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diff --git a/43994-0.txt b/43994-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aab9bfc --- /dev/null +++ b/43994-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9245 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43994 *** + +_CALEB WRIGHT_ + + + + +_CALEB WRIGHT_ + +_A STORY OF THE WEST_ + + _BY + JOHN HABBERTON_ + + _Author of_ + + _"HELEN'S BABIES" + "THE JERICHO ROAD" + ETC._ + + + _BOSTON + LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY_ + + + + + _COPYRIGHT, + 1901, BY + LOTHROP + PUBLISHING + COMPANY._ + + _ALL RIGHTS + RESERVED_ + + _ENTERED AT + STATIONERS' + HALL_ + + _Norwood Press + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood, Mass._ + + + + +_CONTENTS_ + + + _Chapter_ _Page_ + _I._ _Their Fortune_ 11 + _II._ _Taking Possession_ 25 + _III._ _Introduced_ 40 + _IV._ _Home-making_ 54 + _V._ _Business Ways_ 71 + _VI._ _The Unexpected_ 94 + _VII._ _An Active Partner_ 108 + _VIII._ _The Pork-house_ 124 + _IX._ _A Western Spectre_ 137 + _X._ _She wanted to know_ 150 + _XI._ _Caleb's Newest Project_ 163 + _XII._ _Deferred Hopes_ 177 + _XIII._ _Farmers' Ways_ 194 + _XIV._ _Fun with a Camera_ 211 + _XV._ _Cause and Effect_ 224 + _XVI._ _Decoration Day_ 242 + _XVII._ _Foreign Invasion_ 263 + _XVIII._ _The Tabby Party_ 281 + _XIX._ _Days in the Store_ 299 + _XX._ _Profit and Loss_ 316 + _XXI._ _Cupid and Corn-meal_ 332 + _XXII._ _Some Ways of the West_ 348 + _XXIII._ _After the Storm_ 366 + _XXIV._ _How it came about_ 381 + _XXV._ _Looking Ahead_ 406 + _XXVI._ _The Railway_ 428 + _XXVII._ _Conclusion_ 444 + + + + +_CALEB WRIGHT_ + + + + +I--THEIR FORTUNE + + +ALL people who have more taste than money are as one in the conviction +that people with less money than taste suffer more keenly day by day, +week by week, year by year, than any other class of human beings. + +Of this kind of sufferer was Philip Somerton, a young man who had +strayed from a far-western country town to New York to develop his +individuality and make his fortune, but especially to enjoy the +facilities which a great city offers (as every one knows, except the +impecunious persons who have tried it) to all whose hearts hunger for +whatever is beautiful, refining, and also enjoyable. + +To some extent Philip had succeeded, for he quickly adapted himself to +his new surroundings; and as he was intelligent, industrious, and of +good habits, he soon secured a clerkship which enabled him to pay for +food, shelter, and clothing, and still have money enough for occasional +books and music and theatre tickets, and to purchase a few articles +of a class over which the art editor of Philip's favorite morning +newspaper raved delightfully by the column. Several years later he +was still more fortunate; for he met Grace Brymme, a handsome young +woman who had quite as much intelligence and taste as he, and who, +like Philip, had been reared in a country town. That in New York she +was a saleswoman in a great shop called a "department store" was not +in the least to her discredit; for she was an orphan, and poor, and +with too much respect to allow herself to be supported by relatives as +poor as she, or to be "married off" for the sole purpose of securing +a home. When Philip declared his love and blamed himself for having +formed so strong an attachment before he had become financially able +to support a wife in the style to which his sweetheart's refinement +and cleverness entitled her, the young woman, who was quite as deep in +love as he, replied that in so large a city no one knew the affairs +of inconspicuous people, so there was no reason why they should not +marry, and she retain her business position and salary under the only +name by which her employers and business associates would know her, and +together they would earn a modest competence against the glorious by +and by. + +So they married, and told only their relatives, none of whom was in New +York, and out of business hours the couple occupied a small apartment +and a large section of Paradise, and together they enjoyed plays and +concerts and pictures and books and bric-à-brac as they had never +imagined possible when they were single; and when there was nothing +special in the outer world to hold their attention they enjoyed each +other as only warm-hearted and adaptive married people can. + +But marriage has no end of unforeseen mysteries for people who really +love each other, and some of these obtruded themselves unexpectedly +upon Philip and Grace, and gave the young people some serious moments, +hours, and days. At first these disturbers were repelled temporarily +by gales of kisses and caresses, but afterwards Grace's warm brown eyes +would look deeper than they habitually were, and Philip would feel as +if he had lost the power of speech. It was merely that each wished to +be more and do more for the sake of the other. Philip knew that Grace +was the sweetest, handsomest, cleverest, noblest woman in the world, +and that the world at large had the right to know it. Grace thought +Philip competent to illumine any social circle, and to become a leader +among men; but how was the world to know of it while he and she were +compelled to remain buried alive in a city in which no one knew his +next-door neighbor except by sight? In her native village deserving +young men frequently became partners of their employers, but Philip +assured her that in New York no such recognition could be expected. The +best he could hope for was to retain his position, be slowly promoted, +and some day rank with the highest clerks. + +One evening Philip, who ordinarily reached home later than his wife, +stood in the door of the apartment when Grace appeared. He quieted the +young woman with a rapturous smile, and said, with much lover-like +punctuation:-- + +"All of our troubles are ended, dear girl. We can live as we wish, +and buy everything we wish. To-night--at once, if you like--we can +afford to tell the whole world that we are no longer a mere clerk and a +saleswoman." + +Grace at once looked more radiant than her husband had ever seen her; +she exclaimed:-- + +"Oh, Phil! Tell me all about it! Quick!" + +"I will, my dear, if you'll loosen your arms--or one of them--for a +moment, so that I can get my hand into my pocket. I've inherited old +Uncle Jethro's property. I don't know how much it amounts to, but +he was a well-to-do country merchant, and here's a single check, on +account, for a thousand dollars." + +"Phil!" exclaimed Grace, placing her hands on her husband's face and +pushing it gently backward, while her cheeks glowed, and her lips +parted, and her eyes seemed to melt. + +"That makes me far happier than I was," said Phil, "though I didn't +suppose that could be possible. Your face is outdoing itself. I didn't +suppose money could make so great a difference in it." + +"'Tisn't the money," Grace replied slowly, "and yet, I suppose it is. +But we won't reason about it now. We can do what we most wish--tell the +world that we're married; for that, I'd gladly have become a beggar. +But do tell me all about it." + +Philip placed his wife in an easy chair, took a letter from his pocket, +and said:-- + +"I suppose this will explain all more quickly than I could tell it. +'Tis a lawyer's letter. Listen:-- + + "'PHILIP SOMERTON, ESQ.,-- + + "'DEAR SIR: We are charged to inform you that your + uncle, Jethro Somerton, died a few days ago, and made + you the sole beneficiary of his will, on condition that + you at once proceed to Claybanks, and assume charge of + the general store and other business interests that + were his, and that you provide for his clerk, Caleb + Wright, for the remainder of said Wright's natural + life, and to the satisfaction of the said Wright. In + the event of any of these stipulations not being met, + the entire property is to be divided among several + (specified) benevolent associations, subject to a life + annuity to Caleb Wright, and you are to retire from the + business without taking any of the proceeds. + + "'By the terms of the will we are instructed, (through + your late uncle's local attorney) to send you the + enclosed check for One Thousand ($1000) Dollars, to + provide for the expenses of your trip to Claybanks, and + to enable you to procure such things as you may wish to + take with you, the Claybanks stores not being stocked + with a view to the trade of city people; but our bank + will defer payment of the same until we are in receipt + of enclosed acknowledgment, duly signed before a notary + public, of your acceptance under the terms of your + uncle's will, a copy of which we enclose. + + "'Yours truly, + "'TRACE & STUBB, + + "'_For counsel of Jethro Somerton, deceased_.'" + +"How strange!" murmured Grace, who seemed to be in a brown study. + +"Is that all it is?" asked Phil. + +"No, you silly dear; you know it isn't. But you've scarcely ever +mentioned your uncle to me; now it appears that you must have been very +dear to him. I can't understand it." + +"Can't, eh? That's somewhat uncomplimentary to me. I suppose the truth +is that Uncle Jethro couldn't think of any one else to leave his money +to; for he was a widower and childless. My dear dead-and-gone father +was his only brother, and he had no sisters, so I'm the only remaining +male member of the family." + +"But what sort of man was he? Do tell me something about him." + +"I wish I knew a lot of pleasant things to tell, but I know little +of him except what I heard when I was a boy. Father, in whom +family affection was very strong, loved him dearly, yet used to be +greatly provoked by him at times; for uncle's only thought was of +money--perhaps because he had nothing else to think of, and he wrote +advice persistently, with the manner of an elder brother--a man whose +advice should be taken as a command. When I started East I stopped +off and tramped three miles across country to call on him, for the +letter he wrote us when father died was a masterpiece of affection and +appreciation. I had never seen him, and I'm ashamed to say, after what +has just occurred, that after our first interview I had no desire to +see him again. His greeting was fervent only in curiosity; he studied +my face as if I were a possible customer who might not be entirely +trustworthy. Then he made haste to tell me, with many details, that he +was the principal merchant and business man in the county, where he +had started thirty years before, with no capital but his muscles and +wits. He intimated that if I cared to remain with him a few months on +trial, and succeeded in impressing him favorably, I might in time earn +an interest in his business; but I thought I had seen enough of country +stores and country ways to last me for life; so I made the excuse +that as my parents were dead and my sisters married, I felt justified +in going to New York to continue my studies. When he asked me what I +was studying, I was obliged to reply, 'Literature and art,' at which +statement he sneered--I may say truthfully that he snorted--and at once +became cooler than before; so I improved my first opportunity, between +customers' visits, to say that it was time for me to be starting back +to the railway station. In justice to myself, however, as well as +to him, I could not start without telling him how greatly his letter +about my father had affected me. For a moment he was silent: he looked +thoughtful, and as tender, I suppose, as a burly, hard-natured man +could look; then he said:-- + +"'Your father was one of the very elect, but--' + +"I quickly interrupted with, 'I'm not very religious, but I won't +listen to a word of criticism of one of the elect--least of all, of my +father. Good by, uncle.' He made haste to say that the only two men +of the Somerton family shouldn't part in anger; and when he learned +that I had walked three miles through the darkness and November mud, +and intended to walk back to the station, he told a man who seemed +to be his clerk,--Caleb Wright, evidently the man mentioned in this +extraordinary letter,--to get out some sort of conveyance and drive me +over. While Caleb was at the stables, my uncle questioned me closely as +to my capital and business prospects. I was not going to be outdone in +personal pride, so I replied that, except for some mining stocks which +some one had imposed upon my father, and were down to two cents per +share, I'd exactly what he had told me he began with,--muscle and wits. +He saw that I had no overcoat,--boys and young men in our part of the +country seldom had them,--so he pressed one upon me, and when I tried +to decline it, he said, 'For my dead brother's sake,' which broke me +down. When I reached the train, I found in the overcoat pockets some +handkerchiefs, gloves, hosiery, neckwear, and several kinds of patent +medicines, which evidently he thought trustworthy; there was also a +portemonnaie containing a few small notes and some coin. I wrote, +thanking him, as soon as I found employment; but he never answered +my letter, so I was obliged to assume that he had repented of his +generosity and wished no further communication with me." + +"How strange! But the man--Caleb--who drove you to the station, and who +seems to be a life pensioner on the estate, and is to be dependent upon +us,--how did he impress you?" + +"I scarcely remember him, except as a small man with a small +face, small beard, a small gentle voice, and pleasanter eyes than +country clerks usually have. I remember that his manner seemed very +kindly,--after my experience with my uncle's,--and he said a clever +or quaint thing once in a while, as any other countryman might have +done. For the rest, he is a Civil War veteran, and about forty years of +age--perhaps less, for beards make men look older than they are." + +"And the town with the odd name--Claybanks?" + +"I saw it only in the dark, which means I didn't see it at all. I +believe 'tis the county town, and probably it doesn't differ much +from other Western villages of a thousand or two people. 'Twill be a +frightful change from New York, dear girl, for you." + +"You will be there," replied Grace, with a look that quickly brought +her husband's arms around her. "And you will be prominent among men, +instead of merely one man among a dozen in a great office. Every one +will know my husband; he won't any longer go to and from business as +unknown as any mere nobody, as you and most other men do in New York. +'Tis simply ridiculous--'tis unnatural, and entirely wrong, that my +husband's many clever, splendid qualities aren't known and put to their +proper uses. You ought to be the manager of the firm you are with, +instead of a mere clerk. I want other people to understand you, and +admire you, just as I do, but no one is any one in this great crowded, +lonely, dreadful city." + +"There, there!" said Philip. "Don't make me conceited. Besides, we've +neglected that check for at least ten minutes. Let's have another look +at it. A thousand dollars!--as much money as both of us have had to +spend in a year, after paying our rent! A tenth part of it will be more +than enough to take us and our belongings to Claybanks; with the other +nine hundred we'll buy a lot of things with which to delight ourselves +and astonish the natives,--silk dresses and other adornments for you, +likewise a piano, to replace the one we have been hiring, and some +pictures, and bric-à-brac, and we'll subscribe to a lot of magazines, +and--" + +"But suppose," said Grace, "that after reaching there you find the +business difficult or unendurable, and wish to come back to New York?" + +"Never fear for me! I'm concerned only for you, dear girl. I know +Western country places, having been brought up in one; I know the +people, and among them you will take place at once as a queen. But +queens are not always the most contented of creatures. Their subjects +may not be--" + +"If my first and dearest subject remains happy," said Grace, "I shall +have no excuse for complaining." + + + + +II--TAKING POSSESSION + + +THE ensuing week was a busy one for Philip and Grace; for to announce +an unsuspected marriage and a coming departure at one and the same +time to two sets of acquaintances is no ordinary task, even to two +social nobodies in New York. Besides, Philip had lost no time in making +the legal acknowledgment that was requisite to the cashing of his +check, and in spending a portion of the proceeds. A short letter came +from Caleb Wright, enclosing one almost equally short from the late +Jethro Somerton, which assured Philip of Caleb's honesty and general +trustworthiness, and that the business would not suffer for a few days. + +"Caleb is a far better and broader man than I," Philip's uncle had +written, "but he lacks force and push. I'm satisfied he can't help +it. He is stronger than he looks, and younger too, but he was fool +enough to take part in the Civil War, where he got a bullet that is +still roaming about in him, besides a thorough malarial soaking that +medicine can't cure. This often makes him dull; sometimes for weeks +together. But he knows human nature through and through, and if I had +a son to bring up, I'd rather give the job to Caleb than trust myself +with it. He has done me a lot of good in some ways, and I feel indebted +to him and want him to be well cared for as long as he lives. His +salary is small, and he won't ask to have it increased; but sometimes +he'll insist that you help him with some projects of his own, and I +advise you to do it, for he will make your life miserable until you do, +and the cost won't be great. I used to fight him and lose my temper +over some of his hobbies, but now I wish I hadn't; 'twould have been +cheaper." + +"That," said Philip, after reading the passage to Grace, "is about as +tantalizing as if written for the purpose of teasing me, for there's +not a shadow of hint as to the nature of Caleb's projects and hobbies. +He may be experimenting in perpetual motion or at extracting sunshine +from cucumbers. Still, as the man is honest and his freaks are not +expensive, I don't see that I can suffer greatly. By the way, when +I informed our firm that they would have to endure the withdrawal +of my valuable services, and told them the reason, they were not a +bit surprised; they said my uncle had written them several times, +asking about my progress and character, and they had been unable to +say anything to my discredit. They had been curious enough to make +inquiries, from the commercial agencies, about the writer of the +letters, and they took pleasure in informing me that Uncle Jethro's +store, houses, farms, were estimated by good judges, at--guess how +much." + +Grace wondered vaguely a moment or two before she replied:-- + +"Aunt Eunice's cousin was the principal merchant in a town of two or +three thousand people, and his estate, at his death, was--inventoried, +I think was the word--at twelve thousand dollars. Is it as much as +that?" + +"Multiply it by six, my dear, and you'll be within the mark, which is +seventy-five thousand dollars." + +"Oh, Phil!" + +"I repeat it, seventy-five thousand dollars, and that in a country +where a family with a thousand a year can live on the fat of the +land! Our firm declares that our fortune will be as much to us, out +there, as half a million would be in New York. Doesn't that make your +heart dance? I can give you horses and carriages, dress you in silks +and laces, hire plenty of servants for you; in short, make you in +appearance and luxury what you will be by nature, the finest lady in +the county. Dear woman, the better I've learned to know you, the more +guilty I've felt at having married you; for I saw plainly that you were +fit to adorn any station in the world, instead of being the wife of a +man so poor that you yourself had to work for wages to help us have a +home. At times I've felt so mean about it that--" + +Grace stopped further utterance on the subject by murmuring:-- + +"Seventy-five thousand dollars! What shall we do with it?" + +"Enjoy it, dear girl; that's what we shall do. We've youth, health, +taste, spirits, energy, and best of all, love. If all these qualities +can't help us to enjoy money, I can't imagine what else can. Besides, +Claybanks is bound to be a city in the course of a few years--so uncle +said; and if he was right, we will be prepared to take the lead in +society. 'Twon't be injudicious to have the largest, best-furnished +house, and a full circle of desirable acquaintances, against the time +when the sleepy village shall be transformed in a day, Western fashion, +into a bustling city." + +The several days that followed were spent largely in longings to get +away, and regrets at leaving New York's many new delights that were +at last within reach; but finally Philip wrote Caleb Wright that he +would arrive at Claybanks on a specified date, and asked that the best +room in the best hotel be engaged for him. The couple reached the +railway station at dawn of a dull December morning, and after an hour +of effort, while Grace remained in the single room at the station and +endeavored not to be nauseated by the mixed odors of stale tobacco, +an overloaded stove, and a crate of live chickens awaiting shipment, +Philip found a conveyance to take them to Claybanks. The unpaved road +was very muddy, and the trees were bare, the farm-houses were few and +unsightly. Philip was obliged to ask:-- + +"Isn't it shockingly dismal?" + +"Is this the road," Grace answered, "over which you walked, at night, +when you visited your uncle?" + +"The very same, I suppose, for there's never a choice of roads between +two unimportant places." + +"Then I sha'n't complain," said Grace, nestling very close to her +husband. + +The outlook did not improve as the travellers came near to the village +of Claybanks. Houses were more numerous, but most of them were very +small, many were unpainted, and some were of rough logs. The fences, +while exhibiting great variety of design, were almost uniform in +shabbiness. + +"Rather a dismal picture, isn't it?" asked Philip. "It suggests a +kalsominer's attempt to copy a Corot." + +"I'm keeping my eyes closed," Grace replied. "I'm going to defer being +impressed by the town until a sunny day arrives." + +"If you were to look about you now," said Philip, gloomily, "you'd +see the fag end of nothing--the jumping-off place of the world. How +my uncle succeeded in living here--still stranger in making money +here--passes my comprehension." + +The best room at the hotel proved to be quite clean, but as bare as a +hotel chamber could be, and also very cold. Philip begged for one with +a fire, but was told that all warmed rooms were already occupied by +regular lodgers. Fortunately breakfast was being served. It consisted +of fried pork, fried sausage, fried eggs, tough biscuits, butter of a +flavor which the newest guests neither recalled nor approved, two kinds +of pie, and coffee. + +"If this is the best hotel Caleb could find for us, what can the worst +be?" whispered Philip. + +"Perhaps we can find board in a private family," whispered Grace, in +reply. + +"How early will Somerton's store be open?" asked Philip of the +landlord, who had also served as table-waiter. + +"It's been open since daybreak, I reckon; it usually is," was the +reply. "I shouldn't wonder if you was the new boss, seein' you have the +same name. Well, I'm glad to see you. I'm one of your customers." + +"Thank you very much. Is the store far from here?" + +"Only two blocks up street. You'll find Caleb there. You know Caleb +Wright?" + +"Oh, yes; I've been here before." + +"That so? Must have put up at the other hotel, then--or mebbe you +stopped with your uncle." + +"Er--yes, for the little while I was in town. I wish there was a warm +room in which my wife could rest, while I go up to the store to see +Caleb." + +"Well, what's the matter with the parlor? Come along; let me show you." + +Philip looked into the parlor; so did Grace, who quickly said:-- + +"Do let me go to the store with you. You know I always enjoy a walk +after breakfast." + +"Pretty soft walkin', ma'am," said the landlord, after eying Grace's +daintily shod feet. "Better let me borrow you my wife's gum shoes; +she ain't likely to go out of the house to-day. You ought to have gum +boots, though, if you're dead set on walkin' about in winter." + +Grace thanked the landlord for his offer and advice, but hurried Phil +out of the hotel, after which she said:-- + +"That was my first visit to a hotel of any kind. Do they improve on +acquaintance? Oh, Phil! Don't look so like a thunder-cloud! What can +the matter be?" + +"I should have been thoughtful enough to come a day or two in advance, +and found a proper home for you. I hope Caleb will know of one. Be +careful!--the sidewalk is ending. Let me go first." + +Two or three successive planks served as continuation of the sidewalk, +and their ends did not quite join, but Philip skilfully piloted his +wife along them. Beyond, in front of a residence, was a brick walk +about two feet wide, after which was encountered soft mud for about +fifty linear feet. Philip looked about for bits of board, stone, +brick--anything with which to make solid footing at short intervals. +But he could see nothing available; neither could he see any person out +of doors, so in desperation he took Grace in his arms and carried her +to a street-crossing, where to his delight he saw a broad stick of hewn +timber embedded in the mud and extending from side to side. After this +were some alternations of brick sidewalk, mud, and a short causeway +of tan-bark, the latter ending at a substantial pavement in front of +a store over which was a weatherbeaten sign bearing the name JETHRO +SOMERTON. + +"The treasure-house of Her Majesty Grace I., Queen of Claybanks," said +Philip. "Shall we enter?" + +As Philip opened the door, a small man who was replenishing the stove +looked around, dropped a stick of wood, wiped his hands on his coat, +came forward, smiling pleasantly, and said:-- + +"Mr. Somerton, I'm very glad to see you again." + +"Thank you, Mr. Wright. Let me make you acquainted with Mrs. Somerton." + +Caleb seemed not a bit appalled as he shook hands with Grace. He held +her hand several seconds while he looked at her, and seemed to approve +of what he saw; then he said:-- + +"Your uncle told me of your marriage, and thought you'd been very +unwise. I reckon he'd change his mind if he was here, though 'twas a +hard one to change." + +Grace blushed slightly and replied:-- + +"I hope so, I'm sure. Have you had the entire work of the store since +Uncle Jethro died?" + +"Uncle--Jethro! I don't believe he'd have died if he'd heard you say +that! Well, yes, I've been alone here. Your husband wrote he'd be along +pretty soon, an' as the roads was so soft that the farmers didn't come +to town much, I didn't think it worth while to get extra help. Come +into the back room, won't you? There's chairs there, an' a good fire +too." + +"Are the farmers your principal customers?" Grace asked, as she sank +into a capacious wooden armchair. + +"Well, they're the most important ones. They take most time, too, +though some of the women-folks in this town can use more time in +spendin' a quarter an' makin' up their minds--principally the latter, +than--well, I don't s'pose you can imagine how they wait, an' fuss, an' +turn things over, an'--" + +"Oh, indeed I can," said Grace; "for once I was a country girl, and in +New York I was a saleswoman in a store, and have waited on just such +customers half an hour at a time without making a sale, though the +store was one of the biggest in the city, and its prices were as low as +any." + +"I want to know!" exclaimed Caleb, whose eyes had opened wide while +Grace talked. "You?--a country gal?--an' a saleswoman? I wouldn't have +thought it!" + +"Why not? Don't I look clever enough?" + +"Oh, that ain't it, but--" + +"Some day, when you and Philip are real busy," suggested Grace, +"perhaps you'll let me help you behind the counter." + +"Mrs. Somerton is a great joker," explained Philip, as Caleb continued +to look incredulous. + +"But I wasn't joking," said Grace. "I'll really help in the store some +day when--" + +"When your husband lets you, you said," remarked Philip. + +"Well," drawled Caleb, slowly regaining his customary expression, "I +shouldn't wonder if Mrs. Somerton's the kind that's let to do pretty +much as she likes." + +Philip laughed, and replied:-- + +"You're a quick judge of human nature, Mr. Wright. But before we talk +business I want some advice and assistance. We can't live at that +hotel; for my wife would have to sit in a cold room all day, which +isn't to be thought of. Can't you suggest a boarding place, in a +private family?" + +"Scarcely, I'm afraid," Caleb replied after a moment of thought. "I +don't b'lieve any families here ever took boarders, or would know +how to do it to your likin'. What's the matter with your takin' your +uncle's house an' livin' in it? It's plain, but comfortable, an' just +as he left it." + +"Is there a servant in it?" + +"Oh, no; there hasn't been since his wife died, an' _she_ wasn't +what you city folks call a servant. 'Helper' is what you want to say +in these parts. They're hard to get, too, an' if they're not treated +same as if they was members of the family, they won't stay. About your +uncle,--well, you see he took his meals at the hotel, an' done his own +housework, which didn't amount to much except makin' his bed ev'ry +mornin' an' makin' fire through the winter. S'pose you take a look at +it, when you're good and ready. It's on the back of the store-lot, and +the key is in the desk here. Your furniture an' things, that come by +rail, I had put in the warehouse behind the store, not knowin' just +what you'd want to do." + +Philip and Grace looked at each other, and exchanged a few words about +possible housekeeping. Caleb looked at both with great interest, and +improved the first moment of silence to say:-- + +"An' she's--you've--been a shop-girl!" Philip frowned slightly, and +Caleb hastened to add, "I ort to have said a saleswoman. But who would +have thought it!" + +"Caleb is a character," Grace said as soon as she and her husband left +the store. "I'm going to be very fond of him." + +"Very well; do so. I'll promise not to be jealous. He's certainly +hearty, and 'tis good for us that he's honest; for we and all we have +are practically in his hands and will remain there until I get a grip +on the business. But I do wish Uncle Jethro hadn't been so enragingly +non-committal about the chap's peculiarities. I shall be on pins and +needles until I know what the old gentleman was hinting at. Besides, he +may have been entirely mistaken. A mind that could imagine that this +out-of-the-world hole-in-the-ground must one day become a city could +scarcely have been entirely trustworthy about anything." + + + + +III--INTRODUCED + + +THE house in which the late Jethro Somerton had lived was a plain +wooden structure, entered by a door opening directly into a room which +had been used as a sitting room. Behind this was a kitchen, beside +which was a bedroom, while in front, beside the sitting room, was a +"best room" or parlor. There was a second floor, in which were four +rooms, some of which had never been used. The ceilings throughout the +house were so low that Philip, who was quite tall, could touch them +with his finger-tips when he stood on tiptoe. The walls of the sitting +room and parlor were hard-finished and white; all the other walls were +rough and whitewashed. + +"This is quite out of the question, as a home," said Philip. "No hall, +no--" + +"Why not make believe that the sitting room is a square hall?" Grace +asked. "They're the rage in the swell villages around New York." + +"But there's no bath room." + +"We can make one, on the upper floor, where we've rooms to spare." + +"Perhaps; but 'tis very improbable that the town has a water service." + +"Then have a tank, fed from the roof or by a pump, as Aunt Eunice +has in her cottage, smaller than this and in a town no larger than +Claybanks." + +"No furnace, of course, to warm the house, and--ugh!--I don't believe +the town knows of the existence of coal, for both stoves at the store +are fed with wood." + +"So they were, and--oh, I see! Here are fireplaces in the +sitting-room--or hall, I suppose I should say--and in the parlor! Think +how unutterably we longed for the unattainable--that is, an open wood +fire--in our little flat in the city!" + +"But, dear girl, a fireplace grows cold at night." + +"Quite likely; but don't you suppose the principal merchant in town +could economize on something so as to afford enough quilts and blankets +to keep his family from freezing to death while they sleep?" + +"You angel, you've all the brains of the family. Where did you learn so +much about houses? And about what to do when you don't find what you +want in them? And who taught you?" + +"I suppose necessity taught me," Grace replied, with a laugh, "and +within the past few minutes, too. For, don't you see, we must live in +this house. There seems to be no other place for us. And I suppose +'tis instinct for women, rather than men, to see the possibilities of +houses, for a woman has to spend most of her life indoors." + +Then she walked slowly toward the kitchen, where she contemplated the +stove, two grease-spotted tables, and four fly-specked walls. Philip +followed her, saying:-- + +"What a den! Money must be spent here at once, and--oh, Grace! You're +crying? Come here--quick! I never before saw tears in your eyes!" + +"And you never shall again," Grace sobbed. "I don't see what can be the +matter with me; it must be the cold weather that has--" + +"This forlorn barn of a house and this shabby, God-forsaken town have +broken your heart!" exclaimed Philip. "I wish I too could cry. I assure +you my heart has been in my boots, though I've tried hard to keep it +in its proper place. Don't let's remain here another hour. I'll gladly +abandon my inheritance to the benevolent societies. We'll hurry back to +the city and let our things follow us." + +"But we can't, Phil, for we've burned our bridges behind us. We can +take only such money as will get us back, and we would not be certain +of employment on reaching the city. Besides, we told our acquaintances +of our good fortune, but not of its conditions; if we go back, they +will suspect you and pity me." + +"You're right--you're right!" said Philip, from behind tightly closed +jaws. "Why hadn't I sense to get leave of absence for a week, and look +at the gift before accepting it? Still, we're alive; we have the money, +and the first and best use of it is to make you comfortable. I'll get +Caleb to get me some men at once,--one of them to make fires, and the +others to bring over and unpack our goods. In the meanwhile, you shall +at least keep warm in the office of the store. You'll have only barrels +of molasses and vinegar and bales of grain-sacks for company, but--" + +"But my husband won't be farther away than the next room," Grace said, +"and the door between shall remain open." + +Then Philip kissed the tears from her eyes, and Grace called herself an +unreasonable baby, and Philip called himself an unpardonable donkey, +and they returned together to the store, entering softly by the back +door, so that Caleb should not see them and join them at once. But +dingy though the back windows of the office were, Caleb, standing +behind one of them, said to himself:-- + +"Rubbin' her face with her handkerchief!--that means she's been cryin'. +Well, I should think she would, if city houses are anythin' like the +picture-papers make 'em out to be." + +Caleb retired to the store, where Phil joined him after a few moments, +and said:-- + +"We shall live in the old house, Mr. Wright. My wife and I have been +looking it over, and we see how it can be made very comfortable." + +"You do, eh?" Caleb replied; at the same time his face expressed so +much astonishment that Philip laughed, and said:-- + +"You mustn't mistake us for a pair of city upstarts. My wife, as she +told you, was a country girl; she went to New York only a few years +ago, and 'twas only four years since I passed through here on my way to +the city. We're strong enough and brave enough to take anything as we +find it, if we can't make it better. That reminds me that the old house +can be bettered in many ways. Is there a plumber in the town?" + +"No, sir!" replied Caleb, with emphasis, and a show of indignation such +as might have been expected were he asked if Claybanks supported a +gambling den. "We've read about 'em, in the city papers, an' I reckon +one of 'em would starve to death if he come out here, unless the boys +run him out of town first." + +"H'm! I'm going to beg you to restrain the boys when I coax a plumber +here from the nearest city, for a few days' work in the house. And +I've another favor to ask; you know people here, and I don't, as yet. +Won't you find me two or three men, this morning--at once--to unpack +my things that came from the city, and put them into the house? When +they're ready to move them, I wish you'd make some excuse to coax +my wife out here, so that I can slip down to the house, without her +knowledge, and prepare a surprise for her by placing all our belongings +about as they were in our rooms in the city." + +"Good for you! Good for you!" exclaimed Caleb, rubbing his hands. "If +you're that kind o' man, I reckon you're deservin' of her. Most men's +so busy with their own affairs, or so careless, that women comin' to a +new country have a back-breakin' time of it, an' a heart-breakin' too. +I dunno, though, that I can keep her away from you long enough. From +her ways,--the little I've seen of 'em,--I reckon she's one o' the kind +o' wives that sticks to her husband like hot tar to a sheep's wool." + +"Oh, you'll have no trouble, for she already has taken a great liking +to you." + +"I recippercate the sentiment," said Caleb, again rubbing his hands. +"I don't know much, but a man can't work in a country store about +twenty year or more without sizin' up new specimens of human nature +powerful quick, an' makin' mighty few mistakes at it. You'll find out +how it is. All of a sudden, some day, a new settler, that you never +saw before, 'll come in an' want to be trusted for goods--sca'cely any +of 'em has any cash, an' you have to wait for your pay till they can +raise some kind of produce, an' bring it in. If you can't read faces, +you're likely to be a goner, to the amount of what you sell, an' if +you refuse, you may be a thousan' times wuss a goner; for if the man's +honest, an' also as proud as poor folks usually be, he'll never forgive +you, and some other storekeeper'll get all his trade. Or, a stranger +passin' through town wants to sell a hoss; you don't know him or the +hoss either, or whether they come by each other honestly, an'--But this +ain't what you was talkin' about. I'll stir about and see what help I +can pick up. I reckon you won't have no trouble in the store while I'm +gone; prices is marked on pretty much everythin'. Want to get settled +to-day?" + +"Yes, if possible." + +"Reckon I'll see to makin' fires in the house, then, so's to warm +things up. If any customer comes in that you don't quite understand, +or wants any goods that bothers you, try to hold him till I get back. +'Twon't be hard. Folks in these parts ain't generally in a drivin' +hurry." + +"All right. I used to lounge in the stores in our town; I know their +ways pretty well, and I remember many prices." + +"That's good. Well, if you get stuck, get your wife to help you. +There's a good deal in havin' been behind a counter, besides what Mrs. +Somerton is of her own self." + +Then Caleb turned up his coat-collar and sauntered out. + +"Grace," shouted Philip, as soon as the door had closed, "do come +here! Allow me to congratulate you on having made a conquest of Caleb +Wright. He kindly tolerates me, but 'tis quite plain that he regards +you as the head of the family. I was going to replace that shabby old +sign over the door, but now I fear that Caleb will demand that the new +one shall read 'Mrs. Somerton & Husband.'" + +Grace's face glowed as merrily as if it had not been tear-stained half +an hour before, and she replied:-- + +"I've not seen a possible conquest--since I was married--that would +give me greater pleasure; for I am you, you know, and you are me, and +the you-I would be dreadfully helpless if we hadn't such a man to +depend upon." + +"'You-I'! That's a good word--a very good one. You ought to be richly +paid for coining it." + +"Pay me, then, and promptly!" Grace replied. + +Some forms of payment consume much time when the circumstances do +not require haste: they also have a way of making the payer and +payee oblivious to their surroundings, so Philip and Grace supposed +themselves alone until they heard the front door close with a loud +report, and saw a small boy who seemed to consist entirely of eyes. +Grace quickly and intently studied the label of an empty powder keg on +the counter, while Philip said:-- + +"Good morning, young man. What can we do for you?" + +"Wantapoundo'shinglenails," was the reply, in nasal monotone. + +Philip searched the hardware section of the store, at the same time +searching his memory for the price, in his native town, of shingle +nails. The packing of the nails, in soft brown paper, was a slow and +painful proceeding to a man whose hands in years had encountered +nothing harder or rougher than a pen-holder, but when it was completed, +the boy, taking the package, departed rapidly. + +"He forgot to pay for them," said Grace. + +"Yes," Philip replied. "I hope his memory will be equally dormant in +other respects." + +But it wasn't; for little Scrapsey Green stopped several times, on the +way home, to tell acquaintances that "up to Somerton's store ther +was a man a-kissin' a woman like all-possessed, an' he wasn't Caleb, +neither." + +The aforesaid acquaintances made haste to spread the story abroad, +as did Scrapsey's own family; so when Caleb returned, an hour later, +the store was jammed with apparent customers, and Philip was behind +one counter, and Grace behind the other, and the counters themselves +were strewn and covered with goods of all sorts, at which the people +pretended to look, while they gazed at the "man and woman" of whom they +had been told. + +"You must be kind o' tuckered out," said Caleb, softly, behind Grace's +counter, as he stood an instant with his back to the crowd, and +pretended to adjust a shelf of calicoes. "Better take a rest in the +back room. I'll relieve you." + +Grace responded quickly to the suggestion, while Caleb, leaning over +the goods on the counter, said, again softly, to the women nearest +him:-- + +"That's the new Mr. Somerton's wife--an' that's him, at t'other +counter." + +"Mighty scrumptious gal!" commented a middle-aged woman. + +"Yes, an' she's just as nice as she looks. Clear gold an' clear grit, +an' her husband's right good stuff, too." + +Within two or three minutes Caleb succeeded in signalling Philip to the +back room; five minutes later the store was empty, and Caleb joined the +couple, and said:-- + +"Sell much?" + +"Not a penny's worth," Grace replied, laughing heartily. "We've been +comparing notes." + +"Sho!" exclaimed Caleb, although his eyes twinkled. "I met Scrapsey +Green up the road, with a pound of shingle-nails that he said come +from here, an' I didn't s'pose Scrapsey would lie, for he's one o' my +Sunday-school scholars." Philip and Grace quickly reddened, while Caleb +continued, "Well, might's well be interduced to the gen'ral public +one time's another, I s'pose, 'specially if you can be kept busy, +so's not to feel uncomfortable. Besides," he said, after a moment of +reflection, "if a man hain't got a right to kiss his own wife, on his +own property, whose wife has he got a right to kiss, an' where'bouts?" +Then Caleb looked at the account books on the desk, and continued: +"Reckon you forgot to charge the nails. Well, I don't wonder." + + + + +IV--HOME-MAKING + + +"I WISH the Doctor would stop in," said Caleb, in a manner as casual as +if his first call that morning had not been on Doctor and Mrs. Taggess, +whom he told of the new arrivals, declaring that Philip and Grace were +"about as nice as the best, 'specially her, an' powerful in need of a +cheerin' up," and begging Mrs. Taggess to invite Grace to midday dinner +at once, so that Philip might be free to prepare his surprise for Grace. + +"The Doctor?" Grace echoed. "Why, Mr. Wright, which of us looks ill?" + +"Neither one nor t'other, at present," Caleb replied; "but this +country's full of malary, an' forewarned is forearmed. Besides, our +doctor's the kind to do your heart good, an' his wife's just like him. +They're good an' clever, an' hearty, an' sociable, an' up to snuff in +gen'ral. Fact is, they're the salt of the earth, or to as much of it +as knows 'em. Sometimes I think that Claybanks an' the round-about +country would kind o' decay an' disappear if it wasn't for Doc Taggess +an' his wife. Doc's had good chances to go to the city, for he's done +some great cures that's got in the medical papers, but here he stays. +He don't charge high, an' a good deal of the time it don't do him no +good to charge, but here he sticks--says he knows all the people an' +their constitutions, an' so on, an' a new doctor might let some folks +die while he was learnin' the ropes, so to speak. How's that for a +genuine man?" + +"First-rate," said Philip, and Grace assented. Caleb continued to tell +of the Doctor's good qualities, and suddenly said:-- + +"Speak of angels, an' you hear their buggy-wheels, an' the driver +hollerin' 'Whoa!' I think I just heard the Doctor say it, out in front." + +A middle-aged couple bustled into the store; Grace hastily consulted a +small mirror in the back room, and Caleb whispered to Philip:-- + +"If they ask you folks to ride or do anythin', let your wife go, an' +you make an excuse to stay. There's a powerful lot of your New York +stuff to be fixed, if you expect to do it to-day. Come along! Doctor +an' Mrs. Taggess, this is my new boss, an' here comes his wife." + +"Glad to meet you," said the Doctor, a man of large, rugged, earnest +face, extending a hand to each. + +Mrs. Taggess, who was a motherly-looking woman, exclaimed to Grace:-- + +"You poor child, how lonesome you must feel! So far from your home!" + +"Oh, no,--only the length of the store-yard," Grace replied. + +"Eh? Brave girl!" said the Doctor. "That's the sort of spirit to have +in a new country, if you want to be happy. Well, I can't stop more +than a minute,--I've a patient to see in the back street. I understand +you're stopping at the hotel, and as, for the reputation of the town, +we shouldn't like you to get a violent attack of indigestion the first +day, we came down to ask you to dine with us at twelve. Mrs. Somerton +can ride up now and visit with my wife, and her husband can come up +when he will. Caleb can give him the direction." + +"So kind of you!" murmured Grace, and Philip said:-- + +"I shall be under everlasting obligations to you for giving my wife a +view of some better interior than that of a store or that dismal hotel, +but I daren't leave to-day. Caleb has arranged for several men to see +me." + +"Well, well, I'll catch you some other day," said the Doctor. "I must +be going; hope you'll find business as brisk as I do. You may be sure +that Mrs. Taggess will take good care of your wife, and see that she +gets safely back. Good day. I'll drop in once in a while. Hope to know +you better. I make no charge for social calls." + +So it came to pass that within ten minutes Philip was furnishing his +new home with the contents of the old. The possible contents of a New +York flat for two are small, at best; yet as each bit of furniture, +upholstery, and bric-à-brac was placed in position in the Jethro +Somerton house, the plain rooms looked less bare, so Philip was +correspondingly elated. True, he had to use ordinary iron nails to +hang his pictures, and was in desperation for some moments for lack +of rods for portières and curtains, but he supplied their places with +rake-handles from the store and rested them in meat-hooks. He worked +so long, and hurried so often into the store for one makeshift after +another, that Caleb became excited and peered through the windows of +the store's back room at his first opportunity, just in time to see the +upright piano moved in. Unable to endure the strain of curiosity any +longer, he quickly devised an excuse, in the shape of a cup of coffee +and some buttered toast, all made at the stove in the back room of the +store. Coaxing a trustworthy but lounging customer to "mind store" for +him a minute or two, Caleb put the refreshments in a covered box and +timed himself to meet Philip as the latter emerged from the warehouse +with an armful of books. + +"Didn't want to disturb you, but seein' that you let the hotel +dinner-hour pass an' was workin' hard, I thought mebbe a little snack" +(here Caleb lifted the lid of the box) "'d find its way to the right +place." + +"Mr. Wright, you're a trump! Would you mind bringing it into the house +for me, my hands being full?" + +"Don't want to intrude." + +"Nonsense! Aren't we friends? If not, we're going to be. Besides, I +really want some one to rejoice with me over the surprise I'm going to +give my wife. Come right in. Drop the box on this table." + +"Well!" exclaimed Caleb, after a long suspiration, "I reckon I done +that just in time! A second more, an' I'd ha' dropped the hull thing +on this carpet--or is it a shawl? Why, 'taint the same place at all! +Je-ru-salem! What would your Uncle Jethro say if he could look in a +minute? Reckon he'd want to come back an' stay. I dunno's I ought to +have said that, though, for I've always b'lieved he was among the +saved, an' of course your house ain't better'n heaven, but--" + +"But 'twill be heaven to my wife and me," said Philip. + +"Well, I reckon homes was invented 'specially to prepare folks for +heaven,--or t'other place, 'cordin' to the folks." + +"Come into the parlor," said Philip, toast and coffee in hand. For a +moment or two Caleb stood speechless in the doorway; then he said:-- + +"Je-ru-salem! This reminds me to take off my hat. Why, I s'posed you +folks wasn't over-an'-above well fixed in the city, but this is a +palace!" + +"Not quite," said Philip, although delighted by Caleb's comments. +"Thousands of quiet young couples in New York have prettier parlors +than this." + +"I want to know!" Then Caleb sighed. "I reckon that's why young people +that go there from the country never come home again. I've knowed a +lot of 'em that I'd like to see once more. Hello! I reckon that's a +pianner; I've seen pictures of 'em in advertisements. A firm in the +city once wanted your uncle to take the county agency for pianners." +Caleb laughed almost convulsively as he continued, "Ye ort to have seen +Jethro's face when he read that letter!" + +"Do you mean to say that there are no pianos in this county?" asked +Philip. + +"I just do. But there once was an organ. Squire Pease, out in Hick'ry +Township, bought one two or three years ago for his gals. He was +runnin' for sheriff then, an' thought somethin' so new an' startlin' +might look like a sign of public spirit, an' draw him some votes. But +somehow his gals didn't get the hang of it, an' the noises it made +always set visitors' dogs to howlin', an' to tryin' to get into the +house an' kill the varmint, whatever it was, an' Pease's dogs tried to +down the visitors' dogs, an' that made bad feelin'; so Pease traded the +organ to a pedler for a patent corn-planter, an' he didn't get 'lected +sheriff, either. I allers reckoned that ef anybody'd knowed how to play +on it, that organ might ha' been a means of grace in these parts, for +I've knowed a nigger's fiddle to stop a drunken fight that was too much +for the sheriff an' his posse." Caleb looked the piano over as if it +were a horse on sale, and continued:-- + +"Don't seem to work with a crank." + +"Oh, no," replied Philip, placing a chair in front of the instrument +and seating himself. "This is the method." He indulged in two or three +"runs," and then, with his heart on Grace, he dashed into the music +dearest to him and his wife--perhaps because it was not played at their +own very quiet marriage,--the Mendelssohn Wedding March. + +"Je-ru-salem!" exclaimed Caleb. "That's a hair-lifter! What a blessin' +such a machine must be to a man that knows the tunes!" + +Rightly construing this remark as an indication that Caleb longed to +hear music with which he was acquainted, Philip searched his memory for +familiar music of the days when he was a country boy, and which would +therefore be recognized by Caleb. Suddenly he recalled an air very dear +to several religious denominations, although it has been dropped from +almost all modern hymnals, probably because its vivacity, repetitions, +and its inevitable suggestion of runs and variations had made it +seem absolutely indecorous to ears that were fastidious as well as +religious. Philip had heard it played (by request) as a quick march, by +a famous brass band, at the return of troops from a soldier's funeral +in New York; so, after playing a few bars of it softly, he tried to +recall and imitate the march effect. He succeeded so well that soon he +was surprised to see Caleb himself, an ex-soldier, striding to and fro, +singing the hymn beginning:-- + + "Am I a soldier of the Cross?" + +When Philip stopped, Caleb shouted:-- + +"Three cheers for the gospel! Say! I wish--" + +"Well?" + +"Never mind," replied Caleb. "I was only thinkin' that if our church +could hear that, there'd be an almighty revival of religion. Reckon I'd +better git back to the store. Say, you've been so full of palace-makin' +that you've let the fires go out. I'll just load 'em up again for you; +afterwards, if you chance to think of 'em, there's lots of good dry +hick'ry in the woodshed, right behind the kitchen." + +Philip continued to make hurried dashes into the store for necessities +and makeshifts. When finally he entered for candles, Caleb remarked:-- + +"I'll call you in when your wife comes; but if you don't want her to +smell a rat, you'd better shut the front shutters. There's already +been people hangin' on the fence, lookin' at them lace fixin's in +the winders, an' women are powerful observin'. An' say, here's a new +tea-kettle, full of water; better set it on the kitchen stove. Pianners +are splendid,--I never would have believed there could be anythin' like +'em,--but the singin' of a tea-kettle's got a powerful grip on most +women's ears. I didn't see no ev'ryday dishes among your things. Don't +you want some?" + +Philip thought he did not, and he hurried to the house. He was soon +summoned to the store, and through the coming darkness of the sunset +hour he saw at the back door his wife, who said:-- + +"Oh, Phil! Mrs. Taggess is the dearest woman! We were of the same age +before I'd been with her an hour." + +"Eh? You don't look a moment older." + +"But she looked twenty years younger. When she's animated, she--oh, I +never saw such a complexion." + +"Not even in your mirror?" + +"No, you silly dear! And her home is real cosey. There's nothing showy +or expensive in it; but if ever I get homesick, I'm going to hurry up +there, even if the mud is a foot deep." + +"Good! Perhaps you got some ideas of how to fix up our own dismal barn +of a house. Come down and look about it once more." + +Together they started. As they reached the front door, and Philip threw +it open, Caleb, with his eye at the back window of the store, saw Grace +stop and toss up her hands. As the door closed, Caleb jumped up and +down, and afterward said to himself:-- + +"There are times when I wish, church or no church, that I'd learned how +to dance." + +"Phil! Phil! Phil!" exclaimed Grace, dashing from one room to another, +all of which were as well lighted as candles could make them. "How +did you?--how could you? No woman could have done better! Oh! +home!--home!--home! And a few hours ago, right here, I was the most +disheartened, rebellious, wicked woman in the world! Come here to +me--this instant!" + +There are times when manly obedience is a natural virtue. For a few +moments a single easy chair was large enough for the couple, who +laughed, and cried, and otherwise comported themselves very much as +any other healthy and affectionate couple might have done in similar +circumstances. A knock at the door recalled them to the world. + +"Don't like to disturb you," said Caleb, "but Doc Taggess has dropped +in again an' asked for Mr. Somerton, an' as his time's not all his own, +mebbe you'd--" + +"Do tell him how I enjoyed my day with his wife," said Grace. "I tried +to, when he brought me down, but I don't feel that I said half enough." + +Philip hurried to the store; Caleb lingered and said to Grace:-- + +"Reckon you've had a little s'prise, hain't you? Your husband showed me +'round a little." + +"Little surprise? Oh, Mr. Wright! 'Twas the greatest, dearest surprise +of my life. But 'twas just like Phil; he's the thoughtfullest, smartest +man in the world." + +"Is, eh? Well, stick to that, an' you'll always be happy, even if you +should chance to be mistaken. But say,--'what's sauce for the goose is +sauce for the gander,' as I reckon you've heard. Don't you want to give +your husband a pleasant s'prise?" + +"Oh, don't I!" + +"Well, I'm kind o' feared to ask you, after seein' all these fine +things; but you said you was brought up in the country. Can you cook?" + +"Indeed I can! I've cooked all our meals at home since we were +married--except those that Phil prepared." + +"Good! Well, there's self-raisin' flour an' all sorts o' groceries in +the store, an' eggs an' butter in the store cellar, an' alongside of +the warehouse there's an ice-house, with three or four kinds o' meat. +We have to take all sorts o' things in trade from country customers, +an' some of 'em won't keep without ice. Now, if you was to s'prise your +husband with a home-made supper, he wouldn't have to go down to the +hotel, an' mebbe your own heart wouldn't break not to have to eat down +there again." + +"Oh, Mr. Wright! You're a genius! I wonder whether I could manage the +kitchen stove." + +"Best way to find out's to take a look at it." + +Grace followed the suggestion. Caleb explained the draught and dampers, +and took Grace's orders, saying, as he departed:-- + +"Doc'll keep him in the store till I get back,--that's what he's there +for,--an' I'll keep him afterwards. When you want him, pull this rope: +it starts an alarm in my room, over the store, an' I'll hear it." + +Doctor Taggess gave Philip some health counsel, at great length. +Claybanks and the surrounding country was very malarious, he said, and +newcomers, especially healthy young people from the East, could not +be too careful about diet, dress, and general habits until entirely +acclimatized. Then he got upon some of his hobbies, and Philip thought +the conversation might be very entertaining if Grace and the new home +were not within a moment's walk. No sooner had the Doctor departed than +Caleb insisted on a decision regarding an account that was in dispute, +because the debtor was likely to come in at any moment, and the matter +was very important. He talked details until Philip was almost crazed +with impatience, but suddenly a muffled whir caused Caleb to say +abruptly:-- + +"But it's better for him to suffer than for your wife to do it; an' if +you don't be ready to start her for supper the minute the hotel bell +rings, you won't get the best pickin's." + +Philip escaped with great joy, and a minute later was in his new +sitting room and staring in amazement at a neatly set table, with Grace +at the head of it, and upon it an omelette, a filet of beef, some crisp +fried potatoes, tea-biscuits, cake, and a pot of coffee. After seating +himself and bowing his head a moment, he succeeded in saying:-- + +"'How did you?--how could you?' as you said to me." + +"How could I help it," Grace replied, "after the delicate hint you left +behind you,--the kettle boiling on the stove?" + +"My dear girl, like little George Washington, I cannot tell a lie. +Caleb was responsible for that tea-kettle; he brought it from the +store, and said something poetical about the singing of a kettle being +music to a woman's ear." + +"Caleb did that?" exclaimed Grace, springing from her chair. "Set +another place, please!" Then she dashed through the darkness, into the +store, and exclaimed:-- + +"Mr. Wright, I shan't eat a single mouthful until you come down and +join us. Lock the store--quick--before things get cold." + +"Your word's law, I s'pose," said Caleb, locking the front door, "but--" + +"'But me no buts,'" Grace said, taking his hand and making a true "home +run." Caleb seated himself awkwardly, looked around him, and said:-- + +"Hope you asked a blessin' on all this?" + +"I never ate a meal without one," Philip replied. + +"Reckon you'll get along, then," said Caleb, looking relieved and +engulfing half of a tea-biscuit. + + + + +V--BUSINESS WAYS + + +PHILIP engaged a plumber from the nearest city and had one of his +upper chambers transformed into a bath-room, and Caleb, by special +permission, studied every detail of the work and went into so brown a +study of the general subject that Philip informed Grace that either the +malarial soaking, mentioned in Uncle Jethro's letter, had reached the +point of saturation, or that the Confederate bullet had found a new +byway in its meanderings. + +But Caleb was not conscious of anything out of the usual--except the +bath-room. By dint of curiosity and indirect questioning he learned +that in New York Philip and his wife had bathed daily. Afterward he +talked bathing with the occasional commercial travellers who reached +Claybanks--men who seemed "well set up," despite some distinct signs of +bad habits, and learned that men of affairs in the great city thought +bathing quite as necessary as eating. He talked to Doctor Taggess on +the subject, and was told in reply that, in the Doctor's opinion, +cleanliness was not only next to godliness, but frequently an absolute +prerequisite to cleanly longings and a clean life. + +So one day, after a fortnight of self-abstraction, he announced to +Philip that a bath-room ought to be regarded as a means of grace. + +"Quite so," assented Philip, "but I wish it weren't so expensive at the +start. Do you know what that bath-room, with its tank, pump, drain, +etc., has cost? The bill amounts to about a hundred and fifty dollars, +and it can't be charged to my account for six months, like most of our +purchases for the store." + +"That so?" drawled Caleb, carelessly, though in his heart he was +delighted; for Philip had also engaged from the city a paper-hanger, +and he had employed a local painter to do a lot of work; and Caleb, who +knew the business ways of country stores, had trembled for the bills, +yet doubted his right to speak of them. "Well, have you got the money +to pay for it?" + +"Yes, but not much more; and in the two weeks I've been here the store +has taken in about forty dollars in cash." + +"That's about it, I b'lieve. Well, realizin'-time is comin'; it's +right at hand, in fact, an' I've wanted a chance to have a good long +talk with you 'bout it. When I was a boy I used to lie on my back in +the woods for hours at a time, catchin' backaches an' rheumatiz for +the sake of watchin' the birds makin' their nests an' startin' their +house-keepin'. Watchin' you an' your wife gettin' to rights has made +me feel just like I did in them days--except for the backaches and +rheumatiz. I wouldn't have pestered the birds for a hull farm, an' I +hain't wanted to pester you, but the quicker you can give more 'tention +to the business, the better 'twill be for your pocket." + +"Why, Mr. Wright--" + +"Call me Caleb, won't you? Ev'rybody else does, 'xcept you an' your +wife, an' I can talk straighter when I ain't 'mistered.'" + +"Thank you, good friend, for the permission. I'll take it, if you'll +call me Philip." + +"That's a bargain," said Caleb, with visible signs of relief. "Well, +as I was sayin', the more time you can give the business, the better +'twill be for your pocket. Your uncle kept first place in this town +an' county, an' you need to do the same, if you want to keep your mind +easy about other things. I've said all sorts of good things about you +to the customers, though I haven't stretched the truth an inch. They +all think you bright, but you need to show 'em that you're sharp too, +else they'll do their best to dull you. Business is business, you know; +likewise, human nature's human nature." + +"Correct! Go on." + +"Well, I'm doin' my best to keep an eye on ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody, +but I'm not boss. Besides, it took two of us to do it all when your +uncle was alive, though he was about as smart as they make 'em. There's +one thing you won't have no trouble about, an' that's beatin' down. +This is the only strictly one-price store in the county, an' it saves +lots o' time by keepin' away the slowest, naggiest traders. It might +ha' kept away some good customers, too, if your uncle hadn't been a +master hand at gettin' up new throw-ins." + +"Throw-ins? What are they?" + +"What? You brought up in the country, an' not know what a 'throw-in' +is? Why, when a man buys somethin', he gen'rally says, 'What ye goin' +to throw in?' That means, 'What are you goin' to give me for comin' +here instead of buyin' somewhere else?' When it's stuff for clothes, +there's no trouble, for any merchant throws in thread and buttons to +make it up if it's men's goods, or thread an' hooks an' eyes if it's +women's. Up at Bustpodder's store they throw in a drink o' whiskey +whenever a man buys anythin' that costs a quarter or more, an' it draws +lots o' trade; but your uncle never worked for drinkin' men's trade, +unless for cash, so we've never kept liquor, but that made him all the +keener to get other throw-ins. One year 'twas wooden pipes for men, an' +little balls of gum-camphor for women. Then 'twas hair-ile for young +men an' young women. Whatever 'twas, 'twas sure to be somethin' kind o' +new, an' go-to-the-spotty. Shouldn't wonder if your wife, havin' been +in a big store, might think of a lot o' new throw-ins for women-folks. +But that's only a beginnin'." + +"H'm! Now tell me everything I ought to do that I haven't been doing." + +"Well, in the first place, when you meet a customer, you want to get +a tight grip on him, somehow, 'fore he leaves. Then you want to get +into your mind how much each one owes you, an' ask when he's goin' to +begin to bring in his produce. None of the men on our books mean to be +dishonest; but if you don't keep 'em in mind of their accounts at this +time o' year, some of 'em may sell their stuff to somebody else for +cash, an' country folks with cash in their pockets is likely to think +more of what they'd like to buy than what they owe. I reckon, from some +things I've heerd, that some city folks are that way too." + +"Quite likely. Well?" + +"Well, if say a dozen of your biggest country customers sell for cash +an' don't bring you the money, you'll find yourself in a hole about +your own bills, for some of your customers are on the books for three +or four hundred apiece. Your uncle sold 'em all he could, for he knew +their ways an' that he could bring 'em to time." + +"H'm! Suppose they fail to pay after having been trusted a full year, +isn't the law good for anything?" + +"Oh, yes; but sue a customer an' you lose a customer, an' there ain't +any too many in this county, at best. Now, your uncle made sure, +before he died, about all of 'm whose principal crop was wheat; but +the wheat's then brought in an' sold, an' most of the money for it, +after his own bills were paid, was in the check the lawyers sent you. +The rest of the customers raised mostly corn an' pork,--most gen'rally +both, for the easiest way to get corn to market is to put it into pork; +twenty bushels o' corn, weighin' over a thousan' poun's, makes two +hundred pound o' pork, an' five times less haulin'; besides, pork's +always good for cash, but sometimes you can't hardly give corn away. +Queer about corn; lot's o' folks that's middlin' sensible about a good +many things seems to think that corn's only fit to feed to hogs an' +niggers. Why, some o' 'em's made me so touchy about it that I've took +travellin' business men up into my room, over the store, an' give 'em a +meal o' nothin' but corn an' pork, worked up in half a dozen ways, an' +it seemed as if they couldn't eat enough, but I couldn't see that the +price o' corn went up afterwards. I'd like to try a meal o' that kind +on you an' your wife some day. If the world took as easy to corn when +it's ground into meal as when it's turned into whiskey, this section o' +country would get rich." + +"I shouldn't wonder if it would. But what else?" + +"Well, you must get a square up-an'-down promise from each o' your +customers that their pork's to come to you, you promisin' to pay cash, +at full market price, for all above the amount that's owed you. You +must have the cash ready, too." + +"But where am I to get it?" + +"Why, out of the first pork you can get in an' ship East or South. You +must be smart enough to coax some of 'em to do their killin' the first +week the roads freeze hard enough to haul a full load. They'll all put +it off, hopin' to put a few more pounds o' weight on each hog, an' that +mebbe the price'll go up a little." + +"But how am I to coax them?" + +"Well, there's about as many ways as customers. I'll put you up to the +nature of the men, as well as I can, an' help you other ways all I +can, but you must do the rest; for, as I said before, you're boss, an' +they're all takin' your measure, agin next year an' afterwards. As to +ways o' coaxin',--well, the best is them that don't show on their face +what they be. Your uncle held one slippery customer tight by pertendin' +to be mighty fond o' the man's only son, who was the old fellow's idol. +Your uncle got the boy a book once in a while, an' spent lots o' spare +moments answerin' the youngster's questions, for your uncle knew a lot +about a good many things. There was another customer that thought all +money spent on women's clothes was money throwed away--p'raps 'twas +'cause his wife was more'n ordinary good-lookin', an' liked to show +off. One year, in one of our goods boxes from the East, was a piece +of silk dress-goods that would have put your eyes out. Black silk +was the only kind that ever came here before, and it had always been +satisfyin'. Next to plenty o' religion and gum-camphor, a black silk +dress is what ev'ry self-respectin' woman in the county hankers for +most. Well, your uncle never showed that blue an' white an' yaller an' +purple an' red silk to nobody till about this time o' year; he told +me not to, too, but one day, when the feller's wife was in town, an' +warmin' her feet at the backroom stove, your uncle took that silk in +there an' showed it, an' he see her eyes was a-devourin' it in less +than a minute. + +"'There's only enough of it for one dress,' said he, 'an' I ain't sure +I could get any more like it. You're the style o' woman that would set +it off, so you'd better take it before somebody else snaps it up.' + +"'Take it?' said she, lookin' all ways to once; 'why, if I was to have +that charged, my husband would go plum crazy, or else he'd send me to +an asylum.' + +"'Not a bit of it!' said your uncle. 'Tell you what I'll do; I'll lay +that silk away, an' not show it to anybody till your husban' brings me +in his pork an' we have our settlement. You come with him, an' I'll +wrap up the silk for you, an' if he objects to payin' for it--oh, I +know his ways, but I tell you right here, that if he objects to payin' +for it, I'll make you a present of it, an' you can lay all the blame on +me, sayin' I pestered you so hard that you had to take it.' Well, your +uncle got the pork; the wife gave the man no peace till he promised to +fetch it here, an' she got the dress, an' her husband--Hawk Howlaway, +his name was,--was so tickled that he told all the county how he got +the best of old Jethro." + +"Pretty good--for one year, if the dress didn't cost too much." + +"It only cost seventy cents a yard, an' there was fifteen yards of it. +The pork netted more'n four hundred dollars. But that wa'n't the end of +it. The woman hadn't wore the dress to church but one Sunday when her +husband came into the store one day an' hung 'round a spell, lookin' +'bout as uneasy as a sinner under conviction, an' at last he winked +your uncle into the back room, an' says Howlaway, says he:-- + +"'Jethro, you've got me in a heap o' trouble, 'cause of that silk dress +you loaded on to my wife. She looks an' acts as if my Sunday clothes +wasn't good enough to show alongside of it, an' other folks looks an' +acts so too. So, Jethro, you've got to help me out. I've got to have +some new clothes, an' they've got to be just so, or they won't do.' +Your uncle said, 'All right,' an' got off a line from an advertisement +in a city paper, about 'No fit, no pay.' Then he wrote to a city +clothin' store for some samples of goods, an' for directions how to +measure a man for a suit of clothes. Oh, he was a case, your uncle was; +why, I do believe he'd ha' took an order from an angel for a new set of +wing-feathers an' counted on gettin' the goods some way. I don't say he +made light of it, though. I never see him so close-minded as he was for +the next two weeks. One day I chaffed him a little about wastin' a lot +o' time on a handsome hardware-goods drummer that hadn't much go, an' +whose prices was too high anyway; but your uncle said:-- + +"'He's just about the height and build of Hawk Howlaway, an' he knows +how to wear his clothes.' Then I knowed what was up. Well, to make a +long story short, the clothes come, in the course o' time, and on an +app'inted day Howlaway come too, lookin' about as wish-I-could-hide as +a gal goin' to be married. Your uncle stuck up four lookin'-glasses on +the back room wall, one over another, an' then he turned Howlaway loose +in the room, with the clothes, an' a white shirt with cuffs an' collar +on it, an' told him to lock himself in an' go to work, an' to pound +on the door if he got into trouble. In about ten minutes he pounded, +an' your uncle went in, an' Hawk was lookin' powerful cocky, though he +said:-- + +"'There's somethin' that ain't quite right, though I don't know what +'tis.' + +"'It's your hair--an' your beard,' said your uncle. 'Now, Hawk, +you slip out o' them clothes, an' go down to Black Sam, that does +barberin', an' tell him you want an all-round job: 't'll only cost a +quarter. But wait a minute,' an' with that your uncle hurried into the +store, took out of the cash-drawer a picture that he'd cut out of a +paper that he'd been studyin' pretty hard for a week, took it back, an' +said, 'Take this along, an' tell the barber it's about the style you +want.' + +"Well, when Hawk saw his own face in the glass after that reapin', +he hardly knowed himself, an' he sneaked into the store by climbin' +the fence an' knockin' at the back door, for fear of havin' to be +interdooced to any neighbors that might be hangin' 'round the counters. +Then he made another try at the clothes, an' called your uncle in +again, and said:-- + +"'They looked all right until I put my hat on, an' then somethin' went +wrong again.' + +"'Shouldn't wonder if 'twas your hat,' said your uncle, comin' back for +a special hat an' a pair of Sunday shoes, all Howlaway's size, that +he'd ordered with the clothes. He took 'em in an' said:-- + +"'When you start to dress like a gentleman, to stand 'longside of a +lady, you want to go the whole hog or none.' + +"Well,--I didn't know this story was so long when I begun to tell +it,--Hawk sneaked the clothes home, an' it come out in the course o' +time that when on Sunday mornin' he dressed up an' showed off to his +wife, she kissed him for the first time in three year, which sot him +up so that he had the courage to go to church without first loadin' up +with whiskey, as he'd expected to, to nerve him up to be looked at in +his new things, an' when hog-killin' an' settlement time came round +again, Hawk brought his pork to us, an' when he found his wife's silk +dress hadn't been charged to him, he said in a high an' mighty way +that he reckoned that until he was dead or divorced he could afford to +pay for his own wife's duds, hearin' which, your uncle, who'd already +socked the price of the dress onto the price of Hawk's own clothes, +smiled out o' both sides of his mouth, an' all the way round to the +back of his neck. An' since then, Hawk's always brought his pork to +us, an' got a new silk dress ev'ry winter for his wife, an' new Sunday +clothes for himself, an' nobody would he buy of but your uncle. Let's +see; what was we talkin' 'bout when I turned off onto this story?" + +"We were talking of ways of cajoling customers into paying their year's +bills," said Philip. "Apparently I ought, just as a starter, to know +how to coddle customer's boys, and supply hair-cutting and shaving +plans to the village barber, and to play wife against husband, and +learn to measure a man for clothes, like a--" + +"That's so," said Caleb, "an' you can't be too quick about that, +either, for Hawk'll want a new suit pretty soon." + +"Anything else? By the way: what you said about the need of ready money +reminds me of some questions I've been intending to ask, but forgotten. +There are some mortgages in the safe on which interest will be due on +the first of the year,--only a fortnight off. 'Twill aggregate nearly a +thousand dollars." + +"Yes,--when you get it, but interest's the slowest pay of all, in +these parts, unless you work an' contrive for it. They know you won't +foreclose on 'em; for while the security's good enough if you let it +alone, there ain't an estate in the county that would fetch the face of +its mortgage under the hammer. Besides, a merchant gen'rally dassent +foreclose a mortgage, unless it's agin some worthless shack of a man. +Folks remember it agin him, an' he loses some trade." + +"Then those mortgages are practically worthless?" + +"Oh, no. The money's in 'em, principal an' int'rest in full,--but the +holder's got to know how to git it out. That's the difference between +successful merchants and failures." + +"H'm--I see. Apparently country merchants should be, like the +disciples, as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves." + +"That's it in a nutshell. I reckon any fool could make money in the +store business if there was nothin' to do but weigh an' measure out +goods an' take in ready cash for 'em. But there ain't no ready money +in this county, 'xcept what the merchants get in for the produce +they send out. There ain't no banks, so the store-keepers have to be +money-lenders, an' have money in hand to lend; for while there's some +borrowers that can be turned off, there's some it would never do to say +'No' to, if you wanted further dealin's with 'em, for they'd feel as if +they'd lost their main dependence, an' been insulted besides. Why, some +of our customers come in here Saturdays an' get a few five an' ten cent +pieces, on credit like any other goods, so's their families can have +somethin' to put in the plate in church on Sunday." + +"But there are rentals due from several farms, and from houses in +town. Are they as hard to collect as interest on mortgages?" + +"Well, no--oh, no. The rent of most of the farms is payable in produce; +there's ironclad written agreements, recorded in the county clerk's +office, that the renters shan't sell any of their main crops anywhere +else until the year's rent is satisfied. One of 'em pays by clearin' +five acre of woodland ev'ry winter, an' gettin' it under cultivation in +the spring, and another has to do a certain amount of ditchin' to drain +swampy places. You'll have to watch them two fellers close, or they'll +skimp their work, for there's nothin' farmers hate like clearin' an' +ditchin'. I don't blame 'em, either." + +"And the houses in town?" + +"Oh, they're all right. The man in one of 'em, at two dollars a month, +cuts all the firewood for the store an' house; that about balances his +bill. Another house, at three thirty-three a month, has a cooper in +it; he pays the rent, an' all of the stuff he buys at the store, in +barrels for us in the pork-packin' season. The three an' a-half a month +house man works out his rent in the pork-house durin' the winter, an' +the four dollar house has your insurance agent in it; there's always a +little balance in his favor ev'ry year. The--" + +"Caleb!" exclaimed Philip, "wait a minute; do you mean to tell me that +houses in Claybanks rent as low as four dollars, three and a half, +three and a third, and even as low as two dollars a month?" + +"That's what I said. Why, the highest rent ever paid in this town was +six dollars a month. The owner tried to stick out for seventy-five +a year, but the renter wouldn't stand the extra twenty-five cents a +month." + +Philip put his face in his hands, his elbows on his knees, and said:-- + +"Six dollars a month! And in New York I paid twenty-five dollars a +month for five rooms, and thought myself lucky!" + +"Twenty--five--dollars--a month!" echoed Caleb. "Why, if it's a fair +question, how much money did you make?" + +"Eighty dollars a month, with a certainty of a twenty per cent increase +every year. 'Twasn't much, but I was sure of getting it. From what +you've been telling me, I'm not absolutely sure of anything whatever +here, unless I do a lot of special and peculiar work--and after I've +earned the money by delivering the goods." + +"Well, your uncle averaged somethin' between three an' four thousan', +clear, ev'ry year, an' he come by it honestly, too, but there's no +denyin' that he had to work for it. From seven in the mornin' to nine +at night in winter; five in the mornin' till sundown in summer, to say +nothin' of watchin' the pork-house work till all hours of the night +throughout the season--a matter o' two months. He always went to sleep +in church Sunday mornin', but the minister didn't hold it agin him. +That reminds me: your uncle was a class-leader, an' the brethren are +quietly sizin' you up to see if you can take the job where he left off. +I hope you'll fetch." + +"Thank you, Caleb," said Philip, closing his eyes as if to exclude +the prospect. "But tell me," he said a moment later, "why my uncle +did so much for so little. Don't imagine that I underrate three or +four thousand dollars a year, but--money is worth only what it really +brings or does. That's the common-sense view of the matter, isn't it?" + +"Yes; I can't see anythin' the matter with it." + +"But uncle got nothing for his money but ordinary food, clothes, and +shelter, and seems to have worked as hard as any overworked laborer." + +"Well, I reckon he was doin' what the rest of us do in one way or +other; he was countin' on what there might be in the future. He +b'lieved in a good time comin'." + +"Yes,--in heaven, perhaps, but not here." + +"That's where you're mistaken, for he did expect it here--right here, +in Claybanks." + +Philip looked incredulous, and asked:-- + +"From what?" + +"Well, he could remember when Chicago was as small as Claybanks is now, +an' had a good deal more swamp land to the acre, too--an' now look at +it! He'd seen St. Paul an' Minneapolis when both of 'em together could +be hid in a town as big as Claybanks--but now look at 'em!" + +"But St. Paul and Minneapolis had an immense water-fall and +water-power to attract millers of many kinds." + +"Well, hain't we got a crick? They calculate that with a proper dam +above town, we'd have water-power nine months every year, an' there +ain't nothin' else o' the kind within fifty mile. Then there's our clay +banks that the town was named after; they're the only banks of brick +clay in the state; ev'rywhere else folks has to dig some feet down for +clay to make bricks, so we ought to make brick cheaper'n any other +town, an' supply all the country round--when we get a railroad to haul +'em out. They're not as red as some, bein' really brown, but they're a +mighty sight harder'n any red brick, so they're better for foundations +an' for walls o' big buildings. Chicago didn't have no clay banks nor +water-power, but just look at her now! All that made her was her bein' +the first tradin' place in the neighborhood; well, so's Claybanks, an' +it's been so for forty year or more, too, so its time must be almost +come. Your uncle 'xpected to see it all in his time, but, like Moses, +he died without the sight. Why, there's been three or four railroads +surveyed right through here--yes, sir!" + +"Is there any Western town that couldn't say as much, I wonder?" Philip +asked. + +"Mebbe not, but they hain't all got clay banks an' a crick; not many of +'em's got eleven hundred people in forty year, either. An' say--it's +all right for you to talk this way with me--askin' questions an' so on, +an' wonderin' if the place'll ever 'mount to anythin', but don't let +out a bit of it to anybody else--not for a farm. You might's well be +dead out here as not to believe in the West with all your might, an' +most of all in this part of it." + +"Thank you; I'll remember." + +Then Philip went out and walked slowly about the shabby village until +he found himself in the depths of the blues. + + + + +VI--THE UNEXPECTED + + +"THE nicer half of the You-I seems buried in contemplation this +morning," said Philip at his breakfast table, the Saturday before +Christmas. + +"The home-half of the You-I," Grace replied, after a quick rally from +a fit of abstraction, "was thinking that it saw very little of the +store-half this week, except when she went to the store to look for it. +Was business really so exacting, or was it merely absorbing?" + +"'Twas both, dear girl," said Philip, wishing he might repeat to her +all that Caleb had said to him as recorded in the preceding chapter, +and then scolding himself for the wish. + +"I wonder," Grace said, "whether you know you often look as if you were +in serious trouble?" + +"Do I? I'm sorry you noticed it, but now that it's over, I don't object +to telling you that if a single money package had arrived six hours +later than it did, the principal general store of this county would +have taken second or third place in the public esteem." + +"Phil! Was it so large a sum?" + +"Oh, no; merely two hundred dollars, but without it I would have had to +decline to buy two or three wagon-loads of dressed hogs." + +"'Dressed hogs'! What an expression!" + +"Quite so; still, 'tis the meatiest one known in this part of the +country. I can't say, however, that 'tis an ideal one for use when +ladies are present, so I beg to move the previous question. What was +it?" + +"'Twas that I've seen very little of you this week except when I've +been to the store to look for you. Won't the business soon be easier, +as you become accustomed to it, so we may have our evenings together +once more?" + +"I hope so," said Philip. + +"You didn't say that as if you meant it." + +"Didn't I? Well, dear girl, to-morrow will be Sunday, and you shall +have every moment of my time, and 'I shall bathe my weary soul in seas +of heavenly rest,' as Caleb frequently sings to himself." + +"You poor fellow! You need more help in the store, if you don't wish to +become worn out." + +"I don't see how any one could assist me. Caleb is everything he should +be, but he has given me to understand that everything really depends +upon the proprietor, and the more I learn of the business, the more +plainly I see that he is right." + +Grace asked a few questions, and after Philip had answered them he +exclaimed:-- + +"You artful, inquisitive, dreadful woman! You've dragged out of me a +lot of things that I'd determined you shouldn't know, for I've always +had an utter contempt for men who inflict their personal troubles upon +their wives. But you can imagine from what I've told you that no one +but a partner could relieve me of any of my work." + +"Then why not teach your partner the business?" + +"'Twill be time to do that when I get one." + +"Don't be stupid, Phil," Grace said, rising from her chair, going to +her husband, and bestowing a little pinch and a caress. "Don't you know +who I mean?" + +"Dear girl," said Philip, "you're quite as clever as I,--which is no +compliment,--and everybody adores you. But the idea of your dickering +by the hour with farmers and other countrymen--and dickering is simply +the soul of our business--is simply ridiculous." + +"I don't see why," Grace replied, with a pout, followed by a flash in +her deep brown eyes. "Some of the farmers' wives 'dicker,' as you call +it, quite as sharply as their husbands. Am I stupider than they?" + +"No--no! What an idea! But--they've been brought up to it." + +"Which means merely that they've learned it. What women have done woman +can do. I hope I'm not in the way in the store when you're talking +business?" + +"In the way! You delicious hypocrite!" + +"Well, I've listened a lot for business' sake, instead of merely for +fun. Besides, I do get dreadfully lonesome in the house at times, +in spite of a little work and a lot of play--at the piano. Oh, that +reminds me of something. Prepare to be startled. A great revival effort +is to begin at the church to-morrow night, and a committee of two, +consisting of Caleb and Mr. Grateway, the minister, have been to me to +know--guess what they wanted." + +"H'm! I shouldn't wonder if they wanted you to promise to sit beside +the minister, so that all the susceptible young men might be coaxed to +church and then shaken over the pit and dragged into the fold. Caleb +and the minister have long heads." + +"Don't be ridiculous! What they ask is that you'll have our piano moved +to the church, and that you'll play the music for the hymns. There's to +be a lot of singing, and the church hasn't any instrumental music, you +know, and Caleb has been greatly impressed by your playing." + +"Well, I'll be--I don't know what. Old fools! I wish they'd asked me +direct! They'd have got a sharp, unmistakable 'NO!'" + +"So they said; that was the reason they came to me." + +"And you said--" + +"That I'd consult you, and that if for any reason you felt that you +must decline, I would play for them." + +"Grace--Somerton!" + +"Why shouldn't I? I often played the melodeon for the choir in our +village church before I went to New York." + +"Did you, indeed? But I might have imagined it, for there seems to be +nothing that you can't do, or won't attempt. But let us see where we +are. You've promised, practically, that they shall have the music; if +I decline to play, they'll think I'm stuck up, or something of which, +for business' sake, I can't afford to be suspected. Besides, when I +married you I made some vows that weren't in the service, and one of +them was that I never would shift any distasteful duty upon my wife. On +the other hand, these Methodists are a literal lot of people. They've +wanted me to become a class-leader because Uncle Jethro was one. I +believe the duties are to inflict spiritual inquisition every Sunday +upon specified people in the presence of one another. I escaped only +by explaining that I was not a member of their denomination. But give +them an inch and they'll take an ell. If I play for them that night, +they'll expect me to do it the next, and again and again, probably +every Sunday, and I certainly shan't have our piano jogged once a week +over frozen roads, with the nearest tuner at a city seventy-five miles +away." + +"Then let me tell them that you won't allow them to be disappointed, +but that as you've not been accustomed to play for church singing, and +I have, that I will play for them." + +"That means that every one in the church will stare at you, which +will make your husband feel wretchedly uncomfortable. Aside from +that, you'll distract attention from the minister; so although I know +that you personally are a means of grace--Grace, itself, indeed, ha, +ha!--the effect of the sermon won't be worth any more than a bag of +corn-husks." + +"Oh, Phil! don't imagine that everybody sees me through your eyes. +Besides, except while playing I shall sit demurely on a front bench, +with my back to the congregation." + +So Caleb and the minister were rejoiced, and spread the announcement +throughout the town, and Grace rehearsed the church's familiar airs to +all the hymns on the list which the minister gave her, though some of +them she had to learn by ear, by the assistance of Caleb, who whistled +them to her. Soon after dark on Sunday night six stalwart sinners, +carefully selected by Caleb, exulted in the honor of carrying the +little upright piano to the church, where they remained so as to be +sure of seats from which to hear the music. + +The Methodist church edifice in Claybanks could seat nearly three +hundred people and give standing room to a hundred more. Seldom had +it been filled to its extreme capacity; but when the opening hymn was +"given out" on the night referred to, the building was crowded to +the doors and a hundred or more persons outside begged and demanded +that windows and doors should remain open during the singing. Pastor +Grateway, who had been in the ministry long enough to make the most of +every opportunity, improved this occasion to announce that according to +custom in all churches possessing instruments, the music of each hymn +would be played before the singing began. Grace, quite as uncomfortable +as her husband would have been in her place, was nevertheless familiar +with the music and the piano, and the congregation rose vociferously +to the occasion. Even the sinners sang, and one back-seat ruffian, who +had spent a winter in a city and frequented concert saloons, became so +excited as to applaud at the end of the first hymn, for which he was +promptly tossed through an open window by his more decorous comrades. + +The hymn after the prayer was equally effective, so the minister +interpolated still another one after the scripture reading called the +"second lesson." He, too, had been uplifted by the music--so much +uplifted that he preached more earnestly than usual and also more +rapidly, so as to reach the period of "special effort." At the close of +the sermon he said:-- + +"As we sing the hymn beginning 'Come, ye Sinners, Poor and Needy,' let +all persons who wish to flee from the wrath to come, and desire the +prayers of true believers, come forward and kneel at the mourners' +bench." + +The hymn was sung, and two or three persons approached the altar +and dropped upon their knees. As the last verse was reached, Caleb +whispered to the minister, who nodded affirmatively; then he whispered +to Grace, who also nodded; then he found Philip, who was seated +near the front, to be within supporting distance of his wife, and +whispered:-- + +"Give your wife a spell for a minute; play 'Am I a Soldier of the +Cross' the way you did the other day for me. That'll fetch 'em!" + +Philip frowned and refused, but Caleb snatched his hand in a vise-like +grasp and fairly dragged him from his seat. Half angry, half defiant, +yet full of the spirit of any man who finds himself "in for it," +whatever "it" may be, Philip dropped upon the piano stool which Grace +had vacated, and attacked the keys as if they were sheaves of wheat and +he was wielding a flail. He played the music as he had played it to +Caleb, with the accent and swing of a march, yet with all the runs and +variations with which country worshippers are wont to embroider it, and +the hearers were so "wrought up" by it that they began the hymn with a +roaring "attack" that was startling even to themselves. Grace, seeing +no seat within reach, and unwilling to turn her back to the people, +retired to one end of the piano, under one of the candles, from which +position, on the raised platform in front of the pulpit, she beheld +a spectacle seldom seen in its fulness except by ministers during a +time of religious excitement--a sea of faces, many of them full of the +ecstacy of faith and anticipation, others wild with terror at the doom +of the impenitent. + +Like most large-souled women, Grace was by nature religious and +extremely sympathetic, and unconsciously she looked pityingly and +beseechingly into many of the troubled faces. Her eyes rested an +instant, unconsciously, on those of one of the stalwart sinners who +had brought the piano to the church. In a second the man arose, strode +forward, and dropped upon his knees. Grace looked at another,--for the +six were together on one bench,--and he, too, came forward. Then a +strange tumult took possession of her; she looked commandingly at the +others in succession, and in a moment the entire six were on their +knees at the altar. + +"Great hell!" bellowed the ruffian who had been tossed through the +window, into which he had climbed halfway back in his eagerness to hear +the music. Then he tumbled into the church, got upon his feet, and +hurried forward to join the other sinners at the mourners' bench, which +had already become so crowded that Caleb was pressing the saints from +the front seats to make room for coming penitents. + +The hymn ended, but Philip did not know it, so he continued to play. +Grace whispered to him, and when he had reached the last bar, which +he ended with a crash, he abruptly seated himself on the pulpit steps +and felt as if he had done something dreadful and been caught in the +act. Grace reseated herself at the instrument; and as the minister, +with the class leaders, Sunday-school teachers, and other prominent +members of the church were moving among the penitents, counselling and +praying, and the regular order of song and prayer had been abandoned or +forgotten, she played the music of the hymns that had been designated +by the minister on the previous day. Some of the music was plaintive, +some spirited, but she played all with extreme feeling, whether the +people sang or merely listened. She played also all newer church music +that had appealed to her in recent years, and when, at a very late +hour, the congregation was dismissed, she suddenly became conscious of +the most extreme exhaustion she had ever known. As she and her husband +were leaving the church, one of the penitents approached them and +said:-- + +"Bless the Lord for that pianner--the Lord an' you two folks." + +"Amen!" said several others. + +Philip and Grace walked home in silence; but when they were within +doors, Philip took his wife's hands in his, held them apart, looked +into Grace's eyes, which seemed to be melting, and exclaimed:-- + +"Grace Somerton--my wife--a revivalist!" + +"Is Saul also among the prophets?" Grace retorted, with a smile which +seemed to her husband entirely new and peculiar. "It was your music +that started the--what shall I call it?" + + + + +VII--AN ACTIVE PARTNER + + +THE piano remained at the church several days, for the revival effort +was too successful to be discontinued. Night after night Grace played +for saints and sinners, and the minister, who was far too honest +to stretch the truth for the sake of a compliment, told her that +the playing drew more penitents than his prayers and sermons. Caleb +remained faithful to his duties at the store every day, but the sound +of the church bell in the evening made him so manifestly uneasy, and +eager to respond, that Philip volunteered to look after all customers +and loungers who might come in before the customary time for closing. +But customers and loungers were few; for the church was temporarily the +centre of interest to all of the good and bad whose evenings were free. +There was no other place for Philip himself to go after the store was +closed, for was not his wife there? Besides, the work soon began to +tell on Grace; for the meetings were long, and the air of the tightly +packed little church became very stifling, so Philip sometimes relieved +Grace so that she might go to the door for fresh air. + +"Do you know what you two have done, with your pianner-playin'?" asked +Caleb, when the revival concluded. "You've not only snatched a lot of +sinners that have been dodgin' ev'rybody else for years, but folks is +so grateful to you that four or five customers of other stores are +goin' to give you their trade the comin' year. I was sure 'twould work +that way, but I didn't like to tell you." + +"I'm glad you didn't; for if you had, the music would have stopped +abruptly. There are places to draw the line in advertising one's +business,--my business,--and the church is one of them." + +"Good! That's just the way I thought you'd feel, but I'm mighty glad to +know it for sure. Church singin' 'll be mighty dismal, though, when you +take that pianner back home." + +As Caleb spoke, he looked beseechingly at Philip, who utterly ignored +the look and maintained an impassive face. Then Caleb transferred his +mute appeal to Grace, who looked troubled and said:-- + +"There ought to be some way out of it." + +"Where there's a will, there's a way," Caleb suggested. + +Philip frowned, then laughed, and said:-- + +"Suppose you think up a way--but don't let there be any delay about +getting the piano back to the house." + +"Well, it's a means of grace at the church." + +"So it is at home, and I need all the means of grace I can get, +particularly those that are nearest home, while I am breaking myself in +to a new business." + +Caleb had the piano brought back to the parlor, but he reverted to it +again and again, in season and out of season, until Philip told Grace +that there was no doubt that his uncle was right when he wrote that +Caleb would sometimes insist on being helped with projects of his own. + +"That wasn't all," Grace replied. "He wrote also that he advised +you to give Caleb his way at such times, or your life would be made +miserable until you did, and that the cost of Caleb's projects would +not be great." + +"H'm! I wonder if uncle knew the cost of a high-grade upright piano? +Besides, I need all my time and wits for the business, and Caleb's +interruptions about that piano are worrying the life out of me. To +make matters worse, there's a new set of commercial travellers coming +in almost every day--this is the season, while country merchants are +beginning to get money, in which they hope to make small sales for +quick pay, and they take a lot of my time." + +"You ought to have a partner--and you have one, you know--to see those +people for you; and she will do it, if you'll let her." + +"My partner knows that she may and shall do whatever she likes," said +Philip, "but, dear girl, 'twould be like sending a sheep among wolves +to unloose that horde of drummers upon you." + +"I've had to deal with men, in some city stores in which I worked," +Grace replied, "and some of them reminded me of wolves--and other +animals; but I succeeded in keeping them in their places. I know the +private costmarks on all of our goods, and I know the qualities of many +kinds of goods better than you or Caleb, and both of you will be within +call for consultation whenever I'm puzzled; so let me try. 'Twill give +me an excuse to spend all of my spare time in the store; so whenever a +drummer comes in, you can refer him to me. Say I'm the buyer for the +concern. 'Twill sound big; don't you think so?" + +"Indeed I do! I wonder where a young woman got such a head for +business." + +"Strange, isn't it," Grace replied, with dancing eyes which had also +a quizzical expression, "as she's been several years behind counters, +great and small, and listened to scores of buyers and drummers haggle +over fractions of a cent in prices?" + +"And for about that much time," said Philip, reminiscently, "her +husband was a mere clerk and correspondent, yet thought himself a +rising business man! Have your own way, partner--managing partner, I +ought to say." + +The next day was a very busy one, yet Caleb found time to say something +about instrumental music as a means of grace in churches, and to get a +sharp reply. Several commercial travellers came in and were astonished +at being referred to a handsome, well-dressed young woman. Grace +disposed of them rapidly and apparently without trouble. When husband +and wife sat down to supper, Philip said:-- + +"How did the managing partner get along to-day?" + +"I bought very little," Grace replied. + +"You saved Caleb and me a lot of time. I've never seen Caleb so active +and spirited as he has been this afternoon. It made me feel guilty, +for I was rude to him this morning for the first time. Just when I was +trying to think my hardest about something, he brought up again the +subject of the church and the piano." + +"Poor Caleb! But he won't do it again, for I've settled the matter." + +"You've not been tender-hearted enough to give up the piano?" + +"Oh, no, but I--we, I mean--have taken the county agency for a +cabinet-organ firm." + +"I see--e--e! And you're going to torment the church into buying one, +and you and Caleb are going to get up strawberry festivals and such +things to raise the money, and the upshot will be that I'll have to +subscribe a lot of cash to make up the deficiency. Ah, well, peace will +be cheap at--" + +"Phil, dear, don't be so dreadfully previous. The bargain is that the +firm shall send us, without charge, a specimen instrument, which I've +promised to display to the best advantage, and I've also promised to +give elementary instruction to every one who manifests interest in it." + +"Grace Somerton! The house will be full from morning till night. +Country people will throng about such an instrument like children about +a hand-organ. 'Twill be the end of your coming into the store to talk +to the drummers, or even to see me." + +"Oh, Phil! Where are your wits? I'm going to have the organ kept at +the church, and let the most promising would-be learners and possible +buyers do their practising there. The organ firm sells on instalments; +we'll guarantee the instalments, for I'll select the buyers--who will +want only smaller instruments--from among women who bring us chickens +and butter and eggs and feathers and such things. So the church will +be sure of an instrument more appropriate to congregational singing +than a piano, and our piano won't be coveted, and we will make a little +money, and by the time the next revival season arrives there will be at +least a few people who can play, and perhaps some who are accustomed to +closed windows and stuffy air, and won't get splitting headaches and +lose five pounds of weight in a week, as I did." + +"Allow me to catch my breath!" said Philip. "Give me some tea, please, +quick!--no milk or sugar. I hope 'tis very strong. You've planned all +this, yet there you sit, as natural and unassuming as if you'd never +thought of anything but keeping house and being the sweetest wife in +the world!" + +"Thank you, but shouldn't sweetness have any strength and character? +And what is business for, I should like to know, but to enable women +to keep house--and keep their pianos, if they have any?" + +"Caleb," said Philip, on returning to the store, "I want to apologize +for answering you rudely this morning about that enraging piano. I was +in a hard study over--" + +"Don't mention it," said Caleb, with a beatific smile. "Besides, +'Providence tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' as the Bible says in +hundreds of different ways. I s'pose your wife's told you what she's +done about music for the church? Je--ru--salem! Ain't she a peeler, +though?" + +"She is indeed--if I may assume that a 'peeler' is an incomparable +combination of goodness and good sense." + +"That's about the meanin' of it, in my dictionary." Then Caleb fixed +his eyes inquiringly upon Philip's face and kept them there so long +that Philip asked:-- + +"What now, Caleb?" + +"Nothin'," said Caleb, suddenly looking embarrassed. "That is, nothin' +that's any o' my business." + +"If 'twas mine, you needn't hesitate to mention it. You and I ought to +be fair and frank with each other." + +"Well," said Caleb, counting with a stubby forefinger the inches on a +yardstick, "I was only wonderin'--that is, I want to say that you're a +good deal of a man, an' one that I'm satisfied it's safe to tie to, an' +I'm mighty glad you're in your uncle's place, but--for the land's sake, +how'd you come to git her?" + +Philip laughed heartily, and replied:-- + +"As most men get wives. I asked her to marry me. First, of course, I +put my best foot forward, for a long time, and kept it there." + +"Of course. But didn't the other fellers try to cut you out?" + +"Quite likely, for most men have eyes." + +"Wa'n't any of 'em millionnaires?" + +"Probably not, though I never inquired. As she herself has told you, +Mrs. Somerton was a saleswoman. Millionnaires do their courting in +their own set, where saleswomen can't afford to be." + +"That was great luck for you, wasn't it? Are there any women like her +in their set?" + +"I don't doubt they think so. Mrs. Somerton says there are plenty of +them in every set, rich and poor alike. As for me,--'There's Only One +Girl in the World'--you've heard the song?" + +"Can't say that I have," Caleb replied, suddenly looking thoughtful, +"but the idea of it's straight goods an' a yard wide. Well, sir, it's +plain to me, an' pretty much ev'rybody else, that that wife o' yourn is +the greatest human blessin' that ever struck these parts. Good women +ain't scarce here; neither is good an' smart women. I s'pose our folks +look pretty common to you, 'cause of their clothes, but they improve on +acquaintance. Speakin' o' clothes--ev'rybody, even the best o' folks, +fall short o' perfection in some particular, you know. The only way +Mis' Somerton can ever do any harm, 'pears to me, is by always bein' so +well dressed as to discourage some other women, an' makin' a lot of the +gals envious an' discontented. She don't wear no di'monds nor gewgaws, +I know, but for all that, she looks, day in an' day out, as if she +was all fixed for a party or Sunday-school picnic, an'--But, say, 'I +shouldn't wonder if I was on dangerous ground,' as one of our recruits +remarked to me at Gettysburg after most of our regiment was killed or +wounded." + +"Aha!" exclaimed Philip, when he rejoined his wife after the store +closed for the day. "'Pride must have a fall'--that is, supposing +you were proud of silencing Caleb concerning the piano. He has a +torment in preparation for you, personally. He thinks you dress too +handsomely--wear party clothes every day, and are likely to upset the +heads of the village girls, and some women old enough to know better." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Grace, flushing indignantly. "I've absolutely no +clothes but those I owned when we were poor. I thought them good enough +for another season, as no one here would have seen them before, and +none of them was very badly worn." She arose, stood before the chamber +mirror, and said:-- + +"This entire dress is made of bits of others, that were two, three, or +four years old, and were painfully cheap when new." + +"Even if they weren't," said Philip, "they were your own, and earned +by hard work, and if ever again Caleb opens his head on the subject, +I'll--" + +"No, you won't! I don't know what you were going to do, but please +don't. Leave Master Caleb to me." + +"You don't expect to reason him into believing that you're less +effectively dressed than you are?" + +"I expect to silence him for all time," Grace replied, again +contemplating herself in the mirror, and appearing not dissatisfied +with what she saw. The next day she asked Caleb which, if any, of the +calicoes in the store were least salable; the cheapest, commonest stuff +possible, for kitchen wear. Caleb "reckoned" aloud that the best calico +was cheap enough for the store-owner's wife, but Grace persisted, so +she was shown the "dead stock,"--the leavings of several seasons' +goods,--from which she made two selections. Caleb eyed them with +disfavor, and said:-- + +"That purple one ain't fast color; the yaller one is knowed all over +the county as the Scare-Cow calico. We might 'a' worked it off on +somebody, if the first an' only dress of it we sold hadn't skeered a +cow so bad that she kicked, an' broke the ankle of the gal that was +milkin' her." + +"Never mind, Caleb; the purple one can afford to lose some of its +color, and--oh, I'll see about the other." + +Three days later Grace, enveloped in a water-proof cloak, hurried +through a shower from the house to the store, and on entering the +back room, threw off the cloak. Caleb, who was drawing vinegar from a +barrel, arose suddenly, with a half-gallon measure in his hands, and +groaned to see his employer's wife, "dressed," as he said afterward, +"like a queen just goin' onto a throne, though, come to think of it, +I never set eyes on a queen, nor a throne, either." More deplorable +still, she looked proud, and conscious, and as if demanding admiration. +There was even a suspicion of a wink as she exclaimed:-- + +"Be careful not to let any of that vinegar run over and splash near me, +Caleb! You know the purple isn't fast color!" + +"Je--ru--salem!" exclaimed Caleb, dropping the measure and its +contents, which Grace escaped by tripping backward to the shelter of a +stack of grain-sacks. When she emerged, with a grand courtesy followed +by a long, honest laugh, Caleb continued:-- + +"Well, I've read of folk's bein' clothed in purple an' fine linen, but +purple an' Scare-Cow knocks me flat! Dressed in 'dead stock,' from +head to foot, an' yit--Hello, Philip! Come in here! Oh! You're knocked +pretty flat, too, ain't you? Well, I just wanted to take back what I +said the other day about some folk's clothes. I don't b'lieve a dress +made of them grain-sacks would look common on her!" + +"How stupid of me!" Grace exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of the +grain-sacks? I might have corded the seams with heavy dark twine, or +piped them with red carpet-binding." + +"I don't know what cordin' an' pipin' is," said Caleb, "but after what +I've seen, I can believe that you'd only need to rummage in a big +rag-bag awhile to dress like a queen--or look like one." + + + + +VIII--THE PORK-HOUSE + + +COLD weather and the pork-packing season had arrived, and the lower +floor of Somerton's warehouse was a busier place than the store. At +one side "dressed" hogs, unloaded from farmers' wagons, were piled +high; in the centre a man with a cleaver lopped the heads and feet +from the carcasses, and divided the remainder into hams, shoulders, +and sides, which another man trimmed into commercial shape; a third +packed the product in salted layers on the other side. At the rear +of the room two men cut the trimmings, carefully separating the lean +from the fat, and with the latter filled, once in two or three hours, +some huge iron kettles which sat in a brick furnace in the corner. At +similar intervals the contents of the kettles were transferred to the +hopper of a large press, not unlike a cider press, and soon an odorous +wine-colored fluid streamed into a tank below, from which it was ladled +through tin funnels into large, closely hooped barrels. The room +was cold, despite the furnace; the walls, windows, and ceiling were +reminiscent of the dust and smell of many pork-packing seasons. Early +in the season Philip had dubbed the pork-packing floor "Bluebeard's +Chamber," and warned his wife never to enter it. After a single glance +one day, through the street door of the warehouse, Grace assured her +husband that the prohibition was entirely unnecessary. She also said +that she never had been fond of pork, but that in the future she would +eschew ham, bacon, sausage, lard, and all other pork products. + +When the sound of rapid, heavy hammering was audible in the Somerton +sitting room and parlor, and when Grace asked where it came from, +Philip replied, "The pork-house;" the cooper was packing barrels of +sides, hams, or shoulders for shipment, or tightening the hoops of +lard-barrels which were inclined to leak. When Grace wondered whence +came the great flakes of soot on table-linen which had been hung out +of doors to dry, Philip replied, "The pork-house;" probably the fire +in the furnace was drawing badly and smoking too much. Frequently, +when she went to the store and asked Caleb where her husband was, the +reply would be, "The pork-house." If Philip reached home late for a +meal, and Grace asked what had kept him, he was almost certain to +reply, "The pork-house," and if, as frequently occurred later in the +season, he retired so late that Grace thought she had slept through +half the night, he groaned, in answer to her inevitable question, "The +pork-house." + +Then came a day when Grace detected an unfamiliar and unpleasing odor +in the house. She suspected the napkins, then the tablecloth, and +examined the rug under the dining-room table for possible spots of +butter. Next she inspected the kitchen, which she washed and scoured +industriously for a full day. Occasionally she detected the same odor +in the store, as if she had carried it with her from the house, so she +examined her dresses minutely, for the odor was reminiscent of cookery +of some kind, although she had but a single dress for kitchen wear, +and never wore it out of the house. She mentioned the odor to Philip, +but he was unable to detect it in the air. One day it inflicted itself +upon her even in church, and became so obnoxious that she spoke of it, +instead of the sermon, as soon as the congregation was dismissed. + +"I'm very sorry, dear girl, that you're so tormented," said Philip. "I +wish I could identify the nuisance; then possibly I could find means +to abate it. I know an odor is hard to describe, but do try to give me +some clew to it." + +"It reminds me somewhat of stale butter," Grace replied slowly, "and +of some kinds of greasy pans, and of burned meat, and of parts of some +tenement-house streets in the city, and some ash-cans on city sidewalks +on hot summer mornings--oh, those days!--and of--I don't know what +else." + +"You've already named enough to show that 'tis truly disgusting and +dreadful, and I do wish you and I could exchange the one of the five +senses which is affected by it, for I never had much sense of smell." + +By this time they were at home. Philip was unclasping his wife's cloak +when Grace exclaimed suddenly:-- + +"There it is!" + +"There what is?" + +"That dreadful odor! Why, Phil, 'tis on your coat-sleeve! What, in the +name of all that's mysterious--" + +"That was my best coat in the city last winter, and I've never worn it +here, except on Sundays." + +"Then it must have taken the odor from some other garment in your +closet." + +Philip hurriedly brought his ordinary weekday coat to the sitting +room, Grace moved it slowly, suspiciously, toward her nose, and soon +exclaimed:-- + +"There it is--ugh! But what can it be?" + +At that instant a well-known knock at the door announced Caleb, who had +been invited to Sunday dinner. + +"Don't be shocked, Caleb," said Philip; "we're not mending clothes on +Sunday. 'Twill scarcely be an appetizer, apparently, but won't you pass +this coat to and fro before your face a moment, and detect an odor, if +you can, and tell us what it is?" + +Caleb took the coat, did as requested, touched the cloth with his nose, +and replied:-- + +"The pork-house." + +"What do you mean?" Philip asked, while Grace turned pale. + +"It's the smell of boilin' fat, from the lard-kettles. It's powerful +pervadin' of ev'rythin', specially woollen clothes, an' men's hair, +when the pork-house windows an' doors are shut. It makes me mortal sick +sometimes, when the malary gets a new grip on me; at such times I know +a pork-house worker when I pass him in the street in the dark. To save +myself from myself I used to wear an oilcloth jacket an' overalls when +I worked in the pork-house--your uncle an' I used to have to put in a +good many hours there. There was somethin' else I used to do too, when +I got to my room, though I never dared to tell your uncle, or he'd +never ha' stopped laughin' at me." + +"What was it? Tell me--quick!" said Philip. + +"Why, I bought a bottle of Floridy water out of the store,--it's a +stuff that some of the gals use,--an' I sprinkled a little ev'ry day, +mornin' an' evenin', on the carpet." + +Philip hurried to a bed-chamber, and came back with Grace's +cologne-bottle, the contents of which he bestowed upon the rug under +the dining table. + +"That ort to kill the rat," said Caleb, approvingly. + +The dinner was a good one, but Grace ate sparingly, though she talked +with animation and brilliancy unusual even for her, Philip imagined. +For himself, he felt as he thought a detected criminal, an outcast, +must feel. Excusing himself abruptly, he relieved his feelings somewhat +by throwing out of doors the offending coat and the garments pertaining +to it; then he threw out all the woollen garments of his wardrobe. +Caleb was not due at Sunday school until three o'clock, but he excused +himself an hour early. As he started, he signalled Philip in a manner +familiar in the store, to follow him, and when both were outside the +door, he said:-- + +"I reckon she needs quinine, or somethin'. Touchiness 'bout smells is a +sign. I'd get Doc Taggess to come down, if I was you." + +Philip thanked him for the suggestion; then he hurried to the +bath-room, washed his hair and mustache, and exchanged his clothes +for a thinner suit which he exhumed from a trunk. It was redolent of +camphor, which he detested, but it was "all the perfumes of Araby" +compared with--the pork-house. Then he rejoined Grace and made haste to +officiate as assistant scullion, and also to ejaculate:-- + +"That infernal pork-house!" + +"Don't talk of it any more to-day," Grace said, with a piteous smile. + +"How can I help it, when--" + +"But you must help it, Phil dear. Really you must." + +Philip made haste to change the subject of conversation, and to cheer +his wife and escape from his own thoughts he tried to be humorous, and +finally succeeded so well that he and Grace became as merry in their +little kitchen as they ever had been anywhere. Indeed, Grace recovered +her spirits so splendidly that of her own accord she recalled the +pork-house, and said many amusing things about "Bluebeard's Chamber," +and told how curious and jealous Philip's prohibition had made her, and +Philip replied that it contained more trunkless heads than the fateful +closet of Bluebeard, and that it was a treasure-house besides; for +through it passed most of the store's business that directly produced +money. Then he dashed at the piano and played a lot of music so lively +that it would have shocked the church people had they heard it, and +Grace lounged in an easy-chair, with her eyes half closed, looking the +picture of dreamy contentment. Later she composed herself among the +pillows of a lounge, and asked Philip to throw an afghan over her, +and sit beside her, and talk about old times in the city, and then +to remind her of all their newer blessings, because she wished to be +very, fully, reverently grateful for them. Philip was not loath to +comply with her request; for though the month's work had been very +exacting and hard, he had been assured by Caleb, within twenty-four +hours, that it was the largest and most profitable month of business +that the Somerton store had ever done, and that beyond a doubt the new +proprietor had "caught on," and held all the old customers, and of his +own ability secured several new ones, which proved that the people of +the town and county "took to" him. + +All this Philip repeated to Grace, who dreamily said that it was very +good, and a satisfaction to have her husband prominent among men, +instead of a nobody--a splendid, incomparable, adorable one, but still +really a nobody, among the hundreds of thousands of men in New York. +Then both of them fell to musing as the twilight deepened. Musing, +twilight, and temporary relief from the strain of the week's work +combined to send Philip into a gentle doze, from which he suddenly +roused himself to say:-- + +"What are you laughing at, Miss Mischief?" + +"I'm--not--laughing," Grace replied. + +"Crying? My dear girl, what is the matter?" + +"I'm--not--crying. I'm--merely--shivering. I'm cold." + +"That's because you've a brute of a husband, who has been so wrapped +up in his affairs and you that probably he has let the fire go out." +He made haste to replenish the stove and to throw over his wife a +traveller's rug. Then he lighted a shaded candle, looked at the +thermometer, and said:-- + +"How strange! The mercury stands at seventy-two degrees." + +But Grace continued to shiver, and, stranger still, she felt colder as +the fire burned up and additional covers were placed upon her. Finally +she exclaimed:-- + +"Oh, Phil! I'm frightened! This is something--different from--ordinary +cold. It must be some--something like--paralysis. I can't move my arms +or feet." + +"I'll run for Doctor Taggess at once!" said Philip; but as he started +from the room, Grace half screamed, half groaned:-- + +"Don't leave me, if you--love me! Don't let me--die--alone!" + +"At least let me go to the door and raise a shout; some one will hear +me, and I'll send him for the Doctor." + +As he opened the door he saw a light in the window of Caleb's room, +over the store. Quickly seizing the cord of the alarm signal, of which +Caleb had previously told him, he pulled several times, and soon Caleb, +finding the door ajar, entered the room. + +"Won't you get the Doctor, Caleb--quick?" said Philip. "We're awfully +frightened; my wife has a strange, dreadful attack of some kind. It +acts like paralysis." + +Caleb, glancing toward the lounge, saw the quivering covers and Grace's +face. + +"Poor little woman!" he said, with the voice of a woman. "But don't be +frightened. 'Tisn't paralysis. It's bad enough, but it never kills. I +know the symptoms as well as I know my own right hand, an' Doctor'll do +more good later in the evenin' than now." + +"But what is it, man?" + +"Malary--fever an' ager. She's never had a chill before, I reckon?" + +"No--o--o," said Grace, between chattering teeth. + +"Don't wonder you was scared, then. If religion could take hold +like an ager-chill, this part of the country would be a section o' +kingdom-come. The mean thing about it is that it takes hardest hold +of folks that's been the healthiest. Try not to be scared, though; +it won't kill, an' 'twon't last but a few minutes. Then you're likely +to drop asleep, an' wake pretty soon with a hot fever an' splittin' +headache; they ain't pleasant to look forward to, but they might seem +worse if you didn't foresee 'em. I'll go for Doc Taggess right off; +if he ain't home, his wife'll send him as soon as he comes. Taggess +himself is the best medicine he carries; but if he's off somewhere, +I'll come back an' tell your husband what to do. Don't be afeared to +trust me; ev'ry man o' sense in this section o' country knows what to +do for fever and ager; if he didn't, he'd have to go out o' business." + +Caleb departed, after again saying "Poor little woman!" very tenderly. +As for Philip, he took his wife's hands in his own and poured forth +a torrent of sympathetic words; but when the sufferer fell asleep, +he went out into the darkness and cursed malaria, the West, and the +impulse which had made him become his uncle's heir. He cursed many +things else, and then concentrated the remainder of his wrath into an +anathema on the pork-house. + + + + +IX--A WESTERN SPECTRE + + +AFTER her fever had subsided, Grace went to sleep and carried into +dream-land the disquieting conviction that she was to have a long +period of illness, and be confined to her bed. Philip had given her +the medicines prescribed and obtained by Caleb, for Doctor Taggess had +gone far into the country and was not expected home until morning. +Then Philip had lain awake far into the night, planning proper care +for his precious invalid; finally he decided to get a trained nurse +from New York, unless Doctor Taggess could recommend one nearer home. +He would also get from the city a trained housekeeper; for, as already +explained, there was no servant class at Claybanks, and of what use +was "help" when the head of the house was too ill to direct the work? +He would order from the city every cordial, every sick-room delicacy, +that he could think of, or the Doctor might suggest. Expense was not +to be thought of; there was only one woman and wife in the world--to +him, and she had been cruelly struck down. She should be made well, at +whatever cost. Meanwhile he would write the firm by which he had been +employed in New York, and beg for his old position, for the reason that +the climate of Claybanks was seriously undermining his wife's health; +afterward, as soon as Grace could be moved, he would take her back +to the city, and give up his Claybanks property, with its train of +responsibilities, privations, and miseries. + +When he awoke in the morning, he slipped softly from the room, which +he had darkened the night before, so that the morning light should +not disturb the invalid, and he moved toward the kitchen to make a +fire--a morning duty with which he had charged himself and faithfully +fulfilled since his first day in his uncle's house. To be in the store +by sunrise, as was the winter custom of Claybanks merchants, compelled +Philip to rise before daylight, and habit, first induced by an alarm +clock, had made him wake every winter day at six, while darkness was +still deep. + +He was startled, therefore, when he tip-toed into the dining room, to +be welcomed by a burst of sunlight. Evidently his wakefulness of the +previous night had caused him to oversleep. Hurrying to the kitchen, +he was again startled, for breakfast was cooking on the stove, and at +the table, measuring some ground coffee into a pot, stood Grace, softly +singing, as was her custom when she worked. + +"What?" he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. "Was it I who was ill, instead +of you, or have I been bereft of my senses for a fortnight or more?" + +"Neither, you poor, dear boy," Grace replied, though without looking +up. "Yesterday I was more scared than hurt; to-day I feel as well as +ever--really, I do." + +Philip stepped in front of her, took her head in his hands, and +looked into her face. The healthy glow peculiar to it had given place +to a sickly yellow tint; her plump cheeks had flattened--almost +hollowed, her eyes, always either lustrous or melting, were dull and +expressionless, and her lips, usually ruddy and full, were gray and +thin. As her husband looked at her, she burst into tears and hid her +face on his shoulder. + +"I could have endured anything but that," she sobbed. "I don't think +I'm vain, but it has always been so delightful to me that I could be +pretty to my husband. I wasn't conceited, but I had to believe my +mirror. But now--oh, I'd like to hide my face somewhere for a--" + +"Would you, indeed?" murmured Philip, tenderly. "Let me hide it +for you, a little at a time; I promise you that not a bit shall be +neglected." + +"Do let me breathe, Phil. I don't see how you can kiss a scarecrow--and +continue at it." + +"Don't you? I could kiss a plague-patient, or the living skeleton, if +Grace Somerton's heart was in it. I don't understand your reference to +a scarecrow. Your mirror must have been untruthful this morning, or +perhaps covered with mist, for--see!" + +So saying, he detached the late Mr. Jethro Somerton's tiny mirror from +the kitchen wall and held it before his wife, whose astonishment and +delight were great as she exclaimed:-- + +"Phil, you're a witch! Now I'm going to make believe that there was no +yesterday, and if yesterday persists in coming to mind, I shall scold +myself most savagely for having been a frightened, silly child." + +"You really were a very sick woman," Philip replied. "I was quite as +frightened at you while the chill had possession of you, and you had +a raging fever afterward. You've had headaches in other days, but +yesterday's was the first that made you moan." + +"'Tis very strange. I feel quite as well to-day as ever I did. Perhaps +'tis the effect of Caleb's medicine. Poor Caleb! When he saw me, I +really believe he suffered as much as I." + +"So it seemed to me," said Philip. "I wonder how a little, sickly, +always-tired man can have so much sympathy and tenderness?" + +"You forget that he, himself, is malaria-poisoned, as your uncle's +letter said. Probably he's had just such chills as mine. Let's make +haste to thank him." + +After a hurried breakfast, husband and wife went together to the store, +and found Caleb awaiting them at the back door. He had already seen +Grace's figure at the window of the sitting room. + +"Je--ru--salem!" he exclaimed, looking intently at Grace. "I never saw +a worse shake than yourn, which is sayin' a mighty lot, considerin' +I was born an' raised in the West. But you look just as good as new. +Well, there's somethin' good in ev'rythin', if you look far enough for +it--even in an ager-chill." + +"Good in a chill, indeed!" Philip exclaimed. + +"Yes; its good p'int is that it don't last long. Havin' a chill's like +bein' converted; if somethin' didn't shut down on the excitement pretty +quick, there'd be nothin' left o' the subject. Well, seein' you're +here, I reckon I'd better take a look in the pork-house." + +"He has sprinkled the floor with Florida water!" said Grace, as she +entered the store. "Evidently he didn't doubt that I'd be well this +morning, and he remembers yesterday." + +Within an hour Doctor Taggess and his wife bustled into the store, and +Mrs. Taggess hurried to Grace, and said:-- + +"I'd have come to you yesterday, my dear, if I hadn't known I could be +of no use. Chills are like cyclones; they'll have their own way while +they last, and everything put in their way makes them more troublesome." + +The Doctor consulted Philip, apart, as to what had been done, approved +of Caleb's treatment, and gave additional directions; then he turned +upon Grace his kind eyes and pleasant smile, which Caleb had rightly +intimated were his best medicines, and he said:-- + +"Well, has Doctor Caleb found time to give you his favorite theory, +which is that a chill or any other malarial product is a means of +grace?" + +"Caleb values his life too highly to advance such a theory at present," +Philip answered for his wife. + +"Just so, just so. Well, there's a time for everything, but Caleb isn't +entirely wrong on that subject. There are other and less painful and +entirely sufficient means of grace, however, from which one can choose, +so chills aren't necessary--for that particular purpose, and I hope you +won't have any more of them. I'm afraid you forgot some of the advice +I gave you, the first time we met, about how to take care of yourself +until you had become acclimated." + +Philip and Grace looked at each other sheepishly, and admitted that +they had not forgotten, but neglected. They had felt so well, so +strong, they said. + +"Just so, just so. Malaria's just like Satan, in many ways, but +especially in sometimes appearing as an angel of light. At first it +will stimulate every physical faculty of a healthy person like good +wine, but suddenly--well, you know. I had my suspicions the last time I +noticed your splendid complexion, but between mending broken limbs and +broken heads, and old people leaving the world, and young people coming +into it, I'm too busy to do all the work I lay out for myself. You may +have one more chill--" + +"Oh, Doctor!" + +"'Twon't be so bad as the first one, unless it comes to-day. They have +four different and regular periods--every day, every other day, once +in three days, and once in seven days, and each is worse than all of +the others combined--according to the person who has it. I'll soon cure +yours, whichever kind it may be, and after that I'm going to get Mrs. +Taggess to keep you in mind of the necessary precautions against new +attacks, for I've special use for you in this town and county. I wonder +if Caleb has told you that you, too, are a means of grace? No? Well, +he's a modest chap, but he'll get to it yet, and I'll back him up. This +county has needed a visible standard of physical health for young women +to live up to, and you entirely fill the bill." + +"I shouldn't wonder, Doctor," said Philip, while Grace blushed, "that, +religious though you are, you sometimes agree with the sceptic who +said that if he'd been the Creator of the world he'd have made health +catching, instead of disease." + +"No, I can't say that I do. Heaven knows I'm sick enough of sickness; +no honest physician's bills pay him for the miseries he has to see, and +think of, and fight; but health's very much like money--it's valued +most by those who have to work hardest to get it: those who come by +it easily are likely to squander it. I can't quite make out, by the +ordinary signs, how your wife came by her own. I wonder if she'd object +to telling me. I don't ask from mere curiosity, I assure you." + +"I'm afraid 'twill stimulate my self-esteem to tell," Grace replied, +with heightening color, "for I'm prouder of my health than of anything +else--except my husband. I got it by sheer hard, long effort, through +the necessity for six years, of going six days in the week, sick or +well, rain or shine, to and from a store, and of standing up, for nine +or ten hours a day while I was inside. To lose a day or two in such a +store generally meant to lose one's place, so a girl couldn't afford to +be sick, or even feeble." + +"Aha! Wife, did you hear that? Now, Mrs. Somerton, Claybanks and +vicinity need you even more than I'd supposed. But--do try to have +patience with me, for I'm a physician, you know, and what you tell me +may be of great service to other young women; I won't use your name, if +you object. Did you have good health from the first?" + +"No, indeed! I was a thin, pale, little country girl when I went +to the city; I'd worked so hard at school for years that all my +vitality seemed to have gone to my head. Work in the store was cruelly +hard,--indeed, it never became easy,--and I had headaches, backaches, +dizzy times--oh, all sorts of aches and wearinesses. But in a great +crowd of women there are always some with sharp eyes, and clear heads, +and warm hearts, and sometimes the mother-feeling besides. I wasn't the +only chronically tired girl in the place; most of the others looked +and felt as I did. Well, some of the good women I've mentioned were +perpetually warning us girls to be careful of our health, and telling +us how to do it." + +"Good! Good! What did they say--in general?" + +"Nothing," said Grace, laughing, and then remaining silent a moment, +as she seemed to be looking backward. "For each said something in +particular. All had hobbies. One thought diet was everything; with +another it was the daily bath; others harped on long and regular +sleep, or avoidance of excitement, or fresh air while sleeping, or +clothes and the healthiest way to wear them, or exercise, or the proper +position in which to stand, or on carrying the head and shoulders high, +or deep breathing, or recreation, or religion, or avoidance of the tea, +cake, and candy habit." + +"Well, well! Now tell me, please, which of these hobbies you adopted." + +"All of them--every one of them," Grace replied, with an emphatic toss +of her head. "First I tried one, with some benefit, then another, and +two or three more, and finally the entire collection." + +"Hurrah!" shouted the Doctor. "You can be worth more to the women +hereabouts than a dozen doctors like me, if you will--and of course +you will. Indeed, you must. One more question,--positively the last. +You couldn't have been the only woman who profited by the advice you +received?" + +"Oh, no. In any of the stores in which I worked there were some strong, +wholesome, grand women who had literally fought their way up to what +they were, for small pay and long hours, and weariness at night, and +many other things combined to make any special effort of self-denial +very, very hard--too hard for some of the girls, I verily believe. +I don't think I'm narrow or easily satisfied; sometimes I've been +fastidious and slow in forming acquaintances, but among all the other +women I've seen, or heard of, or read about, there aren't any for whom +I'd exchange some of my sister--shopgirls." + +"Saleswomen, if you please," said Philip. + +"Well, well!" drawled the Doctor, who had been looking fixedly at +Grace. "I don't wonder that you're what you are. Come along, wife." + +As Doctor and Mrs. Taggess departed, Grace said to her husband:-- + +"That is the highest compliment that I ever had." And Philip replied:-- + +"I hope 'tis good for chills." + + + + +X--SHE WANTED TO KNOW + + +GRACE'S malarial attack was soon repulsed, but the memory of +that Sunday chill remained vivid. So Grace followed the Doctor's +instructions as carefully as if she were an invalid on the brink of the +grave, and she compelled Philip also to heed the counsel of precaution +which Doctor Taggess had given to both. From that time forward she +took personal sympathetic interest in all malarial victims of whom +she heard, especially in those who purchased from the great stock of +proprietary medicines in Somerton's store. Not infrequently a farmer +or villager would be seized by a chill while talking or transacting +business in the store, and Grace, despite her own experience in a warm +room and under many woollen coverings, could scarcely help begging him +to accept the loan of heavy shawls from the store's stock, and to sit +undisturbed by the fire in the back room. When she planned a Sunday +dinner, at which Doctor Taggess and his wife were to be guests, it +was partly for the purpose of questioning the Doctor about the origin +of malaria, and of its peculiarities, which seemed almost as numerous +as cases; but Philip assured her that busy doctors, like other men of +affairs, hated nothing so much as to "talk shop" out of business hours. + +Fortunately she gradually became too busy to have time in which to +become a monomaniac on malaria. The specimen organ arrived, and +was placed in the church, to the great edification of the people. +Grace was for a time the only performer, but to prepare relief for +herself, improve the quality of the congregational singing, and not +without an eye to business, she organized an evening music class, +and quickly trained several young women to play some of the simpler +hymn-tunes,--and also to purchase organs on the instalment plan. + +From music lessons to dress-making is a far cry, but the fame of the +purple and "Scare-Cow" dress had pervaded the county, and all the +girls wanted dresses like it, which was somewhat embarrassing after the +stock of the two calicoes had been exhausted. Then there arose a demand +for something equally lovely, pretty, nice, sweet, or scrumptious, +according to the vocabulary of the demander, and Eastern jobbers of +calicoes and other prints and cheap dress-goods were one day astonished +to receive from "Philip Somerton, late Jethro Somerton," a request for +a full line of samples--the first request of the sort from that portion +of the state. To be able to ask in a store, "How would you make this +up?" and to get a satisfying answer, was a privilege which not even the +most hopeful women of Claybanks had ever dared to expect, so the "truck +trade" of the town and county--the business that came of women carrying +eggs, butter, chickens, feathers, etc., to the stores to barter for +goods--drifted almost entirely to Somerton's store, and caused John +Henry Bustpodder, a matter-of-fact German merchant on the next block, +to say publicly that if his wife should die he would shut up the store +and leave it shut till he could get to New York and marry a shopgirl. + +By midspring Grace had quite as few idle moments as her husband +or Caleb; for between housekeeping, music-teaching, talking with +commercial travellers, and selling goods, she seldom found time to +enjoy the horse and buggy that Philip had bought for her, and she often +told her husband, in mock complaint, that she worked longer hours than +she had ever done in New York, and that she really must have an advance +of pay if he did not wish her to transfer her abilities and customers +to some rival establishment. Yet she enjoyed the work; she had a keen +sense of humor, which sharpened the same sense in others, and when +women were at the counter, she frequently found excuse to start a +chorus of laughter. To her husband, a customer was merely a customer; +to Grace he was frequently a character, and she had seen so few +characters in the course of her New York experiences that she rejoiced +in the change. She was sympathetic, too, so the younger women talked to +her of much besides "truck" and goods. When one day a country matron +rallied her on being without children, another matron exclaimed, "She's +second mother to half the gals in the county"--a statement which Grace +repeated to Philip in great glee, following it with a demure question +as to the advisability of living up to her new dignity by taking to +spectacles and sun-bonnets. + +But in her sober moments, and sometimes in the hurry of business, +a spectre of malaria would suddenly intrude upon her thoughts. +Occasionally she saw cases of rheumatism, rickets, helpless limbs, +twitching faces, and other ailments that caused her heart to ache, +and prompted her to ask the cause. The answers were various: +"malary"--"fever an' ager"--"malarier"--"chills"--"malaria," but the +meanings were one. One day she burst in an instant from laughter into +tears at seeing a babe, not a year old, shaking violently with a chill. +Straightway Grace went to the minister--poor minister!--and demanded +to know how the Lord could permit so dreadful an occurrence. One day, +after engaging Doctor Taggess in general conversation, she abruptly +said, despite Philip's reminder that physicians dislike "shop talk":-- + +"I wish you would tell me all about malaria; what it is, and where it +comes from, and why we don't get rid of it." + +"My dear woman," the Doctor replied, "ask me about electricity, of +which no one knows much, and I can tell you something, but malaria is +beyond my ken. I know it when I see it in human nature; that is, I +treat almost all diseases as if they were malarial, and I seldom find +myself mistaken, but, beyond that, malaria is beyond my comprehension." + +"But, Doctor, it must be something, and come from somewhere." + +"Oh, yes. 'Tis generally admitted that malaria is due to an invisible +emanation from the soil, and is probably a product of vegetation in a +certain stage of decay. It seems to be latent in soil that has not been +exposed to the air for some time,--such as that thrown from cellars +and wells in process of excavation,--and all swamps are believed to be +malaria breeders; for when the swamp land of a section is drained, the +malarial diseases of the vicinity disappear." + +"Then why aren't all swamps drained?" + +"Because the work would be too expensive, in the sections where the +swamps are, I suppose. Look at this township, for example: while all +the ground is open,--that is, not frozen,--the farmers and other people +have all they can do at planting, cultivating, harvesting, etc. Swamp +land makes the richest soil, after it has been drained, but who's going +to drain his own swamp when he already has more good land than he can +cultivate? Some of the farmers work at it, a little at a time, but it +is slow work,--discouragingly slow,--besides being frightfully hard and +disgustingly dirty." + +"Then why doesn't the government do it?" + +"I thought you'd come to that, for every woman's a socialist at heart +until she learns better. Still, so is every man. Well, governments have +no money of their own; all they have is taken from the people, in the +form of taxes, and any increase of taxes, especially for jobs as large +as swamp drainage in this state, would be too unpopular to be voted. +Besides, while it would be of general benefit to the many, it would +specially and greatly benefit the owners of the swamp land, which would +start a frightful howl. Private enterprise may be depended upon to +banish swamps and malaria; but first there must be enough population, +and enough increase in the value of land, to justify it. I wish 'twould +do so in this county and in my day. 'Twould lessen my income, but +'twould greatly increase my happiness, for doctors have hearts. By the +way, have you yet heard from Caleb on malaria as a means of grace? +There's a chance to learn something about malaria--to hear something +about it, at least; for Caleb talks well on his pet subjects. Poor +fellow, I wish I could cure his chronic malarial troubles. I've tried +everything, and he does enjoy far better health than of old, but the +cause of the trouble remains. That man came of tall, broad-shouldered +stock on both sides--you wouldn't imagine it, would you, to look at +him? He's always been industrious and intelligent; everybody likes him +and respects him; but at times it's almost impossible to extract an +idea or even a word from him--all on account of malaria. Again, he'll +have the clearest, cleverest head in town. Seems strange, doesn't it?" + +Grace improved an early opportunity to say to Caleb that perhaps she +had done wrong in recovering so quickly from her attack of chills, for +she had been told that he regarded malaria as a means of grace. + +"Well, yes, I do--'bout the same way as some other things--air, an' +light, an' food, an' money, for instance. Anythin' that helps folks +to make the most of their opportunities can be a means of grace; when +it isn't, the folks themselves are the trouble. Reckon nobody'll +dispute that about good things. But when it comes to things that ain't +popular,--like floods, an' light'nin'-strokes, an' malary,--well, folks +don't seem to see it in the same light, and they suspect the malary +most, 'cause it's far an' away the commonest. I've been laughed at so +often for my notions on the subject that I've got hardened to it, an' +don't mind standin' it again." + +"Oh, Caleb! Please don't say that! You don't believe I would laugh at +anything you're earnest about, do you?" + +"Well, I don't really b'lieve you would, an' I'm much 'bliged to you +for it. You see, my idee is this. You remember what's said, in one +of the psalms, about they that go down to the sea in ships, and what +happens to them when a big wind comes up--how they are at their wit's +end, because they're in trouble too big for them to manage, so they +have to call unto the Lord?--somethin' that sailors ain't b'lieved +to be given to doin' over an' above much, judgin' by their general +conversation as set down in books an' newspapers. Well, malary's like +the wind, an' the spirit that's compared with it; you can't tell where +it's comin' from, or when, or how long it's goin' to stay, or what +it'll do before it goes. It puts a man face to face with his Maker, an' +just when the man can't put on airs, no matter how hard he tries. I +think anythin' that kicks a man into seein' his dependence on heaven is +a means of grace, even if the man's too mean to take advantage of it. +When a man's shakin' with a chill that's come at him on the sly, as a +chill always does, an' finds all his grit an' all the doctor's medicine +can't keep him from shakin'--snatches him clean away from his own grip, +which is the awfullest feelin' a man can have--" + +"You're entirely right about it, Caleb," said Grace, with a shudder. + +"Thank you, but 'taint only the shake. It's not knowin' how the thing +is goin' to come out, or how helpless it's goin' to make one, or in +what way it's goin' to upset all his plans an' calculations--why, it +teaches absolute dependence on a higher power, an' 'tisn't only folks +that make most fuss 'bout it in church that feels it. After one gets +that feelin', he's lots more of a man than he ever was before. I think +malary has been the makin' of human nature out West here, an' in some +parts of the East too. Why, do you know that almost every one of our +greatest Presidents was born or brought up in malary-soaked country? +Washington was, I know; for I had chills all over his part of Virginia, +in war time, an' more'n a hundred thousand other men kept me comp'ny +at it. Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, was some of the other Presidents that +knowed malary better than they afterwards knowed their own Cabinets. As +to smaller men, but mighty big, nevertheless--all the big cities of the +land's full of 'em. Look up the record of a city's great business man, +an' I'm told you'll find he never was born an' raised there, but in the +back country somewhere, generally out West, an' nine times in ten can +tell you more 'bout his ager spells than you care to hear. Still, such +cases don't bear on the subject o' means o' grace, though they come +from the same causes. Out in these parts malary does more'n ministers +to fill the churches. So long as men feel first-rate, they let the +church alone mighty hard, but just let 'em get into a hard tussle with +malary an' they begin to come to meetin'. The worse it treats 'em, the +more they come, which is just what they need. That's the way the church +got me; though that ain't particularly to the p'int, for one swaller +don't make a summer. But I've been watchin' the signs for twenty year, +an' I'm not gettin' off guess-work when I say that malary's been one +of the leadin' means o' grace in this great Western country, an' of +pretty much ev'rythin' else that's worth havin'; the states that have +most of it produce more good people to the thousan' than any other +states, besides more great men, an' great ideas, an' first-class +American grit. Now you can laugh if you feel the least bit like it." + +"I don't, Caleb. But do answer me one question. If malaria has done so +much good, and is doing it, do you think it ought to be preserved,--say +as an American institution?" + +"Well," said Caleb, "ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody, from Moses an' manna to +Edison an' electricity, has had a mission, an' when the work was done, +the mission took a rest an' gave somethin' else the right o' way. When +malary's accomplished its mission, I, for one, would like to assist in +layin' it away. I think I'm entitled to a share in the job, for malary +an' me has been powerful close acquaintances for a mighty long time." + + + + +XI--CALEB'S NEWEST PROJECT + + +"ALONG about now," said Caleb to Philip and Grace one morning in +midspring, "is the easiest time o' year that a merchant ever gets in +these parts; for, between the earliest ploughin' for spring wheat to +the latest ploughin' for corn, the farmers that 'mount to anythin' are +too busy to come to town when the weather's good; when the rain gives +'em a day off from work, they've got sense enough to take a rest as +well as to give one to the hosses. I thought I'd mention the matter, in +case you'd had anythin' on your mind to be done, an' hadn't found time +to do it." + +"H'm!" said Philip, rubbing his forehead, as if to extract some special +mental memoranda. + +"Thank you, Caleb, for the suggestion," Grace said, "but I believe +every foot of our garden ground is fully planted." + +"Yes, so I've noticed. Twill be a big advertisement, too, if the things +turn out as good as the pictur's an' readin' matter in the plant +catalogues you got; for there ain't many things in them boxes of plants +you bought that was ever seen or heerd of in these parts. How'd you +come to know so much about such things?" + +"Oh, I kept window-gardens in the city all summer, and indoor gardens +in winter." + +"I want to know! What give you that idee?" + +"The beauty of flowers, I suppose--and their cheapness," Grace replied. +"Besides, flowers in the winter were a good test of the air in our +rooms, for air that kills plants is not likely to be good enough for +human beings." + +"Je--ru--salem! I must tell that to Doc Taggess, so that word about it +can get to some of our country folks. Some of them keep their houses +so tight shut in winter that the folks come out powerful peaked in the +spring, just when they need all the stren'th they can get. But ain't +you got nothin' else on your mind to do, besides exercisin' your hoss +once in a while?" + +As he asked the question his eyes strayed from Grace to Philip, and +an amused expression came over the little man's face, so that Grace +asked:-- + +"What is so funny in Philip's appearance?" + +"Nothin'," said Caleb, quickly pretending to arrange the goods on a +shelf. + +"Don't say 'Nothing' in that tantalizing way, when your every feature +is saying that there is something." + +"Out with it, Caleb," said Philip. "I promise that I shan't feel +offended." + +"Well, the fact is, I was thinkin' o' somethin' I overheard you tell +your uncle, first time you came here. He asked you what you was goin' +to the city for. 'To continue my studies,' says you. 'What studies?' +says he. 'Literature an' art,' says you. Then Jethro come pretty nigh +to bustin' hisself. After you was gone he borried some cyclopeedy +volumes from Doc Taggess, an' in odd moments he opened 'em at long +pieces that was headed 'Literature' an' 'Art.' I watched him pretty +close, to know when he was through, so I could pump him about 'em, for +his sake as well as mine; for I've most generally found that a man +ain't sure of what he knows till he has to tell it to somebody else. +But Jethro would most generally drop asleep 'long about the second or +third page, an' one day he slapped one of the books shut an' hollered, +'Dog-goned nonsense!' Like enough he was wrong about it, though, for +afterwards I dipped into the same pieces myself, a little bit at a +time, and 'peared to me there was a mighty lot of pleasant things in +the subjects, if one could spend his whole life huntin' for 'em." + +"You're quite right as to the general fact," said Philip, "and also as +to the time that may be given to it." + +"Am, eh? Glad I sized it up so straight. Well, then, I reckon you +didn't finish the job in the city, an' that you're still peggin' away +at it." + +Philip looked at Grace, and both laughed as he replied:-- + +"I don't believe I've opened any book but the Bible in the past month." + +"I want to know! Then the hundreds of books in your house are about +like money that's locked up in the safe instead o' bein' out at +interest, or turnin' itself over in some other way, ain't they?" + +"Quite so." + +Caleb went into a brown study, and Philip and Grace chatted apart, and +laughed--occasionally sighed--over what they had intended to buy and +read, when they found themselves well off. Suddenly Caleb emerged from +his brown study and said:-- + +"Ain't them books like a lot of clothes or food that's locked up, doin' +no good to their owner, while other folks, round about, are hungry, or +shiverin'?" + +"Caleb," said Philip, after a long frown in which his wife did not +join, although distinctly invited, "my practised eye discerns that you +think our books, which are about as precious to us as so many children +might be, ought to be lent out, to whoever would read them." + +"Well, why not? Ev'rybody else in these parts that's got books lends +'em. Doc Taggess does it, the minister does it, an' a lot of others. +The trouble is that a good many families has got the same books. Once +in a while some book agent with head-piece enough to take his pay in +truck has gone through this county like a cyclone--an' left about as +much trash behind him as a cyclone usually does." + +"Aha! And yet you'd have me believe that the people who have bought +such trash would enjoy the books which my wife and I have been +selecting with great care for years?" + +"Can't tell till you give 'em the chance, as the darkey said when he +was asked how many watermelons his family could tuck away. I don't +s'pose you knowed there was the makin' of a first-class country +merchant in you, did you, till you got the chance to try? Besides, as I +reckon I've said before, you mustn't judge our people by their clothes. +I don't b'lieve they average more fools to the thousan' than city +folks." + +"Neither do I, Caleb; but tastes differ, even among the wisest, and to +risk my darling books among a lot of people who might think me a fool +for my pains--oh, 'tis not to be thought of. Next, I suppose, you'll +suggest that I take my pictures from the walls and lend them around, +say a week to a family." + +"No; I wouldn't be so mean as that. Besides, pictures, an' bang-up +ones, are plentifuller than books in these parts, for people that like +that sort o' thing." + +"Indeed? I wouldn't have thought it. Well, 'Live and learn.' Do tell me +what kind of pictures you refer to, and who has them?" + +Caleb looked embarrassed for a moment; then he assumed an air of +bravado, and replied:-- + +"Well, I haven't missed a sunrise or sunset in nigh onto twenty year, +unless I was too busy or too sick to see 'em. An' I've put lots o' +other folks up to lookin' at 'em, an' you'd be astonished to know how +many has stuck to it." + +"Bravo, Caleb! Bravo!" Grace exclaimed. + +"Much obliged; reckon you enjoy 'em, too. As Doc Taggess says, when you +look at that kind o' pictur', you don't have to hold in until you can +hunt up a book an' find out if the painter was first-class. But there's +plenty more pictur's in the sky an' lots o' other places out doors, +for folks that like 'em. To be sure, you can't always find 'em, as if +they was in frames on a wall, but they show up often enough to keep +'emselves in mind. But books--well, books are different." + +"Caleb, I weaken. I'm willing to compromise. I promise you that I will +set apart a certain number of my books--volumes that ought to be of +general interest--to be loaned to customers!" + +"Good! I knowed you'd see your duty if 'twas dumped right before your +face. But what's the matter with doin' somethin' more? I've had a +project for a long time, that--" + +Caleb suddenly ceased speaking and looked hurt, for he detected a +peculiar interchange of glances between Philip and Grace. + +"Go on," said Philip. + +"Never mind," Caleb replied. + +"Please go on, Caleb," Grace begged. + +"I may be a fool," said Caleb, "but it does gall me to be laughed at +ahead of time." + +"Really, Caleb, we weren't laughing at you. Both of us chanced to +think, at the same time, of something--something that we had read. Some +husbands and wives have a way of both getting the same thought at an +unforeseen instant. Do go on; haven't we proved to you that we think +your projects good?" + +"Sorry I made a baby of myself," apologized Caleb. "Well, I've read +in newspapers that books never was so cheap as they are now, an' from +some of the offers that come to us by letter I should say 'twas so. I +know more'n a little about the names o' books an' o' their writers, an' +some of the prices o' good ones look as if the printers stole their +paper an' didn't pay their help. Now, we don't make much use o' the +back room o' the store. S'pose you fetch in there your cyclopeedy, an' +dictionary, an' big atlas, to be looked at by anybody that likes. Then +buy, in the city, a couple of hundred books,--say a hundred dollars' +worth,--not too wise, an' not too silly, an' let it be knowed that at +Somerton's store there's a free circulating library." + +"For Somerton's customers only," added Philip. + +"No, for ev'rybody--not only for the sake o' the principle, but to draw +trade. The first man that does that thing in this town won't ever be +forgot by folks whose hearts are in the right place--not unless I'm all +wrong on human nature." + +"Which is as unlikely as the wildest thing ever dreamed," said Philip. +"I don't doubt that you're entirely right about the advertising value +of your project. My atlas, dictionary, and cyclopedia will serve me +quite as well in the back room as if in the house, and the cost of the +other books will be repaid by the first new farmer-customer we catch by +means of the library." + +"Then the thing is to be a go?" + +"Certainly it is." + +"When?" + +"Now--at once--as soon as my books can be brought from the house and +the others bought in the city." + +"And I," Grace added, "am to be a librarian, and to select the new +books. I remember well the names of all the most popular books in +the public library of the little town I was born in, and all the +best--never mind the worst--that my fellow-shopgirls used to read, +and I know the second-hand bookshops in New York, where many good +books may be had at a quarter of their original price; so if a hundred +dollars is to be spent, I'll engage to get three or four hundred +volumes, instead of two hundred. Meanwhile, don't either of you men +breathe a word of Caleb's project, until the books are here; otherwise +some other merchant may get ahead of us." + +"That's sound business sense," said Caleb, "but I wish you hadn't--I +mean I wish one of us had said it instead of you." + +"Oh, Caleb! Do you think that my interest in the business of the store +is making me sordid--mercenary--grasping?" + +"Well, I never saw any signs of it before, but--" + +"Nor have you seen them to-day. You'll have to take to eye-glasses, +Caleb, if only in justice to me. The only reason I don't wish any one +else to start the library is that I think the laborer is worthy of +his hire. You were the laborer--that is, you devised the plan,--and I +wouldn't for anything have you deprived of your pay, which will consist +of your pleasure at seeing your old acquaintances supplied with good +reading matter. Honor to whom honor is due. Now do you understand?" + +Caleb's small gray face grew rosy, albeit a bit sheepish, and to hide +it, he tiptoed over to Philip, who was staring into vacancy, apparently +in search of something, and said:-- + +"As I b'lieve I've said before, ain't she a peeler?" + +"Yes; oh, yes," Philip answered mechanically. + +"You don't seem so sure of it as you might be," complained Caleb. "Have +you struck a stump?" + +"No; oh, no." + +"What is the matter, Mr. Owl?" asked Grace, moving toward the couple. + +"I'm puzzled--that's all, yet 'tis not a little," Philip replied. "I +don't think I'm a fool about business. Even Caleb here, who is too true +a friend to flatter, says I've done remarkably well, and increased the +number of our customers and the profits of the business, yet 'tis never +I who devise the new, clever plans by which the increase comes. This +matter of the free circulating library is only one of several cases +in point; they began months ago, with the use of our piano in church. +I don't believe I'd have done them solely with a view to business, but +I couldn't have helped seeing that they would have that effect in the +end, so I wonder why I, myself, shouldn't have thought of them. Perhaps +you can tell me, Caleb; don't be afraid of hurting my feelings, and +don't be over-modest about yourself; 'tis all between friends, you +know." + +Caleb leaned on the counter, from which he brushed some imaginary dust; +then he contemplated the brushed spot as if he were trying to look +through the counter, as he replied:-- + +"Mebbe it's because we have different startin'-places. In a book +of sermons I've got up in my room--though 'tain't by one o' our +Methodists--there's a passage that tells how astronomers find certain +kinds o' stars. It 'pears that they don't p'int their telescopes here, +there, an' ev'rywhere, lookin' for the star an' nothin' else, but they +turn the big concern on a rather dark bit o' sky, somewhere near where +the star ought to be, an' they work it 'round, little by little, +lookin' at ev'rythin' they can see, until they've took in the whole +neighborhood, so to speak, an' what stars of ev'ry kind is around, an' +what all of 'em is doin', an' so workin' in'ard, little by little, +they stumble on what they was really lookin' for. Well, that's 'bout +my way in business. First, I think about the neighborhood, the people, +an' what they're doin', an' what ought to be done for 'em, an' all of +a sudden they're all p'intin' right at the business, like the little +stars for the big one, and couldn't keep from doin' it if they tried +their level best. Now, p'raps you don't work that way, but try the +other, 'cause--well, p'raps 'cause it's the quickest. P'raps I ought to +say that mebbe my way ain't the best, but--" + +"Don't say it," interrupted Philip, "because I shan't believe it, nor +shall I believe that you yourself thought there was any possibility of +its not being the better way of the two." + + + + +XII--DEFERRED HOPES + + +THE library arrived, and the books were covered, labelled, numbered, +and shelved before the probable beneficiaries knew of their existence; +then Master Scrapsey Green was employed to walk through the village +streets, ringing a bell, and shouting:-- + +"Free--circulating--library--now--open--at--Somerton's--store!" + +Notices to the same effect had already been mailed to all possible +readers in the county. The self-appointed librarian had not believed +that more than one in four of the inhabitants of the town or county +would care to read, but neither had she taken thought of the consuming +curiosity of villagers and country-folk. Within an hour the back room +of the store was packed to suffocation, although Grace pressed a book +on each visitor, with a request to make way for some one else. + +After several hours of issuing and recording, Grace found herself +alone; so she gladly escaped to the store proper to compare notes with +Philip and Caleb, who had taken turns at dropping in to "see the fun," +as Philip called it, and to announce, at the librarian's request, that +only a single book a week would be loaned to a family, and to request +the borrowers to return the books as soon as read. + +On entering the store, Grace found herself face to face with Doctor and +Mrs. Taggess and Pastor Grateway, all of whom greeted her cordially, +and congratulated her on the successful opening of the Somerton Library. + +"That's a cruel proof of the saying that one sows and another reaps," +she replied; "but please understand in future that this is not the +Somerton Library. It is the Caleb Wright Library." + +"Je--ru--salem!" exclaimed Caleb, "an' I didn't put a cent into it!" + +"You devised it," Grace replied. "'Twas like Columbus making the egg +stand on end; any one could do it after being told how." + +About this time some responses, in the forms of half-grown boys and +girls on foot, began to arrive from the farming district, and Grace +had occasionally to leave the store. As she returned from one of these +excursions, Mrs. Taggess took her hands and exclaimed:-- + +"What a good time you must have had!" + +"Oh, wife!" protested the Doctor. "Is this the place for sarcasm? The +poor girl looks tired to death." + +"Nevertheless, Mrs. Taggess is entirely right," said Grace. "It was +a good time, indeed. How I wish I could sketch from memory! Still, I +shall never forget the expression of some of those faces. What a dear +lot of people there are in this town!" + +"Hurrah!" shouted the Doctor. "I was afraid that, coming from the city, +you mightn't be able to find it out. I apologize with all my heart." + +"'Tis high time you did," said his wife. "The idea that a doctor, of +all men, shouldn't know that a woman's heart rules her eyes." + +"Yes," said the Doctor, affecting a sigh. "It's dreadful to be a man, +and know so much that sometimes an important bit of knowledge gets +hidden behind something else at the very time it's most needed. How +many books have you remaining, to satisfy the country demand, Mrs. +Somerton?" + +"Not enough, I fear. We ought to have bought one or two hundred more +volumes." + +"Which means," said Philip, with a pretence at being grieved at having +been forgotten during the congratulations, "that they will have to be +purchased at once, and paid for, by the mere nobody of the concern." + +"Nobody, indeed!" exclaimed Grace, with a look which caused the +Taggesses to exchange delighted pinches, and the minister to say:-- + +"I don't think any one need go far to find a proof of the blessed +mystery that one and one need make only one, if rightly added." + +"No, indeed," said the Doctor, "but at least one-half of the one in +question is so tired that it ought to get some rest, which it won't and +can't while we visitors stay here to admire and ask questions. Come +along, wife; we'll find some better time to talk her and these other +good people to death about what they've done. I've only to say that +if Brother Grateway doesn't give you his benediction in words, he will +leave one for you all the same, and there'll be two others to keep it +company--eh, wife?" + +"Phil," Grace said, as soon as the visitors had departed, "I've a new +idea. 'Tis not as good as Caleb's which has made this library, but +'twill give no end of surprise and satisfaction to people, as well +as lots of fun to me and bring some business to the store. I want a +camera. I don't see how we were so stupid as not to bring one with us +from New York." + +"A camera?" said Caleb. "What sort of a thing is it?" + +"A contrivance for taking photographs. There are small cheap ones that +any amateur can use. Two or three girls in our store in New York had +them, and took some very fair pictures." + +"I want to know! Well, if any gals done it, I reckon you can." + +"You shall see. I want one at once, Phil; order it by the first mail, +please, and with all the necessary outfit." + +"Your will is law, my dear, but I shall first have to learn where to +send the order and exactly what to get." + +"Let me attend to it. I can order direct from the store in which I +worked; they sold everything of the kind." + +"There'll be no mail eastward till to-morrow. Won't you oblige your +husband, at once, by going to the house, and making a picture of +yourself, on a lounge, with your eyes shut?" + +"Yes--if I must. But oh, what lots of fun I shall have with that +camera!" + +Caleb's eyes followed Grace to the door; then he said:-- + +"Been workin' about four hours, harder'n I ever see a Sunday-school +librarian work, looked tired almost to death, an' yet full to the eyes +with the fun she's goin' to have. Ah, that's what health can do for +human nature. I wonder if you two ever know how to thank Heaven that +you are as you are--both well-built an' healthy? 'Pears to me that if I +was either of you, I'd be wicked enough, about a hundred times a day, +to put up the Pharisee's prayer an' thank Heaven that I was not like +other men." + +"No man can be everything, Caleb," said Philip. "I don't doubt that +there are thousands of men who'd gladly exchange their health for your +abilities." + +"Well, I s'pose it's human nature, an' p'r'aps divine purpose too, that +folks should hanker most for what they haven't got; if it wa'n't so, +ev'rybody'd be a stick-in-the-mud all his life, an' nobody'd amount to +much; but I do tell you that for a man to spend most of his grown-up +years in makin' of himself as useful a machine as he can, an' not +especially with a view to Number One either, an' all the time bein' +reminded that he hain't got enough steam in his b'iler to work the +machine except by fits an' starts, an' there don't seem to be any way +of gettin' up more steam except by gettin' a new b'iler, which ain't +possible in the circumstances, why, it's powerful tough, an' that's a +fact." + +"We can't all run thousand-horse-power engines, Caleb," said Philip, +hoping to console his friend. "If we could, I'm afraid a great lot +of the world's necessary work would go undone. Watches, worked with +what might be called half-mouse-power, are quite as necessary and +useful in their way as big clocks run by ton weights; and a sewing +machine, worked by a woman's foot, can earn quite as much, over running +expenses, as a plough with a big horse in front and a big man behind +it." + +"Like enough. But the trouble with me is that the machine I've been +makin' o' myself is the kind that needs an awful lot o' power, an' the +power ain't there an' can't be put there." + +"There are plenty more machines with exactly the same defect, old +chap," said Philip, with a sigh, "so you've no end of company in your +trouble. I could tell you of a machine of my own that lacks the proper +power--sufficient steam, as you've expressed it." + +"I want to know! An' you the pictur' of health!" + +"Oh, yes. Health is invaluable, so far as it goes, but 'tisn't +everything. Going back to steam for the sake of illustration, you +know it comes of several other things--water, a boiler, some fuel, +and draught, each in proper proportion to all the others. I don't +doubt there's a similar combination necessary to human force, and its +application, and that I haven't the secret of it, for I know I've +failed at work I've most wanted to do, and succeeded best at what I +liked least." + +"Reckon you must have hated storekeepin' then, for you've made a +powerful go of it." + +"Thank you; I'm not ashamed to confess to you that 'tis the last +business in the world that I'd have selected." + +"Well, as to that, there's no difference of opinion between us, an' +yet, here I've been storekeepin'--an' not for myself either--'most +twenty year." + +"And doing it remarkably well, too. As to not doing it for yourself, +you may change your position and have an interest in the business +whenever you wish it. I'm astonished that my uncle didn't say the same +to you." + +"But he did--after his fashion. He meant fair, but I said 'No,' for I +hadn't given up hopes of what I'd wanted to do, so I didn't want to +give the store all my waking hours, as an owner ought to do most of the +time." + +"Indeed he ought. If it isn't an impertinent question, what had you +selected as your life's work?" + +"The last thing you'd suspect me of, I s'pose. Long ago--before the +war--I set my heart on bein' a great preacher, an' on beginnin' by +gettin' a first-class education. I don't need to tell you that I missed +both of 'em about as far as a man could. I wasn't overconceited about +'em at the start, for about that time there was a powerful movement +in our denomination for an educated ministry. We had a few giants in +the pulpit, but for ev'ry one of 'em there was dozens of dwarfs that +made laughin'-stocks of 'emselves an' the church. Well, I was picked +out as a young man with enough head-piece to take in an education an' +with the proper spirit an' feelin' to use it well after I'd got it. +Just then the war broke out, an' I went to it; when I got back I had a +crippled leg, an' a dull head, an' a heavy heart--afterwards I found +'twas the liver instead of the heart, but that didn't make me any the +less stupid. The upshot was that I was kind o' dropped as a candidate +for the ministry, an' that made me sicker yet, an' I vowed that I'd get +there in the course o' time, if I could get back my health an' senses. +Once in a while, for many years, I had hopes; then again I'd get a +knock-down--an extry hard lot o' chills an' fevers, or some other turn +of malary that made my mind as blank an' flat as a new slate. I tried +to educate myself, bein' rather old to go to school or college, an' I +plodded through lots o' books, but I had to earn my livin' besides, +an'--well, I reckon you can see about how much time a man workin' in a +store has for thinkin' about what he's read." + +"Oh, can't I!" + +"An' you know, now, what losin' health an' not findin' it again has +been to me." + +"Indeed I do, and you've my most hearty sympathy. Perhaps good health +would have seen you through; perhaps not. Your experience is very +like mine, in some respects. I didn't start with the purpose of being +a preacher, but I was going to become educated so well that whenever +I had a message of any sort to give to the world,--for every man +occasionally has one, you know,--I should be able to do it in a manner +that would command attention. I was fortunate enough to get into a +business position in which my duties were almost mechanical, so at +night my mind was fresh enough for reading and study. My wife's tastes +were very like my own, so we read and studied together; but my message +has never come, and here I am where the only writing I'll ever do will +be in account books and business correspondence. As to my art studies--" + +"They help you to arrange goods on the shelves in a way that attracts +attention; there can't be any doubt about that," Caleb interrupted. + +"Thank you, Caleb. That is absolutely the first and only commendation +that my art education has ever earned for me, and I assure you that I +shall remember and prize it forever." + +"I'm not an art-sharp," said Caleb, "but I shouldn't wonder if I could +show you lots more signs of what you've learned an' think haven't come +to anythin'. Same way with literature; nobody in this town, but you an' +your wife, could an' would have got up that circulatin' library, an' +knowed the names o' three hundred good books for it. Other towns'll +hear of it, an' men there'll take up the idea--" + +"Which was yours--not ours." + +"Never mind; ideas don't come to anythin' till they're froze into +facts. Other merchants'll hear of the library an' write you for names +o' books an' other p'ints, an' the thing'll go on an' on till it'll +amount to more than most any book that was ever writ. Bein' set +on makin' a hit in literature an' art an' fetchin' up at dressin' +store-shelves an' settin' up a circulatin' library reminds me of Jake +Brockleband's steam engine. You hain't met Jake, I reckon?" + +"I don't recall the name." + +"He's in the next county below us, near the mouth of the crick. He +goes in these parts by the name of the Great American Traveller, for +he's seen more countries than anybody else about here, an' it all came +through a steam engine. It 'pears that years ago Jake, who was a Yankee +with a knack at anythin' that was mechanical, was picked out by some +New Yorkers to go down to Brazil to preserve pineapples on a large +scale for the American market: he was to have a big salary and some +shares of the company's stock. Part of his outfit was a little steam +engine an' b'iler an' two copper kettles as big as the lard kettles +in your pork-house. Well, he got to work, with the idee o' makin' his +fortune in a year or two, an' pretty soon he started a schooner load +o' canned pineapples up North; but most o' the cans got so het up on +the way that they busted, an' when the company found how bizness was, +why, 'twas the comp'ny's turn to get het up an' bust. Jake couldn't get +his salary, so he 'tached the engine an' kettles, an' looked about for +somethin' to do with 'em. He shipped 'em up to a city in Venezuela, +where there was plenty of cocoanut oil and potash to be had cheap, +and started out big at soap-makin', but pretty soon he found that the +Venezuelans wouldn't buy soap at any price: they hadn't been educated +up to the use of such stuff. But there wa'n't no give-up blood in Jake, +so he packed the engine an' soap over to a big town in Colombia--next +country to Venezuela,--an' started a swell laundry, I b'lieve he called +it,--a place where they wash clothes at wholesale. He 'lowed that as +Colombia was a very hot country, an' the people was said to be of old +Spanish stock an' quite up to date, there'd be a powerful lot o' +stockin's an' underclothes to be washed. Soon after he'd hung out his +shingle, though, he heerd that no Colombians wore underclothes, an' +mighty few of 'em wore socks. + +"Well, 'Never say die' was Jake's family brand, so he built a boat +with paddle-wheels an' fitted the steam engine to it, an' started +in the passenger steamboat business on a Colombian river; the big +copper kettles he fixed, one on each side, with awnin's over 'em, to +carry passengers' young ones, so they couldn't crawl about an' tumble +overboard. He did a good business for a spell, but all of a sudden the +revolution season come on an' a gang of the rebels seized his boat, an' +the gov'ment troops fired on 'em an' sunk it. + +"But Jake managed to save the engine an' kettles, an' thinkin' 'twas +about time to go north for a change, he got his stuff up to New +Orleans, where he got another little boat built to fit the engine, an' +started up-stream in the tradin'-boat business. He got along an' along, +an' then up the Missouri River; but when he got up near the mouth of +our crick he ran on a snag, close inshore, that ripped the bottom an' +sides off o' the boat an' didn't leave nothin' that could float. + +"That might have been a deadener, if Jake had been of the dyin' +kind, but he wasn't; an' as he was wrecked alongside of a town an' a +saw-mill, he kept his eye peeled for business, an' pretty soon he'd +put up a slab shanty, an' got a little circular saw, for his engine to +work, an' turned out the first sawed shingles ever seen in these parts, +an' when folks saw that they didn't curl up like cut shingles, he got +lots o' business an' is keepin' it right along. + +"''Tain't makin' me a millionnaire,' he says, 'an' the sight o' +pineapples would make me tired, but at last I've struck a job that me +an' the engine fits to a T, an' an angel couldn't ask more'n that, if +he was in my shoes.'" + +"That story, Caleb," said Philip, "is quite appropriate to my case. +But see here, old chap, didn't it ever occur to you to apply it to +yourself?" + +"Can't say that it did," Caleb replied. "What put that notion into your +head?" + +"Everybody and everything, my own eyes included. You started to be a +preacher--not merely for the sake of talking, but for the good that +your talk would do. I hear from every one that for many years you've +been everybody's friend, doing all sorts of kind, unselfish acts for +the good of other people. Mr. Grateway says that your work does more +good than his preaching, and Doctor Taggess says you cure as many sick +people as he. It seems to me that your disappointments, like Jake +Brockleband's, have resulted in your finding a place that fits you to a +T." + +"I want to know! Well, I'm glad to hear it--from you. Kind o' seems, +then, as if you an' me was in the same boat, don't it?" + + + + +XIII--FARMERS' WAYS + + +AS the spring days lengthened there was forced upon Grace a suspicion, +which soon ripened into a conviction, that the West was very hot. She +had known hot days in the East; for is there in the desert of Sahara +any air hotter than that which overlies the treeless, paved streets, +walled in by high structures of brick, stone, and iron, of the city of +New York? But in New York the wind, on no matter how hot a day, is cool +and refreshing; at Claybanks and vicinity the wind was sometimes like +the back-draught of a furnace, and almost as wilting. To keep the wind +out of the house--not to give it every opportunity to enter, as had +been the summer custom in the East--became Grace's earnest endeavor, +but with little success. At times it seemed to her that the heat was +destroying her vitality; her husband, too, feared for her health +and insisted that she should go East to spend the summer; but Grace +insisted that she would rather shrivel and melt than go away from her +husband, so Philip appealed to Doctor Taggess, who said:-- + +"Quite womanly, and wifely, and also sensible, physiologically, for no +one can become climate-proof out here if he dodges any single season. +If your wife will follow my directions for a few months, she will be +able to endure next season's heat well enough to laugh at it. Indeed, +it might help her through the coming summer to make excuses to laugh at +it: she's lucky enough to know how to laugh at slight provocation." + +But the dust! Grace could remember days when New York was dusty, and +any one who has encountered a cloud of city dust knows that it is +of a quality compared with which the dust of country roads is the +sublimation of purity. Nevertheless, the dust at Claybanks had some +eccentric methods of motion. For it to rise in a heavy, sullen cloud +whenever a wagon passed through a street was bad enough, especially if +the wind were in the direction of the house. Almost daily, however, +and many times a day, it was picked up by little whirlwinds that came +from no one knew where, and an inverted cone of dust, less than a foot +in diameter at the base, but rapidly increasing in width to the height +of fifty or more feet, would dash rapidly along a street, or across +one, picking up all sorts of small objects in its way--leaves, bits +of paper, sometimes even bark and chips. At first Grace thought these +whirlwinds quite picturesque, but when one of them dashed across her +garden, and broke against the side of the house, and deposited much of +itself through the open windows, the lover of the picturesque suddenly +began to extemporize window-nettings. + +With the heat and the dust came a plague of insects and one of +reptiles. One day the white sugar on the table seemed strangely +iridescent with amber, which on investigation resolved itself into +myriads of tiny reddish yellow ants. Caleb, who was appealed to, placed +a cup of water under each table leg, which abated the plague, but the +cups did not "compose" with the table and the rug. Bugs of many kinds +visited the house, by way of the windows and doors, until excluded by +screens. At times the garden seemed fuller of toads than of plants, and +not long afterward Grace was frightened almost daily by snakes. That +the reptiles scurried away rapidly, apparently as frightened as she, +did not lessen her fear of them. She expressed her feelings to Doctor +Taggess, who said:-- + +"Don't let them worry you. They're really wonderfully retiring by +disposition. This country is alive with them, but in my thirty years of +experience I've never been called to a case of snake-bite." + +"But, Doctor, isn't there any means of avoiding the torment of--snakes, +toads, bugs, and ants?" + +"Only one, that I know of--'tis philosophy. Try to think of them as +illustrations of the marvellous fecundity of the great and glorious +West." + +"How consoling!" + +"I don't wonder you're sarcastic about it. Still, they'll disappear in +the course of time, as they have from the older states." + +"But when?" + +"Oh, when the country becomes thoroughly subdued and tilled." + +"Again I must say, 'How consoling!'" + +Besides the wind, and dust, and insects, and reptiles, there was the +sun, for Jethro Somerton had never planted a tree near his house. +Tree-roots had a way of weakening foundations, he said; besides, +trees would grow tall in the course of time, and perhaps attract the +lightning. Still more, trees shaded roofs, so the spring and autumn +rains remained in the shingles to cause dampness and decay, instead of +drying out quickly. + +But her own house seemed cool by comparison with some which she entered +in the village and in the farming districts: houses such as most new +settlers in the West have put up with their own hands and as quickly as +possible; houses innocent of lath and plaster, and with only inch-thick +wooden walls, upon which the sun beat so fiercely that by midday the +inner surface of the wall almost blistered the hand that touched it. +Not to have been obliged to enter such houses would have spared Grace +much discomfort, but it was the hospitable custom of the country to +hail passers-by, in the season of open doors and windows, and Grace, +besides being bound by the penalties peculiar to general favorites +everywhere, was alive to the fear of being thought "stuck up" by any +one. + +Quickly she uprooted many delicate, graceful vines which she had +planted to train against the sides of her own house, and replaced them +with seeds of more rampant varieties. For days she made a single room +of the house fairly endurable by keeping in it a large block of ice, +brought from the ice-house by Philip in mid-morning; but the season's +stock of the ice-house had not been estimated with a view to such +drafts, so for the sake of the "truck" in cold storage she felt obliged +to discontinue the practice. Wet linen sheets hung near the windows +and open doors afforded some relief; but when other sufferers heard of +them and learned their cost, and ejaculated "Goodness me!" or something +of similar meaning, Grace was compelled to feel aristocratic and +uncomfortable. She expressed to Caleb and to Doctor Taggess her pity +for sufferers by the heat, and asked whether nothing could be done in +alleviation. + +"My dear woman, they don't suffer as much as you imagine," the Doctor +replied. "In the first place, they are accustomed to the climate, as +you are not; most of them were born in it. Another cooling fact is +that neither men nor women wear as much clothing in hot weather as you +Eastern people. They, or most of them, are always hard at work, and +therefore always perspiring, which is nature's method of keeping people +fairly comfortable in hot weather. I don't doubt that I suffer far more +as I drive about the county, doing no harder work than holding the +reins, than any farmer whom I see ploughing in the fields." + +"I'm very glad to hear it, for their sakes, though not for your own. +But how about the sick, and the poor little babies?" + +"Ah, this is a sad country for sick folks, and for weaklings of any +kind. Stifle in winter--roast in summer; that is about the usual way. +Imagine, if you can, how an honest physician feels when he's called to +cases of sickness in some houses that you've seen." + +"Caleb," Grace said, "was it as hot in the South, during the war, as it +is out here?" + +"No," said Caleb, promptly, "though the Eastern men complained a great +deal." + +"What did the soldiers do when they became sick in hot weather?" + +"They died, generally, unless they was shipped up North, or to some of +the big camps of hospitals, where they could get special attention." + +"But until then were there no ways of shielding them from the heat of +the sun?" + +"Oh, yes. If the camp hospital was a tent, it had a fly--an extra +thickness of canvas, stretched across it to shade the roof an' sides. +Then, if any woods was near by, and usually there was,--there's more +woodland in old Virginia than in this new state,--some forked sticks +an' poles an' leafy tree-boughs would be fetched in, an' fixed so that +the ground for eight or ten feet around would be shady." + +"Do you remember just how it was done?" + +"Do I? Well, I reckon I was on details at that sort o' work about as +often as anybody." + +"Won't you do me a great favor? Hire a man and wagon to-morrow--or +to-day, if there's time--and go to some of our woodland near town, and +get some of the material, and put up such a shade on the south and west +sides of our house; that is, if you don't object." + +"Object? 'Twould be great fun; make me feel like a boy again, I reckon. +But I ought to remind you that the thing won't look a bit pretty, two +or three days later, when the leaves begin to fade. Dead leaves an' +a white house don't 'compose,' as I heard you say one day to a woman +about two calicoes that was contrary to each other. Besides, 'tain't +necessary, for double-width sheetin', or two widths of it side by side, +an' right out of the store here, would make a better awnin', to say +nothin' o' the looks, an' you can afford it easy enough." + +"Perhaps, but there are other people who can't, and I want to show off +a tree-bough awning to some who need contrivances like it." + +"I--see," said Caleb, departing abruptly, while Doctor Taggess +exclaimed:-- + +"And here I've been practising in some of those bake-ovens of houses +for thirty years, and never thought of that very simple means of +relief! Good day, Mrs. Somerton; I'll go home and tell my wife what +I've heard, then I think I'll read some of the penitential Psalms and +some choice bits of Proverbs on the mental peculiarities of fools." + +The arbor was completed by dark, and on the next day, and for a +fortnight afterward, almost every woman who entered the store was +invited to step into the garden and see how well, and yet cheaply, +the house was shaded from the sun. All were delighted, though some +warned the owner that the shade would kill her vines, whereupon Doctor +Taggess, who spent parts of several hours in studying the structure, +suggested that if the probable copyists were to set their posts and +frameworks securely, they might serve as support for quick-growing +hardy vines that might be "set" in the spring of the following year, +and clamber all over the skeleton roof before the hottest days came. +Thereupon Grace volunteered to write a lot of nursery men to learn what +vines, annual or perennial, grew most rapidly and cost least, and to +leave the replies in the store for general inspection. + +"Doctor," Grace asked during one of the physician's visits of +inspection, "where did the settlers of this country come from, that +they never think of certain of their own necessities? Don't scold me, +please; I'm not going to abuse your darling West; besides, 'tis my +West as well as yours, for every interest I have is here. But Eastern +farmers and villagers plant shade trees and vines near their houses, +unless they can afford to build piazzas,--and perhaps in addition to +piazzas. They shade their village streets, too, and many of their +highways. Aren't such things the custom in other parts of the United +States?" + +"They certainly are in my native state, which is Pennsylvania," the +Doctor replied, "and some of the handsomest villages and farm-houses +I've seen are in Ohio and Kentucky. But I imagine the work was done by +the second or third or fourth generation; I don't believe the original +settlers could find the time and strength for such effort. As to our +people, they came from a dozen or more states--East, West, and Middle, +with a few from the South. I honestly believe they're quite as good as +the average of settlers of any state, but I shouldn't wonder if you've +failed to comprehend at short acquaintance the settler or the farmer +class in general. In a new country one usually finds only people who've +been elbowed out of older ones, either by misfortune or bad management, +or through families having become too large to get a living out of +their old homesteads, and with no land near by that was within reach +of their pockets. There are as many causes in farming as in any other +business for men trying to make a start somewhere else, but a starter +in the farming line is always very poor. Almost any family you might +name in this county brought itself and all its goods and implements +in a single two-horse wagon. Your things, Caleb told me, filled the +greater part of a railway car. Quite a difference, eh?" + +"Yet most of the things were ours, when we thought ourselves very poor." + +"Just so. So you can't imagine the poverty of these people. They lived +in their wagons until they had some sort of roof over their heads; +a man who could spend a hundred dollars for lumber and nails and +window-sash passed for one of the well-to-do class. Some of them had no +money whatever; their nearest neighbors would help them put up a log +house, but afterward they had to work pretty hard to keep the wolf from +the door until they could grow something to eat and to sell. They had +hard times, of so many varieties, that now when they are sure of three +meals a day, some cows, pigs, and chickens, credit at a store, and a +crop in the ground, they think themselves well off, no matter how many +discomforts they may have to endure." + +"But, Doctor, they're human; they have hearts and feelings." + +"Yes, but they have more endurance than anything else. It has become +second nature to them; so some of them would long endure a pain or +discomfort rather than relieve it. Doubt it, if you like, but I am +speaking from a great mass of experience. I've heard much of the +endurance of the North American Indian, but the Indian is a baby to +these farmer-settlers. Endurance is in their every muscle, bone, and +nerve, and they pass it down to their children. Eastern babies would +scream unceasingly at maladies that some of our youngsters bear without +a whimper. Many of the Presidents of the United States were born of +just such stock; of course they were examples of the survival of the +fittest, for any who are weak in such a country must go to the wall in +a hurry, if they chance to escape the grave--and the graveyards are +appallingly full." + +"And 'tis the women and children that fill them!" Grace said. + +"Yes," assented the Doctor. "If I could have my way, no women and +children would be allowed in a new section until the men had made +decent, comfortable homes, with crops ready for harvest, all of which +shows what an impracticable old fool a man of experience may become." + +"But a little work, by the men of some of these places, would make the +women and children so much more comfortable!" + +"Yes, but the women and children don't think to ask it, and the men +don't notice the deficiency." + +"But why shouldn't they? Many men elsewhere are perpetually contriving +to make their families more comfortable." + +"Yes, but seldom unless the necessity of doing so is forced to +their attention in some way. Besides, to do so, they must have the +contriving, inventive faculty, which is one of the scarcest in human +nature!" + +"Oh, Doctor! I've often heard that we Americans are the most inventive +people in the world." + +"So we are, according to the Patent Office reports, though the patents +don't average one to a hundred people, and not more than one in ten of +them is worth developing. I am right in saying that invention--except, +perhaps, of lies--is among the rarest of human qualities. It requires +quick perception and a knack at construction, as well as no end of +adaptiveness and energy, all of which are themselves rare qualities. +Countless generations ached seven or eight hours of every twenty-four, +until a few years ago, when some one invented springy bottoms for beds. +Countless generations of men had to cut four times as much wood as +now, and innumerable women smoked their eyes out, cooking over open +fires, before any one thought of making stoves of stone or of iron +plates. Almost every labor-saving contrivance you've seen might have +been perfected before it was, if the inventive faculty hadn't been so +rare. Why, half of the newest contrivances of the day are so simple and +obvious, that smart men, when they see them, want to shoot themselves +for not having themselves invented them." + +"So, to come back to what we were talking of--the prospect of country +women and children being made more comfortable is extremely dismal." + +"Not necessarily; country people have their special virtues, though +many of them have about as little inventive capacity as so many cows. +Still, they're great as copyists. For instance, my wife told me that +every girl in the county wanted a dress exactly like one you made of +two bits of dead-stock calico. They're already copying, I'm glad to +say, your brushwood shade for the sides of the house. So, if you'll go +right on inventing--" + +"But I didn't invent the brushwood shade; you yourself heard Caleb tell +me of it." + +"Oh, yes, after you'd dragged it out of his memory, where it had been +doing nothing for almost a quarter of a century." + +"I'm sure I didn't design the combination of calicoes; the idea was far +older than the calicoes themselves." + +"Perhaps, but you adapted it, as you did Caleb's army hospital shade. +Don't ever forget that most so-called inventors, including the very +greatest, are principally adapters. 'Tis plain to see that you have the +faculty, so don't waste any time in pitying those who haven't; just go +on, perceiving and inventing--or adapting, if you prefer to call it so. +Try it on everything, from clothes and cookery to religion, and you may +depend on most of the people hereabouts to copy you to the full measure +of their ability. There! I don't think you'll want to hear the sound of +my voice again in a month. Caleb isn't the only man who finds it hard +to get off of a hobby." + + + + +XIV--FUN WITH A CAMERA + + +FOR some days after Grace's camera arrived there were many customers +and commercial travellers who had to wait for hours to see the one +person with whom they preferred to transact business in the store, for +a camera is procrastination's most formidable rival in the character +of a thief of time. Grace made "snap-shots" at almost everything, and +John Henry Bustpodder, the most enterprising of Philip's competitors, +took great satisfaction in disseminating the statement that he reckoned +the new store-keeper's wife was running to seed, for she'd been seen +chasing a whirlwind and trying to shoot it with a black box. + +But the Somerton customers regarded the general subject from a +different standpoint, for Grace surprised some of them with pictures +taken, without their knowledge, of themselves in their wagons, or in +front of their houses, or on the way to church. They were not of high +quality; but as the best the natives had previously seen were some +dreadful tintypes perpetrated annually by a man who frequented county +fairs, they were doubly satisfactory, for she would not accept pay +for them. She surprised herself, also, sometimes beyond expression, +by some of her failures, which were quite as dreadful as anything she +had dreamed after almost stepping on snakes--people without heads, or +with hands larger than their bodies, or with other faces superimposed +upon their own. She also made the full quantity and variety of other +blunders peculiar to amateurs, and she stained her finger-tips so +deeply that Philip pretended to suspect her of the cigarette habit; but +she persisted until she succeeded in getting some pictures which she +was not ashamed to send to her aunt and to some of her acquaintances in +the city. + +Caleb, who endeavored to master everything mechanical and technical +that came within his view, took so great interest in the camera, even +begging permission to see the developing process, that Philip one day +said to him:-- + +"Caleb, if your interest in that plaything continues, I shan't +be surprised if some day I hear you advance the theory that even +photography is a means of grace," and Caleb cheerily replied:-- + +"Like enough, for anythin's a means o' grace, if you know how to use it +right." + +"Even snakes?" Grace asked, with a smile that was checked by a shudder. + +"Of course. The principal use o' snakes, so far as I can see, is to +scare lots o' people almost to death, once in a while, an' a good scare +is the only way o' makin' some people see the error o' their ways." + +"H'm!" said Philip. "That's rather rough on my wife, eh?" + +"Oh, no," said Caleb. "Some folks--mentionin' no names, an' hopin' +no offence'll be took, as I once read somewhere--some folks are so +all-fired nice, an' good, an' lucky, an' pretty much everythin' else +that's right, that I do believe they need to be scared 'most to death +once in a while, just to remind 'em how much they've got to be thankful +for, an' how sweet it is to live." + +Grace blushed, and said:-- + +"Thank you, Caleb; but if you're right, I'm afraid I'm doomed to see +snakes frequently for the remainder of my natural life." + +"Speakin' o' snakes as a means o' grace," said Caleb, "p'r'aps 'twould +int'rest you to know that some awful drunkards in this county was +converted by snakes. Yes'm; snakes in their boots scared them drunkards +into the kingdom." + +"In--their--boots?" murmured Grace, with a wild stare. "How utterly +dreadful! I didn't suppose that the crawling things--" + +"Your education in idioms hasn't been completed, my dear," said Philip. +"'Snakes in their boots' is Westernese for delirium tremens." + +"Oh, Caleb! How could you? But do tell me how photography is to be a +means of grace." + +"I'll do it--as soon as I can find out. I'm askin' the question myself, +just now, an' I reckon I'll find the answer before I stop tryin'. There +don't seem to be anythin' about your camera that'll spile, an' I've +read that book o' instructions through an' through, till I've got it +'most by heart. Would you mind lettin' me try to make a pictur' or two +some day?" + +"Not in the least. You're welcome to the camera and outfit at almost +any time." + +Meanwhile Grace continued to "have lots of fun" with the camera. She +resolved to have a portrait collection of all the babies in the town; +and as she promised prints to the mothers of the subjects, she had +no difficulty in obtaining "sittings." To the great delight of the +mothers, the pictures were usually far prettier than the babies, for +Grace smiled and gesticulated and chirruped at the infants until she +cajoled some expression into little faces usually blank. Incidentally +she got some mother pictures that impressed her deeply and made her +serious and thoughtful for hours at a time. + +Her greatest success, however, according to the verdict of the people, +was a print with which she dashed into the store one day, exclaiming to +her husband and Caleb:-- + +"Do look at this! I exposed the plate one Sunday morning, weeks ago, +and then mislaid the holder, so that I didn't find it until to-day." + +It was a picture of the front of the church, taken a few moments before +service began--the moments, dear to country congregations, in which +the people, too decorous to whisper in church, yet longing to chat +with acquaintances whom they had not met in days or weeks, gathered in +little groups outside the building. The light had been exactly right; +also the distance and the focus, and the people so well distributed +that the picture was almost as effective as if its material had been +arranged and "composed" by an artist. + +"Je--ru--salem!" exclaimed Caleb. "Why, the people ain't much bigger +than tacks, an' yet I can pick out ev'ry one of 'em by name. Well, +well!" + +He took the print to the door and studied it more closely. When he +returned with it, he continued:-- + +"That's a great pictur'. It ought to have a name." + +"H'm!" said Philip, winking at his wife, "how would this do: 'Not +exactly a means of grace, but within fifteen minutes of it'--eh?" + +"It's a mighty sight nigher than that," said Caleb, solemnly, "besides +bein' the best 'throw-in' that's come to light yet. Give copies of +that away to customers that don't ever go to church, an' they'll +begin to go, hopin' they'll stand a chance o' bein' took in the next; +an' if they get under the droppin's of the sanctuary, why, Brother +Grateway an' the rest of us'll try to do the rest. Grateway needs some +encouragement o' that kind, for he's sort o' down in the mouth about +nothin' comin' of his efforts with certain folks in this town. He's +dropped warnin's and exhortations on 'em, in season an' out o' season, +for quite a spell, but he was tellin' me only yesterday that it seemed +like the seed in the parable, that was sowed on stony ground. An' +say--Je--ru--salem!--when did you say you took that?" + +"Two or three weeks ago," Grace replied. + +"An' you didn't develop it till to-day?" + +"Not until to-day." + +"An' the pictur' has been on the plate all that time?" + +"In one way, yes. That is, the plate had been exposed at the subjects, +and they had been impressed upon it by the light, although it still +looked plain and blank, until the developing fluid was poured upon it." + +"How long would it stay so, an' yet be fit to be developed?" + +"Oh, years, I suppose. Travellers in Africa and elsewhere have carried +such plates, and exposed them, and not developed them until they +returned to civilization, perhaps a year or two later." + +"I want to know! Got any other plate as old as the one this pictur' was +made from?" + +"Yes, one; it was in the other side of the same holder." + +"Would you mind developin' it to-night, in your kitchen, before +company? Nobody that's fussy--only Brother Grateway." + +"You know I'll do anything to oblige you and him, Caleb." + +"Hooray! Excuse me, please, while I go off an' make sure o' his comin'." + +"What do you suppose is on Caleb's mind now?" Grace asked, as Caleb and +the picture disappeared. + +"I give it up," Philip replied, "though I shan't be surprised if 'tis +something relative to a camera being a means of grace." + +"I can't imagine how." + +"Perhaps not, but let's await--literally speaking--developments." + +"He'll be here," said Caleb, a few moments later; he looked gleeful as +he said it, and shuffled his feet in a manner so suggestive of dancing +that Grace pretended to be shocked, at which Caleb reddened. During the +remainder of the afternoon he looked as happy as if he had collected +a long-deferred bill, or given the dreaded "malary" a new repulse. He +hurried Philip and Grace home to supper, so that the kitchen might +sooner be free for photographic purposes, and dusk had scarcely lost +itself in darkness when he closed the store and appeared at the house +with Pastor Grateway, who expressed himself exuberantly concerning the +picture of his church and congregation; but Caleb cut him short by +saying:-- + +"Ev'rythin' ready, Mis' Somerton? Good! Come along, Brother +Grateway--you, too, Philip." + +While the trays and chemicals were being arranged, Caleb explained +to the pastor that photographs were first taken on glass plates, +chemically treated, and that the picture proper was made by light +passing through a plate to the surface of sensitized paper. When the +red lamp was lighted, Caleb continued:-- + +"Now, when Mis' Somerton lays a plate in that tray, you'll see it's +as blank as a sheet o' paper, or as the faces o' some o' the ungodly +that you've been preachin' at an' laborin' with, year in and year out. +You can't see nothin' on it, no matter if you use a hundred-power +magnifyin' glass. But the pictur' 's there all the same; it was took +weeks ago; might ha' been months or years, but it's there, an' yet the +thing goes on lookin' blank till the developer is poured on it--just +like Mis' Somerton's doin' now. Now keep your eye on it. It don't +seem to mind, at first--goes on lookin' as blank as the faces o' +case-hardened sinners at a revival meetin'. But bimeby--pretty soon--" + +"See those spots!" exclaimed the minister. "Eh? Why, to be sure. Well, +a photograph plate is a good deal like measles an' religion--it first +breaks out in spots. But keep on lookin'--see it come!" + +"Wonderful! Wonderful!" exclaimed the minister. + +"Seemed miraculous to me, first time I see it," said Caleb. "I'd have +been skeered if Mis' Somerton hadn't said 'twas all right, for no magic +stories I ever read held a candle to it. But keep on lookin'. See one +thing comin' after another, an' all of 'em comin' plainer an' stronger +ev'ry minute? Could you 'a' b'lieved it, if you hadn't seen it with +your own eyes? An' even now you've seen it, don't it 'pear 'bout as +mysterious as the ways o' Providence? I've read all Mis' Somerton's +book tells about it, an' a lot more in the cyclopeedy, but it ain't no +less wonderful than it was." + +"Absolutely marvellous!" replied the minister. + +"That's what it is. Now, Brother Grateway, that plate was just like +the people you was tellin' me 'bout yesterday, that you was clean +discouraged over. You've been pilin' warnin's an' exhortations on 'em, +an' they didn't seem to mind 'em worth a cent--'peared just as blank +as they ever were. But the pictur' was there, an' there 'twas boun' +to stay, as long as the plate lasted--locked up in them chemicals, +to be sure, but there it was all the same, an' out it came when the +developer was poured on an' soaked in. An' so, John Grateway, all that +you've ever put into them people is there, somewhere--heaven only +knows where an' how, for human natur' 's a mighty sight queerer than +a photograph plate, an' to bring out what's in it takes about as many +kinds o' developer as there are people. Mebbe you haven't got the right +developer, but it's somewhere, waitin' for its time--mebbe it'll be +a big scare, or a dyin' wife, or a mother's trouble. Religious talk +rolled off o' me for years, like water from a duck's back, till one +day I fell between two saw-logs in the crick, an' thought 'twas all up +with me--that was the developer I needed. So when you say your prayers +to-night, don't forget to give thanks for havin' seen a photograph +plate developed, an' after this you go right on takin' pictur's, so to +speak, with all your might, an' when you find you can't finish them, +hearten yourself up by rememberin' that there's Somebody that knows +millions of times as much about the developin' business as you do, an' +gives His entire time an' attention to it." + +"Photography is a means of grace, Caleb," said Philip, and Grace joined +in the confession. + + + + +XV--CAUSE AND EFFECT + + +"EVER have any trouble with your bath-tub arrangements?" Caleb asked +Philip one day when both men were at leisure. + +"No," said Philip, somewhat surprised at the question. + +"Think the man that put 'em in did the work at a fair price?" + +"Oh, yes. But what's on your mind, Caleb? It can't be that you're going +to start a plumber in business here? I don't know what cruder revenge a +man could take on his worst enemies." + +"No," said Caleb. "Heapin' coals o' fire on a man's head, accordin' to +Scriptur', is my only way o' takin' revenge nowadays. It most generally +does the other feller some good, besides takin' a lot o' the devil +out o' yours truly. But about bathin'--well, I learned the good of +it when I was a hospital nurse for a spell in the army, an' I've been +pretty particular 'bout it ever since, though my bath-tub's only an +army rubber blanket with four slats under the edges, to keep the water +from gettin' away. I've talked cleanliness a good deal for years, an' +told folks that there wa'n't no patent on my kind o' bath-tub; but it +ain't over an' above handy, an' most folks in these parts have so much +to do that they put off any sort o' work that they ain't kicked into +doin'. So, the long an' short of it is that I'm goin' to back a bathin' +establishment, for the use of the general public." + +"You'll have your labor for your pains, Caleb." + +"Don't be too sure o' that. Besides, I'm dead certain that bathin's a +means o' grace. Doc Taggess says so, too, an' he ought to know, from +his knowledge o' one side o' human nature. He knows a powerful lot +about the other side, too, for what Taggess don't know about the human +soul is more'n I ever expect to find out. Taggess is a Christian, if +ever there was one." + +"Right you are, but--have you thought over this project carefully?" + +"Been thinkin' over it off an' on, ever since your contraption was put +in. You see, it's this way. I own a little house that I lent money on +from time to time, till the owner died an' I had to take it in--the +mortgages got to be bigger than the house was worth. It's framed +heavy enough for a barn, so the upstairs floor'll be strong enough +to hold a mighty big tank o' water, an' the well is one o' the deep +never-failin' kind. Black Sam, the barber, used to be body-servant to +a man down South, an' knows how to give baths--I've had him take care +o' me sometimes, when the malary stiffened my j'ints so I couldn't use +my arms much. Well, Sam's to have the house, rent free, an' move his +barber shop into it. He don't get more'n an hour or two o' work a day, +so he'll have plenty o' time to 'tend to bath-house customers that +don't know the ropes for themselves, an' we're to divide the receipts. +I'm goin' to advertise it well. How's this?" and Caleb took from under +the counter a cardboard stencil which he had cut as follows:-- + + A BATH FOR THE PRICE OF A DRINK AND A CIGAR, AND IT + WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER THAN BOTH OF THEM. + +"That's a good advertisement, Caleb--a very good advertisement. But I +thought five cents was the customary price of a drink or a cigar out +here?" + +"So 'tis--ten cents for both; but I've ciphered that it'll pay, an' +Black Sam's satisfied. You see, fuel's cheap; besides, in summer time +the upstairs part of that house, right under the roof, is about as hot, +'pears to me, as the last home o' the wicked, so if the tank's filled +overnight, the water'll be warm by mornin'." + +"You've a long head, Caleb. Still, I've my doubts about your getting +customers. 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him +drink'--you've heard the old saying?" + +"Often, but some folks in this country would go through fire--an' even +water--for the sake o' somethin, new. I've cal'lated to make a free +bath a throw-in' to some o' our customers that I could name, but first +I'm goin' to try it on some old chums. I'm goin' to have the grand +openin' on Decoration Day, an' try it on all the members of our Grand +Army post. The boys'll do anythin' for an old comrade, specially if +he's post commander, as I be. There was all sorts in the army, an' +sometimes it's seemed to me that the right ones didn't get killed, nor +even die afterwards. There's three or four of 'em in this county that +makes it a p'int o' gettin' howlin' drunk on Decoration Day, which kind +o' musses up the spirit o' the day for the rest of us. They're to have +the first baths; I'm goin' to 'gree with 'em that if a bath don't make +'em feel better than a drink, I'll supply the liquor afterwards; but +if it does, why, then they're not to touch a drop all day. Black Sam +reckons that by bein' spry he can curry 'em down, so to speak, at the +rate of a man ev'ry ten minutes, an' there's only seventeen men in the +post. I reckon that them that don't drink'll feel just as good after +bein' cleaned up, as them that do drink, an' I'm goin' to get 'em to +talk it up all day, so's to keep the rummies up to the mark. The tank +lumber's all ready; so's the carpenter, an' I reckon I'll write that +plumber to-day." + +Philip told Grace of Caleb's new project, and Grace was astonished and +delighted, and then thoughtful and very silent for a few minutes, after +which she said:-- + +"Some of the New York baths have women's days, or women's hours. I +wonder if Black Sam couldn't teach the business to his wife?"--a remark +which Philip repeated to Caleb, and for days afterward Caleb's hat was +poised farther back on his head than usual, and more over one ear. + +"This enterprise of Caleb's," Grace said to her husband, "has set me +wondering anew what Caleb does with his money. He has no family; his +expenses are very small, for he is his own housekeeper and pays no +rent, and you pay him three hundred dollars a year." + +"That isn't all his income," Philip replied, "for he gets once in +three months a pension check of pleasing size. Still, you would be +astonished to know how little cash he draws on account, and how great +a quantity of goods is charged to him from month to month. I've been +curious enough about it, at times, to trace the items from the ledger +back to the day-book, and I learned that his account for groceries, +food-stuffs generally, and dry goods is far larger than our own. As for +patent medicines, he seems to consume them by the gallon--perhaps with +the hope of curing his malaria. I've sometimes been at the point of +asking him what he does with all of it; if he weren't so transparently, +undoubtedly honest, I should imagine that he was doing a snug little +private business on his own account; for, as you know, he pays only +original cost price for what he buys." + +"There is but one explanation," Grace said after a moment or two of +thought. "It is plain that he is engaged in charitable work, and is +living up to the spirit of the injunction not to let his left hand +know what his right hand is doing. And oh, Phil, long as we've been +here,--almost half a year,--we've never done any charitable work +whatever." + +"Haven't we, indeed! You are continually doing all sorts of kindnesses +for all sorts of people, and as you and I are one, and as whatever you +do is right in your husband's eyes, I think I may humbly claim to be +your associate in charity." + +"But I've done no charities. Everything I do seems to bring more +business to the store. I've no such intention, but the fact remains. I +never give away anything, for I never see an opportunity, but it seems +that Caleb does." + +"Ah, well, question him yourself, and if your suspicions prove correct, +don't let us be outdone in that kind of well-doing." + +"Caleb," Grace asked at her first opportunity, "aren't there any +deserving objects of charity in Claybanks?" + +"Well," Caleb replied, "that depends on what you mean by deservin', +an' by charity--too. I s'pose none of us--except p'r'aps you--deserve +anythin' in particular, an' as you seem to have ev'rythin' you want, +there ain't any anyhow. But there's some that's needy, an' that'll get +along better for a lift once in a while." + +"Do tell me about some of them. I don't want any one to suffer if my +husband and I can prevent it." + +"That sounds just like you, but I don't exactly see what you can do. +Fact is, you have to know the folks mighty well, or you're likely to do +more harm'n good, for the best o' folks seem to be spiled when they get +somethin' for nothin'. But there's some of our people that's had their +ups an' downs,--principally downs,--an' a little help now an' then does +'em a mighty sight o' good. There's women that's lost their husbands, +an' have to scratch gravel night an' day to feed their broods. Watchin' +the ways of some of 'em's made me almost b'lieve the old yarn about the +bird that tears itself to pieces to feed its young." + +"Oh, Caleb!" + +"Fact. There's no knowin' what you can see 'till you look for it good +an' hard." + +"But food is so cheap in this country that I didn't suppose the poorest +could suffer. Corn-meal less than a cent a pound, flour two cents, meat +only four or five--" + +"Yes, but folks that don't have grist-mills, nor animals to kill, +would put it the other way; they'd say that dollars an' cents are +awfully dear. Why, Mis' Somerton, when some folks, that I could name, +comes into the store with their truck to trade for things, an' I see +'em lookin' at this thing, an' that, an' t'other, that shows what +they're wantin,' and needin,' an' can't get,--oh, it brings Crucifixion +Day right before my eyes--that's just what it does. I've seen lots o' +sad things in my day--like most men, I s'pose. I've seen hundreds o' +men shot to pieces, an' thousands dyin' by inches, but you never can +guess what it was that broke me up most an' longest." + +"Probably not; so, that being the case, do tell me." + +"Well, one day I'd just weighed out a pound o' tea, with a lot of other +stuff that Mis' Taggess was goin' to call for, an' a widder woman that +had been tradin' two or three pound o' butter for some things, picked +up the paper o' tea, an' looked at it, an' held it kind o' close to her +face, an' sniffed at it. She was as plain-featured a woman as you can +find hereabouts, which is sayin' a good deal, but as she smelled o' +that tea her face changed, an' changed, an' changed, till it reminded +me of a picture I once saw in somebody's house--'Ecstacy' was the name +of it; so I said:-- + +"'I reckon you're a judge o' good tea' (for Mis' Taggess won't have any +but the best) 'an' that you kind o' like it, too?' + +"'Like it?' says she, wavin' the paper o' tea across her face an' then +puttin' it down sharp-like, 'I like it about as much as I like the +comin' o' Sunday,' which was comin' it pretty strong, for I didn't know +any woman that was more religious, or that had better reason to want +a day of rest. An' yet she was just the nervous, tired kind, to which +a cup o' good tea is meat an' drink an' newspapers an' a hand-organ +besides; so I says:-- + +"'Better buy a little o' this, then, while we've got it. I'm a pretty +good judge o' tea myself, an' we never had any to beat this.' + +"'Buy it?' says she. 'What with?' + +"'Well,' says I, knowin' her to be honest, 'if you've traded out all +your truck, I'll charge it, an' you can settle for it when you bring +in some more, or mebbe some cash.' + +"'Buy tea!' says she, lookin' far-away-like. 'I hain't been well enough +off to drink tea since my husband died, though there's been nights when +I haven't been able to sleep for thinkin' of it.' + +"Think o' that! An' there was me, that's had two cups or more ev'ry +night for years, an' thought I couldn't live without it! I come mighty +nigh to chokin' to death, but I done up another pound as quick as I +could, an' some white sugar too, an' I shoved 'em over to her, an' says +I:-- + +"'Here's a sin-offerin' from a penitent soul, an' I don't know a better +altar for it than your tea-kettle.' + +"She was kind of offish at first, but thinkin' of her goin' without +tea made me kind o' leaky about the eyes, an' that broke her down, an' +she told me, 'fore she knowed what she was doin', about the awful hard +time she an' her young ones had had, though before that nobody'd ever +knowed her to give a single grunt, for she was as independent as she +was poor. After that I often gave her a lift, in one way or other. She +kicked awful hard at first; but I reminded her that the Bible said that +part o' true religion was to visit the fatherless an' widders in their +'fliction, so she oughtn't to put stumblin'-blocks in the way of a man +who was tryin' to live right; an' as I didn't have no time for makin' +visits myself, it was only fair to let me send a substitute, in the +shape of comfort for her an' the young ones, an' she 'greed, after a +spell, to look at it in that light." + +"Caleb, are there many more people of that kind in the town?" + +"No--no--not quite as bad off as she was, in some ways, and yet in +other ways some of 'em are worse. I mean drunkards' families. How a +drunkard's wife stays alive at all beats me; the Almighty must 'a' put +somethin' in women that we men don't know nothin' about. After lots o' +tryin', I made up my mind the only way to help a drunkard's family is +to reform the drunkard, so I laid low, an' picked my time, an' when +the man had about a ton o' remorse on him, as all drunkards do have +once in a while, I'd bargain with him that if he'd stop drinkin' I'd +see his family didn't suffer while he was makin' a fresh start. I made +out 'twas a big thing for me to do, for they knowed I was sickly and +weak, an' if I saved my money, instead o' layin' it out on 'em, I could +go off an' take a long rest, an' p'r'aps get to be somethin' more than +skin an' bones an' malary. It most gen'rally fetched 'em. It's kept me +poor, spite o' my havin' pretty good pay an' nobody o' my own to care +for, but there was no one else to do it, except Doc Taggess an' his +wife: they've done more good o' that kind than anybody'll know till +Judgment Day." + +"There'll be some one else in future, Caleb. Tell me whom to begin +with, and how, and I shall be extremely thankful to you." + +"Just what I might 'a' knowed you would 'a' said, though seems to me +you're already helpin' ev'rybody in your own way." + +"But I'm spending no money. As a great favor tell me who it is for whom +you're doing most, and let me relieve you of it, if only that you may +use your money in some other way." + +"That's mighty hearty o' you, but I reckon it wouldn't work. You see +it's this way. You remember One-Arm Ojam, from Middle Crick township?" + +"That tall, dashing-looking Southerner?" + +"Exactly. Well, you see he lost his arm fightin' for the South--lost +it at Gettysburg, where I got some bullets that threw my machinery out +o' gear considerable, besides one that's stuck closer'n a brother ever +since. Well, he don't draw no pension,--'tain't necessary to state the +reasons,--but I get a middlin' good one. He was grumblin' pretty hard +one day 'bout how tough it was on a man to fight the battle o' life +single-handed, an' says I to him, knowin' he drank pretty hard:-- + +"'It must be, when with t'other hand he loads up with stuff that +cripples his head too.' + +"He 'lowed that that kind o' talk riled him, an' I said I was glad it +did, an' we jawed along for a spell, like old soldiers can when they +get goin', till all of a sudden he says:-- + +"'A man that gets a pension don't have to drink to keep him goin'.' + +"'Well, Ojam,' says I, 'if that's a fact, an' I don't say it ain't, you +can stop drinkin' right now, if you want to.' + +"'What do you mean?' says he. + +"'Just what I say,' says I. 'My pension's yours, from this on, so +long's you don't drink.' + +"'I ain't goin' to be bought over to be a Yank,' says he. + +"'I don't want you to be a Yank,' says I. 'You're an American, an' +that's the best thing that any old vet can be. I want to buy you over +to be a clear-headed man. I've got nothin' to make by it, but it'll be +the makin' o' you.' + +"Well, he went off mad, an' he told his wife an' young ones, an' in a +day or two he came back, an' says he:-- + +"'Caleb, I ain't a plum fool; but if you're dead sot on bein' one, why, +I'll take that pension o' yourn, the way you said.' + +"So I shelled out the last quarter's money at once, an' then began the +hardest fight One-Arm Ojam ever got into. He 'lowed afterwards that +'twas tougher than Gettysburg, an' lasted 'bout a hundred times as +long. 'Fore that, when he hankered for a drink, he'd shell a bushel +o' corn by hand, an' bring it in to Bustpodder's store, an' trade it +for a quart, but now he had money enough to buy 'most a bar'l of the +sort of stuff that he drank. There's a tough lot o' fellows up in his +section,--'birds of a feather flock together,' you know,--an' they made +fun o' him, an' nagged him most to death, till one day he owned up to +me that he was in a new single-handed fight that was harder'n the old +one. + +"'You idjit,' says I, 'when you got in a hot place in the war you +didn't try to fight single-handed, did you? You got with a squad, or a +comp'ny, or regiment, didn't you, so's to have all the help you could +get, didn't you?' + +"''Course I did,' says he. + +"'Then,' says I, 'what's the matter with your j'inin' the Sons o' +Temperance, an' j'inin' the church, too?' Well, ma'am, that knocked him +so cold that he turned ash-colored, an' his knees rattled; but says I, +'I've got my opinion of a man that charged with Pickett at Gettysburg +an' afterwards plays coward anywhere else.' + +"That fetched him. He j'ined the Sons, an' he j'ined the church, an' +rememberin' that the best way to keep a recruit from desertin' is to +put him in the front rank at once, an' keep him at it, some of us egged +him on until he became a local preacher an' started a lodge o' Sons o' +Temperance in his section. He's offered two or three times to give up +the pension, for he's got sort o' forehanded, spite o' havin' only one +hand to do it with, but as I knowed he was spendin' all of it, an' more +too, on men that he's tryin' to straighten up an' pull out o' holes, I +said, 'No.' For, you see, I'd been wonderin' for years what a man that +had had his heart sot on doin' good in the world, as mine was before +the war, should 'a' been shot most to pieces at Gettysburg for, but +now I'd found out; for if I hadn't got shot, I wouldn't 'a' got the +pension that reformed One-Arm Ojam, an' is reformin' all the rest o' +Middle Crick Township. 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to +perform;' but I s'pose you've helped sing that in church?" + + + + +XVI--DECORATION DAY[1] + + +SELDOM does any community have the good fortune to have two great +events fall upon a single day, but on May 30, 188-, Claybanks and +vicinity palpitated from centre to circumference over the celebration +of Decoration Day and the opening of the Claybanks Bath-house. The +public buildings did not close; neither did the stores, for the entire +community flocked to the town, and the stores were the only possible +lounging-places. Grace had learned, to her great regret, which was +shared by Caleb, that the local Grand Army post never paraded in +uniform, for the reason that the members found it too hard to supply +themselves with sufficient clothing, for every day and Sunday use, to +afford a suit to be worn only a single day of the year, and she had +told Caleb that it was a shame that the government did not supply its +old soldiers with uniforms in which to celebrate their one great day, +and Caleb had replied that perhaps if it did, the Southerner Ojam, who +had charged with Pickett at Gettysburg, and who always marched with the +"boys" to decorate the graves, might feel ruled out, and then Grace had +unburdened her heart to Philip, and given him so little peace about it +that finally he became so interested in the Grand Army of the Republic +that he studied all the local members as intently as if he were looking +for a long-lost brother. + +But when the sun of Decoration Day arose, the centre of interest was +the bath-house. The veterans who had been selected for the opening +ceremonies approached the place as tremblingly as a lot of penitents +for public baptism; some of them were so appalled at the prospect that +they approached the house by devious ways, even by sneaking through +various back yards and climbing fences. Caleb himself was somewhat +mystified by a request from Black Sam that he would remain out of +sight until the ordeal had ended; and as the store filled early with +customers, and Philip was obliged to be absent for an hour or two, +Caleb was compelled to comply with the request, after sending word +to the non-drinking members to keep the others from the vicinity of +Bustpodder's store and all other places where liquor was sold. The +caution did not seem to be necessary, however; for not a man emerged +from the bath-house to answer the questions of the multitude that was +consuming with curiosity, and from which arose from time to time sundry +cheers and jeers that must have been exasperating in the extreme. + +Suddenly Philip appeared in the store, and said:-- + +"Caleb, you're wanted at the bath-house. Better go up there at once. +No, nothing wrong; but go." + +Business went on, and Grace did her best to attend to a score of +feminine customers at one and the same time; but suddenly the entire +crowd hurried out of the store, for the sound of the G. A. R.'s fife +and drum, playing "We'll Rally Round the Flag," floated through the +open doors and windows. + +"I suppose we, too, may as well look at the procession," said Philip, +moving toward the door. + +"Oh, Phil!" exclaimed Grace, looking up the street, "they have guns, +and they're in uniforms. How strange! Caleb told me they hadn't any." + +"True, but Caleb is a great man to bring new things to pass." + +"They're all in uniform but three," said Grace, as the little +procession approached the store. "The fifer and drummer and the man +with the flag haven't any. What a--" + +"The fifer and drummer were not soldiers. The man with the flag is +One-Arm Ojam, who was in Pickett's great charge at Gettysburg, and he's +in full Confederate gray." + +So he was, even to a gray hat, with the Stars and Bars on its front, +and a long gray plume at its side, and the magnificent Southern swagger +with which he bore the colors was--after the flag itself--the grandest +feature of the procession. The multitude on both sides of the street +applauded wildly, but the old soldiers marched as steadily as if they +were on duty, for the uniforms and muskets were recalling old times in +their fulness. Suddenly, as the procession reached the front of the +store, Post-Commander Caleb Wright, sword in hand, shouted:-- + +"Halt! Front! Right--dress! Front! Present--arms!" + +To the front came the muskets, Caleb's sword-hilt was raised to his +chin, Ojam drooped the flag, and Philip doffed his hat. + +"Why did they do that, I wonder?" asked Grace. + +"Oh, some notion of Caleb's, I suppose," Philip replied. + +"Shoulder--arms!" shouted Caleb. "Order--arms! Three cheers for the +uniforms!" + +Eighteen slouch hats waved in the air, an eighteen-soldier-power roar +arose, the fife shrieked three times, the drummer rolled three ruffles. +Then One-Arm Ojam, the flag rested against his armless shoulder, waved +his gray hat picturesquely, and roared:-- + +"Three cheers for the giver of the uniforms!" + +When a second round of cheering ended, a man in the ranks shouted +"Speech!" and the word was echoed by several others. Then Philip, while +his wife's lips became shapeless in wide-mouthed wonder, removed his +hat and said:-- + +"Fellow-Americans, the uniforms weren't a gift. They're merely a +partial payment, on my own account, for what you did for mine and me +when I was very young. This is one of the proudest days of my life; +for though I took the measure of each of you by guess-work, no man's +clothes seem a very bad fit." Then he returned abruptly into the store, +followed by his wife, who exclaimed:-- + +"You splendid, dreadful fellow! You were letting me believe that Caleb +did it!" + +"So he did, my dear. 'Twas your telling me the story of Caleb's pension +that set me thinking hard about the old soldiers and what they did, and +of how little consideration they get. Besides, I'm always wishing to do +something special to please Caleb, and this was the first chance I'd +seen in a long time. His fear of One-Arm Ojam being estranged if the +Post got into uniform troubled me for a day or two, but I seem to have +taken Ojam's measure--in both senses--quite well." + +Suddenly Grace began to laugh, and continued until she became almost +helpless, Philip meanwhile looking as if he wondered what he had said +that could have been so amusing. + +"If your Uncle Jethro could have been here!" she said as soon as she +could. + +"To be horrified at the manner in which a lot of his money has been +spent? If I'm not mistaken, 'twill have been the cheapest advertising +this establishment ever did, though I hadn't the slightest thought of +business while I was planning it." + +"That isn't what I meant," Grace said. "I was thinking of your uncle's +disgust when he learned that one of your reasons for wishing to live +in New York was that you might study art. Your studies never went +far beyond sketching the human figure, poor boy; but if he were here +to-day, and you were to tell him that your art studies, such as they +were, had enabled you to guess correctly the proportions of eighteen +suits of men's clothes, imagine his astonishment--if you can." + +Then the laughter was resumed, and Philip assisted at it, until Caleb +entered the store and said:-- + +"We've been comparin' notes,--the boys an' me, an' we've agreed that it +beat any surprises we had in the war; for there, we always knowed, the +surprises was layin' in wait for us a good deal of the time. How you +managed it beats me." + +"Phil, didn't even Caleb know what was going on?" + +"Not until he left the store about half an hour ago." + +"Oh, you splendid, smart--" + +"Spare my blushes, dear girl. As to the things, Caleb, I had them +addressed to Black Sam, whom I let into the secret, and I had them +wagoned at night from the railway to the bath-house, where he unpacked +them and hid them in one of his rooms." + +"I want to know! But what put you up to thinkin' o' doin' the greatest +thing that--" + +"'Twas a story my wife told me, about the way you dispose of your +pension. 'Twas all of your own doing, after all, you see." + +Caleb looked sheepish, said something about the "boys" becoming uneasy +unless the march was resumed, and made haste to rejoin his command, but +stopped halfway to the door, and said:-- + +"Mebbe 'tain't any o' my business, but as I'm Commander of the Post, +an' yet you've been managin' it most o' the mornin', an' I hadn't time +to ask the why an' wherefore o' things,--how did you get Ojam to carry +our flag?" + +"Oh, I dared him." + +"An' he, bein' a Southerner, wouldn't take a dare?" + +"On the contrary, it needed no dare. He said he'd been longing for such +a chance for many years; for you'd reminded him one day that he was an +American, and that plain American was good enough for you. 'Twas a case +exactly like that of the uniforms, Caleb; 'twas you that did it--not I." + +Again Caleb looked sheepish, and this time he succeeded in rejoining +his command and marching it toward the cemetery, followed by the entire +populace. + +"We may as well go, too," said Philip, closing the store. + +"But not empty-handed," Grace said, snatching a basket from a hook and +hurrying into her garden, where she quickly cut everything that showed +any color or bloom, saying as she did so:-- + +"Perhaps they don't use flowers here, but 'twill do no harm to offer +them." + +"I'll get out the horse and buggy; that basket will be very heavy," +said Philip. + +"Not as heavy as the veterans' guns--and some widow's memories," Grace +replied; "so let us walk." + +Together they hurried along the dusty road and joined the irregular +procession of civilians that followed the veterans. The Claybanks +"God's acre" bore no resemblance to the park-like cemeteries which +Grace had seen near New York, nor did it display any trace of the +neatness which marked the little enclosure in which rested the dead of +Grace's native village. A man with a scythe had been sent in on the +previous day, to make the few soldiers' graves approachable; but weeds +and brambles were still abundant near the fence, and Grace shuddered +when she saw that most of the graves were marked only by lettered +boards instead of stones, and that tiny graves were numerous. Evidently +Claybanks was a dangerous place for infants. + +Soon she saw that the usefulness of flowers on Decoration Day was not +unknown at Claybanks, and, as the "Ritual of the Dead" had already been +read and as the veterans were informally passing from grave to grave, +she made her way to Caleb, and said reproachfully:-- + +"Why didn't you ask me for some flowers?" + +"I 'lowed that I would," Caleb replied, looking at Grace's basket, +"but Mis' Taggess came to me, an' says she, 'Don't you do it, or +she'll cut everything in sight,' an' from the looks o' things I reckon +that's just what you've done. It's a pity, too, for we hain't got many +soldier-dead, an' their graves is pretty well covered." + +"In the paht of the Saouth that I come from," ventured One-Arm Ojam, +"ev'rybody's graves has flowers put on 'em on Memorial Day, an' the +women an' children do most of it." + +"You Grand Army men won't feel hurt if the custom is started here, will +you?" Grace asked of Caleb. + +"Not us!" was the reply; so Grace begged the women and children to +assist her, and within a few moments every grave in the cemetery had a +bit of bloom upon it, and the women had informally resolved that the +custom should be followed thereafter on Decoration Day. + +Then the Grand Army Post was called to order, and marched back to the +town, led by the fifer and drummer and followed by the people. + +"Is that all?" Grace asked, when the store had been reopened, and Caleb +entered, unclasped his sword-belt, and gazed affectionately at the +sword. + +"All of what?" + +"All of the day's ceremonies." + +"In one way, yes, but we vets have a sort o' camp-fire; we get together +in my room, after dark, an' swap yarns, an' sing songs, an' have +somethin' to eat an' drink, an' manage to have a jolly good time." + +"I hope you'll leave the windows open while you sing." + +"We'll have to all the time, I reckon, the weather bein' as hot as +'tis, but I know the boys'll be pleased to hear that you asked it." + +"Oh, wouldn't I like to be a mouse in the corner to-night!" Grace said +after she had laid away the very last of the supper dishes and dropped +into a hammock-chair on the coolest side of the house. "A mouse in the +corner, and hear the war-stories those veterans will tell! They looked +so unlike themselves to-day." + +"Possibly because of Caleb's bath-house," Philip suggested, "although +I don't doubt that Caleb would be gracious enough to hint that the new +uniforms also had some transforming effect." + +"What do you suppose they will have to eat and drink in Caleb's room? +I wish I dared make something nice and send it in. Let me see; we've +a lot of the potted meats and fancy biscuits and other things that +I ordered from the city a week or two ago, to abate the miseries +of summer housekeeping. I could make half a dozen kinds of biscuit +sandwiches in ten minutes, and I could give them iced tea with lemon +and sugar, and oh--" + +"Well?" + +"There's been so much excitement to-day that I entirely forgot the +grand surprise I'd planned for some of the farmers' wives. I declare +'tis too bad! Our ice-cream freezer came last week, you know, and this +morning I made the first lot, and I was going to serve saucers of it +to some of the women who came to the store--it seems that ice-cream is +unknown in this country. But your surprise, of putting the Grand Army +men into uniforms, put everything else out of my mind for the day. +Let's bring it from the ice-house, and send it over to Caleb's room to +the veterans!" + +"My dear girl, the cream will keep till to-morrow, so do try to possess +your soul in peace, and leave those veterans to their own devices. Old +soldiers are reputed to be willing to eat and drink anything or nothing +if they may have a feast of war-stories." + +"When do you suppose they'll begin to sing?" + +"Not having been a soldier, I can't say. Perhaps not at all, if Caleb's +plan of keeping the drinking men from liquor has succeeded." + +"Phil, don't be so horrid. Oh!--what is that?" + +It was the beginning of a song--not badly sung, either--"'Tis a Way We +Have in the Army." Some of the words were ridiculous, but there could +be no criticism of the spirit of the singers. Advancing cautiously, +under cover of semi-darkness and the brushwood arbor, Grace saw so many +figures near the front of the house that she could not doubt that the +Grand Army Post was tendering her or her husband the compliment of a +serenade, so she applauded heartily. Another song, "There's Music in +the Air," followed, and yet another, both in fair time and tune. + +"I'm going to find out whom those leading voices belong to," Grace +said. "Light the lamps, won't you?" Then she stepped from the arbor, +and said:-- + +"Thank you very much, gentlemen, but my husband and I are real selfish +people, so we won't be satisfied until you come into the house and sing +us all the army songs you know." + +Two or three veterans started to run, but they were stopped by others. +Grace heard them protesting that they were not of the singers, so she +hurried out and declared that she would forego the anticipated pleasure +rather than break up their own party; so within a moment or two the +entire Post, with One-Arm Ojam, were in the parlor, where some stared +about in amazement, while others looked as distressed as cats in a +strange kitchen. But host and hostess pressed most of them into seats, +and Caleb stood guard at the door, having first whispered to Grace:-- + +"The pianner'll hold 'em--but don't play 'Marchin' through Georgy,' +please; we take pains not to worry One-Arm Ojam." + +Grace whispered to Philip, who left the room; then she seated herself +at the piano and rattled off "Dixie" with fine spirit. Soon she +stopped, looked about inquiringly, and asked:-- + +"Can't any of you sing it? Now!" + +Again she attacked the piano. Some one started the song, +darkey-fashion, by singing one bar, the others joining vociferously +in the second; this was repeated, and then all gave the chorus, and +so the song went on so long as any one could recall words. This was +followed, at a venture, by "Maryland, my Maryland," for which the Union +veterans had one set of words, and Ojam another, although the general +effect was good. The ice was now broken, and the men suggested one song +after another, for most of which Grace discovered that she knew the +airs--for while the war created many new songs, it inspired little new +music. + +The singing continued until the guests became hoarse, by which time +Philip entered with iced lemonade made with tea, and Grace followed +with sandwiches and biscuits and cake, which prompted some of the +men to tell what they did not have to eat in the army. From this to +war-stories was but a short step, and as every veteran, however stupid, +has at least one war-story that is all his own, the host and hostess +enjoyed a long entertainment of a kind entirely new to them. Meanwhile +Grace was pressing refreshments on the men individually, but suddenly +she departed. When she returned, in a few moments, she bore a tray +covered with saucers of ice-cream, and the astonishment which the +contents produced, as it reached the palates of the guests, made Grace +almost apoplectic in her endeavors to keep from laughing. + +"What is it?" whispered a veteran who had not yet been served to one +who was ecstatically licking his spoon. + +"Dog my cats if I know!" was the reply, as the man took another +mouthful. "It tastes somethin' like puddin'--an' custard--an' +cake--an' like the smell of ol' Mis' Madden's vanilla bean,--an'--" but +just then the questioner was given an opportunity to taste for himself, +after which he said:-- + +"It beats the smell o' my darter's hair-ile--beats it all holler." + +"I reckon," said Caleb, who had inspected the freezer on its arrival, +and had been wildly curious as to its product, "I reckon it's +ice-cream." + +"What? That stuff that there's jokes about in the newspapers +sometimes,--jokes about gals that's too thin-waisted to hug, but can +eat barl's of it?" + +"Yes; that's the stuff." + +"The dickens! Well, ef I was a gal, I'd let out tucks all day long an' +durn the expense, if my feller'd fill my bread-basket with stuff like +that. Must be frightful costly, though." + +"Not more'n plain custard, Mis' Somerton says." + +"Wh-a-a-a-a-at? Say, Caleb, I'm goin' to j'in the church, right +straight off. No more takin' any risks o' hell for me, thank you, for +it stands to reason that they can't make ice-cream down there." + +When the contents of the freezer were exhausted, Philip, who never +smoked, opened a box of fine cigars which he had ordered from the +East, with a view to business with visiting lawyers in the approaching +"Court-week." Then the joy of the veterans was complete; the windows +were opened, for, as Caleb said, no mosquito would venture into such a +cloud, and it was not until midnight that any one thought to ask the +time. + +"I'm afeared," said Caleb, after all the other guests had departed, +"that you'll have a mighty big job o' dish-washin' to-morrow, but--" + +"But 'twas richly worth it," Grace said, and Philip assented. + +"That's very kind o' you, but 'tain't what I was goin' to say, which +was that I'll turn in and help, if you'll let me, an' another thing is, +you've put an end to any chance of any of the boys takin' a drink of +anythin' stronger than water to-night, an' you've made sure of some new +customers, too." + +"Oh, Caleb!" Grace said, "can't we do anything hearty for its own sake, +without being rewarded for it?" + +"Nary thing!" Caleb replied. "That's business truth, an' Gospel truth, +too." + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] In most states of the American Union the 30th of + May is a legal holiday called Decoration Day, the + purpose being to honor, by various means, the memory + of the soldiers who died in defence of the Union in + the great Civil War of 1861-65. More than a quarter + of a million survivors of the Union army are members + of a fraternal society called the Grand Army of the + Republic, which is divided into about seven thousand + local branches called Posts. The organization is + military in form, each post having a body of officers + with military titles and insignia. All posts carry the + national colors in their parades, and are expected to + be uniformed in close imitation of the service dress + of the army of the United States. A few posts bear + arms, and each member of the order wears a medal made + by the national government from cannon captured from + the enemy. The posts always parade on Decoration Day, + and at cemeteries where soldiers of the Union army + have been interred they read their "Ritual of the + Dead" and decorate the graves with flags and flowers. + In recent years the order has decorated the graves + of dead Confederates also, and there have been many + friendly interchanges of civilities and hospitalities + between the Grand Army of the Republic and the Southern + survivors' organization known as The United Confederate + Veterans--an order which has about fifty thousand + members. + + + + +XVII--FOREIGN INVASION + + +"WELL, Caleb," said Philip, on the day after Decoration Day, "how did +the bath-house opening-day pan out?" + +"First-rate--A 1," Caleb replied, rubbing his hands, and then laughing +to himself a long time, although in a manner which implied that the +excitement to laughter was of a confidential nature. But this merely +piqued curiosity, so Philip said:-- + +"Do you think it fair to keep all the fun to yourself, you selfish +scamp? Don't you know that things to laugh at are dismally scarce +at this season of the year? As the boys say when another boy finds +something, 'Halves.'" + +"Well," said Caleb, "the fact is, some of the customers was scared +to death, Black Sam says, for fear they'd catch cold after the bath. +I'd expected as much of some of our G. A. R. boys,--mentionin' +no names,--so I'd took down to the house a dozen sets o' thin +underclothin' that I'd ordered on suspicion. I always wear it--I +learned the trick from one of our hospital doctors in the army, an' it +gives me so much comfort that I talked it up to other men, but 'twas a +new idee 'round here, an' ev'rybody laughed at me. The baths, though, +scared a lot o' the boys into tryin' it. All day long they were kind o' +wonderin', out loud, whether it was the cleanin' up or the underclothes +that made 'em feel so much better'n usual; so I says to 'em, 'What's +the matter with both? No one thing's ev'rythin', unless mebbe it's +religion, an' even that loses its holt if you squat down with it an' +don't do nothin' else.' 'But,' says some of 'em, 'what's to be did when +the underclothes gets dirty?' 'Put on some clean ones,' says I, 'or +wash the old ones overnight, 'fore you go to bed--that's what I done +ev'ry night, when I was so poor that I couldn't afford a change.' Well, +some of 'em'll do it, 'cause they're too poor to buy, but you'd better +telegraph for a stock o' them thin goods; for when they don't find +thick shirts an' pants stickin' to 'em all day, while they're at work, +they'll be so glad o' the change that they'll want to stock up. They'll +find out, as I've always b'lieved, that underclothes, an' plenty of +'em, is a means o' grace." + +"More business for the store, as usual," said Philip. + +"Yes," said Caleb, "but 'twon't be a patch to the run there'd be on +ice-cream machines--if there was plenty of ice to be had. Some o' the +boys from the farmin' district stopped with me last night, thinkin' it +was better to get some sleep 'fore sun-up than go out home an' wake +their folks up halfway between midnight and daylight, to say nothin' o' +scarin' all the dogs o' the county into barkin', and tirin' out hosses +that's got a day's work before 'em. Well, 'fore turnin' in, they said +lots o' nice things--though no nicer than they ought--about the way +they had been treated at your house, an' 'bout the way you both acted, +as if you an' them had been cut from the same piece, but--" + +"Don't make me conceited, Caleb." + +"I won't; for, as I was goin' to say, they come back ev'ry time to the +friz milk, as they called it, an' how they wished their wives knew how +to make it, an' what a pity 'twas there wa'n't ice-houses all over the +county. Well--partly with an eye to business, knowin' that most any of +'em could stand the price of a freezer, an' the others could do it, +too, if they'd save the price o' liquor they drink in a month or two--I +says:-- + +"'Well, why don't you make 'em? You could do it o' slabs you could +split out o' logs from your own woodland, an' the crick freezes ev'ry +winter, when you an' your hosses has got next to nothin' to do. Besides +havin' ice-cream from milk that you've all got more of than you know +what to do with, you could kill a critter once in a while in the +summer, an' keep the meat cool; you could have fresh meat off an' on, +instead o' cookin' pork seven days o' the week in hot weather, when it +sickens the women an' children to look at it.' They 'lowed that that +was so, an' they jawed it over for a while, an'--well, three or four +ice-houses are goin' up, between farms, next winter, an' we'll sell +some freezers, an' some men'll let up on drinkin'; for the worst bum +o' the lot 'lowed that he'd trade his thirsty any time, an' throw in +a quart o' Bustpodder's best to boot, for a good square fill o' friz +milk." + +"So even ice-cream is a means of grace, Caleb--eh?" said Philip. + +"That's what it is, an' I notice, too, that you don't laugh under your +mustache, like you used to do, when mention's made o' means o' grace." + +But what rose is without its thorn? In the course of a few days the +word went about, among the very large class to whom everything is fuel +for the flame of gossip, that a lot of the Grand Army men had been +taken into the Somerton house, and found it a palace, the things in +which must have cost thousands of dollars, and that it was a shame +and an outrage that money should have been made out of the poor, +overworked country people to support two young stuck-ups from the city +in more luxury than Queen Elizabeth ever dreamed of; for who ever read +in history books of Queen Elizabeth having ice-cream? and didn't the +history books say that she had only rushes on her floors, instead +of even a rag carpet, to say nothing of picture carpets like the +Somertons'? + +When the rumor reached the store, Philip ground his teeth, but Grace +laughed. + +"I believe you'd laugh, even if they called your husband a swindler," +said Philip. + +"Indeed I would, at anything so supremely ridiculous," Grace said. +"Wouldn't you, Caleb?" + +"I reckon I would. Anyhow, it sounds a mighty sight better than the +noise Philip made; besides, it's healthier for the teeth. It shows 'em +off better, too." + +"Now, Mr. Crosspatch, how do you feel?" + +"Utterly crushed. But what are you going to do about it?" + +"I'm going to make those gossips ashamed of themselves." + +"How?" + +"By refurnishing the parlor for the summer. The dust is ruining our +nice things, so the change will be an economy. I'll do it so cheaply +that almost any farmer in the county can afford to copy it, to the +great delight of his wife, as well as himself. Let--me--see--" and +Grace dropped her head over a bit of paper and a pencil, and Caleb +looked at her admiringly, and winked profoundly at Philip, and then +hurried into the back room so that his impending substitute for an +ecstatic dance should not disturb the planner of the coming parlor +decorations. + +For some reason--perhaps excitement over the bath-house, or surprise +at the uniforming of his Grand Army command, or the heat, or the +debilitating effect of old wounds--Philip pretended to believe it +was the effect of Grace's ice-cream upon a system not inured to such +compounds--Caleb suddenly became disabled by a severe malarial attack +with several complications. He did not take to his bed, but his +movements were mechanical, his manner apathetic, and his tongue almost +silent. He did not complain; and when questioned, he insisted that he +suffered no pain. Philip and Grace endeavored to tempt his appetite, +for he ate scarcely anything, and they tried to rally him by various +mental means, but without effect. He noted their solicitude, and its +sincerity impressed him so deeply that he said one day:-- + +"The worst thing about this attack is that I can't get words to tell +you how good you both are bein' to me. But I'm the same as a man that's +been hit with a club." + +Then Philip and Grace insisted that Doctor Taggess should do something +for Caleb, and the Doctor said nothing would give him more pleasure; +for anything that would restore Caleb to health would probably be +serviceable in other cases of the same kind, of which there were +several on his hands. After listening to much well-meant but worthless +suggestion, the Doctor said:-- + +"There's a new treatment of which I've heard encouraging reports, but +it is quite costly. It is called the sea treatment. It is said, on good +authority, that a month at sea, anywhere in the temperate zone, will +cure any chronic case of malaria, and that the greater the attack of +sea-sickness, the more thorough will be the cure." + +"Caleb shall try it, no matter what the cost," said Philip. + +The Doctor smiled, shook his head doubtfully, and said:-- + +"What if he won't? He is so bound up in you and your business, and his +own many interests and duties, that he will make excuses innumerable." + +"Quite likely, but I ought to be ingenious enough to devise some way of +making it appear a matter of duty." + +"I hope you can, and that you'll begin at once, if only for my sake, +professionally, so that I may study the results." + +Then, for a day, Philip became almost as silent as Caleb, and Grace +assisted him. The next morning, he said:-- + +"Caleb, I want to start a new enterprise that will revolutionize this +part of the country and part of Europe, too, if it succeeds, but it +won't work unless you join me in it." + +"You know I'm yours to command," Caleb replied, at the same time +forcing a tiny gleam of interest. + +"That's kind of you, but this project of mine is so unusual that I +almost fear to suggest it. You know that the farmers of this section +plant far more corn than anything else." + +"Yes, 'n always will, I reckon, no matter how small the price of what +they can't put into pork. The idee o' corn-plantin' 's been with 'em +so long that I reckon it's 'petrified in their brain structure,' as a +scientific sharp I once read about, said about somethin' else." + +"Quite so, and we can't hope to change it unless labor and horses +should suddenly become cheaper and more plentiful. Now I propose +that we take advantage of this state of affairs by making some money +and getting some glory, besides indirectly helping the farmers, by +increasing the future demand for corn. You yourself once told me that +if the people of Europe could learn to eat corn-bread, 'twould be +money in their own pockets, relieve corn-bins here of surplus stock, +and perhaps lessen the quantity of the corn spoiled by being made into +whiskey." + +"That's a fact," said Caleb. + +"Very well. Corn never was cheaper here than it is now,--so I'm +told,--nor were the mills ever so idle. I can buy the best of +corn-meal, barrelled, and deliver it in London or Liverpool, freight +paid, at less than two dollars per barrel, and I can buy all I want of +it on my note at six months. If you'll go into the enterprise with me, +every barrel shall be labelled 'Claybanks Western Corn-Flour: trademark +registered by Philip Somerton.'" + +"Hooray for Claybanks! Hooray for the West!" shouted Caleb, becoming +more like his old self. + +"Thank you. But as I've quoted to you about your bath-house project, +'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.' Meal +has often been sent to the English market, and some dealers have even +sent careful cooking and bread-making directions. The different methods +of making good food from corn-meal must, I am satisfied, be shown, +practically, before the eyes of possible consumers. So my plan is this: +to send over, say, two hundred barrels to London; hire for a month +a small shop in a district thickly inhabited by people who know the +value of a penny saved, cook in various forms--hasty pudding, hoe-cake, +dodgers, muffins, corn-bread, etc., at the rate of a barrel of meal a +day, or as much as can be sold, or even given away as an advertisement +of the 'Claybanks Western Corn-Flour'--meanwhile persuading grocers +in the vicinity to keep the meal for sale to persons who are sensible +enough to appreciate it. And finally, as you know how to make all sorts +of good things of corn-meal, I'd like you to go over to England and +manage the entire business." + +"Wh-e-e-e-e-e-ew!" + +"That's somewhat non-committal, isn't it?" + +"Well!" said Caleb, "I reckon the malary's knocked plumb out o' me!" + +"I hope so; but if it isn't, it will be; for Doctor Taggess says that +a month at sea is the newest treatment prescribed for malaria, and +that is said to be a sure cure. The trip over won't take a month, but +a week or ten days of the ocean ought to make a beginning, and show +you how 'twill act, and if the enterprise makes a hit, I'll show my +appreciation by standing the expense of a trip up the Mediterranean and +back by direct steamer to the United States. By the way, while you're +up the Mediterranean, you might join one of Cook's tourist parties, +and see the Holy Land. How does the entire plan strike you?" + +"How--does it--strike me?" drawled Caleb. Then he pulled himself +together and continued: "Why, it's struck me all of a heap. Say, +Philip, you've got a mighty long head--do you know it? I ain't sayin' +that I can't do the work middlin' well, though I have heard that it +takes a pickaxe an' a corkscrew to get any new idee into the commoner +kinds of the English skull. An' a trip through the Holy Land! But +say--who'd look after my Sunday-school class while I was away?" + +"Oh, I will, if you can't find a better substitute. You've been doing +your best to get me into church work--you know you have, you sly scamp. +Now's your chance." + +"To break you into that sort o' work," said Caleb, slowly, "I'd be +willin' to peddle ice in Greenland, an' live on the proceeds. But +there's my other class--though I s'pose I could farm that out for a +spell. Then there's a lot o' folks that's been lookin' to me for one +thing an' another so long that--" + +"That perhaps 'twould do them good to be obliged to depend upon +themselves for a few weeks." + +"Phil dear, don't be heartless! Caleb, couldn't you trust those people +to a woman for a little while?" + +"Oh, couldn't I! An' I thank you from the bottom of my heart besides. +London! Then I could see Westminster Abbey, an' the Tower o' London, +an' go to John Wesley's birthplace, an'--" + +"Yes," said Philip, "and you could run over to Paris, too." + +"No, sir!" exclaimed Caleb. "When I want to see Satan an' his kingdom, +I won't have to travel three thousan' mile to do it. But--" + +"But me no more buts, Caleb--unless you would rather not go." + +"Rather not, indeed! If I was dyin' as hard of malary as I'm dyin' to +see some things in England, I guess I'd turn up in kingdom-come in +about three days, almanac-time. What I was 'buttin'' about was only +this: are you plumb sure that I'm the right man for the job?" + +"Quite sure; for you're entirely honest, industrious, and persistent; +you're as corn-crazy as any other Western man; you've taught my wife +and me how to work a lot of unsuspected delicacies out of corn-meal; +and, more important than all else, for this purpose, you've the special +Western faculty of taking a man's measure at once and treating him +accordingly. If that won't work with the English,--and the worst of +them can't be any stupider than certain people here,--nothing will. +So the matter is settled, and you're to start at once--to-morrow, if +possible; for first I want you to buy me a lot of goods in New York. My +wife and I have determined to carry a larger stock and more variety, +and--" + +"Start to-morrow!" interrupted Caleb, incredulously. + +"Yes; the longer you wait, the longer 'twill take you to get away. +Besides, I want to keep the corn-meal enterprise a secret, and you're +so honest that it'll leak from you if you don't get off at once." + +"But I can't get--" + +"Yes, you can, no matter what it is. And while you are attending to +business in New York you must sleep down by the seaside, so that the +sea air shall begin its fight with the malaria as soon as possible. +I shall engage a room for you by telegraph to-day; you can reach it +by rail within an hour from any part of the city, and return in the +morning as early as you like." + +"But, man alive, you haven't got the corn-meal yet." + +"I shall have a lot of it on the rail by a week from to-day; the rest +can follow. You'll need a fortnight in New York, to do the buying +and see the sights, for the town is somewhat larger than Claybanks. +Besides, no self-respecting American should go abroad until he has +seen Niagara Falls, Independence Hall, Bunker Hill Monument, and the +National Capital. The Falls are directly on your route East, Washington +is a short and cheap trip from New York, with Philadelphia between +the two cities, and you can take a steamer from Boston. Now pack +your gripsack at once--there's a good fellow, and don't say a single +good-by. I'm told they're dreadfully unlucky. After you've started, +I'll explain to every one that you've gone East to buy some goods +for me. At present I'll settle down to making you a route-book, with +information about all sorts of things that you may wish, after you're +off, that you'd asked about." + +Caleb retired slowly to his room over the store; Philip and Grace +took turns for an hour in watching the street for Doctor Taggess and +in sending messengers in every direction for him, and when the Doctor +arrived, they unfolded to him, under injunctions of secrecy, the entire +plan regarding Caleb. The Doctor listened with animated face and +twinkling eyes, until the story ended; then he relieved himself of a +long, hearty laugh, and said:-- + +"What would your Uncle Jethro say to such an outlay of money?" + +"If he's where I hope he is," Philip replied, "he knows that Caleb +richly deserves it in addition to his salary, for his many years of +service. Besides, we've earned the money, in excess of any previous +half-year of trade; so even if the commercial project fails I shall be +out only three or four hundred dollars." + +"And without doubt," said the Doctor, "'twill be the remaking of Caleb." + +"I hope so," Philip replied, "for he has been remaking me." + + + + +XVIII--THE TABBY PARTY + + +ALL of Grace's spare hours for a fortnight after Caleb's departure +were spent in recalling and applying the makeshift furniture devices +of her native village and those described in back numbers of "Ladies' +Own" papers and magazines, as well as all the upholstery and other +decorative methods of her sister-saleswomen in the days when she +and they had far more taste than money. Chairs and lounges were +extemporized from old boxes and barrels, cushioned with straw or +corn-husks, and covered with chintz. A roll of cheap matting, ordered +from the city, drove the rugs from the sitting room and parlor, and +the cheapest of hangings replaced the lace curtains at the windows. +All of the framed pictures were sent upstairs, and upon the walls were +affixed, with furniture tacks, many borderless pictures, plain and +colored, from the collection which Philip and Grace had made, in past +years, from weekly papers and Christmas "Supplements." + +The vases, too, disappeared, though substitutes for them were found. +Dainty tables, brackets, etc., were replaced by some made from +fragments of boxes, the completed structures being stained to imitate +more costly woods, and instead of the couple's darling bric-à-brac +appeared oddities peculiar to the country--some birds and small animals +stuffed by Black Sam, birds'-nests, dried flowers, a mass of heads +of wheat, oats, rye, and sorghum arranged as a great bouquet, some +turkey-tail fans, and so many other things that had attracted Grace in +her drives and walks that there seemed no room on mantel, tables, and +walls for all of them. + +"There!" Grace exclaimed, as she ushered her husband into the parlor at +the end of a day expended on finishing touches. "What do you think of +it?" + +"Bless me!" Philip exclaimed. "Absolutely harmonious in color, besides +being far fuller than it was before. 'Tis quite as pretty, too, in +general effect. Don't imagine for a moment, however, that your selected +list of old cats will appreciate it." + +"I _shall_ imagine it, and I don't believe I shall be disappointed. All +human nature is susceptible to general effect. Besides, Mrs. Taggess +is to be here, and all of them are fond of her, and she will say many +things that I can't. I shall boast only when they tell me that they +suppose my husband did most of the work--if any of them are clever +enough to detect the difference between what is here and what the G. A. +R. men and other guests have reported." + +The invitations were given informally, though long in advance, to a +midday dinner on the first day of "Court-week,"--a day set apart by +common consent in hundreds of counties, for a general flocking to town. +The guests selected were--according to Caleb, who was consulted when +the plan was first formed--the ten most virulent feminine gossips in +the county. Black Sam's wife had been employed to assist for the day +at cooking and serving, and among the dishes were many which would +be entirely new to the guests. At one end of the table sat Grace, +"dressed," as one of the guests said afterwards, "as all-fired as a +gal that was expectin' her feller, an' was boun' to make him pop the +question right straight off." At the other end of the table was Mrs. +Taggess, plainly attired, except for her habitual smile, and at either +side sat five as differing shapes--except for sharp features and +inquiring eyes--as could be found anywhere. One wore black silk with +much affectation of superiority to the general herd, but the others +seemed to have prepared for a wild competition in colors of raiment and +ribbons, and one had succeeded in borrowing for the day the original +and many-colored silk of Mrs. Hawk Howlaway, described in an early +chapter of this narrative. + +The guests did full justice to the repast. One by one they became +mystified by the number of courses, for they had expected pie or +pudding to follow the first dish. Some began to be apprehensive of the +future, but with the fine determination characteristic of "settlers," +good and bad alike, they continued to ply knife and fork and spoon. +For some time the efforts of the hostess and Mrs. Taggess to encourage +conversation were unrewarded, though some of the guests exchanged +questions and comments in guarded tones. All acted with the apparent +unconcern of the North American Indian; but curiosity, a tricky +quality at best, suddenly compelled one gaunt woman to exclaim, as she +contemplated the dish before her and raised it to her prominent nose:-- + +"What on airth is that stuff, I'd like to know?" + +"That is lobster salad," Grace replied. + +"Oh! I couldn't somehow make out what kind of an animile the meat come +off of." + +"Nuther could I," said her vis-à-vis, with a full mouth, "but I'm goin' +to worry my ole man to raise some of 'em on the farm, for it's powerful +good, an' no mistake." + +A buzz of assent went round the table; the ice was broken, so another +guest said:-- + +"Mis' Somerton, I've been dyin' to know what that there soup was made +of that we begun on. I never tasted anythin' so good in all my born +days." + +"Indeed? I'm very glad you liked it. 'Twas made of crawfish." + +A score of knives and forks clattered upon plates, and ten women +assumed attitudes of amazement and consternation. Finally one of them +succeeded in gasping:-- + +"Them little things that bores holes 'longside the crick? the things +that boys makes fish-bait of?" + +"The same, though only millionnaires' sons could afford to use them +for bait in the East. Crawfish meat in New York costs as much as--oh, +a single pound of it costs as much as a big sugar-cured ham. I never +dreamed of buying it--I never dared hope that I might taste it--until I +came out here." + +The appearance of a new course checked conversation on the subject, but +one of the guests eyed suspiciously a tiny French chop, the tip of its +bone covered with paper, and said to the woman at her right:-- + +"Don't appear to know what we're bein' fed with here. Wonder what this +is? It's little enough to be a side bone o' cat. Must be all right, +though; Mis' Taggess is eatin' hern." + +A form of blanc-mange was another mystery. Said one woman to another:-- + +"It must be the ice-cream the soldiers told about, for it's powerful +cold, besides bein' powerful good." + +"That's so," was the reply; "but 'pears to me I didn't hear the men say +nothin' about there bein' gravy poured on theirn." + +Some of the guests were becoming full to their extreme capacity,--a +condition which stimulates geniality in some natures, ugliness in +others. They had come to criticise--to learn of their hostess's +extravagance. They had remained in the parlor only long enough to be +entirely overcome by its magnificence and to exchange whispered remarks +about the shameful waste of money wrung from the hard-working farmers. + +The dinner had been good beyond their wildest expectations; not the +best Fourth of July picnic refreshments, or even the memorable dinner +given by Squire Burress, the richest farmer in the county, when his +daughter was married, compared with it. What was so good must also +have been very expensive. Criticism must begin with something, and the +blanc-mange seemed a proper subject to one woman, who was reputed to +be very religious. So she groaned:-- + +"This--whatever it is--is so awful good that it must ha' been sinful +costly--actually sinful." + +"Yes, indeed," sighed another. "One might say, a wicked waste o' money." + +"Blanc-mange?--costly?" Grace said, curbing an indignant impulse; "why, +'tis nothing but corn-starch, milk, sugar, and a little flavoring. I +wonder what dessert dish could be cheaper!" + +"You don't say!" exclaimed a woman less malevolent or more practical +than the others. "Now, I just ain't a-goin' to give you no peace till +you give me the receipt for it." + +"I'll give it, with pleasure; or better still, you shall have a package +of the corn-starch,--'tis worth only a few cents,--with full directions +on the label. I might possibly forget some part of them, you know." + +"Me too," said several women as one, and criticism was temporarily +abated. Before a new excuse for reviving it could be found, the +ice-cream--the real article, and without gravy, of course--made its +appearance. It was consumed in silence, in as much haste as possible +with anything so cold, and also with evident enjoyment. Then the +opponent of sinful extravagance remarked:-- + +"It's awful good--too good! It 'pears wicked to enjoy any earthly thing +so much. Besides, you needn't tell me that _it_ ain't awful costly, +'cause I shan't believe it." + +"If my word is of so doubtful quality," said Grace, with rising color, +"perhaps Mrs. Taggess, with whom you're better acquainted, will inform +you." + +"'Tis nothing but milk, cream, and sugar," said Mrs. Taggess, who +had borrowed Grace's freezer and experimented with it, "and most of +you know very well that you've so much milk that you feed some of it +to your pigs. The cream in what all of you have eaten would make, +perhaps, a single pound of butter, which you would be glad to sell for +fifteen cents. The sugar cost not more than five or six cents, and the +flavoring, to any one with raspberries in their own garden, would have +cost nothing." + +The guests gasped in chorus, but the tormentor quickly said:-- + +"But the ice! Us poor farmin' folks can't afford ice; it's only them +that makes their livin' out of us--" + +"Excuse me," said Mrs. Taggess, "but many of the farmers, your husband +among them, have been telling Doctor Taggess recently that they were +going to put up ice-houses next winter, and that they were foolish +or lazy for not having already done so before. I'm sure that all of +you who have enjoyed the cream so greatly will keep your husbands in +mind of it, especially as ice-cream, made at home, is as cheap as the +poorest food that any farmer's family eats." + +The coming of the coffee caused conversation to abate once more, for in +each cup floated a puff of whipped cream--a spectacle unfamiliar to any +of the gossips, some of whom hastily spooned and swallowed it, in the +supposition that it was ice-cream, put in to cool the coffee somewhat. +Those who followed the motions of their hostess and Mrs. Taggess +stirred the whipped cream into the coffee, and enjoyed the result, but +again the voice of the tormentor arose:-- + +"We buy all our coffee at your store, but we don't never have none that +tastes like this here." + +"Indeed?" Grace said, with an air of solicitude. "I wonder why, for +there is but one kind in the store, and this was made from it. Perhaps +we prepare it in different ways." + +"I bile mine a plumb half-hour," said the tormentor, "so's to git ev'ry +mite o' stren'th out o' it." + +"Oh! I never boil mine." + +She never boiled coffee! Would the wonders of this house and its +housekeeper never cease? + +"For pity sakes, how does any one make coffee without boilin', _I'd_ +like to know?" said a little woman with a thin, aquiline nose and a +piercing voice. + +"I used to do it," said Grace, "by putting finely ground coffee in +a strainer, and letting boiling water trickle through it, but the +strainer melted off one day, through my carelessness, so now I put the +coffee in a cotton bag, tie it, throw it into the pot, pour on boiling +water, set it on the cooler part of the stove, and let it stand without +boiling for five minutes. Then I take out the bag and its contents, to +keep the coffee from getting a woody taste. My husband, who often makes +the coffee in the morning, throws the ground coffee into cold water, +lets it stand on the stove until it comes to a boil, and removes it at +once. I'm not yet sure which way is the best." + +"Nor I," said Mrs. Taggess, "although I've tasted it here made in both +ways, and seen it made, too." + +The guests were so astonished that each took a second cup--not that +they really wanted it, as one explained to two others, but to see +whether it really was as good as it had seemed at first. Then Grace +arose, and led the way to the parlor. Some of the guests were loath to +follow, among them the tormentor, who said:-- + +"I s'pose if I'd talked about these crockery dishes, she'd have faced +me down, an' tried to make me believe they didn't cost as much as +mine." + +"Oh, no, she wouldn't," said Mrs. Taggess, who overheard the remark; +"but I think 'twas very kind of her to set out her very best china, +don't you? Most people do that only for their dearest friends--never +for people who forget the manners due to the woman of the house, +whoever she may be." + +"I don't see what you mean by that, Mis' Taggess, I'm sure. I only--" + +"Ah, well, try not to 'only' in the parlor, for Mrs. Somerton is trying +very hard to make us feel entirely at home." + +"Well, _I_ think she's just tryin' to show off, 'cause she's come into +old Jethro's money." + +"Show off with what? Do tell me." + +"Why, with her fine furniture an' fixin's. If that best room o' hern +was mine, I'd be 'feared to use it, an' I'd expect the house to be +struck by lightnin' to punish me for my wicked pride." + +"I'm a-dyin' to ask her what some o' them things cost," said another, +"but I don't quite dass to." + +"Then you may stop dying at once, for I'll ask her for you, although I +already know, within a few cents, the price of everything in the room. +Come along, now. Ahem! Mrs. Somerton, there's much curiosity among the +ladies as to the cost of furnishing your beautiful parlor. Won't you +tell us?" + +"Very gladly," Grace said, "for I'm very proud of it." + +"Didn't I tell you?" whispered the tormentor. + +"Everything in the parlor, except the piano, which is the ugliest thing +in it," Grace continued, "cost less than twenty dollars." + +"Sho!" exclaimed one woman, incredulously. "Why, that's no more money +than Squire Burress paid for the sofy that his gals is courted on, for +Mis' Burress told me the price o' that sofy herself, an' showed me the +bill to prove it." + +"I've no bills to show," Grace said, with a laugh, "for the largest +articles are made of scraps, such as my husband gives away to any one +who asks for them. See here--" as she spoke she turned a chair upside +down to show that its basis was a barrel. Then she raised the drapery +of a divan to show the unpainted boxes beneath. "The matting on the +floor is three times as cheap as rag carpet. You can buy the window +hangings in the store at fifteen cents a yard--though don't imagine I'm +trying to advertise the goods. All the furniture covers are of cheap +bedquilt chintzes. Examine everything, ladies; for, as I've already +said, I'm very proud of my cheap little parlor." + +"You didn't say nothin' about the cost of the labor," said the +tormentor. + +"True," Grace admitted, "but I can reckon it with very little trouble, +for I did it all myself; I've no grown sons and daughters, like some of +you, so I did it alone. Besides my time it cost me--well, to be exact, +one thumb bruised with the hammer; one finger ditto; a bad scratch on +one hand, caused by a saw slipping; half a day of pain in one eye, into +which I blew some sawdust; two sore knees, got while putting down the +matting; and one twisted ankle--I accidentally stepped from a box while +tacking a picture to the wall." + +"Well, I'm clean beat out o' my senses!" confessed one guest. "I never +heerd tell that they learned such work to women in cities." + +"Perhaps they don't," Grace said, "but I learned most of it when I was +a country girl in western New York." + +"What? You a country gal?" + +"Indeed I am. I can milk cows, churn butter, make garden, take care of +chickens, saw wood and split it, wash clothes, and do any other country +housework, besides making my own clothes." + +The woman who had elicited this information looked slowly from face to +face among her acquaintances, and then said:-- + +"I reckon we're a passel o' fools." + +"Oh,--excuse me; but I assure you that I meant nothing of the kind." + +"But I do, an' I mean it strong, too; yes, ma'am. We're a passel o' +fools. I won't feel over an' above safe until I git home an' take a +good long think, an' I reckon the sooner the rest of us go too, the +seldomer we'll put our foot in it." + +There was general acquiescence in this suggestion; even the tormentor +seemed suppressed, but suddenly her eyes glared, her lips hardened, +and she said:-- + +"I suppose that scrumptious dress o' yourn was made o' scraps, too?" + +Grace laughed merrily, and replied:-- + +"You're not far from right, for 'tis made of old Madras window curtains +that cost eight cents a yard when new. There wasn't enough of the stuff +to cover all my windows here, so I made it up into a dress rather than +waste it, for I liked the pattern of it very much. Oh, yes--and there's +sixteen cents' worth of ribbon worked into it--I'd forgotten that. But +your dress--oh, I shouldn't dare wear one so costly as a black silk. +Really, I should think it a sinful waste of money that might do so much +good to the poor, or to the Missionary Society, or the Bible Society, +or--" + +"What time's it gittin' to be?" asked the tormentor. "I'll bet my +husban' is jest rarin' 'roun' like a bob-tail steer in fly-time, an' +tellin' all the other men that women never know when it's time to go +home, an' what a long drive he's got before him, an' all the stock to +water when he gits thar. Good-by, Mis' Somerton. Some day I'll borrer +that ice-cream machine o' yourn, an' a hunk o' ice, if you don't mind." + +The other women also took their leave, and soon Grace was alone with +Mrs. Taggess, who said:-- + +"I'd apologize for them, my dear, if you hadn't known in advance that +they were the most malicious lot in the county." + +Grace laughed, and replied:-- + +"But weren't they lots of fun?" Mrs. Taggess embraced her hostess, and +said:-- + +"I believe you'd find something to laugh at even in a cyclone." + +"If not," Grace replied, "'twouldn't be for lack of trying." + + + + +XIX--DAYS IN THE STORE + + +CALEB'S departure was effected without publicity, no one having +known of its probability but the Somertons and Pastor Grateway, whom +Caleb had asked to provide a temporary substitute to lead his weekly +"class-meetin'." The substitute, however, made haste to tell of his new +dignity, so within twenty-four hours the entire town knew that Caleb +had gone to New York, and great was the wonder; for from the date of +the foundation of the town no Claybanker had been known to go to New +York intentionally, although it was reported that an occasional native +had reached the metropolis in the course of a desultory journey to the +bad. + +Philip felt quite competent to manage the business without assistance, +early summer being, like spring, a period of business inactivity; +but within a week he was mystified by the appearance of many people +who had never before entered the store, but who now evinced not only +a willingness but a strong desire to become customers. Referring to +a full list which Caleb had prepared months before, but which until +now had lain unnoticed in the desk,--a list of adults throughout the +county,--Philip found opposite the names of the visitors some comments +not entirely uncomplimentary; among them, "Tricky"; "Shaky"; "Never +believe him"; "Don't sell to her without written order from her dad"; +"Thief"; "Require his note, with good endorsement--he can get it"; "Her +husband's published notice against trusting her"; etc. The incursion +increased in volume as time went on, and compelled Philip to say to +Grace, at the end of the seventh day:-- + +"I didn't suppose there could be so many undesirable people in a single +fairly respectable and small county. They've evidently thought me 'an +easy mark,' as the city boys say, if I could be found away from Caleb's +sheltering wing, but not one of them has succeeded in getting the +better of me. Men talk of the tact needed in avoiding the plausible +scamps who invade business circles in the city, but after this week's +experience I think I could pass inspection for a city detective's +position." + +"If you had a list like Caleb's to refer to, so that you might know +what to expect of every one you met," Grace added, with a roguish +twinkle in her eyes, for which the eyes themselves were obscured a +moment, after which infliction Philip continued:-- + +"I really wish that an important trade or two, of almost any kind, +would turn up, for me to manage without assistance; not that I +underrate Caleb's value, but I should like to demonstrate that besides +having been an apt pupil, I've at least a little ability that is wholly +and peculiarly mine. Then I should like to write Caleb about it; the +honest chap would be quite as pleased as I at any success I might +report, and he would feel less uneasy at being away." + +Within an hour or two, a native whom Philip knew by sight and name, +although not one of his own customers, shuffled into the store, and +asked:-- + +"Don't know nobody that wants to trade goods for forty acre o' black +wannut land, I s'pose?" + +"Black walnut timber? How old?" + +"Well, the best way to find out's to look at it for yourself." + +"Whereabouts is it? I may take a look at it when I get a chance." + +"'Tain't more'n two mile off. What's to keep ye from gittin' on yer +hoss now an' ridin' out with me? We can git there an' back in an hour." + +"Do it, Phil," Grace whispered. "The horse needs exercise, and so do +you. I can hold the fort for an hour." + +"The land's too fur from my place," explained the farmer, as the two +men rode along at an easy canter, "an' I can't keep track o' the lumber +market, to know when to cut an' ship wannut lawgs, but 'tain't that way +with you." + +"How much do you want for it?" + +"Well, I reckon five dollar an acre won't hurt ye--five dollars in +goods. I've been a holdin' it a long time, 'cause wannut land is wuth +more'n more ev'ry year; but my folks wants an awful lot o' stuff, an' +my boys want me to lay in a lot o' new farmin' tools, an' make an' +addition to the barn, an' I kind o' ciphered up what ev'rythin' wanted, +all told, would cost, an' I made out 'twould be nigh onto two hundred +dollars, an' I sez to myself, sez I, 'By gum, I'll sell the wannut lot; +that's what I'll do.' It's all free an' clear--I've got the deed in my +pocket, an' 'twon't take ye ten minutes at the County Clerk's office +to find that there's no mortgages on it. Whoa! There! Did ye ever see +finer wannut land'n that? Let's ride up an' down through it. I dunno +any trees that grows that's as cherful to look at, from the money +standp'int, as tall, thick black wannuts." + +Philip was not an expert on standing timber, but it was plain to see +that the ground over which he rode, to and fro, was well sprinkled with +fine black walnut trees. It lay low enough to be subject to the annual +overflow of the creek, not far away, but Philip was bargaining for +timber--not for land. The two men continued to ride until the farmer +said:-- + +"Here's my line--see the blaze on this tree? You can see t'other end o' +the line way down yander, ef you skin yer eye--a big blazed hick'ry; +or, we'll ride down to it." + +"Never mind," said Philip. "I'll give you two hundred in goods as soon +as you like." + +"I thort you would," said the farmer. "Well, I'll bring in the papers, +fully executed, to-morrer, an' I'll leave a list o' stuff that ye might +lay out, to save time; my wife can do her sheer o' the tradin' when she +comes in to-morrer. An' I'll assign ye my own deed, when we get back +to town, so's ye can have the title examined to-day, ef ye like, an' +put a stopper agin any new incumbrances, though I ain't the kind o' man +to make 'em after passin' my word. 'A bargain's a bargain!' that's my +motto." + +When Philip returned to the store he found awaiting him a young man on +horseback, whose face was unfamiliar. When the seller of the walnut +land had departed, the young man said:-- + +"See anythin' wrong 'bout this hoss?" + +After a hasty but close examination Philip admitted that he did not. + +"Glad o' that," said the man, "'cause o' this." As he spoke he handed +Philip a bit of paper on which was written, in Caleb's familiar +chirography and over Caleb's signature:-- + + "DEAR JIM: Anybody would be glad to give you + seventy-five dollars in cash for your colt, but you're + foolish to sell now. Keep him a year, and you'll get + fifty more, but if you're bound to sell, please give + Mr. Somerton first show. + + "Yours truly, + "CALEB WRIGHT." + +"I suppose, from this, that you'd rather have seventy-five dollars than +your colt?" Philip said, as he returned the letter. + +"That's about the size of it; but if you ain't sharp-set for a healthy +three-year-old, of the kind they hanker after up to the city, I reckon +I can find somebody that is, seein' that Caleb's a good judge an' never +over-prices hosses when he thinks he's likely to do the buyin' of 'em." + +"Come in," said Philip, who quickly made out a receipt for seventy-five +dollars for one sorrel horse, aged three years, which the young man +signed. + +"James Marney," said Philip, reading the signature. "I thought I knew +every name in the county, but--" + +"But I come from the next county," said the young man. "Caleb'll be +disappointed not to see me, but this young woman says he's gone East. +What'll you gimme for the saddle an' bridle? I'm goin' to the city an' +can't use 'em there." + +The equipments named were in fair condition, so after some "dickering" +Philip exchanged six dollars for them, and the young man sauntered off +in the direction of Claybanks' single "saloon." + +"'A fool and his money,'" quoted Philip to Grace; "but as he didn't +heed Caleb's injunction, I don't suppose any word of mine would have +had any effect. Mark my words: I'll clear twenty-five at least on that +transaction within a week, for there's a city dealer here now to buy a +string of young horses. That forty acres of walnut trees is ours, too, +and cheap enough to hold until winter, when labor will be cheap; then +I'll have the trees cut and hauled to the creek, to be rafted out when +the overflow comes." + +Grace looked at her husband admiringly, contemplatively, exultantly, +and said:-- + +"Who'd have thought it a year ago?" + +"Thought what, ladybird?" + +"Oh, that you would have blossomed into a keen-eyed, quick, successful +trader." + +"It does seem odd, doesn't it? There's more profit in to-day's +transactions than my city salary for a month amounted to. Ah, well; +live and learn. If you'll keep shop a few minutes longer, I'll put both +horses into the barn and go up to the court-house and see if Weefer's +title to the forty acres of walnut is clear." + +In a few moments he returned with some papers in his hands and a +countenance more than ordinarily cheerful, so that Grace said:-- + +"Apparently the title is good." + +"Oh, yes; but here's something unexpected, and quite as gratifying,--a +letter from Caleb. I didn't imagine, till now, how glad I should be to +hear from the dear old chap." + +"Read it--aloud--at once!" Grace said, clapping her hands in joyous +anticipation. "Where does he write from?" + +"New York. H'm--here goes. + +"'DEAR PHILIP, Hoping you're both well, I write to say that I'm a +good deal better, though Niagara nearly knocked me deaf, and New +York's about finished the job. If we had water-power like Niagara at +Claybanks, it would be the making of the town. I told Miss Truett that +I thought the foam on the falls beat any lace in her store, and she +thought so too.'" + +"Oh, what fun she'll have with Caleb!" Grace exclaimed. + +"Probably, as you think so; but who is she?" + +"She's the head of one of the departments of the store I was in. I gave +Caleb letters to her and some of the other people who would give him +information, for my sake, about goods he was to buy for us. Mary Truett +is the ablest business woman in the place, and besides, she's as good +as gold; not exactly pretty, but wonderfully charming, and as merry as +a grig. She's a perfect witch; I'd give anything to see her demure face +as she listens to Caleb, and then to hear her 'take him off' after he +has gone. But do go on with the letter." + +"Where was I? Oh--'New York's noisier than Niagara, and all the noises +don't play the same tune, either, but my second day here was Sunday, +so I got broke in gradual, for which I hope I was truly grateful. +I sampled the different kinds of churches, one of them being Miss +Truett's.'" + +"She's an Episcopalian," Grace said. "I wonder how Caleb got along with +the service." + +"Perhaps we can find out. He says: 'I don't know whether I stood up +most, or sat down most, but I do know that I wouldn't have knowed when +to do either if Miss Truett hadn't given me a powerful lot of nudges +and coat-tail pulls, besides swapping books with me mighty lively while +the minister was going forward and backward in them. I won't describe +the service; for as you and your wife belong to that sect, I guess you +know more than I can tell you, but I will say that there was enough +"amens" in it to show where us Methodists got the habit of shouting +out in meeting; and though I can't make up my mind after only one try, +as a lot of our customers said when your Uncle Jethro put on sale the +first box of lump sugar that ever came to Claybanks, I reckon that it +is a first-rate manner of worship for them that are used to it, seeing +that John Wesley was in it, and you two, and Miss Truett, for she +looked like a picture of an angel when she was reading and singing and +praying.'" + +"Poor Caleb!" Grace sighed. "He's like all the other men who have met +Mary Truett." + +"Does she flirt even in church?" + +"She never flirts. Don't be horrid! Go on with the letter." + +"H'm. 'New York is hotter than Claybanks'--rank heresy, +Caleb--'according to the thermometer, and the way the heat sizzles +out of the sidewalks, and meanders upward, ought to be a warning to +hardened sinners, and there are plenty of them here. Why, I asked a +policeman on Broadway where was a first-class eating-house, and he +pointed to one that he said was the best in town, and I had fried ham, +and they charged me seventy-five cents for it, though it wouldn't have +weighed half a pound raw. I don't harbor bad feelings, but the owner +of that eating-house had better shy clear of me on Judgment Day. Miss +Truett says it was extortionate, and I wish he could have seen her eyes +when she said it.'" + +"I wish I too could have seen them, for they are superb," Grace said. +"I must write her for a full report on Caleb. But I'm interrupting." + +"'That seaside boarding-place you engaged for me,'" continued Philip +from the letter, "'is knocking my malaria endwise, which it ought to, +seeing the price of board that is tacked up on the door, but anyhow, I +feel like a giant every morning when I start for the city; that is, I +think I do, though I never was a giant to find out for sure. I take +a walk morning and evening, looking at the ocean, and trying to tell +myself what I think of it, but not a word can I get hold of. Miss +Truett says it's just so with her.' H'm--there's that woman again!" + +"Bless her!" + +"I shouldn't say so. I'm afraid Caleb has lost his head over her." + +"He'll find it again. Any good man will be bettered by meeting her. Is +there anything more about her?" + +"Yes, and at once. Here it is: 'Miss Truett is all interest about your +wife, and I like to get her going on the subject, for she thinks that +Mrs. Somerton is everything that is nice and good and splendid; and +when Miss Truett thinks anything, she knows how to say it in a style +that beats any lawyer or preacher I ever heard. It ain't a pretty thing +to say about a woman, maybe, but I mean only what's right when I say +that when she talks it always seems to me that sometime or other she +swallowed a big dictionary, colored pictures and all, and not a scrap +of it disagreed with her. She says she wishes she had a job just like +Mrs. Somerton's, and I told her that there was only one way to get it, +and that if ever I saw an unmarried Western merchant of about your age +and general style, I'd give him her name and some pointed advice. + +"'Most of the goods you wanted are bought and shipped, and when the +corn-meal gets here I'll get out for England. + +"'With hearty regards to Mrs. Somerton, I am + + "'Yours always, + "'CALEB WRIGHT.'" + +"Oh, Mary Truett!" exclaimed Grace, when the reading ended. "What fun +you've had!" + +"As she seems to be the spirit of the letter," said Philip, "tell me +something more about her." + +"I don't know what more to say. I wasn't familiar with her, for she +was a department head, and not of my department, but she had a way +of saying kind and merry things to some girls in other parts of the +store. She is about thirty; she has parents and brothers, and works +merely because she is overflowing with energy, and has no taste for the +trivialities of mere society life. Yet her manners are charming, and +genuine, too. 'Twas the fashion of the store to worship her, and no one +ever tired of it." + +"All this, yet unmarried at thirty? How did it happen?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps 'twas because she never met you when you were a +bachelor. It hasn't been for lack of admirers. Probably she is waiting +for a man who is worthy of her. I know she saved many girls in her +department and in some others from making foolish marriages, and I +committed some of her warnings and arguments to memory--though I got +them at second-hand--and I used them on other girls." + +"I suppose we couldn't persuade her to come out here, to assist you in +the store?" + +"Scarcely. She is very well paid where she is. Besides, what would +there be for her in other ways?" + +"As much as there is for you, poor girl." + +"Oh, no--for I have my husband." + +"And you feel sure that she isn't trifling with Caleb?" + +"The idea! If you could see them together--dear, poor Caleb, with +his thin figure, ragged beard, tired face, and stooping pose--Mary +rather short, but erect, with broad shoulders, brilliant eyes, rosy +cheeks, the reddish brown hair that delights your artistic eye, and +as quick in her motions as if she never knew weariness. She's of the +kind that never grows old; there are such women. Oh, the comparison is +ridiculous--'tis unkind to Caleb to make it. Besides, she is not the +only clever business woman to whom I gave him letters." + +"H'm! He's startlingly silent about the others. What troubles me is +this: Caleb is so honest and earnest, and so unaccustomed to brilliant +women, that he may lose his heart, and the more impossible the affair, +the more he'll suffer. 'Twould be bad business to have him go abroad to +be cured of malaria, only to return and die of heartache." + +"Phil, Caleb isn't a fool." + +"No, but he's a man." + + + + +XX--PROFIT AND LOSS + + +FARMER WEEFER and his wife appeared at the store early on the morning +after the deal in walnut land, and the farmer said:-- + +"Well, want to back out o' the trade?" + +"Did you ever hear of me backing out of anything, Mr. Weefer?" + +"Can't say I did, but I alluz b'lieve in givin' a man a chance so he +can't have no excuse for grumblin' afterwards. Well, we come in early, +so's to git our stuff an' git out 'fore a lot of other customers comes +in. My wife, she thinks she ort to have some little present or other, +as a satisfaction piece for signin' the deed, it bein' the custom in +these parts." + +"All right, Mrs. Weefer," said Philip, who had heard of several real +estate transactions being hampered by refractory wives, and who +thought he saw a good opportunity to prevent any troubles of that kind +befalling him in the future, "I think I have some silk dress goods that +will please you." + +Silk dress goods! No such "satisfaction piece" had ever been heard +of in Claybanks or vicinity. Mrs. Weefer saw the goods, accepted it +in haste, and did her subsequent trading so rapidly that she and her +husband and their two hundred dollars' worth of goods were on the way +to the Weefer farm within an hour, and Philip, with the new deed of the +"wannut land," was at the County Clerk's office. + +"Yes," said the clerk, scrutinizing the paper through his very convex +glasses. "My son told me you were in yesterday, inquiring about this. +Oh, yes, this property is all clear; there was no reason why any one +should lend on it." + +"No reason? Why, Squire, what's the matter with good standing black +walnut as security?" + +"Nothing at all, but I thought all the walnut on Weefer's ground had +been cut." + +"Not unless 'twas done since yesterday afternoon." + +The official removed his glasses, leaned back in his chair, put both +feet upon his desk, and looked so long and provokingly at Philip that +the latter said:-- + +"Has it been cut over-night?" + +"Oh, no. Take a chair. Are you sure that you saw this property?" + +"Entirely sure, unless I was dreaming by daylight. He and I rode over +it. I was brought up in the West, so I know walnut trees when I see +them." + +"Of course, but--did you make sure of the line-marks--the boundaries?" + +"Yes. That is, he showed me two blazed trees, which he said marked his +line." + +"Just so. Did he say which side of the line his own property was?" + +"Yes--no--that is, he took me over a lot of ground that contained many +fine large walnut trees. See here, Squire, have I been swindled?" + +"That depends. Weefer is about as smart as they make 'em, so I don't +think he'd be fool enough to swindle any one--not, at least, so that +the law could take hold of him. Did he say the land he showed you was +his? Tell me exactly what he said; for if he over-reached himself, my +old law partner would like to handle the case for you. To win a case +against Weefer would be a great feather in his cap. The fact is that +all the walnut on Weefer's land consists of stumps, for the trees were +cut off two or three years ago. There's a fine lot of standing walnut +adjoining it, but it belongs to Doctor Taggess." + +"Then I am swindled." + +"I hope so--that is, I hope, for the sake of our old firm, which I'll +have to go back into if I'm not reëlected, that you've a good case +against Weefer. Now tell me--carefully--exactly what he said. Did he +say that Taggess's land was his?" + +"No--o--o," said Philip, after a moment of thought, "I can't say +that he did. We rode out there on horseback, stopped at the edge of +some wooded ground, and he said, 'Did you ever see finer walnut land +than that?' Those were his very words--I'll swear to them--the old +scoundrel!" + +"Quite likely, but did he say that those trees--that land--was his?" + +"No; not in so many words, but he certainly gave me that impression." + +"With what exact words?" Again Philip searched his memory, but was +compelled to reply:-- + +"With no words that I can recall. He talked rapturously about the +beauty of a lot of walnut trees, from the money point of view." + +"But didn't say, in any way, that they belonged to him?" + +"Confound him, no! But he handed me a deed--" + +"That's no evidence, unless it was Taggess's deed he showed you, which +evidently it wasn't. Well, Mr. Somerton, you've got no case. Morally +'twas a swindle--not a new one, either. He wouldn't have tried it on +you if Caleb hadn't been away; for Caleb knows the lay and condition +of every tract of land in this county--just as you'll know when you've +been here long enough. You've bought forty acres that won't bring +you anything but taxes, unless you can find some use for walnut +stumps--and they're harder to get out than any other kind but oak, +unless some day the land-owners along the creek combine to put up a +levee that'll prevent overflow, so that the land can be farmed, but +even then the stumps will be a nuisance. Hope you got it cheap." + +"Five dollars an acre," Philip growled. + +"Cash?" + +"No; trade." + +"Trade, eh? Well, that's not so bad, though it's bad enough." The old +man's eyes twinkled, for what man of affairs is there who does not +enjoy the details of a smart trade--at some other man's expense? Philip +noticed the clerk's amused expression and frowned; the clerk quickly +continued, "Let me give you some professional advice--no charge for +it. Keep entirely quiet about this affair; you may be sure that Weefer +won't talk until you do. If the story gets out, you'll never hear the +end of it, and 'twon't do your reputation as a business man any good. +We don't publish records of transfers in this county, and of course I +won't mention it, and I'll see that my son doesn't either; he's the +only other man who has access to the books." + +"Thank you very much, Squire. You may count on my vote and influence if +you're renominated." + +"Much obliged. Whew! Five dollars an acre for a lot of walnut stumps!" + +"Five dollars an acre, and a silk dress for Mrs. Weefer's waiver of +dower-right," said Philip, so humiliated that he wished to make his +confession complete. + +"What? Well, Weefer won't talk, but whether he can harness his wife's +tongue when she's ready to show off that silk dress is another matter." + +Philip started to go, and the clerk made haste to hide his face behind +the deed, and silently chuckle himself towards a fit of apoplexy. + +"You're absolutely sure that I've no way out of it?" Philip said, +pausing for an instant. + +"Absolutely," the clerk replied, with some difficulty, his face still +behind the deed, "unless--you can find--a market--for--walnut stumps." +Then the clerk coughed alarmingly, and Philip pulled his hat over his +eyes and hurried away, with a consuming desire to mount his horse, +overtake Weefer, shoot him to death, recover the wagon-load of goods, +and particularly the silk dress given to Mrs. Weefer. When he reached +the store, he found his wife looking pale and troubled; there were +present also three men with very serious countenances, and one of them +said:-- + +"Mr. Somerton, I s'pose?" + +"Yes, sir. What can I do for you?" + +"You can shell out my colt that's in your barn. I was goin' to take him +whether or no, but your wife said you was a square man, an' would do +what was right. Well, there's only one right thing in this case, an' +that's to gimme back my colt." + +"There are but two horses in my stable," said Philip. "One of them I've +owned several months, and the other I bought yesterday." + +"Who from?" + +"From--" Philip took from his pocket the bill of sale and read from it +the signature:-- + +"James Marney." + +The three men exchanged grim grins, and the complainant said:-- + +"His name ain't Marney, an' 'tain't James, neither. He's a no 'count +cousin o' mine, an' his name's Bill Tewks. An' he never had no right +of any sort or kind to the colt. The colt's mine, an' never was any +one else's, an' I can prove it by these two men, an' one of 'em's +depitty sheriff of our county, an' he's got a warrant for Bill's arrest +for stealin' the hoss. My name's James Marney; I can prove it by any +storekeeper in this town, or by Doc Taggess, or your county clerk, or--" + +"I'll take your word for it," Philip said hastily, for the thought of +exposing a second business blunder to the county clerk in a single +day--a single hour, indeed--was unendurable. + +"I don't see," continued the claimant of the horse, looking greatly +aggrieved, "how a man buys one man's hoss off of another man anyway, +leastways of a no 'count shack like Bill Tewks." + +"Perhaps not," said Philip, "but I may be able to enlighten you. Do you +know a man named Caleb Wright?" + +"Know Caleb? Who don't? That ain't all; he's the honestest man I ever +_did_ know. I wish he was here right now, instead of off to York, as +your wife says, for he knows me an' he knows the hoss. Why, a spell +ago, not long after old Jethro died, an' I needed some money pooty bad, +I writ to Caleb an' ast him what he could git me in cash for the colt, +here in town, prices of hosses here bein' some better'n what they be +in our county, where there ain't never city buyers lookin' aroun', and +Caleb writ back that--" + +"One moment, please," said Philip. "He wrote that any one ought to be +glad to give you seventy-five dollars, but that you would be foolish +to sell, because you could get far more a year later, but that if you +really must sell, he wished you would give me the first chance." + +The claimant, whose eyes by this time were bulging, exclaimed:-- + +"You've got a pooty long mem'ry, an' it's as good as it is long." + +"As to that, I never saw the letter until yesterday. The man who +brought the horse showed me the letter; otherwise I shouldn't have +purchased." + +The claimant and his companions exchanged looks of astonishment, and +the deputy drawled:-- + +"How'd he git it, Jim?" + +"It beats me," was the reply. "Onless he went through the house like he +did the barn. That letter was in the Bible, where I keep some papers +o' one kind an' another, cal'latin' that's as safe a place as any, not +gettin' much rummagin'. He must 'a' knowed I had it. Oh, he's a slick +un, Bill is, when he gits dead broke an' wants to go on a spree. You +see, Mr. Somerton, the way of it was this: the wife was off visitin', +an' I was ploughin' corn, an' took some snack with me, an' some stuff +for the hosses, so's to have a longer rest at noon-time, not havin' to +go back all the way to the house. The colt was in the barn, so I didn't +miss him till I got home, long about dusk. Bill must 'a' knowed, some +way, my wife wa'n't home, an' I could see by the lot o' hay in the +colt's rack that he'd been took out 'fore the middle o' the day. I was +so knocked by missin' him that I've been on the track ever sence, an' +didn't think to look to see ef anythin' was gone from the house, but +the cuss must 'a' prowled 'roun' consid'able ef he got that letter. +Didn't bring in my rifle an' shotgun to sell, did he, nor flat-irons, +nor cook-stove?" + +"No, although he did sell me a saddle and bridle. I hope you'll succeed +in catching the scamp." + +"Oh, I ain't got no use for him. The furder away he gits, the better +satisfied I'll be. We ain't never had no other thief 'mong our +relations. I reckon it's you that ought to want him. What I want is my +colt, an' I'm goin' to have him--peaceful, ef I kin, or by law, ef I +must. He's thar--in your barn; I seen him through the door; so did my +frien's here, so there's no good beatin' about the bush an'--" + +"Stop!" said Philip. "There's no sense in insinuating that I would +knowingly retain stolen property--unless you wish to have your tongue +knocked down your throat." + +"That's fair talk, Jim, an' I don't blame him for givin' it to you," +suggested the deputy. "Now you chaw yerself for a while, an' let me +say somethin'. It don't stan' to reason that any business man is goin' +to try to keep a stolen hoss. On 'tother han', he'd be a fool to give +up on the word o' three men he never seen till just now. You, Jim, +ain't such a fool as to want to air the family skunk so fur from home, +an' Mr. Somerton here ain't likely to be over'n above anxious to have +a fuss that'll let ev'rybody in town know that he was took in by an +amatoor hoss-thief. Now, Jim, jest sa'nter out an' get some square man, +an' not a storekeeper that knows ye, to come in an' speak for ye, as +if ye wanted to buy some goods on credit. Thet'll prove who ye be, an' +like enough he'll know me, too, 'specially if it's--" + +"Why not Doctor Taggess?" Philip suggested. + +"Good idee," the officer replied, "for he knows both of us." + +"An' he knows the colt, too," said the claimant. + +"Better and better," Philip declared, for anything would have been +preferable, at Claybanks or any other Western town, to being known as +a merchant to whom a thief could sell anything. + +Fortunately the Doctor was at home; he came to the store, identified +the claimant, vouched for his honesty and truthfulness, and then +identified the colt as the claimant's property. Philip told the entire +story to the Doctor, who said there was nothing to do but surrender the +horse--or repurchase him. + +"How much do you want for him, Mr. Marney?" + +"Ye ain't said what ye give a'ready." + +"No; that's a different matter. What is your price?" + +"Cash, note, or trade?" + +"Whichever you like, if the figures are right." + +"Well, seein' you've been put to expense a'ready, an' I don't need +money for a couple o' months yet, an' you'll most likely give more on +time than in cash, I'd rather take your sixty-day note for a hundred +back home with me than take the colt back. No other man could have him +so cheap." + +"You shall have it--on condition, written and signed, that neither of +you three shall tell the story of the thief's sale. No one else can +tell it." + +"You'll stand by me, boys?" said the claimant, appealingly. + +"Sure!" + +"Then I'll take the note, Mr. Somerton, an' you've done the square +thing. But say, I'll throw off five dollar ef ye'll tell me what ye +paid fer him." + +"No," said Philip, beginning to draw a bill of sale to include the +condition already specified. + +"I'll make it ten." + +"No." + +"Ah, say! I cayn't sleep peaceful without knowin', but this is rubbin' +it in. Fifteen!" + +"Sign this, please," said Philip, showing the bill of sale. Then he +passed over his own note for eighty-five dollars, and said:-- + +"I paid seventy-five dollars, cash." + +"Well," sighed Marney, "that's a comfort--for besides knowin' how much +'twas, it shows what I wanted to b'lieve, that Bill was as much fool as +scoundrel, else he'd 'a' ast more. Good-by, Mr. Somerton an' Doc." + +The trio departed. The Doctor remained to condole with the victim, +who could not help telling of his real-estate trade. The Doctor +laughed,--but not too long,--then he said:-- + +"There ought to be finer grainings and markings, and, therefore, +more money, in walnut roots than in the average of trees. I've been +intending to experiment in that direction. As to that colt, let me +drive him for you a few days; he may have the making of both prices in +him." + +When the Doctor departed, Philip got out his own horse and buggy, and +insisted that his wife should drive, but Grace was reluctant to go. +Something seemed to be troubling her. Philip asked what it was. "I wish +Caleb were back," she said. + +"_Et tu, Brute?_ Now is my humiliation complete; but as Caleb is where +he is, let us make the best of it." So saying, he indited the following +telegram to Caleb, for Grace to send from the railway station, three +miles distant:-- + + "Look up a buyer for big walnut stumps. + + "PHILIP." + + + + +XXI--CUPID AND CORN-MEAL + + +"THIS," said Philip, as he returned one morning from the post-office +to the store, with an open letter in his hand, "is about the twelfth +letter I've had from old acquaintances in New York, and all are as like +unto one another as if written by the same hand. The writers imagine +that the West is bursting with opportunities for men whose wits are +abler than their hands. What a chance I would have to avenge myself on +mine enemy--if I had one!" + +"And this," Grace said, after opening a letter addressed to herself +that Philip had given her, "is from Mary Truett. I wonder if she has +caught the Western fever from Caleb? Oh--I declare!" + +"Your slave awaits the declaration." + +"She, too, wants to know if there isn't a place here for a clever +young man--her brother; it seems he is a civil engineer and landscape +architect." + +"Imagine it! A landscape architect--at Claybanks! Ask her if he can +live on air, and sleep on the ground with a tree-top for roof. Doesn't +she say anything about Caleb?" + +"I'm skipping her brother and looking for it, as fast as I can. Yes; +here it is. There! Didn't I tell you how sensible she always was? She +thanks me for introducing Caleb, and says he's the most interesting +and genial man she has met in a long time, though, she says, she +wonders whose grammar was in vogue when Caleb went to school. And--dear +me!--this is becoming serious!" + +"My dear girl," said Philip, "there are different ways of reading a +letter aloud. Won't you choose a new one or let me have the letter +itself, when you've read it, provided it contains no secrets?" + +"Do wait a moment, Phil! You're as curious as women are said to +be. It seems that Caleb has persuaded her to accompany him to a +prayer-meeting; and as she has also been to a theatre with him, I'm +afraid the persuading, or a hint to that effect, must have been on her +part. She says he has completely changed in appearance--and by what +means, do you suppose?" + +"I can't imagine." + +"His beard has gone, and his hair has been cut Eastern fashion, and +his mustache turned up at the ends, and he dresses well,--Mary says +so,--and that the contrast is startling. Oh, Phil! What if he should--" + +"Should what? Fall in love with your paragon of women? Well, I suppose +men are never too old to make fools of themselves, and Caleb is only +forty, but I beg that you'll at once remind Miss Truett that Caleb is +too good a man to be hurt at heart for a woman's amusement. Why are you +looking at nothing in that vague manner?" + +"I'm trying to imagine Caleb's new appearance." + +"Spare yourself the effort. I'll telegraph him for a photograph." + +"But I want to know--at once, to see whether he's really impressed Mary +more seriously than she admits." + +"Oh, you women! You can start a possible romance on less basis than +would serve for a dream. Do go backward in that letter, to the lady's +brother, if only to suppress your imagination." + +"I suppose I must," sighed Grace, "for I've reached the end. The +brother, it seems, can secure a railroad pass to visit this country, if +there is any possible business opening for him here." + +"I wish there were, I'm sure, for I don't know of a place more in need +of services such as a landscape architect could render, but you know +that he couldn't earn a dollar." + +"But it seems that he knows something of road-making and grading." + +"Which also are accomplishments that might be put to good use here, if +there were any one to pay for the work." + +"I have it!" Grace said. "The very thing! Don't you dare laugh at me +until I tell it all. You know--or I do--that Doctor Taggess thinks +Claybanks would be far less malarious if the swamp lands could be +drained. He says the malarious exhalation, whatever it is, seems to +be heavier than the air, and is therefore comparatively local in its +effects, for he has known certain towns and other small localities +to be entirely free from it, though the surrounding country was +full of it. Now, if some surveyor and engineer--say Mary Truett's +brother--could find out how to drain our Claybanks swamps, it might +make this a healthy town. Is that a very silly notion?" + +"Silly? Not a bit of it! But, my dear girl, do you know what such an +enterprise would cost?" + +"No, but I do know what I suffered on the day of my awful malarial +attack and that I shall never forget the spectacle of a poor, dear, +little, helpless, innocent baby shaking with a chill!" + +"Poor girl! Poor baby! But don't you suppose that our swamp lands have +been studied for years by the men most interested in them--the farmers +and other owners?--studied and worked at?" + +"Perhaps they have, but Doctor Taggess says farmers always do things in +the hardest way; they've not time and money to try any other. Besides, +since I began to think of it I've often recalled a case somewhat +similar. In our town in western New York the railway station was very +inconvenient; it was on a bridge crossing the track, and everything and +everybody had to go up and down stairs or up and down hill to get to +or from it. It was talked of at town meetings and the post-office and +other places, and public-spirited citizens roamed the line from one end +of town to the other, looking for a spot where the station could be +placed near the level of the track. + +"At last they subscribed money to pay for a new site, if the company +would move its station to the level, and one day a surveyor and his +men came up, and he looked about with an instrument, and a few days +afterward a little cutting at one place and a little filling just back +of it did the business, and all the village wiseacres called themselves +names for not thinking of the same thing, but Grandpa said, 'It takes +a shoemaker to make shoes.' You know the swamps are almost dry now, +because of the hot weather; don't you suppose a surveyor and engineer, +or even a sensible man who's studied physical geography in school, +might be able to go over the ground and learn where and what retains +the water? Now laugh, if you like." + +"Grace, you ought to have been a man!" + +"No, thank you--not unless you had been a woman. But you really think +my plan isn't foolish?" + +"As one of the owners of swamp land, I am so impressed with your +wisdom that I suggest that we invite Miss Truett's brother to visit +us; tell him the outlook is bad, but say we'll guarantee him--well, a +hundred-dollar fee to look into a matter in which we personally are +interested. If your plan is practicable, I'll recover the money easily. +I'll write him this afternoon--or you may do it, through his sister. +Let us see what else is in the mail. Why, I didn't suspect it, the +address being typewritten!--Ah, young woman, now for my revenge, for +here's a letter from Caleb, and if 'tis anything like the last--yes, +here it is--Miss Truett, Miss Truett, Miss Truett." + +"Oh, Phil!" + +"I'll be merciful, and read every word, without stopping to +sentimentalize:-- + +"'DEAR PHILIP: I'm in it, as Jonah thought when the whale shut his +mouth. When I say "it" I mean all of New York that I can pervade +while waiting for the corn-meal to come. I've been to a New York +prayer-meeting and I can't say that it was any better than the +Claybanks kind, except that Miss Truett went with me and joined in all +the hymns as natural as if brought up on them. You ought to hear her +voice. 'Tain't as loud as some, but it goes right to the heart of a +hymn. Next day I went to a museum in a big park and saw more things +than I can ever get straightened out in my head: I wish I could have +had your wife's camera for company. + +"'I went to a theatre, too. I had no more idea of doing it than you +have of selling liquor, but I got into a sort of argument with Miss +Truett, without meaning to, about the great amount of that kind of +sin that was going on; and when she said that she didn't think it was +always sinful, I felt like the man that cussed somebody in the dark for +stepping on his toes, and then found it was the preacher that done the +stepping. She said she really thought that some kinds of theatre would +do a sight of good to a hard-working man like me, and that she'd like +to see me under the influence of a good comedy for a spell; so I told +her there was one way of doing it, and that was to name the comedy +and then go along with me, so as to give her observing powers a fair +chance. She did it, and I ain't sorry I went; though if you don't mind +keeping it to yourself, there won't be some Claybanks prayers wasted on +me that might be more useful if kept nearer home. + +"'Who should I run against on Broadway one day but an old chum of mine +in the army? He'd got a commission, after the war, in the regulars, and +got retired for a bad wound he got in the Indian country, yet, for all +that, he didn't look any older than he used to. He took me visiting to +his post of the Grand Army of the Republic one night, and there I saw a +lot of vets that looked as spruce and chipper as if they was beaus just +going to see their sweethearts. "What's the matter with you fellows +here, that you don't grow old?" says I to my old chum. He didn't +understand me at first, but when he saw what I was driving at, he said +many of the members of the post were older than I, but 'twasn't thought +good sense in New York for a fellow to look older than he was, and he +didn't see why 'twas good sense anywhere. I felt sort of riled, and he +nagged me awhile, good-natured like, about trying to pass for my own +grandfather, till I said: "Look here, Jim, if you've got any fountain +of youth around New York, I'm the man that ain't afraid to take a +dip." "Good boy!" says he. "I'd like the job of reconstructing you, for +old times' sake." "No fooling?" says I; for in old times Jim wouldn't +let anything stand in the way of a joke. "Honor bright, Cale," said he, +"for I want you to look like yourself, and you can do it." Remembering +some advertisements I've seen in newspapers, I says, "What do you do it +with--pills or powders?" Jim coughed up a laugh from the bottom of his +boots, and says he: "Neither. Come along!" + +"'Well, I was skittisher than I've been since Gettysburg, not knowing +what new-fangled treatment he had in his mind, and how it would agree +with me; but he took me into a barber shop where he appeared to know +a man, and he did some whispering, and,--well, when that barber got +through, first giving me a hair-cut and then a shave, and fussing over +my mustache for a spell, and I got a sight of my face in the glass, I +thought 'twas somebody else I was looking at, and somebody that I'd +seen before, a long time ago, and it wasn't until I tried to brush a +fly off my nose that I found 'twas I. Maybe you think I was a fool, +but I was so tickled that I yelled, "Whoop--ee!" right out in meeting. +"There!" says Jim, when we got outside. "Don't you ever wear long hair +and a beard again--not while I'm around." + +"'Then he took me to a tailor shop about forty times as big as your +store, and picked out a suit of clothes for me, and a hat and shirt, +and the whole business. 'Twas the Hawk Howlaway business over again, +with Jim instead of Jethro, only there was more of it, for he stuck a +flower in the buttonhole of my new coat. I couldn't kick, for he was +wearing one too, but I just tell you that if I'd met any Claybanks +neighbor about then, I'd have slid down a side street like running to a +fire. After that he took me to the hotel where he lived, and up in his +room, and looked me over, as if I was a horse, and says he, "There's +one thing more. You need a setting-up." "Not for me, Jim," says I "I +keep regular hours, though I don't mind swapping yarns with you till +I get sleepy to-night!" Then he let off another big laugh, and says +he, "That isn't what I mean. It's something we do in the regulars, and +ought to have done in the volunteers." So he made me stand up, and lift +my shoulders, and hold my head high, and breathe full, at the same time +making me look at myself in the glass. "There!" says he, after a spell, +"you do that a few times a day, till it comes natural to you, and +you'll feel better for it, all your life." + +"'Well, Philip, I don't mind owning up to you that I was so stuck up +for the next few hours that at night I thought it necessary to put up a +special prayer against sinful vanity. Next morning I went down to your +wife's old store to ask Miss Truett something, and she didn't know me. +No, sir, she didn't, till I spoke to her. She didn't say anything about +it, but she looked like your wife sometimes does when she's mighty +pleased about something, and I needn't tell you that looks like them +are mighty pleasant to take. + +"'Well, I suppose all this sounds like fool-talk, for of course I can't +get my birthdays back, but, coming at a time when the malaria appears +to be loosening its grip, this looking like I used to before I got +broke up is doing me a mighty sight of good. + +"'When is that corn-meal coming? + + "'Yours always, + "'CALEB WRIGHT.'" + +"Phil," exclaimed Grace, "'twould be a sin to hurry that meal East, +until--until we hear further from Caleb." + +"And from Miss Truett?" said Philip, with a quizzical grin. +"Fortunately for both of them, the meal probably reached New York soon +after the date of this letter, which was written four days ago, and +Caleb is probably now on the ocean, or about to sail." + +"I think 'tis real cruel," Grace sighed, "just as--" + +"Just as two mature people began daydreaming about each other? I think +'tis the best that could befall them, for it will put their sentiment +to a practical test. Cupid has struck greater obstacles than the +Atlantic Ocean and barrelled corn-meal without breaking his wings." + +"Phil, you talk as coldly as if--oh, as if you weren't my husband." + +"'Tis because I am your husband, dear girl, and realize what miserable +wretches we would be if we weren't, above all else, hearty lovers. What +else have I to live for, out here, but you? Suppose any other woman +were my wife, brought from everything she was accustomed to, and out to +this place where she could find absolutely nothing as a substitute for +the past!" + +"Or suppose I had married some other man--ugh!--and come here!" + +"You would have done just as you have done--seen your duty, done it, +and smiled even if you were dying of loneliness. But not all women are +like you." + +"Because not all men are like you, bless you!--and always ready and +eager to make love first and foremost." + +"How can I help it, when I've you to love? But tell me +now,--frankly,--don't you ever long for the past? Don't you get +absolutely, savagely, heart-hungry for it?" + +"No--no--!" Grace exclaimed. "Besides, I'm easier pleased and +interested than you think. I've learned to like some of our people very +much, since I've ceased judging them by their clothes and manner of +speech. There are some real jewels among the women, old and young." + +"H'm! I'm glad to hear you say so, for I've wanted to confess, for +some time, that I am fast becoming countrified, and without any sense +of shame, either. I'm becoming so deeply interested in human nature +that I've little thought for anything else, aside from business. When +I first arrived, I imagined myself a superior being, from another +sphere; now that I know much about the people and their burdens and +struggles, there are some men and women to whom I mentally raise my +hat. At first I wondered why Taggess, who really is head and shoulders +above every one else here, didn't procure a substitute and abandon +the town; now I can believe that nothing could drag him away. I can't +learn that he ever wrote verses or made pictures or preached sermons, +nevertheless he's artist, poet, and prophet all in one. I should like +to become his equal, or Caleb's equal--I may as well say both, while +I'm wishing; still, I don't like to lose what I used to have and be." + +"You're not losing it, you dear boy, nor am I really losing anything. +The truth is, that in New York both of us, hard though we worked, were +longing for an entirely luxurious, self-indulgent future, and your +uncle's will was all that saved us from ourselves. You always were +perfection, to my eyes, but I wish you could see for yourself what +improvements half a year of this new life have made for you." + +"Allow me to return the compliment, though no one could imagine a +more adorable woman than you were when I married you. So long as I am +you and you are me--" Then words became inadequate to further estimate +and appreciation of the changes wrought by half a year of life at "the +fag-end of nowhere--the jumping-off place of the world," as Philip had +called Claybanks the first time he saw it by daylight. + + + + +XXII--SOME WAYS OF THE WEST + + +CALEB and the corn-meal sailed for Europe, but first Caleb wired the +address of a firm that would do the fair thing with a car-load of +walnut stumps. Miss Truett's brother Harold arrived at Claybanks soon +afterward, and when he learned accidentally that Philip wished some +walnut stumps extracted and that the land was stoneless, he offered +to do the work quickly and cheaply, and his devices so impressed +occasional beholders, accustomed to burning and digging as the only +means of removing stumps, that the young man soon made several +stump-extracting contracts, for which he was to be paid--in land. +Meanwhile, from the back of Philip's horse he studied the swamp lands +near the town; then he went over the ground with a level, and afterward +reported to Philip that for the trifling sum of three thousand +dollars, added to right of way for a main ditch, which the farmers +should be glad to give free of cost, the swamp lands might be converted +into dry, rich farming land. + +"This county couldn't raise three thousand dollars in cash," Philip +replied, "even if you could guarantee that the main ditch would flow +liquid gold." + +"If that is the case," said the young man, who had nothing to lose +and everything to gain, "and as labor and farm tools are almost the +only requirements,--except some cash for my services,--why not form an +association of all the owners of swamp lands, determine the share of +each in the cost, according to the amount of benefit he'll get, and let +all, if they wish, pay in labor at a specified day-price per man, team, +plough, or scraper, and go to work at once? Such things have been done. +A farmer who hasn't enough working force on his place can generally +hire a helper or two, on credit, against crop-selling time. This is +just the time to do it, too; for a lot of farmers in the vicinity +who have swamp land will have nothing especial to do, now that their +winter wheat is cut, till the thrashing machine comes to them, and +others are through with heavy work until corn ripens." + +"I begin to see daylight," said Philip. "But, young man, how did you +get all these practical wrinkles in New York?" + +"By listening to men who've been in the business many years. Most of +them have had to take scrub jobs once in a while. But please secure +the right of way at once for the main ditch; that's where the work +should begin. I shouldn't wonder if you could get a lot of volunteer +labor from the villagers, if you go about it rightly; for your Doctor +Taggess believes that to drain the swamps would be to greatly lessen +the number and violence of malarial attacks,--perhaps banish malaria +entirely,--and I suppose you know what it means for a town, in +certain parts of the West, to have a no-malaria reputation. It means +manufactures, and better prices for building sites, and perhaps the +beginnings of a city." + +"Mr. Truett, I shouldn't wonder if you've struck just the place to +exercise your professional wits." + +"I hope so. I'll soon find out, if you'll arrange that combination of +land-owners, and secure that right of way. Now is the golden time, +while the swamp land has least water and the earth is easiest handled." + +Doctor Taggess, summoned for consultation on the drainage subject, +promised to make an earnest speech at any general meeting that might be +called; so Philip hurried about among the merchants, town and county +officials, and other local magnates, and arranged for an anti-malaria, +city-compelling mass-meeting at the court-house at an early date. + +Political jealousies and personal dog-in-the-manger feeling are +quite as common in small towns as in great ones, but the possibility +of a village becoming a city, and farm property being cut up into +building-lots at high prices, is the one darling hope of every little +village in the far West, and at the right time--or even at the wrong +one--it may be depended upon to weld all discordant elements into one +great enthusiastic force. When the meeting was held, Doctor Taggess +made a strong plea for the proposed improvement, from the standpoint +of the public health; the young engineer read a mass of statistics +on the amazing fertility of drained swamp lands, and announced his +willingness to wait for his own pay until his work proved itself +effective; and the county clerk told of scores of Western villages, +settled no longer ago than Claybanks, that had become cities. The +upshot was that the improvement plan was adopted without a dissenting +voice, and the right of way was secured at the meeting itself, as was +also a volunteer force to begin work at once on the main ditch. + +"Truett," said Philip, after the meeting adjourned, and he, the +engineer, and Doctor Taggess walked away together, "unless you've made +some mistake in your figures, this enterprise will make you a great man +in this section of country." + +"That's what I wish it to do," was the reply, "for I must make a +permanent start somewhere." + +"Your offer to defer asking for pay till the drainage should prove +successful," said the Doctor, "helped the movement amazingly, and it +also made everybody think you a very fair man." + +"Yes? Well, that's why I made it" + +"H'm!" said Philip, "you've the stuff that'll make a successful +Westerner of you." + +"That's what I want to be." + +"I don't think you'll regret it," said the Doctor; "for much though +I sometimes long to return to the East, and plainly though I see +the poverty and limitations of this part of the country, the West +is the proper starting-place for a young man, unless he chances to +have abundant capital. Even then he might do worse; for, of course, +the newer the country, the greater the number of natural resources +to be discovered and developed. The people, too, are interested in +everything new, and stand together, to a degree unknown at the East, +in favor of any improvements that are possible. They do their full +share of grumbling and complaining, to say nothing of their full share +of suffering, but there's scarcely one of them who doesn't secretly +hope and expect to become rich some day, or at least to be part of a +rich community; and they're not more than half wrong, for railways and +manufactures must reach us, in the ordinary course of events, and all +our people expect to see them. Let me give you an illustration. A year +or two ago I drove out one Sunday to see a family of my acquaintance, +living in a specially malarious part of the county, who were out of +quinine--a common matter of forgetfulness, strange though it may seem. +As I neared the house, I heard singing, of a peculiar, irregular kind. +As 'twas Sunday, I supposed a neighborhood meeting was in progress. +But there wasn't. One of the hundreds of projected Pacific railways +had been surveyed through the farm a few months before. On the day of +my call three of the seven members of the family were shaking with +chills; so to keep up their spirits they were singing, to the music of +a hymn-tune, some verses written and printed in the West long ago, and +beginning:-- + + "'The great Pacific railroad + To California, hail! + Bring on the locomotive, + Lay down the iron rail.' + +There's Western spirit for you--fighting a chill with hopes of a +railway that thus far was only a line of stakes and indefinite +promises! Such people are worth tying to; their like cannot be found in +any other part of the country." + +The work at the main ditch continued without interruption, thanks to +a month almost rainless, until the ditch was completed to the creek +at one end and to the swamps at the other. Then the main lines in +the swamps themselves were opened, one by one, and the swamps became +dry for the first time in their history, though small laterals, some +to drain springs, others to guard against the accidents of a rainy +season, were still to be cut by private enterprise. But the people of +Claybanks and vicinity were delighted to so great an extent that dreams +of a golden future would not satisfy them, so they planned a monster +celebration and procession, and there seemed no more appropriate route +of march than up one side of the main ditch and down the other, with a +halt midway for speeches and feasting. + +The happiest man in all the town--happiest in his own estimation, +at least--was Philip; for within a few days he had learned that the +despised mining stock which was his only material inheritance from +his father had suddenly become of great value. He had sent it to New +York to be sold, and learned that the result was almost ten thousand +dollars, which had been deposited to his credit at a bank which he +had designated. At last he had something wholly his own, should +sickness or possible business reverses ever make him wish to abandon +his inheritance from his uncle. Grace shared his feeling, and was +correspondingly radiant and exuberant, for ten thousand dollars in cash +made Philip a greater capitalist than any other man within fifty miles. +He could buy real estate in his own right, to be in readiness for the +coming "boom" of Claybanks; he could become a banker, manufacturer, +perhaps even a railway president, so potent would ten thousand dollars +be in an impecunious land. + +"You're an utter Westerner--a wild, woolly-brained Westerner," said +Philip, after listening to some of his wife's rose-tinted rhapsodies +over the future. + +"I suspect I am, and I don't believe you're a bit better," was the +reply. "Tis in the air; we can't help it." + +On the day of the celebration Grace gave herself up to fun with her +camera, for which she had ordered many plates in anticipation of the +occasion; for never before had there been such an opportunity to get +pictures of all the county's inhabitants in their Sunday clothes. She +was hurrying from group to group, during the great feast at the halt, +when Pastor Grateway, who was looking westward, said:-- + +"Mrs. Somerton, I've heard that you're fond of chasing whirlwinds with +your camera. There comes one that looks as if it might make a good +picture, if you could get near enough to it." + +"Isn't it splendid!" Grace exclaimed. "Doctor Taggess, do look at this +magnificent whirlwind!" + +The Doctor looked; then he frowned, looked about him, and muttered:-- + +"At last!" + +"Why, Doctor, what is the matter?" + +"Nothing, I hope. It may go clear of us. Listen--carefully. Come apart +from the crowd; my ears are not as keen as they used to be. Do you hear +any sound in that direction?" + +"Nothing--except buzz-buzz, as if a hive of bees were swarming." + +"I'm glad of it; it mayn't be so bad as I feared. I'm not acquainted +with the things, except through common report. Where's Mr. Truett? +He had field-glasses slung from his shoulder this morning. Here, you +boys!" the Doctor shouted to several youngsters who were playing +leap-frog near by, "scatter--find Mr. Truett--the man who bossed the +big ditch, and ask him to come here--right away!" + +"Doctor!" exclaimed Grace. "Do tell me what you fear." + +"Tell me first about that noise. Is it any louder?" + +"Yes. It sounds now like a distant railway train. What does it mean?" + +"It means a cyclone. How bad a one, we can't tell until it has passed. +If it keeps its present course, it will pass north of the crowd, but I +am afraid it will strike the town." + +By this time many of the people had noticed the great cloud in the +west, and soon the entire assemblage heard a deep, continuous roar. +Then men, women, and children began to run, for the cloud increased in +blackness and noise at a terrifying rate, but the Doctor shouted:-- + +"Stay where you are! Get to the windward of the platform, and wagons +and horses! Pass the word around--quick! Ah, Mr. Truett! What do you +see?" + +"All sorts of things," said Truett, from behind his field-glasses. +"Lightning--and tree boughs--and corn-stalks--and boards--and something +that looks like a roof. Also, oceans of rain. We're in for a soaking +unless we hurry back to town." + +"The soaking's the safer," said the Doctor, adjusting the proffered +glasses to his own eyes. "Ah, 'tis as I feared: it is tearing its way +through the town. There goes the court-house roof--and the church +steeple." Abruptly returning the glasses, the Doctor shouted as the +great cloud passed rapidly to the northward and rain fell suddenly in +torrents:-- + +"Men--only men--hurry to town, and keep close to me when you get +there." Then he found his horse and buggy and led a wild throng of +wagons, horsemen, and footmen, behind whom, despite the Doctor's +warning, came the remaining components of the procession, and up to +heaven went an appalling chorus of screams, prayers, and curses, for +the word "cyclone"--the word most dreaded in the West since the Indian +outbreaks ended--had passed through the crowd. + +The outskirts of the town were more than a mile distant, and before +they were reached, the throng saw that several buildings were burning, +though the rainfall seemed sufficient to extinguish any ordinary +conflagration. Philip, who was riding with several other men in a farm +wagon, saw, when the wagon turned into the main street, that one of +the burning buildings was his own store. Apparently it had been first +unroofed and crushed by the storm, for all that remained of it and its +contents seemed to be in a pit that once was the cellar, and from which +rose a little flame and a great column of smoke and steam. + +"Let's save people first; property afterward!" he replied to the men +in the wagon when they offered to remain with him and fight the fire. +Afterward he received for his speech great credit which was utterly +undeserved, for after an instant of angry surprise at his loss he was +conscious of a strange, wild elation. A week earlier, such a blow +would have been a serious reverse--perhaps ruin; now, thanks to his +long-forgotten mining stock, he was fairly well off and could start +anew elsewhere, entirely by himself and unhampered by conditions. +He had tried hard to accept Claybanks as his home for life, and +thought he had succeeded; but now, through the gloom of the storm, +the outer world, especially all parts out of the cyclone belt, seemed +delightfully inviting. + +"Where'll we find the people to save?" This question, from a man in the +wagon, recalled Philip's better self, and he replied quickly:-- + +"In the path of the storm, and wherever Doctor Taggess is." + +It soon became evident that the cyclone path had been quite +narrow,--not much wider, indeed, than the business street,--but the +whirling funnel had gone diagonally over the town and thus destroyed or +injured more than forty houses, the débris of which did much additional +injury. Philip and the men passed rapidly from house to house along +the new, rude clearing, and searched the ruins for dead and wounded. +Fortunately almost all of the inhabitants of the town had taken part +in the celebration. Those who remained were numerous enough to provide +many fractures and bruises to be treated by Doctor Taggess and his +corps of volunteer nurses, but apparently not one in the town had been +killed outright. To obtain this gratifying assurance required long +hours of searching far into the night, for some missing persons were +found far from their homes, and with extraordinary opinions as to how +their change of location had been effected. + +Philip worked as faithfully as any one until all the missing were +accounted for and all the houseless ones fed and sheltered. Grace had +given all possible help to many women and children by taking them into +her own home. At midnight, when husband and wife met for the first time +since the storm, they reminded each other of what might have happened +had there been no celebration and they had been in the store and +unconscious of the impending disaster. Together they looked at their +own ruins, for which Philip had hired a watchman, so that he might be +roused if the smouldering fire should gain headway and threaten the +house. + +"It might have been worse," Grace said. "We have a roof to shelter us." + +"Yes, and we may select a new roof elsewhere in the world, if we like. +Perhaps the cyclone was, for us, a blessing in disguise--eh?" + +Grace did not answer at once, though her husband longed for a reply in +keeping with his own feelings. He placed his arm around his wife, drew +her slowly toward the house, and said:-- + +"You deserve a better sphere of life than this, dear girl. You know +well that you would never have accepted this if we had not foolishly +committed ourselves to it without forethought or knowledge. Your energy +and sympathy will keep you fairly contented almost anywhere, but you +shouldn't let them make you unjust to yourself. For my own part, I've +done no complaining, but my life here has been full of drudgery and +anxiety. Now it seems as though deliverance had been doubly provided +for both of us--first by the sale of our mining stock, and to-day +through the destruction of our principal business interest. We can +injure no one by going away; if the property reverts to the charities +which were to be the legatees in case I declined, Caleb will be +provided for, even if he, too, chooses to leave Claybanks. What shall +it be--stay, or go? Dear girl, there are tears in your eyes--they are +saying 'Go!' Let me kiss them away, in token of thanks." + +"Tears sometimes tell shocking fibs," said Grace, trying to appear +cheerful. "I wouldn't trust my eyes, or my tongue, or even my heart +to decide anything to-night, after such a day. There's but one place +in the whole world I shall ever care to be, after this, and that is in +your arms--close to your heart." + +"And that is so far away, and so hard to reach!" said Philip, +forgetting in an instant the day and all pertaining to it. + + + + +XXIII--AFTER THE STORM + + +SOON after sunrise on the morning after the cyclone, Claybanks began +to fill with horror-seekers and rumor-mongers from the outer world; +but most of the natives were invisible, for they had worked and talked +far into the night. It seemed to the Somertons that they had not slept +an hour when they were roused by heavy knocking at the door; then +they were amazed to find the sun quite high. The man who had done the +knocking handed Philip a telegram, brought from the railway station, an +hour distant. It was from New York, and read as follows:-- + + "Back yesterday. Good as new. English business well + started. Cyclone in New York papers this morning. + Please don't abuse the Maker of it. Look out for His + children. Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same + place. Do you want anything from here? Answer. If not, + I start West at once. + + "CALEB." + +"'Tis evident he hasn't given up his habit of early rising," said +Philip, as he gave the despatch to his wife. When she had read it, +Grace said:-- + +"Dear Caleb! His return is absolutely providential, and his despatch is +very like him." + +"I'm not quite sure of that," Philip replied, shaking his head +doubtingly, yet smiling under his mustache. "To be entirely like Caleb, +it should have said that the cyclone was a means of grace." + +"I think he distinctly intimates as much, where he refers to the Maker +of the storm." + +"True. Well, he expects an answer, and I will make it exactly as you +wish." + +Grace rubbed her drowsy eyes and instantly became alert. She looked +inquiringly at her husband, and said:-- + +"Exactly as I wish? May I write it?" + +"May you? What a question! Was there ever a time when your wish was not +law to me?" + +"Never--bless you!--but some laws are hard to bear." + +"Not when you make them, sweetheart. Aren't we one? Write the answer." + +Grace's eyes became by turns melting, luminous, dancing,--exactly as +they had been of old, at the rare times when Philip would come home +from the office with a pleasing surprise,--opera-tickets, perhaps, or +the promise of an afternoon and night at the seashore, or a moonlight +trip on the river. They reminded him of the delightful old times of +which they seemed to promise a renewal, and his heart leaped with joy +at the hope and belief that the answer Grace would write would break +the chains that bound her and him to Claybanks. While Grace wrote, +Philip closed his eyes and imagined himself and his wife spending +a restful, delightful summer together, far from the heat, dust, +shabbiness, and dilapidation of their part of the West. Certainly they +would have earned it, and was not the laborer worthy of his hire? + +He was aroused from his dreams by a bit of paper thrust into his hand. +He opened his eyes and read:-- + + "Count on me to do as you would in the same + circumstances. Will reopen for business at once. + Duplicate in New York your purchases of a few weeks + ago. Refer to ---- Bank, in which I have a large + deposit. Then hurry home. + + "PHILIP." + +Apparently Philip read and re-read the despatch, for he kept his eyes +upon the paper a long time. When finally he looked from it he saw his +wife's countenance very pale and strained. He sprang toward her, and +exclaimed:-- + +"My dear girl, you are sacrificing yourself!" + +"Oh, no, I am not," Grace whispered. + +"Then why are you trembling so violently?--why do you look like a +person in the agony of death?" + +"Because--because I fear that I am trying to sacrifice you--dooming you +for life. The despatch shan't go, for you don't like it. Yet I wrote +only what I thought was right. All that you inherited from your uncle +was earned here, from the people who have suffered by the cyclone, +or must suffer from the troubles that will follow it. 'Twould be +heartless--really dishonest--to leave them, wouldn't it? Besides, many +of them like us very much, and have learned to look up to us, after a +fashion. Perhaps I wrote too hastily; it may not be practicable, but--" + +"Trying, at least, will be practicable," said Philip, after a mighty +effort against himself. "'When in Rome, do as the Romans do;' when with +an angel, follow the angel's lead. I'll hire some one at once to take +the despatch to the wire, and then--why, then I'll wonder where to +reopen for business until the store can be rebuilt." + +"Why won't the warehouse answer? And why don't you go at once to the +city?--'tis only a trip of three or four hours, buy a small assortment +of groceries and other things most likely to be called for at once, and +order a larger stock, by wire, from Chicago? Caleb's purchases will +follow quickly. While you're away I'll manage to get the warehouse into +some resemblance to a store ready for goods; some men can surely be +hired, and I'll get Mr. Truett to help devise such makeshifts as are +necessary. You can be back by to-morrow night, if you start at once." + +"Upon my word, dear girl, you talk like a business veteran from +a cyclone country. If woman's intuitions can yield such business +telegrams and plans as you've disclosed within ten minutes, I think it +is time for men to go into retirement." + +"Women's intuitions, indeed!" Grace murmured, with an accompaniment +of closing eyes, yawning, stretching, and other indications of +insufficient slumber. "I've lain awake most of the night, wondering +what we ought to do and how to do it." + +"And your husband stupidly slept!" + +"Not being a woman, he wasn't nervous, and I am very glad of it. As +for me, I couldn't sleep, so I had to think of something, and I knew +of nothing better to think of. But before you go to the city let's get +into the buggy and drive over the course of the storm in our county, +and see if any one specially needs help." + +"And leave the remains of our store smouldering?" + +"We can get Mr. Truett to attend to it. Engineers ought to know +something about keeping fires down." + +"I wonder where he is. I thoughtlessly asked him to breakfast with us +this morning. I hope he's not starving somewhere, in anticipation. I +hope, also, that we've enough food material in the house to last a +day or two; we've the ice-house and warehouse to fall back upon for +meats. By the way, isn't it fortunate that I adopted Uncle Jethro's +habit of keeping most of the store cash on my person? Otherwise we'd be +penniless until the safe could be got from the ruins, and cooled and +opened." + +While Grace was preparing breakfast Philip hurried about to learn +whether any additional casualties of the storm had been reported, and +he soon encountered the young engineer, who looked as cheerful as if +cyclones were to be reckoned among blessings. + +"I've been out on horseback since daylight," said he, "and everything +is lovely." + +"There's some ground for difference of opinion," replied Philip, +looking at the damaged court-house and church. + +"I meant at the ditch and the swamps," the young man explained hastily. +"In spite of the great rainfall yesterday, the ditch did not overflow, +nor is there any standing water in the swamps. That isn't all; enough +trees have been knocked down, within three or four miles of town, to +make a block pavement for the main street--perhaps enough to pave +the road from here to the railway, so that full wagon-loads could be +hauled all winter long. But there's still more: the creek has been +accidentally dammed, a mile or two from town, by a bridge that the +cyclone took from its place and set up on edge in the stream. A little +work there, at once, would prepare a head for the water-power which I'm +told the town has been palavering about for years, and if you don't +want water-power, 'twould supply plenty of good water to be piped to +town, to replace the foul stuff from wells that have been polluted by +drainage. Doctor Taggess says some of the wells are to blame for many +of the troubles charged to malaria." + +"Harold Truett," said Philip, "do have mercy upon us! We'll yet +hear of you engineers trying to get the inhabitants of a cemetery +interested in some of your enterprises. Block pavements, indeed!--and +water-power!--and a reservoir!--and pipe-service!--all this to a man +whose principal lot of worldly goods is still burning, and in a town +not yet a full day past a cyclone!" + +"Oh, the town's all right," said Truett, confidently. "At least, the +people are. Already they're making the best of it and trying to make +repairs, and wondering to one another, in true Western fashion, if the +disaster won't make the town widely talked of, and give it a boom." + +"They are, eh? Well, I shan't allow the procession to get ahead of +me. Do you wish to superintend the transforming of my warehouse into +a temporary store, while I hurry away to buy goods? Mrs. Somerton +can tell you what we need. You may also see that the fire which is +consuming the remains of the old store is kept down or put out. I think +the two jobs will keep you very busy." + +"Quite likely, but I wish you'd keep that block pavement and +water-power and reservoir in mind, and speak to people about them. A +town is like a man: if it must make a new start, it might as well start +right, and for all it is worth." + +"Bless me! You've been here less than two months, yet you talk like a +rabid Westerner! Do you chance to know just when and where you caught +the fever?" + +"Oh, yes," replied the young man, with a laugh. "I got it in New York, +while listening to your man, Caleb Wright. I couldn't help it. I forgot +to say that now ought to be the time to coax a practical brick-maker +to town, and show what the banks of clay are really good for. Do it +before the state newspapers stop sending men down here to write about +the cyclone, and you'll get a lot of free advertising. And a railway +company ought to be persuaded to push a spur down here; they would do +it if you had water-power and any mills to use it." + +"Anything else? Are all engineers like you?--contriving to turn nothing +into something?" + +"They ought to be. That's what they were made for. So were other +people, though some of them seem slow to understand it. I wish +you'd appoint me a reception committee to talk to all newspaper +correspondents that come down to write up the horrors. If you'll tell +your fellow-citizens to refer all such chaps to me, I'll engage to +have the town's natural resources exploited in fine style." + +Philip promised, and an hour later when he and Grace were driving +rapidly over one of the county roads, Philip said that if Miss Truett +were of like temperament to her brother, it was not strange that she +was head of a large department. Still, Philip thought it strange that +a young man of so much energy and perceptive power should see anything +promising in Claybanks. + +"'Tis all because of Caleb," Grace replied confidently. "Mr. Truett +says that Caleb was quite voluble about the defects of the country, but +his truthfulness was fascinating through its uniqueness." + +"H'm! 'Tis evident that Caleb was the cause of Truett coming here, so +the town is still more deeply in debt to Caleb, who, poor chap, will +return to miss everything that he left behind him in his room, and even +the roof that sheltered him." + +"And he was so attached to his belongings, too!" Grace said. "Do invite +him, by wire, to regard our home as his own; he is not the kind of man +to abuse the invitation, and I'm sure he will appreciate it." + +Within six hours Philip had seen all of his own customers who had +been in the track of the storm, he had asked if there was anything in +particular he could bring them from the city, and assured them that if +they did not make free use of him, they would have only themselves to +blame. Naturally, he did not neglect to say that within a week he would +have on sale as large an assortment of goods as usual, and one with no +"dead stock" in it. Before nightfall, he was in the nearest small city, +and purchasing at a rate that made the dealers glad, and he was also +ordering freely by wire from Chicago houses that had sold to Jethro +Somerton for years, and who felt assured that no mere cyclone and fire +could lessen the Somerton power to pay. Twenty-four hours later he +was at home, congratulating his wife and Truett on the transformation +of the dingy warehouse into a light, clean-appearing room, thanks to +hundreds of yards of sheeting that had been tacked overhead in lieu of +ceiling, and also to the walls. Counters had been extemporized, and +shelving was going up. Some of the contents of the old store had been +saved, and the remainder was being drenched by a bucket brigade, under +the direction of Truett, who reported that he had had no trouble in +securing workmen, for Mrs. Somerton had asked them as a special favor +to her, and they had tumbled over one another in their eagerness to +respond. As to himself, he had found time to draw exterior and interior +plans for a new store to be erected on the old foundations, and he +begged permission to begin work as soon as the ruins were cool; for, +said he, "Lumber and labor will never be cheaper here than they are +now." + +"As I remarked before I left, you're a rabid Westerner," Philip said, +in admiration of the young man's enthusiasm. + +"Give it any name you like," was the reply, "though I'm suggesting only +what any Eastern man would do. Besides, I'd like to see everything well +started or arranged before Caleb can reach here." + +"You seem to have become remarkably fond of Caleb on very short +acquaintance," said Philip. + +"I have," was the reply, "and since I've learned that he was sent East +principally to regain his health, I'd like, in justice to both you and +him, that he should find nothing to give him a setback. That's only +fair, isn't it?" + +"'Tis more than fair. 'Tis very hearty, and greatly to your credit." + +"Oh, well; put it that way, if you like." + +Philip's goods began to arrive a day later, in farm wagons, moving +almost in procession to and from Claybanks and the railway town, and +several men worked at unpacking them, while Philip and Grace arranged +them on the shelves and under the counters. When Saturday night ended +the fourth day, the merchant and his wife were fit to enjoy a day of +rest on Sunday. Sunday morning came, and while Philip and Grace were +leisurely preparing their breakfast, there was a knock at the door. +Philip opened it, and shouted:-- + +"Grace!" + +Grace hurried from the kitchen, embraced a lady whom she saw, and +exclaimed:-- + +"Mary Truett!" + +"Mrs. Wright, if you please," replied the lady. + +"I beg a thousand pardons!" Grace gasped. She soon recovered herself +and looked very roguish as she continued, "Won't you kindly introduce +me to the distinguished-looking stranger beside you?" + +Then Caleb pushed his hat to the back of his head, slapped his leg +noisily, and exclaimed:-- + +"Distinguished--looking--stranger! Hooray!" + + + + +XXIV--HOW IT CAME ABOUT + + +"NOW, Caleb," said Philip, after the four had been seated at the +breakfast table so long that most of the food had disappeared, "tell us +all about it. Don't leave out anything." + +"All right," said Caleb, after emptying his coffee-cup. "I'll begin at +the beginning. I don't s'pose 'tis necessary to tell any of you that +New York is a mighty big city, an' London is another, so--" + +"New York savors of business, and so does London," said Philip, "and as +this is Sunday, I must decline to hear a word about worldly things. I'm +amazed that so orthodox a man as you should think of such matters on +Sunday." + +"Tell him, Caleb," Grace added, "and tell me also, about something +heavenly--something angelic, at least--something resembling a special +mercy, or a means of grace." As she spoke, she looked so significantly +at Mary, that Caleb could no longer pretend to misunderstand. + +"Well," said he, "as I came back double when you expected only to see +me single, I s'pose a word or two of explanation would only be fair to +all concerned. You see, before I started for London I felt pretty well +acquainted with Mary, for I'd been in New York two or three weeks. That +mightn't seem a long time, to some, in which to form an acquaintance +that will last through life an' eternity, but such things depend a lot +on the person who's doin' 'em, an', as you know, my principal business +for years has been to study human nature in general, an' particularly +whatever specimen of it is nearest at hand. In New York it had come to +be as natural as breathin', an' mighty interestin' too, especially when +the person's p'ints were first-rate, an' I had reason to believe that I +was bein' studied at the same time by somebody who had a knack at the +business an' didn't have any reason to mean harm to me." + +"Any one--any New Yorker, at least,--would have found Caleb an +interesting subject,--don't you think so?" said Mary, with a shy look +of inquiry. + +"I'm very sure that Philip and I did," Grace replied. + +"Well, 'twas all of Mrs. Somerton's doin', for she gave me a letter +of introduction to Miss Mary Truett: the Lord reward her accordin' to +her works, as the Apostle Paul said about Alexander the Coppersmith. +I carried a lot of other letters, you'll remember, and every one to +whom they were given was quite polite an' obligin'; but business is +business, so as soon as the business was done, they were done with me. +But Mary wasn't." + +"She wasn't allowed to be," Mary whispered. + +"I reckon that's so," Caleb admitted; "for somehow I kept wantin' to +hear the sound of her voice just once more--just to see what there was +about it that made it so different from other voices, so I kept makin' +business excuses that I thought were pretty clever an' reasonable-like, +an' she was always good-natured enough to take 'em as they were meant." + +"What else could she do?" asked Mary, with an appealing look. "The +rules against personal acquaintances dropping into the store to chat +were quite strict, and applied to heads of departments as well as to +other employees. Caleb's plausible manner deceived no one, but he was +so odd, at first, and so entertaining, that every one in authority in +the store quickly learned to like him, and were glad to see him come +in. They would make excuses to saunter near us, and listen to the +conversation, and whenever he went out, some of them remained to tease +me. They saw through him before I did, and made so much of what they +saw that, in the course of time, I had to work hard to rally myself +whenever I saw Caleb approaching." + +"She did it splendidly, too," said Caleb. "In a little while I got so +that my eye could catch her the minute I found myself inside the store, +no matter how many people were between us, yet I'm middlin' short, as +you know, an' she isn't tall. She'd be talkin' business, as sober as +a judge, with somebody, but by the time I got pretty nigh, her face +would look like a lot o' Mrs. Somerton's pet flowers--red roses, an' +white roses, an' a couple o' rich pansies between, an' around 'em all +a great tangle o' gold thread to keep 'em from gettin' away." + +"Caleb!" exclaimed Mary. "Your friends want only facts." + +"I'm sure he's giving us nothing else," Grace said, looking admiringly +at Mary, while Philip added:-- + +"He's doing it very nicely, too. Bravo, Caleb! Go on." + +"Well, she was kind o' curious about the West, like a good many other +New Yorkers who hadn't ever been away from home, and one day she asked +me if there was any chance out here for a young man who was a civil +engineer and landscape architect. She said so much about the young +man's smartness an' willingness, an' pluck, an' good nature, that +all of a sudden I found myself kind o' hatin' that young man, an' it +didn't take me long to find out why, an' when I saw that the trouble +was that I was downright jealous of him, I said to myself, 'Caleb, +you're an old fool,' an' I put in some good hard prayin' right then +an' there. Suddenly she explained that the young man was her brother, +an'--well, I reckon there never was a prayer bitten off shorter an' +quicker than that prayer was. She wished he could meet me, an' I said +that any brother o' hers could command me at any time an' anywhere, so +we fixed it that I should call at their house that very evenin'. Well, +I liked his looks an' his p'ints in general, an' he asked no end o' the +right kind o' questions, an' she helped him. I told 'em ev'rythin', +good an' bad--specially the latter--malaria, scattered population, +bad roads, poor farming, poor clothes, scarcity of ready cash, all +the houses small an' shabby; for up to that time it seemed to me that +everybody in New York lived in a palace an' wore Sunday clothes ev'ry +day of the week; afterwards I went about with some city missionaries +an' policemen, an' came to the conclusion that the poorest man in this +town an' county is rich, compared with more than half of the people in +New York. But that's gettin' over the fence an' into another field. +Her brother was so interested that nothin' would do but that I should +go back an' take supper with 'em next evenin' an' continue the talk. +Well, 'Barkis was willin',' as a chap in one of your circulatin' +library books said. Pity that library's burned; I'll put up half the +expense of a new one, for if ever there was a means of grace--" + +"It shall be replaced," said Philip, "but--one means of grace at a +time. Do go back to the original story." + +"Oh! Well, the next day happened to be the one in which I met my old +army chum, Jim, who reconstructed me in the way I wrote you about. One +consequence of Jim's over-haulin' was that when I got to their house +an' walked into their parlor, they didn't know me from Adam; both of +'em stood there, like a couple o' stuck pigs." + +"What an elegant expression!" exclaimed Mary. + +"You don't say that as if you b'lieved it over an' above hard, my dear, +but I do assure you that the expression means a lot to Western people. +Pretty soon her brother came to himself an' asked what had happened, +an' I said, 'Oh, nothin', except that when I'm in Turkey, an' likely to +stay awhile, I try to do as the turkeys do.' Well, things kept goin' +on, about that way, for some days, an' between thinkin' 'twas time +for that corn-meal to come, an' wishin' that it wasn't, an' wishin' a +lot of other things, I was in quite a state o' mind for a while, an' +self-examination didn't help me much. + +"All the time there kep' runnin' in my mind an old sayin' that your +Uncle Jethro was mighty fond of--'There's only one hoss in the world,' +an' the most I could do to keep from bein' a plumb fool was to remind +myself that that sort of a hoss had some rights of its own that +ought to be respected. I showed off my own good p'ints as well as I +could, an' I coaxed Mary to go about with me considerable, because +Mrs. Somerton had told me that her judgment and taste were remarkably +good,--that's the excuse I made,--an' we talked about a lot o' things, +an' found we didn't disagree about much. I accidentally let out what I +was goin' to England for, an' she got powerful interested in it, for +she'd read an' heard lots about the way the poorest English live in big +cities, so she thought I was really goin' on missionary work, an' she +said she would almost be willing to be a man if she could have such a +job. + +"She looked so splendid when she said it that I felt plumb +electrified--felt just as if a new nerve had suddenly been put into me +some way, so I made bold to say that she'd do that sort o' work far +better as a woman, an' that there was a way for her to do it, too, if +she was willin', an' if her minister would say a few words appropriate +to that kind of arrangement." + +"That is exactly the way he spoke," said Mary, "and as coolly as if he +wasn't saying anything of special importance." + +"Caleb's mind is sometimes in the clouds," Grace said, "where +everything for the time being appears just as it should be." + +"That must be so, I reckon, Mrs. Somerton," said Caleb, "seein' that +you say it; but I want to remark that if I was in the clouds that day, +I got out of 'em mighty quick, an' down to earth, an' mebbe a mighty +sight lower; for Mary suddenly turned very white, an' right away I felt +as if Judgment Day had come, an' I'd been roped off among the goats. +But all of a sudden she turned rosy, an' said, very gentle-like an' +sweet, ''Tis a long way to London, an' you might change your mind on +the way.' Said I, ''Tis longer to eternity, but I'll be of the same +mind till then, an' after, too.' She was kind o' skittish for a while +after that, but she didn't do any kickin', which I took for a good +sign." + +"Kicking, indeed!" said Mary, studying the decoration of her +coffee-cup. "Breathing was all the poor thing dared hope to do." + +"Well, at last she said she thought it might be better for me to go +alone, so both of us could have a fair chance to think it over, an' I +said that I wouldn't presume to doubt the good sense of whatever she +thought, an' that her will was law to me, an' would go on bein' so as +long as she would let it. Just then the corn-meal came, an' I went. +After I got fairly started on the trip, I found myself feelin' kind o' +glad she wasn't with me. As we've just been eatin' breakfast, I won't +go into particulars; but after I got over bein' seasick, I felt as well +an' strong as a giant, an' I ran a private prayer an' praise meetin' +all the way across. At first I was sorry that I hadn't asked her for +her picture to take along, but I soon found that I had one--had it in +both eyes, day an' night, an' all the time I was in London, too, an' +the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to see the original again. + +"This bein' Sunday, I won't say anythin' more about the business than +that I got it started well, didn't slight it, an' left it in good +hands. Gettin' back to the United States appeared to take a year; I +used to look at as much as a passenger could see of the engine, an' +wish I could put my heart into it to make it work faster. One day we +reached New York about sundown, an' I s'pose I needn't say whose house +I made for at once, with my heart in my mouth. 'Twasn't hard to make +out that she wasn't a bit sorry to see me, so my heart got out of my +mouth at once, an' gave my tongue a change. She asked about my trip, +an' told me about her letter to you about her brother, an' about your +kind invitation to him, an' how busy he already was in Claybanks, an' +she was able to tell me a lot about both of you, all of which I was +mighty glad to hear, but after a while there came a kind o' silent +spell, so I said:-- + +"Speakin' about thinkin' it over, I've been doin' nothin' else, an' I +haven't changed my mind. How is it with you?' She didn't say anythin', +for about a million hours, it seemed to me, but at last she put out +both of her hands, kind o' slow-like, but put 'em out all the same, +bless her; so I--" + +"Caleb," exclaimed Mrs. Wright, severely. + +"We understand," said Philip, "having had a similar experience a few +years ago;" and Grace said:-- + +"Blushes are very becoming to you, Caleb." + +"Thank you--very much. But how do you s'pose I felt next mornin' after +wakin' up with the feelin' that this world was Paradise, an' that it +couldn't be true that there were such things as sin an' sorrow an' +trouble, an' then seein' the whole front of my mornin' paper covered +with the Claybanks cyclone, an' nothin' to tell who was killed an' who +was spared! 'Twas nigh on to seven o'clock when I saw the news, an' +for a few minutes I did the hardest, fastest thinkin' I ever did in my +life. I sent you a despatch, hopin' that you were among the saved, an' +by eight o'clock I was at Mary's house. She'd seen the paper, so she +wasn't surprised to see me. She was just startin' for the store, so I +walked along with her, an' I said:-- + +"It couldn't have come at a more awful time, so far as my feelin's are +concerned, but the Claybanks people are my own people, after a fashion, +an' some of 'em need me--that is, they'll get along better if they have +me to talk to for a while. Will you forgive me if I hurry out to them? +You won't think me neglectful, or less loving than I've promised to be, +will you?' Then what did that blessed woman do but quote Scripture at +me--'Whither thou goest I will go, an' where thou lodgest I will lodge, +and thy people shall be my people.' 'Twas a moment or two before I took +it all in; then I said, to make sure that I wasn't dreamin', 'Do you +mean that you'll marry me--to-day--an' go out to Claybanks with me by +this evenin's train?' An' she said, 'Could I have said it plainer?' By +that time we were in a hoss-car, so I couldn't--" + +"Caleb!" again exclaimed Mrs. Wright, warningly. + +"All right, my dear; I won't say it. I didn't know, until afterward, +that Mrs. Somerton had been fillin' Mary up with letters about me an' +my supposed doin's for some of the folks out here. I don't doubt that +those stories were powerful influential in bringin' things to a head. +Well, while she went to the store to give notice to quit, an' to have a +fuss, perhaps, all on my account, I went to a newspaper office to find +out if any more news had come since daylight began. I wanted to know +the worst, whatever it was, an' when they told me that nobody was dead, +so far as could be learned, I wanted to wipe up part of the floor of +that newspaper office with my knees, an' I didn't care a continental +who might see me do it, either. + +"Then I went down to her store, an' got a word with her, though she was +rattlin' busy. Queer, though, how sharp-eyed some of those New Yorkers +are. Mary hadn't had a bit of trouble. The firm wasn't surprised when +she began to make her little statement--they said they'd seen, a month +or two before, how matters were likely to go, so they'd selected her +successor, sorry though they were at the idea of losing her. They +hadn't supposed the notice to quit would be so sudden, but after they +compared notes about the front page of a mornin' paper they agreed that +they'd be likely to lose Mary as soon as I struck New York. I s'posed +men as busy as the owners of such a business would have forgotten +the name of Claybanks, if they'd ever heard it, an' I wouldn't have +supposed that they'd ever have heard anythin' about me; but bless you, +they knew it all, an' they took Mary's words out of her mouth, as soon +as she explained that a dear friend who had just arrived from Europe +needed her companionship and assistance in a trip to the West. 'We hope +Mr. Wright isn't ill,' said one of the partners, an' the other said, +'We greatly hope so, for we learn from the Commercial Agency that he +is really as prominent and useful a man as there is in his county.' +Think o' that,--not that the Agency, whatever it is, was right, but +think of me bein' on record in any way in New York, an' of those old +chaps havin' known all about Mary an' me! It's plain enough that New +York folks are as keen-eyed as the best, an' that they've got one thing +that we Westerners don't know a single thing about, an' that's system. + +"But I'm strayin' again. At the store I arranged with her that we +should be married at her church at four o'clock that afternoon. Soon +after leavin' the store I got your despatch, which I didn't doubt had +already been read up in heaven--bless you both! It didn't take more +than two hours to duplicate the orders of a few weeks before; then I +went to her house, for the last time, an' she was already dressed for +the weddin'--dressed just as she is now. There were a couple of hours +to spare, an' as I'd ordered our railroad tickets, I improved the time +by tryin' to persuade her relatives, who had been called in on short +notice, that she was goin' to be in safe hands. But there wasn't a +chance to talk more'n two minutes at a time, for the door-bell kept +ringin', an' messengers kept comin' in with flowers an' presents, +most of 'em from people at the store. There's two trunks full of 'em, +comin' along by express. Of course we were goin' to have a quiet +weddin'--nobody invited to the church but her fam'ly an' two or three +of her relatives, an' my old army chum Jim; but when we got there, a +whole lot of folks were inside the church, an' when we started out +after the ceremony they crowded to the aisle, an' some threw flowers +in it, an' then for the first time the dear little woman learned that +the store people had turned out in force, the proprietors among 'em, +an' all the women kissed the bride, an' a lot of 'em cried, an'--oh, +nobody ever saw such goin's on at any weddin' in the Claybanks church. +An'--to wind up the story--here we are, ready for business, when Monday +comes. I telegraphed Black Sam to find an empty house for us somewhere, +knowin' that my old room was gone, an'--" + +"You're to live with us," said Philip. "You know we've room to spare, +and I know that my wife will be delighted to have your wife with her." + +"Thank you, Philip. Mrs. Somerton's taste in women is as correct as in +everythin' else." + +"But doesn't your brother know?" asked Grace of Mary. + +"No," was the reply. "Some things are easier told than written. +Besides, he's the dearest brother in the world, and thinks whatever I +do is right. How I long to see him!" + +"I'll find him at once," said Philip, rising. "'Twas very thoughtless +of me to have neglected him so long, but between astonishment and +delight I--" + +"You won't have far to look," said Caleb, who had moved toward the +window. "Mary, come here, please--stand right beside me--close--to +protect me in case he offers to knock me down." + +Philip opened the door, and Truett said:-- + +"I've just heard that Caleb came over from the railway station this +morning. Has he--oh, Mary! Just as I might have expected, if I hadn't +been too busy to think." + +"You don't act as if you had any ill feelin' toward me," said Caleb, +as Truett, after much affectionate demonstration toward his sister, +greeted his brother-in-law warmly. + +"Ill feeling? I'm delighted--quite as much delighted as surprised. I +saw how 'twould be before you sailed, for my sister has always been +transparent to me. As to you, any one who saw you in Mary's presence +could see what was on your mind. That was why I came out here. There +were other places I might have selected for my own purposes, but when I +saw how matters were going, I was determined that the town in which my +sister was to live, in the course of time, shouldn't be malarious and +shabby and slow if I could do anything to better it." + +"Aha!" said Philip, with the manner of a man upon whom a new light had +suddenly shone. "Now I understand your rage for local improvements, and +your Western fever in all its phases." + +"Could I have had better cause?" + +Philip looked admiringly at Mary, and answered:-- + +"No." + +The table was cleared by so many hands that they were in the way of one +another; then the quintet adjourned to the windward side of the house, +under the vine-clad arbor, and began to exchange questions. Suddenly +Grace said:-- + +"There's something new and strange about Caleb--something besides his +change of appearance and his happiness, and I can't discover what it +is." + +"Perhaps," said Mary, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "'tis his +grammar." + +Caleb's eyes expressed solicitude as they turned toward Grace, and +they indicated great sense of relief when Grace clapped her hands and +exclaimed:-- + +"That is it!" + +"Well," said Caleb, "it does me good to know that the change is big +enough to see, for it's taken a powerful lot o' work. I used to be at +the head of the grammar class when I was a boy at school, but 'Evil +communications corrupt good manners,' as the Bible says, an' I've +been hearin' the language twisted ev'ry which way ever since I left +school. I never noticed that anythin' was wrong till I got into some +long talks with Mary, an' even then I didn't suppose that 'twas my +manner o' speech that once in a while made her twitch as if a skeeter +had suddenly made himself too familiar. One evenin'--I didn't know +till afterwards that she'd had an extra hard day at the store, an' had +brought a nervous headache home with her--she gave an awful twitch +while I was talkin', an' then she whispered 'Them!' to herself, an' +looked as disapprovin' as a minister at a street-fight. Then all of a +sudden my bad grammar came before my eyes, as awful as conviction to a +sinner. But I was tryin' to set my best foot forward, so I went on:-- + +"'I said "them" for "those" just now, perhaps you noticed?' + +"'I believe I did,' said she. + +"'Well,' said I, 'that word was pounded into me so hard at school one +day that I've never been able to get rid of it. You see, I was the +teacher's favorite, after a fashion, because it was known that I was +expectin' to study for the ministry, so the teacher kept remindin' +me that grammar was made to practise as well as recite, an' 'twasn't +of any use to use the language correctly in the class if I was goin' +to smash it an' trample on the pieces on the playground. I took the +warnin' an' one day, when four of us boys were havin' a game of +long-taw at recess I said somethin' about "those" marbles. One of the +boys jumped as if he had been shot, and when he came down he rolled +back his lips an' said "Those!" kind o' contemptuous-like, an' another +snickered "Those!" an' the other growled "Those!" an' then the first +one said, "Fellers, Preachy's puttin' on airs; let's knock 'em out of +him," an' then all of 'em jumped on me an' pounded me until the bell +rang us in from recess, an' from that time to this I've stuck to "them" +like a penitent to the precious promises.' + +"Well, she had a laugh over that; she said afterward that it cured her +headache, but after quietin' down she said, lookin' out o' the side o' +her face kind o' teasin'-like, an' also mighty bewitchin':-- + +"'What did the boys do to make you say "ain't" for "haven't"?' + +"Then I was stuck, an' laughed at myself as the best way of turnin' +it off, but for the rest of the evenin' I was chasin' the old grammar +back through about twenty years of army talk an' store talk, an' 'twas +harder than a dog nosin' a rabbit through a lot full o' blackberry +patches, an' I reckon I lost the scent a good many times. I stayed in +the city that night, so as to get into a bookstore an' a grammar book +early next mornin', an' I dived into that book ev'ry chance I got, in +the hoss-cars an' ev'rywhere else, an' when I was on the ocean an' +not sayin' my prayers, nor readin' the Bible, I was doin' only three +things, an' generally doin' all of 'em at once,--thinkin' of Mary, +keepin' my head an' shoulders up as my old soldier-chum Jim had made me +promise to do, an' puttin' Claybanks English into decent grammatical +shape. I tried to stop droppin' my 'g's' too, for she seemed to think +they deserved a fightin' chance o' life, even if they did come in only +on the tail-ends of words; I'd have got along fairly well at it, if it +hadn't been for the English people, but some of them seem to hate a +'g' at the end of a word as bad as if it was an 'h' at the beginnin', +which is sayin' a good deal. But see here, isn't it most church time? I +s'pose the sooner I take up my cross, the less I'll dread it." + +"Caleb," exclaimed Grace, in genuine surprise, "it can't be possible +that you've been backsliding, and learning to dislike religious +services?" + +"Oh, no," Caleb replied, looking quizzically at his wife; "but you're +the only old acquaintances I've met since I was married, an' at church +I'll meet two or three hundred, an' Claybanks people don't often have +any one new to look at an' talk about, an' any surprise of that kind is +likely to hit most of 'em powerful hard." + +"Go very early," Grace suggested, "and sit as far front as possible. +Philip and I will break the news to the minister before he reaches the +church, and we'll stand outside and tell the people as they arrive, so +that they can collect their wits and manners by the time the service +ends." + +"That'll be a great help," said Caleb. Then he drew Grace aside and +whispered with a look that was pathetic in its appeal: "Try to make her +understand, won't you, that our folks are a good deal nicer than they +look? You went through it alone, a few months ago. I saw your face, an' +my heart ached for you, but to-day I'm tremblin' for Mary. What do you +s'pose she'll think after she's looked around?" + +"About what I myself did," Grace replied. "I thought, 'I've my +husband,' and from that moment Philip was far dearer to me than he had +been." + +"Is that so? Glory! Mary, put on your bonnet. Let's be off for church." + + + + +XXV--LOOKING AHEAD + + +"WELL, Philip," said Caleb, as the two men met on the piazza before +sunrise Monday morning, "as Sunday's gone an' as there's no one here +but you an' I, let's talk business a little bit. You mustn't think that +my having taken a wife is going to make me an extra drag on you, an' +right after a cyclone, too. My salary's enough to support two on the +best that Claybanks can provide, an' if you're hard pushed, I can get +along without drawin' anythin' for a year, for I've always kept a few +hundred ahead against a time when I might break down entirely. I've +told Mary how your wife's been in the store a great part of the time, +an' there's nothin' that Mary'd like better than to do the same thing, +if agreeable to you an' Mrs. Somerton. She's had practical trainin' at +it, you know." + +"She'll be worth her weight in gold to us," Philip replied, "for +I foresee a busy future, about which I've much to say to you. The +cyclone, instead of depressing the people, seems to have nerved them +to new hope, for the town has received much free advertising; a lot +of city newspapers sent men down here to describe the horrors of +the affair, and as there were no actual horrors, and the men wanted +something of which to make stories, that brother-in-law of yours, who +is about as quick-witted a young chap as I ever met, filled their heads +with the natural resources of Claybanks,--rich soil, drained swamps, +plenty of valuable commercial timber, water-power available at short +notice, whenever manufacturers might demand it, and, of course, the +great deposit of brick clay from which the town got its name. I predict +that there will be a lot of chances to make money outside of the store, +so the more help we can have in the store, the better. By the way, +I wonder what Truett has been up to this morning. I heard hammering +awhile ago, in the direction of the warehouse. Ah! I remember--putting +up the old sign over the door--uncle's old sign; it was carried about +a mile from town by the cyclone and brought back by a man who thought, +and very correctly, that I'd like to preserve it. Let's go around a +moment and see how it looks, and remind ourselves of old times." + +As they reached the front of the warehouse, Caleb lost the end of a +partly uttered sentence, for over the old sign he saw a long board on +which was painted, in large, black letters:-- + + SOMERTON & WRIGHT, + + SUCCESSORS TO + +"Who did that?" Caleb gasped. + +"Truett," Philip replied. "He did it by special request, and I'm afraid +he worked a little on Sunday, but Mrs. Somerton and I thought it a work +of necessity. You see," Philip continued, in a matter-of-fact manner, +and ignoring Caleb's astonished look, "by the terms of Uncle Jethro's +will I was to provide for you for life and to your own satisfaction, +and 'tis quite as easy to do it this way as on the salary basis. +Besides, 'twill put those benevolent societies out of their misery, +and put an end to their questions, every two or three months, as to +the likelihood of the property reverting to them. You'll have me in +your power as to terms, but I know you'll do nothing unfair. Let's have +articles of co-partnership drawn up, on the basis of equal division of +profits in the entire business--store, farms, houses, etc. I wrote you +of the lump of money I got for my father's old mining stock. That, of +course, is my own; but if the firm runs short of ready cash at any time +I will lend to it at the legal rate of interest, so nothing but a very +bad crop year can cripple us. Besides, I shall want to operate a little +on the outside, so the store will need an additional manager who shall +also be an owner--not a clerk, as you've insisted on being." + +"But, Philip," said Caleb, who had collapsed on an empty box in front +of the store, "I've never had any experience as a boss." + +"Nor as a married man, either," Philip replied, "yet you've suddenly +taken to the part quite naturally and creditably! The main facts are +these: I'm satisfied that the past success of the store business has +been due quite as much to you as to Uncle Jethro, and all the people +agree with me. I couldn't possibly get along without you, nor feel +honest if I continued to take more than half of the proceeds. Why not +go tell the story to your wife, as an eye-opener? I think it might give +her a good appetite for breakfast, and improve her opinion of Claybanks +and the general outlook. It might cheer her farther to be told that her +brother is the right man in the right place, and bids fair to become +the busiest man in the county." + +"I'll tell her, an' I don't doubt that 'twill set her up amazingly. +But, Philip--" here Caleb looked embarrassed, "you haven't--don't you +think you could make out to say somethin' to me about her?" + +"You dear old chap,--'young chap' would be the proper +expression,--where are your eyes, that you haven't seen me admiring her +ever since you brought her to us yesterday morning? She's a beauty with +a lot of soul, and she's a wonderfully clever, charming woman besides, +and I never saw a bride who seemed deeper in love. I can't ever thank +you enough for finding such capital company for my wife. I expected to +be impressed, for Grace has raved about her ever since you first wrote +of meeting her, but Grace left much untold." + +"I was afraid you might think she took up with me too easily," said +Caleb; "but when, after we were married, I told her I never would +forgive myself if I did not make her life very happy, she said she +had no fears for the future, and that I mustn't think she took me +only on my own say-so, for she'd had a lot of letters from your wife +about me, all to the effect that I was the honestest, kindliest, most +thoughtful, most unselfish man in the world, except you. Mary had great +confidence in the judgment of your wife, whom she remembered as a very +discreet young woman and a good judge of human nature. Her brother, +too, unloaded on her a lot of complimentary things that he'd managed to +pick up out here about me. Now, as a married man, an' a good friend of +mine, what do you honestly think of my future?" + +"Nothing but what is good. You've still half of your life before you, +and if you're really rid of malaria, and if that Confederate bullet +will cease troubling you, you ought to tread on air and live on +sunshine for the remainder of your days." + +"Speakin' of bullets," said Caleb, tugging at one end of a double +watch-chain, and extracting from his pocket something which resembled +a battered button, "how's that, for the wicked ceasin' from troublin' +an' the weary bein' at rest? For my first two or three days at sea I +couldn't see any good in sea-sickness, except perhaps that it had a +tendency to make a man willin' to die, an' even that view of it didn't +appeal very strongly to me, circumstances bein' what they were. One day +when I was racked almost to death, I felt an awful stitch in my side. I +was weak an' scared enough to b'lieve almost anythin' awful, so I made +up my mind that I must have broken a rib durin' my struggles with my +interior department, an' that the free end of it was tryin' to punch +its way through to daylight. So I sent for the ship's surgeon, an' he, +after fussin' over me two or three minutes, and doin' a little job of +carvin', brought us face to face--I an' my old acquaintance from the +South. I was so glad that I could 'a' hugged the Johnny Reb that fired +that bullet, an' I never was seasick after that. But that's enough +about me. Tell me somethin' about business. Do you think the cyclone +has hurt you a lot, for the present?" + +"It destroyed the store and its contents, and I don't expect to get +any insurance, but I haven't lost any customers. On the other hand, +some farmers are so sorry for me, I being the only merchant that was +entirely cleaned out, that they are going to trade with us next year. +Besides, much of our stock was old, and never would have sold at any +price, while an entirely new stock is a great attraction to all classes +of customers. We'll have a new store building up pretty soon, if Truett +is as able as he thinks himself and as I think him. Let's go back to +the wreck a moment; he generally has some men at work by sunrise, +clearing away, so as to get at the foundations and ascertain their +condition." + +Apparently the young engineer was amusing himself, for they found him +hammering a brick into small bits and examining the fractured surfaces. +As Philip and Caleb joined him, he said:-- + +"This is a mystery. How on earth do you suppose this kind of brick got +into Claybanks?" + +"Easiest way in the world," Caleb replied, "seein' 'twas made here. +'Tisn't a good color, but, gentlemen, I saw whole houses on some o' the +best streets in New York made of brick of about this color. They were +better shaped, an' fancy-laid, but--" + +"Excuse me, Caleb," said Truett, excitedly, "but do you mean to say +that this brick was made here, in Claybanks, of Claybanks clay?" + +"That's the English of it," Caleb replied, "an' all the bricks of all +the chimneys an' fireplaces in the town are of the same clay." + +"Oh, no; they're red." + +"Yes, but that's because of one of Jethro's smartnesses. Wonderful man, +Jethro Somerton was. The way of it was this: a newcomer here that +wanted to put on some style, like he'd been used to in Pennsylvany, +got your uncle to order enough red paint for him to cover a big new +barn. Just 'fore the paint got here the barn was struck by lightnin', +an' the new barn had to be of rough slabs, an' the man was glad enough +to get 'em, too. Meanwhile Jethro was stuck with a big lot o' red +paint, for nobody else felt forehanded enough to paint a barn. Jethro +cogitated a spell, an' then he said quite frequent an' wherever he got +a chance, that Claybanks was a sad, sombre-lookin' place; needed color, +specially in winter, to make it look kind o' spruce-like. That set some +few people to white-washin' their houses, an' when them that couldn't +afford to do that much kind o' felt that some o' their neighbors were +takin' the shine off of 'em, Jethro up an' said, 'Any man can afford +to paint his chimney red, anyhow, an' a red chimney'll brighten up any +house.' So, little by little at first, but afterwards all at a jump, +he got rid o' that lot o' red paint, an' had to order more, an' in the +course o' time it got to be the fashion, quite as much as wearin' hats +out o' doors." + +"That explains," said Truett, apparently relieved at mind, "why I've +not noticed the brick before. I've seen two or three foundation walls, +but I supposed, from their color, that they were merely mud-stained. +Now let me give you two men a great secret, on condition that you let +me in on the ground floor of the business end of it. Brick of this +quality and color, properly moulded and baked, is worth about three +times as much as ordinary red brick: I'll get the exact figures within +a few days. I know that there is money in sending it to New York, from +no matter what distance. Some of it is used even in indoor decoration." + +"Whe--e--e--ew!" whistled Philip. + +"Je--ru--salem!" ejaculated Caleb. "To think that the clay has been +here all these years without anybody knowing its real value!" + +"How could any one be expected to know about anything that existed in +an out-of-the-way hole-in-the-ground like Claybanks?" + +"Sh--not so loud!" said Philip. "Such talk in any Western town is worse +than treason." + +"'Tis reason, nevertheless. There might be a vein of gold here, but +how could the world ever learn of it? Who owns the clay banks? Can't we +get an option on them?" + +"They belong to the town, which charges a royalty of twenty-five cents +per thousand bricks," said Caleb. "They've brought less than a hundred +dollars, thus far." + +"Oh, this is dreadful!--splendid, I mean! A brick-making outfit isn't +expensive, and fuel with which to burn the bricks is cheap. Can't we +three organize a company, right here, in our hats or pockets, and get +the start of any and all others in the business? 'Twill cost us about +two dollars per thousand, I suppose, to haul the bricks to the railway +station, but even then there will be a lot of money in the business. If +we could have a railway--pshaw, men--Claybanks _must_ have a railway! +I've selected several routes, in off-hand fashion, over the three miles +of country between here and the nearest railway station; there would be +absolutely no bridging to do, nor any grading worth mentioning, so the +three miles could be built for thirty thousand dollars. Let's do it!" + +"Truett," said Philip, impressively, "go slow--very slow, or you'll +have inflammation of the brain. Worse still, I shall have it. Caleb may +escape, for he has the native Westerner's serene self-confidence in his +own town and section; but I'm a Claybanker by adoption merely. First, +you open a mine of wealth before our eyes, in the claybanks. Then you +tempt us to make bricks for rich New Yorkers and others. Then you offer +us a railway for thirty thousand dollars,--more money, to be sure, +than could be raised here in thirty years,--and you do all this before +breakfast on Monday morning. Come into the house with us; I shall faint +with excitement if I don't get a cup of coffee at once." + +"Make light of it, if you like," said Truett, "but will you look at the +brick-making figures,--cost of plant, manufacture, and freight, also +the selling price,--if I can get them from trustworthy sources?" + +"Indeed I will--our firm will; won't we, Caleb?" + +"I've been wantin' for years to see such a lot of figures," said Caleb, +placidly, "an' to see the railroad figures we could touch. I've seen +some of the other kind, once in a while." + +"I hope too many cooks haven't spoiled the broth," said Mary, at the +breakfast table, from behind a large breast-knot of roses. "I found in +the garden what Grace pronounces a lot of weeds; but I've made a salad +of them, and I shall feel greatly mortified if all of you don't enjoy +it." + +"We are prepared to expect almost anything delightful from what has +been accounted worthless," said Philip, "after having listened to some +of your brother's disclosures this morning. Eh, Caleb?" + +"Yes, indeed," replied Caleb, with an "I-told-you-so" air. "I never +doubted that a lot of good things would be developed at Claybanks, when +the right person came along to develop 'em." + +"Think of it, Mary!" said Truett. "You remember that magnificent house +of old Billion's, on Madison Avenue--a house of yellowish brown brick? +Well, the foundation of Somerton's old store is of just such brick, +and it was made here, years ago, of the clay for which the town was +named." + +Mary's eyes opened wide as she replied:-- + +"What a marvellous country! Why, Grace, one of our firm, at the old +store, boasted of having a chimney breast of that same brick, as if it +were something quite rare and costly." + +"Why don't you build the new store of it, Phil?" Grace asked. + +"That's a happy thought!" said Truett. "Now, Somerton, what do you say +to my brickyard plan? Put up the first solid building in Claybanks--set +the fashion. Think of how 'twould advertise your business and make your +competitors look small by comparison." + +"Very well. See how quickly it can be done, if at all, and then we will +talk business. We must have the warehouse clear by the beginning of the +pork-packing season, less than four months distant." Then he smiled +provokingly, and continued, "Perhaps, however, it will be better to +build the new store of wood, as already planned, so you can give most +of your time to building a railroad, so that we may get our golden +bricks, and other goods, to market." + +"There's sense in that," said Truett, taking the remark seriously. +"As to the road, you may rest assured that my figures are within the +extreme cost." + +"My dear boy," said Philip, "far be it from me to dispute an engineer's +estimates; but for some years in New York I was clerk and correspondent +for a firm of private bankers who dabbled in railways, and I assure you +that they never found any that cost but ten thousand dollars per mile." + +"Perhaps not, for most railways are built on credit--generally on +speculation, and largely for the special benefit of the builders, but +our road--" + +"What are these men talking about?" Mary asked of Grace. + +"A railway from Claybanks to the nearest station we now have," said +Philip. "Women love imaginative creations, Truett, so tell them all +about it." + +"There is no imagination in this," Truett retorted, "but perhaps they +will condescend to listen to facts. Most companies are obliged to +average the cost of their lines over a great stretch of territory. +They have bridges and trestles to build, cuts to make, low ground to +fill, and they must pay high prices, at portions of their line, for +right of way, and they stock and bond their companies at ruinous rates +to get the necessary money. As I've already said, none of the routes I +have selected requires a single bridge, trestle, or filling, and the +right of way, at the highest prices of farm land in this county, won't +exceed a thousand dollars per mile." + +"'Twon't cost a cent a mile," said Caleb. "Any farmer in these parts +will give a railroad free right of way through his land, and say 'Thank +you' for the privilege of doing it. If his house or barn is in the way, +he will move it; he'll even let the line run over his well, and dig +himself a new one, for the sake of having railroad trains for him and +his family to stare at, for the trains kind o' bring farmers in touch +with the big world of which they never see anything. If everything else +can be arranged, you may safely count on me to coax right of way for +the entire line." + +"Score one for Truett!" said Philip; "proceed, Mr. Engineer." + +"Thank you, and thanks to Caleb. The items of cost will be only +road-bed, ties, and metal. A single track, with heavy rails, can be +metalled out here for less than three thousand dollars per mile: that +means nine thousand dollars for the three miles, and that should be the +total cash outlay, for the road-bed and ties can be provided, by local +enterprise, without money." + +"Pardon my thick head," said Philip, "but how?" + +"By organizing a stock company with shares so small that any farmer can +subscribe, his subscription being payable in ties, which he can cut +from his own woodland, or in labor with pick, shovel, horses, plough, +scraper--whatever he and we can best use. Fix a valuation on ties, +and on each class of labor, and pay in stock. 'Tis simply applying +our drainage-ditch plan to a larger operation, though not very much +larger, and one that will be attractive to a far greater number of men. +Do this, and you merchants and other men of money supply the cash to +buy the metal, and I'll guarantee to have that road completed in time +to haul to market your wheat, pork, corn, and other produce on any +day of the coming winter, regardless of the weather. Caleb tells me +that you merchants have often lost good chances of the market because +the roads between here and the station were so soft or so rough that +a loaded wagon couldn't get over them. There are tens of thousands of +cords of firewood still standing here, on land that ought to be under +cultivation, but the farmers have no incentive to cut it, for there is +no market but this little town. The railroad would get it to market, +and at good cash prices, and thus doubly benefit the farmers. I'm told +that the water-power of the creek has been holding up the Claybanks +heart for years; and I know that there are enough varieties of +commercial timber here to occupy several mills a long time, but no one +is going to haul machinery in, and his output away, over three miles of +mud or frozen clods." + +"True as Gospel--every word of it," said Caleb. "I've heard Jethro, an' +Doc Taggess, an' ev'ry other level-headed man in town say the same +thing for years." + +"I fully agree with them," said Philip, "but let's go back to figures a +moment. I've heard nothing yet about the cost of locomotives, and other +rolling stock--mere trifles, of course,--yet necessary." + +"We should not be expected to supply them," Truett explained. "The road +which ours will feed will be glad to supply them, as all roads do for +short spurs on which anything is to be handled. It would be idiotic to +buy rolling stock for a road which at first won't have enough business +to justify one train a day. When there's anything to do, the old +company will send down a short train from the nearest siding; the run +wouldn't require fifteen minutes. You Eastern people who are accustomed +to a thickly populated country, with many through trains daily, don't +know anything about the business methods of the sparsely settled +portions of the West, especially on spurs of a railway line." + +"He's right about rolling stock," said Caleb. "Ten years ago the +railroad company, over yonder, told Jethro an' a committee that went +from here to see 'em that if we'd build the spur, they'd do the rest. +But they stood out for a solid road-bed, as good as their own, an' for +heavy steel rails, like their own, for they said their rollin' stock +was very heavy, and they wa'n't goin' to take the risk of accidents. +The price of the rails knocked us." + +"Naturally," said Truett, "for steel rails were four or six times as +costly then as they are now." + +"You've made me too excited to eat," said Philip, leaving the table, +"and I'm afraid that the trouble will continue until this road is moved +from the air to the ground. The main offices of the old company are +only about a hundred miles away; suppose, Truett, that you and the most +truly representative merchant of Claybanks--I mean Caleb--run up there? +I'll look after the men at work on the store. Tell the president, or +whoever is in authority, that we think of building a spur at once from +here to their main track, see what they'll do, and persuade them to say +it in black and white. If they talk favorably, we'll hold a public +meeting, and try to do something. Mrs. Wright, we owe you an apology. I +assure you that business talk is not the rule at our breakfast table." + +"I wish it were!" said Mary, who, with Grace, had listened excitedly +until both women were radiant with enthusiasm. "I wish railways could +be planned at breakfast every day--if my brother were to be the +builder." + +"Now, Mary," said Caleb, "perhaps you begin to understand the Western +fever of which I've told you something from time to time." + +"Understand it?" said Mary, dashing impulsively at her husband. "I +already have it--madly! I'm willing to bid you good-by at once for +your trip, though I haven't been married a week. My husband a possible +railway director--and yours also, Grace! How do you feel?" + +"Prouder than ever," Grace replied. "Just as you will feel, week by +week, as the wife of a clever husband." + + + + +XXVI--THE RAILWAY + + +TRUETT and Caleb were on their way before noon, but not until Truett +had first packed several bricks and fragments of bricks, from the +foundations of the old store, for shipment to New York, accompanied by +a request for probable selling figures of brick of the same natural +quality and properly made. He also wrote for an estimate of cost of a +modest brick-making outfit. + +The two men returned within forty-eight hours with a written promise +from the trunk line company to lay the rails, if these and a proper +road-bed were provided, and take stock in payment for the work; also +to take a lease of the road, when completed, by guaranteeing a six per +cent dividend on the stock, which was not to exceed thirty thousand +dollars. The company also imparted the verbal reminder that a six +per cent stock, guaranteed by a sound company, would always be good +security on which to borrow money from any bank between the Missouri +River and the Atlantic Ocean. + +"That being the case," said Philip, "I will subscribe all the cash +necessary to purchase the rails, if the road-bed and ties can be +provided according to Truett's plan." + +"Don't, Philip!" said Caleb. + +"Why not?" + +"Because there's such a thing as bein' too big a man in a poor country, +especially if you're a newcomer. Other merchants will become jealous of +you, an' 'twill cause bad feelin' in many ways. Work public spirit for +all it's worth; give ev'rybody a chance; then, if toward the end there +shows up a deficiency, they'll be grateful to you for makin' it up. Do +you want the earth? Quite likely; so remember what the Bible says, 'The +meek shall inherit the earth,' by which I reckon it doesn't mean the +small-spirited, but the men who don't set their feller-men agin 'em by +pushin' themselves too far to the front. If folks here don't know that +you've a lot of money in the bank in New York, where's the sense of +lettin' 'em know it?" + +"Right--as usual, Caleb," said Philip, after some impatient pursing of +his lips. "I begin to see, however, in this guaranteed stock--provided, +of course, that the farmers subscribe as freely as Truett's plan will +allow--a way of relieving the stringency of ready money in this county. +We may be able to start a small bank here in the course of time, +especially if any manufacturers can be attracted by the hard woods, the +railway, and the water-power." + +"That would realize one o' my oldest an' dearest dreams," said Caleb, +"for 'twould put an end to the farmers' everlastin' grumblin' about how +much worse off they are than the people who have banks nigh at hand. +I don't expect 'em to be much better off--perhaps not any, for I've +noticed that almost any man that can borrow will go on borrowin' an' +spendin', wisely or otherwise, clean up to his limit, an' then want +money just as much as he did at first; but I'd like our farmers to have +the chance to learn it for 'emselves, for I'm very tired of askin' +'em, for years, to take an honest man's word for it." + +Before sunset Philip had called in person on his brother merchants, +Doctor Taggess, the owner of the saw-mill, the county clerk, and +the hotel-keeper, and invited them to meet at his warehouse-store +that evening, immediately after the closing hour, for a private and +confidential talk on a business subject of general interest to the +community. Caleb went into the farming district and invited a flour +miller and several of the more intelligent farmers to attend the +meeting. At the appointed hour every one was present, the door was +locked, Philip briefly outlined the railway scheme, told of the main +line company's offer, and called upon Truett to detail his plan of +construction. + +The young engineer responded promptly with facts and figures, and +made much of his proposed stock subscriptions to be paid for in labor +and ties, and the farmers present declared it entirely feasible. Most +of the merchants were frightened at the amount of cash that would +be required for rails, etc., as almost all of it would have to be +subscribed by them; but Philip, backed by the consciousness of his +own bank deposit in the East, assured them that through some Eastern +acquaintances he could get merchants' short notes discounted for a +large part of their subscriptions, and that the guaranteed stock could +be sold or borrowed on as soon as issued; if the cutting and delivery +of ties could begin at once, the road could be completed soon enough +to get the autumn and winter produce to market almost as rapidly as it +could be brought in. + +At this stage of the proceedings the owner of the saw-mill promised to +expedite matters by subscribing five hundred dollars' worth of stock, +payable in ties at a fair price. The town's last railway excitement, +several years before, had caused him to buy in a lot of small timber +and saw it into ties, which had been dead stock ever since; he had even +tried to sell them for firewood. Doctor Taggess thought so highly of +the project that he said he would take a thousand dollars' worth of +stock; he had very little ready money, but through family connections +in the East he could raise the money by mortgaging his home. The +county clerk said he would take five hundred dollars' worth, the +hotel-keeper promised to take a similar amount, and the flour miller +asked to be "put down" for two hundred and fifty. By this time the +merchants lifted up their hearts and pledged enough more to secure +the purchase of the metal. It was then resolved that a public meeting +should be held within a week, at the court-house, roofless though it +still was, and all participators in the private consultation agreed to +"boom" the enterprise in the meantime to the best of their ability. + +The public meeting was as enthusiastic and successful as could have +been desired. Caleb had already secured the right of way, as promised, +and a statement of this fact, added to those narrated above and +repeated at the meeting, elicited great applause. Truett announced +the valuations, estimated after much consultation, of the various +kinds of labor to be received in payment of stock; also, the price +of ties, and the length, breadth, thickness, and general quality of +the ties desired. As the required number of ties was apparently in +excess of the producing capacity of the local saw-mill and the farmers +tributary to Claybanks, it was resolved that tie subscriptions should +be solicited from the part of the county on the other side of the trunk +line, and thus expand the blessings of stockholdership. Then a list +of conditional subscriptions was opened, and it filled so rapidly, +that before the meeting adjourned there appeared to be secured as much +labor, money, and ties as would be needed; so a committee was appointed +to organize the Claybanks Railway Company according to the laws of the +state. + +"Is it done--really done?" asked Grace and Mary, like two excitable +schoolgirls, when Philip, Caleb, and Truett returned to the store, +which was almost full of expectant farmers' wives. + +"It is an accomplished fact--on paper," said Philip. "To that extent it +is done." + +"Your own work, you mean," said Truett. "Mine has merely begun." + +"When do you really begin?" asked Mary of her brother. + +"To-day--this instant," was the reply, "if I can get a couple of +well-grown boys to assist me, while I go over the route with an +instrument and a lot of stakes." + +Several farmers' wives at once offered the services of their own sons, +and went in search of them, while two of the women, more "advanced" +than the others, themselves volunteered to carry stakes, chains, +etc.,--anything to hurry that blessed railroad into existence. +Fortunately the arrival of several boys made the services of these +patriotic ladies unnecessary. + +"The sooner I am able to avail myself of any labor that may offer, the +sooner I shall be ready for some of the ties. Oh, those ties! I wonder +how many farmers and their sons I shall have to instruct in hewing!" +said Truett. + +"I wouldn't waste any time in thought on that subject, if I were you," +said Caleb; "for what our farmers don't know about hewin' would take +you or any other man a long time to find out. How do you s'pose all the +beams an' standin' timbers of all the houses an' barns built in this +county was made in the days before there were any saw-mills nearer +than twenty miles? How do you s'pose some of the log houses here are +so tight in the joints that they need no chinkin'? I've heard of some +Eastern people bein' born with gold spoons in their mouths; well, it's +just as true that hundreds of thousands of Westerners were born with +axes in their hands. The axe was their only tool for years, an' they +got handy enough with it to do 'most anythin', from buildin' a house to +sharpenin' a lead-pencil!" + +"Good for Caleb!" shouted a farmer's wife, and Truett made haste to +say:-- + +"I apologize to the entire West, and will put my mind at ease about the +ties." + +The subject of conversation was changed by an irruption of farmers +and citizens, who wished to talk more about the new railroad, and +who rightly thought that the place where the engineer could be found +was the most likely source of information. The questions were almost +innumerable, and Truett, who was quite as excited as any of them, +told all he knew about what certain specified spur roads had done +for farming and wooded districts no more promising than Claybanks; so +the informal meeting became even more enthusiastic than the gathering +at the court-house had been, for the farmers' wives added fuel to the +flame. The spectacle impressed Grace deeply, well though she knew the +people; for from most of the faces was banished, for the time being, +the weary, resigned expression peculiar to a large portion of the +farming population of the newer states. Caleb, too, long though he had +known all the men and women in the throng, had his heart so entirely in +his face that Grace whispered to Mary:-- + +"Do look at your husband! Did you ever see him look so handsome, until +to-day?" + +A strong, warm, nervous hand-clasp was the only reply for a moment; +then Mary whispered:-- + +"All the men here are fine-looking!--their faces are so expressive! +I've not noticed it until to-day. Where did Claybanks get such people?" + +"Say all that to your husband, if you wish to fill his heart to +overflowing," said Grace, "and then, to please me, repeat it to Doctor +Taggess, or tell both of them at once." To share in the enjoyment, she +succeeded in getting Caleb and the Doctor close to her and Mary, and +quoted to them:-- + +"'Listen, my children, and you shall hear'--now, Mary!" + +"I don't wonder that you're impressed," the Doctor replied, when Mary's +outburst concluded. His own eyes were gleaming, and Mary said afterward +that his face was her ideal of a hero at the moment of victory. + +"Now, Mrs. Somerton, can you again wonder, as you've wondered aloud +to my wife and me, that I, whom you've kindly called a man of high +quality, have been content to pass my adult years among these backwoods +people? Do see their hearts and souls come into their faces! I know +they are not always so, but we never heard of any one remaining all the +while on the Mount of Transfiguration. It isn't the railway alone that +they're thinking of, but of what it will mean to themselves and their +hard-working wives, and to their children,--closer touch with the great +world of which they've read and wondered, better prices for their +yield, which means more creature comforts at home, better educational +facilities for their children, and less temptation for the children +to escape from the farm to the city. They know that all this must be +the work of time, but they've never before seen the beginning of it, +so now they're building air-castles as rapidly as a lot of magicians +in dream-land. I can't blame them, for I'm doing it myself, old and +cautious though I am. They can wait for the end, so can I; for all of +us, out here, have had long training in the art of waiting. At present +the beginning is joy enough, for I can't imagine how any one about us +could look happier." + +The formal survey of the railway route began that afternoon, for the +people would listen to no suggestions of delay. It was completed +quickly, and that the company was not yet organized according to law +did not prevent the immediate offer and acceptance of a large working +force of men, boys, horses, etc., from the village itself. The young +engineer was his own entire staff, and also temporary secretary and +accountant of the enterprise; but as it was his first great job, he +enjoyed the irregularity of everything. From that time forward, for +several months, the village stores ceased to be lounging places. Any +villager or farmer with time to spare made his way to the line of the +new road, and feasted his eyes, apparently never to fulness, on the +promise of what was to be. + +As the work progressed farther from the town, the farmers of the +vicinity, with their families, would saunter toward the line on Sunday +afternoons and linger for hours, talking of the good times that were +coming, and some of them actually moved their houses as near to the +track as possible, so that the inmates might be able to have the best +possible view of the trains when they began to run. When the road-bed +was made and the ties were placed, and the laying of the rails began, +entire families picnicked for a day at a time beside the track, +although the weather had become cold, merely to see a shabby locomotive +push backward some platform cars loaded with rails, and to see the +rails unloaded, and listen to the musical clamor of track-laying; +for did not each detail of the work bring nearer to them the hope of +Claybanks for a third of a century,--a completed railway? + +Truett had been better than his word. He had promised to finish the +work by Christmas, but the formal opening ceremonies took place on +Thanksgiving Day; and more than half the people of the county took +part in it. With an eye to business the principal stockholders--the +Claybanks merchants--hired a passenger train for the day, and gave the +natives free rides to and from the nearest station that had a siding +and switch by which the train could be sent back. The station had not +a great town to support it,--merely five thousand people,--but as the +Claybankers roamed through the place and saw many houses finer than +any house in Claybanks, several streets that were paved with wooden +blocks and many that had sidewalks, saw the telegraph and telephone +wires, and a bank, and a fire-engine house, and horse-troughs into +which fresh water flowed steadily from pipes which were part of a +general service, their hearts were filled with the conviction that all +these comforts and conveniences had come through the possession of a +railway. Claybanks was in a fair way to become like unto that town, and +they made haste, each after his kind, to rejoice. Then all of them who +were farmers began to lay out, on their mental tablets, the appearance +of their own farms as they would be when divided into building lots, +and also to count the pleasing sums of money that would be paid by the +purchasers of the lots, and also the many creature comforts which the +money would buy. + +The first freight car that left Claybanks for business purposes was +loaded with yellowish brown brick for New York, and all Claybanks +was present to wave hats, handkerchiefs, hands, and aprons, as it +moved slowly off. Claybanks wheat had gone East in times past, so +had Claybanks pork, and undoubtedly these products had entered into +the physical constitution of New York to some extent, but they could +not afterward be identified. Claybanks bricks, however, were very +different. They would be seen by every one, and they would make +Claybanks literally a part of the metropolis itself. + +The meaning of all this was felt by the people of all classes; even +Pastor Grateway was so impressed by it that he preached a sermon from +the text, "They shall speak with the enemy in the gates," and that +there should be no doubt as to who "they" were, a brown brick was +at each side of the pulpit for the sides of the open Bible to rest +upon. The pastor, being a man of spiritual insight, did not neglect +to enlarge upon the fact that the bricks themselves were originally +clay--mere earth--that had been trampled underfoot for years, seemingly +useless, until it had been conformed in shape and quality to the uses +for which it had been designed from the foundation of the world, and +that each brick was a reminder that the most insensate lump of human +clay had in it the possibilities for which it had been created. + +Nevertheless, the majority of the hearers only carried home with them +the conviction that the Claybanks brick-yard must become one of the +great things of the world--otherwise, why did the minister preach about +it? + + + + +XXVII--CONCLUSION + + +"CALEB," said Philip one evening, as the partners and their wives sat +in the parlor of the Somerton home and enjoyed the leisure hour that +came between store-closing and bed-time, "so much important business +has been crowded into the past few months that some smaller ventures +have almost escaped my mind. What ever came of that car-load of walnut +stumps that I sent East last summer?" + +"I couldn't have told you much about it if you'd asked me a day +earlier," Caleb replied. "I turned it over to a man in the fine-woods +business--a Grand Army comrade that I met at my old chum Jim's post. +He said at the time that the stumps would undoubtedly pay expenses of +diggin' and shipment, an' maybe a lot more, but 'twould depend entirely +on the stumps themselves. He'd have each of 'em sawed lengthwise an' +a surface section dressed, to show the markings of the grain o' the +wood. It seems that they were so water-soaked that 'twas months after +sawin' before the wood of any of 'em was dry enough to dress, but he +got at some of 'em a few weeks ago, an' though most of 'em wa'n't +above the ordinary, there were two or three that made the furniture +an' decoration men bid against each other at a lively rate. One of 'em +panned out over sixty dollars." + +"What? One walnut stump? Sixty dollars?" + +"Oh, that's nothing. To work me up, he told me of one, picked up in the +country a few years ago, that brought more than a thousand dollars to +the buyer. The markings were so fine that it was sawn into thin veneers +that were sold for more than their weight in silver. Still, to come +to the point, your entire lot brought about two hundred and seventy +dollars net, an' I've got the check in my pocket to prove it." + +"And the land from which they were taken cost me only two hundred +dollars in goods! And there are still hundreds of stumps in it! And I +felt so ashamed and babyish when I learned that I'd been tricked into +buying cleared land, that I almost resolved to recall you by wire, so +that I should be kept from being tricked again in some similar manner! +I shall have to drive out to old Weefer's farm, tell him the story, and +ask him if he has any more walnut clearings for sale." + +"Hadn't you better keep quiet about it? Where's the use in killin' +the goose that lays the golden egg? Pick up all the walnut clearin's +that are for sale, an' make what you can out of 'em, before you go to +talkin'; but if you feel that you must say somethin' on the subject +to somebody, an' jubilate a little, go tell Doc Taggess, who owns the +lot you thought you were buyin'. If anybody deserves to make money in +the boom that's comin', Doc does, an' if he could clear his land, now +that he can railroad the logs to market, an' then get out his stumps, +he might get cash enough ahead to pick up a lot of real estate, or +take stock in millin' enterprises, when the water-power ditch is made, +an' so lay up somethin' to keep him out of the poor-house in old age; +for as long as he can practise, he'll give to the poor all that he can +collect from patients that are better off. The chap that handled the +stumps for you asked me a lot of questions about the kind an' quantity +of standin' timber out here, and said he didn't see why we didn't start +mills to turn out furniture lumber an' dimension-stuff, like some that +have made fortunes for men in the backwoods of Indiana and Michigan an' +some other states." + +"Let's try it, if our cash and credit aren't already used as far as +they should be. By the way, how is Claybanks corn-flour, Somerton's +brand, going in England?" + +"Fairly. We've sent, in all, about four hundred barrels; that's an +average of a hundred a month, with a net profit to us of about thirty +per cent, which is better, I reckon, than any of the big flour shippers +ever dreamed o' makin'. I've been hopin' that the good tidin's of good +food-stuff at about half the price o' bad would work its way into other +parts of London an' out into the country, too; but English people don't +seem to move about an' swap stories an' prices, like us Americans. +I reckon I came home too soon, for the good o' that deal, for I had +a lot o' things in mind to do in London to make corn-meal popular. +It seems to be the English way to let things alone until some of the +upper classes take to 'em, so I was goin' to try the meal on some o' +the swells; but the more I thought of it, the more it seemed that they +too belonged to the follow-my-leader class. So I made up my mind to +begin way up at the tip-top, an' so I wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, +sayin' I'd come all the way from America to make the English people +practically acquainted with the cheapest and most nutritious food known +in the temperate zone, an' that I was catchin' on fairly, but the +common people seemed to think it was common stuff, which it wasn't, as +I would be glad to prove to her. Besides, I knew of Americans richer +than any nobleman in England who had it on their tables every day. I +said I could make six kinds o' bread an' three kinds o' puddin' out o' +corn-meal, an' I'd like a chance to do it some day for her own table; +if she'd let me do it in the palace kitchen, I'd bring my own pans an' +things, so's not to put the help to any trouble,--an' I'd--" + +"You--wrote--to--the Queen--of England," Philip exclaimed, "offering to +make corn-bread and meal-pudding for the royal table!" + +"That's what I did, an' I took pains to specify that 'twould be made +of Claybanks corn-flour, Somerton's brand, too--not the common meal +that again an' again has let down American corn in foreign minds to +the level of the hog-trough. But it didn't work. Though I put in an +addressed postal card for reply, the good lady never answered my +letter. Too busy, I s'pose." + +Philip stared at Grace, who pressed one hand closely to her lips, while +Mary looked at her husband as if wondering in what entirely original +and unexpected manner, and where, he might next break out. Then Philip +said gravely:-- + +"How strange! Besides, I doubt whether any other man was ever so +thoughtful as to enclose a reply-card to her Majesty." + +"Well, after waitin' a spell I made up my mind that that particular +cake was all dough. One day when I was in the shop, turnin' sample +cakes an' bread out o' the pans, up drove a carriage, an' a couple o' +well-dressed men, one of 'em short an' stout, an' the other kind o' +tallish, came in an' looked about, kind o' cur'us. 'Try some samples, +gentlemen?' said I, thinkin' they looked as if they was used enough to +good feedin' to know it when they saw it. They nodded, stiffish-like, +an' I set 'em down to a little table with a white cloth on it, an' +I set before 'em dodgers, an' muffins, an' cracklin' bread, an' +pan-cakes, all as hot as red pepper, an' some A 1 English butter to try +'em with--an' they do know how to make butter over in England! + +"Well, they sampled 'em all, takin' two or three mouthfuls of each, +an' exchanged opinions, which seemed to be favorable, with their eyes +an' heads. While they were eatin', the shop began to get dark, an' +when I looked around to see if a fog had come up all of a-sudden, as +it sometimes does over there, I saw that the street was packed with +people, an' they were jammed up to the doors an' windows. 'It's plain +that gentlemen are not often on exhibition in this part of the town,' +said I to myself. Suddenly the two got up, an' both said 'Thanks,' an' +went out, an' when their carriage started, the crowd set up a cheer. +'Who are they?' I said to a man at the door. He looked at me as if I +had tried to run a counterfeit on him, an' he said, 'Ah, me eye!' but +another chap said:-- + +"'It's the Prince, an' the Duke o' Somethinorother.'" + +"H'm! Yet you never got a reply on that postal card!" + +"Never. I meant to try again, an' register the letter, so as to be +sure that it got into the right hands, but somethin' kept tellin' me +'twas time to get back home. But if you'll let me make a trip again +next fall, at my own expense, I'll try for better luck. Anyway, I'll +work the corn-meal plan on Liverpool an' other cities, an' if it +takes as well as it's done in London, 'twon't be long before a good +many thousan's of bushels of Claybanks corn'll be saved from the +distilleries, in the course of a year." + +"Phil," Grace remarked, "Caleb's wish to go abroad in the fall reminds +me that I want you to take me East for a few weeks in the spring, and +we ought to begin our preparations at once. As 'tis near Christmas, +Mary and I have been talking of presents, and particularly of one which +you and Caleb can join in giving us and at the same time secure to +yourselves more of the business and social companionship of your wives. +We want a housekeeper." + +"Sensible women!" Philip replied. "As to your husbands, they will be +delighted--eh, Caleb? If it weren't that servants can't be had in this +part of the country, and help, after the Claybanks manner, would have +banished all sense of privacy, I should think myself a villain of +deepest dye for having allowed the wife of the principal merchant of +Claybanks to cook my meals and do all the remaining work of the house, +and I don't doubt that Caleb feels similarly about Mary." + +"Well," said Caleb, "work that wa'n't degradin' to my dear mother +oughtn't to seem too mean for my wife; but, on the other hand, my +mother shouldn't have done it if I could have helped it, 'specially if +she'd have tried also to do a full day's clerk-work in a store once in +ev'ry twenty-four hours." + +"That explains our position," Grace added. "You two men are so full of +new business of various kinds that Mary and I should be in the store +all the while. Soon that dreadful pork-house must open for the season, +and then we shall see less of you than ever. A good housekeeper will +cost no more than a good clerk, and we must have one or the other. We +don't want a clerk, if we can avoid it; at present we have the business +entirely in our own hands, and when there are no customers in the +store, we have as much privacy and freedom as if we were in the house. +Mary knows a good woman in New York who will be glad to come here as +maid-of-all-work, if she may be called housekeeper instead of servant; +she has a grown son who wishes to be a farmer and to begin where land +is cheaper and richer than it is in the vicinity of New York. With such +a woman to care for the house we can spend most of our time in the +store, hold the trade of such womenfolk as deal with us, and try to +get the remainder; for where women and their daughters buy, the husband +and brothers will also go." + +"That's as sure as shootin'," said Caleb. "Do you know that in spite of +the cyclone the store has done twice as much business since you came as +it ever did before in the same months? I'd be downright sorry for the +other merchants in town if I didn't believe that we're soon goin' to +have a big increase of population, and there'll be business enough for +all. Philip deserves credit for a lot of the new business, an' his wife +for more, which isn't Philip's fault, but his fortune in havin' married +just that sort of woman. If nobody else'll say it, I s'pose it won't be +presumin' for me to say that a small percentage of the increase o' the +last two or three months has come through a young woman whose name used +to be Mary Truett." + +"Small percentage, indeed!" Grace exclaimed. "Mary has secured more new +business than I did in the same number of weeks, and she has done it +so easily, too. She never seems to be thinking of business when she's +talking to a customer, yet she instinctively knows what each woman +wants, and places the proper goods before her, while I, very likely, +would be thinking more of the woman than of the business." + +"That's merely a result of experience," said Mary. "I'm nearly thirty, +with a business experience of ten years; you were a mere chit of +twenty-three when you married. Still, I don't believe any hired clerk, +of no matter how many years' experience, could do half as well as +either of us." + +"For the very good reason," said Philip, "that both of you are +practically owners of the business. No clerk can be as useful in any +business as one of the proprietors." + +"That remark would 'a' hurt my feelin's, a year ago," said Caleb; +"but since my name went on that sign over the door, I've been lookin' +backward at my old self a lot, an' lookin' down on my old self, too. +Perhaps the difference has come o' gettin' rid o' malaria, perhaps +o' takin' a wife; but I'm goin' to make b'lieve, after makin' full +allowance for ev'rythin' else, that nobody can bring out the best +that's in him until he begins to work for himself." + +"No other person would dare criticise your old self in my presence, +Caleb," said Philip, "but you've certainly acquired a new manner in +business, and it's extremely fetching in more senses than one. One of +the best things about it is that the natives notice it, and talk of +it to one another, and are pleased by it, for you're one of them, you +know. I'm a mere outsider." + +"Do they really notice it?" asked Caleb, with a suggestion of the +old-time pathos in his face and voice, "an' are they really pleased? +Because, as you say, I'm really one of 'em, an' I'm proud of it. I've +gone through pretty much ev'rythin' they have--'specially the malaria, +an' now that their good times are comin', I'm glad I'm with 'em. But +to think--" here he walked deliberately to a mirror and studied his +own face for a moment--"to think that only so little time ago as when +you came here I felt like an old, used-up man, an' I'd put my house in +order, so to speak, against the time when I should have my last tussle +with malaria, an' go under, with the hope o' goin' upward." + +"That was before you met Mary," Grace suggested. + +"Yes; that's so." + +"And he must get rid of Mary before he can ever have an opportunity to +feel that way again," said the lady referred to, as she looked proudly +at her husband. "Old! Used up! The most spirited, active, hopeful, +cheerful man I ever met! But, really, you were different, Caleb, when +I first saw you; it doesn't seem possible that you're the same man. +From what I've seen of the people here, I believe it is one of the +ways of the West for men to try to look older than they are; you must +use your influence--and example--to make them stop it. In New York a +man seldom looks old until he is very near the grave; the most active +and fine-looking business men are beyond threescore, as a rule--about +twenty years older than you, Caleb." + +"Ye--es, but they weren't brought up on malaria, pork, plough-handles, +an' saleratus biscuit," said Caleb. "There's hope for a change here, +though. Doc Taggess says there's nothin' like as much malaria in town +as there was before the swamps were drained, and the good times comin', +because o' the railroad, 'll make some more changes for the better, +for all of us." + +For a few moments each member of the quartet seemed to have dropped +into revery. The silence was broken by Philip, who said:-- + +"Caleb, a year ago even you would not have dared to prophesy the +changes that have been made, and those which are within sight, yet to +you belongs the credit for all of them." + +"To me? Well, I've heard and seen so many amazin' calculations in the +past three months that I'm prepared to stand up under almost anythin', +but I'd like to know how you figure it out that I've done anythin' in +particular." + +"'Tis easily told. If you hadn't fallen in love with Miss Truett, +and she with you, her brother wouldn't have come out here, and the +malaria wouldn't have been drained from the swamps, and the railway +wouldn't have been projected, and the farmers wouldn't have become +owners of guaranteed stocks, which has put new life into many of them, +and there'd have been no inducement for manufacturers to use our +water-power and our hard woods, and no bank would have been possible, +nor any of the public improvements,--paving, water service, and others +that will soon be under way. Don't you see?" + +"Ye--es, as far as you've gone, but I wouldn't have known there was +such a person as Mary--bless her!--if you hadn't sent me East, an' +your wife--bless her too--hadn't given me a letter of introduction to +Mary, so I don't see but that honors are about even. You might as well +go back a little further, though, and say that you wouldn't have been +here to send me East if your Uncle Jethro hadn't loved your father, +an' made up his mind that your father's son shouldn't fool away his +life in pleasin' his eyes an' fancies in New York, but should get the +disciplinin' that makes a man out of a youngster that's got the real +stuff born in him." + +"Caleb, what are you saying?" + +"Exactly what your Uncle Jethro said to me--an' to nobody else. Mebbe +I hadn't ought to have let it out; mebbe, on the other hand, it may +make you feel kindlier to your Uncle Jethro. But, to go on backward, +there wouldn't have been any Jethro to lay up a business start for you +if the Somerton family hadn't begun somewhere back in the history of +the world, an' when you get that far back you might as well go farther +an' say that if Noah hadn't built the ark, or if he'd been in too big +a hurry to get out of it, there wouldn't have been any of us to do +anythin'. I tell you, Philip, an' just you keep it in mind against +anythin' that may turn up anywhere or at any time, that when there's +any glory or credit to be given out, an' you want to do the square +thing, you'll have to spread it so thin that nobody'll get enough of it +to make him feel over an' above cocky." + + * * * * * + +People, like nations, usually become happy in prosperity, but through +prosperity their lives become less eventful, and consequently less +interesting to other people. The water-power of Claybanks' "crik" was +soon developed, and the mills that were erected, and the people who +came to them, made new demands and prices for real estate, as well as +for certain farm products. But before all this had come to pass Grace +made haste to gratify a consuming desire to spend the springtime at her +birthplace in the East. While she was there, Caleb one day received the +following despatch from Philip:-- + + "Caleb Wright Somerton born last night. May he become + as good a man as you." + +Caleb showed the despatch to his wife, and then started to put it +between the leaves of his Bible; but Mary made haste to put it in a +frame, under glass, and affix it to the front of the store, to the +great interest of the people of Claybanks and vicinity and to the great +benefit of the business of Somerton & Wright. + + + + +D'ri and I + + +By IRVING BACHELLER, author of "EBEN HOLDEN." Bound in red silk cloth, +illustrated cover, gilt top, rough edges. Eight drawings by F. C. Yohn. +Size, 5 x 7¾. Price, $1.50 + +[Illustration] + +A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British. Being the +Memoirs of Colonel Ramon Bell, U.S.A. And a Romance of Sturdy Americans +and Dainty French Demoiselles. + + PHILADELPHIA PRESS: + + "An admirable story, superior in literary workmanship + and imagination to 'Eben Holden.'" + + NEW YORK WORLD: + + "Pretty as are the heroines, gallant as Captain Bell + proves himself, the reader comes back with even keener + zest to the imperturbable D'ri. He is a type of the + American--grit, grim humor, rough courtesy, and all. + It is a great achievement, upon which Mr. Bacheller + is to be heartily congratulated, to have added to the + list of memorable figures in American fiction, two such + characters as D'ri and Eben Holden." + + BOSTON BEACON: + + "Mr. Bacheller has the art of the born story teller. + 'D'ri and I' promises to rival 'Eben Holden' in + popularity." + + ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT: + + "The admirers of 'Eben Holden,' and they were legion, + will welcome another story by its author, Irving + Bacheller, who in 'D'ri and I' has created quite as + interesting a character as the sage of the North land + who was the hero of the former story." + + Lothrop Publishing Company - - Boston + + + + +When the Land was Young + +Being the True Romance of Mistress Antoinette Huguenin and Captain Jack +Middleton + + +By LAFAYETTE McLAWS. Bound in green cloth, illustrated cover, gilt top, +rough edges. Six drawings by Will Crawford. Size, 5 x 7¾. Price, $1.50 + +[Illustration] + +The heroine, Antoinette Huguenin, a beauty of King Louis' Court, is +one of the most attractive figures in romance; while Lumulgee, the +great war chief of the Choctaws, and Sir Henry Morgan, the Buccaneer +Knight and terror of the Spanish Main, divide the honors with hero +and heroine. The time was full of border wars between the Spaniards +of Florida and the English colonists, and against this historical +background Miss McLaws has thrown a story that is absorbing, dramatic, +and brilliant. + + NEW YORK WORLD: + + "Lovely Mistress Antoinette Huguenin! What a girl she + is!" + + NEW YORK JOURNAL: + + "A story of thrill and adventure." + + SAVANNAH NEWS: + + "Among the entertaining romances based upon the + colonial days of American history this novel will + take rank as one of the most notable--a dramatic and + brilliant story." + + ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT: + + "If one is anxious for a thrill, he has only to read a + few pages of 'When the Land was Young' to experience + the desired sensation.... There is action of the most + virile type throughout the romance.... It is vividly + told, and presents a realistic picture of the days + 'when the land was young.'" + + Lothrop Publishing Company - - Boston + + * * * * * + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + + Page 21, "portmonnaie" changed to "portemonnaie" (also + a portemonnaie containing) + + Page 59, "buscuits" changed to "biscuits" (fried + potatoes, tea-biscuits) + + Page 267, "that" changed to "than" (luxury than Queen + Elizabeth) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Caleb Wright, by John Habberton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43994 *** |