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diff --git a/7414-h/7414-h.htm b/7414-h/7414-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc6ddf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/7414-h/7414-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10564 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Poor White, by Sherwood Anderson + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + .side { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poor White, by Sherwood Anderson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Poor White + +Author: Sherwood Anderson + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7414] +This file was first posted on April 26, 2003 +Last Updated: March 14, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR WHITE *** + + + + +Text file produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + POOR WHITE + </h1> + <h3> + A NOVEL + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Sherwood Anderson + </h2> + <h4> + Author of Winesburg, Ohio + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + TO + </h3> + <h3> + TENNESSEE MITCHELL ANDERSON + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="middle"> + <p> + [Note: The evident misprint of Book Six for Book Five in the original is + preserved here.] + </p> + </div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>BOOK ONE</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> <b>BOOK TWO</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> <b>BOOK THREE</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> <b>BOOK FOUR</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> <b>BOOK SIX</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK ONE + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <p> + Hugh McVey was born in a little hole of a town stuck on a mud bank on the + western shore of the Mississippi River in the State of Missouri. It was a + miserable place in which to be born. With the exception of a narrow strip + of black mud along the river, the land for ten miles back from the town—called + in derision by river men “Mudcat Landing”—was almost entirely + worthless and unproductive. The soil, yellow, shallow and stony, was + tilled, in Hugh's time, by a race of long gaunt men who seemed as + exhausted and no-account as the land on which they lived. They were + chronically discouraged, and the merchants and artisans of the town were + in the same state. The merchants, who ran their stores—poor + tumble-down ramshackle affairs—on the credit system, could not get + pay for the goods they handed out over their counters and the artisans, + the shoemakers, carpenters and harnessmakers, could not get pay for the + work they did. Only the town's two saloons prospered. The saloon keepers + sold their wares for cash and, as the men of the town and the farmers who + drove into town felt that without drink life was unbearable, cash always + could be found for the purpose of getting drunk. + </p> + <p> + Hugh McVey's father, John McVey, had been a farm hand in his youth but + before Hugh was born had moved into town to find employment in a tannery. + The tannery ran for a year or two and then failed, but John McVey stayed + in town. He also became a drunkard. It was the easy obvious thing for him + to do. During the time of his employment in the tannery he had been + married and his son had been born. Then his wife died and the idle workman + took his child and went to live in a tiny fishing shack by the river. How + the boy lived through the next few years no one ever knew. John McVey + loitered in the streets and on the river bank and only awakened out of his + habitual stupor when, driven by hunger or the craving for drink, he went + for a day's work in some farmer's field at harvest time or joined a number + of other idlers for an adventurous trip down river on a lumber raft. The + baby was left shut up in the shack by the river or carried about wrapped + in a soiled blanket. Soon after he was old enough to walk he was compelled + to find work in order that he might eat. The boy of ten went listlessly + about town at the heels of his father. The two found work, which the boy + did while the man lay sleeping in the sun. They cleaned cisterns, swept + out stores and saloons and at night went with a wheelbarrow and a box to + remove and dump in the river the contents of out-houses. At fourteen Hugh + was as tall as his father and almost without education. He could read a + little and could write his own name, had picked up these accomplishments + from other boys who came to fish with him in the river, but he had never + been to school. For days sometimes he did nothing but lie half asleep in + the shade of a bush on the river bank. The fish he caught on his more + industrious days he sold for a few cents to some housewife, and thus got + money to buy food for his big growing indolent body. Like an animal that + has come to its maturity he turned away from his father, not because of + resentment for his hard youth, but because he thought it time to begin to + go his own way. + </p> + <p> + In his fourteenth year and when the boy was on the point of sinking into + the sort of animal-like stupor in which his father had lived, something + happened to him. A railroad pushed its way down along the river to his + town and he got a job as man of all work for the station master. He swept + out the station, put trunks on trains, mowed the grass in the station yard + and helped in a hundred odd ways the man who held the combined jobs of + ticket seller, baggage master and telegraph operator at the little + out-of-the-way place. + </p> + <p> + Hugh began a little to awaken. He lived with his employer, Henry Shepard, + and his wife, Sarah Shepard, and for the first time in his life sat down + regularly at table. His life, lying on the river bank through long summer + afternoons or sitting perfectly still for endless hours in a boat, had + bred in him a dreamy detached outlook on life. He found it hard to be + definite and to do definite things, but for all his stupidity the boy had + a great store of patience, a heritage perhaps from his mother. In his new + place the station master's wife, Sarah Shepard, a sharp-tongued, + good-natured woman, who hated the town and the people among whom fate had + thrown her, scolded at him all day long. She treated him like a child of + six, told him how to sit at table, how to hold his fork when he ate, how + to address people who came to the house or to the station. The mother in + her was aroused by Hugh's helplessness and, having no children of her own, + she began to take the tall awkward boy to her heart. She was a small woman + and when she stood in the house scolding the great stupid boy who stared + down at her with his small perplexed eyes, the two made a picture that + afforded endless amusement to her husband, a short fat bald-headed man who + went about clad in blue overalls and a blue cotton shirt. Coming to the + back door of his house, that was within a stone's throw of the station, + Henry Shepard stood with his hand on the door-jamb and watched the woman + and the boy. Above the scolding voice of the woman his own voice arose. + “Look out, Hugh,” he called. “Be on the jump, lad! Perk yourself up. + She'll be biting you if you don't go mighty careful in there.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh got little money for his work at the railroad station but for the + first time in his life he began to fare well. Henry Shepard bought the boy + clothes, and his wife, Sarah, who was a master of the art of cooking, + loaded the table with good things to eat. Hugh ate until both the man and + woman declared he would burst if he did not stop. Then when they were not + looking he went into the station yard and crawling under a bush went to + sleep. The station master came to look for him. He cut a switch from the + bush and began to beat the boy's bare feet. Hugh awoke and was overcome + with confusion. He got to his feet and stood trembling, half afraid he was + to be driven away from his new home. The man and the confused blushing boy + confronted each other for a moment and then the man adopted the method of + his wife and began to scold. He was annoyed at what he thought the boy's + indolence and found a hundred little tasks for him to do. He devoted + himself to finding tasks for Hugh, and when he could think of no new ones, + invented them. “We will have to keep the big lazy fellow on the jump. + That's the secret of things,” he said to his wife. + </p> + <p> + The boy learned to keep his naturally indolent body moving and his clouded + sleepy mind fixed on definite things. For hours he plodded straight ahead, + doing over and over some appointed task. He forgot the purpose of the job + he had been given to do and did it because it was a job and would keep him + awake. One morning he was told to sweep the station platform and as his + employer had gone away without giving him additional tasks and as he was + afraid that if he sat down he would fall into the odd detached kind of + stupor in which he had spent so large a part of his life, he continued to + sweep for two or three hours. The station platform was built of rough + boards and Hugh's arms were very powerful. The broom he was using began to + go to pieces. Bits of it flew about and after an hour's work the platform + looked more uncleanly than when he began. Sarah Shepard came to the door + of her house and stood watching. She was about to call to him and to scold + him again for his stupidity when a new impulse came to her. She saw the + serious determined look on the boy's long gaunt face and a flash of + understanding came to her. Tears came into her eyes and her arms ached to + take the great boy and hold him tightly against her breast. With all her + mother's soul she wanted to protect Hugh from a world she was sure would + treat him always as a beast of burden and would take no account of what + she thought of as the handicap of his birth. Her morning's work was done + and without saying anything to Hugh, who continued to go up and down the + platform laboriously sweeping, she went out at the front door of the house + and to one of the town stores. There she bought a half dozen books, a + geography, an arithmetic, a speller and two or three readers. She had made + up her mind to become Hugh McVey's school teacher and with characteristic + energy did not put the matter off, but went about it at once. When she got + back to her house and saw the boy still going doggedly up and down the + platform, she did not scold but spoke to him with a new gentleness in her + manner. “Well, my boy, you may put the broom away now and come to the + house,” she suggested. “I've made up my mind to take you for my own boy + and I don't want to be ashamed of you. If you're going to live with me I + can't have you growing up to be a lazy good-for-nothing like your father + and the other men in this hole of a place. You'll have to learn things and + I suppose I'll have to be your teacher. + </p> + <p> + “Come on over to the house at once,” she added sharply, making a quick + motion with her hand to the boy who with the broom in his hands stood + stupidly staring. “When a job is to be done there's no use putting it off. + It's going to be hard work to make an educated man of you, but it has to + be done. We might as well begin on your lessons at once.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Hugh McVey lived with Henry Shepard and his wife until he became a grown + man. After Sarah Shepard became his school teacher things began to go + better for him. The scolding of the New England woman, that had but + accentuated his awkwardness and stupidity, came to an end and life in his + adopted home became so quiet and peaceful that the boy thought of himself + as one who had come into a kind of paradise. For a time the two older + people talked of sending him to the town school, but the woman objected. + She had begun to feel so close to Hugh that he seemed a part of her own + flesh and blood and the thought of him, so huge and ungainly, sitting in a + school room with the children of the town, annoyed and irritated her. In + imagination she saw him being laughed at by other boys and could not bear + the thought. She did not like the people of the town and did not want Hugh + to associate with them. + </p> + <p> + Sarah Shepard had come from a people and a country quite different in its + aspect from that in which she now lived. Her own people, frugal New + Englanders, had come West in the year after the Civil War to take up + cut-over timber land in the southern end of the state of Michigan. The + daughter was a grown girl when her father and mother took up the westward + journey, and after they arrived at the new home, had worked with her + father in the fields. The land was covered with huge stumps and was + difficult to farm but the New Englanders were accustomed to difficulties + and were not discouraged. The land was deep and rich and the people who + had settled upon it were poor but hopeful. They felt that every day of + hard work done in clearing the land was like laying up treasure against + the future. In New England they had fought against a hard climate and had + managed to find a living on stony unproductive soil. The milder climate + and the rich deep soil of Michigan was, they felt, full of promise. + Sarah's father like most of his neighbors had gone into debt for his land + and for tools with which to clear and work it and every year spent most of + his earnings in paying interest on a mortgage held by a banker in a nearby + town, but that did not discourage him. He whistled as he went about his + work and spoke often of a future of ease and plenty. “In a few years and + when the land is cleared we'll make money hand over fist,” he declared. + </p> + <p> + When Sarah grew into young womanhood and went about among the young people + in the new country, she heard much talk of mortgages and of the difficulty + of making ends meet, but every one spoke of the hard conditions as + temporary. In every mind the future was bright with promise. Throughout + the whole Mid-American country, in Ohio, Northern Indiana and Illinois, + Wisconsin and Iowa a hopeful spirit prevailed. In every breast hope fought + a successful war with poverty and discouragement. Optimism got into the + blood of the children and later led to the same kind of hopeful courageous + development of the whole western country. The sons and daughters of these + hardy people no doubt had their minds too steadily fixed on the problem of + the paying off of mortgages and getting on in the world, but there was + courage in them. If they, with the frugal and sometimes niggardly New + Englanders from whom they were sprung, have given modern American life a + too material flavor, they have at least created a land in which a less + determinedly materialistic people may in their turn live in comfort. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of the little hopeless community of beaten men and yellow + defeated women on the bank of the Mississippi River, the woman who had + become Hugh McVey's second mother and in whose veins flowed the blood of + the pioneers, felt herself undefeated and unbeatable. She and her husband + would, she felt, stay in the Missouri town for a while and then move on to + a larger town and a better position in life. They would move on and up + until the little fat man was a railroad president or a millionaire. It was + the way things were done. She had no doubt of the future. “Do everything + well,” she said to her husband, who was perfectly satisfied with his + position in life and had no exalted notions as to his future. “Remember to + make your reports out neatly and clearly. Show them you can do perfectly + the task given you to do, and you will be given a chance at a larger task. + Some day when you least expect it something will happen. You will be + called up into a position of power. We won't be compelled to stay in this + hole of a place very long.” + </p> + <p> + The ambitious energetic little woman, who had taken the son of the + indolent farm hand to her heart, constantly talked to him of her own + people. Every afternoon when her housework was done she took the boy into + the front room of the house and spent hours laboring with him over his + lessons. She worked upon the problem of rooting the stupidity and dullness + out of his mind as her father had worked at the problem of rooting the + stumps out of the Michigan land. After the lesson for the day had been + gone over and over until Hugh was in a stupor of mental weariness, she put + the books aside and talked to him. With glowing fervor she made for him a + picture of her own youth and the people and places where she had lived. In + the picture she represented the New Englanders of the Michigan farming + community as a strong god-like race, always honest, always frugal, and + always pushing ahead. His own people she utterly condemned. She pitied him + for the blood in his veins. The boy had then and all his life certain + physical difficulties she could never understand. The blood did not flow + freely through his long body. His feet and hands were always cold and + there was for him an almost sensual satisfaction to be had from just lying + perfectly still in the station yard and letting the hot sun beat down on + him. + </p> + <p> + Sarah Shepard looked upon what she called Hugh's laziness as a thing of + the spirit. “You have got to get over it,” she declared. “Look at your own + people—poor white trash—how lazy and shiftless they are. You + can't be like them. It's a sin to be so dreamy and worthless.” + </p> + <p> + Swept along by the energetic spirit of the woman, Hugh fought to overcome + his inclination to give himself up to vaporous dreams. He became convinced + that his own people were really of inferior stock, that they were to be + kept away from and not to be taken into account. During the first year + after he came to live with the Shepards, he sometimes gave way to a desire + to return to his old lazy life with his father in the shack by the river. + People got off steamboats at the town and took the train to other towns + lying back from the river. He earned a little money by carrying trunks + filled with clothes or traveling men's samples up an incline from the + steamboat landing to the railroad station. Even at fourteen the strength + in his long gaunt body was so great that he could out-lift any man in + town, and he put one of the trunks on his shoulder and walked slowly and + stolidly away with it as a farm horse might have walked along a country + road with a boy of six perched on his back. + </p> + <p> + The money earned in this way Hugh for a time gave to his father, and when + the man had become stupid with drink he grew quarrelsome and demanded that + the boy return to live with him. Hugh had not the spirit to refuse and + sometimes did not want to refuse. When neither the station master nor his + wife was about he slipped away and went with his father to sit for a half + day with his back against the wall of the fishing shack, his soul at + peace. In the sunlight he sat and stretched forth his long legs. His small + sleepy eyes stared out over the river. A delicious feeling crept over him + and for the moment he thought of himself as completely happy and made up + his mind that he did not want to return again to the railroad station and + to the woman who was so determined to arouse him and make of him a man of + her own people. + </p> + <p> + Hugh looked at his father asleep and snoring in the long grass on the + river bank. An odd feeling of disloyalty crept over him and he became + uncomfortable. The man's mouth was open and he snored lustily. From his + greasy and threadbare clothing arose the smell of fish. Flies gathered in + swarms and alighted on his face. Disgust took possession of Hugh. A + flickering but ever recurring light came into his eyes. With all the + strength of his awakening soul he struggled against the desire to give way + to the inclination to stretch himself out beside the man and sleep. The + words of the New England woman, who was, he knew, striving to lift him out + of slothfulness and ugliness into some brighter and better way of life, + echoed dimly in his mind. When he arose and went back along the street to + the station master's house and when the woman there looked at him + reproachfully and muttered words about the poor white trash of the town, + he was ashamed and looked at the floor. + </p> + <p> + Hugh began to hate his own father and his own people. He connected the man + who had bred him with the dreaded inclination toward sloth in himself. + When the farmhand came to the station and demanded the money he had earned + by carrying trunks, he turned away and went across a dusty road to the + Shepard's house. After a year or two he paid no more attention to the + dissolute farmhand who came occasionally to the station to mutter and + swear at him; and, when he had earned a little money, gave it to the woman + to keep for him. “Well,” he said, speaking slowly and with the hesitating + drawl characteristic of his people, “if you give me time I'll learn. I + want to be what you want me to be. If you stick to me I'll try to make a + man of myself.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Hugh McVey lived in the Missouri town under the tutelage of Sarah Shepard + until he was nineteen years old. Then the station master gave up + railroading and went back to Michigan. Sarah Shepard's father had died + after having cleared one hundred and twenty acres of the cut-over timber + land and it had been left to her. The dream that had for years lurked in + the back of the little woman's mind and in which she saw bald-headed, + good-natured Henry Shepard become a power in the railroad world had begun + to fade. In newspapers and magazines she read constantly of other men who, + starting from a humble position in the railroad service, soon became rich + and powerful, but nothing of the kind seemed likely to happen to her + husband. Under her watchful eye he did his work well and carefully but + nothing came of it. Officials of the railroad sometimes passed through the + town riding in private cars hitched to the end of one of the through + trains, but the trains did not stop and the officials did not alight and, + calling Henry out of the station, reward his faithfulness by piling new + responsibilities upon him, as railroad officials did in such cases in the + stories she read. When her father died and she saw a chance to again turn + her face eastward and to live again among her own people, she told her + husband to resign his position with the air of one accepting an undeserved + defeat. The station master managed to get Hugh appointed in his place, and + the two people went away one gray morning in October, leaving the tall + ungainly young man in charge of affairs. He had books to keep, freight + waybills to make out, messages to receive, dozens of definite things to + do. Early in the morning before the train that was to take her away, came + to the station, Sarah Shepard called the young man to her and repeated the + instructions she had so often given her husband. “Do everything neatly and + carefully,” she said. “Show yourself worthy of the trust that has been + given you.” + </p> + <p> + The New England woman wanted to assure the boy, as she had so often + assured her husband, that if he would but work hard and faithfully + promotion would inevitably come; but in the face of the fact that Henry + Shepard had for years done without criticism the work Hugh was to do and + had received neither praise nor blame from those above him, she found it + impossible to say the words that arose to her lips. The woman and the son + of the people among whom she had lived for five years and had so often + condemned, stood beside each other in embarrassed silence. Stripped of her + assurance as to the purpose of life and unable to repeat her accustomed + formula, Sarah Shepard had nothing to say. Hugh's tall figure, leaning + against the post that supported the roof of the front porch of the little + house where she had taught him his lessons day after day, seemed to her + suddenly old and she thought his long solemn face suggested a wisdom older + and more mature than her own. An odd revulsion of feeling swept over her. + For the moment she began to doubt the advisability of trying to be smart + and to get on in life. If Hugh had been somewhat smaller of frame so that + her mind could have taken hold of the fact of his youth and immaturity, + she would no doubt have taken him into her arms and said words regarding + her doubts. Instead she also became silent and the minutes slipped away as + the two people stood before each other and stared at the floor of the + porch. When the train on which she was to leave blew a warning whistle, + and Henry Shepard called to her from the station platform, she put a hand + on the lapel of Hugh's coat and drawing his face down, for the first time + kissed him on the cheek. Tears came into her eyes and into the eyes of the + young man. When he stepped across the porch to get her bag Hugh stumbled + awkwardly against a chair. “Well, you do the best you can here,” Sarah + Shepard said quickly and then out of long habit and half unconsciously did + repeat her formula. “Do little things well and big opportunities are bound + to come,” she declared as she walked briskly along beside Hugh across the + narrow road and to the station and the train that was to bear her away. + </p> + <p> + After the departure of Sarah and Henry Shepard Hugh continued to struggle + with his inclination to give way to dreams. It seemed to him a struggle it + was necessary to win in order that he might show his respect and + appreciation of the woman who had spent so many long hours laboring with + him. Although, under her tutelage, he had received a better education than + any other young man of the river town, he had lost none of his physical + desire to sit in the sun and do nothing. When he worked, every task had to + be consciously carried on from minute to minute. After the woman left, + there were days when he sat in the chair in the telegraph office and + fought a desperate battle with himself. A queer determined light shone in + his small gray eyes. He arose from the chair and walked up and down the + station platform. Each time as he lifted one of his long feet and set it + slowly down a special little effort had to be made. To move about at all + was a painful performance, something he did not want to do. All physical + acts were to him dull but necessary parts of his training for a vague and + glorious future that was to come to him some day in a brighter and more + beautiful land that lay in the direction thought of rather indefinitely as + the East. “If I do not move and keep moving I'll become like father, like + all of the people about here,” Hugh said to himself. He thought of the man + who had bred him and whom he occasionally saw drifting aimlessly along + Main Street or sleeping away a drunken stupor on the river bank. He was + disgusted with him and had come to share the opinion the station master's + wife had always held concerning the people of the Missouri village. + “They're a lot of miserable lazy louts,” she had declared a thousand + times, and Hugh, agreed with her, but sometimes wondered if in the end he + might not also become a lazy lout. That possibility he knew was in him and + for the sake of the woman as well as for his own sake he was determined it + should not be so. + </p> + <p> + The truth is that the people of Mudcat Landing were totally unlike any of + the people Sarah Shepard had ever known and unlike the people Hugh was to + know during his mature life. He who had come from a people not smart was + to live among smart energetic men and women and be called a big man by + them without in the least understanding what they were talking about. + </p> + <p> + Practically all of the people of Hugh's home town were of Southern origin. + Living originally in a land where all physical labor was performed by + slaves, they had come to have a deep aversion to physical labor. In the + South their fathers, having no money to buy slaves of their own and being + unwilling to compete with slave labor, had tried to live without labor. + For the most part they lived in the mountains and the hill country of + Kentucky and Tennessee, on land too poor and unproductive to be thought + worth cultivating by their rich slave-owning neighbors of the valleys and + plains. Their food was meager and of an enervating sameness and their + bodies degenerate. Children grew up long and gaunt and yellow like badly + nourished plants. Vague indefinite hungers took hold of them and they gave + themselves over to dreams. The more energetic among them, sensing dimly + the unfairness of their position in life, became vicious and dangerous. + Feuds started among them and they killed each other to express their + hatred of life. When, in the years preceding the Civil War, a few of them + pushed north along the rivers and settled in Southern Indiana and Illinois + and in Eastern Missouri and Arkansas, they seemed to have exhausted their + energy in making the voyage and slipped quickly back into their old + slothful way of life. Their impulse to emigrate did not carry them far and + but a few of them ever reached the rich corn lands of central Indiana, + Illinois or Iowa or the equally rich land back from the river in Missouri + or Arkansas. In Southern Indiana and Illinois they were merged into the + life about them and with the infusion of new blood they a little awoke. + They have tempered the quality of the peoples of those regions, made them + perhaps less harshly energetic than their forefathers, the pioneers. In + many of the Missouri and Arkansas river towns they have changed but + little. A visitor to these parts may see them there to-day, long, gaunt, + and lazy, sleeping their lives away and awakening out of their stupor only + at long intervals and at the call of hunger. + </p> + <p> + As for Hugh McVey, he stayed in his home town and among his own people for + a year after the departure of the man and woman who had been father and + mother to him, and then he also departed. All through the year he worked + constantly to cure himself of the curse of indolence. When he awoke in the + morning he did not dare lie in bed for a moment for fear indolence would + overcome him and he would not be able to arise at all. Getting out of bed + at once he dressed and went to the station. During the day there was not + much work to be done and he walked for hours up and down the station + platform. When he sat down he at once took up a book and put his mind to + work. When the pages of the book became indistinct before his eyes and he + felt within him the inclination to drift off into dreams, he again arose + and walked up and down the platform. Having accepted the New England + woman's opinion of his own people and not wanting to associate with them, + his life became utterly lonely and his loneliness also drove him to labor. + </p> + <p> + Something happened to him. Although his body would not and never did + become active, his mind began suddenly to work with feverish eagerness. + The vague thoughts and feelings that had always been a part of him but + that had been indefinite, ill-defined things, like clouds floating far + away in a hazy sky, began to grow definite. In the evening after his work + was done and he had locked the station for the night, he did not go to the + town hotel where he had taken a room and where he ate his meals, but + wandered about town and along the road that ran south beside the great + mysterious river. A hundred new and definite desires and hungers awoke in + him. He began to want to talk with people, to know men and most of all to + know women, but the disgust for his fellows in the town, engendered in him + by Sarah Shepard's words and most of all by the things in his nature that + were like their natures, made him draw back. When in the fall at the end + of the year after the Shepards had left and he began living alone, his + father was killed in a senseless quarrel with a drunken river man over the + ownership of a dog, a sudden, and what seemed to him at the moment heroic + resolution came to him. He went early one morning to one of the town's two + saloon keepers, a man who had been his father's' nearest approach to a + friend and companion, and gave him money to bury the dead man. Then he + wired to the headquarters of the railroad company telling them to send a + man to Mudcat Landing to take his place. On the afternoon of the day on + which his father was buried, he bought himself a handbag and packed his + few belongings. Then he sat down alone on the steps of the railroad + station to wait for the evening train that would bring the man who was to + replace him and that would at the same time take him away. He did not know + where he intended to go, but knew that he wanted to push out into a new + land and get among new people. He thought he would go east and north. He + remembered the long summer evenings in the river town when the station + master slept and his wife talked. The boy who listened had wanted to sleep + also, but with the eyes of Sarah Shepard fixed on him, had not dared to do + so. The woman had talked of a land dotted with towns where the houses were + all painted in bright colors, where young girls dressed in white dresses + went about in the evening, walking under trees beside streets paved with + bricks, where there was no dust or mud, where stores were gay bright + places filled with beautiful wares that the people had money to buy in + abundance and where every one was alive and doing things worth while and + none was slothful and lazy. The boy who had now become a man wanted to go + to such a place. His work in the railroad station had given him some idea + of the geography of the country and, although he could not have told + whether the woman who had talked so enticingly had in mind her childhood + in New England or her girlhood in Michigan, he knew in a general way that + to reach the land and the people who were to show him by their lives the + better way to form his own life, he must go east. He decided that the + further east he went the more beautiful life would become, and that he had + better not try going too far in the beginning. “I'll go into the northern + part of Indiana or Ohio,” he told himself. “There must be beautiful towns + in those places.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh was boyishly eager to get on his way and to become at once a part of + the life in a new place. The gradual awakening of his mind had given him + courage, and he thought of himself as armed and ready for association with + men. He wanted to become acquainted with and be the friend of people whose + lives were beautifully lived and who were themselves beautiful and full of + significance. As he sat on the steps of the railroad station in the poor + little Missouri town with his bag beside him, and thought of all the + things he wanted to do in life, his mind became so eager and restless that + some of its restlessness was transmitted to his body. For perhaps the + first time in his life he arose without conscious effort and walked up and + down the station platform out of an excess of energy. He thought he could + not bear to wait until the train came and brought the man who was to take + his place. “Well, I'm going away, I'm going away to be a man among men,” + he said to himself over and over. The saying became a kind of refrain and + he said it unconsciously. As he repeated the words his heart beat high in + anticipation of the future he thought lay before him. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <p> + Hugh McVey left the town of Mudcat Landing in early September of the year + eighteen eighty-six. He was then twenty years old and was six feet and + four inches tall. The whole upper part of his body was immensely strong + but his long legs were ungainly and lifeless. He secured a pass from the + railroad company that had employed him, and rode north along the river in + the night train until he came to a large town named Burlington in the + State of Iowa. There a bridge went over the river, and the railroad tracks + joined those of a trunk line and ran eastward toward Chicago; but Hugh did + not continue his journey on that night. Getting off the train he went to a + nearby hotel and took a room for the night. + </p> + <p> + It was a cool clear evening and Hugh was restless. The town of Burlington, + a prosperous place in the midst of a rich farming country, overwhelmed him + with its stir and bustle. For the first time he saw brick-paved streets + and streets lighted with lamps. Although it was nearly ten o'clock at + night when he arrived, people still walked about in the streets and many + stores were open. + </p> + <p> + The hotel where he had taken a room faced the railroad tracks and stood at + the corner of a brightly lighted street. When he had been shown to his + room Hugh sat for a half hour by an open window, and then as he could not + sleep, decided to go for a walk. For a time he walked in the streets where + the people stood about before the doors of the stores but, as his tall + figure attracted attention and he felt people staring at him, he went + presently into a side street. + </p> + <p> + In a few minutes he became utterly lost. He went through what seemed to + him miles of streets lined with frame and brick houses, and occasionally + passed people, but was too timid and embarrassed to ask his way. The + street climbed upward and after a time he got into open country and + followed a road that ran along a cliff overlooking the Mississippi River. + The night was clear and the sky brilliant with stars. In the open, away + from the multitude of houses, he no longer felt awkward and afraid, and + went cheerfully along. After a time he stopped and stood facing the river. + Standing on a high cliff and with a grove of trees at his back, the stars + seemed to have all gathered in the eastern sky. Below him the water of the + river reflected the stars. They seemed to be making a pathway for him into + the East. + </p> + <p> + The tall Missouri countryman sat down on a log near the edge of the cliff + and tried to see the water in the river below. Nothing was visible but a + bed of stars that danced and twinkled in the darkness. He had made his way + to a place far above the railroad bridge, but presently a through + passenger train from the West passed over it and the lights of the train + looked also like stars, stars that moved and beckoned and that seemed to + fly like flocks of birds out of the West into the East. + </p> + <p> + For several hours Hugh sat on the log in the darkness. He decided that it + was hopeless for him to find his way back to the hotel, and was glad of + the excuse for staying abroad. His body for the first time in his life + felt light and strong and his mind was feverishly awake. A buggy in which + sat a young man and woman went along the road at his back, and after the + voices had died away silence came, broken only at long intervals during + the hours when he sat thinking of his future by the barking of a dog in + some distant house or the churning of the paddle-wheels of a passing river + boat. + </p> + <p> + All of the early formative years of Hugh McVey's life had been spent + within sound of the lapping of the waters of the Mississippi River. He had + seen it in the hot summer when the water receded and the mud lay baked and + cracked along the edge of the water; in the spring when the floods raged + and the water went whirling past, bearing tree logs and even parts of + houses; in the winter when the water looked deathly cold and ice floated + past; and in the fall when it was quiet and still and lovely, and seemed + to have sucked an almost human quality of warmth out of the red trees that + lined its shores. Hugh had spent hours and days sitting or lying in the + grass beside the river. The fishing shack in which he had lived with his + father until he was fourteen years old was within a half dozen long + strides of the river's edge, and the boy had often been left there alone + for a week at a time. When his father had gone for a trip on a lumber raft + or to work for a few days on some farm in the country back from the river, + the boy, left often without money and with but a few loaves of bread, went + fishing when he was hungry and when he was not did nothing but idle the + days away in the grass on the river bank. Boys from the town came + sometimes to spend an hour with him, but in their presence he was + embarrassed and a little annoyed. He wanted to be left alone with his + dreams. One of the boys, a sickly, pale, undeveloped lad of ten, often + stayed with him through an entire summer afternoon. He was the son of a + merchant in the town and grew quickly tired when he tried to follow other + boys about. On the river bank he lay beside Hugh in silence. The two got + into Hugh's boat and went fishing and the merchant's son grew animated and + talked. He taught Hugh to write his own name and to read a few words. The + shyness that kept them apart had begun to break down, when the merchant's + son caught some childhood disease and died. + </p> + <p> + In the darkness above the cliff that night in Burlington Hugh remembered + things concerning his boyhood that had not come back to his mind in years. + The very thoughts that had passed through his mind during those long days + of idling on the river bank came streaming back. + </p> + <p> + After his fourteenth year when he went to work at the railroad station + Hugh had stayed away from the river. With his work at the station, and in + the garden back of Sarah Shepard's house, and the lessons in the + afternoons, he had little idle time. On Sundays however things were + different. Sarah Shepard did not go to church after she came to Mudcat + Landing, but she would have no work done on Sundays. On Sunday afternoons + in the summer she and her husband sat in chairs beneath a tree beside the + house and went to sleep. Hugh got into the habit of going off by himself. + He wanted to sleep also, but did not dare. He went along the river bank by + the road that ran south from the town, and when he had followed it two or + three miles, turned into a grove of trees and lay down in the shade. + </p> + <p> + The long summer Sunday afternoons had been delightful times for Hugh, so + delightful that he finally gave them up, fearing they might lead him to + take up again his old sleepy way of life. Now as he sat in the darkness + above the same river he had gazed on through the long Sunday afternoons, a + spasm of something like loneliness swept over him. For the first time he + thought about leaving the river country and going into a new land with a + keen feeling of regret. + </p> + <p> + On the Sunday afternoons in the woods south of Mudcat Landing Hugh had + lain perfectly still in the grass for hours. The smell of dead fish that + had always been present about the shack where he spent his boyhood, was + gone and there were no swarms of flies. Above his head a breeze played + through the branches of the trees, and insects sang in the grass. + Everything about him was clean. A lovely stillness pervaded the river and + the woods. He lay on his belly and gazed down over the river out of + sleep-heavy eyes into hazy distances. Half formed thoughts passed like + visions through his mind. He dreamed, but his dreams were unformed and + vaporous. For hours the half dead, half alive state into which he had got, + persisted. He did not sleep but lay in a land between sleeping and waking. + Pictures formed in his mind. The clouds that floated in the sky above the + river took on strange, grotesque shapes. They began to move. One of the + clouds separated itself from the others. It moved swiftly away into the + dim distance and then returned. It became a half human thing and seemed to + be marshaling the other clouds. Under its influence they became agitated + and moved restlessly about. Out of the body of the most active of the + clouds long vaporous arms were extended. They pulled and hauled at the + other clouds making them also restless and agitated. + </p> + <p> + Hugh's mind, as he sat in the darkness on the cliff above the river that + night in Burlington, was deeply stirred. Again he was a boy lying in the + woods above his river, and the visions that had come to him there returned + with startling clearness. He got off the log and lying in the wet grass, + closed his eyes. His body became warm. + </p> + <p> + Hugh thought his mind had gone out of his body and up into the sky to join + the clouds and the stars, to play with them. From the sky he thought he + looked down on the earth and saw rolling fields, hills and forests. He had + no part in the lives of the men and women of the earth, but was torn away + from them, left to stand by himself. From his place in the sky above the + earth he saw the great river going majestically along. For a time it was + quiet and contemplative as the sky had been when he was a boy down below + lying on his belly in the wood. He saw men pass in boats and could hear + their voices dimly. A great quiet prevailed and he looked abroad beyond + the wide expanse of the river and saw fields and towns. They were all + hushed and still. An air of waiting hung over them. And then the river was + whipped into action by some strange unknown force, something that had come + out of a distant place, out of the place to which the cloud had gone and + from which it had returned to stir and agitate the other clouds. + </p> + <p> + The river now went tearing along. It overflowed its banks and swept over + the land, uprooting trees and forests and towns. The white faces of + drowned men and children, borne along by the flood, looked up into the + mind's eye of the man Hugh, who, in the moment of his setting out into the + definite world of struggle and defeat, had let himself slip back into the + vaporous dreams of his boyhood. + </p> + <p> + As he lay in the wet grass in the darkness on the cliff Hugh tried to + force his way back to consciousness, but for a long time was unsuccessful. + He rolled and writhed about and his lips muttered words. It was useless. + His mind also was swept away. The clouds of which he felt himself a part + flew across the face of the sky. They blotted out the sun from the earth, + and darkness descended on the land, on the troubled towns, on the hills + that were torn open, on the forests that were destroyed, on the peace and + quiet of all places. In the country stretching away from the river where + all had been peace and quiet, all was now agitation and unrest. Houses + were destroyed and instantly rebuilt. People gathered in whirling crowds. + </p> + <p> + The dreaming man felt himself a part of something significant and terrible + that was happening to the earth and to the peoples of the earth. Again he + struggled to awake, to force himself back out of the dream world into + consciousness. When he did awake, day was breaking and he sat on the very + edge of the cliff that looked down upon the Mississippi River, gray now in + the dim morning light. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The towns in which Hugh lived during the first three years after he began + his eastward journey were all small places containing a few hundred + people, and were scattered through Illinois, Indiana and western Ohio. All + of the people among whom he worked and lived during that time were farmers + and laborers. In the spring of the first year of his wandering he passed + through the city of Chicago and spent two hours there, going in and out at + the same railroad station. + </p> + <p> + He was not tempted to become a city man. The huge commercial city at the + foot of Lake Michigan, because of its commanding position in the very + center of a vast farming empire, had already become gigantic. He never + forgot the two hours he spent standing in the station in the heart of the + city and walking in the street adjoining the station. It was evening when + he came into the roaring, clanging place. On the long wide plains west of + the city he saw farmers at work with their spring plowing as the train + went flying along. Presently the farms grew small and the whole prairie + dotted with towns. In these the train did not stop but ran into a crowded + network of streets filled with multitudes of people. When he got into the + big dark station Hugh saw thousands of people rushing about like disturbed + insects. Unnumbered thousands of people were going out of the city at the + end of their day of work and trains waited to take them to towns on the + prairies. They came in droves, hurrying along like distraught cattle, over + a bridge and into the station. The in-bound crowds that had alighted from + through trains coming from cities of the East and West climbed up a + stairway to the street, and those that were out-bound tried to descend by + the same stairway and at the same time. The result was a whirling churning + mass of humanity. Every one pushed and crowded his way along. Men swore, + women grew angry, and children cried. Near the doorway that opened into + the street a long line of cab drivers shouted and roared. + </p> + <p> + Hugh looked at the people who were whirled along past him, and shivered + with the nameless fear of multitudes, common to country boys in the city. + When the rush of people had a little subsided he went out of the station + and, walking across a narrow street, stood by a brick store building. + Presently the rush of people began again, and again men, women, and boys + came hurrying across the bridge and ran wildly in at the doorway leading + into the station. They came in waves as water washes along a beach during + a storm. Hugh had a feeling that if he were by some chance to get caught + in the crowd he would be swept away into some unknown and terrible place. + Waiting until the rush had a little subsided, he went across the street + and on to the bridge to look at the river that flowed past the station. It + was narrow and filled with ships, and the water looked gray and dirty. A + pall of black smoke covered the sky. From all sides of him and even in the + air above his head a great clatter and roar of bells and whistles went on. + </p> + <p> + With the air of a child venturing into a dark forest Hugh went a little + way into one of the streets that led westward from the station. Again he + stopped and stood by a building. Near at hand a group of young city roughs + stood smoking and talking before a saloon. Out of a nearby building came a + young girl who approached and spoke to one of them. The man began to swear + furiously. “You tell her I'll come in there in a minute and smash her + face,” he said, and, paying no more attention to the girl, turned to stare + at Hugh. All of the young men lounging before the saloon turned to stare + at the tall countryman. They began to laugh and one of them walked quickly + toward him. + </p> + <p> + Hugh ran along the street and into the station followed by the shouts of + the young roughs. He did not venture out again, and when his train was + ready, got aboard and went gladly out of the great complex dwelling-place + of modern Americans. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went from town to town always working his way eastward, always + seeking the place where happiness was to come to him and where he was to + achieve companionship with men and women. He cut fence posts in a forest + on a large farm in Indiana, worked in the fields, and in one place was a + section hand on the railroad. + </p> + <p> + On a farm in Indiana, some forty miles east of Indianapolis, he was for + the first time powerfully touched by the presence of a woman. She was the + daughter of the farmer who was Hugh's employer, and was an alert, handsome + woman of twenty-four who had been a school teacher but had given up the + work because she was about to be married. Hugh thought the man who was to + marry her the most fortunate being in the world. He lived in Indianapolis + and came by train to spend the week-ends at the farm. The woman prepared + for his coming by putting on a white dress and fastening a rose in her + hair. The two people walked about in an orchard beside the house or went + for a ride along the country roads. The young man, who, Hugh had been + told, worked in a bank, wore stiff white collars, a black suit and a black + derby hat. + </p> + <p> + On the farm Hugh worked in the field with the farmer and ate at table with + his family, but did not get acquainted with them. On Sunday when the young + man came he took the day off and went into a nearby town. The courtship + became a matter very close to him and he lived through the excitement of + the weekly visits as though he had been one of the principals. The + daughter of the house, sensing the fact that the silent farm hand was + stirred by her presence, became interested in him. Sometimes in the + evening as he sat on a little porch before the house, she came to join + him, and sat looking at him with a peculiarly detached and interested air. + She tried to make talk, but Hugh answered all her advances so briefly and + with such a half frightened manner that she gave up the attempt. One + Saturday evening when her sweetheart had come she took him for a ride in + the family carriage, and Hugh concealed himself in the hay loft of the + barn to wait for their return. + </p> + <p> + Hugh had never seen or heard a man express in any way his affection for a + woman. It seemed to him a terrifically heroic thing to do and he hoped by + concealing himself in the barn to see it done. It was a bright moonlight + night and he waited until nearly eleven o'clock before the lovers + returned. In the hayloft there was an opening high up under the roof. + Because of his great height he could reach and pull himself up, and when + he had done so, found a footing on one of the beams that formed the + framework of the barn. The lovers stood unhitching the horse in the + barnyard below. When the city man had led the horse into the stable he + hurried quickly out again and went with the farmer's daughter along a path + toward the house. The two people laughed and pulled at each other like + children. They grew silent and when they had come near the house, stopped + by a tree to embrace. Hugh saw the man take the woman into his arms and + hold her tightly against his body. He was so excited that he nearly fell + off the beam. His imagination was inflamed and he tried to picture himself + in the position of the young city man. His fingers gripped the boards to + which he clung and his body trembled. The two figures standing in the dim + light by the tree became one. For a long time they clung tightly to each + other and then drew apart. They went into the house and Hugh climbed down + from his place on the beam and lay in the hay. His body shook as with a + chill and he was half ill of jealousy, anger, and an overpowering sense of + defeat. It did not seem to him at the moment that it was worth while for + him to go further east or to try to find a place where he would be able to + mingle freely with men and women, or where such a wonderful thing as had + happened to the man in the barnyard below might happen to him. + </p> + <p> + Hugh spent the night in the hayloft and at daylight crept out and went + into a nearby town. He returned to the farmhouse late on Monday when he + was sure the city man had gone away. In spite of the protest of the farmer + he packed his clothes at once and declared his intention of leaving. He + did not wait for the evening meal but hurried out of the house. When he + got into the road and had started to walk away, he looked back and saw the + daughter of the house standing at an open door and looking at him. Shame + for what he had done on the night before swept over him. For a moment he + stared at the woman who, with an intense, interested air stared back at + him, and then putting down his head he hurried away. The woman watched him + out of sight and later, when her father stormed about the house, blaming + Hugh for leaving so suddenly and declaring the tall Missourian was no + doubt a drunkard who wanted to go off on a drunk, she had nothing to say. + In her own heart she knew what was the matter with her father's farm hand + and was sorry he had gone before she had more completely exercised her + power over him. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + None of the towns Hugh visited during his three years of wandering + approached realization of the sort of life Sarah Shepard had talked to him + about. They were all very much alike. There was a main street with a dozen + stores on each side, a blacksmith shop, and perhaps an elevator for the + storage of grain. All day the town was deserted, but in the evening the + citizens gathered on Main Street. On the sidewalks before the stores young + farm hands and clerks sat on store boxes or on the curbing. They did not + pay any attention to Hugh who, when he went to stand near them, remained + silent and kept himself in the background. The farm hands talked of their + work and boasted of the number of bushels of corn they could pick in a + day, or of their skill in plowing. The clerks were intent upon playing + practical jokes which pleased the farm hands immensely. While one of them + talked loudly of his skill in his work a clerk crept out at the door of + one of the stores and approached him. He held a pin in his hand and with + it jabbed the talker in the back. The crowd yelled and shouted with + delight. If the victim became angry a quarrel started, but this did not + often happen. Other men came to join the party and the joke was told to + them. “Well, you should have seen the look on his face. I thought I would + die,” one of the bystanders declared. + </p> + <p> + Hugh got a job with a carpenter who specialized in the building of barns + and stayed with him all through one fall. Later he went to work as a + section hand on a railroad. Nothing happened to him. He was like one + compelled to walk through life with a bandage over his eyes. On all sides + of him, in the towns and on the farms, an undercurrent of life went on + that did not touch him. In even the smallest of the towns, inhabited only + by farm laborers, a quaint interesting civilization was being developed. + Men worked hard but were much in the open air and had time to think. Their + minds reached out toward the solution of the mystery of existence. The + schoolmaster and the country lawyer read Tom Paine's “Age of Reason” and + Bellamy's “Looking Backward.” They discussed these books with their + fellows. There was a feeling, ill expressed, that America had something + real and spiritual to offer to the rest of the world. Workmen talked to + each other of the new tricks of their trades, and after hours of + discussion of some new way to cultivate corn, shape a horseshoe or build a + barn, spoke of God and his intent concerning man. Long drawn out + discussions of religious beliefs and the political destiny of America were + carried on. + </p> + <p> + And across the background of these discussions ran tales of action in a + sphere outside the little world in which the inhabitants of the towns + lived. Men who had been in the Civil War and who had climbed fighting over + hills and in the terror of defeat had swum wide rivers, told the tale of + their adventures. + </p> + <p> + In the evening, after his day of work in the field or on the railroad with + the section hands, Hugh did not know what to do with himself. That he did + not go to bed immediately after the evening meal was due to the fact that + he looked upon his tendency to sleep and to dream as an enemy to his + development; and a peculiarly persistent determination to make something + alive and worth while out of himself—the result of the five years of + constant talking on the subject by the New England woman—had taken + possession of him. “I'll find the right place and the right people and + then I'll begin,” he continually said to himself. + </p> + <p> + And then, worn out with weariness and loneliness, he went to bed in one of + the little hotels or boarding houses where he lived during those years, + and his dreams returned. The dream that had come that night as he lay on + the cliff above the Mississippi River near the town of Burlington, came + back time after time. He sat upright in bed in the darkness of his room + and after he had driven the cloudy, vague sensation out of his brain, was + afraid to go to sleep again. He did not want to disturb the people of the + house and so got up and dressed and without putting on his shoes walked up + and down in the room. Sometimes the room he occupied had a low ceiling and + he was compelled to stoop. He crept out of the house carrying his shoes in + his hand and sat down on the sidewalk to put them on. In all the towns he + visited, people saw him walking alone through the streets late at night or + in the early hours of the morning. Whispers concerning the matter ran + about. The story of what was spoken of as his queerness came to the men + with whom he worked, and they found themselves unable to talk freely and + naturally in his presence. At the noon hour when the men ate the lunch + they had carried to work, when the boss was gone and it was customary + among the workers to talk of their own affairs, they went off by + themselves. Hugh followed them about. They went to sit under a tree, and + when Hugh came to stand nearby, they became silent or the more vulgar and + shallow among them began to show off. While he worked with a half dozen + other men as a section hand on the railroad, two men did all the talking. + Whenever the boss went away an old man who had a reputation as a wit told + stories concerning his relations with women. A young man with red hair + took the cue from him. The two men talked loudly and kept looking at Hugh. + The younger of the two wits turned to another workman who had a weak, + timid face. “Well, you,” he cried, “what about your old woman? What about + her? Who is the father of your son? Do you dare tell?” + </p> + <p> + In the towns Hugh walked about in the evening and tried always to keep his + mind fixed on definite things. He felt that humanity was for some unknown + reason drawing itself away from him, and his mind turned back to the + figure of Sarah Shepard. He remembered that she had never been without + things to do. She scrubbed her kitchen floor and prepared food for + cooking; she washed, ironed, kneaded dough for bread, and mended clothes. + In the evening, when she made the boy read to her out of one of the school + books or do sums on a slate, she kept her hands busy knitting socks for + him or for her husband. Except when something had crossed her so that she + scolded and her face grew red, she was always cheerful. When the boy had + nothing to do at the station and had been sent by the station master to + work about the house, to draw water from the cistern for a family washing, + or pull weeds in the garden, he heard the woman singing as she went about + the doing of her innumerable petty tasks. Hugh decided that he also must + do small tasks, fix his mind upon definite things. In the town where he + was employed as a section hand, the cloud dream in which the world became + a whirling, agitated center of disaster came to him almost every night. + Winter came on and he walked through the streets at night in the darkness + and through the deep snow. He was almost frozen; but as the whole lower + part of his body was habitually cold he did not much mind the added + discomfort, and so great was the reserve of strength in his big frame that + the loss of sleep did not affect his ability to labor all day without + effort. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went into one of the residence streets of the town and counted the + pickets in the fences before the houses. He returned to the hotel and made + a calculation as to the number of pickets in all the fences in town. Then + he got a rule at the hardware store and carefully measured the pickets. He + tried to estimate the number of pickets that could be cut out of certain + sized trees and that gave his mind another opening. He counted the number + of trees in every street in town. He learned to tell at a glance and with + relative accuracy how much lumber could be cut out of a tree. He built + imaginary houses with lumber cut from the trees that lined the streets. He + even tried to figure out a way to utilize the small limbs cut from the + tops of the trees, and one Sunday went into the wood back of the town and + cut a great armful of twigs, which he carried to his room and later with + great patience wove into the form of a basket. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK TWO + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <p> + Bidwell, Ohio, was an old town as the ages of towns go in the Central + West, long before Hugh McVey, in his search for a place where he could + penetrate the wall that shut him off from humanity, went there to live and + to try to work out his problem. It is a busy manufacturing town now and + has a population of nearly a hundred thousand people; but the time for the + telling of the story of its sudden and surprising growth has not yet come. + </p> + <p> + From the beginning Bidwell has been a prosperous place. The town lies in + the valley of a deep, rapid-flowing river that spreads out just above the + town, becomes for the time wide and shallow, and goes singing swiftly + along over stones. South of the town the river not only spreads out, but + the hills recede. A wide flat valley stretches away to the north. In the + days before the factories came the land immediately about town was cut up + into small farms devoted to fruit and berry raising, and beyond the area + of small farms lay larger tracts that were immensely productive and that + raised huge crops of wheat, corn, and cabbage. + </p> + <p> + When Hugh was a boy sleeping away his days in the grass beside his + father's fishing shack by the Mississippi River, Bidwell had already + emerged out of the hardships of pioneer days. On the farms that lay in the + wide valley to the north the timber had been cut away and the stumps had + all been rooted out of the ground by a generation of men that had passed. + The soil was easy to cultivate and had lost little of its virgin + fertility. Two railroads, the Lake Shore and Michigan Central—later + a part of the great New York Central System—and a less important + coal-carrying road, called the Wheeling and Lake Erie, ran through the + town. Twenty-five hundred people lived then in Bidwell. They were for the + most part descendants of the pioneers who had come into the country by + boat through the Great Lakes or by wagon roads over the mountains from the + States of New York and Pennsylvania. + </p> + <p> + The town stood on a sloping incline running up from the river, and the + Lake Shore and Michigan Central Railroad had its station on the river bank + at the foot of Main Street. The Wheeling Station was a mile away to the + north. It was to be reached by going over a bridge and along a piked road + that even then had begun to take on the semblance of a street. A dozen + houses had been built facing Turner's Pike and between these were berry + fields and an occasional orchard planted to cherry, peach or apple trees. + A hard path went down to the distant station beside the road, and in the + evening this path, wandering along under the branches of the fruit trees + that extended out over the farm fences, was a favorite walking place for + lovers. + </p> + <p> + The small farms lying close about the town of Bidwell raised berries that + brought top prices in the two cities, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, reached by + its two railroads, and all of the people of the town who were not engaged + in one of the trades—in shoe making, carpentry, horse shoeing, house + painting or the like—or who did not belong to the small merchant and + professional classes, worked in summer on the land. On summer mornings, + men, women and children went into the fields. In the early spring when + planting went on and all through late May, June and early July when + berries and fruit began to ripen, every one was rushed with work and the + streets of the town were deserted. Every one went to the fields. Great hay + wagons loaded with children, laughing girls, and sedate women set out from + Main Street at dawn. Beside them walked tall boys, who pelted the girls + with green apples and cherries from the trees along the road, and men who + went along behind smoking their morning pipes and talking of the + prevailing prices of the products of their fields. In the town after they + had gone a Sabbath quiet prevailed. The merchants and clerks loitered in + the shade of the awnings before the doors of the stores, and only their + wives and the wives of the two or three rich men in town came to buy and + to disturb their discussions of horse racing, politics and religion. + </p> + <p> + In the evening when the wagons came home, Bidwell awoke. The tired berry + pickers walked home from the fields in the dust of the roads swinging + their dinner pails. The wagons creaked at their heels, piled high with + boxes of berries ready for shipment. In the stores after the evening meal + crowds gathered. Old men lit their pipes and sat gossiping along the + curbing at the edge of the sidewalks on Main Street; women with baskets on + their arms did the marketing for the next day's living; the young men put + on stiff white collars and their Sunday clothes, and girls, who all day + had been crawling over the fields between the rows of berries or pushing + their way among the tangled masses of raspberry bushes, put on white + dresses and walked up and down before the men. Friendships begun between + boys and girls in the fields ripened into love. Couples walked along + residence streets under the trees and talked with subdued voices. They + became silent and embarrassed. The bolder ones kissed. The end of the + berry picking season brought each year a new outbreak of marriages to the + town of Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + In all the towns of mid-western America it was a time of waiting. The + country having been cleared and the Indians driven away into a vast + distant place spoken of vaguely as the West, the Civil War having been + fought and won, and there being no great national problems that touched + closely their lives, the minds of men were turned in upon themselves. The + soul and its destiny was spoken of openly on the streets. Robert Ingersoll + came to Bidwell to speak in Terry's Hall, and after he had gone the + question of the divinity of Christ for months occupied the minds of the + citizens. The ministers preached sermons on the subject and in the evening + it was talked about in the stores. Every one had something to say. Even + Charley Mook, who dug ditches, who stuttered so that not a half dozen + people in town could understand him, expressed his opinion. + </p> + <p> + In all the great Mississippi Valley each town came to have a character of + its own, and the people who lived in the towns were to each other like + members of a great family. The individual idiosyncrasies of each member of + the great family stood forth. A kind of invisible roof beneath which every + one lived spread itself over each town. Beneath the roof boys and girls + were born, grew up, quarreled, fought, and formed friendships with their + fellows, were introduced into the mysteries of love, married, and became + the fathers and mothers of children, grew old, sickened, and died. + </p> + <p> + Within the invisible circle and under the great roof every one knew his + neighbor and was known to him. Strangers did not come and go swiftly and + mysteriously and there was no constant and confusing roar of machinery and + of new projects afoot. For the moment mankind seemed about to take time to + try to understand itself. + </p> + <p> + In Bidwell there was a man named Peter White who was a tailor and worked + hard at his trade, but who once or twice a year got drunk and beat his + wife. He was arrested each time and had to pay a fine, but there was a + general understanding of the impulse that led to the beating. Most of the + women knowing the wife sympathized with Peter. “She is a noisy thing and + her jaw is never still,” the wife of Henry Teeters, the grocer, said to + her husband. “If he gets drunk it's only to forget he's married to her. + Then he goes home to sleep it off and she begins jawing at him. He stands + it as long as he can. It takes a fist to shut up that woman. If he strikes + her it's the only thing he can do.” + </p> + <p> + Allie Mulberry the half-wit was one of the highlights of life in the town. + He lived with his mother in a tumble-down house at the edge of town on + Medina Road. Beside being a half-wit he had something the matter with his + legs. They were trembling and weak and he could only move them with great + difficulty. On summer afternoons when the streets were deserted, he + hobbled along Main Street with his lower jaw hanging down. Allie carried a + large club, partly for the support of his weak legs and partly to scare + off dogs and mischievous boys. He liked to sit in the shade with his back + against a building and whittle, and he liked to be near people and have + his talent as a whittler appreciated. He made fans out of pieces of pine, + long chains of wooden beads, and he once achieved a singular mechanical + triumph that won him wide renown. He made a ship that would float in a + beer bottle half filled with water and laid on its side. The ship had + sails and three tiny wooden sailors who stood at attention with their + hands to their caps in salute. After it was constructed and put into the + bottle it was too large to be taken out through the neck. How Allie got it + in no one ever knew. The clerks and merchants who crowded about to watch + him at work discussed the matter for days. It became a never-ending wonder + among them. In the evening they spoke of the matter to the berry pickers + who came into the stores, and in the eyes of the people of Bidwell Allie + Mulberry became a hero. The bottle, half-filled with water and securely + corked, was laid on a cushion in the window of Hunter's Jewelry Store. As + it floated about on its own little ocean crowds gathered to look at it. + Over the bottle was a sign with the words—“Carved by Allie Mulberry + of Bidwell”—prominently displayed. Below these words a query had + been printed. “How Did He Get It Into The Bottle?” was the question asked. + The bottle stayed in the window for months and merchants took the + traveling men who visited them, to see it. Then they escorted their guests + to where Allie, with his back against the wall of a building and his club + beside him, was at work on some new creation of the whittler's art. The + travelers were impressed and told the tale abroad. Allie's fame spread to + other towns. “He has a good brain,” the citizen of Bidwell said, shaking + his head. “He don't appear to know very much, but look what he does! He + must be carrying all sorts of notions around inside of his head.” + </p> + <p> + Jane Orange, widow of a lawyer, and with the single exception of Thomas + Butterworth, a farmer who owned over a thousand acres of land and lived + with his daughter on a farm a mile south of town, the richest person in + town, was known to every one in Bidwell, but was not liked. She was called + stingy and it was said that she and her husband had cheated every one with + whom they had dealings in order to get their start in life. The town ached + for the privilege of doing what they called “bringing them down a peg.” + Jane's husband had once been the Bidwell town attorney and later had + charge of the settlement of an estate belonging to Ed Lucas, a farmer who + died leaving two hundred acres of land and two daughters. The farmer's + daughters, every one said, “came out at the small end of the horn,” and + John Orange began to grow rich. It was said he was worth fifty thousand + dollars. All during the latter part of his life the lawyer went to the + city of Cleveland on business every week, and when he was at home and even + in the hottest weather he went about dressed in a long black coat. When + she went to the stores to buy supplies for her house Jane Orange was + watched closely by the merchants. She was suspected of carrying away small + articles that could be slipped into the pockets of her dress. One + afternoon in Toddmore's grocery, when she thought no one was looking, she + took a half dozen eggs out of a basket and looking quickly around to be + sure she was unobserved, put them into her dress pocket. Harry Toddmore, + the grocer's son who had seen the theft, said nothing, but went unobserved + out at the back door. He got three or four clerks from other stores and + they waited for Jane Orange at a corner. When she came along they hurried + out and Harry Toddmore fell against her. Throwing out his hand he struck + the pocket containing the eggs a quick, sharp blow. Jane Orange turned and + hurried away toward home, but as she half ran through Main Street clerks + and merchants came out of the stores, and from the assembled crowd a voice + called attention to the fact that the contents of the stolen eggs having + run down the inside of her dress and over her stockings began to make a + stream on the sidewalk. A pack of town dogs excited by the shouts of the + crowd ran at her heels, barking and sniffing at the yellow stream that + dripped from her shoes. + </p> + <p> + An old man with a long white beard came to Bidwell to live. He had been a + carpet-bag Governor of a southern state in the reconstruction days after + the Civil War and had made money. He bought a house on Turner's Pike close + beside the river and spent his days puttering about in a small garden. In + the evening he came across the bridge into Main Street and went to loaf in + Birdie Spink's drug store. He talked with great frankness and candor of + his life in the South during the terrible time when the country was trying + to emerge from the black gloom of defeat, and brought to the Bidwell men a + new point of view on their old enemies, the “Rebs.” + </p> + <p> + The old man—the name by which he had introduced himself in Bidwell + was that of Judge Horace Hanby—believed in the manliness and honesty + of purpose of the men he had for a time governed and who had fought a long + grim war with the North, with the New Englanders and sons of New + Englanders from the West and Northwest. “They're all right,” he said with + a grin. “I cheated them and made some money, but I liked them. Once a + crowd of them came to my house and threatened to kill me and I told them + that I did not blame them very much, so they let me alone.” The judge, an + ex-politician from the city of New York who had been involved in some + affair that made it uncomfortable for him to return to live in that city, + grew prophetic and philosophic after he came to live in Bidwell. In spite + of the doubt every one felt concerning his past, he was something of a + scholar and a reader of books, and won respect by his apparent wisdom. + “Well, there's going to be a new war here,” he said. “It won't be like the + Civil War, just shooting off guns and killing peoples' bodies. At first + it's going to be a war between individuals to see to what class a man must + belong; then it is going to be a long, silent war between classes, between + those who have and those who can't get. It'll be the worst war of all.” + </p> + <p> + The talk of Judge Hanby, carried along and elaborated almost every evening + before a silent, attentive group in the drug store, began to have an + influence on the minds of Bidwell young men. At his suggestion several of + the town boys, Cliff Bacon, Albert Small, Ed Prawl, and two or three + others, began to save money for the purpose of going east to college. Also + at his suggestion Tom Butterworth the rich farmer sent his daughter away + to school. The old man made many prophecies concerning what would happen + in America. “I tell you, the country isn't going to stay as it is,” he + said earnestly. “In eastern towns the change has already come. Factories + are being built and every one is going to work in the factories. It takes + an old man like me to see how that changes their lives. Some of the men + stand at one bench and do one thing not only for hours but for days and + years. There are signs hung up saying they mustn't talk. Some of them make + more money than they did before the factories came, but I tell you it's + like being in prison. What would you say if I told you all America, all + you fellows who talk so big about freedom, are going to be put in a + prison, eh? + </p> + <p> + “And there's something else. In New York there are already a dozen men who + are worth a million dollars. Yes, sir, I tell you it's true, a million + dollars. What do you think of that, eh?” + </p> + <p> + Judge Hanby grew excited and, inspired by the absorbed attention of his + audience, talked of the sweep of events. In England, he explained, the + cities were constantly growing larger, and already almost every one either + worked in a factory or owned stock in a factory. “In New England it is + getting the same way fast,” he explained. “The same thing'll happen here. + Farming'll be done with tools. Almost everything now done by hand'll be + done by machinery. Some'll grow rich and some poor. The thing is to get + educated, yes, sir, that's the thing, to get ready for what's coming. It's + the only way. The younger generation has got to be sharper and shrewder.” + </p> + <p> + The words of the old man, who had been in many places and had seen men and + cities, were repeated in the streets of Bidwell. The blacksmith and the + wheelwright repeated his words when they stopped to exchange news of their + affairs before the post-office. Ben Peeler, the carpenter, who had been + saving money to buy a house and a small farm to which he could retire when + he became too old to climb about on the framework of buildings, used the + money instead to send his son to Cleveland to a new technical school. + Steve Hunter, the son of Abraham Hunter the Bidwell jeweler, declared that + he was going to get up with the times, and when he went into a factory, + would go into the office, not into the shop. He went to Buffalo, New York, + to attend a business college. + </p> + <p> + The air of Bidwell began to stir with talk of new times. The evil things + said of the new life coming were soon forgotten. The youth and optimistic + spirit of the country led it to take hold of the hand of the giant, + industrialism, and lead him laughing into the land. The cry, “get on in + the world,” that ran all over America at that period and that still echoes + in the pages of American newspapers and magazines, rang in the streets of + Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + In the harness shop belonging to Joseph Wainsworth it one day struck a new + note. The harness maker was a tradesman of the old school and was vastly + independent. He had learned his trade after five years' service as + apprentice, and had spent an additional five years in going from place to + place as a journeyman workman, and felt that he knew his business. Also he + owned his shop and his home and had twelve hundred dollars in the bank. At + noon one day when he was alone in the shop, Tom Butterworth came in and + told him he had ordered four sets of farm work harness from a factory in + Philadelphia. “I came in to ask if you'll repair them if they get out of + order,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Joe Wainsworth began to fumble with the tools on his bench. Then he turned + to look the farmer in the eye and to do what he later spoke of to his + cronies as “laying down the law.” “When the cheap things begin to go to + pieces take them somewhere else to have them repaired,” he said sharply. + He grew furiously angry. “Take the damn things to Philadelphia where you + got 'em,” he shouted at the back of the farmer who had turned to go out of + the shop. + </p> + <p> + Joe Wainsworth was upset and thought about the incident all the afternoon. + When farmer-customers came in and stood about to talk of their affairs he + had nothing to say. He was a talkative man and his apprentice, Will + Sellinger, son of the Bidwell house painter, was puzzled by his silence. + </p> + <p> + When the boy and the man were alone in the shop, it was Joe Wainsworth's + custom to talk of his days as a journeyman workman when he had gone from + place to place working at his trade. If a trace were being stitched or a + bridle fashioned, he told how the thing was done at a shop where he had + worked in the city of Boston and in another shop at Providence, Rhode + Island. Getting a piece of paper he made drawings illustrating the cuts of + leather that were made in the other places and the methods of stitching. + He claimed to have worked out his own method for doing things, and that + his method was better than anything he had seen in all his travels. To the + men who came into the shop to loaf during winter afternoons he presented a + smiling front and talked of their affairs, of the price of cabbage in + Cleveland or the effect of a cold snap on the winter wheat, but alone with + the boy, he talked only of harness making. “I don't say anything about it. + What's the good bragging? Just the same, I could learn something to all + the harness makers I've ever seen, and I've seen the best of them,” he + declared emphatically. + </p> + <p> + During the afternoon, after he had heard of the four factory-made work + harnesses brought into what he had always thought of as a trade that + belonged to him by the rights of a first-class workman, Joe remained + silent for two or three hours. He thought of the words of old Judge Hanby + and the constant talk of the new times now coming. Turning suddenly to his + apprentice, who was puzzled by his long silence and who knew nothing of + the incident that had disturbed his employer, he broke forth into words. + He was defiant and expressed his defiance. “Well, then, let 'em go to + Philadelphia, let 'em go any damn place they please,” he growled, and + then, as though his own words had re-established his self-respect, he + straightened his shoulders and glared at the puzzled and alarmed boy. “I + know my trade and do not have to bow down to any man,” he declared. He + expressed the old tradesman's faith in his craft and the rights it gave + the craftsman. “Learn your trade. Don't listen to talk,” he said + earnestly. “The man who knows his trade is a man. He can tell every one to + go to the devil.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <p> + Hugh McVey was twenty-three years old when he went to live in Bidwell. The + position of telegraph operator at the Wheeling station a mile north of + town became vacant and, through an accidental encounter with a former + resident of a neighboring town, he got the place. + </p> + <p> + The Missourian had been at work during the winter in a sawmill in the + country near a northern Indiana town. During the evenings he wandered on + country roads and in the town streets, but he did not talk to any one. As + had happened to him in other places, he had the reputation of being queer. + His clothes were worn threadbare and, although he had money in his + pockets, he did not buy new ones. In the evening when he went through the + town streets and saw the smartly dressed clerks standing before the + stores, he looked at his own shabby person and was ashamed to enter. In + his boyhood Sarah Shepard had always attended to the buying of his + clothes, and he made up his mind that he would go to the place in Michigan + to which she and her husband had retired, and pay her a visit. He wanted + Sarah Shepard to buy him a new outfit of clothes, but wanted also to talk + with her. + </p> + <p> + Out of the three years of going from place to place and working with other + men as a laborer, Hugh had got no big impulse that he felt would mark the + road his life should take; but the study of mathematical problems, taken + up to relieve his loneliness and to cure his inclination to dreams, was + beginning to have an effect on his character. He thought that if he saw + Sarah Shepard again he could talk to her and through her get into the way + of talking to others. In the sawmill where he worked he answered the + occasional remarks made to him by his fellow workers in a slow, hesitating + drawl, and his body was still awkward and his gait shambling, but he did + his work more quickly and accurately. In the presence of his foster-mother + and garbed in new clothes, he believed he could now talk to her in a way + that had been impossible during his youth. She would see the change in his + character and would be encouraged about him. They would get on to a new + basis and he would feel respect for himself in another. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went to the railroad station to make inquiry regarding the fare to + the Michigan town and there had the adventure that upset his plans. As he + stood at the window of the ticket office, the ticket seller, who was also + the telegraph operator, tried to engage him in conversation. When he had + given the information asked, he followed Hugh out of the building and into + the darkness of a country railroad station at night, and the two men + stopped and stood together beside an empty baggage truck. The ticket agent + spoke of the loneliness of life in the town and said he wished he could go + back to his own place and be again with his own people. “It may not be any + better in my own town, but I know everybody there,” he said. He was + curious concerning Hugh as were all the people of the Indiana town, and + hoped to get him into talk in order that he might find out why he walked + alone at night, why he sometimes worked all evening over books and figures + in his room at the country hotel, and why he had so little to say to his + fellows. Hoping to fathom Hugh's silence he abused the town in which they + both lived. “Well,” he began, “I guess I understand how you feel. You want + to get out of this place.” He explained his own predicament in life. “I + got married,” he said. “Already I have three children. Out here a man can + make more money railroading than he can in my state, and living is pretty + cheap. Just to-day I had an offer of a job in a good town near my own + place in Ohio, but I can't take it. The job only pays forty a month. The + town's all right, one of the best in the northern part of the State, but + you see the job's no good. Lord, I wish I could go. I'd like to live again + among people such as live in that part of the country.” + </p> + <p> + The railroad man and Hugh walked along the street that ran from the + station up into the main street of the town. Wanting to meet the advances + that had been made by his companion and not knowing how to go about it, + Hugh adopted the method he had heard his fellow laborers use with one + another. “Well,” he said slowly, “come have a drink.” + </p> + <p> + The two men went into a saloon and stood by the bar. Hugh made a + tremendous effort to overcome his embarrassment. As he and the railroad + man drank foaming glasses of beer he explained that he also had once been + a railroad man and knew telegraphy, but that for several years he had been + doing other work. His companion looked at his shabby clothes and nodded + his head. He made a motion with his head to indicate that he wanted Hugh + to come with him outside into the darkness. “Well, well,” he exclaimed, + when they had again got outside and had started along the street toward + the station. “I understand now. They've all been wondering about you and + I've heard lots of talk. I won't say anything, but I'm going to do + something for you.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh went to the station with his new-found friend and sat down in the + lighted office. The railroad man got out a sheet of paper and began to + write a letter. “I'm going to get you that job,” he said. “I'm writing the + letter now and I'll get it off on the midnight train. You've got to get on + your feet. I was a boozer myself, but I cut it all out. A glass of beer + now and then, that's my limit.” + </p> + <p> + He began to talk of the town in Ohio where he proposed to get Hugh the job + that would set him up in the world and save him from the habit of + drinking, and described it as an earthly paradise in which lived bright, + clear-thinking men and beautiful women. Hugh was reminded sharply of the + talk he had heard from the lips of Sarah Shepard, when in his youth she + spent long evenings telling him of the wonder of her own Michigan and New + England towns and people, and contrasted the life lived there with that + lived by the people of his own place. + </p> + <p> + Hugh decided not to try to explain away the mistake made by his new + acquaintance, and to accept the offer of assistance in getting the + appointment as telegraph operator. + </p> + <p> + The two men walked out of the station and stood again in the darkness. The + railroad man felt like one who has been given the privilege of plucking a + human soul out of the darkness of despair. He was full of words that + poured from his lips and he assumed a knowledge of Hugh and his character + entirely unwarranted by the circumstances. “Well,” he exclaimed heartily, + “you see I've given you a send-off. I have told them you're a good man and + a good operator, but that you will take the place with its small salary + because you've been sick and just now can't work very hard.” The excited + man followed Hugh along the street. It was late and the store lights had + been put out. From one of the town's two saloons that lay in their way + arose a clatter of voices. The old boyhood dream of finding a place and a + people among whom he could, by sitting still and inhaling the air breathed + by others, come into a warm closeness with life, came back to Hugh. He + stopped before the saloon to listen to the voices within, but the railroad + man plucked at his coat sleeve and protested. “Now, now, you're going to + cut it out, eh?” he asked anxiously and then hurriedly explained his + anxiety. “Of course I know what's the matter with you. Didn't I tell you + I've been there myself? You've been working around. I know why that is. + You don't have to tell me. If there wasn't something the matter with him, + no man who knows telegraphy would work in a sawmill. + </p> + <p> + “Well, there's no good talking about it,” he added thoughtfully. “I've + given you a send-off. You're going to cut it out, eh?” + </p> + <p> + Hugh tried to protest and to explain that he was not addicted to the habit + of drinking, but the Ohio man would not listen. “It's all right,” he said + again, and then they came to the hotel where Hugh lived and he turned to + go back to the station and wait for the midnight train that would carry + the letter away and that would, he felt, carry also his demand that a + fellow-human, who had slipped from the modern path of work and progress + should be given a new chance. He felt magnanimous and wonderfully + gracious. “It's all right, my boy,” he said heartily. “No use talking to + me. To-night when you came to the station to ask the fare to that hole of + a place in Michigan I saw you were embarrassed. 'What's the matter with + that fellow?' I said to myself. I got to thinking. Then I came up town + with you and right away you bought me a drink. I wouldn't have thought + anything about that if I hadn't been there myself. You'll get on your + feet. Bidwell, Ohio, is full of good men. You get in with them and they'll + help you and stick by you. You'll like those people. They've got get-up to + them. The place you'll work at there is far out of town. It's away out + about a mile at a little kind of outside-like place called Pickleville. + There used to be a saloon there and a factory for putting up cucumber + pickles, but they've both gone now. You won't be tempted to slip in that + place. You'll have a chance to get on your feet. I'm glad I thought of + sending you there.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The Wheeling and Lake Erie ran along a little wooded depression that cut + across the wide expanse of open farm lands north of the town of Bidwell. + It brought coal from the hill country of West Virginia and southeastern + Ohio to ports on Lake Erie, and did not pay much attention to the carrying + of passengers. In the morning a train consisting of a combined express and + baggage car and two passenger coaches went north and west toward the lake, + and in the evening the same train returned, bound southeast into the + Hills, The Bidwell station of the road was, in an odd way, detached from + the town's life. The invisible roof under which the life of the town and + the surrounding country was lived did not cover it. As the Indiana + railroad man had told Hugh, the station itself stood on a spot known + locally as Pickleville. Back of the station there was a small building for + the storage of freight and near at hand four or five houses facing + Turner's Pike. The pickle factory, now deserted and with its windows gone, + stood across the tracks from the station and beside a small stream that + ran under a bridge and across country through a grove of trees to the + river. On hot summer days a sour, pungent smell arose from the old + factory, and at night its presence lent a ghostly flavor to the tiny + corner of the world in which lived perhaps a dozen people. + </p> + <p> + All day and at night an intense persistent silence lay over Pickleville, + while in Bidwell a mile away the stir of new life began. In the evenings + and on rainy afternoons when men could not work in the fields, old Judge + Hanby went along Turner's Pike and across the wagon bridge into Bidwell + and sat in a chair at the back of Birdie Spink's drug store. He talked. + Men came in to listen to him and went out. New talk ran through the town. + A new force that was being born into American life and into life + everywhere all over the world was feeding on the old dying individualistic + life. The new force stirred and aroused the people. It met a need that was + universal. It was meant to seal men together, to wipe out national lines, + to walk under seas and fly through the air, to change the entire face of + the world in which men lived. Already the giant that was to be king in the + place of old kings was calling his servants and his armies to serve him. + He used the methods of old kings and promised his followers booty and + gain. Everywhere he went unchallenged, surveying the land, raising a new + class of men to positions of power. Railroads had already been pushed out + across the plains; great coal fields from which was to be taken food to + warm the blood in the body of the giant were being opened up; iron fields + were being discovered; the roar and clatter of the breathing of the + terrible new thing, half hideous, half beautiful in its possibilities, + that was for so long to drown the voices and confuse the thinking of men, + was heard not only in the towns but even in lonely farm houses, where its + willing servants, the newspapers and magazines, had begun to circulate in + ever increasing numbers. At the town of Gibsonville, near Bidwell, Ohio, + and at Lima and Finley, Ohio, oil and gas fields were discovered. At + Cleveland, Ohio, a precise, definite-minded man named Rockefeller bought + and sold oil. From the first he served the new thing well and he soon + found others to serve with him. The Morgans, Fricks, Goulds, Carnegies, + Vanderbilts, servants of the new king, princes of the new faith, merchants + all, a new kind of rulers of men, defied the world-old law of class that + puts the merchant below the craftsman, and added to the confusion of men + by taking on the air of creators. They were merchants glorified and dealt + in giant things, in the lives of men and in mines, forests, oil and gas + fields, factories, and railroads. + </p> + <p> + And all over the country, in the towns, the farm houses, and the growing + cities of the new country, people stirred and awakened. Thought and poetry + died or passed as a heritage to feeble fawning men who also became + servants of the new order. Serious young men in Bidwell and in other + American towns, whose fathers had walked together on moonlight nights + along Turner's Pike to talk of God, went away to technical schools. Their + fathers had walked and talked and thoughts had grown up in them. The + impulse had reached back to their father's fathers on moonlit roads of + England, Germany, Ireland, France, and Italy, and back of these to the + moonlit hills of Judea where shepherds talked and serious young men, John + and Matthew and Jesus, caught the drift of the talk and made poetry of it; + but the serious-minded sons of these men in the new land were swept away + from thinking and dreaming. From all sides the voice of the new age that + was to do definite things shouted at them. Eagerly they took up the cry + and ran with it. Millions of voices arose. The clamor became terrible, and + confused the minds of all men. In making way for the newer, broader + brotherhood into which men are some day to emerge, in extending the + invisible roofs of the towns and cities to cover the world, men cut and + crushed their way through the bodies of men. + </p> + <p> + And while the voices became louder and more excited and the new giant + walked about making a preliminary survey of the land, Hugh spent his days + at the quiet, sleepy railroad station at Pickleville and tried to adjust + his mind to the realization of the fact that he was not to be accepted as + fellow by the citizens of the new place to which he had come. During the + day he sat in the tiny telegraph office or, pulling an express truck to + the open window near his telegraph instrument, lay on his back with a + sheet of paper propped on his bony knees and did sums. Farmers driving + past on Turner's Pike saw him there and talked of him in the stores in + town. “He's a queer silent fellow,” they said. “What do you suppose he's + up to?” + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked in the streets of Bidwell at night as he had walked in the + streets of towns in Indiana and Illinois. He approached groups of men + loafing on a street corner and then went hurriedly past them. On quiet + streets as he went along under the trees, he saw women sitting in the + lamplight in the houses and hungered to have a house and a woman of his + own. One afternoon a woman school teacher came to the station to make + inquiry regarding the fare to a town in West Virginia. As the station + agent was not about Hugh gave her the information she sought and she + lingered for a few moments to talk with him. He answered the questions she + asked with monosyllables and she soon went away, but he was delighted and + looked upon the incident as an adventure. At night he dreamed of the + school teacher and when he awoke, pretended she was with him in his + bedroom. He put out his hand and touched the pillow. It was soft and + smooth as he imagined the cheek of a woman would be. He did not know the + school teacher's name but invented one for her. “Be quiet, Elizabeth. Do + not let me disturb your sleep,” he murmured into the darkness. One evening + he went to the house where the school teacher boarded and stood in the + shadow of a tree until he saw her come out and go toward Main Street. Then + he went by a roundabout way and walked past her on the sidewalk before the + lighted stores. He did not look at her, but in passing her dress touched + his arm and he was so excited later that he could not sleep and spent half + the night walking about and thinking of the wonderful thing that had + happened to him. + </p> + <p> + The ticket, express, and freight agent for the Wheeling and Lake Erie at + Bidwell, a man named George Pike, lived in one of the houses near the + station, and besides attending to his duties for the railroad company, + owned and worked a small farm. He was a slender, alert, silent man with a + long drooping mustache. Both he and his wife worked as Hugh had never seen + a man and woman work before. Their arrangement of the division of labor + was not based on sex but on convenience. Sometimes Mrs. Pike came to the + station to sell tickets, load express boxes and trunks on the passenger + trains and deliver heavy boxes of freight to draymen and farmers, while + her husband worked in the fields back of his house or prepared the evening + meal, and sometimes the matter was reversed and Hugh did not see Mrs. Pike + for several days at a time. + </p> + <p> + During the day there was little for the station agent or his wife to do at + the station and they disappeared. George Pike had made an arrangement of + wires and pulleys connecting the station with a large bell hung on top of + his house, and when some one came to the station to receive or deliver + freight Hugh pulled at the wire and the bell began to ring. In a few + minutes either George Pike or his wife came running from the house or + fields, dispatched the business and went quickly away again. + </p> + <p> + Day after day Hugh sat in a chair by a desk in the station or went outside + and walked up and down the station platform. Engines pulling long caravans + of coal cars ground past. The brakemen waved their hands to him and then + the train disappeared into the grove of trees that grew beside the creek + along which the tracks of the road were laid. In Turner's Pike a creaking + farm wagon appeared and then disappeared along the tree-lined road that + led to Bidwell. The farmer turned on his wagon seat to stare at Hugh but + unlike the railroad men did not wave his hand. Adventurous boys came out + along the road from town and climbed, shouting and laughing, over the + rafters in the deserted pickle factory across the tracks or went to fish + in the creek in the shade of the factory walls. Their shrill voices added + to the loneliness of the spot. It became almost unbearable to Hugh. In + desperation he turned from the rather meaningless doing of sums and + working out of problems regarding the number of fence pickets that could + be cut from a tree or the number of steel rails or railroad ties consumed + in building a mile of railroad, the innumerable petty problems with which + he had been keeping his mind busy, and turned to more definite and + practical problems. He remembered an autumn he had put in cutting corn on + a farm in Illinois and, going into the station, waved his long arms about, + imitating the movements of a man in the act of cutting corn. He wondered + if a machine might not be made that would do the work, and tried to make + drawings of the parts of such a machine. Feeling his inability to handle + so difficult a problem he sent away for books and began the study of + mechanics. He joined a correspondence school started by a man in + Pennsylvania, and worked for days on the problems the man sent him to do. + He asked questions and began a little to understand the mystery of the + application of power. Like the other young men of Bidwell he began to put + himself into touch with the spirit of the age, but unlike them he did not + dream of suddenly acquired wealth. While they embraced new and futile + dreams he worked to destroy the tendency to dreams in himself. + </p> + <p> + Hugh came to Bidwell in the early spring and during May, June and July the + quiet station at Pickleville awoke for an hour or two each evening. A + certain percentage of the sudden and almost overwhelming increase in + express business that came with the ripening of the fruit and berry crop + came to the Wheeling, and every evening a dozen express trucks, piled high + with berry boxes, waited for the south bound train. When the train came + into the station a small crowd had assembled. George Pike and his stout + wife worked madly, throwing the boxes in at the door of the express car. + Idlers standing about became interested and lent a hand. The engineer + climbed out of his locomotive, stretched his legs and crossing a narrow + road got a drink from the pump in George Pike's yard. + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked to the door of his telegraph office and standing in the + shadows watched the busy scene. He wanted to take part in it, to laugh and + talk with the men standing about, to go to the engineer and ask questions + regarding the locomotive and its construction, to help George Pike and his + wife, and perhaps cut through their silence and his own enough to become + acquainted with them. He thought of all these things but stayed in the + shadow of the door that led to the telegraph office until, at a signal + given by the train conductor, the engineer climbed into his engine and the + train began to move away into the evening darkness. When Hugh came out of + his office the station platform was deserted again. In the grass across + the tracks and beside the ghostly looking old factory, crickets sang. Tom + Wilder, the Bidwell hack driver, had got a traveling man off the train and + the dust left by the heels of his team still hung in the air over Turner's + Pike. From the darkness that brooded over the trees that grew along the + creek beyond the factory came the hoarse croak of frogs. On Turner's Pike + a half dozen Bidwell young men accompanied by as many town girls walked + along the path beside the road under the trees. They had come to the + station to have somewhere to go, had made up a party to come, but now the + half unconscious purpose of their coming was apparent. The party split + itself up into couples and each strove to get as far away as possible from + the others. One of the couples came back along the path toward the station + and went to the pump in George Pike's yard. They stood by the pump, + laughing and pretending to drink out of a tin cup, and when they got again + into the road the others had disappeared. They became silent. Hugh went to + the end of the platform and watched as they walked slowly along. He became + furiously jealous of the young man who put his arm about the waist of his + companion and then, when he turned and saw Hugh staring at him, took it + away again. + </p> + <p> + The telegraph operator went quickly along the platform until he was out of + range of the young man's eyes, and, when he thought the gathering darkness + would hide him, returned and crept along the path beside the road after + him. Again a hungry desire to enter into the lives of the people about him + took possession of the Missourian. To be a young man dressed in a stiff + white collar, wearing neatly made clothes, and in the evening to walk + about with young girls seemed like getting on the road to happiness. He + wanted to run shouting along the path beside the road until he had + overtaken the young man and woman, to beg them to take him with them, to + accept him as one of themselves, but when the momentary impulse had passed + and he returned to the telegraph office and lighted a lamp, he looked at + his long awkward body and could not conceive of himself as ever by any + chance becoming the thing he wanted to be. Sadness swept over him and his + gaunt face, already cut and marked with deep lines, became longer and more + gaunt. The old boyhood notion, put into his mind by the words of his + foster-mother, Sarah Shepard, that a town and a people could remake him + and erase from his body the marks of what he thought of as his inferior + birth, began to fade. He tried to forget the people about him and turned + with renewed energy to the study of the problems in the books that now lay + in a pile upon his desk. His inclination to dreams, balked by the + persistent holding of his mind to definite things, began to reassert + itself in a new form, and his brain played no more with pictures of clouds + and men in agitated movement but took hold of steel, wood, and iron. Dumb + masses of materials taken out of the earth and the forests were molded by + his mind into fantastic shapes. As he sat in the telegraph office during + the day or walked alone through the streets of Bidwell at night, he saw in + fancy a thousand new machines, formed by his hands and brain, doing the + work that had been done by the hands of men. He had come to Bidwell, not + only in the hope that there he would at last find companionship, but also + because his mind was really aroused and he wanted leisure to begin trying + to do tangible things. When the citizens of Bidwell would not take him + into their town life but left him standing to one side, as the tiny + dwelling place for men called Pickleville where he lived stood aside out + from under the invisible roof of the town, he decided to try to forget men + and to express himself wholly in work. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <p> + Hugh's first inventive effort stirred the town of Bidwell deeply. When + word of it ran about, the men who had been listening to the talk of Judge + Horace Hanby and whose minds had turned toward the arrival of the new + forward-pushing impulse in American life thought they saw in Hugh the + instrument of its coming to Bidwell. From the day of his coming to live + among them, there had been much curiosity in the stores and houses + regarding the tall, gaunt, slow-speaking stranger at Pickleville. George + Pike had told Birdie Spinks the druggist how Hugh worked all day over + books, and how he made drawings for parts of mysterious machines and left + them on his desk in the telegraph office. Birdie Spinks told others and + the tale grew. When Hugh walked alone in the streets during the evening + and thought no one took account of his presence, hundreds of pairs of + curious eyes followed him about. + </p> + <p> + A tradition in regard to the telegraph operator began to grow up. The + tradition made Hugh a gigantic figure, one who walked always on a plane + above that on which other men lived. In the imagination of his fellow + citizens of the Ohio town, he went about always thinking great thoughts, + solving mysterious and intricate problems that had to do with the new + mechanical age Judge Hanby talked about to the eager listeners in the + drug-store. An alert, talkative people saw among them one who could not + talk and whose long face was habitually serious, and could not think of + him as having daily to face the same kind of minor problems as themselves. + </p> + <p> + The Bidwell young man who had come down to the Wheeling station with a + group of other young men, who had seen the evening train go away to the + south, who had met at the station one of the town girls and had, in order + to escape the others and be alone with her, taken her to the pump in + George Pike's yard on the pretense of wanting a drink, walked away with + her into the darkness of the summer evening with his mind fixed on Hugh. + The young man's name was Ed Hall and he was apprentice to Ben Peeler, the + carpenter who had sent his son to Cleveland to a technical school. He + wanted to marry the girl he had met at the station and did not see how he + could manage it on his salary as a carpenter's apprentice. When he looked + back and saw Hugh standing on the station platform, he took the arm he had + put around the girl's waist quickly away and began to talk. “I'll tell you + what,” he said earnestly, “if things don't pretty soon get on the stir + around here I'm going to get out. I'll go over by Gibsonburg and get a job + in the oil fields, that's what I'll do. I got to have more money.” He + sighed heavily and looked over the girl's head into the darkness. “They + say that telegraph fellow back there at the station is up to something,” + he ventured. “It's all the talk. Birdie Spinks says he is an inventor; + says George Pike told him; says he is working all the time on new + inventions to do things by machinery; that his passing off as a telegraph + operator is only a bluff. Some think maybe he was sent here to see about + starting a factory to make one of his inventions, sent by rich men maybe + in Cleveland or some other place. Everybody says they'll bet there'll be + factories here in Bidwell before very long now. I wish I knew. I don't + want to go away if I don't have to, but I got to have more money. Ben + Peeler won't never give me a raise so I can get married or nothing. I wish + I knew that fellow back there so I could ask him what's up. They say he's + smart. I suppose he wouldn't tell me nothing. I wish I was smart enough to + invent something and maybe get rich. I wish I was the kind of fellow they + say he is.” + </p> + <p> + Ed Hall again put his arm about the girl's waist and walked away. He + forgot Hugh and thought of himself and of how he wanted to marry the girl + whose young body nestled close to his own—wanted her to be utterly + his. For a few hours he passed out of Hugh's growing sphere of influence + on the collective thought of the town, and lost himself in the immediate + deliciousness of kisses. + </p> + <p> + And as he passed out of Hugh's influence others came in. On Main Street in + the evening every one speculated on the Missourian's purpose in coming to + Bidwell. The forty dollars a month paid him by the Wheeling railroad could + not have tempted such a man. They were sure of that. Steve Hunter the + jeweler's son had returned to town from a course in a business college at + Buffalo, New York, and hearing the talk became interested. Steve had in + him the making of a live man of affairs, and he decided to investigate. It + was not, however, Steve's method to go at things directly, and he was + impressed by the notion, then abroad in Bidwell, that Hugh had been sent + to town by some one, perhaps by a group of capitalists who intended to + start factories there. + </p> + <p> + Steve thought he would go easy. In Buffalo, where he had gone to the + business college, he had met a girl whose father, E. P. Horn, owned a soap + factory; had become acquainted with her at church and had been introduced + to her father. The soap maker, an assertive positive man who manufactured + a product called Horn's Household Friend Soap, had his own notion of what + a young man should be and how he should make his way in the world, and had + taken pleasure in talking to Steve. He told the Bidwell jeweler's son of + how he had started his own factory with but little money and had succeeded + and gave Steve many practical hints on the organization of companies. He + talked a great deal of a thing called “control.” “When you get ready to + start for yourself keep that in mind,” he said. “You can sell stock and + borrow money at the bank, all you can get, but don't give up control. Hang + on to that. That's the way I made my success. I always kept the control.” + </p> + <p> + Steve wanted to marry Ernestine Horn, but felt that he should show what he + could do as a business man before he attempted to thrust himself into so + wealthy and prominent a family. When he returned to his own town and heard + the talk regarding Hugh McVey and his inventive genius, he remembered the + soap maker's words regarding control, and repeated them to himself. One + evening he walked along Turner's Pike and stood in the darkness by the old + pickle factory. He saw Hugh at work under a lamp in the telegraph office + and was impressed. “I'll lay low and see what he's up to,” he told + himself. “If he's got an invention, I'll get up a company. I'll get money + in and I'll start a factory. The people here'll tumble over each other to + get into a thing like that. I don't believe any one sent him here. I'll + bet he's just an inventor. That kind always are queer. I'll keep my mouth + shut and watch my chance. If there is anything starts, I'll start it and + I'll get into control, that's what I'll do, I'll get into control.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + In the country stretching away north beyond the fringe of small berry + farms lying directly about town, were other and larger farms. The land + that made up these larger farms was also rich and raised big crops. Great + stretches of it were planted to cabbage for which a market had been built + up in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. Bidwell was often in derision + called Cabbageville by the citizens of nearby towns. One of the largest of + the cabbage farms belonged to a man named Ezra French, and was situated on + Turner's Pike, two miles from town and a mile beyond the Wheeling station. + </p> + <p> + On spring evenings when it was dark and silent about the station and when + the air was heavy with the smell of new growth and of land fresh-turned by + the plow, Hugh got out of his chair in the telegraph office and walked in + the soft darkness. He went along Turner's Pike to town, saw groups of men + standing on the sidewalks before the stores and young girls walking arm in + arm along the street, and then came back to the silent station. Into his + long and habitually cold body the warmth of desire began to creep. The + spring rains came and soft winds blew down from the hill country to the + south. One evening when the moon shone he went around the old pickle + factory to where the creek went chattering under leaning willow trees, and + as he stood in the heavy shadows by the factory wall, tried to imagine + himself as one who had become suddenly clean-limbed, graceful, and agile. + A bush grew beside the stream near the factory and he took hold of it with + his powerful hands and tore it out by the roots. For a moment the strength + in his shoulders and arms gave him an intense masculine satisfaction. He + thought of how powerfully he could hold the body of a woman against his + body and the spark of the fires of spring that had touched him became a + flame. He felt new-made and tried to leap lightly and gracefully across + the stream, but stumbled and fell in the water. Later he went soberly back + to the station and tried again to lose himself in the study of the + problems he had found in his books. + </p> + <p> + The Ezra French farm lay beside Turner's Pike a mile north of the Wheeling + station and contained two hundred acres of land of which a large part was + planted to cabbages. It was a profitable crop to raise and required no + more care than corn, but the planting was a terrible task. Thousands of + plants that had been raised from seeds planted in a seed-bed back of the + barn had to be laboriously transplanted. The plants were tender and it was + necessary to handle them carefully. The planter crawled slowly and + painfully along, and from the road looked like a wounded beast striving to + make his way to a hole in a distant wood. He crawled forward a little and + then stopped and hunched himself up into a ball-like mass. Taking the + plant, dropped on the ground by one of the plant droppers, he made a hole + in the soft ground with a small three-cornered hoe, and with his hands + packed the earth about the plant roots. Then he crawled on again. + </p> + <p> + Ezra the cabbage farmer had come west from one of the New England states + and had grown comfortably wealthy, but he would not employ extra labor for + the plant setting and the work was done by his sons and daughters. He was + a short, bearded man whose leg had been broken in his youth by a fall from + the loft of a barn. As it had not mended properly he could do little work + and limped painfully about. To the men of Bidwell he was known as + something of a wit, and in the winter he went to town every afternoon to + stand in the stores and tell the Rabelaisian stories for which he was + famous; but when spring came he became restlessly active, and in his own + house and on the farm, became a tyrant. During the time of the cabbage + setting he drove his sons and daughters like slaves. When in the evening + the moon came up, he made them go back to the fields immediately after + supper and work until midnight. They went in sullen silence, the girls to + limp slowly along dropping the plants out of baskets carried on their + arms, and the boys to crawl after them and set the plants. In the half + darkness the little group of humans went slowly up and down the long + fields. Ezra hitched a horse to a wagon and brought the plants from the + seed-bed behind the barn. He went here and there swearing and protesting + against every delay in the work. When his wife, a tired little old woman, + had finished the evening's work in the house, he made her come also to the + fields. “Come, come,” he said, sharply, “we need every pair of hands we + can get.” Although he had several thousand dollars in the Bidwell bank and + owned mortgages on two or three neighboring farms, Ezra was afraid of + poverty, and to keep his family at work pretended to be upon the point of + losing all his possessions. “Now is our chance to save ourselves,” he + declared. “We must get in a big crop. If we do not work hard now we'll + starve.” When in the field his sons found themselves unable to crawl + longer without resting, and stood up to stretch their tired bodies, he + stood by the fence at the field's edge and swore. “Well, look at the + mouths I have to feed, you lazies!” he shouted. “Keep at the work. Don't + be idling around. In two weeks it'll be too late for planting and then you + can rest. Now every plant we set will help to save us from ruin. Keep at + the job. Don't be idling around.” + </p> + <p> + In the spring of his second year in Bidwell, Hugh went often in the + evening to watch the plant setters at work in the moonlight on the French + farm. He did not make his presence known but hid himself in a fence corner + behind bushes and watched the workers. As he saw the stooped misshapen + figures crawling slowly along and heard the words of the old man driving + them like cattle, his heart was deeply touched and he wanted to protest. + In the dim light the slowly moving figures of women appeared, and after + them came the crouched crawling men. They came down the long row toward + him, wriggling into his line of sight like grotesquely misshapen animals + driven by some god of the night to the performance of a terrible task. An + arm went up. It came down again swiftly. The three-cornered hoe sank into + the ground. The slow rhythm of the crawler was broken. He reached with his + disengaged hand for the plant that lay on the ground before him and + lowered it into the hole the hoe had made. With his fingers he packed the + earth about the roots of the plant and then again began the slow crawl + forward. There were four of the French boys and the two older ones worked + in silence. The younger boys complained. The three girls and their mother, + who were attending to the plant dropping, came to the end of the row and + turning, went away into the darkness. “I'm going to quit this slavery,” + one of the younger boys said. “I'll get a job over in town. I hope it's + true what they say, that factories are coming.” + </p> + <p> + The four young men came to the end of the row and, as Ezra was not in + sight, stood a moment by the fence near where Hugh was concealed. “I'd + rather be a horse or a cow than what I am,” the complaining voice went on. + “What's the good being alive if you have to work like this?” + </p> + <p> + For a moment as he listened to the voices of the complaining workers, Hugh + wanted to go to them and ask them to let him share in their labor. Then + another thought came. The crawling figures came sharply into his line of + vision. He no longer heard the voice of the youngest of the French boys + that seemed to come out of the ground. The machine-like swing of the + bodies of the plant setters suggested vaguely to his mind the possibility + of building a machine that would do the work they were doing. His mind + took eager hold of that thought and he was relieved. There had been + something in the crawling figures and in the moonlight out of which the + voices came that had begun to awaken in his mind the fluttering, dreamy + state in which he had spent so much of his boyhood. To think of the + possibility of building a plant-setting machine was safer. It fitted into + what Sarah Shepard had so often told him was the safe way of life. As he + went back through the darkness to the railroad station, he thought about + the matter and decided that to become an inventor would be the sure way of + placing his feet at last upon the path of progress he was trying to find. + </p> + <p> + Hugh became absorbed in the notion of inventing a machine that would do + the work he had seen the men doing in the field. All day he thought about + it. The notion once fixed in his mind gave him something tangible to work + upon. In the study of mechanics, taken up in a purely amateur spirit, he + had not gone far enough to feel himself capable of undertaking the actual + construction of such a machine, but thought the difficulty might be + overcome by patience and by experimenting with combinations of wheels, + gears and levers whittled out of pieces of wood. From Hunter's Jewelry + Store he got a cheap clock and spent days taking it apart and putting it + together again. He dropped the doing of mathematical problems and sent + away for books describing the construction of machines. Already the flood + of new inventions, that was so completely to change the methods of + cultivating the soil in America, had begun to spread over the country, and + many new and strange kinds of agricultural implements arrived at the + Bidwell freight house of the Wheeling railroad. There Hugh saw a + harvesting machine for cutting grain, a mowing machine for cutting hay and + a long-nosed strange-looking implement that was intended to root potatoes + out of the ground very much after the method pursued by energetic pigs. He + studied these carefully. For a time his mind turned away from the hunger + for human contact and he was content to remain an isolated figure, + absorbed in the workings of his own awakening mind. + </p> + <p> + An absurd and amusing thing happened. After the impulse to try to invent a + plant-setting machine came to him, he went every evening to conceal + himself in the fence corner and watch the French family at their labors. + Absorbed in watching the mechanical movements of the men who crawled + across the fields in the moonlight, he forgot they were human. After he + had watched them crawl into sight, turn at the end of the rows, and crawl + away again into the hazy light that had reminded him of the dim distances + of his own Mississippi River country, he was seized with a desire to crawl + after them and to try to imitate their movements. Certain intricate + mechanical problems, that had already come into his mind in connection + with the proposed machine, he thought could be better understood if he + could get the movements necessary to plant setting into his own body. His + lips began to mutter words and getting out of the fence corner where he + had been concealed he began to crawl across the field behind the French + boys. “The down stroke will go so,” he muttered, and bringing up his arm + swung it above his head. His fist descended into the soft ground. He had + forgotten the rows of new set plants and crawled directly over them, + crushing them into the soft ground. He stopped crawling and waved his arm + about. He tried to relate his arms to the mechanical arms of the machine + that was being created in his mind. Holding one arm stiffly in front of + him he moved it up and down. “The stroke will be shorter than that. The + machine must be built close to the ground. The wheels and the horses will + travel in paths between the rows. The wheels must be broad to provide + traction. I will gear from the wheels to get power for the operation of + the mechanism,” he said aloud. + </p> + <p> + Hugh arose and stood in the moonlight in the cabbage field, his arms still + going stiffly up and down. The great length of his figure and his arms was + accentuated by the wavering uncertain light. The laborers, aware of some + strange presence, sprang to their feet and stood listening and looking. + Hugh advanced toward them, still muttering words and waving his arms. + Terror took hold of the workers. One of the woman plant droppers screamed + and ran away across the field, and the others ran crying at her heels. + “Don't do it. Go away,” the older of the French boys shouted, and then he + with his brothers also ran. + </p> + <p> + Hearing the voices Hugh stopped and stared about. The field was empty. + Again he lost himself in his mechanical calculations. He went back along + the road to the Wheeling station and to the telegraph office where he + worked half the night on a rude drawing he was trying to make of the parts + of his plant setting machine, oblivious to the fact that he had created a + myth that would run through the whole countryside. The French boys and + their sisters stoutly declared that a ghost had come into the cabbage + fields and had threatened them with death if they did not go away and quit + working at night. In a trembling voice their mother backed up their + assertion. Ezra French, who had not seen the apparition and did not + believe the tale, scented a revolution. He swore. He threatened the entire + family with starvation. He declared that a lie had been invented to + deceive and betray him. + </p> + <p> + However, the work at night in the cabbage fields on the French farm was at + an end. The story was told in the town of Bidwell, and as the entire + French family except Ezra swore to its truth, was generally believed. Tom + Foresby, an old citizen who was a spiritualist, claimed to have heard his + father say that there had been in early days an Indian burying-ground on + the Turner Pike. + </p> + <p> + The cabbage field on the French farm became locally famous. Within a year + two other men declared they had seen the figure of a gigantic Indian + dancing and singing a funeral dirge in the moonlight. Farmer boys, who had + been for an evening in town and were returning late at night to lonely + farmhouses, whipped their horses into a run when they came to the farm. + When it was far behind them they breathed more freely. Although he + continued to swear and threaten, Ezra never again succeeded in getting his + family into the fields at night. In Bidwell he declared that the story of + the ghost invented by his lazy sons and daughters had ruined his chance + for making a decent living out of his farm. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <p> + Steve Hunter decided that it was time something was done to wake up his + native town. The call of the spring wind awoke something in him as in + Hugh. It came up from the south bringing rain followed by warm fair days. + Robins hopped about on the lawns before the houses on the residence + streets of Bidwell, and the air was again sweet with the pregnant + sweetness of new-plowed ground. Like Hugh, Steve walked about alone + through the dark, dimly lighted residence streets during the spring + evenings, but he did not try awkwardly to leap over creeks in the darkness + or pull bushes out of the ground, nor did he waste his time dreaming of + being physically young, clean-limbed and beautiful. + </p> + <p> + Before the coming of his great achievements in the industrial field, Steve + had not been highly regarded in his home town. He had been a noisy + boastful youth and had been spoiled by his father. When he was twelve + years old what were called safety bicycles first came into use and for a + long time he owned the only one in town. In the evening he rode it up and + down Main Street, frightening the horses and arousing the envy of the town + boys. He learned to ride without putting his hands on the handle-bars and + the other boys began to call him Smarty Hunter and later, because he wore + a stiff, white collar that folded down over his shoulders, they gave him a + girl's name. “Hello, Susan,” they shouted, “don't fall and muss your + clothes.” + </p> + <p> + In the spring that marked the beginning of his great industrial adventure, + Steve was stirred by the soft spring winds into dreaming his own kind of + dreams. As he walked about through the streets, avoiding the other young + men and women, he remembered Ernestine, the daughter of the Buffalo soap + maker, and thought a great deal about the magnificence of the big stone + house in which she lived with her father. His body ached for her, but that + was a matter he felt could be managed. How he could achieve a financial + position that would make it possible for him to ask for her hand was a + more difficult problem. Since he had come back from the business college + to live in his home town, he had secretly, and at the cost of two new five + dollar dresses, arranged a physical alliance with a girl named Louise + Trucker whose father was a farm laborer, and that left his mind free for + other things. He intended to become a manufacturer, the first one in + Bidwell, to make himself a leader in the new movement that was sweeping + over the country. He had thought out what he wanted to do and it only + remained to find something for him to manufacture to put his plans + through. First of all he had selected with great care certain men he + intended to ask to go in with him. There was John Clark the banker, his + own father, E. H. Hunter the town jeweler, Thomas Butterworth the rich + farmer, and young Gordon Hart, who had a job as assistant cashier in the + bank. For a month he had been dropping hints to these men of something + mysterious and important about to happen. With the exception of his father + who had infinite faith in the shrewdness and ability of his son, the men + he wanted to impress were only amused. One day Thomas Butterworth went + into the bank and stood talking the matter over with John Clark. “The + young squirt was always a Smart-Aleck and a blow-hard,” he said. “What's + he up to now? What's he nudging and whispering about?” + </p> + <p> + As he walked in the main street of Bidwell, Steve began to acquire that + air of superiority that later made him so respected and feared. He hurried + along with a peculiarly intense absorbed look in his eyes. He saw his + fellow townsmen as through a haze, and sometimes did not see them at all. + As he went along he took papers from his pocket, read them hurriedly, and + then quickly put them away again. When he did speak—perhaps to a man + who had known him from boyhood—there was in his manner something + gracious to the edge of condescension. One morning in March he met Zebe + Wilson the town shoemaker on the sidewalk before the post-office. Steve + stopped and smiled. “Well, good morning, Mr. Wilson,” he said, “and how is + the quality of leather you are getting from the tanneries now?” + </p> + <p> + Word regarding this strange salutation ran about among the merchants and + artisans. “What's he up to now?” they asked each other. “Mr. Wilson, + indeed! Now what's wrong between that young squirt and Zebe Wilson?” + </p> + <p> + In the afternoon, four clerks from the Main Street stores and Ed Hall the + carpenter's apprentice, who had a half day off because of rain, decided to + investigate. One by one they went along Hamilton Street to Zebe Wilson's + shop and stepped inside to repeat Steve Hunter's salutation. “Well, good + afternoon, Mr. Wilson,” they said, “and how is the quality of leather you + are getting from the tanneries now?” Ed Hall, the last of the five who + went into the shop to repeat the formal and polite inquiry, barely escaped + with his life. Zebe Wilson threw a shoemaker's hammer at him and it went + through the glass in the upper part of the shop door. + </p> + <p> + Once when Tom Butterworth and John Clark the banker were talking of the + new air of importance he was assuming, and half indignantly speculated on + what he meant by his whispered suggestion of something significant about + to happen, Steve came along Main Street past the front door of the bank. + John Clark called him in. The three men confronted each other and the + jeweler's son sensed the fact that the banker and the rich farmer were + amused by his pretensions. At once he proved himself to be what all + Bidwell later acknowledged him to be, a man who could handle men and + affairs. Having at that time nothing to support his pretensions he decided + to put up a bluff. With a wave of his hand and an air of knowing just what + he was about, he led the two men into the back room of the bank and shut + the door leading into the large room to which the general public was + admitted. “You would have thought he owned the place,” John Clark + afterward said with a note of admiration in his voice to young Gordon Hart + when he described what took place in the back room. + </p> + <p> + Steve plunged at once into what he had to say to the two solid moneyed + citizens of his town. “Well, now, look here, you two,” he began earnestly. + “I'm going to tell you something, but you got to keep still.” He went to + the window that looked out upon an alleyway and glanced about as though + fearful of being overheard, then sat down in the chair usually occupied by + John Clark on the rare occasions when the directors of the Bidwell bank + held a meeting. Steve looked over the heads of the two men who in spite of + themselves were beginning to be impressed. “Well,” he began, “there is a + fellow out at Pickleville. You have maybe heard things said about him. + He's telegraph operator out there. Perhaps you have heard how he is always + making drawings of parts of machines. I guess everybody in town has been + wondering what he's up to.” + </p> + <p> + Steve looked at the two men and then got nervously out of the chair and + walked about the room. “That fellow is my man. I put him there,” he + declared. “I didn't want to tell any one yet.” + </p> + <p> + The two men nodded and Steve became lost in the notion created in his + fancy. It did not occur to him that what he had just said was untrue. He + began to scold the two men. “Well, I suppose I'm on the wrong track + there,” he said. “My man has made an invention that will bring millions in + profits to those who get into it. In Cleveland and Buffalo I'm already in + touch with big bankers. There's to be a big factory built, but you see + yourself how it is, here I'm at home. I was raised as a boy here.” + </p> + <p> + The excited young man plunged into an exposition of the spirit of the new + times. He grew bold and scolded the older men. “You know yourself that + factories are springing up everywhere, in towns all over the State,” he + said. “Will Bidwell wake up? Will we have factories here? You know well + enough we won't, and I know why. It's because a man like me who was raised + here has to go to a city to get money to back his plans. If I talked to + you fellows you would laugh at me. In a few years I might make you more + money than you have made in your whole lives, but what's the use talking? + I'm Steve Hunter; you knew me when I was a kid. You'd laugh. What's the + use my trying to tell you fellows my plans?” + </p> + <p> + Steve turned as though to go out of the room, but Tom Butterworth took + hold of his arm and led him back to a chair. “Now, you tell us what you're + up to,” he demanded. In turn he grew indignant. “If you've got something + to manufacture you can get backing here as well as any place,” he said. He + became convinced that the jeweler's son was telling the truth. It did not + occur to him that a Bidwell young man would dare lie to such solid men as + John Clark and himself. “You let them city bankers alone,” he said + emphatically. “You tell us your story. What you got to tell?” + </p> + <p> + In the silent little room the three men stared at each other. Tom + Butterworth and John Clark in their turn began to have dreams. They + remembered the tales they had heard of vast fortunes made quickly by men + who owned new and valuable inventions. The land was at that time full of + such tales. They were blown about on every wind. Quickly they realized + that they had made a mistake in their attitude toward Steve, and were + anxious to win his regard. They had called him into the bank to bully him + and to laugh at him. Now they were sorry. As for Steve, he only wanted to + get away—to get by himself and think. An injured look crept over his + face. “Well,” he said, “I thought I'd give Bidwell a chance. There are + three or four men here. I have spoken to all of you and dropped a hint of + something in the wind, but I'm not ready to be very definite yet.” + </p> + <p> + Seeing the new look of respect in the eyes of the two men Steve became + bold. “I was going to call a meeting when I was ready,” he said pompously. + “You two do what I've been doing. You keep your mouths shut. Don't go near + that telegraph operator and don't talk to a soul. If you mean business + I'll give you a chance to make barrels of money, more'n you ever dreamed + of, but don't be in a hurry.” He took a bundle of letters out of his + inside coat pocket, and beat with them on the edge of the table that + occupied the center of the room. Another bold thought came into his mind. + </p> + <p> + “I've got letters here offering me big money to take my factory either to + Cleveland or Buffalo,” he declared emphatically. “It isn't money that's + hard to get. I can tell you men that. What a man wants in his home town is + respect. He don't want to be looked on as a fool because he tries to do + something to rise in the world.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Steve walked boldly out of the bank and into Main Street. When he had got + out of the presence of the two men he was frightened. “Well, I've done it. + I've made a fool of myself,” he muttered aloud. In the bank he had said + that Hugh McVey the telegraph operator was his man, that he had brought + the fellow to Bidwell. What a fool he had been. In his anxiety to impress + the two older men he had told a story, the falsehood of which could be + discovered in a few minutes. Why had he not kept his dignity and waited? + There had been no occasion for being so definite. He had gone too far, had + been carried away. To be sure he had told the two men not to go near the + telegraph operator, but that would no doubt but serve to arouse their + suspicions of the thinness of his story. They would talk the matter over + and start an investigation of their own. Then they would find out he had + lied. He imagined the two men as already engaged in a whispered + conversation regarding the probability of his tale. Like most shrewd men + he had an exalted notion regarding the shrewdness of others. He walked a + little away from the bank and then turned to look back. A shiver ran over + his body. Into his mind came the sickening fear that the telegraph + operator at Pickleville was not an inventor at all. The town was full of + tales, and in the bank he had taken advantage of that fact to make an + impression; but what proof had he? No one had seen one of the inventions + supposed to have been worked out by the mysterious stranger from Missouri. + There had after all been nothing but whispered suspicions, old wives' + tales, fables invented by men who had nothing to do but loaf in the + drug-store and make up stories. + </p> + <p> + The thought that Hugh McVey might not be an inventor overpowered him and + he put it quickly aside. He had something more immediate to think about. + The story of the bluff he had just made in the bank would be found out and + the whole town would rock with laughter at his expense. The young men of + the town did not like him. They would roll the story over on their + tongues. Ribald old fellows who had nothing else to do would take up the + story with joy and would elaborate it. Fellows like the cabbage farmer, + Ezra French, who had a talent for saying cutting things would exercise it. + They would make up imaginary inventions, grotesque, absurd inventions. + Then they would get young fellows to come to him and propose that he take + them up, promote them, and make every one rich. Men would shout jokes at + him as he went along Main Street. His dignity would be gone forever. He + would be made a fool of by the very school boys as he had been in his + youth when he bought the bicycle and rode it about before the eyes of + other boys in the evenings. + </p> + <p> + Steve hurried out of Main Street and went over the bridge that crossed the + river into Turner's Pike. He did not know what he intended to do, but felt + there was much at stake and that he would have to do something at once. It + was a warm, cloudy day and the road that led to Pickleville was muddy. + During the night before it had rained and more rain was promised. The path + beside the road was slippery, and so absorbed was he that as he plunged + along, his feet slipped out from under him and he sat down in a small pool + of water. A farmer driving past along the road turned to laugh at him. + “You go to hell,” Steve shouted. “You just mind your own business and go + to hell.” + </p> + <p> + The distracted young man tried to walk sedately along the path. The long + grass that grew beside the path wet his shoes, and his hands were wet and + muddy. Farmers turned on their wagon seats to stare at him. For some + obscure reason he could not himself understand, he was terribly afraid to + face Hugh McVey. In the bank he had been in the presence of men who were + trying to get the best of him, to make a fool of him, to have fun at his + expense. He had felt that and had resented it. The knowledge had given him + a certain kind of boldness; it had enabled his mind to make up the story + of the inventor secretly employed at his own expense and the city bankers + anxious to furnish him capital. Although he was terribly afraid of + discovery, he felt a little glow of pride at the thought of the boldness + with which he had taken the letters out of his pocket and had challenged + the two men to call his bluff. + </p> + <p> + Steve, however, felt there was something different about the man in the + telegraph office in Pickleville. He had been in town for nearly two years + and no one knew anything about him. His silence might be indicative of + anything. He was afraid the tall silent Missourian might decide to have + nothing to do with him, and pictured himself as being brushed rudely + aside, being told to mind his own business. + </p> + <p> + Steve knew instinctively how to handle business men. One simply created + the notion of money to be made without effort. He had done that to the two + men in the bank and it had worked. After all he had succeeded in making + them respect him. He had handled the situation. He wasn't such a fool at + that kind of a thing. The other thing he had to face might be very + different. Perhaps after all Hugh McVey was a big inventor, a man with a + powerful creative mind. It was possible he had been sent to Bidwell by a + big business man of some city. Big business men did strange, mysterious + things; they put wires out in all directions, controlled a thousand little + avenues for the creation of wealth. + </p> + <p> + Just starting out on his own career as a man of affairs, Steve had an + overpowering respect for what he thought of as the subtlety of men of + affairs. With all the other American youths of his generation he had been + swept off his feet by the propaganda that then went on and is still going + on, and that is meant to create the illusion of greatness in connection + with the ownership of money. He did not then know and, in spite of his own + later success and his own later use of the machinery by which illusion is + created, he never found out that in an industrial world reputations for + greatness of mind are made as a Detroit manufacturer would make + automobiles. He did not know that men are employed to bring up the name of + a politician so that he may be called a statesman, as a new brand of + breakfast food that it may be sold; that most modern great men are mere + illusions sprung out of a national hunger for greatness. Some day a wise + man, one who has not read too many books but who has gone about among men, + will discover and set forth a very interesting thing about America. The + land is vast and there is a national hunger for vastness in individuals. + One wants an Illinois-sized man for Illinois, an Ohio-sized man for Ohio, + and a Texas-sized man for Texas. + </p> + <p> + To be sure, Steve Hunter had no notion of all this. He never did get a + notion of it. The men he had already begun to think of as great and to try + to imitate were like the strange and gigantic protuberances that sometimes + grow on the side of unhealthy trees, but he did not know it. He did not + know that throughout the country, even in that early day, a system was + being built up to create the myth of greatness. At the seat of the + American Government at Washington, hordes of somewhat clever and + altogether unhealthy young men were already being employed for the + purpose. In a sweeter age many of these young men might have become + artists, but they had not been strong enough to stand against the growing + strength of dollars. They had become instead newspaper correspondents and + secretaries to politicians. All day and every day they used their minds + and their talents as writers in the making of puffs and the creating of + myths concerning the men by whom they were employed. They were like the + trained sheep that are used at great slaughter-houses to lead other sheep + into the killing pens. Having befouled their own minds for hire, they made + their living by befouling the minds of others. Already they had found out + that no great cleverness was required for the work they had to do. What + was required was constant repetition. It was only necessary to say over + and over that the man by whom they were employed was a great man. No proof + had to be brought forward to substantiate the claims they made; no great + deeds had to be done by the men who were thus made great, as brands of + crackers or breakfast food are made salable. Stupid and prolonged and + insistent repetition was what was necessary. + </p> + <p> + As the politicians of the industrial age have created a myth about + themselves, so also have the owners of dollars, the big bankers, the + railroad manipulators, the promoters of industrial enterprise. The impulse + to do so is partly sprung from shrewdness but for the most part it is due + to a hunger within to be of some real moment in the world. Knowing that + the talent that had made them rich is but a secondary talent, and being a + little worried about the matter, they employ men to glorify it. Having + employed a man for the purpose, they are themselves children enough to + believe the myth they have paid money to have created. Every rich man in + the country unconsciously hates his press agent. + </p> + <p> + Although he had never read a book, Steve was a constant reader of the + newspapers and had been deeply impressed by the stories he had read + regarding the shrewdness and ability of the American captains of industry. + To him they were supermen and he would have crawled on his knees before a + Gould or a Cal Price—the commanding figures among moneyed men of + that day. As he went down along Turner's Pike that day when industry was + born in Bidwell, he thought of these men and of lesser rich men of + Cleveland and Buffalo, and was afraid that in approaching Hugh he might be + coming into competition with one of these men. As he hurried along under + the gray sky, he however realized that the time for action had come and + that he must at once put the plans that he had formed in his mind to the + test of practicability; that he must at once see Hugh McVey, find out if + he really did have an invention that could be manufactured, and if he did + try to secure some kind of rights of ownership over it. “If I do not act + at once, either Tom Butterworth or John Clark will get in ahead of me,” he + thought. He knew they were both shrewd capable men. Had they not become + well-to-do? Even during the talk in the bank, when they had seemed to be + impressed by his words, they might well have been making plans to get the + better of him. They would act, but he must act first. + </p> + <p> + Steve hadn't the courage of the lie he had told. He did not have + imagination enough to understand how powerful a thing is a lie. He walked + quickly along until he came to the Wheeling Station at Pickleville, and + then, not having the courage to confront Hugh at once, went past the + station and crept in behind the deserted pickle factory that stood across + the tracks. Through a broken window at the back he climbed, and crept like + a thief across the earth floor until he came to a window that looked out + upon the station. A freight train rumbled slowly past and a farmer came to + the station to get a load of goods that had arrived by freight. George + Pike came running from his house to attend to the wants of the farmer. He + went back to his house and Steve was left alone in the presence of the man + on whom he felt all of his future depended. He was as excited as a village + girl in the presence of a lover. Through the windows of the telegraph + office he could see Hugh seated at a desk with a book before him. The + presence of the book frightened him. He decided that the mysterious + Missourian must be some strange sort of intellectual giant. He was sure + that one who could sit quietly reading hour after hour in such a lonely + isolated place could be of no ordinary clay. As he stood in the deep + shadows inside the old building and stared at the man he was trying to + find courage to approach, a citizen of Bidwell named Dick Spearsman came + to the station and going inside, talked to the telegraph operator. Steve + trembled with anxiety. The man who had come to the station was an + insurance agent who also owned a small berry farm at the edge of town. He + had a son who had gone west to take up land in the state of Kansas, and + the father thought of visiting him. He came to the station to make inquiry + regarding the railroad fare, but when Steve saw him talking to Hugh, the + thought came into his mind that John Clark or Thomas Butterworth might + have sent him to the station to make an investigation of the truth of the + statements he had made in the bank. “It would be like them to do it that + way,” he muttered to himself. “They wouldn't come themselves. They would + send some one they thought I wouldn't suspect. They would play safe, damn + 'em.” + </p> + <p> + Trembling with fear, Steve walked up and down in the empty factory. + Cobwebs hanging down brushed against his face and he jumped aside as + though a hand had reached out of the darkness to touch him. In the corners + of the old building shadows lurked and distorted thoughts began to come + into his head. He rolled and lighted a cigarette and then remembered that + the flare of the match could probably be seen from the station. He cursed + himself for his carelessness. Throwing the cigarette on the earth floor he + ground it under his heel. When at last Dick Spearsman had disappeared up + the road that led to Bidwell and he came out of the old factory and got + again into Turner's Pike, he felt that he was in no shape to talk of + business but nevertheless must act at once. In front of the factory he + stopped in the road and tried to wipe the mud off the seat of his trousers + with a handkerchief. Then he went to the creek and washed his soiled + hands. With wet hands he arranged his tie and straightened the collar of + his coat. He had an air of one about to ask a woman to become his wife. + Striving to look as important and dignified as possible, he went along the + station platform and into the telegraph office to confront Hugh and to + find out at once and finally what fate the gods had in store for him. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + It no doubt contributed to Steve's happiness in after life, in the days + when he was growing rich, and later when he reached out for public honors, + contributed to campaign funds, and even in secret dreamed of getting into + the United States Senate or being Governor of his state, that he never + knew how badly he overreached himself that day in his youth when he made + his first business deal with Hugh at the Wheeling Station at Pickleville. + Later Hugh's interest in the Steven Hunter industrial enterprises was + taken care of by a man who was as shrewd as Steve himself. Tom + Butterworth, who had made money and knew how to make and handle money, + managed such things for the inventor, and Steve's chance was gone forever. + </p> + <p> + That is, however, a part of the story of the development of the town of + Bidwell and a story that Steve never understood. When he overreached + himself that day he did not know what he had done. He made a deal with + Hugh and was happy to escape the predicament he thought he had got himself + into when he talked too much to the two men in the bank. + </p> + <p> + Although Steve's father had always a great faith in his son's shrewdness + and when he talked to other men represented him as a peculiarly capable + and unappreciated man, the two did not in private get on well. In the + Hunter household they quarreled and snarled at each other. Steve's mother + had died when he was a small boy and his one sister, two years older than + himself, kept herself always in the house and seldom appeared on the + streets. She was a semi-invalid. Some obscure nervous disease had twisted + her body out of shape, and her face twitched incessantly. One morning in + the barn back of the Hunter house Steve, then a lad of fourteen, was + oiling his bicycle when his sister appeared and stood watching him. A + small wrench lay on the ground and she picked it up. Suddenly and without + warning she began to beat him on the head. He was compelled to knock her + down in order to tear the wrench out of her hand. After the incident she + was ill in bed for a month. + </p> + <p> + Elsie Hunter was always a source of unhappiness to her brother. As he + began to get up in life Steve had a growing passion for being respected by + his fellows. It got to be something of an obsession with him and among + other things he wanted very much to be thought of as one who had good + blood in his veins. A man whom he hired searched out his ancestry, and + with the exception of his immediate family it seemed very satisfactory. + The sister, with her twisted body and her face that twitched so + persistently, seemed to be everlastingly sneering at him. He grew half + afraid to come into her presence. After he began to grow rich he married + Ernestine, the daughter of the soap maker at Buffalo, and when her father + died she also had a great deal of money. His own father died and he set up + a household of his own. That was in the time when big houses began to + appear at the edge of the berry lands and on the hills south of Bidwell. + On his father's death Steve became guardian for his sister. The jeweler + had left a small estate and it was entirely in the son's hands. Elsie + lived with one servant in a small house in town and was put in the + position of being entirely dependent on her brother's bounty. In a sense + it might be said that she lived by her hatred of him. When on rare + occasions he came to her house she would not see him. A servant came to + the door and reported her asleep. Almost every month she wrote a letter + demanding that her share of her father's money be handed over to her, but + it did no good. Steve occasionally spoke to an acquaintance of his + difficulty with her. “I am more sorry for the woman than I can say,” he + declared. “It's the dream of my life to make the poor afflicted soul + happy. You see yourself that I provide her with every comfort of life. + Ours is an old family. I have it from an expert in such matters that we + are descendants of one Hunter, a courtier in the court of Edward the + Second of England. Our blood has perhaps become a little thin. All the + vitality of the family was centered in me. My sister does not understand + me and that has been the cause of much unhappiness and heart burning, but + I shall always do my duty by her.” + </p> + <p> + In the late afternoon of the spring day that was also the most eventful + day of his life, Steve went quickly along the Wheeling Station platform to + the door of the telegraph office. It was a public place, but before going + in he stopped, again straightened his tie and brushed his clothes, and + then knocked at the door. As there was no response he opened the door + softly and looked in. Hugh was at his desk but did not look up. Steve went + in and closed the door. By chance the moment of his entrance was also a + big moment in the life of the man he had come to see. The mind of the + young inventor, that had for so long been dreamy and uncertain, had + suddenly become extraordinarily clear and free. One of the inspired + moments that come to intense natures, working intensely, had come to him. + The mechanical problem he was trying so hard to work out became clear. It + was one of the moments that Hugh afterwards thought of as justifying his + existence, and in later life he came to live for such moments. With a nod + of his head to Steve he arose and hurried out to the building that was + used by the Wheeling as a freight warehouse. The jeweler's son ran at his + heels. On an elevated platform before the freight warehouse sat an odd + looking agricultural implement, a machine for rooting potatoes out of the + ground that had been received on the day before and was now awaiting + delivery to some farmer. Hugh dropped to his knees beside the machine and + examined it closely. Muttered exclamations broke from his lips. For the + first time in his life he was not embarrassed in the presence of another + person. The two men, the one almost grotesquely tall, the other short of + stature and already inclined toward corpulency, stared at each other. + “What is it you're inventing? I came to see you about that,” Steve said + timidly. + </p> + <p> + Hugh did not answer the question directly. He stepped across the narrow + platform to the freight warehouse and began to make a rude drawing on the + side of the building. Then he tried to explain his plant-setting machine. + He spoke of it as a thing already achieved. At the moment he thought of it + in that way. “I had not thought of the use of a large wheel with the arms + attached at regular intervals,” he said absent-mindedly. “I will have to + find money now. That'll be the next step. It will be necessary to make a + working model of the machine now. I must find out what changes I'll have + to make in my calculations.” + </p> + <p> + The two men returned to the telegraph office and while Hugh listened Steve + made his proposal. Even then he did not understand what the machine that + was to be made was to do. It was enough for him that a machine was to be + made and he wanted to share in its ownership at once. As the two men + walked back from the freight warehouse, his mind took hold of Hugh's + remark about getting money. Again he was afraid. “There's some one in the + background,” he thought. “Now I must make a proposal he can't refuse. I + mustn't leave until I've made a deal with him.” + </p> + <p> + Fairly carried away by his anxiety, Steve proposed to provide money out of + his own pocket to make the model of the machine. “We'll rent the old + pickle factory across the track,” he said, opening the door and pointing + with a trembling finger. “I can get it cheap. I'll have windows and a + floor put in. Then I'll get you a man to whittle out a model of the + machine. Allie Mulberry can do it. I'll get him for you. He can whittle + anything if you only show him what you want. He's half crazy and won't get + on to our secret. When the model is made, leave it to me, you just leave + it to me.” + </p> + <p> + Rubbing his hands together Steve walked boldly to The telegrapher's desk + and picking up a sheet of paper began to write out a contract. It provided + that Hugh Was to get a royalty of ten per cent. of the selling price on + the machine he had invented and that was to be manufactured by a company + to be organized by Steven Hunter. The contract also stated that a + promoting company was to be organized at once and money provided for the + experimental work Hugh had yet to do. The Missourian was to begin getting + a salary at once. He was to risk nothing, as Steve elaborately explained. + When he was ready for them mechanics were to be employed and their + salaries paid. When the contract had been written and read aloud, a copy + was made and Hugh, who was again embarrassed beyond words, signed his + name. + </p> + <p> + With a flourish of his hand Steve laid a little pile of money on the desk. + “That's for a starter,” he said and turned to frown at George Pike who at + that moment came to the door. The freight agent went quickly away and the + two men were left alone together. Steve shook hands with his new partner. + He went out and then came in again. “You understand,” he said + mysteriously. “The fifty dollars is your first month's salary. I was ready + for you. I brought it along. You just leave everything to me, just you + leave it to me.” Again he went out and Hugh was left alone. He saw the + young man go across the tracks to the old factory and walk up and down + before it. When a farmer came along and shouted at him, he did not reply, + but stepping back into the road swept the deserted old building with his + eyes as a general might have looked over a battlefield. Then he went + briskly down the road toward town and the farmer turned on his wagon seat + to stare after him. + </p> + <p> + Hugh McVey also stared. When Steve had gone away, he walked to the end of + the station platform and looked along the road toward town. It seemed to + him wonderful that he had at last held conversation with a citizen of + Bidwell. A little of the import of the contract he had signed came to him, + and he went into the station and got his copy of it and put it in his + pocket. Then he came out again. When he read it over and realized anew + that he was to be paid a living wage and have time and help to work out + the problem that had now become vastly important to his happiness, it + seemed to him that he had been in the presence of a kind of god. He + remembered the words of Sarah Shepard concerning the bright alert citizens + of eastern towns and realized that he had been in the presence of such a + being, that he had in some way become connected in his new work with such + a one. The realization overcame him completely. Forgetting entirely his + duties as a telegrapher, he closed the office and went for a walk across + the meadows and in the little patches of woodlands that still remained + standing in the open plain north of Pickleville. He did not return until + late at night, and when he did, had not solved the puzzle as to what had + happened. All he got out of it was the fact that the machine he had been + trying to make was of great and mysterious importance to the civilization + into which he had come to live and of which he wanted so keenly to be a + part. There seemed to him something almost sacred in that fact. A new + determination to complete and perfect his plant-setting machine had taken + possession of him. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + The meeting to organize a promotion company that would in turn launch the + first industrial enterprise in the town of Bidwell was held in the back + room of the Bidwell bank one afternoon in June. The berry season had just + come to an end and the streets were full of people. A circus had come to + town and at one o'clock there was a parade. Before the stores horses + belonging to visiting country people stood hitched in two long rows. The + meeting in the bank was not held until four o'clock, when the banking + business was at an end for the day. It had been a hot, stuffy afternoon + and a storm threatened. For some reason the whole town had an inkling of + the fact that a meeting was to be held on that day, and in spite of the + excitement caused by the coming of the circus, it was in everybody's mind. + From the very beginning of his upward journey in life, Steve Hunter had + the faculty of throwing an air of mystery and importance about everything + he did. Every one saw the workings of the machinery by which the myth + concerning himself was created, but was nevertheless impressed. Even the + men of Bidwell who retained the ability to laugh at Steve could not laugh + at the things he did. + </p> + <p> + For two months before the day on which the meeting was held, the town had + been on edge. Every one knew that Hugh McVey had suddenly given up his + place in the telegraph office and that he was engaged in some enterprise + with Steve Hunter. “Well, I see he has thrown off the mask, that fellow,” + said Alban Foster, superintendent of the Bidwell schools, in speaking of + the matter to the Reverend Harvey Oxford, the minister of the Baptist + Church. + </p> + <p> + Steve saw to it that although every one was curious the curiosity was + unsatisfied. Even his father was left in the dark. The two men had a sharp + quarrel about the matter, but as Steve had three thousand dollars of his + own, left him by his mother, and was well past his twenty-first year, + there was nothing his father could do. + </p> + <p> + At Pickleville the windows and doors at the back of the deserted factory + were bricked up, and over the windows and the door at the front, where a + floor had been laid, iron bars specially made by Lew Twining the Bidwell + blacksmith had been put. The bars over the door locked the place at night + and gave the factory the air of a prison. Every evening before he went to + bed Steve walked to Pickleville. The sinister appearance of the building + at night gave him a peculiar satisfaction. “They'll find out what I'm up + to when I want 'em to,” he said to himself. Allie Mulberry worked at the + factory during the day. Under Hugh's direction he whittled pieces of wood + into various shapes, but had no idea of what he was doing. No one but the + half-wit and Steve Hunter were admitted to the society of the telegraph + operator. When Allie Mulberry came into the Main Street at night, every + one stopped him and a thousand questions were asked, but he only shook his + head and smiled foolishly. On Sunday afternoons crowds of men and women + walked down Turner's Pike to Pickleville and stood looking at the deserted + building, but no one tried to enter. The bars were in place and window + shades were drawn over the windows. Above the door that faced the road + there was a large sign. “Keep Out. This Means You,” the sign said. + </p> + <p> + The four men who met Steve in the bank knew vaguely that some sort of + invention was being perfected, but did not know what it was. They spoke in + an offhand way of the matter to their friends and that increased the + general curiosity. Every one tried to guess what was up. When Steve was + not about, John Clark and young Gordon Hart pretended to know everything + but gave the impression of men sworn to secrecy. The fact that Steve told + them nothing seemed to them a kind of insult. “The young upstart, I + believe yet he's a bluff,” the banker declared to his friend, Tom + Butterworth. + </p> + <p> + On Main Street the old and young men who stood about before the stores in + the evening tried also to make light of the jeweler's son and the air of + importance he constantly assumed. They also spoke of him as a young + upstart and a windbag, but after the beginning of his connection with Hugh + McVey, something of conviction went out of their voices. “I read in the + paper that a man in Toledo made thirty thousand dollars out of an + invention. He got it up in less than a day. He just thought of it. It's a + new kind of way for sealing fruit cans,” a man in the crowd before Birdie + Spink's drug store absent-mindedly observed. + </p> + <p> + Inside the drug store by the empty stove, Judge Hanby talked persistently + of the time when factories would come. He seemed to those who listened a + sort of John the Baptist crying out of the coming of the new day. One + evening in May of that year, when a goodly crowd was assembled, Steve + Hunter came in and bought a cigar. Every one became silent. Birdie Spinks + was for some mysterious reason a little upset. In the store something + happened that, had there been some one there to record it, might later + have been remembered as the moment that marked the coming of the new age + to Bidwell. The druggist, after he had handed out the cigar, looked at the + young man whose name had so suddenly come upon every one's lips and whom + he had known from babyhood, and then addressed him as no young man of his + age had ever before been addressed by an older citizen of the town. “Well, + good evening, Mr. Hunter,” he said respectfully. “And how do you find + yourself this evening?” + </p> + <p> + To the men who met him in the bank, Steve described the plant-setting + machine and the work it was intended to do. “It's the most perfect thing + of its kind I've ever seen,” he said with the air of one who has spent his + life as an expert examiner of machinery. Then, to the amazement of every + one, he produced sheets covered with figures estimating the cost of + manufacturing the machine. To the men present it seemed as though the + question as to the practicability of the machine had already been settled. + The sheets covered with figures made the actual beginning of manufacturing + seem near at hand. Without raising his voice and quite as a matter of + course, Steve proposed that the men present subscribe each three thousand + dollars to the stock of a promotion company, the money to be used to + perfect the machine and put it actually to work in the fields, while a + larger company for the building of a factory was being organized. For the + three thousand dollars each of the men would receive later six thousand + dollars in stock in the larger company. They would make one hundred per + cent. on their first investment. As for himself he owned the invention and + it was very valuable. He had already received many offers from other men + in other places. He wanted to stick to his own town and to the men who had + known him since he was a boy. He would retain a controlling interest in + the larger company and that would enable him to take care of his friends. + John Clark he proposed to make treasurer of the promotion company. Every + one could see he would be the right man. Gordon Hart should be manager. + Tom Butterworth could, if he could find time to give it, help him in the + actual organization of the larger company. He did not propose to do + anything in a small way. Much stock would have to be sold to farmers, as + well as to townspeople, and he could see no reason why a certain + commission for the selling of stock should not be paid. + </p> + <p> + The four men came out of the back room of the bank just as the storm that + had all day been threatening broke on Main Street. They stood together by + the front window and watched the people skurry along past the stores + homeward-bound from the circus. Farmers jumping into their wagons started + their horses away on the trot. The whole street was populous with people + shouting and running. To an observing person standing at the bank window, + Bidwell, Ohio, might have seemed no longer a quiet town filled with people + who lived quiet lives and thought quiet thoughts, but a tiny section of + some giant modern city. The sky was extraordinarily black as from the + smoke of a mill. The hurrying people might have been workmen escaping from + the mill at the end of the day. Clouds of dust swept through the street. + Steve Hunter's imagination was aroused. For some reason the black clouds + of dust and the running people gave him a tremendous sense of power. It + almost seemed to him that he had filled the sky with clouds and that + something latent in him had startled the people. He was anxious to get + away from the men who had just agreed to join him in his first great + industrial adventure. He felt that they were after all mere puppets, + creatures he could use, men who were being swept along by him as the + people running along the streets were being swept along by the storm. He + and the storm were in a way akin to each other. He had an impulse to be + alone with the storm, to walk dignified and upright in the face of it as + he felt that in the future he would walk dignified and upright in the face + of men. + </p> + <p> + Steve went out of the bank and into the street. The men inside shouted at + him, telling him he would get wet, but he paid no attention to their + warning. When he had gone and when his father had run quickly across the + street to his jewelry store, the three men who were left in the bank + looked at each other and laughed. Like the loiterers before Birdie Spinks' + drug-store, they wanted to belittle him and had an inclination to begin + calling him names; but for some reason they could not do it. Something had + happened to them. They looked at each other with a question in their eyes. + Each man waited for the others to speak. “Well, whatever happens we can't + lose much of anything,” John Clark finally observed. + </p> + <p> + And over the bridge and out into Turner's Pike walked Steve Hunter, the + embryo industrial magnate. Across the great stretches of fields that lay + beside the road the wind ran furiously, tearing leaves off trees, carrying + great volumes of dust before it. The hurrying black clouds in the sky + were, he fancied, like clouds of smoke pouring out of the chimneys of + factories owned by himself. In fancy also he saw his town become a city, + bathed in the smoke of his enterprises. As he looked abroad over the + fields swept by the storm of wind, he realized that the road along which + he walked would in time become a city street. “Pretty soon I'll get an + option on this land,” he said meditatively. An exalted mood took + possession of him and when he got to Pickleville he did not go into the + shop where Hugh and Allie Mulberry were at work, but turning, walked back + toward town in the mud and the driving rain. + </p> + <p> + It was a time when Steve wanted to be by himself, to feel himself the one + great man of the community. He had intended to go into the old pickle + factory and escape the rain, but when he got to the railroad tracks, had + turned back because he realized suddenly that in the presence of the + silent, intent inventor he had never been able to feel big. He wanted to + feel big on that evening and so, unmindful of the rain and of his hat, + that was caught up by the wind and blown away into a field, he went along + the deserted road thinking great thoughts. At a place where there were no + houses he stopped for a moment and lifted his tiny hands to the skies. + “I'm a man. I tell you what, I'm a man. Whatever any one says, I tell you + what, I'm a man,” he shouted into the void. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <p> + Modern men and women who live in industrial cities are like mice that have + come out of the fields to live in houses that do not belong to them. They + live within the dark walls of the houses where only a dim light + penetrates, and so many have come that they grow thin and haggard with the + constant toil of getting food and warmth. Behind the walls the mice + scamper about in droves, and there is much squealing and chattering. Now + and then a bold mouse stands upon his hind legs and addresses the others. + He declares he will force his way through the walls and conquer the gods + who have built the house. “I will kill them,” he declares. “The mice shall + rule. You shall live in the light and the warmth. There shall be food for + all and no one shall go hungry.” + </p> + <p> + The little mice, gathered in the darkness out of sight in the great + houses, squeal with delight. After a time when nothing happens they become + sad and depressed. Their minds go back to the time when they lived in the + fields, but they do not go out of the walls of the houses, because long + living in droves has made them afraid of the silence of long nights and + the emptiness of skies. In the houses giant children are being reared. + When the children fight and scream in the houses and in the streets, the + dark spaces between the walls rumble with strange and appalling noises. + </p> + <p> + The mice are terribly afraid. Now and then a single mouse for a moment + escapes the general fear. A mood comes over such a one and a light comes + into his eyes. When the noises run through the houses he makes up stories + about them. “The horses of the sun are hauling wagon loads of days over + the tops of trees,” he says and looks quickly about to see if he has been + heard. When he discovers a female mouse looking at him he runs away with a + flip of his tail and the female follows. While other mice are repeating + his saying and getting some little comfort from it, he and the female + mouse find a warm dark corner and lie close together. It is because of + them that mice continue to be born to dwell within the walls of the + houses. + </p> + <p> + When the first small model of Hugh McVey's plant-setting machine had been + whittled out by the half-wit Allie Mulberry, it replaced the famous ship, + floating in the bottle, that for two or three years had been lying in the + window of Hunter's jewelry store. Allie was inordinately proud of the new + specimen of his handiwork. As he worked under Hugh's directions at a bench + in a corner of the deserted pickle factory, he was like a strange dog that + has at last found a master. He paid no attention to Steve Hunter who, with + the air of one bearing in his breast some gigantic secret, came in and + went out at the door twenty times a day, but kept his eyes on the silent + Hugh who sat at a desk and made drawings on sheets of paper. Allie tried + valiantly to follow the instructions given him and to understand what his + master was trying to do, and Hugh, finding himself unembarrassed by the + presence of the half-wit, sometimes spent hours trying to explain the + workings of some intricate part of the proposed machine. Hugh made each + part crudely out of great pieces of board and Allie reproduced the part in + miniature. Intelligence began to come into the eyes of the man who all his + life had whittled meaningless wooden chains, baskets formed out of peach + stones, and ships intended to float in bottles. Love and understanding + began a little to do for him what words could not have done. One day when + a part Hugh had fashioned would not work the half-wit himself made the + model of a part that worked perfectly. When Hugh incorporated it in the + machine, he was so happy that he could not sit still, and walked up and + down cooing with delight. + </p> + <p> + When the model of the machine appeared in the jeweler's window, a fever of + excitement took hold of the minds of the people. Every one declared + himself either for or against it. Something like a revolution took place. + Parties were formed. Men who had no interest in the success of the + invention, and in the nature of things could not have, were ready to fight + any one who dared to doubt its success. Among the farmers who drove into + town to see the new wonder were many who said the machine would not, could + not, work. “It isn't practical,” they said. Going off by themselves and + forming groups, they whispered warnings. A hundred objections sprang to + their lips. “See all the little wheels and cogs the thing has,” they said. + “You see it won't work. You take now in a field where there are stones and + old tree roots, maybe, sticking in the ground. There you'll see. Fools'll + buy the machine, yes. They'll spend their money. They'll put in plants. + The plants'll die. The money'll be wasted. There'll be no crop.” Old men, + who had been cabbage farmers in the country north of Bidwell all their + lives, and whose bodies were all twisted out of shape by the terrible + labor of the cabbage fields, came hobbling into town to look at the model + of the new machine. Their opinions were anxiously sought by the merchant, + the carpenter, the artisan, the doctor—by all the townspeople. + Almost without exception, they shook their heads in doubt. Standing on the + sidewalk before the jeweler's window, they stared at the machine and then, + turning to the crowd that had gathered about, they shook their heads in + doubt. “Huh,” they exclaimed, “a thing of wheels and cogs, eh? Well, so + young Hunter expects that thing to take the place of a man. He's a fool. I + always said that boy was a fool.” The merchants and townspeople, their + ardor a little dampened by the adverse decision of the men who knew + plant-setting, went off by themselves. They went into Birdie Spinks' + drugstore, but did not listen to the talk of Judge Hanby. “If the machine + works, the town'll wake up,” some one declared. “It means factories, new + people coming in, houses to be built, goods to be bought.” Visions of + suddenly acquired wealth began to float in their minds. Young Ed Hall, + apprentice to Ben Peeler the carpenter, grew angry. “Hell,” he exclaimed, + “why listen to a lot of damned old calamity howlers? It's the town's duty + to get out and plug for that machine. We got to wake up here. We got to + forget what we used to think about Steve Hunter. Anyway, he saw a chance, + didn't he? and he took it. I wish I was him. I only wish I was him. And + what about that fellow we thought was maybe just a telegraph operator? He + fooled us all slick, now didn't he? I tell you we ought to be proud to + have such men as him and Steve Hunter living in Bidwell. That's what I + say. I tell you it's the town's duty to get out and plug for them and for + that machine. If we don't, I know what'll happen. Steve Hunter's a live + one. I been thinking maybe he was. He'll take that invention and that + inventor of his to some other town or to a city. That's what he'll do. + Damn it, I tell you we got to get out and back them fellows up. That's + what I say.” + </p> + <p> + On the whole the town of Bidwell agreed with young Hall. The excitement + did not die, but grew every day more intense. Steve Hunter had a carpenter + come to his father's store and build in the show window facing Main + Street, a long shallow box formed in the shape of a field. This he filled + with pulverized earth and then by an arrangement of strings and pulleys + connected with a clockwork device the machine was pulled across the field. + In a receptacle at the top of the machine had been placed some dozens of + tiny plants no larger than pins. When the clockwork was started and the + strings pulled to imitate applied horse power, the machine crept slowly + forward, an arm came down and made a hole in the ground, the plant dropped + into the hole and spoon-like hands appeared and packed the earth about the + plant roots. At the top of the machine there was a tank filled with water, + and when the plant was set, a portion of water, nicely calculated as to + quantity, ran down a pipe and was deposited at the plant roots. + </p> + <p> + Evening after evening the machine crawled forward across the tiny field, + setting the plants in perfect order. Steve Hunter busied himself with it; + he did nothing else; and rumors of a great company to be formed in Bidwell + to manufacture the device were whispered about. Every evening a new tale + was told. Steve went to Cleveland for a day and it was said that Bidwell + was to lose its chance, that big moneyed men had induced Steve to take his + factory project to the city. Hearing Ed Hall berate a farmer who doubted + the practicability of the machine, Steve took him aside and talked to him. + “We're going to need live young men who know how to handle other men for + jobs as superintendent and things like that,” he said. “I make no + promises. I only want to tell you that I like live young fellows who can + see the hole in a bushel basket. I like that kind. I like to see them get + up in the world.” + </p> + <p> + Steve heard the farmers continually expressing their skepticism about + making the plants that had been set by the machine grow into maturity, and + had the carpenter build another tiny field in a side window of the store. + He had the machine moved and plants set in the new field. He let these + grow. When some of the plants showed signs of dying he came secretly at + night and replaced them with sturdier shoots so that the miniature field + showed always a brave, vigorous front to the world. + </p> + <p> + Bidwell became convinced that the most rigorous of all forms of human + labor practiced by its people was at an end. Steve made and had hung in + the store window a large sheet showing the relative cost of planting an + acre of cabbage with the machine, and by what was already called “the old + way,” by hand. Then he formally announced that a stock company would be + formed in Bidwell and that every one would have a chance to get into it. + He printed an article in the weekly paper in which he said that many + offers had come to him to take his project to the city or to other and + larger towns. “Mr. McVey, the celebrated inventor, and I both want to + stick to our own people,” he said, regardless of the fact that Hugh knew + nothing of the article and had never been taken into the lives of the + people addressed. A day was set for the beginning of the taking of stock + subscriptions, and in private conversations Steve whispered of huge + profits to be made. The matter was talked over in every household and + plans were made for raising money to buy stock. John Clark agreed to lend + a certain percentage on the value of the town property and Steve secured a + long-time option on all the land facing Turner's Pike clear down to + Pickleville. When the town heard of this it was filled with wonder. “Gee,” + the loiterers before the store exclaimed, “old Bidwell is going to grow + up. Now look at that, will you? There are going to be houses clear down to + Pickleville.” Hugh went to Cleveland to see about having one of his new + machines made in steel and wood and in a size that would permit its actual + use in the field. He returned, a hero in the town's eyes. His silence made + it possible for the people, who could not entirely forget their former + lack of faith in Steve, to let their minds take hold of something they + thought was truly heroic. + </p> + <p> + In the evening, after going again to see the machine in the window of the + jewelry store, crowds of young and old men wandered down along Turner's + Pike to the Wheeling Station where a new man had come to replace Hugh. + They hardly saw the evening train when it came in. Like devotees before a + shrine they gazed with something like worship in their eyes at the old + pickle factory, and when by chance Hugh came among them, unconscious of + the sensation he was creating, they became embarrassed as he was always + embarrassed by their presence. Every one dreamed of becoming suddenly rich + by the power of the man's mind. They thought of him as thinking always + great thoughts. To be sure, Steve Hunter might be more than half bluff and + blow and pretense, but there was no bluff and blow about Hugh. He didn't + waste his time in words. He thought, and out of his thought sprang almost + unbelievable wonders. + </p> + <p> + In every part of the town of Bidwell, the new impulse toward progress was + felt. Old men, who had become settled in their ways and who had begun to + pass their days in a sort of sleepy submission to the idea of the gradual + passing away of their lives, awoke and went into Main Street in the + evening to argue with skeptical farmers. Beside Ed Hall, who had become a + Demosthenes on the subject of progress and the duty of the town to awake + and stick to Steve Hunter and the machine, a dozen other men held forth on + the street corners. Oratorical ability awoke in the most unexpected + places. Rumors flew from lip to lip. It was said that within a year + Bidwell was to have a brick factory covering acres of ground, that there + would be paved streets and electric lights. + </p> + <p> + Oddly enough the most persistent decrier of the new spirit in Bidwell was + the man who, if the machine turned out to be a success, would profit most + from its use. Ezra French, the profane, refused to be convinced. When + pressed by Ed Hall, Dr. Robinson, and other enthusiasts, he fell back upon + the word of that God whose name had been so much upon his lips. The + decrier of God became the defender of God. “The thing, you see, can't be + done. It ain't all right. Something awful'll happen. The rains won't come + and the plants'll dry up and die. It'll be like it was in Egypt in the + Bible times,” he declared. The old farmer with the twisted leg stood + before the crowd in the drug-store and proclaimed the truth of God's word. + “Don't it say in the Bible men shall work and labor by the sweat of their + brows?” he asked sharply. “Can a machine like that sweat? You know it + can't. And it can't do the work either. No, siree. Men've got to do it. + That's the way things have been since Cain killed Abel in the Garden of + Eden. God intended it so and there can't no telegraph operator or no smart + young squirt like Steve Hunter—fellows in a town like this—set + themselves up before me to change the workings of God's laws. It can't be + done, and if it could be done it would be wicked and ungodly to try. I'll + have nothing to do with it. It ain't right. That's what I say and all your + smart talk ain't a-going to change me.” + </p> + <p> + It was in the year 1892 that Steve Hunter organized the first industrial + enterprise that came to Bidwell. It was called the Bidwell Plant-Setting + Machine Company, and in the end it turned out to be a failure. A large + factory was built on the river bank facing the New York Central tracks. It + is now occupied by an enterprise called the Hunter Bicycle Company and is + what in industrial parlance is called a live, going concern. + </p> + <p> + For two years Hugh worked faithfully trying to perfect the first of his + inventions. After the working models of the plant-setter were brought from + Cleveland, two trained mechanics were employed to come to Bidwell and work + with him. In the old pickle factory an engine was installed and lathes and + other tool-making machines were set up. For a long time Steve, John Clark, + Tom Butterworth, and the other enthusiastic promoters of the enterprise + had no doubt as to the final outcome. Hugh wanted to perfect the machine, + had his heart set on doing the job he had set out to do, but he had then + and, for that matter, he continued during his whole life to have but + little conception of the import in the lives of the people about him of + the things he did. Day after day, with two city mechanics and Allie + Mulberry to drive the team of horses Steve had provided, he went into a + rented field north of the factory. Weak places developed in the + complicated mechanism, and new and stronger parts were made. For a time + the machine worked perfectly. Then other defects appeared and other parts + had to be strengthened and changed. The machine became too heavy to be + handled by one team. It would not work when the soil was either too wet or + too dry. It worked perfectly in both wet and dry sand but would do nothing + in clay. During the second year and when the factory was nearing + completion and much machinery had been installed, Hugh went to Steve and + told him of what he thought were the limitations of the machine. He was + depressed by his failure, but in working with the machine, he felt he had + succeeded in educating himself as he never could have done by studying + books. Steve decided that the factory should be started and some of the + machines made and sold. “You keep the two men you have and don't talk,” he + said. “The machine may yet turn out to be better than you think. One can + never tell. I have made it worth their while to keep still.” On the + afternoon of the day on which he had his talk with Hugh, Steve called the + four men who were associated with him in the promotion of the enterprise + into the back room of the bank and told them of the situation. “We're up + against something here,” he said. “If we let word of the failure of this + machine get out, where'll we be? It is a case of the survival of the + fittest.” + </p> + <p> + Steve explained his plan to the men in the room. After all, he said, there + was no occasion for any of them to get excited. He had taken them into the + thing and he proposed to get them out. “I'm that kind of a man,” he said + pompously. In a way, he declared, he was glad things had turned out as + they had. The four men had little actual money invested. They had all + tried honestly to do something for the town and he would see to it that + everything came out all right. “We'll be honest with every one,” he said. + “The stock in the company has all been sold. We'll make some of the + machines and sell them. If they're failures, as this inventor thinks, it + will not be our fault. The plant, you see, will have to be sold cheap. + When that times comes we five will have to save ourselves and the future + of the town. The machinery we have bought, is, you see, iron and wood + working machinery, the very latest kind. It can be used to make some other + thing. If the plant-setting machine is a failure we'll simply buy up the + plant at a low price and make something else. Perhaps it'll be better for + the town to have the entire stock control in our hands. You see we few men + have got to run things here. It's going to be on our shoulders to see that + labor is employed. A lot of small stock-holders are a nuisance. As man to + man I'm going to ask each of you not to sell his stock, but if any one + comes to you and asks about its value, I expect you to be loyal to our + enterprise. I'll begin looking about for something to replace the + plant-setting machine, and when the shop closes we'll start right up + again. It isn't every day men get a chance to sell themselves a fine plant + full of new machinery as we can do in a year or so now.” + </p> + <p> + Steve went out of the bank and left the four men staring at each other. + Then his father got up and went out. The other men, all connected with the + bank, arose and wandered out. “Well,” said John Clark, somewhat heavily, + “he's a smart man. I suppose after all it is up to us to stick with him + and with the town. As he says, labor has got to be employed. I can't see + that it does a carpenter or a farmer any good to own a little stock in a + factory. It only takes their minds off their work. They have foolish + dreams of getting rich and don't attend to their own affairs. It would be + an actual benefit to the town if a few men owned the factory.” The banker + lighted a cigar and going to a window stared out into the main street of + Bidwell. Already the town had changed. Three new brick buildings were + being erected on Main Street within sight of the bank window. Workmen + employed in the building of the factory had come to town to live, and many + new houses were being built. Everywhere things were astir. The stock of + the company had been oversubscribed, and almost every day men came into + the bank and spoke of wanting to buy more. Only the day before a farmer + had come in with two thousand dollars. The banker's mind began to secrete + the poison of his age. “After all, it's men like Steve Hunter, Tom + Butterworth, Gordon Hart, and myself that have to take care of things, and + to be in shape to do it we have to look out for ourselves,” he + soliloquized. Again he stared into Main Street. Tom Butterworth went out + at the front door. He wanted to be by himself and think his own thoughts. + Gordon Hart returned to the empty back room and standing by a window + looked out into an alleyway. His thoughts ran in the same channel as those + that played through the mind of the bank president. He also thought of men + who wanted to buy stock in the company that was doomed to failure. He + began to doubt the judgment of Hugh McVey in the matter of failure. “Such + fellows are always pessimists,” he told himself. From the window at the + back of the bank, he could see over the roofs of a row of small sheds and + down a residence street to where two new workingmen's houses were being + built. His thoughts only differed from the thoughts of John Clark because + he was a younger man. “A few men of the younger generation, like Steve and + myself will have to take hold of things,” he muttered aloud. “We'll have + to have money to work with. We'll have to take the responsibility of the + ownership of money.” + </p> + <p> + At the front of the bank John Clark puffed at his cigar. He felt like a + soldier weighing the chances of battle. Vaguely he thought of himself as a + general, a kind of U. S. Grant of industry. The lives and happiness of + many people, he told himself, depended on the clear working of his brain. + “Well,” he thought, “when factories start coming to a town and it begins + to grow as this town is growing no man can stop it. The fellow who thinks + of individual men, little fellows with their savings invested, who may be + hurt by an industrial failure, is just a weakling. Men have to face the + duties life brings. The few men who see clearly have to think first of + themselves. They have to save themselves in order that they may save + others.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Things kept on the stir in Bidwell and the gods of chance played into the + hands of Steve Hunter. Hugh invented an apparatus for lifting a loaded + coal-car off the railroad tracks, carrying it high up into the air and + dumping its contents into a chute. By its use an entire car of coal could + be emptied with a roaring rush into the hold of a ship or the engine room + of a factory. A model of the new invention was made and a patent secured. + Then Steve Hunter carried it off to New York. He received two hundred + thousand dollars in cash for it, half of which went to Hugh. Steve's faith + in the inventive genius of the Missourian was renewed and strengthened. He + looked forward with a feeling almost approaching pleasure to the time when + the town would be forced to face the fact that the plant-setting machine + was a failure, and the factory with its new machinery would have to be + thrown on the market. He knew that his associates in the promotion of the + enterprise were secretly selling their stock. One day he went to Cleveland + and had a long talk with a banker there. Hugh was at work on a + corn-cutting machine and already he had secured an option on it. “Perhaps + when the time comes to sell the factory there'll be more than one bidder,” + he told Ernestine, the soap maker's daughter, who had married him within a + month after the sale of the car-unloading device. He grew indignant when + he told her of the disloyalty of the two men in the bank, and the rich + farmer, Tom Butterworth. “They're selling their shares and letting the + small stock-holders lose their money,” he declared. “I told 'em not to do + it. Now if anything happens to spoil their plans they'll not have me to + blame.” + </p> + <p> + Nearly a year had been spent in stirring up the people of Bidwell to the + point of becoming investors. Then things began to stir. The ground was + broken for the erection of the factory. No one knew of the difficulties + that had been encountered in attempting to perfect the machine and word + was passed about that in actual tests in the fields it had proven itself + entirely practical. The skeptical farmers who came into town on Saturdays + were laughed at by the town enthusiasts. A field, that had been planted + during one of the brief periods when the machine finding ideal soil + conditions had worked perfectly, was left to grow. As when he operated the + tiny model in the store window, Steve took no chances. He engaged Ed Hall + to go at night and replace the plants that did not live. “It's fair + enough,” he explained to Ed. “A hundred things can cause the plants to + die, but if they die it'll be blamed on the machine. What will become of + the town if we don't believe in the thing we're going to manufacture + here?” + </p> + <p> + The crowds of people, who in the evenings walked out along Turner's Pike + to look at the field with its long rows of sturdy young cabbages, moved + restlessly about and talked of the new days. From the field they went + along the railroad tracks to the site of the factory. The brick walls + began to mount up into the sky. Machinery began to arrive and was housed + under temporary sheds against the time when it could be installed. An + advance horde of workmen came to town and new faces appeared on Main + Street in the evening. The thing that was happening in Bidwell happened in + towns all over the Middle West. Out through the coal and iron regions of + Pennsylvania, into Ohio and Indiana, and on westward into the States + bordering on the Mississippi River, industry crept. Gas and oil were + discovered in Ohio and Indiana. Over night, towns grew into cities. A + madness took hold of the minds of the people. Villages like Lima and + Findlay, Ohio, and like Muncie and Anderson in Indiana, became small + cities within a few weeks. To some of these places, so anxious were the + people to get to them and to invest their money, excursion trains were + run. Town lots that a few weeks before the discovery of oil or gas could + have been bought for a few dollars sold for thousands. Wealth seemed to be + spurting out of the very earth. On farms in Indiana and Ohio giant gas + wells blew the drilling machinery out of the ground, and the fuel so + essential to modern industrial development rushed into the open. A wit, + standing in the presence of one of the roaring gas wells exclaimed, “Papa, + Earth has indigestion; he has gas on his stomach. His face will be covered + with pimples.” + </p> + <p> + Having, before the factories came, no market for the gas, the wells were + lighted and at night great torches of flame lit the skies. Pipes were laid + on the surface of the ground and by a day's work a laborer earned enough + to heat his house at tropical heat through an entire winter. Farmers + owning oil-producing land went to bed in the evening poor and owing money + at the bank, and awoke in the morning rich. They moved into the towns and + invested their money in the factories that sprang up everywhere. In one + county in southern Michigan, over five hundred patents for woven wire farm + fencing were taken out in one year, and almost every patent was a magnet + about which a company for the manufacture of fence formed itself. A vast + energy seemed to come out of the breast of earth and infect the people. + Thousands of the most energetic men of the middle States wore themselves + out in forming companies, and when the companies failed, immediately + formed others. In the fast-growing towns, men who were engaged in + organizing companies representing a capital of millions lived in houses + thrown hurriedly together by carpenters who, before the time of the great + awakening, were engaged in building barns. It was a time of hideous + architecture, a time when thought and learning paused. Without music, + without poetry, without beauty in their lives or impulses, a whole people, + full of the native energy and strength of lives lived in a new land, + rushed pell-mell into a new age. A man in Ohio, who had been a dealer in + horses, made a million dollars out of a patent churn he had bought for the + price of a farm horse, took his wife to visit Europe and in Paris bought a + painting for fifty thousand dollars. In another State of the Middle West, + a man who sold patent medicine from door to door through the country began + dealing in oil leases, became fabulously rich, bought himself three daily + newspapers, and before he had reached the age of thirty-five succeeded in + having himself elected Governor of his State. In the glorification of his + energy his unfitness as a statesman was forgotten. + </p> + <p> + In the days before the coming of industry, before the time of the mad + awakening, the towns of the Middle West were sleepy places devoted to the + practice of the old trades, to agriculture and to merchandising. In the + morning the men of the towns went forth to work in the fields or to the + practice of the trade of carpentry, horse-shoeing, wagon making, harness + repairing, and the making of shoes and clothing. They read books and + believed in a God born in the brains of men who came out of a civilization + much like their own. On the farms and in the houses in the towns the men + and women worked together toward the same ends in life. They lived in + small frame houses set on the plains like boxes, but very substantially + built. The carpenter who built a farmer's house differentiated it from the + barn by putting what he called scroll work up under the eaves and by + building at the front a porch with carved posts. After one of the poor + little houses had been lived in for a long time, after children had been + born and men had died, after men and women had suffered and had moments of + joy together in the tiny rooms under the low roofs, a subtle change took + place. The houses became almost beautiful in their old humanness. Each of + the houses began vaguely to shadow forth the personality of the people who + lived within its walls. + </p> + <p> + In the farmhouses and in the houses on the side streets in the villages, + life awoke at dawn. Back of each of the houses there was a barn for the + horses and cows, and sheds for pigs and chickens. At daylight a chorus of + neighs, squeals, and cries broke the silence. Boys and men came out of the + houses. They stood in the open spaces before the barns and stretched their + bodies like sleepy animals. The arms extended upward seemed to be + supplicating the gods for fair days, and the fair days came. The men and + boys went to a pump beside the house and washed their faces and hands in + the cold water. In the kitchens there was the smell and sound of the + cooking of food. The women also were astir. The men went into the barns to + feed the animals and then hurried to the houses to be themselves fed. A + continual grunting sound came from the sheds where pigs were eating corn, + and over the houses a contented silence brooded. + </p> + <p> + After the morning meal men and animals went together to the fields and to + the doing of their tasks, and in the houses the women mended clothes, put + fruit in cans against the coming of winter and talked of woman's affairs. + On the streets of the towns on fair days lawyers, doctors, the officials + of the county courts, and the merchants walked about in their shirt + sleeves. The house painter went along with his ladder on his shoulder. In + the stillness there could be heard the hammers of the carpenters building + a new house for the son of a merchant who had married the daughter of a + blacksmith. A sense of quiet growth awoke in sleeping minds. It was the + time for art and beauty to awake in the land. + </p> + <p> + Instead, the giant, Industry, awoke. Boys, who in the schools had read of + Lincoln, walking for miles through the forest to borrow his first book, + and of Garfield, the towpath lad who became president, began to read in + the newspapers and magazines of men who by developing their faculty for + getting and keeping money had become suddenly and overwhelmingly rich. + Hired writers called these men great, and there was no maturity of mind in + the people with which to combat the force of the statement, often + repeated. Like children the people believed what they were told. + </p> + <p> + While the new factory was being built with the carefully saved dollars of + the people, young men from Bidwell went out to work in other places. After + oil and gas were discovered in neighboring states, they went to the + fast-growing towns and came home telling wonder tales. In the boom towns + men earned four, five and even six dollars a day. In secret and when none + of the older people were about, they told of adventures on which they had + gone in the new places; of how, attracted by the flood of money, women + came from the cities; and the times they had been with these women. Young + Harley Parsons, whose father was a shoemaker and who had learned the + blacksmith trade, went to work in one of the new oil fields. He came home + wearing a fancy silk vest and astonished his fellows by buying and smoking + ten-cent cigars. His pockets were bulging with money. “I'm not going to + stay long in this town, you can bet on that,” he declared one evening as + he stood, surrounded by a group of admirers before Fanny Twist's Millinery + Shop on lower Main Street. “I have been with a Chinese woman, and an + Italian, and with one from South America.” He took a puff of his cigar and + spat on the sidewalk. “I'm out to get what I can out of life,” he + declared. “I'm going back and I'm going to make a record. Before I get + through I'm going to be with a woman of every nationality on earth, that's + what I'm going to do.” + </p> + <p> + Joseph Wainsworth the harness maker, who had been the first man in Bidwell + to feel the touch of the heavy finger of industrialism, could not get over + the effect of the conversation had with Butterworth, the farmer who had + asked him to repair harnesses made by machines in a factory. He became a + silent disgruntled man and muttered as he went about his work in the shop. + When Will Sellinger his apprentice threw up his place and went to + Cleveland he did not get another boy but for a time worked alone in the + shop. He got the name of being disagreeable, and on winter afternoons the + farmers no longer came into his place to loaf. Being a sensitive man, Joe + felt like a pigmy, a tiny thing walking always in the presence of a giant + that might at any moment and by a whim destroy him. All his life he had + been somewhat off-hand with his customers. “If they don't like my work, + let 'em go to the devil,” he said to his apprentices. “I know my trade and + I don't have to bow down to any one here.” + </p> + <p> + When Steve Hunter organized the Bidwell Plant-Setting Machine Company, the + harness maker put his savings, twelve hundred dollars, into the stock of + the company. One day, during the time when the factory was building, he + heard that Steve had paid twelve hundred dollars for a new lathe that had + just arrived by freight and had been set on the floor of the uncompleted + building. The promoter had told a farmer that the lathe would do the work + of a hundred men, and the farmer had come into Joe's shop and repeated the + statement. It stuck in Joe's mind and he came to believe that the twelve + hundred dollars he had invested in stock had been used for the purchase of + the lathe. It was money he had earned in a long lifetime of effort and it + had now bought a machine that would do the work of a hundred men. Already + his money had increased by a hundred fold and he wondered why he could not + be happy about the matter. On some days he was happy, and then his + happiness was followed by an odd fit of depression. Suppose, after all, + the plant-setting machine wouldn't work? What then could be done with the + lathe, with the machine bought with his money? + </p> + <p> + One evening after dark and without saying anything to his wife, he went + down along Turner's Pike to the old factory at Pickleville where Hugh with + the half-wit Allie Mulberry, and the two mechanics from the city, were + striving to correct the faults in the plant-setting machine. Joe wanted to + look at the tall gaunt man from the West, and had some notion of trying to + get into conversation with him and of asking his opinion of the + possibilities of the success of the new machine. The man of the age of + flesh and blood wanted to walk in the presence of the man who belonged to + the new age of iron and steel. When he got to the factory it was dark and + on an express truck in front of the Wheeling Station the two city workmen + sat smoking their evening pipes. Joe walked past them to the station door + and then returned along the platform and got again into Turner's Pike. He + stumbled along the path beside the road and presently saw Hugh McVey + coming toward him. It was one of the evenings when Hugh, overcome with + loneliness, and puzzled that his new position in the town's life did not + bring him any closer to people, had gone to town to walk through Main + Street, half hoping some one would break through his embarrassment and + enter into conversation with him. + </p> + <p> + When the harness maker saw Hugh walking in the path, he crept into a fence + corner, and crouching down, watched the man as Hugh had watched the French + boys at work in the cabbage fields. Strange thoughts came into his head. + He thought the extraordinarily tall figure before him in some way + terrible. He became childishly angry and for a moment thought that if he + had a stone in his hand he would throw it at the man, the workings of + whose brain had so upset his own life. Then as the figure of Hugh went + away along the path another mood came. “I have worked all my life for + twelve hundred dollars, for money that will buy one machine that this man + thinks nothing about,” he muttered aloud. “Perhaps I'll get more money + than I invested: Steve Hunter says maybe I will. If machines kill the + harness-making trade what's the difference? I'll be all right. The thing + to do is to get in with the new times, to wake up, that's the ticket. With + me it's like with every one else: nothing venture nothing gain.” + </p> + <p> + Joe crawled out of the fence corner and went stealthily along the road + behind Hugh. A fervor seized him and he thought he would like to creep + close and touch with his finger the hem of Hugh's coat. Afraid to try + anything so bold his mind took a new turn. He ran in the darkness along + the road toward town and, when he had crossed the bridge and come to the + New York Central tracks, turned west and went along the tracks until he + came to the new factory. In the darkness the half completed walls stuck up + into the sky, and all about were piles of building materials. The night + had been dark and cloudy, but now the moon began to push its way through + the clouds. Joe crawled over a pile of bricks and through a window into + the building. He felt his way along the walls until he came to a mass of + iron covered by a rubber blanket. He was sure it must be the lathe his + money had bought, the machine that was to do the work of a hundred men and + that was to make him comfortably rich in his old age. No one had spoken of + any other machine having been brought in on the factory floor. Joe knelt + on the floor and put his hands about the heavy iron legs of the machine. + “What a strong thing it is! It will not break easily,” he thought. He had + an impulse to do something he knew would be foolish, to kiss the iron legs + of the machine or to say a prayer as he knelt before it. Instead he got to + his feet and crawling out again through the window, went home. He felt + renewed and full of new courage because of the experiences of the night, + but when he got to his own house and stood at the door outside, he heard + his neighbor, David Chapman, a wheelwright who worked in Charlie Collins' + wagon shop, praying in his bedroom before an open window. Joe listened for + a moment and, for some reason he couldn't understand, his new-found faith + was destroyed by what he heard. David Chapman, a devout Methodist, was + praying for Hugh McVey and for the success of his invention. Joe knew his + neighbor had also invested his savings in the stock of the new company. He + had thought that he alone was doubtful of success, but it was apparent + that doubt had come also into the mind of the wheelwright. The pleading + voice of the praying man, as it broke the stillness of the night, cut + across and for the moment utterly destroyed his confidence. “O God, help + the man Hugh McVey to remove every obstacle that stands in his way,” David + Chapman prayed. “Make the plant-setting machine a success. Bring light + into the dark places. O Lord, help Hugh McVey, thy servant, to build + successfully the plant-setting machine.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK THREE + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <p> + When Clara Butterworth, the daughter of Tom Butterworth, was eighteen + years old she graduated from the town high school. Until the summer of her + seventeenth year, she was a tall, strong, hard-muscled girl, shy in the + presence of strangers and bold with people she knew well. Her eyes were + extraordinarily gentle. + </p> + <p> + The Butterworth house on Medina Road stood back of an apple orchard and + there was a second orchard beside the house. The Medina Road ran south + from Bidwell and climbed gradually upward toward a country of low hills, + and from the side porch of the Butterworth house the view was magnificent. + The house itself was a large brick affair with a cupola on top and was + considered at that time the most pretentious place in the county. + </p> + <p> + Behind the house were several great barns for the horses and cattle. Most + of Tom Butterworth's farm land lay north of Bidwell, and some of his + fields were five miles from his home; but as he did not himself work the + land it did not matter. The farms were rented to men who worked them on + shares. Beside the business of farming Tom carried on other affairs. He + owned two hundred acres of hillside land near his house and, with the + exception of a few fields and a strip of forest land, it was devoted to + the grazing of sheep and cattle. Milk and cream were delivered each + morning to the householders of Bidwell by two wagons driven by his + employees. A half mile to the west of his residence there was a slaughter + house on a side road and at the edge of a field where cattle were killed + for the Bidwell market. Tom owned it and employed the men who did the + killing. A creek that came down out of the hills through one of the fields + past his house had been dammed, and south of the pond there was an ice + house. He also supplied the town with ice. In his orchards beneath the + trees stood more than a hundred beehives and every year he shipped honey + to Cleveland. The farmer himself was a man who appeared to do nothing, but + his shrewd mind was always at work. In the summer throughout the long + sleepy afternoons, he drove about over the county buying sheep and cattle, + stopping to trade horses with some farmer, dickering for new pieces of + land, everlastingly busy. He had one passion. He loved fast trotting + horses, but would not humor himself by owning one. “It's a game that only + gets you into trouble and debt,” he said to his friend John Clark, the + banker. “Let other men own the horses and go broke racing them. I'll go to + the races. Every fall I can go to Cleveland to the grand circuit. If I go + crazy about a horse I can bet ten dollars he'll win. If he doesn't I'm out + ten dollars. If I owned him I would maybe be out hundreds for the expense + of training and all that.” The farmer was a tall man with a white beard, + broad shoulders, and rather small slender white hands. He chewed tobacco, + but in spite of the habit kept both himself and his white beard + scrupulously clean. His wife had died while he was yet in the full vigor + of life, but he had no eye for women. His mind, he once told one of his + friends, was too much occupied with his own affairs and with thoughts of + the fine horses he had seen to concern itself with any such nonsense. + </p> + <p> + For many years the farmer did not appear to pay much attention to his + daughter Clara, who was his only child. Throughout her childhood she was + under the care of one of his five sisters, all of whom except the one who + lived with him and managed his household being comfortably married. His + own wife had been a somewhat frail woman, but his daughter had inherited + his own physical strength. + </p> + <p> + When Clara was seventeen, she and her father had a quarrel that eventually + destroyed their relationship. The quarrel began late in July. It was a + busy summer on the farms and more than a dozen men were employed about the + barns, in the delivery of ice and milk to the town, and at the + slaughtering pens a half mile away. During that summer something happened + to the girl. For hours she sat in her own room in the house reading books, + or lay in a hammock in the orchard and looked up through the fluttering + leaves of the apple trees at the summer sky. A light, strangely soft and + enticing, sometimes came into her eyes. Her figure that had been boyish + and strong began to change. As she went about the house she sometimes + smiled at nothing. Her aunt hardly noticed what was happening to her, but + her father, who all her life had seemed hardly to take account of her + existence, was interested. In her presence he began to feel like a young + man. As in the days of his courtship of her mother and before the + possessive passion in him destroyed his ability to love, he began to feel + vaguely that life about him was full of significance. Sometimes in the + afternoon when he went for one of his long drives through the country he + asked his daughter to accompany him, and although he had little to say a + kind of gallantry crept into his attitude toward the awakening girl. While + she was in the buggy with him, he did not chew tobacco, and after one or + two attempts to indulge in the habit without having the smoke blow in her + face, he gave up smoking his pipe during the drives. + </p> + <p> + Always before that summer Clara had spent the months when there was no + school in the company of the farm hands. She rode on wagons, visited the + barns, and when she grew weary of the company of older people, went into + town to spend an afternoon with one of her friends among the town girls. + </p> + <p> + In the summer of her seventeenth year she did none of these things. At the + table she ate in silence. The Butterworth household was at that time run + on the old-fashioned American plan, and the farm hands, the men who drove + the ice and milk wagons and even the men who killed and dressed cattle and + sheep, ate at the same table with Tom Butterworth, his sister, who was the + housekeeper, and his daughter. Three hired girls were employed in the + house and after all had been served they also came and took their places + at table. The older men among the farmer's employees, many of whom had + known her from childhood, had got into the habit of teasing the daughter + of the house. They made comments concerning town boys, young fellows who + clerked in stores or who were apprenticed to some tradesman and one of + whom had perhaps brought the girl home at night from a school party or + from one of the affairs called “socials” that were held at the town + churches. After they had eaten in the peculiar silent intent way common to + hungry laborers, the farm hands leaned back in their chairs and winked at + each other. Two of them began an elaborate conversation touching on some + incident in the girl's life. One of the older men, who had been on the + farm for many years and who had a reputation among the others of being + something of a wit, chuckled softly. He began to talk, addressing no one + in particular. The man's name was Jim Priest, and although the Civil War + had come upon the country when he was past forty, he had been a soldier. + In Bidwell he was looked upon as something of a rascal, but his employer + was very fond of him. The two men often talked together for hours + concerning the merits of well known trotting horses. In the war Jim had + been what was called a bounty man, and it was whispered about town that he + had also been a deserter and a bounty jumper. He did not go to town with + the other men on Saturday afternoons, and had never attempted to get into + the Bidwell chapter of the G. A. R. On Saturdays when the other farm hands + washed, shaved and dressed themselves in their Sunday clothes preparatory + to the weekly flight to town, he called one of them into the barn, slipped + a quarter into his hand, and said, “Bring me a half pint and don't you + forget it.” On Sunday afternoons he crawled into the hayloft of one of the + barns, drank his weekly portion of whisky, got drunk, and sometimes did + not appear again until time to go to work on Monday morning. In the fall + Jim took his savings and went to spend a week at the grand circuit + trotting meeting at Cleveland, where he bought a costly present for his + employer's daughter and then bet the rest of his money on the races. When + he was lucky he stayed on in Cleveland, drinking and carousing until his + winnings were gone. + </p> + <p> + It was Jim Priest who always led the attacks of teasing at the table, and + in the summer of her seventeenth year, when she was no longer in the mood + for such horse-play, it was Jim who brought the practice to an end. At the + table Jim leaned back in his chair, stroked his red bristly beard, now + rapidly graying, looked out of a window over Clara's head, and told a tale + concerning an attempt at suicide on the part of a young man in love with + Clara. He said the young man, a clerk in a Bidwell store, had taken a pair + of trousers from a shelf, tied one leg about his neck and the other to a + bracket in the wall. Then he jumped off a counter and had only been saved + from death because a town girl, passing the store, had seen him and had + rushed in and cut him down. “Now what do you think of that?” he cried. “He + was in love with our Clara, I tell you.” + </p> + <p> + After the telling of the tale, Clara got up from the table and ran out of + the room. The farm hands joined by her father laughed heartily. Her aunt + shook her finger at Jim Priest, the hero of the occasion. “Why don't you + let her alone?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “She'll never get married if she stays here where you make fun of every + young man who pays her any attention.” At the door Clara stopped and, + turning, put out her tongue at Jim Priest. Another roar of laughter arose. + Chairs were scraped along the floor and the men filed out of the house to + go back to the work in the barns and about the farm. + </p> + <p> + In the summer when the change came over her Clara sat at the table and did + not hear the tales told by Jim Priest. She thought the farm hands who ate + so greedily were vulgar, a notion she had never had before, and wished she + did not have to eat with them. One afternoon as she lay in the hammock in + the orchard, she heard several of the men in a nearby barn discussing the + change that had come over her. Jim Priest was explaining what had + happened. “Our fun's over with Clara,” he said. “Now we'll have to treat + her in a new way. She's no longer a kid. We'll have to let her alone or + pretty soon she won't speak to any of us. It's a thing that happens when a + girl begins to think about being a woman. The sap has begun to run up the + tree.” + </p> + <p> + The puzzled girl lay in the hammock and looked up at the sky. She thought + about Jim Priest's words and tried to understand what he meant. Sadness + crept over her and tears came into her eyes. Although she did not know + what the old man meant by the words about the sap and the tree, she did, + in a detached subconscious way, understand something of the import of the + words, and she was grateful for the thoughtfulness that had led to his + telling the others to stop trying to tease her at the table. The half + worn-out old farm hand, with the bristly beard and the strong old body, + became a figure full of significance to her mind. She remembered with + gratitude that, in spite of all of his teasing, Jim Priest had never said + anything that had in any way hurt her. In the new mood that had come upon + her that meant much. A greater hunger for understanding, love, and + friendliness took possession of her. She did not think of turning to her + father or to her aunt, with whom she had never talked of anything intimate + or close to herself, but turned instead to the crude old man. A hundred + minor points in the character of Jim Priest she had never thought of + before came sharply into her mind. In the barns he had never mistreated + the animals as the other farm hands sometimes did. When on Sunday + afternoons he was drunk and went staggering through the barns, he did not + strike the horses or swear at them. She wondered if it would be possible + for her to talk to Jim Priest, to ask him questions about life and people + and what he meant by his words regarding the sap and the tree. The farm + hand was old and unmarried. She wondered if in his youth he had ever loved + a woman. She decided he had. His words about the sap were, she was sure, + in some way connected with the idea of love. How strong his hands were. + They were gnarled and rough, but there was something beautifully powerful + about them. She half wished the old man had been her father. In his youth, + in the darkness at night or when he was alone with a girl, perhaps in a + quiet wood in the late afternoon when the sun was going down, he had put + his hands on her shoulders. He had drawn the girl to him. He had kissed + her. + </p> + <p> + Clara jumped quickly out of the hammock and walked about under the trees + in the orchard. Her thoughts of Jim Priest's youth startled her. It was as + though she had walked suddenly into a room where a man and woman were + making love. Her cheeks burned and her hands trembled. As she walked + slowly through the clumps of grass and weeds that grew between the trees + where the sunlight struggled through, bees coming home to the hives + heavily laden with honey flew in droves about her head. There was + something heady and purposeful about the song of labor that arose out of + the beehives. It got into her blood and her step quickened. The words of + Jim Priest that kept running through her mind seemed a part of the same + song the bees were singing. “The sap has begun to run up the tree,” she + repeated aloud. How significant and strange the words seemed! They were + the kind of words a lover might use in speaking to his beloved. She had + read many novels, but they contained no such words. It was better so. It + was better to hear them from human lips. Again she thought of Jim Priest's + youth and boldly wished he were still young. She told herself that she + would like to see him young and married to a beautiful young woman. She + stopped by a fence that looked out upon a hillside meadow. The sun seemed + extraordinarily bright, the grass in the meadow greener than she had ever + seen it before. Two birds in a tree nearby made love to each other. The + female flew madly about and was pursued by the male bird. In his eagerness + he was so intent that he flew directly before the girl's face, his wing + nearly touching her cheek. She went back through the orchard to the barns + and through one of them to the open door of a long shed that was used for + housing wagons and buggies, her mind occupied with the idea of finding Jim + Priest, of standing perhaps near him. He was not about, but in the open + space before the shed, John May, a young man of twenty-two who had just + come to work on the farm, was oiling the wheels of a wagon. His back was + turned and as he handled the heavy wagon wheels the muscles could be seen + playing beneath his thin cotton shirt. “It is so Jim Priest must have + looked in his youth,” the girl thought. + </p> + <p> + The farm girl wanted to approach the young man, to speak to him, to ask + him questions concerning many strange things in life she did not + understand. She knew that under no circumstances would she be able to do + such a thing, that it was but a meaningless dream that had come into her + head, but the dream was sweet. She did not, however, want to talk to John + May. At the moment she was in a girlish period of being disgusted at what + she thought of as the vulgarity of the men who worked on the place. At the + table they ate noisily and greedily like hungry animals. She wanted youth + that was like her own youth, crude and uncertain perhaps, but reaching + eagerly out into the unknown. She wanted to draw very near to something + young, strong, gentle, insistent, beautiful. When the farm hand looked up + and saw her standing and looking intently at him, she was embarrassed. For + a moment the two young animals, so unlike each other, stood staring at + each other and then, to relieve her embarrassment, Clara began to play a + game. Among the men employed on the farm she had always passed for + something of a tomboy. In the hayfields and in the barns she had wrestled + and fought playfully with both the old and the young men. To them she had + always been a privileged person. They liked her and she was the boss's + daughter. One did not get rough with her or say or do rough things. A + basket of corn stood just within the door of the shed, and running to it + Clara took an ear of the yellow corn and threw it at the farm hand. It + struck a post of the barn just above his head. Laughing shrilly Clara ran + into the shed among the wagons, and the farm hand pursued her. + </p> + <p> + John May was a very determined man. He was the son of a laborer in Bidwell + and for two or three years had been employed about the stable of a doctor, + something had happened between him and the doctor's wife and he had left + the place because he had a notion that the doctor was becoming suspicious. + The experience had taught him the value of boldness in dealing with women. + Ever since he had come to work on the Butterworth farm, he had been having + thoughts regarding the girl who had now, he imagined, given him direct + challenge. He was a little amazed by her boldness but did not stop to ask + himself questions, she had openly invited him to pursue her. That was + enough. His accustomed awkwardness and clumsiness went away and he leaped + lightly over the extended tongues of wagons and buggies. He caught Clara + in dark corner of the shed. Without a word he took her tightly into his + arms and kissed her, first upon the neck and then on the mouth. She lay + trembling and weak in his arms and he took hold of the collar of her dress + and tore it open. Her brown neck and one of her hard, round breasts were + exposed. Clara's eyes grew big with fright. Strength came back into her + body. With her sharp hard little fist she struck John May in the face; and + when he stepped back she ran quickly out of the shed. John May did not + understand. He thought she had sought him out once and would return. + “She's a little green. I was too fast. I scared her. Next time I'll go a + little easy,” he thought. + </p> + <p> + Clara ran through the barn and then walked slowly to the house and went + upstairs to her own room. A farm dog followed her up the stairs and stood + at her door wagging his tail. She shut the door in his face. For the + moment everything that lived and breathed seemed to her gross and ugly. + Her cheeks were pale and she pulled shut the blinds to the window and sat + down on the bed, overcome with the strange new fear of life. She did not + want even the sunlight to come into her presence. John May had followed + her through the barn and now stood in the barnyard staring at the house. + She could see him through the cracks of the blinds and wished it were + possible to kill him with a gesture of her hand. + </p> + <p> + The farm hand, full of male confidence, waited for her to come to the + window and look down at him. He wondered if there were any one else in the + house. Perhaps she would beckon to him. Something of the kind had happened + between him and the doctor's wife and it had turned out that way. When + after five or ten minutes he did not see her, he went back to the work of + oiling the wagon wheels. “It's going to be a slower thing. She's shy, a + green girl,” he told himself. + </p> + <p> + One evening a week later Clara sat on the side porch of the house with her + father when John May came into the barnyard. It was a Wednesday evening + and the farm hands were not in the habit of going into town until + Saturday, but he was dressed in his Sunday clothes and had shaved and + oiled his hair. On the occasion of a wedding or a funeral the laborers put + oil in their hair. It was indicative of something very important about to + happen. Clara looked at him, and in spite of the feeling of repugnance + that swept over her, her eyes glistened. Ever since the affair in the barn + she had managed to avoid meeting him but she was not afraid. He had in + fact taught her something. There was a power within her with which she + could conquer men. The touch of her father's shrewdness, that was a part + of her nature, had come to her rescue. She wanted to laugh at the silly + pretensions of the man, to make a fool of him. Her cheeks flushed with + pride in her mastery of the situation. + </p> + <p> + John May walked almost to the house and then turned along the path that + led to the road. He made a gesture with his hand and by chance Tom + Butterworth, who had been looking off across the open country toward + Bidwell, turned and saw both the movement and the leering confident smile + on the farm hand's face. He arose and followed John May into the road, + astonishment and anger fighting for possession of him. The two men stood + talking for three minutes in the road before the house and then returned. + The farm hand went to the barn and then came back along the path to the + road carrying under his arm a grain bag containing his work clothes. He + did not look up as he went past. The farmer returned to the porch. + </p> + <p> + The misunderstanding that was to wreck the tender relationship that had + begun to grow up between father and daughter began on that evening. Tom + Butterworth was furious. He muttered and clinched his fists. Clara's heart + beat heavily. For some reason she felt guilty, as though she had been + caught in an intrigue with the man. For a long time her father remained + silent and then he, like the farm hand, made a furious and brutal attack + on her. “Where have you been with that fellow? What you been up to?” he + asked harshly. + </p> + <p> + For a time Clara did not answer her father's question. She wanted to + scream, to strike him in the face with her fist as she had struck the man + in the shed. Then her mind struggled to take hold of the new situation. + The fact that her father had accused her of seeking the thing that had + happened made her hate John May less heartily. She had some one else to + hate. + </p> + <p> + Clara did not think the matter out clearly on that first evening but, + after denying that she had ever been anywhere with John May, burst into + tears and ran into the house. In the darkness of her own room she began to + think of her father's words. For some reason she could not understand, the + attack made on her spirit seemed more terrible and unforgivable than the + attack upon her body made by the farm hand in the shed. She began to + understand vaguely that the young man had been confused by her presence on + that warm sunshiny afternoon as she had been confused by the words uttered + by Jim Priest, by the song of the bees in the orchard, by the love-making + of the birds, and by her own uncertain thoughts. He had been confused and + he was stupid and young. There had been an excuse for his confusion. It + was understandable and could be dealt with. She had now no doubt of her + own ability to deal with John May. As for her father—it was all + right for him to be suspicious regarding the farm hand, but why had he + been suspicious of her? + </p> + <p> + The perplexed girl sat down in the darkness on the edge of the bed, and a + hard look came into her eyes. After a time her father came up the stairs + and knocked at her door. He did not come in but stood in the hallway + outside and talked. She remained calm while the conversation lasted, and + that confused the man who had expected to find her in tears. That she was + not seemed to him an evidence of guilt. + </p> + <p> + Tom Butterworth, in many ways a shrewd, observing man, never understood + the quality of his own daughter. He was an intensely possessive man and + once, when he was newly married, there had been a suspicion in his mind + that there was something between his wife and a young man who had worked + on the farm where he then lived. The suspicion was unfounded, but he + discharged the man and one evening, when his wife had gone into town to do + some shopping and did not return at the accustomed time, he followed, and + when he saw her on the street stepped into a store to avoid a meeting. She + was in trouble. Her horse had become suddenly lame and she had to walk + home. Without letting her see him the husband followed along the road. It + was dark and she heard the footsteps in the road behind her and becoming + frightened ran the last half mile to her own house. He waited until she + had entered and then followed her in, pretending he had just come from the + barns. When he heard her story of the accident to the horse and of her + fright in the road he was ashamed; but as the horse, that had been left in + a livery stable, seemed all right when he went for it the next day he + became suspicious again. + </p> + <p> + As he stood outside the door of his daughter's room, the farmer felt as he + had felt that evening long before when he followed his wife along the + road. When on the porch downstairs he had looked up suddenly and had seen + the gesture made by the farm hand, he had also looked quickly at his + daughter. She looked confused and, he thought, guilty. “Well, it is the + same thing over again,” he thought bitterly, “like mother, like daughter—they + are both of the same stripe.” Getting quickly out of his chair he had + followed the young man into the road and had discharged him. “Go, + to-night. I don't want to see you on the place again,” he said. In the + darkness before the girl's room he thought of many bitter things he wanted + to say. He forgot she was a girl and talked to her as he might have talked + to a mature, sophisticated, and guilty woman. “Come,” he said, “I want to + know the truth. If you have been with that farm hand you are starting + young. Has anything happened between you?” + </p> + <p> + Clara walked to the door and confronted her father. The hatred of him, + born in that hour and that never left her, gave her strength. She did not + know what he was talking about, but had a keen sense of the fact that he, + like the stupid, young man in the shed, was trying to violate something + very precious in her nature. “I don't know what you are talking about,” + she said calmly, “but I know this. I am no longer a child. Within the last + week I've become a woman. If you don't want me in your house, if you don't + like me any more, say so and I'll go away.” + </p> + <p> + The two people stood in the darkness and tried to look at each other. + Clara was amazed by her own strength and by the words that had come to + her. The words had clarified something. She felt that if her father would + but take her into his arms or say some kindly understanding word, all + could be forgotten. Life could be started over again. In the future she + would understand much that she had not understood. She and her father + could draw close to each other. Tears came into her eyes and a sob + trembled in her throat. As her father, however, did not answer her words + and turned to go silently away, she shut the door with a loud bang and + afterward lay awake all night, white and furious with anger and + disappointment. + </p> + <p> + Clara left home to become a college student that fall, but before she left + had another passage at arms with her father. In August a young man who was + to teach in the town schools came to Bidwell, and she met him at a supper + given in the basement of the church. He walked home with her and came on + the following Sunday afternoon to call. She introduced the young man, a + slender fellow with black hair, brown eyes, and a serious face, to her + father who answered by nodding his head and walking away. She and the + young man walked along a country road and went into a wood. He was five + years older than herself and had been to college, but she felt much the + older and wiser. The thing that happens to so many women had happened to + her. She felt older and wiser than all the men she had ever seen. She had + decided, as most women finally decide, that there are two kinds of men in + the world, those who are kindly, gentle, well-intentioned children, and + those who, while they remain children, are obsessed with stupid, male + vanity and imagine themselves born to be masters of life. Clara's thoughts + on the matter were not very clear. She was young and her thoughts were + indefinite. She had, however, been shocked into an acceptance of life and + she was made of the kind of stuff that survives the blows life gives. + </p> + <p> + In the wood with the young school teacher, Clara began an experiment. + Evening came on and it grew dark. She knew her father would be furious + that she did not come home but she did not care. She led the school + teacher to talk of love and the relationships of men and women. She + pretended an innocence that was not hers. School girls know many things + that they do not apply to themselves until something happens to them such + as had happened to Clara. The farmer's daughter became conscious. She knew + a thousand things she had not known a month before and began to take her + revenge upon men for their betrayal of her. In the darkness as they walked + home together, she tempted the young man into kissing her, and later lay + in his arms for two hours, entirely sure of herself, striving to find out, + without risk to herself, the things she wanted to know about life. + </p> + <p> + That night she again quarreled with her father. He tried to scold her for + remaining out late with a man, and she shut the door in his face. On + another evening she walked boldly out of the house with the school + teacher. The two walked along a road to where a bridge went over a small + stream. John May, who was still determined that the farmer's daughter was + in love with him, had on that evening followed the school teacher to the + Butterworth house and had been waiting outside intending to frighten his + rival with his fists. On the bridge something happened that drove the + school teacher away. John May came up to the two people and began to make + threats. The bridge had just been repaired and a pile of small, + sharp-edged stones lay close at hand. Clara picked one of them up and + handed it to the school teacher. “Hit him,” she said. “Don't be afraid. + He's only a coward. Hit him on the head with the stone.” + </p> + <p> + The three people stood in silence waiting for something to happen. John + May was disconcerted by Clara's words. He had thought she wanted him to + pursue her. He stepped toward the school teacher, who dropped the stone + that had been put into his hand and ran away. Clara went back along the + road toward her own house followed by the muttering farm hand who, after + her speech at the bridge, did not dare approach. “Maybe she was making a + bluff. Maybe she didn't want that young fellow to get on to what is + between us,” he muttered, as he stumbled along in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + In the house Clara sat for a half hour at a table in the lighted living + room beside her father, pretending to read a book. She half hoped he would + say something that would permit her to attack him. When nothing happened + she went upstairs and to bed, only again to spend the night awake and + white with anger at the thought of the cruel and unexplainable things life + seemed trying to do to her. + </p> + <p> + In September Clara left the farm to attend the State University at + Columbus. She was sent there because Tom Butterworth had a sister who was + married to a manufacturer of plows and lived at the State Capital. After + the incident with the farm hand and the misunderstanding that had sprung + up between himself and his daughter, he was uncomfortable with her in the + house and was glad to have her away. He did not want to frighten his + sister by telling of what had happened, and when he wrote, tried to be + diplomatic. “Clara has been too much among the rough men who work on my + farms and had become a little rough,” he wrote. “Take her in hand. I want + her to become more of a lady. Get her acquainted with the right kind of + people.” In secret he hoped she would meet and marry some young man while + she was away. Two of his sisters had gone away to school and it had turned + out that way. + </p> + <p> + During the month before his daughter left home the farmer tried to be + somewhat more human and gentle in his attitude toward her, but did not + succeed in dispelling the dislike of himself that had taken deep root in + her nature. At table he made jokes at which the farm hands laughed + boisterously. Then he looked at his daughter who did not appear to have + been listening. Clara ate quickly and hurried out of the room. She did not + go to visit her girl friends in town and the young school teacher came no + more to see her. During the long summer afternoons she walked in the + orchard among the beehives or climbed over fences and went into a wood, + where she sat for hours on a fallen log staring at the trees and the sky. + Tom Butterworth also hurried out of his house. He pretended to be busy and + every day drove far and wide over the country. Sometimes he thought he had + been brutal and crude in his treatment of his daughter, and decided he + would speak to her regarding the matter and ask her to forgive him. Then + his suspicion returned. He struck the horse with the whip and drove + furiously along the lonely roads. “Well, there's something wrong,” he + muttered aloud. “Men don't just look at women and approach them boldly, as + that young fellow did with Clara. He did it before my very eyes. He's been + given some encouragement.” An old suspicion awoke in him. “There was + something wrong with her mother, and there's something wrong with her. + I'll be glad when the time comes for her to marry and settle down, so I + can get her off my hands,” he thought bitterly. + </p> + <p> + On the evening when Clara left the farm to go to the train that was to + take her away, her father said he had a headache, a thing he had never + been known to complain of before, and told Jim Priest to drive her to the + station. Jim took the girl to the station, saw to the checking of her + baggage, and waited about until her train came in. Then he boldly kissed + her on the cheek. “Good-by, little girl,” he said gruffly. Clara was so + grateful she could not reply. On the train she spent an hour weeping + softly. The rough gentleness of the old farm hand had done much to take + the growing bitterness out of her heart. She felt that she was ready to + begin life anew, and wished she had not left the farm without coming to a + better understanding with her father. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX + </h2> + <p> + The Woodburns of Columbus were wealthy by the standards of their day. They + lived in a large house and kept two carriages and four servants, but had + no children. Henderson Woodburn was small of stature, wore a gray beard, + and was neat and precise about his person. He was treasurer of the plow + manufacturing company and was also treasurer of the church he and his wife + attended. In his youth he had been called “Hen” Woodburn and had been + bullied by larger boys, and when he grew to be a man and after his + persistent shrewdness and patience had carried him into a position of some + power in the business life of his native city he in turn became something + of a bully to the men beneath him. He thought his wife Priscilla had come + from a better family than his own and was a little afraid of her. When + they did not agree on any subject, she expressed her opinion gently but + firmly, while he blustered for a time and then gave in. After a + misunderstanding his wife put her arms about his neck and kissed the bald + spot on the top of his head. Then the subject was forgotten. + </p> + <p> + Life in the Woodburn house was lived without words. After the stir and + bustle of the farm, the silence of the house for a long time frightened + Clara. Even when she was alone in her own room she walked about on tiptoe. + Henderson Woodburn was absorbed in his work, and when he came home in the + evening, ate his dinner in silence and then worked again. He brought home + account books and papers from the office and spread them out on a table in + the living room. His wife Priscilla sat in a large chair under a lamp and + knitted children's stockings. They were, she told Clara, for the children + of the poor. As a matter of fact the stockings never left her house. In a + large trunk in her room upstairs lay hundreds of pairs knitted during the + twenty-five years of her family life. + </p> + <p> + Clara was not very happy in the Woodburn household, but on the other hand, + was not very unhappy. She attended to her studies at the University + passably well and in the late afternoons took a walk with a girl + classmate, attended a matinee at the theater, or read a book. In the + evening she sat with her aunt and uncle until she could no longer bear the + silence, and then went to her own room, where she studied until it was + time to go to bed. Now and then she went with the two older people to a + social affair at the church, of which Henderson Woodburn was treasurer, or + accompanied them to dinners at the homes of other well-to-do and + respectable business men. On several occasions young men, sons of the + people with whom the Woodburns dined, or students at the university, came + in the evening to call. On such an occasion Clara and the young man sat in + the parlor of the house and talked. After a time they grew silent and + embarrassed in each other's presence. From the next room Clara could hear + the rustling of the papers containing the columns of figures over which + her uncle was at work. Her aunt's knitting needles clicked loudly. The + young man told a tale of some football game, or if he had already gone out + into the world, talked of his experiences as a traveler selling the wares + manufactured or merchandized by his father. Such visits all began at the + same hour, eight o'clock, and the young man left the house promptly at + ten. Clara grew to feel that she was being merchandized and that they had + come to look at the goods. One evening one of the men, a fellow with + laughing blue eyes and kinky yellow hair, unconsciously disturbed her + profoundly. All the evening he talked just as the others had talked and + got out of his chair to go away at the prescribed hour. Clara walked with + him to the door. She put out her hand, which he shook cordially. Then he + looked at her and his eyes twinkled. “I've had a good time,” he said. + Clara had a sudden and almost overpowering desire to embrace him. She + wanted to disturb his assurance, to startle him by kissing him on the lips + or holding him tightly in her arms. Shutting the door quickly, she stood + with her hand on the door-knob, her whole body trembling. The trivial + by-products of her age's industrial madness went on in the next room. The + sheets of paper rustled and the knitting needles clicked. Clara thought + she would like to call the young man back into the house, lead him to the + room where the meaningless industry went endlessly on and there do + something that would shock them and him as they had never been shocked + before. She ran quickly upstairs. “What is getting to be the matter with + me?” she asked herself anxiously. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + One evening in the month of May, during her third year at the University, + Clara sat on the bank of a tiny stream by a grove of trees, far out on the + edge of a suburban village north of Columbus. Beside her sat a young man + named Frank Metcalf whom she had known for a year and who had once been a + student in the same classes with herself. He was the son of the president + of the plow manufacturing company of which her uncle was treasurer. As + they sat together by the stream the afternoon light began to fade and + darkness came on. Before them across an open field stood a factory, and + Clara remembered that the whistle had long since blown and the men from + the factory had gone home. She grew restless and sprang to her feet. Young + Metcalf who had been talking very earnestly arose and stood beside her. “I + can't marry for two years, but we can be engaged and that will be all the + same thing as far as the right and wrong of what I want and need is + concerned. It isn't my fault I can't ask you to marry me now,” he + declared. “In two years now, I'll inherit eleven thousand dollars. My aunt + left it to me and the old fool went and fixed it so I don't get it if I + marry before I'm twenty-four. I want that money. I've got to have it, but + I got to have you too.” + </p> + <p> + Clara looked away into the evening darkness and waited for him to finish + his speech. All afternoon he had been making practically the same speech, + over and over. “Well, I can't help it, I'm a man,” he said doggedly. “I + can't help it, I want you. I can't help it, my aunt was an old fool.” He + began to explain the necessity of remaining unmarried in order that he + could receive the eleven thousand dollars. “If I don't get that money I'll + be just the same as I am now,” he declared. “I won't be any good.” He grew + angry and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, stared also across the + field into the darkness. “Nothing keeps me satisfied,” he said. “I hate + being in my father's business and I hate going to school. In only two + years I'll get the money. Father can't keep it from me. I'll take it and + light out. I don't know just what I'll do. I'm going maybe to Europe, + that's what I'm going to do. Father wants me to stay here and work in his + office. To hell with that. I want to travel. I'll be a soldier or + something. Anyway I'll get out of here and go somewhere and do something + exciting, something alive. You can go with me. We'll cut out together. + Haven't you got the nerve? Why don't you be my woman?” + </p> + <p> + Young Metcalf took hold of Clara's shoulder and tried to take her into his + arms. For a moment they struggled and then, in disgust, he stepped away + from her and again began to scold. + </p> + <p> + Clara walked away across two or three vacant lots and got into a street of + workingmen's houses, the man following at her heels. Night had come and + the people in the street facing the factory had already disposed of the + evening meal. Children and dogs played in the road and a strong smell of + food hung in the air. To the west across the fields, a passenger train ran + past going toward the city. Its light made wavering yellow patches against + the bluish black sky. Clara wondered why she had come to the out of the + way place with Frank Metcalf. She did not like him, but there was a + restlessness in him that was like the restless thing in herself. He did + not want stupidly to accept life, and that fact made him brother to + herself. Although he was but twenty-two years old, he had already achieved + an evil reputation. A servant in his father's house had given birth to a + child by him, and it had cost a good deal of money to get her to take the + child and go away without making an open scandal. During the year before + he had been expelled from the University for throwing another young man + down a flight of stairs, and it was whispered about among the girl + students that he often got violently drunk. For a year he had been trying + to ingratiate himself with Clara, had written her letters, sent flowers to + her house, and when he met her on the street had stopped to urge that she + accept his friendship. On the day in May she had met him on the street and + he had begged that she give him one chance to talk things out with her. + They had met at a street crossing where cars went past into the suburban + villages that lay about the city. “Come on,” he had urged, “let's take a + street car ride, let's get out of the crowds, I want to talk to you.” He + had taken hold of her arm and fairly dragged her to a car. “Come and hear + what I have to say,” he had urged, “then if you don't want to have + anything to do with me, all right. You can say so and I'll let you alone.” + After she had accompanied him to the suburb of workingmen's houses, in the + vicinity of which they had spent the afternoon in the fields, Clara had + found he had nothing to urge upon her except the needs of his body. Still + she felt there was something he wanted to say that had not been said. He + was restless and dissatisfied with his life, and at bottom she felt that + way about her own life. During the last three years she had often wondered + why she had come to the school and what she was to gain by learning things + out of books. The days and months went past and she knew certain rather + uninteresting facts she had not known before. How the facts were to help + her to live, she couldn't make out. They had nothing to do with such + problems as her attitude toward men like John May the farm hand, the + school teacher who had taught her something by holding her in his arms and + kissing her, and the dark sullen young man who now walked beside her and + talked of the needs of his body. It seemed to Clara that every additional + year spent at the University but served to emphasize its inadequacy. It + was so also with the books she read and the thoughts and actions of the + older people about her. Her aunt and uncle did not talk much, but seemed + to take it for granted she wanted to live such another life as they were + living. She thought with horror of the probability of marrying a maker of + plows or of some other dull necessity of life and then spending her days + in the making of stockings for babies that did not come, or in some other + equally futile manifestation of her dissatisfaction. She realized with a + shudder that men like her uncle, who spent their lives in adding up rows + of figures or doing over and over some tremendously trivial thing, had no + conception of any outlook for their women beyond living in a house, + serving them physically, wearing perhaps good enough clothes to help them + make a show of prosperity and success, and drifting finally into a stupid + acceptance of dullness—an acceptance that both she and the + passionate, twisted man beside her were fighting against. + </p> + <p> + In a class in the University Clara had met, during that her third year + there, a woman named Kate Chanceller, who had come to Columbus with her + brother from a town in Missouri, and it was this woman who had given her + thoughts form, who had indeed started her thinking of the inadequacy of + her life. The brother, a studious, quiet man, worked as a chemist in a + manufacturing plant somewhere at the edge of town. He was a musician and + wanted to become a composer. One evening during the winter his sister Kate + had brought Clara to the apartment where the two lived, and the three had + become friends. Clara had learned something there that she did not yet + understand and never did get clearly into her consciousness. The truth was + that the brother was like a woman and Kate Chanceller, who wore skirts and + had the body of a woman, was in her nature a man. Kate and Clara spent + many evenings together later and talked of many things not usually touched + on by girl students. Kate was a bold, vigorous thinker and was striving to + grope her way through her own problem in life and many times, as they + walked along the street or sat together in the evening, she forgot her + companion and talked of herself and the difficulties of her position in + life. “It's absurd the way things are arranged,” she said. “Because my + body is made in a certain way I'm supposed to accept certain rules for + living. The rules were not made for me. Men manufactured them as they + manufacture can-openers, on the wholesale plan.” She looked at Clara and + laughed. “Try to imagine me in a little lace cap, such as your aunt wears + about the house, and spending my days knitting baby stockings,” she said. + </p> + <p> + The two women had spent hours talking of their lives and in speculating on + the differences in their natures. The experience had been tremendously + educational for Clara. As Kate was a socialist and Columbus was rapidly + becoming an industrial city, she talked of the meaning of capital and + labor and the effect of changing conditions on the lives of men and women. + To Kate, Clara could talk as to a man, but the antagonism that so often + exists between men and women did not come into and spoil their + companionship. In the evening when Clara went to Kate's house her aunt + sent a carriage to bring her home at nine. Kate rode home with her. They + got to the Woodburn house and went in. Kate was bold and free with the + Woodburns, as with her brother and Clara. “Come,” she said laughing, “put + away your figures and your knitting. Let's talk.” She sat in a large chair + with her legs crossed and talked with Henderson Woodburn of the affairs of + the plow company. The two got into a discussion of the relative merits of + the free trade and protection ideas. Then the two older people went to bed + and Kate talked to Clara. “Your uncle is an old duffer,” she said. “He + knows nothing about the meaning of what he's doing in life.” When she + started home afoot across the city, Clara was alarmed for her safety. “You + must get a cab or let me wake up uncle's man; something may happen,” she + said. Kate laughed and went off, striding along the street like a man. + Sometimes she thrust her hands into her skirt pockets, that were like the + trouser pockets of a man, and it was difficult for Clara to remember that + she was a woman. In Kate's presence she became bolder than she had ever + been with any one. One evening she told the story of the thing that had + happened to her that afternoon long before on the farm, the afternoon + when, her mind having been inflamed by the words of Jim Priest regarding + the sap that goes up the tree and by the warm sensuous beauty of the day, + she had wanted so keenly to draw close to some one. She explained to Kate + how she had been so brutally jarred out of the feeling in herself that she + felt was at bottom all right. “It was like a blow in the face at the hand + of God,” she said. + </p> + <p> + Kate Chanceller was excited as Clara told the tale and listened with a + fiery light burning in her eyes. Something in her manner encouraged Clara + to tell also of her experiments with the school teacher and for the first + time she got a sense of justice toward men by talking to the woman who was + half a man. “I know that wasn't square,” she said. “I know now, when I + talk to you, but I didn't know then. With the school teacher I was as + unfair as John May and my father were with me. Why do men and women have + to fight each other? Why does the battle between them have to go on?” + </p> + <p> + Kate walked up and down before Clara and swore like a man. “Oh, hell,” she + exclaimed, “men are such fools and I suppose women are as bad. They are + both too much one thing. I fall in between. I've got my problem too, but + I'm not going to talk about it. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to + find some kind of work and do it.” She began to talk of the stupidity of + men in their approach to women. “Men hate such women as myself,” she said. + “They can't use us, they think. What fools! They should watch and study + us. Many of us spend our lives loving other women, but we have skill. + Being part women, we know how to approach women. We are not blundering and + crude. Men want a certain thing from you. It is delicate and easy to kill. + Love is the most sensitive thing in the world. It's like an orchid. Men + try to pluck orchids with ice tongs, the fools.” + </p> + <p> + Walking to where Clara stood by a table, and taking her by the shoulder, + the excited woman stood for a long time looking at her. Then she picked up + her hat, put it on her head, and with a flourish of her hand started for + the door. “You can depend on my friendship,” she said. “I'll do nothing to + confuse you. You'll be in luck if you can get that kind of love or + friendship from a man.” + </p> + <p> + Clara kept thinking of the words of Kate Chanceller on the evening when + she walked through the streets of the suburban village with Frank Metcalf, + and later as the two sat on the car that took them back to the city. With + the exception of another student named Phillip Grimes, who had come to see + her a dozen times during her second year in the University, young Metcalf + was the only one of perhaps a dozen men she had met since leaving the farm + who had been attracted to her. Phillip Grimes was a slender young fellow + with blue eyes, yellow hair and a not very vigorous mustache. He was from + a small town in the northern end of the State, where his father published + a weekly newspaper. When he came to see Clara he sat on the edge of his + chair and talked rapidly. Some person he had seen in the street had + interested him. “I saw an old woman on the car,” he began. “She had a + basket on her arm. It was filled with groceries. She sat beside me and + talked aloud to herself.” Clara's visitor repeated the words of the old + woman on the car. He speculated about her, wondered what her life was + like. When he had talked of the old woman for ten or fifteen minutes, he + dropped the subject and began telling of another experience, this time + with a man who sold fruit at a street crossing. It was impossible to be + personal with Phillip Grimes. Nothing but his eyes were personal. + Sometimes he looked at Clara in a way that I made her feel that her + clothes were being stripped from her body, and that she was being made to + stand naked in the room before her visitor. The experience, when it came, + was not entirely a physical one. It was only in part that. When the thing + happened Clara saw her whole life being stripped bare. “Don't look at me + like that,” she once said somewhat sharply, when his eyes had made her so + uncomfortable she could no longer remain silent. Her remark had frightened + Phillip Grimes away. He got up at once, blushed, stammered something about + having another engagement, and hurried away. + </p> + <p> + In the street car, homeward bound beside Frank Metcalf, Clara thought of + Phillip Grimes and wondered whether or not he would have stood the test of + Kate Chanceller's speech regarding love and friendship. He had confused + her, but that was perhaps her own fault. He had not insisted on himself at + all. Frank Metcalf had done nothing else. “One should be able,” she + thought, “to find somewhere a man who respects himself and his own desires + but can understand also the desires and fears of a woman.” The street car + went bouncing along over railroad crossings and along residence streets. + Clara looked at her companion, who stared straight ahead, and then turned + to look out of the car window. The window was open and she could see the + interiors of the laborers' houses along the streets. In the evening with + the lamps lighted they seemed cosy and comfortable. Her mind ran back to + the life in her father's house and its loneliness. For two summers she had + escaped going home. At the end of her first year in school she had made an + illness of her uncle's an excuse for spending the summer in Columbus, and + at the end of the second year she had found another excuse for not going. + This year she felt she would have to go home. She would have to sit day + after day at the farm table with the farm hands. Nothing would happen. Her + father would remain silent in her presence. She would become bored and + weary of the endless small talk of the town girls. If one of the town boys + began to pay her special attention, her father would become suspicious and + that would lead to resentment in herself. She would do something she did + not want to do. In the houses along the streets through which the car + passed, she saw women moving about. Babies cried and men came out of the + doors and stood talking to one another on the sidewalks. She decided + suddenly that she was taking the problem of her own life too seriously. + “The thing to do is to get married and then work things out afterward,” + she told herself. She made up her mind that the puzzling, insistent + antagonism that existed between men and women was altogether due to the + fact that they were not married and had not the married people's way of + solving such problems as Frank Metcalf had been talking about all + afternoon. She wished she were with Kate Chancellor so that she could + discuss with her this new viewpoint. When she and Frank Metcalf got off + the car she was no longer in a hurry to go home to her uncle's house. + Knowing she did not want to marry him, she thought that in her turn she + would talk, that she would try to make him see her point of view as all + the afternoon he had been trying to make her see his. + </p> + <p> + For an hour the two people walked about and Clara talked. She forgot about + the passage of time and the fact that she had not dined. Not wishing to + talk of marriage, she talked instead of the possibility of friendship + between men and women. As she talked her own mind seemed to her to have + become clearer. “It's all foolishness your going on as you have,” she + declared. “I know how dissatisfied and unhappy you sometimes are. I often + feel that way myself. Sometimes I think it's marriage I want. I really + think I want to draw close to some one. I believe every one is hungry for + that experience. We all want something we are not willing to pay for. We + want to steal it or have it given us. That's what's the matter with me, + and that's what's the matter with you.” + </p> + <p> + They came to the Woodburn house, and turning in stood on a porch in the + darkness by the front door. At the back of the house Clara could see a + light burning. Her aunt and uncle were at the eternal figuring and + knitting. They were finding a substitute for living. It was the thing + Frank Metcalf was protesting against and was the real reason for her own + constant secret protest. She took hold of the lapel of his coat, intending + to make a plea, to urge upon him the idea of a friendship that would mean + something to them both. In the darkness she could not see his rather + heavy, sullen face. The maternal instinct became strong in her and she + thought of him as a wayward, dissatisfied boy, wanting love and + understanding as she had wanted to be loved and understood by her father + when life in the moment of the awakening of her womanhood seemed ugly and + brutal. With her free hand she stroked the sleeve of his coat. Her gesture + was misunderstood by the man who was not thinking of her words but of her + body and of his hunger to possess it. He took her into his arms and held + her tightly against his breast. She tried to struggle, to tear herself + away but, although she was strong and muscular, she found herself unable + to move. As he held her uncle, who had heard the two people come up the + steps to the door, threw it open. Both he and his wife had on several + occasions warned Clara to have nothing to do with young Metcalf. One day + when he had sent flowers to the house, her aunt had urged her to refuse to + receive them. “He's a bad, dissipated, wicked man,” she had said. “Have + nothing to do with him.” When he saw his niece in the arms of the man who + had been the subject of so much discussion in his own house and in every + respectable house in Columbus, Henderson Woodburn was furious. He forgot + the fact that young Metcalf was the son of the president of the company of + which he was treasurer. It seemed to him that some sort of a personal + insult had been thrown at him by a common ruffian. “Get out of here,” he + screamed. “What do you mean, you nasty villain? Get out of here.” + </p> + <p> + Frank Metcalf went off along the street laughing defiantly, and Clara went + into the house. The sliding doors that led into the living room had been + thrown open and the light from a hanging lamp streamed in upon her. Her + hair was disheveled and her hat twisted to one side. The man and woman + stared at her. The knitting needles and a sheet of paper held in their + hands suggested what they had been doing while Clara was getting another + lesson from life. Her aunt's hands trembled and the knitting needles + clicked together. Nothing was said and the confused and angry girl ran up + a stairway to her own room. She locked herself in and knelt on the floor + by the bed. She did not pray. Her association with Kate Chanceller had + given her another outlet for her feelings. Pounding with her fists on the + bed coverings, she swore. “Fools, damned fools, the world is filled with + nothing but a lot of damned fools.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X + </h2> + <p> + Clara Butterworth left Bidwell, Ohio, in September of the year in which + Steve Hunter's plant-setting machine company went into the hands of a + receiver, and in January of the next year that enterprising young man, + together with Tom Butterworth, bought the plant. In March a new company + was organized and at once began making Hugh's corn-cutting machine, a + success from the beginning. The failure of the first company and the sale + of the plant had created a furor in the town. Both Steve and Tom + Butterworth could, however, point to the fact that they had held on to + their stock and lost their money in common with every one else. Tom had + indeed sold his stock because he needed ready money, as he explained, but + had shown his good faith by buying again just before the failure. “Do you + suppose I would have done that had I known what was up?” he asked the men + assembled in the stores. “Go look at the books of the company. Let's have + an investigation here. You will find that Steve and I stuck to the rest of + the stockholders. We lost our money with the rest. If any one was crooked + and when they saw a failure coming went and got out from under at the + expense of some one else, it wasn't Steve and me. The books of the company + will show we were game. It wasn't our fault the plant-setting machine + wouldn't work.” + </p> + <p> + In the back room of the bank, John Clark and young Gordon Hart cursed + Steve and Tom, who, they declared, had sold them out. They had lost no + money by the failure, but on the other hand they had gained nothing. The + four men had sent in a bid for the plant when it was put up for sale, but + as they expected no competition, they had not bid very much. It had gone + to a firm of Cleveland lawyers who bid a little more, and later had been + resold at private sale to Steve and Tom. An investigation was started and + it was found that Steve and Tom held large blocks of stock in the defunct + company, while the bankers held practically none. Steve openly said that + he had known of the possibility of failure for some time and had warned + the larger stock-holders and asked them not to sell their stock. “While I + was working my head off trying to save the company, what were they up to?” + he asked sharply, and his question was repeated in the stores and in the + homes of the people. + </p> + <p> + The truth of the matter, and the thing the town never found out, was that + from the beginning Steve had intended to get the plant for himself, but at + the last had decided it would be better to take some one in with him. He + was afraid of John Clark. For two or three days he thought about the + matter and decided that the banker was not to be trusted. “He's too good a + friend to Tom Butterworth,” he told himself. “If I tell him my scheme, + he'll tell Tom. I'll go to Tom myself. He's a money maker and a man who + knows the difference between a bicycle and a wheelbarrow when you put one + of them into bed with him.” + </p> + <p> + Steve drove out to Tom's house late one evening in September. He hated to + go but was convinced it would be better to do so. “I don't want to burn + all my bridges behind me,” he told himself. “I've got to have at least one + friend among the solid men here in town. I've got to do business with + these rubes, maybe all my life. I can't shut myself off too much, at least + not yet a while.” + </p> + <p> + When Steve got to the farm he asked Tom to get into his buggy, and the two + men went for a long drive. The horse, a gray gelding with one blind eye + hired for the occasion from liveryman Neighbors, went slowly along through + the hill country south of Bidwell. He had hauled hundreds of young men + with their sweethearts. Ambling slowly along, thinking perhaps of his own + youth and of the tyranny of man that had made him a gelding, he knew that + as long as the moon shone and the intense voiceless quiet continued to + reign over the two people in the buggy, the whip would not come out of its + socket and he would not be expected to hurry. + </p> + <p> + On the September evening, however, the gray gelding had behind him such a + load as he had never carried before. The two people in the buggy on that + evening were not foolish, meandering sweethearts, thinking only of love, + and allowing themselves to be influenced in their mood by the beauty of + the night, the softness of the black shadows in the road, and the gentle + night winds that crept down over the crests of hills. They were solid + business men, mentors of the new age, the kind of men who, in the future + of America and perhaps of the whole world, were to be the makers of + governments, the molders of public opinion, the owners of the press, the + publishers of books, buyers of pictures, and in the goodness of their + hearts, the feeders of an occasional starving and improvident poet, lost + on other roads. In any event the two men sat in the buggy and the gray + gelding meandered along through the hills. Great splashes of moonlight lay + in the road. By chance it was on the same evening that Clara Butterworth + left home to become a student in the State University. Remembering the + kindness and tenderness of the rough old farm hand, Jim Priest, who had + brought her to the station, she lay in her berth in the sleeping car and + looked out at the roads, washed with moonlight, that slid away into the + distance like ghosts. She thought of her father on that night and of the + misunderstanding that had grown up between them. For the moment she was + tender with regrets. “After all, Jim Priest and my father must be a good + deal alike,” she thought. “They have lived on the same farm, eaten the + same food; they both love horses. There can't be any great difference + between them.” All night she thought of the matter. An obsession, that the + whole world was aboard the moving train and that, as it ran swiftly along, + it was carrying the people of the world into some strange maze of + misunderstanding, took possession of her. So strong was it that it + affected her deeply buried unconscious self and made her terribly afraid. + It seemed to her that the walls of the sleeping-car berth were like the + walls of a prison that had shut her away from the beauty of life. The + walls seemed to close in upon her. The walls, like life itself, were + shutting in upon her youth and her youthful desire to reach a hand out of + the beauty in herself to the buried beauty in others. She sat up in the + berth and forced down a desire in herself to break the car window and leap + out of the swiftly moving train into the quiet night bathed with + moonlight. With girlish generosity she took upon her own shoulders the + responsibility for the misunderstanding that had grown up between herself + and her father. Later she lost the impulse that led her to come to that + decision, but during that night it persisted. It was, in spite of the + terror caused by the hallucination regarding the moving walls of the berth + that seemed about to crush her and that came back time after time, the + most beautiful night she had ever lived through, and it remained in her + memory throughout her life. She in fact came to think later of that night + as the time when, most of all, it would have been beautiful and right for + her to have been able to give herself to a lover. Although she did not + know it, the kiss on the cheek from the bewhiskered lips of Jim Priest had + no doubt something to do with that thought when it came. + </p> + <p> + And while the girl fought her battle with the strangeness of life and + tried to break through the imaginary walls that shut her off from the + opportunity to live, her father also rode through the night. With a shrewd + eye he watched the face of Steve Hunter. It had already begun to get a + little fat, but Tom realized suddenly that it was the face of a man of + ability. There was something about the jowls that made Tom, who had dealt + much in live stock, think of the face of a pig. “The man goes after what + he wants. He's greedy,” the farmer thought. “Now he's up to something. To + get what he wants he'll give me a chance to get something I want. He's + going to make some kind of proposal to me in connection with the factory. + He's hatched up a scheme to shut Gordon Hart and John Clark out because he + doesn't want too many partners. All right, I'll go in with him. Either one + of them would have done the same thing had they had the chance.” + </p> + <p> + Steve smoked a black cigar and talked. As he grew more sure of himself and + the affairs that absorbed him, he also became more smooth and persuasive + in the matter of words. He talked for a time of the necessity of certain + men's surviving and growing constantly stronger and stronger in the + industrial world. “It's necessary for the good of the community,” he said. + “A few fairly strong men are a good thing for a town, but if they are + fewer and relatively stronger it's better.” He turned to look sharply at + his companion. “Well,” he exclaimed, “we talked there in the bank of what + we would do when things went to pieces down at the factory, but there were + too many men in the scheme. I didn't realize it at the time, but I do + now.” He knocked the ashes off his cigar and laughed. “You know what they + did, don't you?” he asked. “I asked you all not to sell any of your stock. + I didn't want to get the whole town bitter. They wouldn't have lost + anything. I promised to see them through, to get the plant for them at a + low price, to put them in the way to make some real money. They played the + game in a small-town way. Some men can think of thousands of dollars, + others have to think of hundreds. It's all their minds are big enough to + comprehend. They snatch at a little measly advantage and miss the big one. + That's what these men have done.” + </p> + <p> + For a long time the two rode in silence. Tom, who had also sold his stock, + wondered if Steve knew. He decided he did. “However, he's decided to deal + with me. He needs some one and has chosen me,” he thought. He made up his + mind to be bold. After all, Steve was young. Only a year or two before he + was nothing but a young upstart and the very boys in the street laughed at + him. Tom grew a little indignant, but was careful to take thought before + he spoke. “Perhaps, although he's young and don't look like much, he's a + faster and shrewder thinker than any of us,” he told himself. + </p> + <p> + “You do talk like a fellow who has something up his sleeve,” he said + laughing. “If you want to know, I sold my stock the same as the others. I + wasn't going to take a chance of being a loser if I could help it. It may + be the small-town way, but you know things maybe I don't know. You can't + blame me for living up to my lights. I always did believe in the survival + of the fittest and I got a daughter to support and put through college. I + want to make a lady of her. You ain't got any kids yet and you're younger. + Maybe you want to take chances I don't want to take. How do I know what + you're up to?” + </p> + <p> + Again the two rode in silence. Steve had prepared himself for the talk. He + knew there was a chance that, in its turn, the corn-cutting machine Hugh + had invented might not prove practical and that in the end he might be + left with a factory on his hands and with nothing to manufacture in it. He + did not, however, hesitate. Again, as on the day in the bank when he was + confronted by the two older men, he made a bluff. “Well, you can come in + or stay out, just as you wish,” he said a little sharply. “I'm going to + get hold of that factory, if I can, and I'm going to manufacture + corn-cutting machines. Already I have promises of orders enough to keep + running for a year. I can't take you in with me and have it said around + town you were one of the fellows who sold out the small investors. I've + got a hundred thousand dollars of stock in the company. You can have half + of it. I'll take your note for the fifty thousand. You won't ever have to + pay it. The earnings of the new factory will clean you up. You got to come + clean, though. Of course you can go get John Clark and come out and make + an open fight to get the factory yourselves, if you want to. I own the + rights to the corn-cutting machine and will take it somewhere else and + manufacture it. I don't mind telling you that, if we split up, I will + pretty well advertise what you three fellows did to the small investors + after I asked you not to do it. You can all stay here and own your empty + factory and get what satisfaction you can out of the love and respect + you'll get from the people. You can do what you please. I don't care. My + hands are clean. I ain't done anything I'm ashamed of, and if you want to + come in with me, you and I together will pull off something in this town + we don't neither one of us have to be ashamed of.” + </p> + <p> + The two men drove back to the Butterworth farm house and Tom got out of + the buggy. He intended to tell Steve to go to the devil, but as they drove + along the road, he changed his mind. The young school teacher from + Bidwell, who had come on several occasions to call on his daughter Clara, + was on that night abroad with another young woman. He sat in a buggy with + his arm around her waist and drove slowly through the hill country. Tom + and Steve drove past them and the farmer, seeing in the moonlight the + woman in the arms of the man, imagined his daughter in her place. The + thought made him furious. “I'm losing the chance to be a big man in the + town here in order to play safe and be sure of money to leave to Clara, + and all she cares about is to galavant around with some young squirt,” he + thought bitterly. He began to see himself as a wronged and unappreciated + father. When he got out of the buggy, he stood for a moment by the wheel + and looked hard at Steve. “I'm as good a sport as you are,” he said + finally. “Bring around your stock and I'll give you the note. That's all + it will be, you understand: just my note. I don't promise to back it up + with any collateral and I don't expect you to offer it for sale.” Steve + leaned out of the buggy and took him by the hand. “I won't sell your note, + Tom,” he said. “I'll put it away. I want a partner to help me. You and I + are going to do things together.” + </p> + <p> + The young promoter drove off along the road, and Tom went into the house + and to bed. Like his daughter he did not sleep. For a time he thought of + her and in imagination saw her again in the buggy with the school teacher + who had her in his arms. The thought made him stir restlessly about + beneath the sheets. “Damn women anyway,” he muttered. To relieve his mind + he thought of other things. “I'll make out a deed and turn three of my + farms over to Clara,” he decided shrewdly. “If things go wrong we won't be + entirely broke. I know Charlie Jacobs in the court-house over at the + county seat. I ought to be able to get a deed recorded without any one + knowing it if I oil Charlie's hand a little.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Clara's last two weeks in the Woodburn household were spent in the midst + of a struggle, no less intense because no words were said. Both Henderson + Wood, burn and his wife felt that Clara owed them an explanation of the + scene at the front door with Frank Metcalf. When she did not offer it they + were offended. When he threw open the door and confronted the two people, + the plow manufacturer had got an impression that Clara was trying to + escape Frank Metcalf's embraces. He told his wife that he did not think + she was to blame for the scene on the front porch. Not being the girl's + father he could look at the matter coldly. “She's a good girl,” he + declared. “That beast of a Frank Metcalf is all to blame. I daresay he + followed her home. She's upset now, but in the morning she'll tell us the + story of what happened.” + </p> + <p> + The days went past and Clara said nothing. During her last week in the + house she and the two older people scarcely spoke. The young woman was in + an odd way relieved. Every evening she went to dine with Kate Chanceller + who, when she heard the story of the afternoon in the suburb and the + incident on the porch, went off without Clara's knowing of it and had a + talk with Henderson Woodburn in his office. After the talk the + manufacturer was puzzled and just a little afraid of both Clara and her + friend. He tried to tell his wife about it, but was not very clear. “I + can't make it out,” he said. “She is the kind of woman I can't understand, + that Kate. She says Clara wasn't to blame for what happened between her + and Frank Metcalf, but don't want to tell us the story, because she thinks + young Metcalf wasn't to blame either.” Although he had been respectful and + courteous as he listened to Kate's talk, he grew angry when he tried to + tell his wife what she had said. “I'm afraid it was just a lot of mixed up + nonsense,” he declared. “It makes me glad we haven't a daughter. If + neither of them were to blame what were they up to? What's getting the + matter with the women of the new generation? When you come down to it + what's the matter with Kate Chanceller?” + </p> + <p> + The plow manufacturer advised his wife to say nothing to Clara. “Let's + wash our hands of it,” he suggested. “She'll go home in a few days now and + we will say nothing about her coming back next year. Let's be polite, but + act as though she didn't exist.” + </p> + <p> + Clara accepted the new attitude of her uncle and aunt without comment. In + the afternoon she did not come home from the University but went to Kate's + apartment. The brother came home and after dinner played on the piano. At + ten o'clock Clara started home afoot and Kate accompanied her. The two + women went out of their way to sit on a bench in a park. They talked of a + thousand hidden phases of life Clara had hardly dared think of before. + During all the rest of her life she thought of those last weeks in + Columbus as the most deeply satisfactory time she ever lived through. In + the Woodburn house she was uncomfortable because of the silence and the + hurt, offended look on her aunt's face, but she did not spend much time + there. In the morning Henderson Woodburn ate his breakfast alone at seven, + and clutching his ever present portfolio of papers, was driven off to the + plow factory. Clara and her aunt had a silent breakfast at eight, and then + Clara also hurried away. “I'll be out for lunch and will go to Kate's for + dinner,” she said as she went out of her aunt's presence, and she said it, + not with the air of one asking permission as had been her custom before + the Frank Metcalf incident, but as one having the right to dispose of her + own time. Only once did her aunt break the frigid air of offended dignity + she had assumed. One morning she followed Clara to the front door, and as + she watched her go down the steps from the front porch to the walk that + led to the street, called to her. Some faint recollection of a time of + revolt in her own youth perhaps came to her. Tears came into her eyes. To + her the world was a place of terror, where wolf-like men prowled about + seeking women to devour, and she was afraid something dreadful would + happen to her niece. “If you don't want to tell me anything, it's all + right,” she said bravely, “but I wish you felt you could.” When Clara + turned to look at her, she hastened to explain. “Mr. Woodburn said I + wasn't to bother you about it and I won't,” she added quickly. Nervously + folding and unfolding her arms, she turned to stare up the street with the + air of a frightened child that looks into a den of beasts. “O Clara, be a + good girl,” she said. “I know you're grown up now, but, O Clara, do be + careful! Don't get into trouble.” + </p> + <p> + The Woodburn house in Columbus, like the Butterworth house in the country + south of Bidwell, sat on a hill. The street fell away rather sharply as + one went toward the business portion of the city and the street car line, + and on the morning when her aunt spoke to her and tried with her feeble + hands to tear some stones out of the wall that was being built between + them, Clara hurried along the street under the trees, feeling as though + she would like also to weep. She saw no possibility of explaining to her + aunt the new thoughts she was beginning to have about life and did not + want to hurt her by trying. “How can I explain my thoughts when they're + not clear in my own mind, when I am myself just groping blindly about?” + she asked herself. “She wants me to be good,” she thought. “What would she + think if I told her that I had come to the conclusion that, judging by her + standards, I have been altogether too good? What's the use trying to talk + to her when I would only hurt her and make things harder than ever?” She + got to a street crossing and looked back. Her aunt was still standing at + the door of her house and looking at her. There was something soft, small, + round, insistent, both terribly weak and terribly strong about the + completely feminine thing she had made of herself or that life had made of + her. Clara shuddered. She did not make a symbol of the figure of her aunt + and her mind did not form a connection between her aunt's life and what + she had become, as Kate Chanceller's mind would have done. She saw the + little, round, weeping woman as a boy, walking in the tree-lined streets + of a town, sees suddenly the pale face and staring eyes of a prisoner that + looks out at him through the iron bars of a town jail. Clara was startled + as the boy would be startled and, like the boy, she wanted to run quickly + away. “I must think of something else and of other kinds of women or I'll + get things terribly distorted,” she told herself. “If I think of her and + women like her I'll grow afraid of marriage, and I want to be married as + soon as I can find the right man. It's the only thing I can do. What else + is there a woman can do?” + </p> + <p> + As Clara and Kate walked about in the evening, they talked continually of + the new position Kate believed women were on the point of achieving in the + world. The woman who was so essentially a man wanted to talk of marriage + and to condemn it, but continually fought the impulse in herself. She knew + that were she to let herself go she would say many things that, while they + might be true enough as regards herself, would not necessarily be true of + Clara. “Because I do not want to live with a man or be his wife is not + very good proof that the institution is wrong. It may be that I want to + keep Clara for myself. I think more of her than of any one else I've ever + met. How can I think straight about her marrying some man and becoming + dulled to the things that mean most to me?” she asked herself. One + evening, when the women were walking from Kate's apartment to the Woodburn + house, they were accosted by two men who wanted to walk with them. There + was a small park nearby and Kate led the men to it. “Come,” she said, “we + won't walk with you, but you may sit with us here on a bench.” The men sat + down beside them and the older one, a man with a small black mustache, + made some remark about the fineness of the night. The younger man who sat + beside Clara looked at her and laughed. Kate at once got down to business. + “Well, you wanted to walk with us: what for?” she asked sharply. She + explained what they had been doing. “We were walking and talking of women + and what they were to do with their lives,” she explained. “We were + expressing opinions, you see. I don't say either of us had said anything + that was very wise, but we were having a good time and trying to learn + something from each other. Now what have you to say to us? You interrupted + our talk and wanted to walk with us: what for? You wanted to be in our + company: now tell us what you've got to contribute. You can't just come + and walk with us like dumb things. What have you got to offer that you + think will make it worth while for us to break up our conversation with + each other and spend the time talking with you?” + </p> + <p> + The older man, he of the mustache, turned to look at Kate, then got up + from the bench. He walked a little away and then turned and made a sign + with his hand to his companion. “Come on,” he said, “let's get out of + here. We're wasting our time. It's a cold trail. They're a couple of + highbrows. Come on, let's be on our way.” + </p> + <p> + The two women again walked along the street. Kate could not help feeling + somewhat proud of the way in which she had disposed of the men. She talked + of it until they got to the door of the Woodburn house, and, as she went + away along the street Clara thought she swaggered a little. She stood by + the door and watched her friend until she had disappeared around a corner. + A flash of doubt of the infallibility of Kate's method with men crossed + her mind. She remembered suddenly the soft brown eyes of the younger of + the two men in the park and wondered what was back of the eyes. Perhaps + after all, had she been alone with him, the man might have had something + to say quite as much to the point as the things she and Kate had been + saying to each other. “Kate made the men look like fools, but after all + she wasn't very fair,” she thought as she went into the house. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Clara was in Bidwell for a month before she realized what a change had + taken place in the life of her home town. On the farm things went on very + much as always, except that her father was very seldom there. He had gone + deeply into the project of manufacturing and selling corn-cutting machines + with Steve Hunter, and attended to much of the selling of the output of + the factory. Almost every month he went on trips to cities of the West. + Even when he was in Bidwell, he had got into the habit of staying at the + town hotel for the night. “It's too much trouble to be always running back + and forth,” he explained to Jim Priest, whom he had put in charge of the + farm work. He swaggered before the old man who for so many years had been + almost like a partner in his smaller activities. “Well, I wouldn't like to + have anything said, but I think it just as well to have an eye on what's + going on,” he declared. “Steve's all right, but business is business. + We're dealing in big affairs, he and I. I don't say he would try to get + the best of me; I'm just telling you that in the future I'll have to be in + town most of the time and can't think of things out here. You look out for + the farm. Don't bother me with details. You just tell me about it when + there is any buying or selling to do.” + </p> + <p> + Clara arrived in Bidwell in the early afternoon of a warm day in June. The + hill country through which her train came into town was in the full flush + of its summer beauty. In the little patches of level land between the + hills grain was ripening in the fields. Along the streets of the tiny + towns and on dusty country roads farmers in overalls stood up in their + wagons and scolded at the horses, rearing and prancing in half pretended + fright of the passing train. In the forests on the hillsides the open + places among the trees looked cool and enticing. Clara put her cheek + against the car window and imagined herself wandering in cool forests with + a lover. She forgot the words of Kate Chanceller in regard to the + independent future of women. It was, she thought vaguely, a thing to be + thought about only after some more immediate problem was solved. Just what + the problem was she didn't definitely know, but she did know that it + concerned some close warm contact with life that she had as yet been + unable to make. When she closed her eyes, strong warm hands seemed to come + out of nothingness and touch her flushed cheeks. The fingers of the hands + were strong like the branches of trees. They touched with the firmness and + gentleness of the branches of trees nodding in a summer breeze. + </p> + <p> + Clara sat up stiffly in her seat and when the train stopped at Bidwell got + off and went to her waiting father with a firm, business-like air. Coming + out of the land of dreams, she took on something of the determined air of + Kate Chanceller. She stared at her father and an onlooker might have + thought them two strangers, meeting for the purpose of discussing some + business arrangement. A flavor of something like suspicion hung over them. + They got into Tom's buggy, and as Main Street was torn up for the purpose + of laying a brick pavement and digging a new sewer, they drove by a + roundabout way through residence streets until they got into Medina Road. + Clara looked at her father and felt suddenly very alert and on her guard. + It seemed to her that she was far removed from the green, unsophisticated + girl who had so often walked in Bidwell's streets; that her mind and + spirit had expanded tremendously in the three years she had been away; and + she wondered if her father would realize the change in her. Either one of + two reactions on his part might, she felt, make her happy. The man might + turn suddenly and taking her hand receive her into fellowship, or he might + receive her as a woman and his daughter by kissing her. + </p> + <p> + He did neither. They drove in silence through the town and passed over a + small bridge and into the road that led to the farm. Tom was curious about + his daughter and a little uncomfortable. Ever since the evening on the + porch of the farmhouse, when he had accused her of some unnamed + relationship with John May, he had felt guilty in her presence but had + succeeded in transferring the notion of guilt to her. While she was away + at school he had been comfortable. Sometimes he did not think of her for a + month at a time. Now she had written that she did not intend to go back. + She had not asked his advice, but had said positively that she was coming + home to stay. He wondered what was up. Had she got into another affair + with a man? He wanted to ask, had intended to ask, but in her presence + found that the words he had intended to say would not come to his lips. + After a long silence Clara began to ask questions about the farm, the men + who worked there, her aunt's health, the usual home-coming questions. Her + father answered with generalities. “They're all right,” he said, “every + one and everything's all right.” + </p> + <p> + The road began to lift out of the valley in which the town lay, and Tom + stopped the horse and pointing with the whip talked of the town. He was + relieved to have the silence broken, and decided not to say anything about + the letter announcing the end of her school life. “You see there,” he + said, pointing to where the wall of a new brick factory arose above the + trees that grew beside the river. “That's a new factory we're building. + We're going to make corn-cutting machines there. The old factory's already + too small. We've sold it to a new company that's going to manufacture + bicycles. Steve Hunter and I sold it. We got twice what we paid for it. + When the bicycle factory's started, he and I'll own the control in that + too. I tell you the town's on the boom.” + </p> + <p> + Tom boasted of his new position in the town and Clara turned and looked + sharply at him and then looked quickly away. He was annoyed by the action + and a flush of anger came to his cheeks. A side of his character his + daughter had never seen before came to the surface. When he was a simple + farmer he had been too shrewd to attempt to play the aristocrat with his + farm hands, but often, as he went about the barns and as he drove along + country roads and saw men at work in his fields, he had felt like a prince + in the presence of his vassals. Now he talked like a prince. It was that + that had startled Clara. There was about him an indefinable air of + princely prosperity. When she turned to look at him she noticed for the + first time how much his person had also changed. Like Steve Hunter he was + beginning to grow fat. The lean hardness of his cheeks had gone, his jaws + seemed heavier, even his hands had changed their color. He wore a diamond + ring on the left hand and it glistened in the sunlight. “Things have + changed,” he declared, still pointing at the town. “Do you want to know + who changed it? Well, I had more to do with it than any one else. Steve + thinks he did it all, but he didn't. I'm the man who has done the most. He + put through the plant-setting machine company, but that was a failure. + When you come right down to it, things would have gone to pieces again if + I hadn't gone to John Clark and talked and bluffed him into giving us + money when we wanted it. I had most to do with finding the big market for + our corn-cutters, too. Steve lied to me and said he had 'em all sold for a + year. He didn't have any sold at all.” + </p> + <p> + Tom struck the horse with the whip and drove rapidly along the road. Even + when the climb became difficult he would not let the horse walk, but kept + cracking the whip over his back. “I'm a different man than I was when you + went away,” he declared. “You might as well know it, I'm the big man in + this town. It comes pretty near being my town when you come right down to + it. I'm going to take care of every one in Bidwell and give every one a + chance to make money, but it's my town now pretty near and you might as + well know it.” + </p> + <p> + Embarrassed by his own words, Tom talked to cover his embarrassment. + Something he wanted very much to say got itself said. “I'm glad you went + to school and fitted yourself to be a lady,” he began. “I want you should + marry pretty soon now. I don't know whether you met any one at school + there or not. If you did and he's all right, it's all right with me. I + don't want you should marry an ordinary man, but a smart one, an educated + man, a gentleman. We Butterworths are going to be bigger and bigger people + here. If you get married to a good man, a smart one, I'll build a house + for you; not just a little house but a big place, the biggest place + Bidwell ever seen.” They came to the farm and Tom stopped the buggy in the + road. He shouted to a man in the barnyard who came running for her bags. + When she had got out of the buggy he immediately turned the horse about + and drove rapidly away. Her aunt, a large, moist woman, met her on the + steps leading to the front door, and embraced her warmly. The words her + father had just spoken ran a riotous course through Clara's brain. She + realized that for a year she had been thinking of marriage, had been + wanting some man to approach and talk of marriage, but she had not thought + of the matter in the way her father had put it. The man had spoken of her + as though she were a possession of his that must be disposed of. He had a + personal interest in her marriage. It was in someway not a private matter, + but a family affair. It was her father's idea, she gathered, that she was + to go into marriage to strengthen what he called his position in the + community, to help him be some vague thing he called a big man. She + wondered if he had some one in mind and could not avoid being a little + curious as to who it could be. It had never occurred to her that her + marriage could mean anything to her father beyond the natural desire of + the parent that his child make a happy marriage. She began to grow angry + at the thought of the way in which her father had approached the subject, + but was still curious to know whether he had gone so far as to have some + one in mind for the role of husband, and thought she would try to find out + from her aunt. The strange farm hand came into the house with her bags and + she followed him upstairs to what had always been her own room. Her aunt + came puffing at her heels. The farm hand went away and she began to + unpack, while the older woman, her face very red, sat on the edge of the + bed. “You ain't been getting engaged to a man down there where you been to + school, have you, Clara?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + Clara looked at her aunt and blushed; then became suddenly and furiously + angry. Dropping the bag she had opened to the floor, she ran out of the + room. At the door she stopped and turned on the surprised and startled + woman. “No, I haven't,” she declared furiously. “It's nobody's business + whether I have or not. I went to school for an education. I didn't go to + get me a man. If that's what you sent me for, why didn't you say so?” + </p> + <p> + Clara hurried out of the house and into the barnyard. She went into all of + the barns, but there were no men about. Even the strange farm hand who had + carried her bags into the house had disappeared, and the stalls in the + horse and cattle barns were empty. Then she went into the orchard and + climbing a fence went through a meadow and into the wood to which she had + always fled, when as a girl on the farm she was troubled or angry. For a + long time she sat on a log beneath a tree and tried to think her way + through the new idea of marriage she had got from her father's words. She + was still angry and told herself that she would leave home, would go to + some city and get work. She thought of Kate Chanceller who intended to be + a doctor, and tried to picture herself attempting something of the kind. + It would take money for study. She tried to imagine herself talking to her + father about the matter and the thought made her smile. Again she wondered + if he had any definite person in mind as her husband, and who it could be. + She tried to check off her father's acquaintances among the young men of + Bidwell. “It must be some new man who has come here, some one having + something to do with one of the factories,” she thought. + </p> + <p> + After sitting on the log for a long time, Clara got up and walked under + the trees. The imaginary man, suggested to her mind by her father's words, + became every moment more and more a reality. Before her eyes danced the + laughing eyes of the young man who for a moment had lingered beside her + while Kate Chanceller talked to his companion that evening when they had + been challenged on the streets of Columbus. She remembered the young + school teacher, who had held her in his arms through a long Sunday + afternoon, and the day when, as an awakening maiden, she had heard Jim + Priest talking to the laborers in the barn about the sap that ran up the + tree. The afternoon slipped away and the shadows of the trees lengthened. + On such a day and alone there in the quiet wood, it was impossible for her + to remain in the angry mood in which she had left the house. Over her + father's farm brooded the passionate fulfillment of summer. Before her, + seen through the trees, lay yellow wheat fields, ripe for the cutting; + insects sang and danced in the air about her head; a soft wind blew and + made a gentle singing noise in the tops of the trees; at her back among + the trees a squirrel chattered; and two calves came along a woodland path + and stood for a long time staring at her with their large gentle eyes. She + arose and went out of the wood, crossed a falling meadow and came to a + rail fence surrounding a corn field. Jim Priest was cultivating corn and + when he saw her left his horses and came to her. He took both her hands in + his and pumped her arms up and down. “Well, Lord A'mighty, I'm glad to see + you,” he said heartily. “Lord A'mighty, I'm glad to see you.” The old farm + hand pulled a long blade of grass out of the ground beneath the fence and + leaning against the top rail began to chew it. He asked Clara the same + question her aunt had asked, but his asking did not annoy her. She laughed + and shook her head. “No, Jim,” she said, “I seem to have made a failure of + going away to school. I didn't get me a man. No one asked me, you see.” + </p> + <p> + Both the woman and the old man became silent. Over the tops of the young + corn they could see down the hillside into the distant town. Clara + wondered if the man she was to marry was there. The idea of a marriage + with her had perhaps been suggested to his mind also. Her father, she + decided, was capable of that. He was evidently ready to go to any length + to see her safely married. She wondered why. When Jim Priest began to + talk, striving to explain his question, his words fitted oddly into the + thoughts she was having in regard to herself. “Now about marriage,” he + began, “you see now, I never done it. I didn't get married at all. I don't + know why. I wanted to and I didn't. I was afraid to ask, maybe. I guess if + you do it you're sorry you did and if you don't you're sorry you didn't.” + </p> + <p> + Jim went back to his team, and Clara stood by the fence and watched him go + down the long field and turn to come back along another of the paths + between the corn rows. When the horses came to where she stood, he stopped + again and looked at her. “I guess you'll get married pretty soon now,” he + said. The horses started on again and he held the cultivating machine with + one hand and looked back over his shoulder at her. “You're one of the + marrying kind,” he called. “You ain't like me. You don't just think about + things. You do 'em. You'll be getting yourself married before very long. + You are one of the kind that does.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI + </h2> + <p> + If many things had happened to Clara Butterworth in the three years since + that day when John May so rudely tripped her first hesitating girlish + attempt to run out to life, things had also happened to the people she had + left behind in Bidwell. In so short a space of time her father, his + business associate Steve Hunter, Ben Peeler the town carpenter, Joe + Wainsworth the harness maker, almost every man and woman in town had + become something different in his nature from the man or woman bearing the + same name she had known in her girlhood. + </p> + <p> + Ben Peeler was forty years old when Clara went to Columbus to school. He + was a tall, slender, stoop-shouldered man who worked hard and was much + respected by his fellow townsmen. Almost any afternoon he might have been + seen going through Main Street, wearing his carpenter's apron and with a + carpenter's pencil stuck under his cap and balanced on his ear. He went + into Oliver Hall's hardware store and came out with a large package of + nails under his arm. A farmer who was thinking of building a new barn + stopped him in front of the post-office and for a half hour the two men + talked of the project. Ben put on his glasses, took the pencil out of his + cap and made some notation on the back of the package of nails. “I'll do a + little figuring; then I'll talk things over with you,” he said. During the + spring, summer and fall Ben had always employed another carpenter and an + apprentice, but when Clara came back to town he was employing four gangs + of six men each and had two foremen to watch the work and keep it moving, + while his son, who in other times would also have been a carpenter, had + become a salesman, wore fancy vests and lived in Chicago. Ben was making + money and for two years had not driven a nail or held a saw in his hand. + He had an office in a frame building beside the New York Central tracks, + south of Main Street, and employed a book-keeper and a stenographer. In + addition to carpentry he had embarked in another business. Backed by + Gordon Hart, he had become a lumber dealer and bought and sold lumber + under the firm name of Peeler and Hart. Almost every day cars of lumber + were unloaded and stacked under sheds in the yard back of his office. He + was no longer satisfied with his income as a workman but, under the + influence of Gordon Hart, demanded also a swinging profit on the building + materials. Ben now drove about town in a vehicle called a buckboard and + spent the entire day hurrying from job to job. He had no time now to stop + for a half hour's gossip with a prospective builder of a barn, and did not + come to loaf in Birdie Spinks' drug-store at the end of the day. In the + evening he went to the lumber office and Gordon Hart came over from the + bank. The two men figured on jobs to be built, rows of workingmen's + houses, sheds alongside one of the new factories, large frame houses for + the superintendents and other substantial men of the town's new + enterprises. In the old days Ben had been glad to go occasionally into the + country on a barn-building job. He had liked the country food, the gossip + with the farmer and his men at the noon hour and the drive back and forth + to town, mornings and evenings. While he was in the country he managed to + make a deal for his winter potatoes, hay for his horse, and perhaps a + barrel of cider to drink on winter evenings. Now he had no time to think + of such things. When a farmer came to see him he shook his head. “Get some + one else to figure on your job,” he advised. “You'll save money by getting + a barn-building carpenter. I can't bother. I have too many houses to + build.” Ben and Gordon sometimes worked in the lumber office until + midnight. On warm still nights the sweet smell of new-cut boards filled + the air of the yard and crept in through the open windows, but the two + men, intent on their figures, did not notice. In the early evening one or + two teams came back to the yard to finish hauling lumber to a job where + the men were to work on the next day. The voices of the men, talking and + singing as they loaded their wagons, broke the silence. Later the wagons + loaded high with boards went creaking away. When the two men grew tired + and sleepy, they locked the office and walked through the yard to the + driveway that led to a residence street. Ben was nervous and irritable. + One evening they found three men, sleeping on a pile of boards in the + yard, and drove them out. It gave both men something to think about. + Gordon Hart went home and before he slept made up his mind that he would + not let another day go by without getting the lumber in the yard more + heavily insured. Ben had not handled affairs long enough to come quickly + to so sensible a decision. All night he rolled and tumbled about in his + bed. “Some tramp with his pipe will set the place afire,” he thought. + “I'll lose all the money I've made.” For a long time he did not think of + the simple expedient of hiring a watchman to drive sleepy and penniless + wanderers away, and charging enough more for his lumber to cover the + additional expense. He got out of bed and dressed, thinking he would get + his shotgun out of the barn and go back to the yard and spend the night. + Then he undressed and got into bed again. “I can't work all day and spend + my nights down there,” he thought resentfully. When at last he slept, he + dreamed of sitting in the lumber yard in the darkness with the gun in his + hand. A man came toward him and he discharged the gun and killed the man. + With the inconsistency common to the physical aspect of dreams, the + darkness passed away and it was daylight. The man he had thought dead was + not quite dead. Although the whole side of his head was torn away, he + still breathed. His mouth opened and closed convulsively. A dreadful + illness took possession of the carpenter. He had an elder brother who had + died when he was a boy, but the face of the man on the ground was the face + of his brother. Ben sat up in bed and shouted. “Help, for God's sake, + help! It's my own brother. Don't you see, it is Harry Peeler?” he cried. + His wife awoke and shook him. “What's the matter, Ben,” she asked + anxiously. “What's the matter?” “It was a dream,” he said, and let his + head drop wearily on the pillow. His wife went to sleep again, but he + stayed awake the rest of the night. When on the next morning Gordon Hart + suggested the insurance idea, he was delighted. “That settles it of + course,” he said to himself. “It's simple enough, you see. That settles + everything.” + </p> + <p> + In his shop on Main Street Joe Wainsworth had plenty to do after the boom + came to Bidwell. Many teams were employed in the hauling of building + materials; loads of paving brick were being carted from cars to where they + were to be laid on Main Street; and teams hauled earth from where the new + Main Street sewer was being dug and from the freshly dug cellars of + houses. Never had there been so many teams employed and so much repairing + of harness to do. Joe's apprentice had left him, had been carried off by + the rush of young men to the places where the boom had arrived earlier. + For a year Joe had worked alone and had then employed a journeyman harness + maker who had drifted into town drunk and who got drunk every Saturday + evening. The new man was an odd character. He had a faculty for making + money, but seemed to care little about making it for himself. Within a + week after he came to town he knew every one in Bidwell. His name was Jim + Gibson and he had no sooner come to work for Joe than a contest arose + between them. The contest concerned the question of who was to run the + shop. For a time Joe asserted himself. He growled at the men who brought + harness in to be repaired, and refused to make promises as to when the + work would be done. Several jobs were taken away and sent to nearby towns. + Then Jim Gibson asserted himself. When one of the teamsters who had come + to town with the boom came with a heavy work harness on his shoulder, he + went to meet him. The harness was thrown with a rattling crash on the + floor and Jim examined it. “Oh, the devil, that's an easy job,” he + declared. “We'll fix that up in a jiffy. You can have it to-morrow + afternoon if you want it.” + </p> + <p> + For a time Jim made it a practice to come to where Joe stood at work at + his bench and consult with him regarding prices to be charged for work. + Then he returned to the customer and charged more than Joe had suggested. + After a few weeks he slopped consulting Joe at all. “You're no good,” he + exclaimed, laughing. “What you're doing in business I don't know.” The old + harness maker stared at him for a minute and then went to his bench and to + work. “Business,” he muttered, “what do I know about business? I'm a + harness maker, I am.” + </p> + <p> + After Jim came to work for him, Joe made in one year almost twice the + amount he had lost in the failure of the plant-setting machine factory. + The money was not invested in stock of any factory but lay in the bank. + Still he was not happy. All day Jim Gibson, whom Joe had never dared tell + the tales of his triumph as a workman and to whom he did not brag as he + had formerly done to his apprentices, talked of his ability to get the + best of customers. He had, he declared, managed, in the last place he had + worked before he came to Bidwell, to sell a good many sets of harness as + handmade that were in reality made in a factory. “It isn't like the old + times,” he said, “things are changing. We used to sell harness only to + farmers or to teamsters right in our towns who owned their own horses. We + always knew the men we did business with and always would know them. Now + it's different. The men now, you see, who are here in this town to work—well, + next month or next year they'll be somewhere else. All they care about you + and me is how much work they can get for a dollar. Of course they talk big + about honesty and all that stuff, but that's only their guff. They think + maybe we'll fall for it and they'll get more for the money they pay out. + That's what they're up to.” + </p> + <p> + Jim tried hard to make his version of how the shop should be run clear to + his employer. Every day he talked for hours regarding the matter. He tried + to get Joe to put in a stock of factory-made harness and when he was + unsuccessful was angry. “O the devil,” he cried. “Can't you understand + what you're up against? The factories are bound to win. For why? Look + here, there can't any one but some old moss-back who has worked around + horses all his life tell the difference between hand- and machine-sewed + harness. The machine-made can be sold cheaper. It looks all right and the + factories are able to put on a lot of do-dads. That catches the young + fellows. It's good business. Quick sales and profits, that's the story.” + Jim laughed and then said something that made the shivers run up and down + Joe's back. “If I had the money and was steady I'd start a shop in this + town and show you up,” he said. “I'd pretty near run you out. The trouble + with me is I wouldn't stick to business if I had the money. I tried it + once and made money; then when I got a little ahead I shut up the shop and + went on a big drunk. I was no good for a month. When I work for some one + else I'm all right. I get drunk on Saturdays and that satisfies me. I like + to work and scheme for money, but it ain't any good to me when I get it + and never will be. What I want you to do here is to shut your eyes and + give me a chance. That's all I ask. Just shut your eyes and give me a + chance.” + </p> + <p> + All day Joe sat astride his harness maker's horse, and when he was not at + work, stared out through a dirty window into an alleyway and tried to + understand Jim's idea of what a harness maker's attitude should be toward + his customers, now that new times had come. He felt very old. Although Jim + was as old in years lived as himself, he seemed very young. He began to be + a little afraid of the man. He could not understand why the money, nearly + twenty-five hundred dollars he had put in the bank during the two years + Jim had been with him, seemed so unimportant and the twelve hundred + dollars he had earned slowly after twenty years of work seemed so + important. As there was much repair work always waiting to be done in the + shop, he did not go home to lunch, but every day carried a few sandwiches + to the shop in his pocket. At the noon hour, when Jim had gone to his + boarding-house, he was alone, and if no one came in, he was happy. It + seemed to him the best time of the day. Every few minutes he went to the + front door to look out. The quiet Main Street, on which his shop had faced + since he was a young man just come home from his trade adventures, and + which had always been such a sleepy place at the noon hour in the summer, + was now like a battle-field from which an army had retreated. A great gash + had been cut in the street where the new sewer was to be laid. Swarms of + workingmen, most of them strangers, had come into Main Street from the + factories by the railroad tracks. They stood in groups in lower Main + Street by Wymer's tobacco store. Some of them had gone into Ben Head's + saloon for a glass of beer and came out wiping their mustaches. The men + who were digging the sewer, foreign men, Italians he had heard, sat on the + banks of dry earth in the middle of the street. Their dinner pails were + held between their legs and as they ate they talked in a strange language. + He remembered the day he had come to Bidwell with his bride, the girl he + had met on his trade journey and who had waited for him until he had + mastered his trade and had a shop of his own. He had gone to New York + State to get her and had arrived back in Bidwell at noon on just such + another summer day. There had not been many people about, but every one + had known him. On that day every one had been his friend. Birdie Spinks + rushed out of his drug store and had insisted that he and his bride go + home to dinner with him. Every one had wanted them to come to his house + for dinner. It had been a happy, joyous time. + </p> + <p> + The harness maker had always been sorry his wife had borne him no + children. He had said nothing and had always pretended he did not want + them and now, at last, he was glad they had not come. He went back to his + bench and to work, hoping Jim would be late in getting back from lunch. + The shop was very quiet after the activity of the street that had so + bewildered him. It was, he thought, like a retreat, almost like a church + when you went to the door and looked in on a week day. He had done that + once and had liked the empty silent church better than he did a church + with a preacher and a lot of people in it. He had told his wife about the + matter. “It was like the shop in the evening when I've got a job of work + done and the boy has gone home,” he had said. + </p> + <p> + The harness maker looked out through the open door of his shop and saw Tom + Butterworth and Steve Hunter going along Main Street, engaged in earnest + conversation. Steve had a cigar stuck in the corner of his mouth and Tom + had on a fancy vest. He thought again of the money he had lost in the + plant-setting machine venture and was furious. The noon hour was spoiled + and he was almost glad when Jim came back from his mid-day meal. + </p> + <p> + The position in which he found himself in the shop amused Jim Gibson. He + chuckled to himself as he waited on the customers who came in, and as he + worked at the bench. One day when he came back along Main Street from the + noon meal, he decided to try an experiment. “If I lose my job what + difference does it make?” he asked himself. He stopped at a saloon and had + a drink of whisky. When he got to the shop he began to scold his employer, + to threaten him as though he were his apprentice. Swaggering suddenly in, + he walked to where Joe was at work and slapped him roughly on the back. + “Come, cheer up, old daddy,” he said. “Get the gloom out of you. I'm tired + of your muttering and growling at things.” + </p> + <p> + The employee stepped back and watched his employer. Had Joe ordered him + out of the shop he would not have been surprised, and as he said later + when he told Ben Head's bartender of the incident, would not have cared + very much. The fact that he did not care, no doubt saved him. Joe was + frightened. For just a moment he was so angry he could not speak, and then + he remembered that if Jim left him he would have to wait on trade and + would have to dicker with the strange teamsters regarding the repairing of + the work harness. Bending over the bench he worked for an hour in silence. + Then, instead of demanding an explanation of the rude familiarity with + which Jim had treated him, he began to explain. “Now look here, Jim,” he + pleaded, “don't you pay any attention to me. You do as you please here. + Don't you pay any attention to me.” + </p> + <p> + Jim said nothing, but a smile of triumph lit up his face. Late in the + afternoon he left the shop. “If any one comes in, tell them to wait. I + won't be gone very long,” he said insolently. Jim went into Ben Head's + saloon and told the bartender how his experiment had come out. The story + was later told from store to store up and down the Main Street of Bidwell. + “He was like a boy who has been caught with his hand in the jam pot,” Jim + explained. “I can't think what's the matter with him. Had I been in his, + shoes I would have kicked Jim Gibson out of the shop. He told me not to + pay any attention to him and to run the shop as I pleased. Now what do you + think of that? Now what do you think of that for a man who owns his own + shop and has money in the bank? I tell you, I don't know how it is, but I + don't work for Joe any more. He works for me. Some day you come in the + shop casual-like and I'll boss him around for you. I'm telling you I don't + know how it is that it come about, but I'm the boss of the shop as sure as + the devil.” + </p> + <p> + All of Bidwell was looking at itself and asking itself questions. Ed Hall, + who had been a carpenter's apprentice earning but a few dollars a week + with his master, Ben Peeler, was now foreman in the corn-cutter factory + and received a salary of twenty-five dollars every Saturday night. It was + more money than he had ever dreamed of earning in a week. On pay nights he + dressed himself in his Sunday clothes and had himself shaved at Joe + Trotter's barber shop. Then he went along Main Street, fingering the money + in his pocket and half fearing he would suddenly awaken and find it all a + dream. He went into Wymer's tobacco store to get a cigar, and old Claude + Wymer came to wait on him. On the second Saturday evening after he got his + new position, the tobacconist, a rather obsequious man, called him Mr. + Hall. It was the first time such a thing had happened and it upset him a + little. He laughed and made a joke of it. “Don't get high and mighty,” he + said, and turned to wink at the men loafing in the shop. Later he thought + about the matter and was sorry he had not accepted the new title without + protest. “Well, I'm foreman, and a lot of the young fellows I've always + known and fooled around with will be working under me,” he told himself. + “I can't be getting thick with them.” + </p> + <p> + Ed walked along the street feeling very keenly the importance of his new + place in the community. Other young fellows in the factory were getting a + dollar and a half a day. At the end of the week he got twenty-five + dollars, almost three times as much. The money was an indication of + superiority. There could be no doubt about that. Ever since he had been a + boy he had heard older men speak respectfully of men who possessed money. + “Get on in the world,” they said to young men, when they talked seriously. + Among themselves they did not pretend that they did not want money. “It's + money makes the mare go,” they said. + </p> + <p> + Down Main Street to the New York Central tracks Ed went, and then turned + out of the street and disappeared into the station. The evening train had + passed and the place was deserted. He went into the dimly lighted + waiting-room. An oil lamp, turned low, and fastened by a bracket to the + wall made a little circle of light in a corner. The room was like a church + in the early morning of a wintry day, cold and still. He went hurriedly to + the light, and taking the roll of money from his pocket, counted it. Then + he went out of the room and along the station platform almost to Main + Street, but was not satisfied. On an impulse he returned to the waiting + room again and, late in the evening on his way home, he stopped there for + a final counting of the money before he went to bed. + </p> + <p> + Peter Fry was a blacksmith and had a son who was clerk in the Bidwell + Hotel. He was a tall young fellow with curly yellow hair and watery blue + eyes and smoked cigarettes, a habit that was an offense to the nostrils of + the men of his times. His name was Jacob, but he was called in derision + Fizzy Fry. The young man's mother was dead and he got his meals at the + hotel and at night slept on a cot in the hotel office. He had a passion + for gayly colored neckties and waistcoats and was forever trying + unsuccessfully to attract the attention of the town girls. When he and his + father met on the street, they did not speak to each other. Sometimes the + father stopped and stared at his son. “How did I happen to be the father + of a thing like that?” he muttered aloud. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith was a square-shouldered, heavily built man with a bushy + black beard and a tremendous voice. When he was a young man he sang in the + Methodist choir, but after his wife died he stopped going to church and + began putting his voice to other uses. He smoked a short clay pipe that + had become black with age and that at night could not be seen against his + black curly beard. Smoke rolled out of his mouth in clouds and appeared to + come up out of his belly. He was like a volcanic mountain and was called, + by the men who loafed in Birdie Spinks' drug store, Smoky Pete. + </p> + <p> + Smoky Pete was in more ways than one like a mountain given to eruptions. + He did not get drunk, but after his wife died he got into the habit of + having two or three drinks of whisky every evening. The whisky inflamed + his mind and he strode up and down Main Street, ready to quarrel with any + one his eye lighted upon. He got into the habit of roaring at his fellow + citizens and making ribald jokes at their expense. Every one was a little + afraid of him and he became in an odd way the guardian of the town morals. + Sandy Ferris, a house painter, became a drunkard and did not support his + family. Smoky Pete abused him in the public streets and in the sight of + all men. “You cheap thing, warming your belly with whisky while jour + children freeze, why don't you try being a man?” he shouted at the house + painter, who staggered into a side street and went to sleep off his + intoxication in a stall in Clyde Neighbors' livery barn. The blacksmith + kept at the painter until the whole town took up his cry and the saloons + became ashamed to accept his custom. He was forced to reform. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith did not, however, discriminate in the choice of victims. + His was not the spirit of the reformer. A merchant of Bidwell, who had + always been highly respected and who was an elder in his church, went one + evening to the county seat and there got into the company of a notorious + woman known throughout the county as Nell Hunter. The two went into a + little room at the back of a saloon and were seen by two Bidwell young men + who had gone to the county seat for an evening of adventure. When the + merchant, named Pen Beck, realized he had been seen, he was afraid the + tale of his indiscretion would be carried to his home town, and left the + woman to join the young men. He was not a drinking man, but began at once + to buy drinks for his companions. The three got very drunk and drove home + together late at night in a rig the young men had hired for the occasion + from Clyde Neighbors. On the way the merchant kept trying to explain his + presence in the company of the woman. “Don't say anything about it,” he + urged. “It would be misunderstood. I have a friend whose son has been + taken in by the woman. I was trying to get her to let him alone.” + </p> + <p> + The two young men were delighted that they had caught the merchant off his + guard. “It's all right,” they assured him. “Be a good fellow and we won't + tell your wife or the minister of your church.” When they had all the + drinks they could carry, they got the merchant into the buggy and began to + whip the horse. They had driven half way to Bidwell and all of them had + fallen into a drunken sleep, when the horse became frightened at something + in the road and ran away. The buggy was overturned and they were all + thrown into the road. One of the young men had an arm broken and Pen + Beck's coat was almost torn in two. He paid the young man's doctor's bill + and settled with Clyde Neighbors for the damage to the buggy. + </p> + <p> + For a long time the story of the merchant's adventure did not leak out, + and when it did, but a few intimate friends of the young men knew it. Then + it reached the ears of Smoky Pete. On the day he heard it he could hardly + bear to wait until evening came. He hurried to Ben Head's saloon, had two + drinks of whisky and then went to stand with the loafers before Birdie + Spinks' drug store. At half past seven Pen Beck turned into Main Street + from Cherry Street, where he lived. When he was more than three blocks + away from the crowd of men before the drug store, Smoky Pete's roaring + voice began to question him. “Well, Penny, my lad, so you went for a night + among the ladies?” he shouted. “You've been fooling around with my girl, + Nell Hunter, over at the county seat. I'd like to know what you mean. + You'll have to make an explanation to me.” + </p> + <p> + The merchant stopped and stood on the sidewalk, unable to decide whether + to face his tormentor or flee. It was just at the quiet time of the + evening when the housewives of the town had finished their evening's work + and stood resting by the kitchen doors. It seemed to Pen Beck that Smoky + Pete's voice could be heard for a mile. He decided to face it out and if + necessary to fight the blacksmith. As he came hurriedly toward the group + before the drug store, Smoky Pete's voice took up the story of the + merchant's wild night. He stepped out from the men in front of the store + and seemed to be addressing himself to the whole street. Clerks, + merchants, and customers rushed out of the stores. “Well,” he cried, “so + you made a night of it with my girl Nell Hunter. When you sat with her in + the back room of the saloon you didn't know I was there. I was hidden + under a table. If you'd done anything more than bite her on the neck I'd + have come out and called you to time.” + </p> + <p> + Smoky Pete broke into a roaring laugh and waved his arms to the people + gathered in the street and wondering what it was all about. It was for him + one of the really delicious spots of his life. He tried to explain to the + people what he was talking about. “He was with Nell Hunter in the back + room of a saloon over at the county seat,” he shouted. “Edgar Duncan and + Dave Oldham saw him there. He came home with them and the horse ran away. + He didn't commit adultery. I don't want you to think that happened. All + that happened was he bit my best girl, Nell Hunter, on the neck. That's + what makes me so mad. I don't like to have her bitten by him. She is my + girl and belongs to me.” + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith, forerunner of the modern city newspaper reporter in his + love of taking the center of the stage in order to drag into public sight + the misfortunes of his fellows, did not finish his tirade. The merchant, + white with anger, rushed up and struck him a blow on the chest with his + small and rather fat fist. The blacksmith knocked him into the gutter and + later, when he was arrested, went proudly off to the office of the town + mayor and paid his fine. + </p> + <p> + It was said by the enemies of Smoky Pete that he had not taken a bath for + years. He lived alone in a small frame house at the edge of town. Behind + his house was a large field. The house itself was unspeakably dirty. When + the factories came to town, Tom Butterworth and Steve Hunter bought the + field intending to cut it into building lots. They wanted to buy the + blacksmith's house and finally did secure it by paying a high price. He + agreed to move out within a year but after the money was paid repented and + wished he had not sold. A rumor began to run about town connecting the + name of Tom Butterworth with that of Fanny Twist, the town milliner. It + was said the rich farmer had been seen coming out of her shop late at + night. The blacksmith also heard another story whispered in the streets. + Louise Trucker, the farmer's daughter who had at one time been seen + creeping through a side street in the company of young Steve Hunter, had + gone to Cleveland and it was said she had become the proprietor of a + prosperous house of ill fame. Steve's money, it was declared, had been + used to set her up in business. The two stories offered unlimited + opportunity for expansion in the blacksmith's mind, but while he was + preparing himself to do what he called bringing the two men down in the + sight and hearing of the whole town, a thing happened that upset his + plans. His son Fizzy Fry left his place as clerk in the hotel and went to + work in the corn-cutting machine factory. One day his father saw him + coming from the factory at noon with a dozen other workmen. The young man + had on overalls and smoked a pipe. When he saw his father he stopped, and + when the other men had gone on, explained his sudden transformation. “I'm + in the shop now, but I won't be there long,” he said proudly. “You know + Tom Butterworth stays at the hotel? Well, he's given me a chance. I got to + stay in the shop for a while to learn about things. After that I'm to have + a chance as shipping clerk. Then I'll be a traveler on the road.” He + looked at his father and his voice broke. “You haven't thought very much + of me, but I'm not so bad,” he said. “I don't want to be a sissy, but I'm + not very strong. I worked at the hotel because there wasn't anything else + I thought I could do.” + </p> + <p> + Peter Fry went home to his house but could not eat the food he had cooked + for himself on the tiny stove in the kitchen. He went outdoors and stood + for a long time, looking out across the cow-pasture Tom Butterworth and + Steve Hunter had bought and that they proposed should become a part of the + rapidly growing city. He had himself taken no part in the new impulses + that had come upon the town, except that he had taken advantage of the + failure of the town's first industrial effort to roar insults at those of + his townsmen who had lost their money. One evening he and Ed Hall had got + into a fight about the matter on Main Street, and the blacksmith had been + compelled to pay another fine. Now he wondered what was the matter with + him. He had evidently made a mistake about his son. Had he made a mistake + about Tom Butterworth and Steve Hunter? + </p> + <p> + The perplexed man went back to his shop and all the afternoon worked in + silence. His heart had been set on the creation of a dramatic scene on + Main Street, when he openly attacked the two most prominent men of the + town, and he even pictured himself as likely to be put in the town jail + where he would have an opportunity to roar things through the iron bars at + the citizens gathered in the street. In anticipation of such an event, he + had prepared himself to attack the reputation of other people. He had + never attacked women but, if he were locked up, he intended to do so. John + May had once told him that Tom Butterworth's daughter, who had been away + to college for a year, had been sent away because she was in the family + way. John May had claimed he was responsible for her condition. Several of + Tom's farm hands he said had been on intimate terms with the girl. The + blacksmith had told himself that if he got into trouble for publicly + attacking the father he would be justified in telling what he knew about + the daughter. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith did not come into Main Street that evening. As he went home + from work he saw Tom Butterworth standing with Steve Hunter before the + post-office. For several weeks Tom had been spending most of his time away + from town, had only appeared in town for a few hours at a time, and had + not been seen on the streets in the evening. The blacksmith had been + waiting to catch both men on the street at one time. Now that this + opportunity had come, he began to be afraid he would not dare take it. + “What right have I to spoil my boy's chances?” he asked himself, as he + went rather heavily along the street toward his own house. + </p> + <p> + It rained on that evening and for the first time in years Smoky Pete did + not go into Main Street. He told himself that the rain kept him at home, + but the thought did not satisfy him. All evening he moved restlessly about + the house and at half past eight went to bed. He did not, however, sleep, + but lay with his trousers on and with his pipe in his mouth, trying to + think. Every few minutes he took the pipe from his mouth, blew out a cloud + of smoke and swore viciously. At ten o'clock the farmer, who had owned the + cow-pasture back of his house and who still kept his cows there, saw his + neighbor tramping about in the rain in the field and saying things he had + planned to say on Main Street in the hearing of the entire town. + </p> + <p> + The farmer also had gone to bed early, but at ten o'clock he decided that, + as the rain continued to fall and as it was growing somewhat cold, he had + better get up and let his cows into the barn. He did not dress, but threw + a blanket about his shoulders and went out without a light. He let down + the bars separating the field from the barnyard and then saw and heard + Smoky Pete in the field. The blacksmith walked back and forth in the + darkness, and as the farmer stood by the fence, began to talk in a loud + voice. “Well, Tom Butterworth, you're fooling around with Fanny Twist,” he + cried into the silence and emptiness of the night. “You're sneaking into + her shop late at night, eh? Steve Hunter has set Louise Trucker up in + business in a house in Cleveland. Are you and Fanny Twist going to open a + house here? Is that the next industrial enterprise we're to have here in + this town?” + </p> + <p> + The amazed farmer stood in the rain in the darkness, listening to the + words of his neighbor. The cows came through the gate and went into the + barn. His bare legs were cold and he drew them alternately up under the + blanket. For ten minutes Peter Fry tramped up and down in the field. Once + he came quite near the farmer, who drew himself down beside the fence and + listened, filled with amazement and fright. He could dimly see the tall, + old man striding along and waving his arms about. When he had said many + bitter, hateful things regarding the two most prominent men of Bidwell, he + began to abuse Tom Butterworth's daughter, calling her a bitch and the + daughter of a dog. The farmer waited until Smoky Pete had gone back to his + house and, when he saw a light in the kitchen, and fancied he could also + see his neighbor cooking food at a stove, he went again into his own + house. He had himself never quarreled with Smoky Pete and was glad. He was + glad also that the field at the back of his house had been sold. He + intended to sell the rest of his farm and move west to Illinois. “The + man's crazy,” he told himself. “Who but a crazy man would talk that way in + the darkness? I suppose I ought to report him and get him locked up, but I + guess I'll forget what I heard. A man who would talk like that about nice + respectable people would do anything. He might set fire to my house some + night or something like that. I guess I'll just forget what I heard.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK FOUR + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII + </h2> + <p> + After the success of his corn cutting machine and the apparatus for + unloading coal cars that brought him a hundred thousand dollars in cash, + Hugh could not remain the isolated figure he had been all through the + first several years of his life in the Ohio community. From all sides men + reached out their hands to him: and more than one woman thought she would + like to be his wife. All men lead their lives behind a wall of + misunderstanding they themselves have built, and most men die in silence + and unnoticed behind the walls. Now and then a man, cut off from his + fellows by the peculiarities of his nature, becomes absorbed in doing + something that is impersonal, useful, and beautiful. Word of his + activities is carried over the walls. His name is shouted and is carried + by the wind into the tiny inclosure in which other men live and in which + they are for the most part absorbed in doing some petty task for the + furtherance of their own comfort. Men and women stop their complaining + about the unfairness and inequality of life and wonder about the man whose + name they have heard. + </p> + <p> + From Bidwell, Ohio, to farms all over the Middle West, Hugh McVey's name + had been carried. His machine for cutting corn was called the McVey + Corn-Cutter. The name was printed in white letters against a background of + red on the side of the machine. Farmer boys in the States of Indiana, + Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and all the great corn-growing States + saw it and in idle moments wondered what kind of man had invented the + machine they operated. A Cleveland newspaper man came to Bidwell and went + to Pickleville to see Hugh. He wrote a story telling of Hugh's early + poverty and his efforts to become an inventor. When the reporter talked to + Hugh he found the inventor so embarrassed and uncommunicative that he gave + up trying to get a story. Then he went to Steve Hunter who talked to him + for an hour. The story made Hugh a strikingly romantic figure. His people, + the story said, came out of the mountains of Tennessee, but they were not + poor whites. It was suggested that they were of the best English stock. + There was a tale of Hugh's having in his boyhood contrived some kind of an + engine that carried water from a valley to a mountain community; another + of his having seen a clock in a store in a Missouri town and of his having + later made a clock of wood for his parents; and a tale of his having gone + into the forest with his father's gun, shot a wild hog and carried it down + the mountain side on his shoulder in order to get money to buy school + books. After the tale was printed the advertising manager of the + corn-cutter factory got Hugh to go with him one day to Tom Butterworth's + farm. Many bushels of corn were brought out of the corn cribs and a great + mountain of corn was built on the ground at the edge of a field. Back of + the mountain of corn was a corn field just coming into tassel. Hugh was + told to climb up on the mountain and sit there. Then his picture was + taken. It was sent to newspapers all over the West with copies of the + biography cut from the Cleveland paper. Later both the picture and the + biography were used in the catalogue that described the McVey Corn-Cutter. + </p> + <p> + The cutting of corn and putting it in shocks against the time of the + husking is heavy work. In recent times it has come about that much of the + corn grown on mid-American prairie lands is not cut. The corn is left + standing in the fields, and men go through it in the late fall to pick the + yellow ears. The workers throw the corn over their shoulders into a wagon + driven by a boy, who follows them in their slow progress, and it is then + hauled away to the cribs. When a field has been picked, the cattle are + turned in and all winter they nibble at the dry corn blades and tramp the + stalks into the ground. All day long on the wide western prairies when the + gray fall days have come, you may see the men and the horses working their + way slowly through the fields. Like tiny insects they crawl across the + immense landscapes. After them in the late fall and in the winter when the + prairies are covered with snow, come the cattle. They are brought from the + far West in cattle cars and after they have nibbled the corn blades all + day, are taken to barns and stuffed to bursting with corn. When they are + fat they are sent to the great killing-pens in Chicago, the giant city of + the prairies. In the still fall nights, as you stand on prairie roads or + in the barnyard back of one of the farm houses, you may hear the rustling + of the dry corn blades and then the crash of the heavy bodies of the + beasts going forward as they nibble and trample the corn. + </p> + <p> + In earlier days the method of corn harvesting was different. There was + poetry in the operation then as there is now, but it was set to another + rhythm. When the corn was ripe men went into the fields with heavy corn + knives and cut the stalks of corn close to the ground. The stalks were cut + with the right hand swinging the corn knife and carried on the left arm. + All day a man carried a heavy load of the stalks from which yellow ears + hung down. When the load became unbearably heavy it was carried to the + shock, and when all the corn was cut in a certain area, the shock was made + secure by binding it with tarred rope or with a tough stalk twisted to + take the place of the rope. When the cutting was done the long rows of + stalks stood up in the fields like sentinels, and the men crawled off to + the farmhouses and to bed, utterly weary. + </p> + <p> + Hugh's machine took all of the heavier part of the work away. It cut the + corn near the ground and bound it into bundles that fell upon a platform. + Two men followed the machine, one to drive the horses and the other to + place the bundles of stalks against the shocks and to bind the completed + shocks. The men went along smoking their pipes and talking. The horses + stopped and the driver stared out over the prairies. His arms did not ache + with weariness and he had time to think. The wonder and mystery of the + wide open places got a little into his blood. At night when the work was + done and the cattle fed and made comfortable in the barns, he did not go + at once to bed but sometimes went out of his house and stood for a moment + under the stars. + </p> + <p> + This thing the brain of the son of a mountain man, the poor white of the + river town, had done for the people of the plains. The dreams he had tried + so hard to put away from him and that the New England woman Sarah Shepard + had told him would lead to his destruction had come to something. The + car-dumping apparatus, that had sold for two hundred thousand dollars, had + given Steve Hunter money to buy the plant-setting machine factory, and + with Tom Butterworth to start manufacturing the corn-cutters, had affected + the lives of fewer people, but it had carried the Missourian's name into + other places and had also made a new kind of poetry in railroad yards and + along rivers at the back of cities where ships are loaded. On city nights + as you lie in your houses you may hear suddenly a long reverberating roar. + It is a giant that has cleared his throat of a carload of coal. Hugh McVey + helped to free the giant. He is still doing it. In Bidwell, Ohio, he is + still at it, making new inventions, cutting the bands that have bound the + giant. He is one man who had not been swept aside from his purpose by the + complexity of life. + </p> + <p> + That, however, came near happening. After the coming of his success, a + thousand little voices began calling to him. The soft hands of women + reached out of the masses of people about him, out of the old dwellers and + new dwellers in the city that was growing up about the factories where his + machines were being made in ever increasing numbers. New houses were + constantly being built along Turner's Pike that led down to his workshop + at Pickleville. Beside Allie Mulberry a dozen mechanics were now employed + in his experimental shop. They helped Hugh with a new invention, a + hay-loading apparatus on which he was at work, and also made special tools + for use in the corn-cutter factory and the new bicycle factory. A dozen + new houses had been built in Pickleville itself. The wives of the + mechanics lived in the houses and occasionally one of them came to see her + husband at Hugh's shop. He found it less and less difficult to talk to + people. The workmen, themselves not given to the use of many words, did + not think his habitual silence peculiar. They were more skilled than Hugh + in the use of tools and thought it rather an accident that he had done + what they had not done. As he had grown rich by that road they also tried + their hand at inventions. One of them made a patent door hinge that Steve + sold for ten thousand dollars, keeping half the money for his services, as + he had done in the case of Hugh's car-dumping apparatus. At the noon hour + the men hurried to their houses to eat and then came back to loaf before + the factory and smoke their noonday pipes. They talked of money-making, of + the price of food stuffs, of the advisability of a man's buying a house on + the partial payment plan. Sometimes they talked of women and of their + adventures with women. Hugh sat by himself inside the door of the shop and + listened. At night after he had gone to bed he thought of what they had + said. He lived in a house belonging to a Mrs. McCoy, the widow of a + railroad section hand killed in a railroad accident, who had a daughter. + The daughter, Rose McCoy, taught a country school and most of the year was + away from home from Monday morning until late on Friday afternoon. Hugh + lay in bed thinking of what his workmen had said of women and heard the + old housekeeper moving about down stairs. Sometimes he got out of bed to + sit by an open window. Because she was the woman whose life touched his + most closely, he thought often of the school teacher. The McCoy house, a + small frame affair with a picket fence separating it from Turner's Pike, + stood with its back door facing the Wheeling Railroad. The section hands + on the railroad remembered their former fellow workman, Mike McCoy, and + wanted to be good to his widow. They sometimes dumped half decayed + railroad ties over the fence into a potato patch back of the house. At + night, when heavily loaded coal trains rumbled past, the brakemen heaved + large chunks of coal over the fence. The widow awoke whenever a train + passed. When one of the brakemen threw a chunk of coal he shouted and his + voice could be heard above the rumble of the coal cars. “That's for Mike,” + he cried. Sometimes one of the chunks knocked a picket out of the fence + and the next day Hugh put it back again. When the train had passed the + widow got out of bed and brought the coal into the house. “I don't want to + give the boys away by leaving it lying around in the daylight,” she + explained to Hugh. On Sunday mornings Hugh took a crosscut saw and cut the + railroad ties into lengths that would go into the kitchen stove. Slowly + his place in the McCoy household had become fixed, and when he received + the hundred thousand dollars and everybody, even the mother and daughter, + expected him to move, he did not do so. He tried unsuccessfully to get the + widow to take more money for his board and when that effort failed, life + in the McCoy household went as it had when he was a telegraph operator + receiving forty dollars a month. + </p> + <p> + In the spring or fall, as he sat by his window at night, and when the moon + came up and the dust in Turner's Pike was silvery white, Hugh thought of + Rose McCoy, sleeping in some farmer's house. It did not occur to him that + she might also be awake and thinking. He imagined her lying very still in + bed. The section hand's daughter was a slender woman of thirty with tired + blue eyes and red hair. Her skin had been heavily freckled in her youth + and her nose was still freckled. Although Hugh did not know it, she had + once been in love with George Pike, the Wheeling station agent, and a day + had been set for the marriage. Then a difficulty arose in regard to + religious beliefs and George Pike married another woman. It was then she + became a school teacher. She was a woman of few words and she and Hugh had + never been alone together, but as Hugh sat by the window on fall evenings, + she lay awake in a room in the farmer's house, where she was boarding + during the school season, and thought of him. She thought that had Hugh + remained a telegraph operator at forty dollars a month something might + have happened between them. Then she had other thoughts, or rather, + sensations that had little to do with thoughts. The room in which she lay + was very still and a streak of moonlight came in through the window. In + the barn back of the farmhouse she could hear the cattle stirring about. A + pig grunted and in the stillness that followed she could hear the farmer, + who lay in the next room with his wife, snoring gently. Rose was not very + strong and the physical did not rule in her nature, but she was very + lonely and thought that, like the farmer's wife, she would like to have a + man to lie with her. Warmth crept over her body and her lips became dry so + that she moistened them with her tongue. Had you been able to creep + unobserved into the room, you might have thought her much like a kitten + lying by a stove. She closed her eyes and gave herself over to dreams. In + her conscious mind she dreamed of being the wife of the bachelor Hugh + McVey, but deep within her there was another dream, a dream having its + basis in the memory of her one physical contact with a man. When they were + engaged to be married George had often kissed her. On one evening in the + spring they had gone to sit together on the grassy bank beside the creek + in the shadow of the pickle factory, then deserted and silent, and had + come near to going beyond kissing. Why nothing else had happened Rose did + not exactly know. She had protested, but her protest had been feeble and + had not expressed what she felt. George Pike had desisted in his effort to + press love upon her because they were to be married, and he did not think + it right to do what he thought of as taking advantage of a girl. + </p> + <p> + At any rate he did desist and long afterward, as she lay in the farmhouse + consciously thinking of her mother's bachelor boarder, her thoughts became + less and less distinct and when she had slipped off into sleep, George + Pike came back to her. She stirred uneasily in bed and muttered words. + Rough but gentle hands touched her cheeks and played in her hair. As the + night wore on and the position of the moon shifted, the streak of + moonlight lighted her face. One of her hands reached up and seemed to be + caressing the moonbeams. The weariness had all gone out of her face. “Yes, + George, I love you, I belong to you,” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + Had Hugh been able to creep like the moonbeam into the presence of the + sleeping school teacher, he must inevitably have loved her. Also he would + perhaps have understood that it is best to approach human beings directly + and boldly as he had approached the mechanical problems by which his days + were filled. Instead he sat by his window in the presence of the moonlit + night and thought of women as beings utterly unlike himself. Words dropped + by Sarah Shepard to the awakening boy came creeping back to his mind. He + thought women were for other men but not for him, and told himself he did + not want a woman. + </p> + <p> + And then in Turner's Pike something happened. A farmer boy, who had been + to town and who had the daughter of a neighbor in his buggy, stopped in + front of the house. A long freight train, grinding its way slowly past the + station, barred the passage along the road. He held the reins in one hand + and put the other about the waist of his companion. The two heads sought + each other and lips met. They clung to each other. The same moon that shed + its light on Rose McCoy in the distant farmhouse lighted the open place + where the lovers sat in the buggy in the road. Hugh had to close his eyes + and fight to put down an almost overpowering physical hunger in himself. + His mind still protested that women were not for him. When his fancy made + for him a picture of the school teacher Rose McCoy sleeping in a bed, he + saw her only as a chaste white thing to be worshiped from afar and not to + be approached, at least not by himself. Again he opened his eyes and + looked at the lovers whose lips still clung together. His long slouching + body stiffened and he sat up very straight in his chair. Then he closed + his eyes again. A gruff voice broke the silence. “That's for Mike,” it + shouted and a great chunk of coal thrown from the train bounded across the + potato patch and struck against the back of the house. Downstairs he could + hear old Mrs. McCoy getting out of bed to secure the prize. The train + passed and the lovers in the buggy sank away from each other. In the + silent night Hugh could hear the regular beat of the hoofs of the farmer + boy's horse as it carried him and his woman away into the darkness. + </p> + <p> + The two people, living in the house with the old woman who had almost + finished her life, and themselves trying feebly to reach out to life, + never got to anything very definite in relation to each other. One + Saturday evening in the late fall the Governor of the State came to + Bidwell. There was a parade to be followed by a political meeting and the + Governor, who was a candidate for re-election, was to address the people + from the steps of the town hall. Prominent citizens were to stand on the + steps beside the Governor. Steve and Tom were to be there, and they had + asked Hugh to come, but he had refused. He asked Rose McCoy to go to the + meeting with him, and they set out from the house at eight o'clock and + walked to town. Then they stood at the edge of the crowd in the shadow of + a store building and listened to the speech. To Hugh's amazement his name + was mentioned. The Governor spoke of the prosperity of the town, + indirectly hinting that it was due to the political sagacity of the party + of which he was a representative, and then mentioned several individuals + also partly responsible. “The whole country is sweeping forward to new + triumphs under our banner,” he declared, “but not every community is so + fortunate as I find you here. Labor is employed at good wages. Life here + is fruitful and happy. You are fortunate here in having among you such + business men as Steven Hunter and Thomas Butterworth; and in the inventor + Hugh McVey you have one of the greatest intellects and the most useful men + that ever lived to help lift the burden off the shoulder of labor. What + his brain is doing for labor, our party is doing in another way. The + protective tariff is really the father of modern prosperity.” + </p> + <p> + The speaker paused and a cheer arose from the crowd. Hugh took hold of the + school teacher's arm and drew her away down a side street. They walked + home in silence, but when they got to the house and were about to go in, + the school teacher hesitated. She wanted to ask Hugh to walk about in the + darkness with her but did not have the courage of her desires. As they + stood at the gate and as the tall man with the long serious face looked + down at her, she remembered the speaker's words. “How could he care for + me? How could a man like him care anything for a homely little school + teacher like me?” she asked herself. Aloud she said something quite + different. As they had come along Turner's Pike she had made up her mind + she would boldly suggest a walk under the trees along Turner's Pike beyond + the bridge, and had told herself that she would later lead him to the + place beside the stream and in the shadow of the old pickle factory where + she and George Pike had come so near being lovers. Instead she hesitated + for a moment by the gate and then laughed awkwardly and passed in. “You + should be proud. I would be proud if I could be spoken of like that. I + don't see why you keep living here in a cheap little house like ours,” she + said. + </p> + <p> + On a warm spring Sunday night during the year in which Clara Butterworth + came back to Bidwell to live, Hugh made what was for him an almost + desperate effort to approach the school teacher. It had been a rainy + afternoon and Hugh had spent a part of it in the house. He came over from + his shop at noon and went to his room. When she was at home the school + teacher occupied a room next his own. The mother who seldom left the house + had on that day gone to the country to visit a brother. The daughter got + dinner for herself and Hugh and he tried to help her wash the dishes. A + plate fell out of his hands and its breaking seemed to break the silent, + embarrassed mood that had possession of them. For a few minutes they were + children and acted like children. Hugh picked up another plate and the + school teacher told him to put it down. He refused. “You're as awkward as + a puppy. How you ever manage to do anything over at that shop of yours is + more than I know.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh tried to keep hold of the plate which the school teacher tried to + snatch away and for a few minutes they struggled laughing. Her cheeks were + flushed and Hugh thought she looked bewitching. An impulse he had never + had before came to him. He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, throw + the plate at the ceiling, sweep all of the dishes off the table and hear + them crash on the floor, play like some huge animal loose in a tiny world. + He looked at Rose and his hands trembled from the strength of the strange + impulse. As he stood staring she took the plate out of his hand and went + into the kitchen. Not knowing what else to do he put on his hat and went + for a walk. Later he went to the shop and tried to work, but his hand + trembled when he tried to hold a tool and the hay-loading apparatus on + which he was at work seemed suddenly a very trivial and unimportant thing. + </p> + <p> + At four o'clock Hugh got back to the house and found it apparently empty, + although the door leading to Turner's Pike was open. The rain had stopped + falling and the sun struggled to work its way through the clouds. He went + upstairs to his own room and sat on the edge of his bed. The conviction + that the daughter of the house was in her room next door came to him, and + although the thought violated all the beliefs he had ever held regarding + women in relation to himself, he decided that she had gone to her room to + be near him when he came in. For some reason he knew that if he went to + her door and knocked she would not be surprised and would not refuse him + admission. He took off his shoes and set them gently on the floor. Then he + went on tiptoes out into the little hallway. The ceiling was so low that + he had to stoop to avoid knocking his head against it. He raised his hand + intending to knock on the door, and then lost courage. Several times he + went into the hallway with the same intent, and each time returned + noiselessly to his own room. He sat in the chair by the window and waited. + An hour passed. He heard a noise that indicated that the school teacher + had been lying on her bed. Then he heard footsteps on the stairs, and + presently saw her go out of the house and go along Turner's Pike. She did + not go toward town but over the bridge past his shop and into the country. + Hugh drew himself back out of sight. He wondered where she could be going. + “The roads are muddy. Why does she go out? Is she afraid of me?” he asked + himself. When he saw her turn at the bridge and look back toward the + house, his hands trembled again. “She wants me to follow. She wants me to + go with her,” he thought. + </p> + <p> + Hugh did presently go out of the house and along the road but did not meet + the school teacher. She had in fact crossed the bridge and had gone along + the bank of the creek on the farther side. Then she crossed over again on + a fallen log and went to stand by the wall of the pickle factory. A lilac + bush grew beside the wall and she stood out of sight behind it. When she + saw Hugh in the road her heart beat so heavily that she had difficulty in + breathing. He went along the road and presently passed out of sight, and a + great weakness took possession of her. Although the grass was wet she sat + on the ground against the wall of the building and closed her eyes. Later + she put her face in her hands and wept. + </p> + <p> + The perplexed inventor did not get back to his boarding house until late + that night, and when he did he was unspeakably glad that he had not + knocked on the door of Rose McCoy's room. He had decided during the walk + that the whole notion that she had wanted him had been born in his own + brain. “She's a nice woman,” he had said to himself over and over during + the walk, and thought that in coming to that conclusion he had swept away + all possibilities of anything else in her. He was tired when he got home + and went at once to bed. The old woman came home from the country and her + brother sat in his buggy and shouted to the school teacher, who came out + of her room and ran down the stairs. He heard the two women carry + something heavy into the house and drop it on the floor. The farmer + brother had given Mrs. McCoy a bag of potatoes. Hugh thought of the mother + and daughter standing together downstairs and was unspeakably glad he had + not given way to his impulse toward boldness. “She would be telling her + now. She is a good woman and would be telling her now,” he thought. + </p> + <p> + At two o'clock that night Hugh got out of bed. In spite of the conviction + that women were not for him, he had found himself unable to sleep. + Something that shone in the eyes of the school teacher, when she struggled + with him for the possession of the plate, kept calling to him and he got + up and went to the window. The clouds had all gone out of the sky and the + night was clear. At the window next his own sat Rose McCoy. She was + dressed in a night gown and was looking away along Turner's Pike to the + place where George Pike the station master lived with his wife. Without + giving himself time to think, Hugh knelt on the floor and with his long + arm reached across the space between the two windows. His fingers had + almost touched the back of the woman's head and ached to play in the mass + of red hair that fell down over her shoulders, when again + self-consciousness overcame him. He drew his arm quickly back and stood + upright in the room. His head banged against the ceiling and he heard the + window of the room next door go softly down. With a conscious effort he + took himself in hand. “She's a good woman. Remember, she's a good woman,” + he whispered to himself, and when he got again into his bed he refused to + let his mind linger on the thoughts of the school teacher, but compelled + them to turn to the unsolved problems he still had to face before he could + complete his hay-loading apparatus. “You tend to your business and don't + be going off on that road any more,” he said, as though speaking to + another person. “Remember she's a good woman and you haven't the right. + That's all you have to do. Remember you haven't the right,” he added with + a ring of command in his voice. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII + </h2> + <p> + Hugh first saw Clara Butterworth one day in July when she had been at home + for a month. She came to his shop late one afternoon with her father and a + man who had been employed to manage the new bicycle factory. The three got + out of Tom's buggy and came into the shop to see Hugh's new invention, the + hay-loading apparatus. Tom and the man named Alfred Buckley went to the + rear of the shop, and Hugh was left alone with the woman. She was dressed + in a light summer gown and her cheeks were flushed. Hugh stood by a bench + near an open window and listened while she talked of how much the town had + changed in the three years she had been away. “It is your doing, every one + says that,” she declared. + </p> + <p> + Clara had been waiting for an opportunity to talk to Hugh. She began + asking questions regarding his work and what was to come of it. “When + everything is done by machines, what are people to do?” she asked. She + seemed to take it for granted that the inventor had thought deeply on the + subject of industrial development, a subject on which Kate Chanceller had + often talked during a whole evening. Having heard Hugh spoken of as one + who had a great brain, she wanted to see the brain at work. + </p> + <p> + Alfred Buckley came often to her father's house and wanted to marry Clara. + In the evening the two men sat on the front porch of the farmhouse and + talked of the town and the big things that were to be done there. They + spoke of Hugh, and Buckley, an energetic, talkative fellow with a long jaw + and restless gray eyes who had come from New York City, suggested schemes + for using him. Clara gathered that there was a plan on foot to get control + of Hugh's future inventions and thereby gain an advantage over Steve + Hunter. + </p> + <p> + The whole matter puzzled Clara. Alfred Buckley had asked her to marry him + and she had put the matter off. The proposal had been a formal thing, not + at all what she had expected from a man she was to take as a partner for + life, but Clara was at the moment very seriously determined upon marriage. + The New York man was at her father's house several evenings every week. + She had never walked about with him nor had they in any way come close to + each other. He seemed too much occupied with work to be personal and had + proposed marriage by writing her a letter. Clara got the letter from the + post-office and it upset her so that she felt she could not for a time go + into the presence of any one she knew. “I am unworthy of you, but I want + you to be my wife. I will work for you. I am new here and you do not know + me very well. All I ask is the privilege of proving my merit. I want you + to be my wife, but before I dare come and ask you to do me so great an + honor I feel I must prove myself worthy,” the letter said. + </p> + <p> + Clara had driven into town alone on the day when she received it and later + got into her buggy and drove south past the Butterworth farm into the + hills. She forgot to go home to lunch or to the evening meal. The horse + jogged slowly along, protesting and trying to turn back at every cross + road, but she kept on and did not get home until midnight. When she + reached the farmhouse her father was waiting. He went with her into the + barnyard and helped unhitch the horse. Nothing was said, and after a + moment's conversation having nothing to do with the subject that occupied + both their minds, she went upstairs and tried to think the matter out. She + became convinced that her father had something to do with the proposal of + marriage that he knew about it and had waited for her to come home in + order to see how it had affected her. + </p> + <p> + Clara wrote a reply that was as non-committal as the proposal itself. “I + do not know whether I want to marry you or not. I will have to become + acquainted with you. I however thank you for the offer of marriage and + when you feel that the right time has come, we will talk about it,” she + wrote. + </p> + <p> + After the exchange of letters, Alfred Buckley came to her father's house + more often than before, but he and Clara did not become better acquainted. + He did not talk to her, but to her father. Although she did not know it, + the rumor that she was to marry the New York man had already run about + town. She did not know whether her father or Buckley had told the tale. + </p> + <p> + On the front porch of the farmhouse through the summer evenings the two + men talked of the progress, of the town and the part they were taking and + hoped to take in its future growth. The New York man had proposed a scheme + to Tom. He was to go to Hugh and propose a contract giving the two men an + option on all his future inventions. As the inventions were completed they + were to be financed in New York City, and the two men would give up + manufacture and make money much more rapidly as promoters. They hesitated + because they were afraid of Steve Hunter, and because Tom was afraid Hugh + would not fall in with their plan. “It wouldn't surprise me if Steve + already had such a contract with him. He's a fool if he hasn't,” the older + man said. + </p> + <p> + Evening after evening the two men talked and Clara sat in the deep shadows + at the back of the porch and listened. The enmity that had existed between + herself and her father seemed to be forgotten. The man who had asked her + to marry him did not look at her, but her father did. Buckley did most of + the talking and spoke of New York City business men, already famous + throughout the Middle West as giants of finance, as though they were his + life-long friends. “They'll put over anything I ask them to,” he declared. + </p> + <p> + Clara tried to think of Alfred Buckley as a husband. Like Hugh McVey he + was tall and gaunt but unlike the inventor, whom she had seen two or three + times on the street, he was not carelessly dressed. There was something + sleek about him, something that suggested a well-bred dog, a hound + perhaps. As he talked he leaned forward like a greyhound in pursuit of a + rabbit. His hair was carefully parted and his clothes fitted him like the + skin of an animal. He wore a diamond scarf pin. His long jaw, it seemed to + her, was always wagging. Within a few days after the receipt of his letter + she had made up her mind that she did not want him as a husband, and she + was convinced he did not want her. The whole matter of marriage had, she + was sure, been in some way suggested by her father. When she came to that + conclusion she was both angry and in an odd way touched. She did not + interpret it as fear of some sort of indiscretion on her part, but thought + that her father wanted her to marry because he wanted her to be happy. As + she sat in the darkness on the front porch of the farmhouse the voices of + the two men became indistinct. It was as though her mind went out of her + body and like a living thing journeyed over the world. Dozens of men she + had seen and had casually addressed, young fellows attending school at + Columbus and boys of the town with whom she had gone to parties and dances + when she was a young girl, came to stand before her. She saw their figures + distinctly, but remembered them at some advantageous moment of her contact + with them. At Columbus there was a young man from a town in the southern + end of the State, one of the sort that is always in love with a woman. + During her first year in school he had noticed Clara, had been undecided + as to whether he had better pay attention to her or to a little black-eyed + town girl who was in their classes. Several times he walked down the + college hill and along the street with Clara. The two stood at a street + crossing where she was in the habit of taking a car. Several cars went by + as they stood together by a bush that grew by a high stone wall. They + talked of trivial matters, a comedy club that had been organized in the + school, the chances of victory for the football team. The young man was + one of the actors in a play to be given by the comedy club and told Clara + of his experiences at rehearsals. As he talked his eyes began to shine and + he seemed to be looking, not at her face or body, but at something within + her. For a time, perhaps for fifteen minutes, there was a possibility that + the two people would love each other. Then the young man went away and + later she saw him walking under the trees on the college campus with the + little black-eyed town girl. + </p> + <p> + As she sat on the porch in the darkness in the summer evenings, Clara + thought of the incident and of dozens of other swift-passing contacts she + had made with men. The voices of the two men talking of money-making went + on and on. Whenever she came back out of her introspective world of + thought, Alfred Buckley's long jaw was wagging. He was always at work, + steadily, persistently urging something on her father. It was difficult + for Clara to think of her father as a rabbit, but the notion that Alfred + Buckley was like a hound stayed with her. “The wolf and the wolfhound,” + she thought absent-mindedly. + </p> + <p> + Clara was twenty-three and seemed to herself mature. She did not intend + wasting any more time going to school and did not want to be a + professional woman, like Kate Chanceller. There was something she did want + and in a way some man, she did not know what man it would be, was + concerned in the matter. She was very hungry for love, but might have got + that from another woman. Kate Chanceller would have loved her. She was not + unconscious of the fact that their friendship had been something more than + friendship. Kate loved to hold Clara's hand and wanted to kiss and caress + her. The inclination had been put down by Kate herself, a struggle had + gone on in her, and Clara had been dimly conscious of it and had respected + Kate for making it. + </p> + <p> + Why? Clara asked herself that question a dozen times during the early + weeks of that summer. Kate Chanceller had taught her to think. When they + were together Kate did both the thinking and the talking, but now Clara's + mind had a chance. There was something back of her desire for a man. She + wanted something more than caresses. There was a creative impulse in her + that could not function until she had been made love to by a man. The man + she wanted was but an instrument she sought in order that she might + fulfill herself. Several times during those evenings in the presence of + the two men, who talked only of making money out of the products of + another man's mind, she almost forced her mind out into a concrete thought + concerning women, and then it became again befogged. + </p> + <p> + Clara grew tired of thinking, and listened to the talk. The name of Hugh + McVey played through the persistent conversation like a refrain. It became + fixed in her mind. The inventor was not married. By the social system + under which she lived that and that only made him a possibility for her + purposes. She began to think of the inventor, and her mind, weary of + playing about her own figure, played about the figure of the tall, + serious-looking man she had seen on Main Street. When Alfred Buckley had + driven away to town for the night, she went upstairs to her own room but + did not get into bed. Instead, she put out her light and sat by an open + window that looked out upon the orchard and from which she could see a + little stretch of the road that ran past the farm house toward town. Every + evening before Alfred Buckley went away, there was a little scene on the + front porch. When the visitor got up to go, her father made some excuse + for going indoors or around the corner of the house into the barnyard. “I + will have Jim Priest hitch up your horse,” he said and hurried away. Clara + was left in the company of the man who had pretended he wanted to marry + her, and who, she was convinced, wanted nothing of the kind. She was not + embarrassed, but could feel his embarrassment and enjoyed it. He made + formal speeches. + </p> + <p> + “Well, the night is fine,” he said. Clara hugged the thought that he was + uncomfortable. “He has taken me for a green country girl, impressed with + him because he is from the city and dressed in fine clothes,” she thought. + Sometimes her father stayed away five or ten minutes and she did not say a + word. When her father returned Alfred Buckley shook hands with him and + then turned to Clara, apparently now quite at his ease. “We have bored + you, I'm afraid,” he said. He took her hand and leaning over, kissed the + back of it ceremoniously. Her father looked away. Clara went upstairs and + sat by the window. She could hear the two men continuing their talk in the + road before the house. After a time the front door banged, her father came + into the house and the visitor drove away. Everything became quiet and for + a long time she could hear the hoofs of Alfred Buckley's horse beating a + rapid tattoo on the road that led down into town. + </p> + <p> + Clara thought of Hugh McVey. Alfred Buckley had spoken of him as a + backwoodsman with a streak of genius. He constantly harped on the notion + that he and Tom could use the man for their own ends, and she wondered if + both of the men were making as great a mistake about the inventor as they + were about her. In the silent summer night, when the sound of the horse's + hoofs had died away and when her father had quit stirring about the house, + she heard another sound. The corn-cutting machine factory was very busy + and had put on a night shift. When the night was still, or when there was + a slight breeze blowing up the hill from town, there was a low rumbling + sound coming from many machines working in wood and steel, followed at + regular intervals by the steady breathing of a steam engine. + </p> + <p> + The woman at the window, like every one else in her town and in all the + towns of the mid-western country, became touched with the idea of the + romance of industry. The dreams of the Missouri boy that he had fought, + had by the strength of his persistency twisted into new channels so that + they had expressed themselves in definite things, in corn-cutting machines + and in machines for unloading coal cars and for gathering hay out of a + field and loading it on wagons without aid of human hands, were still + dreams and capable of arousing dreams in others. They awoke dreams in the + mind of the woman. The figures of other men that had been playing through + her mind slipped away and but the one figure remained. Her mind made up + stories concerning Hugh. She had read the absurd tale that had been + printed in the Cleveland paper and her fancy took hold of it. Like every + other citizen of America she believed in heroes. In books and magazines + she had read of heroic men who had come up out of poverty by some strange + alchemy to combine in their stout persons all of the virtues. The broad, + rich land demanded gigantic figures, and the minds of men had created the + figures. Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Sherman, and a half dozen other men + were something more than human in the minds of the generation that came + immediately after the days of their stirring performance. Already industry + was creating a new set of semi-mythical figures. The factory at work in + the night-time in the town of Bidwell became, to the mind of the woman + sitting by the window in the farm house, not a factory but a powerful + animal, a powerful beast-like thing that Hugh had tamed and made useful to + his fellows. Her mind ran forward and took the taming of the beast for + granted. The hunger of her generation found a voice in her. Like every one + else she wanted heroes, and Hugh, to whom she had never talked and about + whom she knew nothing, became a hero. Her father, Alfred Buckley, Steve + Hunter and the rest were after all pigmies. Her father was a schemer; he + had even schemed to get her married, perhaps to further his own plans. In + reality his schemes were so ineffective that she did not need to be angry + with him. There was but one man of them all who was not a schemer. Hugh + was what she wanted to be. He was a creative force. In his hands dead + inanimate things became creative forces. He was what she wanted not + herself but perhaps a son, to be. The thought, at last definitely + expressed, startled Clara, and she arose from the chair by the window and + prepared to go to bed. Something within her body ached, but she did not + allow herself to pursue further the thoughts she had been having. + </p> + <p> + On the day when she went with her father and Alfred Buckley to visit + Hugh's shop, Clara knew that she wanted to marry the man she would see + there. The thought was not expressed in her but slept like a seed newly + planted in fertile soil. She had herself managed that she be taken to the + factory and had also managed that she be left with Hugh while the two men + went to look at the half-completed hay-loader at the back of the shop. + </p> + <p> + She had begun talking to Hugh while the four people stood on the little + grass plot before the shop. They went inside and her father and Buckley + went through a door toward the rear. She stopped by a bench and as she + continued talking Hugh was compelled to stop and stand beside her. She + asked questions, paid him vague compliments, and as he struggled, trying + to make conversation, she studied him. To cover his confusion he half + turned away and looked out through a window into Turner's Pike. His eyes, + she decided, were nice. They were somewhat small, but there was something + gray and cloudy in them, and the gray cloudiness gave her confidence in + the person behind the eyes. She could, she felt, trust him. There was + something in his eyes that was like the things most grateful to her own + nature, the sky seen across an open stretch of country or over a river + that ran straight away into the distance. Hugh's hair was coarse like the + mane of a horse, and his nose was like the nose of a horse. He was, she + decided, very like a horse; an honest, powerful horse, a horse that was + humanized by the mysterious, hungering thing that expressed itself through + his eyes. “If I have to live with an animal; if, as Kate Chanceller once + said, we women have to decide what other animal we are to live with before + we can begin being humans, I would rather live with a strong, kindly horse + than a wolf or a wolfhound,” she found herself thinking. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV + </h2> + <p> + Hugh had no suspicion that Clara had him under consideration as a possible + husband. He knew nothing about her, but after she went away he began to + think. She was a woman and good to look upon and at once took Rose McCoy's + place in his mind. All unloved men and many who are loved play in a half + subconscious way with the figures of many women as women's minds play with + the figures of men, seeing them in many situations, vaguely caressing + them, dreaming of closer contacts. With Hugh the impulse toward women had + started late, but it was becoming every day more active. When he talked to + Clara and while she stayed in his presence, he was more embarrassed than + he had ever been before, because he was more conscious of her than he had + ever been of any other woman. In secret he was not the modest man he + thought himself. The success of his corn-cutting machine and his + car-dumping apparatus and the respect, amounting almost to worship, he + sometimes saw in the eyes of the people of the Ohio town had fed his + vanity. It was a time when all America was obsessed with one idea, and to + the people of Bidwell nothing could be more important, necessary and vital + to progress than the things Hugh had done. He did not walk and talk like + the other people of the town, and his body was over-large and loosely put + together, but in secret he did not want to be different even in a physical + way. Now and then there came an opportunity for a test of physical + strength: an iron bar was to be lifted or a part of some heavy machine + swung into place in the shop. In such a test he had found he could lift + almost twice the load another could handle. Two men grunted and strained, + trying to lift a heavy bar off the floor and put it on a bench. He came + along and did the job alone and without apparent effort. + </p> + <p> + In his room at night or in the late afternoon or evening in the summer + when he walked on country roads, he sometimes felt keen hunger for + recognition of his merits from his fellows, and having no one to praise + him, he praised himself. When the Governor of the State spoke in praise of + him before a crowd and when he made Rose McCoy come away because it seemed + immodest for him to stay and hear such words, he found himself unable to + sleep. After tossing in his bed for two or three hours he got up and crept + quietly out of the house. He was like a man who, having an unmusical + voice, sings to himself in a bath-room while the water is making a loud, + splashing noise. On that night Hugh wanted to be an orator. As he stumbled + in the darkness along Turner's Pike he imagined himself Governor of a + State addressing a multitude of people. A mile north of Pickleville a + dense thicket grew beside the road, and Hugh stopped and addressed the + young trees and bushes. In the darkness the mass of bushes looked not + unlike a crowd standing at attention, listening. The wind blew and played + in the thick, dry growth and there was a sound as of many voices + whispering words of encouragement. Hugh said many foolish things. + Expressions he had heard from the lips of Steve Hunter and Tom Butterworth + came into his mind and were repeated by his lips. He spoke of the swift + growth that had come to the town of Bidwell as though it were an unmixed + blessing, the factories, the homes of happy, contented people, the coming + of industrial development as something akin to a visit of the gods. Rising + to the height of egotism he shouted, “I have done it. I have done it.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh heard a buggy coming along the road and fled into the thicket. A + farmer, who had gone to town for the evening and who had stayed after the + political meeting to talk with other farmers in Ben Head's saloon, went + homeward, asleep in his buggy. His head nodded up and down, heavy with the + vapors rising from many glasses of beer. Hugh came out of the thicket + feeling somewhat ashamed. The next day he wrote a letter to Sarah Shepherd + and told her of his progress. “If you or Henry want any money, I can let + you have all you want,” he wrote, and did not resist the temptation to + tell her something of what the Governor had said of his work and his mind. + “Anyway they must think I amount to something whether I do or not,” he + said wistfully. + </p> + <p> + Having awakened to his own importance in the life about him, Hugh wanted + direct, human appreciation. After the failure of the effort both he and + Rose had made to break through the wall of embarrassment and reserve that + kept them apart, he knew pretty definitely that he wanted a woman, and the + idea, once fixed in his mind, grew to gigantic proportions. All women + became interesting, and he looked with hungry eyes at the wives of the + workmen who sometimes came to the shop door to pass a word with their + husbands, at young farm girls who drove along Turner's Pike on summer + afternoons, town girls who walked in the Bidwell Main Street in the + evening, at fair women and dark women. As he wanted a woman more + consciously and determinedly he became more afraid of individual women. + His success and his association with the workmen in his shop had made him + less self-conscious in the presence of men, but the women were different. + In their presence he was ashamed of his secret thoughts of them. + </p> + <p> + On the day when he was left alone with Clara, Tom Butterworth and Alfred + Buckley stayed at the back of the shop for nearly twenty minutes. It was a + hot day and beads of sweat stood on Hugh's face. His sleeves were rolled + to his elbows and his hands and hairy arms were covered with shop grime. + He put up his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, leaving a long, + black mark. Then he became aware of the fact that as she talked the woman + looked at him in an absorbed, almost calculating way. It was as though he + were a horse and she were a buyer examining him to be sure he was sound + and of a kindly disposition. While she stood beside him her eyes were + shining and her cheeks were flushed. The awakening, assertive male thing + in him whispered that the flush on her cheeks and the shining eyes were + indicative of something. His mind had been taught that lesson by the + slight and wholly unsatisfactory experience with the school teacher at his + boarding-house. + </p> + <p> + Clara drove away from the shop with her father and Alfred Buckley. Tom + drove and Alfred Buckley leaned forward and talked. “You must find out + whether or not Steve has an option on the new tool. It would be foolish to + ask outright and give ourselves away. That inventor is stupid and vain. + Those fellows always are. They appear to be quiet and shrewd, but they + always let the cat out of the bag. The thing to do is to flatter him in + some way. A woman could find out all he knows in ten minutes.” He turned + to Clara and smiled. There was something infinitely impertinent in the + fixed, animal-like stare of his eyes. “We do take you into our plans, your + father and me, eh?” he said. “You must be careful not to give us away when + you talk to that inventor.” + </p> + <p> + From his shop window Hugh stared at the backs of the heads of the three + people. The top of Tom Butterworth's buggy had been let down, and when he + talked Alfred Buckley leaned forward and his head disappeared. Hugh + thought Clara must look like the kind of woman men meant when they spoke + of a lady. The farmer's daughter had an instinct for clothes, and Hugh's + mind got the idea of gentility by way of the medium of clothes. He thought + the dress she had worn the most stylish thing he had ever seen. Clara's + friend Kate Chanceller, while mannish in her dress, had an instinct for + style and had taught Clara some valuable lessons. “Any woman can dress + well if she knows how,” Kate had declared. She had taught Clara how to + study and emphasize by dress the good points of her body. Beside Clara, + Rose McCoy looked dowdy and commonplace. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went to the rear of his shop to where there was a water-tap and + washed his hands. Then he went to a bench and tried to take up the work he + had been doing. Within five minutes he went to wash his hands again. He + went out of the shop and stood beside the small stream that rippled along + beneath willow bushes and disappeared under the bridge beneath Turner's + Pike, and then went back for his coat and quit work for the day. An + instinct led him to go past the creek again and he knelt on the grass at + the edge and again washed his hands. + </p> + <p> + Hugh's growing vanity was fed by the thought that Clara was interested in + him, but it was not yet strong enough to sustain the thought. He took a + long walk, going north from the shop along Turner's Pike for two or three + miles and then by a cross road between corn and cabbage fields to where he + could, by crossing a meadow, get into a wood. For an hour he sat on a log + at the wood's edge and looked south. Away in the distance, over the roofs + of the houses of the town, he could see a white speck against a background + of green—the Butterworth farm house. Almost at once he decided that + the thing he had seen in Clara's eyes and that was sister to something he + had seen in Rose McCoy's eyes had nothing to do with him. The mantle of + vanity he had been wearing dropped off and left him naked and sad. “What + would she be wanting of me?” he asked himself, and got up from the log to + look with critical eyes at his long, bony body. For the first time in two + or three years he thought of the words so often repeated in his presence + by Sarah Shepard in the first few months after he left his father's shack + by the shore of the Mississippi River and came to work at the railroad + station. She had called his people lazy louts and poor white trash and had + railed against his inclination to dreams. By struggle and work he had + conquered the dreams but could not conquer his ancestry, nor change the + fact that he was at bottom poor white trash. With a shudder of disgust he + saw himself again a boy in ragged clothes that smelled of fish, lying + stupid and half asleep in the grass beside the Mississippi River. He + forgot the majesty of the dreams that sometimes came to him, and only + remembered the swarms of flies that, attracted by the filth of their + clothes, hovered over him and over the drunken father who lay sleeping + beside him. + </p> + <p> + A lump arose in his throat and for a moment he was consumed with + self-pity. Then he went out of the wood, crossed the field, and with his + peculiar, long, shambling gait that got him over the ground with + surprising rapidity, went again along the road. Had there been a stream + nearby he would have been tempted to tear off his clothes and plunge in. + The notion that he could ever become a man who would in any way be + attractive to a woman like Clara Butterworth seemed the greatest folly in + the world. “She's a lady. What would she be wanting of me? I ain't fitten + for her. I ain't fitten for her,” he said aloud, unconsciously falling + into the dialect of his father. + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked the entire afternoon away and in the evening went back to his + shop and worked until midnight. So energetically did he work that several + knotty problems in the construction of the hay-loading apparatus were + cleared away. + </p> + <p> + On the second evening after the encounter with Clara, Hugh went for a walk + in the streets of Bidwell. He thought of the work on which he had been + engaged all day and then of the woman he had made up his mind he could + under no circumstances win. As darkness came on he went into the country, + and at nine returned along the railroad tracks past the corn-cutter + factory. The factory was working day and night, and the new plant, also + beside the tracks and but a short distance away, was almost completed. + Behind the new plant was a field Tom Butterworth and Steve Hunter had + bought and laid out in streets of workingmen's houses. The houses were + cheaply constructed and ugly, and in all directions there was a vast + disorder; but Hugh did not see the disorder or the ugliness of the + buildings. The sight that lay before him strengthened his waning vanity. + Something of the loose shuffle went out of his stride and he threw back + his shoulders. “What I have done here amounts to something. I'm all + right,” he thought, and had almost reached the old corn-cutter plant when + several men came out of a side door and getting upon the tracks, walked + before him. + </p> + <p> + In the corn-cutter plant something had happened that excited the men. Ed + Hall the superintendent had played a trick on his fellow townsmen. He had + put on overalls and gone to work at a bench in a long room with some fifty + other men. “I'm going to show you up,” he said, laughing. “You watch me. + We're behind on the work and I'm going to show you up.” + </p> + <p> + The pride of the workmen had been touched, and for two weeks they had + worked like demons to outdo the boss. At night when the amount of work + done was calculated, they laughed at Ed. Then they heard that the + piece-work plan was to be installed in the factory, and were afraid they + would be paid by a scale calculated on the amount of work done during the + two weeks of furious effort. + </p> + <p> + The workman who stumbled along the tracks cursed Ed Hall and the men for + whom he worked. “I lost six hundred dollars in the plant-setting machine + failure and this is all I get, to be played a trick on by a young suck + like Ed Hall,” a voice grumbled. Another voice took up the refrain. In the + dim light Hugh could see the speaker, a man with a bent back, a product of + the cabbage fields, who had come to town to find employment. Although he + did not recognize it, he had heard the voice before. It came from a son of + the cabbage farmer, Ezra French and was the same voice he had once heard + complaining at night as the French boys crawled across a cabbage field in + the moonlight. The man now said something that startled Hugh. “Well,” he + declared, “it's a joke on me. I quit Dad and made him sore; now he won't + take me back again. He says I'm a quitter and no good. I thought I'd come + to town to a factory and find it easier here. Now I've got married and + have to stick to my job no matter what they do. In the country I worked + like a dog a few weeks a year, but here I'll probably have to work like + that all the time. It's the way things go. I thought it was mighty funny, + all this talk about the factory work being so easy. I wish the old days + were back. I don't see how that inventor or his inventions ever helped us + workers. Dad was right about him. He said an inventor wouldn't do nothing + for workers. He said it would be better to tar and feather that telegraph + operator. I guess Dad was right.” + </p> + <p> + The swagger went out of Hugh's walk and he stopped to let the men pass out + of sight and hearing along the track. When they had gone a little away a + quarrel broke out. Each man felt the others must be in some way + responsible for his betrayal in the matter of the contest with Ed Hall and + accusations flew back and forth. One of the men threw a heavy stone that + ran down along the tracks and jumped into a ditch filled with dry weeds. + It made a heavy crashing sound. Hugh heard heavy footsteps running. He was + afraid the men were going to attack him, and climbed over a fence, crossed + a barnyard, and got into an empty street. As he went along trying to + understand what had happened and why the men were angry, he met Clara + Butterworth, standing and apparently waiting for him under a street lamp. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked beside Clara, too perplexed to attempt to understand the new + impulses crowding in upon his mind. She explained her presence in the + street by saying she had been to town to mail a letter and intended + walking home by a side road. “You may come with me if you're just out for + a walk,” she said. The two walked in silence. Hugh's mind, unaccustomed to + traveling in wide circles, centered on his companion. Life seemed suddenly + to be crowding him along strange roads. In two days he had felt more new + emotions and had felt them more deeply than he would have thought possible + to a human being. The hour through which he had just passed had been + extraordinary. He had started out from his boarding-house sad and + depressed. Then he had come by the factories and pride in what he thought + he had accomplished swept in on him. Now it was apparent the workers in + the factories were not happy, that there was something the matter. He + wondered if Clara would know what was wrong and would tell him if he + asked. He wanted to ask many questions. “That's what I want a woman for. I + want some one close to me who understands things and will tell me about + them,” he thought. Clara remained silent and Hugh decided that she, like + the complaining workman stumbling along the tracks, did not like him. The + man had said he wished Hugh had never come to town. Perhaps every one in + Bidwell secretly felt that way. + </p> + <p> + Hugh was no longer proud of himself and his achievements. Perplexity had + captured him. When he and Clara got out of town into a country road, he + began thinking of Sarah Shepard, who had been friendly and kind to him + when he was a lad, and wished she were with him, or better yet that Clara + would take the attitude toward him she had taken. Had Clara taken it into + her head to scold as Sarah Shepard had done he would have been relieved. + </p> + <p> + Instead Clara walked in silence, thinking of her own affairs and planning + to use Hugh for her own ends. It had been a perplexing day for her. Late + that afternoon there had been a scene between her and her father and she + had left home and come to town because she could no longer bear being in + his presence. When she had seen Hugh coming toward her she had stopped + under a street lamp to wait for him. “I could set everything straight by + getting him to ask me to marry him,” she thought. + </p> + <p> + The new difficulty that had arisen between Clara and her father was + something with which she had nothing to do. Tom, who thought himself so + shrewd and crafty, had been taken in by the city man, Alfred Buckley. A + federal officer had come to town during the afternoon to arrest Buckley. + The man had turned out to be a notorious swindler wanted in several + cities. In New York he had been one of a gang who distributed counterfeit + money, and in other states he was wanted for swindling women, two of whom + he married unlawfully. + </p> + <p> + The arrest had been like a shot fired at Tom by a member of his own + household. He had almost come to think of Alfred Buckley as one of his + family, and as he drove rapidly along the road toward home, he had been + profoundly sorry for his daughter and had intended to ask her to forgive + him for his part in betraying her into a false position. That he had not + openly committed himself to any of Buckley's schemes, had signed no papers + and written no letters that would betray the conspiracy he had entered + into against Steve, filled him with joy. He had intended to be generous, + and even, if necessary, confess to Clara his indiscretion in talking of a + possible marriage, but when he got to the farm house and had taken Clara + into the parlor and had closed the door, he changed his mind. He told her + of Buckley's arrest, and then started tramping excitedly up and down in + the room. Her coolness infuriated him. “Don't set there like a clam!” he + shouted. “Don't you know what's happened? Don't you know you're disgraced, + have brought disgrace on my name?” + </p> + <p> + The angry father explained that half the town knew of her engagement to + marry Alfred Buckley, and when Clara declared they were not engaged and + that she had never intended marrying the man, his anger did not abate. He + had himself whispered the suggestion about town, had told Steve Hunter, + Gordon Hart, and two or three others, that Alfred Buckley and his daughter + would no doubt do what he spoke of as “hitting it off,” and they had of + course told their wives. The fact that he had betrayed his daughter into + an ugly position gnawed at his consciousness. “I suppose the rascal told + it himself,” he said, in reply to her statement, and again gave way to + anger. He glared at his daughter and wished she were a son so he could + strike with his fists. His voice arose to a shout and could be heard in + the barnyard where Jim Priest and a young farm hand were at work. They + stopped work and listened. “She's been up to something. Do you suppose + some man has got her in trouble?” the young farm hand asked. + </p> + <p> + In the house Tom expressed his old dissatisfaction with his daughter. “Why + haven't you married and settled down like a decent woman?” he shouted. + “Tell me that. Why haven't you married and settled down? Why are you + always getting in trouble? Why haven't you married and settled down?” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Clara walked in the road beside Hugh and thought that all her troubles + would come to an end if he would ask her to be his wife. Then she became + ashamed of her thoughts. As they passed the last street lamp and prepared + to set out by a roundabout way along a dark road, she turned to look at + Hugh's long, serious face. The tradition that had made him appear + different from other men in the eyes of the people of Bidwell began to + affect her. Ever since she had come home she had been hearing people speak + of him with something like awe in their voices. For her to marry the + town's hero would, she knew, set her on a high place in the eyes of her + people. It would be a triumph for her and would re-establish her, not only + in her father's eyes but in the eyes of every one. Every one seemed to + think she should marry; even Jim Priest had said so. He had said she was + the marrying kind. Here was her chance. She wondered why she did not want + to take it. + </p> + <p> + Clara had written her friend Kate Chanceller a letter in which she had + declared her intention of leaving home and going to work, and had come to + town afoot to mail it. On Main Street as she went through the crowds of + men who had come to loaf the evening away before the stores, the force of + what her father had said concerning the connection of her name with that + of Buckley the swindler had struck her for the first time. The men were + gathered together in groups, talking excitedly. No doubt they were + discussing Buckley's arrest. Her own name was, no doubt, being bandied + about. Her cheeks burned and a keen hatred of mankind had possession of + her. Now her hatred of others awoke in her an almost worshipful attitude + toward Hugh. By the time they had walked together for five minutes all + thought of using him to her own ends had gone. “He's not like Father or + Henderson Woodburn or Alfred Buckley,” she told herself. “He doesn't + scheme and twist things about trying to get the best of some one else. He + works, and because of his efforts things are accomplished.” The figure of + the farm hand Jim Priest working in a field of corn came to her mind. “The + farm hand works,” she thought, “and the corn grows. This man sticks to his + task in his shop and makes a town grow.” + </p> + <p> + In her father's presence during the afternoon Clara had remained calm and + apparently indifferent to his tirade. In town in the presence of the men + she was sure were attacking her character, she had been angry, ready to + fight. Now she wanted to put her head on Hugh's shoulder and cry. + </p> + <p> + They came to the bridge near where the road turned and led to her father's + house. It was the same bridge to which she had come with the school + teacher and to which John May had followed, looking for a fight. Clara + stopped. She did not want any one at the house to know that Hugh had + walked home with her. “Father is so set on my getting married, he would go + to see him to-morrow,” she thought. She put her arms upon the rail of the + bridge and bending over buried her face between them. Hugh stood behind + her, turning his head from side to side and rubbing his hands on his + trouser legs, beside himself with embarrassment. There was a flat, swampy + field beside the road and not far from the bridge, and after a moment of + silence the voices of a multitude of frogs broke the stillness. Hugh + became overwhelmingly sad. The notion that he was a big man and deserved + to have a woman to live with and understand him went entirely away. For + the moment he wanted to be a boy and put his head on the shoulder of the + woman. He did not look at Clara but at himself. In the dim light his + hands, nervously fumbling about, his long, loosely-put-together body, + everything connected with his person, seemed ugly and altogether + unattractive. He could see the woman's small firm hands that lay on the + railing of the bridge. They were, he thought, like everything connected + with her person, shapely and beautiful, just as everything connected with + his own person was unshapely and ugly. + </p> + <p> + Clara aroused herself from the meditative mood that had taken possession + of her, and after shaking Hugh's hand and explaining that she did not want + him to go further went away. When he thought she had quite gone she came + back. “You'll hear I was engaged to that Alfred Buckley who has got into + trouble and has been arrested,” she said. Hugh did not reply and her voice + became sharp and a little challenging. “You'll hear we were going to be + married. I don't know what you'll hear. It's a lie,” she said and turning, + hurried away. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV + </h2> + <p> + Hugh and Clara were married in less than a week after their first walk + together. A chain of circumstances touching their two lives hurled them + into marriage, and the opportunity for the intimacy with a woman for which + Hugh so longed came to him with a swiftness that made him fairly dizzy. + </p> + <p> + It was a Wednesday evening and cloudy. After dining in silence with his + landlady, Hugh started along Turner's Pike toward Bidwell, but when he had + got almost into town, turned back. He had left the house intending to go + through town to the Medina Road and to the woman who now occupied so large + a place in his thoughts, but hadn't the courage. Every evening for almost + a week he had taken the walk, and every evening and at almost the same + spot he turned back. He was disgusted and angry with himself and went to + his shop, walking in the middle of the road and kicking up clouds of dust. + People passed along the path under the trees at the side of the road and + turned to stare at him. A workingman with a fat wife, who puffed as she + walked at his side, turned to look and then began to scold. “I tell you + what, old woman, I shouldn't have married and had kids,” he grumbled. + “Look at me, then look at that fellow. He goes along there thinking big + thoughts that will make him richer and richer. I have to work for two + dollars a day, and pretty soon I'll be old and thrown on the scrap-heap. I + might have been a rich inventor like him had I given myself a chance.” + </p> + <p> + The workman went on his way, grumbling at his wife who paid no attention + to his words. Her breath was needed for the labor of walking, and as for + the matter of marriage, that had been attended to. She saw no reason for + wasting words over the matter. Hugh went to the shop and stood leaning + against the door frame. Two or three workmen were busy near the back door + and had lighted gas lamps that hung over the work benches. They did not + see Hugh, and their voices ran through the empty building. One of them, an + old man with a bald head, entertained his fellows by giving an imitation + of Steve Hunter. He lighted a cigar and putting on his hat tipped it a + little to one side. Puffing out his chest he marched up and down talking + of money. “Here's a ten-dollar cigar,” he said, handing a long stogie to + one of the other workmen. “I buy them by the thousands to give away. I'm + interested in uplifting the lives of workmen in my home town. That's what + takes all my attention.” + </p> + <p> + The other workmen laughed and the little man continued to prance up and + down and talk, but Hugh did not hear him. He stared moodily at the people + going along the road toward town. Darkness was coming but he could still + see dim figures striding along. Over at the foundry back of the + corn-cutting machine plant the night shift was pouring off, and a sudden + glare of light played across the heavy smoke cloud that lay over the town. + The bells of the churches began to call people to the Wednesday evening + prayer-meetings. Some enterprising citizen had begun to build workmen's + houses in a field beyond Hugh's shop and these were occupied by Italian + laborers. A crowd of them came past. What would some day be a tenement + district was growing in a field beside a cabbage patch belonging to Ezra + French who had said God would not permit men to change the field of their + labors. + </p> + <p> + An Italian passed under a lamp near the Wheeling station. He wore a bright + red handkerchief about his neck and was clad in a brightly colored shirt. + Like the other people of Bidwell, Hugh did not like to see foreigners + about. He did not understand them and when he saw them going about the + streets in groups, was a little afraid. It was a man's duty, he thought, + to look as much as possible like all his fellow men, to lose himself in + the crowds, and these fellows did not look like other men. They loved + color, and as they talked they made rapid gestures with their hands. The + Italian in the road was with a woman of his own race, and in the growing + darkness put his arm about her shoulder. Hugh's heart began to beat + rapidly and he forgot his American prejudices. He wished he were a workman + and that Clara were a workman's daughter. Then, he thought, he might find + courage to go to her. His imagination, quickened by the flame of desire + and running in new channels, made it possible for him, at the moment to + see himself in the young Italian's place, walking in the road with Clara. + She was clad in a calico dress and her soft brown eyes looked at him full + of love and understanding. + </p> + <p> + The three workingmen had completed the job for which they had come back to + work after the evening meal, and now turned out the lights and came toward + the front of the shop. Hugh drew back from the door and concealed himself + by standing in the heavy shadows by the wall. So realistic were his + thoughts of Clara that he did not want them intruded upon. + </p> + <p> + The workmen went out of the shop door and stood talking. The bald-headed + man was telling a tale to which the others listened eagerly. “It's all + over town,” he said. “From what I hear every one say it isn't the first + time she's been in such a mess. Old Tom Butterworth claimed he sent her + away to school three years ago, but now they say that isn't the truth. + What they say is that she was in the family way to one of her father's + farm hands and had to get out of town.” The man laughed. “Lord, if Clara + Butterworth was my daughter she'd be in a nice fix, wouldn't she, eh?” he + said, laughing. “As it is, she's all right. She's gone now and got herself + mixed up with this swindler Buckley, but her father's money will make it + all right. If she's going to have a kid, no one'll know. Maybe she's + already had the kid. They say she's a regular one for the men.” + </p> + <p> + As the man talked Hugh came to the door and stood in the darkness + listening. For a time the words would not penetrate his consciousness, and + then he remembered what Clara had said. She had said something about + Alfred Buckley and that there would be a story connecting her name with + his. She had been hot and angry and had declared the story a lie. Hugh did + not know what the story was about, but it was evident there was a story + abroad, a scandalous story concerning her and Alfred Buckley. A hot, + impersonal anger took possession of him. “She's in trouble—here's my + chance,” he thought. His tall figure straightened and as he stepped + through the shop door his head struck sharply against the door frame, but + he did not feel the blow that at another time might have knocked him down. + During his whole life he had never struck any one with his fists, and had + never felt a desire to do so, but now hunger to strike and even to kill + took complete possession of him. With a cry of rage his fist shot out and + the old man who had done the talking was knocked senseless into a clump of + weeds that grew near the door. Hugh whirled and struck a second man who + fell through the open doorway into the shop. The third man ran away into + the darkness along Turner's Pike. + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked rapidly to town and through Main Street. He saw Tom + Butterworth walking in the street with Steve Hunter, but turned a corner + to avoid a meeting. “My chance has come,” he kept saying to himself as he + hurried along Medina Road. “Clara's in some kind of trouble. My chance has + come.” + </p> + <p> + By the time he got to the door of the Butterworth house, Hugh's new-found + courage had almost left him, but before it had quite gone he raised his + hand and knocked on the door. By good fortune Clara came to open it. Hugh + took off his hat and turned it awkwardly in his hands. “I came out here to + ask you to marry me,” he said. “I want you to be my wife. Will you do it?” + </p> + <p> + Clara stepped out of the house and closed the door. A whirl of thoughts + ran through her brain. For a moment she felt like laughing, and then what + there was in her of her father's shrewdness came to her rescue. “Why + shouldn't I do it?” she thought. “Here's my chance. This man is excited + and upset now, but he is a man I can respect. It's the best marriage I'll + ever have a chance to make. I do not love him, but perhaps that will come. + This may be the way marriages are made.” + </p> + <p> + Clara put out her hand and laid it on Hugh's arm. “Well,” she said, + hesitatingly, “you wait here a moment.” + </p> + <p> + She went into the house and left Hugh standing in the darkness. He was + terribly afraid. It seemed to him that every secret desire of his life had + got itself suddenly and bluntly expressed. He felt naked and ashamed. “If + she comes out and says she'll marry me, what will I do? What'll I do + then?” he asked himself. + </p> + <p> + When she did come out Clara wore her hat and a long coat. “Come,” she + said, and led him around the house and through the barnyard to one of the + barns. She went into a dark stall and led forth a horse and with Hugh's + help pulled a buggy out of a shed into the barnyard. “If we're going to do + it there's no use putting it off,” she said with a trembling voice. “We + might as well go to the county seat and do it at once.” + </p> + <p> + The horse was hitched and Clara got into the buggy. Hugh climbed in and + sat beside her. She had started to drive out of the barnyard when Jim + Priest stepped suddenly out of the darkness and took hold of the horse's + head. Clara held the buggy whip in her hand and raised it to hit the + horse. A desperate determination that nothing should interfere with her + marriage with Hugh had taken possession of her. “If necessary I'll ride + the man down,” she thought. Jim came to stand beside the buggy. He looked + past Clara at Hugh. “I thought maybe it was that Buckley,” he said. He put + a hand on the buggy dash and laid the other on Clara's arm. “You're a + woman now, Clara, and I guess you know what you're doing. I guess you know + I'm your friend,” he said slowly. “You been in trouble, I know. I couldn't + help hearing what your father said to you about Buckley, he talked so + loud. Clara, I don't want to see you get into trouble.” + </p> + <p> + The farm hand stepped away from the buggy and then came back and again put + his hand on Clara's arm. The silence that lay over the barnyard lasted + until the woman felt she could speak without a break in her voice. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not going very far, Jim,” she said, laughing nervously. “This is Mr. + Hugh McVey and we're going over to the county seat to get married. We'll + be back home before midnight. You put a candle in the window for us.” + </p> + <p> + Hitting the horse a sharp blow, Clara drove quickly past the house and + into the road. She turned south into the hill country through which lay + the road to the county seat. As the horse trotted quickly along, the voice + of Jim Priest called to her out of the darkness of the barnyard, but she + did not stop. The afternoon and evening had been cloudy and the night was + dark. She was glad of that. As the horse went swiftly along she turned to + look at Hugh who sat up very stiffly on the buggy seat and stared straight + ahead. The long horse-like face of the Missourian with its huge nose and + deeply furrowed cheeks was ennobled by the soft darkness, and a tender + feeling crept over her. When he had asked her to become his wife, Clara + had pounced like a wild animal abroad seeking prey and the thing in her + that was like her father, hard, shrewd and quick-witted, had led her to + decide to see the thing through at once. Now she became ashamed, and her + tender mood took the hardness and shrewdness away. “This man and I have a + thousand things we should say to each other before we rush into marriage,” + she thought, and was half inclined to turn the horse and drive back. She + wondered if Hugh had also heard the stories connecting her name with that + of Buckley, the stories she was sure were now running from lip to lip + through the streets of Bidwell, and what version of the tale had been + carried to him. “Perhaps he came to propose marriage in order to protect + me,” she thought, and decided that if he had come for that reason she was + taking an unfair advantage. “It is what Kate Chanceller would call 'doing + the man a dirty, low-down trick,'” she told herself; but even as the + thought came she leaned forward and touching the horse with the whip urged + him even more swiftly along the road. + </p> + <p> + A mile south of the Butterworth farmhouse the road to the county seat + crossed the crest of a hill, the highest point in the county, and from the + road there was a magnificent view of the country lying to the south. The + sky had begun to clear, and as they reached the point known as Lookout + Hill, the moon broke through a tangle of clouds. Clara stopped the horse + and turned to look down the hillside. Below lay the lights of her father's + farmhouse—where he had come as a young man and to which long ago he + had brought his bride. Far below the farmhouse a clustered mass of lights + outlined the swiftly growing town. The determination that had carried + Clara thus far wavered again and a lump came into her throat. + </p> + <p> + Hugh also turned to look but did not see the dark beauty of the country + wearing its night jewels of lights. The woman he wanted so passionately + and of whom he was so afraid had her face turned from him, and he dared to + look at her. He saw the sharp curve of her breasts and in the dim light + her cheeks seemed to glow with beauty. An odd notion came to him. In the + uncertain light her face seemed to move independent of her body. It drew + near him and then drew away. Once he thought the dimly seen white cheek + would touch his own. He waited breathless. A flame of desire ran through + his body. + </p> + <p> + Hugh's mind flew back through the years to his boyhood and young manhood. + In the river town when he was a boy the raftsmen and hangers-on of the + town's saloons, who had sometimes come to spend an afternoon on the river + banks with his father John McVey, often spoke of women and marriage. As + they lay on the burned grass in the warm sunlight they talked and the boy + who lay half asleep nearby listened. The voices came to him as though out + of the clouds or up out of the lazy waters of the great river and the talk + of women awoke his boyhood lusts. One of the men, a tall young fellow with + a mustache and with dark rings under his eyes, told in a lazy, drawling + voice the tale of an adventure had with a woman one night when a raft on + which he was employed had tied up near the city of St. Louis, and Hugh + listened enviously. As he told the tale the young man a little awoke from + his stupor, and when he laughed the other men lying about laughed with + him. “I got the best of her after all,” he boasted. “After it was all over + we went into a little room at the back of a saloon. I watched my chance + and when she went to sleep sitting in a chair I took eight dollars out of + her stocking.” + </p> + <p> + That night in the buggy beside Clara, Hugh thought of himself lying by the + river bank on the summer days. Dreams had come to him there, sometimes + gigantic dreams; but there had also come ugly thoughts and desires. By his + father's shack there was always the sharp rancid smell of decaying fish + and swarms of flies filled the air. Out in the clean Ohio country, in the + hills south of Bidwell, it seemed to him that the smell of decaying fish + came back, that it was in his clothes, that it had in some way worked its + way into his nature. He put up his hand and swept it across his face, an + unconscious return of the perpetual movement of brushing flies away from + his face as he lay half asleep by the river. + </p> + <p> + Little lustful thoughts kept coming to Hugh and made him ashamed. He moved + restlessly in the buggy seat and a lump came into his throat. Again he + looked at Clara. “I'm a poor white,” he thought. “It isn't fitten I should + marry this woman.” + </p> + <p> + From the high spot in the road Clara looked down at her father's house and + below at the lights of the town, that had already spread so far over the + countryside, and up through the hills toward the farm where she had spent + her girlhood and where, as Jim Priest had said, “the sap had begun to run + up the tree.” She began to love the man who was to be her husband, but + like the dreamers of the town, saw him as something a little inhuman, as a + man almost gigantic in his bigness. Many things Kate Chanceller had said + as the two developing women walked and talked in the streets of Columbus + came back to her mind. When they had started again along the road she + continually worried the horse by tapping him with the whip. Like Kate, + Clara wanted to be fair and square. “A woman should be fair and square, + even with a man,” Kate had said. “The man I'm going to have as a husband + is simple and honest,” she thought. “If there are things down there in + town that are not square and fair, he had nothing to do with them.” + Realizing a little Hugh's difficulty in expressing what he must feel, she + wanted to help him, but when she turned and saw how he did not look at her + but continually stared into the darkness, pride kept her silent. “I'll + have to wait until he's ready. Already I've taken things too much into my + own hands. I'll put through this marriage, but when it comes to anything + else he'll have to begin,” she told herself, and a lump came into her + throat and tears to her eyes. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI + </h2> + <p> + As he stood alone in the barnyard, excited at the thought of the adventure + on which Clara and Hugh had set out, Jim Priest remembered Tom + Butterworth. For more than thirty years Jim had worked for Tom and they + had one strong impulse that bound them together—their common love of + fine horses. More than once the two men had spent an afternoon together in + the grand stand at the fall trotting meeting at Cleveland. In the late + morning of such a day Tom found Jim wandering from stall to stall, looking + at the horses being rubbed down and prepared for the afternoon's races. In + a generous mood he bought his employee's lunch and took him to a seat in + the grand stand. All afternoon the two men watched the races, smoked and + quarreled. Tom contended that Bud Doble, the debonair, the dramatic, the + handsome, was the greatest of all race horse drivers, and Jim Priest held + Bud Doble in contempt. For him there was but one man of all the drivers he + whole-heartedly admired, Pop Geers, the shrewd and silent. “That Geers of + yours doesn't drive at all. He just sits up there like a stick,” Tom + grumbled. “If a horse can win all right, he'll ride behind him all right. + What I like to see is a driver. Now you look at that Doble. You watch him + bring a horse through the stretch.” + </p> + <p> + Jim looked at his employer with something like pity in his eyes. “Huh,” he + exclaimed. “If you haven't got eyes you can't see.” + </p> + <p> + The farm hand had two strong loves in his life, his employer's daughter + and the race horse driver, Geers. “Geers,” he declared, “was a man born + old and wise.” Often he had seen Geers at the tracks on a morning before + some important race. The driver sat on an upturned box in the sun before + one of the horse stalls. All about him there was the bantering talk of + horsemen and grooms. Bets were made and challenges given. On the tracks + nearby horses, not entered in the races for that day, were being + exercised. Their hoofbeats made a kind of music that made Jim's blood + tingle. Negroes laughed and horses put their heads out at stall doors. The + stallions neighed loudly and the heels of some impatient steed rattled + against the sides of a stall. + </p> + <p> + Every one about the stalls talked of the events of the afternoon and Jim + leaned against the front of one of the stalls and listened, filled with + happiness. He wished the fates had made him a racing man. Then he looked + at Pop Geers, the silent one, who sat for hours dumb and uncommunicative + on a feed box, tapping lightly on the ground with his racing whip and + chewing straw. Jim's imagination was aroused. He had once seen that other + silent American, General Grant, and had been filled with admiration for + him. + </p> + <p> + That was on a great day in Jim's life, the day on which he had seen Grant + going to receive Lee's surrender at Appomattox. There had been a battle + with the Union men pursuing the fleeing Rebs out of Richmond, and Jim, + having secured a bottle of whisky, and having a chronic dislike of + battles, had managed to creep away into a wood. In the distance he heard + shouts and presently saw several men riding furiously down a road. It was + Grant with his aides going to the place where Lee waited. They rode to the + place near where Jim sat with his back against a tree and the bottle + between his legs; then stopped. Then Grant decided not to take part in the + ceremony. His clothes were covered with mud and his beard was ragged. He + knew Lee and knew he would be dressed for the occasion. He was that kind + of a man; he was one fitted for historic pictures and occasions. Grant + wasn't. He told his aides to go on to the spot where Lee waited, told them + what arrangements were to be made, then jumped his horse over a ditch and + rode along a path under the trees toward the spot where Jim lay. + </p> + <p> + That was an event Jim never forgot. He was fascinated at the thought of + what the day meant to Grant and by his apparent indifference. He sat + silently by the tree and when Grant got off his horse and came near, + walking now in the path where the sunlight sifted down through the trees, + he closed his eyes. Grant came to where he sat and stopped, apparently + thinking him dead. His hand reached down and took the bottle of whisky. + For a moment they had something between them, Grant and Jim. They both + understood that bottle of whisky. Jim thought Grant was about to drink, + and opened his eyes a little. Then he closed them. The cork was out of the + bottle and Grant clutched it in his hand tightly. From the distance there + came a vast shout that was picked up and carried by voices far away. The + wood seemed to rock with it. “It's done. The war's over,” Jim thought. + Then Grant reached over and smashed the bottle against the trunk of the + tree above Jim's head. A piece of the flying glass cut his cheek and blood + came. He opened his eyes and looked directly into Grant's eyes. For a + moment the two men stared at each other and the great shout again rolled + over the country. Grant went hurriedly along the path to where he had left + his horse, and mounting, rode away. + </p> + <p> + Standing in the race track looking at Geers, Jim thought of Grant. Then + his mind came back to this other hero. “What a man!” he thought. “Here he + goes from town to town and from race track to race track all through the + spring, summer and fall, and he never loses his head, never gets excited. + To win horse races is the same as winning battles. When I'm at home + plowing corn on summer afternoons, this Geers is away somewhere at some + track with all the people gathered about and waiting. To me it would be + like being drunk all the time, but you see he isn't drunk. Whisky could + make him stupid. It couldn't make him drunk. There he sits hunched up like + a sleeping dog. He looks as though he cared about nothing on earth, and + he'll sit like that through three-quarters of the hardest race, waiting, + taking advantage of every little stretch of firm hard ground on the track, + saving his horse, watching, watching his horse too, waiting. What a man! + He works the horse into fourth place, into third, into second. The crowd + in the grand stand, such fellows as Tom Butterworth, have not seen what + he's doing. He sits still. By God, what a man! He waits. He looks half + asleep. If he doesn't have to do it, he makes no effort. If the horse has + it in him to win without help he sits still. The people are shouting and + jumping up out of their seats in the grand stand, and if that Bud Doble + has a horse in the race he's leaning forward in the sulky, shouting at his + horse and making a holy show of himself. + </p> + <p> + “Ha, that Geers! He waits. He doesn't think of the people but of the horse + he's driving. When the time comes, just the right time, that Geers, he + lets the horse know. They are one at that moment, like Grant and I were + over that bottle of whisky. Something happens between them. Something + inside the man says, 'now,' and the message runs along the reins to the + horse's brain. It flies down into his legs. There is a rush. The head of + the horse has just worked its way out in front by inches—not too + soon, nothing wasted. Ha, that Geers! Bud Doble, huh!” + </p> + <p> + On the night of Clara's marriage after she and Hugh had disappeared down + the county seat road, Jim hurried into the barn and, bringing out a horse, + sprang on his back. He was sixty-three but could mount a horse like a + young man. As he rode furiously toward Bidwell he thought, not of Clara + and her adventure, but of her father. To both men the right kind of + marriage meant success in life for a woman. Nothing else really mattered + much if that were accomplished. He thought of Tom Butterworth, who, he + told himself, had fussed with Clara just as Bud Doble often fussed with a + horse in a race. He had himself been like Pop Geers. All along he had + known and understood the mare colt, Clara. Now she had come through; she + had won the race of life. + </p> + <p> + “Ha, that old fool!” Jim whispered to himself as he rode swiftly down the + dark road. When the horse ran clattering over a small wooden bridge and + came to the first of the houses of the town, he felt like one coming to + announce a victory, and half expected a vast shout to come out of the + darkness, as it had come in the moment of Grant's victory over Lee. + </p> + <p> + Jim could not find his employer at the hotel or in Main Street, but + remembered a tale he had heard whispered. Fanny Twist the milliner lived + in a little frame house in Garfield Street, far out at the eastern edge of + town, and he went there. He banged boldly on the door and the woman + appeared. “I've got to see Tom Butterworth,” he said. “It's important. + It's about his daughter. Something has happened to her.” + </p> + <p> + The door closed and presently Tom came around the corner of the house. He + was furious. Jim's horse stood in the road, and he went straight to him + and took hold of the bit. “What do you mean by coming here?” he asked + sharply. “Who told you I was here? What business you got coming here and + making a show of yourself? What's the matter of you? Are you drunk or out + of your head?” + </p> + <p> + Jim got off the horse and told Tom the news. For a moment the two stood + looking at each other. “Hugh McVey—Hugh McVey, by crackies, are you + right, Jim?” Tom exclaimed. “No missfire, eh? She's really gone and done + it? Hugh McVey, eh? By crackies!” + </p> + <p> + “They're on the way to the county seat now,” Jim said softly. “Missfire! + Not on your life.” His voice lost the cool, quiet tone he had so often + dreamed of maintaining in great emergencies. “I figure they'll be back by + twelve or one,” he said eagerly. “We got to blow 'em out, Tom. We got to + give that girl and her husband the biggest blowout ever seen in this + county, and we got just about three hours to get ready for it.” + </p> + <p> + “Get off that horse and give me a boost,” Tom commanded. With a grunt of + satisfaction he sprang to the horse's back. The belated impulse to + philander that an hour before sent him creeping through back streets and + alleyways to the door of Fanny Twist's house was all gone, and in its + place had come the spirit of the man of affairs, the man who, as he + himself often boasted, made things move and kept them on the move. “Now + look here, Jim,” he said sharply, “there are three livery stables in this + town. You engage every horse they've got for the night. Have the horses + hitched to any kind of rigs you can find, buggies, surreys, spring wagons, + anything. Have them get drivers off the streets, anywhere. Then have them + all brought around in front of the Bidwell House and held for me. When + you've done that, you go to Henry Heller's house. I guess you can find it. + You found this house where I was fast enough. He lives on Campus Street + just beyond the new Baptist Church. If he's gone to bed you get him up. + Tell him to get his orchestra together and have him bring all the lively + music he's got. Tell him to bring his men to the Bidwell House as fast as + he can get them there.” + </p> + <p> + Tom rode off along the street followed by Jim Priest, running at the + horse's heels. When he had gone a little way he stopped. “Don't let any + one fuss with you about prices to-night, Jim,” he called. “Tell every one + it's for me. Tell 'em Tom Butterworth'll pay what they ask. The sky's the + limit to-night, Jim. That's the word, the sky's the limit.” + </p> + <p> + To the older citizens of Bidwell, those who lived there when every + citizen's affairs were the affair of the town, that evening will be long + remembered. The new men, the Italians, Greeks, Poles, Rumanians, and many + other strange-talking, dark-skinned men who had come with the coming of + the factories, went on with their lives on that evening as on all others. + They worked in the night shift at the Corn-Cutting Machine Plant, at the + foundry, the bicycle factory or at the big new Tool Machine Factory that + had just moved to Bidwell from Cleveland. Those who were not at work + lounged in the streets or wandered aimlessly in and out of saloons. Their + wives and children were housed in the hundreds of new frame houses in the + streets that now crept out in all directions. In those days in Bidwell new + houses seemed to spring out of the ground like mushrooms. In the morning + there was a field or an orchard on Turner Pike or on any one of a dozen + roads leading out of town. On the trees in the orchard green apples hung + down waiting, ready to ripen. Grasshoppers sang in the long grass beneath + the trees. + </p> + <p> + Then appeared Ben Peeler with a swarm of men. The trees were cut and the + song of the grasshopper choked beneath piles of boards. There was a great + shouting and rattling of hammers. A whole street of houses, all alike, + universally ugly, had been added to the vast number of new houses already + built by that energetic carpenter and his partner Gordon Hart. + </p> + <p> + To the people who lived in these houses, the excitement of Tom Butterworth + and Jim Priest meant nothing. Half sullenly they worked, striving to make + money enough to take them back to their native lands. In the new place + they had not, as they had hoped, been received as brothers. A marriage or + a death there meant nothing to them. + </p> + <p> + To the old townsmen however, those who remembered Tom when he was a simple + farmer and when Steve Hunter was looked upon with contempt as a boasting + young squirt, the night rocked with excitement. Men ran through the + streets. Drivers lashed their horses along roads. Tom was everywhere. He + was like a general in charge of the defenses of a besieged town. The cooks + at all three of the town's hotels were sent back into their kitchens, + waiters were found and hurried out to the Butterworth house, and Henry + Heller's orchestra was instructed to get out there at once and to start + playing the liveliest possible music. + </p> + <p> + Tom asked every man and woman he saw to the wedding party. The hotel + keeper was invited with his wife and daughter and two or three keepers of + stores who came to the hotel to bring supplies were asked, commanded to + come. Then there were the men of the factories, the office men and + superintendents, new men who had never seen Clara. They also, with the + town bankers and other solid fellows with money in the banks, who were + investors in Tom's enterprises, were invited. “Put on the best clothes + you've got in the world and have your women folks do the same,” he said + laughing. “Then you get out to my house as soon as you can. If you haven't + any way to get there, come to the Bidwell House. I'll get you out.” + </p> + <p> + Tom did not forget that in order to have his wedding party go as he + wished, he would need to serve drinks. Jim Priest went from bar to bar. + “What wine you got—good wine? How much you got?” he asked at each + place. Steve Hunter had in the cellar of his house six cases of champagne + kept there against a time when some important guest, the Governor of the + State or a Congressman, might come to town. He felt that on such occasions + it was up to him to see that the town, as he said, “did itself proud.” + When he heard what was going on he hurried to the Bidwell House and + offered to send his entire stock of wine out to Tom's house, and his offer + was accepted. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Jim Priest had an idea. When the guests were all assembled and when the + farm kitchen was filled with cooks and waiters who stumbled over each + other, he took his idea to Tom. There was, he explained, a short-cut + through fields and along lanes to a point on the county seat road, three + miles from the house. “I'll go there and hide myself,” he said. “When they + come along, suspecting nothing, I'll cut out on horseback and get here a + half hour before them. You make every one in the house hide and keep still + when they drive into the yard. We'll put out all the lights. We'll give + that pair the surprise of their lives.” + </p> + <p> + Jim had concealed a quart bottle of wine in his pocket and, as he rode + away on his mission, stopped from time to time to take a hearty drink. As + his horse trotted along lanes and through fields, the horse that was + bringing Clara and Hugh home from their adventure cocked his ears and + remembered the comfortable stall filled with hay in the Butterworth barn. + The horse trotted swiftly along and Hugh in the buggy beside Clara was + lost in the same dense silence that all the evening had lain over him like + a cloak. In a dim way he was resentful and felt that time was running too + fast. The hours and the passing events were like the waters of a river in + flood time, and he was like a man in a boat without oars, being carried + helplessly forward. Occasionally he thought courage had come to him and he + half turned toward Clara and opened his mouth, hoping words would come to + his lips, but the silence that had taken hold of him was like a disease + whose grip on its victim could not be broken. He closed his mouth and wet + his lips with his tongue. Clara saw him do the thing several times. He + began to seem animal-like and ugly to her. “It's not true that I thought + of her and asked her to be my wife only because I wanted a woman,” Hugh + reassured himself. “I've been lonely, all my life I've been lonely. I want + to find my way into some one's heart, and she is the one.” + </p> + <p> + Clara also remained silent. She was angry. “If he didn't want to marry me, + why did he ask me? Why did he come?” she asked herself. “Well, I'm + married. I've done the thing we women are always thinking about,” she told + herself, her mind taking another turn. The thought frightened her and a + shiver of dread ran over her body. Then her mind went to the defense of + Hugh. “It isn't his fault. I shouldn't have rushed things as I have. + Perhaps I'm not meant for marriage at all,” she thought. + </p> + <p> + The ride homeward dragged on indefinitely. The clouds were blown out of + the sky, the moon came out and the stars looked down on the two perplexed + people. To relieve the feeling of tenseness that had taken hold of her + Clara's mind resorted to a trick. Her eyes sought out a tree or the lights + of a farmhouse far ahead and she tried to count the hoof beats of the + horse until they had come to it. She wanted to hurry homeward and at the + same time looked forward with dread to the night alone in the dark + farmhouse with Hugh. Not once during the homeward drive did she take the + whip out of its socket or speak to the horse. + </p> + <p> + When at last the horse trotted eagerly across the crest of the hill, from + which there was such a magnificent view of the country below, neither + Clara nor Hugh turned to look. With bowed heads they rode, each trying to + find courage to face the possibilities of the night. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + In the farmhouse Tom and his guests waited in winelit suspense, and at + last Jim Priest rode shouting out of a lane to the door. “They're coming—they're + coming,” he shouted, and ten minutes later and after Tom had twice lost + his temper and cursed the girl waitresses from the town hotels who were + inclined to giggle, all was silent and dark about the house and the + barnyard. When all was quiet Jim Priest crept into the kitchen, and + stumbling over the legs of the guests, made his way to a front window + where he placed a lighted candle. Then he went out of the house to lie on + his back beneath a bush in the yard. In the house he had secured for + himself a second bottle of wine, and as Clara with her husband turned in + at the gate and drove into the barnyard, the only sound that broke the + intense silence came from the soft gurgle of the wine finding its way down + his throat. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII + </h2> + <p> + As in most older American homes, the kitchen at the rear of the + Butterworth farmhouse was large and comfortable. Much of the life of the + house had been led there. Clara sat in a deep window that looked out + across a little gully where in the spring a small stream ran down along + the edge of the barnyard. She was then a quiet child and loved to sit for + hours unobserved and undisturbed. At her back was the kitchen with the + warm, rich smells and the soft, quick, persistent footsteps of her mother. + Her eyes closed and she slept. Then she awoke. Before her lay a world into + which her fancy could creep out. Across the stream before her eyes went a + small, wooden bridge and over this in the spring horses went away to the + fields or to sheds where they were hitched to milk or ice wagons. The + sound of the hoofs of the horses pounding on the bridge was like thunder, + harnesses rattled, voices shouted. Beyond the bridge was a path leading + off to the left and along the path were three small houses where hams were + smoked. Men came from the wagon sheds bearing the meat on their shoulders + and went into the little houses. Fires were lighted and smoke crawled + lazily up through the roofs. In a field that lay beyond the smoke houses a + man came to plow. The child, curled into a little, warm ball in the window + seat, was happy. When she closed her eyes fancies came like flocks of + white sheep running out of a green wood. Although she was later to become + a tomboy and run wild over the farm and through the barns, and although + all her life she loved the soil and the sense of things growing and of + food for hungry mouths being prepared, there was in her, even as a child, + a hunger for the life of the spirit. In her dreams women, beautifully + gowned and with rings on their hands, came to brush the wet, matted hair + back from her forehead. Across the little wooden bridge before her eyes + came wonderful men, women, and children. The children ran forward. They + cried out to her. She thought of them as brothers and sisters who were to + come to live in the farmhouse and who were to make the old house ring with + laughter. The children ran toward her with outstretched hands, but never + arrived at the house. The bridge extended itself. It stretched out under + their feet so that they ran forward forever on the bridge. + </p> + <p> + And behind the children came men and women, sometimes together, sometimes + walking alone. They did not seem like the children to belong to her. Like + the women who came to touch her hot forehead, they were beautifully gowned + and walked with stately dignity. + </p> + <p> + The child climbed out of the window and stood on the kitchen floor. Her + mother hurried about. She was feverishly active and often did not hear + when the child spoke. “I want to know about my brothers and sisters: where + are they, why don't they come here?” she asked, but the mother did not + hear, and if she did, had nothing to say. Sometimes she stopped to kiss + the child and tears came to her eyes. Then something cooking on the + kitchen stove demanded attention. “You run outside,” she said hurriedly, + and turned again to her work. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + From the chair where Clara sat at the wedding feast provided by the energy + of her father and the enthusiasm of Jim Priest, she could see over her + father's shoulder into the farm house kitchen. As when she was a child, + she closed her eyes and dreamed of another kind of feast. With a growing + sense of bitterness she realized that all her life, all through her + girlhood and young womanhood, she had been waiting for this, her wedding + night, and that now, having come, the occasion for which she had waited so + long and concerning which she had dreamed so many dreams, had aborted into + an occasion for the display of ugliness and vulgarity. Her father, the + only other person in the room in any way related to her, sat at the other + end of the long table. Her aunt had gone away on a visit, and in the + crowded, noisy room there was no woman to whom she could turn for + understanding. She looked past her father's shoulder and directly into the + wide window seat where she had spent so many hours of her childhood. Again + she wanted brothers and sisters. “The beautiful men and women of the + dreams were meant to come at this time, that's what the dreams were about; + but, like the unborn children that ran with outstretched hands, they + cannot get over the bridge and into the house,” she thought vaguely. “I + wish Mother had lived, or that Kate Chanceller were here,” she whispered + to herself as, raising her eyes, she looked at her father. + </p> + <p> + Clara felt like an animal driven into a corner and surrounded by foes. Her + father sat at the feast between two women, Mrs. Steve Hunter who was + inclined to corpulency, and a thin woman named Bowles, the wife of an + undertaker of Bidwell. They continually whispered, smiled, and nodded + their heads. Hugh sat on the opposite side of the same table, and when he + raised his eyes from the plate of food before him, could see past the head + of a large, masculine-looking woman into the farmhouse parlor where there + was another table, also filled with guests. Clara turned from looking at + her father to look at her husband. He was merely a tall man with a long + face, who could not raise his eyes. His long neck stuck itself out of a + stiff white collar. To Clara he was, at the moment, a being without + personality, one that the crowd at the table had swallowed up as it so + busily swallowed food and wine. When she looked at him he seemed to be + drinking a good deal. His glass was always being filled and emptied. At + the suggestion of the woman who sat beside him, he performed the task of + emptying it, without raising his eyes, and Steve Hunter, who sat on the + other side of the table, leaned over and filled it again. Steve like her + father whispered and winked. “On the night of my wedding I was piped, you + bet, as piped as a hatter. It's a good thing. It gives a man nerve,” he + explained to the masculine-looking woman to whom he was telling, with a + good deal of attention to details, the tale of his own marriage night. + </p> + <p> + Clara did not look at Hugh again. What he did seemed no concern of hers. + Bowles the Bidwell undertaker had surrendered to the influence of the wine + that had been flowing freely since the guests arrived and now got to his + feet and began to talk. His wife tugged at his coat and tried to force him + back into his seat, but Tom Butterworth jerked her arm away. “Ah, let him + alone. He's got a story to tell,” he said to the woman, who blushed and + put her handkerchief over her face. “Well, it's a fact, that's how it + happened,” the undertaker declared in a loud voice. “You see the sleeves + of her nightgown were tied in hard knots by her rascally brothers. When I + tried to unfasten them with my teeth I bit big holes in the sleeves.” + </p> + <p> + Clara gripped the arm of her chair. “If I can let the night pass without + showing these people how much I hate them I'll do well enough,” she + thought grimly. She looked at the dishes laden with food and wished she + could break them one by one over the heads of her father's guests. As a + relief to her mind, she again looked past her father's head and through a + doorway into the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + In the big room three or four cooks were busily engaged in the preparation + of food, and waitresses continually brought steaming dishes and put them + on the tables. She thought of her mother's life, the life led in that + room, married to the man who was her own father and who no doubt, but for + the fact that circumstances had made him a man of wealth, would have been + satisfied to see his daughter led into just such another life. + </p> + <p> + “Kate was right about men. They want something from women, but what do + they care what kind of lives we lead after they get what they want?” she + thought grimly. + </p> + <p> + The more to separate herself from the feasting, laughing crowd, Clara + tried to think out the details of her mother's life. “It was the life of a + beast,” she thought. Like herself, her mother had come to the house with + her husband on the night of her marriage. There was just such another + feast. The country was new then and the people for the most part + desperately poor. Still there was drinking. She had heard her father and + Jim Priest speak of the drinking bouts of their youth. The men came as + they had come now, and with them came women, women who had been coarsened + by the life they led. Pigs were killed and game brought from the forests. + The men drank, shouted, fought, and played practical jokes. Clara wondered + if any of the men and women in the room would dare go upstairs into her + sleeping room and tie knots in her night clothes. They had done that when + her mother came to the house as a bride. Then they had all gone away and + her father had taken his bride upstairs. He was drunk, and her own husband + Hugh was now getting drunk. Her mother had submitted. Her life had been a + story of submission. Kate Chanceller had said it was so married women + lived, and her mother's life had proven the truth of the statement. In the + farmhouse kitchen, where now three or four cooks worked so busily, she had + worked her life out alone. From the kitchen she had gone directly upstairs + and to bed with her husband. Once a week on Saturday afternoons she went + into town and stayed long enough to buy supplies for another week of + cooking. “She must have been kept going until she dropped down dead,” + Clara thought, and her mind taking another turn, added, “and many others, + both men and women, must have been forced by circumstances to serve my + father in the same blind way. It was all done in order that prosperity and + money with which to do vulgar things might be his.” + </p> + <p> + Clara's mother had brought but one child into the world. She wondered why. + Then she wondered if she would become the mother of a child. Her hands no + longer gripped the arms of her chair, but lay on the table before her. She + looked at them and they were strong. She was herself a strong woman. After + the feast was over and the guests had gone away, Hugh, given courage by + the drinks he continued to consume, would come upstairs to her. Some twist + of her mind made her forget her husband, and in fancy she felt herself + about to be attacked by a strange man on a dark road at the edge of a + forest. The man had tried to take her into his arms and kiss her and she + had managed to get her hands on his throat. Her hands lying on the table + twitched convulsively. + </p> + <p> + In the big farmhouse dining-room and in the parlor where the second table + of guests sat, the wedding feast went on. Afterward when she thought of + it, Clara always remembered her wedding feast as a horsey affair. + Something in the natures of Tom Butterworth and Jim Priest, she thought, + expressed itself that night. The jokes that went up and down the table + were horsey, and Clara thought the women who sat at the tables heavy and + mare-like. + </p> + <p> + Jim did not come to the table to sit with the others, was in fact not + invited, but all evening he kept appearing and reappearing and had the air + of a master of ceremonies. Coming into the dining room he stood by the + door, scratching his head. Then he went out. It was as though he had said + to himself, “Well, it's all right, everything is going all right, + everything is lively, you see.” All his life Jim had been a drinker of + whisky and knew his limitations. His system as a drinking man had always + been quite simple. On Saturday afternoons, when the work about the barns + was done for the day and the other employees had gone away, he went to sit + on the steps of a corncrib with the bottle in his hand. In the winter he + went to sit by the kitchen fire in a little house below the apple orchard + where he and the other employees slept. He took a long drink from the + bottle and then holding it in his hand sat for a time thinking of the + events of his life. Whisky made him somewhat sentimental. After one long + drink he thought of his youth in a town in Pennsylvania. He had been one + of six children, all boys, and at an early age his mother had died. Jim + thought of her and then of his father. When he had himself come west into + Ohio, and later when he was a soldier in the Civil War, he despised his + father and reverenced the memory of his mother. In the war he had found + himself physically unable to stand up before the enemy during a battle. + When the report of guns was heard and the other men of his company got + grimly into line and went forward, something happened to his legs and he + wanted to run away. So great was the desire in him that craftiness grew in + his brain. Watching his chance, he pretended to have been shot and fell to + the ground, and when the others had gone on crept away and hid himself. He + found it was not impossible to disappear altogether and reappear in + another place. The draft went into effect and many men not liking the + notion of war were willing to pay large sums to the men who would go in + their places. Jim went into the business of enlisting and deserting. All + about him were men talking of the necessity of saving the country, and for + four years he thought only of saving his own hide. Then suddenly the war + was over and he became a farm hand. As he worked all week in the fields, + and in the evening sometimes, as he lay in his bed and the moon came up, + he thought of his mother and of the nobility and sacrifice of her life. He + wished to be such another. After having two or three drinks out of the + bottle, he admired his father, who in the Pennsylvania town had borne the + reputation of being a liar and a rascal. After his mother's death his + father had managed to marry a widow who owned a farm. “The old man was a + slick one,” he said aloud, tipping up the bottle and taking another long + drink. “If I had stayed at home until I got more understanding, the old + man and I together might have done something.” He finished the bottle and + went away to sleep on the hay, or if it were winter, threw himself into + one of the bunks in the bunk house. He dreamed of becoming one who went + through life beating people out of money, living by his wits, getting the + best of every one. + </p> + <p> + Until the night of Clara's wedding Jim had never tasted wine, and as it + did not bring on a desire for sleep, he thought himself unaffected. “It's + like sweetened water,” he said, going into the darkness of the barnyard + and emptying another half bottle down his throat. “The stuff has no kick. + Drinking it is like drinking sweet cider.” + </p> + <p> + Jim got into a frolicsome mood and went through the crowded kitchen and + into the dining room where the guests were assembled. At the moment the + rather riotous laughter and story telling had ceased and everything was + quiet. He was worried. “Things aren't going well. Clara's party is + becoming a frost,” he thought resentfully. He began to dance a + heavy-footed jig on a little open place by the kitchen door and the guests + stopped talking to watch. They shouted and clapped their hands. A thunder + of applause arose. The guests who were seated in the parlor and who could + not see the performance got up and crowded into the doorway that connected + the two rooms. Jim became extraordinarily bold, and as one of the young + women Tom had hired as waitresses at that moment went past bearing a large + dish of food, he swung himself quickly about and took her into his arms. + The dish flew across the floor and broke against a table leg and the young + woman screamed. A farm dog that had found its way into the kitchen rushed + into the room and barked loudly. Henry Heller's orchestra, concealed under + a stairway that led to the upper part of the house, began to play + furiously. A strange animal fervor swept over Jim. His legs flew rapidly + about and his heavy feet made a great clatter on the floor. The young + woman in his arms screamed and laughed. Jim closed his eyes and shouted. + He felt that the wedding party had until that moment been a failure and + that he was transforming it into a success. Rising to their feet the men + shouted, clapped their hands and beat with their fists on the table. When + the orchestra came to the end of the dance, Jim stood flushed and + triumphant before the guests, holding the woman in his arms. In spite of + her struggles he held her tightly against his breast and kissed her eyes, + cheeks, and mouth. Then releasing her he winked and made a gesture for + silence. “On a wedding night some one's got to have the nerve to do a + little love-making,” he said, looking pointedly toward the place where + Hugh sat with head bent and with his eyes staring at a glass of wine that + sat at his elbow. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + It was past two o'clock when the feast came to an end. When the guests + began to depart, Clara stood for a moment alone and tried to get herself + in hand. Something inside her felt cold and old. If she had often thought + she wanted a man, and that life as a married woman would put an end to her + problems, she did not think so at that moment. “What I want above + everything else is a woman,” she thought. All the evening her mind had + been trying to clutch and hold the almost forgotten figure of her mother, + but it was too vague and shadowy. With her mother she had never walked and + talked late at night through streets of towns when the world was asleep + and when thoughts were born in herself. “After all,” she thought, “Mother + may also have belonged to all this.” She looked at the people preparing to + depart. Several men had gathered in a group by the door. One of them told + a story at which the others laughed loudly. The women standing about had + flushed and, Clara thought, coarse faces. “They have gone into marriage + like cattle,” she told herself. Her mind, running out of the room, began + to caress the memory of her one woman friend, Kate Chanceller. Often on + late spring afternoons as she and Kate had walked together something very + like love-making had happened between them. They went along quietly and + evening came on. Suddenly they stopped in the street and Kate had put her + arms about Clara's shoulders. For a moment they stood thus close together + and a strange gentle and yet hungry look came into Kate's eyes. It only + lasted a moment and when it happened both women were somewhat embarrassed. + Kate laughed and taking hold of Clara's arm pulled her along the sidewalk. + “Let's walk like the devil,” she said, “come on, let's get up some speed.” + </p> + <p> + Clara put her hands to her eyes as though to shut out the scene in the + room. “If I could have been with Kate this evening I could have come to a + man believing in the possible sweetness of marriage,” she thought. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII + </h2> + <p> + Jim Priest was very drunk, but insisted on hitching a team to the + Butterworth carriage and driving it loaded with guests to town. Every one + laughed at him, but he drove up to the farmhouse door and in a loud voice + declared he knew what he was doing. Three men got into the carriage and + beating the horses furiously Jim sent them galloping away. + </p> + <p> + When an opportunity offered, Clara went silently out of the hot + dining-room and through a door to a porch at the back of the house. The + kitchen door was open and the waitresses and cooks from town were + preparing to depart. One of the young women came out into the darkness + accompanied by a man, evidently one of the guests. They had both been + drinking and stood for a moment in the darkness with their bodies pressed + together. “I wish it were our wedding night,” the man's voice whispered, + and the woman laughed. After a long kiss they went back into the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + A farm dog appeared and going up to Clara licked her hand. She went around + the house and stood back of a bush in the darkness near where the + carriages were being loaded. Her father with Steve Hunter and his wife + came and got into a carriage. Tom was in an expansive, generous mood. “You + know, Steve, I told you and several others my Clara was engaged to Alfred + Buckley,” he said. “Well, I was mistaken. The whole thing was a lie. The + truth is I shot off my mouth without talking to Clara. I had seen them + together and now and then Buckley used to come out here to the house in + the evening, although he never came except when I was here. He told me + Clara had promised to marry him, and like a fool I took his word. I never + even asked. That's the kind of a fool I was and I was a bigger fool to go + telling the story. All the time Clara and Hugh were engaged and I never + suspected. They told me about it to-night.” + </p> + <p> + Clara stood by the bush until she thought the last of the guests had gone. + The lie her father had told seemed only a part of the evening's vulgarity. + Near the kitchen door the waitresses, cooks and musicians were being + loaded into the bus that had been driven out from the Bidwell House. She + went into the dining-room. Sadness had taken the place of the anger in + her, but when she saw Hugh the anger came back. Piles of dishes filled + with food lay all about the room and the air was heavy with the smell of + food. Hugh stood by a window looking out into the dark farmyard. He held + his hat in his hand. “You might put your hat away,” she said sharply. + “Have you forgotten you're married to me and that you now live here in + this house?” She laughed nervously and walked to the kitchen door. + </p> + <p> + Her mind still clung to the past and to the days when she was a child and + had spent so many hours in the big, silent kitchen. Something was about to + happen that would take her past away—destroy it, and the thought + frightened her. “I have not been very happy in this house but there have + been certain moments, certain feelings I've had,” she thought. Stepping + through the doorway she stood for a moment in the kitchen with her back to + the wall and with her eyes closed. Through her mind went a troop of + figures, the stout determined figure of Kate Chanceller who had known how + to love in silence; the wavering, hurrying figure of her mother; her + father as a young man coming in after a long drive to warm his hands by + the kitchen fire; a strong, hard-faced woman from town who had once worked + for Tom as cook and who was reported to have been the mother of two + illegitimate children; and the figures of her childhood fancy walking over + the bridge toward her, clad in beautiful raiment. + </p> + <p> + Back of these figures were other figures, long forgotten but now sharply + remembered—farm girls who had come to work by the day; tramps who + had been fed at the kitchen door; young farm hands who suddenly + disappeared from the routine of the farm's life and were never seen again, + a young man with a red bandana handkerchief about his neck who had thrown + her a kiss as she stood with her face pressed against a window. + </p> + <p> + Once a high school girl from town had come to spend the night with Clara. + After the evening meal the two girls walked into the kitchen and stood by + a window, looking out. Something had happened within them. Moved by a + common impulse they went outside and walked for a long way under the stars + along the silent country roads. They came to a field where men were + burning brush. Where there had been a forest there was now only a stump + field and the figures of the men carrying armloads of the dry branches of + trees and throwing them on the fire. The fire made a great splash of color + in the gathering darkness and for some obscure reason both girls were + deeply moved by the sight, sound, and perfume of the night. The figures of + the men seemed to dance back and forth in the light. Instinctively Clara + turned her face upward and looked at the stars. She was conscious of them + and of their beauty and the wide sweeping beauty of night as she had never + been before. A wind began to sing in the trees of a distant forest, dimly + seen far away across fields. The sound was soft and insistent and crept + into her soul. In the grass at her feet insects sang an accompaniment to + the soft, distant music. + </p> + <p> + How vividly Clara now remembered that night! It came sharply back as she + stood with closed eyes in the farm kitchen and waited for the consummation + of the adventure on which she had set out. With it came other memories. + “How many fleeting dreams and half visions of beauty I have had!” she + thought. + </p> + <p> + Everything in life that she had thought might in some way lead toward + beauty now seemed to Clara to lead to ugliness. “What a lot I've missed,” + she muttered, and opening her eyes went back into the dining-room and + spoke to Hugh, still standing and staring out into the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “Come,” she said sharply, and led the way up a stairway. The two went + silently up the stairs, leaving the lights burning brightly in the rooms + below. They came to a door leading to a bedroom, and Clara opened it. + “It's time for a man and his wife to go to bed,” she said in a low, husky + voice. Hugh followed her into the room. He walked to a chair by a window + and sitting down, took off his shoes and sat holding them in his hand. He + did not look at Clara but into the darkness outside the window. Clara let + down her hair and began to unfasten her dress. She took off an outer dress + and threw it over a chair. Then she went to a drawer and pulling it out + looked for a night dress. She became angry and threw several garments on + the floor. “Damn!” she said explosively, and went out of the room. + </p> + <p> + Hugh sprang to his feet. The wine he had drunk had not taken effect and + Steve Hunter had been forced to go home disappointed. All the evening + something stronger than wine had been gripping him. Now he knew what it + was. All through the evening thoughts and desires had whirled through his + brain. Now they were all gone. “I won't let her do it,” he muttered, and + running quickly to the door closed it softly. With the shoes still held in + his hand he crawled through a window. He had expected to leap into the + darkness, but by chance his stocking feet alighted on the roof of the farm + kitchen that extended out from the rear of the house. He ran quickly down + the roof and jumped, alighting in a clump of bushes that tore long + scratches on his cheeks. + </p> + <p> + For five minutes Hugh ran toward the town of Bidwell, then turned, and + climbing a fence, walked across a field. The shoes were still gripped + tightly in his hand and the field was stony, but he did not notice and was + unconscious of pain from his bruised feet or from the torn places on his + cheeks. Standing in the field he heard Jim Priest drive homeward along the + road. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “My bonny lies over the ocean, + My bonny lies over the sea, + My bonny lies over the ocean, + O, bring back my bonny to me.” + </pre> + <p> + sang the farm hand. + </p> + <p> + Hugh walked across several fields, and when he came to a small stream, sat + down on the bank and put on his shoes. “I've had my chance and missed it,” + he thought bitterly. Several times he repeated the words. “I've had my + chance and I've missed,” he said again as he stopped by a fence that + separated the fields in which he had been walking. At the words he stopped + and put his hand to his throat. A half-stifled sob broke from him. “I've + had my chance and missed,” he said again. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX + </h2> + <p> + On the day after the feast managed by Tom and Jim, it was Tom who brought + Hugh back to live with his wife. The older man had come to the farmhouse + on the next morning bringing three women from town who were, as he + explained to Clara, to clear away the mess left by the guests. The + daughter had been deeply touched by what Hugh had done, and at the moment + loved him deeply, but did not choose to let her father know how she felt. + “I suppose you got him drunk, you and your friends,” she said. “At any + rate, he's not here.” + </p> + <p> + Tom said nothing, but when Clara had told the story of Hugh's + disappearance, drove quickly away. “He'll come to the shop,” he thought + and went there, leaving his horse tied to a post in front. At two o'clock + his son-in-law came slowly over the Turner's Pike bridge and approached + the shop. He was hatless and his clothes and hair were covered with dust, + while in his eyes was the look of a hunted animal. Tom met him with a + smile and asked no questions. “Come,” he said, and taking Hugh by the arm + led him to the buggy. As he untied the horse he stopped to light a cigar. + “I'm going down to one of my lower farms. Clara thought you would like to + go with me,” he said blandly. + </p> + <p> + Tom drove to the McCoy house and stopped. + </p> + <p> + “You'd better clean up a little,” he said without looking at Hugh. “You go + in and shave and change your clothes. I'm going up-town. I got to go to a + store.” + </p> + <p> + Driving a short distance along the road, Tom stopped and shouted. “You + might pack your grip and bring it along,” he called. “You'll be needing + your things. We won't be back here to-day.” + </p> + <p> + The two men stayed together all that day, and in the evening Tom took Hugh + to the farmhouse and stayed for the evening meal. “He was a little drunk,” + he explained to Clara. “Don't be hard on him. He was a little drunk.” + </p> + <p> + For both Clara and Hugh that evening was the hardest of their lives. After + the servants had gone, Clara sat under a lamp in the dining-room and + pretended to read a book and in desperation Hugh also tried to read. + </p> + <p> + Again the time came to go upstairs to the bedroom, and again Clara led the + way. She went to the door of the room from which Hugh had fled and opening + it stepped aside. Then she put out her hand. “Good-night,” she said, and + going down a hallway went into another room and closed the door. + </p> + <p> + Hugh's experience with the school teacher was repeated on that second + night in the farmhouse. He took off his shoes and prepared for bed. Then + he crept out into the hallway and went softly to the door of Clara's room. + Several times he made the journey along the carpeted hallway, and once his + hand was on the knob of the door, but each time he lost heart and returned + to his own room. Although he did not know it Clara, like Rose McCoy on + that other occasion, expected him to come to her, and knelt on the floor + just inside the door, waiting, hoping for, and fearing the coming of the + man. + </p> + <p> + Unlike the school teacher, Clara wanted to help Hugh. Marriage had perhaps + given her that impulse, but she did not follow it, and when at last Hugh, + shaken and ashamed, gave up the struggle with himself, she arose and went + to her bed where she threw herself down and wept, as Hugh had wept + standing in the darkness of the fields on the night before. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX + </h2> + <p> + It was a hot, dusty day, a week after Hugh's marriage to Clara, and Hugh + was at work in his shop at Bidwell. How many days, weeks, and months he + had already worked there, thinking in iron—twisted, turned, tortured + to follow the twistings and turnings of his mind—standing all day by + a bench beside other workmen—before him always the little piles of + wheels, strips of unworked iron and steel, blocks of wood, the + paraphernalia of the inventor's trade. Beside him, now that money had come + to him, more and more workmen, men who had invented nothing, who were + without distinction in the life of the community, who had married no rich + man's daughter. + </p> + <p> + In the morning the other workmen, skillful fellows, who knew as Hugh had + never known, the science of their iron craft, came straggling through the + shop door into his presence. They were a little embarrassed before him. + The greatness of his name rang in their minds. + </p> + <p> + Many of the workmen were husbands, fathers of families. In the morning + they left their houses gladly but nevertheless came somewhat reluctantly + to the shop. As they came along the street, past other houses, they smoked + a morning pipe. Groups were formed. Many legs straggled along the street. + At the door of the shop each man stopped. There was a sharp tapping sound. + Pipe bowls were knocked out against the door sill. Before he came into the + shop, each man looked out across the open country that stretched away to + the north. + </p> + <p> + For a week Hugh had been married to a woman who had not yet become his + wife. She belonged, still belonged, to a world he had thought of as + outside the possibilities of his life. Was she not young, strong, straight + of body? Did she not array herself in what seemed unbelievably beautiful + clothes? The clothes she wore were a symbol of herself. For him she was + unattainable. + </p> + <p> + And yet she had consented to become his wife, had stood with him before a + man who had said words about honor and obedience. + </p> + <p> + Then there had come the two terrible evenings—when he had gone back + to the farmhouse with her to find the wedding feast set in their honor, + and that other evening when old Tom had brought him to the farmhouse a + defeated, frightened man who hoped the woman would put out her hand, would + reassure him. + </p> + <p> + Hugh was sure he had missed the great opportunity of his life. He had + married, but his marriage was not a marriage. He had got himself into a + position from which there was no possibility of escaping. “I'm a coward,” + he thought, looking at the other workmen in the shop. They, like himself, + were married men and lived in a house with a woman. At night they went + boldly into the presence of the woman. He had not done that when the + opportunity offered, and Clara could not come to him. He could understand + that. His hands had builded a wall and the passing days were huge stones + put on top of the wall. What he had not done became every day a more and + more impossible thing to do. + </p> + <p> + Tom, having taken Hugh back to Clara, was still concerned over the outcome + of their adventure. Every day he came to the shop and in the evening came + to see them at the farmhouse. He hovered about, was like a mother bird + whose offspring had been prematurely pushed out of the nest. Every morning + he came into the shop to talk with Hugh. He made jokes about married life. + Winking at a man standing nearby he put his hand familiarly on Hugh's + shoulder. “Well, how does married life go? It seems to me you're a little + pale,” he said laughing. + </p> + <p> + In the evening he came to the farmhouse and sat talking of his affairs, of + the progress and growth of the town and his part in it. Without hearing + his words both Clara and Hugh sat in silence, pretending to listen, glad + of his presence. + </p> + <p> + Hugh came to the shop at eight. On other mornings, all through that long + week of waiting, Clara had driven him to his work, the two riding in + silence down Medina Road and through the crowded streets of the town; but + on that morning he had walked. + </p> + <p> + On Medina Road, near the bridge where he had once stood with Clara and + where he had seen her hot with anger, something had happened, a trivial + thing. A male bird pursued a female among the bushes beside the road. The + two feathered, living creatures, vividly colored, alive with life, pitched + and swooped through the air. They were like moving balls of light going in + and out of the dark green of foliage. There was in them a madness, a riot + of life. + </p> + <p> + Hugh had been tricked into stopping by the roadside. A tangle of things + that had filled his mind, the wheels, cogs, levers, all the intricate + parts of the hay-loading machine, the things that lived in his mind until + his hand had made them into facts, were blown away like dust. For a moment + he watched the living riotous things and then, as though jerking himself + back into a path from which his feet had wandered, hurried onward to the + shop, looking as he went not into the branches of trees, but downward at + the dust of the road. + </p> + <p> + In the shop Hugh tried all morning to refurnish the warehouse of his mind, + to put back into it the things blown so recklessly away. At ten Tom came + in, talked for a moment and then flitted away. “You are still there. My + daughter still has you. You have not run away again,” he seemed to be + saying to himself. + </p> + <p> + The day grew warm and the sky, seen through the shop window by the bench + where Hugh tried to work, was overcast with clouds. + </p> + <p> + At noon the workmen went away, but Clara, who on other days had come to + drive Hugh to the farmhouse for lunch, did not appear. When all was silent + in the shop he stopped work, washed his hands and put on his coat. + </p> + <p> + He went to the shop door and then came back to the bench. Before him lay + an iron wheel on which he had been at work. It was intended to drive some + intricate part of the hay-loading machine. Hugh took it in his hand and + carried it to the back of the shop where there was an anvil. Without + consciousness and scarcely realizing what he did he laid it on the anvil + and taking a great sledge in his hand swung it over his head. + </p> + <p> + The blow struck was terrific. Into it Hugh put all of his protest against + the grotesque position into which he had been thrown by his marriage to + Clara. + </p> + <p> + The blow accomplished nothing. The sledge descended and the comparatively + delicate metal wheel was twisted, knocked out of shape. It spurted from + under the head of the sledge and shot past Hugh's head and out through a + window, breaking a pane of glass. Fragments of the broken glass fell with + a sharp little tinkling sound upon a heap of twisted pieces of iron and + steel lying beside the anvil.... + </p> + <p> + Hugh did not eat lunch that day nor did he go to the farmhouse or return + to work at the shop. He walked, but this time did not walk in country + roads where male and female birds dart in and out of bushes. An intense + desire to know something intimate and personal concerning men and women + and the lives they led in their houses had taken possession of him. He + walked in the daylight up and down in the streets of Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + To the right, over the bridge leading out of Turner's Road, the main + street of Bidwell ran along a river bank. In that direction the hills out + of the country to the south came down to the river's edge and there was a + high bluff. On the bluff and back of it on a sloping hillside many of the + more pretentious new houses of the prosperous Bidwell citizens had been + built. Facing the river were the largest houses, with grounds in which + trees and shrubs had been planted and in the streets along the hill, less + and less pretentious as they receded from the river, were other houses + built and being built, long rows of houses, long streets of houses, houses + in brick, stone, and wood. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went from the river front back into this maze of streets and houses. + Some instinct led him there. It was where the men and women of Bidwell who + had prospered and had married went to live, to make themselves houses. His + father-in-law had offered to buy him a river front place and already that + meant much in Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + He wanted to see women who, like Clara, had got themselves husbands, what + they were like. “I've seen enough of men,” he thought half resentfully as + he went along. + </p> + <p> + All afternoon he walked in streets, going up and down before houses in + which women lived with their men. A detached mood had possession of him. + For an hour he stood under a tree idly watching workmen engaged in + building another house. When one of the workmen spoke to him he walked + away and went into a street where men were laying a cement pavement before + a completed house. + </p> + <p> + In a furtive way he kept looking about for women, hungering to see their + faces. “What are they up to? I'd like to find out,” his mind seemed to be + saying. + </p> + <p> + The women came out of the doors of the houses and passed him as he went + slowly along. Other women in carriages drove in the streets. They were + well-dressed women and seemed sure of themselves. “Things are all right + with me. For me things are settled and arranged,” they seemed to say. All + the streets in which he walked seemed to be telling the story of things + settled and arranged. The houses spoke of the same things. “I am a house. + I am not built until things are settled and arranged. I mean that,” they + said. + </p> + <p> + Hugh grew very tired. In the later afternoon a small bright-eyed woman—no + doubt she had been one of the guests at his wedding feast—stopped + him. “Are you planning to buy or build up our way, Mr. McVey?” she asked. + He shook his head. “I'm looking around,” he said and hurried away. + </p> + <p> + Anger took the place of perplexity in him. The women he saw in the streets + and in the doors of the houses were such women as his own woman Clara. + They had married men—“no better than myself,” he told himself, + growing bold. + </p> + <p> + They had married men and something had happened to them. Something was + settled. They could live in streets and in houses. Their marriages had + been real marriages and he had a right to a real marriage. It was not too + much to expect out of life. + </p> + <p> + “Clara has a right to that also,” he thought and his mind began to + idealize the marriages of men and women. “On every hand here I see them, + the neat, well-dressed, handsome women like Clara. How happy they are! + </p> + <p> + “Their feathers have been ruffled though,” he thought angrily. “It was + with them as with that bird I saw being pursued through the trees. There + has been pursuit and a pretense of trying to escape. There has been an + effort made that was not an effort, but feathers have been ruffled here.” + </p> + <p> + When his thoughts had driven him into a half desperate mood Hugh went out + of the streets of bright, ugly, freshly built, freshly painted and + furnished houses, and down into the town. Several men homeward bound at + the end of their day of work called to him. “I hope you are thinking of + buying or building up our way,” they said heartily. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + It began to rain and darkness came, but Hugh did not go home to Clara. It + did not seem to him that he could spend another night in the house with + her, lying awake, hearing the little noises of the night, waiting—for + courage. He could not sit under the lamp through another evening + pretending to read. He could not go with Clara up the stairs only to leave + her with a cold “good-night” at the top of the stairs. + </p> + <p> + Hugh went up the Medina Road almost to the house and then retraced his + steps and got into a field. There was a low swampy place in which the + water came up over his shoetops, and after he had crossed that there was a + field overgrown with a tangle of vines. The night became so dark that he + could see nothing and darkness reigned over his spirit. For hours he + walked blindly, but it did not occur to him that as he waited, hating the + waiting, Clara also waited; that for her also it was a time of trial and + uncertainty. To him it seemed her course was simple and easy. She was a + white pure thing—waiting—for what? for courage to come in to + him in order that an assault be made upon her whiteness and purity. + </p> + <p> + That was the only answer to the question Hugh could find within himself. + The destruction of what was white and pure was a necessary thing in life. + It was a thing men must do in order that life go on. As for women, they + must be white and pure—and wait. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Filled with inward resentment Hugh at last did go to the farmhouse. Wet + and with dragging, heavy feet he turned out of the Medina Road to find the + house dark and apparently deserted. + </p> + <p> + Then a new and puzzling situation arose. When he stepped over the + threshold and into the house he knew Clara was there. + </p> + <p> + On that day she had not driven him to work in the morning or gone for him + at noon hour because she did not want to look at him in the light of day, + did not want again to see the puzzled, frightened look in his eyes. She + had wanted him in the darkness alone, had waited for darkness. Now it was + dark in the house and she waited for him. + </p> + <p> + How simple it was! Hugh came into the living-room, stumbled forward into + the darkness, and found the hat-rack against the wall near the stairway + leading to the bedrooms above. Again he had surrendered what he would no + doubt have called the manhood in himself, and hoped only to be able to + escape the presence he felt in the room, to creep off upstairs to his bed, + to lie awake listening to noises, waiting miserably for another day to + come. But when he had put his dripping hat on one of the pegs of the rack + and had found the lower step with his foot thrust into darkness, a voice + called to him. + </p> + <p> + “Come here, Hugh,” Clara said softly and firmly, and like a boy caught + doing a forbidden act he went toward her. “We have been very silly, Hugh,” + he heard her voice saying softly. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Hugh went to where Clara sat in a chair by a window. From him there was no + protest and no attempt to escape the love-making that followed. For a + moment he stood in silence and could see her white figure below him in the + chair. It was like something still far away, but coming swiftly as a bird + flies to him—upward to him. Her hand crept up and lay in his hand. + It seemed unbelievably large. It was not soft, but hard and firm. When her + hand had rested in his for a moment she arose and stood beside him. Then + the hand went out of his and touched, caressed his wet coat, his wet hair, + his cheeks. “My flesh must be white and cold,” he thought, and then he did + not think any more. + </p> + <p> + Gladness took hold of him, a gladness that came up out of the inner parts + of himself as she had come up to him out of the chair. For days, weeks, he + had been thinking of his problem as a man's problem, his defeat had been a + man's defeat. + </p> + <p> + Now there was no defeat, no problem, no victory. In himself he did not + exist. Within himself something new had been born or another something + that had always lived with him had stirred to life. It was not awkward. It + was not afraid. It was a thing as swift and sure as the flight of the male + bird through the branches of trees and it was in pursuit of something + light and swift in her, something that would fly through light and + darkness but fly not too swiftly, something of which he need not be + afraid, something that without the need of understanding he could + understand as one understands the need of breath in a close place. + </p> + <p> + With a laugh as soft and sure as her own Hugh took Clara into his arms. A + few minutes later they went up stairs and twice Hugh stumbled on the + stairway. It did not matter. His long awkward body was a thing outside + himself. It might stumble and fall many times but the new thing he had + found, the thing inside himself that responded to the thing inside the + shell that was Clara his wife, did not stumble. It flew like a bird out of + darkness into the light. At the moment he thought the sweeping flight of + life thus begun would run on forever. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK SIX + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI + </h2> + <p> + It was a summer night in Ohio and the wheat in the long, flat fields that + stretched away to the north from the town of Bidwell was ripe for the + cutting. Between the wheat fields lay corn and cabbage fields. In the corn + fields the green stalks stood up like young trees. Facing the fields lay + the white roads, once the silent roads, hushed and empty through the + nights and often during many hours of the day, the night silence broken + only at long intervals by the clattering hoofs of homeward bound horses + and the silence of days by creaking wagons. Along the roads on a summer + evening went the young farm hand in his buggy for which he had spent a + summer's wage, a long summer of sweaty toil in hot fields. The hoofs of + his horse beat a soft tattoo on the roads. His sweetheart sat beside him + and he was in no hurry. All day he had been at work in the harvest and on + the morrow he would work again. It did not matter. For him the night would + last until the cocks in isolated farmyards began to hail the dawn. He + forgot the horse and did not care what turning he took. All roads led to + happiness for him. + </p> + <p> + Beside the long roads was an endless procession of fields broken now and + then by a strip of woodland, where the shadows of trees fell upon the + roads and made pools of an inky blackness. In the long, dry grass in fence + corners insects sang; in the young cabbage fields rabbits ran, flitting + away like shadows in the moonlight. The cabbage fields were beautiful too. + </p> + <p> + Who has written or sung of the beauties of corn fields in Illinois, + Indiana, Iowa, or of the vast Ohio cabbage fields? In the cabbage fields + the broad outer leaves fall down to make a background for the shifting, + delicate colors of soils. The leaves are themselves riotous with color. As + the season advances they change from light to dark greens, a thousand + shades of purples, blues and reds appear and disappear. + </p> + <p> + In silence the cabbage fields slept beside the roads in Ohio. Not yet had + the motor cars come to tear along the roads, their flashing lights—beautiful + too, when seen by one afoot on the roads on a summer night—had not + yet made the roads an extension of the cities. Akron, the terrible town, + had not yet begun to roll forth its countless millions of rubber hoops, + filled each with its portion of God's air compressed and in prison at last + like the farm hands who have gone to the cities. Detroit and Toledo had + not begun to send forth their hundreds of thousands of motor cars to + shriek and scream the nights away on country roads. Willis was still a + mechanic in an Indiana town, and Ford still worked in a bicycle repair + shop in Detroit. + </p> + <p> + It was a summer night in the Ohio country and the moon shone. A country + doctor's horse went at a humdrum pace along the roads. Softly and at long + intervals men afoot stumbled along. A farm hand whose horse was lame + walked toward town. An umbrella mender, benighted on the roads, hurried + toward the lights of the distant town. In Bidwell, the place that had been + on other summer nights a sleepy town filled with gossiping berry pickers, + things were astir. + </p> + <p> + Change, and the thing men call growth, was in the air. Perhaps in its own + way revolution was in the air, the silent, the real revolution that grew + with the growth of the towns. In the stirring, bustling town of Bidwell + that quiet summer night something happened that startled men. Something + happened, and then in a few minutes it happened again. Heads wagged, + special editions of daily newspapers were printed, the great hive of men + was disturbed, under the invisible roof of the town that had so suddenly + become a city, the seeds of self-consciousness were planted in new soil, + in American soil. + </p> + <p> + Before all this began, however, something else happened. The first motor + car ran through the streets of Bidwell and out upon the moonlit roads. The + motor car was driven by Tom Butterworth and in it sat his daughter Clara + with her husband Hugh McVey. During the week before, Tom had brought the + car from Cleveland, and the mechanic who rode with him had taught him the + art of driving. Now he drove alone and boldly. Early in the evening he had + run out to the farmhouse to take his daughter and son-in-law for their + first ride. Hugh sat in the seat beside him and after they had started and + were clear of the town, Tom turned to him. “Now watch me step on her + tail,” he said proudly, using for the first time the motor slang he had + picked up from the Cleveland mechanic. + </p> + <p> + As Tom sent the car hurling over the roads, Clara sat alone in the back + seat unimpressed by her father's new acquisition. For three years she had + been married and she felt that she did not yet know the man she had + married. Always the story had been the same, moments of light and then + darkness again. A new machine that went along roads at a startlingly + increased rate of speed might change the whole face of the world, as her + father declared it would, but it did not change certain facts of her life. + “Am I a failure as a wife, or is Hugh impossible as a husband?” she asked + herself for perhaps the thousandth time as the car, having got into a long + stretch of clear, straight road, seemed to leap and sail through the air + like a bird. “At any rate I have married me a husband and yet I have no + husband, I have been in a man's arms but I have no lover, I have taken + hold of life, but life has slipped through my fingers.” + </p> + <p> + Like her father, Hugh seemed to Clara absorbed in only the things outside + himself, the outer crust of life. He was like and yet unlike her father. + She was baffled by him. There was something in the man she wanted and + could not find. “The fault must be in me,” she told herself. “He's all + right, but what's the matter with me?” + </p> + <p> + After that night when he ran away from her bridal bed, Clara had more than + once thought the miracle had happened. It did sometimes. On that night + when he came to her out of the rain it had happened. There was a wall a + blow could shatter, and she raised her hand to strike the blow. The wall + was shattered and then builded itself again. Even as she lay at night in + her husband's arms the wall reared itself up in the darkness of the + sleeping room. + </p> + <p> + Over the farmhouse on such nights dense silence brooded and she and Hugh, + as had become their habit together, were silent. In the darkness she put + up her hand to touch her husband's face and hair. He lay still and she had + the impression of some great force holding him back, holding her back. A + sharp sense of struggle filled the room. The air was heavy with it. + </p> + <p> + When words came they did not break the silence. The wall remained. + </p> + <p> + The words that came were empty, meaningless words. Hugh suddenly broke + forth into speech. He spoke of his work at the shop and of his progress + toward the solution of some difficult, mechanical problem. If it were + evening when the thing happened the two people got out of the lighted + house where they had been sitting together, each feeling darkness would + help the effort they were both making to tear away the wall. They walked + along a lane, past the barns and over the little wooden bridge across the + stream that ran down through the barnyard. Hugh did not want to talk of + the work at the shop, but could find words for no other talk. They came to + a fence where the lane turned and from where they could look down the + hillside and into the town. He did not look at Clara but stared down the + hillside and the words, in regard to the mechanical difficulties that had + occupied his mind all day, ran on and on. When later they went back to the + house he felt a little relieved. “I've said words. There is something + achieved,” he thought. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + And now after the three years as a married woman Clara sat in the motor + with her father and husband and with them was sent whirling swiftly + through the summer night. The car ran down the hill road from the + Butterworth farm, through a dozen residence streets in town and then out + upon the long, straight roads in the rich, flat country to the north. It + had skirted the town as a hungry wolf might have encircled silently and + swiftly the fire-lit camp of a hunter. To Clara the machine seemed like a + wolf, bold and cunning and yet afraid. Its great nose pushed through the + troubled air of the quiet roads, frightening horses, breaking the silence + with its persistent purring, drowning the song of insects. The headlights + also disturbed the slumbers of the night. They flashed into barnyards + where fowls slept on the lower branches of trees, played on the sides of + barns sent the cattle in fields galloping away into darkness, and + frightened horribly the wild things, the red squirrels and chipmunks that + live in wayside fences in the Ohio country. Clara hated the machine and + began to hate all machines. Thinking of machinery and the making of + machines had, she decided, been at the bottom of her husband's inability + to talk with her. Revolt against the whole mechanical impulse of her + generation began to take possession of her. + </p> + <p> + And as she rode another and more terrible kind of revolt against the + machine began in the town of Bidwell. It began in fact before Tom with his + new motor left the Butterworth farm, it began before the summer moon came + up, before the gray mantle of night had been laid over the shoulders of + the hills south of the farmhouse. + </p> + <p> + Jim Gibson, the journeyman harness maker who worked in Joe Wainsworth's + shop, was beside himself on that night. He had just won a great victory + over his employer and felt like celebrating. For several days he had been + telling the story of his anticipated victory in the saloons and store, and + now it had happened. After dining at his boarding-house he went to a + saloon and had a drink. Then he went to other saloons and had other + drinks, after which he swaggered through the streets to the door of the + shop. Although he was in his nature a spiritual bully, Jim did not lack + energy, and his employer's shop was filled with work demanding attention. + For a week both he and Joe had been returning to their work benches every + evening. Jim wanted to come because some driving influence within made him + love the thought of keeping the work always on the move, and Joe because + Jim made him come. + </p> + <p> + Many things were on the move in the striving, hustling town on that + evening. The system of checking on piece work, introduced by the + superintendent Ed Hall in the corn-cutting machine plant, had brought on + Bidwell's first industrial strike. The discontented workmen were not + organized, and the strike was foredoomed to failure, but it had stirred + the town deeply. One day, a week before, quite suddenly some fifty or + sixty men had decided to quit. “We won't work for a fellow like Ed Hall,” + they declared. “He sets a scale of prices and then, when we have driven + ourselves to the limit to make a decent day's pay, he cuts the scale.” + Leaving the shop the men went in a body to Main Street and two or three of + them, developing unexpected eloquence, began delivering speeches on street + corners. On the next day the strike spread and for several days the shop + had been closed. Then a labor organizer came from Cleveland and on the day + of his arrival the story ran through the street that strike breakers were + to be brought in. + </p> + <p> + And on that evening of many adventures another element was introduced into + the already disturbed life of the community. At the corner of Main and + McKinley Streets and just beyond the place where three old buildings were + being torn down to make room for the building of a new hotel, appeared a + man who climbed upon a box and attacked, not the piece work prices at the + corn-cutting machine plant, but the whole system that built and maintained + factories where the wage scale of the workmen could be fixed by the whim + or necessity of one man or a group of men. As the man on the box talked, + the workmen in the crowd who were of American birth began to shake their + heads. They went to one side and gathering in groups discussed the + stranger's words. “I tell you what,” said a little old workman, pulling + nervously at his graying mustache, “I'm on strike and I'm for sticking out + until Steve Hunter and Tom Butterworth fire Ed Hall, but I don't like this + kind of talk. I'll tell you what that man's doing. He's attacking our + Government, that's what he's doing.” The workmen went off to their homes + grumbling. The Government was to them a sacred thing, and they did not + fancy having their demands for a better wage scale confused by the talk of + anarchists and socialists. Many of the laborers of Bidwell were sons and + grandsons of pioneers who had opened up the country where the great + sprawling towns were now growing into cities. They or their fathers had + fought in the great Civil War. During boyhood they had breathed a + reverence for government out of the very air of the towns. The great men + of whom the school-books talked had all been connected with the + Government. In Ohio there had been Garfield, Sherman, McPherson the + fighter and others. From Illinois had come Lincoln and Grant. For a time + the very ground of the mid-American country had seemed to spurt forth + great men as now it was spurting forth gas and oil. Government had + justified itself in the men it had produced. + </p> + <p> + And now there had come among them men who had no reverence for government. + What a speaker for the first time dared say openly on the streets of + Bidwell, had already been talked in the shops. The new men, the foreigners + coming from many lands, had brought with them strange doctrines. They + began to make acquaintances among the American workmen. “Well,” they said, + “you've had great men here; no doubt you have; but you're getting a new + kind of great men now. These new men are not born out of people. They're + being born out of capital. What is a great man? He's one who has the + power. Isn't that a fact? Well, you fellows here have got to find out that + nowadays power comes with the possession of money. Who are the big men of + this town?—not some lawyer or politician who can make a good speech, + but the men who own the factories where you have to work. Your Steve + Hunter and Tom Butterworth are the great men of this town.” + </p> + <p> + The socialist, who had come to speak on the streets of Bidwell, was a + Swede, and his wife had come with him. As he talked his wife made figures + on a blackboard. The old story of the trick by which the citizens of the + town had lost their money in the plant-setting machine company was revived + and told over and over. The Swede, a big man with heavy fists, spoke of + the prominent citizens of the town as thieves who by a trick had robbed + their fellows. As he stood on the box beside his wife, and raising his + fists shouted crude sentences condemning the capitalist class, men who had + gone away angry came back to listen. The speaker declared himself a + workman like themselves and, unlike the religious salvationists who + occasionally spoke on the streets, did not beg for money. “I'm a workman + like yourselves,” he shouted. “Both my wife and myself work until we've + saved a little money. Then we come out to some town like this and fight + capital until we're busted. We've been fighting for years now and we'll + keep on fighting as long as we live.” + </p> + <p> + As the orator shouted out his sentences he raised his fist as though to + strike, and looked not unlike one of his ancestors, the Norsemen, who in + old times had sailed far and wide over unknown seas in search of the + fighting they loved. The men of Bidwell began to respect him. “After all, + what he says sounds like mighty good sense,” they declared, shaking their + heads. “Maybe Ed Hall isn't any worse than any one else. We got to break + up the system. That's a fact. Some of these days we got to break up the + system.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Jim Gibson got to the door of Joe's shop at half-past seven o'clock. + Several men stood on the sidewalk and he stopped and stood before them, + intending to tell again the story of his triumph over his employer. Inside + the shop Joe was already at his bench and at work. The men, two of them + strikers from the corn-cutting machine plant, complained bitterly of the + difficulty of supporting their families, and a third man, a fellow with a + big black mustache who smoked a pipe, began to repeat some of the axioms + in regard to industrialism and the class war he had picked up from the + socialist orator. Jim listened for a moment and then, turning, put his + thumb on his buttocks and wriggled his fingers. “Oh, hell,” he sneered, + “what are you fools talking about? You're going to get up a union or get + into the socialist party. What're you talking about? A union or a party + can't help a man who can't look out for himself.” + </p> + <p> + The blustering and half intoxicated harness maker stood in the open shop + door and told again and in detail the story of his triumph over his + employer. Then another thought came and he spoke of the twelve hundred + dollars Joe had lost in the stock, of the plant-setting machine company. + “He lost his money and you fellows are going to get licked in this fight,” + he declared. “You're all wrong, you fellows, when you talk about unions or + joining the socialist party. What counts is what a man can do for himself. + Character counts. Yes, sir, character makes a man what he is.” + </p> + <p> + Jim pounded on his chest and glared about him. + </p> + <p> + “Look at me,” he said. “I was a drunkard and down and out when I came to + this town; a drunkard, that's what I was and that's what I am. I came here + to this shop to work, and now, if you want to know, ask any one in town + who runs this place. The socialist says money is power. Well, there's a + man inside here who has the money, but you bet I've got the power.” + </p> + <p> + Slapping his knees with his hands Jim laughed heartily. A week before, a + traveling man had come to the shop to sell machine-made harness. Joe had + ordered the man out and Jim had called him back. He had placed an order + for eighteen sets of the harness and had made Joe sign the order. The + harness had arrived that afternoon and was now hung in the shop. “It's + hanging in the shop now,” Jim cried. “Go see for yourself.” + </p> + <p> + Triumphantly Jim walked up and down before the men on the sidewalk, and + his voice rang through the shop where Joe sat on his harness-maker's horse + under a swinging lamp hard at work. “I tell you, character's the thing + that counts,” the roaring voice cried. “You see I'm a workingman like you + fellows, but I don't join a union or a socialist party. I get my way. My + boss Joe in there's a sentimental old fool, that's what he is. All his + life he's made harnesses by hand and he thinks that's the only way. He + claims he has pride in his work, that's what he claims.” + </p> + <p> + Jim laughed again. “Do you know what he did the other day when that + traveler had gone out of the shop and after I had made him sign that + order?” he asked. “Cried, that's what he did. By God, he did,—sat + there and cried.” + </p> + <p> + Again Jim laughed, but the workmen on the sidewalk did not join in his + merriment. Going to one of them, the one who had declared his intention of + joining the union, Jim began to berate him. “You think you can lick Ed + Hall with Steve Hunter and Tom Butterworth back of him, eh?” he asked + sharply. “Well, I'll tell you what—you can't. All the unions in the + world won't help you. You'll get licked—for why? + </p> + <p> + “For why? Because Ed Hall is like me, that's for why. He's got character, + that's what he's got.” + </p> + <p> + Growing weary of his boasting and the silence of his audience, Jim started + to walk in at the door, but when one of the workmen, a pale man of fifty + with a graying mustache, spoke, he turned to listen. “You're a suck, a + suck and a lickspittle, that's what you are,” said the pale man, his voice + trembling with passion. + </p> + <p> + Jim ran through the crowd of men and knocked the speaker to the sidewalk with + a blow of his fist. Two of the other workmen seemed about to take up the + cause of their fallen brother, but when in spite of their threats Jim + stood his ground, they hesitated. They went to help the pale workman to + his feet, and Jim went into the shop and closed the door. Climbing onto + his horse he went to work, and the men went off along the sidewalk, still + threatening to do what they had not done when the opportunity offered. + </p> + <p> + Joe worked in silence beside his employee and night began to settle down + over the disturbed town. Above the clatter of many voices in the street + outside could be heard the loud voice of the socialist orator who had + taken up his stand for the evening at a nearby corner. When it had become + quite dark outside, the old harness maker climbed down from his horse and + going to the front door opened it softly and looked up and down the + street. Then he closed it again and walked toward the rear of the shop. In + his hand he held his harness-maker's knife, shaped like a half moon and + with an extraordinarily sharp circular edge. The harness maker's wife had + died during the year before and since that time he had not slept well at + night. Often for a week at a time he did not sleep at all, but lay all + night with wide-open eyes, thinking strange, new thoughts. In the daytime + and when Jim was not about, he sometimes spent hours sharpening the + moon-shaped knife on a piece of leather; and on the day after the incident + of the placing of the order for the factory-made harness he had gone into + a hardware store and bought a cheap revolver. He had been sharpening the + knife as Jim talked to the workmen outside. When Jim began to tell the + story of his humiliation he had stopped sewing at the broken harness in + his vise and, getting up, had taken the knife from its hiding-place under + a pile of leather on a bench to give its edge a few last caressing + strokes. + </p> + <p> + Holding the knife in his hand Joe went with shambling steps toward the + place where Jim sat absorbed in his work. A brooding silence seemed to lie + over the shop and even outside in the street all noises suddenly ceased. + Old Joe's gait changed. As he passed behind the horse on which Jim sat, + life came into his figure and he walked with a soft, cat-like tread. Joy + shone in his eyes. As though warned of something impending, Jim turned and + opened his mouth to growl at his employer, but his words never found their + way to his lips. The old man made a peculiar half step, half leap past the + horse, and the knife whipped through the air. At one stroke he had + succeeded in practically severing Jim Gibson's head from his body. + </p> + <p> + There was no sound in the shop. Joe threw the knife into a corner and ran + quickly past the horse where the body of Jim Gibson sat upright. Then the + body fell to the floor with a thump and there was the sharp rattle of + heels on the board floor. The old man locked the front door and listened + impatiently. When all was again quiet he went to search for the knife he + had thrown away, but could not find it. Taking Jim's knife from a bench + under the hanging lamp, he stepped over the body and climbed upon his + horse to turn out the lights. + </p> + <p> + For an hour Joe stayed in the shop with the dead man. The eighteen sets of + harness shipped from a Cleveland factory had been received that morning, + and Jim had insisted they be unpacked and hung on hooks along the shop + walls. He had bullied Joe into helping hang the harnesses, and now Joe + took them down alone. One by one they were laid on the floor and with + Jim's knife the old man cut each strap into little pieces that made a pile + of litter on the floor reaching to his waist. When that was done he went + again to the rear of the shop, again stepping almost carelessly over the + dead man, and took the revolver out of the pocket of an overcoat that hung + by the door. + </p> + <p> + Joe went out of the shop by the back door, and having locked it carefully, + crept through an alleyway and into the lighted street where people walked + up and down. The next place to his own was a barber shop, and as he + hurried along the sidewalk, two young men came out and called to him. + “Hey,” they called, “do you believe in factory-made harness now-days, Joe + Wainsworth? Hey, what do you say? Do you sell factory-made harness?” + </p> + <p> + Joe did not answer, but stepping off the sidewalk, walked in the road. A + group of Italian laborers passed, talking rapidly and making gestures with + their hands. As he went more deeply into the heart of the growing city, + past the socialist orator and a labor organizer who was addressing a crowd + of men on another corner, his step became cat-like as it had been in the + moment before the knife flashed at the throat of Jim Gibson. The crowds of + people frightened him. He imagined himself set upon by a crowd and hanged + to a lamp-post. The voice of the labor orator arose above the murmur of + voices in the street. “We've got to take power into our hands. We've got + to carry on our own battle for power,” the voice declared. + </p> + <p> + The harness maker turned a corner into a quiet street, his hand caressing + affectionately the revolver in the side pocket of his coat. He intended to + kill himself, but had not wanted to die in the same room with Jim Gibson. + In his own way he had always been a very sensitive man and his only fear + was that rough hands fall upon him before he had completed the evening's + work. He was quite sure that had his wife been alive she would have + understood what had happened. She had always understood everything he did + or said. He remembered his courtship. His wife had been a country girl and + on Sundays, after their marriage, they had gone together to spend the day + in the wood. After Joe had brought his wife to Bidwell they continued the + practice. One of his customers, a well-to-do farmer, lived five miles + north of town, and on his farm there was a grove of beech trees. Almost + every Sunday for several years he got a horse from the livery stable and + took his wife there. After dinner at the farmhouse, he and the farmer + gossiped for an hour, while the women washed the dishes, and then he took + his wife and went into the beech forest. No underbrush grew under the + spreading branches of the trees, and when the two people had remained + silent for a time, hundreds of squirrels and chipmunks came to chatter and + play about them. Joe had brought nuts in his pocket and threw them about. + The quivering little animals drew near and then with a flip of their tails + scampered away. One day a boy from a neighboring farm came to the wood and + shot one of the squirrels. It happened just as Joe and his wife came from + the farmhouse and he saw the wounded squirrel hang from the branch of a + tree, and then fall. It lay at his feet and his wife grew ill and leaned + against him for support. He said nothing, but stared at the quivering + thing on the ground. When it lay still the boy came and picked it up. + Still Joe said nothing. Taking his wife's arm he walked to where they were + in the habit of sitting, and reached in his pocket for the nuts to scatter + on the ground. The farm boy, who had felt the reproach in the eyes of the + man and woman, had gone out of the wood. Suddenly Joe began to cry. He was + ashamed and did not want his wife to see, and she pretended she had not + seen. + </p> + <p> + On the night when he had killed Jim, Joe decided he would walk to the farm + and the beech forest and there kill himself. He hurried past a long row of + dark stores and warehouses in the newly built section of town and came to + a residence street. He saw a man coming toward him and stepped into the + stairway of a store building. The man stopped under a street lamp to light + a cigar, and the harness maker recognized him. It was Steve Hunter, who + had induced him to invest the twelve hundred dollars in the stock of the + plant-setting machine company, the man who had brought the new times to + Bidwell, the man who was at the bottom of all such innovations as + machine-made harnesses. Joe had killed his employee, Jim Gibson, in cold + anger, but now a new kind of anger took possession of him. Something + danced before his eyes and his hands trembled so that he was afraid the + gun he had taken out of his pocket would fall to the sidewalk. It wavered + as he raised it and fired, but chance came to his assistance. Steve Hunter + pitched forward to the sidewalk. + </p> + <p> + Without stopping to pick up the revolver that had fallen out of his hand, + Joe now ran up a stairway and got into a dark, empty hall. He felt his way + along a wall and came presently to another stairway, leading down. It + brought him into an alleyway, and going along this he came out near the + bridge that led over the river and into what in the old days had been + Turner's Pike, the road out which he had driven with his wife to the farm + and the beech forest. + </p> + <p> + But one thing now puzzled Joe Wainsworth. He had lost his revolver and did + not know how he was to manage his own death. “I must do it some way,” he + thought, when at last, after nearly three hours steady plodding and hiding + in fields to avoid the teams going along the road he got to the beech + forest. He went to sit under a tree near the place where he had so often + sat through quiet Sunday afternoons with his wife beside him. “I'll rest a + little and then I'll think how I can do it,” he thought wearily, holding + his head in his hands. “I mustn't go to sleep. If they find me they'll + hurt me. They'll hurt me before I have a chance to kill myself. They'll + hurt me before I have a chance to kill myself,” he repeated, over and + over, holding his head in his hands and rocking gently back and forth. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII + </h2> + <p> + The car driven by Tom Butterworth stopped at a town, and Tom got out to + fill his pockets with cigars and incidentally to enjoy the wonder and + admiration of the citizens. He was in an exalted mood and words flowed + from him. As the motor under its hood purred, so the brain under the + graying old head purred and threw forth words. He talked to the idlers + before the drug stores in the towns and, when the car started again and + they were out in the open country, his voice, pitched in a high key to + make itself heard above the purring engine, became shrill. Having struck + the shrill tone of the new age the voice went on and on. + </p> + <p> + But the voice and the swift-moving car did not stir Clara. She tried not + to hear the voice, and fixing her eyes on the soft landscape flowing past + under the moon, tried to think of other times and places. She thought of + nights when she had walked with Kate Chanceller through the streets of + Columbus, and of the silent ride she had taken with Hugh that night they + were married. Her mind went back into her childhood and she remembered the + long days she had spent riding with her father in this same valley, going + from farm to farm to haggle and dicker for the purchase of calves and + pigs. Her father had not talked then but sometimes, when they had driven + far and were homeward bound in the failing light of evening, words did + come to him. She remembered one evening in the summer after her mother + died and when her father often took her with him on his drives. They had + stopped for the evening meal at the house of a farmer and when they got on + the road again, the moon came out. Something present in the spirit of the + night stirred Tom, and he spoke of his life as a boy in the new country + and of his fathers and brothers. “We worked hard, Clara,” he said. “The + whole country was new and every acre we planted had to be cleared.” The + mind of the prosperous farmer fell into a reminiscent mood and he spoke of + little things concerning his life as a boy and young man; the days of + cutting wood alone in the silent, white forest when winter came and it was + time for getting out firewood and logs for new farm buildings, the log + rollings to which neighboring farmers came, when great piles of logs were + made and set afire that space might be cleared for planting. In the winter + the boy went to school in the village of Bidwell and as he was even then + an energetic, pushing youth, already intent on getting on in the world, he + set traps in the forest and on the banks of streams and walked the trap + line on his way to and from school. In the spring he sent his pelts to the + growing town of Cleveland where they were sold. He spoke of the money he + got and of how he had finally saved enough to buy a horse of his own. + </p> + <p> + Tom had talked of many other things on that night, of the spelling-downs + at the schoolhouse in town, of huskings and dances held in the barns and + of the evening when he went skating on the river and first met his wife. + “We took to each other at once,” he said softly. “There was a fire built + on the bank of the river and after I had skated with her we went and sat + down to warm ourselves. + </p> + <p> + “We wanted to get married to each other right away,” he told Clara. “I + walked home with her after we got tired of skating, and after that I + thought of nothing but how to get my own farm and have a home of my own.” + </p> + <p> + As the daughter sat in the motor listening to the shrill voice of the + father, who now talked only of the making of machines and money, that + other man talking softly in the moonlight as the horse jogged slowly along + the dark road seemed very far away. All such men seemed very far away. + “Everything worth while is very far away,” she thought bitterly. “The + machines men are so intent on making have carried them very far from the + old sweet things.” + </p> + <p> + The motor flew along the roads and Tom thought of his old longing to own + and drive fast racing horses. “I used to be half crazy to own fast + horses,” he shouted to his son-in-law. “I didn't do it, because owning + fast horses meant a waste of money, but it was in my mind all the time. I + wanted to go fast: faster than any one else.” In a kind of ecstasy he gave + the motor more gas and shot the speed up to fifty miles an hour. The hot, + summer air, fanned into a violent wind, whistled past his head. “Where + would the damned race horses be now,” he called, “where would your Maud S. + or your J.I.C. be, trying to catch up with me in this car?” + </p> + <p> + Yellow wheat fields and fields of young corn, tall now and in the light + breeze that was blowing whispering in the moonlight, flashed past, looking + like squares on a checker board made for the amusement of the child of + some giant. The car ran through miles of the low farming country, through + the main streets of towns, where the people ran out of the stores to stand + on the sidewalks and look at the new wonder, through sleeping bits of + woodlands—remnants of the great forests in which Tom had worked as a + boy—and across wooden bridges over small streams, beside which grew + tangled masses of elderberries, now yellow and fragrant with blossoms. + </p> + <p> + At eleven o'clock having already achieved some ninety miles Tom turned the + car back. Running more sedately he again talked of the mechanical triumphs + of the age in which he had lived. “I've brought you whizzing along, you + and Clara,” he said proudly. “I tell you what, Hugh, Steve Hunter and I + have brought you along fast in more ways that one. You've got to give + Steve credit for seeing something in you, and you've got to give me credit + for putting my money back of your brains. I don't want to take no credit + from Steve. There's credit enough for all. All I got to say for myself is + that I saw the hole in the doughnut. Yes, sir, I wasn't so blind. I saw + the hole in the doughnut.” + </p> + <p> + Tom stopped to light a cigar and then drove on again. “I'll tell you what, + Hugh,” he said, “I wouldn't say so to any one not of my family, but the + truth is, I'm the man that's been putting over the big things there in + Bidwell. The town is going to be a city now and a mighty big city. Towns + in this State like Columbus, Toledo and Dayton, had better look out for + themselves. I'm the man has always kept Steve Hunter steady and going + straight ahead down the track, as this car goes with my hand at the + steering wheel. + </p> + <p> + “You don't know anything about it, and I don't want you should talk, but + there are new things coming to Bidwell,” he added. “When I was in Chicago + last month I met a man who has been making rubber buggy and bicycle tires. + I'm going in with him and we're going to start a plant for making + automobile-tires right in Bidwell. The tire business is bound to be one of + the greatest on earth and they ain't no reason why Bidwell shouldn't be + the biggest tire center ever known in the world.” Although the car now ran + quietly, Tom's voice again became shrill. “There'll be hundreds of + thousands of cars like this tearing over every road in America,” he + declared. “Yes, sir, they will; and if I calculate right Bidwell'll be the + great tire town of the world.” + </p> + <p> + For a long time Tom drove in silence, and when he again began to talk it + was a new mood. He told a tale of life in Bidwell that stirred both Hugh + and Clara deeply. He was angry and had Clara not been in the car would + have become violently profane. + </p> + <p> + “I'd like to hang the men who are making trouble in the shops in town,” he + broke forth. “You know who I mean, I mean the labor men who are trying to + make trouble for Steve Hunter and me. There's a socialist talking every + night on the street over there. I'll tell you, Hugh, the laws of this + country are wrong.” For ten minutes he talked of the labor difficulties in + the shops. + </p> + <p> + “They better look out,” he declared, and was so angry that his voice rose + to something like a suppressed scream. “We're inventing new machines + pretty fast now-days,” he cried. “Pretty soon we'll do all the work by + machines. Then what'll we do? We'll kick all the workers out and let 'em + strike till they're sick, that's what we'll do. They can talk their fool + socialism all they want, but we'll show 'em, the fools.” + </p> + <p> + His angry mood passed, and as the car turned into the last fifteen-mile + stretch of road that led to Bidwell, he told the tale that so deeply + stirred his passengers. Chuckling softly he told of the struggle of the + Bidwell harness maker, Joe Wainsworth, to prevent the sale of machine-made + harness in the community, and of his experience with his employee, Jim + Gibson. Tom had heard the tale in the bar-room of the Bidwell House and it + had made a profound impression on his mind. “I'll tell you what,” he + declared, “I'm going to get in touch with Jim Gibson. That's the kind of + man to handle workers. I only heard about him to-night, but I'm going to + see him to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + Leaning back in his seat Tom laughed heartily as he told of the traveling + man who had visited Joe Wainsworth's shop and the placing of the order for + the factory-made harness. In some intangible way he felt that when Jim + Gibson laid the order for the harness on the bench in the shop and by the + force of his personality compelled Joe Wainsworth to sign, he justified + all such men as himself. In imagination he lived in that moment with Jim, + and like Jim the incident aroused his inclination to boast. “Why, a lot of + cheap laboring skates can't down such men as myself any more than Joe + Wainsworth could down that Jim Gibson,” he declared. “They ain't got the + character, you see, that's what the matter, they ain't got the character.” + Tom touched some mechanism connected with the engine of the car and it + shot suddenly forward. “Suppose one of them labor leaders were standing in + the road there,” he cried. Instinctively Hugh leaned forward and peered + into the darkness through which the lights of the car cut like a great + scythe, and on the back seat Clara half rose to her feet. Tom shouted with + delight and as the car plunged along the road his voice rose in triumph. + “The damn fools!” he cried. “They think they can stop the machines. Let + 'em try. They want to go on in their old hand-made way. Let 'em look out. + Let 'em look out for such men as Jim Gibson and me.” + </p> + <p> + Down a slight incline in the road shot the car and swept around a wide + curve, and then the jumping, dancing light, running far ahead, revealed a + sight that made Tom thrust out his foot and jam on the brakes. + </p> + <p> + In the road and in the very center of the circle of light, as though + performing a scene on the stage, three men were struggling. As the car + came to a stop, so sudden that it pitched both Clara and Hugh out of their + seats, the struggle came to an end. One of the struggling figures, a small + man without coat or hat, had jerked himself away from the others and + started to run toward the fence at the side of the road and separating it + from a grove of trees. A large, broad-shouldered man sprang forward and + catching the tail of the fleeing man's coat pulled him back into the + circle of light. His fist shot out and caught the small man directly on + the mouth. He fell like a dead thing, face downward in the dust of the + road. + </p> + <p> + Tom ran the car slowly forward and its headlight continued to play over + the three figures. From a little pocket at the side of his driver's seat + he took a revolver. He ran the car quickly to a position near the group in + the road and stopped. + </p> + <p> + “What's up?” he asked sharply. + </p> + <p> + Ed Hall the factory superintendent, the man who had struck the blow that + had felled the little man, stepped forward and explained the tragic + happenings of the evening in town. The factory superintendent had + remembered that as a boy he had once worked for a few weeks on the farm of + which the wood beside the road was a part, and that on Sunday afternoons + the harness maker had come to the farm with his wife and the two people + had gone to walk in the very place where he had just been found. “I had a + hunch he would be out here,” he boasted. “I figured it out. Crowds started + out of town in all directions, but I cut out alone. Then I happened to see + this fellow and just for company I brought him along.” He put up his hand + and, looking at Tom, tapped his forehead. “Cracked,” he declared, “he + always was. A fellow I knew saw him once in that woods,” he said pointing. + “Somebody had shot a squirrel and he took on about it as though he had + lost a child. I said then he was crazy, and he has sure proved I was + right.” + </p> + <p> + At a word from her father Clara went to sit on the front seat on Hugh's + knees. Her body trembled and she was cold with fear. As her father had + told the story of Jim Gibson's triumph over Joe Wainsworth she had wanted + passionately to kill that blustering fellow. Now the thing was done. In + her mind the harness maker had come to stand for all the men and women in + the world who were in secret revolt against the absorption of the age in + machines and the products of machines. He had stood as a protesting figure + against what her father had become and what she thought her husband had + become. She had wanted Jim Gibson killed and it had been done. As a child + she had gone often to Wainsworth's shop with her father or some farm hand, + and she now remembered sharply the peace and quiet of the place. At the + thought of the same place, now become the scene of a desperate killing, + her body shook so that she clutched at Hugh's arms, striving to steady + herself. + </p> + <p> + Ed Hall took the senseless figure of the old man in the road into his arms + and half threw it into the back seat of the car. To Clara it was as though + his rough, misunderstanding hands were on her own body. The car started + swiftly along the road and Ed told again the story of the night's + happenings. “I tell you, Mr. Hunter is in mighty bad shape, he may die,” + he said. Clara turned to look at her husband and thought him totally + unaffected by what had happened. His face was quiet like her father's + face. The factory superintendent's voice went on explaining his part in + the adventures of the evening. Ignoring the pale workman who sat lost in + the shadows in a corner of the rear seat, he spoke as though he had + undertaken and accomplished the capture of the murderer single-handed. As + he afterwards explained to his wife, Ed felt he had been a fool not to + come alone. “I knew I could handle him all right,” he explained. “I wasn't + afraid, but I had figured it all out he was crazy. That made me feel + shaky. When they were getting up a crowd to go out on the hunt, I says to + myself, I'll go alone. I says to myself, I'll bet he's gone out to that + woods on the Riggly farm where he and his wife used to go on Sundays. I + started and then I saw this other man standing on a corner and I made him + come with me. He didn't want to come and I wish I'd gone alone. I could + have handled him and I'd got all the credit.” + </p> + <p> + In the car Ed told the story of the night in the streets of Bidwell. Some + one had seen Steve Hunter shot down in the street and had declared the + harness maker had done it and had then run away. A crowd had gone to the + harness shop and had found the body of Jim Gibson. On the floor of the + shop were the factory-made harnesses cut into bits. “He must have been in + there and at work for an hour or two, stayed right in there with the man + he had killed. It's the craziest thing any man ever done.” + </p> + <p> + The harness maker, lying on the floor of the car where Ed had thrown him, + stirred and sat up. Clara turned to look at him and shivered. His shirt + was torn so that the thin, old neck and shoulders could be plainly seen in + the uncertain light, and his face was covered with blood that had dried + and was now black with dust. Ed Hall went on with the tale of his triumph. + “I found him where I said to myself I would. Yes, sir, I found him where I + said to myself I would.” + </p> + <p> + The car came to the first of the houses of the town, long rows of cheaply + built frame houses standing in what had once been Ezra French's cabbage + patch, where Hugh had crawled on the ground in the moonlight, working out + the mechanical problems that confronted him in the building of his + plant-setting machine. Suddenly the distraught and frightened man crouched + on the floor of the car, raised himself on his hands and lurched forward, + trying to spring over the side. Ed Hall caught him by the arm and jerked + him back. He drew back his arm to strike again but Clara's voice, cold and + intense with passion, stopped him. “If you touch him, I'll kill you,” she + said. “No matter what he does, don't you dare strike him again.” + </p> + <p> + Tom drove the car slowly through the streets of Bidwell to the door of a + police station. Word of the return of the murderer had run ahead, and a + crowd had gathered. Although it was past two o'clock the lights still + burned in stores and saloons, and crowds stood at every corner. With the + aid of a policeman, Ed Hall, with one eye fixed cautiously on the front + seat where Clara sat, started to lead Joe Wainsworth away. “Come on now, + we won't hurt you,” he said reassuringly, and had got his man free of the + car when he broke away. Springing back into the rear seat the crazed man + turned to look at the crowd. A sob broke from his lips. For a moment he + stood trembling with fright, and then turning, he for the first time saw + Hugh, the man in whose footsteps he had once crept in the darkness in + Turner's Pike, the man who had invented the machine by which the earnings + of a lifetime had been swept away. “It wasn't me. You did it. You killed + Jim Gibson,” he screamed, and springing forward sank his fingers and teeth + into Hugh's neck. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII + </h2> + <p> + One day in the month of October, four years after the time of his first + motor ride with Clara and Tom, Hugh went on a business trip to the city of + Pittsburgh. He left Bidwell in the morning and got to the steel city at + noon. At three o'clock his business was finished and he was ready to + return. + </p> + <p> + Although he had not yet realized it, Hugh's career as a successful + inventor had received a sharp check. The trick of driving directly at the + point, of becoming utterly absorbed in the thing before him, had been + lost. He went to Pittsburgh to see about the casting of new parts for the + hay-loading machine, but what he did in Pittsburgh was of no importance to + the men who would manufacture and sell that worthy, labor-saving tool. + Although he did not know it, a young man from Cleveland, in the employ of + Tom and Steve, had already done what Hugh was striving half-heartedly to + do. The machine had been finished and ready to market in October three + years before, and after repeated tests a lawyer had made formal + application for patent. Then it was discovered that an Iowa man had + already made application for and been granted a patent on a similar + apparatus. + </p> + <p> + When Tom came to the shop and told him what had happened Hugh had been + ready to drop the whole matter, but that was not Tom's notion. “The + devil!” he said. “Do you think we're going to waste all this money and + labor?” + </p> + <p> + Drawings of the Iowa man's machine were secured, and Tom set Hugh at the + task of doing what he called “getting round” the other fellow's patents. + “Do the best you can and we'll go ahead,” he said. “You see we've got the + money and that means power. Make what changes you can and then we'll go on + with our manufacturing plans. We'll whipsaw this other fellow through the + courts. We'll fight him till he's sick of fight and then we'll buy him out + cheap. I've had the fellow looked up and he hasn't any money and is a + boozer besides. You go ahead. We'll get that fellow all right.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh had tried valiantly to go along the road marked out for him by his + father-in-law and had put aside other plans to rebuild the machine he had + thought of as completed and out of the way. He made new parts, changed + other parts, studied the drawings of the Iowa man's machine, did what he + could to accomplish his task. + </p> + <p> + Nothing happened. A conscientious determination not to infringe on the + work of the Iowa man stood in his way. + </p> + <p> + Then something did happen. At night as he sat alone in his shop after a + long study of the drawings of the other man's machine, he put them aside + and sat staring into the darkness beyond the circle of light cast by his + lamp. He forgot the machine and thought of the unknown inventor, the man + far away over forests, lakes and rivers, who for months had worked on the + same problem that had occupied his mind. Tom had said the man had no money + and was a boozer. He could be defeated, bought cheap. He was himself at + work on the instrument of the man's defeat. + </p> + <p> + Hugh left his shop and went for a walk, and the problem connected with the + twisting of the iron and steel parts of the hay-loading apparatus into new + forms was again left unsolved. The Iowa man had become a distinct, almost + understandable personality to Hugh. Tom had said he drank, got drunk. His + own father had been a drunkard. Once a man, the very man who had been the + instrument of his own coming to Bidwell, had taken it for granted he was a + drunkard. He wondered if some twist of life might not have made him one. + </p> + <p> + Thinking of the Iowa man, Hugh began to think of other men. He thought of + his father and of himself. When he was striving to come out of the filth, + the flies, the poverty, the fishy smells, the shadowy dreams of his life + by the river, his father had often tried to draw him back into that life. + In imagination he saw before him the dissolute man who had bred him. On + afternoons of summer days in the river town, when Henry Shepard was not + about, his father sometimes came to the station where he was employed. He + had begun to earn a little money and his father wanted it to buy drinks. + Why? + </p> + <p> + There was a problem for Hugh's mind, a problem that could not be solved in + wood and steel. He walked and thought about it when he should have been + making new parts for the hay-loading apparatus. He had lived but little in + the life of the imagination, had been afraid to live that life, had been + warned and re-warned against living it. The shadowy figure of the unknown + inventor in the state of Iowa, who had been brother to himself, who had + worked on the same problems and had come to the same conclusions, slipped + away, followed by the almost equally shadowy figure of his father. Hugh + tried to think of himself and his own life. + </p> + <p> + For a time that seemed a simple and easy way out of the new and intricate + task he had set for his mind. His own life was a matter of history. He + knew about himself. Having walked far out of town, he turned and went back + toward his shop. His way led through the new city that had grown up since + his coming to Bidwell. Turner's Pike that had been a country road along + which on summer evenings lovers strolled to the Wheeling station and + Pickleville was now a street. All that section of the new city was given + over to workers' homes and here and there a store had been built. The + Widow McCoy's place was gone and in its place was a warehouse, black and + silent under the night sky. How grim the street in the late night! The + berry pickers who once went along the road at evening were now gone + forever. Like Ezra French's sons they had perhaps become factory hands. + Apple and cherry trees once grew along the road. They had dropped their + blossoms on the heads of strolling lovers. They also were gone. Hugh had + once crept along the road at the heels of Ed Hall, who walked with his arm + about a girl's waist. He had heard Ed complaining of his lot in life and + crying out for new times. It was Ed Hall who had introduced the piecework + plan in the factories of Bidwell and brought about the strike, during + which three men had been killed and ill-feeling engendered in hundreds of + silent workers. That strike had been won by Tom and Steve and they had + since that time been victorious in a larger and more serious strike. Ed + Hall was now at the head of a new factory being built along the Wheeling + tracks. He was growing fat and was prosperous. + </p> + <p> + When Hugh got to his shop he lighted his lamp and again got out the + drawings he had come from home to study. They lay unnoticed on the desk. + He looked at his watch. It was two o'clock. “Clara may be awake. I must go + home,” he thought vaguely. He now owned his own motor car and it stood in + the road before the shop. Getting in he drove away into the darkness over + the bridge, out of Turner's Pike and along a street lined with factories + and railroad sidings. Some of the factories were working and were ablaze + with lights. Through lighted windows he could see men stationed along + benches and bending over huge, iron machines. He had come from home that + evening to study the work of an unknown man from the far away state of + Iowa, to try to circumvent that man. Then he had gone to walk and to think + of himself and his own life. “The evening has been wasted. I have done + nothing,” he thought gloomily as his car climbed up a long street lined + with the homes of the wealthier citizens of his town and turned into the + short stretch of Medina Road still left between the town and the + Butterworth farmhouse. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + On the day when he went to Pittsburgh, Hugh got to the station where he + was to take the homeward train at three, and the train did not leave until + four. He went into a big waiting-room and sat on a bench in a corner. + After a time he arose and going to a stand bought a newspaper, but did not + read it. It lay unopened on the bench beside him. The station was filled + with men, women, and children who moved restlessly about. A train came in + and a swarm of people departed, were carried into faraway parts of the + country, while new people came into the station from a nearby street. He + looked at those who were going out into the train shed. “It may be that + some of them are going to that town in Iowa where that fellow lives,” he + thought. It was odd how thoughts of the unknown Iowa man clung to him. + </p> + <p> + One day, during the same summer and but a few months earlier, Hugh had + gone to the town of Sandusky, Ohio, on the same mission that had brought + him to Pittsburgh. How many parts for the hay-loading machine had been + cast and later thrown away! They did the work, but he decided each time + that he had infringed on the other man's machine. When that happened he + did not consult Tom. Something within him warned him against doing that. + He destroyed the part. “It wasn't what I wanted,” he told Tom who had + grown discouraged with his son-in-law but did not openly voice his + dissatisfaction. “Oh, well, he's lost his pep, marriage has taken the life + out of him. We'll have to get some one else on the job,” he said to Steve, + who had entirely recovered from the wound received at the hands of Joe + Wainsworth. + </p> + <p> + On that day when he went to Sandusky, Hugh had several hours to wait for + his homebound train and went to walk by the shores of a bay. Some brightly + colored stones attracted his attention and he picked several of them up + and put them in his pockets. In the station at Pittsburgh he took them out + and held them in his hand. A light came in at a window, a long, slanting + light that played over the stones. His roving, disturbed mind was caught + and held. He rolled the stones back and forth. The colors blended and then + separated again. When he raised his eyes, a woman and a child on a nearby + bench, also attracted by the flashing bit of color held like a flame in + his hand, were looking at him intently. + </p> + <p> + He was confused and walked out of the station into the street. “What a + silly fellow I have become, playing with colored stones like a child,” he + thought, but at the same time put the stones carefully into his pockets. + </p> + <p> + Ever since that night when he had been attacked in the motor, the sense of + some indefinable, inner struggle had been going on in Hugh, as it went on + that day in the station at Pittsburgh and on the night in the shop, when + he found himself unable to fix his attention on the prints of the Iowa + man's machine. Unconsciously and quite without intent he had come into a + new level of thought and action. He had been an unconscious worker, a doer + and was now becoming something else. The time of the comparatively simple + struggle with definite things, with iron and steel, had passed. He fought + to accept himself, to understand himself, to relate himself with the life + about him. The poor white, son of the defeated dreamer by the river, who + had forced himself in advance of his fellows along the road of mechanical + development, was still in advance of his fellows of the growing Ohio + towns. The struggle he was making was the struggle his fellows of another + generation would one and all have to make. + </p> + <p> + Hugh got into his home-bound train at four o'clock and went into the + smoking car. The somewhat distorted and twisted fragment of thoughts that + had all day been playing through his mind stayed with him. “What + difference does it make if the new parts I have ordered for the machine + have to be thrown away?” he thought. “If I never complete the machine, + it's all right. The one the Iowa man had made does the work.” + </p> + <p> + For a long time he struggled with that thought. Tom, Steve, all the + Bidwell men with whom he had been associated, had a philosophy into which + the thought did not fit. “When you put your hand to the plow do not turn + back,” they said. Their language was full of such sayings. To attempt to + do a thing and fail was the great crime, the sin against the Holy Ghost. + There was unconscious defiance of a whole civilization in Hugh's attitude + toward the completion of the parts that would help Tom and his business + associates “get around” the Iowa man's patent. + </p> + <p> + The train from Pittsburgh went through northern Ohio to a junction where + Hugh would get another train for Bidwell. Great booming towns, Youngstown, + Akron, Canton, Massillon—manufacturing towns all—lay along the + way. In the smoker Hugh sat, again playing with the colored stones held in + his hand. There was relief for his mind in the stones. The light + continually played about them, and their color shifted and changed. One + could look at the stones and get relief from thoughts. Raising his eyes he + looked out of the car window. The train was passing through Youngstown. + His eyes looked along grimy streets of worker's houses clustered closely + about huge mills. The same light that had played over the stones in his + hand began to play over his mind, and for a moment he became not an + inventor but a poet. The revolution within had really begun. A new + declaration of independence wrote itself within him. “The gods have thrown + the towns like stones over the flat country, but the stones have no color. + They do not burn and change in the light,” he thought. + </p> + <p> + Two men who sat in a seat in the westward bound train began to talk, and + Hugh listened. One of them had a son in college. “I want him to be a + mechanical engineer,” he said. “If he doesn't do that I'll get him started + in business. It's a mechanical age and a business age. I want to see him + succeed. I want him to keep in the spirit of the times.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh's train was due in Bidwell at ten, but did not arrive until half + after eleven. He walked from the station through the town toward the + Butterworth farm. + </p> + <p> + At the end of their first year of marriage a daughter had been born to + Clara, and some time before his trip to Pittsburgh she had told him she + was again pregnant. “She may be sitting up. I must get home,” he thought, + but when he got to the bridge near the farmhouse, the bridge on which he + had stood beside Clara that first time they were together, he got out of + the road and went to sit on a fallen log at the edge of a grove of trees. + </p> + <p> + “How quiet and peaceful the night!” he thought and leaning forward held + his long, troubled face in his hands. He wondered why peace and quiet + would not come to him, why life would not let him alone. “After all, I've + lived a simple life and have done good work,” he thought. “Some of the + things they've said about me are true enough. I've invented machines that + save useless labor, I've lightened men's labor.” + </p> + <p> + Hugh tried to cling to that thought, but it would not stay in his mind. + All the thoughts that gave his mind peace and quiet flew away like birds + seen on a distant horizon at evening. It had been so ever since that night + when he was suddenly and unexpectedly attacked by the crazed harness maker + in the motor. Before that his mind had often been unsettled, but he knew + what he wanted. He wanted men and women and close association with men and + women. Often his problem was yet more simple. He wanted a woman, one who + would love him and lie close to him at night. He wanted the respect of his + fellows in the town where he had come to live his life. He wanted to + succeed at the particular task to which he had set his hand. + </p> + <p> + The attack made upon him by the insane harness maker had at first seemed + to settle all his problems. At the moment when the frightened and + desperate man sank his teeth and fingers into Hugh's neck, something had + happened to Clara. It was Clara who, with a strength and quickness quite + amazing, had torn the insane man away. All through that evening she had + been hating her husband and father, and then suddenly she loved Hugh. The + seeds of a child were already alive in her, and when the body of her man + was furiously attacked, he became also her child. Swiftly, like the + passing of a shadow over the surface of a river on a windy day, the change + in her attitude toward her husband took place. All that evening she had + been hating the new age she had thought so perfectly personified in the + two men, who talked of the making of machines while the beauty of the + night was whirled away into the darkness with the cloud of dust thrown + into the air by the flying motor. She had been hating Hugh and + sympathizing with the dead past he and other men like him were destroying, + the past that was represented by the figure of the old harness maker who + wanted to do his work by hand in the old way, by the man who had aroused + the scorn and derision of her father. + </p> + <p> + And then the past rose up to strike. It struck with claws and teeth, and + the claws and teeth sank into Hugh's flesh, into the flesh of the man + whose seed was already alive within her. + </p> + <p> + At that moment the woman who had been a thinker stopped thinking. Within + her arose the mother, fierce, indomitable, strong with the strength of the + roots of a tree. To her then and forever after Hugh was no hero, remaking + the world, but a perplexed boy hurt by life. He never again escaped out of + boyhood in her consciousness of him. With the strength of a tigress she + tore the crazed harness maker away from Hugh, and with something of the + surface brutality of another Ed Hall, threw him to the floor of the car. + When Ed and the policeman, assisted by several bystanders, came running + forward, she waited almost indifferently while they forced the screaming + and kicking man through the crowd and in at the door of the police + station. + </p> + <p> + For Clara the thing for which she had hungered had, she thought, happened. + In quick, sharp tones she ordered her father to drive the car to a + doctor's house and later stood by while the torn and lacerated flesh of + Hugh's cheek and neck was bandaged. The thing for which Joe Wainsworth + stood and that she had thought was so precious to herself no longer + existed in her consciousness, and if later she was for some weeks nervous + and half ill, it was not because of any thought given to the fate of the + old harness maker. + </p> + <p> + The sudden attack out of the town's past had brought Hugh to Clara, had + made him a living if not quite satisfying companion to her, but it had + brought something quite different to Hugh. The bite of the man's teeth and + the torn places on his cheeks left by the tense fingers had mended, + leaving but a slight scar; but a virus had got into his veins. The disease + of thinking had upset the harness maker's mind and the germ of that + disease had got into Hugh's blood. It had worked up into his eyes and + ears. Words men dropped thoughtlessly and that in the past had been blown + past his ears, as chaff is blown from wheat in the harvest, now stayed to + echo and re-echo in his mind. In the past he had seen towns and factories + grow and had accepted without question men's word that growth was + invariably good. Now his eyes looked at the towns, at Bidwell, Akron, + Youngstown, and all the great, new towns scattered up and down mid-western + America as on the train and in the station at Pittsburgh he had looked at + the colored stones held in his hand. He looked at the towns and wanted + light and color to play over them as they played over the stones, and when + that did not happen, his mind, filled with strange new hungers engendered + by the disease of thinking, made up words over which lights played. “The + gods have scattered towns over the flat lands,” his mind had said, as he + sat in the smoking car of the train, and the phrase came back to him + later, as he sat in the darkness on the log with his head held in his + hands. It was a good phrase and lights could play over it as they played + over the colored stones, but it would in no way answer the problem of how + to “get around” the Iowa's man patent on the hay loading device. + </p> + <p> + Hugh did not get to the Butterworth farmhouse until two o'clock in the + morning, but when he got there his wife was awake and waiting for him. She + heard his heavy, dragging footsteps in the road as he turned in at the + farm gate, and getting quickly out of bed, threw a cloak over her + shoulders and came out to the porch facing the barns. A late moon had come + up and the barnyard was washed with moonlight. From the barns came the + low, sweet sound of contented animals nibbling at the hay in the mangers + before them, from a row of sheds back of one of the barns came the soft + bleating of sheep and in a far away field a calf bellowed loudly and was + answered by its mother. + </p> + <p> + When Hugh stepped into the moonlight around the corner of the house, Clara + ran down the steps to meet him, and taking his arm, led him past the barns + and over the bridge where as a child she had seen the figures of her fancy + advancing towards her. Sensing his troubled state her mother spirit was + aroused. He was unfilled by the life he led. She understood that. It was + so with her. By a lane they went to a fence where nothing but open fields + lay between the farm and the town far below. Although she sensed his + troubled state, Clara was not thinking of Hugh's trip to Pittsburgh nor of + the problems connected with the completion of the hay-loading machine. It + may be that like her father she had dismissed from her mind all thoughts + of him as one who would continue to help solve the mechanical problems of + his age. Thoughts of his continued success had never meant much to her, + but during the evening something had happened to Clara and she wanted to + tell him about it, to take him into the joy of it. Their first child had + been a girl and she was sure the next would be a man child. “I felt him + to-night,” she said, when they had got to the place by the fence and saw + below the lights of the town. “I felt him to-night,” she said again, “and + oh, he was strong! He kicked like anything. I am sure this time it's a + boy.” + </p> + <p> + For perhaps ten minutes Clara and Hugh stood by the fence. The disease of + thinking that was making Hugh useless for the work of his age had swept + away many old things within him and he was not self-conscious in the + presence of his woman. When she told him of the struggle of the man of + another generation, striving to be born he put his arm about her and held + her close against his long body. For a time they stood in silence, and + then started to return to the house and sleep. As they went past the barns + and the bunkhouse where several men now slept they heard, as though coming + out of the past, the loud snoring of the rapidly ageing farm hand, Jim + Priest, and then above that sound and above the sound of the animals + stirring in the barns arose another sound, a sound shrill and intense, + greetings perhaps to an unborn Hugh McVey. For some reason, perhaps to + announce a shift in crews, the factories of Bidwell that were engaged in + night work set up a great whistling and screaming. The sound ran up the + hillside and rang in the ears of Hugh as, with his arm about Clara's + shoulders, he went up the steps and in at the farmhouse door. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Poor White, by Sherwood Anderson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR WHITE *** + +***** This file should be named 7414-h.htm or 7414-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/1/7414/ + + +Text file produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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