no complaint to enter on that ground," Caruthers drawled.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Chancellor, but it wasn't your put-in," Warren replied. +"Your suggestions are worth money and you ought not to throw them +away. But the question is, can I get sixty-five cents out of this +firm?"</p> + +<p>"Warren," said Lyman, "I am in sympathy with your cheerful distress."</p> + +<p>"But are you willing to shoulder the debt of sixty-five millions of +people? Are you in a position to do that?"</p> + +<p>"No," Caruthers drawled, leaning over with a strain and picking up his +pipe from the floor.</p> + +<p>"Chancellor," said the editor, "as wise as you are, your example is +sometimes pernicious and your counsel implies evil."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am simply speaking for the firm," Caruthers replied. "As an +individual Lyman can do as he pleases with his capital. Come in, sir."</p> + +<p>Some one was tapping at the door, and Lyman, looking around, +recognized the short and wheezing bulk of Uncle Buckley Lightfoot, the +oracle. He almost tumbled out his chair to grasp the old fellow by the +hand; and then, smoothing his conduct, he introduced him, with +impressive ceremony.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the old man, sitting down and looking about, "he got +away from us a little the rise of a year ago, and I don't think Fox +Grove has been the same since then; and it is a generally accepted +fact that the children don't learn more than half as much. Me and +Jimmie and Lige agreed on this point, and that settled it so far as +the community was concerned. And Sammy, we hear that you have got to +be a great lawyer. A man came through our county not long ago and +boasted of knowing you, and a lawyer must amount to a good deal when +folks go about boasting that they know him. And look here, my wife +read a piece out of the paper about you—yes, sir, read it off +just like she was a talkin'; and when she was done I 'lowed that +maybe, after all, you hadn't done such an unwise thing to throw +yourself headlong into the excitement of this town. And mother she +said that no matter where a man went, he could still find the Lord if +he looked about in the right way, and I didn't dispute her, but just +kept on a sittin' there, a wallopin' my tobacco about in my mouth. +Yes, sir; I am powerful tickled to see you."</p> + +<p>Long before he had reached the end of his harangue, Warren had taken +hold of his arm. "It was my paper your wife read it in," he said in +tones as solemn as grace over meat. "I am the editor of the paper, and +two dollars will get it every week for a year."</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged himself out of the editor's imploring clasp, and +looked at him. "Why," said he, "you don't appear to be more than old +enough to have just come out of the tobacco patch, a picking off +worms, along with the turkeys. But, in the excitement of the town, +boys, I take it, are mighty smart. However, my son, I ain't got any +particular use for a paper, except to have a piece read out of it once +in awhile, but I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll agree to print +some pieces that Sammy will write for you, I'll take your paper. He +was always a writin' and a tearin' it up when he boarded with me, and +I was sorry to see him wastin' his labor in that way when he mout have +been out in the woods shootin' squirrels; so if you'll +agree——"</p> + +<p>"I print his sketches every week, and some of them have been stolen by +the big city papers," the editor cried, unable longer to restrain +himself.</p> + +<p>"Then I didn't know what I was missin'. Two dollars, you say? Well; +here you are, sir, and now you just rip me off a paper every week. See +if that's a two dollar bill."</p> + +<p>"It's a five," Warren gasped.</p> + +<p>"Glad it's that much; change it, please."</p> + +<p>"I'll go out and get it changed."</p> + +<p>"Don't put yourself to that much trouble. Give it to Sammy and I bet +he'll change it in a jiffy, for it don't take a lawyer more than a +minute to do such things."</p> + +<p>Caruthers looked up with a squint in his eye.</p> + +<p>"I think," said Lyman, "that we'd better let him go out and get the +change; that is, unless my partner can accommodate us."</p> + +<p>"I have nothing short of a twenty," Caruthers replied, shutting his +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Then run along, son, and fetch me the change," said the old man. "But +hold on a minute," he added, as Warren made a glad lunge toward the +door. "Be sure that the money changers in the temple don't cheat you, +for I hear they are a bad lot, and me and Jimmie and Lige have agreed +that they ought to have been lashed out long ago."</p> + +<p>"They have never succeeded in getting any money out of me," Warren +laughed; and as he was going out he said to Lyman: "I am going to +flash this five in the face of the Express Company. I didn't know +before that your pen was made of a feather snatched from an angel's +wing."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Uncle Buckley began, looking at Lyman, and then at +Caruthers, "we have missed him mightily. Mother says he was the most +uncertain man to cook for she ever run across. Sometimes he'd eat a +good deal, and then for days, while he was a studyin' of his law, and +especially when he was a writin' and a tearin' up, he wouldn't eat +hardly anything. So you see he kept things on the dodge all the time, +and that of itself was enough to make him interestin' to the women +folks. We've had it pretty lively out in Fox Grove. The neighbors all +wanted me to split off and go along with them into the new party, but +I told 'em all my ribs was made outen hickory and was Andy Jackson +Democrat. But the new party swept everything and got into power; and I +want to know if anybody ever saw such a mess as they made of the +legislature."</p> + +<p>The old man began to move uneasily and to glance about with an +anxious expression in his eye. "Sammy," said he, "of course I know +you, but I ain't expected to know everybody."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, smiling at him.</p> + +<p>"Well, it just occurred to me whether I wa'n't jest a little brash to +let that young feller off with that money. In the excitement of the +town he might forget to come back."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry; he'll be back. There he comes now."</p> + +<p>Warren came in, his face beaming, and gave the old man the money due +him. Uncle Buckley looked at him a moment, and then, with an air of +contrite acknowledgment, shook his head as he seriously remarked:</p> + +<p>"I done you an injury jest now, by sorter questionin' whether you +wouldn't run off with that change, and I want to ask your pardon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right," Warren laughed.</p> + +<p>"No, it ain't all right, and I want to apologize right here in the +presence of——"</p> + +<p>"All right, you may tie it on as a ribbon if you want to, but it +isn't necessary. Now you sit over here with me and tell me all about +yourself and your neighborhood, for I'm going to give you a write-up +that'll be a beauty to behold. You fellows go ahead with your nodding, +and don't pay any attention to us. But you want to listen. Come to my +sanctum, Mr. Lightfoot."</p> + +<p>"I reckon it's safe," said the old man, following him. Caruthers +turned his slow eyes upon Lyman. "Has that old fellow got any money?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, he's not a pauper."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we could strike him for a hundred for six months?"</p> + +<p>"No, he's a friend of mine."</p> + +<p>"But," said Caruthers, "if we are going to raise money we'll have to +borrow from friends. Our enemies won't let us have it."</p> + +<p>"That's true, but our enemies in protecting themselves should not be +permitted to drive us against our friends. That old man would let me +have every cent he has. But he has labored more than forty years for +his competence, and I will not rob him of a penny."</p> + +<p>"Rob him," Caruthers spoke up with energy. "We'll pay him back."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know how. With a little money we can get a start. We can +rent an office on the ground floor, and then business will come."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "but I don't want that old man to be mixed up in +the excitement. Suppose we try the bank."</p> + +<p>"You try it. McElwin does not care for me particularly. Suppose you go +over and see him. Offer him a mortgage on our library."</p> + +<p>"I'll do it. Wait until Uncle Buckley has been pumped; I want to bid +him good-bye."</p> + +<p>"Go through there, and see him on your way out. The bank will be +closed pretty soon."</p> + +<p>"All right. But don't hang a hope on the result."</p> + +<p>Lyman shook hands with Uncle Buckley, and then went across the street +to the First National Bank, the financial pride of Old Ebenezer. The +low brick building stood as a dollar mark, to be stared at by farmers +who had heard of the great piles of gold heaped therein, and James +McElwin, as with quick and important step he passed along the street, +was gazed upon with an intentness almost religious. Numerous persons +claimed kinship with him, and the establishment of third or fourth +degree of cousinhood had lifted more than one family out of obscurity. +The bank must have had a surplus of twenty thousand dollars, a glaring +sum in the eyes of the grinding tradesmen about the public square. An +illustrated journal in the East had printed McElwin's picture, +together with a brief history of his life. The biographer called him a +self-made man, and gave him great credit for having scrambled for +dimes in his youth, that he might have dollars in middle life. That he +had once gone hungry rather than pay more than the worth of a meal at +an old negro's "snack house," was set forth as a "sub-headed" virtue. +He had married above him, the daughter of a neighboring "merchant," +whose name was stamped on every shoe he sold. The old man died a +bankrupt, but the daughter, the wife of the rising capitalist, +remained proud and cool with dignity. The union was illustrated with +one picture, a girl, to become a belle, a handsome creature, with a +mysterious money grace, with a real beauty of hair, mouth and eyes. +The envious said that circumstances served to make an imperious +simpleton of her.</p> + +<p>It was this man, with these connections, that Lyman crossed the +street to see. But to the lawyer it was not so adventurous as grimly +humorous. His Yankee shrewdness had pronounced the man a pretentious +fraud.</p> + +<p>The banker was in his private office, busy with his papers. Lyman +heard him say to the negro who took in his name: "Mr. Lyman! I don't +know why he should want to see me. But tell him to come in."</p> + +<p>As Lyman entered the banker looked up and said: "Well, sir."</p> + +<p>Lyman sat down and crossed his legs. The banker looked at his feet, +then at his head.</p> + +<p>"Mr. McElwin," said Lyman, "we have not met before, though I, of +course, have seen you often, but——"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, go on."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I am doing. I say that we have not met, but I board +at the house of a relative of yours, and I therefore feel that I know +you."</p> + +<p>"Board with a relative of mine?" the banker gasped.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with Jasper Staggs, and I want to tell you that he is about as +kind hearted an old fellow as I ever met, quaint and accommodating. He +is a cousin of yours, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Well,—er, yes. But state your business, if you please. I am +very busy."</p> + +<p>"I presume so, sir, but I am afraid that my business may not strike +you in a very favorable way. I want to borrow one hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"Upon what collateral, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Mainly upon the collateral of honor."</p> + +<p>The banker looked at him. Lyman continued: "I feel that such a +statement in a bank sounds like the echo of an idle laugh, but I +mention honor first, because I value it most. I also have, or +represent, a law library."</p> + +<p>"Is it worth a hundred dollars?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't say that it is, but I should think that the library, +reinforced by my honor, is worth that much."</p> + +<p>The banker began to stroke his brown beard. "So you have come here to +joke, sir——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all," Lyman broke in, "this is a serious matter."</p> + +<p>"It might be if I were to let you have the money."</p> + +<p>"That isn't so bad," Lyman laughed. "But seriously, I am in much need +of a hundred dollars, and if you'll let me have it for six months I +will pay it back with interest."</p> + +<p>"I can't do it, sir."</p> + +<p>"You mean that you won't do it."</p> + +<p>"You heard me, sir."</p> + +<p>"I realize the bad form in which I present my case, Mr. McElwin, and I +know that if you had made a practice of doing business in this way you +would not have been nearly so successful, but I will pledge you my +word that if you will let me have the money——"</p> + +<p>"Good day, sir, good day."</p> + +<p>Lyman walked out, not feeling so humorous as when he went in. He +looked up and down the dingy, drowsy street. At first he might have +been half amused at his failure, tickled with the idea of describing +it to Caruthers and the newspaper man, but a sense of humiliation came +to him. He knew that in the warfare of business his operation was but +a guerrilla's dash, and he was ashamed of himself; and yet he +reflected that his great enemy might have been gentler to him. He +walked slowly down the street, without an objective point; he passed +the group of village jokers, sitting in front of the drug store, with +their chairs tipped back against the wall; he passed the planing mill, +with its rasping noise, and in his whimsical fancy it sounded like the +Town Council snoring. He loitered near a garden where plum trees were +in bloom; he looked over at a solemn child digging in the dirt; he +caught sight of a pale man with the mark of death upon him, lying near +a window, slowly fanning himself. He spoke to the child and the +wretched little one looked up and said: "I am digging a grave for my +pa." Lyman leaned heavily upon the fence; his heart was touched, and +taking out a small piece of money he tossed it to the boy. The grave +digger took it up, looked at it a moment in sad astonishment, put it +aside and returned to his work.</p> + +<p>The office was deserted when Lyman returned. Caruthers had not hung a +hope on the result of the attempted negotiations.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">A Fog Between Them.</span></h4> + + +<p>The following afternoon when Lyman went to the office, having spent +the earlier hours in the court house, to assure the Judge that he had +no motions to make, and no case to be passed over to the next +term—he found Caruthers with his feet on the table.</p> + +<p>"Getting hot," said Caruthers.</p> + +<p>"Is it? I thought we had been playing freeze-out," Lyman replied, +throwing his hat upon the table and sitting down.</p> + +<p>"Then you didn't do anything with his Royal Flush?"</p> + +<p>"Brother McElwin? No. He fenced with his astonishment until he could +find words, and then he granted me the privilege to retire."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't take a mortgage on the library?"</p> + +<p>"No; he said it wasn't worth a hundred."</p> + +<p>"But you assured him that it was."</p> + +<p>"No; I had to acknowledge that it wasn't."</p> + +<p>"You are a fool."</p> + +<p>"Yes, perhaps; but I'm not a thief."</p> + +<p>"No! But it's more respectable to be a thief than a pauper."</p> + +<p>"It is not very comforting to be both—to know that you are one +and to feel that you are the other."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, that sort of doctrine may suit a long-tailed coat, a white +necktie and a countenance pinched by piety, but it doesn't suit me."</p> + +<p>"It suits me," Lyman replied. "I was brought up on it. I think mother +baked it in with the beans."</p> + +<p>"Watercolor nonsense!" said Caruthers. "My people were as honest as +anybody, but they didn't teach me to look for the worst of it."</p> + +<p>"But didn't they teach you that without a certain moral force there +can be no real and lasting achievement?"</p> + +<p>Caruthers turned and nodded his head toward the bank. "Is there any +moral force over there? Did you notice any saintly precepts on his +wall? I don't think you did. But wasn't there many a sign that said, +'get money'?"</p> + +<p>"Caruthers, you join with the rest of this town in the belief that +McElwin is a great man. I don't. He is a community success, a +neighborhood's strong man, but in the hands of the giants who live in +the real world he is a weakling."</p> + +<p>"He is strong enough, though, not to tremble at the sound of a +footstep at the door, and that's exactly what we sit here doing day +after day. The joy of the hoped-for client is driven away by the fear +of the collector." He was silent for a moment, and then he said: "I +don't feel that there's any advantage in being hooked up with a +saint."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Lyman replied. "I never tried it."</p> + +<p>"I have," said Caruthers, looking at him.</p> + +<p>Lyman laughed and rubbed his hands together. "You are the only one +that has ever insinuated such a compliment, if you mean that I am a +saint. But I hold that there's quite a stretch between a saint and a +man who has a desire simply to be honest. Saint—" He laughed +again. "Why, the people where I was brought up called me a rake."</p> + +<p>"They were angels. But why don't you say where you were 'raised.' Why +do you say 'brought up?' You were not brought up; you were raised."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's true, I guess. But we raised vegetables where I was +brought up."</p> + +<p>"Cabbages?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, some cabbages. Round about here, though, they appear to make +pumpkins more of a specialty. But come a little nearer with your +meaning concerning the saint. I take it that you are tired of the +partnership. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Well," Caruthers spoke up, "we haven't done anything and we have no +prospects."</p> + +<p>"You are right," said Lyman. "But I am poorer and you are about as +well off as you were."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to insinuate—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't insinuate, though it's a habit among the people where I +was brought up."</p> + +<p>"If you don't insinuate, what then? what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"That you've got about all the money I had."</p> + +<p>"The devil, you say!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't mention the devil. I didn't think it was necessary to speak +in the third person of one who is already present."</p> + +<p>Caruthers started and took his feet off the table. Lyman regarded him +with a cool smile.</p> + +<p>"Lyman, I thought that we might have parted friends."</p> + +<p>"We can at least part as acquaintances," Lyman replied. "Until a few +moments ago I was willing to stand a good deal from you; that part of +your principles that I do not like I was willing to ascribe to a +difference of opinion, but just now you called me a fool because I had +refused to declare those books to be worth a hundred dollars. Up to +that time we might have parted in reasonably good humor, but since +then I haven't thought very well of you. And you'll have to take it +back before you leave."</p> + +<p>"You say I'll <i>have</i> to take it back."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I said."</p> + +<p>"I never had to take anything back."</p> + +<p>"No? Then you are about to encounter a new phase of life. Singular, +isn't it, that we never know when we are about to stumble upon +something new."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean——"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I do. But I mean that you'll take that back or +carry away a thrashing that will make you stagger. Did you ever see a +man wabbling off after a thrashing that he was hardly able to carry? +Sad sight sometimes. The last man that I whipped weighed about forty +pounds more than I do. He presumed on his weight. But he soon found +out that his flesh was very much in his way. He was a saw mill man and +a bully; and it so tickled Uncle Buckley that nothing would do but I +must come to his house and live as one of the family. Out at Fox Grove +a man who won't be imposed upon stands high."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, I don't want any trouble, and——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it won't be any trouble."</p> + +<p>"And I acknowledge that I was hasty. I take it back, and here's my +hand on it."</p> + +<p>"I'm obliged to you for taking it back, Caruthers, but I don't want to +take your hand. I don't understand it, but a spiritual something seems +to have arisen between us."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Caruthers, "but I hope we don't part as enemies."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not as enemies. You speak of parting as if you were the one +who has to vacate."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have rented an office over on the other side of the square, +on the ground floor."</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of you to leave me here," said Lyman. "You might have +ordered me out. I am glad you didn't."</p> + +<p>"Such a proceeding could never have entered my head," Caruthers +replied. "In fact, I thought that if the separation must come you +would rather stay here. You appear to have a fondness for that +clanking old press out there."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can make it grind out my rent. When are you going to vacate +the premises?" Lyman asked, his grave countenance lighted with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"Now, or rather in a very few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Is there anything holding you?"</p> + +<p>"Come Lyman, old man, don't jog me that way. And I wish you wouldn't +look at me with that sort of a smile. Everybody says you have the +kindest face in the world——"</p> + +<p>"Without a bristle to hide its sweetness," Lyman broke in.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Caruthers assented, "the innocence of a boy grown to manhood +without knowing it."</p> + +<p>"And you have remained to tell me this?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll go now," said Caruthers, getting up.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would. Up to a very short time ago I thought you one of +the most whimsically entertaining men I ever met, but as I said just +now, a spiritual disparagement has arisen between us, a thick fog, and +I wish you would clear the atmosphere."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Caruthers, "I am off. I don't know what to take with me," +he added, looking about. "I suppose I owe you more or less, and I'll +leave things just as they are until I am prepared to face a +statement."</p> + +<p>"All right. Good day."</p> + +<p>"But you won't shake hands?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, through the fog," said Lyman, holding out his hand. Caruthers +grasped it, dropped it, as if he too felt that it came through a fog, +and hastened out. Just outside he met Warren coming in. "What's he +looking so serious about?" the editor asked.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," said Lyman. "Don't take the chair he had—the other +one, that's it. Well, we have split the law trust and he goes across +the square to open a new office."</p> + +<p>"Is that so? Well, I reckon there's a good deal of the wolf about +him. Yes, sir, he has seen me bleeding under the heel of the Express +Company, without so much as giving me the——"</p> + +<p>"Moist eye of sympathy," Lyman suggested.</p> + +<p>"That's all right, and it fits. Say, you are more of a writer than a +lawyer. And that's exactly in line with what I came in to tell you. I +got a half column ad. this morning from a patent medicine concern in +the North, and they want an additional write-up. It all comes through +your sketches."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?"</p> + +<p>"I know it. A drummer told me this morning that he had heard some +fellows talking about my paper in a St. Louis hotel, the best hotel in +the town, mind you—and I can see from the exchanges that the +<i>Sentinel</i> is making tracks away out yonder in the big road. And it's +all owing to that quaint Yankee brain of yours, Lyman. Yes, it is. +Why, the best lawyers in this town have written for my paper. The +Circuit Judge reviewed the life of Sir Edmond Saunders, whoever he +was, and Capt. Fitch, the prosecuting attorney, wrote two columns on +Napoleon, to say nothing of the hundreds of things sent in by the bar +in general, and it all amounted to nothing, but you come along in the +simplest sort of a way and make a hit."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you think so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not a question of think; I know it. And now I'll tell you +what we'll do. We'll let this law end of the building take care of +itself and we'll give our active energies to the paper. You do the +editing and I'll do the business. You put stuff into the columns and +I'll wrestle with the express agent. And I'll divide with you."</p> + +<p>"Warren," said Lyman, getting up and putting his hands on the +newspaper man's shoulders, "there's no fog between you and me."</p> + +<p>Warren looked up with a smile. He was a young fellow with a bright +face, and the soft curly hair of a child. "Fog? No, sunshine. There +couldn't be any fog where you are, Lyman. I'm not much of a scholar. +I've had to squirm so much that I haven't had time to study, but I +know a man when I see him, and I don't see how any woman could give +you much attention without falling in love with you, hanged if I do."</p> + +<p>Lyman blushed and shook him playfully. "I am delighted to pool +distresses with you," he said, "but don't try to flatter me. Women +laugh at me," he added, sitting down.</p> + +<p>"No, they laugh with you. But that's all right. Now, let's talk over +our prospects."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Belle of the Town.</span></h4> + + +<p>Once in a long while Banker McElwin made it a policy to gather up a +number of his boastful relations, reinforced by a number of friends, +and then conduct the party to the house of another kinsman, where he +would give them an evening of delight. He did not give notice of these +gracious recognitions, preferring to make the event sweeter with +surprise. On his part it was a generous forgetfulness of +self-importance—it was as if a placid and beneficent moon had +come to beam upon a cluster of stars. To the men he would quote +stocks, as if, a lover of letters, he were giving a poem to a "mite +society." Upon the ladies he would smile and throw off vague hints of +future silks and fineries.</p> + +<p>One evening this coterie gathered at the home of Jasper Staggs. Old +Jasper, in his earlier days, had been a town marshal, and it was his +boast that he had arrested Steve Day, the desperado who had choked +the sheriff and defied the law. This great feat was remembered by the +public, and old Jasper nursed it as a social pension. But it did not +bring in revenue sufficient to sustain life, so he made a pretense of +collecting difficult accounts while his wife and "old maid" daughter +did needlework and attended to the few wants of one boarder, Sam +Lyman. The "banker's society" recognized the Staggs family in the +evening of the day which followed Sam Lyman's call at the First +National, and was in excitable progress while Lyman, in ignorance of +it all, prolonged his talk with Warren. In the family sitting room the +banker talked of the possibility of a panic in Wall Street. In the +parlor the younger relatives were playing games, with Annie Staggs, +the old maid, as director of ceremonies. After a time they hit upon +the game of forfeits. Miss Eva McElwin, the great man's daughter, fell +under penalty, and the sentence was that she should go through the +ceremony of marriage with the first man who came through the door. At +that moment Sam Lyman entered the room. He was greeted with shouts and +clapping of hands, and he drew back in dismay, but Miss Annie ran to +him and led him forward. Eva McElwin, with a pout, turned to some one +and said:</p> + +<p>"What, with that thing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you've got to," was shouted. "Yes, you have."</p> + +<p>"Well, what is expected of me?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>"Why," Miss Annie cried, "you've got to marry a young lady, the belle +of Old Ebenezer."</p> + +<p>He had often gazed at the girl, in church, had been struck by her +beauty, but had shared the belief of the envious—that she was a +charming "simpleton."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't you think you'd better introduce us?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, it will be all the funnier."</p> + +<p>"Marry, and get acquainted afterwards, eh? Well, I guess that is the +rule in society. I beg your pardon," he added, speaking to Miss +McElwin, "for not appearing in a more appropriate garb, but as there +seems to be some hurry in the matter, I haven't the time nor the +clothes to meet a more fashionable demand. I am at your service."</p> + +<p>He offered his arm and the girl took it with a laugh, but with more +of scorn than of good humor.</p> + +<p>"Take your places here," Miss Annie said. And then she cried: "Oh, +where is Henry Bostic? We'll have him perform the ceremony. He'll make +it so deliriously solemn." She ran away and soon returned, with a +young man serious enough to have divided the pulpit with any circuit +rider in the country.</p> + +<p>The ceremony was performed, and then began the congratulations. "Oh, +please quit," Miss McElwin pleaded. "I'm tired of it. Zeb," she said, +turning to a bold looking young man, "tell them to quit."</p> + +<p>"Here," he commanded, "we've got enough of this, so let's start on +something else. Let's play old Sister Phoebe. Why the deuce won't they +let us dance?"</p> + +<p>"Henry," said Miss Annie, stepping out upon the veranda with the +serious young man, "they always called you queer, but I must say that +you know how to perform a marriage ceremony."</p> + +<p>"I trust so," he answered.</p> + +<p>"You do; and when you are ordained——"</p> + +<p>"I was ordained this morning."</p> + +<p>"What!" she cried. "Then the marriage came near being actual. It only +required the license."</p> + +<p>"The last legislature repealed the marriage license law," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Mercy on me!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Mercy on them," said the young man who had been regarded as queer.</p> + +<p>She took hold of a post to steady herself. She heard the deep voice of +the banker; the droning tone of "Old Sister Phoebe" came from the +parlor.</p> + +<p>"Don't tremble so. It can't be helped now," said the young man. "It's +nothing to cry about. How did I know? You said you wanted me to +perform a marriage ceremony, and I did. How did I know it was in fun? +You didn't say so. The father and mother were in the other room. They +could have come in and objected. How did I know but that they had +given their consent, and stayed in the other room for sentimental +reasons? I am not supposed to know everything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but who will tell Cousin McElwin?" she sobbed. "And who will +tell Zeb Sawyer? Oh, it's awful, and it's all your fault, and you know +it. You are crazy, that's what you are."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can exercise your own opinion about that. You people have +all along said that I would never do anything, but if I haven't done +something tonight to stir up the town——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you malicious thing. I don't know what to do! Oh, I don't know +what is to become of me!"</p> + +<p>"It's all very well to cry, for marriages are often attended by tears, +but you should not call me malicious. Mr. McElwin laughed when my +mother told him I was going to preach, and it almost broke her heart."</p> + +<p>"Revengeful creature," she sobbed, clinging to the post.</p> + +<p>"No, the Gospel is not revengeful, but it humbles pride, for that is a +service done the Lord. Step in there and see if Mr. McElwin has +anything to laugh about now. He laughed at my poor mother when he knew +that all her earthly hope was centered in me. Well, I'll bid you good +night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," she cried, seizing him. "You shall not leave me to face it +all. You shall not."</p> + +<p>"No, that wouldn't be right. I'll face it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Humbled into the Dust.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman found favor with the company, that is, with the exception of +Eva McElwin, whose position demanded a certain reserve. He had sought +to engage her in conversation, and she had listened as if struck with +the tone of his voice, but she turned suddenly away, remembering, +doubtless, that she was present as an act of condescension, and that +for the time being she was the social property not of any stranger, +but of her "poor kin." Lyman looked after her with a smile and a merry +twinkle of mischief in his eye. He had heard it said that her +complexion was of a sort that would never freckle, and he was amused +at his having remembered a remark so trivial. He had looked into her +eyes, had plunged into them, he fancied, for she had merely glanced up +at him: and he thought of the illumined-blue that mingles in the +rainbow, and he mused that he had never seen a head so fine, so +gracefully poised. And then he speculated upon the petulant waste of +her life. Almost divine could have been her mission; what a balm in a +house of sickness and distress. He thought of the pale man whom he had +seen lying near the window; he fancied himself thus doomed to lie and +waste slowly away, and he pictured the delight it would be to see her +enter the room, like an angel sent to soothe him with her smile. She +turned toward him to listen to a worshiping cousin, and Lyman saw her +lips bud into a pout, and it was almost a grief to see her so spoiled +and so shallow.</p> + +<p>"Well, I see you are getting acquainted right along," said Zeb Sawyer, +speaking to Lyman. "A man doesn't have to live here long before he +knows everybody. But I'm kept so busy that I haven't much time for +society."</p> + +<p>"What business are you in?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>"Mules; nothing but mules. Oh, well, occasionally I handle a horse or +so, but I make a specialty of buying and selling mules. Good deal of +money in it, I tell you. McElwin used to do something in that line +himself. Yes, sir, and he paid me a mighty high compliment the other +day—he said I was about as good a judge of mules as he ever saw, +and that, coming from a man as careful as he is, was mighty high +praise, I tell you. Helloa, what's up?"</p> + +<p>From the family sitting room had come a roar and a noise like the +upsetting of chairs. And into the parlor rushed McElwin, followed by +his wife, Staggs, Mrs. Staggs, and the white and terrified Miss Annie.</p> + +<p>"A most damnable outrage!" McElwin shouted, making straight for Lyman. +"I mean you, sir," he cried, shaking his fist at Lyman. "You, sir. You +try to bunco me and now you conspire with an imbecile to humble me +into the dust. I mean you, sir. You have married my daughter. That +fool is an ordained preacher, and your sockless legislature did away +with marriage licenses."</p> + +<p>Lyman looked about and saw Miss Eva faint in her mother's arms; he saw +terror in the faces about him, and his cheek felt the hot breath of +Sawyer's rage. He stepped back, for the banker's hand was at his +throat.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," he said, with a quietness that struck the company with a +becalming awe. "Pardon me, but I did not know that there was any +conspiracy. Is there a doctor present? If there's not, send for one to +attend the young lady."</p> + +<p>Some one ran out. McElwin stood boiling with fury. Sawyer thrust forth +his hand. Lyman knocked it up. "I will not step back for you," he +said. "I have committed no outrage and I am not here to be insulted +and pounced upon. Mr. McElwin, you ought to have sense enough to look +calmly upon this unfortunate joke." He turned, attracted by a wail +from Mrs. McElwin. Again he addressed the banker, now not so furious +as awkwardly embarrassed. "They were playing and the young lady was to +go through the marriage ceremony with the first man to enter the room, +a common farce hereabouts, as you know; and I was the first man to +enter. Don't blame me for a playful custom, or the action of a +populist legislature."</p> + +<p>"That may be all true, sir, but how could you presume, even in fun, to +stand up with her? How is she?" he demanded, turning toward a woman +who had just come from a room whither they had taken the "bride."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is all right. She was more scared than hurt."</p> + +<p>He gave her a look of contempt, as if he had been hit with a sarcasm; +and then he addressed himself to Lyman. "I ask, sir, how you could +presume to stand up with her?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I was told that I had to."</p> + +<p>"And you were willing enough, no doubt."</p> + +<p>"I didn't hang back very much; they didn't have to tear my clothes."</p> + +<p>"But I wish they had torn your flesh, as you have torn mine. Who ever +knew of so disgraceful and ridiculous a situation? It beats anything I +ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"But it can be made all right," said old man Staggs. "Nobody's hurt."</p> + +<p>"We can get a divorce," Zeb Sawyer suggested.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "but our friends, the populists, have enacted +rather peculiar divorce laws. And without some vital cause, the +application must be signed by both parties. It's in the nature of a +petition."</p> + +<p>"Well, that can be arranged," McElwin declared, with a sigh. "Annie, +is Eva better?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. And you must pardon me for talking to you as I did just +now, for I was never so upset in my life. Cousin Jasper, I wish you +would have my carriage ordered. Annie, tell Mrs. McElwin that we will +go home at once. Mr. Lyman, let me see you a moment in private."</p> + +<p>Lyman followed him out upon the veranda. He had not analyzed his own +feelings, but he was conscious of a strange victory.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, you came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can let you have it."</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you."</p> + +<p>"What, you don't want it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it wouldn't look exactly right for a rich man's son-in-law to +borrow money so soon after marriage."</p> + +<p>"Confound your impudence, sir—I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p>"I thank you," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"You thank me? What for?"</p> + +<p>"For begging my pardon."</p> + +<p>"Come, that is all nonsense, Mr. Lyman. Tell my wife that I'll be +ready in a moment," he shouted with his head thrust in at the door. +"The most absurd of nonsense," he said, turning back to Lyman. "It +will raise a horse laugh throughout the county, and will then be +dismissed as a good joke on me. Yes, sir, on me. And now will you +agree to conform to the requirements of that ridiculous legislature, +and sign the petition to the court?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't been informed that the legislature requires me to sign any +petition. And I have no favors to ask of the court."</p> + +<p>"Is it possible, Mr. Lyman, that you do not see the necessity of it?"</p> + +<p>"And is it possible, Mr. McElwin, that you do not see the humor of +it?"</p> + +<p>"The absurdity, yes. But I see no fun in it. I am a dignified man, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Of course you tell me this in confidence—that you are a +dignified man. All right—I won't say anything about it. But even +dignity sometimes stands in need of advice. Go home and get a good +night's sleep."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you won't agree—"</p> + +<p>"Not tonight."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, I have heard that you are one of the kindest hearted of +men."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you have heard of me? And I was not an entire stranger when +I called at your bank? Yes, I suppose I have been what they were +pleased to term a good fellow, and it strikes me that I have got the +worst end of the bargain all along; so now, for once in my life, I am +going to be mean. I will not sign your petition, Mr. McElwin."</p> + +<p>"What, sir, do you mean it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I mean it. I cannot afford to surrender a position so +deliciously absurd."</p> + +<p>"Then I will compel you, sir." He began to choke with anger.</p> + +<p>"All right. I suppose you will invite me to be present."</p> + +<p>"I will compel you to leave this town."</p> + +<p>"What! After forming so strong an attachment?"</p> + +<p>"You are not a gentleman, sir."</p> + +<p>"No? Well, I have married into a pretty good family."</p> + +<p>"I will not bandy words with you. But I will see you, and perhaps when +you least expect it."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Good night, and please remember that there is no humor in +the law, that the statutes do not recognize a joke, and that, for the +present at least, the young woman is my wife."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Wedding Breakfast.</span></h4> + + +<p>At the breakfast table the next morning old man Staggs spread himself +back with a loud laugh as Lyman entered the room. His wife looked at +him with sharp reproof.</p> + +<p>"Jasper, you ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said. "It is a sin +to laugh at a trouble. Sit down, Mr. Lyman."</p> + +<p>"Cousin Sam," said Lyman, and the old man roared again. "Well, sir," +he declared, with the tears streaming out of his eyes, "I never saw +anything like it in my life. It knocked him, knocked him prosperous, +as old Moxey used to say. Best joke I ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"Jasper, don't," his wife pleaded. "For my sake don't. I am afraid +he'll never speak to us again."</p> + +<p>"Well, what of that? Can we coin his words and pass them for money? +And he has never given us anything but words. He has been promising +Annie a silk dress since she was fourteen. Won't speak to us again. +What do you want? More promises? I'm gettin' tired of 'em. Why, he has +even flung ridicule on my arrest of that desperate man, the most +dangerous fellow that ever trod shoe leather. And, as Mr. Lyman don't +appear to be upset, I'm glad the thing happened."</p> + +<p>"But nearly all the blame falls on me," Miss Annie whimpered. "I am +afraid ever to meet him again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are afraid he won't make you another promise. Well, that +would be a terrible loss. Lyman, jest help yourself to that fried ham. +Tilt up the dish, and dip out some of the gravy. Sorry we haven't got +cakes and maple syrup; wish we had some angel's food. Rather a strange +weddin' breakfast with the bride not present."</p> + +<p>"Did—did Mrs. Lyman entirely recover before she was taken home?" +Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>Miss Annie looked up. "I think it was nearly all put on," she said.</p> + +<p>"Why, Annie Milburn Staggs!" her mother exclaimed. "How can you say +such a thing! I don't know what's come over you and your father. I'm +getting so I'm afraid to hear you speak, you shock me so."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Annie," said the old man. "Say exactly what you think. +To tell the truth, I'm gettin' sorter tired of bein' trod under by the +horse that McElwin rides. And if I was you, Lyman, I'd stand right up +to him."</p> + +<p>"That's about where you'll find me standing. I am sorry for the young +woman, but—"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry over her," Miss Annie spoke up. "I believe she's laughing +alone right now over the absurdity of it. Why, anybody would, and +she's no more than human."</p> + +<p>"I suppose she denounced me," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, in a way. She had to keep time with her mother. But they are +madder at Henry Bostic than at anyone else. And really, he's the only +one that's guilty. But I don't blame him much. The McElwins have +always made fun of him."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, Lyman?" the old man asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. I am satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Mr. Lyman," the old woman pleaded. "Don't distress a +proud family."</p> + +<p>"Madam," Lyman replied, "I am ready to kneel and beg the pardon of a +heart in distress, but senseless pride doesn't appeal to me. I can +compare families with the McElwins when it comes to that, and putting +my judgment aside, I can be as proud as they are. They have money, but +that is all, and they would be but paupers compared with the really +rich. There are no great names in their family, while from my family +have sprung orators, novelists and poets."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Miss Annie cried. "I like to look at you when you talk like +that."</p> + +<p>"I'll bet you ain't afraid of nobody," the old man declared. "I never +saw an eye like yourn that was afraid, and a face, nuther. Oh, when it +comes to looks, you are there all right. Well, sir," he added, "the +town's stirred up. Old Ebenezer is all of a titter. Afraid to laugh +out loud, but she's tickled all the same." The old man leaned back +with a chuckle, and in his merriment he slowly clawed at the rim of +gray whiskers that ran around under his chin. "I like to see a town +tickled," he said.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Jasper," his wife spoke up, "your pride may be humbled +one of these days."</p> + +<p>"My pride," he laughed. "Why, bless you, I haven't any pride. Cousin +McElwin knocked it all out of me when he said, and right to my face, +that anybody could have arrested the man that choked the sheriff. I +knowed then that something was going to happen to him. Knowed it as +well as I knowed my name."</p> + +<p>The old woman's hand shook and her cup rattled in the saucer as she +put it down. "I hope the Lord will forgive you for bein' so +revengeful," she said.</p> + +<p>"Don't let that worry you, Tobitha," he replied, rubbing his rim of +gray bristles. "The Lord takes care of his own, and I reckon your +prayers have made me one of the elected."</p> + +<p>"One of the elect, father," said Miss Annie.</p> + +<p>"All the same," the old man replied. "Why, just look," he added, +glancing through the window—"Just look at the folks out there +gazin' at the house. Oh, we live in the center of this town, at +present."</p> + +<p>"Annie," said the old woman, "pull down the shade. The impudent +things!"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I would," the old man tittered as his daughter arose +to obey. "It ain't right to rob folks of a pleasure that don't cost us +nothin'."</p> + +<p>"There's that vicious Mrs. Potter," said Annie, and with a spiteful +jerk she pulled down the shade. "We will shut off her malicious view."</p> + +<p>"It is to be expected that a bridegroom should be an object of +interest," Lyman remarked. "I awoke last night and thought that I +heard sleet rattling at the window, but recalling the time of year I +knew that it was rice thrown in showers by my friends."</p> + +<p>The old lady looked at Lyman: "I am sorry that you're not more +serious," she said.</p> + +<p>"Serious," Lyman repeated with a twinkling glance at the old man. "I +have done everything I can to prove that I am serious. I have just +been married."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you got it that time, Tobitha. Got it, and I knowed you would."</p> + +<p>"Jasper, for goodness sake, hush. Annie, come away from there, a +peepin' through at those good-for-nothin' people. They'd better be at +work earnin' a livin' for their families, gracious knows. Are you +going?" she asked as Lyman arose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, to my office, to work for the <i>Sentinel</i>. I am the editor, +now."</p> + +<p>"Why, you didn't tell us that," said Annie, turning from the window.</p> + +<p>"My mind has been engaged with more important matters," he replied, +with his hands on the back of the chair, smiling at her. "It was only +yesterday that Warren offered to join his misfortune with mine."</p> + +<p>The old woman sighed: "I hope you'll be careful not to say things in +the street to stir up strife," she said.</p> + +<p>"Strife," the old man repeated with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, strife," she insisted. "There are any number of men that would +like to get him into trouble, just to please Cousin McElwin."</p> + +<p>"I think I can take care of myself," said Lyman, putting on his hat.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Suppressing the News.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman found Warren almost in hysterical glee, treading air up and down +the office. "Ho!" he cried, as the bridegroom entered the office. "Let +me get hold of you. Ho!" he shouted louder as he shook Lyman's hand. +"Maybe we haven't got the situation by the forelock. Who ever heard of +such a thing! Shake again. I didn't hear about it till awhile ago, and +then I took a fit and caught another one from it. Glad I held the +paper in line with the Grangers."</p> + +<p>"Let me sit down," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what you must do, and write like a horse trotting. +I've left two columns open, and I want you to spread yourself."</p> + +<p>"Something important?" Lyman asked, sitting down.</p> + +<p>"Now, what do you want to talk that way for? It's a world beater."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"The marriage, don't you understand? Make two columns out of it and +I'll get fifty subscribers before night. Hurry up, I've got a tramp +printer waiting for the copy."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said Lyman, lighting a cigar. "You wouldn't expect a man +to write up his own marriage, any more than you would his own +funeral."</p> + +<p>"If his funeral was as extraordinary as this marriage I would. Finest +piece of news I ever heard of. Never heard of anything to beat it; and +we'll make the hair rise up in this community like bristles on a dog. +Go ahead with it. The tramp's waiting and I am paying him time."</p> + +<p>"Sit down," said Lyman. Warren did so reluctantly. Lyman put his hand +on the young man's shoulder. "My dear boy," said he, "don't you know +it would be very indelicate, not to say vulgar, for us to print a +sensational account of that marriage? For a day it might be a news +victory, but afterwards it would be a humiliating defeat. To tell you +the truth, I am about ready to confess my regret that it happened." He +was silent for a moment, as if to take note of Warren's hard +breathing. "And if McElwin had come to me more as a man and less like +a mad bull I would have agreed to sign the divorce petition. But I +don't like to be driven. I am sorry to disappoint you; it is hard to +throw cold water on your warm enthusiasm, but I won't write a word +about the marriage."</p> + +<p>Tears gathered in Warren's eyes. "This life's not worth living," he +said. "Nothing but disappointment all the time. No hope; everything +dead."</p> + +<p>"But you shouldn't hang a hope on a poisonous weed, my boy."</p> + +<p>"No matter where I hang one, it falls to the dust. But say, you are +not going to sign that paper, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not at present. I am man enough to be stubborn."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Warren cried, his wonted enthusiasm beginning to rise. "Don't +sign it at all. You've got him on the hip, and you can throw him where +you please. I've been waiting two years to get even with him. He +stopped his paper because I printed a communication from a farmer +denouncing money sharks. All right," he said, getting up, "we can make +the paper go anyway. I'll put that tramp on another job."</p> + +<p>He went out with a rush and the high spirits of glorious and +thoughtless youth. Lyman went to the window and gazed over at the +bank. The place looked cool and dignified, the province of a bank when +other places of business have been forced to an early opening. Lyman +smiled at the reflection that there was no crape on the door, as if he +had half expected to find it there. "He couldn't let me have a hundred +dollars when I offered to give him a mortgage on the library," he +mused. "Said he couldn't, but he was willing enough to offer the money +in exchange for another sort of mortgage. I suppose he thinks it +strange that I was not bought upon the instant."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Warren, entering the room, "I paid the tramp thirty cents +for his time and he has gone away happier than if he had been put to +work. What are you doing? Looking at dad's temple? Fine prospect."</p> + +<p>"Yes, for dad."</p> + +<p>"But don't you let him browbeat you out of your rights."</p> + +<p>"I won't. The son-in-law has rights which the father-in-law ought to +respect. What sort of a fellow is Zeb Sawyer?"</p> + +<p>"Good deal of a bully," Warren answered, standing beside Lyman and +looking through the window as if to keep company with the survey of +the bank. "He managed by industry and close attention to shoot a man, +I understand, and that gave him a kind of pull with society, although +the fellow didn't die. He's a hustler and makes money, and of course +has a firm grip on McElwin's heart. There are worse fellows, although +he didn't renew his subscription when the time ran out."</p> + +<p>While they were looking the porter opened the door of the bank.</p> + +<p>"They are going to transact business just the same," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they've got to pull teeth, no matter what has happened. Do you +know that there are lots of fellows around town that would like to +come up here and congratulate you, but they are afraid of McElwin."</p> + +<p>"I wonder Caruthers hasn't come," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"No you don't. You've got no use for him and have told him so. +Helloa, yonder comes McElwin and Sawyer. They are crossing the street. +By George, I believe they are coming here."</p> + +<p>"All right. Let's step back and stand at ease ready to receive them."</p> + +<p>"Say, I believe there's going to be trouble here," said Warren. "And +if there is you wouldn't mind writing it up, would you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I wouldn't mind. Ordinary trouble is not quite so personally +embarrassing as a marriage."</p> + +<p>"Shall I keep the columns open?" Warren asked, his eyes dancing.</p> + +<p>"No, not on an uncertainty."</p> + +<p>"But it is not an uncertainty. They are coming up the stairs."</p> + +<p>"Let us sit down," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>McElwin and Sawyer entered the long composing room, looked about and +then walked slowly toward the law office.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Lyman, as they approached the open door.</p> + +<p>"You are not alone," McElwin remarked, as he stepped in, followed by +Sawyer.</p> + +<p>"Neither are you," said Lyman. "Sit down."</p> + +<p>"We have not come to sit down, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then you must pardon my not rising. This languid spring air makes me +tired."</p> + +<p>"Sir, we wish to see you in your private office."</p> + +<p>"And that is where you find me. This was my public law office, but now +it is my private editorial room."</p> + +<p>"But your privacy is invaded," said the banker, glancing at Warren.</p> + +<p>"So I have observed," Lyman replied, looking at Sawyer.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but enough of this. Can we see you alone."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I'd waste any more time beating the bush," said +Sawyer. "Let's come to the point."</p> + +<p>"That's not a bad suggestion," Lyman replied. "We have about thrashed +all the leaves off the bush."</p> + +<p>The banker cleared his throat: "Mr. Lyman, even after a night of +worried reflection, I am even now hardly able to realize the monstrous +outrage that has been committed at the instance of a theologic +imbecile, helped by a travesty on law enacted by a general assembly of +ditch diggers and plowmen."</p> + +<p>"That is a very good speech, Mr. McElwin. But I don't know that any +outrage has been committed. Let us call it an irregularity."</p> + +<p>"We'll call it an infernal shame," Sawyer declared, swelling.</p> + +<p>"No," Warren struck in, "call it a great piece of news gone wrong. If +I had my way it would be creeping down between column rules right +now."</p> + +<p>"Infamous!" cried the banker. "Don't you dare to print a word of it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'd dare all right enough, if Lyman's modesty didn't forbid it."</p> + +<p>"Then, sir, I must condemn your impudence, and commend Mr. Lyman's +consideration."</p> + +<p>"We are still beating the bush," Sawyer broke in.</p> + +<p>"And no scared rabbit has run out," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"We might be after a wolf instead of a rabbit," Sawyer replied. The +banker gave him a look of warning.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "you might hunt a wolf and find a panther."</p> + +<p>"I take that as a threat," the banker spoke up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all," Lyman replied. "It was merely to help carry out a +figure of speech."</p> + +<p>"Let's get to business," said Sawyer.</p> + +<p>"All right," Lyman agreed. "But you don't expect me to state the +object of your visit."</p> + +<p>"No, sir. We can do that easy enough," said McElwin. Then he thrust +his hand into his pocket and drew forth a paper. "Mr. Lyman, we have +here a petition to the Chancery Court, asking for the setting aside of +a ridiculous marriage, the laughing-stock of all matrimonial +ceremonies. The entrapped lady's name has been affixed, and we now +ask, sir, that you append your signature."</p> + +<p>He stepped forward to the table near which Lyman was sitting, and +spread out the paper. Lyman smiled and shook his head. "This is so +sudden," he remarked, and Warren tittered.</p> + +<p>"Sudden, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, not unexpected, but sudden. I must have time to think."</p> + +<p>"To think? How long, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Well, say about six months."</p> + +<p>"There's no use wasting words with this fellow," said Sawyer. "We'll +make him sign it."</p> + +<p>Lyman looked at him. "I understand that you are a buyer and seller of +mules," he remarked. "That may account for your impulsiveness. But at +present you are not in the mule market, that is, not as a buyer."</p> + +<p>"Come," said McElwin, "we don't want any trouble."</p> + +<p>"But if we have it," Lyman replied, "let it come on before it is time +to go to press. Warren wants news."</p> + +<p>McElwin bit his brown lip, and Sawyer fumed.</p> + +<p>"Don't put it off too long," said Warren. "I've hired a negro to turn +the press."</p> + +<p>"This is infamous!" the banker shouted, stamping the floor. "It is +beyond belief." Then he strove to calm himself. "Mr. Lyman, I ask you, +as a man, to sign this petition."</p> + +<p>"The interview has wrought upon my nerves, Mr. McElwin, and if I +should sign it now the Court might look upon my signature as obtained +under coercion."</p> + +<p>"Ridiculous, sir. I never saw a man more quiet."</p> + +<p>"That is the mistake of your agitated eye. My nerves are in a tangle."</p> + +<p>"Let me fix it," said Sawyer, swelling toward Lyman.</p> + +<p>Lyman smiled at him: "You are pretty heavy in the shoulders, Mr. +Sawyer, but you slope down too fast. I don't believe your legs are +very good. You might say that I don't slope enough, or not at all, but +I'm wire, Yale-drawn. You are meaty, vealy, the boys would say, but if +you think that you'd feel healthier and more contented toward the +world after a closer association with me—"</p> + +<p>"Come, none of that," the banker interrupted. And then to Lyman he +added: "I appeal to your reason, sir."</p> + +<p>"A bad thing to appeal to when it sits against you. It is like +appealing to a wind blowing toward you. But before I forget it I +should like to ask what this man Sawyer has to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"He and my daughter are engaged, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lyman, "that might have been, but they are not now. Let +me ask you an impertinent question: Does she love him?"</p> + +<p>Sawyer started. The banker shifted his position. "I told you that they +were engaged," said McElwin.</p> + +<p>"I know you did, and that is the reason I asked you if she loves him. +Let me ask another impertinent question: Didn't you appeal to her to +marry him?"</p> + +<p>"Who suggested that—that impudence, sir?"</p> + +<p>"You did. Didn't you tell her that he was the most promising young +man in the neighborhood and that she must marry him? Hold on a moment. +And didn't your wife take the young woman's part, declaring that she +looked higher, and wasn't she finally compelled to yield?"</p> + +<p>"I will not answer such shameless questions."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I must bid you good day."</p> + +<p>"Without signing this petition?"</p> + +<p>"Without so much as reading it. But I will agree to do this. When your +daughter comes to me and tells me that she loves Mr. Sawyer, that her +happiness depends upon him, then I will sign it. At present I am her +protector."</p> + +<p>The banker snorted, but calmed himself. "You a protector—a +mediator! Sir, you continue to insult me."</p> + +<p>"He ought to be kicked out of his own office," Sawyer swore.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it would take a mule, rather than a mule driver. But I +don't want anything more to say to you. I know your history; you +wouldn't hesitate to shoot a man in the back, but when it comes to a +face to face fight, you are a coward. Shut up. Not a word out of you. +Mr. McElwin, I sympathize with your wife and your daughter, but I am +not at all sorry for you. Good morning."</p> + +<p>The angry visitors strode out, with many a gesture of unspeakable +anger. "Well," said Warren, "that beats anything I ever saw. How did +you learn so much about his family affairs? Who told you?"</p> + +<p>"You told me Sawyer's history, and I made a bold guess at the rest."</p> + +<p>"And you nailed him. Well, I'll swear if it ain't a jubilee. But +there's no news in it for me."</p> + +<p>"There may be some day," Lyman replied.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">At Church.</span></h4> + + +<p>On the following Sunday, which in fact was the day after the scene in +the office, Lyman went to church. There were several churches in Old +Ebenezer, but he chose the one which was the religious affiliation of +the banker's family. A number of clean looking young fellows stood +outside to gaze at the girls going in, and they nudged one another and +giggled as they saw Lyman approaching. He pretended not to notice +them, going straightway into the church. Most of the pews were free, +and he sat down about the middle of the house and began carefully to +look about over the congregation. A strange feeling possessed him, and +he looked back with a thrill when he heard the rustle of skirts in the +doorway. At last he saw her and he thought that Zeb Sawyer came with +her to the door. The banker and his stately wife came in, but Lyman +had no eye for them. He sat almost in a trance, gazing at the young +woman as she walked slowly down the opposite aisle. She reminded him +of a peach tree blooming in the early spring, there was so much pink +and the rich color of cream about her. She sat down not far from him +and he gazed at the silk-brown hair on the back of her neck. Once she +looked around but her eye did not rest on him. She sang with the +congregation, and he selected a sweet tone for her voice, and smiled +afterward to discover that it was in the voice of a plain woman seated +near her. Some one sat down beside him, and he was surprised to find +Caruthers.</p> + +<p>The lawyer was surprised too, and he made a motion as if to move away.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," whispered Lyman, "stay where you are."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Caruthers whispered in turn. "I didn't know but that fog +was still between us."</p> + +<p>"It is, and that's the reason we didn't recognize each other sooner."</p> + +<p>"Then I'd better move."</p> + +<p>"It is not necessary. I can stand it if you can."</p> + +<p>"All right. Deuce of an affair you've got into."</p> + +<p>"Yes, rather out of the ordinary."</p> + +<p>"Has the old man offered you money to turn loose?"</p> + +<p>"He offered to lend me a small sum."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you make him give you a big sum?"</p> + +<p>"Because I am not a scoundrel."</p> + +<p>"No. Because you are weak. I would."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Lyman whispered. "Because you are a scoundrel."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that to me."</p> + +<p>"Sit over there," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>Caruthers moved away, and Lyman sat gazing at the young woman. "I am +going to be of service to her," he mused. "And one of these days when +she finds herself really in love she will thank me. She is dazzling, +but I don't believe I could love her. I don't believe she has very +much sense. She looks like a painting. I'd like to see her in an +empire gown. I wonder what she thinks of me. Perhaps she doesn't." He +smiled at himself, and then became aware that the preacher was in the +heated midst of his sermon.</p> + +<p>While the congregation was moving out, with greetings in low voices, +and with many a smiling nod, the banker caught sight of Lyman, and +made a noise as if puffing out a mouthful of smoke. His wife, who was +slightly in front, glanced back at him.</p> + +<p>"That wretched Lyman," he said, leaning toward her.</p> + +<p>"Where?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Over at the right, but don't look at him. Everybody is staring at +us."</p> + +<p>"Where is Eva?"</p> + +<p>"You ought to know," he answered.</p> + +<p>"She is coming, just behind us."</p> + +<p>They passed out. Lyman saw Zeb Sawyer standing at the door. He bowed +to Mr. and Mrs. McElwin and continued to stand there, waiting for the +young woman. She came out. She said something, and catching the +expression of her face Lyman thought she must have remonstrated with +him. But she permitted him to join her, and they walked away slowly. +Lyman overtook them.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," he said to her, paying no attention to Sawyer, "but do +you realize the scandalous absurdity of your action at his moment?"</p> + +<p>"Sir!" Her graceful neck stiffened as she looked at him.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 608px;"> +<img src="images/illus088.jpg" width="425" height="600" +alt="outside the church" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Don't you know that it is not in good form to receive the attentions +of an old lover so soon after marriage?"</p> + +<p>She stopped, jabbed the ground with her parasol and laughed. But in a +moment she had repented of her merriment. "I wish you would go away," +she said. "You have already caused me tears enough."</p> + +<p>"What, so soon? The beautific smile, rather than the tear should be +the emblem of the honeymoon. But this is not what I approached you to +say. I wish to ask when I may expect a visit from you."</p> + +<p>"I, visit you!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. To ask me to sign the petition to the Court."</p> + +<p>"I ask you now, sir."</p> + +<p>"There!" said Sawyer, walking close beside the young woman.</p> + +<p>"In the name of the love you bear this man?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him with a blush. "In the name of my father, my mother +and myself," she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said he, "you are not the simple-minded beauty I expected to +find. I suspect that your flatterers have not given you a fair chance. +It is difficult to look through the dazzle and estimate the +intelligence of a queen."</p> + +<p>"Really! You come with a new flattery. My father's money—"</p> + +<p>"Miss, or madam, your father is a pauper in comparison with the man +who loves nature. He is a slave, living the life of a slave-driver. He +is proud of you, not because you are a woman, but because you are, to +him, a picture in a gilt frame."</p> + +<p>"I just know everybody is looking at us," she said.</p> + +<p>"You mean that you are afraid some of them may not be looking."</p> + +<p>"Really! You are impudent, Mr.——"</p> + +<p>"Have you forgotten your own name? Oh, by the way, your maiden name +was McElwin, I believe."</p> + +<p>She halted again to laugh. "Oh, this is too funny for anything," she +said. "Isn't it, Zeb?"</p> + +<p>"It won't be if your father looks around."</p> + +<p>"He is too near the bank to look around now," Lyman replied. "He must +keep his eyes on the temple."</p> + +<p>"Zeb," she said, "why do you let this man talk that way? I thought you +had more spirit."</p> + +<p>"He has the spirit of anger, but not of courage," Lyman remarked.</p> + +<p>"Eva," said Sawyer, "out in the Fox Grove neighborhood this man is +known as a desperado."</p> + +<p>"That phase of character was forced upon me, madam," Lyman replied, +"and I had to accept it. Just as this man has been compelled to accept +the name of notorious bully and coward, which was forced upon him. He +gained some little prestige by shooting an unarmed man, and has been +afraid to meet him since. The people have found this out, and hence +his name of coward."</p> + +<p>"It's a—" Sawyer hesitated.</p> + +<p>"It's a what?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>"A mistake."</p> + +<p>"A soft word," said the young woman.</p> + +<p>"A gentleman uses soft words in the presence of ladies," Sawyer +replied.</p> + +<p>"And a weak man uses a weak word in apology for a weak character," +Lyman spoke up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I never heard anything like this before," the young woman +declared. "I didn't know that men could be so entertaining."</p> + +<p>"The potted plant astonished at the virility of the weed," said Lyman. +"But I must leave you here. My office is up there. Mr. Sawyer knows +where it is. His name appears on my list of callers. No, thank you, I +cannot dine with you today."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how impertinent," she laughed. "Nobody asked you, sir."</p> + +<p>"No, but I'll ask you. My partner is up there now, with his oil stove +lighted and the coffee hot. We have some broken dishes, and some cups +that are cracked with age. Won't you come up and dine with us?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought you boarded with Cousin Jasper Staggs. And ain't he +the funniest thing? I like him ever so much."</p> + +<p>"I do board with him, but I often dine out. Won't you come up and have +a box of sardines?"</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you. Wait a moment. When are you going to sign that +petition for father?"</p> + +<p>"When am I going to sign it for you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, as soon as you can."</p> + +<p>"No. But as soon as you comply with all the requirements of +sentimental rather than of statute law."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Old Fellow Laughed.</span></h4> + + +<p>"You are a pestiferous son-in-law," said Warren, as Lyman entered the +room. "And I have taken possession of your private quarters," he +added, pointing to a pile of country newspapers. "I have brought them +in here to see if I could gouge some state news out of them. I know +you don't like that sort of drudgery."</p> + +<p>"That is all right. But why do you call me a pestiferous son-in-law?"</p> + +<p>"I saw you through the window."</p> + +<p>"With the lady and the mule?" said Lyman sitting down. "I asked them +in to dine with me."</p> + +<p>"Where? You say Staggs has nothing but a 'snack' on Sunday."</p> + +<p>"Up here, to eat crackers and sardines."</p> + +<p>"Extravagant pauper. I'm glad they didn't come."</p> + +<p>"I knew they wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Did she ask you to sign the populistic petition?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not in the name of love for the mule."</p> + +<p>"In whose name, then?"</p> + +<p>"Of her father, her mother, and herself."</p> + +<p>"Are you going to sign it?"</p> + +<p>"Not until she convinces me that she loves the mule, and I don't +believe she can ever do that. She has a contempt for him, and I +believe she is glad that her affairs are temporarily tied up. She's +charming."</p> + +<p>"There you go, falling in love with a strange woman."</p> + +<p>"No, I am not in love with her, but I am naturally interested in her. +I believe she has sense."</p> + +<p>"Rather too pretty for that."</p> + +<p>"No, she is handsome, but pretty is not the word. I'll warrant you she +can run like a deer."</p> + +<p>"You are gone," said Warren.</p> + +<p>"No, I am simply an admirer. But admiration may be the crumbling bank +overlooking the river. I may fall," he added, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Don't. She has been taught to despise a real man. Let the other side +of the house have the trouble."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman. "It is better to be under the heel of the express +company than under the heel of love."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that," Warren objected, with a rueful shake of his head. +"Some things are too serious to be joked over. It is all right to make +light of love, for that is a light thing, but an express company is +heavy. You are restless."</p> + +<p>Lyman had got up and begun to walk about the room. "Yes, the bright +day calls on me to come out."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it the memory of a bright face that calls on you?"</p> + +<p>"No. Well, I'll leave you."</p> + +<p>"Won't you sit down to a sardine?"</p> + +<p>"No. I'll stroll over to see old Jasper, and take cold pot-luck with +him."</p> + +<p>Old Jasper, his wife and daughter were seated at the table when Lyman +entered the dining room. "Just in time," the old fellow cried. "We are +waiting for you, although we didn't expect you. We didn't know but +you'd gone up to McElwin's to dinner. Sit down."</p> + +<p>Annie laughed, but the old woman looked distressed. "Jasper, you know +you didn't think any such a thing. And if you did, how could you? Mr. +Lyman doesn't intrude himself where he's not invited. And you know +that McElwin is so particular."</p> + +<p>Lyman frowned. It was clear that Mrs. Staggs, in her ignorance and in +her awe of the man at the bank, could not feel a respect for +intelligence and the refinement of a book-loving nature. "You may +think me rude," said Lyman, "but I should not regard dining at his +house a great privilege. Leaving out the respect I have for the young +woman, it would not be as inspiring a meal as a canned minnow on a +baize table."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Lyman, how can you say that?" the old woman cried.</p> + +<p>"Madam, the fishes were divided among the thousands when the Son of +Man fed the multitude, and that was a more inspiring meal than could +have been provided by Solomon in all his glory."</p> + +<p>The old man let his knife fall with a clatter. "Oh, he got you then!" +he cried. "He set a trap for you and you walked right into it. All +you've got to do is to set a trap for a woman, and she'll walk into it +sooner or later."</p> + +<p>"For goodness sake, hush, Jasper. A body would think you were the +worst enemy I have on the face of the earth."</p> + +<p>"Enemy! Who said anything about enemy? I was talking about a trap. But +it's all right. We saw you, Lyman."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and we didn't know it was going to happen," said Annie. +"Everybody was watching you. And I heard a woman say that she admired +your courage. I did, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"I didn't feel that I was exhibiting any degree of courage," Lyman +replied. "All I had to fear was the young woman."</p> + +<p>"But the man is—"</p> + +<p>"A coward," Lyman broke in.</p> + +<p>Old Staggs struck the table with his fist. "I always said it!" he +shouted. "And he's another one that made light of my arrest of the man +that choked the sheriff. Coward! of course he is."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Staggs objected. No one whom McElwin had chosen for a son-in-law +could be a coward. She admitted that he was not as gentle as one could +wish. His life had been led out of doors. But he was a shrewd business +man and would make a good husband. It was all well enough in some +instances to permit girls to choose for themselves, but a girl was +often likely to make a sad mistake, particularly a girl whose home +life had been surrounded by every luxury. Love was a very pretty +thing, but it couldn't live so long as poverty, the most real thing in +the world. The old man winked at Lyman. He said that age might soften +a man, but that it nearly always hardened a woman. It was rare to see +a woman's temper improve with age, while many a sober minded man +became a joker in his later years. Mrs. Staggs retorted that women had +enough to make them cross. "They have an excuse for scoldin'," she +said.</p> + +<p>"Nobody has so good an argument as the scold," the old man replied.</p> + +<p>"They have men, and that's argument enough," said his wife.</p> + +<p>The old fellow laughed. "She put it on me a little right there," he +declared. "Yes, sir, I've got a steel trap clamped on my foot this +minute. But what do you think of the situation now, Lyman; I mean your +situation?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know of any material change."</p> + +<p>"But of course you are going to sign the petition," said Mrs. Staggs. +"Everybody agrees that you must, before court meets. And that reminds +me, I met Henry Bostic's mother today. The old lady doesn't appear to +be at all grieved over the part her son took in the affair. It would +nearly kill me if a son of mine had made such a blunder."</p> + +<p>"It was no blunder on his part, and I don't blame him," said Annie. +"No one thought enough of his pretensions to ask him if he had been +ordained. And besides, Cousin McElwin had made fun of him."</p> + +<p>"And a preacher can stand anything rather than ridicule," Lyman +declared. "He may forgive all sorts of abuses, but cry 'Go up, old +bald head!' and immediately he calls for the she-bears."</p> + +<p>"And gives thanks when he hears the bears breaking the bones of his +enemies," said the old man.</p> + +<p>"I don't blame him," replied Lyman. "Ridicule is the bite of the +spider, and it ought not to be directed against the man who dedicates +his life to sacred work."</p> + +<p>The old woman gave him a nod of approval: "You are right," she said. +"But young Henry ought not to have been revengeful."</p> + +<p>"No, not as the ordinary man is revengeful," Lyman assented, "but we +serve the Lord when we humble a foolish pride. I don't think McElwin +could have done a crueler thing than to have crushed the mother's +heart with ridicule for the son."</p> + +<p>"But about the petition," said Annie. "You will sign it, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I may."</p> + +<p>"But why should you refuse. To annoy her?"</p> + +<p>"No, to protect her."</p> + +<p>"She would be awfully angry if she thought you presumed to pose as her +protector. But let us change the subject. The whole town is talking +about it, so let us talk of something else. Are you going to church +tonight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with you, if you don't object."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't object, but—but don't you think it might cause +remark, after what has happened?"</p> + +<p>"There you go, leading back to it. Sawyer walked home with her; did +that cause remark?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in a way; and I believe she will wait for the divorce before she +goes with him again."</p> + +<p>"Then she will be free of his company for some time to come. Well," he +added, "I won't go to church. I'll go up stairs and read myself to +sleep."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">In the Lantern Light.</span></h4> + + +<p>An account of the marriage, written by an effusive correspondent, was +published in a newspaper at the State Capital; and a few days later +the same journal contained an editorial bearing upon the subject, +taking the populistic party to task for its lamentable want of sense +in legislation. The State press took the matter up, and then the +"paragrapher" had his season of merry-making. "We have always heard it +declared," said one, "that marriage is a plunge in the dark, but a +preacher over at Old Ebenezer proves that it is all a joke." And this +from another one: "'What do you think of young Parson Bostic?' was +asked of Banker McElwin. 'I didn't think he was loaded,' the financier +replied." It was said that a great batch of this drivel was cut out, +credited and sent to McElwin, and Lyman accused Warren, but he denied +it, though not with convincing grace.</p> + +<p>One evening a picnic was given on the lawn of a prominent citizen. It +had been heralded as a moonlight event, but the moon was sullen and +the light was shed from paper lanterns hung in the trees. There was to +be no dancing and no forfeit games, for McElwin was still raw, and the +master of the gathering on the lawn would not dare to throw sand on +the spots where the rich man's prideful skin had been raked off. The +entertainment was to consist of talk among the older ones, chatter +among the slips of girls and striplings of men, with music for all.</p> + +<p>"You will have to go to write it up," Warren said to Lyman.</p> + +<p>"It won't be necessary to go," Lyman replied. "We can hold a +pleasanter memory of such events if we don't really see them. I can +write of it from a distance."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but that isn't enterprise, and we want to prove to these people +that we are enterprising. They must see you on the ground."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>"You will go, then?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I meant when I said all right."</p> + +<p>"And you didn't mean that you'd simply look over the fence and then +come away?"</p> + +<p>"No, I mean that I'll go and be a fool with the rest of them."</p> + +<p>"That's all I ask. Here's an invitation. You'll have to show it at the +gate."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go, Warren?"</p> + +<p>"It would be absurd."</p> + +<p>"Why? Your clothes might be worse."</p> + +<p>"There are a good many observations that don't apply to clothes. The +entertainment is to be given by the Hon. Mr. S. Boyd. One time, with +great reluctance, he lifted a grinding heel off my head. I owe him +five dollars."</p> + +<p>"And it would be embarrassing to meet him, by invitation, on his own +lawn."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'll pay him one of these days, but of course he doesn't know +that."</p> + +<p>"Probably he doesn't even suspect it," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"No. He's dull, and not inclined to be speculative."</p> + +<p>"I should take him to be wildly adventurous."</p> + +<p>"Why so?"</p> + +<p>"He let you have five dollars."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see. But that's all right. He'll treat you well. Say, he may +pass cigars with a gilt band around them. Put a few in your pocket for +me."</p> + +<p>"I might have a chance to sneak a whole box."</p> + +<p>"Come, don't rub the lamp. Rub the ring and get two cigars. I'll sit +up and wait for them. If Boyd asks you why I have been dodging him, +tell him I'm not well."</p> + +<p>The lawn was a spread of blue grass, beneath trees with low, hanging +boughs, and through the misty light and moving shadows the house +looked like a castle. The air was vibrant with the music of the +"string" band, gathered from the livery stable and the barber shop; +and mingled with the music as if it were a part of the sound, was the +half sad scent of the crushed geranium. At the gate a black man, in a +long coat buttoned to the ground, took Lyman's card of invitation. +From groups of white came the laugh of youth, and from darker +gatherings came the hum of talk. Lyman shook hands with nearly every +one whom he met, laughing; and his good humor was an introduction to +persons he had never seen before. He felt that he was a part of a joke +which everyone was enjoying. The Hon. S. Boyd came forward and shook +hands with him.</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to welcome you to my grounds," said the great man, +speaking as if he had invited Lyman to hunt in a forest of a thousand +acres. "And your partner, will he be here?"</p> + +<p>"No, he's not very well this evening," Lyman answered, walking slowly, +arm-hooked with the great man.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear it. A man of wonderful energy, sir. Quite the sort +of a man we need in Old Ebenezer. And I am glad to see that his paper +is picking up. I was over at the State Capital the other day, and the +Governor spoke of something taken from its columns."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Warren remembers your kindness, sir," replied Lyman; "not only +your words of encouragement, but the money you so generously advanced +to him."</p> + +<p>"A paltry sum, and really I had forgotten it."</p> + +<p>"The sum was not large, but any debt is embarrassing until we pay it, +and then we can look back upon it as a pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Sound doctrine, Mr. Lyman. But there must be no embarrassment in +this matter. So, if you please, you may tell Mr. Warren that I will +take enough copies of the next edition to cancel the debt. Not enough +to embarrass him, you understand. It would come to about one hundred +copies, I believe. But let him make it two hundred, as I wish to send +it out pretty largely, and I will send him five dollars in addition. +Will you pardon me if I mix business with pleasure, and give you the +money now?" He unhooked his arm.</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted to act as your messenger," Lyman replied.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, sir; you are very obliging. And now," he added, when he +had given Lyman the money, "we'll go over to the grotto and get a +lemonade and a cigar."</p> + +<p>They went to a hollow pile of stones, where a negro stood ready to +serve them. "Help yourself to the lemonade. It was deemed advisable to +have nothing strong. A very old ladle, that, sir; it was the property +of my grandfather. The cigars, Jacob, the gold band. Now, here's a +cigar, sir, that I can recommend. Oh, don't stop at one. Here," he +added, grabbing a handful, "put these in your pocket, for I am sure +you'll not get any like them down town. Well, if you will be kind +enough to excuse me, I'll slip off to look after my other guests."</p> + +<p>Lyman walked about, joking and gathering the names of the joyous +maidens, the heavy men, the light young fellows, and the dames who had +come to enjoy their daughters' conquests and their own dignity. With a +feeling of disappointment he wondered why the banker's family was not +represented, and more than once he looked about sweepingly, believing +that he had heard the loud voice of Zeb Sawyer. He mused that his work +was done, that the company had transacted its business with him, and +he turned aside to a quiet spot, to a seat behind a clump of shrubs, +to smoke a cigar and to picture Warren's surprise and delight. The +cigar burned out and he was about to go, when he heard the ripple of +skirts on the soft grass. A woman came across the sward, and in the +light of a neighboring lantern Lyman recognized Eva. She saw him and +halted.</p> + +<p>"Won't you please sit down," he said, rising.</p> + +<p>"I—I—didn't know you were here," she replied, looking +back.</p> + +<p>"The fact that you came is proof enough of that," said he, with a +quiet laugh.</p> + +<p>"How shrewd you are," she replied.</p> + +<p>"No, I am only considerate. But now that you are here, won't you +please sit down. I am weary of senseless chatter, and I would like to +talk to you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't refuse, after such a compliment as that. And, besides, +I am tired."</p> + +<p>She sat down; he continued to stand. She did not appear to notice it.</p> + +<p>"I looked all over the ground, but could not find you," he said.</p> + +<p>"Mamma and I did not come until just now. We live so near that we put +off our coming until late."</p> + +<p>"Did your father come?"</p> + +<p>"No. Only mamma and I. Some of us had to come."</p> + +<p>"Just you and your mother, and not Mr. Sawyer?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't come with us. I don't know that he is here." For a few +moments they were silent. "I am so tired of everything," she said.</p> + +<p>"Tired of yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you do something? Did you ever think of that?"</p> + +<p>"What would be the use of thinking of it? There's nothing for me to +do."</p> + +<p>"There is something for everyone to do. Why don't you take up some +line of study?"</p> + +<p>"I hate study. I can't put my mind on it."</p> + +<p>"But you could read good books."</p> + +<p>"I do, but I get tired. I must have been petted too much."</p> + +<p>"Ah! A girl is beginning to be strong when she feels that way. I +suppose you have been flattered all your life."</p> + +<p>"Do I show it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But not so much as you did."</p> + +<p>"And do you know the reason?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, unless it is that you have been sobered by a joke."</p> + +<p>"That has something to do with it. You have made me think. You don't +regard me as a spoiled child; you seem to believe that I have a mind. +And that, even if you were a field hand, would cause me to be +interested in you. I would like to talk with you seriously, but you +joke with me."</p> + +<p>"To hear you in a serious mood would be as sweet as an anthem."</p> + +<p>"You must not talk that way. I want your friendship."</p> + +<p>"You shall have it."</p> + +<p>"I need your help."</p> + +<p>"You shall have it."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to be wicked," she said, looking up at him, "but I beg +of you not to sign that petition to the Court, until—"</p> + +<p>"Until when?"</p> + +<p>"Until Zeb Sawyer is—is—out of the way. People flatter me +and praise me, but they don't know what I have suffered. And my father +doesn't understand me. When you called Sawyer a coward I wanted to +shout in the street."</p> + +<p>"Still you consented to marry him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, to live for a little longer in peace. But I know a tall rock +over on the creek, and from the top of it is a long way to the cruel +boulders below. They call it 'Lover's Leap,' and I have thought after +awhile the name might be changed to 'Despair's Leap.' At night I have +dreamed of that rock, and sometimes my dream would continue after I +opened my eyes. Our engagement was for one year, and often I said to +myself that I had but one year longer to live. At church I would pray, +and I could hear the words, 'Children, obey your parents.' And then I +would go home and pretend to be happy in that obedience."</p> + +<p>"But you signed the petition."</p> + +<p>"Yes, with a prayer that you would not sign it."</p> + +<p>"And I won't."</p> + +<p>"Not even if they should come with pistols?"</p> + +<p>"Not if they should come with a mob and a rope."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him, with her hands clasped in her lap. The light +fell upon her face, and in its human loveliness was the divine spirit +of sadness. Lyman looked upward at the fleece among the stars, the +lace curtain of the night.</p> + +<p>"With the strength accidentally dedicated to me by a body of men +assembled to break the customs of a class opposed to them, I will hold +you a prisoner, free from the grasp of a feelingless clown," he said. +"I will protect you. And when you have really fallen in love, and +believe that your happiness depends upon a man, I will sign the +petition."</p> + +<p>With the frankness of a child she sprung from the seat and grasped +his hand: "Oh, you stand between me and the tall rock," she said. +"Good night—God bless you."</p> + +<p>She ran away. Lyman looked after her, with dim vision—her white +gown spectral in the misty light.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Wanted to Dream.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman walked slowly down the tree-darkened lane that led to the main +street of the village. Beneath a forest oak, where the desolate town +cow and the stray sheep had come to seek freedom from the annoyances +of the day, he halted and looked back. The few remaining lanterns were +like fire-flies in a growth of giant grass. The members of the +"string-band" were singing a negro melody. The notes came floating +with the mirth-shriek of a maiden, and the hoarse laugh of the boy who +aspired to be a man. Far away on a hillside a dog was barking at the +mystery of night. Near by a mocking-bird, in a cage, was singing out +of the melodious fullness of his heart. The muser felt two distinct +senses, one that a sweet voice had touched the quick of his nature, +the other that he had been grandiloquent in his talk while looking at +the stars. She had threatened to destroy herself. No, she would not do +that. She could but shrink from it if the time should come. But to +resolve upon it, driven by a father who could not understand her, was +so girlishly natural, so complete a bit of romantic despair, that she +must have found it a source of great consolation.</p> + +<p>Warren was waiting. "I'll bet you didn't bring a cigar," he said, +tossing a cob pipe on the table.</p> + +<p>"You've lost," Lyman replied, rolling out a handful of cigars upon a +pile of newspapers.</p> + +<p>Warren reached over, his eyes snapping. "Gold bands," he said. "Oh, I +knew you would bring them if they were to be had. You are all right, +Samuel," he added, striking a match. "Yes, sir, but I have been +sitting up here, almost envious of the good time you were having. +However, I was not sorry that I had not faced the Hon. S. Boyd. He +frowned at me the last time we met. I can stand to be dunned once in +awhile, but I don't like to be frowned at. Did he say anything about +the money I owe him?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lyman, leaning back in his chair, "the subject was +mentioned."</p> + +<p>"What, the old skinflint! Did he blurt it out before everybody?"</p> + +<p>"No. He talked to me privately."</p> + +<p>"Well, I am glad he had that much consideration. But why did he want +to speak of it at all? I suppose you told him I'd pay it as soon as I +could, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I told him so."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, what more does he want? No man can pay a debt before he +can. There are in this town some of the queerest people I ever saw. +They expect a man to pay a debt whether he's got the money or not. +I'll pay that fellow and tire him to death with meeting him afterward. +I'll cross the street a dozen times a day to shake hands with him. +Yes, sir, I'll make him wish that I owed him."</p> + +<p>"He sent you this," said Lyman, handing over the five dollars.</p> + +<p>Warren's eyes flew wide open with astonishment. "Sent it to me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he wants two hundred copies of our next edition. One hundred to +discharge the old debt, and the five dollars is to pay for the other +hundred."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, you rubbed the lamp. Don't rub it again right away. Let me +hold this thing a minute."</p> + +<p>"You may hold it until the express company takes it away from you."</p> + +<p>"Hush, don't make a noise. You'll wake me up. Let me dream."</p> + +<p>"She was there," said Lyman, after a brief silence.</p> + +<p>"A dreamer listening to a dream," Warren vacantly replied.</p> + +<p>"I had quite a talk with her. She is not a doll. She's a woman with a +soul and a mind."</p> + +<p>"You are gone," said Warren, wrapping the bank note about his finger.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not gone. I am decidedly here, and I am going to stay here to +protect her."</p> + +<p>He related the talk that had passed between the young woman and +himself. He told even of his gaze at the stars and his theatric +declaration to stand as her protector. But he did not tell that she +had caught his hand. In that act there was something sacred to him.</p> + +<p>"As I said before, you're all right," declared Warren. "No one but a +great man could have done what you have done tonight. Why, that old +fellow was a jewel, and was not revealed until you brushed the dust +off him. Two hundred copies? He shall have them, together with a +write-up that will make this town's hair stand on end. And, by the +way, don't you think you had better get at it while it's fresh?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you fear. It will never fade, my boy. It is in my mind to +stay."</p> + +<p>"Look here, don't let that joke turn on you," said Warren. "It would +be serious if you should fall in love with her."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I won't."</p> + +<p>"Were you ever caught by a woman?"</p> + +<p>"Not very hard; were you?"</p> + +<p>"Rather," Warren answered; "I loved a girl several years ago, while I +was running a paper over at Beech Knob. Yes, sir, and I reckon I loved +her as hard as a woman was ever loved. I thought about her every day. +And I believe she cared for me."</p> + +<p>"It's of no use to ask you why you didn't marry her. Money, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"That's it, Lyman; money. You see, her old man was rather well fixed, +and one day when he was in the office I borrowed ten dollars of him. +Then I couldn't go to the house, you see, and before I could pay it +back the girl was married. Lost one of the best girls this country +ever produced just because I couldn't raise ten dollars to pay her +father. I guess Brother McElwin wishes now that he had let you have +the hundred. It would have given him a hold on you."</p> + +<p>"It would have given him a club," said Lyman. "A man could snatch out +a hundred dollar debt and run me off the bluff. 'Lover's Leap,'" he +added to himself, smiling. Warren looked up and saw the smile, but he +had not caught the words.</p> + +<p>"It's too serious a matter to grin over," he remarked, sadly, but with +a bright eye turned toward the cigars that lay upon the pile of +newspapers. "It's a curse to be poor," he said, with solemnity, though +his eye was delighted.</p> + +<p>"A crime," Lyman replied. "It gives no opportunity to be generous, +sneers at truth and calls virtue a foolish little thing. It is the +philosopher, with money out at interest, that smiles upon the +contentment and blessedness of the poor man."</p> + +<p>"Helloa, you are more of a grumbler than I ever saw you before."</p> + +<p>Lyman leaned back with his arms spread out, and laughed. "It would +seem that the rich man's coach wheel has raked off a part of my hide, +but it hasn't, my boy." He got up and walked about the room; he went +to the window. Damp air was stirring and an old map was flapping +slowly against the dingy wall. He gazed over the housetops in the +direction of the grove where the paper lanterns had hung, but all was +dark and rain was fast falling.</p> + +<p>"It's raining," he said. "I'm glad it held up until after the picnic."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Warren replied, "for we might have been cheated out of the +cigars and the five dollars."</p> + +<p>"And I might have been robbed of a pleasant few moments."</p> + +<p>"You are gone," said Warren, yawning.</p> + +<p>"No, not yet, but I am going." He reached for his hat.</p> + +<p>"In the rain?" Warren asked. "I'm going to smoke another cigar before +I turn in. Stay here tonight; you can have my cot. I'd as soon sleep +on the floor."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't rob you."</p> + +<p>"Rob me? Your work tonight would make a stone slab a soft place for me +to rest."</p> + +<p>"And my mind might turn a bed, formed of the breast feathers of a +goose, into a stone slab. Good night."</p> + +<p>The hour was late, but a light was burning in old Jasper's house. As +Lyman stepped upon the veranda Henry Bostic came out of the sitting +room.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. Lyman, but you are dripping wet."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't noticed it, but it is raining rather hard. You are not going +out in it, are you?"</p> + +<p>"I have but a short distance to go. I found Miss Annie so entertaining +that I didn't know it was so late. I came to invite her to hear me +preach the third Sunday of next month, at Mt. Zion, on the Fox Grove +road, five miles from town. I should like you to be present."</p> + +<p>"Yes, as I was present at your first—"</p> + +<p>"Don't mention that, Mr. Lyman," he said, hoisting his umbrella. "That +was not wholly free from a spirit of revenge, and I have prayed for +pardon. My mother has called on the McElwins to beseech them to +forgive me, and I went to the bank today on the same errand."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said Lyman, as the young minister moved toward the +steps leading to the dooryard. "Did the banker forgive you?"</p> + +<p>The young man stood with his umbrella under the edge of the roof, and +the rain rumbled upon it. "No, sir. He said I had done his family a +vital injury. I told him I might have been an instrument in the hands +of a higher power, and he sneered at me. I hope you forgive me, Mr. +Lyman."</p> + +<p>"To be frank, I am secretly glad that it happened," Lyman replied.</p> + +<p>"But not maliciously or even mischievously glad, I hope," said the +preacher.</p> + +<p>"No, I am glad for other reasons, but I cannot explain them."</p> + +<p>The rain rumbled upon the umbrella and the preacher was silent for a +moment. "Mr. McElwin said that if I could induce you to sign the +petition he would forgive me. And I told him I would. Will you sign +it?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot, Mr. Bostic."</p> + +<p>"May I ask why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I stand as the young woman's protector. She despises Sawyer, +and her father was determined that she should be his wife."</p> + +<p>"Did she tell you, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I have promised; but this is confidential."</p> + +<p>"Then, sir, the petition must not be signed. The ceremony, after all, +was a blessing, and I shall not again crave the banker's forgiveness. +Good night."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">In a Magazine.</span></h4> + + +<p>There came a day, and it followed the picnic, with not a week between, +when Lyman's midnight scratching, done at the house of old Uncle +Buckley, came out into the dazzling light. A story written by him +appeared in one of the leading magazines of the East. It was a simple +recital, a picture of the country and its people, and so close down +upon the earth did it lie that a patter of rain that fell somewhere +among the words brought a sweet scent from the blackberry briars, and +a smell of dust from the rain. There were intelligent reading persons, +in Old Ebenezer, and with the big eye of astonishment they viewed the +story, but they were afraid to form an opinion until the critic of the +"State Gazette," following a bold lead struck by an eastern reviewer, +declared it to be a piece of masterly work. And then the town of Old +Ebenezer was glad to assert its admiration. The leading hardware man +said that he had noticed from the first that there was something +strange about the fellow.</p> + +<p>"And," said he, "you can never tell what a strange sort of a fellow +may pop up and do. Now, there was old Kincade's son Phil. Everybody +knew he was curious; everybody could see that, but they didn't know +how to place him. I told them not to place him. I told them there was +no telling where he might break out. His daddy said he was a fool. I +said 'wait.' Well, they waited, and what came? The boy discovered a +process for tanning coon hides without bark, and now look at him. +Worth ten thousand dollars if he's worth a cent."</p> + +<p>A saddler gave his opinion: "I knew he had it in him. I haven't read +his article, but I'll bet it's good. Why, he's said things in my shop +that it would be worth anybody's while to remember. Just stepped in +and said them and went out like it wasn't no trouble at all. And look +what he's done for the paper here! Every time he touches her he makes +her flinch like a hoss-fly lightin' on a hoss. And when everybody was +making such a mouth about that fool marriage, I—well, I just +kept my mouth shut and didn't say a word."</p> + +<p>Warren was the proudest man in town. He was so elated and so busy +talking about the story that he never found time to read it, except to +dip into it here and there, to find something to start him off on a +gallop of praise.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me, so that I might have known what to expect? +Why did you nurse it so long?" Warren asked, as he and Lyman sat in +the office.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hadn't anything to tell, except of a probable prospect. And +nothing is more tiresome than to listen to a man's hopes."</p> + +<p>"But you must have known that the story would be a success."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe not. It was fortunate to drive center the first shot."</p> + +<p>Lyman laughed sadly. "Warren," said he, nodding toward the magazine, +which lay upon the table, "I began to scatter seeds so long ago that I +hardly know when; and one has sprouted. I have been writing stories +for the magazines ever since I was a boy, and they were returned with +a printed 'thank you for—' and so forth. I had thought, as many +young writers think, that I must be deep and learned. I didn't know +that one half-hidden mood of nature, one odd trait of man, one little +reminder to the reader of something that had often flitted across his +mind, was of more value than the essence of a thousand books. I strove +to climb a hill where so many are constantly falling and rolling to +the bottom. At last I opened my eyes and shut my memory, and then I +began to progress. But not without the most diligent work. This story, +(again nodding toward the magazine) was written six times at least."</p> + +<p>"Why, you have made it look as easy as falling off a log," said +Warren.</p> + +<p>"Yes; it was work that made it look easy. There are two sorts of +successful stories; one that makes the reader marvel at its art; the +other one that makes the reader believe that almost anybody could have +written it. The first appeals to the stylist and may soon die. The +other may live to be a classic."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead. That sort of talk catches me. It seems now that I have +thought it many times, but just didn't happen to say it. Have you got +anything in hand now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I might as well let it all out now. I have a book accepted by a +first-class house, and I have a long story which I may submit to a +magazine to be published as a serial in the event of the success of +the book."</p> + +<p>"You are all right. I have often told you that. Why, some of the +things you have written for this paper would do to go into the school +readers along with the dialogue between some fellow—forget his +name now—and Humphrey Dobbins; and that barber who lived in the +City of Bath. Recollect? Let's see, 'Respect for the Sabbath +Rewarded.' Don't you know now? 'And say,' the stranger says to him, 'I +have glorious news for you. Your uncle is dead,' and so on. But it +used to tickle me to think the fellow could find any glory in the news +of his uncle's death, but I guess he did."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember. He was the barber that wouldn't shave on Sunday. And +as a reward his uncle died and left him a lot of money. And you'd hit +it off pretty well now by marking out virtue in 'Virtue Is Its Own +Reward,' and substituting 'money.'"</p> + +<p>"But I don't think we've got very much cause to complain," said +Warren. "We gathered in five subscribers yesterday, and three today, +besides an electric belt ad, to run for six months. Oh, we're all +right, and the first thing you know, we'll have some new clothes. We +don't want any hand-me-downs. About two weeks ago I went into the +tailor's shop across the square, and picked out a piece of cloth. But +when I passed there yesterday I noticed that some scoundrel had bought +it. Why, helloa; come in."</p> + +<p>Uncle Buckley Lightfoot stood in the door. His approach had been so +soft that they did not hear him. His tread was always noiseless when +he walked in strange places. He appeared to be afraid of breaking +something.</p> + +<p>"Come in!" Lyman shouted, springing to meet him.</p> + +<p>"Howdy do; howdy do." He seized Lyman and then shook hands with +Warren. "I jest thought I'd look in and see how Sammy was gettin' +along. And I promised mother that if he was busy I'd jest peep in and +then slip away. Sammy, you look as peart as a red bird."</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Uncle Buckley," said Lyman. "Let me take off your +leggings."</p> + +<p>"Jest let them alone where they are, Sammy," the old man replied. "I +haven't got long to stay, for I don't want to keep you from your work. +Jest put those saddle-bags over there on the table. No, wait a minute. +I've got something in 'em for you. Look here," he added, taking out a +package; "mother sent you some pickles."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm a thousand times obliged to her," said Lyman, putting the +package and the saddle-bags on the table. "Tell her so, please."</p> + +<p>"I'll do that. Lawd bless you, Sammy; I do reckon she knows what a man +needs. And she says to me, 'Pap, you shan't go one step toward that +fetch-taked town unless you agree to take Sammy some pickles made +outen the finest cucumbers that ever growd.' And I jest said, 'You do +up your pickles and don't you be askeered of me.' And she begins then +to fix 'em up, a-talkin' all the time fitten to kill herself. 'The +idea of a man bein' shet up there in that musty place, without any +pickles,' she says; 'it's enough to kill him, the Lord knows.' And I +wanted to sorter relieve her distress, and I 'lowed that mebby there +was pickles in town; and she turned about, lookin' like she wanted +to fling somethin' at me. 'Pap,' she says, and I begin to dodge back, +'for as smart a man as you are, I do think you can say the foolishest +things of anybody I ever seen. Pickles fitten to eat in a town where +if a person ain't dressed up he can't get into the churches on the +Lord's day; and where, if they do get in, the minister won't even so +much as cast his eye on 'em while he's a preachin' of his sermon! +Pickles indeed,' she says, and I kep' on a dodgin'. How are you +gettin' along, Sammy?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 556px;"> +<img src="images/illus131.jpg" width="498" height="600" +alt="Saddlebags" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"First rate."</p> + +<p>"But what's this joke they've got on you about bein' married?"</p> + +<p>"That's what it is, Uncle Buckley, a joke."</p> + +<p>"I told Jimmy and Lige that it was only a prank. I knowed you weren't +goin' to throw yourself away on no one here, when the woods are full +of 'em out our way that would like to have you. Don't dodge, Sammy. +Stand right up to your fodder, for you know it's a fact. It made +mother powerful mad. She took it that you wanted the gal, and the old +man thought you wa'n't good enough. And she boiled. 'Why, he can start +a church tune better than any person we ever had in the neighborhood,' +she 'lowed. 'Not good enough, indeed!' And I dodged on off, sorter +laughin' as I ducked behind the hen-house. And that reminds me, Sammy, +that a varmint come the other night and toated off the likeliest +rooster I had on the place. Mother woke me at night, and asked if that +wa'n't a chicken squallin.' I told her that I had the plan of a new +barn in my head, and that I couldn't let the squallin' of no sich +thing as a chicken drive it out, and I went to sleep. But you ought to +have seen the look she gave me the next mornin' when we found feathers +scattered all over the yard. By the way, Sammy, where is the other +man; the great lawyer that was your partner? Is he out at present?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Uncle Buckley, he's out at present, and for good. We have +dissolved partnership."</p> + +<p>"No!" said the old man, dropping his jaw. "Why, I thought you and him +was together for keeps. And you don't really mean to tell me that you +ain't, Sammy?"</p> + +<p>"He has an office on the other side of the square, and I'm not in the +law business," Lyman replied. "Warren and I are running this paper."</p> + +<p>"When did you quit each other?" the old man asked, leaning forward +and picking at his blanket leggings.</p> + +<p>"Why, the day you were in here. You remember I left you here with him. +When I came back he had decided to set aside the partnership."</p> + +<p>The old man looked up at the ceiling. "I reckon it's all right, but I +don't exactly get the hang of it," he said, getting up and taking his +hat off the table.</p> + +<p>"Understand what, Uncle Buckley?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothin'. It's all right, I reckon. Young feller, jest keep on a +shootin' your paper at me. We find some mighty interestin' readin' in +it; and sometimes Lige he breaks out in a loud laugh over a piece, and +he 'lows, 'if that ain't old Sammy, up and up, I don't want a cent.' +Well, boys, I've some knockin' around to do and I'll have to bid you +good day."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Nothing Remarkable in It.</span></h4> + + +<p>Mr. McElwin put aside his newspaper and paced slowly up and down the +room, his slippered feet falling with an emphatic pat on the carpet. +His wife sat near the window, watching the swallows cutting black +circles in the dusky air. Eva was seated at the piano, half turned +from it, while with one hand she felt about to touch the nerve of some +half-forgotten tune. McElwin dropped down in an arm chair.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if this newspaper will ever stop talking about that fellow's +story," said he. "I read it over and I didn't see anything remarkable +in it. Of course it's all right to feel a local pride in a thing, but +gracious alive, we don't want to go into fits over it. Now, here's +nearly half a column about it."</p> + +<p>"Let me see it," said Eva. He picked up the paper and held it out to +her. She got off the piano stool, took the paper and stood near her +father, under the hanging lamp.</p> + +<p>"Can't you find it? On the editorial page."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have found it. But it is not written by the pen of local +pride."</p> + +<p>"It is in the state paper."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but if you had read to the bottom you would have seen that it +was from a New York paper."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, it doesn't interest me, no matter what paper it is from."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" Mrs. McElwin asked, turning from the window.</p> + +<p>"Something more about Mr. Lyman's story," the daughter answered.</p> + +<p>"It appears to have stirred up quite a sensation," said Mrs. McElwin. +"One of those happy accidents."</p> + +<p>"It was not an accident," the girl replied. "It was genius."</p> + +<p>"Come, don't be absurd," said her father. "There is such a thing as a +man finding a gold watch in the road. I call it an accident. I had +quite a talk with him in my private office before our relations became +strained, and I found him to be rather below the average. He surely +has but a vague and confused idea regarding even the simplest forms of +business. But I admit that his story is all well enough, and so are +many little pieces of fancy work, but they don't amount to anything. +Educated man? Yes, that's all right, too, but the highways are full of +educated men, looking for something to do. Sawyer is worth a dozen of +him."</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin glanced at her daughter, as if she had heard a footstep +on dangerous ground. She was not far wrong.</p> + +<p>"Sawyer is a man, ready—"</p> + +<p>"He has not shown it," the girl was bold enough to declare. She stood +under the lamp and the newspaper rattled as she held it now grasped +tightly.</p> + +<p>"Eva," said her mother, in gentle reproof, "don't say that."</p> + +<p>"But I want her to say it if she thinks it," the banker spoke up, +almost angrily. "I want her to say it and prove it."</p> + +<p>"He proved it to me, but I may not be able to prove it to you. Mr. +Lyman called him a coward and he did not resent it."</p> + +<p>"Lyman did? How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"I heard him."</p> + +<p>The banker blinked at her. "You heard him? When? And how came you to +be near him?"</p> + +<p>"It was on the Sunday after the mar—the foolish ceremony. As Mr. +Sawyer walked off with me from the church door Mr. Lyman joined us."</p> + +<p>"Joined you! The impudent scoundrel! What right had he to join you, +and why did you permit it?"</p> + +<p>"He took the right and we couldn't help ourselves. At least I couldn't +and Mr. Sawyer didn't try to."</p> + +<p>"I wish I had been there."</p> + +<p>"You were just in front, but you didn't look around."</p> + +<p>"Well, and then what happened?"</p> + +<p>"Why, during the talk that followed, Mr. Lyman called him a coward."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Sawyer is a gentleman and he couldn't resent it at the time in +the presence of a lady."</p> + +<p>"He has had time enough since," she said with scorn.</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin came from the window and sat down near her husband. The +banker looked hard at his daughter, and a sudden tangling of the lines +on his face showed that the first words that flew to the verge of +utterance had been suppressed, and that he was determined to be calm.</p> + +<p>"He has had time, but he has also had consideration," said McElwin. +"To resent an insult is sometimes more of a scandal than to let it +pass. He hesitated to involve your name."</p> + +<p>He was now so quiet, so plausible in his gentleness that the young +woman felt ashamed of the quick spirit she had shown.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," he said, and she obeyed, with her hands lying listlessly +together in her lap.</p> + +<p>"Your mother and I know what is best for you," he said. A slight +shudder seemed to pass through the wife's dignified shoulders. "You +have always been the object of our most tender solicitude," he went +on. "And if I have been determined, it has been for your own ultimate +good. I admit that there is not much romance about Mr. Sawyer. He is a +keen, open-eyed, practical business man, with money out at interest, +and with money lying in my bank. His family is excellent. His father +was, for many years, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and his +grandfather was a judge. And I believe as firmly as I ever believed +anything, that he will be a very rich man. He is constantly widening +out and will not confine himself to the buying and selling of mules. +His judgment of the markets is fine, and I repeat that he will be a +very rich man. In looking over the field I don't know another man I +would rather have associated with me."</p> + +<p>His wife, long since convinced by his practical logic, looked up with +a quiet smile of approval. The girl sat weaving her fingers together. +She met her father's questioning eye and did not waver.</p> + +<p>"I don't presume to question what you say," she said. "But I am no +longer a spoiled child to be petted and persuaded. I am a woman and +have begun to think. This marriage, though brought about in so +ridiculous a way, has had a wonderful effect upon me. I have heard +that marriage merges a woman's identity with that of her husband, but +this marriage has made an individual of me. It has freed me from +frivolous company; it has given me something that I once thought I +could not endure—solitude—and I have found it delightful. +The hard and stubborn things that were beat into my head at school, +and which I despised at the time, are useful pieces of knowledge now, +and, viewing them, I wonder that I could ever have been so silly as to +find my greatest pleasure in flattery."</p> + +<p>Never before had she spoken at such length, nor with an air so +serious. Her mother looked at her with a half wondering admiration, +and the banker's countenance showed a new-born pride in her—in +himself, indeed—for nothing in his household was important +unless it showed a light reflected from him; and now, in his daughter, +he discovered a part of himself, a disposition to think. This thought +was seditious, and there is virtue in even a rebellious strength, and +it convinced him that henceforth he must address her reason rather +than a feminine whim. He was proud of her, admitted it to himself and +conveyed it in a look which he gave his wife; but he was not the less +determined to carry his point. Sawyer was a man of affairs. His +judgment was sure, his spirit adventurous. Figures were his +playthings, and who could say that he was not to become one of the +country's great financiers? Once he had made a bid against many +competitors acquainted with the work, to build a bridge for the +county. Sawyer's bid was the lowest. His friends said that the +undertaking would ruin him; McElwin deplored the young man's rashness. +But he built the bridge, made money on the speculation; and the first +traffic across the new structure was a drove of Sawyer's mules, en +route to a profitable market.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you have begun to think," he said, smiling at her. "I knew +the time would come, and, as it has come, let me ask you a question. +Did you request this Mr. Lyman to sign the petition?"</p> + +<p>"I mentioned it to him."</p> + +<p>"You did. That ought to have been sufficient. What did he say?"</p> + +<p>"He said that he would—under certain conditions." McElwin winced +in memory of his and Sawyer's visit to Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Conditions? How does he dare enforce conditions? What were they?"</p> + +<p>"That I must avow my love for Zeb—Mr. Sawyer."</p> + +<p>"Well, is that all?"</p> + +<p>"All! Isn't it enough?"</p> + +<p>"You can do that, my daughter," Mrs. McElwin said meekly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I could, if the time should ever come."</p> + +<p>"What time?" the banker asked.</p> + +<p>"The time when I can say that I love him."</p> + +<p>McElwin crossed his legs with a sudden flounce. "You put too serious +an estimate upon love," he said. "You expect it to be the grand, +over-mastering passion we read about. That was all well enough for the +age of poetry, but this is the age of prose. You can go to that man +and tell him that—"</p> + +<p>"That I have a Nineteenth century love for Mr. Sawyer," she +interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes."</p> + +<p>"And he would laugh at me."</p> + +<p>"Laugh at you," he frowned. "No gentleman can laugh at a lady's +distress."</p> + +<p>"But he might not regard it as distress. It might seem ridiculous to +him."</p> + +<p>"Hump," he grunted. "Well, it's undignified, it is almost outrageous +to be forced to do such a thing, but you must go to him. Your mother +will go with you."</p> + +<p>"No, James," his wife gently protested, looking at him in mild +appeal. "I don't really think I can muster the courage for so awkward +an undertaking. Please leave me out."</p> + +<p>"Leave you out of so important an arrangement, an arrangement that +involves the future of your daughter!"</p> + +<p>"Then, why should not all three of us go?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I have trampled my own pride under my feet by going once," he +replied. "Yes, and he treated me with cool impudence. And if I should +go again something might happen. That man has humiliated me more than +any man I ever met, and once is enough; I couldn't bear an insult in +the presence of my wife and daughter. Eva, do you know what that man +tried to do? He gained admission to my private office, and actually +strove to bunco me out of a hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"He may have tried to borrow it, father, but I don't think he tried to +get it dishonestly."</p> + +<p>"Didn't I tell you that he tried to beat me out of the money? Why do +you set up a mere opinion against my experience? And why are you so +much inclined to take his part? Tell me that. You can't be interested +in him?"</p> + +<p>"I don't want injustice done him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; but you would submit to the injustice he does you. He has +robbed you of the society of your younger acquaintances—he +compels you to sit almost excluded in a town where you are an +acknowledged belle. Young gentlemen are afraid to call on you."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know that it would be exactly proper," she replied.</p> + +<p>"And," he went on, lifting his voice, "the strangest part of it is +that you quietly submit to this treatment when there is a way to free +yourself. And I request you to make use of it."</p> + +<p>He got up, went to the mantel-piece, took up a sea-shell, put it down, +turned his back to the fire place, stood there a moment and strode +out.</p> + +<p>"You must do as he commands," said the mother.</p> + +<p>"I can't."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that. You must. I have thought it over, and I know it's for +the best."</p> + +<p>"You have permitted him to think it over, and you hope it is for the +best," the daughter replied.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Must Leave the Town.</span></h4> + + +<p>At eleven o'clock the next day, Zeb Sawyer was to meet McElwin at the +bank. The hour was tolled off by a grim old clock standing high in a +corner, a rare old time piece with a history, or at least a past, of +interest to McElwin, for it had been bought at the forced sale of +fixtures belonging to a defunct bank. It struck with solemn +self-importance, as if proclaiming the hour to foreclose a mortgage; +and though not given to this sort of reflective speculation, McElwin +must have been vaguely influenced by its knell-like stroke, for he +nearly always glanced up as if a tribute were due to its promptness. A +few minutes later Zeb Sawyer was shown into the room. The banker had +been sitting in deep thought, with his legs stretched forth, and with +his hands in his pockets, but he turned about when the clock struck, +and as Sawyer entered the office he was busy with papers on a table in +front of him.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Zeb; sit down."</p> + +<p>"Hard at it, I see," said the young man, taking a seat at the opposite +side of the table.</p> + +<p>"Yes, day and night. No rest for the wicked, you know."</p> + +<p>"I don't know as to that," Sawyer replied, "but I do know that there +is mighty little rest for the man that wants to do anything in the +world."</p> + +<p>"You are right. The gospel of content builds poor houses. I never knew +a happy man who wasn't lazy."</p> + +<p>"You ought to go to Congress, McElwin; they need such talk there."</p> + +<p>"They need a good many qualities that they are not likely to get." He +put his papers aside, and leaning with his arms on the table looked +into the eyes of his visitor. "My daughter has developed into a +thinking woman, Zeb."</p> + +<p>The over-confident young money-maker's face brightened, as if the +banker had given him a piece of encouraging news.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," McElwin went on, "and no cause is lost so long as +thinking is going on. Why, sir, it took my wife years and years to +learn how to think. It was not expected that a young woman in this +part of the country should think. Men were the necessities and women +the adornments of society when I was a young fellow."</p> + +<p>"But you said your daughter had become a thinking woman," Sawyer +hastened to remark, to bring him back from his wanderings.</p> + +<p>"Yes. And it will require all my strength and influence as a father, +to get her to think as I want her to. Still, in our dealings with a +woman there is always hope—if she thinks. I had quite a talk +with her last night, but I did not convince her that she ought to go +to that fellow and ask him to sign—sign that infamous petition." +McElwin took his arms off the table and leaned back in his chair. +"And, sir, I don't believe she'll do it."</p> + +<p>"It can't be that she can care anything for him," said Sawyer.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," the banker replied. "Such a thing has never entered her +head. I think she enjoys the oddity of her position, married and yet +not married. I think it tickles her sense of romance. But there is a +way of getting at everything, and there must be some way of +approaching this outrageous affair. I have looked into the law, and I +find that in case the fellow should go and remain away one year, his +signature would not be necessary. However, being a sort of a lawyer, +he knows this as well as I do. We can't bring the charge of +non-support, for we have not let him try. Zeb, she has intimated that +you are afraid of him."</p> + +<p>The banker looked straight at him, but the mule-trader did not change +countenance. "No, I am not afraid of him," he said, "but unless I'm +shoved pretty far, I don't care to mix up with him, I tell you that. +My life is too valuable to throw away, and they tell me that Lyman is +nothing short of a desperado when he is stirred up, though you +wouldn't think it to look at him. But you can never tell a man by +looking at him, not half as much as you can a mule. Oh, if the worst +comes, I'd kill him, but—"</p> + +<p>"That would never do," the banker broke in. "Don't think of such a +thing. I wonder if we couldn't buy him off," he added, after a +moment's musing. "I should think that he might be induced to go away. +There is one thing in support of this; he has had a taste of success, +or rather a nibble at ambition, and he may, even now, be thinking of +going to a city. Suppose you go over and see him—offer him five +hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>Sawyer studied awhile. "He couldn't take offense at that," he said. +"At least no sensible man ought to. Suppose you write me a check +payable to him."</p> + +<p>McElwin, without replying, made out a check, blotted it and handed it +to Sawyer. "Come back and tell me," he said.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Lyman was writing when Sawyer tapped at the open door. "Come in," said +the writer. His manner was pleasant and his countenance was genial, +and Sawyer, standing at the threshold, felt an encouragement coming to +meet him. He stepped forward and Lyman invited him to sit down.</p> + +<p>"A little warm," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, think we'll have rain, soon; the air's so heavy."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't be surprised. It would help farmers when setting out their +tobacco plants."</p> + +<p>"I reckon you are right. But the farmers would complain anyway, wet +or dry. The weather wouldn't suit them, even if they had the ordering +of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, in that they are not different from the rest of us," said +Lyman. "We all grumble."</p> + +<p>A short silence followed. Lyman moved some papers. Sawyer coughed +slightly. They heard the grinding of the press.</p> + +<p>"Printing the paper in there?" said Sawyer, nodding toward the door. +He began to turn about as if nervous at the thought of his errand. +"How many do you print a week?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, but we have a pretty fair circulation."</p> + +<p>"I see it a good deal out in the state."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it spreads out fairly well. We try to make it interesting to the +farmers."</p> + +<p>"By telling them something they don't know," said the visitor.</p> + +<p>Lyman shook his head slowly: "By reminding them of many things they do +know," he replied. "Tell a man a truth he doesn't know and he may +dispute it; call to his mind a truth which he has known and forgotten, +and he regards it as a piece of wisdom. The farmer is the weather-cock +of human nature."</p> + +<p>"I guess you have about hit it. By the way, Mr. Lyman, I have called +on a little matter of business, and I hope you'll not fly off before +you consider it. The only way we can get at the merits of a case is by +being cool and deliberate. The last time we had a talk, you—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Lyman interrupted, "I must have gone too far when I called you +a coward."</p> + +<p>"I think so, sir, but be that as it may, let us be cool and deliberate +now. I have just had a talk with Mr. McElwin and he is still greatly +distressed over—over that affair, and he thinks by putting our +reasons to work we can get at a settlement. The fact is, he wonders +that you would want to stay in such a small and unimportant place as +this is, after your editorial that everybody is talking about."</p> + +<p>"Did he call it an editorial?" Lyman asked, smiling at his visitor.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know as he called it that, but whatever it is, he was a +good deal struck by it, and he wondered that you didn't go to some big +city and set up there. And I wondered so too, from all that I heard. +Somebody, I have forgotten who, hinted that maybe you didn't have +money enough and—"</p> + +<p>"Money," said Lyman; "why, I've got money enough to burn a wet +elephant."</p> + +<p>Sawyer blinked in the glare of this dazzling statement, but he managed +to smile and then to proceed: "I spoke to Mr. McElwin about what had +been hinted, and inasmuch as you had applied to him for a loan, he +didn't know but it was the truth."</p> + +<p>"A very natural conclusion on his part," said Lyman, leaning back and +crossing his feet on a corner of the table.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he thought so, and I did, too. He ain't so hard a man to get +along with as you might think."</p> + +<p>"He is not a hard man to get away from. It doesn't seem to put him to +any trouble to let a man know when he's got enough of him."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you didn't see him under the best conditions."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't believe I did. He made me feel as if I looked like the +man standing at the threshold of the almanac, badly cut up, with crabs +and horns and other things put about him."</p> + +<p>"I think you would find him much more agreeable now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he was agreeable enough then, only he didn't agree. And I am +thankful that he didn't."</p> + +<p>"Well, he regrets that he didn't let you have the money, although you +came in an unbusiness-like way."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did. And pretending to be a lawyer, I ought to have known +better. I don't blame him for that."</p> + +<p>"What do you blame him for, then?"</p> + +<p>"For wanting his daughter to be your wife."</p> + +<p>Sawyer jerked his hand as if something had bitten him. "But what right +have you to blame him for that? It was arranged long before you ever +saw me, and besides what right have you, a stranger, to interfere in +his affairs?"</p> + +<p>"That's very well put, Mr. Sawyer, but there are some affairs that +rise above family and appeal to humanity. You requested me to be cool +and deliberate, and you will pardon me, I hope, if I am cooler than +you expected, and more considerate than you desire. It would be a +crime to attempt to merge that young woman's life into yours."</p> + +<p>"I know you have a pretty low estimate of me, but I won't resent it. +We are to be cool."</p> + +<p>"And considerate," said Lyman, with a slight bow.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; and considerate. But I don't see where the crime would come +in. My family is as good as hers."</p> + +<p>"That may be. I am not looking at her family, but at her. She was +spoiled, it is true, but she is developing into the highest type of +American womanhood."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I haven't come to discuss her. We were talking just now +about the prospect of your going away, and the probability that you +might not have money enough to settle in a city. Mr. McElwin is +willing to help you toward that end, and has signed a check for five +hundred dollars, made out in your name. Here it is." He handed the +check to Lyman, who took it, looked at it and said: "He writes a firm +hand. Money gives a man confidence in himself, doesn't it?" He held +out the check toward Sawyer. The latter did not take it, and it +fluttered in the air and fell to the floor. Sawyer took it up and put +it on the table, with an ink stand on it to hold it down.</p> + +<p>"It is yours, Mr. Lyman; it is made out to you."</p> + +<p>"Upon the condition that I leave here and remain away as long as one +year. Is that it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes."</p> + +<p>"I told you that I have enough money to burn a wet elephant. I +haven't—I haven't enough to scorch a dry cricket."</p> + +<p>"Then you will accept the check," said Sawyer, brightening.</p> + +<p>Lyman had struck a match, as if to light his pipe. He took up the +check and held it to the blaze. "Look out," he said, as Sawyer sprung +to interfere. "Sit down." He took the cinders and wrapped them in a +piece of paper, folding it neatly. "Give this to Mr. McElwin and tell +him that I have cremated the little finger of his god, and send him +the ashes," he said.</p> + +<p>Sawyer stood gazing at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"I told you to sit down. You won't sit down. And you won't take the +god-ashes to the devotee. Come, that's unkind."</p> + +<p>"Sir, you have insulted me."</p> + +<p>"What, again?"</p> + +<p>"And you shall regret it. And you shall leave this town," he added, +turning to go. "You have not only insulted me, but you—you have +put an indignity upon Mr. McElwin." Indignity was rather a big word, +coming from him unexpectedly out of his vague recollection, and he +halted to stiffen with a better opinion of himself. "I say you shall +leave this town."</p> + +<p>"I heard what you said. But I thought we were to be cool. Oh, pardon +me, it was the fire that gave offense."</p> + +<p>"I say you are going to leave this town."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, then."</p> + +<p>"I will make one more attempt," said Sawyer, standing in the door.</p> + +<p>"Don't exert yourself."</p> + +<p>"I will offer you a thousand dollars to go away."</p> + +<p>"My stock is rising."</p> + +<p>"Will you take it?"</p> + +<p>"The advance is too rapid. Can't afford to sell now."</p> + +<p>Sawyer began to sputter. "I'm done," he said. "I have no other +proposition to make. But remember what I say. You are going to leave +this town."</p> + +<p>"Then I may not see you again; good-bye."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Sawyer's Plan.</span></h4> + + +<p>McElwin was engaged when Sawyer returned to the bank, but he soon +cleared the room. "Well," he said, when the mule buyer entered. Sawyer +sat down before he replied.</p> + +<p>"He refused."</p> + +<p>McElwin's feet scraped the floor. "Refused?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He took the check, struck a match and burned it up."</p> + +<p>"The scoundrel."</p> + +<p>"Worse than that, he wrapped up the cinders and told me to take them +to you, and tell you that he had burnt the little finger of your god."</p> + +<p>"Blasphemous wretch!"</p> + +<p>"And I told him that he had not only insulted me, but had put an +indignity upon you. I talked to him just as cool as a man could talk +to anybody; we got along first rate until he burnt the check, and +then, of course, it was all off. No it wasn't, not even then. As I +stood in the door on my way out I offered him a thousand dollars. And +he refused. And do you know why? I think he's got the notion that by +sticking out he may win you and Eva over and get a partnership here."</p> + +<p>McElwin jumped up and slapped his hand upon the table. "I would see +him in——first." He turned about and began to walk slowly +up and down the room.</p> + +<p>"But he's going to leave this town," said Sawyer. "When I set my head +on a thing I go at it with reason and work on that line until I find +it hasn't any power, and then I use force. I am going to do it in this +case."</p> + +<p>"How?" McElwin asked.</p> + +<p>"The boys have a way of getting at a thing that persuasion can't +reach."</p> + +<p>"Speak out," said McElwin. "Tell me what you are going to do."</p> + +<p>"Well, I am going out into the Spring Hill neighborhood and appeal to +the boys—the White Caps. Then, some fine night, a party, all +dressed in white head-gear, will call on Mr. Lyman. They will put him +on a horse, take him out to the woods, take off his shirt, tie him +across a log and give him fifty lashes as a starter. Then, when they +untie him, they'll remark that if he is not gone within three days +they will give him a hundred. See the point?"</p> + +<p>"Zeb, he deserves it, but I'm afraid that course won't do."</p> + +<p>"Not weakening, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Weakening? Who ever knew me to weaken? I say he deserves it."</p> + +<p>"But you say it won't do."</p> + +<p>"And I'm afraid it won't. It would create a terrible scandal."</p> + +<p>"It's done every week, in some part of the country. Even the most +law-abiding citizens acknowledge that it is a good thing."</p> + +<p>"It might do in the country, severe as it is, but it would be +different in town. The law would interfere, and that would be +disgraceful."</p> + +<p>"But the law will not interfere. I can fix the town marshal, and as +for the sheriff—he owes me for a span of mules. I have worked it +all out. In the evening I'll go around to Uncle Jasper's with a bottle +of old Bourbon. I'll tell him that I am celebrating my birthday or +something. Once in a while he takes to the bottle, and the old liquor +will tempt him. Well, when he's in good condition, I'll put him to bed +and shortly afterwards the boys will come for brother Lyman. In the +meantime I will see that there are no guns in the way. The women will +be scared, of course, but they'll soon get over it. Isn't that a plan +worthy of a county surveyor?"</p> + +<p>"The plan's all right, Zeb, but I'm afraid of it's execution. +Supposing my name should become involved. It would ruin me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but your name sha'n't be involved."</p> + +<p>"He will suspect you and me, too."</p> + +<p>"But he couldn't prove anything."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, you may do as you please, but I'll have no hand in it. I +refuse to countenance it."</p> + +<p>"You simply don't know anything about it."</p> + +<p>"Of course not. I'm too much taken up with other affairs."</p> + +<p>Sawyer arose to go. "I shall see you again, I suppose. I mean before +anything is done," said McElwin. "At the house," he added.</p> + +<p>Sawyer looked down: "I don't feel free to come there," he said. "She +has told me not to."</p> + +<p>McElwin coughed dryly: "Nonsensical proprieties," he remarked, +scraping his feet upon the floor. "But I am to see you again?"</p> + +<p>"I think not—until afterwards. Whatever is done, you know, must +be done at once."</p> + +<p>Sawyer went out. The clock struck and McElwin glanced up at it. Then +he settled down into a deep muse. Sawyer's plan was desperate—it +was outlawry. It ought not to be carried out, and yet the provocation +was great. But supposing it should be known that he had given +countenance to the undertaking. Suppose the newspapers should print +his name in connection with it; the public, to say nothing of the law, +would frown upon him. It must not be done. He snatched a piece of +paper, and writing upon it the words: "Give up that scheme at once," +sealed it up and gave it to a negro, with instructions to find Mr. +Sawyer and hand it to him at once. About half an hour later the negro +returned with a note written on a piece of paper bag, and unsealed. +The note ran: "Don't you worry, but it shall be done tonight. Don't +try to find me. I have been fooling long enough, and now I am getting +down to business." He tore the paper into bits, and then strode slowly +up and down the room. Presently he took down his hat, rubbed it +abstractedly with the sleeve of his coat, and went out, remarking that +he might not be back that day. He felt like a criminal as he stepped +upon the sidewalk. But he was stiff, and merely nodded to the +tradesmen who bowed to him cringingly. He was looking for Sawyer, but +was afraid to inquire after him. He went to the wagon yard where +Sawyer stabled his mules, and looked about, but did not find him. The +owner of the place, hard in the presence of the farmers, but +obsequiously soft under the banker's eye, invited him into the office, +a dismal place, the walls hung with halters, bridles, chains and +twisting sticks, used to grip the jaw of a refractory horse and wrench +rebellion out of him. The rough appearance of the stable men within +and the pungent smell of the place, turned McElwin at the threshold.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think I have time," he said.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything I can do for you? If there is, name it, and I will +stir up this place from top to bottom."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 546px;"> +<img src="images/illus164.jpg" width="411" height="600" +alt="discussion" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>McElwin thought that it was stirred up quite enough, with its rough +men, its mangy dogs and rat-like smell. "Nothing at all," he answered. +"I am looking for a farmer, a man named Brown."</p> + +<p>"Old Jack? He's around here somewhere. It will tickle him pretty nigh +to death to know you'd look for him. I'll tell him when he comes in."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. He's not the man. This man's quite young, and his name is +Lucian Brown, I think."</p> + +<p>"Then I don't know anything about him, I'm sorry to say."</p> + +<p>"Are you feeding many mules at present?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not many at present, but I expect to have more in a day or two. +Mr. Sawyer has gone down in the country to gather up a lot. He drove +out just a few moments ago. I tell you, there's a hustler, Mr. +McElwin. He don't wait, he makes things happen."</p> + +<p>"Which way did he go?" McElwin asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, exactly, but I think he took the Spring Hill road. He +must be going after something particularly fine, for I heard him tell +old Josh that he wanted a bottle of the oldest liquor in town, no +matter what it costs. But he didn't take it with him, come to +recollect. He 'lowed he'd want it this evening when he come back."</p> + +<p>McElwin walked straightway to his home. His appearance at that odd +hour caused surprise, and his wife, having seen him through the +window, came to the door with something of a flurry.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything wrong?" she asked, as he stepped into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all," he answered, hanging up his hat. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because you are home so early."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's it. I was tired and I thought I'd come home to rest."</p> + +<p>She took his arm and they passed into the rear parlor. "Where is Eva?" +he asked, sitting down.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I think she's out for a walk. Are you tired?" she +asked, standing behind him, with her hands resting on the back of the +chair.</p> + +<p>"Not now," he said, reaching back and taking her hands. He pressed +them against his cheeks. "You always rest me."</p> + +<p>"Do I?" She leaned affectionately over him. "I was afraid that I did +not. You have had so much to worry you of late."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he sighed. "But when we are alone I can forget it all. Play +something for me, please."</p> + +<p>She looked at him in surprise: "When did you ask me to play, before?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he answered frankly. "You most always play without my +asking. Sing an old song, something we used to sing long ago."</p> + +<p>She went to the piano and touched to life the strains of "Kitty +Clyde." And when her voice arose, he felt a lump in his throat, and he +sat with his eyes shut, with a picture in his heart—an old +house, a honey-suckle, a beautiful girl in white, with a rose in her +hair.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">At the Creek.</span></h4> + + +<p>Shortly after Sawyer took his leave, Lyman went out for a meditative +stroll in the wooded land. About a mile and a half distant was a +creek, with great bluffs on one side, and with a romantic tumble of +land on the other. Of late he had gone often to this stream, not to +listen to the melody of water pouring over the rocks, not to hear the +birds that held a joy-riot in the trees, but to lie in the grass on a +slope, beneath an elm, and gaze across at a limestone tower called +"Lover's Leap." And on these journeys he always went through the +shaded lane-like street that led past the banker's house. It was the +most pretentious house in the town, of brick, trimmed with stone. In +the yard, which was large, the great man had indulged his taste for +art, stucco statuary—a deer, a lion, a dog, two Greek wrestlers, +a mother with a child in her arms, and a ghastly semblance of Andrew +Jackson.</p> + +<p>Lyman reached the shore of the creek and walked slowly among the +large, smooth rocks, that looked like the hip bones of the worn and +tired old earth, coming through. As he approached the tree and the +grassy slope whereon he was wont to lie and muse, he saw the +fluttering of something white, and then from behind the tree a woman +stepped. His heart beat faster, for he recognized her, and when he +came up, with softened tread, to the tree, he was panting as if he had +run a race. The woman did not see him until he spoke, her eyes having +been cast down when she passed from behind the tree, and she started +and blushed at beholding him.</p> + +<p>"I hope I don't intrude," he said, taking off his hat.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, since you have as much right here as I have."</p> + +<p>"I don't know but that I have a pretty good right," he said. "That is, +if occupancy means anything. I come here often."</p> + +<p>"Do you?" she cried in surprise. "Why, I have never seen you here +before, and this has been my favorite spot for years."</p> + +<p>"Well, as we are both at home," he said, laughing, "we might as well +sit down."</p> + +<p>They laughed and seated themselves on the spreading roots of the tree, +though not very near each other. She took off her hat and he looked +with admiration at her brown hair, tied with a ribbon. She flushed +under his gaze and said he must pardon her appearance, as she had not +expected to meet anyone.</p> + +<p>"A violet might say as much," he replied.</p> + +<p>"You must not talk that way," she said.</p> + +<p>"Why? Because you like to hear it?"</p> + +<p>"The idea! How could you say that?"</p> + +<p>"Because modesty protests against the words that a woman most likes to +hear, and modesty does not chide until she ventures upon an +enjoyment."</p> + +<p>"Then modesty is a scold, instead of a friendly guide."</p> + +<p>"No. But over-modesty is over-caution."</p> + +<p>"We were not talking of over-modesty. Are you as bold with all women +as you are with me?" She looked at him with quizzical mischief in her +eyes. He plucked a white clover blossom and tossed it upward. It fell +in her lap.</p> + +<p>"Bold, did you say? Am I bold? Most women have laughed at my angular +shyness."</p> + +<p>"Laughed at you; how could they?"</p> + +<p>"On account of my peculiarities. I was called an old bachelor before I +was twenty, and as I grew older I considered myself one, irredeemably, +for I never expected to marry."</p> + +<p>"I should have thought your life full of romance, wandering about, as +you must have done."</p> + +<p>"My life has been a tread-mill," he answered.</p> + +<p>"But you see so many beautiful things in nature."</p> + +<p>"The horse on the tread-wheel can look through a crack, and see a +flower growing outside."</p> + +<p>"Has your life been really hard?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, desperately hard, at times."</p> + +<p>"But you don't show it. You seem so kind and gentle."</p> + +<p>"If I do, it is out of charity for those who have suffered."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see any sign of your suffering, you write so +beautifully."</p> + +<p>"I had to suffer before I could write. The heart cannot express a joy +until it has felt a sorrow."</p> + +<p>She gave him her frank, admiring eyes. "Why haven't I met such men as +you are? I have not lived here all my life; I have travelled with my +aunt, who knew the world, and she took me to many strange places, and +I met many men, but they didn't appeal to me or interest me any more +than those I met at home. It was all the same old commonplace +flattery."</p> + +<p>"You have never found a man so interesting because you have never had +the opportunity to see a man standing in the light I stand in now," he +replied. "Our relationship has given me a new color."</p> + +<p>She shook her head: "I have thought of that, but I believe that I +should have found you interesting, even if I should have met you in +the ordinary way."</p> + +<p>"No, you would never have allowed yourself the time. Some sobering +process was required."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is true," she frankly admitted.</p> + +<p>In the tree tops above them the birds were riotous. The air was +scented with a sharp sweetness from the wild mint that grew at the +edge of the water.</p> + +<p>"Has Mr. Sawyer been to see you?"</p> + +<p>"He came today."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about his visit. What did he say?"</p> + +<p>"He wanted to buy me—wanted to hire me to go away."</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it. Remember, we are friends."</p> + +<p>"He brought a check for five hundred dollars, signed by your father."</p> + +<p>"I think you have told me enough," she said.</p> + +<p>A flock of sheep came pattering along the road that skirted the +hill-top, not far away. A bare-footed boy shouted in the dust behind +them.</p> + +<p>"Not much more remains to be told. He said I would regret not having +taken the check."</p> + +<p>"Did he threaten you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, he said that I would have to leave town."</p> + +<p>"He is afraid of you, and he knows it."</p> + +<p>"If he is, he ought to know it," Lyman drolly replied. "If he doesn't +know it, somebody ought to tell him. But I won't go away and leave you +unprotected."</p> + +<p>She looked at him gratefully. "How strange it sounds, and yet how true +it is that you are my only real protector. My father cannot understand +why I don't place Mr. Sawyer's money-getting ability above everything +else. He thinks Mr. Sawyer will become one of the greatest men in the +country. And I admit that at times this, together with father's +entreaty, has had a strong influence over me. But I don't think," she +added, shaking her head, "that I could ever have married that man. +No," she said energetically, as she pointed across the stream, "that +rock, first."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't do that," Lyman replied.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't I? Don't we read every day of women who kill themselves?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of women whose minds are not sound."</p> + +<p>"But who shall say when a mind is not sound? How do you know that it +is? What proof have I? We often read that no one suspected that Miss +So-and-So had the slightest intention of destroying herself. Well, I +may be a Miss So-and-So."</p> + +<p>"I have no right to doubt your word," said Lyman. "Things that we most +doubt sometimes come to pass, and then we wonder why we should have +questioned them. But I will stand between you and the rock; I will be +your friend and confidant, your brother, let us say. You must keep +faith with me, and if you ever really fall in love, the sweet, +torturing, the desperate sort of love which must exist, come to me and +tell me."</p> + +<p>"I will keep faith. But why do you say the sweet and torturing and +desperate love that must exist? You talk as if it was a speculation of +the mind rather than a fact of the heart. Don't you know that it does +exist? Was there not a woman in the past who aroused it within you?"</p> + +<p>"I have seen one or two women who might have done so. I remember one +particularly. I was young and foolish, of course, but as I looked at +her I thought she could win my soul. I did not know her; I saw her +only once and that was at a hotel in the White Mountains. She and a +party of ladies and gentlemen dined at the hotel, and I was a waiter." +She looked up at him. "Yes, a waiter, with a white apron on and a +Greek Testament in my pocket. The employment was menial, perhaps +loathsome in your eyes."</p> + +<p>"No," she said with a shiver. "Perhaps you had to do it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, under a keen whip, the desire to continue my education. I think +I must have been the first of my race to run forward at the tap of a +knife on a dish. In my strong determination to fit myself—as I +then thought—for the duties of life, I would have done almost +anything to further my plans; and I was never really ashamed of my +having to wait at table to earn knowledge-money, until the night I saw +you—until you turned to some one and said: 'What, that thing!'"</p> + +<p>"I did say that," she answered, "yes, and I have censured myself a +thousand times. I hoped that you had not heard me. I am awfully +sorry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't take it to heart. It hurt my pride a little and it gave +me a wrong impression of you."</p> + +<p>"Let us forget it. I was always a fool—until after that night. +But about the woman, what became of her?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. She blew away like the down of the dandelion."</p> + +<p>"And you didn't see her again?"</p> + +<p>"Never again."</p> + +<p>"But you dreamed of her?"</p> + +<p>"No. You misunderstand me. I didn't fall in love with her. I say that +I might have loved her. Perhaps upon becoming acquainted with her, I +might have smiled at my foolish belief—might have found her +uninteresting."</p> + +<p>"You said there was one or two—the other one? What about her?"</p> + +<p>"I don't remember her at all. I say that I may have seen her, but I +don't recall her."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the other one has read your story."</p> + +<p>"Or perhaps her daughter honeyed over it on her wedding journey," he +suggested, laughing.</p> + +<p>A light vehicle rattled down the road, and she looked up. "I was +thinking that someone might drive past and recognize us," she said. +"It may be wrong, but I don't want father to know that we meet, except +by accident."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't this meeting an accident?" he asked, hoping that she would say +it was not, on her part.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But sitting here under this tree is not. And I must go," she +added, arising. He got up and stood there, hoping that she would hold +out her hand to him, but she did not. "Good-bye," she said, smiling as +she turned away.</p> + +<p>"Let me hope for another accident, soon," Lyman replied, bowing to +her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">At the Wagon-Maker's Shop.</span></h4> + +<p>Sawyer drove rapidly toward Spring Hill, about eight miles distant +from Old Ebenezer. The land was uneven, with oak ridges, beech slopes +and shell-bark hickory flats, but the road was smooth, and for the two +trotting horses the buggy was merely a plaything. He drew up at a +wagon-maker's shop, the end of his journey, and threw the lines to a +negro who came forward to meet him.</p> + +<p>"You needn't feed them," he said. "Take the harness off and let them +run about the lot. They've been shut up till they're frisky."</p> + +<p>A large man, in his shirt sleeves, and with collar unbuttoned, met him +at the door.</p> + +<p>"Helloa, Mr. Zeb."</p> + +<p>"Helloa, Steve, where's Bob?"</p> + +<p>"Come in. He's about, somewhere."</p> + +<p>Sawyer entered and sat down on a large block of wood, his feet half +hidden in a pile of chips. A hand-saw, hanging on the wall, caught a +shaft of light from the sun, and threw it into his eyes. He turned +slightly and spoke to the wagon-maker.</p> + +<p>"How's business with you?"</p> + +<p>"Bad enough. People can buy wagons a good deal cheaper than I can +afford to make 'em. They tell me that up north a man can go into a +place and they'll make him a wagon while he waits, ironed and all +ready for the road, and for a third less than I can do it. I can't +buck against anything like that. I've got to get my timber out of the +woods and season it, and take care of it like it was a lame leg, and +all that sort of thing, to say nothin' of the work after I get down to +it. Just before the election," said the wagon-maker, sitting down upon +an unfinished hub, taking up an oak splinter and putting one end of it +into his mouth, "a man come around here and 'lowed, he did, that if we +could get a majority of farmers into the legislature, the condition of +affairs would be changed. He 'lowed that they'd make it a point to put +a tax on wagons not made in the state. Well, they got in, and about +all they did was to fight the railroads, tear the digest to pieces and +tinker with the marriage law, as some of you folks in Old Ebenezer +have good cause to know. Why, if you read the papers at the time, you +recollect that one old feller from Blaxon county said that marriage +license was an outrage—'lowed, he did, that there wa'n't no +license writ out for Adam. Yes, and he said that down in his +neighborhood several young fellers held off from marryin' because they +couldn't afford to pay for the license. He said it was a sin and a +shame to put a tax on a man that was tryin' to do somethin' for his +country."</p> + +<p>"Do you think Bob will be back pretty soon?" Sawyer asked, working his +feet deep down among the chips.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he ought to be here now. If he don't come pretty soon I'll send +the nigger to look for him. How's that marriage of McElwin's daughter +gettin' along?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. It's just the same."</p> + +<p>"Feller still there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he's running the paper."</p> + +<p>"Don't 'pear to mind it, I reckon. I wonder McElwin don't hire him to +pull out. Well, down in this neighborhood we've got a way of settlin' +such things. We tell a feller to go and if he refuses, why, we see +that he goes. We've got a mighty lively set of young fellers."</p> + +<p>"And your brother Bob is one of the liveliest," said Sawyer.</p> + +<p>"Well, Bob ain't slow. The other night they took out a feller over on +Caney Fork, feller that had dropped into the habit of whippin' his +wife—and they hit him about forty-five, with a promise of more; +and they say now that he's as sweet to his home folks as a June +apple-pie. Oh, it do have a powerful sweetenin' effect on a sour +citizen. Any sour citizens up your way?"</p> + +<p>"One," Sawyer answered.</p> + +<p>"Don't know why, but I sorter thought so. It's dangerous in town, +ain't it?"</p> + +<p>"Not when you fix everything."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, go ahead, but keep outer the way of the law. Here's Bob +now."</p> + +<p>A tall, gaunt young fellow stepped into the shop. He was a type of the +southern ruralist, broad, flapping straw hat, home-woven shirt, +cottonade trousers, one suspender. He grinned upon seeing Sawyer, and +said, "Hi."</p> + +<p>"Ho, Bob. Busy tonight?"</p> + +<p>"Ain't rushed. Anything blowing in the wind?"</p> + +<p>"A little fun, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Then let her blow my way. Steve, here, 'lows he's gettin' so old that +he don't care for fun any more, but I have to have it—bread and +blackberry jam to me."</p> + +<p>"Well, you shall have it. How are the boys, the White Caps?"</p> + +<p>"Finer'n silk split three times."</p> + +<p>"Can you call them together for tonight?"</p> + +<p>"By howlin' like a wolf. Do you want 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Will twenty dollars pay the way?"</p> + +<p>"We'll whip the governor of the state for that much."</p> + +<p>Sawyer unfolded his plan. The boys were to be in front of old Jasper's +house at midnight.</p> + +<p>"Don't let nobody take a gun with him," said Steve. "If you do there +mout be serious trouble. And there won't be no need of it, as you say +everything will be fixed. I know what I'm talkin' about. Give one of +them boys a pop and he'll use it whether occasion warrants or not. I +know 'em."</p> + +<p>"Well, they needn't put themselves to the trouble of firing off a gun +to scare that chap. He ain't one of the sort that scares," Sawyer was +gracious enough to admit. "He don't tote a pistol and I'll manage to +slip into his room and see if he has one there, and if he has, I'll +hook it. I have also hatched out a plan to get the women folks away. +I've got my mother, and of course she knows nothing about the affair, +to send a message by me asking them to come over to our house. If I +can get the old man to go, too, so much the better. But he don't care +to go out much at night, and I reckon my only course will be to get +him drunk."</p> + +<p>"Say," said Bob, "you 'lowed your man wa'n't easy to skeer, and if +that's the case, what's the use of takin' him a mile or two to the +woods? Men that don't skeer don't holler. Why not put it to him right +then and there, out in the yard, over a barrel?"</p> + +<p>Before Sawyer could reply, the philosophic mind of Steve saw the +practical sense of his brother's suggestion. "I reckon he's got the +right idee, Mr. Sawyer. He's done so much of this sort of work lately +that now it comes to him somewhat in the natur' of a trade. You can +tell him a good deal about mules that I reckon he don't know, but he +knows the fine p'ints in men like a hungry feller knows the fine +p'ints of a fried chicken. Better let him have his way."</p> + +<p>"I am more than willing," said Sawyer. "The sooner it's over with the +better it will suit me. It's results I'm after. There's a rain-water +barrel at the corner of the house," he went on, reflectively. "We can +pour the water out and roll the barrel around where we'll have plenty +of room. Do you think he'll be willing to go away, Bob?"</p> + +<p>Bob stood leaning back, with his elbows on the vise bench. "Well," he +drawled, "an examination of the books of my firm will show that none +ain't never failed yet. I have know'd them to argy and object, but +I'll jest tell you that a hickory sprout laid on right, can soon make +a man lose sight of the p'int in his own discussion. Why, when we get +through with a man, and tell him what we want him to do, he thanks us, +as if we had given him the opportunity of his life."</p> + +<p>"All right," Sawyer laughed, getting up. "Be there on time is all I +ask."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">A Restless Night.</span></h4> + + +<p>The air was damp. At evening a heavy mist came with the soft June +wind, and the night was dark. McElwin had gone over to the town after +supper, something he rarely did alone, having the rich man's dread of +a dark street; but he soon returned and paced nervously up and down +the room. And more than once he muttered, shaking his head: "I can't +help it; I tried to prevent it, but couldn't." He told his wife that +he was worried over a piece of business, and as business was the +awe-inspiring word of the household, she stood aloof from him, in +nervous sympathy with his worry; and the negro servants spoke in +whispers. From her walk her daughter had returned in a solemn state of +mind. Her manner, which had been growing gentler, was now touched with +a winsome melancholy, and her eyes appeared to be larger and dreamier. +Of late an old minister, who for nearly half a century had worn a +tinkling bell in the midst of a devoted flock, had called frequently +to talk to her, and in her smile the old man saw the spirit of +religion, though not of one creed, but the heart's religion of the +past, of the present, of Eternity.</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin went up to Eva's room, leaving her husband to continue +his troubled walk. The girl was sitting at the window. "Come in," she +said.</p> + +<p>"I'm worried about your father," said Mrs. McElwin, sitting down with +a sigh. "Have you said anything to annoy him?"</p> + +<p>"No, nothing that I can remember."</p> + +<p>"Well, something has happened. Have you seen—seen Mr. Lyman +since the evening of the picnic? You told me that you saw him then, +but you haven't told me of seeing him since. And I don't dare tell +your father."</p> + +<p>"No, for you promised me that you wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"But have you kept your promise to me? You told me you would tell me +if you met him again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I will keep my word. I met him today, over by the creek, and +we sat down under a tree and talked. And, oh, his voice almost made me +sob as I sat there, listening to him."</p> + +<p>"Eva," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"I can't help it. His life has been so hard, and yet it has made him +so considerate and so gentle. Mother, why haven't I met such a man +among our friends—why didn't I see one in my travels?"</p> + +<p>"My daughter, can't you understand the strange interest you take in +him? Have you considered the circumstances—"</p> + +<p>"I have considered everything, and it would have been the same no +matter where we might have met. Mother," she said, turning with a +smile, more than sad in the dim light, "do you know that old log cabin +over on the hill where the pension woman used to live? Yes, for we +could see it from here in daylight. I passed there today, coming home, +and I stopped and gazed at the wretched place, and suddenly there came +a thought that almost took my breath away. I thought that with +him—" she leaned over and took her mother's hand—"that +with him I could live there and bless God for my happiness."</p> + +<p>"My darling child, you must not think that—you couldn't think +that."</p> + +<p>"But I did, and though the world seemed further away, heaven was +closer. I ought to have been a poor man's daughter, mother, for love +is all there is to live for."</p> + +<p>They put their arms about each other. "It would break your father's +heart," the mother said, her tears falling. "It would crush him to the +earth."</p> + +<p>"I know it, and my heart may be crushed, instead of his. But that +petition must not be signed."</p> + +<p>"Let us wait, my child. Don't say anything. Don't—"</p> + +<p>They heard McElwin calling from the foot of the stairs. "Lucy, Lucy, I +think I'll have to go down town again."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," his wife cried, hastening out, Eva following her. He +turned back before they reached the foot of the stairs, and had +resumed his anxious walk when they entered the parlor.</p> + +<p>"Why, what can you be thinking about, James?" his wife asked.</p> + +<p>"Thinking about going down town. I must go."</p> + +<p>"Not tonight? Why, it's going to rain."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't make any difference if it rains bearded pitchforks, I must +go."</p> + +<p>His wife took him by the arm: "James, you are keeping something from +me—something has happened."</p> + +<p>"No, nothing has happened. A friend of mine has a project on foot. I +am interested in it, and I want to advise him not to go ahead with +it."</p> + +<p>"But he couldn't go ahead with it tonight," Eva spoke up.</p> + +<p>"Yes he can. You don't know how rash he is; he's got no head at all +when it comes to such matters. Let me get my umbrella."</p> + +<p>"James," said his wife, looking into his eyes, "don't deceive us, tell +us what it is."</p> + +<p>"What noise was that?" he cried, leaning toward the window. "I heard +something. Gracious!" he exclaimed, as the doorbell rang.</p> + +<p>Mr. Menifee, the old minister, was shown in. "Ah, good evening," +McElwin cried, starting toward him, but then remembering his dignity +he said: "You are always welcome. Sit down."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman bowed to the ladies and took the easy chair which +the banker shoved toward him. McElwin turned to the window and stood +there, looking out, listening, with no ear for the solicitous +common-places concerning the health of his household, indulged by the +old gentleman. He glanced at the clock on the mantel, and was +surprised to find that the hour was no later. He turned to the +preacher.</p> + +<p>"You can do me a service, Mr. Menifee; you can quiet the fears of my +wife and daughter while I go down town. I have a most important matter +of business on hand but they don't want me to go. Why," he added, with +a dry laugh, "what is it to go down town at half past nine?"</p> + +<p>"What, is it that late?" the old gentleman spoke up. "Why, I am +getting to be a late prowler. But if you have an important matter to +attend to, surely you ought to do it."</p> + +<p>"I rarely ever go down town at night," said the banker; "that is the +reason of their uneasiness. Yes, the only cause, I assure you."</p> + +<p>He passed out into the hall, his wife following him. He took an +umbrella from the rack, and preparing to hoist it, stepped out upon +the veranda. His wife spoke to him and he started as if he had not +noticed her. "James," she said, "something is wrong and you are +deceiving me."</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all, my dear," he replied, hoisting the umbrella. "The +truth is, I want to see Sawyer."</p> + +<p>"In relation to Mr. Lyman?" she asked, putting her hand on his arm to +detain him.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, indirectly. The truth is, I authorized Zeb to offer him a +sum of money to go away—quite too much I am sure—and I +want to ask him to withdraw the offer. I can't afford to invest that +much ready money at present, I really cannot."</p> + +<p>"If you have been afraid that he will accept the offer—"</p> + +<p>"What," he said, closing the umbrella and looking at her, "what do you +know about it?"</p> + +<p>"I know, or at least I believe, that he is not a man to be +bribed,—to be turned from his purpose."</p> + +<p>"His purpose. What is his purpose?"</p> + +<p>"To claim his wife."</p> + +<p>"Lucy, whatever you may be unreasonable enough to think, don't talk +that way to me. He may claim her as his wife and may force his claim, +but it will be after I am dead. I don't like the fellow personally. He +is impudent; he is an anarchist. There now," he added, hoisting the +umbrella, "go back and don't worry about me."</p> + +<p>He stepped out upon the walk, and she stood in the door until he had +passed into the lane, into the heavy darkness of the trees. When she +returned to the parlor the minister was preparing to take his leave.</p> + +<p>"My mission in coming might have been discharged in a moment," he +said; "but seeing that your husband was worried I did not like to +bring it up in his presence. Young Henry Bostic is soon to preach over +at Mt. Zion. I know that in this family a prejudice is felt against +him, but he is deeply in earnest and I feel that it is your Christian +duty, madam, to give him on that occasion the encouragement of your +presence. He believes that he is inspired to preach the Word, and who, +indeed, shall say that he is not? I have talked to him frequently of +late, and I am convinced that toward this household he bears no +malice."</p> + +<p>"Eva and I will go," Mrs. McElwin replied promptly.</p> + +<p>"Nobly said, madam," the minister rejoined, looking upon her with an +eye that had swept over many a field of duty. "I did not believe that +I should appeal to you in vain. We have but a little while here," he +went on, his white head shaking. "The future has seemed far, but the +past is short, and soon the time comes when we must go. They may +dispute our creed and pick flaws in our doctrine, but they acknowledge +the mighty truth of death. There is nothing in life worth living +for—"</p> + +<p>"Except love," said the girl standing beside him.</p> + +<p>He put his tremulous hand upon her head, a withered leaf upon a flower +in bloom. "Yes, my child, love which is God's spirit come down to +earth."</p> + +<p>He bade them good night, and for a long time they sat in silence.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," said the mother, "I feel a sudden strength, and I look up +in surprise and see that it has come from you."</p> + +<p>"I believe that I am developing," the daughter replied. "But I shall +be strong if he asks me to go with him."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that if he were to ask me, I would be strong enough to go."</p> + +<p>"And leave me?"</p> + +<p>"Leave the world—everything!"</p> + +<p>"Why, my child, how can you talk so? Really, you alarm me. You +scarcely know the man; you have met him but a few times, and then your +talks with him were brief."</p> + +<p>"I don't attempt to explain, mother. I simply know."</p> + +<p>"But you must wait and see. It may be possible that he has no such +feeling toward you; it may be that he has not permitted himself to +aspire—"</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, moving impatiently; "it is almost sacrilege to talk +that way. Who am I that he should aspire to me? What have I done? What +can I do? Nothing. I haven't a single talent, hardly an +accomplishment. Oh, I know that I was intoxicated with vanity, but +that has worn off. I am simply a country girl, that's all."</p> + +<p>"You are a girl bewitched," said the mother, sadly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Afraid in the Dark.</span></h4> + +<p>McElwin hastened along the hard and slippery path that ran on a ridge +at the side of the road. Sometimes a low-bending bough raked across +his umbrella, and once he was made to start by a cold slap in his +face, dealt by the broad leaf of a shrub that leaned and swayed above +a garden fence. He came upon a wooden bridge over a small stream and +halted to breathe, for his walk beneath the dark trees had been rapid +and nervous. Frogs were croaking in the sluggish water. A cradle in a +hovel bumped upon the uneven floor, and he remembered to have heard +from his father that in the pioneer days he had been many a time +rocked to sleep in a sugar trough. The lights of the town, the few +that he could see, looked red and angry. He remembered a newspaper +account of the way-laying and robbing of a prominent citizen. It was +so easy for a tramp to knock down an unsuspecting man. Tramp and +robber were interchangeable terms with him, and often, on a cold +night, when he had seen the wanderer's fire, kindled close to the +railway track, he had wondered why such license had been allowed in a +law-abiding community. He moved off with a brisk step, for he fancied +that he heard something under the bridge. There was many a worse man +than McElwin, but it is doubtful whether a ranker coward had ever been +born to see the light of day, or to shy at an odd shape in the dark. +He felt an easy-breathing sense of relief when he reached the main +street, and in the light of the tavern lamp, hung out in front, he was +bold; his head went up and his heels fell with measured firmness upon +the bricks. He halted in front of his bank, as his own clock was +striking ten, and looked up at Lyman's window. The room was dim, but +the other part of the floor, the long room, was bright. He was afraid +to show anxiety concerning either Sawyer or Lyman, nor did he deem it +advisable to call at old Jasper's house. For what purpose had he come, +he then asked himself. He must do something to pay himself for coming, +to make himself feel that his time had not been utterly thrown away. +In his arrangement of economy, every piece of time must show either +an actual or a possible result. To go even in the direction of old +Jasper's house was out of the question, for if anyone should see him +he would surely be associated with the White Caps. Why would it not be +a wise move to find out whether or not Lyman was in the +printing-office, and to warn him. He could easily put his call upon +the ground of an argument against the impulsive man's rashness in +burning the check. No, that would invite the ill-will and perhaps the +outright enmity of Sawyer. He could not afford to lose Sawyer; he +needed his energy for the future and the use of his money for the +present. But he could bind Lyman to secrecy. "I wonder," he mused, +"that I should have any faith in his word, but I have. Confound him, +he has upset us all. But I ought to warn him. It is terrible to be +taken out and whipped upon the bare back. I'll make him promise and +then I'll tell him."</p> + +<p>He crossed the street and began slowly to climb the stairs. He reached +the first landing and halted. "It won't do," he said. "Sawyer might +find it out and that would ruin everything. I advised against it; I +have done my best to prevent it, and it is now no concern of mine. I +will go home. I have been foolish."</p> + +<p>He turned about and walked rapidly down the stairs. When he reached +home his daughter had gone to bed, but his wife was sitting up, +waiting for him. She met him at the door and looked at him, +searchingly, as he halted in the light of the hall lamp to put the +umbrella in the rack.</p> + +<p>"Did you see him?" she asked, not in the best of humor, now that the +worry was practically over.</p> + +<p>"Sawyer? No, he's out in the country, so a man told me. I have decided +to dismiss the matter from my mind or to think about it as little as +possible. It isn't so very late yet," he added, looking at his watch. +He found his slippers beside his chair when he entered the +sitting-room, but he shoved them away with his foot.</p> + +<p>"Did Mr. Menifee have anything of interest to say?" he asked, leaning +with his elbows on the table.</p> + +<p>"It may not interest you, but it has been put to Eva and me as a +matter of duty, that we ought to go out to Mt. Zion to hear Henry +Bostic preach."</p> + +<p>McElwin grunted: "Menifee may put it as a matter of duty, but I +don't. Fortunately I have other duties that are of much more +importance. I will not go."</p> + +<p>"He didn't seem to expect that you would," she replied.</p> + +<p>"I hope not. He may have reason to believe me worldly in some things, +but I trust he has never found me ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"Would it be ridiculous to hear that young man preach?"</p> + +<p>"For me to hear him? Decidedly. The true gospel has not been handed +over to the keeping of the malicious idiot, I hope."</p> + +<p>"I believe he is sincere."</p> + +<p>"Sincere? Of course he is. So is a wasp when it stings you."</p> + +<p>She laughed in her dignified way, her good humor having suddenly +returned; and he looked up with a smile, pleased with himself. They +sat for a time, talking of other matters, and he went to bed humming +the defineless tune of self-satisfaction. But late in the night Mrs. +McElwin awoke and found him standing at the window, listening.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Then why are you standing there?"</p> + +<p>"I thought I heard something."</p> + +<p>"In the house?" she asked, rising up with sudden alarm.</p> + +<p>"No. Over in town, or rather over by the railroad track. I noticed +some tramp-fires along there."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, don't worry. The watchman will look after them."</p> + +<p>"Hush," he said, leaning from the window. "There it is again."</p> + +<p>"I don't hear anything," she declared. "Why, it's only a negro +singing."</p> + +<p>"So it is," he said. "I thought it was someone yelling over in town. +Are you sure that it was a negro singing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know whether he is a negro or not, but it is someone +singing. But what if it is someone yelling over in town? It's nothing +unusual, I am sure. I have heard them yell at all times of the night. +I believe it is someone singing," he finally said, turning from the +window.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">With Old Jasper.</span></h4> + + +<p>Early in the evening old Jasper Staggs received a visit from Zeb +Sawyer, and inasmuch as the social exchanges between them had never +been particularly marked, the old man was not a little surprised.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, it aint altogether on your account that I've come," +said Sawyer with a weak laugh, seeing that in the old man's +astonishment there lurked an unfavorable suspicion. "Mother—and +you know she's getting along—took it into her head today that +nothing would do her so much good as a visit from your wife and Miss +Annie. And she says she'd like mighty well to have you."</p> + +<p>"Well," said old Jasper, "the women folks are out there in the dinin' +room a fussin' around, and I reckon they'll take the time to answer +for themselves, jest as I am agoin' to answer for myself, when I say +that I'm obleeged to you, but I can't come. I'm talkin' for myself, +recollect," he added, with emphasis, nodding his head and running his +fingers through his rim of gray beard. "Yes, sir; for myself, and for +myself only."</p> + +<p>"But I guess Aunt Tobithy and Miss Annie will go, won't they?"</p> + +<p>"I have said my say, and it was for myself only, but if you want to +know anything consarnin' the other members of this house, just step +right out there where they are tinkerin' with the dishes, and ask +them."</p> + +<p>Sawyer went into the dining-room. There was a hush of the rattle of +dishes and knives, and then Sawyer came back and said they were kind +enough to go. "I am going to stay here with you," Sawyer remarked.</p> + +<p>"All right," the old man replied.</p> + +<p>"And I believe it will be a little more than all right when I tell you +of something. The other day I was at an old house in the country, and +an old fellow that lives there took me down into the cellar to show me +a new patent churn that he was working on. Well, I didn't care +anything about the churn, you know, not having much to do with cows, +but I looked at the thing like I was interested, just to please him. +And while I was looking about I saw a small barrel, with dried moss +on it, and I asked him about it, and he said it was a whisky barrel +that was hid out all during the war. This made me open my eyes, I tell +you; but as quiet as I could I asked him if there was any of the +liquor left. He said he had about a gallon left, and I told him I'd +give him twenty dollars for a quart of it, and I did, right then and +there; and if I haven't got that bottle right with me now, you may +crack my head like a hickory nut."</p> + +<p>By this time old Jasper's jaw had fallen, and now he sat, leaning +forward with his mouth wide open. "Zeby," he said, and his voice +sounded as if he had been taken with a sudden hoarseness. "I reckon I +am about as fond of a joke and a prank as any man that ever crossed +Goose Creek—and some great jokers came along there in the early +days—but there was things too sacred for them to joke about. You +know what I said, Zeby?"</p> + +<p>"I know all about them old fellows," Zeb said, with a laugh. "I have +heard my granddad talk about them. In fact, he was one of them, and I +get it from him not to joke on some things. I've that bottle of liquor +in my pocket this very minute."</p> + +<p>The old man stepped to the door. "Tobithy; oh, Tobithy."</p> + +<p>"Well," his wife answered from the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Zeb is powerful anxious for you to go over to his mother's, as the +old lady is wanting to see you, but I don't see how you can get off."</p> + +<p>Sawyer looked at him in surprise. The old man made him a sign to be +quiet.</p> + +<p>A dish clattered and his wife exclaimed: "You don't see how I can go. +Oh, no, but you see how I can stick here day after day, killing myself +with work. I am going."</p> + +<p>The old man grinned and sat down. "I was afraid she would back out," +he said, "and I wanted to clinch the thing. Jest let me tell her that +I am afraid she can't do a thing and then it would take a good deal +more high water than we've had for a year or two to keep her from +doing it."</p> + +<p>His wife and Annie came into the room and he put on a sober air. "I +don't think you can stay late, for it looks like rain," he said.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to stay until I get ready to come back, and it can rain +brick bats for all I care," she replied; and the old man, knowing that +everything was fixed, leaned back with a long breath of contentment. +The women soon took their departure; the old man watched them until +they passed through a gate that opened out upon the sidewalk, then he +looked at Sawyer and said:</p> + +<p>"The bottle; I believe you 'lowed you had it with you."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;"> +<img src="images/illus205.jpg" width="421" height="600" +alt="talk in the parlor" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Right here," Sawyer replied, tapping a side pocket of his coat.</p> + +<p>The old man flinched like a horse prodded in a tender place. "Don't do +that again, you might break it," he said. "There ain't nothing easier +to break than a bottle full of old liquor. Let me see," he added, with +an air of deep meditation. "It has been about five months since I +renewed my youth; it was the night Turner was elected Sheriff. And I +want to tell you, Zeby, that to a man who has seen fun and recollects +it, that's a good while. We'll jest wait a minute before we open the +ceremonies. You can never tell when a woman's clean gone. The chances +are that she may forget something and come bobbin' back at any minute. +And it might take me quite a while to explain. There are some things +you can explain to a woman and some things you can't, and one of the +things you can't, is why you ought to take liquor when she don't feel +like takin' any herself. Well, I reckon their start was sure enough," +he said, looking through the window. "Now, jest step out here in the +dinin' room and make yourself at home, while I pump a pail of fresh +water."</p> + +<p>Old Jasper put a pitcher of water on the dining room table. Sawyer sat +with his arms resting on the board, and with a flask held +affectionately in his hands. Old Jasper cleared his throat, and +drawing up a large rocking chair, sat down. He said, as he looked at +the flask, that he had not felt well of late, and that whisky would do +him good. Sawyer would make no apology for drinking such liquor. Good +whisky was to him its own apology. Life at best was short, with many a +worry, and he did not see how a so-called moral code should censure a +man for throwing off his troubles once in a while. The old man needed +no persuasion to lead him on. And in the dim light of a lamp, placed +upon the corner of an old red side-board, they sat glowing with +merriment. Sawyer drank sparingly, but Jasper declared that it took +about three fingers at a time to do him any good, and into the +declaration the action was dove-tailed. He told a long and rambling +story, relating to a time when he had driven a stage coach; a tickling +recollection touched him and he leaned back and laughed till the tears +rolled down through the time-gullies in his face. Sawyer snapped his +watch. The old man told him to let time take care of itself.</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm doing," said Sawyer. "By the way, I've an idea that +I'd like to go squirrel hunting. But I broke my gun the other day and +sent it to the shop. Haven't got an old gun around, have you?"</p> + +<p>"There's an old muzzle-loader in there behind the door, standing there +ready to break the leg of a dog that comes over to howl in the +garden."</p> + +<p>"Can't shoot a pistol much, can you?"</p> + +<p>"Ain't much of a hand with a pistol, Zeby."</p> + +<p>"Haven't got one, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Had one, but I believe Lyman took it up to his room. There's a good +man, even if you have a cause not to like him; and when I got well +acquainted with him I jest 'lowed that nothin' on the place was too +good for him, so we brushed up the room right over the sittin' room, +and there he sets late in the night and does his work, and sometimes, +'way late, I hear him walkin' up and down, arm in arm with an idea +that he's tryin' to get better acquainted with, he says."</p> + +<p>"Is he up there now?"</p> + +<p>"No. He ain't come in yet. Sometimes he don't come till late. He's got +fewer regular hours about him than any man I ever seen. He jest takes +everything by fits and starts, and he's mighty funny about some +things—he don't let a man know what he's doin' at all; never +comes down and reads to a body the things that he writes—might +write a hymn to sing at the camp-meeting, and he never would read it +to you."</p> + +<p>The old man drifted into another stage coach reminiscence and Sawyer +sat in an attitude of pretended interest, but he heard nothing, so +deep-buried was he within himself. He had not much time to spare, and +there was one thing that must be done; it was absolutely essential +that he must go to Lyman's room and get the pistol. He poured out more +whisky for the old man. Jasper continued to talk, but the memories of +the past did not arise to tickle him; they made him sad. He wept over +a girl, his first love, a grave more than forty years old. He sobbed +over his boy, killed in the army. His chin sank upon his breast. +Sawyer got up quickly and began to search for the gun. He found it and +hid it under a bed. Then he turned his attention to Lyman's room. The +apartment was approached by an encased stairway, leading from the +sitting-room. He lifted the latch and listened, the old man was +snoring; the young man felt like a thief; but that was to be expected, +and therefore did not alarm his conscience. The stairs creaked, still +he did not pause. The door of Lyman's room, to the left at the head of +the stairs, was not locked. Sawyer struck a match and stepped inside. +He lighted a lamp and looked about the room. On the table lay sheets +of paper, some of them covered with close, nervous writing, and upon +others were scratches, half-formed words, the tracks of a mind +wandering in a bog. He pulled open the table drawer and eagerly +grabbed up a pistol. Then he turned out the light and walked hastily +down the stairs. Old Jasper was still asleep, his head on one side, +like an old hawk worn out with a long fight. Sawyer put the pistol on +the side-board, behind a tin tray standing on edge, and then sat down +to wait. It was nearly time for the "boys" to come. He heard a key in +the front door lock, and he put out the light. The door opened and +closed, the latch of the stair door clicked; he heard Lyman going up +to his room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The "Boosy."</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman had been helping Warren with the work of putting the paper to +press, and he was tired, but when he had lighted the lamp he drew the +writing paper toward him, and took up a pen, turning it between his +fingers, as if waiting for a word, but it did not come, and he sat +there musing. His heart was heavy, though not with a sadness, but with +an overweight of gentleness, a consciousness that he stood as a +protector to bide the time of the lover's coming. He was proud, but +had no vanity. He knew that he could win friendship, for in friendship +a strong and rugged quality was a factor, but he did not realize that +the same rugged quality appealed to a deeper affection. In his work he +saw the character of woman, and he could fancy her capricious enough +to give her heart to the most awkward of men, but when he turned this +light upon himself, so many blemishes were brought out that he stepped +back from the glaring revelation. He believed that in his peculiar +position Eva gave him the affection that a daughter might give a +father, and he was determined that this charming relationship should +not be undone by the appearance, on his part, of a selfish love; and +in his resolve he was strong, but in cold dread he looked forward to +the time when she should come with a new light in her eyes and ask him +to release her. Suddenly a noise came from below, the tramping of feet +upon the veranda. Could it be a surprise party at so late an hour? He +listened. The door was opened, but there was no sound of greetings, no +laughter. The visitors were evidently trying to soften their +foot-weight, but the house shook under their uneven tread. He heard +the click of the stair-door latch; the stairs groaned. He remembered +what Sawyer had said, and caution prompted him to lock the door. The +next moment there came a gentle tap, but he knew that the gentleness +was assumed, for he heard suppressed breathing at the head of the +stairs.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Open the door."</p> + +<p>"But who's there?"</p> + +<p>"The good of the community."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know that I have any business with you at this time of +night, Mr. Good-of-the-Community."</p> + +<p>"But we have business with you. Open the door or we'll break it down."</p> + +<p>Lyman stepped back and snatched open the table drawer. He straightened +up and thought for a moment. They were throwing themselves against the +door. He seized a light chair and stood near the door. Word to hurry +up came from below. The door creaked.</p> + +<p>"Once more, are you going to open it?"</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said Lyman. "I don't know who you are, but I can +guess at your business. You are violating the law, you are +house-breakers and I wish to tell you—"</p> + +<p>Crash went the door. And crash went the chair. The opening was narrow. +The first man fell back. The second man staggered. The third man +hesitated, then sprang upon Lyman, giving him no time to strike. +Across the floor they struggled, the old house shaking. They strove to +choke each other, they rolled upon the floor. Lyman got hold of the +fellow's throat. His fingers were like steel clamps. The White-Cap +gurgled. Lyman got up, dragged him to the door and tumbled him down +the stairs. Just then there came shrieks from below. The two women had +returned. The White Caps were treading one upon another in their hurry +to get out. Lyman, with a chair post in his hand, followed them. They +ran through the sitting-room, a flutter of white in the dark. Lyman +went into the dining-room, whence the women had run. The lamp had been +relighted, and there sat old Jasper, fast asleep.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing to be alarmed about," said Lyman, as the women with +their hands in the air, ran to him. "A few White Caps out of +employment wanted work, and got it. There, now, don't take on. Sit +down, Aunt Tobithy. Oh, old Uncle Jasper is all right."</p> + +<p>"He is drunk," said the old woman, anger driving away her fright. +"They have made him drunk and he would sit there and sleep and let +them burn the house over his head. Oh, was there ever anything so +disgraceful! Jasper! Jasper!" she shook him.</p> + +<p>"Horse that would trot—trot—" the old man muttered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Take hold of him, Annie, and +let's put him to bed."</p> + +<p>"I'll take care of him," said Lyman. They put him to bed and then sat +down. "I don't understand it," the old woman remarked. "Did they hurt +you?"</p> + +<p>"No, they didn't get at me. They were at a disadvantage, out on the +narrow landing, while I had plenty of room to swing around in. I must +have hurt two of them pretty badly."</p> + +<p>"What do you think of it?" Annie inquired</p> + +<p>"Sawyer," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>The old woman made a noise that sounded like a cluck. "And he fixed it +so we were to go over to his mother's," she said. "Oh, it's perfectly +clear. And he brought whisky here and got Jasper drunk. I do think +this is the worst community the Lord ever saw. Talk about churches and +school-houses, when such things are allowed to go on."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do about it, Mr. Lyman?" Annie asked. "Are you +going to have them arrested?"</p> + +<p>"They ought to be hanged," the old lady spoke up. "Oh, I knew +something would happen the moment I put my foot off the place. I never +did know it to fail. And I might have told this morning that something +wrong was goin' to take place, for I had to try twice or three times +before I could pick up anything when I stooped for it, and I saw a hen +out in the yard trying to crow. But, Mr. Lyman," she added, +reflectively, "I do hope you will think twice before you go to law +about it. I don't tell you not to, mind you, for I am the last one in +the world to tell a person not to have the law enforced, but if you +could see that old woman—Zeb's mother—you wouldn't want to +do a thing to bend her down with grief; it makes no difference how +many laws it would enforce."</p> + +<p>"And besides what would the law do?" Annie broke in, to strengthen her +mother's position. "You might have him arrested and all that, and a +trial and a scandal, too, but after all, it wouldn't amount to +anything. I should think that his conscience would punish him enough. +And you couldn't have the others arrested without bringing him into +it."</p> + +<p>"You don't need to argue any longer," Lyman replied. "The merest +reference to his old mother settles it with me. The law part would be +a farce anyway. But let me remind you that it is quite a serious thing +when an American citizen is ordered to leave his home at the whim of a +scoundrel."</p> + +<p>He bade them good night and went up to his room. The door lay upon the +floor and fragments of the cast-iron lock were scattered about. The +image of Sawyer arose before him, as he had appeared in the office, +and so hateful and disturbing was the picture, that he arose and +bathed his face, as if to wash out the vision. He heard a man's voice +below and he stepped to the head of the stairs and listened. He +recognized the voice of the town marshal. Already the law had begun +its feeble farce. The marshal came up the stairs and looked around, at +the door and the fragments of the lock. He took up a bit of iron and +put it into his pocket, as if he had found a ton's weight of evidence.</p> + +<p>"I'll take this along," he said gravely.</p> + +<p>"Help yourself," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, for little things count," the marshal replied with the air of a +great and mysterious detective. "And now," he added, "have you any +idea or any suspicion as to who led this gang?"</p> + +<p>Lyman had sat down and was crossed-legged, swinging one foot. "Oh," he +answered carelessly, "I guess you know who it is. However, we will let +the subject drop. I don't wish to discuss it."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear sir, the law—"</p> + +<p>Lyman held up his hand. "Let us hear nothing more about the law," said +he. "Good night."</p> + +<p>The marshal tramped down the stairs and Lyman went to bed to forget +the mob and to dream of the rippling creek and a voice that was softer +and sweeter than the echo of a flute. At early morning there came a +rapping on the stairway, to summon him to breakfast. Old Jasper, with +his hot hands in his pockets and with a sick expression of countenance +was doddering about the sitting room.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Lord," he said, when Lyman stepped down upon the floor. "Walt a +minute. Let me shut this door. The smell of the kitchen +gig—gig—- gags me. Lyman, I do reckon I ought to take a +rusty knife and cut my infamous old throat. Yes, I do. I deserve it. +And all because I wanted to renew my youth. I know I've said it +before, but I want to say right now that I'll never touch another drop +of the stuff as long as I live, I don't care if Noah had it with him +in the Ark. But it is a fact that I sat here asleep while a mob was in +my house?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "you were asleep when I came down stairs."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, it's news to me. And it shows what licker will fetch a man +to. It will take me some little time to explain it to Tobithy."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it will," said Lyman, smiling at him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a fact. Women fight against reason, you know, as long as +they can. Yes, sir, it will take me a month to convince her that I +wa'n't drunk. I admit that I drank a few drinks, small ones, not +enough to hurt me if I had been right at myself, but I was tired and +sleepy before I touched a drop. Lyman, I wish you would explain it to +her. She's got a good deal of confidence in you—a good deal more +than she has in me. I wish you would tell her that I wasn't drunk."</p> + +<p>"I think the best plan, Uncle Jasper, would be to say nothing about +it."</p> + +<p>"All right, we'll let it drop then. But I'll have to reason with her, +and, as I said before, it is goin' to take some time to explain. Go in +to breakfast and let me sit down here in my misery. Say, if you could +hint that I am awfully sorry I'd be obliged to you; and if you could +give them to understand that you don't think I'm goin' to live long, +it would be a big favor."</p> + +<p>When Lyman stepped out upon the street he was soon made to feel that +the White Cap affair had become common property. Some of the villagers +were inclined to treat it as a great joke, but the graver ones looked +upon it as a serious infraction of the law. Sawyer's name was not +mentioned, but everyone appeared to understand that he was the leader.</p> + +<p>Warren was standing at the foot of the office stairs as Lyman came up. +They smiled at each other.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Warren, "have you got another piece of news to +suppress?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid so," Lyman answered, as he started up the stairs.</p> + +<p>"You are afraid so?" said Warren, tramping beside him. "How much +longer is this suppression act to remain in force? Confound it, you +help make three-fourths of the news in the neighborhood and then won't +print it because it concerns you. All news concerns somebody, you must +understand."</p> + +<p>They went into the editorial room. Lyman took up his pipe and Warren +stood looking at him. Lyman sat down and lighted his pipe. "My boy," +said he, "it may seem hard, but I have a reason for keeping this thing +out of print. It is not for myself, for my own sense of delicacy does +not protest against it, but it would wound an old woman, and we can't +afford to do that. We might say something about the mob, but it won't +do to mention names."</p> + +<p>"You mean Mrs. Sawyer?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; it would hurt her."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, you are the best writer I ever saw, but you were not intended +for a newspaper man."</p> + +<p>"I know that, my boy. If I thought we could sell ten thousand papers +I wouldn't print a thing to hurt an old woman."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't want to hurt an old woman or a young one either," said +Warren, "but I look at the principle of the thing. Somebody's hurt +every time a paper comes from the press, and if everybody was as +tender-hearted as you are, there would be no newspapers after awhile, +and then where would we be?"</p> + +<p>"We would be slower, less wise, but in many instances more +respectable," Lyman replied. He leaned back in his chair, slowly +puffing his pipe.</p> + +<p>"From the high-grade point of view I reckon you're right," said +Warren, raking up the newspapers on the table, "but we can't all live +on the high grades. By the way," he added with a laugh, "I walked over +to the express office this morning and took my paper out, as if it +were a matter of course. The fellow looked at me and sighed, and I +thought he was going to say something about the numerous times I had +bled under the hob-nailed heel of his company. But he didn't; he asked +me to send him the paper, and he paid for it right there. Oh, things +are getting pretty bright when trusts and corporations begin to bid +for your influence. But what are you going to do with that fellow +Sawyer?" he asked, becoming grave, or rather, more serious, for +gravity could hardly spread over his lightsome face.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Lyman answered.</p> + +<p>"But you can't afford to keep on letting him hurt you; you'll have to +hunt him to shut him off."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll have to do something, but I don't know what it will be. I +have met a good many mean men—mean fellows at a saw mill, and I +thought that a mean mill man was about the meanest—but Sawyer +strikes off somewhat in advance of any meanness I ever encountered."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't you get mad? Don't you feel like you want to take a gun +and shoot him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have all sorts of feelings with regard to him; and sometimes +when I awake at night it is a good thing he is not within reach. But +I'll try to worry along with him. I don't expect to stay here very +much longer."</p> + +<p>Warren caught his breath, as if he had stuck a splinter into his +finger, and his face pinched up with sharp anxiety. "I have been +expecting to hear that," he said, smoothing out the papers on the +table. "I have been looking for it, and I don't blame you in the +least, though I hate to give you up. But," he added, brightening, "you +have given me a start and they can't take it away from me. I'm all +right and I know you are. And the first thing you know, I'm going to +get married and settle down. I am about half way in love with a girl +now. She put her hand on a high seat and jumped right up into a wagon. +And when she batted her eyes, I wondered that they didn't crack like a +whip, they were so sharp. I said to myself right then that I was about +half way in love with her, and I watched her as she sat there, eating +an apple; and when she drove away I went and got an apple and ate it, +and I never tasted an apple before, I tell you. It must be a great +girl that can give flavor to fruit."</p> + +<p>"Who is she?" Lyman asked, his eyes brightening with amusement.</p> + +<p>"I don't know her name. She drove in with her father—I reckon he +was her father—and I didn't find out her name or anything about +her. I went into the store where the man bought a jug of molasses and +asked the clerk in there if he knew the man, and he said he didn't. +But I'll find out and will marry her if she has no particular +objections. A woman who can jump like that and then flavor an apple +can catch me any day."</p> + +<p>"You don't know but that she may be already married," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. We must not suppose that. Why, that would kill everything. Of +course the fellow with her might be her husband, but it would be +nonsense to presume so when, with the same degree of reason, I can +presume he is not. If you've got to do any presuming, always presume +for the best."</p> + +<p>Lyman threw himself back and laughed. "Neither the ancients nor the +moderns ever evolved from life any better philosophy than that," he +declared. "Why, of course she is not married, nor shall she be until +you marry her. It was intended that she should flavor your life, even +as she flavored the apple. Here comes someone. Why, it's McElwin. Step +out into the other room a moment, please. I believe he wants to see me +alone."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">After an Anxious Night.</span></h4> + + +<p>McElwin arose after a night of cat-naps. He was up long before +breakfast. He stood at the gate, looking up and down the road; and +when a peddler came along the banker hailed him and asked if there +were any news in the town. The fellow held up a chicken. McElwin shook +his head and repeated the inquiry. The fellow put the chicken back +into his cart and held up a duck, whereupon McElwin ordered him to +move on. At the breakfast table he sat with an unseeing stare. The +clouds were gone, the day was bright and the air came sweet from the +garden. His daughter spoke to him and he broke his stare and looked at +her.</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to me?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I said I was afraid you were not well this morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, quite well, I thank you. But I didn't sleep very much."</p> + +<p>"You might say you didn't sleep at all," his wife spoke up; "and I +don't think you ought to go down town today."</p> + +<p>This preposterous suggestion made him nervous. "Gracious alive, don't +make an invalid of me," he replied. "I am all right, but an +over-concern about my health will make me sick. Did you ever notice +that when the newspapers begin to discuss a man's health he dies +pretty soon? It's a fact. One newspaper comes out and says that Mr. +Jones is not looking well. Another paper declares that Mr. Jones is +looking better than he has looked for years. Then all the papers have +their fling and the first thing you know Mr. Jones is dead."</p> + +<p>Eva laughed; the idea struck her as being so humorously true, and Mrs. +McElwin smiled, but it was the sad smile of protest. "James," she +said, "you are a man of wonderful judgment, but sometimes you persist +in looking at life through stained glass. Something is wrong with you +and you ought to see a doctor at once."</p> + +<p>"There you go," he cried, winking at his daughter. "Call in a doctor +and that would settle it. The newspapers would then have their fling +and that would fix me. I am worried, I acknowledge that, but it won't +last long. Who is that at the gate?" he broke off, looking through the +window. "He's moving off now. I thought at first that it was old +Jasper Staggs."</p> + +<p>It was his custom to read a newspaper in the library after breakfast, +but this morning he did not tarry a moment, but went straightway +toward the bank. At the wooden bridge he met Caruthers, and halted to +speak to him. It was the first time that the lawyer had ever received +the great man's attention, but knowing the cause of the interest now +manifested, he was determined to dally with it as a sort of revenge.</p> + +<p>"Any news, Mr. Caruthers?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know my name. I am much flattered, I assure you. Of course I +have known you for many years, but I didn't think you remembered me."</p> + +<p>McElwin stood blinking at the sun. "I think I have spoken to you on an +average of once a day for the last fifteen years," said he. "I am not +a gusher, however. I have not seen a newspaper this morning and ask +you if there is any news."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose there must be," Caruthers replied, leaning back against +the rail of the bridge. "I haven't seen a newspaper either and I don't +know what may have happened in the outside world."</p> + +<p>"Any news about town?"</p> + +<p>"No, nothing unusual, I believe. A dog was found dead on the public +square, I understand; and I hear that old Mart Henley's son has been +suspected of stealing a ham from Avery's meat house. Let me see." He +passed his hand over his brow, as if in deep meditation. "Maxey's cow +tramped down the roses in Donalson's yard and Thompson's hogs, covered +with mud, have rubbed themselves against Tillman's white fence."</p> + +<p>"Such occurrences are of no interest to me," said the banker.</p> + +<p>"No, nor to me either. Well, I'll bid you good morning. Wait a +moment," he added. "There was something else on my mind. Oh, did you +hear of the White Caps?"</p> + +<p>"No!" McElwin said with a gasp. "What about them?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they went last night to have some fun with Sam Lyman."</p> + +<p>"Ah, and they took him out and whipped him?"</p> + +<p>"Well, hardly. He wore out a chair over them, and about three miles +from town, I understand that old Doc Mason has been kept pretty busy +since midnight sewing up their heads. Lyman didn't tell me, but I got +it pretty straight that somebody stole the pistol out of his room; and +if it hadn't been for that the undertaker would have had no cause to +complain of the dullness of the season."</p> + +<p>"You don't tell me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am inclined to think I do. Old Jasper had a visitor early in +the evening; the women went out calling, and the visitor got the old +man drunk."</p> + +<p>"And it is suspected that the visitor had something to do with the +subsequent call of the White Caps?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it is not only suspected, but pretty well established. I +suppose you could guess the name of the visitor."</p> + +<p>"How could I, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I have heard it said that the visitor never makes an investment +without consulting you, and it is thought more than likely that he +consulted you on the occasion of this bad investment."</p> + +<p>Caruthers leered and the banker winced. "As yet I am at a loss as to +who the visitor might have been," said McElwin; "but no matter who, I +wish to say that he did not consult me. I have never been known to +violate the law, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no one would suspect you of that, Mr. McElwin. We all know that +you never break the law, but we don't know that you are not sometimes +aware that the law is going to be broken. Good morning."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, sir. Do you mean to tell me that I am suspected of +complicity in this infamous outrage?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't mean to tell you that. Neither do I mean to say that you +would be wrong in doing so. You have had cause. Lyman's stubbornness +is quite enough to rasp a saint. I couldn't stand it; and between me +and you, I wish they had lashed him till he would have craved the +privilege of going away."</p> + +<p>"Wait just one more moment, Mr. Caruthers. Is what you have told me in +reality suspected by the people or did you evolve it out of your own +richness of observation?"</p> + +<p>Caruthers bowed his head under the outpour of this compliment. "It is +not public talk," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"Ah, thank you. Drop in at the bank some time and see me, sir. Good +morning."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Warren stepped out of the room, merely nodding to McElwin as he +passed. Lyman got up, handed McElwin a chair, and without speaking, +sat down again. McElwin stood with his hands on the back of the chair, +looking at Lyman, and evidently embarrassed as to what he ought to +say. "Beautiful morning," said Lyman, seeing his embarrassment and +feeling that it was his duty as host to help him out of it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very bright after the rain."</p> + +<p>"That's a fact; it did rain last night."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, I heard something this morning that has grieved me very +much."</p> + +<p>"Oh, about the White Caps. Sit down, won't you?"</p> + +<p>McElwin sat down. "Yes, the White Caps." He was silent for a moment +and then he continued: "The intercourse between you and me has been +far from friendly. I do not deny that I should like to see you leave +this place, never to return; I acknowledge that I would bribe you to +go, but I would not give countenance to a mob that would force you to +leave."</p> + +<p>Lyman looked at him with a cool smile. "Do you mean to tell me, Mr. +McElwin, that Sawyer did not speak to you of his intention to take me +out as if I were a thief or a wife-beater—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, sir!" McElwin commanded, holding up his hand. "I forbid you +to—"</p> + +<p>"Forbid is rather a strong word. Don't you think that request would be +better?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said McElwin, softening, "we will say request. As I tell you, +your presence in this community is distasteful to me, and your +farcical marriage stands directly opposed to my plans. But I would not +violate the law and commit a misdemeanor to drive you off. You have +reasons for believing that Mr. Sawyer—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was the organizer."</p> + +<p>"But not with my sanction, sir."</p> + +<p>"No? But perhaps not without your knowledge."</p> + +<p>"Sir!"</p> + +<p>"Keep your seat. Now I am going to tell you what I believe. I believe +that Sawyer came to you, after I had burned the check, and told you +what he intended to do."</p> + +<p>"He did, and I told him not to do it."</p> + +<p>"Ah. But did you go to the law and enter a protest against an outrage +which you knew he was going to commit? Did you send me a word of +warning or did you quietly wait in the hope that the result might rid +you of me?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, I am going to tell you the absolute truth. I advised +against it, and after he was gone, I went out to look for him, but he +had driven down into the country to—"</p> + +<p>"To organize his mob," Lyman suggested.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, we will say that he had gone for that purpose. And at +night I came down town in the rain to see if I could not find him, and +when I failed in this, I thought that I would come up here to warn +you." He hesitated, with a slight cough.</p> + +<p>"But you didn't come."</p> + +<p>"No, not all the way. I halted on the stairs and turned back. I felt +that I—" He hesitated.</p> + +<p>"You felt that you could not afford to antagonize Mr. Sawyer."</p> + +<p>McElwin coughed. "It was not exactly that, Mr. Lyman. But I did think +that it was meddling with something that—that did not concern +me."</p> + +<p>"Didn't concern you? I thought you were deeply concerned, enough at +least to feel yourself warranted in attempting to buy me, to hire me +to leave."</p> + +<p>"You don't quite understand, Mr. Lyman."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes I do. The trouble with you is that I understand too well. Go +ahead with your absolute truth."</p> + +<p>McElwin cleared his husky throat. "I went home, sir, and passed a most +anxious night; I suffered, sir, far more than you did."</p> + +<p>"No doubt of that. I enjoyed myself."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, will you please not make a joke of this affair."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I won't make a joke of it. It will be earnest enough by the time +it is over with. I am informed that Mrs. Sawyer is very old and that +to introduce her son's name in connection with the White Caps would +greatly distress her, and I have resolved not to do this. But there +are punishments, moral lessons to be served out, and I think it well +to begin with you."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, we are not friends, but would you ruin me in the +estimation of the public?"</p> + +<p>"No, I will say nothing to the public. I will tell your daughter."</p> + +<p>McElwin started. His mind had been so directly fixed upon the public +that he had not thought of his home. Being the master there he could +command respect, and it was on the tip of his tongue now to say that +his daughter would not believe Lyman, but, as if a bitter taste had +suddenly arisen in his mouth, he felt that this man's word out-weighed +his own. He had a strong hope that when his daughter should be set +free and left to choose at will, her judgment would finally settle +upon Sawyer. But he knew that should she be convinced that her father +had counciled him to engage the services of lawless men or had even +connived at the brutal procedure—he knew that, convinced of +this, she would turn in scorn upon Sawyer and, in a moment, wreck the +plans that it had taken years to build.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman," he said, "I admit that I am largely to blame, and I now +throw myself upon your mercy, sir. Please don't tell my daughter."</p> + +<p>All his dignity and arrogance had vanished, and the chair creaked +under him. His brown beard, usually so neatly trimmed, looked ragged +now, and his eyes, which Lyman had thought were full of sharp and +cutting inquiry, now looked dull and questionless. "I throw myself +upon your mercy," he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Then, sir, you knock my props from under me," Lyman replied. "I am +not equipped with that firmness which men call justice. Nature +sometimes makes sport of a man by giving him a heart. And what does it +mean? It means that he shall suffer at the hands of other men, and +that when his hour for revenge has come, his over-grown heart rises up +and commands him to be merciful. McElwin, I ought to publish +you—I ought to tell your wife and daughter that you have +conspired with ruffians to have me whipped from the town, but I will +not. You may go now."</p> + +<p>The banker's arrogance flew back to him. "You may go" were words that +pierced him like a three-pronged fork, but he controlled himself, for +now his judgment was stronger than his dignity. He arose and stepped +up close to Lyman. "I am under deep obligations to you," he said. +"You are a kind and generous man."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you say that you are thankful to find me a fool?"</p> + +<p>McElwin took no notice of this remark. "And I hope that I may be able +to do something for you," he said. Still he stood there, as if he had +not struck the proper note. "Do something for you. And if you +need—need money, I shall be glad to let you have it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you couldn't get away without mentioning your god-essence, could +you? Good day."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">At Mt. Zion.</span></h4> + + +<p>On a Sunday morning, Lyman and Warren hired a light spring wagon and +drove out through the green and romantic country that lay stretched +and tumbled along the Mt. Zion road. The great clover-fields, now red +with bloom, looked like a mighty spreading of strawberry-land ready +for the pickers; and a red bird, arising from the ground, might have +been a bloom of a berry suddenly endowed with wings. The air breathed +delicious laziness, and when the horse stopped midway and knee-deep in +a rivulet, he stood with his mouth in the water pretending to swallow, +stealing the enjoyment of the cool current against his legs. The two +men enjoyed the old rascal's trick, agreeing to let him stand there as +long as he practiced the duplicity of keeping his mouth in the stream. +Minnows nibbled at his lips, and he lifted his head, but observing the +men, who leaned out to look at him, he again immersed his mouth and +pretended to swallow. At last, as if ashamed of himself, he pulled +out, trotting briskly in the sun, but hanging back in the shade. Down +in the low places bright-winged flies had come in swarms to hum their +tunes, and on the high ridges where the thin grass was wilting, the +gaunt rabbit sat in the sun. Driving along the low, smooth and sandy +margin of a stream, where the thick bushes bore a bloom that looked +like a long caterpillar, they reached an iron spring, deep red, a +running wound on the face of the earth. They came to an old water +mill, long ago fallen into decay and halted to listen to the water +pouring over the ruined dam. They turned into a broader road, and now +saw numerous vehicles, bright with calico and dun with home-spun, all +moving in one direction, toward the old Mt. Zion meeting house on a +hill. To view one of those places of worship is to gaze upon religious +history. We look at the great trees, the rocks worn smooth, the house +squatting with age, and we no longer regard our country as new. In Mt. +Zion there were loop-holes where men had stood to shoot Indians, while +their wives were muttering a prayer. The old oak benches, made of +split slabs, were almost as hard as iron. A slab, called the altar, +but known as the mourners' bench, had caught the tears of many an +innocent maiden and roistering youth.</p> + +<p>Lyman unhitched the horse and led him down a glade to feed him in the +cool shadow of a chestnut tree, and while he was spreading the oats +Warren came running down to him.</p> + +<p>"Lyman, she's here," he said. "It's a fact and I'll swear it. Yes, +sir, she's here, and I was never more surprised in my life."</p> + +<p>"I am not surprised," Lyman replied. "I expected her."</p> + +<p>"The deuce you did! Then you know her."</p> + +<p>"Know her. Of course I do."</p> + +<p>"Then why didn't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>"Tell you? What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I mean that you ought to have told me. What's her name?"</p> + +<p>"Look here, have you gone crazy?"</p> + +<p>"No, but you have. How the deuce did you know she would be here? All +right, but she won't get away from me so easy this time. I see the +old man's with her, and the idea of supposing that he could have been +her husband is preposterous."</p> + +<p>"Oh," Lyman laughed, "I thought you meant my—meant Eva McElwin."</p> + +<p>"No, I mean the girl that flavored the apple. Come up and I'll +introduce you to her."</p> + +<p>"But have you met her?"</p> + +<p>"I met her in the path a minute ago."</p> + +<p>"But have you been introduced to her?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I'll fix that all right. Come on."</p> + +<p>Lyman was laughing, but Warren was deeply in earnest. They went up the +hill toward the church. Everybody was outside in the shade, the +preacher not having arrived. "There she is," Warren whispered; "that +girl standing with that man near the door. Stand here till I go and +fix it."</p> + +<p>He hastened toward the man, and not the slightest abashed, walked up +to him. He said something; the man spoke to the girl and Lyman saw +Warren lift his hat. They stood for a few moments, talking, and then +they came out toward Lyman, the girl blushing and hanging back, and +Warren gently urging her.</p> + +<p>"Miss Nancy Pitt," said Warren, approaching, "I have the honor to +present Mr. Lyman, one of the best writers in the country, although he +is not cut out for a newspaper man."</p> + +<p>Miss Pitt blushed and smiled and said that she was glad to meet him. +She looked like a spirit of the woods, on a day when red buds and +white blossoms are mingled; she was not handsome, but striking, fresh, +and with an early morning brightness in her eyes; she was an untrained +athlete of the farm, ready to put a back-log into the yawning +fire-place or to choke a greedy calf off from its mother. She had no +manners and was shy; and, without knowing how to play with a man's +affection, was coy. Lyman looked into her eyes and thought of the +bluish pink of the turnip. She blushed again and said: "I reckon we'd +have rain if it was cloudy, but it ain't. Where's pa?" And then +looking round she called: "Come on, pap."</p> + +<p>"Comin'," the old man replied, walking with a limp in his Sunday +shoes. He did not wait for an introduction to Lyman, but shook hands +with him, glanced upward and said: "Mighty bright day."</p> + +<p>"Just as fresh as if this were the first one," Lyman replied.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I hadn't thought of that, but I reckon you're right." His +daughter reached over and brushed a measuring-worm off his shoulder. +"Going to get a new coat," she said. "Worm measuring you."</p> + +<p>"Put him on me," said Lyman, looking about as if searching for the +worm.</p> + +<p>"Get away," Warren broke in, shoving him to one side. "I want him. +Well, let him go. How far do you live from here, Mr. Pitt?"</p> + +<p>"Well, a leetle the rise of three mile and a half, at this time of the +year, but when the weather is bad, the road stretches powerful. My +wife wanted to come today to hear the new preacher, but along come +some folks visitin' from over the creek, with a passul of haungry +children, and she had to stay and git 'em a bite to eat. Her doctrine +is that it's better to feed the haungry than to eat, even if the table +is served by a new preacher. Well," he added, as a hymn arose within +the church, "they've struck up the tune of sorrow in there and I +reckon we'd better go in."</p> + +<p>Warren walked with Nancy. "What, we ain't going in the same door?" she +said as they approached.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied, "and I'm going to sit with you during the sermon."</p> + +<p>"No," she said, drawing back. "That won't do. I have heard that in +town the women and the men sit together in church, but they don't out +here, and if I did I'd never hear the last of it."</p> + +<p>"All right, I don't want to mark you in any way, but I want you to +wait for me when you come out."</p> + +<p>Bostic came in. His face was grave, and he carried the timid air of a +first appearance as he walked slowly down the aisle. The men mumbled, +the women whispered, and Lyman heard a girl remark: "He ain't so +mighty good-looking." At the door, there was a rustle of strange +skirts, and as if a new note had been introduced into an old melody, +the congregation looked around. Lyman looked too, and his breast grew +warm with the new beating of his heart. Mrs. McElwin and her daughter +entered the church. The preacher glanced up from his text and saw +them, and his eye kindled. He gave out an old hymn and the +congregation arose. The air was vibrant in the unctuous swell of +sound. The spider webs hanging from the rafters trembled; the woods +caught up the echo and bore it afar through the timber-land, and the +distant leaves caught it as a whisper and hushed it. In it there was +not music, not the harmony that seeks the approval of the brain; it +was a chant that called upon the heart to humble itself in the sight +of the Lord and to be brave in the presence of man, the tune that +subdued the wilderness of a new world, a tune that men have sung +before plunging into the swallowing fire of battle. The city is +ashamed of it, laughs at it, but, far away in the country, it is still +the war-cry of Jehovah.</p> + +<p>The preacher began in a rambling way, missing the thoughts that he +expected to find, finding thoughts that surprised him. Sometimes his +road was rough, and he clamored over rocks and fell into gullies, but +occasionally he struck a smooth path and then he ran because the way +was easy. After a time he forgot to be impressive and then he +impressed. He filled the house with words, like a flight of pigeons, +and on their backs some of them caught the sunlight that streamed +through the cracks in the walls. Lyman was reminded of one Of William +Wirt's stories—"The Blind Preacher"—the man who in a +ruinous old house raised his hand and cried: "Socrates died like a +philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a God."</p> + +<p>There was to be another sermon in the afternoon, by an old man who +plowed for a living and who preached without pay, and Lyman caught +himself wondering whether the McElwins would remain to hear him. +Through the window he saw a light buggy under the trees, and he mused +that they would at least let him help them into it. He was afraid that +they might get away, and he was nervous at the fear that slow-moving +persons, halting in the aisle to talk over the sermon, might obstruct +his path; and as soon as the benediction was pronounced, he hastened +toward the rear end of the house. Eva stepped toward him and frankly +held out her hand.</p> + +<p>"Mother, this is Mr. Lyman," she said.</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin bowed, resolved to be cool and dignified. She said that +she was pleased to meet Mr. Lyman, which statement Mr. Lyman looked +upon as a polite fib. She spoke of the charm of the day and expressed +surprise that the young preacher had done so well. Lyman asked if she +were going to remain to hear the afternoon sermon. She did not think +it wise to stay so long. The road home was very attractive by day, +with its over-hanging branches and streams of clear water, but it was +dark and rather desolate at night. Still they would not start +immediately. She would like to look at the old spring at the foot of +the hill; history bubbled in its water; her grandfather had camped +there. They walked down to the spring and seated themselves on the +rocks. The men who had come down to "swap" saddles and lies, got up +and moved away.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman," said Eva, sitting with her hands full of leaves and +wild-flowers, and glancing down at them, "we were very sorry to hear +that the White Caps had called on you."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't expecting them," Lyman replied, "but I made them feel at +home."</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin looked at him with a cool smile. "Yes," she said, "for +home probably means a fight with most of them. It was an outrage and +everybody is glad that you sent them off with broken heads. Of course +there has been a great deal of talk, but have you any idea as to who +lead the party?"</p> + +<p>"Not the slightest," Lyman answered, and the girl looked up at him.</p> + +<p>"Some one has been mean enough, so a very dear friend told us, to +insinuate that—that father knew of it in time to have prevented +it," she said.</p> + +<p>"Eva, why should you mention such a thing. Mr. Lyman couldn't give it +credence, even for a moment." She frowned.</p> + +<p>"Mr. McElwin was kind enough to come to me the next morning," said +Lyman. "He was very much moved, and I feel that if he could he would +have the ruffians punished."</p> + +<p>"I thank you for saying that, Mr. Lyman," Mrs. McElwin spoke up. "I +know he would." She glanced about and appeared to be nervous under the +gaze of the people on the hill. "I don't know what they think of us +three sitting here together," she said. "People out here are +peculiar."</p> + +<p>"Let them think," the girl replied.</p> + +<p>Lyman looked down and saw her shapely foot on the rock. The light was +strong where she sat, and he noticed a freckle on her cheek, and this +slight blemish drew her closer to him.</p> + +<p>"But we must respect their thoughts," the mother replied.</p> + +<p>"We should not put ourselves out on account of their prejudices," +Lyman was bold enough to remark. The girl smiled at him.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," Mrs. McElwin weakly agreed.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not!" Eva repeated. "Mother, you don't seem to think that I +am just as human as any of those girls up there, that I have +practically the same feelings. But I am, and I am not a bit better +than they—not any better than that girl up there under the tree +talking to that young man. Why, he's from town."</p> + +<p>"He is Mr. Warren, my partner," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Oh, is he? They say he is such a funny man. But he's nice looking. I +have seen him many a time, and he was pointed out to me once, but I +had forgotten his name."</p> + +<p>"We'd better go now," said Mrs. McElwin.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not yet," the daughter replied. "There's plenty of time. It won't +take us long to drive home. And besides, we haven't congratulated the +preacher yet. And there he comes now, down this way. See that girl +draw back as if she were going to throw something at Mr. Warren. He +must be a tease. Look at that old man laughing. Everybody wants to +shake hands with the preacher. I think he did splendidly. He +surprised me, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"He surprised us both on one occasion," said Lyman. Eva laughed, but +her mother looked grave. "Let us not speak of that," she said. "It has +caused us trouble enough; and not even now do I fully understand it. +Oh, I know that the legislature made some sort of blunder and that +Henry Bostic had been ordained, but I cannot realize that I am sitting +here talking to my daughter's legal husband. Still we can get +accustomed to anything in time, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"I can hardly realize that I am a married man," Lyman replied. Mrs. +McElwin looked at him with a start, as if his words hurt her, as if +she suddenly felt that she was doing a grave injustice to her husband +to sit there talking to a man who would not have been permitted to +cross her threshold. She got up. "We must go," she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not now," the daughter pleaded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we must go."</p> + +<p>"But can't you let me stay and come home with Mr. Lyman."</p> + +<p>If the mother had been startled before she was shocked now. "If you +talk like that, my daughter, I shall not believe that you are very +much different from the girls up there. Do you want your father +scandalized? Pardon me, Mr. Lyman, but I must speak plainly to her."</p> + +<p>Lyman, who had also arisen, bowed to her. "No offense," he said. "I am +thoroughly in harmony with the absurdity of my position, even if I +can't realize that I am married."</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin winced. "Please don't repeat that again," she said.</p> + +<p>The girl stamped her foot upon the rock. "Don't talk that way," she +commanded. "If Mr. Lyman wants me to stay and go home when he does no +one could prevent it. He can command me to stay."</p> + +<p>Mrs. McElwin fluttered, but afraid of a scene, she smoothed herself +down. "I was joking," she said.</p> + +<p>"We will go now," the daughter replied, "but I do wish you would stay. +I'd like to go up there among those girls. I know they are having a +good time. Help me up." She put out her hand and Lyman took hold of +it, but she pulled back, laughing. "Help me up." She put out the other +hand, her mother looking on in a fright. "You'll have to help me into +the buggy," she said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">At Nancy's Home.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman stood gazing after them as they drove away. The girl waved her +hand at him, and then removing her glove, she waved it again. He saw +the mother turn to her as if with a word of caution. The road was +crooked, and a clump of bushes, a leafy bulge, soon hid them from +view. Lyman walked slowly and not light of heart, up the hillside to +the tree beneath which he had seen Warren and his new-found friends. +There they were, sitting on the ground, eating.</p> + +<p>"You are just in time for a snack," old man Pitt cried, waving the leg +of a chicken.</p> + +<p>"And here is some pie that Miss Nancy baked with her own hands," said +Warren, moving closer to the girl to make room for his friend. "I have +been telling Mr. Pitt about your funny marriage."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Pitt spoke up, "and I was tellin' of him that if I was in your +place and wanted her, now that I had the law on my side, I'd have her +or a fight or a foot race, one or tuther, it wouldn't make much +difference which. Of course I mean if I found out after the joke was +all over that I wanted her, for I tell you—have a piece of this +light corn bread—I tell you that it is a mighty serious thing +when a man wants a woman and wants her bad. Here's some +pickles—they ain't good, but they'll do at a shake-down. But +this here ham's prime. Serious thing, sir, when a man wants a woman +and wants her right bad. There's a case in our neighborhood of a young +feller goin' crazy after a woman he wanted. It ain't but once in a +while, you know, that a feller finds the woman set up to suit him, and +when he do find her, why he ought to sorter spit on his +hands—figurative like," he made haste to add, catching the +reproving eye of his daughter. "Spit on his hands figurative like and +give it out cold that he is there to stay till the cows come home. And +that reminds me that this here butter ain't of the best. The cow eat a +lot of beet tops and it didn't help her butter none, I contend, still +some folks wouldn't notice it. I hear 'em say, Mr. Whut's-your-name, +that you come from away up yander whar rocks is so plenty on the farms +that in a hoss trade it would be big boot if a feller was to throw in +a hankerchuf full of dirt. I don't blame you for comin' away from +thar."</p> + +<p>"It's pretty rocky up there," said Lyman. "One of our +humorists—Doesticks," he added, nodding to Warren, "said that we +had to slice our potatoes and slip them down edgeways between the +rocks."</p> + +<p>The old man sprawled himself on the ground and laughed. "Well, if they +was to go out a shootin' at liars wheat straw would leak through that +feller's hide. How are you gittin' along over thar, Mr. Warren?" he +inquired, sitting up and again devoting himself to the chicken.</p> + +<p>"First rate, don't know when I've eaten as much."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you haven't eat a thing," Miss Nancy protested, looking at him in +great surprise. "You'd soon die at this rate."</p> + +<p>"You are right, but not of starvation. I suppose they are feeding the +preacher," he said, looking round. "Yes, they've got him up there. +Look the women are bringing him things from all directions. Lyman, +your people didn't wait to congratulate him. I think it hurt him, too, +for I saw his countenance fall. You must have said something to hurry +the old lady off."</p> + +<p>"No, on the contrary I rather urged her to stay."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and that's what sent her off."</p> + +<p>"But what's to be the outcome of the affair?" the old man asked. "Of +course you wouldn't want to tie her up so she couldn't marry anybody +else, though I honor your pluck in not lettin' 'em force you into +signin' the paper. McElwin is a mighty over-bearin' sort of a man. I +worked a piece of land year before last over on the creek near a field +that belonged to him, and sir, the hired feller that delved and +swetted thar 'peered like he thought it was a great privilege to drag +himself over the ground that belonged to McElwin. He p'inted him out +one day as he driv along in a buggy and when my eyes didn't pop out of +my head he was might'ly 'stonished. Yes, sir, they think the Lord was +proud of the job when that man was put on earth. Well, I believe they +are gettin' ready to go back into the house, and if you folks want to +go, don't let me hold you."</p> + +<p>"Ain't you goin' to hear him, pap?" the girl asked, getting up and +brushing the twigs from her skirt.</p> + +<p>"Wall, I don't believe I will jest at the present writin'," he +drawled. "He's a good old feller and all that sort of thing, and I +reckon he do love the Lord, but he nipped me in a hoss swop about +twenty-odd year ago, and whenever I hear him preach I can't git it out +of my head that he's trying to nip me agin."</p> + +<p>"Why, pap, that was long before he joined the church."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I can't help from holdin' that a man that will nip you in a +hoss swop one time will do it agin if he gets the chance."</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "you would have nipped him if you could."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that mout be, but I wouldn't have come round preachin' to him +afterwards. Go on in, you young folks, and I'll waller around here a +while and then go down and see how my hosses air gettin' along."</p> + +<p>"And I will stay with you," said Lyman. The romance had gone out of +the old house, for him, but not for Warren and Nancy. Warren walked to +the church with her, and she pleaded with him to let her go up to the +door alone.</p> + +<p>"Why should we care what they think?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I care a good deal. They would talk about me and laugh at me, and +besides you ain't no kin to me. It's only kin folks that set +together."</p> + +<p>"They don't know whether I'm any kin to you or not."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they do. They know that I haven't any young men kin folks round +here but cousin Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Who the deuce is he? Hold on a moment. Tell me about that fellow +Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there ain't nothin' to tell except he's my cousin. If you let me +go in alone I'll tell you all about him when I come out."</p> + +<p>He suffered her to go in alone, but he sat as close to her as he +could, on a bench just opposite, and it was so evident that he wanted +to be nearer that a hillside wag remarked to a friend; "See that young +feller a leanin' in toward her like a young steer with a sore neck." +The remark was passed from one to another and a titter went round the +room. Warren saw her blush and realizing that he was the cause of her +embarrassment, he leaned back, and the wag remarked: "Other side of +his neck's sore now—he's leanin' tuther way."</p> + +<p>Lyman and the old man walked about the grounds. Pitt suggested going +to the spring, but Lyman drew back from the idea as if the place were +desolate now. They went down the road to a mossy place where the +ironwood trees leaned out over a stream. They looked at the sun-fish +flashing their golden sides in the light; they sat down to smoke a +pipe, the rising voice of the preacher seeming to sift in the leaves +above them. The sun was shining aslant when they got up and a shadow +lay upon the pool.</p> + +<p>"He must be on the home-stretch," said the old man, nodding toward the +house. "I'll go over and hitch up the horses."</p> + +<p>"I have a similar task to perform," Lyman replied. "I'll see you again +before I start home."</p> + +<p>"All right, and I am much obleeged for your company."</p> + +<p>The sermon was over before the horses were harnessed. Warren came +running to Lyman. "You ride with the old man and let me take the girl +in the spring wagon," said he.</p> + +<p>"What; we may not go in the same direction."</p> + +<p>"Of course we do. We are going home with them. It's all right. I've +put the old man down for a year's subscription."</p> + +<p>"And you want to go over there to board it out. Is that it?"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that. But I could do it."</p> + +<p>"Does he know that he's a subscriber?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet, but I can tell him. Miss Nancy wants us to go."</p> + +<p>"Did she say so?"</p> + +<p>"Well, now what would be the use of saying so? She could say it as +easily as not. And I guess she would have said it if she had thought +to. But I know she wants us to go. Come, now, won't you go just to +oblige me? Remember, I didn't kick very hard when you killed all my +best pieces of news. Let me have a fling now, won't you? You've been +having all the fun—marriage and White Caps. Won't you go just to +oblige me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll ride with the old man or I'll ride on a rail when you put +it that way."</p> + +<p>"All right. Here she comes now, and the old man's up there waiting for +you."</p> + +<p>During the drive, the old fellow commented upon the historical places +along the road. He pointed out the spot where he had killed the last +diamondback rattlesnake seen in that neighborhood; he directed Lyman's +attention to a barn wherein five negroes had been hanged for rising +against the whites in 1854; he pointed at a charred stump and told the +story of a fanatic who had tied himself there and burned himself on +account of his religion. They came at last to a large log house, the +Pitt homestead, and had unharnessed the horses before Warren and Nancy +came within sight. A tall woman, followed by a score of children of +all sizes, came out to meet them.</p> + +<p>"They ain't all mine," said the old man. "Them as looks about fryin' +size belongs to the folks over the creek. Mother, this here is a +friend of ourn from away up yonder whar they have to slice the +potatoes and slip 'em down between the rocks, and I want to tell you +that him and me fits one another like a hand and glove."</p> + +<p>"I am mighty glad to meet you," said the woman, wiping her hands on +her apron. "Come right in and excuse the looks of everything and make +yourself at home. But, pap, where's Nancy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's comin' along in a carry-all with the town man that runs +the paper. She's all right—she can take care of herself +anywhere."</p> + +<p>They went into the house, the children scattering and peeping from +corners and from behind the althea bushes in the yard. Warren and +Nancy soon came in laughing. The girl threw her hat on the bed, tucked +up her skirts and went out to the kitchen to help her mother, and the +old man excused himself on the grounds that he must go out to feed the +stock.</p> + +<p>"Warren, gallantry is all right, but this is cruel," said Lyman. "We +are imposing on this family. Look how those women have to work, and +they will strain every nerve to get us something to eat."</p> + +<p>"Of course they will, and they like it. Do you know that? They do. You +couldn't please them more than by eating with them, and I'm always +willing to put myself out to please folks. Say, we'll stay here +tonight and go in tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"I am not going to stay. Doesn't it strike you that you are a trifle +too brash, as they say around here? Don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it. I want to stay till tomorrow to see whether I want +to come back again or not. I want to find out whether I am in love +with her or not. I think I am, but still I don't know, and my rule is +that a man ought to know where he stands before he walks. We were +passing under a tree and she reached up and pulled at a limb and her +loose sleeve fell down and I saw her arm. That almost settled it. But +I think I'll know definitely in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Warren, I'm going back to town tonight."</p> + +<p>"What, over that dark road? Don't you know we passed a good many +dangerous places coming? Stay till tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"No, I'll walk back and leave the wagon for you."</p> + +<p>"That would be an outrage. If you go back, drive."</p> + +<p>"No, to tell you the truth I would rather walk. I want to think."</p> + +<p>"Then you'd rather go alone, anyway, wouldn't you? All right, and +probably I can get her to come to town with me tomorrow. They've got +to send in to buy things sometimes, I should think. By the by, I've +got a lot of seeds sent by a congressman, and I'll tell the old man he +can have them. Nothing catches one of these old fellows like seeds. +He'll send her in after them tomorrow morning, and then I can find out +how I stand."</p> + +<p>"With her?"</p> + +<p>"No, find out how I stand with myself—see whether I love her or +not. Have you found out yet—in your case? Tell me, I won't say +anything about it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have found out."</p> + +<p>"You needn't say—I guess I know." Warren reached over and took +Lyman by the hand. "We save time and trouble when we put a man in a +position so that he needn't say."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lyman, "the greatest justice you can confer on a man, at +times, is to permit him to be silent."</p> + +<p>Nancy came hastily into the room and from the broad mantel-piece took +down two beflowered tea-cups, kept there as ornaments. She smiled at +Warren and brushed out with a mischievous toss of her comely head.</p> + +<p>"We not only put them to extra trouble, but compel them to take down +their decorations," Lyman remarked.</p> + +<p>"But can't you see how she likes it?" Warren spoke up. "Probably it +has been six months since they have had a chance to use those cups. We +are doing them a favor, I tell you." He shook his head and sighed. "If +she comes in here again and looks at me that way I'll know where I +stand. Oh, I'm not slow, but I want to be certain."</p> + +<p>They heard the old man talking in the kitchen, and then came his heavy +tread on the loose and flapping boards of the passage-way. The door +was cut so low that he had to duck his head. He came in with a stoop, +but straightening himself in the majesty of conscious hospitality, he +bowed and said: "Gentlemen, you will please walk out to supper."</p> + +<p>Lyman began to offer an apology for putting the household to so much +trouble. The old man bowed again and said: "We didn't bring no trouble +home with us from church, but ruther a pleasure, sir."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Out in the Dark.</span></h4> + + +<p>Warren argued, the old man urged and the old lady pleaded as she +fanned her hot face with her apron, catching it up by the corners, but +Lyman was determined to go home. Warren went out with him and together +they walked down the dark road, in the cool air of the night and the +hot air that lagged over from the heat of the day. There was no moon, +but in the sky, which the slowly-moving boughs of over-hanging trees +seemed to keep in motion, there was a blizzard of stars. From the +dust-covered thickets along the road arose the chirrup of insects, the +strange noises that make night lonesome; and a small stream, which in +the light has flowed without noise over the slick, blue rocks, was +rushing now with a loud gurgle, as if to hurry out of the dark.</p> + +<p>"Well, I turn back here," said Warren. "It is a piece of foolishness +for you to go. There's no need of it. You haven't anything to do +tomorrow that you can't do next day."</p> + +<p>"No, but, alone in the woods, I can do a piece of work that would +never come within range of me in town."</p> + +<p>"I understand. You want to shake everybody and be absolutely alone."</p> + +<p>"Yes, absolutely."</p> + +<p>"But stay here over night, and if you must, walk in tomorrow. You +would be just as much alone then, wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I am never perfectly alone except in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Well, I have worked with you the best I know how; and you see how I'm +fixed—got to find out how I stand. But I hate to see you go off +in this way alone. Just look how dark it is down yonder. And I am to +go back to the light and to sit there and think of you trudging along +in the dark. Just think of the light I am going into—the light +of that smile."</p> + +<p>"And from away out in the woods I may turn to see you blinking in the +glare. But I am keeping you. Good night."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment. Now, you won't think hard of me, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Hard of you? Not if you go back."</p> + +<p>"All right, then. Good night."</p> + +<p>Pitt had given Lyman minute directions as to the road he should take, +a pathway through the woods and across fields, and leading to the +county road at a point not far from the ruined dam. The path was not +straight, and in the dark woods he kept it with difficulty, having to +pat with his foot to find the hard ground, but in the turned-out +fields the way was well-defined and he walked rapidly. Once he crossed +a stretch of ripening oats, and in a dip-down where the growth was +rank he heard voices and a song—hired men lying out to wear off +the effect of a visit to the distillery. He came to the dam much +sooner than he had expected, and near the trickling water he sat down +upon a rock to rest. An island of willows had grown up in the broad +shallow pond. Out from this dark thicket, a great bird flew and with +its wings slapped the face of the quiet water, and the frogs hushed +and the world was still, save the trickling from the dam, till the +frogs began again. For days, there had been in his mind the vague form +of a story, and he strove to summon it now, but the forms that came +were shadows with no light in their eyes. Throughout all the dark +woods this dim web of a plot had not come to him, though he had +thought to ponder over it before setting out, but had forgotten it +when once on the road. He sent his mind back over the course he had +followed, to pick up any little suggestions that might have come to +him to be held for a moment and dropped, but there was none. Instead, +everywhere in the spread of his mind there was an illuminated spot, +shifting, and in the bright spot sat a figure on a rock, a brown head, +a face with one freckle, and an impetuous, graceful foot that +sometimes stamped in impatience. Into the light there came another +figure, strong, ruddy, and with a calico skirt tucked up. One was +refinement, the other strength; one nerves, the other muscle. Onward +he strode, the road damp from its nearness to the creek. Out upon the +higher land he turned, the shale clicking under his feet. He had the +feeling that some one was walking slowly behind him, stealing the +noise of his footsteps to conceal a stealthier tread, and he smiled at +his fear, but he halted to listen. He thought of a poem, "The Stab," +and he repeated it as he walked along, and the swift falling of the +knife, "Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown," found an echo in +his footsteps. He came to the creek wherein the old horse had stood to +cool his hot knees; he crossed the foot-log and was about to step down +again into the road when he heard the furious galloping of horses and +the rattle of a buggy. The team plunged into the creek, not directly +at the ford; the buggy struck a rock and flew into fragments; the +horses came plunging on, leaving a man in the water. Lyman rushed +forward as the horses dashed past him. By the light of the stars he +saw the flying fragments of the buggy—saw the water splash where +the man fell. The man made no effort to get up, and Lyman thought that +surely he must have been killed. But when Lyman reached him he was +trying to crawl against the shallow but swift current. Lyman seized +him, dragged him to the shore, stretched him upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt?" he asked, feeling for his heart. The man muttered +something. Lyman struck a match, looked at the man's face, blew out +the match, tossed the burnt stem into the road and said to himself: +"Of course I had to be the one to find him. Are you hurt, Sawyer?"</p> + +<p>"You fling me 'n creek?" he muttered, filling the air with the fumes +of whisky. "Fling me 'n creek, got me to whip. Tell you that, hah? +Hear what I said? Got me to whip."</p> + +<p>"Blackguard, I don't know but I ought to have let you drown."</p> + +<p>"Good man to drown me, tell you that," he said, sitting up. "Horses +gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and your buggy is smashed all to pieces."</p> + +<p>"I believe it is. Bring me the pieces, won't you." He leaned over and +laughed like an idiot. "Stopped at a distillery, and stopped too long. +Don't take a man long to stop too long at a distillery. What's your +name? You ain't Jim, are you? What's your name, anyway; why don't you +talk to a feller."</p> + +<p>"It won't do to leave him here," said Lyman, looking about as if +searching for the light from a house. "Do you think you can walk?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Walk a thousand miles. Hear what I said? Thousand miles. Where do you +want to go, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"I want to take you to a house."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm all right. But don't leave me, Jim. Whatever you do, don't +leave me. I couldn't get along without you. Hit Bob a crack over the +head and addled him so he ain't at himself yet. They took him away +round here to his uncle's to keep him out of the way, and I drove out +there to see him and stopped at distillery and stayed too long. Ever +stay too long, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"Do the doctors think that Bob will get well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in a measure; he won't go round White-Capping any more, though. +But I'll make that all right. I'll meet that feller Lyman and put up +his shutters. Sit down."</p> + +<p>"No, there's a house up yonder and I'll take you there. You may be +injured in some way. Let's see if you can walk. Lean on me. That's +it."</p> + +<p>"I can't walk fast, Jim. Believe I am hurt some. I'd a drounded out +there if it hadn't been for you, Jim. Ah—h. I don't believe I +can go on. I'm sick."</p> + +<p>"Here, let me get my arm around you so I can hold you up better. Now +you're all right. It's only a little way."</p> + +<p>They soon came to the house. The barking of dogs brought a man out to +the fence. In a few words Lyman told him what had happened. Sawyer was +unable to walk further and they took him into the house and put him +upon a bed. An excited woman bathed his face, and a barefoot boy, as +fleet as a deer, was sent across the creek for a doctor. Lyman waited +until he came. He said that Sawyer was badly bruised, but added that +he did not appear to be fatally hurt. While they were talking, Sawyer +opened his eyes. "Where's Jim?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Lyman, stepping forward.</p> + +<p>"Merciful God," the wounded man moaned, and covered his face with his +hands. Lyman stepped back, and Sawyer, putting out his hand, with his +eyes closed, said to him: "Please don't leave me."</p> + +<p>"I will stay until daylight," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir. Don't leave me."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Revenge.</span></h4> + + +<p>Early the next morning Pitt and his daughter drove to town with +Warren. The promise of government seeds had greatly excited the old +fellow, and, three times before the breaking of day, did he get up and +look out, impatient of the darkness that still lay in the east. Warren +gave him the seeds and had gone down to see them off for home before +he happened to realize that Lyman was not in the office. He went up +stairs and inquired after him. The boy said that he had not come. He +sat down in a fear that his friend was lost in the woods, and was +thinking of setting out to look for him when Lyman walked in, looking +worn and tired.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the matter?" Warren cried. "You look like a whipped +rooster."</p> + +<p>"I am," said Lyman sitting down. "A prop has been knocked from under +me and I have fallen down. For several days I have been nursing a +sweet revenge. I said nothing about it, but I was going to knock a +man down, tie him and horse-whip him."</p> + +<p>"Well, why don't you? Is he gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, beyond my reach. I thought that for once in my life I would act +the part of a very natural man, but it has been denied me. I will tell +you."</p> + +<p>He narrated his adventure. Warren sat staring at him. "It's just your +luck, Lyman. But, why didn't you throw him back into the creek? Why +didn't you stamp him into the ground? And you have spoiled another +piece of news. What do you expect will become of you if you keep on +this way?"</p> + +<p>"He mistook me for some one else—he called me Jim. I couldn't +abuse his drunken mistake and show him that I was not his friend Jim. +It would have been cruel. And when he recognized me he threw himself +on my mercy and begged me not to leave him. In a vague way, this +morning, he remembered all that had taken place. He is not much hurt, +but the doctor will keep him in bed for a day or two. He is completely +cowed and I felt sorry for him. He hung to my hand when I bade him +good-bye and tears ran out of his eyes. He declared that I had whipped +him more severely than if I had used a raw-hide, and I believe I +have; so, after all, I had my revenge."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, I guess your sort of punishment lasts longer. But I confess +that I am not strong enough to indulge that sort of revenge. It takes +too much time. Well, if you haven't turned things over since you came +to this place I don't want a cent. Old Ebenezer didn't know what +novelty was until you struck it. We had a great time last night," he +went on, after a few moments of silence. "Nancy sang a song, a +come-all-ye about a girl that hanged herself because she had cause to +think that a fellow didn't love her. And you bet she can sing. She +brought tears to my eyes, and a woman has to get up early and sing +with the birds before she can do that."</p> + +<p>"Did you find out how you stand?" Lyman inquired, smiling at him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; that's settled. I know how I stand, and now I've got to find +out how she stands. It takes time, I tell you. I don't want to hurry +her, so I thought I'd wait till tomorrow and go out there and ask her +about it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I wouldn't hurry her," said Lyman, laughing. "I'd wait till +noon-time tomorrow, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Yes, along about there. What are you laughing at me for? This thing +is serious with me. I went out with her this morning to milk the cows. +Talk about milking." He leaned back and shut his eyes as if to +reproduce the scene. "I don't want to draw any comparisons, old +fellow, but do you suppose Miss Eva could milk? Do you suppose she +could grab a calf and make him feel ashamed of himself?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know as to her handling of calves, I'm sure; but I know that +she can throw a light into dark places; that white clover springs up +where she walks; that if she were to sit asleep in a garden the bees +would fight over the sweetness of her lips; that her mind is as fresh, +as full of bright images as a stream of pure water; that her foot as I +saw it upon a rock has grace enough to redeem an awkward world; and +that in comparison with the notes of her voice all earthly music is +flat and dull."</p> + +<p>"Lyman, I guess you know where you stand. But have you found out where +she stands? Have you asked her to define her position?"</p> + +<p>"Her position defines itself. I am to protect her from the man whose +life I saved last night."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, but after you have protected her—what then?"</p> + +<p>"I am to present her with a certificate of freedom."</p> + +<p>"But don't you suppose she'd rather have a partnership than freedom?"</p> + +<p>"Not with me. I am something of a novelty to her as a protector, but I +am afraid that to propose a closer relationship would make me appear +commonplace enough."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know your own business, and it's not worth while to give +you advice; but you are a strange sort of a contradiction. As a +general thing a fellow that's easy with man is severe with woman, but +you are disposed to let them all get away. They don't get away from +me, I'll give you a pointer on that. By the way, here's a package that +I found here for you. Came by express, pre-paid, mind you. Think of +that."</p> + +<p>In Lyman's eyes there was the soft light of a sad victory as he opened +the package and displayed a dozen copies of his novel, fresh from the +publisher. He took a volume upon his knee, as if it were a child; he +opened the leaves, carefully separating them as if tenderly parting +curly hair. Warren snatched up a book with a cry of delight; he swore +that its fame was assured; he knew that it would sell as fast as it +came from the press; but Lyman sat in silence, his eyes growing +sadder. It was so small a thing to have cost so many anxious days and +nights. He had worked on it so intently that often when he had stepped +out, the real world seemed unreal; and now it appeared so simple as to +lie within the range of any man's ability. Here was a place where +there had been a kink, and he had worried with it day after day, +carrying the sentences about in his mind; and now at a glance he saw +where the wording might have been improved. He was afraid that he had +been too simple, too close to the soil; in seeking the natural he was +almost sure that he had found the tiresome. He got up.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" Warren asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, out somewhere, to get away from this poor hunch-back." He smiled +sadly at the book.</p> + +<p>"Hunch-back? Why, it's a giant. Look, here's a jolt like a wagon +running over a root. It's all right. And I want to take one out to +Nancy, and when she reflects that a friend of mine wrote it, her +position will be defined. She can't help it. It makes no difference +whether a woman can read or not, a book catches her. Ain't you going +to send one to Miss Eva?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe I will."</p> + +<p>"Well, scribble in one and I'll send it right now, by the boy. It's +not right to let such things get cold. Is that all?" he asked when +Lyman had written his name on the fly leaf.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's enough."</p> + +<p>"It may do for her, but I want you to spread out a whole page for +Nancy. Say, go and lie down. You look like a ghost—going up and +down the creek at night, pulling fellows out. But wait. Give Nancy's +book a whirl first."</p> + +<p>Lyman covered the fly-leaf with a memory of Mt. Zion. With brightening +eyes Warren read the lines. "This will fetch her," he said. "She can't +hold out against it. Let me see. I don't know but the old man ought to +have one. It would stimulate him mightily. But never mind. The seeds +are enough for him. It won't do to stimulate him too much at once."</p> + +<p>"Old boy," said Lyman, "I admire your enterprise, it is a bright +picture, but don't go out there so soon. Wait at least a week. If she +finds that you are too anxious it might prejudice her against you."</p> + +<p>"I don't know but you are right. I'll send the book anyway. But say, +she's got a cousin Jerry and I don't like that very much. I never saw +a fellow named Jerry that wasn't dangerous. But if you say wait, I +will."</p> + +<p>"I say wait."</p> + +<p>"All right, then wait it is, but I don't like that Jerry idea. What +sounds more devilish than 'Cousin Jerry.' Sort of an insinuating, +raspberry jam sound. But I'll wait. Go on and lie down."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">A Gentleman Mule-Buyer.</span></h4> + + +<p>Two days later Lyman was sitting in his office, musing over a pink +note from Eva, thanking him for the book, when Zeb Sawyer tapped at +the door. Lyman bade him enter and he stepped forward with a limp. He +sat down before saying a word, took out a handkerchief and wiped his +face.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you got out of bed rather soon?" Lyman asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I reckon not, though the doctor told me to lie there awhile +longer. But I couldn't—I wanted to come to see you. I am not +much of a writer," he added, looking about, "but I want to write an +article for your paper. I want to tell the public what a wolf I've +been. And it was mostly owing to liquor. I shot a man once when I was +about half drunk, and nearly every mean thing I ever did I can trace +to whisky. I don't often get what you might call drunk, but I +generally go about with a few drinks and that makes me mean. Will you +print the article?"</p> + +<p>"No; let it all go. We all do wrong at times; we all have little +meannesses, like rheumatic pains in bad weather."</p> + +<p>"Well, is there anything I can do to prove—to prove—you +know what I mean."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can be gentler toward man, remembering that there is +something good in every one."</p> + +<p>"I believe that more than I used to," said Sawyer, mopping his +perspiring face. "I have laughed at preachers, and I hated you, but +you came along and showed me that, whether a man professes it or not, +there is something in the doctrine of mercy and forgiveness. I don't +think I ever prayed with my heart till this morning, and then I prayed +to be forgiven for my meanness; and it seemed to me that if you would +forgive me, the Higher Power would. I drove over to mother's before I +came here and I told her how mean I had been, and it struck her to the +heart with grief, but when I told her that I was going to be a better +man and follow in my father's footsteps, she cried for joy. She is so +shaken with palsy that she can't write, but she managed to write this +and she told me to give it to you." He handed Lyman a piece of paper, +and on it were the words: "God will bless you."</p> + +<p>"She didn't think it would disturb you so, or I am sure she wouldn't +have sent it," he said, looking at Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Tell her," said Lyman, "that her blessing alone is more—give +her my kindest regards," he added, with an effort.</p> + +<p>Sawyer wiped his eyes. "I went to another place before coming here," +he said. "I went over to the bank and waited till McElwin came, and I +had a talk with him. I told him that his daughter could never care for +me, and that even if you should sign the petition I would refuse to +recognize his authority in trying to compel her to marry me. She is in +every way above me, so far beyond my reach that I don't love her. I +have to go to another place—the court house. I am going to +surrender myself to the law and be punished for that White Cap affair. +I am going to acknowledge the whole thing."</p> + +<p>"No," said Lyman. "The law knows well enough what was done and who did +it. And, besides, your old mother—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Sawyer broke in, "but I thought it might be kept from her."</p> + +<p>"No, some one would tell her, some over-zealous friend. Let it drop."</p> + +<p>"Your word is law with me. And now I hope you won't feel hurt if I ask +you something?"</p> + +<p>"The time for you and me to hurt each other is passed," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"I thank you for saying that. You are a man if I ever met one. And how +did you get the name of being desperate?"</p> + +<p>"I simply punished an over-bearing bully and my act was exaggerated."</p> + +<p>"They always exaggerate such things in this country. But that's not +what I wanted to ask you. It's this: Do you need any money? now don't +feel hurt; do you need any, and, if you do, won't you let me lend it +to you for a year or so without interest?"</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Lyman, "my affairs have prospered wonderfully +of late. It's a singular position for me to be in, but I don't need +money."</p> + +<p>"I was in hopes you did. I told McElwin just now that your check would +be good as long as I had any money at his bank, and it made him wink, +but before I went out he acknowledged that you were about the truest +sort of a man he ever ran against. You have educated us all. And now +as to a more delicate matter. I don't know what Eva thinks of you, or +what you think of her, but I believe that the old man would be willing +to recognize the law as young Bostic administered it. But we won't +talk about that, and I ought not to have mentioned it. Is Mr. Warren +out there? I want to see him a moment."</p> + +<p>He shook hands with Lyman and they parted friends. Shortly after +Sawyer went out, Warren came running into the room. "Old Billy Fate is +trying himself," he cried. "What do you think has happened? That +fellow Sawyer has subscribed for fifty copies of the paper, for one +year, and has paid for them in advance. He has put down uncles, aunts, +cousins—but there's one thing about it I don't like. That fellow +Jerry, Nancy's cousin, is a sort of tenth rate cousin to Sawyer, and +he has put him down. Jerry Dabbs. Think of that poor girl becoming +Nancy Dabbs. There ought to be a law against such outrages. And now +he'll read your stuff and commit the odd phrases to memory and give +them to her. I don't see how I can keep away from there for a week. +I'm going out there Friday. Well, after all, I guess it was better +that you didn't drown that fellow. Fifty subscribers are not picked up +every day. I don't know but sometimes it pays to let revenge go."</p> + +<p>"It pays the heart," Lyman replied. "Did you ever think that when the +heart was paid the whole world is out of debt?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of it, but I guess you are right. I met the express +agent this morning and he tipped his hat to me. And it's all owing to +you. Everybody is talking about you. Where are you going?" he asked as +Lyman got up.</p> + +<p>"One day, while walking about aimlessly," said Lyman, "I stopped in +front of a house down the street not far from here, and saw a boy +digging in the yard. At the window I saw the pale face of a man. He +lay there to catch the last rays of the world, slowly fanning himself. +I asked the boy what he was doing and he said that he was digging a +grave for his father. The pale face at the window haunted me. I made +inquiry and found that a very poor family inhabited the house, and I +have called there several times to talk with the man. I am going there +now."</p> + +<p>"I know, he's a fellow named Hillit. He's got consumption. I send him +the paper free. Give him my regards, please, and tell him that I have +put him down as a life subscriber."</p> + +<p>"It won't be for long," said Lyman, as he turned away.</p> + +<p>The sun had baked the ground and the strange child had suspended his +labor, but heaps of earth beneath the bushes showed that he had +continued his work as long as his rude spade was adequate to a +disturbance of the soil. The boy looked up as the gate latch clicked, +and stood surveying Lyman with his feet far apart and his hands in his +pockets. Lyman spoke to him, and bringing a nail out of his pocket he +held it out to the visitor as an offering of his hospitality. Lyman +tossed him a piece of money; he caught it up and with a shout he +disappeared in the shrubbery. The visitor's knock at the door was +attended by a frail, tired woman. She stood with her hand on the door +as if meekly to tell the comer that he had doubtless made a mistake +in the house. He bowed and asked if she were Mrs. Hillit, and when +she had nodded an acknowledgment, with no word, though her thin lips +moved, he informed her that he desired to see her husband. She +preceded him into the sick man's room.</p> + +<p>"A gentleman wishes to see you," she said.</p> + +<p>The sufferer turned his wasted face toward Lyman and asked him to sit +down. Then followed a few words of explanation.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad you came," said Hillit, speaking slowly and with +effort. "We have been getting your paper for some time and it has been +great company for us. The neighbors have been very kind, but when a +man hangs on this way he wears everybody out."</p> + +<p>The woman had left the room, and Lyman was relieved to find that she +had not remained to hear her husband's hopeless words. "You ought not +to feel that way," he said.</p> + +<p>The consumptive withdrew his wistful gaze from the bar of sunlight +that lay across the window sill, and looked at Lyman. "I am in a +position to say what I think, and that's what I do think," he +answered. "But I do hope it won't be much longer. I see by the paper +that the farmers have been praying for rain. I have been praying for +light, light, light—all the time praying for light. When a +passing cloud hides the sun my heart grows heavier, and when the night +comes I feel the shadow of eternity resting cold upon me."</p> + +<p>In reply to this Lyman could say nothing; he simply said: "You haven't +lived here long, I understand."</p> + +<p>"Not long. I came from the city to look for a place where I could die +cheap. I lost my place—my brethren lost their place—we +were swept away by the machine. I am a compositor."</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you? Then I am more than glad I came."</p> + +<p>"And I am more than glad to see you. I have seen you stop at the +fence, and I managed one day to learn your name. You are making a name +for yourself; I have read your work at night and there is sunlight in +it. Ah, the old craft is gone," he said. "We sang like crickets, +laughing at the idea that a frost might come in the shape of a machine +to set type; we worked three days a week and spent our money, with no +thought of the destroyer slowly forming fingers of steel under the +lamp light. But the machine came. It was like the bursting of a shell, +and our army, the most intelligent body of craftsmen ever known, was +scattered over the face of the land. Once in a while I had a serious +moment, and I kept up my life insurance, but what is to become of the +other women and children the Lord only knows."</p> + +<p>"The picturesque old philosopher known as the tramp printer is only a +memory now," said Lyman. "I have seen him strolling along the road, +sore of foot, stubble-faced, almost ragged, hungry, but with a cynical +head full of contempt for the man of regular habits. I recall one +particularly—Barney Caldwell."</p> + +<p>"What?" cried Hillit, raising upon his elbows, "did you know old +Barney? He was once foreman of an office in Cincinnati where I was a +cub. He was comparatively young then, but they called him the old man. +And what a disciplinarian! He used to say, 'Boys, if you get drunk +with me it is your own look out, and if you don't walk the chalk line +that's my look out. Don't expect favors, because you happen to be a +good fellow.' One day, he came into the office, and after starting to +put on his apron he hesitated, and turning to a fellow named Hicks, he +said: 'Charley, I've a notion to be a gentleman once more.' Then I +heard a man standing near me say: 'There'll be a vacant foremanship in +this office within five minutes. The old man is going to take to the +road.' And he did. He resigned his position and walked out. Life was +worth living in those days, Mr. Lyman."</p> + +<p>Just at this moment Mrs. Hillit appeared at the door. "The young lady +who brought the flowers has come again," she said. Lyman looked up and +his heart leaped, for, in the hall-way, stood Eva with her hands full +of roses. She turned pale at seeing him, but with the color returning +she came forward and held out her hand. Hillit's wasted eye, slow in +movement but quick in conception, divined the meaning of the changing +color of her face, and when his wife had brought a vase for the roses, +he said: "I hope you two will talk just as if I wasn't here. And I +won't be here long, you know."</p> + +<p>"William," his wife spoke up, turning from the table whereon she had +placed the young woman's contribution, "you promised me that you +wouldn't talk that way any more."</p> + +<p>"I forgot this time," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman," said Eva, "I want to thank you again for the book. I have +read it twice, and I hope you won't think I gush when I say it is +charming. One idea was uppermost in my mind as I read it—that I +had never before heard the beating of so many hearts; and the +atmosphere is so sweet that, more than once, I fancied that the paper +must have been scented."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now," Lyman cried, "you are guying me."</p> + +<p>"It does sound like it, I admit, but really I am not. And I don't +bring you my opinion alone. Last night I induced father to read a +chapter. He read chapter after chapter, and when I asked him what he +thought, he simply said, 'Beautiful.' Wasn't that a conquest?"</p> + +<p>"It was a great kindness."</p> + +<p>"But why should you be surprised? Haven't you worked year after year +and now should a just reward come as an astonishment?"</p> + +<p>"It's all luck," said the consumptive, looking at his thin hands +lying on the counterpane. "If a man has luck early in life, he's +likely to pay for it later; and if he has bad luck till along toward +middle life, the chances are that he will pick up. I had my luck +early; I sang my song and finished it." His wife looked at him +beseechingly. "I'm not complaining," he added. "It's no more than +just. You and the young lady were speaking about a book, Mr. Lyman. +How long did it take you to write it?"</p> + +<p>"It seems now that I had to live it," Lyman answered. "The actual work +did not take long, but the dreams, the night-mares, were continued +year after year. To be condemned to write a conscientious book is a +severe trial, almost a cruel punishment, and I am not surprised that +the critics, sentenced to read it, should look upon it as an +additional pain thrust into their lives."</p> + +<p>The talk wandered into the discussion of books in general. The young +woman told of the great libraries she had visited abroad. The printer +had helped to set up a Bible and he gave an amusing account of the +mistakes that had crept into the proof-sheets. A careless fellow had +made one of the Prophets stricken with grip instead of grief, and +another one had the type declare that Moses lifted up the sea +serpent in the wilderness. The bar of sunlight passed beyond the +window ledge and the sick man fell into silence. Eva rose to go. Lyman +said that he would walk a part of the way with her. She smiled but +said nothing. They bade the invalid and his wife good-bye and passed +out into the shaded thoroughfare. A man stared at them, but a woman +passed with merely a glance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 548px;"> +<img src="images/illus296.jpg" width="420" height="600" +alt="the butter churn" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Even in a village a wonder wears away after awhile," said Lyman. +"Yes," she laughed, "our strange relationship has almost ceased to be +an oddity."</p> + +<p>They turned into a lane. He helped her across a rivulet and felt her +hand grow warm in his grasp. She looked up at him and his blood +tingled. He felt a sense of gladness and then remembered that she had +praised his book. It was a victory to know that it had broken through +her father's hauberk of prejudice. He spoke of Sawyer. She had heard +of his narrow escape from drowning; indeed, he had called at the +house.</p> + +<p>"He did not hesitate to acknowledge everything," she said, "and I +never liked him half so well as I did today."</p> + +<p>"But you couldn't like him well enough to marry him," Lyman was weak +enough to say.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I liked him because he acknowledged your generosity," she +frankly confessed. Lyman had weaknesses, and one of them was an +under-appraisal of self. At times and in some men this is a virtue, +but more often it is a crime committed against one's own chance of +prosperity. The people's candidate is the man who loudest avows his +fitness for the office.</p> + +<p>"You remember last Sunday as you were driving away from the +church—" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes—" she answered, walking close beside him.</p> + +<p>"I thought I saw your mother reprimand you for urging her to stay."</p> + +<p>"Yes. She was half inclined to yield and she was really scolding +herself for her weakness."</p> + +<p>"You went away without congratulating the preacher."</p> + +<p>"That was thoughtless. We have sent him a letter of congratulation."</p> + +<p>"How stately your house looks from here; how cool and restful."</p> + +<p>"I used to take great pride in the fact that I lived there, as I +looked at the humbler homes scattered about, but I haven't been so +foolishly proud since I came to know you."</p> + +<p>"Then that is where we must have fallen apart. I have been prouder +since I knew you."</p> + +<p>"I said foolishly proud," she replied, laughing.</p> + +<p>They came to the wooden bridge. "Well, I turn back here," he said, +halting and leaning against the rail.</p> + +<p>"Surely there would be no harm in your coming to the house," she +replied. "You are my protector," she added, with a smile. He was +beginning to dislike the word, and now he felt a heaviness settle upon +his heart.</p> + +<p>"When your father has invited me as a friend of the family, I will +come," he said, leaning over and looking down into the water. He +looked up and in her eyes he thought he saw a gentle rebuke, but it +was gone in a moment. She must have had it in her mind to tell him +that he ought to be bolder, but another feeling seemed swiftly to +come, and she said: "Your instinct is right." She held out her hand. +He grasped it, looked into her eyes, turned about and hastened toward +the town.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Gone Away.</span></h4> + + +<p>A few days later, at the breakfast table, Mrs. Staggs remarked that +Mrs. McElwin and her daughter were gone on a visit to friends and +would be absent several weeks. Lyman did not think to disguise his +concern. With an abruptness that made the cups totter in the saucers +he shoved himself back from the table and fell into a deep muse. Why +should the girl have gone away just at that particular time? Was it a +blow aimed at him? He had wanted to tell her something. It was in the +nature of a confession, not startling, not, as he now viewed it, +beyond a commonplace acknowledgment, and he wondered why he should +have suppressed it. He wanted simply to tell her that, at the time +when the joking ceremony had been performed, he had looked at her, +with his mind reverting to the sick man whose face he had seen that +day at the window, and had thought of the charm she could throw upon +the gloom-weighted scene should she step into the room. This had come +to pass; he had beheld it, and his mind had been sweetened by it; he +had walked nearly all the way home with her and had not mentioned it. +He had been too talkative as a protector and too silent as a man. And, +all day, there was a bitter taste in his mouth, and, at evening, as he +sat alone in the office he cut himself with a cynical smile. Warren +came in, bright and brusque.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've just got back from old man Pitt's," said he. "I couldn't +wait any longer, so I went. The old man was at work in the field and I +went out and told him not to disturb himself. The old lady was weaving +a rag carpet, and I told her not to let the loom fall into silence. +The girl was churning and I told her to keep at it. Ah, what a +picture, that girl at the churn. Her red calico dress was tucked up, +and her sleeves were rolled, and her hair had been grabbed in a hurry +and fastened with a thorn. She blushed and put her hand to her hair as +if she wanted to fix it, but I cried to her not to tamper with it. I +said that she might have gold pins, but couldn't improve on that +thorn; I swore that the finest hairdresser in the world would spoil +it; and she laughed and I saw the inside of her mouth—"</p> + +<p>"A rose with the bud pinched out," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"How did you know? Did you ever see the inside of her mouth? You've +hit it all right. Yes, sir, that's what you have. Well, I took hold of +the churn dasher and helped her, and she pretended to be afraid that +we might turn the churn over, and our hands came together and I felt +like throwing up my hat and dancing right there."</p> + +<p>"Did you find out as to how she stands?"</p> + +<p>"Lyman, would you believe that I weakened? I put both my hands on her +hair and I snatched a kiss from her, but she looked up at me and I +weakened; I couldn't ask her. She wasn't scared; she was astonished; +and when she looked down, I kissed the back of her neck, standing +there in full view of the world, and she shivered as if she was cold, +but her face was scarlet."</p> + +<p>"Do you call it weakening when you grab a woman and kiss her? I should +think that was rather strengthening."</p> + +<p>"I didn't find out how she stood, that is, I did not get it in words, +so I must have weakened. But I think it's all right. After dinner, +while we were in the 'big room,' she showed me a photograph of a yap +and said that it was Cousin Jerry. 'Permit me,' said I, bowing, and I +sailed the picture out into the yard where the dog lay asleep in the +sun. And there it lay, with the June bugs buzzing about it, till I +relented and went after it. I weakened in going after it, but she +pouted and I gave in. I reckon that after all, it's better not to be +so headlong. Many a fellow would have rushed the thing and spoiled it +right there. I am learning patience from you, Lyman."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't keep on learning, or you'll get the worst of it. A woman +will pardon a thing that's rash where she would look with scorn upon a +gentle stupidity. You bite like a black bass and I'm a sucker; you +leap up into the sunshine, and I lie under a rotting log. I am +inclined to think, old boy, that there is a good deal of what they +call the chump about me. You have gone to Pitt's and said more than +you intended to say. And look at me: I have not said half of what I +ought to have said. You know where to find your girl, but I have let +mine go away. And I know now that she went away in disgust. However, +I ought not to say that. It might imply that she was impatient with me +and that would mean that she was waiting for me to say something, when +in fact I don't believe she thinks of me at all, except as her +protector and friend."</p> + +<p>Warren sat nibbling at the stem of a corn-cob pipe. He stretched forth +his legs and chewed upon the stem till it cracked between his teeth.</p> + +<p>"This disposition to under-estimate yourself is where the whole +trouble lies," said Warren. "It is the only weakness I have ever been +able to find in your character. Don't you think it must be on account +of some sort of work you have done? Haven't you at some time been in a +position where everybody could come along and boss you?"</p> + +<p>"I waited in a dining-room to pay my way through college. And you have +struck it. Yes, sir, you've struck it on the top of the head. If a man +has once stood as a servant, he is, if at all sensitive, ever +afterward afflicted with a sort of self-repression. It is a sense of +independence that makes the cow-boy aggressive; it is the wear of +discipline that makes the regular soldier, long after quitting the +army, appear humble. To wear a white apron and to carry a bowl of soup +across a dining-room, one must not have had a high spirit or must have +stabbed it. I stabbed mine."</p> + +<p>"And yet you are as proud as the devil," said Warren.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I am not afraid of a pistol, but I fancy that anyone could +drive me with a teaspoon. If I am ever the father of a boy I will +teach him to work, to cut down trees, to dig ditches, to do anything +rather than to wait on another man."</p> + +<p>"But you don't regret having made the sacrifice to get the education, +do you?"</p> + +<p>"You over-rate my learning. I don't know anything thoroughly. I sailed +through with the class and put myself in a position to learn, that's +about all. But I have acquired one great piece of knowledge, which, +had I not received a regular training, might have seemed to me as the +arrogance of ignorance, and that is the fact that profound knowledge +hurts the imagination. Of course I had read this—but ascribed it +to prejudice. I know now, however, that it is true; and I would take +care not to over-educate the boy with an instinct for art. His +technique would destroy his creation. And take it in the matter of +writing. I believe in correctness, but it is a fact that when a writer +becomes a purist he conforms but does not create. After all, I believe +that what's within a man will come out regardless of his training. +There may be mute, inglorious Miltons, but Art struggles for +expression. The German woman worked in a field and had no books, but +she brought tears to the eyes of the Empress, with a little poem, dug +up out of the ground."</p> + +<p>"That sounds all right enough," said Warren, "but I don't know about +its truth. It strikes me—and I like to think about it—that, +if Nancy had been schooled and all that, she could have written about +the sweetest poetry that ever was sent out."</p> + +<p>Lyman smiled at his friend. "Education would undoubtedly assist her in +the writing of verses," said he. "The log school-house would have +given her the expression for poetry."</p> + +<p>"May be so. But I don't want her to write. She'd fill up the paper and +hurt the circulation. Sad day for a newspaper man when his wife fills +up the paper. By the way, I forgot to tell you that I had a talk with +the old man. I went out to the field with him after dinner; he was +cutting oak sprouts from among the young corn and we had quite a chat. +I reminded him of the fact that I hadn't known his daughter long, but +I gave him to understand that I was all right. I told him that the +express company had a high regard for me, and this made him open his +eyes. He gradually caught my drift, and then he leaned on his hoe and +laughed till the tears ran down his face; and I didn't have anything +to lean on, so I took hold of the hoe handle and laughed too. After +awhile the absurdity of the situation struck him, both of us leaning +on a hoe, laughing fit to kill ourselves, and then he shook me off. +But I wasn't to be put off this way. I told him I guessed I had to +have some place to laugh, and I grabbed the hoe-handle again, and went +on with my tittering. 'Young fellow,' he said, 'you just about suit +me. You won't stay shuck off, and that's the sort of a man that gets +next to me.' So we shook hands and without another word on the tender +subject we went on talking about something else. Oh, he's all right, +and the girl is too, I think. I don't know about the mother, but she +is blue-eyed and tender-looking and I think she'll give in. Have you +seen the banker lately?"</p> + +<p>"I met him in the street this morning and spoke to him, and he bowed +very politely. I've been thinking. Suppose my serial story should be +accepted and they should send me a check. How could I get it cashed +without going to his bank? And if any royalties should come from the +sale of my book, what then? There's no other way open and I'll have to +do business through his bank."</p> + +<p>"That will be all right, if the check should happen to be large +enough. Anyway, we don't do business with a bank because we like the +owner of the concern. Oh, I didn't tell you that we have an account +there already. We have about two hundred and fifty dollars over there +and we don't owe a cent."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Lyman cried, not because of the money, but that Warren had +broken the ice.</p> + +<p>"Good; I should say it is. I call it glorious. And it has come mainly +through you. Why, when you came in I was still bleeding under the +heel, you know."</p> + +<p>"It has been your business management and economy, Warren. I have done +nothing but scribble at odd times—I have played and you have +worked."</p> + +<p>"That's all right."</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't all right. Whatever success may come to this paper +belongs to you. What there is already has flowed through the channel +of your energy, and I am not going to claim half the profits. The +plant is yours, not mine. Without you the paper could not have lived a +week."</p> + +<p>"We'll fix that all right. But say, isn't it terrible to wait. I don't +mind work, but I hate to wait, and I ought not to go out yonder again +before day after tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"What, ought not to go before day after tomorrow! You ought not to go +before next week."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come, now, old man, don't say that. This thing of waiting is +awful. I think I could stand to be hanged if they'd do it at once, but +the waiting would put me out. I never could wait. And besides I don't +believe in it. One day I saw an old man at a soldiers' home and I +asked him concerning his prospects and he said that he was waiting, +and when I asked him what for, he said, 'to die.' And then I couldn't +help but ask him what he was going to do then. I don't believe in +waiting for anything; my idea is to go to it at once."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's all very well; but the old soldier was right after all, +for life is but waiting for death."</p> + +<p>"No," said Warren, "life is a constant fight against death, and we +don't wait so long if we are fighting. If I thought as you do, I +couldn't wait—I'd have to go out and hunt up death at once. I +reckon you are low-spirited today. I'm glad I'm not a writer, Lyman. +Writing saps all a man's spirit and leaves him no nourishment."</p> + +<p>"I have always regarded the necessity to write as a sad infliction," +Lyman replied. "A man steals from himself his most secret beliefs and +emotions and puts them in the mouth of his characters. He is a sham."</p> + +<p>"You ain't, old fellow."</p> + +<p>"I am a fraud. Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"I've got to stir about," Warren answered. "I have to think when I sit +still and I don't want to think. The truth is, I want to know how she +stands. I wish I had a picture of her as she stood at the churn. It +would make the fortune of a painter. Believe I'll get up a +prayer-meeting at Mt. Zion."</p> + +<p>"What, you get up a prayer-meeting?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, so I can go home with her through the woods. I think that after +a season of prayer and song she would lean toward me."</p> + +<p>"Why not wait for a thunder storm and comfort her between flashes of +lightning?"</p> + +<p>"I wish I could get up a thunder storm. I'd like for that girl to grab +me and choke me half to death. Well, I've got to stir around."</p> + +<p>Warren went away, and during all the evening Lyman sat picking a +nervous quarrel with himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Home.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman saw nothing of Warren the next day, but on the day following he +strode into the room, whistling in tuneless good humor.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," he said, as he sat down. "I went out there and found +her at the churn. I said, 'Look here, you'll drive me mad if you don't +let that churn alone—I mean with the charm of the position.' And +then she blushed, and I would have grabbed a kiss, but she shied to +one side. She scolded me somewhat for coming so soon. She said that +people would wonder what brought me out that way so often. I told her +that if people had any sense they wouldn't wonder long—they +would know that she had brought me there. Then I came out square-toed. +I told her that I had discovered early in the action that I loved her, +that I had waited long enough to be sure that it was not a passing +fancy, but a genuine case of love. I told her that her cousin Jerry +might believe in waiting, but that I did not. Then how she did blush +and shy. I looked away, to give her a chance to get herself together +again, looked out into the field where the old man was at work, and +peeped through a crack at the old lady thumping the carpet loom. I +didn't wait too long, though; I didn't want the girl to have time to +cool off completely, so I said, looking at her. 'I want you to marry +me, you understand; with my prospects I could go throughout the +country and pick up most any woman who is struck on writing verses and +essays, but I don't want one of them—I want you, and I want your +promise to tell that fellow Jerry to go to the deuce, as far as you +are concerned; and I want you to promise to wait for me a week or two +and then be my wife.' Then I thought of how tedious it would be to +wait so long and I corrected my statement by telling her that we +needn't wait at all. How she did flounce in surprise. She said she had +no idea that I cared anything for her. But I stopped her right there. +'That ain't the question,' I said, 'do you care anything for me? +That's the question.' At this she hung her head and said that she +didn't know, exactly, but that she would think about it. 'I don't +want any thinking,' said I. 'What I want is for you to tell me right +now.' Then she said something about that fool cousin. And I told her +that I would shoot him on sight and look for him at that. I started to +go away and she caught hold of me and said that if I promised not to +shoot Jerry she would tell me the next day. 'You tell me now,' said I, +'or that fellow will be a corpse before morning.' Then she agreed that +she thought she did love me a little. I told her that a little +wouldn't satisfy me—I didn't want a breeze, I wanted a storm. +She said I was hard to satisfy. She didn't think she could please me; +she knew that she didn't amount to much in the eyes of town people. +She had hoped so much to please me, and now she was grieved at her +disappointment. She acknowledged that she was afraid to love me, and I +told her that she needn't have any fear and that she might let herself +out at once. And after a good deal of talk she did. I put her arms +around my neck and made her squeeze me, and I called her a divine boa +constrictor. She didn't exactly know what I meant, but it tickled her +all the same. Then I went over into the field to consult the old man +about the time I'd have to wait, and when I mentioned day after +tomorrow he snorted. 'Young fellow,' said he, 'I like your pushing +ways, but I don't want to be crowded off the face of the earth. You +wait awhile. I don't want folks to think that I am anxious to git rid +of the best gal that ever lived.' He got next to me when he put it +that way, and I agreed to wait a week or so. Yes, sir, it's all right, +with the exception that I've got to wait. But I won't wait alone; I'll +go out there every once in awhile and make her wait with me."</p> + +<p>Lyman caught hold of him and they stood near the window, laughing, but +the laughter had more the sound of soft music than of two men in a +merry mood. They sat down in the twilight, and their cigars glowed +like the eyes of a beast, far apart.</p> + +<p>Warren's restlessness was worn away in part, and the next day and for +days succeeding he went about his work, humming what he supposed to be +a tune. Two weeks dragged along and the time for the marriage was +approaching. Every day or so the young fellow would drive out into the +country to argue with the old man. He had rented a cottage and had +furnished it and he pleaded the crime of permitting it to stand there +empty of the two hearts that yearned to inhabit it. The old man +acknowledged the logic of the argument, but swore that he could not +have it said that he was anxious to get rid of his girl; and Warren +always agreed to this, at the time of its emphatic utterance, but when +he had driven back to town, and put up his horse, a spirit of +rebellion would arise and back he would go the next day to renew the +contest.</p> + +<p>One night when Lyman went home he found old man Staggs in the +sitting-room waiting for him. "I've got something to tell you," said +the old man.</p> + +<p>Lyman's heart jumped. "Has she returned?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Has who returned?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. McElwin and her daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I reckon not."</p> + +<p>"Then what did you want to tell me?"</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you that I won't drink any more."</p> + +<p>"You told me that some time ago."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but under different circumstances. When I told you, I was sick +and wouldn't have touched a drop if a barrel full had been under my +nose; but I tell you now when I am well. Do you know the reason why I +am so strong in the faith now? Of course you don't, and that is what I +am going to tell you. I was out in the stable this evening and I found +a bottle of liquor. Blast me if I hadn't been wanting it all day. But +what did I do? I went out and threw the bottle—and the +liquor—as far as I could send it, and I heard it squash in the +street. And now I want to ask you if that wasn't nerve."</p> + +<p>Lyman summoned his patience and agreed that it was nerve, and the old +man continued. "I told my wife about it, but she didn't believe me. +And now what I want you to do is to convince her that it is a fact. +You can do it with a clear conscience, for I will swear to it. The +fact is there's going to be a reunion of the old home guard at +Downer's grove, about fifteen miles from here, and I want to go. I +went last year and—well, I fell, somewhat. But I wouldn't fall +this time, and I want you to tell Tobithy and Annie to let me go."</p> + +<p>"And what if you come home drunk?"</p> + +<p>"Lyman," said the old man, puffing up, "I have always stood as your +friend. I have got out of bed at night to argue in your behalf, and I +didn't expect no sich treatment as this. If you want to stab me, why +don't you out with your knife and pop it to me right under the ribs. +Here," he added, turning toward Lyman and smoothing his shirt tight +over his side, "stab me right here and I won't say a word; but, for +the Lord's sake, don't question my honor. Let me tell you something: I +am a poor man and in debt; I need clothes and sometimes I am out of +tobacco, but I wouldn't touch a drop of whisky for money enough to dam +the Mississippi river. That's me, Lyman, and you may wollop it about +in your mouth and chew on it. It is no more than natural that I should +want to join my old friends. Of course we were not actually in the +army, but we would have been soldiers if we hadn't been captured and +disarmed, and we have an affection for the old organization. There +ain't many of us left and it is cruelty to keep us apart. And I can't +go unless Tobithy lets me take the money. It won't require more than +five dollars. Will you assure her that I'll come home sober?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I can do that, Uncle Jasper. Understand, now, I believe +you think you'll keep sober, but the truth of it is you can't. Why, if +you didn't drink, the old fellows wouldn't be your companions."</p> + +<p>The "veteran" smoothed his shirt over his side. "Stab me," he said. +"Pop your knife under this rib—this one, right here. It will be +a mercy to me if you do. When a man out-lives his word of honor, it's +time to go and go violently. Pop it."</p> + +<p>"Your drinking doesn't amount to much, Uncle Jasper. You don't drink +viciously, but reminiscently. However, it is a crime to take money +from those women—Hold on; I know you do all you can to earn a +living; you work whenever anything comes up, but you haven't earned +five dollars in—"</p> + +<p>"I earned the money, but the scoundrel didn't pay me," the old fellow +broke in. "I've got hundreds of dollars owin' to me, but the rascals +laugh at me. I cured old Thompson's sick horse—worked with him +all night, nearly, and he gave me a dollar. Haven't earned five +dollars! the devil! How can a man earn five dollars when a scoundrel +pays him one dollar for fifteen dollars' worth of labor? The shirt +ain't very thick. The knife will go in all right. Pop it." He smoothed +his shirt and closed his eyes as if expecting the death blow.</p> + +<p>"You didn't let me get through," said Lyman. "I was going to say that +your drinking did no particular harm. To meet your old cronies and to +warm up with them is about all that is left to you of real enjoyment. +Sooner or later we all live in the past, and there can be no very +great evil in bringing the past near. So, now, if you will promise me +to come home in as good condition as you can, I will give you five +dollars."</p> + +<p>The old fellow gulped, wheeled about to hide his eyes and leant +forward with his face in his hands. Lyman slipped a bank note between +his fingers and without saying a word went up stairs. At breakfast the +next morning, which was the day of the reunion of the gallant home +guard, old Jasper was full of life and hope, but that night when Lyman +came home, he found him leaning on the gate, unable to find the latch. +"I'm all right," he said.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are," Lyman replied.</p> + +<p>"Am, for a fact. I promised to come in good shape. Here, all right."</p> + +<p>Lyman managed to get him to bed without disturbing anyone, but later +at night he heard the women lashing him with their tongues. He knew +that there was justice in the lashing and he dreaded lest they should +cut at him for abetting the crime, but they did not, for at breakfast +they smiled at him, doubtless not having discovered his complicity. +The old man was heart-sick. "I want to see you," he said to Lyman, and +leading him into the sitting-room, continued: "I have said it before, +I know, but I want to say it now once for all that I'll never touch +another drop as long as I live. Why, confound my old hide, don't I +know exactly what it will do for me; and do you think I'll +deliberately make a brute of myself? I won't, that's all. It's all +right to bring the past back, that is, for a man who can do it, but it +isn't for me, I tell you that. And I don't want to see those home +guards any more. Why, if they had taken my advice, do you suppose they +would have surrendered without firing a gun? They wouldn't. I argued +with them and swore at them, but they stacked their guns; and then +what could I do but surrender? That's neither here nor there, +though—I'm never goin' to drink another drop. Oh, I've said it +before—I know that, but it sticks, this time."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">There Came a Check.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman's book met with a favor that no one had ventured to forecast. It +did not touch the public's fad-nerve; it was too close to the soil for +that. It was so simple, with an art so sly, with a humor that, like an +essence, so quietly stole the senses, that the reviewers did not arise +in resentment against it. They had expected nothing and were surprised +to find much. Worn out with heavy volumes from the pens of the learned +and the pretentious, they seemed to find in this little book a rest, a +refuge for reverie, cooled with running water and sheltered by leaves +from the burning sun. And at night, when the author lay down to rest +and to muse upon himself, his heart did not beat with the exultant +throb of victory—it was full of a melancholy gratitude. One +morning a letter startled him. It came from a great periodical and +enclosed a check in payment for a serial story. It represented more +money than he had ever hoped to possess; he called Warren, and handed +him the piece of paper.</p> + +<p>"I can hardly trust my eyes," he said. "What do you make of it?"</p> + +<p>Warren flew into a fit of enthusiasm. "Five thousand dollars," he +cried. "And it comes from the advertising the newspapers have been +giving you. I want to tell you that advertising pays. Five thousand +dollars, and it didn't take you more than six months to write the +thing. Those fellows don't know whether it's good or not. All they +know is that the newspapers have given your other story a send-off. +Talk about newspapers; the first thing you know we'll have money +enough to paper the town. But this is all yours. No matter, I'm as +much interested as if it were mine. Say, let me have this check a +minute. I want to go across the street and show it to a fellow and +tell him to go to—He spoke of this office one day as Poverty's +Nest. Let me take it over there."</p> + +<p>"No," said Lyman, laughing, "but I'll tell you what you may do with +it—take it over to the bank and deposit it in my name."</p> + +<p>"But you'll have to come along and leave your signature."</p> + +<p>"Is that the way they do? All right; but I don't want to see McElwin."</p> + +<p>"That won't be necessary. But don't you think we'd better carry the +check around town awhile before depositing it?"</p> + +<p>"No, that would be silly."</p> + +<p>"Silly! It would be business. You let me have it and I'll rake in +fifty subscriptions before three o'clock. It's business."</p> + +<p>"No, we'll go over and deposit it."</p> + +<p>They went over to the bank, laughing like boys as they crossed the +street. McElwin had not come down. The ceremony was conducted by the +cashier, a humdrum performance to him, but to Lyman and Warren one of +marked impressiveness. They returned to the office with the air of +capitalists. At the threshold of the "sanctum" they met a man who +wanted to subscribe for the paper. Warren took his name and his money, +and when he was gone, turned to Lyman with a smile. "It has begun to +work already. The news of the deposit has flashed around town and they +are coming in for recognition. Oh, we're all right. Do you remember +those cigars you brought from the moonlight picnic? I believe I'll go +out and get some just like them. Why, helloa, here is our old friend."</p> + +<p>Uncle Buckley was standing at the door. Lyman jumped up and seized the +old fellow by the hand and led him to a chair. "Look out, Sammy," he +said with an air of caution. "Don't shake me or you'll make me spill +the things Mother has stuffed me with. These here are harvest apples," +he went on, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his brown jeans +coat and drawing forth yellow apples. "I'll jest put them here on the +table. And here is an Indian peach or two, the earliest ones I ever +saw. And look at this, a pone of cracklin' bread. Think of that, this +time of year. The fact is we killed a shote the other day. Mother +'lowed you couldn't git any sich bread in town and a feller has to +have somethin' to eat once in awhile. Now, I do wonder what this here +is," he added, tugging at his pocket. "Well, if it ain't the thighs and +the pully-bone of a fried chicken, I'm the biggest liar that ever +walked a log. Oh, I'm full up. She got up before day, mother did, and +stuffed me for an hour or more. Blamed if a peart youngster didn't +yell, 'Hi, there, sausage,' as I come in town. Now, I'm blowed if I +know what this is. Yes, sir, it's a pair of socks, knit under the +light of a tallow candle without the drappin' of a stitch. Oh, it +ain't no laughin' matter, boys; there ain't no fun in gettin' up at +four o'clock of a mornin' to be stuffed, I tell you. Well, I reckon +I'm reasonably empty now." He leaned back and looked at his cargo, +arrayed upon the table.</p> + +<p>"I'll hire a wagon and have these things taken over to the house," +said Lyman. "You tell her, bless her old heart, that I'm coming out +there pretty soon with enough stuff to smother both of you. Warren, +get those cigars."</p> + +<p>"Sure. Is there anything else we want? Uncle Buckley, don't you want +something to drink?"</p> + +<p>"Well, if you've got some right good buttermilk handy I mout take a +glass. But I don't want no licker, young man. I never touched it but +once, and then I swapped a fine young mare for an old mule, and I +swore then that I'd never tech it again. Go on and get your segyars +and I'll make a shift of burnin' one of 'em."</p> + +<p>Warren went out. Lyman feasted his eyes on the old man. "How are they +all, Uncle Buckley?"</p> + +<p>"Jest about the same. Jimmy killed the biggest black snake +yistidy—I think it was yistidy. Let me see. I know in reason it +was yistidy, for I was a splittin' some wood when he fotch the thing +along, draggin' it by the tail. Though that mout have been day before +yistidy. I believe it was day before yistidy. Anyhow it was the +biggist black snake ever killed out there since the war, but of course +in my day they killed bigger ones. He found him out in a blackberry +patch and mauled him to death. Oh, he was a snorter. That's about the +biggest piece of news I've got. Let me see. Lige met a pole-cat +somewhere in the woods and socity ain't been hankering after Lige +since then. I seen him this mornin' as I was comin' in, and I yelled +at him to keep his distance, and he did or I would have hit him. Yes, +sir, I can't stand a pole-cat. You ricollect Mab Basey, I reckon. She +run away with a feller that come to help cut wheat and they ain't seen +her sense. Oh, he married her and all that, but they don't know where +she is. Luke Brizentine didn't git over it."</p> + +<p>"What, Mab's running away?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not that. Didn't I tell you? Why, Jeff Sarver filled him so +full of shot that his hide looked like a nutmeg grater. Yes, sir. They +got into a difficulty over a steer that had been jumpin' into a field, +and he tried to stab Jeff and Jeff shot him. Made a good deal of a +stir at the time and Luke didn't live but two days, but how he could +live that long was more than we could see, and it caused a good deal +of surprise. Now, wait a minit. It was day before yistidy that Jimmy +killed the snake. Sammy, where is that man that was your partner?"</p> + +<p>"He has an office on the other side of the square."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but are you sure, Sammy, that he ain't your partner?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely certain, Uncle Buckley."</p> + +<p>The old man scratched his head. "Sammy, that man ain't honest."</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure of that."</p> + +<p>"He has fotch it home to me that he ain't, Sammy. But I don't know +that I ought to tell you about it; I reckon I ought to let it go. And +still, it wouldn't be treatin' you exactly right. He is a forger, +Sammy. Look at this."</p> + +<p>He had taken out a pocket-book and from about it was unwinding a +string, and when the string came off, he took out a piece of paper and +handed it to Lyman. It was a note for one hundred dollars and appended +were the names of John Caruthers and Samuel Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Understand, Sammy, that I don't want you to pay it; I simply want you +to know that the feller has used your name wrong."</p> + +<p>"It is a forgery," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I have been believing for some time past, but I +didn't say anything about it to mother. When you went out that day he +comes to me and says, 'We must have a hundred dollars and though we +don't like to do it we have to appeal to you. Lyman says that he +hasn't the heart to ask, so he has put it off on me.' And so, I +snatches out my wallet and lets him have the money. But I don't ask +you to pay it, Sammy."</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear old friend, do you suppose I would let you lose it? I +can pay it without a flinch; more than that, if you are in need of +money, I can let you have five times as much." He tucked the note into +his pocket and took up his check-book.</p> + +<p>"Why, Sammy, I don't know whuther to laugh or to cry or to holler when +you talk like that. But I don't need no money, and especially none +that you have raked together."</p> + +<p>"But you must take this," said Lyman, handing him a check. "It's the +first check I ever made out," he added, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Then you ain't been rich very long, Sammy," said the old man, taking +the piece of paper. "But you've writ this in jest like you are used to +it. You can't write as well, however, as Blake Peel. I reckon he's the +finest writer in this country. Why, he can make a bird with a pen, and +it looks like it's jest ready to fly—he's teached writin' school +all up and down the creek, and I reckon he's the best. But I'm sorry +about this thing, and I don't feel like takin' it."</p> + +<p>"You've got to take it."</p> + +<p>"Then I must. But you know where it is any time you want it," he said, +putting the check into his pocket. "And now, Sammy, what are you going +to do with that feller? The note wasn't signed as a firm, but your +names was put on individual, and as you didn't write your name he +forged it. What are you goin' to do with him?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Here comes Warren. Don't say anything more about it +now."</p> + +<p>Warren came in. "Uncle Buckley," said he, "here is a cigar that will +make you forget your woes."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my son. I don't believe I've got time to smoke jest now. +I'll take this thing home and crumble it up and mother and I will +smoke it in our pipes."</p> + +<p>Warren staggered. "Gracious alive, don't do that!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"All right, my son, I'll set out on a stump and burn it in the +moonlight, a thinkin' of you and Sammy. Well, I must be movin'. +Good-bye, all han's, and ricollect that my latch-string hangs on the +outside."</p> + +<p>They shook hands affectionately, and then sat in silence, listening to +his footsteps as he trod slowly down the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you light your cigar?" Warren asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't care to smoke just now," Lyman answered. "I have some +business on the other side of the square."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">Laughed at His Weakness.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman walked slowly across the public square. The lawyers, the clerks, +the tradesmen, who had become acquainted with his habits were wont to +say, as they saw him strolling about, "There he goes, blind as a bat, +with a story in his head." And they commented upon him now, but they +could see that he was not in a dreaming mood, for his head was high +and his heels fell hard upon the ground. At the edge of the sidewalk +he halted for a moment, and his eye ran along the signs over the +doors. Then he stepped up to an open door and entered without pausing +at the threshold. Caruthers was sitting with his face toward the door. +He flushed as Lyman entered, took his feet off the corner of the table +and straightened himself back in his chair. Lyman stepped up to the +table and without a word, stood there looking at him.</p> + +<p>"Well, you have come at last," said Caruthers, "I have been sitting +here day after day, waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"You expected me," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, as I say I have been waiting for you day after day. But where is +the constable? You didn't bring him along."</p> + +<p>Lyman took out the note. "The fog that settled between us," said he.</p> + +<p>Caruthers nodded.</p> + +<p>"I would have come sooner," said Lyman, "but the fog was not defined +until a few moments ago."</p> + +<p>"And I suppose your plan is to send me to the penitentiary. Tell me +what you intend to do—don't stand there looking at me that way. +Give a man a chance to defend his honor."</p> + +<p>"Honor," Lyman repeated, with a cold smile. "You haven't as much honor +as a hyena."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, let me say name."</p> + +<p>"You can say name. A snake has a name. And you want a chance to defend +yours."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lyman, I really have no defense—I'm done up. I needed money +and I put your name to that note, and if you want to disgrace my +family, why you can send me to the penitentiary. I have suffered over +it, day and night, and I am going to make the amount good if I live +long enough. You can take everything I've got in here. But I suppose +you would rather send me to the penitentiary."</p> + +<p>Lyman sat down. "When I left my office," said he, "I was angry enough +to kill you, but now you appear so contemptible that I am sorry for +you."</p> + +<p>"And I feel as contemptible as I look."</p> + +<p>"I don't think that is quite possible. If you felt as contemptible as +you look you'd blow your brains out." He got up and stood looking at +Caruthers. He put his hand to his forehead as if a troublesome thought +were passing through his mind. "Now that I am here I don't know what +to do," said he. "I know that you ought to be punished, but my old +weakness comes upon me and I falter." Caruthers brightened and Lyman +looked like an abashed criminal.</p> + +<p>"Lyman," said Caruthers, "if you have any mercy left, let me throw +myself upon it. I know that there ought to be an end to your +forgiveness, but why should you draw the line at me?"</p> + +<p>"I am a fool," said Lyman, "and it makes me blush to know that I can't +hide it from you. But you are so contemptible that I haven't the heart +to punish you."</p> + +<p>He tore the note into bits and turned toward the door, with his head +hung low. He thought that he heard something and looking back he +caught Caruthers laughing at him. His head went up; a strange light +drove the gentleness out of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you laugh at my weakness. A moment ago I didn't know what to do. +Now I know."</p> + +<p>He sprang at Caruthers and seized him by the collar—he shoved +him back and struck him in the mouth—he jerked him to his knees, +threw him upon the floor and kicked him. The cries of the wretch +brought a crowd to the door. A constable rushed in. "Get away," Lyman +commanded. "He belongs to me."</p> + +<p>"But you don't want to kill him," the officer replied. "Look, you have +knocked his teeth out."</p> + +<p>"So I have. Well, you may have him now."</p> + +<p>Warren sat in the office, smoking. "Why, what's the matter?" he asked, +as Lyman entered. "I'll bet you've got another piece of news to +suppress."</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't—we'll give it two columns. I knocked Brother +Caruthers' teeth out and I'm glad of it."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Warren cried. And then he called the office boy. "Tom, wet +down two hundred extra copies for the next edition. Oh, Samuel, you +are coming on first rate. What did he do?"</p> + +<p>"He laughed at my weakness."</p> + +<p>"Glad of it. Oh, we are prospering. Make a piece of news out of it, +and don't think about yourself. Write it in the third person. Talk +about hard times when things come this way! Why, the world is on a +keen jump. Hold on a moment. Here comes Nancy's dad."</p> + +<p>Old man Pitt came walking carefully into the room, looking about to +avoid upsetting anything. He shook hands with Lyman and Warren, looked +for a place to spit, did not find it and spat on the floor. "I seen +your little rumpus over yonder jest now," said he, "and it was +powerful entertainin'. You snatched that feller about like he wa'n't +nothin' more than a feather pillow. And I'm glad of it, for if there +ever was a scoundrel on the face of the earth he's the man. I drapped +in town today to see if there was any news goin' on, an' I bucked up +agin it the first off-start. That's what I call keepin' things lively. +Mr. Warren, our cousin Jerry was over at the house last night."</p> + +<p>"The deuce you say!" Warren exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, last night; and he apologized for havin' been a leetle +slow. He 'lowed that it had been in his mind all along to marry +Nancy—"</p> + +<p>"I'll shoot the top of his head off!" Warren broke in.</p> + +<p>"No need of that, my son. I told him that we was much obleeged for his +deliberation as the feller says, but that he was too late; and Nancy +she up and tells him that she never had thought of marryin' him, and +that she wouldn't have had him if he had asked her three years ago. +And then she 'lowed that she loved you—"</p> + +<p>"Talk about women!" Warren cried. "There's one for your life. And say, +I'll be out there tomorrow morning at eight o'clock and the ceremony +will be performed at half past eight. Just hold on, now, there's no +use in arguing with me. She was born to you, but, by George, she was +born for me, and that's all there is to it."</p> + +<p>"Young feller," said Mr. Pitt, "the day for me to buck agin you is +past. I don't mind markin' yearlin' calves and I don't hold off when +it comes to breakin' up a hornet's nest, but I stand ready and +willin' to fling up my hands when it comes to pullin' agin you. I have +been kept busy many a time in my life; I have been woke up at mornin' +and kept on the stretch pretty nigh till midnight, but you can come +nearer occupyin' all my time and the time of all my folks than any +article I ever come up against. I give in and so do the rest of them. +You can jump on a hoss and ride right out there and marry her before I +can git home if you want to."</p> + +<p>The old fellow bowed his head as if he were exhausted with the strain +of a long fight. Lyman sputtered with laughter, and Warren, his eyes +shedding the light of victory, thus addressed the old man: "I am glad +that you have at last given your consent, and I want to tell you that +you shall never regret it."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, young feller. I never squeal when a man outwinds +me, and I am as much out-winded now as if I'd been wrasselin' with a +bear. Nancy saw how the fight was goin', her and her mother, and for +the past week or so they have been makin' clothes fitten to kill +themselves, and if Nancy ain't got enough yet, why, I'll jest tell her +to put on all she's got ready and let it rip at that. Well, I'm goin' +now. I expect mebby, young feller, you'll beat me home and be married +agin I git there, but I've got nothin' to say. I know when I'm winded. +Good day."</p> + +<p>They shook hands with him, and when he was gone Warren said: "Well, +things are settling down on a fair sort of a basis. I like that old +man, Lyman, and I don't believe I'll rush him; believe I'll give them +more time to get things ready. I could go out there tonight, but I'll +wait till tomorrow morning and let the ceremony be performed at eight +o'clock. I'll get up about five and pick up a preacher on the way. +He's a poor fellow and needs the job."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Lyman cried. "I am really glad that you have decided not to +push the old man."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think it best to give him and the girl plenty of time. Don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"I rather think so. They ought at least to have time enough to wash +their faces and comb their hair. But to tell you the truth I don't +relish the idea of getting up so early."</p> + +<p>"You don't? Why, you've got nothing to do with it. Did you think I was +going to let you go? Not much. You'd guy me and that would turn the +whole thing into a farce. It's a fact that I don't want you; I may be +peculiar, but I can't help it. I tell you what you must do: We'll be +in town day after tomorrow night and I want you to come down to the +house and take supper with us."</p> + +<p>"I'll be there."</p> + +<p>"But you mus'n't guy Nancy. She'll be scared anyway."</p> + +<p>"I won't guy her. I shall feel more disposed to pronounce a +benediction."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you feel that way though we don't want the occasion to be +solemn. Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Over to old Jasper's to imprison myself in my room. I want to think."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>While Lyman was busy with Caruthers, Eva was tripping along a +grass-grown street. She and her mother had just returned. The social +relationship between the banker's daughter and the daughter of old +Jasper Staggs had not been close; Eva's visits had always been a +surprise. And on this day when Annie saw her coming, she got up in a +flutter to meet her at the door.</p> + +<p>"Why, how do you do?" Annie cried, catching her hand. "I am delighted +to see you. When did you get home? We didn't hear that you had come +back."</p> + +<p>"We returned not more than an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"Come in and put your things off."</p> + +<p>"I haven't time to stay but a few moments. Is your mother well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very well. I will call her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I'm going to remain so short a time. I was out walking and I +thought I'd stop for a moment. Is your father well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, as well as usual. I don't know where he is—out in the +garden, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Lyman here yet?"</p> + +<p>"You mean is he still in town? Oh, yes, and he boards here, but I +suppose he's at his office."</p> + +<p>"Somebody told me that he was thinking of leaving town."</p> + +<p>"That may be, but he hasn't gone yet."</p> + +<p>"Does he do most of his work here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, all but the work for the paper."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind showing me the room where he does his work? I'd like +so much to see it."</p> + +<p>"With pleasure, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>She led Eva to the room above. The young woman stood with her hands +clasped, looking at the bare walls—she looked at the chair, at +every article of meager furniture. She went to the desk and took up a +pen. "Is this the pen he writes with?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think so. Did you wish to write something?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," she answered, holding the pen. "And is that where he walks +up and down while he's thinking?" she asked, pointing to a thread-bare +pathway in the rag carpet.</p> + +<p>"It must be," Annie answered. "We hear him walking a good deal and he +always seems to be walking up and down in the same place."</p> + +<p>Eva put down the pen and turned to go. Annie looked at her narrowly. +They went down stairs and Eva did not halt until she had reached the +door. "Won't you sit down?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, thank you. I must be getting back. You must come over to see +us. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>Annie went out to the dining-room where her mother was ironing. "Eva +has just been here," she said. "All she wanted was to go into the room +where Mr. Lyman does his work. She's dead in love with him and he's +blind as a bat not to see it. I don't believe he wrote the +book—I don't believe he could write anything."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h3> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Petition.</span></h4> + + +<p>Lyman did not sleep much that night. Annie, cautioned by her discreet +mother not to say too much, had simply told him that Eva had called +and asked about him. But that was enough to keep him awake nearly all +night; and long before the table was set, the next morning, they heard +him walking slowly up and down the pathway worn in the carpet. In the +office he sat musing. The boy came in to tell him that at five o'clock +he had helped Warren on the road to be married, and that he had left +strict instructions that Lyman should be told not to forget the supper +at the cottage. The boy went out and Lyman stood at the window, +looking across at the bank. Presently he saw McElwin bow with dignity +to a man whom he met in front of the door and then enter the place. +The boy came in again and holding out a piece of "copy" written badly, +asked him to read the first line. It was a notice of the meeting of +the Chancery court. The boy returned to his work and Lyman continued +to gaze at the bank. Suddenly a smile, not altogether soft, but half +cynical, lighted up his face; and at the same instant he reached for +his hat. Straightway he went to the bank and sent his name into the +private office. McElwin came to the door.</p> + +<p>"Why, come in, Mr. Lyman," he said cordially, extending his hand. +Lyman shook hands with him and entered the room. The great clock began +to strike. McElwin looked up at it and then said: "Have a seat, +please."</p> + +<p>Lyman sat down. McElwin did not permit the silence to become +embarrassing. "Mr. Sawyer told me all about it, sir; he kept nothing +back, although he must have seen that I could not help honoring you. +Mr. Lyman, you have taught us all a lesson, sir, and I am more than +pleased to see that you are prospering. It is more than likely," he +went on, crossing his legs, "that you may soon seek some sort of +investment for your money. Idle money, sir, is like an idle +mind—a mischief to the community; and if you should desire to +invest—"</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to engage in trade," Lyman broke in. "Of course," he +added, "trade is a good thing in its way, a sort of necessity, but +the English have the right idea of it, after all—drawing a +distinction between the tradesman and the gentleman. I remember a +remark old Sam Johnson made concerning a fellow who had grown rich +enough to stop buying and selling—'he had lost the servility of +the tradesman without having acquired the manners of a gentleman.'"</p> + +<p>McElwin bit his lip. "I didn't mean any offense," he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely not, and I have taken none. By the way, Mr. McElwin, +Chancery court will meet next Monday."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I had quite forgotten it. Time does fly, sir."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and circumstances change, and men bow to circumstances."</p> + +<p>"You are quite right, Mr. Lyman. And that reminds me that I have been +forced through a change concerning Mr. Sawyer. I honor him on some +grounds, you understand, but his confession of drunkenness shocked me +greatly. In fact, sir, I am glad he did not marry my daughter."</p> + +<p>"When I spoke of the meeting of the court," said Lyman, pretending to +have paid no attention to McElwin's remark concerning Sawyer, "I +wished to remind you of the petition for divorce."</p> + +<p>"Yes, quite right," McElwin replied, uncrossing his legs and putting +out his hand as if unconsciously feeling for his dignity, to pull it +back to him.</p> + +<p>"Is the paper which your daughter signed here or at your home?"</p> + +<p>"At home, I think; yes, I am quite sure of it."</p> + +<p>"Then would you mind walking up there with me so that I may sign it?"</p> + +<p>"Why—er, not at all, sir, but we have plenty of time."</p> + +<p>"No," Lyman insisted, "it is better to have it over with; and I ask +your pardon for not having signed it sooner."</p> + +<p>The banker got up, took down his hat, brushed it with the sleeve of +his coat and announced his readiness to go. Together they walked out. +Lyman assumed an unwonted gaiety. He commented humorously upon the +tradesmen standing in their doors. The banker strove to laugh, but his +heart was not in the effort. "Yes, sir," said he, "things change and +women change, too. And I may make bold to say that my +daughter—and my wife, sir—are not exceptions to +the—er, rule."</p> + +<p>"I don't quite understand," said Lyman.</p> + +<p>"I mean, sir, that what at one time might have been distasteful may +have become a—er—matter of endearment, you understand."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I do," the cruel tormenter replied.</p> + +<p>"A woman's nature is a peculiar thing—a romantic thing, I might +almost say. My daughter is strangely influenced by romance, sir. And +her peculiar relationship to—ahem—yourself, I might +say—"</p> + +<p>"You mean that outrageous affair at old Jasper's house," Lyman broke +in.</p> + +<p>"Well, the odd—you understand—marriage. Yes, it has made +quite a different person of her, I might say. Really, I was in +hopes—it came upon me latterly, you observe, or I mean you +understand—that we might come to some adjustment—"</p> + +<p>"We will," Lyman interrupted. "I am more than willing to sign the +petition."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, and I thank you—yes, very +considerate—but my daughter has changed greatly since then, and +I have lately indulged a hope together with my wife that we might +throw open our home to you—ahem—you understand."</p> + +<p>"We can settle it today," said Lyman. "I believe you told me once that +I ought to go away, or sent some word of that sort, I don't remember +which, and I am now ready to take your advice."</p> + +<p>The banker sighed, and they walked along in silence until they came to +the gate of Eva's home.</p> + +<p>"Walk in," said McElwin.</p> + +<p>They stepped upon the veranda and Lyman saw Eva sitting in the parlor. +She came running to meet him, forgetful of everything—came +running with her hands held out.</p> + +<p>"He has come to sign the petition," said the banker in a dry voice. +"Where is your mother?"</p> + +<p>She drew back. "In the garden I think," she answered.</p> + +<p>"I will go after her," said McElwin.</p> + +<p>He walked away, heavy of foot. Eva turned to Lyman and asked him to +sit down. He did so, and she remained standing. It reminded him of the +night when they had met at the lantern picnic, only their position now +were reversed, for then he had remained standing while she sat +looking up at him. He took up a volume of Tennyson and opened it, and +between the pages in front of him lay a faded clover bloom.</p> + +<p>"A memory?" he asked, looking at her.</p> + +<p>"Yes, a beautiful memory. Some one plucked it, threw it up and it fell +in my lap—one day at the creek."</p> + +<p>He looked at her searchingly. They heard McElwin in the garden calling +his wife, "Lucy, oh, Lucy. Where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Eva, I have not been honorable with you—I have held you not as +a protector—I have held you selfishly—I love you."</p> + +<p>"Lucy, where are you?" the banker called.</p> + +<p>"I have not dared to hope that you could love me—I'm old and +ugly. But I worshipped you and I can not set you free. I told your +father that I would come to sign the paper, and I spoke sarcastically +to him, but I will beg his pardon, for I honor him."</p> + +<p>"Lucy, come here, quick!" the banker shouted in the garden.</p> + +<p>"You did not think I could love you," she said, looking at him +frankly, her eyes full of surprise and happiness; "you did not know +me. I told my mother that with you life would be joyous in a shanty. +Oh, my husband."</p> + +<p>He got up quietly, the tears streaming down his face—he held out +his arms.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Lucy, he has come to sign the paper."</p> + +<p>They were standing in the garden walk. She was almost breathless, +having run to meet him. "Oh, he must not," she said. "It will kill +her."</p> + +<p>"He is going to sign it and we must be brave. Wait here till I fetch +it," he said when they reached the rear veranda. She waited, tearful, +trembling. He came with the paper and they stepped into the parlor. +Lyman stood with his back toward them, his arms about Eva, her face +hidden in his bosom. Mrs. McElwin held up her hands and then bowed her +head with a whispered, "Thank God." The banker stood there, quickly, +but without noise, tearing the paper into bits. His wife held her arms +out toward him. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Old Ebenezer + + +Author: Opie Read + + + +Release Date: October 27, 2007 [eBook #23215] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD EBENEZER*** + + +E-text prepared by Sigal Alon, David T. Jones, Fox in the Stars, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 23215-h.htm or 23215-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23215/23215-h/23215-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23215/23215-h.zip) + + + + + +OLD EBENEZER. + + * * * * * + + OPIE READ'S + SELECT WORKS + + Old Ebenezer + The Jucklins + My Young Master + A Kentucky Colonel + On the Suwanee River + A Tennessee Judge + + Works of Strange Power and Fascination + + Uniformly bound in extra cloth, + gold tops, ornamental covers, uncut + edges, six volumes in a box, + + $6.00 + + Sold separately, $1.00 each. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: couple sitting under tree] + + +Opie Read's Select Works + +OLD EBENEEZER + +by + +OPIE READ + +Author of "My Young Master," "The Jucklins," "On the Suwanee +River," "A Kentucky Colonel," "A Tennessee Judge," "The Colossus," +"Emmett Bonlore," "Len Gansett," "The Tear in the Cup and Other +Stories," "The Wives of the Prophet." + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +Chicago +Laird & Lee, Publishers + +Copyrighted 1897, by Wm. H. Lee. +(All Rights Reserved.) + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + + 1. Sam Lyman 7 + + 2. The Noted Advocate 14 + + 3. The Timely Oracle 21 + + 4. A Fog Between Them 38 + + 5. The Belle of the Town 49 + + 6. Humbled Into the Dust 55 + + 7. The Wedding Breakfast 63 + + 8. Suppressing the News 70 + + 9. At Church 83 + + 10. The Old Fellow Laughed 91 + + 11. In the Lantern Light 100 + + 12. Wanted to Dream 112 + + 13. In a Magazine 122 + + 14. Nothing Remarkable in It 132 + + 15. Must Leave the Town 143 + + 16. Sawyer's Plan 155 + + 17. At the Creek 164 + + 18. At the Wagon Maker's Shop 174 + + 19. A Restless Night 181 + + 20. Afraid in the Dark 191 + + 21. With Old Jasper 197 + + 22. The "Boosy" 207 + + 23. After an Anxious Night 222 + + 24. At Mt. Zion 235 + + 25. At Nancy's Home 249 + + 26. Out in the Dark 262 + + 27. The Revenge 270 + + 28. A Gentleman Mule-Buyer 278 + + 29. Gone Away 294 + + 30. The Home 306 + + 31. There Came a Check 316 + + 32. Laughed at His Weakness 326 + + 33. The Petition 338 + + + + +OLD EBENEZER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SAM LYMAN. + + +In more than one of the sleepy neighborhoods that lay about the drowsy +town of Old Ebenezer, Sam Lyman had lolled and dreamed. He had come +out of the keen air of Vermont, and for a time he was looked upon as a +marvel of energy, but the soft atmosphere of a southwestern state +soothed the Yankee worry out of his walk, and made him content to sit +in the shade, to wait for the other man to come; and, as the other man +was doing the same thing, rude hurry was not a feature of any business +transaction. Of course the smoothing of Lyman's Yankee ruffles had +taken some time. He had served as cross-tie purchaser for a new +railway, had kept books and split slabs for kindling wood at a saw +mill; then, as an assistant to the proprietor of a cross-roads store, +he had counted eggs and bargained for chickens, with a smile for a +gingham miss and a word of religious philosophy for the dame in +home-spun. But he was now less active, and already he had begun to +long for easier employment; so he "took up" school at forty dollars a +month. In the Ebenezer country, the school teacher is regarded as a +supremely wise and hopelessly lazy mortal. He is expected to know all +of earth, as the preacher is believed to know all of heaven, and when +he has once been installed into this position, a disposition to get +out of it is branded as a sacrilege. He has taken the pedagogic veil +and must wear it. But Lyman was not satisfied with the respect given +to this calling; he longed for something else, not of a more active +nature, it is true, but something that might embrace a broader swing. +The soft atmosphere had turned the edge of his physical energy, but +his mind was eager and grasping. His history was that dear fallacy, +that silken toga which many of us have wrapped about ourselves--the +belief that a good score at college means immediate success out in the +world. And he had worked desperately to finish his education, had +taken care of horses and waited upon table at a summer resort in the +White Mountains. His first great and cynical shock was to find that +his "accomplishment" certificate was one of an enormous edition; that +it meant comparatively nothing in the great brutal world of trade; +that modesty was a drawback, and that gentleness was as weak as +timidity. And repeated failures drove him from New England to a +community where, it had been said, the people were less sharp, less +cold, and far less exacting. He was getting along in years when he +took up the school--past thirty-five. He was tall, lean, and inclined +toward angularity. He had never been handsome, but about his honest +face there was something so manly, so wholesome, so engaging, that it +took but one touch of sentiment to light it almost to fascinating +attractiveness. Children, oftener than grown persons, were struck with +his kindly eyes; and his voice had been compared with church music, so +deep and so sacred in tone; and yet it was full of a whimsical humor, +for the eyes splashed warm mischief and the mouth was a silent, half +sad laugh. + +It was observed one evening that Lyman passed the post-office with +two sheep-covered books under his arm, and when he had gone beyond +hearing, old Buckley Lightfoot, the oracle, turned to Jimmie Bledsoe, +who was weighing out shingle nails, and said: + +"Jimmie, hold on there a moment with your clatter." + +"Can't just now, Uncle Buckley. Lige, here, is in a hurry for his +nails." + +"But didn't I tell you to hold on a moment? Look here, Lige," he +added, clearing his throat with a warning rasp, "are you in such a +powerful swivit after you've heard what I said? I ask, are you?" + +"Well," Lige began to drawl, "I want to finish coverin' my roof before +night, for it looks mighty like rain. And I told him I was in a +hurry." + +"You told him," said the old man. "You did. I have been living here +sixty odd year, and so far as I can recollect this is about the first +insult flung in upon something I was going to say. Weigh out his nails +for him, Jimmie, and let him go. But I don't know what can be expected +of a neighborhood that wants to go at such a rip-snort of a rush. +Weigh out his nails, Jimmie, and let him go." + +"Oh, no!" Lige cried, and Jimmie dropped the nail grabs into the keg. + +"Oh, yes," Uncle Buckley insisted. "Just go on with your headlong +rush. Go on and don't pay any attention to me." + +"Jimmie," said Lige, "don't weigh out them nails now, for if you do I +won't take 'em at all." + +"Now, Lige," the old man spoke up, "you are talking like a wise and +considerate citizen. And now, Jimmie, after this well merited rebuke, +are you ready to listen to what I was going to say?" + +"I am anxious and waiting," Jimmie answered. + +"All right," the old oracle replied. He cleared his throat, looked +about, nodded his head in the direction taken by Sam Lyman, and thus +proceeded: "Observation, during a long stretch of years, has taught me +a great deal that you younger fellows don't know. Do you understand +that?" + +"We do," they assented. + +"Well and good," the old man declared, nodding his head. "I say well +and good, for well and good is exactly what I mean. You know that's +what I mean, don't you, Jimmie?" + +"Mighty well, Uncle Buckley." + +"All right; and how about you, Lige?" + +"I know it as well as I ever did anything," Lige agreed. + +"Well and good again," said the old man. "And this leads up properly +to the subject. You boys have just seen Sam Lyman pass here. But did +you notice that he had law books under his arm?" + +"I saw something under his arm," Jimmie answered. + +"Ah," said the old man, tapping his forehead. "Ah, observation, what a +rare jewel! Yes, sir, he had law books, and what is the meaning of +this extraordinary proceedin'? It means that Sam Lyman is studying +law, and that his next move will be to break away from the +school-teaching business." + +"Impossible," Lige cried. + +The old man shook his head. "It might seem so to the unobservant," he +replied, "but in these days of stew, rush and fret, there is no +telling what men may attempt to do. Yes, gentlemen, he is studying +law, and the first thing we know he will leave Fox Grove and try to +break into the town of Old Ebenezer. And it is not necessary for me to +point out the danger of leaving this quiet neighborhood for the +turmoil and ungodly hurry of that town. Now you can weigh out the +nails, Jimmie." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE NOTED ADVOCATE. + + +Lyman must long have indulged his secret study before the observation +of old Buckley Lightfoot fell upon it, for, at the close of the school +term a few weeks later, the teacher announced that he had formed a +co-partnership with John Caruthers, the noted advocate of Old +Ebenezer, and that together they would practice law in the county +seat. He offered to the people no opportunity to bid him good-bye, for +that evening, with his law library under his arm, he set out for the +town, twenty miles away. Old Uncle Buckley, Jimmie and Lige followed +him, but he had chosen a trackless path, and thus escaped their +reproaches. + +The noted advocate, John Caruthers, had an office in the third story +of a brick building, which was surely a distinction, being so high +from the ground and in a brick house, too. There he spent his time +smoking a cob pipe and waiting for clients. His office was a small +room at the rear end of the building. The front room, the remainder +of the suite, was a long and narrow apartment, occupied by the Weekly +_Sentinel_, the county newspaper, published by J. Warren, not edited +at all, and written by lawyers and doctors about town. The great +advocate paid his rent with political contributions to the newspaper, +and the editor discharged his rental obligations by supporting the +landlord for congress, a very convenient and comforting arrangement, +as Caruthers explained to Lyman. + +"I don't see how we could be more fortunately situated," said he, the +first night after the co-partnership had been effected. "What do you +think of it?" + +"I don't know that I could improve on an arrangement that doesn't cost +any money," Lyman answered. He sat looking about the room, at the +meager furniture and the thin array of books. "We've got a start, +anyway, and I don't think Webster could have done anything without a +start. Are all these our books?" + +"Yes," said Caruthers, shaking his sandy head. "That is, they are ours +as long as they are here. Once in awhile a man may come in and take +one; but the next day, or the next minute, for that matter, we can go +out and get another. The Old Ebenezer bar has a circulating library." +He yawned and continued: "I think we ought to do well here, with my +experience and your learning. They tell me you can read Greek as well +as some people can read English." + +"Yes, some people can't read English." + +"I guess you are right," Caruthers laughed. "But they say you can read +Greek like shelling corn, and that will have a big effect with a jury. +Just tell them that the New Testament was written in Greek, and then +give them a few spurts of it, and they've got to come. I had a little +Latin and I did very well with it, but a fellow came along who knew +more of it than I did and crowded me out of my place." + +Just then the editor came in. He looked about, nodded at Lyman, whom +he had met earlier in the day, and then sat down, with a sigh. + +"Well, I have got a good send off for you fellows--already in type, +but I lack eighty cents of having money enough to get my paper out of +the express office." + +No one said anything, for this was sad news. Warren continued: "Yes, I +lack just eighty cents. It's about as good a notice as I ever read, +and it's a pity to let it lie there and rust. Of course I wouldn't ask +either of you for the money: That wouldn't look very well. Eighty +cents, two forties. I could go to some of the advertisers, but an +advertiser loses respect for a paper that needs eighty cents." + +"Warren," said Caruthers, "I'd like to see your paper come out, for I +want to read my roast on the last legislature, but I haven't eighty +cents." + +Lyman sat looking about with a dozing laugh on his lips: "Are you sure +you'll not need eighty cents every week?" he asked. + +The editor's eyes danced a jig of delight. "I may never need it +again," he declared. + +"Well, but how often are you going to print a notice of the firm?" + +"I don't know. Why?" + +"Well, I didn't know but your paper might get stuck in the express +office every time you have something about us. It's likely to go that +way, you know. I've got a few dollars--" + +The editor grabbed his hand: "I want to welcome you to our town," he +cried. "You come here with energy and new life. Now, Caruthers, what +the deuce are you laughing at? You know that no one appreciates a man +of force and ideas more than I do. Just let me have the eighty, Mr. +Lyman, for I've got a nigger ready to turn the press. Now, I'm ten +thousand times obliged to you," he effusively added as Lyman gave him +the money. + +He hastened out and Caruthers leaned back with a lazy laugh. "He told +the truth about needing the money. I've known his paper to be stuck in +the throat of the press, and all for the want of fifty cents. I'm glad +you let him have it. He's not a bad fellow. He lives in the air. Every +time he touches the earth he gets into trouble." + +"So do we all," Lyman replied, "and nearly always on account of money. +I wish there wasn't a penny in the world." + +"Sometimes there isn't, so far as I am concerned," Caruthers said. +"No, sir," he added, "they keep money out of my way. And I want to +tell you that I'm not a bad business man, either. But I'm close to +forty and haven't laid up a cent, and nothing that I can ever say in +praise of myself can overcome that fact. I don't see, however, why you +should be a failure. You have generations of money makers behind you." + +"Yes, hundreds of years behind me," said Lyman. "And the vein was +worked out long before I came on. There is no failure more complete +than the one that comes along in the wake of success. But I am not +going to remain a failure. I'll strike it after awhile." + +"I think you have struck it now," replied Caruthers. "Business will +liven up in a day or two. When a thing touches bottom it can't go any +further down, but it may rise." + +"Yes," said Lyman, "unless it continues to lie there." + +"But we must stir it up," Caruthers declared. "We've got the +enterprise all right--we've got the will, and now all that's needed is +something for us to take hold of." + +"That's about so," Lyman agreed. "Unless a man has something to lift, +he can never find out how strong he is." + +And thus they talked until after the midnight hour, until Caruthers, +his feet on a table, his head thrown back, his pipe between the +fingers of his limp hand, fell asleep. Lyman sat there, more +thoughtful, now that he felt alone. At the threshold of a new venture, +we look back upon the hopes that led us into other undertakings, and +upon many a failure we bestow a look of tender but half reproachful +forgiveness. The trials and the final success of other men make us +strong. And with his mild eyes set in review, Lyman thought that never +before had he found himself so well seasoned, so well prepared to do +something. He listened to the grinding of the press, to the midnight +noises about the public square, the town muttering in its sleep. "I am +advancing" he mused, looking about him. "I was not content to skimp +along in New England, nor to buy cross-ties, nor to singe the pin +feathers off a chicken at night, nor to worry with the feeble +machinery of a dull schoolboy's head. And I will not be content merely +to sit here and wait for clients that may never come. I am going to do +something." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TIMELY ORACLE. + + +A year passed by. Caruthers dozed with his cob pipe between the +fingers of his limp hand, waiting for clients whose step was not heard +upon the stairs. But the office had not been wholly without business. +Once a man called to seek advice, which was given, free, as an +advertisement for more work from his neighborhood, and once Lyman had +defended a man charged with the theft of a sheep. The mutton was found +in the fellow's closet and the hide of the animal was discovered under +his bed; and with such evidence against him it was not expected that a +lawyer could do much, so, when the prisoner was sentenced to the +penitentiary, Caruthers congratulated his partner with the remark: +"That was all right. We can't expect to win every time. But we were +not so badly defeated; you got him off with one year, and he deserved +two. To cut a thief's sentence in two ought to help us." + +"Among the other thieves," Lyman suggested. + +"Oh, yes," Caruthers spoke up cheerfully. "A lawyer's success depends +largely upon his reputation among thieves." + +"Or at least among the men who intend to stretch the law. Let me see; +we have been in business together just one year, and our books balance +with a most graceful precision. We are systematic, anyway." + +"Yes," Caruthers replied, letting his pipe fall to the floor, "system +is my motto. No business, properly systematized, is often better than +some business in a tangle." + +Warren, the editor, appeared at the door. "Are you busy?" he asked. + +"Well, we are not in what you might call a rush," Lyman answered. "Are +you busy?" he inquired, with a twinkle in his eye. + +Before answering, Warren stepped into the room and sat down with a +distressful sigh. "I am more than that," he said, dejectedly. "I am in +hot water, trying to swim with one hand." + +"What's the trouble?" + +"Oh, a sort of summer, fall, spring and winter complaint." He took out +a note book, turned over the leaves, returned it to his pocket and +said: "I lack just sixty-five, this time." + +"Dollars?" Lyman asked. + +Warren gave him a quick, reproachful look. "Now, Judge, what airs have +I ever put on to cause you to size me up that way? Have I ever shown +any tax receipts? Have I ever given any swell dinners? Sixty-five +cents is the amount I am short, Judge, and where I am to get it, the +Lord only knows. My paper is lying over yonder in the express office, +doing no good to anybody, but they won't let me take it out and stamp +intelligence upon it. The town sits gaping for the news, with a bad +eye on me; but what can I do with a great corporation arrayed against +me? For sixty-five cents I could get the paper out, and it's full of +bright things. The account of your defense of the sheep thief is about +as amusing a thing as I ever read, and it will be copied all over the +country; it would put a nation in a good humor irrespective of party +affiliations, but sixty-five millions of people are to be cheated, and +all on account of sixty-five cents, one cent to the million." + +"Things are down to a low mark when you have to make your estimates +on that basis. One cent to the million," said Lyman with a quiet +laugh. + +"Distressful," Warren replied. "The country was never in such a fix +before. Why, last year about this time I raised eighty cents without +any trouble at all." + +"Yes," said Lyman, "you raised it of me." + +"That's a fact," Warren admitted. "But do you think the country is as +well off now as it was then?" + +"Not financially, but it may be wiser." + +"Now, look here, Judge, am I to accept this as an insinuation?" + +"How so?" Lyman asked, looking up, his eyes full of mischief. + +"Why, speaking of being wiser. I don't know but you meant--well, that +you were too wise to help me out again. You can't deny that the notice +of the partnership was all right." + +"We have no complaint to enter on that ground," Caruthers drawled. + +"Pardon me, Chancellor, but it wasn't your put-in," Warren replied. +"Your suggestions are worth money and you ought not to throw them +away. But the question is, can I get sixty-five cents out of this +firm?" + +"Warren," said Lyman, "I am in sympathy with your cheerful distress." + +"But are you willing to shoulder the debt of sixty-five millions of +people? Are you in a position to do that?" + +"No," Caruthers drawled, leaning over with a strain and picking up his +pipe from the floor. + +"Chancellor," said the editor, "as wise as you are, your example is +sometimes pernicious and your counsel implies evil." + +"Oh, I am simply speaking for the firm," Caruthers replied. "As an +individual Lyman can do as he pleases with his capital. Come in, sir." + +Some one was tapping at the door, and Lyman, looking around, +recognized the short and wheezing bulk of Uncle Buckley Lightfoot, the +oracle. He almost tumbled out his chair to grasp the old fellow by the +hand; and then, smoothing his conduct, he introduced him, with +impressive ceremony. + +"Yes, sir," said the old man, sitting down and looking about, "he got +away from us a little the rise of a year ago, and I don't think Fox +Grove has been the same since then; and it is a generally accepted +fact that the children don't learn more than half as much. Me and +Jimmie and Lige agreed on this point, and that settled it so far as +the community was concerned. And Sammy, we hear that you have got to +be a great lawyer. A man came through our county not long ago and +boasted of knowing you, and a lawyer must amount to a good deal when +folks go about boasting that they know him. And look here, my wife +read a piece out of the paper about you--yes, sir, read it off just +like she was a talkin'; and when she was done I 'lowed that maybe, +after all, you hadn't done such an unwise thing to throw yourself +headlong into the excitement of this town. And mother she said that no +matter where a man went, he could still find the Lord if he looked +about in the right way, and I didn't dispute her, but just kept on a +sittin' there, a wallopin' my tobacco about in my mouth. Yes, sir; I +am powerful tickled to see you." + +Long before he had reached the end of his harangue, Warren had taken +hold of his arm. "It was my paper your wife read it in," he said in +tones as solemn as grace over meat. "I am the editor of the paper, +and two dollars will get it every week for a year." + +The old man shrugged himself out of the editor's imploring clasp, and +looked at him. "Why," said he, "you don't appear to be more than old +enough to have just come out of the tobacco patch, a picking off +worms, along with the turkeys. But, in the excitement of the town, +boys, I take it, are mighty smart. However, my son, I ain't got any +particular use for a paper, except to have a piece read out of it once +in awhile, but I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll agree to print +some pieces that Sammy will write for you, I'll take your paper. He +was always a writin' and a tearin' it up when he boarded with me, and +I was sorry to see him wastin' his labor in that way when he mout have +been out in the woods shootin' squirrels; so if you'll agree----" + +"I print his sketches every week, and some of them have been stolen by +the big city papers," the editor cried, unable longer to restrain +himself. + +"Then I didn't know what I was missin'. Two dollars, you say? Well; +here you are, sir, and now you just rip me off a paper every week. +See if that's a two dollar bill." + +"It's a five," Warren gasped. + +"Glad it's that much; change it, please." + +"I'll go out and get it changed." + +"Don't put yourself to that much trouble. Give it to Sammy and I bet +he'll change it in a jiffy, for it don't take a lawyer more than a +minute to do such things." + +Caruthers looked up with a squint in his eye. + +"I think," said Lyman, "that we'd better let him go out and get the +change; that is, unless my partner can accommodate us." + +"I have nothing short of a twenty," Caruthers replied, shutting his +eyes. + +"Then run along, son, and fetch me the change," said the old man. "But +hold on a minute," he added, as Warren made a glad lunge toward the +door. "Be sure that the money changers in the temple don't cheat you, +for I hear they are a bad lot, and me and Jimmie and Lige have agreed +that they ought to have been lashed out long ago." + +"They have never succeeded in getting any money out of me," Warren +laughed; and as he was going out he said to Lyman: "I am going to +flash this five in the face of the Express Company. I didn't know +before that your pen was made of a feather snatched from an angel's +wing." + +"Yes, sir," Uncle Buckley began, looking at Lyman, and then at +Caruthers, "we have missed him mightily. Mother says he was the most +uncertain man to cook for she ever run across. Sometimes he'd eat a +good deal, and then for days, while he was a studyin' of his law, and +especially when he was a writin' and a tearin' up, he wouldn't eat +hardly anything. So you see he kept things on the dodge all the time, +and that of itself was enough to make him interestin' to the women +folks. We've had it pretty lively out in Fox Grove. The neighbors all +wanted me to split off and go along with them into the new party, but +I told 'em all my ribs was made outen hickory and was Andy Jackson +Democrat. But the new party swept everything and got into power; and I +want to know if anybody ever saw such a mess as they made of the +legislature." + +The old man began to move uneasily and to glance about with an anxious +expression in his eye. "Sammy," said he, "of course I know you, but I +ain't expected to know everybody." + +"Yes," said Lyman, smiling at him. + +"Well, it just occurred to me whether I wa'n't jest a little brash to +let that young feller off with that money. In the excitement of the +town he might forget to come back." + +"Don't worry; he'll be back. There he comes now." + +Warren came in, his face beaming, and gave the old man the money due +him. Uncle Buckley looked at him a moment, and then, with an air of +contrite acknowledgment, shook his head as he seriously remarked: + +"I done you an injury jest now, by sorter questionin' whether you +wouldn't run off with that change, and I want to ask your pardon." + +"Oh, that's all right," Warren laughed. + +"No, it ain't all right, and I want to apologize right here in the +presence of----" + +"All right, you may tie it on as a ribbon if you want to, but it isn't +necessary. Now you sit over here with me and tell me all about +yourself and your neighborhood, for I'm going to give you a write-up +that'll be a beauty to behold. You fellows go ahead with your nodding, +and don't pay any attention to us. But you want to listen. Come to my +sanctum, Mr. Lightfoot." + +"I reckon it's safe," said the old man, following him. Caruthers +turned his slow eyes upon Lyman. "Has that old fellow got any money?" +he asked. + +"Well, he's not a pauper." + +"Suppose we could strike him for a hundred for six months?" + +"No, he's a friend of mine." + +"But," said Caruthers, "if we are going to raise money we'll have to +borrow from friends. Our enemies won't let us have it." + +"That's true, but our enemies in protecting themselves should not be +permitted to drive us against our friends. That old man would let me +have every cent he has. But he has labored more than forty years for +his competence, and I will not rob him of a penny." + +"Rob him," Caruthers spoke up with energy. "We'll pay him back." + +"How?" + +"Oh, you know how. With a little money we can get a start. We can +rent an office on the ground floor, and then business will come." + +"Yes," said Lyman, "but I don't want that old man to be mixed up in +the excitement. Suppose we try the bank." + +"You try it. McElwin does not care for me particularly. Suppose you go +over and see him. Offer him a mortgage on our library." + +"I'll do it. Wait until Uncle Buckley has been pumped; I want to bid +him good-bye." + +"Go through there, and see him on your way out. The bank will be +closed pretty soon." + +"All right. But don't hang a hope on the result." + +Lyman shook hands with Uncle Buckley, and then went across the street +to the First National Bank, the financial pride of Old Ebenezer. The +low brick building stood as a dollar mark, to be stared at by farmers +who had heard of the great piles of gold heaped therein, and James +McElwin, as with quick and important step he passed along the street, +was gazed upon with an intentness almost religious. Numerous persons +claimed kinship with him, and the establishment of third or fourth +degree of cousinhood had lifted more than one family out of obscurity. +The bank must have had a surplus of twenty thousand dollars, a glaring +sum in the eyes of the grinding tradesmen about the public square. An +illustrated journal in the East had printed McElwin's picture, +together with a brief history of his life. The biographer called him a +self-made man, and gave him great credit for having scrambled for +dimes in his youth, that he might have dollars in middle life. That he +had once gone hungry rather than pay more than the worth of a meal at +an old negro's "snack house," was set forth as a "sub-headed" virtue. +He had married above him, the daughter of a neighboring "merchant," +whose name was stamped on every shoe he sold. The old man died a +bankrupt, but the daughter, the wife of the rising capitalist, +remained proud and cool with dignity. The union was illustrated with +one picture, a girl, to become a belle, a handsome creature, with a +mysterious money grace, with a real beauty of hair, mouth and eyes. +The envious said that circumstances served to make an imperious +simpleton of her. + +It was this man, with these connections, that Lyman crossed the +street to see. But to the lawyer it was not so adventurous as grimly +humorous. His Yankee shrewdness had pronounced the man a pretentious +fraud. + +The banker was in his private office, busy with his papers. Lyman +heard him say to the negro who took in his name: "Mr. Lyman! I don't +know why he should want to see me. But tell him to come in." + +As Lyman entered the banker looked up and said: "Well, sir." + +Lyman sat down and crossed his legs. The banker looked at his feet, +then at his head. + +"Mr. McElwin," said Lyman, "we have not met before, though I, of +course, have seen you often, but----" + +"Well, sir, go on." + +"Yes, that's what I am doing. I say that we have not met, but I board +at the house of a relative of yours, and I therefore feel that I know +you." + +"Board with a relative of mine?" the banker gasped. + +"Yes, with Jasper Staggs, and I want to tell you that he is about as +kind hearted an old fellow as I ever met, quaint and accommodating. +He is a cousin of yours, I believe." + +"Well,--er, yes. But state your business, if you please. I am very +busy." + +"I presume so, sir, but I am afraid that my business may not strike +you in a very favorable way. I want to borrow one hundred dollars." + +"Upon what collateral, sir?" + +"Mainly upon the collateral of honor." + +The banker looked at him. Lyman continued: "I feel that such a +statement in a bank sounds like the echo of an idle laugh, but I +mention honor first, because I value it most. I also have, or +represent, a law library." + +"Is it worth a hundred dollars?" + +"Well, I can't say that it is, but I should think that the library, +reinforced by my honor, is worth that much." + +The banker began to stroke his brown beard. "So you have come here to +joke, sir----" + +"Oh, not at all," Lyman broke in, "this is a serious matter." + +"It might be if I were to let you have the money." + +"That isn't so bad," Lyman laughed. "But seriously, I am in much need +of a hundred dollars, and if you'll let me have it for six months I +will pay it back with interest." + +"I can't do it, sir." + +"You mean that you won't do it." + +"You heard me, sir." + +"I realize the bad form in which I present my case, Mr. McElwin, and I +know that if you had made a practice of doing business in this way you +would not have been nearly so successful, but I will pledge you my +word that if you will let me have the money----" + +"Good day, sir, good day." + +Lyman walked out, not feeling so humorous as when he went in. He +looked up and down the dingy, drowsy street. At first he might have +been half amused at his failure, tickled with the idea of describing +it to Caruthers and the newspaper man, but a sense of humiliation came +to him. He knew that in the warfare of business his operation was but +a guerrilla's dash, and he was ashamed of himself; and yet he +reflected that his great enemy might have been gentler to him. He +walked slowly down the street, without an objective point; he passed +the group of village jokers, sitting in front of the drug store, with +their chairs tipped back against the wall; he passed the planing mill, +with its rasping noise, and in his whimsical fancy it sounded like the +Town Council snoring. He loitered near a garden where plum trees were +in bloom; he looked over at a solemn child digging in the dirt; he +caught sight of a pale man with the mark of death upon him, lying near +a window, slowly fanning himself. He spoke to the child and the +wretched little one looked up and said: "I am digging a grave for my +pa." Lyman leaned heavily upon the fence; his heart was touched, and +taking out a small piece of money he tossed it to the boy. The grave +digger took it up, looked at it a moment in sad astonishment, put it +aside and returned to his work. + +The office was deserted when Lyman returned. Caruthers had not hung a +hope on the result of the attempted negotiations. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A FOG BETWEEN THEM. + + +The following afternoon when Lyman went to the office, having spent +the earlier hours in the court house, to assure the Judge that he had +no motions to make, and no case to be passed over to the next term--he +found Caruthers with his feet on the table. + +"Getting hot," said Caruthers. + +"Is it? I thought we had been playing freeze-out," Lyman replied, +throwing his hat upon the table and sitting down. + +"Then you didn't do anything with his Royal Flush?" + +"Brother McElwin? No. He fenced with his astonishment until he could +find words, and then he granted me the privilege to retire." + +"Wouldn't take a mortgage on the library?" + +"No; he said it wasn't worth a hundred." + +"But you assured him that it was." + +"No; I had to acknowledge that it wasn't." + +"You are a fool." + +"Yes, perhaps; but I'm not a thief." + +"No! But it's more respectable to be a thief than a pauper." + +"It is not very comforting to be both--to know that you are one and to +feel that you are the other." + +"Lyman, that sort of doctrine may suit a long-tailed coat, a white +necktie and a countenance pinched by piety, but it doesn't suit me." + +"It suits me," Lyman replied. "I was brought up on it. I think mother +baked it in with the beans." + +"Watercolor nonsense!" said Caruthers. "My people were as honest as +anybody, but they didn't teach me to look for the worst of it." + +"But didn't they teach you that without a certain moral force there +can be no real and lasting achievement?" + +Caruthers turned and nodded his head toward the bank. "Is there any +moral force over there? Did you notice any saintly precepts on his +wall? I don't think you did. But wasn't there many a sign that said, +'get money'?" + +"Caruthers, you join with the rest of this town in the belief that +McElwin is a great man. I don't. He is a community success, a +neighborhood's strong man, but in the hands of the giants who live in +the real world he is a weakling." + +"He is strong enough, though, not to tremble at the sound of a +footstep at the door, and that's exactly what we sit here doing day +after day. The joy of the hoped-for client is driven away by the fear +of the collector." He was silent for a moment, and then he said: "I +don't feel that there's any advantage in being hooked up with a +saint." + +"I don't know," Lyman replied. "I never tried it." + +"I have," said Caruthers, looking at him. + +Lyman laughed and rubbed his hands together. "You are the only one +that has ever insinuated such a compliment, if you mean that I am a +saint. But I hold that there's quite a stretch between a saint and a +man who has a desire simply to be honest. Saint--" He laughed again. +"Why, the people where I was brought up called me a rake." + +"They were angels. But why don't you say where you were 'raised.' Why +do you say 'brought up?' You were not brought up; you were raised." + +"Yes, that's true, I guess. But we raised vegetables where I was +brought up." + +"Cabbages?" + +"Yes, some cabbages. Round about here, though, they appear to make +pumpkins more of a specialty. But come a little nearer with your +meaning concerning the saint. I take it that you are tired of the +partnership. Am I right?" + +"Well," Caruthers spoke up, "we haven't done anything and we have no +prospects." + +"You are right," said Lyman. "But I am poorer and you are about as +well off as you were." + +"Do you mean to insinuate--" + +"Oh, I don't insinuate, though it's a habit among the people where I +was brought up." + +"If you don't insinuate, what then? what do you mean?" + +"That you've got about all the money I had." + +"The devil, you say!" + +"I didn't mention the devil. I didn't think it was necessary to speak +in the third person of one who is already present." + +Caruthers started and took his feet off the table. Lyman regarded him +with a cool smile. + +"Lyman, I thought that we might have parted friends." + +"We can at least part as acquaintances," Lyman replied. "Until a few +moments ago I was willing to stand a good deal from you; that part of +your principles that I do not like I was willing to ascribe to a +difference of opinion, but just now you called me a fool because I had +refused to declare those books to be worth a hundred dollars. Up to +that time we might have parted in reasonably good humor, but since +then I haven't thought very well of you. And you'll have to take it +back before you leave." + +"You say I'll _have_ to take it back." + +"Yes, that's what I said." + +"I never had to take anything back." + +"No? Then you are about to encounter a new phase of life. Singular, +isn't it, that we never know when we are about to stumble upon +something new." + +"You don't mean----" + +"I don't know that I do. But I mean that you'll take that back or +carry away a thrashing that will make you stagger. Did you ever see a +man wabbling off after a thrashing that he was hardly able to carry? +Sad sight sometimes. The last man that I whipped weighed about forty +pounds more than I do. He presumed on his weight. But he soon found +out that his flesh was very much in his way. He was a saw mill man and +a bully; and it so tickled Uncle Buckley that nothing would do but I +must come to his house and live as one of the family. Out at Fox Grove +a man who won't be imposed upon stands high." + +"Lyman, I don't want any trouble, and----" + +"Oh, it won't be any trouble." + +"And I acknowledge that I was hasty. I take it back, and here's my +hand on it." + +"I'm obliged to you for taking it back, Caruthers, but I don't want to +take your hand. I don't understand it, but a spiritual something seems +to have arisen between us." + +"All right," said Caruthers, "but I hope we don't part as enemies." + +"Oh, no, not as enemies. You speak of parting as if you were the one +who has to vacate." + +"Yes, I have rented an office over on the other side of the square, on +the ground floor." + +"It is very kind of you to leave me here," said Lyman. "You might have +ordered me out. I am glad you didn't." + +"Such a proceeding could never have entered my head," Caruthers +replied. "In fact, I thought that if the separation must come you +would rather stay here. You appear to have a fondness for that +clanking old press out there." + +"Yes, I can make it grind out my rent. When are you going to vacate +the premises?" Lyman asked, his grave countenance lighted with a +smile. + +"Now, or rather in a very few minutes." + +"Is there anything holding you?" + +"Come Lyman, old man, don't jog me that way. And I wish you wouldn't +look at me with that sort of a smile. Everybody says you have the +kindest face in the world----" + +"Without a bristle to hide its sweetness," Lyman broke in. + +"Yes," Caruthers assented, "the innocence of a boy grown to manhood +without knowing it." + +"And you have remained to tell me this?" + +"Oh, I'll go now," said Caruthers, getting up. + +"I wish you would. Up to a very short time ago I thought you one of +the most whimsically entertaining men I ever met, but as I said just +now, a spiritual disparagement has arisen between us, a thick fog, and +I wish you would clear the atmosphere." + +"Well," said Caruthers, "I am off. I don't know what to take with me," +he added, looking about. "I suppose I owe you more or less, and I'll +leave things just as they are until I am prepared to face a +statement." + +"All right. Good day." + +"But you won't shake hands?" + +"Yes, through the fog," said Lyman, holding out his hand. Caruthers +grasped it, dropped it, as if he too felt that it came through a fog, +and hastened out. Just outside he met Warren coming in. "What's he +looking so serious about?" the editor asked. + +"Sit down," said Lyman. "Don't take the chair he had--the other one, +that's it. Well, we have split the law trust and he goes across the +square to open a new office." + +"Is that so? Well, I reckon there's a good deal of the wolf about him. +Yes, sir, he has seen me bleeding under the heel of the Express +Company, without so much as giving me the----" + +"Moist eye of sympathy," Lyman suggested. + +"That's all right, and it fits. Say, you are more of a writer than a +lawyer. And that's exactly in line with what I came in to tell you. I +got a half column ad. this morning from a patent medicine concern in +the North, and they want an additional write-up. It all comes through +your sketches." + +"Do you think so?" + +"I know it. A drummer told me this morning that he had heard some +fellows talking about my paper in a St. Louis hotel, the best hotel in +the town, mind you--and I can see from the exchanges that the +_Sentinel_ is making tracks away out yonder in the big road. And it's +all owing to that quaint Yankee brain of yours, Lyman. Yes, it is. +Why, the best lawyers in this town have written for my paper. The +Circuit Judge reviewed the life of Sir Edmond Saunders, whoever he +was, and Capt. Fitch, the prosecuting attorney, wrote two columns on +Napoleon, to say nothing of the hundreds of things sent in by the bar +in general, and it all amounted to nothing, but you come along in the +simplest sort of a way and make a hit." + +"I'm glad you think so." + +"Oh, it's not a question of think; I know it. And now I'll tell you +what we'll do. We'll let this law end of the building take care of +itself and we'll give our active energies to the paper. You do the +editing and I'll do the business. You put stuff into the columns and +I'll wrestle with the express agent. And I'll divide with you." + +"Warren," said Lyman, getting up and putting his hands on the +newspaper man's shoulders, "there's no fog between you and me." + +Warren looked up with a smile. He was a young fellow with a bright +face, and the soft curly hair of a child. "Fog? No, sunshine. There +couldn't be any fog where you are, Lyman. I'm not much of a scholar. +I've had to squirm so much that I haven't had time to study, but I +know a man when I see him, and I don't see how any woman could give +you much attention without falling in love with you, hanged if I do." + +Lyman blushed and shook him playfully. "I am delighted to pool +distresses with you," he said, "but don't try to flatter me. Women +laugh at me," he added, sitting down. + +"No, they laugh with you. But that's all right. Now, let's talk over +our prospects." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE BELLE OF THE TOWN. + + +Once in a long while Banker McElwin made it a policy to gather up a +number of his boastful relations, reinforced by a number of friends, +and then conduct the party to the house of another kinsman, where he +would give them an evening of delight. He did not give notice of these +gracious recognitions, preferring to make the event sweeter with +surprise. On his part it was a generous forgetfulness of +self-importance--it was as if a placid and beneficent moon had come to +beam upon a cluster of stars. To the men he would quote stocks, as if, +a lover of letters, he were giving a poem to a "mite society." Upon +the ladies he would smile and throw off vague hints of future silks +and fineries. + +One evening this coterie gathered at the home of Jasper Staggs. Old +Jasper, in his earlier days, had been a town marshal, and it was his +boast that he had arrested Steve Day, the desperado who had choked +the sheriff and defied the law. This great feat was remembered by the +public, and old Jasper nursed it as a social pension. But it did not +bring in revenue sufficient to sustain life, so he made a pretense of +collecting difficult accounts while his wife and "old maid" daughter +did needlework and attended to the few wants of one boarder, Sam +Lyman. The "banker's society" recognized the Staggs family in the +evening of the day which followed Sam Lyman's call at the First +National, and was in excitable progress while Lyman, in ignorance of +it all, prolonged his talk with Warren. In the family sitting room the +banker talked of the possibility of a panic in Wall Street. In the +parlor the younger relatives were playing games, with Annie Staggs, +the old maid, as director of ceremonies. After a time they hit upon +the game of forfeits. Miss Eva McElwin, the great man's daughter, fell +under penalty, and the sentence was that she should go through the +ceremony of marriage with the first man who came through the door. At +that moment Sam Lyman entered the room. He was greeted with shouts and +clapping of hands, and he drew back in dismay, but Miss Annie ran to +him and led him forward. Eva McElwin, with a pout, turned to some one +and said: + +"What, with that thing?" + +"Oh, you've got to," was shouted. "Yes, you have." + +"Well, what is expected of me?" Lyman asked. + +"Why," Miss Annie cried, "you've got to marry a young lady, the belle +of Old Ebenezer." + +He had often gazed at the girl, in church, had been struck by her +beauty, but had shared the belief of the envious--that she was a +charming "simpleton." + +"Well, don't you think you'd better introduce us?" + +"Oh, no, it will be all the funnier." + +"Marry, and get acquainted afterwards, eh? Well, I guess that is the +rule in society. I beg your pardon," he added, speaking to Miss +McElwin, "for not appearing in a more appropriate garb, but as there +seems to be some hurry in the matter, I haven't the time nor the +clothes to meet a more fashionable demand. I am at your service." + +He offered his arm and the girl took it with a laugh, but with more of +scorn than of good humor. + +"Take your places here," Miss Annie said. And then she cried: "Oh, +where is Henry Bostic? We'll have him perform the ceremony. He'll make +it so deliriously solemn." She ran away and soon returned, with a +young man serious enough to have divided the pulpit with any circuit +rider in the country. + +The ceremony was performed, and then began the congratulations. "Oh, +please quit," Miss McElwin pleaded. "I'm tired of it. Zeb," she said, +turning to a bold looking young man, "tell them to quit." + +"Here," he commanded, "we've got enough of this, so let's start on +something else. Let's play old Sister Phoebe. Why the deuce won't they +let us dance?" + +"Henry," said Miss Annie, stepping out upon the veranda with the +serious young man, "they always called you queer, but I must say that +you know how to perform a marriage ceremony." + +"I trust so," he answered. + +"You do; and when you are ordained----" + +"I was ordained this morning." + +"What!" she cried. "Then the marriage came near being actual. It only +required the license." + +"The last legislature repealed the marriage license law," he replied. + +"Mercy on me!" she cried. + +"Mercy on them," said the young man who had been regarded as queer. + +She took hold of a post to steady herself. She heard the deep voice of +the banker; the droning tone of "Old Sister Phoebe" came from the +parlor. + +"Don't tremble so. It can't be helped now," said the young man. "It's +nothing to cry about. How did I know? You said you wanted me to +perform a marriage ceremony, and I did. How did I know it was in fun? +You didn't say so. The father and mother were in the other room. They +could have come in and objected. How did I know but that they had +given their consent, and stayed in the other room for sentimental +reasons? I am not supposed to know everything." + +"Oh, but who will tell Cousin McElwin?" she sobbed. "And who will tell +Zeb Sawyer? Oh, it's awful, and it's all your fault, and you know it. +You are crazy, that's what you are." + +"Well, you can exercise your own opinion about that. You people have +all along said that I would never do anything, but if I haven't done +something tonight to stir up the town----" + +"Oh, you malicious thing. I don't know what to do! Oh, I don't know +what is to become of me!" + +"It's all very well to cry, for marriages are often attended by tears, +but you should not call me malicious. Mr. McElwin laughed when my +mother told him I was going to preach, and it almost broke her heart." + +"Revengeful creature," she sobbed, clinging to the post. + +"No, the Gospel is not revengeful, but it humbles pride, for that is a +service done the Lord. Step in there and see if Mr. McElwin has +anything to laugh about now. He laughed at my poor mother when he knew +that all her earthly hope was centered in me. Well, I'll bid you good +night." + +"Oh, no," she cried, seizing him. "You shall not leave me to face it +all. You shall not." + +"No, that wouldn't be right. I'll face it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HUMBLED INTO THE DUST. + + +Lyman found favor with the company, that is, with the exception of Eva +McElwin, whose position demanded a certain reserve. He had sought to +engage her in conversation, and she had listened as if struck with the +tone of his voice, but she turned suddenly away, remembering, +doubtless, that she was present as an act of condescension, and that +for the time being she was the social property not of any stranger, +but of her "poor kin." Lyman looked after her with a smile and a merry +twinkle of mischief in his eye. He had heard it said that her +complexion was of a sort that would never freckle, and he was amused +at his having remembered a remark so trivial. He had looked into her +eyes, had plunged into them, he fancied, for she had merely glanced up +at him: and he thought of the illumined-blue that mingles in the +rainbow, and he mused that he had never seen a head so fine, so +gracefully poised. And then he speculated upon the petulant waste of +her life. Almost divine could have been her mission; what a balm in a +house of sickness and distress. He thought of the pale man whom he had +seen lying near the window; he fancied himself thus doomed to lie and +waste slowly away, and he pictured the delight it would be to see her +enter the room, like an angel sent to soothe him with her smile. She +turned toward him to listen to a worshiping cousin, and Lyman saw her +lips bud into a pout, and it was almost a grief to see her so spoiled +and so shallow. + +"Well, I see you are getting acquainted right along," said Zeb Sawyer, +speaking to Lyman. "A man doesn't have to live here long before he +knows everybody. But I'm kept so busy that I haven't much time for +society." + +"What business are you in?" Lyman asked. + +"Mules; nothing but mules. Oh, well, occasionally I handle a horse or +so, but I make a specialty of buying and selling mules. Good deal of +money in it, I tell you. McElwin used to do something in that line +himself. Yes, sir, and he paid me a mighty high compliment the other +day--he said I was about as good a judge of mules as he ever saw, and +that, coming from a man as careful as he is, was mighty high praise, I +tell you. Helloa, what's up?" + +From the family sitting room had come a roar and a noise like the +upsetting of chairs. And into the parlor rushed McElwin, followed by +his wife, Staggs, Mrs. Staggs, and the white and terrified Miss Annie. + +"A most damnable outrage!" McElwin shouted, making straight for Lyman. +"I mean you, sir," he cried, shaking his fist at Lyman. "You, sir. You +try to bunco me and now you conspire with an imbecile to humble me +into the dust. I mean you, sir. You have married my daughter. That +fool is an ordained preacher, and your sockless legislature did away +with marriage licenses." + +Lyman looked about and saw Miss Eva faint in her mother's arms; he saw +terror in the faces about him, and his cheek felt the hot breath of +Sawyer's rage. He stepped back, for the banker's hand was at his +throat. + +"Pardon me," he said, with a quietness that struck the company with a +becalming awe. "Pardon me, but I did not know that there was any +conspiracy. Is there a doctor present? If there's not, send for one +to attend the young lady." + +Some one ran out. McElwin stood boiling with fury. Sawyer thrust forth +his hand. Lyman knocked it up. "I will not step back for you," he +said. "I have committed no outrage and I am not here to be insulted +and pounced upon. Mr. McElwin, you ought to have sense enough to look +calmly upon this unfortunate joke." He turned, attracted by a wail +from Mrs. McElwin. Again he addressed the banker, now not so furious +as awkwardly embarrassed. "They were playing and the young lady was to +go through the marriage ceremony with the first man to enter the room, +a common farce hereabouts, as you know; and I was the first man to +enter. Don't blame me for a playful custom, or the action of a +populist legislature." + +"That may be all true, sir, but how could you presume, even in fun, to +stand up with her? How is she?" he demanded, turning toward a woman +who had just come from a room whither they had taken the "bride." + +"Oh, she is all right. She was more scared than hurt." + +He gave her a look of contempt, as if he had been hit with a sarcasm; +and then he addressed himself to Lyman. "I ask, sir, how you could +presume to stand up with her?" + +"Well, I was told that I had to." + +"And you were willing enough, no doubt." + +"I didn't hang back very much; they didn't have to tear my clothes." + +"But I wish they had torn your flesh, as you have torn mine. Who ever +knew of so disgraceful and ridiculous a situation? It beats anything I +ever heard of." + +"But it can be made all right," said old man Staggs. "Nobody's hurt." + +"We can get a divorce," Zeb Sawyer suggested. + +"Yes," said Lyman, "but our friends, the populists, have enacted +rather peculiar divorce laws. And without some vital cause, the +application must be signed by both parties. It's in the nature of a +petition." + +"Well, that can be arranged," McElwin declared, with a sigh. "Annie, +is Eva better?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Thank you. And you must pardon me for talking to you as I did just +now, for I was never so upset in my life. Cousin Jasper, I wish you +would have my carriage ordered. Annie, tell Mrs. McElwin that we will +go home at once. Mr. Lyman, let me see you a moment in private." + +Lyman followed him out upon the veranda. He had not analyzed his own +feelings, but he was conscious of a strange victory. + +"Mr. Lyman, you came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, I can let you have it." + +"No, I thank you." + +"What, you don't want it?" + +"Well, it wouldn't look exactly right for a rich man's son-in-law to +borrow money so soon after marriage." + +"Confound your impudence, sir--I beg your pardon." + +"I thank you," said Lyman. + +"You thank me? What for?" + +"For begging my pardon." + +"Come, that is all nonsense, Mr. Lyman. Tell my wife that I'll be +ready in a moment," he shouted with his head thrust in at the door. +"The most absurd of nonsense," he said, turning back to Lyman. "It +will raise a horse laugh throughout the county, and will then be +dismissed as a good joke on me. Yes, sir, on me. And now will you +agree to conform to the requirements of that ridiculous legislature, +and sign the petition to the court?" + +"I haven't been informed that the legislature requires me to sign any +petition. And I have no favors to ask of the court." + +"Is it possible, Mr. Lyman, that you do not see the necessity of it?" + +"And is it possible, Mr. McElwin, that you do not see the humor of +it?" + +"The absurdity, yes. But I see no fun in it. I am a dignified man, +sir." + +"Of course you tell me this in confidence--that you are a dignified +man. All right--I won't say anything about it. But even dignity +sometimes stands in need of advice. Go home and get a good night's +sleep." + +"Do you mean that you won't agree--" + +"Not tonight." + +"Mr. Lyman, I have heard that you are one of the kindest hearted of +men." + +"Oh, then you have heard of me? And I was not an entire stranger when +I called at your bank? Yes, I suppose I have been what they were +pleased to term a good fellow, and it strikes me that I have got the +worst end of the bargain all along; so now, for once in my life, I am +going to be mean. I will not sign your petition, Mr. McElwin." + +"What, sir, do you mean it?" + +"Yes, I mean it. I cannot afford to surrender a position so +deliciously absurd." + +"Then I will compel you, sir." He began to choke with anger. + +"All right. I suppose you will invite me to be present." + +"I will compel you to leave this town." + +"What! After forming so strong an attachment?" + +"You are not a gentleman, sir." + +"No? Well, I have married into a pretty good family." + +"I will not bandy words with you. But I will see you, and perhaps when +you least expect it." + +"Very well. Good night, and please remember that there is no humor in +the law, that the statutes do not recognize a joke, and that, for the +present at least, the young woman is my wife." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WEDDING BREAKFAST. + + +At the breakfast table the next morning old man Staggs spread himself +back with a loud laugh as Lyman entered the room. His wife looked at +him with sharp reproof. + +"Jasper, you ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said. "It is a sin +to laugh at a trouble. Sit down, Mr. Lyman." + +"Cousin Sam," said Lyman, and the old man roared again. "Well, sir," +he declared, with the tears streaming out of his eyes, "I never saw +anything like it in my life. It knocked him, knocked him prosperous, +as old Moxey used to say. Best joke I ever heard of." + +"Jasper, don't," his wife pleaded. "For my sake don't. I am afraid +he'll never speak to us again." + +"Well, what of that? Can we coin his words and pass them for money? +And he has never given us anything but words. He has been promising +Annie a silk dress since she was fourteen. Won't speak to us again. +What do you want? More promises? I'm gettin' tired of 'em. Why, he has +even flung ridicule on my arrest of that desperate man, the most +dangerous fellow that ever trod shoe leather. And, as Mr. Lyman don't +appear to be upset, I'm glad the thing happened." + +"But nearly all the blame falls on me," Miss Annie whimpered. "I am +afraid ever to meet him again." + +"Oh, you are afraid he won't make you another promise. Well, that +would be a terrible loss. Lyman, jest help yourself to that fried ham. +Tilt up the dish, and dip out some of the gravy. Sorry we haven't got +cakes and maple syrup; wish we had some angel's food. Rather a strange +weddin' breakfast with the bride not present." + +"Did--did Mrs. Lyman entirely recover before she was taken home?" +Lyman asked. + +Miss Annie looked up. "I think it was nearly all put on," she said. + +"Why, Annie Milburn Staggs!" her mother exclaimed. "How can you say +such a thing! I don't know what's come over you and your father. I'm +getting so I'm afraid to hear you speak, you shock me so." + +"That's right, Annie," said the old man. "Say exactly what you think. +To tell the truth, I'm gettin' sorter tired of bein' trod under by the +horse that McElwin rides. And if I was you, Lyman, I'd stand right up +to him." + +"That's about where you'll find me standing. I am sorry for the young +woman, but--" + +"Don't worry over her," Miss Annie spoke up. "I believe she's laughing +alone right now over the absurdity of it. Why, anybody would, and +she's no more than human." + +"I suppose she denounced me," said Lyman. + +"Yes, in a way. She had to keep time with her mother. But they are +madder at Henry Bostic than at anyone else. And really, he's the only +one that's guilty. But I don't blame him much. The McElwins have +always made fun of him." + +"What are you going to do, Lyman?" the old man asked. + +"Nothing. I am satisfied." + +"Don't say that, Mr. Lyman," the old woman pleaded. "Don't distress a +proud family." + +"Madam," Lyman replied, "I am ready to kneel and beg the pardon of a +heart in distress, but senseless pride doesn't appeal to me. I can +compare families with the McElwins when it comes to that, and putting +my judgment aside, I can be as proud as they are. They have money, but +that is all, and they would be but paupers compared with the really +rich. There are no great names in their family, while from my family +have sprung orators, novelists and poets." + +"Good!" Miss Annie cried. "I like to look at you when you talk like +that." + +"I'll bet you ain't afraid of nobody," the old man declared. "I never +saw an eye like yourn that was afraid, and a face, nuther. Oh, when it +comes to looks, you are there all right. Well, sir," he added, "the +town's stirred up. Old Ebenezer is all of a titter. Afraid to laugh +out loud, but she's tickled all the same." The old man leaned back +with a chuckle, and in his merriment he slowly clawed at the rim of +gray whiskers that ran around under his chin. "I like to see a town +tickled," he said. + +"Never mind, Jasper," his wife spoke up, "your pride may be humbled +one of these days." + +"My pride," he laughed. "Why, bless you, I haven't any pride. Cousin +McElwin knocked it all out of me when he said, and right to my face, +that anybody could have arrested the man that choked the sheriff. I +knowed then that something was going to happen to him. Knowed it as +well as I knowed my name." + +The old woman's hand shook and her cup rattled in the saucer as she +put it down. "I hope the Lord will forgive you for bein' so +revengeful," she said. + +"Don't let that worry you, Tobitha," he replied, rubbing his rim of +gray bristles. "The Lord takes care of his own, and I reckon your +prayers have made me one of the elected." + +"One of the elect, father," said Miss Annie. + +"All the same," the old man replied. "Why, just look," he added, +glancing through the window--"Just look at the folks out there gazin' +at the house. Oh, we live in the center of this town, at present." + +"Annie," said the old woman, "pull down the shade. The impudent +things!" + +"I don't believe I would," the old man tittered as his daughter arose +to obey. "It ain't right to rob folks of a pleasure that don't cost us +nothin'." + +"There's that vicious Mrs. Potter," said Annie, and with a spiteful +jerk she pulled down the shade. "We will shut off her malicious view." + +"It is to be expected that a bridegroom should be an object of +interest," Lyman remarked. "I awoke last night and thought that I +heard sleet rattling at the window, but recalling the time of year I +knew that it was rice thrown in showers by my friends." + +The old lady looked at Lyman: "I am sorry that you're not more +serious," she said. + +"Serious," Lyman repeated with a twinkling glance at the old man. "I +have done everything I can to prove that I am serious. I have just +been married." + +"Oh, you got it that time, Tobitha. Got it, and I knowed you would." + +"Jasper, for goodness sake, hush. Annie, come away from there, a +peepin' through at those good-for-nothin' people. They'd better be at +work earnin' a livin' for their families, gracious knows. Are you +going?" she asked as Lyman arose. + +"Yes, to my office, to work for the _Sentinel_. I am the editor, +now." + +"Why, you didn't tell us that," said Annie, turning from the window. + +"My mind has been engaged with more important matters," he replied, +with his hands on the back of the chair, smiling at her. "It was only +yesterday that Warren offered to join his misfortune with mine." + +The old woman sighed: "I hope you'll be careful not to say things in +the street to stir up strife," she said. + +"Strife," the old man repeated with a laugh. + +"Yes, strife," she insisted. "There are any number of men that would +like to get him into trouble, just to please Cousin McElwin." + +"I think I can take care of myself," said Lyman, putting on his hat. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SUPPRESSING THE NEWS. + + +Lyman found Warren almost in hysterical glee, treading air up and down +the office. "Ho!" he cried, as the bridegroom entered the office. "Let +me get hold of you. Ho!" he shouted louder as he shook Lyman's hand. +"Maybe we haven't got the situation by the forelock. Who ever heard of +such a thing! Shake again. I didn't hear about it till awhile ago, and +then I took a fit and caught another one from it. Glad I held the +paper in line with the Grangers." + +"Let me sit down," said Lyman. + +"That's exactly what you must do, and write like a horse trotting. +I've left two columns open, and I want you to spread yourself." + +"Something important?" Lyman asked, sitting down. + +"Now, what do you want to talk that way for? It's a world beater." + +"What do you mean?" + +"The marriage, don't you understand? Make two columns out of it and +I'll get fifty subscribers before night. Hurry up, I've got a tramp +printer waiting for the copy." + +"Nonsense," said Lyman, lighting a cigar. "You wouldn't expect a man +to write up his own marriage, any more than you would his own +funeral." + +"If his funeral was as extraordinary as this marriage I would. Finest +piece of news I ever heard of. Never heard of anything to beat it; and +we'll make the hair rise up in this community like bristles on a dog. +Go ahead with it. The tramp's waiting and I am paying him time." + +"Sit down," said Lyman. Warren did so reluctantly. Lyman put his hand +on the young man's shoulder. "My dear boy," said he, "don't you know +it would be very indelicate, not to say vulgar, for us to print a +sensational account of that marriage? For a day it might be a news +victory, but afterwards it would be a humiliating defeat. To tell you +the truth, I am about ready to confess my regret that it happened." He +was silent for a moment, as if to take note of Warren's hard +breathing. "And if McElwin had come to me more as a man and less like +a mad bull I would have agreed to sign the divorce petition. But I +don't like to be driven. I am sorry to disappoint you; it is hard to +throw cold water on your warm enthusiasm, but I won't write a word +about the marriage." + +Tears gathered in Warren's eyes. "This life's not worth living," he +said. "Nothing but disappointment all the time. No hope; everything +dead." + +"But you shouldn't hang a hope on a poisonous weed, my boy." + +"No matter where I hang one, it falls to the dust. But say, you are +not going to sign that paper, are you?" + +"Not at present. I am man enough to be stubborn." + +"Good!" Warren cried, his wonted enthusiasm beginning to rise. "Don't +sign it at all. You've got him on the hip, and you can throw him where +you please. I've been waiting two years to get even with him. He +stopped his paper because I printed a communication from a farmer +denouncing money sharks. All right," he said, getting up, "we can make +the paper go anyway. I'll put that tramp on another job." + +He went out with a rush and the high spirits of glorious and +thoughtless youth. Lyman went to the window and gazed over at the +bank. The place looked cool and dignified, the province of a bank when +other places of business have been forced to an early opening. Lyman +smiled at the reflection that there was no crape on the door, as if he +had half expected to find it there. "He couldn't let me have a hundred +dollars when I offered to give him a mortgage on the library," he +mused. "Said he couldn't, but he was willing enough to offer the money +in exchange for another sort of mortgage. I suppose he thinks it +strange that I was not bought upon the instant." + +"Well," said Warren, entering the room, "I paid the tramp thirty cents +for his time and he has gone away happier than if he had been put to +work. What are you doing? Looking at dad's temple? Fine prospect." + +"Yes, for dad." + +"But don't you let him browbeat you out of your rights." + +"I won't. The son-in-law has rights which the father-in-law ought to +respect. What sort of a fellow is Zeb Sawyer?" + +"Good deal of a bully," Warren answered, standing beside Lyman and +looking through the window as if to keep company with the survey of +the bank. "He managed by industry and close attention to shoot a man, +I understand, and that gave him a kind of pull with society, although +the fellow didn't die. He's a hustler and makes money, and of course +has a firm grip on McElwin's heart. There are worse fellows, although +he didn't renew his subscription when the time ran out." + +While they were looking the porter opened the door of the bank. + +"They are going to transact business just the same," said Lyman. + +"Yes, they've got to pull teeth, no matter what has happened. Do you +know that there are lots of fellows around town that would like to +come up here and congratulate you, but they are afraid of McElwin." + +"I wonder Caruthers hasn't come," said Lyman. + +"No you don't. You've got no use for him and have told him so. Helloa, +yonder comes McElwin and Sawyer. They are crossing the street. By +George, I believe they are coming here." + +"All right. Let's step back and stand at ease ready to receive them." + +"Say, I believe there's going to be trouble here," said Warren. "And +if there is you wouldn't mind writing it up, would you?" + +"No, I wouldn't mind. Ordinary trouble is not quite so personally +embarrassing as a marriage." + +"Shall I keep the columns open?" Warren asked, his eyes dancing. + +"No, not on an uncertainty." + +"But it is not an uncertainty. They are coming up the stairs." + +"Let us sit down," said Lyman. + +McElwin and Sawyer entered the long composing room, looked about and +then walked slowly toward the law office. + +"Come in," said Lyman, as they approached the open door. + +"You are not alone," McElwin remarked, as he stepped in, followed by +Sawyer. + +"Neither are you," said Lyman. "Sit down." + +"We have not come to sit down, sir." + +"Then you must pardon my not rising. This languid spring air makes me +tired." + +"Sir, we wish to see you in your private office." + +"And that is where you find me. This was my public law office, but now +it is my private editorial room." + +"But your privacy is invaded," said the banker, glancing at Warren. + +"So I have observed," Lyman replied, looking at Sawyer. + +"Ah, but enough of this. Can we see you alone." + +"I don't believe I'd waste any more time beating the bush," said +Sawyer. "Let's come to the point." + +"That's not a bad suggestion," Lyman replied. "We have about thrashed +all the leaves off the bush." + +The banker cleared his throat: "Mr. Lyman, even after a night of +worried reflection, I am even now hardly able to realize the monstrous +outrage that has been committed at the instance of a theologic +imbecile, helped by a travesty on law enacted by a general assembly of +ditch diggers and plowmen." + +"That is a very good speech, Mr. McElwin. But I don't know that any +outrage has been committed. Let us call it an irregularity." + +"We'll call it an infernal shame," Sawyer declared, swelling. + +"No," Warren struck in, "call it a great piece of news gone wrong. If +I had my way it would be creeping down between column rules right +now." + +"Infamous!" cried the banker. "Don't you dare to print a word of it." + +"Oh, I'd dare all right enough, if Lyman's modesty didn't forbid it." + +"Then, sir, I must condemn your impudence, and commend Mr. Lyman's +consideration." + +"We are still beating the bush," Sawyer broke in. + +"And no scared rabbit has run out," said Lyman. + +"We might be after a wolf instead of a rabbit," Sawyer replied. The +banker gave him a look of warning. + +"Yes," said Lyman, "you might hunt a wolf and find a panther." + +"I take that as a threat," the banker spoke up. + +"Oh, not at all," Lyman replied. "It was merely to help carry out a +figure of speech." + +"Let's get to business," said Sawyer. + +"All right," Lyman agreed. "But you don't expect me to state the +object of your visit." + +"No, sir. We can do that easy enough," said McElwin. Then he thrust +his hand into his pocket and drew forth a paper. "Mr. Lyman, we have +here a petition to the Chancery Court, asking for the setting aside of +a ridiculous marriage, the laughing-stock of all matrimonial +ceremonies. The entrapped lady's name has been affixed, and we now +ask, sir, that you append your signature." + +He stepped forward to the table near which Lyman was sitting, and +spread out the paper. Lyman smiled and shook his head. "This is so +sudden," he remarked, and Warren tittered. + +"Sudden, sir?" + +"Yes, not unexpected, but sudden. I must have time to think." + +"To think? How long, sir?" + +"Well, say about six months." + +"There's no use wasting words with this fellow," said Sawyer. "We'll +make him sign it." + +Lyman looked at him. "I understand that you are a buyer and seller of +mules," he remarked. "That may account for your impulsiveness. But at +present you are not in the mule market, that is, not as a buyer." + +"Come," said McElwin, "we don't want any trouble." + +"But if we have it," Lyman replied, "let it come on before it is time +to go to press. Warren wants news." + +McElwin bit his brown lip, and Sawyer fumed. + +"Don't put it off too long," said Warren. "I've hired a negro to turn +the press." + +"This is infamous!" the banker shouted, stamping the floor. "It is +beyond belief." Then he strove to calm himself. "Mr. Lyman, I ask you, +as a man, to sign this petition." + +"The interview has wrought upon my nerves, Mr. McElwin, and if I +should sign it now the Court might look upon my signature as obtained +under coercion." + +"Ridiculous, sir. I never saw a man more quiet." + +"That is the mistake of your agitated eye. My nerves are in a tangle." + +"Let me fix it," said Sawyer, swelling toward Lyman. + +Lyman smiled at him: "You are pretty heavy in the shoulders, Mr. +Sawyer, but you slope down too fast. I don't believe your legs are +very good. You might say that I don't slope enough, or not at all, +but I'm wire, Yale-drawn. You are meaty, vealy, the boys would say, +but if you think that you'd feel healthier and more contented toward +the world after a closer association with me--" + +"Come, none of that," the banker interrupted. And then to Lyman he +added: "I appeal to your reason, sir." + +"A bad thing to appeal to when it sits against you. It is like +appealing to a wind blowing toward you. But before I forget it I +should like to ask what this man Sawyer has to do with it?" + +"He and my daughter are engaged, sir." + +"Well," said Lyman, "that might have been, but they are not now. Let +me ask you an impertinent question: Does she love him?" + +Sawyer started. The banker shifted his position. "I told you that they +were engaged," said McElwin. + +"I know you did, and that is the reason I asked you if she loves him. +Let me ask another impertinent question: Didn't you appeal to her to +marry him?" + +"Who suggested that--that impudence, sir?" + +"You did. Didn't you tell her that he was the most promising young +man in the neighborhood and that she must marry him? Hold on a moment. +And didn't your wife take the young woman's part, declaring that she +looked higher, and wasn't she finally compelled to yield?" + +"I will not answer such shameless questions." + +"Well, then, I must bid you good day." + +"Without signing this petition?" + +"Without so much as reading it. But I will agree to do this. When your +daughter comes to me and tells me that she loves Mr. Sawyer, that her +happiness depends upon him, then I will sign it. At present I am her +protector." + +The banker snorted, but calmed himself. "You a protector--a mediator! +Sir, you continue to insult me." + +"He ought to be kicked out of his own office," Sawyer swore. + +"Yes, but it would take a mule, rather than a mule driver. But I don't +want anything more to say to you. I know your history; you wouldn't +hesitate to shoot a man in the back, but when it comes to a face to +face fight, you are a coward. Shut up. Not a word out of you. Mr. +McElwin, I sympathize with your wife and your daughter, but I am not +at all sorry for you. Good morning." + +The angry visitors strode out, with many a gesture of unspeakable +anger. "Well," said Warren, "that beats anything I ever saw. How did +you learn so much about his family affairs? Who told you?" + +"You told me Sawyer's history, and I made a bold guess at the rest." + +"And you nailed him. Well, I'll swear if it ain't a jubilee. But +there's no news in it for me." + +"There may be some day," Lyman replied. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AT CHURCH. + + +On the following Sunday, which in fact was the day after the scene in +the office, Lyman went to church. There were several churches in Old +Ebenezer, but he chose the one which was the religious affiliation of +the banker's family. A number of clean looking young fellows stood +outside to gaze at the girls going in, and they nudged one another and +giggled as they saw Lyman approaching. He pretended not to notice +them, going straightway into the church. Most of the pews were free, +and he sat down about the middle of the house and began carefully to +look about over the congregation. A strange feeling possessed him, and +he looked back with a thrill when he heard the rustle of skirts in the +doorway. At last he saw her and he thought that Zeb Sawyer came with +her to the door. The banker and his stately wife came in, but Lyman +had no eye for them. He sat almost in a trance, gazing at the young +woman as she walked slowly down the opposite aisle. She reminded him +of a peach tree blooming in the early spring, there was so much pink +and the rich color of cream about her. She sat down not far from him +and he gazed at the silk-brown hair on the back of her neck. Once she +looked around but her eye did not rest on him. She sang with the +congregation, and he selected a sweet tone for her voice, and smiled +afterward to discover that it was in the voice of a plain woman seated +near her. Some one sat down beside him, and he was surprised to find +Caruthers. + +The lawyer was surprised too, and he made a motion as if to move away. + +"Never mind," whispered Lyman, "stay where you are." + +"Thank you," Caruthers whispered in turn. "I didn't know but that fog +was still between us." + +"It is, and that's the reason we didn't recognize each other sooner." + +"Then I'd better move." + +"It is not necessary. I can stand it if you can." + +"All right. Deuce of an affair you've got into." + +"Yes, rather out of the ordinary." + +"Has the old man offered you money to turn loose?" + +"He offered to lend me a small sum." + +"Why don't you make him give you a big sum?" + +"Because I am not a scoundrel." + +"No. Because you are weak. I would." + +"Yes," Lyman whispered. "Because you are a scoundrel." + +"Don't say that to me." + +"Sit over there," said Lyman. + +Caruthers moved away, and Lyman sat gazing at the young woman. "I am +going to be of service to her," he mused. "And one of these days when +she finds herself really in love she will thank me. She is dazzling, +but I don't believe I could love her. I don't believe she has very +much sense. She looks like a painting. I'd like to see her in an +empire gown. I wonder what she thinks of me. Perhaps she doesn't." He +smiled at himself, and then became aware that the preacher was in the +heated midst of his sermon. + +While the congregation was moving out, with greetings in low voices, +and with many a smiling nod, the banker caught sight of Lyman, and +made a noise as if puffing out a mouthful of smoke. His wife, who was +slightly in front, glanced back at him. + +"That wretched Lyman," he said, leaning toward her. + +"Where?" she asked. + +"Over at the right, but don't look at him. Everybody is staring at +us." + +"Where is Eva?" + +"You ought to know," he answered. + +"She is coming, just behind us." + +They passed out. Lyman saw Zeb Sawyer standing at the door. He bowed +to Mr. and Mrs. McElwin and continued to stand there, waiting for the +young woman. She came out. She said something, and catching the +expression of her face Lyman thought she must have remonstrated with +him. But she permitted him to join her, and they walked away slowly. +Lyman overtook them. + +"Pardon me," he said to her, paying no attention to Sawyer, "but do +you realize the scandalous absurdity of your action at his moment?" + +"Sir!" Her graceful neck stiffened as she looked at him. + +[Illustration: outside the church] + +"Don't you know that it is not in good form to receive the attentions +of an old lover so soon after marriage?" + +She stopped, jabbed the ground with her parasol and laughed. But in a +moment she had repented of her merriment. "I wish you would go away," +she said. "You have already caused me tears enough." + +"What, so soon? The beautific smile, rather than the tear should be +the emblem of the honeymoon. But this is not what I approached you to +say. I wish to ask when I may expect a visit from you." + +"I, visit you!" + +"Yes. To ask me to sign the petition to the Court." + +"I ask you now, sir." + +"There!" said Sawyer, walking close beside the young woman. + +"In the name of the love you bear this man?" + +She looked at him with a blush. "In the name of my father, my mother +and myself," she said. + +"Oh," said he, "you are not the simple-minded beauty I expected to +find. I suspect that your flatterers have not given you a fair chance. +It is difficult to look through the dazzle and estimate the +intelligence of a queen." + +"Really! You come with a new flattery. My father's money--" + +"Miss, or madam, your father is a pauper in comparison with the man +who loves nature. He is a slave, living the life of a slave-driver. He +is proud of you, not because you are a woman, but because you are, to +him, a picture in a gilt frame." + +"I just know everybody is looking at us," she said. + +"You mean that you are afraid some of them may not be looking." + +"Really! You are impudent, Mr.----" + +"Have you forgotten your own name? Oh, by the way, your maiden name +was McElwin, I believe." + +She halted again to laugh. "Oh, this is too funny for anything," she +said. "Isn't it, Zeb?" + +"It won't be if your father looks around." + +"He is too near the bank to look around now," Lyman replied. "He must +keep his eyes on the temple." + +"Zeb," she said, "why do you let this man talk that way? I thought you +had more spirit." + +"He has the spirit of anger, but not of courage," Lyman remarked. + +"Eva," said Sawyer, "out in the Fox Grove neighborhood this man is +known as a desperado." + +"That phase of character was forced upon me, madam," Lyman replied, +"and I had to accept it. Just as this man has been compelled to accept +the name of notorious bully and coward, which was forced upon him. He +gained some little prestige by shooting an unarmed man, and has been +afraid to meet him since. The people have found this out, and hence +his name of coward." + +"It's a--" Sawyer hesitated. + +"It's a what?" Lyman asked. + +"A mistake." + +"A soft word," said the young woman. + +"A gentleman uses soft words in the presence of ladies," Sawyer +replied. + +"And a weak man uses a weak word in apology for a weak character," +Lyman spoke up. + +"Oh, I never heard anything like this before," the young woman +declared. "I didn't know that men could be so entertaining." + +"The potted plant astonished at the virility of the weed," said Lyman. +"But I must leave you here. My office is up there. Mr. Sawyer knows +where it is. His name appears on my list of callers. No, thank you, I +cannot dine with you today." + +"Oh, how impertinent," she laughed. "Nobody asked you, sir." + +"No, but I'll ask you. My partner is up there now, with his oil stove +lighted and the coffee hot. We have some broken dishes, and some cups +that are cracked with age. Won't you come up and dine with us?" + +"Why, I thought you boarded with Cousin Jasper Staggs. And ain't he +the funniest thing? I like him ever so much." + +"I do board with him, but I often dine out. Won't you come up and have +a box of sardines?" + +"No, I thank you. Wait a moment. When are you going to sign that +petition for father?" + +"When am I going to sign it for you?" + +"Why, as soon as you can." + +"No. But as soon as you comply with all the requirements of +sentimental rather than of statute law." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE OLD FELLOW LAUGHED. + + +"You are a pestiferous son-in-law," said Warren, as Lyman entered the +room. "And I have taken possession of your private quarters," he +added, pointing to a pile of country newspapers. "I have brought them +in here to see if I could gouge some state news out of them. I know +you don't like that sort of drudgery." + +"That is all right. But why do you call me a pestiferous son-in-law?" + +"I saw you through the window." + +"With the lady and the mule?" said Lyman sitting down. "I asked them +in to dine with me." + +"Where? You say Staggs has nothing but a 'snack' on Sunday." + +"Up here, to eat crackers and sardines." + +"Extravagant pauper. I'm glad they didn't come." + +"I knew they wouldn't." + +"Did she ask you to sign the populistic petition?" + +"Yes, but not in the name of love for the mule." + +"In whose name, then?" + +"Of her father, her mother, and herself." + +"Are you going to sign it?" + +"Not until she convinces me that she loves the mule, and I don't +believe she can ever do that. She has a contempt for him, and I +believe she is glad that her affairs are temporarily tied up. She's +charming." + +"There you go, falling in love with a strange woman." + +"No, I am not in love with her, but I am naturally interested in her. +I believe she has sense." + +"Rather too pretty for that." + +"No, she is handsome, but pretty is not the word. I'll warrant you she +can run like a deer." + +"You are gone," said Warren. + +"No, I am simply an admirer. But admiration may be the crumbling bank +overlooking the river. I may fall," he added, with a laugh. + +"Don't. She has been taught to despise a real man. Let the other side +of the house have the trouble." + +"Yes," said Lyman. "It is better to be under the heel of the express +company than under the heel of love." + +"Don't say that," Warren objected, with a rueful shake of his head. +"Some things are too serious to be joked over. It is all right to make +light of love, for that is a light thing, but an express company is +heavy. You are restless." + +Lyman had got up and begun to walk about the room. "Yes, the bright +day calls on me to come out." + +"Isn't it the memory of a bright face that calls on you?" + +"No. Well, I'll leave you." + +"Won't you sit down to a sardine?" + +"No. I'll stroll over to see old Jasper, and take cold pot-luck with +him." + +Old Jasper, his wife and daughter were seated at the table when Lyman +entered the dining room. "Just in time," the old fellow cried. "We are +waiting for you, although we didn't expect you. We didn't know but +you'd gone up to McElwin's to dinner. Sit down." + +Annie laughed, but the old woman looked distressed. "Jasper, you know +you didn't think any such a thing. And if you did, how could you? Mr. +Lyman doesn't intrude himself where he's not invited. And you know +that McElwin is so particular." + +Lyman frowned. It was clear that Mrs. Staggs, in her ignorance and in +her awe of the man at the bank, could not feel a respect for +intelligence and the refinement of a book-loving nature. "You may +think me rude," said Lyman, "but I should not regard dining at his +house a great privilege. Leaving out the respect I have for the young +woman, it would not be as inspiring a meal as a canned minnow on a +baize table." + +"Why, Mr. Lyman, how can you say that?" the old woman cried. + +"Madam, the fishes were divided among the thousands when the Son of +Man fed the multitude, and that was a more inspiring meal than could +have been provided by Solomon in all his glory." + +The old man let his knife fall with a clatter. "Oh, he got you then!" +he cried. "He set a trap for you and you walked right into it. All +you've got to do is to set a trap for a woman, and she'll walk into it +sooner or later." + +"For goodness sake, hush, Jasper. A body would think you were the +worst enemy I have on the face of the earth." + +"Enemy! Who said anything about enemy? I was talking about a trap. But +it's all right. We saw you, Lyman." + +"Yes, and we didn't know it was going to happen," said Annie. +"Everybody was watching you. And I heard a woman say that she admired +your courage. I did, I'm sure." + +"I didn't feel that I was exhibiting any degree of courage," Lyman +replied. "All I had to fear was the young woman." + +"But the man is--" + +"A coward," Lyman broke in. + +Old Staggs struck the table with his fist. "I always said it!" he +shouted. "And he's another one that made light of my arrest of the man +that choked the sheriff. Coward! of course he is." + +Mrs. Staggs objected. No one whom McElwin had chosen for a son-in-law +could be a coward. She admitted that he was not as gentle as one could +wish. His life had been led out of doors. But he was a shrewd business +man and would make a good husband. It was all well enough in some +instances to permit girls to choose for themselves, but a girl was +often likely to make a sad mistake, particularly a girl whose home +life had been surrounded by every luxury. Love was a very pretty +thing, but it couldn't live so long as poverty, the most real thing in +the world. The old man winked at Lyman. He said that age might soften +a man, but that it nearly always hardened a woman. It was rare to see +a woman's temper improve with age, while many a sober minded man +became a joker in his later years. Mrs. Staggs retorted that women had +enough to make them cross. "They have an excuse for scoldin'," she +said. + +"Nobody has so good an argument as the scold," the old man replied. + +"They have men, and that's argument enough," said his wife. + +The old fellow laughed. "She put it on me a little right there," he +declared. "Yes, sir, I've got a steel trap clamped on my foot this +minute. But what do you think of the situation now, Lyman; I mean your +situation?" + +"I don't know of any material change." + +"But of course you are going to sign the petition," said Mrs. Staggs. +"Everybody agrees that you must, before court meets. And that reminds +me, I met Henry Bostic's mother today. The old lady doesn't appear to +be at all grieved over the part her son took in the affair. It would +nearly kill me if a son of mine had made such a blunder." + +"It was no blunder on his part, and I don't blame him," said Annie. +"No one thought enough of his pretensions to ask him if he had been +ordained. And besides, Cousin McElwin had made fun of him." + +"And a preacher can stand anything rather than ridicule," Lyman +declared. "He may forgive all sorts of abuses, but cry 'Go up, old +bald head!' and immediately he calls for the she-bears." + +"And gives thanks when he hears the bears breaking the bones of his +enemies," said the old man. + +"I don't blame him," replied Lyman. "Ridicule is the bite of the +spider, and it ought not to be directed against the man who dedicates +his life to sacred work." + +The old woman gave him a nod of approval: + +"You are right," she said. "But young Henry ought not to have been +revengeful." + +"No, not as the ordinary man is revengeful," Lyman assented, "but we +serve the Lord when we humble a foolish pride. I don't think McElwin +could have done a crueler thing than to have crushed the mother's +heart with ridicule for the son." + +"But about the petition," said Annie. "You will sign it, won't you?" + +"I may." + +"But why should you refuse. To annoy her?" + +"No, to protect her." + +"She would be awfully angry if she thought you presumed to pose as her +protector. But let us change the subject. The whole town is talking +about it, so let us talk of something else. Are you going to church +tonight?" + +"Yes, with you, if you don't object." + +"Oh, I couldn't object, but--but don't you think it might cause +remark, after what has happened?" + +"There you go, leading back to it. Sawyer walked home with her; did +that cause remark?" + +"Yes, in a way; and I believe she will wait for the divorce before she +goes with him again." + +"Then she will be free of his company for some time to come. Well," he +added, "I won't go to church. I'll go up stairs and read myself to +sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE LANTERN LIGHT. + + +An account of the marriage, written by an effusive correspondent, was +published in a newspaper at the State Capital; and a few days later +the same journal contained an editorial bearing upon the subject, +taking the populistic party to task for its lamentable want of sense +in legislation. The State press took the matter up, and then the +"paragrapher" had his season of merry-making. "We have always heard it +declared," said one, "that marriage is a plunge in the dark, but a +preacher over at Old Ebenezer proves that it is all a joke." And this +from another one: "'What do you think of young Parson Bostic?' was +asked of Banker McElwin. 'I didn't think he was loaded,' the financier +replied." It was said that a great batch of this drivel was cut out, +credited and sent to McElwin, and Lyman accused Warren, but he denied +it, though not with convincing grace. + +One evening a picnic was given on the lawn of a prominent citizen. It +had been heralded as a moonlight event, but the moon was sullen and +the light was shed from paper lanterns hung in the trees. There was to +be no dancing and no forfeit games, for McElwin was still raw, and the +master of the gathering on the lawn would not dare to throw sand on +the spots where the rich man's prideful skin had been raked off. The +entertainment was to consist of talk among the older ones, chatter +among the slips of girls and striplings of men, with music for all. + +"You will have to go to write it up," Warren said to Lyman. + +"It won't be necessary to go," Lyman replied. "We can hold a +pleasanter memory of such events if we don't really see them. I can +write of it from a distance." + +"Yes, but that isn't enterprise, and we want to prove to these people +that we are enterprising. They must see you on the ground." + +"All right." + +"You will go, then?" + +"That's what I meant when I said all right." + +"And you didn't mean that you'd simply look over the fence and then +come away?" + +"No, I mean that I'll go and be a fool with the rest of them." + +"That's all I ask. Here's an invitation. You'll have to show it at the +gate." + +"Why don't you go, Warren?" + +"It would be absurd." + +"Why? Your clothes might be worse." + +"There are a good many observations that don't apply to clothes. The +entertainment is to be given by the Hon. Mr. S. Boyd. One time, with +great reluctance, he lifted a grinding heel off my head. I owe him +five dollars." + +"And it would be embarrassing to meet him, by invitation, on his own +lawn." + +"Yes. I'll pay him one of these days, but of course he doesn't know +that." + +"Probably he doesn't even suspect it," said Lyman. + +"No. He's dull, and not inclined to be speculative." + +"I should take him to be wildly adventurous." + +"Why so?" + +"He let you have five dollars." + +"Oh, I see. But that's all right. He'll treat you well. Say, he may +pass cigars with a gilt band around them. Put a few in your pocket for +me." + +"I might have a chance to sneak a whole box." + +"Come, don't rub the lamp. Rub the ring and get two cigars. I'll sit +up and wait for them. If Boyd asks you why I have been dodging him, +tell him I'm not well." + +The lawn was a spread of blue grass, beneath trees with low, hanging +boughs, and through the misty light and moving shadows the house +looked like a castle. The air was vibrant with the music of the +"string" band, gathered from the livery stable and the barber shop; +and mingled with the music as if it were a part of the sound, was the +half sad scent of the crushed geranium. At the gate a black man, in a +long coat buttoned to the ground, took Lyman's card of invitation. +From groups of white came the laugh of youth, and from darker +gatherings came the hum of talk. Lyman shook hands with nearly every +one whom he met, laughing; and his good humor was an introduction to +persons he had never seen before. He felt that he was a part of a +joke which everyone was enjoying. The Hon. S. Boyd came forward and +shook hands with him. + +"I am delighted to welcome you to my grounds," said the great man, +speaking as if he had invited Lyman to hunt in a forest of a thousand +acres. "And your partner, will he be here?" + +"No, he's not very well this evening," Lyman answered, walking slowly, +arm-hooked with the great man. + +"I am sorry to hear it. A man of wonderful energy, sir. Quite the sort +of a man we need in Old Ebenezer. And I am glad to see that his paper +is picking up. I was over at the State Capital the other day, and the +Governor spoke of something taken from its columns." + +"Mr. Warren remembers your kindness, sir," replied Lyman; "not only +your words of encouragement, but the money you so generously advanced +to him." + +"A paltry sum, and really I had forgotten it." + +"The sum was not large, but any debt is embarrassing until we pay it, +and then we can look back upon it as a pleasure." + +"Sound doctrine, Mr. Lyman. But there must be no embarrassment in +this matter. So, if you please, you may tell Mr. Warren that I will +take enough copies of the next edition to cancel the debt. Not enough +to embarrass him, you understand. It would come to about one hundred +copies, I believe. But let him make it two hundred, as I wish to send +it out pretty largely, and I will send him five dollars in addition. +Will you pardon me if I mix business with pleasure, and give you the +money now?" He unhooked his arm. + +"I shall be delighted to act as your messenger," Lyman replied. + +"I thank you, sir; you are very obliging. And now," he added, when he +had given Lyman the money, "we'll go over to the grotto and get a +lemonade and a cigar." + +They went to a hollow pile of stones, where a negro stood ready to +serve them. "Help yourself to the lemonade. It was deemed advisable to +have nothing strong. A very old ladle, that, sir; it was the property +of my grandfather. The cigars, Jacob, the gold band. Now, here's a +cigar, sir, that I can recommend. Oh, don't stop at one. Here," he +added, grabbing a handful, "put these in your pocket, for I am sure +you'll not get any like them down town. Well, if you will be kind +enough to excuse me, I'll slip off to look after my other guests." + +Lyman walked about, joking and gathering the names of the joyous +maidens, the heavy men, the light young fellows, and the dames who had +come to enjoy their daughters' conquests and their own dignity. With a +feeling of disappointment he wondered why the banker's family was not +represented, and more than once he looked about sweepingly, believing +that he had heard the loud voice of Zeb Sawyer. He mused that his work +was done, that the company had transacted its business with him, and +he turned aside to a quiet spot, to a seat behind a clump of shrubs, +to smoke a cigar and to picture Warren's surprise and delight. The +cigar burned out and he was about to go, when he heard the ripple of +skirts on the soft grass. A woman came across the sward, and in the +light of a neighboring lantern Lyman recognized Eva. She saw him and +halted. + +"Won't you please sit down," he said, rising. + +"I--I--didn't know you were here," she replied, looking back. + +"The fact that you came is proof enough of that," said he, with a +quiet laugh. + +"How shrewd you are," she replied. + +"No, I am only considerate. But now that you are here, won't you +please sit down. I am weary of senseless chatter, and I would like to +talk to you." + +"Oh, I couldn't refuse, after such a compliment as that. And, besides, +I am tired." + +She sat down; he continued to stand. She did not appear to notice it. + +"I looked all over the ground, but could not find you," he said. + +"Mamma and I did not come until just now. We live so near that we put +off our coming until late." + +"Did your father come?" + +"No. Only mamma and I. Some of us had to come." + +"Just you and your mother, and not Mr. Sawyer?" + +"He didn't come with us. I don't know that he is here." For a few +moments they were silent. "I am so tired of everything," she said. + +"Tired of yourself?" + +"Yes, I am." + +"Why don't you do something? Did you ever think of that?" + +"What would be the use of thinking of it? There's nothing for me to +do." + +"There is something for everyone to do. Why don't you take up some +line of study?" + +"I hate study. I can't put my mind on it." + +"But you could read good books." + +"I do, but I get tired. I must have been petted too much." + +"Ah! A girl is beginning to be strong when she feels that way. I +suppose you have been flattered all your life." + +"Do I show it?" + +"Yes. But not so much as you did." + +"And do you know the reason?" + +"I don't know, unless it is that you have been sobered by a joke." + +"That has something to do with it. You have made me think. You don't +regard me as a spoiled child; you seem to believe that I have a mind. +And that, even if you were a field hand, would cause me to be +interested in you. I would like to talk with you seriously, but you +joke with me." + +"To hear you in a serious mood would be as sweet as an anthem." + +"You must not talk that way. I want your friendship." + +"You shall have it." + +"I need your help." + +"You shall have it." + +"I don't want to be wicked," she said, looking up at him, "but I beg +of you not to sign that petition to the Court, until--" + +"Until when?" + +"Until Zeb Sawyer is--is--out of the way. People flatter me and praise +me, but they don't know what I have suffered. And my father doesn't +understand me. When you called Sawyer a coward I wanted to shout in +the street." + +"Still you consented to marry him." + +"Yes, to live for a little longer in peace. But I know a tall rock +over on the creek, and from the top of it is a long way to the cruel +boulders below. They call it 'Lover's Leap,' and I have thought after +awhile the name might be changed to 'Despair's Leap.' At night I have +dreamed of that rock, and sometimes my dream would continue after I +opened my eyes. Our engagement was for one year, and often I said to +myself that I had but one year longer to live. At church I would pray, +and I could hear the words, 'Children, obey your parents.' And then I +would go home and pretend to be happy in that obedience." + +"But you signed the petition." + +"Yes, with a prayer that you would not sign it." + +"And I won't." + +"Not even if they should come with pistols?" + +"Not if they should come with a mob and a rope." + +She looked up at him, with her hands clasped in her lap. The light +fell upon her face, and in its human loveliness was the divine spirit +of sadness. Lyman looked upward at the fleece among the stars, the +lace curtain of the night. + +"With the strength accidentally dedicated to me by a body of men +assembled to break the customs of a class opposed to them, I will hold +you a prisoner, free from the grasp of a feelingless clown," he said. +"I will protect you. And when you have really fallen in love, and +believe that your happiness depends upon a man, I will sign the +petition." + +With the frankness of a child she sprung from the seat and grasped +his hand: "Oh, you stand between me and the tall rock," she said. +"Good night--God bless you." + +She ran away. Lyman looked after her, with dim vision--her white gown +spectral in the misty light. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WANTED TO DREAM. + + +Lyman walked slowly down the tree-darkened lane that led to the main +street of the village. Beneath a forest oak, where the desolate town +cow and the stray sheep had come to seek freedom from the annoyances +of the day, he halted and looked back. The few remaining lanterns were +like fire-flies in a growth of giant grass. The members of the +"string-band" were singing a negro melody. The notes came floating +with the mirth-shriek of a maiden, and the hoarse laugh of the boy who +aspired to be a man. Far away on a hillside a dog was barking at the +mystery of night. Near by a mocking-bird, in a cage, was singing out +of the melodious fullness of his heart. The muser felt two distinct +senses, one that a sweet voice had touched the quick of his nature, +the other that he had been grandiloquent in his talk while looking at +the stars. She had threatened to destroy herself. No, she would not do +that. She could but shrink from it if the time should come. But to +resolve upon it, driven by a father who could not understand her, was +so girlishly natural, so complete a bit of romantic despair, that she +must have found it a source of great consolation. + +Warren was waiting. "I'll bet you didn't bring a cigar," he said, +tossing a cob pipe on the table. + +"You've lost," Lyman replied, rolling out a handful of cigars upon a +pile of newspapers. + +Warren reached over, his eyes snapping. "Gold bands," he said. "Oh, I +knew you would bring them if they were to be had. You are all right, +Samuel," he added, striking a match. "Yes, sir, but I have been +sitting up here, almost envious of the good time you were having. +However, I was not sorry that I had not faced the Hon. S. Boyd. He +frowned at me the last time we met. I can stand to be dunned once in +awhile, but I don't like to be frowned at. Did he say anything about +the money I owe him?" + +"Well," said Lyman, leaning back in his chair, "the subject was +mentioned." + +"What, the old skinflint! Did he blurt it out before everybody?" + +"No. He talked to me privately." + +"Well, I am glad he had that much consideration. But why did he want +to speak of it at all? I suppose you told him I'd pay it as soon as I +could, didn't you?" + +"Yes, I told him so." + +"Well, then, what more does he want? No man can pay a debt before he +can. There are in this town some of the queerest people I ever saw. +They expect a man to pay a debt whether he's got the money or not. +I'll pay that fellow and tire him to death with meeting him afterward. +I'll cross the street a dozen times a day to shake hands with him. +Yes, sir, I'll make him wish that I owed him." + +"He sent you this," said Lyman, handing over the five dollars. + +Warren's eyes flew wide open with astonishment. "Sent it to me?" + +"Yes, he wants two hundred copies of our next edition. One hundred to +discharge the old debt, and the five dollars is to pay for the other +hundred." + +"Lyman, you rubbed the lamp. Don't rub it again right away. Let me +hold this thing a minute." + +"You may hold it until the express company takes it away from you." + +"Hush, don't make a noise. You'll wake me up. Let me dream." + +"She was there," said Lyman, after a brief silence. + +"A dreamer listening to a dream," Warren vacantly replied. + +"I had quite a talk with her. She is not a doll. She's a woman with a +soul and a mind." + +"You are gone," said Warren, wrapping the bank note about his finger. + +"No, I'm not gone. I am decidedly here, and I am going to stay here to +protect her." + +He related the talk that had passed between the young woman and +himself. He told even of his gaze at the stars and his theatric +declaration to stand as her protector. But he did not tell that she +had caught his hand. In that act there was something sacred to him. + +"As I said before, you're all right," declared Warren. "No one but a +great man could have done what you have done tonight. Why, that old +fellow was a jewel, and was not revealed until you brushed the dust +off him. Two hundred copies? He shall have them, together with a +write-up that will make this town's hair stand on end. And, by the +way, don't you think you had better get at it while it's fresh?" + +"Don't you fear. It will never fade, my boy. It is in my mind to +stay." + +"Look here, don't let that joke turn on you," said Warren. "It would +be serious if you should fall in love with her." + +"Yes, but I won't." + +"Were you ever caught by a woman?" + +"Not very hard; were you?" + +"Rather," Warren answered; "I loved a girl several years ago, while I +was running a paper over at Beech Knob. Yes, sir, and I reckon I loved +her as hard as a woman was ever loved. I thought about her every day. +And I believe she cared for me." + +"It's of no use to ask you why you didn't marry her. Money, I +suppose." + +"That's it, Lyman; money. You see, her old man was rather well fixed, +and one day when he was in the office I borrowed ten dollars of him. +Then I couldn't go to the house, you see, and before I could pay it +back the girl was married. Lost one of the best girls this country +ever produced just because I couldn't raise ten dollars to pay her +father. I guess Brother McElwin wishes now that he had let you have +the hundred. It would have given him a hold on you." + +"It would have given him a club," said Lyman. "A man could snatch out +a hundred dollar debt and run me off the bluff. 'Lover's Leap,'" he +added to himself, smiling. Warren looked up and saw the smile, but he +had not caught the words. + +"It's too serious a matter to grin over," he remarked, sadly, but with +a bright eye turned toward the cigars that lay upon the pile of +newspapers. "It's a curse to be poor," he said, with solemnity, though +his eye was delighted. + +"A crime," Lyman replied. "It gives no opportunity to be generous, +sneers at truth and calls virtue a foolish little thing. It is the +philosopher, with money out at interest, that smiles upon the +contentment and blessedness of the poor man." + +"Helloa, you are more of a grumbler than I ever saw you before." + +Lyman leaned back with his arms spread out, and laughed. "It would +seem that the rich man's coach wheel has raked off a part of my hide, +but it hasn't, my boy." He got up and walked about the room; he went +to the window. Damp air was stirring and an old map was flapping +slowly against the dingy wall. He gazed over the housetops in the +direction of the grove where the paper lanterns had hung, but all was +dark and rain was fast falling. + +"It's raining," he said. "I'm glad it held up until after the picnic." + +"Yes," Warren replied, "for we might have been cheated out of the +cigars and the five dollars." + +"And I might have been robbed of a pleasant few moments." + +"You are gone," said Warren, yawning. + +"No, not yet, but I am going." He reached for his hat. + +"In the rain?" Warren asked. "I'm going to smoke another cigar before +I turn in. Stay here tonight; you can have my cot. I'd as soon sleep +on the floor." + +"No, I won't rob you." + +"Rob me? Your work tonight would make a stone slab a soft place for me +to rest." + +"And my mind might turn a bed, formed of the breast feathers of a +goose, into a stone slab. Good night." + +The hour was late, but a light was burning in old Jasper's house. As +Lyman stepped upon the veranda Henry Bostic came out of the sitting +room. + +"Ah, Mr. Lyman, but you are dripping wet." + +"I hadn't noticed it, but it is raining rather hard. You are not going +out in it, are you?" + +"I have but a short distance to go. I found Miss Annie so entertaining +that I didn't know it was so late. I came to invite her to hear me +preach the third Sunday of next month, at Mt. Zion, on the Fox Grove +road, five miles from town. I should like you to be present." + +"Yes, as I was present at your first--" + +"Don't mention that, Mr. Lyman," he said, hoisting his umbrella. "That +was not wholly free from a spirit of revenge, and I have prayed for +pardon. My mother has called on the McElwins to beseech them to +forgive me, and I went to the bank today on the same errand." + +"Wait a moment," said Lyman, as the young minister moved toward the +steps leading to the dooryard. "Did the banker forgive you?" + +The young man stood with his umbrella under the edge of the roof, and +the rain rumbled upon it. "No, sir. He said I had done his family a +vital injury. I told him I might have been an instrument in the hands +of a higher power, and he sneered at me. I hope you forgive me, Mr. +Lyman." + +"To be frank, I am secretly glad that it happened," Lyman replied. + +"But not maliciously or even mischievously glad, I hope," said the +preacher. + +"No, I am glad for other reasons, but I cannot explain them." + +The rain rumbled upon the umbrella and the preacher was silent for a +moment. "Mr. McElwin said that if I could induce you to sign the +petition he would forgive me. And I told him I would. Will you sign +it?" + +"I cannot, Mr. Bostic." + +"May I ask why?" + +"Because I stand as the young woman's protector. She despises Sawyer, +and her father was determined that she should be his wife." + +"Did she tell you, sir?" + +"Yes, and I have promised; but this is confidential." + +"Then, sir, the petition must not be signed. The ceremony, after all, +was a blessing, and I shall not again crave the banker's forgiveness. +Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +IN A MAGAZINE. + + +There came a day, and it followed the picnic, with not a week between, +when Lyman's midnight scratching, done at the house of old Uncle +Buckley, came out into the dazzling light. A story written by him +appeared in one of the leading magazines of the East. It was a simple +recital, a picture of the country and its people, and so close down +upon the earth did it lie that a patter of rain that fell somewhere +among the words brought a sweet scent from the blackberry briars, and +a smell of dust from the rain. There were intelligent reading persons, +in Old Ebenezer, and with the big eye of astonishment they viewed the +story, but they were afraid to form an opinion until the critic of the +"State Gazette," following a bold lead struck by an eastern reviewer, +declared it to be a piece of masterly work. And then the town of Old +Ebenezer was glad to assert its admiration. The leading hardware man +said that he had noticed from the first that there was something +strange about the fellow. + +"And," said he, "you can never tell what a strange sort of a fellow +may pop up and do. Now, there was old Kincade's son Phil. Everybody +knew he was curious; everybody could see that, but they didn't know +how to place him. I told them not to place him. I told them there was +no telling where he might break out. His daddy said he was a fool. I +said 'wait.' Well, they waited, and what came? The boy discovered a +process for tanning coon hides without bark, and now look at him. +Worth ten thousand dollars if he's worth a cent." + +A saddler gave his opinion: "I knew he had it in him. I haven't read +his article, but I'll bet it's good. Why, he's said things in my shop +that it would be worth anybody's while to remember. Just stepped in +and said them and went out like it wasn't no trouble at all. And look +what he's done for the paper here! Every time he touches her he makes +her flinch like a hoss-fly lightin' on a hoss. And when everybody was +making such a mouth about that fool marriage, I--well, I just kept my +mouth shut and didn't say a word." + +Warren was the proudest man in town. He was so elated and so busy +talking about the story that he never found time to read it, except +to dip into it here and there, to find something to start him off on a +gallop of praise. + +"Why didn't you tell me, so that I might have known what to expect? +Why did you nurse it so long?" Warren asked, as he and Lyman sat in +the office. + +"Oh, I hadn't anything to tell, except of a probable prospect. And +nothing is more tiresome than to listen to a man's hopes." + +"But you must have known that the story would be a success." + +"No, I didn't." + +"Well, maybe not. It was fortunate to drive center the first shot." + +Lyman laughed sadly. "Warren," said he, nodding toward the magazine, +which lay upon the table, "I began to scatter seeds so long ago that I +hardly know when; and one has sprouted. I have been writing stories +for the magazines ever since I was a boy, and they were returned with +a printed 'thank you for--' and so forth. I had thought, as many young +writers think, that I must be deep and learned. I didn't know that one +half-hidden mood of nature, one odd trait of man, one little reminder +to the reader of something that had often flitted across his mind, was +of more value than the essence of a thousand books. I strove to climb +a hill where so many are constantly falling and rolling to the bottom. +At last I opened my eyes and shut my memory, and then I began to +progress. But not without the most diligent work. This story, (again +nodding toward the magazine) was written six times at least." + +"Why, you have made it look as easy as falling off a log," said +Warren. + +"Yes; it was work that made it look easy. There are two sorts of +successful stories; one that makes the reader marvel at its art; the +other one that makes the reader believe that almost anybody could have +written it. The first appeals to the stylist and may soon die. The +other may live to be a classic." + +"Go ahead. That sort of talk catches me. It seems now that I have +thought it many times, but just didn't happen to say it. Have you got +anything in hand now?" + +"Yes; I might as well let it all out now. I have a book accepted by a +first-class house, and I have a long story which I may submit to a +magazine to be published as a serial in the event of the success of +the book." + +"You are all right. I have often told you that. Why, some of the +things you have written for this paper would do to go into the school +readers along with the dialogue between some fellow--forget his name +now--and Humphrey Dobbins; and that barber who lived in the City of +Bath. Recollect? Let's see, 'Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded.' Don't +you know now? 'And say,' the stranger says to him, 'I have glorious +news for you. Your uncle is dead,' and so on. But it used to tickle me +to think the fellow could find any glory in the news of his uncle's +death, but I guess he did." + +"Yes, I remember. He was the barber that wouldn't shave on Sunday. And +as a reward his uncle died and left him a lot of money. And you'd hit +it off pretty well now by marking out virtue in 'Virtue Is Its Own +Reward,' and substituting 'money.'" + +"But I don't think we've got very much cause to complain," said +Warren. "We gathered in five subscribers yesterday, and three today, +besides an electric belt ad, to run for six months. Oh, we're all +right, and the first thing you know, we'll have some new clothes. We +don't want any hand-me-downs. About two weeks ago I went into the +tailor's shop across the square, and picked out a piece of cloth. But +when I passed there yesterday I noticed that some scoundrel had bought +it. Why, helloa; come in." + +Uncle Buckley Lightfoot stood in the door. His approach had been so +soft that they did not hear him. His tread was always noiseless when +he walked in strange places. He appeared to be afraid of breaking +something. + +"Come in!" Lyman shouted, springing to meet him. + +"Howdy do; howdy do." He seized Lyman and then shook hands with +Warren. "I jest thought I'd look in and see how Sammy was gettin' +along. And I promised mother that if he was busy I'd jest peep in and +then slip away. Sammy, you look as peart as a red bird." + +"Sit down, Uncle Buckley," said Lyman. "Let me take off your +leggings." + +"Jest let them alone where they are, Sammy," the old man replied. "I +haven't got long to stay, for I don't want to keep you from your work. +Jest put those saddle-bags over there on the table. No, wait a minute. +I've got something in 'em for you. Look here," he added, taking out a +package; "mother sent you some pickles." + +"Oh, I'm a thousand times obliged to her," said Lyman, putting the +package and the saddle-bags on the table. "Tell her so, please." + +"I'll do that. Lawd bless you, Sammy; I do reckon she knows what a man +needs. And she says to me, 'Pap, you shan't go one step toward that +fetch-taked town unless you agree to take Sammy some pickles made +outen the finest cucumbers that ever growd.' And I jest said, 'You do +up your pickles and don't you be askeered of me.' And she begins then +to fix 'em up, a-talkin' all the time fitten to kill herself. 'The +idea of a man bein' shet up there in that musty place, without any +pickles,' she says; 'it's enough to kill him, the Lord knows.' And I +wanted to sorter relieve her distress, and I 'lowed that mebby there +was pickles in town; and she turned about, lookin' like she wanted +to fling somethin' at me. 'Pap,' she says, and I begin to dodge back, +'for as smart a man as you are, I do think you can say the foolishest +things of anybody I ever seen. Pickles fitten to eat in a town where +if a person ain't dressed up he can't get into the churches on the +Lord's day; and where, if they do get in, the minister won't even so +much as cast his eye on 'em while he's a preachin' of his sermon! +Pickles indeed,' she says, and I kep' on a dodgin'. How are you +gettin' along, Sammy?" + +[Illustration: a discussion] + +"First rate." + +"But what's this joke they've got on you about bein' married?" + +"That's what it is, Uncle Buckley, a joke." + +"I told Jimmy and Lige that it was only a prank. I knowed you weren't +goin' to throw yourself away on no one here, when the woods are full +of 'em out our way that would like to have you. Don't dodge, Sammy. +Stand right up to your fodder, for you know it's a fact. It made +mother powerful mad. She took it that you wanted the gal, and the old +man thought you wa'n't good enough. And she boiled. 'Why, he can start +a church tune better than any person we ever had in the +neighborhood,' she 'lowed. 'Not good enough, indeed!' And I dodged on +off, sorter laughin' as I ducked behind the hen-house. And that +reminds me, Sammy, that a varmint come the other night and toated off +the likeliest rooster I had on the place. Mother woke me at night, and +asked if that wa'n't a chicken squallin.' I told her that I had the +plan of a new barn in my head, and that I couldn't let the squallin' +of no sich thing as a chicken drive it out, and I went to sleep. But +you ought to have seen the look she gave me the next mornin' when we +found feathers scattered all over the yard. By the way, Sammy, where +is the other man; the great lawyer that was your partner? Is he out at +present?" + +"Yes, Uncle Buckley, he's out at present, and for good. We have +dissolved partnership." + +"No!" said the old man, dropping his jaw. "Why, I thought you and him +was together for keeps. And you don't really mean to tell me that you +ain't, Sammy?" + +"He has an office on the other side of the square, and I'm not in the +law business," Lyman replied. "Warren and I are running this paper." + +"When did you quit each other?" the old man asked, leaning forward +and picking at his blanket leggings. + +"Why, the day you were in here. You remember I left you here with him. +When I came back he had decided to set aside the partnership." + +The old man looked up at the ceiling. "I reckon it's all right, but I +don't exactly get the hang of it," he said, getting up and taking his +hat off the table. + +"Understand what, Uncle Buckley?" Lyman asked. + +"Oh, nothin'. It's all right, I reckon. Young feller, jest keep on a +shootin' your paper at me. We find some mighty interestin' readin' in +it; and sometimes Lige he breaks out in a loud laugh over a piece, and +he 'lows, 'if that ain't old Sammy, up and up, I don't want a cent.' +Well, boys, I've some knockin' around to do and I'll have to bid you +good day." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NOTHING REMARKABLE IN IT. + + +Mr. McElwin put aside his newspaper and paced slowly up and down the +room, his slippered feet falling with an emphatic pat on the carpet. +His wife sat near the window, watching the swallows cutting black +circles in the dusky air. Eva was seated at the piano, half turned +from it, while with one hand she felt about to touch the nerve of some +half-forgotten tune. McElwin dropped down in an arm chair. + +"I wonder if this newspaper will ever stop talking about that fellow's +story," said he. "I read it over and I didn't see anything remarkable +in it. Of course it's all right to feel a local pride in a thing, but +gracious alive, we don't want to go into fits over it. Now, here's +nearly half a column about it." + +"Let me see it," said Eva. He picked up the paper and held it out to +her. She got off the piano stool, took the paper and stood near her +father, under the hanging lamp. + +"Can't you find it? On the editorial page." + +"Yes, I have found it. But it is not written by the pen of local +pride." + +"It is in the state paper." + +"Yes, but if you had read to the bottom you would have seen that it +was from a New York paper." + +"Ah, well, it doesn't interest me, no matter what paper it is from." + +"What is it?" Mrs. McElwin asked, turning from the window. + +"Something more about Mr. Lyman's story," the daughter answered. + +"It appears to have stirred up quite a sensation," said Mrs. McElwin. +"One of those happy accidents." + +"It was not an accident," the girl replied. "It was genius." + +"Come, don't be absurd," said her father. "There is such a thing as a +man finding a gold watch in the road. I call it an accident. I had +quite a talk with him in my private office before our relations became +strained, and I found him to be rather below the average. He surely +has but a vague and confused idea regarding even the simplest forms +of business. But I admit that his story is all well enough, and so are +many little pieces of fancy work, but they don't amount to anything. +Educated man? Yes, that's all right, too, but the highways are full of +educated men, looking for something to do. Sawyer is worth a dozen of +him." + +Mrs. McElwin glanced at her daughter, as if she had heard a footstep +on dangerous ground. She was not far wrong. + +"Sawyer is a man, ready--" + +"He has not shown it," the girl was bold enough to declare. She stood +under the lamp and the newspaper rattled as she held it now grasped +tightly. + +"Eva," said her mother, in gentle reproof, "don't say that." + +"But I want her to say it if she thinks it," the banker spoke up, +almost angrily. "I want her to say it and prove it." + +"He proved it to me, but I may not be able to prove it to you. Mr. +Lyman called him a coward and he did not resent it." + +"Lyman did? How do you know?" + +"I heard him." + +The banker blinked at her. "You heard him? When? And how came you to +be near him?" + +"It was on the Sunday after the mar--the foolish ceremony. As Mr. +Sawyer walked off with me from the church door Mr. Lyman joined us." + +"Joined you! The impudent scoundrel! What right had he to join you, +and why did you permit it?" + +"He took the right and we couldn't help ourselves. At least I couldn't +and Mr. Sawyer didn't try to." + +"I wish I had been there." + +"You were just in front, but you didn't look around." + +"Well, and then what happened?" + +"Why, during the talk that followed, Mr. Lyman called him a coward." + +"Mr. Sawyer is a gentleman and he couldn't resent it at the time in +the presence of a lady." + +"He has had time enough since," she said with scorn. + +Mrs. McElwin came from the window and sat down near her husband. The +banker looked hard at his daughter, and a sudden tangling of the +lines on his face showed that the first words that flew to the verge +of utterance had been suppressed, and that he was determined to be +calm. + +"He has had time, but he has also had consideration," said McElwin. +"To resent an insult is sometimes more of a scandal than to let it +pass. He hesitated to involve your name." + +He was now so quiet, so plausible in his gentleness that the young +woman felt ashamed of the quick spirit she had shown. + +"Sit down," he said, and she obeyed, with her hands lying listlessly +together in her lap. + +"Your mother and I know what is best for you," he said. A slight +shudder seemed to pass through the wife's dignified shoulders. "You +have always been the object of our most tender solicitude," he went +on. "And if I have been determined, it has been for your own ultimate +good. I admit that there is not much romance about Mr. Sawyer. He is a +keen, open-eyed, practical business man, with money out at interest, +and with money lying in my bank. His family is excellent. His father +was, for many years, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and his +grandfather was a judge. And I believe as firmly as I ever believed +anything, that he will be a very rich man. He is constantly widening +out and will not confine himself to the buying and selling of mules. +His judgment of the markets is fine, and I repeat that he will be a +very rich man. In looking over the field I don't know another man I +would rather have associated with me." + +His wife, long since convinced by his practical logic, looked up with +a quiet smile of approval. The girl sat weaving her fingers together. +She met her father's questioning eye and did not waver. + +"I don't presume to question what you say," she said. "But I am no +longer a spoiled child to be petted and persuaded. I am a woman and +have begun to think. This marriage, though brought about in so +ridiculous a way, has had a wonderful effect upon me. I have heard +that marriage merges a woman's identity with that of her husband, but +this marriage has made an individual of me. It has freed me from +frivolous company; it has given me something that I once thought I +could not endure--solitude--and I have found it delightful. The hard +and stubborn things that were beat into my head at school, and which +I despised at the time, are useful pieces of knowledge now, and, +viewing them, I wonder that I could ever have been so silly as to find +my greatest pleasure in flattery." + +Never before had she spoken at such length, nor with an air so +serious. Her mother looked at her with a half wondering admiration, +and the banker's countenance showed a new-born pride in her--in +himself, indeed--for nothing in his household was important unless it +showed a light reflected from him; and now, in his daughter, he +discovered a part of himself, a disposition to think. This thought was +seditious, and there is virtue in even a rebellious strength, and it +convinced him that henceforth he must address her reason rather than a +feminine whim. He was proud of her, admitted it to himself and +conveyed it in a look which he gave his wife; but he was not the less +determined to carry his point. Sawyer was a man of affairs. His +judgment was sure, his spirit adventurous. Figures were his +playthings, and who could say that he was not to become one of the +country's great financiers? Once he had made a bid against many +competitors acquainted with the work, to build a bridge for the +county. Sawyer's bid was the lowest. His friends said that the +undertaking would ruin him; McElwin deplored the young man's rashness. +But he built the bridge, made money on the speculation; and the first +traffic across the new structure was a drove of Sawyer's mules, en +route to a profitable market. + +"I am glad you have begun to think," he said, smiling at her. "I knew +the time would come, and, as it has come, let me ask you a question. +Did you request this Mr. Lyman to sign the petition?" + +"I mentioned it to him." + +"You did. That ought to have been sufficient. What did he say?" + +"He said that he would--under certain conditions." McElwin winced in +memory of his and Sawyer's visit to Lyman. + +"Conditions? How does he dare enforce conditions? What were they?" + +"That I must avow my love for Zeb--Mr. Sawyer." + +"Well, is that all?" + +"All! Isn't it enough?" + +"You can do that, my daughter," Mrs. McElwin said meekly. + +"Yes, I could, if the time should ever come." + +"What time?" the banker asked. + +"The time when I can say that I love him." + +McElwin crossed his legs with a sudden flounce. "You put too serious +an estimate upon love," he said. "You expect it to be the grand, +over-mastering passion we read about. That was all well enough for the +age of poetry, but this is the age of prose. You can go to that man +and tell him that--" + +"That I have a Nineteenth century love for Mr. Sawyer," she +interrupted. + +"Well, yes." + +"And he would laugh at me." + +"Laugh at you," he frowned. "No gentleman can laugh at a lady's +distress." + +"But he might not regard it as distress. It might seem ridiculous to +him." + +"Hump," he grunted. "Well, it's undignified, it is almost outrageous +to be forced to do such a thing, but you must go to him. Your mother +will go with you." + +"No, James," his wife gently protested, looking at him in mild appeal. +"I don't really think I can muster the courage for so awkward an +undertaking. Please leave me out." + +"Leave you out of so important an arrangement, an arrangement that +involves the future of your daughter!" + +"Then, why should not all three of us go?" she asked. + +"I have trampled my own pride under my feet by going once," he +replied. "Yes, and he treated me with cool impudence. And if I should +go again something might happen. That man has humiliated me more than +any man I ever met, and once is enough; I couldn't bear an insult in +the presence of my wife and daughter. Eva, do you know what that man +tried to do? He gained admission to my private office, and actually +strove to bunco me out of a hundred dollars." + +"He may have tried to borrow it, father, but I don't think he tried to +get it dishonestly." + +"Didn't I tell you that he tried to beat me out of the money? Why do +you set up a mere opinion against my experience? And why are you so +much inclined to take his part? Tell me that. You can't be interested +in him?" + +"I don't want injustice done him." + +"Oh, no; but you would submit to the injustice he does you. He has +robbed you of the society of your younger acquaintances--he compels +you to sit almost excluded in a town where you are an acknowledged +belle. Young gentlemen are afraid to call on you." + +"Well, I don't know that it would be exactly proper," she replied. + +"And," he went on, lifting his voice, "the strangest part of it is +that you quietly submit to this treatment when there is a way to free +yourself. And I request you to make use of it." + +He got up, went to the mantel-piece, took up a sea-shell, put it down, +turned his back to the fire place, stood there a moment and strode +out. + +"You must do as he commands," said the mother. + +"I can't." + +"Don't say that. You must. I have thought it over, and I know it's for +the best." + +"You have permitted him to think it over, and you hope it is for the +best," the daughter replied. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +MUST LEAVE THE TOWN. + + +At eleven o'clock the next day, Zeb Sawyer was to meet McElwin at the +bank. The hour was tolled off by a grim old clock standing high in a +corner, a rare old time piece with a history, or at least a past, of +interest to McElwin, for it had been bought at the forced sale of +fixtures belonging to a defunct bank. It struck with solemn +self-importance, as if proclaiming the hour to foreclose a mortgage; +and though not given to this sort of reflective speculation, McElwin +must have been vaguely influenced by its knell-like stroke, for he +nearly always glanced up as if a tribute were due to its promptness. A +few minutes later Zeb Sawyer was shown into the room. The banker had +been sitting in deep thought, with his legs stretched forth, and with +his hands in his pockets, but he turned about when the clock struck, +and as Sawyer entered the office he was busy with papers on a table in +front of him. + +"Good morning, Zeb; sit down." + +"Hard at it, I see," said the young man, taking a seat at the opposite +side of the table. + +"Yes, day and night. No rest for the wicked, you know." + +"I don't know as to that," Sawyer replied, "but I do know that there +is mighty little rest for the man that wants to do anything in the +world." + +"You are right. The gospel of content builds poor houses. I never knew +a happy man who wasn't lazy." + +"You ought to go to Congress, McElwin; they need such talk there." + +"They need a good many qualities that they are not likely to get." He +put his papers aside, and leaning with his arms on the table looked +into the eyes of his visitor. "My daughter has developed into a +thinking woman, Zeb." + +The over-confident young money-maker's face brightened, as if the +banker had given him a piece of encouraging news. + +"Yes, sir," McElwin went on, "and no cause is lost so long as thinking +is going on. Why, sir, it took my wife years and years to learn how to +think. It was not expected that a young woman in this part of the +country should think. Men were the necessities and women the +adornments of society when I was a young fellow." + +"But you said your daughter had become a thinking woman," Sawyer +hastened to remark, to bring him back from his wanderings. + +"Yes. And it will require all my strength and influence as a father, +to get her to think as I want her to. Still, in our dealings with a +woman there is always hope--if she thinks. I had quite a talk with her +last night, but I did not convince her that she ought to go to that +fellow and ask him to sign--sign that infamous petition." McElwin took +his arms off the table and leaned back in his chair. "And, sir, I +don't believe she'll do it." + +"It can't be that she can care anything for him," said Sawyer. + +"Nonsense," the banker replied. "Such a thing has never entered her +head. I think she enjoys the oddity of her position, married and yet +not married. I think it tickles her sense of romance. But there is a +way of getting at everything, and there must be some way of +approaching this outrageous affair. I have looked into the law, and I +find that in case the fellow should go and remain away one year, his +signature would not be necessary. However, being a sort of a lawyer, +he knows this as well as I do. We can't bring the charge of +non-support, for we have not let him try. Zeb, she has intimated that +you are afraid of him." + +The banker looked straight at him, but the mule-trader did not change +countenance. "No, I am not afraid of him," he said, "but unless I'm +shoved pretty far, I don't care to mix up with him, I tell you that. +My life is too valuable to throw away, and they tell me that Lyman is +nothing short of a desperado when he is stirred up, though you +wouldn't think it to look at him. But you can never tell a man by +looking at him, not half as much as you can a mule. Oh, if the worst +comes, I'd kill him, but--" + +"That would never do," the banker broke in. "Don't think of such a +thing. I wonder if we couldn't buy him off," he added, after a +moment's musing. "I should think that he might be induced to go away. +There is one thing in support of this; he has had a taste of success, +or rather a nibble at ambition, and he may, even now, be thinking of +going to a city. Suppose you go over and see him--offer him five +hundred dollars." + +Sawyer studied awhile. "He couldn't take offense at that," he said. +"At least no sensible man ought to. Suppose you write me a check +payable to him." + +McElwin, without replying, made out a check, blotted it and handed it +to Sawyer. "Come back and tell me," he said. + + * * * * * + +Lyman was writing when Sawyer tapped at the open door. "Come in," said +the writer. His manner was pleasant and his countenance was genial, +and Sawyer, standing at the threshold, felt an encouragement coming to +meet him. He stepped forward and Lyman invited him to sit down. + +"A little warm," said Lyman. + +"Yes, think we'll have rain, soon; the air's so heavy." + +"Shouldn't be surprised. It would help farmers when setting out their +tobacco plants." + +"I reckon you are right. But the farmers would complain anyway, wet or +dry. The weather wouldn't suit them, even if they had the ordering of +it." + +"Well, in that they are not different from the rest of us," said +Lyman. "We all grumble." + +A short silence followed. Lyman moved some papers. Sawyer coughed +slightly. They heard the grinding of the press. + +"Printing the paper in there?" said Sawyer, nodding toward the door. +He began to turn about as if nervous at the thought of his errand. +"How many do you print a week?" + +"I don't know, but we have a pretty fair circulation." + +"I see it a good deal out in the state." + +"Yes, it spreads out fairly well. We try to make it interesting to the +farmers." + +"By telling them something they don't know," said the visitor. + +Lyman shook his head slowly: "By reminding them of many things they do +know," he replied. "Tell a man a truth he doesn't know and he may +dispute it; call to his mind a truth which he has known and forgotten, +and he regards it as a piece of wisdom. The farmer is the weather-cock +of human nature." + +"I guess you have about hit it. By the way, Mr. Lyman, I have called +on a little matter of business, and I hope you'll not fly off before +you consider it. The only way we can get at the merits of a case is by +being cool and deliberate. The last time we had a talk, you--" + +"Yes," Lyman interrupted, "I must have gone too far when I called you +a coward." + +"I think so, sir, but be that as it may, let us be cool and deliberate +now. I have just had a talk with Mr. McElwin and he is still greatly +distressed over--over that affair, and he thinks by putting our +reasons to work we can get at a settlement. The fact is, he wonders +that you would want to stay in such a small and unimportant place as +this is, after your editorial that everybody is talking about." + +"Did he call it an editorial?" Lyman asked, smiling at his visitor. + +"Well, I don't know as he called it that, but whatever it is, he was a +good deal struck by it, and he wondered that you didn't go to some big +city and set up there. And I wondered so too, from all that I heard. +Somebody, I have forgotten who, hinted that maybe you didn't have +money enough and--" + +"Money," said Lyman; "why, I've got money enough to burn a wet +elephant." + +Sawyer blinked in the glare of this dazzling statement, but he managed +to smile and then to proceed: "I spoke to Mr. McElwin about what had +been hinted, and inasmuch as you had applied to him for a loan, he +didn't know but it was the truth." + +"A very natural conclusion on his part," said Lyman, leaning back and +crossing his feet on a corner of the table. + +"Yes, he thought so, and I did, too. He ain't so hard a man to get +along with as you might think." + +"He is not a hard man to get away from. It doesn't seem to put him to +any trouble to let a man know when he's got enough of him." + +"I'm afraid you didn't see him under the best conditions." + +"No, I don't believe I did. He made me feel as if I looked like the +man standing at the threshold of the almanac, badly cut up, with crabs +and horns and other things put about him." + +"I think you would find him much more agreeable now." + +"Oh, he was agreeable enough then, only he didn't agree. And I am +thankful that he didn't." + +"Well, he regrets that he didn't let you have the money, although you +came in an unbusiness-like way." + +"Yes, I did. And pretending to be a lawyer, I ought to have known +better. I don't blame him for that." + +"What do you blame him for, then?" + +"For wanting his daughter to be your wife." + +Sawyer jerked his hand as if something had bitten him. "But what right +have you to blame him for that? It was arranged long before you ever +saw me, and besides what right have you, a stranger, to interfere in +his affairs?" + +"That's very well put, Mr. Sawyer, but there are some affairs that +rise above family and appeal to humanity. You requested me to be cool +and deliberate, and you will pardon me, I hope, if I am cooler than +you expected, and more considerate than you desire. It would be a +crime to attempt to merge that young woman's life into yours." + +"I know you have a pretty low estimate of me, but I won't resent it. +We are to be cool." + +"And considerate," said Lyman, with a slight bow. + +"Yes, sir; and considerate. But I don't see where the crime would come +in. My family is as good as hers." + +"That may be. I am not looking at her family, but at her. She was +spoiled, it is true, but she is developing into the highest type of +American womanhood." + +"Yes, but I haven't come to discuss her. We were talking just now +about the prospect of your going away, and the probability that you +might not have money enough to settle in a city. Mr. McElwin is +willing to help you toward that end, and has signed a check for five +hundred dollars, made out in your name. Here it is." He handed the +check to Lyman, who took it, looked at it and said: "He writes a firm +hand. Money gives a man confidence in himself, doesn't it?" He held +out the check toward Sawyer. The latter did not take it, and it +fluttered in the air and fell to the floor. Sawyer took it up and put +it on the table, with an ink stand on it to hold it down. + +"It is yours, Mr. Lyman; it is made out to you." + +"Upon the condition that I leave here and remain away as long as one +year. Is that it?" + +"Well, yes." + +"I told you that I have enough money to burn a wet elephant. I +haven't--I haven't enough to scorch a dry cricket." + +"Then you will accept the check," said Sawyer, brightening. + +Lyman had struck a match, as if to light his pipe. He took up the +check and held it to the blaze. "Look out," he said, as Sawyer sprung +to interfere. "Sit down." He took the cinders and wrapped them in a +piece of paper, folding it neatly. "Give this to Mr. McElwin and tell +him that I have cremated the little finger of his god, and send him +the ashes," he said. + +Sawyer stood gazing at him in astonishment. + +"I told you to sit down. You won't sit down. And you won't take the +god-ashes to the devotee. Come, that's unkind." + +"Sir, you have insulted me." + +"What, again?" + +"And you shall regret it. And you shall leave this town," he added, +turning to go. "You have not only insulted me, but you--you have put +an indignity upon Mr. McElwin." Indignity was rather a big word, +coming from him unexpectedly out of his vague recollection, and he +halted to stiffen with a better opinion of himself. "I say you shall +leave this town." + +"I heard what you said. But I thought we were to be cool. Oh, pardon +me, it was the fire that gave offense." + +"I say you are going to leave this town." + +"Good-bye, then." + +"I will make one more attempt," said Sawyer, standing in the door. + +"Don't exert yourself." + +"I will offer you a thousand dollars to go away." + +"My stock is rising." + +"Will you take it?" + +"The advance is too rapid. Can't afford to sell now." + +Sawyer began to sputter. "I'm done," he said. "I have no other +proposition to make. But remember what I say. You are going to leave +this town." + +"Then I may not see you again; good-bye." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SAWYER'S PLAN. + + +McElwin was engaged when Sawyer returned to the bank, but he soon +cleared the room. "Well," he said, when the mule buyer entered. Sawyer +sat down before he replied. + +"He refused." + +McElwin's feet scraped the floor. "Refused?" + +"Yes. He took the check, struck a match and burned it up." + +"The scoundrel." + +"Worse than that, he wrapped up the cinders and told me to take them +to you, and tell you that he had burnt the little finger of your god." + +"Blasphemous wretch!" + +"And I told him that he had not only insulted me, but had put an +indignity upon you. I talked to him just as cool as a man could talk +to anybody; we got along first rate until he burnt the check, and +then, of course, it was all off. No it wasn't, not even then. As I +stood in the door on my way out I offered him a thousand dollars. And +he refused. And do you know why? I think he's got the notion that by +sticking out he may win you and Eva over and get a partnership here." + +McElwin jumped up and slapped his hand upon the table. "I would see +him in----first." He turned about and began to walk slowly up and down +the room. + +"But he's going to leave this town," said Sawyer. "When I set my head +on a thing I go at it with reason and work on that line until I find +it hasn't any power, and then I use force. I am going to do it in this +case." + +"How?" McElwin asked. + +"The boys have a way of getting at a thing that persuasion can't +reach." + +"Speak out," said McElwin. "Tell me what you are going to do." + +"Well, I am going out into the Spring Hill neighborhood and appeal to +the boys--the White Caps. Then, some fine night, a party, all dressed +in white head-gear, will call on Mr. Lyman. They will put him on a +horse, take him out to the woods, take off his shirt, tie him across a +log and give him fifty lashes as a starter. Then, when they untie +him, they'll remark that if he is not gone within three days they will +give him a hundred. See the point?" + +"Zeb, he deserves it, but I'm afraid that course won't do." + +"Not weakening, are you?" + +"Weakening? Who ever knew me to weaken? I say he deserves it." + +"But you say it won't do." + +"And I'm afraid it won't. It would create a terrible scandal." + +"It's done every week, in some part of the country. Even the most +law-abiding citizens acknowledge that it is a good thing." + +"It might do in the country, severe as it is, but it would be +different in town. The law would interfere, and that would be +disgraceful." + +"But the law will not interfere. I can fix the town marshal, and as +for the sheriff--he owes me for a span of mules. I have worked it all +out. In the evening I'll go around to Uncle Jasper's with a bottle of +old Bourbon. I'll tell him that I am celebrating my birthday or +something. Once in a while he takes to the bottle, and the old liquor +will tempt him. Well, when he's in good condition, I'll put him to bed +and shortly afterwards the boys will come for brother Lyman. In the +meantime I will see that there are no guns in the way. The women will +be scared, of course, but they'll soon get over it. Isn't that a plan +worthy of a county surveyor?" + +"The plan's all right, Zeb, but I'm afraid of it's execution. +Supposing my name should become involved. It would ruin me." + +"Yes, but your name sha'n't be involved." + +"He will suspect you and me, too." + +"But he couldn't prove anything." + +"Well, now, you may do as you please, but I'll have no hand in it. I +refuse to countenance it." + +"You simply don't know anything about it." + +"Of course not. I'm too much taken up with other affairs." + +Sawyer arose to go. "I shall see you again, I suppose. I mean before +anything is done," said McElwin. "At the house," he added. + +Sawyer looked down: "I don't feel free to come there," he said. "She +has told me not to." + +McElwin coughed dryly: "Nonsensical proprieties," he remarked, +scraping his feet upon the floor. "But I am to see you again?" + +"I think not--until afterwards. Whatever is done, you know, must be +done at once." + +Sawyer went out. The clock struck and McElwin glanced up at it. Then +he settled down into a deep muse. Sawyer's plan was desperate--it was +outlawry. It ought not to be carried out, and yet the provocation was +great. But supposing it should be known that he had given countenance +to the undertaking. Suppose the newspapers should print his name in +connection with it; the public, to say nothing of the law, would frown +upon him. It must not be done. He snatched a piece of paper, and +writing upon it the words: "Give up that scheme at once," sealed it up +and gave it to a negro, with instructions to find Mr. Sawyer and hand +it to him at once. About half an hour later the negro returned with a +note written on a piece of paper bag, and unsealed. The note ran: +"Don't you worry, but it shall be done tonight. Don't try to find me. +I have been fooling long enough, and now I am getting down to +business." He tore the paper into bits, and then strode slowly up and +down the room. Presently he took down his hat, rubbed it abstractedly +with the sleeve of his coat, and went out, remarking that he might not +be back that day. He felt like a criminal as he stepped upon the +sidewalk. But he was stiff, and merely nodded to the tradesmen who +bowed to him cringingly. He was looking for Sawyer, but was afraid to +inquire after him. He went to the wagon yard where Sawyer stabled his +mules, and looked about, but did not find him. The owner of the place, +hard in the presence of the farmers, but obsequiously soft under the +banker's eye, invited him into the office, a dismal place, the walls +hung with halters, bridles, chains and twisting sticks, used to grip +the jaw of a refractory horse and wrench rebellion out of him. The +rough appearance of the stable men within and the pungent smell of the +place, turned McElwin at the threshold. + +"No, I don't think I have time," he said. + +"Is there anything I can do for you? If there is, name it, and I will +stir up this place from top to bottom." + +[Illustration: in the parlour] + +McElwin thought that it was stirred up quite enough, with its rough +men, its mangy dogs and rat-like smell. "Nothing at all," he answered. +"I am looking for a farmer, a man named Brown." + +"Old Jack? He's around here somewhere. It will tickle him pretty nigh +to death to know you'd look for him. I'll tell him when he comes in." + +"Oh, no. He's not the man. This man's quite young, and his name is +Lucian Brown, I think." + +"Then I don't know anything about him, I'm sorry to say." + +"Are you feeding many mules at present?" + +"Well, not many at present, but I expect to have more in a day or two. +Mr. Sawyer has gone down in the country to gather up a lot. He drove +out just a few moments ago. I tell you, there's a hustler, Mr. +McElwin. He don't wait, he makes things happen." + +"Which way did he go?" McElwin asked. + +"I don't know, exactly, but I think he took the Spring Hill road. He +must be going after something particularly fine, for I heard him tell +old Josh that he wanted a bottle of the oldest liquor in town, no +matter what it costs. But he didn't take it with him, come to +recollect. He 'lowed he'd want it this evening when he come back." + +McElwin walked straightway to his home. His appearance at that odd +hour caused surprise, and his wife, having seen him through the +window, came to the door with something of a flurry. + +"Is there anything wrong?" she asked, as he stepped into the hall. + +"Nothing at all," he answered, hanging up his hat. "Why?" + +"Because you are home so early." + +"Oh, that's it. I was tired and I thought I'd come home to rest." + +She took his arm and they passed into the rear parlor. "Where is Eva?" +he asked, sitting down. + +"I don't know. I think she's out for a walk. Are you tired?" she +asked, standing behind him, with her hands resting on the back of the +chair. + +"Not now," he said, reaching back and taking her hands. He pressed +them against his cheeks. "You always rest me." + +"Do I?" She leaned affectionately over him. "I was afraid that I did +not. You have had so much to worry you of late." + +"Yes," he sighed. "But when we are alone I can forget it all. Play +something for me, please." + +She looked at him in surprise: "When did you ask me to play, before?" + +"I don't know," he answered frankly. "You most always play without my +asking. Sing an old song, something we used to sing long ago." + +She went to the piano and touched to life the strains of "Kitty +Clyde." And when her voice arose, he felt a lump in his throat, and he +sat with his eyes shut, with a picture in his heart--an old house, a +honey-suckle, a beautiful girl in white, with a rose in her hair. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +AT THE CREEK. + + +Shortly after Sawyer took his leave, Lyman went out for a meditative +stroll in the wooded land. About a mile and a half distant was a +creek, with great bluffs on one side, and with a romantic tumble of +land on the other. Of late he had gone often to this stream, not to +listen to the melody of water pouring over the rocks, not to hear the +birds that held a joy-riot in the trees, but to lie in the grass on a +slope, beneath an elm, and gaze across at a limestone tower called +"Lover's Leap." And on these journeys he always went through the +shaded lane-like street that led past the banker's house. It was the +most pretentious house in the town, of brick, trimmed with stone. In +the yard, which was large, the great man had indulged his taste for +art, stucco statuary--a deer, a lion, a dog, two Greek wrestlers, a +mother with a child in her arms, and a ghastly semblance of Andrew +Jackson. + +Lyman reached the shore of the creek and walked slowly among the +large, smooth rocks, that looked like the hip bones of the worn and +tired old earth, coming through. As he approached the tree and the +grassy slope whereon he was wont to lie and muse, he saw the +fluttering of something white, and then from behind the tree a woman +stepped. His heart beat faster, for he recognized her, and when he +came up, with softened tread, to the tree, he was panting as if he had +run a race. The woman did not see him until he spoke, her eyes having +been cast down when she passed from behind the tree, and she started +and blushed at beholding him. + +"I hope I don't intrude," he said, taking off his hat. + +"Oh, no, since you have as much right here as I have." + +"I don't know but that I have a pretty good right," he said. "That is, +if occupancy means anything. I come here often." + +"Do you?" she cried in surprise. "Why, I have never seen you here +before, and this has been my favorite spot for years." + +"Well, as we are both at home," he said, laughing, "we might as well +sit down." + +They laughed and seated themselves on the spreading roots of the tree, +though not very near each other. She took off her hat and he looked +with admiration at her brown hair, tied with a ribbon. She flushed +under his gaze and said he must pardon her appearance, as she had not +expected to meet anyone. + +"A violet might say as much," he replied. + +"You must not talk that way," she said. + +"Why? Because you like to hear it?" + +"The idea! How could you say that?" + +"Because modesty protests against the words that a woman most likes to +hear, and modesty does not chide until she ventures upon an +enjoyment." + +"Then modesty is a scold, instead of a friendly guide." + +"No. But over-modesty is over-caution." + +"We were not talking of over-modesty. Are you as bold with all women +as you are with me?" She looked at him with quizzical mischief in her +eyes. He plucked a white clover blossom and tossed it upward. It fell +in her lap. + +"Bold, did you say? Am I bold? Most women have laughed at my angular +shyness." + +"Laughed at you; how could they?" + +"On account of my peculiarities. I was called an old bachelor before I +was twenty, and as I grew older I considered myself one, irredeemably, +for I never expected to marry." + +"I should have thought your life full of romance, wandering about, as +you must have done." + +"My life has been a tread-mill," he answered. + +"But you see so many beautiful things in nature." + +"The horse on the tread-wheel can look through a crack, and see a +flower growing outside." + +"Has your life been really hard?" she asked. + +"Yes, desperately hard, at times." + +"But you don't show it. You seem so kind and gentle." + +"If I do, it is out of charity for those who have suffered." + +"But I don't see any sign of your suffering, you write so +beautifully." + +"I had to suffer before I could write. The heart cannot express a joy +until it has felt a sorrow." + +She gave him her frank, admiring eyes. "Why haven't I met such men as +you are? I have not lived here all my life; I have travelled with my +aunt, who knew the world, and she took me to many strange places, and +I met many men, but they didn't appeal to me or interest me any more +than those I met at home. It was all the same old commonplace +flattery." + +"You have never found a man so interesting because you have never had +the opportunity to see a man standing in the light I stand in now," he +replied. "Our relationship has given me a new color." + +She shook her head: "I have thought of that, but I believe that I +should have found you interesting, even if I should have met you in +the ordinary way." + +"No, you would never have allowed yourself the time. Some sobering +process was required." + +"Yes, that is true," she frankly admitted. + +In the tree tops above them the birds were riotous. The air was +scented with a sharp sweetness from the wild mint that grew at the +edge of the water. + +"Has Mr. Sawyer been to see you?" + +"He came today." + +"Tell me about his visit. What did he say?" + +"He wanted to buy me--wanted to hire me to go away." + +"Tell me all about it. Remember, we are friends." + +"He brought a check for five hundred dollars, signed by your father." + +"I think you have told me enough," she said. + +A flock of sheep came pattering along the road that skirted the +hill-top, not far away. A bare-footed boy shouted in the dust behind +them. + +"Not much more remains to be told. He said I would regret not having +taken the check." + +"Did he threaten you?" + +"Well, he said that I would have to leave town." + +"He is afraid of you, and he knows it." + +"If he is, he ought to know it," Lyman drolly replied. "If he doesn't +know it, somebody ought to tell him. But I won't go away and leave you +unprotected." + +She looked at him gratefully. "How strange it sounds, and yet how true +it is that you are my only real protector. My father cannot understand +why I don't place Mr. Sawyer's money-getting ability above everything +else. He thinks Mr. Sawyer will become one of the greatest men in the +country. And I admit that at times this, together with father's +entreaty, has had a strong influence over me. But I don't think," she +added, shaking her head, "that I could ever have married that man. +No," she said energetically, as she pointed across the stream, "that +rock, first." + +"You wouldn't do that," Lyman replied. + +"Wouldn't I? Don't we read every day of women who kill themselves?" + +"Yes, of women whose minds are not sound." + +"But who shall say when a mind is not sound? How do you know that it +is? What proof have I? We often read that no one suspected that Miss +So-and-So had the slightest intention of destroying herself. Well, I +may be a Miss So-and-So." + +"I have no right to doubt your word," said Lyman. "Things that we most +doubt sometimes come to pass, and then we wonder why we should have +questioned them. But I will stand between you and the rock; I will be +your friend and confidant, your brother, let us say. You must keep +faith with me, and if you ever really fall in love, the sweet, +torturing, the desperate sort of love which must exist, come to me and +tell me." + +"I will keep faith. But why do you say the sweet and torturing and +desperate love that must exist? You talk as if it was a speculation of +the mind rather than a fact of the heart. Don't you know that it does +exist? Was there not a woman in the past who aroused it within you?" + +"I have seen one or two women who might have done so. I remember one +particularly. I was young and foolish, of course, but as I looked at +her I thought she could win my soul. I did not know her; I saw her +only once and that was at a hotel in the White Mountains. She and a +party of ladies and gentlemen dined at the hotel, and I was a waiter." +She looked up at him. "Yes, a waiter, with a white apron on and a +Greek Testament in my pocket. The employment was menial, perhaps +loathsome in your eyes." + +"No," she said with a shiver. "Perhaps you had to do it." + +"Yes, under a keen whip, the desire to continue my education. I think +I must have been the first of my race to run forward at the tap of a +knife on a dish. In my strong determination to fit myself--as I then +thought--for the duties of life, I would have done almost anything to +further my plans; and I was never really ashamed of my having to wait +at table to earn knowledge-money, until the night I saw you--until you +turned to some one and said: 'What, that thing!'" + +"I did say that," she answered, "yes, and I have censured myself a +thousand times. I hoped that you had not heard me. I am awfully +sorry." + +"Oh, I don't take it to heart. It hurt my pride a little and it gave +me a wrong impression of you." + +"Let us forget it. I was always a fool--until after that night. But +about the woman, what became of her?" + +"I don't know. She blew away like the down of the dandelion." + +"And you didn't see her again?" + +"Never again." + +"But you dreamed of her?" + +"No. You misunderstand me. I didn't fall in love with her. I say that +I might have loved her. Perhaps upon becoming acquainted with her, I +might have smiled at my foolish belief--might have found her +uninteresting." + +"You said there was one or two--the other one? What about her?" + +"I don't remember her at all. I say that I may have seen her, but I +don't recall her." + +"Perhaps the other one has read your story." + +"Or perhaps her daughter honeyed over it on her wedding journey," he +suggested, laughing. + +A light vehicle rattled down the road, and she looked up. "I was +thinking that someone might drive past and recognize us," she said. +"It may be wrong, but I don't want father to know that we meet, except +by accident." + +"Wasn't this meeting an accident?" he asked, hoping that she would say +it was not, on her part. + +"Yes. But sitting here under this tree is not. And I must go," she +added, arising. He got up and stood there, hoping that she would hold +out her hand to him, but she did not. "Good-bye," she said, smiling as +she turned away. + +"Let me hope for another accident, soon," Lyman replied, bowing to +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +AT THE WAGON-MAKER'S SHOP. + +Sawyer drove rapidly toward Spring Hill, about eight miles distant +from Old Ebenezer. The land was uneven, with oak ridges, beech slopes +and shell-bark hickory flats, but the road was smooth, and for the two +trotting horses the buggy was merely a plaything. He drew up at a +wagon-maker's shop, the end of his journey, and threw the lines to a +negro who came forward to meet him. + +"You needn't feed them," he said. "Take the harness off and let them +run about the lot. They've been shut up till they're frisky." + +A large man, in his shirt sleeves, and with collar unbuttoned, met him +at the door. + +"Helloa, Mr. Zeb." + +"Helloa, Steve, where's Bob?" + +"Come in. He's about, somewhere." + +Sawyer entered and sat down on a large block of wood, his feet half +hidden in a pile of chips. A hand-saw, hanging on the wall, caught a +shaft of light from the sun, and threw it into his eyes. He turned +slightly and spoke to the wagon-maker. + +"How's business with you?" + +"Bad enough. People can buy wagons a good deal cheaper than I can +afford to make 'em. They tell me that up north a man can go into a +place and they'll make him a wagon while he waits, ironed and all +ready for the road, and for a third less than I can do it. I can't +buck against anything like that. I've got to get my timber out of the +woods and season it, and take care of it like it was a lame leg, and +all that sort of thing, to say nothin' of the work after I get down to +it. Just before the election," said the wagon-maker, sitting down upon +an unfinished hub, taking up an oak splinter and putting one end of it +into his mouth, "a man come around here and 'lowed, he did, that if we +could get a majority of farmers into the legislature, the condition of +affairs would be changed. He 'lowed that they'd make it a point to put +a tax on wagons not made in the state. Well, they got in, and about +all they did was to fight the railroads, tear the digest to pieces and +tinker with the marriage law, as some of you folks in Old Ebenezer +have good cause to know. Why, if you read the papers at the time, you +recollect that one old feller from Blaxon county said that marriage +license was an outrage--'lowed, he did, that there wa'n't no license +writ out for Adam. Yes, and he said that down in his neighborhood +several young fellers held off from marryin' because they couldn't +afford to pay for the license. He said it was a sin and a shame to put +a tax on a man that was tryin' to do somethin' for his country." + +"Do you think Bob will be back pretty soon?" Sawyer asked, working his +feet deep down among the chips. + +"Yes, he ought to be here now. If he don't come pretty soon I'll send +the nigger to look for him. How's that marriage of McElwin's daughter +gettin' along?" + +"Not at all. It's just the same." + +"Feller still there?" + +"Yes; he's running the paper." + +"Don't 'pear to mind it, I reckon. I wonder McElwin don't hire him to +pull out. Well, down in this neighborhood we've got a way of settlin' +such things. We tell a feller to go and if he refuses, why, we see +that he goes. We've got a mighty lively set of young fellers." + +"And your brother Bob is one of the liveliest," said Sawyer. + +"Well, Bob ain't slow. The other night they took out a feller over on +Caney Fork, feller that had dropped into the habit of whippin' his +wife--and they hit him about forty-five, with a promise of more; and +they say now that he's as sweet to his home folks as a June apple-pie. +Oh, it do have a powerful sweetenin' effect on a sour citizen. Any +sour citizens up your way?" + +"One," Sawyer answered. + +"Don't know why, but I sorter thought so. It's dangerous in town, +ain't it?" + +"Not when you fix everything." + +"Well, then, go ahead, but keep outer the way of the law. Here's Bob +now." + +A tall, gaunt young fellow stepped into the shop. He was a type of the +southern ruralist, broad, flapping straw hat, home-woven shirt, +cottonade trousers, one suspender. He grinned upon seeing Sawyer, and +said, "Hi." + +"Ho, Bob. Busy tonight?" + +"Ain't rushed. Anything blowing in the wind?" + +"A little fun, that's all." + +"Then let her blow my way. Steve, here, 'lows he's gettin' so old that +he don't care for fun any more, but I have to have it--bread and +blackberry jam to me." + +"Well, you shall have it. How are the boys, the White Caps?" + +"Finer'n silk split three times." + +"Can you call them together for tonight?" + +"By howlin' like a wolf. Do you want 'em?" + +"Yes. Will twenty dollars pay the way?" + +"We'll whip the governor of the state for that much." + +Sawyer unfolded his plan. The boys were to be in front of old Jasper's +house at midnight. + +"Don't let nobody take a gun with him," said Steve. "If you do there +mout be serious trouble. And there won't be no need of it, as you say +everything will be fixed. I know what I'm talkin' about. Give one of +them boys a pop and he'll use it whether occasion warrants or not. I +know 'em." + +"Well, they needn't put themselves to the trouble of firing off a gun +to scare that chap. He ain't one of the sort that scares," Sawyer was +gracious enough to admit. "He don't tote a pistol and I'll manage to +slip into his room and see if he has one there, and if he has, I'll +hook it. I have also hatched out a plan to get the women folks away. +I've got my mother, and of course she knows nothing about the affair, +to send a message by me asking them to come over to our house. If I +can get the old man to go, too, so much the better. But he don't care +to go out much at night, and I reckon my only course will be to get +him drunk." + +"Say," said Bob, "you 'lowed your man wa'n't easy to skeer, and if +that's the case, what's the use of takin' him a mile or two to the +woods? Men that don't skeer don't holler. Why not put it to him right +then and there, out in the yard, over a barrel?" + +Before Sawyer could reply, the philosophic mind of Steve saw the +practical sense of his brother's suggestion. "I reckon he's got the +right idee, Mr. Sawyer. He's done so much of this sort of work lately +that now it comes to him somewhat in the natur' of a trade. You can +tell him a good deal about mules that I reckon he don't know, but he +knows the fine p'ints in men like a hungry feller knows the fine +p'ints of a fried chicken. Better let him have his way." + +"I am more than willing," said Sawyer. "The sooner it's over with the +better it will suit me. It's results I'm after. There's a rain-water +barrel at the corner of the house," he went on, reflectively. "We can +pour the water out and roll the barrel around where we'll have plenty +of room. Do you think he'll be willing to go away, Bob?" + +Bob stood leaning back, with his elbows on the vise bench. "Well," he +drawled, "an examination of the books of my firm will show that none +ain't never failed yet. I have know'd them to argy and object, but +I'll jest tell you that a hickory sprout laid on right, can soon make +a man lose sight of the p'int in his own discussion. Why, when we get +through with a man, and tell him what we want him to do, he thanks us, +as if we had given him the opportunity of his life." + +"All right," Sawyer laughed, getting up. "Be there on time is all I +ask." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A RESTLESS NIGHT. + + +The air was damp. At evening a heavy mist came with the soft June +wind, and the night was dark. McElwin had gone over to the town after +supper, something he rarely did alone, having the rich man's dread of +a dark street; but he soon returned and paced nervously up and down +the room. And more than once he muttered, shaking his head: "I can't +help it; I tried to prevent it, but couldn't." He told his wife that +he was worried over a piece of business, and as business was the +awe-inspiring word of the household, she stood aloof from him, in +nervous sympathy with his worry; and the negro servants spoke in +whispers. From her walk her daughter had returned in a solemn state of +mind. Her manner, which had been growing gentler, was now touched with +a winsome melancholy, and her eyes appeared to be larger and dreamier. +Of late an old minister, who for nearly half a century had worn a +tinkling bell in the midst of a devoted flock, had called frequently +to talk to her, and in her smile the old man saw the spirit of +religion, though not of one creed, but the heart's religion of the +past, of the present, of Eternity. + +Mrs. McElwin went up to Eva's room, leaving her husband to continue +his troubled walk. The girl was sitting at the window. "Come in," she +said. + +"I'm worried about your father," said Mrs. McElwin, sitting down with +a sigh. "Have you said anything to annoy him?" + +"No, nothing that I can remember." + +"Well, something has happened. Have you seen--seen Mr. Lyman since the +evening of the picnic? You told me that you saw him then, but you +haven't told me of seeing him since. And I don't dare tell your +father." + +"No, for you promised me that you wouldn't." + +"But have you kept your promise to me? You told me you would tell me +if you met him again." + +"Yes, and I will keep my word. I met him today, over by the creek, and +we sat down under a tree and talked. And, oh, his voice almost made me +sob as I sat there, listening to him." + +"Eva," said her mother. + +"I can't help it. His life has been so hard, and yet it has made him +so considerate and so gentle. Mother, why haven't I met such a man +among our friends--why didn't I see one in my travels?" + +"My daughter, can't you understand the strange interest you take in +him? Have you considered the circumstances--" + +"I have considered everything, and it would have been the same no +matter where we might have met. Mother," she said, turning with a +smile, more than sad in the dim light, "do you know that old log cabin +over on the hill where the pension woman used to live? Yes, for we +could see it from here in daylight. I passed there today, coming home, +and I stopped and gazed at the wretched place, and suddenly there came +a thought that almost took my breath away. I thought that with him--" +she leaned over and took her mother's hand--"that with him I could +live there and bless God for my happiness." + +"My darling child, you must not think that--you couldn't think that." + +"But I did, and though the world seemed further away, heaven was +closer. I ought to have been a poor man's daughter, mother, for love +is all there is to live for." + +They put their arms about each other. "It would break your father's +heart," the mother said, her tears falling. "It would crush him to the +earth." + +"I know it, and my heart may be crushed, instead of his. But that +petition must not be signed." + +"Let us wait, my child. Don't say anything. Don't--" + +They heard McElwin calling from the foot of the stairs. "Lucy, Lucy, I +think I'll have to go down town again." + +"Wait a moment," his wife cried, hastening out, Eva following her. He +turned back before they reached the foot of the stairs, and had +resumed his anxious walk when they entered the parlor. + +"Why, what can you be thinking about, James?" his wife asked. + +"Thinking about going down town. I must go." + +"Not tonight? Why, it's going to rain." + +"Doesn't make any difference if it rains bearded pitchforks, I must +go." + +His wife took him by the arm: "James, you are keeping something from +me--something has happened." + +"No, nothing has happened. A friend of mine has a project on foot. I +am interested in it, and I want to advise him not to go ahead with +it." + +"But he couldn't go ahead with it tonight," Eva spoke up. + +"Yes he can. You don't know how rash he is; he's got no head at all +when it comes to such matters. Let me get my umbrella." + +"James," said his wife, looking into his eyes, "don't deceive us, tell +us what it is." + +"What noise was that?" he cried, leaning toward the window. "I heard +something. Gracious!" he exclaimed, as the doorbell rang. + +Mr. Menifee, the old minister, was shown in. "Ah, good evening," +McElwin cried, starting toward him, but then remembering his dignity +he said: "You are always welcome. Sit down." + +The old gentleman bowed to the ladies and took the easy chair which +the banker shoved toward him. McElwin turned to the window and stood +there, looking out, listening, with no ear for the solicitous +common-places concerning the health of his household, indulged by the +old gentleman. He glanced at the clock on the mantel, and was +surprised to find that the hour was no later. He turned to the +preacher. + +"You can do me a service, Mr. Menifee; you can quiet the fears of my +wife and daughter while I go down town. I have a most important matter +of business on hand but they don't want me to go. Why," he added, with +a dry laugh, "what is it to go down town at half past nine?" + +"What, is it that late?" the old gentleman spoke up. "Why, I am +getting to be a late prowler. But if you have an important matter to +attend to, surely you ought to do it." + +"I rarely ever go down town at night," said the banker; "that is the +reason of their uneasiness. Yes, the only cause, I assure you." + +He passed out into the hall, his wife following him. He took an +umbrella from the rack, and preparing to hoist it, stepped out upon +the veranda. His wife spoke to him and he started as if he had not +noticed her. "James," she said, "something is wrong and you are +deceiving me." + +"Nothing at all, my dear," he replied, hoisting the umbrella. "The +truth is, I want to see Sawyer." + +"In relation to Mr. Lyman?" she asked, putting her hand on his arm to +detain him. + +"Well, yes, indirectly. The truth is, I authorized Zeb to offer him a +sum of money to go away--quite too much I am sure--and I want to ask +him to withdraw the offer. I can't afford to invest that much ready +money at present, I really cannot." + +"If you have been afraid that he will accept the offer--" + +"What," he said, closing the umbrella and looking at her, "what do you +know about it?" + +"I know, or at least I believe, that he is not a man to be bribed,--to +be turned from his purpose." + +"His purpose. What is his purpose?" + +"To claim his wife." + +"Lucy, whatever you may be unreasonable enough to think, don't talk +that way to me. He may claim her as his wife and may force his claim, +but it will be after I am dead. I don't like the fellow personally. He +is impudent; he is an anarchist. There now," he added, hoisting the +umbrella, "go back and don't worry about me." + +He stepped out upon the walk, and she stood in the door until he had +passed into the lane, into the heavy darkness of the trees. When she +returned to the parlor the minister was preparing to take his leave. + +"My mission in coming might have been discharged in a moment," he +said; "but seeing that your husband was worried I did not like to +bring it up in his presence. Young Henry Bostic is soon to preach over +at Mt. Zion. I know that in this family a prejudice is felt against +him, but he is deeply in earnest and I feel that it is your Christian +duty, madam, to give him on that occasion the encouragement of your +presence. He believes that he is inspired to preach the Word, and who, +indeed, shall say that he is not? I have talked to him frequently of +late, and I am convinced that toward this household he bears no +malice." + +"Eva and I will go," Mrs. McElwin replied promptly. + +"Nobly said, madam," the minister rejoined, looking upon her with an +eye that had swept over many a field of duty. "I did not believe that +I should appeal to you in vain. We have but a little while here," he +went on, his white head shaking. "The future has seemed far, but the +past is short, and soon the time comes when we must go. They may +dispute our creed and pick flaws in our doctrine, but they acknowledge +the mighty truth of death. There is nothing in life worth living +for--" + +"Except love," said the girl standing beside him. + +He put his tremulous hand upon her head, a withered leaf upon a flower +in bloom. "Yes, my child, love which is God's spirit come down to +earth." + +He bade them good night, and for a long time they sat in silence. + +"Sometimes," said the mother, "I feel a sudden strength, and I look up +in surprise and see that it has come from you." + +"I believe that I am developing," the daughter replied. "But I shall +be strong if he asks me to go with him." + +"What do you mean, my dear?" + +"I mean that if he were to ask me, I would be strong enough to go." + +"And leave me?" + +"Leave the world--everything!" + +"Why, my child, how can you talk so? Really, you alarm me. You +scarcely know the man; you have met him but a few times, and then your +talks with him were brief." + +"I don't attempt to explain, mother. I simply know." + +"But you must wait and see. It may be possible that he has no such +feeling toward you; it may be that he has not permitted himself to +aspire--" + +"Oh," she cried, moving impatiently; "it is almost sacrilege to talk +that way. Who am I that he should aspire to me? What have I done? What +can I do? Nothing. I haven't a single talent, hardly an +accomplishment. Oh, I know that I was intoxicated with vanity, but +that has worn off. I am simply a country girl, that's all." + +"You are a girl bewitched," said the mother, sadly. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +AFRAID IN THE DARK. + +McElwin hastened along the hard and slippery path that ran on a ridge +at the side of the road. Sometimes a low-bending bough raked across +his umbrella, and once he was made to start by a cold slap in his +face, dealt by the broad leaf of a shrub that leaned and swayed above +a garden fence. He came upon a wooden bridge over a small stream and +halted to breathe, for his walk beneath the dark trees had been rapid +and nervous. Frogs were croaking in the sluggish water. A cradle in a +hovel bumped upon the uneven floor, and he remembered to have heard +from his father that in the pioneer days he had been many a time +rocked to sleep in a sugar trough. The lights of the town, the few +that he could see, looked red and angry. He remembered a newspaper +account of the way-laying and robbing of a prominent citizen. It was +so easy for a tramp to knock down an unsuspecting man. Tramp and +robber were interchangeable terms with him, and often, on a cold +night, when he had seen the wanderer's fire, kindled close to the +railway track, he had wondered why such license had been allowed in a +law-abiding community. He moved off with a brisk step, for he fancied +that he heard something under the bridge. There was many a worse man +than McElwin, but it is doubtful whether a ranker coward had ever been +born to see the light of day, or to shy at an odd shape in the dark. +He felt an easy-breathing sense of relief when he reached the main +street, and in the light of the tavern lamp, hung out in front, he was +bold; his head went up and his heels fell with measured firmness upon +the bricks. He halted in front of his bank, as his own clock was +striking ten, and looked up at Lyman's window. The room was dim, but +the other part of the floor, the long room, was bright. He was afraid +to show anxiety concerning either Sawyer or Lyman, nor did he deem it +advisable to call at old Jasper's house. For what purpose had he come, +he then asked himself. He must do something to pay himself for coming, +to make himself feel that his time had not been utterly thrown away. +In his arrangement of economy, every piece of time must show either +an actual or a possible result. To go even in the direction of old +Jasper's house was out of the question, for if anyone should see him +he would surely be associated with the White Caps. Why would it not be +a wise move to find out whether or not Lyman was in the +printing-office, and to warn him. He could easily put his call upon +the ground of an argument against the impulsive man's rashness in +burning the check. No, that would invite the ill-will and perhaps the +outright enmity of Sawyer. He could not afford to lose Sawyer; he +needed his energy for the future and the use of his money for the +present. But he could bind Lyman to secrecy. "I wonder," he mused, +"that I should have any faith in his word, but I have. Confound him, +he has upset us all. But I ought to warn him. It is terrible to be +taken out and whipped upon the bare back. I'll make him promise and +then I'll tell him." + +He crossed the street and began slowly to climb the stairs. He reached +the first landing and halted. "It won't do," he said. "Sawyer might +find it out and that would ruin everything. I advised against it; I +have done my best to prevent it, and it is now no concern of mine. I +will go home. I have been foolish." + +He turned about and walked rapidly down the stairs. When he reached +home his daughter had gone to bed, but his wife was sitting up, +waiting for him. She met him at the door and looked at him, +searchingly, as he halted in the light of the hall lamp to put the +umbrella in the rack. + +"Did you see him?" she asked, not in the best of humor, now that the +worry was practically over. + +"Sawyer? No, he's out in the country, so a man told me. I have decided +to dismiss the matter from my mind or to think about it as little as +possible. It isn't so very late yet," he added, looking at his watch. +He found his slippers beside his chair when he entered the +sitting-room, but he shoved them away with his foot. + +"Did Mr. Menifee have anything of interest to say?" he asked, leaning +with his elbows on the table. + +"It may not interest you, but it has been put to Eva and me as a +matter of duty, that we ought to go out to Mt. Zion to hear Henry +Bostic preach." + +McElwin grunted: "Menifee may put it as a matter of duty, but I +don't. Fortunately I have other duties that are of much more +importance. I will not go." + +"He didn't seem to expect that you would," she replied. + +"I hope not. He may have reason to believe me worldly in some things, +but I trust he has never found me ridiculous." + +"Would it be ridiculous to hear that young man preach?" + +"For me to hear him? Decidedly. The true gospel has not been handed +over to the keeping of the malicious idiot, I hope." + +"I believe he is sincere." + +"Sincere? Of course he is. So is a wasp when it stings you." + +She laughed in her dignified way, her good humor having suddenly +returned; and he looked up with a smile, pleased with himself. They +sat for a time, talking of other matters, and he went to bed humming +the defineless tune of self-satisfaction. But late in the night Mrs. +McElwin awoke and found him standing at the window, listening. + +"What is it, dear?" she asked. + +"Nothing." + +"Then why are you standing there?" + +"I thought I heard something." + +"In the house?" she asked, rising up with sudden alarm. + +"No. Over in town, or rather over by the railroad track. I noticed +some tramp-fires along there." + +"Oh, well, don't worry. The watchman will look after them." + +"Hush," he said, leaning from the window. "There it is again." + +"I don't hear anything," she declared. "Why, it's only a negro +singing." + +"So it is," he said. "I thought it was someone yelling over in town. +Are you sure that it was a negro singing?" + +"Oh, I don't know whether he is a negro or not, but it is someone +singing. But what if it is someone yelling over in town? It's nothing +unusual, I am sure. I have heard them yell at all times of the night. +I believe it is someone singing," he finally said, turning from the +window. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +WITH OLD JASPER. + + +Early in the evening old Jasper Staggs received a visit from Zeb +Sawyer, and inasmuch as the social exchanges between them had never +been particularly marked, the old man was not a little surprised. + +"Well, you see, it aint altogether on your account that I've come," +said Sawyer with a weak laugh, seeing that in the old man's +astonishment there lurked an unfavorable suspicion. "Mother--and you +know she's getting along--took it into her head today that nothing +would do her so much good as a visit from your wife and Miss Annie. +And she says she'd like mighty well to have you." + +"Well," said old Jasper, "the women folks are out there in the dinin' +room a fussin' around, and I reckon they'll take the time to answer +for themselves, jest as I am agoin' to answer for myself, when I say +that I'm obleeged to you, but I can't come. I'm talkin' for myself, +recollect," he added, with emphasis, nodding his head and running his +fingers through his rim of gray beard. "Yes, sir; for myself, and for +myself only." + +"But I guess Aunt Tobithy and Miss Annie will go, won't they?" + +"I have said my say, and it was for myself only, but if you want to +know anything consarnin' the other members of this house, just step +right out there where they are tinkerin' with the dishes, and ask +them." + +Sawyer went into the dining-room. There was a hush of the rattle of +dishes and knives, and then Sawyer came back and said they were kind +enough to go. "I am going to stay here with you," Sawyer remarked. + +"All right," the old man replied. + +"And I believe it will be a little more than all right when I tell you +of something. The other day I was at an old house in the country, and +an old fellow that lives there took me down into the cellar to show me +a new patent churn that he was working on. Well, I didn't care +anything about the churn, you know, not having much to do with cows, +but I looked at the thing like I was interested, just to please him. +And while I was looking about I saw a small barrel, with dried moss +on it, and I asked him about it, and he said it was a whisky barrel +that was hid out all during the war. This made me open my eyes, I tell +you; but as quiet as I could I asked him if there was any of the +liquor left. He said he had about a gallon left, and I told him I'd +give him twenty dollars for a quart of it, and I did, right then and +there; and if I haven't got that bottle right with me now, you may +crack my head like a hickory nut." + +By this time old Jasper's jaw had fallen, and now he sat, leaning +forward with his mouth wide open. "Zeby," he said, and his voice +sounded as if he had been taken with a sudden hoarseness. "I reckon I +am about as fond of a joke and a prank as any man that ever crossed +Goose Creek--and some great jokers came along there in the early +days--but there was things too sacred for them to joke about. You know +what I said, Zeby?" + +"I know all about them old fellows," Zeb said, with a laugh. "I have +heard my granddad talk about them. In fact, he was one of them, and I +get it from him not to joke on some things. I've that bottle of liquor +in my pocket this very minute." + +The old man stepped to the door. "Tobithy; oh, Tobithy." + +"Well," his wife answered from the dining-room. + +"Zeb is powerful anxious for you to go over to his mother's, as the +old lady is wanting to see you, but I don't see how you can get off." + +Sawyer looked at him in surprise. The old man made him a sign to be +quiet. + +A dish clattered and his wife exclaimed: "You don't see how I can go. +Oh, no, but you see how I can stick here day after day, killing myself +with work. I am going." + +The old man grinned and sat down. "I was afraid she would back out," +he said, "and I wanted to clinch the thing. Jest let me tell her that +I am afraid she can't do a thing and then it would take a good deal +more high water than we've had for a year or two to keep her from +doing it." + +His wife and Annie came into the room and he put on a sober air. "I +don't think you can stay late, for it looks like rain," he said. + +[Illustration: talking in the kitchen] + +"I'm going to stay until I get ready to come back, and it can rain +brick bats for all I care," she replied; and the old man, knowing that +everything was fixed, leaned back with a long breath of contentment. +The women soon took their departure; the old man watched them until +they passed through a gate that opened out upon the sidewalk, then he +looked at Sawyer and said: + +"The bottle; I believe you 'lowed you had it with you." + +"Right here," Sawyer replied, tapping a side pocket of his coat. + +The old man flinched like a horse prodded in a tender place. "Don't do +that again, you might break it," he said. "There ain't nothing easier +to break than a bottle full of old liquor. Let me see," he added, with +an air of deep meditation. "It has been about five months since I +renewed my youth; it was the night Turner was elected Sheriff. And I +want to tell you, Zeby, that to a man who has seen fun and recollects +it, that's a good while. We'll jest wait a minute before we open the +ceremonies. You can never tell when a woman's clean gone. The chances +are that she may forget something and come bobbin' back at any minute. +And it might take me quite a while to explain. There are some things +you can explain to a woman and some things you can't, and one of the +things you can't, is why you ought to take liquor when she don't feel +like takin' any herself. Well, I reckon their start was sure enough," +he said, looking through the window. "Now, jest step out here in the +dinin' room and make yourself at home, while I pump a pail of fresh +water." + +Old Jasper put a pitcher of water on the dining room table. Sawyer sat +with his arms resting on the board, and with a flask held +affectionately in his hands. Old Jasper cleared his throat, and +drawing up a large rocking chair, sat down. He said, as he looked at +the flask, that he had not felt well of late, and that whisky would do +him good. Sawyer would make no apology for drinking such liquor. Good +whisky was to him its own apology. Life at best was short, with many a +worry, and he did not see how a so-called moral code should censure a +man for throwing off his troubles once in a while. The old man needed +no persuasion to lead him on. And in the dim light of a lamp, placed +upon the corner of an old red side-board, they sat glowing with +merriment. Sawyer drank sparingly, but Jasper declared that it took +about three fingers at a time to do him any good, and into the +declaration the action was dove-tailed. He told a long and rambling +story, relating to a time when he had driven a stage coach; a tickling +recollection touched him and he leaned back and laughed till the tears +rolled down through the time-gullies in his face. Sawyer snapped his +watch. The old man told him to let time take care of itself. + +"That's what I'm doing," said Sawyer. "By the way, I've an idea that +I'd like to go squirrel hunting. But I broke my gun the other day and +sent it to the shop. Haven't got an old gun around, have you?" + +"There's an old muzzle-loader in there behind the door, standing there +ready to break the leg of a dog that comes over to howl in the +garden." + +"Can't shoot a pistol much, can you?" + +"Ain't much of a hand with a pistol, Zeby." + +"Haven't got one, have you?" + +"Had one, but I believe Lyman took it up to his room. There's a good +man, even if you have a cause not to like him; and when I got well +acquainted with him I jest 'lowed that nothin' on the place was too +good for him, so we brushed up the room right over the sittin' room, +and there he sets late in the night and does his work, and sometimes, +'way late, I hear him walkin' up and down, arm in arm with an idea +that he's tryin' to get better acquainted with, he says." + +"Is he up there now?" + +"No. He ain't come in yet. Sometimes he don't come till late. He's got +fewer regular hours about him than any man I ever seen. He jest takes +everything by fits and starts, and he's mighty funny about some +things--he don't let a man know what he's doin' at all; never comes +down and reads to a body the things that he writes--might write a hymn +to sing at the camp-meeting, and he never would read it to you." + +The old man drifted into another stage coach reminiscence and Sawyer +sat in an attitude of pretended interest, but he heard nothing, so +deep-buried was he within himself. He had not much time to spare, and +there was one thing that must be done; it was absolutely essential +that he must go to Lyman's room and get the pistol. He poured out more +whisky for the old man. Jasper continued to talk, but the memories of +the past did not arise to tickle him; they made him sad. He wept over +a girl, his first love, a grave more than forty years old. He sobbed +over his boy, killed in the army. His chin sank upon his breast. +Sawyer got up quickly and began to search for the gun. He found it and +hid it under a bed. Then he turned his attention to Lyman's room. The +apartment was approached by an encased stairway, leading from the +sitting-room. He lifted the latch and listened, the old man was +snoring; the young man felt like a thief; but that was to be expected, +and therefore did not alarm his conscience. The stairs creaked, still +he did not pause. The door of Lyman's room, to the left at the head of +the stairs, was not locked. Sawyer struck a match and stepped inside. +He lighted a lamp and looked about the room. On the table lay sheets +of paper, some of them covered with close, nervous writing, and upon +others were scratches, half-formed words, the tracks of a mind +wandering in a bog. He pulled open the table drawer and eagerly +grabbed up a pistol. Then he turned out the light and walked hastily +down the stairs. Old Jasper was still asleep, his head on one side, +like an old hawk worn out with a long fight. Sawyer put the pistol on +the side-board, behind a tin tray standing on edge, and then sat down +to wait. It was nearly time for the "boys" to come. He heard a key in +the front door lock, and he put out the light. The door opened and +closed, the latch of the stair door clicked; he heard Lyman going up +to his room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE "BOOSY." + + +Lyman had been helping Warren with the work of putting the paper to +press, and he was tired, but when he had lighted the lamp he drew the +writing paper toward him, and took up a pen, turning it between his +fingers, as if waiting for a word, but it did not come, and he sat +there musing. His heart was heavy, though not with a sadness, but with +an overweight of gentleness, a consciousness that he stood as a +protector to bide the time of the lover's coming. He was proud, but +had no vanity. He knew that he could win friendship, for in friendship +a strong and rugged quality was a factor, but he did not realize that +the same rugged quality appealed to a deeper affection. In his work he +saw the character of woman, and he could fancy her capricious enough +to give her heart to the most awkward of men, but when he turned this +light upon himself, so many blemishes were brought out that he stepped +back from the glaring revelation. He believed that in his peculiar +position Eva gave him the affection that a daughter might give a +father, and he was determined that this charming relationship should +not be undone by the appearance, on his part, of a selfish love; and +in his resolve he was strong, but in cold dread he looked forward to +the time when she should come with a new light in her eyes and ask him +to release her. Suddenly a noise came from below, the tramping of feet +upon the veranda. Could it be a surprise party at so late an hour? He +listened. The door was opened, but there was no sound of greetings, no +laughter. The visitors were evidently trying to soften their +foot-weight, but the house shook under their uneven tread. He heard +the click of the stair-door latch; the stairs groaned. He remembered +what Sawyer had said, and caution prompted him to lock the door. The +next moment there came a gentle tap, but he knew that the gentleness +was assumed, for he heard suppressed breathing at the head of the +stairs. + +"Who's there?" he asked. + +"Open the door." + +"But who's there?" + +"The good of the community." + +"Well, I don't know that I have any business with you at this time of +night, Mr. Good-of-the-Community." + +"But we have business with you. Open the door or we'll break it down." + +Lyman stepped back and snatched open the table drawer. He straightened +up and thought for a moment. They were throwing themselves against the +door. He seized a light chair and stood near the door. Word to hurry +up came from below. The door creaked. + +"Once more, are you going to open it?" + +"Wait a moment," said Lyman. "I don't know who you are, but I can +guess at your business. You are violating the law, you are +house-breakers and I wish to tell you--" + +Crash went the door. And crash went the chair. The opening was narrow. +The first man fell back. The second man staggered. The third man +hesitated, then sprang upon Lyman, giving him no time to strike. +Across the floor they struggled, the old house shaking. They strove to +choke each other, they rolled upon the floor. Lyman got hold of the +fellow's throat. His fingers were like steel clamps. The White-Cap +gurgled. Lyman got up, dragged him to the door and tumbled him down +the stairs. Just then there came shrieks from below. The two women had +returned. The White Caps were treading one upon another in their hurry +to get out. Lyman, with a chair post in his hand, followed them. They +ran through the sitting-room, a flutter of white in the dark. Lyman +went into the dining-room, whence the women had run. The lamp had been +relighted, and there sat old Jasper, fast asleep. + +"There's nothing to be alarmed about," said Lyman, as the women with +their hands in the air, ran to him. "A few White Caps out of +employment wanted work, and got it. There, now, don't take on. Sit +down, Aunt Tobithy. Oh, old Uncle Jasper is all right." + +"He is drunk," said the old woman, anger driving away her fright. +"They have made him drunk and he would sit there and sleep and let +them burn the house over his head. Oh, was there ever anything so +disgraceful! Jasper! Jasper!" she shook him. + +"Horse that would trot--trot--" the old man muttered. + +"Oh, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Take hold of him, Annie, and +let's put him to bed." + +"I'll take care of him," said Lyman. They put him to bed and then sat +down. "I don't understand it," the old woman remarked. "Did they hurt +you?" + +"No, they didn't get at me. They were at a disadvantage, out on the +narrow landing, while I had plenty of room to swing around in. I must +have hurt two of them pretty badly." + +"What do you think of it?" Annie inquired + +"Sawyer," said Lyman. + +The old woman made a noise that sounded like a cluck. "And he fixed it +so we were to go over to his mother's," she said. "Oh, it's perfectly +clear. And he brought whisky here and got Jasper drunk. I do think +this is the worst community the Lord ever saw. Talk about churches and +school-houses, when such things are allowed to go on." + +"What are you going to do about it, Mr. Lyman?" Annie asked. "Are you +going to have them arrested?" + +"They ought to be hanged," the old lady spoke up. "Oh, I knew +something would happen the moment I put my foot off the place. I never +did know it to fail. And I might have told this morning that something +wrong was goin' to take place, for I had to try twice or three times +before I could pick up anything when I stooped for it, and I saw a hen +out in the yard trying to crow. But, Mr. Lyman," she added, +reflectively, "I do hope you will think twice before you go to law +about it. I don't tell you not to, mind you, for I am the last one in +the world to tell a person not to have the law enforced, but if you +could see that old woman--Zeb's mother--you wouldn't want to do a +thing to bend her down with grief; it makes no difference how many +laws it would enforce." + +"And besides what would the law do?" Annie broke in, to strengthen her +mother's position. "You might have him arrested and all that, and a +trial and a scandal, too, but after all, it wouldn't amount to +anything. I should think that his conscience would punish him enough. +And you couldn't have the others arrested without bringing him into +it." + +"You don't need to argue any longer," Lyman replied. "The merest +reference to his old mother settles it with me. The law part would be +a farce anyway. But let me remind you that it is quite a serious thing +when an American citizen is ordered to leave his home at the whim of a +scoundrel." + +He bade them good night and went up to his room. The door lay upon the +floor and fragments of the cast-iron lock were scattered about. The +image of Sawyer arose before him, as he had appeared in the office, +and so hateful and disturbing was the picture, that he arose and +bathed his face, as if to wash out the vision. He heard a man's voice +below and he stepped to the head of the stairs and listened. He +recognized the voice of the town marshal. Already the law had begun +its feeble farce. The marshal came up the stairs and looked around, at +the door and the fragments of the lock. He took up a bit of iron and +put it into his pocket, as if he had found a ton's weight of evidence. + +"I'll take this along," he said gravely. + +"Help yourself," said Lyman. + +"Yes, for little things count," the marshal replied with the air of a +great and mysterious detective. "And now," he added, "have you any +idea or any suspicion as to who led this gang?" + +Lyman had sat down and was crossed-legged, swinging one foot. "Oh," he +answered carelessly, "I guess you know who it is. However, we will let +the subject drop. I don't wish to discuss it." + +"But, my dear sir, the law--" + +Lyman held up his hand. "Let us hear nothing more about the law," said +he. "Good night." + +The marshal tramped down the stairs and Lyman went to bed to forget +the mob and to dream of the rippling creek and a voice that was softer +and sweeter than the echo of a flute. At early morning there came a +rapping on the stairway, to summon him to breakfast. Old Jasper, with +his hot hands in his pockets and with a sick expression of countenance +was doddering about the sitting room. + +"Ah, Lord," he said, when Lyman stepped down upon the floor. "Walt a +minute. Let me shut this door. The smell of the kitchen gig--gig--- +gags me. Lyman, I do reckon I ought to take a rusty knife and cut my +infamous old throat. Yes, I do. I deserve it. And all because I wanted +to renew my youth. I know I've said it before, but I want to say right +now that I'll never touch another drop of the stuff as long as I live, +I don't care if Noah had it with him in the Ark. But it is a fact that +I sat here asleep while a mob was in my house?" + +"Yes," said Lyman, "you were asleep when I came down stairs." + +"Well, sir, it's news to me. And it shows what licker will fetch a man +to. It will take me some little time to explain it to Tobithy." + +"I suppose it will," said Lyman, smiling at him. + +"Oh, it's a fact. Women fight against reason, you know, as long as +they can. Yes, sir, it will take me a month to convince her that I +wa'n't drunk. I admit that I drank a few drinks, small ones, not +enough to hurt me if I had been right at myself, but I was tired and +sleepy before I touched a drop. Lyman, I wish you would explain it to +her. She's got a good deal of confidence in you--a good deal more than +she has in me. I wish you would tell her that I wasn't drunk." + +"I think the best plan, Uncle Jasper, would be to say nothing about +it." + +"All right, we'll let it drop then. But I'll have to reason with her, +and, as I said before, it is goin' to take some time to explain. Go in +to breakfast and let me sit down here in my misery. Say, if you could +hint that I am awfully sorry I'd be obliged to you; and if you could +give them to understand that you don't think I'm goin' to live long, +it would be a big favor." + +When Lyman stepped out upon the street he was soon made to feel that +the White Cap affair had become common property. Some of the villagers +were inclined to treat it as a great joke, but the graver ones looked +upon it as a serious infraction of the law. Sawyer's name was not +mentioned, but everyone appeared to understand that he was the leader. + +Warren was standing at the foot of the office stairs as Lyman came up. +They smiled at each other. + +"Well," said Warren, "have you got another piece of news to +suppress?" + +"I am afraid so," Lyman answered, as he started up the stairs. + +"You are afraid so?" said Warren, tramping beside him. "How much +longer is this suppression act to remain in force? Confound it, you +help make three-fourths of the news in the neighborhood and then won't +print it because it concerns you. All news concerns somebody, you must +understand." + +They went into the editorial room. Lyman took up his pipe and Warren +stood looking at him. Lyman sat down and lighted his pipe. "My boy," +said he, "it may seem hard, but I have a reason for keeping this thing +out of print. It is not for myself, for my own sense of delicacy does +not protest against it, but it would wound an old woman, and we can't +afford to do that. We might say something about the mob, but it won't +do to mention names." + +"You mean Mrs. Sawyer?" + +"Yes; it would hurt her." + +"Lyman, you are the best writer I ever saw, but you were not intended +for a newspaper man." + +"I know that, my boy. If I thought we could sell ten thousand papers +I wouldn't print a thing to hurt an old woman." + +"Oh, I don't want to hurt an old woman or a young one either," said +Warren, "but I look at the principle of the thing. Somebody's hurt +every time a paper comes from the press, and if everybody was as +tender-hearted as you are, there would be no newspapers after awhile, +and then where would we be?" + +"We would be slower, less wise, but in many instances more +respectable," Lyman replied. He leaned back in his chair, slowly +puffing his pipe. + +"From the high-grade point of view I reckon you're right," said +Warren, raking up the newspapers on the table, "but we can't all live +on the high grades. By the way," he added with a laugh, "I walked over +to the express office this morning and took my paper out, as if it +were a matter of course. The fellow looked at me and sighed, and I +thought he was going to say something about the numerous times I had +bled under the hob-nailed heel of his company. But he didn't; he asked +me to send him the paper, and he paid for it right there. Oh, things +are getting pretty bright when trusts and corporations begin to bid +for your influence. But what are you going to do with that fellow +Sawyer?" he asked, becoming grave, or rather, more serious, for +gravity could hardly spread over his lightsome face. + +"I don't know," Lyman answered. + +"But you can't afford to keep on letting him hurt you; you'll have to +hunt him to shut him off." + +"Yes, I'll have to do something, but I don't know what it will be. I +have met a good many mean men--mean fellows at a saw mill, and I +thought that a mean mill man was about the meanest--but Sawyer strikes +off somewhat in advance of any meanness I ever encountered." + +"Well, don't you get mad? Don't you feel like you want to take a gun +and shoot him?" + +"Yes, I have all sorts of feelings with regard to him; and sometimes +when I awake at night it is a good thing he is not within reach. But +I'll try to worry along with him. I don't expect to stay here very +much longer." + +Warren caught his breath, as if he had stuck a splinter into his +finger, and his face pinched up with sharp anxiety. "I have been +expecting to hear that," he said, smoothing out the papers on the +table. "I have been looking for it, and I don't blame you in the +least, though I hate to give you up. But," he added, brightening, "you +have given me a start and they can't take it away from me. I'm all +right and I know you are. And the first thing you know, I'm going to +get married and settle down. I am about half way in love with a girl +now. She put her hand on a high seat and jumped right up into a wagon. +And when she batted her eyes, I wondered that they didn't crack like a +whip, they were so sharp. I said to myself right then that I was about +half way in love with her, and I watched her as she sat there, eating +an apple; and when she drove away I went and got an apple and ate it, +and I never tasted an apple before, I tell you. It must be a great +girl that can give flavor to fruit." + +"Who is she?" Lyman asked, his eyes brightening with amusement. + +"I don't know her name. She drove in with her father--I reckon he was +her father--and I didn't find out her name or anything about her. I +went into the store where the man bought a jug of molasses and asked +the clerk in there if he knew the man, and he said he didn't. But +I'll find out and will marry her if she has no particular objections. +A woman who can jump like that and then flavor an apple can catch me +any day." + +"You don't know but that she may be already married," said Lyman. + +"Oh, no. We must not suppose that. Why, that would kill everything. Of +course the fellow with her might be her husband, but it would be +nonsense to presume so when, with the same degree of reason, I can +presume he is not. If you've got to do any presuming, always presume +for the best." + +Lyman threw himself back and laughed. "Neither the ancients nor the +moderns ever evolved from life any better philosophy than that," he +declared. "Why, of course she is not married, nor shall she be until +you marry her. It was intended that she should flavor your life, even +as she flavored the apple. Here comes someone. Why, it's McElwin. Step +out into the other room a moment, please. I believe he wants to see me +alone." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +AFTER AN ANXIOUS NIGHT. + + +McElwin arose after a night of cat-naps. He was up long before +breakfast. He stood at the gate, looking up and down the road; and +when a peddler came along the banker hailed him and asked if there +were any news in the town. The fellow held up a chicken. McElwin shook +his head and repeated the inquiry. The fellow put the chicken back +into his cart and held up a duck, whereupon McElwin ordered him to +move on. At the breakfast table he sat with an unseeing stare. The +clouds were gone, the day was bright and the air came sweet from the +garden. His daughter spoke to him and he broke his stare and looked at +her. + +"Did you speak to me?" he asked. + +"I said I was afraid you were not well this morning." + +"Oh, yes, quite well, I thank you. But I didn't sleep very much." + +"You might say you didn't sleep at all," his wife spoke up; "and I +don't think you ought to go down town today." + +This preposterous suggestion made him nervous. "Gracious alive, don't +make an invalid of me," he replied. "I am all right, but an +over-concern about my health will make me sick. Did you ever notice +that when the newspapers begin to discuss a man's health he dies +pretty soon? It's a fact. One newspaper comes out and says that Mr. +Jones is not looking well. Another paper declares that Mr. Jones is +looking better than he has looked for years. Then all the papers have +their fling and the first thing you know Mr. Jones is dead." + +Eva laughed; the idea struck her as being so humorously true, and Mrs. +McElwin smiled, but it was the sad smile of protest. "James," she +said, "you are a man of wonderful judgment, but sometimes you persist +in looking at life through stained glass. Something is wrong with you +and you ought to see a doctor at once." + +"There you go," he cried, winking at his daughter. "Call in a doctor +and that would settle it. The newspapers would then have their fling +and that would fix me. I am worried, I acknowledge that, but it won't +last long. Who is that at the gate?" he broke off, looking through the +window. "He's moving off now. I thought at first that it was old +Jasper Staggs." + +It was his custom to read a newspaper in the library after breakfast, +but this morning he did not tarry a moment, but went straightway +toward the bank. At the wooden bridge he met Caruthers, and halted to +speak to him. It was the first time that the lawyer had ever received +the great man's attention, but knowing the cause of the interest now +manifested, he was determined to dally with it as a sort of revenge. + +"Any news, Mr. Caruthers?" + +"Oh, you know my name. I am much flattered, I assure you. Of course I +have known you for many years, but I didn't think you remembered me." + +McElwin stood blinking at the sun. "I think I have spoken to you on an +average of once a day for the last fifteen years," said he. "I am not +a gusher, however. I have not seen a newspaper this morning and ask +you if there is any news." + +"Oh, I suppose there must be," Caruthers replied, leaning back against +the rail of the bridge. "I haven't seen a newspaper either and I don't +know what may have happened in the outside world." + +"Any news about town?" + +"No, nothing unusual, I believe. A dog was found dead on the public +square, I understand; and I hear that old Mart Henley's son has been +suspected of stealing a ham from Avery's meat house. Let me see." He +passed his hand over his brow, as if in deep meditation. "Maxey's cow +tramped down the roses in Donalson's yard and Thompson's hogs, covered +with mud, have rubbed themselves against Tillman's white fence." + +"Such occurrences are of no interest to me," said the banker. + +"No, nor to me either. Well, I'll bid you good morning. Wait a +moment," he added. "There was something else on my mind. Oh, did you +hear of the White Caps?" + +"No!" McElwin said with a gasp. "What about them?" + +"Well, they went last night to have some fun with Sam Lyman." + +"Ah, and they took him out and whipped him?" + +"Well, hardly. He wore out a chair over them, and about three miles +from town, I understand that old Doc Mason has been kept pretty busy +since midnight sewing up their heads. Lyman didn't tell me, but I got +it pretty straight that somebody stole the pistol out of his room; and +if it hadn't been for that the undertaker would have had no cause to +complain of the dullness of the season." + +"You don't tell me!" + +"Yes, I am inclined to think I do. Old Jasper had a visitor early in +the evening; the women went out calling, and the visitor got the old +man drunk." + +"And it is suspected that the visitor had something to do with the +subsequent call of the White Caps?" + +"Well, it is not only suspected, but pretty well established. I +suppose you could guess the name of the visitor." + +"How could I, sir?" + +"Well, I have heard it said that the visitor never makes an investment +without consulting you, and it is thought more than likely that he +consulted you on the occasion of this bad investment." + +Caruthers leered and the banker winced. "As yet I am at a loss as to +who the visitor might have been," said McElwin; "but no matter who, I +wish to say that he did not consult me. I have never been known to +violate the law, sir." + +"Oh, no one would suspect you of that, Mr. McElwin. We all know that +you never break the law, but we don't know that you are not sometimes +aware that the law is going to be broken. Good morning." + +"Wait a moment, sir. Do you mean to tell me that I am suspected of +complicity in this infamous outrage?" + +"No, I don't mean to tell you that. Neither do I mean to say that you +would be wrong in doing so. You have had cause. Lyman's stubbornness +is quite enough to rasp a saint. I couldn't stand it; and between me +and you, I wish they had lashed him till he would have craved the +privilege of going away." + +"Wait just one more moment, Mr. Caruthers. Is what you have told me in +reality suspected by the people or did you evolve it out of your own +richness of observation?" + +Caruthers bowed his head under the outpour of this compliment. "It is +not public talk," he admitted. + +"Ah, thank you. Drop in at the bank some time and see me, sir. Good +morning." + + * * * * * + +Warren stepped out of the room, merely nodding to McElwin as he +passed. Lyman got up, handed McElwin a chair, and without speaking, +sat down again. McElwin stood with his hands on the back of the chair, +looking at Lyman, and evidently embarrassed as to what he ought to +say. "Beautiful morning," said Lyman, seeing his embarrassment and +feeling that it was his duty as host to help him out of it. + +"Yes, very bright after the rain." + +"That's a fact; it did rain last night." + +"Mr. Lyman, I heard something this morning that has grieved me very +much." + +"Oh, about the White Caps. Sit down, won't you?" + +McElwin sat down. "Yes, the White Caps." He was silent for a moment +and then he continued: "The intercourse between you and me has been +far from friendly. I do not deny that I should like to see you leave +this place, never to return; I acknowledge that I would bribe you to +go, but I would not give countenance to a mob that would force you to +leave." + +Lyman looked at him with a cool smile. "Do you mean to tell me, Mr. +McElwin, that Sawyer did not speak to you of his intention to take me +out as if I were a thief or a wife-beater--" + +"Stop, sir!" McElwin commanded, holding up his hand. "I forbid you +to--" + +"Forbid is rather a strong word. Don't you think that request would be +better?" + +"Well," said McElwin, softening, "we will say request. As I tell you, +your presence in this community is distasteful to me, and your +farcical marriage stands directly opposed to my plans. But I would not +violate the law and commit a misdemeanor to drive you off. You have +reasons for believing that Mr. Sawyer--" + +"Yes, he was the organizer." + +"But not with my sanction, sir." + +"No? But perhaps not without your knowledge." + +"Sir!" + +"Keep your seat. Now I am going to tell you what I believe. I believe +that Sawyer came to you, after I had burned the check, and told you +what he intended to do." + +"He did, and I told him not to do it." + +"Ah. But did you go to the law and enter a protest against an outrage +which you knew he was going to commit? Did you send me a word of +warning or did you quietly wait in the hope that the result might rid +you of me?" + +"Mr. Lyman, I am going to tell you the absolute truth. I advised +against it, and after he was gone, I went out to look for him, but he +had driven down into the country to--" + +"To organize his mob," Lyman suggested. + +"Well, yes, we will say that he had gone for that purpose. And at +night I came down town in the rain to see if I could not find him, and +when I failed in this, I thought that I would come up here to warn +you." He hesitated, with a slight cough. + +"But you didn't come." + +"No, not all the way. I halted on the stairs and turned back. I felt +that I--" He hesitated. + +"You felt that you could not afford to antagonize Mr. Sawyer." + +McElwin coughed. "It was not exactly that, Mr. Lyman. But I did think +that it was meddling with something that--that did not concern me." + +"Didn't concern you? I thought you were deeply concerned, enough at +least to feel yourself warranted in attempting to buy me, to hire me +to leave." + +"You don't quite understand, Mr. Lyman." + +"Oh, yes I do. The trouble with you is that I understand too well. Go +ahead with your absolute truth." + +McElwin cleared his husky throat. "I went home, sir, and passed a most +anxious night; I suffered, sir, far more than you did." + +"No doubt of that. I enjoyed myself." + +"Mr. Lyman, will you please not make a joke of this affair." + +"Oh, I won't make a joke of it. It will be earnest enough by the time +it is over with. I am informed that Mrs. Sawyer is very old and that +to introduce her son's name in connection with the White Caps would +greatly distress her, and I have resolved not to do this. But there +are punishments, moral lessons to be served out, and I think it well +to begin with you." + +"Mr. Lyman, we are not friends, but would you ruin me in the +estimation of the public?" + +"No, I will say nothing to the public. I will tell your daughter." + +McElwin started. His mind had been so directly fixed upon the public +that he had not thought of his home. Being the master there he could +command respect, and it was on the tip of his tongue now to say that +his daughter would not believe Lyman, but, as if a bitter taste had +suddenly arisen in his mouth, he felt that this man's word out-weighed +his own. He had a strong hope that when his daughter should be set +free and left to choose at will, her judgment would finally settle +upon Sawyer. But he knew that should she be convinced that her father +had counciled him to engage the services of lawless men or had even +connived at the brutal procedure--he knew that, convinced of this, she +would turn in scorn upon Sawyer and, in a moment, wreck the plans that +it had taken years to build. + +"Mr. Lyman," he said, "I admit that I am largely to blame, and I now +throw myself upon your mercy, sir. Please don't tell my daughter." + +All his dignity and arrogance had vanished, and the chair creaked +under him. His brown beard, usually so neatly trimmed, looked ragged +now, and his eyes, which Lyman had thought were full of sharp and +cutting inquiry, now looked dull and questionless. "I throw myself +upon your mercy," he repeated. + +"Then, sir, you knock my props from under me," Lyman replied. "I am +not equipped with that firmness which men call justice. Nature +sometimes makes sport of a man by giving him a heart. And what does it +mean? It means that he shall suffer at the hands of other men, and +that when his hour for revenge has come, his over-grown heart rises up +and commands him to be merciful. McElwin, I ought to publish you--I +ought to tell your wife and daughter that you have conspired with +ruffians to have me whipped from the town, but I will not. You may go +now." + +The banker's arrogance flew back to him. "You may go" were words that +pierced him like a three-pronged fork, but he controlled himself, for +now his judgment was stronger than his dignity. He arose and stepped +up close to Lyman. "I am under deep obligations to you," he said. +"You are a kind and generous man." + +"Why don't you say that you are thankful to find me a fool?" + +McElwin took no notice of this remark. "And I hope that I may be able +to do something for you," he said. Still he stood there, as if he had +not struck the proper note. "Do something for you. And if you +need--need money, I shall be glad to let you have it." + +"Oh, you couldn't get away without mentioning your god-essence, could +you? Good day." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +AT MT. ZION. + + +On a Sunday morning, Lyman and Warren hired a light spring wagon and +drove out through the green and romantic country that lay stretched +and tumbled along the Mt. Zion road. The great clover-fields, now red +with bloom, looked like a mighty spreading of strawberry-land ready +for the pickers; and a red bird, arising from the ground, might have +been a bloom of a berry suddenly endowed with wings. The air breathed +delicious laziness, and when the horse stopped midway and knee-deep in +a rivulet, he stood with his mouth in the water pretending to swallow, +stealing the enjoyment of the cool current against his legs. The two +men enjoyed the old rascal's trick, agreeing to let him stand there as +long as he practiced the duplicity of keeping his mouth in the stream. +Minnows nibbled at his lips, and he lifted his head, but observing the +men, who leaned out to look at him, he again immersed his mouth and +pretended to swallow. At last, as if ashamed of himself, he pulled +out, trotting briskly in the sun, but hanging back in the shade. Down +in the low places bright-winged flies had come in swarms to hum their +tunes, and on the high ridges where the thin grass was wilting, the +gaunt rabbit sat in the sun. Driving along the low, smooth and sandy +margin of a stream, where the thick bushes bore a bloom that looked +like a long caterpillar, they reached an iron spring, deep red, a +running wound on the face of the earth. They came to an old water +mill, long ago fallen into decay and halted to listen to the water +pouring over the ruined dam. They turned into a broader road, and now +saw numerous vehicles, bright with calico and dun with home-spun, all +moving in one direction, toward the old Mt. Zion meeting house on a +hill. To view one of those places of worship is to gaze upon religious +history. We look at the great trees, the rocks worn smooth, the house +squatting with age, and we no longer regard our country as new. In Mt. +Zion there were loop-holes where men had stood to shoot Indians, while +their wives were muttering a prayer. The old oak benches, made of +split slabs, were almost as hard as iron. A slab, called the altar, +but known as the mourners' bench, had caught the tears of many an +innocent maiden and roistering youth. + +Lyman unhitched the horse and led him down a glade to feed him in the +cool shadow of a chestnut tree, and while he was spreading the oats +Warren came running down to him. + +"Lyman, she's here," he said. "It's a fact and I'll swear it. Yes, +sir, she's here, and I was never more surprised in my life." + +"I am not surprised," Lyman replied. "I expected her." + +"The deuce you did! Then you know her." + +"Know her. Of course I do." + +"Then why didn't you tell me?" + +"Tell you? What do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean that you ought to have told me. What's her name?" + +"Look here, have you gone crazy?" + +"No, but you have. How the deuce did you know she would be here? All +right, but she won't get away from me so easy this time. I see the +old man's with her, and the idea of supposing that he could have been +her husband is preposterous." + +"Oh," Lyman laughed, "I thought you meant my--meant Eva McElwin." + +"No, I mean the girl that flavored the apple. Come up and I'll +introduce you to her." + +"But have you met her?" + +"I met her in the path a minute ago." + +"But have you been introduced to her?" + +"No, but I'll fix that all right. Come on." + +Lyman was laughing, but Warren was deeply in earnest. They went up the +hill toward the church. Everybody was outside in the shade, the +preacher not having arrived. "There she is," Warren whispered; "that +girl standing with that man near the door. Stand here till I go and +fix it." + +He hastened toward the man, and not the slightest abashed, walked up +to him. He said something; the man spoke to the girl and Lyman saw +Warren lift his hat. They stood for a few moments, talking, and then +they came out toward Lyman, the girl blushing and hanging back, and +Warren gently urging her. + +"Miss Nancy Pitt," said Warren, approaching, "I have the honor to +present Mr. Lyman, one of the best writers in the country, although he +is not cut out for a newspaper man." + +Miss Pitt blushed and smiled and said that she was glad to meet him. +She looked like a spirit of the woods, on a day when red buds and +white blossoms are mingled; she was not handsome, but striking, fresh, +and with an early morning brightness in her eyes; she was an untrained +athlete of the farm, ready to put a back-log into the yawning +fire-place or to choke a greedy calf off from its mother. She had no +manners and was shy; and, without knowing how to play with a man's +affection, was coy. Lyman looked into her eyes and thought of the +bluish pink of the turnip. She blushed again and said: "I reckon we'd +have rain if it was cloudy, but it ain't. Where's pa?" And then +looking round she called: "Come on, pap." + +"Comin'," the old man replied, walking with a limp in his Sunday +shoes. He did not wait for an introduction to Lyman, but shook hands +with him, glanced upward and said: "Mighty bright day." + +"Just as fresh as if this were the first one," Lyman replied. + +"Well, sir, I hadn't thought of that, but I reckon you're right." His +daughter reached over and brushed a measuring-worm off his shoulder. +"Going to get a new coat," she said. "Worm measuring you." + +"Put him on me," said Lyman, looking about as if searching for the +worm. + +"Get away," Warren broke in, shoving him to one side. "I want him. +Well, let him go. How far do you live from here, Mr. Pitt?" + +"Well, a leetle the rise of three mile and a half, at this time of the +year, but when the weather is bad, the road stretches powerful. My +wife wanted to come today to hear the new preacher, but along come +some folks visitin' from over the creek, with a passul of haungry +children, and she had to stay and git 'em a bite to eat. Her doctrine +is that it's better to feed the haungry than to eat, even if the table +is served by a new preacher. Well," he added, as a hymn arose within +the church, "they've struck up the tune of sorrow in there and I +reckon we'd better go in." + +Warren walked with Nancy. "What, we ain't going in the same door?" she +said as they approached. + +"Yes," he replied, "and I'm going to sit with you during the sermon." + +"No," she said, drawing back. "That won't do. I have heard that in +town the women and the men sit together in church, but they don't out +here, and if I did I'd never hear the last of it." + +"All right, I don't want to mark you in any way, but I want you to +wait for me when you come out." + +Bostic came in. His face was grave, and he carried the timid air of a +first appearance as he walked slowly down the aisle. The men mumbled, +the women whispered, and Lyman heard a girl remark: "He ain't so +mighty good-looking." At the door, there was a rustle of strange +skirts, and as if a new note had been introduced into an old melody, +the congregation looked around. Lyman looked too, and his breast grew +warm with the new beating of his heart. Mrs. McElwin and her daughter +entered the church. The preacher glanced up from his text and saw +them, and his eye kindled. He gave out an old hymn and the +congregation arose. The air was vibrant in the unctuous swell of +sound. The spider webs hanging from the rafters trembled; the woods +caught up the echo and bore it afar through the timber-land, and the +distant leaves caught it as a whisper and hushed it. In it there was +not music, not the harmony that seeks the approval of the brain; it +was a chant that called upon the heart to humble itself in the sight +of the Lord and to be brave in the presence of man, the tune that +subdued the wilderness of a new world, a tune that men have sung +before plunging into the swallowing fire of battle. The city is +ashamed of it, laughs at it, but, far away in the country, it is still +the war-cry of Jehovah. + +The preacher began in a rambling way, missing the thoughts that he +expected to find, finding thoughts that surprised him. Sometimes his +road was rough, and he clamored over rocks and fell into gullies, but +occasionally he struck a smooth path and then he ran because the way +was easy. After a time he forgot to be impressive and then he +impressed. He filled the house with words, like a flight of pigeons, +and on their backs some of them caught the sunlight that streamed +through the cracks in the walls. Lyman was reminded of one Of William +Wirt's stories--"The Blind Preacher"--the man who in a ruinous old +house raised his hand and cried: "Socrates died like a philosopher, +but Jesus Christ like a God." + +There was to be another sermon in the afternoon, by an old man who +plowed for a living and who preached without pay, and Lyman caught +himself wondering whether the McElwins would remain to hear him. +Through the window he saw a light buggy under the trees, and he mused +that they would at least let him help them into it. He was afraid that +they might get away, and he was nervous at the fear that slow-moving +persons, halting in the aisle to talk over the sermon, might obstruct +his path; and as soon as the benediction was pronounced, he hastened +toward the rear end of the house. Eva stepped toward him and frankly +held out her hand. + +"Mother, this is Mr. Lyman," she said. + +Mrs. McElwin bowed, resolved to be cool and dignified. She said that +she was pleased to meet Mr. Lyman, which statement Mr. Lyman looked +upon as a polite fib. She spoke of the charm of the day and expressed +surprise that the young preacher had done so well. Lyman asked if she +were going to remain to hear the afternoon sermon. She did not think +it wise to stay so long. The road home was very attractive by day, +with its over-hanging branches and streams of clear water, but it was +dark and rather desolate at night. Still they would not start +immediately. She would like to look at the old spring at the foot of +the hill; history bubbled in its water; her grandfather had camped +there. They walked down to the spring and seated themselves on the +rocks. The men who had come down to "swap" saddles and lies, got up +and moved away. + +"Mr. Lyman," said Eva, sitting with her hands full of leaves and +wild-flowers, and glancing down at them, "we were very sorry to hear +that the White Caps had called on you." + +"I wasn't expecting them," Lyman replied, "but I made them feel at +home." + +Mrs. McElwin looked at him with a cool smile. "Yes," she said, "for +home probably means a fight with most of them. It was an outrage and +everybody is glad that you sent them off with broken heads. Of course +there has been a great deal of talk, but have you any idea as to who +lead the party?" + +"Not the slightest," Lyman answered, and the girl looked up at him. + +"Some one has been mean enough, so a very dear friend told us, to +insinuate that--that father knew of it in time to have prevented it," +she said. + +"Eva, why should you mention such a thing. Mr. Lyman couldn't give it +credence, even for a moment." She frowned. + +"Mr. McElwin was kind enough to come to me the next morning," said +Lyman. "He was very much moved, and I feel that if he could he would +have the ruffians punished." + +"I thank you for saying that, Mr. Lyman," Mrs. McElwin spoke up. "I +know he would." She glanced about and appeared to be nervous under the +gaze of the people on the hill. "I don't know what they think of us +three sitting here together," she said. "People out here are +peculiar." + +"Let them think," the girl replied. + +Lyman looked down and saw her shapely foot on the rock. The light was +strong where she sat, and he noticed a freckle on her cheek, and this +slight blemish drew her closer to him. + +"But we must respect their thoughts," the mother replied. + +"We should not put ourselves out on account of their prejudices," +Lyman was bold enough to remark. The girl smiled at him. + +"Perhaps not," Mrs. McElwin weakly agreed. + +"Perhaps not!" Eva repeated. "Mother, you don't seem to think that I +am just as human as any of those girls up there, that I have +practically the same feelings. But I am, and I am not a bit better +than they--not any better than that girl up there under the tree +talking to that young man. Why, he's from town." + +"He is Mr. Warren, my partner," said Lyman. + +"Oh, is he? They say he is such a funny man. But he's nice looking. I +have seen him many a time, and he was pointed out to me once, but I +had forgotten his name." + +"We'd better go now," said Mrs. McElwin. + +"Oh, not yet," the daughter replied. "There's plenty of time. It won't +take us long to drive home. And besides, we haven't congratulated the +preacher yet. And there he comes now, down this way. See that girl +draw back as if she were going to throw something at Mr. Warren. He +must be a tease. Look at that old man laughing. Everybody wants to +shake hands with the preacher. I think he did splendidly. He +surprised me, I'm sure." + +"He surprised us both on one occasion," said Lyman. Eva laughed, but +her mother looked grave. "Let us not speak of that," she said. "It has +caused us trouble enough; and not even now do I fully understand it. +Oh, I know that the legislature made some sort of blunder and that +Henry Bostic had been ordained, but I cannot realize that I am sitting +here talking to my daughter's legal husband. Still we can get +accustomed to anything in time, I suppose." + +"I can hardly realize that I am a married man," Lyman replied. Mrs. +McElwin looked at him with a start, as if his words hurt her, as if +she suddenly felt that she was doing a grave injustice to her husband +to sit there talking to a man who would not have been permitted to +cross her threshold. She got up. "We must go," she said. + +"Oh, not now," the daughter pleaded. + +"Yes, we must go." + +"But can't you let me stay and come home with Mr. Lyman." + +If the mother had been startled before she was shocked now. "If you +talk like that, my daughter, I shall not believe that you are very +much different from the girls up there. Do you want your father +scandalized? Pardon me, Mr. Lyman, but I must speak plainly to her." + +Lyman, who had also arisen, bowed to her. "No offense," he said. "I am +thoroughly in harmony with the absurdity of my position, even if I +can't realize that I am married." + +Mrs. McElwin winced. "Please don't repeat that again," she said. + +The girl stamped her foot upon the rock. "Don't talk that way," she +commanded. "If Mr. Lyman wants me to stay and go home when he does no +one could prevent it. He can command me to stay." + +Mrs. McElwin fluttered, but afraid of a scene, she smoothed herself +down. "I was joking," she said. + +"We will go now," the daughter replied, "but I do wish you would stay. +I'd like to go up there among those girls. I know they are having a +good time. Help me up." She put out her hand and Lyman took hold of +it, but she pulled back, laughing. "Help me up." She put out the other +hand, her mother looking on in a fright. "You'll have to help me into +the buggy," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +AT NANCY'S HOME. + + +Lyman stood gazing after them as they drove away. The girl waved her +hand at him, and then removing her glove, she waved it again. He saw +the mother turn to her as if with a word of caution. The road was +crooked, and a clump of bushes, a leafy bulge, soon hid them from +view. Lyman walked slowly and not light of heart, up the hillside to +the tree beneath which he had seen Warren and his new-found friends. +There they were, sitting on the ground, eating. + +"You are just in time for a snack," old man Pitt cried, waving the leg +of a chicken. + +"And here is some pie that Miss Nancy baked with her own hands," said +Warren, moving closer to the girl to make room for his friend. "I have +been telling Mr. Pitt about your funny marriage." + +"Yes," Pitt spoke up, "and I was tellin' of him that if I was in your +place and wanted her, now that I had the law on my side, I'd have her +or a fight or a foot race, one or tuther, it wouldn't make much +difference which. Of course I mean if I found out after the joke was +all over that I wanted her, for I tell you--have a piece of this light +corn bread--I tell you that it is a mighty serious thing when a man +wants a woman and wants her bad. Here's some pickles--they ain't good, +but they'll do at a shake-down. But this here ham's prime. Serious +thing, sir, when a man wants a woman and wants her right bad. There's +a case in our neighborhood of a young feller goin' crazy after a woman +he wanted. It ain't but once in a while, you know, that a feller finds +the woman set up to suit him, and when he do find her, why he ought to +sorter spit on his hands--figurative like," he made haste to add, +catching the reproving eye of his daughter. "Spit on his hands +figurative like and give it out cold that he is there to stay till the +cows come home. And that reminds me that this here butter ain't of the +best. The cow eat a lot of beet tops and it didn't help her butter +none, I contend, still some folks wouldn't notice it. I hear 'em say, +Mr. Whut's-your-name, that you come from away up yander whar rocks is +so plenty on the farms that in a hoss trade it would be big boot if a +feller was to throw in a hankerchuf full of dirt. I don't blame you +for comin' away from thar." + +"It's pretty rocky up there," said Lyman. "One of our +humorists--Doesticks," he added, nodding to Warren, "said that we had +to slice our potatoes and slip them down edgeways between the rocks." + +The old man sprawled himself on the ground and laughed. "Well, if they +was to go out a shootin' at liars wheat straw would leak through that +feller's hide. How are you gittin' along over thar, Mr. Warren?" he +inquired, sitting up and again devoting himself to the chicken. + +"First rate, don't know when I've eaten as much." + +"Oh, you haven't eat a thing," Miss Nancy protested, looking at him in +great surprise. "You'd soon die at this rate." + +"You are right, but not of starvation. I suppose they are feeding the +preacher," he said, looking round. "Yes, they've got him up there. +Look the women are bringing him things from all directions. Lyman, +your people didn't wait to congratulate him. I think it hurt him, too, +for I saw his countenance fall. You must have said something to hurry +the old lady off." + +"No, on the contrary I rather urged her to stay." + +"Yes, and that's what sent her off." + +"But what's to be the outcome of the affair?" the old man asked. "Of +course you wouldn't want to tie her up so she couldn't marry anybody +else, though I honor your pluck in not lettin' 'em force you into +signin' the paper. McElwin is a mighty over-bearin' sort of a man. I +worked a piece of land year before last over on the creek near a field +that belonged to him, and sir, the hired feller that delved and +swetted thar 'peered like he thought it was a great privilege to drag +himself over the ground that belonged to McElwin. He p'inted him out +one day as he driv along in a buggy and when my eyes didn't pop out of +my head he was might'ly 'stonished. Yes, sir, they think the Lord was +proud of the job when that man was put on earth. Well, I believe they +are gettin' ready to go back into the house, and if you folks want to +go, don't let me hold you." + +"Ain't you goin' to hear him, pap?" the girl asked, getting up and +brushing the twigs from her skirt. + +"Wall, I don't believe I will jest at the present writin'," he +drawled. "He's a good old feller and all that sort of thing, and I +reckon he do love the Lord, but he nipped me in a hoss swop about +twenty-odd year ago, and whenever I hear him preach I can't git it out +of my head that he's trying to nip me agin." + +"Why, pap, that was long before he joined the church." + +"Yes, but I can't help from holdin' that a man that will nip you in a +hoss swop one time will do it agin if he gets the chance." + +"Well," she said, "you would have nipped him if you could." + +"Yes, that mout be, but I wouldn't have come round preachin' to him +afterwards. Go on in, you young folks, and I'll waller around here a +while and then go down and see how my hosses air gettin' along." + +"And I will stay with you," said Lyman. The romance had gone out of +the old house, for him, but not for Warren and Nancy. Warren walked to +the church with her, and she pleaded with him to let her go up to the +door alone. + +"Why should we care what they think?" he said. + +"Oh, I care a good deal. They would talk about me and laugh at me, and +besides you ain't no kin to me. It's only kin folks that set +together." + +"They don't know whether I'm any kin to you or not." + +"Yes, they do. They know that I haven't any young men kin folks round +here but cousin Jerry." + +"Who the deuce is he? Hold on a moment. Tell me about that fellow +Jerry." + +"Oh, there ain't nothin' to tell except he's my cousin. If you let me +go in alone I'll tell you all about him when I come out." + +He suffered her to go in alone, but he sat as close to her as he +could, on a bench just opposite, and it was so evident that he wanted +to be nearer that a hillside wag remarked to a friend; "See that young +feller a leanin' in toward her like a young steer with a sore neck." +The remark was passed from one to another and a titter went round the +room. Warren saw her blush and realizing that he was the cause of her +embarrassment, he leaned back, and the wag remarked: "Other side of +his neck's sore now--he's leanin' tuther way." + +Lyman and the old man walked about the grounds. Pitt suggested going +to the spring, but Lyman drew back from the idea as if the place were +desolate now. They went down the road to a mossy place where the +ironwood trees leaned out over a stream. They looked at the sun-fish +flashing their golden sides in the light; they sat down to smoke a +pipe, the rising voice of the preacher seeming to sift in the leaves +above them. The sun was shining aslant when they got up and a shadow +lay upon the pool. + +"He must be on the home-stretch," said the old man, nodding toward the +house. "I'll go over and hitch up the horses." + +"I have a similar task to perform," Lyman replied. "I'll see you again +before I start home." + +"All right, and I am much obleeged for your company." + +The sermon was over before the horses were harnessed. Warren came +running to Lyman. "You ride with the old man and let me take the girl +in the spring wagon," said he. + +"What; we may not go in the same direction." + +"Of course we do. We are going home with them. It's all right. I've +put the old man down for a year's subscription." + +"And you want to go over there to board it out. Is that it?" + +"I hadn't thought of that. But I could do it." + +"Does he know that he's a subscriber?" + +"Not yet, but I can tell him. Miss Nancy wants us to go." + +"Did she say so?" + +"Well, now what would be the use of saying so? She could say it as +easily as not. And I guess she would have said it if she had thought +to. But I know she wants us to go. Come, now, won't you go just to +oblige me? Remember, I didn't kick very hard when you killed all my +best pieces of news. Let me have a fling now, won't you? You've been +having all the fun--marriage and White Caps. Won't you go just to +oblige me?" + +"Yes, I'll ride with the old man or I'll ride on a rail when you put +it that way." + +"All right. Here she comes now, and the old man's up there waiting for +you." + +During the drive, the old fellow commented upon the historical places +along the road. He pointed out the spot where he had killed the last +diamondback rattlesnake seen in that neighborhood; he directed Lyman's +attention to a barn wherein five negroes had been hanged for rising +against the whites in 1854; he pointed at a charred stump and told the +story of a fanatic who had tied himself there and burned himself on +account of his religion. They came at last to a large log house, the +Pitt homestead, and had unharnessed the horses before Warren and Nancy +came within sight. A tall woman, followed by a score of children of +all sizes, came out to meet them. + +"They ain't all mine," said the old man. "Them as looks about fryin' +size belongs to the folks over the creek. Mother, this here is a +friend of ourn from away up yonder whar they have to slice the +potatoes and slip 'em down between the rocks, and I want to tell you +that him and me fits one another like a hand and glove." + +"I am mighty glad to meet you," said the woman, wiping her hands on +her apron. "Come right in and excuse the looks of everything and make +yourself at home. But, pap, where's Nancy?" + +"Oh, she's comin' along in a carry-all with the town man that runs +the paper. She's all right--she can take care of herself anywhere." + +They went into the house, the children scattering and peeping from +corners and from behind the althea bushes in the yard. Warren and +Nancy soon came in laughing. The girl threw her hat on the bed, tucked +up her skirts and went out to the kitchen to help her mother, and the +old man excused himself on the grounds that he must go out to feed the +stock. + +"Warren, gallantry is all right, but this is cruel," said Lyman. "We +are imposing on this family. Look how those women have to work, and +they will strain every nerve to get us something to eat." + +"Of course they will, and they like it. Do you know that? They do. You +couldn't please them more than by eating with them, and I'm always +willing to put myself out to please folks. Say, we'll stay here +tonight and go in tomorrow." + +"I am not going to stay. Doesn't it strike you that you are a trifle +too brash, as they say around here? Don't you think so?" + +"Not a bit of it. I want to stay till tomorrow to see whether I want +to come back again or not. I want to find out whether I am in love +with her or not. I think I am, but still I don't know, and my rule is +that a man ought to know where he stands before he walks. We were +passing under a tree and she reached up and pulled at a limb and her +loose sleeve fell down and I saw her arm. That almost settled it. But +I think I'll know definitely in the morning." + +"Warren, I'm going back to town tonight." + +"What, over that dark road? Don't you know we passed a good many +dangerous places coming? Stay till tomorrow." + +"No, I'll walk back and leave the wagon for you." + +"That would be an outrage. If you go back, drive." + +"No, to tell you the truth I would rather walk. I want to think." + +"Then you'd rather go alone, anyway, wouldn't you? All right, and +probably I can get her to come to town with me tomorrow. They've got +to send in to buy things sometimes, I should think. By the by, I've +got a lot of seeds sent by a congressman, and I'll tell the old man he +can have them. Nothing catches one of these old fellows like seeds. +He'll send her in after them tomorrow morning, and then I can find out +how I stand." + +"With her?" + +"No, find out how I stand with myself--see whether I love her or not. +Have you found out yet--in your case? Tell me, I won't say anything +about it." + +"Yes, I have found out." + +"You needn't say--I guess I know." Warren reached over and took Lyman +by the hand. "We save time and trouble when we put a man in a position +so that he needn't say." + +"Yes," said Lyman, "the greatest justice you can confer on a man, at +times, is to permit him to be silent." + +Nancy came hastily into the room and from the broad mantel-piece took +down two beflowered tea-cups, kept there as ornaments. She smiled at +Warren and brushed out with a mischievous toss of her comely head. + +"We not only put them to extra trouble, but compel them to take down +their decorations," Lyman remarked. + +"But can't you see how she likes it?" Warren spoke up. "Probably it +has been six months since they have had a chance to use those cups. We +are doing them a favor, I tell you." He shook his head and sighed. "If +she comes in here again and looks at me that way I'll know where I +stand. Oh, I'm not slow, but I want to be certain." + +They heard the old man talking in the kitchen, and then came his heavy +tread on the loose and flapping boards of the passage-way. The door +was cut so low that he had to duck his head. He came in with a stoop, +but straightening himself in the majesty of conscious hospitality, he +bowed and said: "Gentlemen, you will please walk out to supper." + +Lyman began to offer an apology for putting the household to so much +trouble. The old man bowed again and said: "We didn't bring no trouble +home with us from church, but ruther a pleasure, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +OUT IN THE DARK. + + +Warren argued, the old man urged and the old lady pleaded as she +fanned her hot face with her apron, catching it up by the corners, but +Lyman was determined to go home. Warren went out with him and together +they walked down the dark road, in the cool air of the night and the +hot air that lagged over from the heat of the day. There was no moon, +but in the sky, which the slowly-moving boughs of over-hanging trees +seemed to keep in motion, there was a blizzard of stars. From the +dust-covered thickets along the road arose the chirrup of insects, the +strange noises that make night lonesome; and a small stream, which in +the light has flowed without noise over the slick, blue rocks, was +rushing now with a loud gurgle, as if to hurry out of the dark. + +"Well, I turn back here," said Warren. "It is a piece of foolishness +for you to go. There's no need of it. You haven't anything to do +tomorrow that you can't do next day." + +"No, but, alone in the woods, I can do a piece of work that would +never come within range of me in town." + +"I understand. You want to shake everybody and be absolutely alone." + +"Yes, absolutely." + +"But stay here over night, and if you must, walk in tomorrow. You +would be just as much alone then, wouldn't you?" + +"No, I am never perfectly alone except in the dark." + +"Well, I have worked with you the best I know how; and you see how I'm +fixed--got to find out how I stand. But I hate to see you go off in +this way alone. Just look how dark it is down yonder. And I am to go +back to the light and to sit there and think of you trudging along in +the dark. Just think of the light I am going into--the light of that +smile." + +"And from away out in the woods I may turn to see you blinking in the +glare. But I am keeping you. Good night." + +"Wait a moment. Now, you won't think hard of me, will you?" + +"Hard of you? Not if you go back." + +"All right, then. Good night." + +Pitt had given Lyman minute directions as to the road he should take, +a pathway through the woods and across fields, and leading to the +county road at a point not far from the ruined dam. The path was not +straight, and in the dark woods he kept it with difficulty, having to +pat with his foot to find the hard ground, but in the turned-out +fields the way was well-defined and he walked rapidly. Once he crossed +a stretch of ripening oats, and in a dip-down where the growth was +rank he heard voices and a song--hired men lying out to wear off the +effect of a visit to the distillery. He came to the dam much sooner +than he had expected, and near the trickling water he sat down upon a +rock to rest. An island of willows had grown up in the broad shallow +pond. Out from this dark thicket, a great bird flew and with its wings +slapped the face of the quiet water, and the frogs hushed and the +world was still, save the trickling from the dam, till the frogs began +again. For days, there had been in his mind the vague form of a story, +and he strove to summon it now, but the forms that came were shadows +with no light in their eyes. Throughout all the dark woods this dim +web of a plot had not come to him, though he had thought to ponder +over it before setting out, but had forgotten it when once on the +road. He sent his mind back over the course he had followed, to pick +up any little suggestions that might have come to him to be held for a +moment and dropped, but there was none. Instead, everywhere in the +spread of his mind there was an illuminated spot, shifting, and in the +bright spot sat a figure on a rock, a brown head, a face with one +freckle, and an impetuous, graceful foot that sometimes stamped in +impatience. Into the light there came another figure, strong, ruddy, +and with a calico skirt tucked up. One was refinement, the other +strength; one nerves, the other muscle. Onward he strode, the road +damp from its nearness to the creek. Out upon the higher land he +turned, the shale clicking under his feet. He had the feeling that +some one was walking slowly behind him, stealing the noise of his +footsteps to conceal a stealthier tread, and he smiled at his fear, +but he halted to listen. He thought of a poem, "The Stab," and he +repeated it as he walked along, and the swift falling of the knife, +"Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown," found an echo in his +footsteps. He came to the creek wherein the old horse had stood to +cool his hot knees; he crossed the foot-log and was about to step down +again into the road when he heard the furious galloping of horses and +the rattle of a buggy. The team plunged into the creek, not directly +at the ford; the buggy struck a rock and flew into fragments; the +horses came plunging on, leaving a man in the water. Lyman rushed +forward as the horses dashed past him. By the light of the stars he +saw the flying fragments of the buggy--saw the water splash where the +man fell. The man made no effort to get up, and Lyman thought that +surely he must have been killed. But when Lyman reached him he was +trying to crawl against the shallow but swift current. Lyman seized +him, dragged him to the shore, stretched him upon the ground. + +"Are you hurt?" he asked, feeling for his heart. The man muttered +something. Lyman struck a match, looked at the man's face, blew out +the match, tossed the burnt stem into the road and said to himself: +"Of course I had to be the one to find him. Are you hurt, Sawyer?" + +"You fling me 'n creek?" he muttered, filling the air with the fumes +of whisky. "Fling me 'n creek, got me to whip. Tell you that, hah? +Hear what I said? Got me to whip." + +"Blackguard, I don't know but I ought to have let you drown." + +"Good man to drown me, tell you that," he said, sitting up. "Horses +gone?" + +"Yes, and your buggy is smashed all to pieces." + +"I believe it is. Bring me the pieces, won't you." He leaned over and +laughed like an idiot. "Stopped at a distillery, and stopped too long. +Don't take a man long to stop too long at a distillery. What's your +name? You ain't Jim, are you? What's your name, anyway; why don't you +talk to a feller." + +"It won't do to leave him here," said Lyman, looking about as if +searching for the light from a house. "Do you think you can walk?" he +asked. + +"Walk a thousand miles. Hear what I said? Thousand miles. Where do you +want to go, Jim?" + +"I want to take you to a house." + +"Oh, I'm all right. But don't leave me, Jim. Whatever you do, don't +leave me. I couldn't get along without you. Hit Bob a crack over the +head and addled him so he ain't at himself yet. They took him away +round here to his uncle's to keep him out of the way, and I drove out +there to see him and stopped at distillery and stayed too long. Ever +stay too long, Jim?" + +"Do the doctors think that Bob will get well?" + +"Yes, in a measure; he won't go round White-Capping any more, though. +But I'll make that all right. I'll meet that feller Lyman and put up +his shutters. Sit down." + +"No, there's a house up yonder and I'll take you there. You may be +injured in some way. Let's see if you can walk. Lean on me. That's +it." + +"I can't walk fast, Jim. Believe I am hurt some. I'd a drounded out +there if it hadn't been for you, Jim. Ah--h. I don't believe I can go +on. I'm sick." + +"Here, let me get my arm around you so I can hold you up better. Now +you're all right. It's only a little way." + +They soon came to the house. The barking of dogs brought a man out to +the fence. In a few words Lyman told him what had happened. Sawyer was +unable to walk further and they took him into the house and put him +upon a bed. An excited woman bathed his face, and a barefoot boy, as +fleet as a deer, was sent across the creek for a doctor. Lyman waited +until he came. He said that Sawyer was badly bruised, but added that +he did not appear to be fatally hurt. While they were talking, Sawyer +opened his eyes. "Where's Jim?" he inquired. + +"Here," said Lyman, stepping forward. + +"Merciful God," the wounded man moaned, and covered his face with his +hands. Lyman stepped back, and Sawyer, putting out his hand, with his +eyes closed, said to him: "Please don't leave me." + +"I will stay until daylight," said Lyman. + +"Thank you, sir. Don't leave me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE REVENGE. + + +Early the next morning Pitt and his daughter drove to town with +Warren. The promise of government seeds had greatly excited the old +fellow, and, three times before the breaking of day, did he get up and +look out, impatient of the darkness that still lay in the east. Warren +gave him the seeds and had gone down to see them off for home before +he happened to realize that Lyman was not in the office. He went up +stairs and inquired after him. The boy said that he had not come. He +sat down in a fear that his friend was lost in the woods, and was +thinking of setting out to look for him when Lyman walked in, looking +worn and tired. + +"Why, what's the matter?" Warren cried. "You look like a whipped +rooster." + +"I am," said Lyman sitting down. "A prop has been knocked from under +me and I have fallen down. For several days I have been nursing a +sweet revenge. I said nothing about it, but I was going to knock a +man down, tie him and horse-whip him." + +"Well, why don't you? Is he gone?" + +"Yes, beyond my reach. I thought that for once in my life I would act +the part of a very natural man, but it has been denied me. I will tell +you." + +He narrated his adventure. Warren sat staring at him. "It's just your +luck, Lyman. But, why didn't you throw him back into the creek? Why +didn't you stamp him into the ground? And you have spoiled another +piece of news. What do you expect will become of you if you keep on +this way?" + +"He mistook me for some one else--he called me Jim. I couldn't abuse +his drunken mistake and show him that I was not his friend Jim. It +would have been cruel. And when he recognized me he threw himself on +my mercy and begged me not to leave him. In a vague way, this morning, +he remembered all that had taken place. He is not much hurt, but the +doctor will keep him in bed for a day or two. He is completely cowed +and I felt sorry for him. He hung to my hand when I bade him good-bye +and tears ran out of his eyes. He declared that I had whipped him more +severely than if I had used a raw-hide, and I believe I have; so, +after all, I had my revenge." + +"Lyman, I guess your sort of punishment lasts longer. But I confess +that I am not strong enough to indulge that sort of revenge. It takes +too much time. Well, if you haven't turned things over since you came +to this place I don't want a cent. Old Ebenezer didn't know what +novelty was until you struck it. We had a great time last night," he +went on, after a few moments of silence. "Nancy sang a song, a +come-all-ye about a girl that hanged herself because she had cause to +think that a fellow didn't love her. And you bet she can sing. She +brought tears to my eyes, and a woman has to get up early and sing +with the birds before she can do that." + +"Did you find out how you stand?" Lyman inquired, smiling at him. + +"Oh, yes; that's settled. I know how I stand, and now I've got to find +out how she stands. It takes time, I tell you. I don't want to hurry +her, so I thought I'd wait till tomorrow and go out there and ask her +about it." + +"Oh, no, I wouldn't hurry her," said Lyman, laughing. "I'd wait till +noon-time tomorrow, anyway." + +"Yes, along about there. What are you laughing at me for? This thing +is serious with me. I went out with her this morning to milk the cows. +Talk about milking." He leaned back and shut his eyes as if to +reproduce the scene. "I don't want to draw any comparisons, old +fellow, but do you suppose Miss Eva could milk? Do you suppose she +could grab a calf and make him feel ashamed of himself?" + +"I don't know as to her handling of calves, I'm sure; but I know that +she can throw a light into dark places; that white clover springs up +where she walks; that if she were to sit asleep in a garden the bees +would fight over the sweetness of her lips; that her mind is as fresh, +as full of bright images as a stream of pure water; that her foot as I +saw it upon a rock has grace enough to redeem an awkward world; and +that in comparison with the notes of her voice all earthly music is +flat and dull." + +"Lyman, I guess you know where you stand. But have you found out where +she stands? Have you asked her to define her position?" + +"Her position defines itself. I am to protect her from the man whose +life I saved last night." + +"Yes, I know, but after you have protected her--what then?" + +"I am to present her with a certificate of freedom." + +"But don't you suppose she'd rather have a partnership than freedom?" + +"Not with me. I am something of a novelty to her as a protector, but I +am afraid that to propose a closer relationship would make me appear +commonplace enough." + +"Well, you know your own business, and it's not worth while to give +you advice; but you are a strange sort of a contradiction. As a +general thing a fellow that's easy with man is severe with woman, but +you are disposed to let them all get away. They don't get away from +me, I'll give you a pointer on that. By the way, here's a package that +I found here for you. Came by express, pre-paid, mind you. Think of +that." + +In Lyman's eyes there was the soft light of a sad victory as he opened +the package and displayed a dozen copies of his novel, fresh from the +publisher. He took a volume upon his knee, as if it were a child; he +opened the leaves, carefully separating them as if tenderly parting +curly hair. Warren snatched up a book with a cry of delight; he swore +that its fame was assured; he knew that it would sell as fast as it +came from the press; but Lyman sat in silence, his eyes growing +sadder. It was so small a thing to have cost so many anxious days and +nights. He had worked on it so intently that often when he had stepped +out, the real world seemed unreal; and now it appeared so simple as to +lie within the range of any man's ability. Here was a place where +there had been a kink, and he had worried with it day after day, +carrying the sentences about in his mind; and now at a glance he saw +where the wording might have been improved. He was afraid that he had +been too simple, too close to the soil; in seeking the natural he was +almost sure that he had found the tiresome. He got up. + +"Where are you going?" Warren asked. + +"Oh, out somewhere, to get away from this poor hunch-back." He smiled +sadly at the book. + +"Hunch-back? Why, it's a giant. Look, here's a jolt like a wagon +running over a root. It's all right. And I want to take one out to +Nancy, and when she reflects that a friend of mine wrote it, her +position will be defined. She can't help it. It makes no difference +whether a woman can read or not, a book catches her. Ain't you going +to send one to Miss Eva?" + +"Yes, I believe I will." + +"Well, scribble in one and I'll send it right now, by the boy. It's +not right to let such things get cold. Is that all?" he asked when +Lyman had written his name on the fly leaf. + +"Yes, that's enough." + +"It may do for her, but I want you to spread out a whole page for +Nancy. Say, go and lie down. You look like a ghost--going up and down +the creek at night, pulling fellows out. But wait. Give Nancy's book a +whirl first." + +Lyman covered the fly-leaf with a memory of Mt. Zion. With brightening +eyes Warren read the lines. "This will fetch her," he said. "She can't +hold out against it. Let me see. I don't know but the old man ought to +have one. It would stimulate him mightily. But never mind. The seeds +are enough for him. It won't do to stimulate him too much at once." + +"Old boy," said Lyman, "I admire your enterprise, it is a bright +picture, but don't go out there so soon. Wait at least a week. If she +finds that you are too anxious it might prejudice her against you." + +"I don't know but you are right. I'll send the book anyway. But say, +she's got a cousin Jerry and I don't like that very much. I never saw +a fellow named Jerry that wasn't dangerous. But if you say wait, I +will." + +"I say wait." + +"All right, then wait it is, but I don't like that Jerry idea. What +sounds more devilish than 'Cousin Jerry.' Sort of an insinuating, +raspberry jam sound. But I'll wait. Go on and lie down." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +A GENTLEMAN MULE-BUYER. + + +Two days later Lyman was sitting in his office, musing over a pink +note from Eva, thanking him for the book, when Zeb Sawyer tapped at +the door. Lyman bade him enter and he stepped forward with a limp. He +sat down before saying a word, took out a handkerchief and wiped his +face. + +"Haven't you got out of bed rather soon?" Lyman asked. + +"No, I reckon not, though the doctor told me to lie there awhile +longer. But I couldn't--I wanted to come to see you. I am not much of +a writer," he added, looking about, "but I want to write an article +for your paper. I want to tell the public what a wolf I've been. And +it was mostly owing to liquor. I shot a man once when I was about half +drunk, and nearly every mean thing I ever did I can trace to whisky. I +don't often get what you might call drunk, but I generally go about +with a few drinks and that makes me mean. Will you print the +article?" + +"No; let it all go. We all do wrong at times; we all have little +meannesses, like rheumatic pains in bad weather." + +"Well, is there anything I can do to prove--to prove--you know what I +mean." + +"Yes, you can be gentler toward man, remembering that there is +something good in every one." + +"I believe that more than I used to," said Sawyer, mopping his +perspiring face. "I have laughed at preachers, and I hated you, but +you came along and showed me that, whether a man professes it or not, +there is something in the doctrine of mercy and forgiveness. I don't +think I ever prayed with my heart till this morning, and then I prayed +to be forgiven for my meanness; and it seemed to me that if you would +forgive me, the Higher Power would. I drove over to mother's before I +came here and I told her how mean I had been, and it struck her to the +heart with grief, but when I told her that I was going to be a better +man and follow in my father's footsteps, she cried for joy. She is so +shaken with palsy that she can't write, but she managed to write this +and she told me to give it to you." He handed Lyman a piece of paper, +and on it were the words: "God will bless you." + +"She didn't think it would disturb you so, or I am sure she wouldn't +have sent it," he said, looking at Lyman. + +"Tell her," said Lyman, "that her blessing alone is more--give her my +kindest regards," he added, with an effort. + +Sawyer wiped his eyes. "I went to another place before coming here," +he said. "I went over to the bank and waited till McElwin came, and I +had a talk with him. I told him that his daughter could never care for +me, and that even if you should sign the petition I would refuse to +recognize his authority in trying to compel her to marry me. She is in +every way above me, so far beyond my reach that I don't love her. I +have to go to another place--the court house. I am going to surrender +myself to the law and be punished for that White Cap affair. I am +going to acknowledge the whole thing." + +"No," said Lyman. "The law knows well enough what was done and who did +it. And, besides, your old mother--" + +"Yes," Sawyer broke in, "but I thought it might be kept from her." + +"No, some one would tell her, some over-zealous friend. Let it drop." + +"Your word is law with me. And now I hope you won't feel hurt if I ask +you something?" + +"The time for you and me to hurt each other is passed," said Lyman. + +"I thank you for saying that. You are a man if I ever met one. And how +did you get the name of being desperate?" + +"I simply punished an over-bearing bully and my act was exaggerated." + +"They always exaggerate such things in this country. But that's not +what I wanted to ask you. It's this: Do you need any money? now don't +feel hurt; do you need any, and, if you do, won't you let me lend it +to you for a year or so without interest?" + +"My dear fellow," said Lyman, "my affairs have prospered wonderfully +of late. It's a singular position for me to be in, but I don't need +money." + +"I was in hopes you did. I told McElwin just now that your check would +be good as long as I had any money at his bank, and it made him wink, +but before I went out he acknowledged that you were about the truest +sort of a man he ever ran against. You have educated us all. And now +as to a more delicate matter. I don't know what Eva thinks of you, or +what you think of her, but I believe that the old man would be willing +to recognize the law as young Bostic administered it. But we won't +talk about that, and I ought not to have mentioned it. Is Mr. Warren +out there? I want to see him a moment." + +He shook hands with Lyman and they parted friends. Shortly after +Sawyer went out, Warren came running into the room. "Old Billy Fate is +trying himself," he cried. "What do you think has happened? That +fellow Sawyer has subscribed for fifty copies of the paper, for one +year, and has paid for them in advance. He has put down uncles, aunts, +cousins--but there's one thing about it I don't like. That fellow +Jerry, Nancy's cousin, is a sort of tenth rate cousin to Sawyer, and +he has put him down. Jerry Dabbs. Think of that poor girl becoming +Nancy Dabbs. There ought to be a law against such outrages. And now +he'll read your stuff and commit the odd phrases to memory and give +them to her. I don't see how I can keep away from there for a week. +I'm going out there Friday. Well, after all, I guess it was better +that you didn't drown that fellow. Fifty subscribers are not picked up +every day. I don't know but sometimes it pays to let revenge go." + +"It pays the heart," Lyman replied. "Did you ever think that when the +heart was paid the whole world is out of debt?" + +"I never thought of it, but I guess you are right. I met the express +agent this morning and he tipped his hat to me. And it's all owing to +you. Everybody is talking about you. Where are you going?" he asked as +Lyman got up. + +"One day, while walking about aimlessly," said Lyman, "I stopped in +front of a house down the street not far from here, and saw a boy +digging in the yard. At the window I saw the pale face of a man. He +lay there to catch the last rays of the world, slowly fanning himself. +I asked the boy what he was doing and he said that he was digging a +grave for his father. The pale face at the window haunted me. I made +inquiry and found that a very poor family inhabited the house, and I +have called there several times to talk with the man. I am going there +now." + +"I know, he's a fellow named Hillit. He's got consumption. I send him +the paper free. Give him my regards, please, and tell him that I have +put him down as a life subscriber." + +"It won't be for long," said Lyman, as he turned away. + +The sun had baked the ground and the strange child had suspended his +labor, but heaps of earth beneath the bushes showed that he had +continued his work as long as his rude spade was adequate to a +disturbance of the soil. The boy looked up as the gate latch clicked, +and stood surveying Lyman with his feet far apart and his hands in his +pockets. Lyman spoke to him, and bringing a nail out of his pocket he +held it out to the visitor as an offering of his hospitality. Lyman +tossed him a piece of money; he caught it up and with a shout he +disappeared in the shrubbery. The visitor's knock at the door was +attended by a frail, tired woman. She stood with her hand on the door +as if meekly to tell the comer that he had doubtless made a mistake +in the house. He bowed and asked if she were Mrs. Hillit, and when +she had nodded an acknowledgment, with no word, though her thin lips +moved, he informed her that he desired to see her husband. She +preceded him into the sick man's room. + +"A gentleman wishes to see you," she said. + +The sufferer turned his wasted face toward Lyman and asked him to sit +down. Then followed a few words of explanation. + +"I am very glad you came," said Hillit, speaking slowly and with +effort. "We have been getting your paper for some time and it has been +great company for us. The neighbors have been very kind, but when a +man hangs on this way he wears everybody out." + +The woman had left the room, and Lyman was relieved to find that she +had not remained to hear her husband's hopeless words. "You ought not +to feel that way," he said. + +The consumptive withdrew his wistful gaze from the bar of sunlight +that lay across the window sill, and looked at Lyman. "I am in a +position to say what I think, and that's what I do think," he +answered. "But I do hope it won't be much longer. I see by the paper +that the farmers have been praying for rain. I have been praying for +light, light, light--all the time praying for light. When a passing +cloud hides the sun my heart grows heavier, and when the night comes I +feel the shadow of eternity resting cold upon me." + +In reply to this Lyman could say nothing; he simply said: "You haven't +lived here long, I understand." + +"Not long. I came from the city to look for a place where I could die +cheap. I lost my place--my brethren lost their place--we were swept +away by the machine. I am a compositor." + +"Oh, are you? Then I am more than glad I came." + +"And I am more than glad to see you. I have seen you stop at the +fence, and I managed one day to learn your name. You are making a name +for yourself; I have read your work at night and there is sunlight in +it. Ah, the old craft is gone," he said. "We sang like crickets, +laughing at the idea that a frost might come in the shape of a machine +to set type; we worked three days a week and spent our money, with no +thought of the destroyer slowly forming fingers of steel under the +lamp light. But the machine came. It was like the bursting of a shell, +and our army, the most intelligent body of craftsmen ever known, was +scattered over the face of the land. Once in a while I had a serious +moment, and I kept up my life insurance, but what is to become of the +other women and children the Lord only knows." + +"The picturesque old philosopher known as the tramp printer is only a +memory now," said Lyman. "I have seen him strolling along the road, +sore of foot, stubble-faced, almost ragged, hungry, but with a cynical +head full of contempt for the man of regular habits. I recall one +particularly--Barney Caldwell." + +"What?" cried Hillit, raising upon his elbows, "did you know old +Barney? He was once foreman of an office in Cincinnati where I was a +cub. He was comparatively young then, but they called him the old man. +And what a disciplinarian! He used to say, 'Boys, if you get drunk +with me it is your own look out, and if you don't walk the chalk line +that's my look out. Don't expect favors, because you happen to be a +good fellow.' One day, he came into the office, and after starting to +put on his apron he hesitated, and turning to a fellow named Hicks, he +said: 'Charley, I've a notion to be a gentleman once more.' Then I +heard a man standing near me say: 'There'll be a vacant foremanship in +this office within five minutes. The old man is going to take to the +road.' And he did. He resigned his position and walked out. Life was +worth living in those days, Mr. Lyman." + +Just at this moment Mrs. Hillit appeared at the door. "The young lady +who brought the flowers has come again," she said. Lyman looked up and +his heart leaped, for, in the hall-way, stood Eva with her hands full +of roses. She turned pale at seeing him, but with the color returning +she came forward and held out her hand. Hillit's wasted eye, slow in +movement but quick in conception, divined the meaning of the changing +color of her face, and when his wife had brought a vase for the roses, +he said: "I hope you two will talk just as if I wasn't here. And I +won't be here long, you know." + +"William," his wife spoke up, turning from the table whereon she had +placed the young woman's contribution, "you promised me that you +wouldn't talk that way any more." + +"I forgot this time," he replied. + +"Mr. Lyman," said Eva, "I want to thank you again for the book. I have +read it twice, and I hope you won't think I gush when I say it is +charming. One idea was uppermost in my mind as I read it--that I had +never before heard the beating of so many hearts; and the atmosphere +is so sweet that, more than once, I fancied that the paper must have +been scented." + +"Oh, come now," Lyman cried, "you are guying me." + +"It does sound like it, I admit, but really I am not. And I don't +bring you my opinion alone. Last night I induced father to read a +chapter. He read chapter after chapter, and when I asked him what he +thought, he simply said, 'Beautiful.' Wasn't that a conquest?" + +"It was a great kindness." + +"But why should you be surprised? Haven't you worked year after year +and now should a just reward come as an astonishment?" + +"It's all luck," said the consumptive, looking at his thin hands +lying on the counterpane. "If a man has luck early in life, he's +likely to pay for it later; and if he has bad luck till along toward +middle life, the chances are that he will pick up. I had my luck +early; I sang my song and finished it." His wife looked at him +beseechingly. "I'm not complaining," he added. "It's no more than +just. You and the young lady were speaking about a book, Mr. Lyman. +How long did it take you to write it?" + +"It seems now that I had to live it," Lyman answered. "The actual work +did not take long, but the dreams, the night-mares, were continued +year after year. To be condemned to write a conscientious book is a +severe trial, almost a cruel punishment, and I am not surprised that +the critics, sentenced to read it, should look upon it as an +additional pain thrust into their lives." + +The talk wandered into the discussion of books in general. The young +woman told of the great libraries she had visited abroad. The printer +had helped to set up a Bible and he gave an amusing account of the +mistakes that had crept into the proof-sheets. A careless fellow had +made one of the Prophets stricken with grip instead of grief, and +another one had the type declare that Moses lifted up the sea +serpent in the wilderness. The bar of sunlight passed beyond the +window ledge and the sick man fell into silence. Eva rose to go. Lyman +said that he would walk a part of the way with her. She smiled but +said nothing. They bade the invalid and his wife good-bye and passed +out into the shaded thoroughfare. A man stared at them, but a woman +passed with merely a glance. + +[Illustration: the butter churn] + +"Even in a village a wonder wears away after awhile," said Lyman. +"Yes," she laughed, "our strange relationship has almost ceased to be +an oddity." + +They turned into a lane. He helped her across a rivulet and felt her +hand grow warm in his grasp. She looked up at him and his blood +tingled. He felt a sense of gladness and then remembered that she had +praised his book. It was a victory to know that it had broken through +her father's hauberk of prejudice. He spoke of Sawyer. She had heard +of his narrow escape from drowning; indeed, he had called at the +house. + +"He did not hesitate to acknowledge everything," she said, "and I +never liked him half so well as I did today." + +"But you couldn't like him well enough to marry him," Lyman was weak +enough to say. + +"Oh, no; I liked him because he acknowledged your generosity," she +frankly confessed. Lyman had weaknesses, and one of them was an +under-appraisal of self. At times and in some men this is a virtue, +but more often it is a crime committed against one's own chance of +prosperity. The people's candidate is the man who loudest avows his +fitness for the office. + +"You remember last Sunday as you were driving away from the church--" +he said. + +"Yes--" she answered, walking close beside him. + +"I thought I saw your mother reprimand you for urging her to stay." + +"Yes. She was half inclined to yield and she was really scolding +herself for her weakness." + +"You went away without congratulating the preacher." + +"That was thoughtless. We have sent him a letter of congratulation." + +"How stately your house looks from here; how cool and restful." + +"I used to take great pride in the fact that I lived there, as I +looked at the humbler homes scattered about, but I haven't been so +foolishly proud since I came to know you." + +"Then that is where we must have fallen apart. I have been prouder +since I knew you." + +"I said foolishly proud," she replied, laughing. + +They came to the wooden bridge. "Well, I turn back here," he said, +halting and leaning against the rail. + +"Surely there would be no harm in your coming to the house," she +replied. "You are my protector," she added, with a smile. He was +beginning to dislike the word, and now he felt a heaviness settle upon +his heart. + +"When your father has invited me as a friend of the family, I will +come," he said, leaning over and looking down into the water. He +looked up and in her eyes he thought he saw a gentle rebuke, but it +was gone in a moment. She must have had it in her mind to tell him +that he ought to be bolder, but another feeling seemed swiftly to +come, and she said: "Your instinct is right." She held out her hand. +He grasped it, looked into her eyes, turned about and hastened toward +the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +GONE AWAY. + + +A few days later, at the breakfast table, Mrs. Staggs remarked that +Mrs. McElwin and her daughter were gone on a visit to friends and +would be absent several weeks. Lyman did not think to disguise his +concern. With an abruptness that made the cups totter in the saucers +he shoved himself back from the table and fell into a deep muse. Why +should the girl have gone away just at that particular time? Was it a +blow aimed at him? He had wanted to tell her something. It was in the +nature of a confession, not startling, not, as he now viewed it, +beyond a commonplace acknowledgment, and he wondered why he should +have suppressed it. He wanted simply to tell her that, at the time +when the joking ceremony had been performed, he had looked at her, +with his mind reverting to the sick man whose face he had seen that +day at the window, and had thought of the charm she could throw upon +the gloom-weighted scene should she step into the room. This had come +to pass; he had beheld it, and his mind had been sweetened by it; he +had walked nearly all the way home with her and had not mentioned it. +He had been too talkative as a protector and too silent as a man. And, +all day, there was a bitter taste in his mouth, and, at evening, as he +sat alone in the office he cut himself with a cynical smile. Warren +came in, bright and brusque. + +"Well, I've just got back from old man Pitt's," said he. "I couldn't +wait any longer, so I went. The old man was at work in the field and I +went out and told him not to disturb himself. The old lady was weaving +a rag carpet, and I told her not to let the loom fall into silence. +The girl was churning and I told her to keep at it. Ah, what a +picture, that girl at the churn. Her red calico dress was tucked up, +and her sleeves were rolled, and her hair had been grabbed in a hurry +and fastened with a thorn. She blushed and put her hand to her hair as +if she wanted to fix it, but I cried to her not to tamper with it. I +said that she might have gold pins, but couldn't improve on that +thorn; I swore that the finest hairdresser in the world would spoil +it; and she laughed and I saw the inside of her mouth--" + +"A rose with the bud pinched out," said Lyman. + +"How did you know? Did you ever see the inside of her mouth? You've +hit it all right. Yes, sir, that's what you have. Well, I took hold of +the churn dasher and helped her, and she pretended to be afraid that +we might turn the churn over, and our hands came together and I felt +like throwing up my hat and dancing right there." + +"Did you find out as to how she stands?" + +"Lyman, would you believe that I weakened? I put both my hands on her +hair and I snatched a kiss from her, but she looked up at me and I +weakened; I couldn't ask her. She wasn't scared; she was astonished; +and when she looked down, I kissed the back of her neck, standing +there in full view of the world, and she shivered as if she was cold, +but her face was scarlet." + +"Do you call it weakening when you grab a woman and kiss her? I should +think that was rather strengthening." + +"I didn't find out how she stood, that is, I did not get it in words, +so I must have weakened. But I think it's all right. After dinner, +while we were in the 'big room,' she showed me a photograph of a yap +and said that it was Cousin Jerry. 'Permit me,' said I, bowing, and I +sailed the picture out into the yard where the dog lay asleep in the +sun. And there it lay, with the June bugs buzzing about it, till I +relented and went after it. I weakened in going after it, but she +pouted and I gave in. I reckon that after all, it's better not to be +so headlong. Many a fellow would have rushed the thing and spoiled it +right there. I am learning patience from you, Lyman." + +"Well, don't keep on learning, or you'll get the worst of it. A woman +will pardon a thing that's rash where she would look with scorn upon a +gentle stupidity. You bite like a black bass and I'm a sucker; you +leap up into the sunshine, and I lie under a rotting log. I am +inclined to think, old boy, that there is a good deal of what they +call the chump about me. You have gone to Pitt's and said more than +you intended to say. And look at me: I have not said half of what I +ought to have said. You know where to find your girl, but I have let +mine go away. And I know now that she went away in disgust. However, +I ought not to say that. It might imply that she was impatient with me +and that would mean that she was waiting for me to say something, when +in fact I don't believe she thinks of me at all, except as her +protector and friend." + +Warren sat nibbling at the stem of a corn-cob pipe. He stretched forth +his legs and chewed upon the stem till it cracked between his teeth. + +"This disposition to under-estimate yourself is where the whole +trouble lies," said Warren. "It is the only weakness I have ever been +able to find in your character. Don't you think it must be on account +of some sort of work you have done? Haven't you at some time been in a +position where everybody could come along and boss you?" + +"I waited in a dining-room to pay my way through college. And you have +struck it. Yes, sir, you've struck it on the top of the head. If a man +has once stood as a servant, he is, if at all sensitive, ever +afterward afflicted with a sort of self-repression. It is a sense of +independence that makes the cow-boy aggressive; it is the wear of +discipline that makes the regular soldier, long after quitting the +army, appear humble. To wear a white apron and to carry a bowl of soup +across a dining-room, one must not have had a high spirit or must have +stabbed it. I stabbed mine." + +"And yet you are as proud as the devil," said Warren. + +"Yes, and I am not afraid of a pistol, but I fancy that anyone could +drive me with a teaspoon. If I am ever the father of a boy I will +teach him to work, to cut down trees, to dig ditches, to do anything +rather than to wait on another man." + +"But you don't regret having made the sacrifice to get the education, +do you?" + +"You over-rate my learning. I don't know anything thoroughly. I sailed +through with the class and put myself in a position to learn, that's +about all. But I have acquired one great piece of knowledge, which, +had I not received a regular training, might have seemed to me as the +arrogance of ignorance, and that is the fact that profound knowledge +hurts the imagination. Of course I had read this--but ascribed it to +prejudice. I know now, however, that it is true; and I would take care +not to over-educate the boy with an instinct for art. His technique +would destroy his creation. And take it in the matter of writing. I +believe in correctness, but it is a fact that when a writer becomes a +purist he conforms but does not create. After all, I believe that +what's within a man will come out regardless of his training. There +may be mute, inglorious Miltons, but Art struggles for expression. The +German woman worked in a field and had no books, but she brought tears +to the eyes of the Empress, with a little poem, dug up out of the +ground." + +"That sounds all right enough," said Warren, "but I don't know about +its truth. It strikes me--and I like to think about it--that, if Nancy +had been schooled and all that, she could have written about the +sweetest poetry that ever was sent out." + +Lyman smiled at his friend. "Education would undoubtedly assist her in +the writing of verses," said he. "The log school-house would have +given her the expression for poetry." + +"May be so. But I don't want her to write. She'd fill up the paper and +hurt the circulation. Sad day for a newspaper man when his wife fills +up the paper. By the way, I forgot to tell you that I had a talk with +the old man. I went out to the field with him after dinner; he was +cutting oak sprouts from among the young corn and we had quite a chat. +I reminded him of the fact that I hadn't known his daughter long, but +I gave him to understand that I was all right. I told him that the +express company had a high regard for me, and this made him open his +eyes. He gradually caught my drift, and then he leaned on his hoe and +laughed till the tears ran down his face; and I didn't have anything +to lean on, so I took hold of the hoe handle and laughed too. After +awhile the absurdity of the situation struck him, both of us leaning +on a hoe, laughing fit to kill ourselves, and then he shook me off. +But I wasn't to be put off this way. I told him I guessed I had to +have some place to laugh, and I grabbed the hoe-handle again, and went +on with my tittering. 'Young fellow,' he said, 'you just about suit +me. You won't stay shuck off, and that's the sort of a man that gets +next to me.' So we shook hands and without another word on the tender +subject we went on talking about something else. Oh, he's all right, +and the girl is too, I think. I don't know about the mother, but she +is blue-eyed and tender-looking and I think she'll give in. Have you +seen the banker lately?" + +"I met him in the street this morning and spoke to him, and he bowed +very politely. I've been thinking. Suppose my serial story should be +accepted and they should send me a check. How could I get it cashed +without going to his bank? And if any royalties should come from the +sale of my book, what then? There's no other way open and I'll have to +do business through his bank." + +"That will be all right, if the check should happen to be large +enough. Anyway, we don't do business with a bank because we like the +owner of the concern. Oh, I didn't tell you that we have an account +there already. We have about two hundred and fifty dollars over there +and we don't owe a cent." + +"Good!" Lyman cried, not because of the money, but that Warren had +broken the ice. + +"Good; I should say it is. I call it glorious. And it has come mainly +through you. Why, when you came in I was still bleeding under the +heel, you know." + +"It has been your business management and economy, Warren. I have done +nothing but scribble at odd times--I have played and you have worked." + +"That's all right." + +"No, it isn't all right. Whatever success may come to this paper +belongs to you. What there is already has flowed through the channel +of your energy, and I am not going to claim half the profits. The +plant is yours, not mine. Without you the paper could not have lived a +week." + +"We'll fix that all right. But say, isn't it terrible to wait. I don't +mind work, but I hate to wait, and I ought not to go out yonder again +before day after tomorrow." + +"What, ought not to go before day after tomorrow! You ought not to go +before next week." + +"Oh, come, now, old man, don't say that. This thing of waiting is +awful. I think I could stand to be hanged if they'd do it at once, but +the waiting would put me out. I never could wait. And besides I don't +believe in it. One day I saw an old man at a soldiers' home and I +asked him concerning his prospects and he said that he was waiting, +and when I asked him what for, he said, 'to die.' And then I couldn't +help but ask him what he was going to do then. I don't believe in +waiting for anything; my idea is to go to it at once." + +"Yes, that's all very well; but the old soldier was right after all, +for life is but waiting for death." + +"No," said Warren, "life is a constant fight against death, and we +don't wait so long if we are fighting. If I thought as you do, I +couldn't wait--I'd have to go out and hunt up death at once. I reckon +you are low-spirited today. I'm glad I'm not a writer, Lyman. Writing +saps all a man's spirit and leaves him no nourishment." + +"I have always regarded the necessity to write as a sad infliction," +Lyman replied. "A man steals from himself his most secret beliefs and +emotions and puts them in the mouth of his characters. He is a sham." + +"You ain't, old fellow." + +"I am a fraud. Where are you going?" + +"I've got to stir about," Warren answered. "I have to think when I sit +still and I don't want to think. The truth is, I want to know how she +stands. I wish I had a picture of her as she stood at the churn. It +would make the fortune of a painter. Believe I'll get up a +prayer-meeting at Mt. Zion." + +"What, you get up a prayer-meeting?" + +"Yes, so I can go home with her through the woods. I think that after +a season of prayer and song she would lean toward me." + +"Why not wait for a thunder storm and comfort her between flashes of +lightning?" + +"I wish I could get up a thunder storm. I'd like for that girl to grab +me and choke me half to death. Well, I've got to stir around." + +Warren went away, and during all the evening Lyman sat picking a +nervous quarrel with himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE HOME. + + +Lyman saw nothing of Warren the next day, but on the day following he +strode into the room, whistling in tuneless good humor. + +"It's all right," he said, as he sat down. "I went out there and found +her at the churn. I said, 'Look here, you'll drive me mad if you don't +let that churn alone--I mean with the charm of the position.' And then +she blushed, and I would have grabbed a kiss, but she shied to one +side. She scolded me somewhat for coming so soon. She said that people +would wonder what brought me out that way so often. I told her that if +people had any sense they wouldn't wonder long--they would know that +she had brought me there. Then I came out square-toed. I told her that +I had discovered early in the action that I loved her, that I had +waited long enough to be sure that it was not a passing fancy, but a +genuine case of love. I told her that her cousin Jerry might believe +in waiting, but that I did not. Then how she did blush and shy. I +looked away, to give her a chance to get herself together again, +looked out into the field where the old man was at work, and peeped +through a crack at the old lady thumping the carpet loom. I didn't +wait too long, though; I didn't want the girl to have time to cool off +completely, so I said, looking at her. 'I want you to marry me, you +understand; with my prospects I could go throughout the country and +pick up most any woman who is struck on writing verses and essays, but +I don't want one of them--I want you, and I want your promise to tell +that fellow Jerry to go to the deuce, as far as you are concerned; and +I want you to promise to wait for me a week or two and then be my +wife.' Then I thought of how tedious it would be to wait so long and I +corrected my statement by telling her that we needn't wait at all. How +she did flounce in surprise. She said she had no idea that I cared +anything for her. But I stopped her right there. 'That ain't the +question,' I said, 'do you care anything for me? That's the question.' +At this she hung her head and said that she didn't know, exactly, but +that she would think about it. 'I don't want any thinking,' said I. +'What I want is for you to tell me right now.' Then she said something +about that fool cousin. And I told her that I would shoot him on sight +and look for him at that. I started to go away and she caught hold of +me and said that if I promised not to shoot Jerry she would tell me +the next day. 'You tell me now,' said I, 'or that fellow will be a +corpse before morning.' Then she agreed that she thought she did love +me a little. I told her that a little wouldn't satisfy me--I didn't +want a breeze, I wanted a storm. She said I was hard to satisfy. She +didn't think she could please me; she knew that she didn't amount to +much in the eyes of town people. She had hoped so much to please me, +and now she was grieved at her disappointment. She acknowledged that +she was afraid to love me, and I told her that she needn't have any +fear and that she might let herself out at once. And after a good deal +of talk she did. I put her arms around my neck and made her squeeze +me, and I called her a divine boa constrictor. She didn't exactly know +what I meant, but it tickled her all the same. Then I went over into +the field to consult the old man about the time I'd have to wait, and +when I mentioned day after tomorrow he snorted. 'Young fellow,' said +he, 'I like your pushing ways, but I don't want to be crowded off the +face of the earth. You wait awhile. I don't want folks to think that I +am anxious to git rid of the best gal that ever lived.' He got next to +me when he put it that way, and I agreed to wait a week or so. Yes, +sir, it's all right, with the exception that I've got to wait. But I +won't wait alone; I'll go out there every once in awhile and make her +wait with me." + +Lyman caught hold of him and they stood near the window, laughing, but +the laughter had more the sound of soft music than of two men in a +merry mood. They sat down in the twilight, and their cigars glowed +like the eyes of a beast, far apart. + +Warren's restlessness was worn away in part, and the next day and for +days succeeding he went about his work, humming what he supposed to be +a tune. Two weeks dragged along and the time for the marriage was +approaching. Every day or so the young fellow would drive out into the +country to argue with the old man. He had rented a cottage and had +furnished it and he pleaded the crime of permitting it to stand there +empty of the two hearts that yearned to inhabit it. The old man +acknowledged the logic of the argument, but swore that he could not +have it said that he was anxious to get rid of his girl; and Warren +always agreed to this, at the time of its emphatic utterance, but when +he had driven back to town, and put up his horse, a spirit of +rebellion would arise and back he would go the next day to renew the +contest. + +One night when Lyman went home he found old man Staggs in the +sitting-room waiting for him. "I've got something to tell you," said +the old man. + +Lyman's heart jumped. "Has she returned?" he asked. + +"Has who returned?" + +"Why, Mrs. McElwin and her daughter?" + +"Oh, I reckon not." + +"Then what did you want to tell me?" + +"I want to tell you that I won't drink any more." + +"You told me that some time ago." + +"Yes, but under different circumstances. When I told you, I was sick +and wouldn't have touched a drop if a barrel full had been under my +nose; but I tell you now when I am well. Do you know the reason why I +am so strong in the faith now? Of course you don't, and that is what I +am going to tell you. I was out in the stable this evening and I found +a bottle of liquor. Blast me if I hadn't been wanting it all day. But +what did I do? I went out and threw the bottle--and the liquor--as far +as I could send it, and I heard it squash in the street. And now I +want to ask you if that wasn't nerve." + +Lyman summoned his patience and agreed that it was nerve, and the old +man continued. "I told my wife about it, but she didn't believe me. +And now what I want you to do is to convince her that it is a fact. +You can do it with a clear conscience, for I will swear to it. The +fact is there's going to be a reunion of the old home guard at +Downer's grove, about fifteen miles from here, and I want to go. I +went last year and--well, I fell, somewhat. But I wouldn't fall this +time, and I want you to tell Tobithy and Annie to let me go." + +"And what if you come home drunk?" + +"Lyman," said the old man, puffing up, "I have always stood as your +friend. I have got out of bed at night to argue in your behalf, and I +didn't expect no sich treatment as this. If you want to stab me, why +don't you out with your knife and pop it to me right under the ribs. +Here," he added, turning toward Lyman and smoothing his shirt tight +over his side, "stab me right here and I won't say a word; but, for +the Lord's sake, don't question my honor. Let me tell you something: I +am a poor man and in debt; I need clothes and sometimes I am out of +tobacco, but I wouldn't touch a drop of whisky for money enough to dam +the Mississippi river. That's me, Lyman, and you may wollop it about +in your mouth and chew on it. It is no more than natural that I should +want to join my old friends. Of course we were not actually in the +army, but we would have been soldiers if we hadn't been captured and +disarmed, and we have an affection for the old organization. There +ain't many of us left and it is cruelty to keep us apart. And I can't +go unless Tobithy lets me take the money. It won't require more than +five dollars. Will you assure her that I'll come home sober?" + +"I don't think I can do that, Uncle Jasper. Understand, now, I believe +you think you'll keep sober, but the truth of it is you can't. Why, if +you didn't drink, the old fellows wouldn't be your companions." + +The "veteran" smoothed his shirt over his side. "Stab me," he said. +"Pop your knife under this rib--this one, right here. It will be a +mercy to me if you do. When a man out-lives his word of honor, it's +time to go and go violently. Pop it." + +"Your drinking doesn't amount to much, Uncle Jasper. You don't drink +viciously, but reminiscently. However, it is a crime to take money +from those women--Hold on; I know you do all you can to earn a living; +you work whenever anything comes up, but you haven't earned five +dollars in--" + +"I earned the money, but the scoundrel didn't pay me," the old fellow +broke in. "I've got hundreds of dollars owin' to me, but the rascals +laugh at me. I cured old Thompson's sick horse--worked with him all +night, nearly, and he gave me a dollar. Haven't earned five dollars! +the devil! How can a man earn five dollars when a scoundrel pays him +one dollar for fifteen dollars' worth of labor? The shirt ain't very +thick. The knife will go in all right. Pop it." He smoothed his shirt +and closed his eyes as if expecting the death blow. + +"You didn't let me get through," said Lyman. "I was going to say that +your drinking did no particular harm. To meet your old cronies and to +warm up with them is about all that is left to you of real enjoyment. +Sooner or later we all live in the past, and there can be no very +great evil in bringing the past near. So, now, if you will promise me +to come home in as good condition as you can, I will give you five +dollars." + +The old fellow gulped, wheeled about to hide his eyes and leant +forward with his face in his hands. Lyman slipped a bank note between +his fingers and without saying a word went up stairs. At breakfast the +next morning, which was the day of the reunion of the gallant home +guard, old Jasper was full of life and hope, but that night when Lyman +came home, he found him leaning on the gate, unable to find the latch. +"I'm all right," he said. + +"I believe you are," Lyman replied. + +"Am, for a fact. I promised to come in good shape. Here, all right." + +Lyman managed to get him to bed without disturbing anyone, but later +at night he heard the women lashing him with their tongues. He knew +that there was justice in the lashing and he dreaded lest they should +cut at him for abetting the crime, but they did not, for at breakfast +they smiled at him, doubtless not having discovered his complicity. +The old man was heart-sick. "I want to see you," he said to Lyman, and +leading him into the sitting-room, continued: "I have said it before, +I know, but I want to say it now once for all that I'll never touch +another drop as long as I live. Why, confound my old hide, don't I +know exactly what it will do for me; and do you think I'll +deliberately make a brute of myself? I won't, that's all. It's all +right to bring the past back, that is, for a man who can do it, but it +isn't for me, I tell you that. And I don't want to see those home +guards any more. Why, if they had taken my advice, do you suppose they +would have surrendered without firing a gun? They wouldn't. I argued +with them and swore at them, but they stacked their guns; and then +what could I do but surrender? That's neither here nor there, +though--I'm never goin' to drink another drop. Oh, I've said it +before--I know that, but it sticks, this time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THERE CAME A CHECK. + + +Lyman's book met with a favor that no one had ventured to forecast. It +did not touch the public's fad-nerve; it was too close to the soil for +that. It was so simple, with an art so sly, with a humor that, like an +essence, so quietly stole the senses, that the reviewers did not arise +in resentment against it. They had expected nothing and were surprised +to find much. Worn out with heavy volumes from the pens of the learned +and the pretentious, they seemed to find in this little book a rest, a +refuge for reverie, cooled with running water and sheltered by leaves +from the burning sun. And at night, when the author lay down to rest +and to muse upon himself, his heart did not beat with the exultant +throb of victory--it was full of a melancholy gratitude. One morning a +letter startled him. It came from a great periodical and enclosed a +check in payment for a serial story. It represented more money than he +had ever hoped to possess; he called Warren, and handed him the piece +of paper. + +"I can hardly trust my eyes," he said. "What do you make of it?" + +Warren flew into a fit of enthusiasm. "Five thousand dollars," he +cried. "And it comes from the advertising the newspapers have been +giving you. I want to tell you that advertising pays. Five thousand +dollars, and it didn't take you more than six months to write the +thing. Those fellows don't know whether it's good or not. All they +know is that the newspapers have given your other story a send-off. +Talk about newspapers; the first thing you know we'll have money +enough to paper the town. But this is all yours. No matter, I'm as +much interested as if it were mine. Say, let me have this check a +minute. I want to go across the street and show it to a fellow and +tell him to go to--He spoke of this office one day as Poverty's Nest. +Let me take it over there." + +"No," said Lyman, laughing, "but I'll tell you what you may do with +it--take it over to the bank and deposit it in my name." + +"But you'll have to come along and leave your signature." + +"Is that the way they do? All right; but I don't want to see McElwin." + +"That won't be necessary. But don't you think we'd better carry the +check around town awhile before depositing it?" + +"No, that would be silly." + +"Silly! It would be business. You let me have it and I'll rake in +fifty subscriptions before three o'clock. It's business." + +"No, we'll go over and deposit it." + +They went over to the bank, laughing like boys as they crossed the +street. McElwin had not come down. The ceremony was conducted by the +cashier, a humdrum performance to him, but to Lyman and Warren one of +marked impressiveness. They returned to the office with the air of +capitalists. At the threshold of the "sanctum" they met a man who +wanted to subscribe for the paper. Warren took his name and his money, +and when he was gone, turned to Lyman with a smile. "It has begun to +work already. The news of the deposit has flashed around town and they +are coming in for recognition. Oh, we're all right. Do you remember +those cigars you brought from the moonlight picnic? I believe I'll go +out and get some just like them. Why, helloa, here is our old friend." + +Uncle Buckley was standing at the door. Lyman jumped up and seized the +old fellow by the hand and led him to a chair. "Look out, Sammy," he +said with an air of caution. "Don't shake me or you'll make me spill +the things Mother has stuffed me with. These here are harvest apples," +he went on, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his brown jeans +coat and drawing forth yellow apples. "I'll jest put them here on the +table. And here is an Indian peach or two, the earliest ones I ever +saw. And look at this, a pone of cracklin' bread. Think of that, this +time of year. The fact is we killed a shote the other day. Mother +'lowed you couldn't git any sich bread in town and a feller has to +have somethin' to eat once in awhile. Now, I do wonder what this here +is," he added, tugging at his pocket. "Well, if it ain't the thighs and +the pully-bone of a fried chicken, I'm the biggest liar that ever +walked a log. Oh, I'm full up. She got up before day, mother did, and +stuffed me for an hour or more. Blamed if a peart youngster didn't +yell, 'Hi, there, sausage,' as I come in town. Now, I'm blowed if I +know what this is. Yes, sir, it's a pair of socks, knit under the +light of a tallow candle without the drappin' of a stitch. Oh, it +ain't no laughin' matter, boys; there ain't no fun in gettin' up at +four o'clock of a mornin' to be stuffed, I tell you. Well, I reckon +I'm reasonably empty now." He leaned back and looked at his cargo, +arrayed upon the table. + +"I'll hire a wagon and have these things taken over to the house," +said Lyman. "You tell her, bless her old heart, that I'm coming out +there pretty soon with enough stuff to smother both of you. Warren, +get those cigars." + +"Sure. Is there anything else we want? Uncle Buckley, don't you want +something to drink?" + +"Well, if you've got some right good buttermilk handy I mout take a +glass. But I don't want no licker, young man. I never touched it but +once, and then I swapped a fine young mare for an old mule, and I +swore then that I'd never tech it again. Go on and get your segyars +and I'll make a shift of burnin' one of 'em." + +Warren went out. Lyman feasted his eyes on the old man. "How are they +all, Uncle Buckley?" + +"Jest about the same. Jimmy killed the biggest black snake yistidy--I +think it was yistidy. Let me see. I know in reason it was yistidy, for +I was a splittin' some wood when he fotch the thing along, draggin' it +by the tail. Though that mout have been day before yistidy. I believe +it was day before yistidy. Anyhow it was the biggist black snake ever +killed out there since the war, but of course in my day they killed +bigger ones. He found him out in a blackberry patch and mauled him to +death. Oh, he was a snorter. That's about the biggest piece of news +I've got. Let me see. Lige met a pole-cat somewhere in the woods and +socity ain't been hankering after Lige since then. I seen him this +mornin' as I was comin' in, and I yelled at him to keep his distance, +and he did or I would have hit him. Yes, sir, I can't stand a +pole-cat. You ricollect Mab Basey, I reckon. She run away with a +feller that come to help cut wheat and they ain't seen her sense. Oh, +he married her and all that, but they don't know where she is. Luke +Brizentine didn't git over it." + +"What, Mab's running away?" + +"Oh, no, not that. Didn't I tell you? Why, Jeff Sarver filled him so +full of shot that his hide looked like a nutmeg grater. Yes, sir. They +got into a difficulty over a steer that had been jumpin' into a field, +and he tried to stab Jeff and Jeff shot him. Made a good deal of a +stir at the time and Luke didn't live but two days, but how he could +live that long was more than we could see, and it caused a good deal +of surprise. Now, wait a minit. It was day before yistidy that Jimmy +killed the snake. Sammy, where is that man that was your partner?" + +"He has an office on the other side of the square." + +"Yes, but are you sure, Sammy, that he ain't your partner?" + +"Absolutely certain, Uncle Buckley." + +The old man scratched his head. "Sammy, that man ain't honest." + +"I am quite sure of that." + +"He has fotch it home to me that he ain't, Sammy. But I don't know +that I ought to tell you about it; I reckon I ought to let it go. And +still, it wouldn't be treatin' you exactly right. He is a forger, +Sammy. Look at this." + +He had taken out a pocket-book and from about it was unwinding a +string, and when the string came off, he took out a piece of paper and +handed it to Lyman. It was a note for one hundred dollars and appended +were the names of John Caruthers and Samuel Lyman. + +"Understand, Sammy, that I don't want you to pay it; I simply want you +to know that the feller has used your name wrong." + +"It is a forgery," said Lyman. + +"Yes, that's what I have been believing for some time past, but I +didn't say anything about it to mother. When you went out that day he +comes to me and says, 'We must have a hundred dollars and though we +don't like to do it we have to appeal to you. Lyman says that he +hasn't the heart to ask, so he has put it off on me.' And so, I +snatches out my wallet and lets him have the money. But I don't ask +you to pay it, Sammy." + +"Why, my dear old friend, do you suppose I would let you lose it? I +can pay it without a flinch; more than that, if you are in need of +money, I can let you have five times as much." He tucked the note into +his pocket and took up his check-book. + +"Why, Sammy, I don't know whuther to laugh or to cry or to holler when +you talk like that. But I don't need no money, and especially none +that you have raked together." + +"But you must take this," said Lyman, handing him a check. "It's the +first check I ever made out," he added, laughing. + +"Then you ain't been rich very long, Sammy," said the old man, taking +the piece of paper. "But you've writ this in jest like you are used to +it. You can't write as well, however, as Blake Peel. I reckon he's the +finest writer in this country. Why, he can make a bird with a pen, and +it looks like it's jest ready to fly--he's teached writin' school all +up and down the creek, and I reckon he's the best. But I'm sorry about +this thing, and I don't feel like takin' it." + +"You've got to take it." + +"Then I must. But you know where it is any time you want it," he said, +putting the check into his pocket. "And now, Sammy, what are you going +to do with that feller? The note wasn't signed as a firm, but your +names was put on individual, and as you didn't write your name he +forged it. What are you goin' to do with him?" + +"I don't know. Here comes Warren. Don't say anything more about it +now." + +Warren came in. "Uncle Buckley," said he, "here is a cigar that will +make you forget your woes." + +"Thank you, my son. I don't believe I've got time to smoke jest now. +I'll take this thing home and crumble it up and mother and I will +smoke it in our pipes." + +Warren staggered. "Gracious alive, don't do that!" he cried. + +"All right, my son, I'll set out on a stump and burn it in the +moonlight, a thinkin' of you and Sammy. Well, I must be movin'. +Good-bye, all han's, and ricollect that my latch-string hangs on the +outside." + +They shook hands affectionately, and then sat in silence, listening to +his footsteps as he trod slowly down the stairs. + +"Why don't you light your cigar?" Warren asked. + +"I don't care to smoke just now," Lyman answered. "I have some +business on the other side of the square." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +LAUGHED AT HIS WEAKNESS. + + +Lyman walked slowly across the public square. The lawyers, the clerks, +the tradesmen, who had become acquainted with his habits were wont to +say, as they saw him strolling about, "There he goes, blind as a bat, +with a story in his head." And they commented upon him now, but they +could see that he was not in a dreaming mood, for his head was high +and his heels fell hard upon the ground. At the edge of the sidewalk +he halted for a moment, and his eye ran along the signs over the +doors. Then he stepped up to an open door and entered without pausing +at the threshold. Caruthers was sitting with his face toward the door. +He flushed as Lyman entered, took his feet off the corner of the table +and straightened himself back in his chair. Lyman stepped up to the +table and without a word, stood there looking at him. + +"Well, you have come at last," said Caruthers, "I have been sitting +here day after day, waiting for you." + +"You expected me," said Lyman. + +"Yes, as I say I have been waiting for you day after day. But where is +the constable? You didn't bring him along." + +Lyman took out the note. "The fog that settled between us," said he. + +Caruthers nodded. + +"I would have come sooner," said Lyman, "but the fog was not defined +until a few moments ago." + +"And I suppose your plan is to send me to the penitentiary. Tell me +what you intend to do--don't stand there looking at me that way. Give +a man a chance to defend his honor." + +"Honor," Lyman repeated, with a cold smile. "You haven't as much honor +as a hyena." + +"Well, then, let me say name." + +"You can say name. A snake has a name. And you want a chance to defend +yours." + +"Mr. Lyman, I really have no defense--I'm done up. I needed money and +I put your name to that note, and if you want to disgrace my family, +why you can send me to the penitentiary. I have suffered over it, day +and night, and I am going to make the amount good if I live long +enough. You can take everything I've got in here. But I suppose you +would rather send me to the penitentiary." + +Lyman sat down. "When I left my office," said he, "I was angry enough +to kill you, but now you appear so contemptible that I am sorry for +you." + +"And I feel as contemptible as I look." + +"I don't think that is quite possible. If you felt as contemptible as +you look you'd blow your brains out." He got up and stood looking at +Caruthers. He put his hand to his forehead as if a troublesome thought +were passing through his mind. "Now that I am here I don't know what +to do," said he. "I know that you ought to be punished, but my old +weakness comes upon me and I falter." Caruthers brightened and Lyman +looked like an abashed criminal. + +"Lyman," said Caruthers, "if you have any mercy left, let me throw +myself upon it. I know that there ought to be an end to your +forgiveness, but why should you draw the line at me?" + +"I am a fool," said Lyman, "and it makes me blush to know that I can't +hide it from you. But you are so contemptible that I haven't the heart +to punish you." + +He tore the note into bits and turned toward the door, with his head +hung low. He thought that he heard something and looking back he +caught Caruthers laughing at him. His head went up; a strange light +drove the gentleness out of his eyes. + +"Ah, you laugh at my weakness. A moment ago I didn't know what to do. +Now I know." + +He sprang at Caruthers and seized him by the collar--he shoved him +back and struck him in the mouth--he jerked him to his knees, threw +him upon the floor and kicked him. The cries of the wretch brought a +crowd to the door. A constable rushed in. "Get away," Lyman commanded. +"He belongs to me." + +"But you don't want to kill him," the officer replied. "Look, you have +knocked his teeth out." + +"So I have. Well, you may have him now." + +Warren sat in the office, smoking. "Why, what's the matter?" he asked, +as Lyman entered. "I'll bet you've got another piece of news to +suppress." + +"No, I haven't--we'll give it two columns. I knocked Brother +Caruthers' teeth out and I'm glad of it." + +"Good!" Warren cried. And then he called the office boy. "Tom, wet +down two hundred extra copies for the next edition. Oh, Samuel, you +are coming on first rate. What did he do?" + +"He laughed at my weakness." + +"Glad of it. Oh, we are prospering. Make a piece of news out of it, +and don't think about yourself. Write it in the third. Talk +about hard times when things come this way! Why, the world is on a +keen jump. Hold on a moment. Here comes Nancy's dad." + +Old man Pitt came walking carefully into the room, looking about to +avoid upsetting anything. He shook hands with Lyman and Warren, looked +for a place to spit, did not find it and spat on the floor. "I seen +your little rumpus over yonder jest now," said he, "and it was +powerful entertainin'. You snatched that feller about like he wa'n't +nothin' more than a feather pillow. And I'm glad of it, for if there +ever was a scoundrel on the face of the earth he's the man. I drapped +in town today to see if there was any news goin' on, an' I bucked up +agin it the first off-start. That's what I call keepin' things lively. +Mr. Warren, our cousin Jerry was over at the house last night." + +"The deuce you say!" Warren exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir, last night; and he apologized for havin' been a leetle +slow. He 'lowed that it had been in his mind all along to marry +Nancy--" + +"I'll shoot the top of his head off!" Warren broke in. + +"No need of that, my son. I told him that we was much obleeged for his +deliberation as the feller says, but that he was too late; and Nancy +she up and tells him that she never had thought of marryin' him, and +that she wouldn't have had him if he had asked her three years ago. +And then she 'lowed that she loved you--" + +"Talk about women!" Warren cried. "There's one for your life. And say, +I'll be out there tomorrow morning at eight o'clock and the ceremony +will be performed at half past eight. Just hold on, now, there's no +use in arguing with me. She was born to you, but, by George, she was +born for me, and that's all there is to it." + +"Young feller," said Mr. Pitt, "the day for me to buck agin you is +past. I don't mind markin' yearlin' calves and I don't hold off when +it comes to breakin' up a hornet's nest, but I stand ready and +willin' to fling up my hands when it comes to pullin' agin you. I have +been kept busy many a time in my life; I have been woke up at mornin' +and kept on the stretch pretty nigh till midnight, but you can come +nearer occupyin' all my time and the time of all my folks than any +article I ever come up against. I give in and so do the rest of them. +You can jump on a hoss and ride right out there and marry her before I +can git home if you want to." + +The old fellow bowed his head as if he were exhausted with the strain +of a long fight. Lyman sputtered with laughter, and Warren, his eyes +shedding the light of victory, thus addressed the old man: "I am glad +that you have at last given your consent, and I want to tell you that +you shall never regret it." + +"That's all right, young feller. I never squeal when a man outwinds +me, and I am as much out-winded now as if I'd been wrasselin' with a +bear. Nancy saw how the fight was goin', her and her mother, and for +the past week or so they have been makin' clothes fitten to kill +themselves, and if Nancy ain't got enough yet, why, I'll jest tell her +to put on all she's got ready and let it rip at that. Well, I'm goin' +now. I expect mebby, young feller, you'll beat me home and be married +agin I git there, but I've got nothin' to say. I know when I'm winded. +Good day." + +They shook hands with him, and when he was gone Warren said: "Well, +things are settling down on a fair sort of a basis. I like that old +man, Lyman, and I don't believe I'll rush him; believe I'll give them +more time to get things ready. I could go out there tonight, but I'll +wait till tomorrow morning and let the ceremony be performed at eight +o'clock. I'll get up about five and pick up a preacher on the way. +He's a poor fellow and needs the job." + +"Good!" Lyman cried. "I am really glad that you have decided not to +push the old man." + +"Yes, I think it best to give him and the girl plenty of time. Don't +you?" + +"I rather think so. They ought at least to have time enough to wash +their faces and comb their hair. But to tell you the truth I don't +relish the idea of getting up so early." + +"You don't? Why, you've got nothing to do with it. Did you think I was +going to let you go? Not much. You'd guy me and that would turn the +whole thing into a farce. It's a fact that I don't want you; I may be +peculiar, but I can't help it. I tell you what you must do: We'll be +in town day after tomorrow night and I want you to come down to the +house and take supper with us." + +"I'll be there." + +"But you mus'n't guy Nancy. She'll be scared anyway." + +"I won't guy her. I shall feel more disposed to pronounce a +benediction." + +"I'm glad you feel that way though we don't want the occasion to be +solemn. Where are you going?" + +"Over to old Jasper's to imprison myself in my room. I want to think." + + * * * * * + +While Lyman was busy with Caruthers, Eva was tripping along a +grass-grown street. She and her mother had just returned. The social +relationship between the banker's daughter and the daughter of old +Jasper Staggs had not been close; Eva's visits had always been a +surprise. And on this day when Annie saw her coming, she got up in a +flutter to meet her at the door. + +"Why, how do you do?" Annie cried, catching her hand. "I am delighted +to see you. When did you get home? We didn't hear that you had come +back." + +"We returned not more than an hour ago." + +"Come in and put your things off." + +"I haven't time to stay but a few moments. Is your mother well?" + +"Yes, very well. I will call her." + +"Oh, no, I'm going to remain so short a time. I was out walking and I +thought I'd stop for a moment. Is your father well?" + +"Yes, as well as usual. I don't know where he is--out in the garden, I +suppose." + +"Is Mr. Lyman here yet?" + +"You mean is he still in town? Oh, yes, and he boards here, but I +suppose he's at his office." + +"Somebody told me that he was thinking of leaving town." + +"That may be, but he hasn't gone yet." + +"Does he do most of his work here?" + +"Yes, all but the work for the paper." + +"Would you mind showing me the room where he does his work? I'd like +so much to see it." + +"With pleasure, I'm sure." + +She led Eva to the room above. The young woman stood with her hands +clasped, looking at the bare walls--she looked at the chair, at every +article of meager furniture. She went to the desk and took up a pen. +"Is this the pen he writes with?" she asked. + +"Yes, I think so. Did you wish to write something?" + +"Oh, no," she answered, holding the pen. "And is that where he walks +up and down while he's thinking?" she asked, pointing to a thread-bare +pathway in the rag carpet. + +"It must be," Annie answered. "We hear him walking a good deal and he +always seems to be walking up and down in the same place." + +Eva put down the pen and turned to go. Annie looked at her narrowly. +They went down stairs and Eva did not halt until she had reached the +door. "Won't you sit down?" + +"Oh, no, thank you. I must be getting back. You must come over to see +us. Good-bye." + +Annie went out to the dining-room where her mother was ironing. "Eva +has just been here," she said. "All she wanted was to go into the room +where Mr. Lyman does his work. She's dead in love with him and he's +blind as a bat not to see it. I don't believe he wrote the book--I +don't believe he could write anything." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE PETITION. + + +Lyman did not sleep much that night. Annie, cautioned by her discreet +mother not to say too much, had simply told him that Eva had called +and asked about him. But that was enough to keep him awake nearly all +night; and long before the table was set, the next morning, they heard +him walking slowly up and down the pathway worn in the carpet. In the +office he sat musing. The boy came in to tell him that at five o'clock +he had helped Warren on the road to be married, and that he had left +strict instructions that Lyman should be told not to forget the supper +at the cottage. The boy went out and Lyman stood at the window, +looking across at the bank. Presently he saw McElwin bow with dignity +to a man whom he met in front of the door and then enter the place. +The boy came in again and holding out a piece of "copy" written badly, +asked him to read the first line. It was a notice of the meeting of +the Chancery court. The boy returned to his work and Lyman continued +to gaze at the bank. Suddenly a smile, not altogether soft, but half +cynical, lighted up his face; and at the same instant he reached for +his hat. Straightway he went to the bank and sent his name into the +private office. McElwin came to the door. + +"Why, come in, Mr. Lyman," he said cordially, extending his hand. +Lyman shook hands with him and entered the room. The great clock began +to strike. McElwin looked up at it and then said: "Have a seat, +please." + +Lyman sat down. McElwin did not permit the silence to become +embarrassing. "Mr. Sawyer told me all about it, sir; he kept nothing +back, although he must have seen that I could not help honoring you. +Mr. Lyman, you have taught us all a lesson, sir, and I am more than +pleased to see that you are prospering. It is more than likely," he +went on, crossing his legs, "that you may soon seek some sort of +investment for your money. Idle money, sir, is like an idle mind--a +mischief to the community; and if you should desire to invest--" + +"I can't afford to engage in trade," Lyman broke in. "Of course," he +added, "trade is a good thing in its way, a sort of necessity, but +the English have the right idea of it, after all--drawing a +distinction between the tradesman and the gentleman. I remember a +remark old Sam Johnson made concerning a fellow who had grown rich +enough to stop buying and selling--'he had lost the servility of the +tradesman without having acquired the manners of a gentleman.'" + +McElwin bit his lip. "I didn't mean any offense," he said. + +"Oh, surely not, and I have taken none. By the way, Mr. McElwin, +Chancery court will meet next Monday." + +"Ah! I had quite forgotten it. Time does fly, sir." + +"Yes, and circumstances change, and men bow to circumstances." + +"You are quite right, Mr. Lyman. And that reminds me that I have been +forced through a change concerning Mr. Sawyer. I honor him on some +grounds, you understand, but his confession of drunkenness shocked me +greatly. In fact, sir, I am glad he did not marry my daughter." + +"When I spoke of the meeting of the court," said Lyman, pretending to +have paid no attention to McElwin's remark concerning Sawyer, "I +wished to remind you of the petition for divorce." + +"Yes, quite right," McElwin replied, uncrossing his legs and putting +out his hand as if unconsciously feeling for his dignity, to pull it +back to him. + +"Is the paper which your daughter signed here or at your home?" + +"At home, I think; yes, I am quite sure of it." + +"Then would you mind walking up there with me so that I may sign it?" + +"Why--er, not at all, sir, but we have plenty of time." + +"No," Lyman insisted, "it is better to have it over with; and I ask +your pardon for not having signed it sooner." + +The banker got up, took down his hat, brushed it with the sleeve of +his coat and announced his readiness to go. Together they walked out. +Lyman assumed an unwonted gaiety. He commented humorously upon the +tradesmen standing in their doors. The banker strove to laugh, but his +heart was not in the effort. "Yes, sir," said he, "things change and +women change, too. And I may make bold to say that my daughter--and my +wife, sir--are not exceptions to the--er, rule." + +"I don't quite understand," said Lyman. + +"I mean, sir, that what at one time might have been distasteful may +have become a--er--matter of endearment, you understand." + +"I don't know that I do," the cruel tormenter replied. + +"A woman's nature is a peculiar thing--a romantic thing, I might +almost say. My daughter is strangely influenced by romance, sir. And +her peculiar relationship to--ahem--yourself, I might say--" + +"You mean that outrageous affair at old Jasper's house," Lyman broke +in. + +"Well, the odd--you understand--marriage. Yes, it has made quite a +different person of her, I might say. Really, I was in hopes--it came +upon me latterly, you observe, or I mean you understand--that we might +come to some adjustment--" + +"We will," Lyman interrupted. "I am more than willing to sign the +petition." + +"You are very kind, and I thank you--yes, very considerate--but my +daughter has changed greatly since then, and I have lately indulged a +hope together with my wife that we might throw open our home to +you--ahem--you understand." + +"We can settle it today," said Lyman. "I believe you told me once that +I ought to go away, or sent some word of that sort, I don't remember +which, and I am now ready to take your advice." + +The banker sighed, and they walked along in silence until they came to +the gate of Eva's home. + +"Walk in," said McElwin. + +They stepped upon the veranda and Lyman saw Eva sitting in the parlor. +She came running to meet him, forgetful of everything--came running +with her hands held out. + +"He has come to sign the petition," said the banker in a dry voice. +"Where is your mother?" + +She drew back. "In the garden I think," she answered. + +"I will go after her," said McElwin. + +He walked away, heavy of foot. Eva turned to Lyman and asked him to +sit down. He did so, and she remained standing. It reminded him of the +night when they had met at the lantern picnic, only their position now +were reversed, for then he had remained standing while she sat +looking up at him. He took up a volume of Tennyson and opened it, and +between the pages in front of him lay a faded clover bloom. + +"A memory?" he asked, looking at her. + +"Yes, a beautiful memory. Some one plucked it, threw it up and it fell +in my lap--one day at the creek." + +He looked at her searchingly. They heard McElwin in the garden calling +his wife, "Lucy, oh, Lucy. Where are you?" + +"Eva, I have not been honorable with you--I have held you not as a +protector--I have held you selfishly--I love you." + +"Lucy, where are you?" the banker called. + +"I have not dared to hope that you could love me--I'm old and ugly. +But I worshipped you and I can not set you free. I told your father +that I would come to sign the paper, and I spoke sarcastically to him, +but I will beg his pardon, for I honor him." + +"Lucy, come here, quick!" the banker shouted in the garden. + +"You did not think I could love you," she said, looking at him +frankly, her eyes full of surprise and happiness; "you did not know +me. I told my mother that with you life would be joyous in a shanty. +Oh, my husband." + +He got up quietly, the tears streaming down his face--he held out his +arms. + + * * * * * + +"Lucy, he has come to sign the paper." + +They were standing in the garden walk. She was almost breathless, +having run to meet him. "Oh, he must not," she said. "It will kill +her." + +"He is going to sign it and we must be brave. Wait here till I fetch +it," he said when they reached the rear veranda. She waited, tearful, +trembling. He came with the paper and they stepped into the parlor. +Lyman stood with his back toward them, his arms about Eva, her face +hidden in his bosom. Mrs. McElwin held up her hands and then bowed her +head with a whispered, "Thank God." The banker stood there, quickly, +but without noise, tearing the paper into bits. His wife held her arms +out toward him. He opened his hand and the bits of paper fluttered to +the floor. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD EBENEZER*** + + +******* This file should be named 23215.txt or 23215.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23215 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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