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diff --git a/7414.txt b/7414.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f88915f --- /dev/null +++ b/7414.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9670 @@ +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: July 5, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR WHITE *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + POOR WHITE + + + A NOVEL BY + + SHERWOOD ANDERSON + + AUTHOR OF + + WINESBURG, OHIO + + + + + + TO + + TENNESSEE MITCHELL ANDERSON + + + +[Note: The evident misprint of Book Six for Book Five in the original is +preserved here.] + + + + + +BOOK I + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + + * * * * * + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + + + + +BOOK TWO + + +CHAPTER III + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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? + +"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?" + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +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." + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +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. + +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." + +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?" + +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?" + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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?" + +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?" + +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." + +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. + +"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." + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + + * * * * * + +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." + +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?" + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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? + +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. + +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." + +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." + + + + +BOOK THREE + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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." + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +"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?" + +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." + +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." + +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." + + * * * * * + +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." + +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?" + +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." + +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." + +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?" + +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?" + +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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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." + + + + +BOOK FOUR + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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?" + + * * * * * + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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?" + +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." + +Clara put out her hand and laid it on Hugh's arm. "Well," she said, +hesitatingly, "you wait here a moment." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +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?" + +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!" + +"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." + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + + "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." + +sang the farm hand. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +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." + +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. + +Tom drove to the McCoy house and stopped. + +"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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +And yet she had consented to become his wife, had stood with him before +a man who had said words about honor and obedience. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The day grew warm and the sky, seen through the shop window by the bench +where Hugh tried to work, was overcast with clouds. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.... + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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! + +"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." + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +Then a new and puzzling situation arose. When he stepped over the +threshold and into the house he knew Clara was there. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +BOOK SIX + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +When words came they did not break the silence. The wall remained. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + + * * * * * + +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." + +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." + +Jim pounded on his chest and glared about him. + +"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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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? + +"For why? Because Ed Hall is like me, that's for why. He's got +character, that's what he's got." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +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?" + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What's up?" he asked sharply. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +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. + +Nothing happened. A conscientious determination not to infringe on the +work of the Iowa man stood in his way. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + + + + + + +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.txt or 7414.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/1/7414/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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