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diff --git a/28650.txt b/28650.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7b5faf --- /dev/null +++ b/28650.txt @@ -0,0 +1,723 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Year of the Big Thaw, by Marion Zimmer Bradley + +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: Year of the Big Thaw + +Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28650] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YEAR OF THE BIG THAW *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _In this warm and fanciful story of a Connecticut farmer, Marion + Zimmer Bradley has caught some of the glory that is man's love for + man--no matter who he is nor whence he's from. By heck, you'll like + little Matt._ + + + year + of + the + big + thaw + + _by ... Marion Zimmer Bradley_ + + + Mr. Emmett did his duty by the visitor from + another world--never doubting the right of it. + + +_You say that Matthew is your own son, Mr. Emmett?_ + +Yes, Rev'rend Doane, and a better boy never stepped, if I do say it as +shouldn't. I've trusted him to drive team for me since he was eleven, +and you can't say more than that for a farm boy. Way back when he was a +little shaver so high, when the war came on, he was bounden he was going +to sail with this Admiral Farragut. You know boys that age--like runaway +colts. I couldn't see no good in his being cabin boy on some tarnation +Navy ship and I told him so. If he'd wanted to sail out on a whaling +ship, I 'low I'd have let him go. But Marthy--that's the boy's Ma--took +on so that Matt stayed home. Yes, he's a good boy and a good son. + +We'll miss him a powerful lot if he gets this scholarship thing. But I +'low it'll be good for the boy to get some learnin' besides what he gets +in the school here. It's right kind of you, Rev'rend, to look over this +application thing for me. + +_Well, if he is your own son, Mr. Emmett, why did you write 'birthplace +unknown' on the line here?_ + +Rev'rend Doane, I'm glad you asked me that question. I've been turnin' +it over in my mind and I've jest about come to the conclusion it +wouldn't be nohow fair to hold it back. I didn't lie when I said Matt +was my son, because he's been a good son to me and Marthy. But I'm not +his Pa and Marthy ain't his Ma, so could be I stretched the truth jest a +mite. Rev'rend Doane, it's a tarnal funny yarn but I'll walk into the +meetin' house and swear to it on a stack o'Bibles as thick as a cord of +wood. + +You know I've been farming the old Corning place these past seven year? +It's good flat Connecticut bottom-land, but it isn't like our land up in +Hampshire where I was born and raised. My Pa called it the Hampshire +Grants and all that was King's land when _his_ Pa came in there and +started farming at the foot of Scuttock Mountain. That's Injun for +fires, folks say, because the Injuns used to build fires up there in the +spring for some of their heathen doodads. Anyhow, up there in the +mountains we see a tarnal power of quare things. + +You call to mind the year we had the big thaw, about twelve years before +the war? You mind the blizzard that year? I heard tell it spread down +most to York. And at Fort Orange, the place they call Albany now, the +Hudson froze right over, so they say. But those York folks do a sight of +exaggerating, I'm told. + +Anyhow, when the ice went out there was an almighty good thaw all over, +and when the snow run off Scuttock mountain there was a good-sized hunk +of farmland in our valley went under water. The crick on my farm flowed +over the bank and there was a foot of water in the cowshed, and down in +the swimmin' hole in the back pasture wasn't nothing but a big gully +fifty foot and more across, rushing through the pasture, deep as a lake +and brown as the old cow. You know freshet-floods? Full up with sticks +and stones and old dead trees and somebody's old shed floatin' down the +middle. And I swear to goodness, Parson, that stream was running along +so fast I saw four-inch cobblestones floating and bumping along. + +I tied the cow and the calf and Kate--she was our white mare; you mind +she went lame last year and I had to shoot her, but she was just a young +mare then and skittish as all get-out--but she was a good little mare. + +Anyhow, I tied the whole kit and caboodle of them in the woodshed up +behind the house, where they'd be dry, then I started to get the +milkpail. Right then I heard the gosh-awfullest screech I ever heard in +my life. Sounded like thunder and a freshet and a forest-fire all at +once. I dropped the milkpail as I heard Marthy scream inside the house, +and I run outside. Marthy was already there in the yard and she points +up in the sky and yelled, "Look up yander!" + +We stood looking up at the sky over Shattuck mountain where there was a +great big--shoot now, I d'no as I can call its name but it was like a +trail of fire in the sky, and it was makin' the dangdest racket you ever +heard, Rev'rend. Looked kind of like one of them Fourth-of-July +skyrockets, but it was big as a house. Marthy was screaming and she +grabbed me and hollered, "Hez! Hez, what in tunket is it?" And when +Marthy cusses like that, Rev'rend, she don't know what she's saying, +she's so scared. + +I was plumb scared myself. I heard Liza--that's our young-un, Liza +Grace, that got married to the Taylor boy. I heard her crying on the +stoop, and she came flying out with her pinny all black and hollered to +Marthy that the pea soup was burning. Marthy let out another screech and +ran for the house. That's a woman for you. So I quietened Liza down some +and I went in and told Marthy it weren't no more than one of them +shooting stars. Then I went and did the milking. + +But you know, while we were sitting down to supper there came the most +awful grinding, screeching, pounding crash I ever heard. Sounded if it +were in the back pasture but the house shook as if somethin' had hit it. + +Marthy jumped a mile and I never saw such a look on her face. + +"Hez, what was that?" she asked. + +"Shoot, now, nothing but the freshet," I told her. + +But she kept on about it. "You reckon that shooting star fell in our +back pasture, Hez?" + +"Well, now, I don't 'low it did nothing like that," I told her. But she +was jittery as an old hen and it weren't like her nohow. She said it +sounded like trouble and I finally quietened her down by saying I'd +saddle Kate up and go have a look. I kind of thought, though I didn't +tell Marthy, that somebody's house had floated away in the freshet and +run aground in our back pasture. + +So I saddled up Kate and told Marthy to get some hot rum ready in case +there was some poor soul run aground back there. And I rode Kate back to +the back pasture. + +It was mostly uphill because the top of the pasture is on high ground, +and it sloped down to the crick on the other side of the rise. + +Well, I reached the top of the hill and looked down. The crick were a +regular river now, rushing along like Niagary. On the other side of it +was a stand of timber, then the slope of Shattuck mountain. And I saw +right away the long streak where all the timber had been cut out in a +big scoop with roots standing up in the air and a big slide of rocks +down to the water. + +It was still raining a mite and the ground was sloshy and squanchy +under foot. Kate scrunched her hooves and got real balky, not likin' it +a bit. When we got to the top of the pasture she started to whine and +whicker and stamp, and no matter how loud I whoa-ed she kept on +a-stamping and I was plumb scared she'd pitch me off in the mud. Then I +started to smell a funny smell, like somethin' burning. Now, don't ask +me how anything could burn in all that water, because I don't know. + +When we came up on the rise I saw the contraption. + +Rev'rend, it was the most tarnal crazy contraption I ever saw in my +life. It was bigger nor my cowshed and it was long and thin and as shiny +as Marthy's old pewter pitcher her Ma brought from England. It had a +pair of red rods sticking out behind and a crazy globe fitted up where +the top ought to be. It was stuck in the mud, turned halfway over on the +little slide of roots and rocks, and I could see what had happened, all +right. + +The thing must have been--now, Rev'rend, you can say what you like but +that thing must have _flew_ across Shattuck and landed on the slope in +the trees, then turned over and slid down the hill. That must have been +the crash we heard. The rods weren't just red, they were _red-hot_. I +could hear them sizzle as the rain hit 'em. + +In the middle of the infernal contraption there was a door, and it hung +all to-other as if every hinge on it had been wrenched halfway off. As I +pushed old Kate alongside it I heared somebody hollering alongside the +contraption. I didn't nohow get the words but it must have been for +help, because I looked down and there was a man a-flopping along in the +water. + +He was a big fellow and he wasn't swimming, just thrashin' and +hollering. So I pulled off my coat and boots and hove in after him. The +stream was running fast but he was near the edge and I managed to catch +on to an old tree-root and hang on, keeping his head out of the water +till I got my feet aground. Then I hauled him onto the bank. Up above me +Kate was still whinnying and raising Ned and I shouted at her as I bent +over the man. + +Wal, Rev'rend, he sure did give me a surprise--weren't no proper man I'd +ever seed before. He was wearing some kind of red clothes, real shiny +and sort of stretchy and not wet from the water, like you'd expect, but +dry and it felt like that silk and India-rubber stuff mixed together. +And it was such a bright red that at first I didn't see the blood on it. +When I did I knew he were a goner. His chest were all stove in, smashed +to pieces. One of the old tree-roots must have jabbed him as the current +flung him down. I thought he were dead already, but then he opened up +his eyes. + +A funny color they were, greeny yellow. And I swear, Rev'rend, when he +opened them eyes I _felt_ he was readin' my mind. I thought maybe he +might be one of them circus fellers in their flying contraptions that +hang at the bottom of a balloon. + +He spoke to me in English, kind of choky and stiff, not like Joe the +Portygee sailor or like those tarnal dumb Frenchies up Canady way, +but--well, funny. He said, "My baby--in ship. Get--baby ..." He tried to +say more but his eyes went shut and he moaned hard. + +I yelped, "Godamighty!" 'Scuse me, Rev'rend, but I was so blame upset +that's just what I did say, "Godamighty, man, you mean there's a baby in +that there dingfol contraption?" He just moaned so after spreadin' my +coat around the man a little bit I just plunged in that there river +again. + +Rev'rend, I heard tell once about some tomfool idiot going over Niagary +in a barrel, and I tell you it was like that when I tried crossin' that +freshet to reach the contraption. + +I went under and down, and was whacked by floating sticks and whirled +around in the freshet. But somehow, I d'no how except by the pure grace +of God, I got across that raging torrent and clumb up to where the crazy +dingfol machine was sitting. + +Ship, he'd called it. But that were no ship, Rev'rend, it was some +flying dragon kind of thing. It was a real scarey lookin' thing but I +clumb up to the little door and hauled myself inside it. And, sure +enough, there was other people in the cabin, only they was all dead. + +There was a lady and a man and some kind of an animal looked like a +bobcat only smaller, with a funny-shaped rooster-comb thing on its head. +They all--even the cat-thing--was wearing those shiny, stretchy clo'es. +And they all was so battered and smashed I didn't even bother to hunt +for their heartbeats. I could see by a look they was dead as a doornail. + +Then I heard a funny little whimper, like a kitten, and in a funny, +rubber-cushioned thing there's a little boy baby, looked about six +months old. He was howling lusty enough, and when I lifted him out of +the cradle kind of thing, I saw why. That boy baby, he was wet, and his +little arm was twisted under him. That there flying contraption must +have smashed down awful hard, but that rubber hammock was so soft and +cushiony all it did to him was jolt him good. + +I looked around but I couldn't find anything to wrap him in. And the +baby didn't have a stitch on him except a sort of spongy paper diaper, +wet as sin. So I finally lifted up the lady, who had a long cape thing +around her, and I took the cape off her real gentle. I knew she was dead +and she wouldn't be needin' it, and that boy baby would catch his death +if I took him out bare-naked like that. She was probably the baby's Ma; +a right pretty woman she was but smashed up something shameful. + +So anyhow, to make a long story short, I got that baby boy back across +that Niagary falls somehow, and laid him down by his Pa. The man opened +his eyes kind, and said in a choky voice, "Take care--baby." + +I told him I would, and said I'd try to get him up to the house where +Marthy could doctor him. The man told me not to bother. "I dying," he +says. "We come from planet--star up there--crash here--" His voice +trailed off into a language I couldn't understand, and he looked like he +was praying. + +I bent over him and held his head on my knees real easy, and I said, +"Don't worry, mister, I'll take care of your little fellow until your +folks come after him. Before God I will." + +So the man closed his eyes and I said, _Our Father which art in Heaven_, +and when I got through he was dead. + +I got him up on Kate, but he was cruel heavy for all he was such a tall +skinny fellow. Then I wrapped that there baby up in the cape thing and +took him home and give him to Marthy. And the next day I buried the +fellow in the south medder and next meetin' day we had the baby baptized +Matthew Daniel Emmett, and brung him up just like our own kids. That's +all. + +_All? Mr. Emmett, didn't you ever find out where that ship really came +from?_ + +Why, Rev'rend, he said it come from a star. Dying men don't lie, you +know that. I asked the Teacher about them planets he mentioned and she +says that on one of the planets--can't rightly remember the name, March +or Mark or something like that--she says some big scientist feller with +a telescope saw canals on that planet, and they'd hev to be pretty near +as big as this-here Erie canal to see them so far off. And if they could +build canals on that planet I d'no why they couldn't build a flying +machine. + +I went back the next day when the water was down a little, to see if I +couldn't get the rest of them folks and bury them, but the flying +machine had broke up and washed down the crick. + +Marthy's still got the cape thing. She's a powerful saving woman. We +never did tell Matt, though. Might make him feel funny to think he +didn't really b'long to us. + +_But--but--Mr. Emmett, didn't anybody ask questions about the +baby--where you got it?_ + +Well, now, I'll 'low they was curious, because Marthy hadn't been in +the family way and they knew it. But up here folks minds their own +business pretty well, and I jest let them wonder. I told Liza Grace I'd +found her new little brother in the back pasture, and o'course it was +the truth. When Liza Grace growed up she thought it was jest one of +those yarns old folks tell the little shavers. + +_And has Matthew ever shown any differences from the other children that +you could see?_ + +Well, Rev'rend, not so's you could notice it. He's powerful smart, but +his real Pa and Ma must have been right smart too to build a flying +contraption that could come so far. + +O'course, when he were about twelve years old he started reading folks' +minds, which didn't seem exactly right. He'd tell Marthy what I was +thinkin' and things like that. He was just at the pesky age. Liza Grace +and Minnie were both a-courtin' then, and he'd drive their boy friends +crazy telling them what Liza Grace and Minnie were a-thinking and tease +the gals by telling them what the boys were thinking about. + +There weren't no harm in the boy, though, it was all teasing. But it +just weren't decent, somehow. So I tuk him out behind the woodshed and +give his britches a good dusting just to remind him that that kind of +thing weren't polite nohow. And Rev'rend Doane, he ain't never done it +sence. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ May 1954. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Year of the Big Thaw, by Marion Zimmer Bradley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YEAR OF THE BIG THAW *** + +***** This file should be named 28650.txt or 28650.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28650/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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