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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old Ebenezer, by Opie Read
+
+
+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 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
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+      or
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+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
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