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diff --git a/44222-0.txt b/44222-0.txt index ff9110c..c134235 100644 --- a/44222-0.txt +++ b/44222-0.txt @@ -1,34 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Times And These, by Irvin S. Cobb - -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: Those Times And These - -Author: Irvin S. Cobb - -Release Date: November 18, 2013 [EBook #44222] -Last Updated: March 11, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE TIMES AND THESE *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44222 *** THOSE TIMES AND THESE @@ -9000,358 +8970,4 @@ abandoned farm and moved into a flat on the upper west side. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Times And These, by Irvin S. 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Cobb </title> @@ -38,41 +39,7 @@ Those Times and These, by Irvin S. Cobb </style> </head> <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Times And These, by Irvin S. Cobb - -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: Those Times And These - -Author: Irvin S. Cobb - -Release Date: November 18, 2013 [EBook #44222] -Last Updated: March 11, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE TIMES AND THESE *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -</pre> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44222 ***</div> <div style="height: 8em;"> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> @@ -10417,378 +10384,6 @@ farm and moved into a flat on the upper west side. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </div> - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Times And These, by Irvin S. Cobb - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE TIMES AND THESE *** - -***** This file should be named 44222-h.htm or 44222-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/2/2/44222/ - -Produced by David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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-Those Times and These, by Irvin S. Cobb
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Times And These, by Irvin S. Cobb
-
-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: Those Times And These
-
-Author: Irvin S. Cobb
-
-Release Date: November 18, 2013 [EBook #44222]
-Last Updated: March 11, 2018
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE TIMES AND THESE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div style="height: 8em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h1>
-THOSE TIMES AND THESE
-</h1>
-<h2>
-By Irvin S. Cobb
-</h2>
-<p>
-<br />
-</p>
-<h5>
-New York George H. Doran Company
-</h5>
-<h4>
-1917
-</h4>
-<p>
-<br /> <br />
-</p>
-<h3>
-TO THE MEMORY OF
-</h3>
-<blockquote>
-<p>
-MANDY MARTIN, whose soul was as white as her skin was black, and who for
-forty-two years, until her death, was a loyal friend and servant of my
-people.
-</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>CONTENTS</b>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THOSE TIMES AND THESE</b> </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. EX-FIGHTIN' BILLY </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. AND THERE WAS LIGHT </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. MR. FELSBURG GETS EVEN </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. THE GARB OF MEN </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. THE CURE FOR LONESOMENESS </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. THE FAMILY TREE </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. HARK! FROM THE TOMBS </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. CINNAMON SEED AND SANDY BOTTOM </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. A KISS FOR KINDNESS </a>
-</p>
-<p class="toc">
-<a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. THE START OF A DREAM </a>
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h1>
-THOSE TIMES AND THESE
-</h1>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER I. EX-FIGHTIN' BILLY
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>O me and to those of my generation, Judge Priest was always Judge Priest.
-So he was also to most of the people of our town and our county and our
-judicial district. A few men of his own age—mainly men who had
-served with him in the Big War—called him Billy, right to his face,
-and yet a few others, men of greater age than these, spoke of him and to
-him as William, giving to the name that benignant and most paternal air
-which an octogenarian may employ in referring to one who is ten or fifteen
-years his junior.
-</p>
-<p>
-I was a fairly sizable young person before ever I found out that once upon
-a time among his intimates the Judge had worn yet another title.
-Information upon this subject was imparted to me one summery afternoon by
-Sergeant Jimmy Bagby as we two perched in company upon the porch of the
-old boat-store.
-</p>
-<p>
-I don't know what mission brought Sergeant Bagby three blocks down
-Franklin Street from his retail grocery establishment, unless it was that
-sometimes the boat-store porch was cool while the rest of the town baked.
-That is to say, it was cool by comparison. Little wanton breezes that
-strayed across the river paid fluttering visits there before they struck
-inland to perish miserably of heat prostration.
-</p>
-<p>
-For the moment the Sergeant and I had the little wooden balcony to
-ourselves, nearly everybody else within sight and hearing having gone down
-the levee personally to enjoy the small excitement of seeing the
-stem-wheel packet <i>Emily Foster</i> land after successfully completing
-one of her regular triweekly round trips to Clarksburg and way landings.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the blast of the <i>Emily Foster's</i> whistles as she rounded to and
-put her nose upstream preparatory to sliding in alongside the wharf,
-divers coloured persons of the leisure class had roused from where they
-napped in the shady lee of freight piles and lined up on the outer
-gunwales of the wharf-boat ready to catch and make fast the head-line when
-it should be tossed across the intervening patch of water into their
-volunteer hands.
-</p>
-<p>
-Two town hacks and two town drays had coursed down the steep gravelled
-incline, with the draymen standing erect upon the jouncing springless beds
-of their drays as was their way. In the matter of maintaining a balance
-over rough going and around abrupt turns, no chariot racers of old could
-have taught them anything. Only Sergeant Bagby and I, of all in the
-immediate vicinity, had remained where we were. The Sergeant was not of
-what you could exactly call a restless nature, and I, for the moment, must
-have been overcome by one of those fits of languor which occasionally
-descend upon the adolescent manling. We two bided where we sat.
-</p>
-<p>
-With a tinkle of her engine bells, a calling out of orders and
-objurgations in the professionally hoarse, professionally profane voice of
-her head mate and a racking, asthmatic coughing and sighing and pounding
-from her exhaust pipes, the <i>Emily Foster</i> had found her berth; and
-now her late passengers came streaming up the slant of the hill—a
-lanky timberman or two, a commercial traveller—most patently a
-commercial traveller—a dressy person who looked as though he might
-be an advance agent for some amusement enterprise, and a family of movers,
-burdened with babies and bundles and accompanied by the inevitable hound
-dog. The commercial traveller and the suspected advance agent patronised
-the hacks—fare twenty-five cents anywhere inside the corporate
-limits—but the rest entered into the city afoot and sweating. At the
-very tail of the procession appeared our circuit judge, he being closely
-convoyed by his black house-boy, Jeff Poindexter, who packed the master's
-bulging and ancient valise with one hand and bore a small collection of
-law books under his other arm.
-</p>
-<p>
-Looking much like a high-land terrapin beneath the shelter of his
-venerable cotton umbrella, Judge Priest toiled up the hot slant. Observed
-from above, only his legs were visible for the moment. We knew him,
-though, by his legs—and also by Jeff and the umbrella. Alongside the
-eastern wall of the boat-store, nearmost of all buildings to the
-water-front, he halted in its welcome shadows to blow and to mop his
-streaming face with a vast square of handkerchief, and, while so engaged,
-glanced upward and beheld his friend, the Sergeant, beaming down upon him
-across the whittled banister rail.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hello, Jimmy!” he called in his high whine.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hello, yourself!” answered the Sergeant. “Been somewheres or jest
-traveling round?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Been somewheres,” vouchsafed the newly returned; “been up at
-Livingstonport all week, settin' as special judge in place of Judge Given.
-He's laid up in bed with a tech of summer complaint and I went up to git
-his docket cleaned up fur him. He's better now, but still puny.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You got back ag'in in time to light right spang in the middle of a warm
-spell,” said Sergeant Bagby.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well,” stated Judge Priest, “it ain't been exactly whut you'd call chilly
-up the river, neither. The present thaw appears to be gineral throughout
-this section of the country.” He waved a plump arm in farewell and slowly
-departed from view beyond the side wail of the boat-store.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Looks like Judge Priest manages to take on a little more flesh every year
-he lives,” said the Sergeant, who was himself no lightweight, addressing
-the remark in my direction. “You wouldn't scursely think it to see him
-waddlin' 'long, a to tin' all that meat on his bones; but once't upon a
-time he was mighty near ez slim ez his own ramrod and was commonly known
-ez little Fightin' Billy. You wouldn't, now, would you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-The question I disregarded. It was the disclosure he had bared which
-appealed to my imagination and fired my curiosity. I said: “Mr. Bagby, I
-never knew anybody ever called Judge Priest that?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No, you natchelly wouldn't,” said the Sergeant—“not onless you'd
-mebbe overheared some of us old fellers talkin' amongst ourselves
-sometimes, with no outsiders present. It wouldn't hardly be proper,
-ever'thing considered, to be referrin' in public to the presidin' judge of
-the first judicial district of the State of Kintucky by sech a name ez
-that. Besides which, he ain't little any more. And then, there's still
-another reason.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How did they ever come to call him that in the first place?” I asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, young man, it makes quite a tale,” said the Sergeant. With an
-effort he hauled out his big silver watch, looked at its face, and then
-wedged it back into a hidden recess under one of the overlapping creases
-of his waistband.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He acquired that there title at Shiloh, in the State of Tennessee, and by
-his own request he parted from it some three years and four months later
-on the banks of the Rio Grande River, in the Republic of Mexico, I bein'
-present in pusson on both occasions. But ef you've got time to listen I
-reckin I've got jest about the time to tell it to you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir—if you please.” With eagerness, I hitched my cane-bottomed
-chair along the porch floor to be nearer him. And then as he seemed not to
-have heard my assent, I undertook to prompt him. “Er—what were you
-and Judge Priest doing down in Mexico, Mr. Bagby?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Tryin' to git out of the United States of America fur one thing.” A
-little grin, almost a shamefaced grin, I thought, broke his round moist
-face up into fat wrinkles. He puckered his eyes in thought, looking out
-across the languid tawny river toward the green towhead in midstream and
-the cottonwoods on the far bank, a mile and more away. “But I don't marvel
-much that you never heared the full circumstances before. Our bein' down
-in Mexico together that time is a fact we never advertised 'round for
-common consumption—neither one of us.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He withdrew his squinted gaze from the hot vista of shores and water and
-swung his body about to face me, thereafter punctuating his narrative with
-a blunted forefinger.
-</p>
-<p>
-“My command was King's Hell Hounds. There ought to be a book written some
-of these days about whut all King's Hell Hounds done en-durin' of the
-unpleasantness—it'd make mighty excitin' readin'. But Billy and a
-right smart chance of the other boys frum this place, they served
-throughout with Company B of the Old Regiment of mounted infantry. Most of
-the time frum sixty-one to sixty-five I wasn't throwed with 'em, but jest
-before the end came we were all consolidated—whut there was
-remainin' of us—under General Nathan Bedford Forrest down in
-Mississippi. Fur weeks and months before that, we knowed it was a hopeless
-fight we were wagin', but somehow we jest kept on. I reckin we'd sort of
-got into the fightin' habit. Fellers do, you know, sometimes, when the
-circumstances are favourable, ez in this case.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, here one mornin' in April, came the word frum Virginia that
-Richmond had fallen, and right on top of that, that Marse Robert had had
-to surrender. They said, too, that Sherman had Johnston penned off
-somewheres down in the Carolinas, we didn't know exactly where, and that
-Johnston would have to give up before many days passed. In fact, he had
-already give up a week before we finally heared about it. So then
-accordin' to our best information and belief, that made us the last body
-of organised Confederates on the east bank of the Mississippi River.
-That's a thing I was always mighty proud of. I'm proud of it yit.
-</p>
-<p>
-“All through them last few weeks the army was dwindlin' away and dwindlin'
-away. Every momin' at roll-call there'd be a few more absentees. Don't git
-me <i>wrong</i>—I wouldn't call them boys deserters. They'd stuck
-that long, doin' their duty like men, but they knowed good and well—in
-fact we all knowed—'twas only a question of time till even Forrest
-would have to quit before overpowerin' odds and we'd be called on to lay
-down the arms we'd toted fur so long. Their families needed 'em, so they
-jest quit without sayin' anything about it to anybody and went on back to
-their homes. This was specially true of some that lived in that district.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But with the boys frum up this way it was different. In a way of
-speakin', we didn't have no homes to go back to. Our State had been in
-Northern hands almost frum the beginnin' and some of us had prices on our
-heads right that very minute on account of bein' branded ez guerrillas.
-Which was a lie. But folks didn't always stop to sift out the truth then.
-They were prone to shoot you first and go into the merits of the case
-afterward. Anyway, betwixt us and home there was a toler'ble thick hedge
-of Yankee soldiers—in fact several thick hedges. You know they
-called one of our brigades the Orphan Brigade. And there were good reasons
-fur callin' it so—more ways than one.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I ain't never goin' to furgit the night of the fifth of May. Somehow the
-tidin's got round amongst the boys that the next mornin' the order to
-surrender was goin' to be issued. The Yankee cavalry general, Wilson—and
-he was a good peart fighter, too—had us completely blocked off to
-the North and the East, but the road to the Southwest was still open ef
-anybody cared to foller it. So that night some of us held a little kind of
-a meetin'—about sixty of us—mainly Kintuckians, but with a
-sprinklin' frum other States, too.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ez I remember, there wasn't a contrary voice raised when 'twas suggested
-we should try to make it acrost the big river and j'ine in under Kirby
-Smith, who still had whut was left of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Billy Priest made the principal speech. 'Boys,' he says, 'South Carolina
-may a-started this here war, but Kintucky has undertook the contract to
-close it out. Somewheres out yonder in Texas they tell me there's yit a
-consid'ble stretch of unconquered Confederate territory. Speakin' fur
-myself I don't believe I'm ever goin' to be able to live comfortable an'
-reconciled under any other flag than the flag we've fit to uphold. Let's
-us-all go see ef we can't find the place where our flag still floats.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“So we all said we'd go. Then the question ariz of namin' a leader. There
-was one man that had been a captain and a couple more that had been
-lieutenants, but, practically unanimously, we elected little Billy Priest.
-Even ef he was only jest a private in the ranks we all knowed it wasn't
-fur lack of chances to go higher. After Shiloh, he'd refused a commission
-and ag'in after Hartsville. So, in lessen no time a-tall, that was
-settled, too.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Bright and early next day we started, takin' our guns and our hosses with
-us. They were our hosses anyway; mainly we'd borrowed 'em off Yankees, or
-anyways, off Yankee sympathisers on our last raid Northward and so that
-made 'em our pussonal property, the way we figgered it out. 'Tennyrate we
-didn't stop to argue the matter with nobody whutsoever. We jest packed up
-and we put out—and we had almighty little to pack up, lemme tell
-you.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ez we rid off we sung a song that was be-ginnin' to be right fashionable
-that spring purty near every place below Mason and Dixon's line; and all
-over the camp the rest of the boys took it up and made them old woodlands
-jest ring with it. It was a kind of a farewell to us. The fust verse was
-likewise the chorus and it run something like this:
-</p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-Oh, I'm a good old rebel, that's jest whut I am;
-And fur this land of freedom I do not give a dam',
-I'm glad I fit ag'in her, I only wish't we'd won,
-And I don't ax your pardon fur anything I've done.
-</pre>
-<p>
-“And so on and so forth. There were several more verses all expressin'
-much the same trend of thought, and all entirely in accordance with our
-own feelin's fur the time bein'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, boy, I reckin there ain't no use wastin' time describin' the early
-stages of that there pilgrimage. We went ridin' along livin' on the land
-and doin' the best we could. We were young fellers, all of us, and it was
-springtime in Dixie—you know whut that means—and in spite of
-everything, some of the springtime got into our hearts, too, and drove
-part of the bitterness out. The country was all scarified with the tracks
-of war, but nature was doin' her level best to cover up the traces of whut
-man had done. People along our route had mighty slim pickin's fur
-themselves, but the sight of an old grey jacket was still mighty dear to
-most of 'em and they divided whut little they had with us and wish't they
-had more to give us. We didn't need much at that—a few meals of
-vittles fur the men and a little fodder fur our hosses and we'd be
-satisfied. We'd reduced slow starvation to an exact 'science long before
-that. Every man in the outfit was hard ez nails and slim ez a blue racer.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Whut Northern forces there was East of the river we dodged. In fact we
-didn't have occasion to pull our shootin'-irons but once't, and that was
-after we'd cros't over into Louisiana. There wasn't any organised military
-force to regulate things and in the back districts civil government had
-mighty near vanished altogether. People had went back to fust principles—wild,
-reckless fust principles they were, too. One day an old woman warned us
-there was a gang of bushwhackers operatin' down the road a piece in the
-direction we were headin'—a mixed crowd of deserters frum both
-sides, she said, who'd jined in with some of the local bad characters and
-were preyin' on the country, hariyin' the defenceless, and terrorism'
-women and children and raisin' hob ginerally. She advised us that we'd
-better give 'em a wide berth.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But Billy Priest he throwed out scouts and located the gang, and jest
-before sunrise next mornin' we dropped in on 'em, takin' 'em by surprise
-in the camp they'd rigged up in a live-oak thicket in the midst of a
-stretch of cypress slashes.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And when the excitement died down ag'in, quite a number of them
-bushwhackers had quit whackin' permanently and the rest of 'em were
-tearin' off through the wet woods wonderin', between jumps, whut had hit
-'em. Ez fur our command, we accumulated a considerable passel of plunder
-and supplies and a number of purty fair hosses, and went on our way
-rejoicin'. We hadn't lost a man, and only one man wounded.
-</p>
-<p>
-“When we hit the Texas border, news was waitin' fur us. They told us ef we
-aimed to ketch up with the last remainders of the army we'd have to hurry,
-because Smith and Shelby, with whut was left of his Missoury outfit, and
-Sterlin' Price and Hindman with some of his Arkansaw boys and a right
-smart sprinklin' of Texans had already pulled up stakes and were headed
-fur old Mexico, where the natives were in the enjoyable midst of one of
-their regular revolutions.
-</p>
-<p>
-“With the French crowd and part of the Mexicans to help him, the Emperor
-Maximilian was tryin' to hang onto his onsteady and topplin' throne,
-whilst the Republikins or Liberals, as they called themselves, were tryin'
-with might and main to shove him off of it. Ef a feller jest natchelly
-honed fur an opportunity to indulge a fancy fur active hostilities, Mexico
-seemed to offer a very promisin' field of endeavour.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It didn't take us long to make up our minds whut course we'd follow.
-Billy Priest put the motion. 'Gentlemen,' he says, 'it would seem the
-Southern Confederacy is bent and determined on gittin' clear out frum
-under the shad-der of the Yankee government. It has been moved and
-seconded that we foller after her no matter where she goes. All in favour
-of that motion will respond by sayin' Aye—contrary-wise, No. The
-Ayes seem to have it and the Ayes do have it and it is so ordered,
-unanimously. By fours! Forward, march!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“That happened in the town of Corsicana in the early summer-time of the
-year. So we went along acrost the old Lone Star State, headin' mighty nigh
-due West, passin' through Waco and Austin and San Antonio, and bein'
-treated mighty kindly by the people wheresoever we passed. And ez we went,
-one of the boys that had poetic leanin's, he made up a new verse to our
-song. Let's see, son, ef I kin remember it now after all these years.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The Sergeant thought a bit and then lifting his voice in a quavery cadence
-favoured me with the following gem:
-</p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-I won't be reconstructed; I'm better now than them;
-And fur a carpet-bagger I don't give a dam;
-So I'm off fur the frontier, fast ez I kin go,
-I'll purpare me a weepon and head fur Mexico.
-</pre>
-<p>
-“It was the middle of July and warm enough to satisfy the demands of the
-most exactin' when we reached the Rio Grande, to find out Shelby's force
-had done crossed over after buryin' their battle-flag in the middle of the
-river, wrapped up in a rock to hold it down. On one side was cactus and
-greasewood and a waste of sandy land, that was already back in the Union
-or mighty soon would be. On the other side was more cactus and more
-grease-wood and more sandy loam, but in a different country. So, after
-spendin' a few pleasant hours at the town of Eagle Pass, we turn't our
-backs to one country and cros't over to the other, alookin' fur the
-Confederacy wherever she might be. I figgered it out I was tellin' the
-United States of America good-by furever. I seem to remember that quite a
-number of us kept peerin' back over our shoulders toward the Texas shore.
-They tell me the feller that wrote 'Home Sweet Home' didn't have any home
-to go to but he writ the song jest the same. Nobody didn't say nothin',
-though, about weakenin' or turnin' back.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Very soon after we hit Mexican soil we run into one of the armies—a
-Liberal army, this one was, of about twelve hundred men, and its name
-suited it to a T. The officers were liberal about givin' orders and the
-men were equally liberal about makin' up their minds whether or not they'd
-obey. Also, ez we very quickly discovered, the entire kit and caboodle of
-'em were very liberal with reguards to other folks' property and other
-folks' lives. We'd acquired a few careless ideas of our own concernin' the
-acquirin' of contraband plunder durin' the years immediately precedin',
-but some of the things we seen almost ez soon ez we'd been welcomed into
-the hospitable but smelly midst of that there Liberal army, proved to us
-that alongside these fellers we were merely whut you might call amatoors
-in the confiscatin' line.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I wish't I had the words to describe the outfit so ez you could see it
-the way I kin see it this minute. This purticular army was made up of
-about twelve hundred head, includin' common soldiers. I never saw generals
-runnin' so many to the acre before in my life. The Confederacy hadn't been
-exactly destitute in that respect but—shuckins!—down here you
-bumped into a brigadier every ten feet. There was a considerable
-sprinklin' of colonels and majors and sech, too; and here and there a
-lonesome private. Ef you seen a dark brown scarycrow wearin' fur a uniform
-about enough rags to pad a crutch with, with a big sorry straw hat on his
-head and his feet tied up in bull hides with his bare toes peepin' coyly
-out, and ef he was totin' a flint lock rifle, the chances were he'd be a
-common soldier. But ef in addition to the rest of his regalia he had a
-pair of epaulettes sewed onto his shoulders you mout safely assume you
-were in the presence of a general or something of that nature. I ain't
-exaggeratin'—much. I'm only tryin' to make you git the picture of it
-in your mind.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, they received us very kindly and furnished us with rations, sech ez
-they were—mostly peppers and beans and a kind of batter-cake that's
-much in favour in them parts, made out of corn pounded up fine and mixed
-with water and baked ag'inst a hot rock. Ef a man didn't keer fur the
-peppers, he could fall back on the beans, thus insurin' him a change of
-diet, and the corn batter-cakes were certainly right good-tastin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Some few of our dark-complected friends kin make a stagger at speakin'
-English, so frum one of 'em Billy inquires where is the Confederacy? They
-explains that it has moved on further South but tells us that first
-General Shelby sold 'em the artillery he'd fetched with him that fur to
-keep it frum failin' into the Yankees' hands. Sure enough there're the
-guns—four brass field-pieces. Two of 'em are twelve-pounders and the
-other two are four-teen-pounders. The Mexicans are very proud of their
-artillery and appear to set much store by it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, that evenin' their commandin' general comes over to where we've
-made camp, accompanied by his coffee-coloured staff, and through an
-interpreter he suggests the advisability of our j'inin' in with them, he
-promisin' good pay and offerin' to make us all high-up officers. He seems
-right anxious to have us enlist with his glorious forces right away. In a
-little while it leaks out why he's so generous with his promises and so
-wishful to see us enrolled beneath his noble banner. He's expectin' a call
-inside of the next forty-eight hours frum the Imperials that're reported
-to be movin' up frum the South, nearly two thousand strong, with the
-intention of givin' him battle.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Billy Priest, speakin' fur all of us, says he'll give him an answer
-later. So the commandin' general conceals his disappointment the best he
-kin and retires on back to his own headquarters, leavin' us to discuss the
-proposition amongst ourselves. Some of the boys favour thro win' in with
-the Liberals right away, bein' hongry fur a fight, I reckin, or else sort
-of dazzled by the idea of becomin' colonels and majors overnight. But
-Billy suggests that mebbe we'd better jest sort of hang 'round and observe
-the conduct and deportment of these here possible feller warriors of our'n
-whilst they're under hostile fire. 'Speakin' pusson-ally,' he says, 'I
-must admit I ain't greatly attracted to them ez they present themselves to
-the purview of my gaze in their ca'mmer hours. Before committin'
-ourselves, s'posen we stand by and take a few notes on how they behave
-themselves in the presence of an enemy. Then, there'll be abundant time to
-decide whether we want to stay a while with these fellers or go long about
-our business of lookin' fur the Southern Confederacy.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“That sounded like good argument, so we let Billy have his way about it,
-and we settled down to wait. We didn't have long to wait. The next day
-about dinner-time, here come the Imperial army, advancin' in line of
-battle. The Liberals moved out acrost the desert to meet 'em and we-all
-mounted and taken up a position on a little rise close at hand, to observe
-the pur-ceedin's.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Havin' had consider'ble experience in sech affairs, I must say I don't
-believe I ever witnessed such a dissa'pintin' battle ez that one turn't
-out to be. The prevailin' notion on both sides seemed to be that the
-opposin' forces should march bravely toward one another ontil they got
-almost within long range and then fur both gangs to halt ez though by
-simultaneous impulse, and fire at will, with nearly everybody shootin'
-high and wide and furious. When this had continued till it become mutually
-bore-some, one side would charge with loud cheers, ashootin' ez it
-advanced, but prudently slowin' down and finally haltin' before it got
-close enough to inflict much damage upon the foe or to suffer much damage
-either. Havin' accomplished this, the advancin' forces would fall back in
-good order and then it was time fur the other side to charge. I must say
-this in justice to all concerned—there was a general inclination to
-obey the rules ez laid down fur the prosecution of tie kind of warfare
-they waged. Ez a usual thing, I s'pose it would be customary fur the
-battle to continue ez described until the shades of night descended and
-then each army would return to its own base, claimin' the victory. But on
-this occasion something in the nature of a surprise occurred that wasn't
-down on the books a-tall.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Right down under the little rise where us fellers sat waitin', stood them
-four guns that the Liberals bought off of Shelby. Ef brass cannons have
-feelin's—and I don't know no reason why they shouldn't have—them
-cannons must have felt like something was radically wrong. The crews were
-loadin' and firin' and swabbin' and loadin' and firin' ag'in—all
-jest ez busy ez beavers. But they plum overlooked one triflin' detail
-which the military experts have always reguarded ez bein' more or less
-essential to successful artillery operations. They forgot to aim in the
-general direction at the enemy. They done a plentiful lot of cheerin',
-them gun crews did, and they burnt up a heap of powder and they raised a
-powerful racket and hullabaloo, but so fur ez visible results went they
-mout jest ez well have been bombardin' the clear blue sky of heaven.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, fur quite a spell we stayed up there on the brow of the hill,
-watchin' that there engagement. Only you couldn't properly call it an
-engagement—by rights it wasn't nothin' but a long distance
-flirtation. Now several of our boys had served one time or another with
-the guns. There was one little feller named Vince Hawley, out of Lyon's
-Battery, that had been one of the crack gunners of the Western Army. He
-held in ez long ez he could and then he sings out:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Boys, do you know whut's ailin' them pore mistreated little field-pieces
-down yonder? Well, I'll tell you. They're Confederate guns, born, bred,
-and baptised; and they're cravin' fur Confederate hands to pet 'em. It
-mout be this'll be the last chance a Southern soldier will ever git to
-fire a Southern gun. Who'll go 'long with me fur one farewell sashay with
-our own cannons?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“In another minute eight or ten of our command were pilin' off their
-horses and tearin' down that little hill behind Vince Hawley and bustin'
-in amongst the Mexies and laying violent but affectionate hands on one of
-the twelve-pounders. Right off, the natives perceived whut our fellers
-wanted to do and they fell back and gave 'em elbow-room. Honest, son, it
-seemed like that field-piece recognised her own kind of folks, even 'way
-off there on the aidge of a Mexican desert, and strove to respond to their
-wishes. The boys throwed a charge into her and Hawley sighted her and then—kerboom—off
-she went!
-</p>
-<p>
-“Off the Imperial forces went, too. The charge landed right in amongst
-their front ranks ez they were advancin'—it happened to be their
-turn to charge—takin' 'em absolutely by surprise. There was a
-profound scatteration and then spontaneous-like the enemy seemed to come
-to a realisation of the fact that the other side had broke all the rules
-and was actually tryin' to do 'em a real damage. With one accord they
-turned tail and started in the general direction of the Isthmus of Panama.
-Ef they kept up the rate of travel at which they started, they arrived
-there inside of a week, too—or mebbe even sooner. I s'pose it
-depended largely on whether their feet held out.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hawley and his gang run the gun forward to the crest of a little swale
-ready to give the retreatin' forces another treatment in case they should
-rally and re-form, but a second dose wasn't needed. Howsomever, before the
-squad came back, they scouted acrost the field to see whut execution their
-lone charge had done. Near to where the shell had busted they gathered up
-six skeered soldiers—fellers that had dropped down, skeered but
-unhurt, when the smash come and had been layin' there in a hollow in the
-ground, fearin' the worst and hopin' fur the best. So they brung 'em back
-in with 'em and turned 'em over to the Liberals ez prisoners of war.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The rest of us were canterin' down on the flat by now. We arrived in time
-to observe that some of the victorious Liberals were engaged in lashin'
-the prisoners' elbows together with ropes, behind their backs, and that
-whut looked like a firin' squad was linin' up conveniently clos't by.
-Billy Priest went and located a feller that could interpret after a
-fashion and inquired whut was the idea. The interpreter feller explained
-that the idea was to line them six prisoners up and shoot 'em to death.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Boys,' says Billy, turnin' to us, 'I'm afeared we'll have to interfere
-with the contemplated festivalities. Our friends are too gently-inclined
-durin' the hostilities and too blame' bloodthirsty afterward to suit me.
-Let us bid an adieu to 'em and purceed upon our way. But first,' he says,
-'let us break into the picture long enough to save those six poor devils
-standin' over there in a row, all tied up like beef-critters fur the
-butcher.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“So we rid in betwixt the condemned and the firin' squad and by various
-devices such ez drawin' our carbines and our six-shooters, we made plain
-our purpose. At that a wave of disappointment run right through the whole
-army. You could see it travellin' frum face to face under the dirt that
-was on said faces. Even the prisoners seemed a trifle put-out and
-downcasted. Later we found out why. But nobody offered to raise a hand
-ag'inst us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'All right then,' says Billy Priest, 'so fur so good. And now I think
-we'd better be resumin' our journey, takin' our captives with us. I've got
-a presentiment,' he says, 'that they'd probably enjoy better health
-travellin' along with us than they would stayin' on with these here
-Liberals.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'How about them four field-pieces?' says one of the boys, speakin' up.
-'There's plenty of hosses to haul 'em. Hadn't we better take them along
-with us, too? They'll git awful lonesome bein' left in such scurvy company—poor
-little things!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'No,' says Billy, 'I reckin that wouldn't be right. The prisoners are
-our'n by right of capture, but the guns ain't. These fellers bought 'em
-off Shelby's brigade and they're entitled to keep 'em. But before we
-depart,' he says, 'it mout not be a bad idea to tinker with 'em a little
-with a view to sort of puttin' 'em out of commission fur the time bein'.
-Our late hosts mout take a notion to turn 'em on us, ez we are goin' away
-frum 'em and there's a bare chance,' he says, 'that they might hit some of
-us—by accident.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“So we tinkered with the guns and then we moved out in hollow formation
-with the six prisoners marchin' along in the middle and not a soul
-undertakin' to halt us ez we went. On the whole them Liberals seemed right
-pleased to get shet of us. But when we'd gone along fur a mile or so, one
-of the Mexicans flopped down on his knees and begin to jabber. And then
-the other five follered suit and jabbered with him. After 'while it dawned
-on us that they were beggin' us to kill 'em quick and not torture 'em,
-they thinkin' we'd only saved 'em frum bein' shot in order to do something
-much more painful to 'em at our leisure. So then four or five of the boys
-dropped down off their mounts and untied 'em and faced 'em about so the
-open country was in front of 'em and give 'em a friendly kick or two frum
-behind ez a notice to 'em to be on their way. They lit out into the scrub
-and were gone the same ez ef they'd been so many Molly Cottontails.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Fur upward of a week then, we moved along, headin' mighty nigh due South.
-Considerin' that the country was supposed to be in the midst of civil war
-we saw powerful few evidences of it ez we rode through. Life fur the
-humble Mexican appeared to be waggin' along about ez usual, but was
-nothin' to brag about, at that. We seen him ploughin' amongst the
-prevalent desolation with a forked piece of wood, one fork bein' hitched
-to a yoke of oxen and the other fork bein' shod with a little strip of
-rusty iron. We seen him languidly gatherin' his wheat, him goin' ahead and
-pullin' it up out of the ground, roots and all and pilin' it in puny
-heaps, and then the women cornin' along behind him and tyin' it in little
-bunches with strings. Another place we seen him and his women folks
-threshin' grain by beatin' it with sticks and dependin' on the wind to
-help 'em winnow the wheat from the chaff jest ez it is written 'twas done
-in the Bible days. We seen him in his hours of ease, fightin' his
-chicken-cock against some other feller's game-bird, and gamblin' and
-scratchin' his flea-bites and the more we seen of him the less we seemed
-to keer fur him. He mout of been all right in his way, but he wasn't our
-kind of folks; I reckin that was it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And he repaid the compliment by not appearin' to keer very deeply fur us
-strangers neither, but the women seemed to take to us, mightily. They'd
-come out to us frum their little dried mud cabins bringin' us beans and
-them flat batter-cakes of their'n and even sometimes milk and butter. Also
-they gave us roughage fur our hosses and wouldn't take pay fur none of it,
-indicatin' by signs that it was all a free gift. Whut between the grazin'
-they got and the dried fodder the women gave us, our hosses took on flesh
-and weren't sech ga'nted crowbaits ez they had been.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Seven days of traversin' that miser'ble land and then, son, we ran smack
-into the Imperial scouts and found we'd arrived within less 'en a day's
-march of the city of Monterey. Purty soon out come a detachment of cavalry
-to meet us and inquire into our business and a most Godforsaken lookin'
-bunch they were, but with 'em they had half a dozen Confederates—Missoury
-boys, all of 'em exceptin' one, him bein' frum Louisiana; and these here
-Missoury fellers told us some news. It seemed that after Shelby and Price
-and Hindman got to Monterey their little army had split in two, most of
-its members headin' off toward the City of Mexico with no purticular
-object in view so fur ez anybody knowed but jest filled with a restless
-cravin' to stay in the saddle and keep movin', and the rest strikin'
-Westward toward the Pacific Coast.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But about two hundred of 'em had stayed behind and enlisted at Monterey,
-havin' been given a bounty of six hundred dollars apiece and a promise of
-one hundred dollars a month in pay ef they'd fight fur Maximilian. The
-delegation that had rode out to meet us now were part and parcel of that
-two hundred. They seemed tickled to death to see us and they bragged about
-the money they were gittin', but ef you watched 'em kind of clos't you
-could tell, mighty easy, they weren't exactly overjoyed and carried away
-with enthusiasm over their present jobs. They told us in confidence that
-the French officers in their army were fine soldiers and done the best
-they could with the material they had, but that the rank and file were
-small potatoes and few in the hill. In fact, we gathered frum remarks let
-fall here and there that after servin' ez a Confederate fur a period of
-years and fightin' ag'inst husky fellers frum Indiana or Kansas or
-Michigan or somewheres up that way, bein' a soldier of fortune with the
-Imperials and fightin' ag'inst the Liberals was, comparatively speakin', a
-mighty tame pursuit—that you'd probably live longer so doin', but
-you wouldn't have anywheres near the excitement. On top of all that,
-though, they extended a cordial invitation to us to go on back to Monterey
-with 'em and enlist under the Maximilian government.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Some of our outfit seemed to sort of lean toward the proposition and some
-to sort of lean ag'inst it, without exactly statin' their reasons why and
-wherefore. But amongst us all there wasn't a man but whut relied mighty
-implicit on Billy Priest's judgment, and besides which, you've got to
-remember, son, that discipline had come to be a sort of an ingrained habit
-with us. We'd got used to lookin' to our leaders to show us the way and
-give us our orders and then we'd try to obey 'em, spite of hell and high
-water. That's the way it had been with us for four long years and that's
-the way it still was with us. So under the circumstances, with sentiment
-divided ez it was, we-all waited to see how Billy Priest felt, because ez
-I jest told you, we imposed a heap of confidence in his views on purty
-near any subject you mout mention. The final say-so bein' put up to him,
-he studied a little and then he said to the Missoury boys that hearin'
-frum them about the Confederacy havin' split up into pieces had injected a
-new and a different aspect into the case and in his belief it was a thing
-that needed thinkin' over and mebbe sleepin' on. Accordin'ly, ef it was
-all the same to them, he'd like to wait till next mornin' before comin' to
-a definite decision and he believed that in this his associates would
-concur with him. That was agreeable to the fellers that had brung us the
-invitation, or ef it wasn't they let on like it was anyhow, and so we left
-the matter standin' where it was without further argument on their part.
-</p>
-<p>
-“They told us good-by and expressed the hope that they'd see us next day
-in Monterey and then they rid on back to headquarters to report progress
-on the part of the committee on new members and to ask further time, I
-s'pose. Ez fur us, we went into camp right where we was.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Most of us suspicioned that after we'd fed the hosses and et our supper
-Billy would call a sort of caucus and git the sense of the meetin', but he
-didn't take no steps in that direction and of course nobody else felt
-qualified to do so. After a while the fires we'd lit to cook our victuals
-on begin to die down low and the boys started to turn in. There wasn't
-much talkin' or singin', or skylarkin' round, but a whole heap of thinkin'
-was goin' on—you could feel it in the air. I was layin' there on the
-ground under my old ragged blankets with my saddle fur a pillow and the
-sky fur my bed canopy, but I didn't drop right off like I usually done. I
-was busy ponderin' over in my mind quite a number of things. I remember
-how gash'ly and on-earthly them old cactus plants looked, loomin' up all
-'round me there in the darkness and how strange the stars looked,
-a-shinin' overhead. They didn't seem like the same stars we'd been used to
-sleepin' under before we come on down here into Mexico. Even the new moon
-had a different look, ez though it was another moon frum the one that had
-furnished light fur us to go possum-huntin' by when we were striplin' boys
-growin' up. This here one was a lonesome, strange, furreign-lookin' moon,
-ef you git my meanin'? Anyhow it seemed so to me.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Somebody spoke my name right alongside of me, and I tum't over and raised
-up my head and there was Billy Priest hunkered down. He had a little scrap
-of dried greasewood in his hand and he was scratchin' with it in the dirt
-in a kind of an absent-minded way.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'You ain't asleep yet, Jimmy?' he says to me.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'No,' I says, 'I've been layin'here, study-in'.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'That so?' he says. 'Whut about in particular?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Oh nothin' in particular,' I says, 'jest studyin'.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“He don't say anything more fur a minute; jest keepin' on makin' little
-marks in the dirt with the end of his stick. Then he says to me: “'Jimmy,'
-he says, 'I've been doin' right smart thinkin' myself.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Have you?' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Yes,' he says, 'I have. I've been thinkin' that whilst peppers make
-quite spicy eatin' and beans are claimed to be very nourishin' articles of
-food, still when taken to excess they're liable to pall on the palate,
-sooner or later.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'They certainly are,' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Let's see,' he says. 'This is the last week in July, ain't it? Back in
-God's country, the first of the home-grown watermelons oughter be comin'
-in about now, oughten they? And in about another week from now they'll be
-pickin' those great big stripedy rattlesnake melons that grow in the river
-bottoms down below town, won't they?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Yes,' I says, 'they will, ef the season ain't been rainy and set 'em
-back.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Let us hope it ain't,' he says, and I could hear his stick scratchin' in
-the grit of that desert land, makin' a scrabblin' itchy kind of sound.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Jimmy Bagby,' he says, 'any man's liable to make a mistake sometimes,
-but that don't necessarily stamp him ez a fool onlessen he sticks to it
-too long after he's found out it is a mistake.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Billy,' I says, 'I can't take issue with you there.'”
- </p>
-<p>
-“'F'r instance now,' he says, 'you take a remark which I let fall some
-weeks back touch-in' on flags. Well I've been thinkin' that remark over,
-Jimmy, and I've about come to the conclusion that ef a man has to give up
-the flag he fout under and can't have it no longer, he mout in time come
-to be equally comfortable in the shadder of the flag he was born under. He
-might even come to love 'em both, mighty sincerely—lovin' one fur
-whut it meant to him once't and fur all the traditions and all the
-memories it stands fur, and lovin' the other fur whut it may mean to him
-now and whut it's liable to mean to his children and their children.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'But Billy,' I says, 'when all is said and done, we fit in defence of a
-constitutional principle.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'You bet we did,' he says; 'but it's mostly all been said and it's
-practically all been done. I figger it out this way, Jimmy. Reguardless of
-the merits of a given case, ef a man fights fur whut he thinks is right,
-so fur ez he pussonally is concerned, he fights fur whut is right. I ain't
-expectin' it to happen yit awhile, but I'm willin' to bet you something
-that in the days ahead both sides will come to feel jest that way about it
-too.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Do you think so, Billy?' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Jimmy,' he say, 'I don't only think so—I jest natchelly knows so.
-I feel it in my bones.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Then I persume you must be correct,' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He waits a minute and then he says: 'Jimmy,' he says, 'I don't believe
-I'd ever make a success ez one of these here passenger-pigeons. Now, a
-passenger-pigeon ain't got no regular native land of his own. He loves one
-country part of the time and another country part of the time, dividin'
-his seasons betwixt 'em. Now with me I'm afraid it's different.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Billy,' I says, 'I've about re'ch the conclusion that I wasn't cut out
-to be a passenger-pigeon, neither.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“He waits a minute, me holdin' back fur him to speak and wonderin' whut
-his next subject is goin' to be. Bill Priest always was a master one to
-ramble in his conversations. After a while he speaks, very pensive:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Jimmy,' he says, 'ef a man was to git up on a hoss, say to-morrow momin'
-and ride along right stiddy he'd jest about git home by hog-killin' time,
-wouldn't he?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Jest about,' I says, 'ef nothin' serious happened to delay him on the
-way.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'That's right,' he says, 'the spare ribs and the chitterlin's would jest
-about be ripe when he arrove back.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“I didn't make no answer to that—my mouth was waterin' so I couldn't
-speak. Besides there didn't seem to be nothin' to say.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'The fall revivals ought to be startin' up about then, too,' he says,
-'old folks gittin' religion all over ag'in and the mourners' bench
-overflowin', and off in the back pews and in the dark comers young folks
-flirtin' with one another and holdin' hands under cover of the hymn-books.
-But all the girls we left behind us have probably got new beaux by now,
-don't you reckin?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Yes, Billy,' I says, 'I reckin they have and I don't know ez I could
-blame 'em much neither, whut with us streakin' 'way off down here like a
-passel of idiots.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“He gits up and throws away his stick.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Well, Jimmy,' he says, 'I'm powerful glad to find out we agree on so
-many topics. Well, good night,' he says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Good night,' I says, and then I rolled over and went right off to sleep.
-But before I dropped off I ketched a peep of Billy Priest, squattin' down
-alongside one of the other boys, and doubtless fixin' to read that other
-feller's thoughts like a book the same ez he'd jest been readin' mine.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, son, the next mornin' at sun-up we were all up, too. We had our
-breakfast, sech ez it was, and broke camp and mounted and started off with
-Billy Priest ridin' at the head of the column and me stickin' clos't
-beside him. I didn't know fur sure whut was on the mind of anybody else in
-that there cavalcade of gentlemen rangers, but I was mighty certain about
-whut I aimed to do. I aimed to stick with Billy Priest; that's whut.
-Strange to say, nobody ast any questions about whut we were goin' to do
-with reguards to them Imperalists waitin' there fur us in Monterey. You
-never saw such a silent lot of troopers in your life. There wasn't no
-singin' nor laughin' and mighty little talkin'. But fur half an hour or so
-there was some good, stiddy lopin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Presently one of the boys pulled out of line and spurred up alongside of
-our chief.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'S'cuse me, commander,' he says, 'but it begins to look to me like we
-were back trackin' on our own trail.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“Billy looks at him, grinnin' a little through his whiskers. We all had
-whiskers on our faces, or the startin's of 'em.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Bless my soul, I believe you're right!' says Billy. 'Why, you've got the
-makin's of a scout in you.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'But look here,' says the other feller, still sort of puzzled-like, 'that
-means we're headin' due North, don't it?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'It means I'm headin' North,' says Billy, and at that he quit grinnin'.
-'But you, nor no one else in this troop don't have to fol-ler along
-onlessen you're minded so to do. Every man here is a free agent and his
-own boss. And ef anybody is dissatisfied with the route I'm takin' and
-favours some other, I'd like fur him to come out now and say so. It won't
-take me more'n thirty seconds to resign my leadership.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Oh, that's all right,' says the other feller, 'I was merely astin' the
-question, that's all. I ain't dissatisfied. I voted fur you ez commander
-fur the entire campaign—not fur jest part of it. I was fur you when
-we elected you, and I'm fur you yit.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“And with that he wheeled and racked along back to his place. Purty soon
-Billy looked over his shoulder along the column and an idea struck him.
-Not fur behind him Tom Moss was joggin' along with his old battered banjo
-swung acrost his back. Havin' toted that there banjo of his'n all through
-the war he'd likewise brought it along with him into Mexico. He had a
-mighty pleasin' voice, too, and the way he could sing and play that song
-about him bein' a good old rebel and not carin' a dam' made you feel that
-he didn't care a dam', neither. Billy beckoned to him and Tom rid up
-alongside and Billy whispered something in his ear. Tom's face all lit up
-then and he on-slung his banjo frum over his shoulder and throwed one laig
-over his saddle-bow and hit the strings a couple of licks and reared his
-head back and in another second he was singin' at the top of his voice.
-But this time he wasn't singin' the song about bein' a good old rebel. He
-was singin' the one that begins:
-</p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-The sun shines bright on my Old Kintucky Home;
-'Tis Summer, the darkies are gay,
-The corn tops are ripe and the medders are in bloom,
-And the birds make music all the day.'
-</pre>
-<p>
-“In another minute everybody else was singin', too—singin' and
-gallopin'. Son, you never in your whole life seen so many hairy, ragged,
-rusty fellers on hoss-back a-tear in' along through the dust of a strange
-land, actin' like they were all in a powerful hurry to git somewheres and
-skeered the gates would be shut before they arrived. Boy, listen: the
-homesickness jest popped out through my pores like perspiration.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It taken us all of seven days to git frum the border acros't that long
-stretch of waste to within a day's ride of the city of Monterey. It only
-taken us four and a half to git back ag'in to the border, the natives
-standin' by to watch us as we tore on past 'em. The sun was still several
-hours high on the evenin' of the fifth day when we come in sight of the
-Rio Grande River; and I don't ever seem to recall a stretch of muddy
-yaller water that looked so grateful to my eyes ez that one looked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“We come canterin' down to the water's edge, all of us bein' plum' jaded
-and mighty travel-worn. And there, right over yond' on the fur bank we
-could see the peaky tops of some army tents standin' in rows and we heared
-the notes of a bugle, soundin' mighty sweet and clear in that still air.
-And it dawned on us that by a strange coincidence whut wouldn't be liable
-to happen once't in a dozen years had happened in our purticular case—that
-the United States Government, ez represented by a detachment of its
-military forces, had moved down to the line at a point almost opposite to
-the place where we aimed to cross back over.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I ain't sure yit whut it was—it mout a-been the first sight of the
-foeman he'd fit ag'inst so long that riled him or it mout a-been merely a
-sort of sneakin' desire to make out like he purposed to hold off to the
-very last and then be won over by sweet blandishments—but jest ez we
-reached the river, a big feller hailin' frum down in Bland County rid up
-in front of Billy Priest and he says he wants to ast him a question.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Fire away,' says Billy.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Bill Priest,' says the Bland County feller, 'I take it to be your
-intention to go back into the once't free but now conquered state of
-Texas?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Well, pardner,' says Billy in that whiny way of his'n, 'you certainly
-are a slow one when it comes to pickin' up current gossip ez it flits to
-and fro about the neighbourhood. Why do you s'pose we've all been ridin'
-hell-fur-leather in this direction endurin' of the past few days onlessen
-it was with that identical notion in mind?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Never mind that now,' says the other feller. 'Circumstances alter cases.
-Don't you see that there camp over yonder is a camp of Yankee soldiers?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Ef my suspicions are correct that's jest whut it is,' says Billy very
-politely. 'Whut of it?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Well,' says the other feller, 'did it ever occur to you that ef we cross
-here them Yankees will call on us to lay down the arms which we've toted
-so long? Did it ever occur to you that mebbe they'd even expect us to take
-their dam' oath of allegiance?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Yes,' says Billy Priest, 'sence you bring up the subject, it had
-occurred to me that they mout do jest that. And likewise it has also
-occurred to me that when them formalities are concluded they mout extend
-the hospitalities of the occasion by invitin' us to set down with them to
-a meal of real human vittles. Why,' he says, 'I ain't tasted a cup of
-genuwyne coffee in so long that——!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“The other feller breaks in on him before Billy can git done with whut
-he's sayin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'And you,' he says, sort of sneerful and insinuatin', 'you, here only
-some three or four months back was a ring-leader and a head-devil in
-formin' this here expedition. You was goin' round makin' your brags that
-you'd be the last one to surrender—you! And we've been callin' you
-Fightin' Billy! Fightin' Billy? Hell's fire!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“Billy rammed his heels in his hoss's flanks and shoved over, only reinin'
-up when he was touchin' laigs with the Bland County feller. A shiny little
-blue light come into his eyes and the veins in his neck all swelled out.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'My esteemed friend and feller-country-man,' says Billy, speakin' plenty
-slow and plenty polite, 'ef any gentleman present is inclined to make a
-pussonal matter of it, I'll undertake to endeavour to prove up my right to
-that there title right here and now. But ef not, I wish to state fur the
-benefit of all concerned that frum this minute I ain't figgerin' on
-wearin' the nickname any longer. Frum where I set it looks to me like this
-is a mighty fitten and appropriate time to go out of the fightin' business
-and resume the placid and pleasant ways of peace. Frum now on, to friends
-ez well ez to strangers, I'm goin' to be jest plain William Pitman Priest,
-Esquire, attorney and counsellor-at-law. I ast you all to kindly bear it
-in mind. And furthermore speakin' solely and exclusively fur the said
-William Pitman Priest, I will state it is my intention of gittin' acrost
-this here river in time to eat my supper on the soil of my own country. Ef
-anybody here feels like goin' along with me I'll be glad of his company.
-Ef not, I'll bid all you good comrades an affectionate farewell and jest
-jog along over all by my lonesome self.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“But, of course, when he said that last he was jest funnin'—talkin'
-to hear hisself talk. He knowed good and well we would all go with him.
-And we did. And ez fur ez I know none of us ever had cause to regret
-takin' the step.
-</p>
-<p>
-“By hurryin', we did git back home before hog-killin' time. And then after
-a spell, when we'd had our disabilities removed, some of us like Billy
-Priest started runnin' fur office and bein' elected with reasonable
-regularity and some of us, like me, went into business. We lived through
-bayonet rule and reconstruction and carpet-baggery, and we lived to see
-all them evils die out and a better feelin' and a better understandin'
-come in. We've been livin' ever since, sech of us ez are still survivin'.
-I've done consider'ble livin' myself. I've lived to see North and South
-united. I've even lived to see my own daughter married to the son of a
-Northern soldier, with the full consent of the families on both sides. And
-so that's how it happens I've got a grandson that's part Yankee and part
-Confederate in his breedin'. I reckin there ain't nobody that's ez plum'
-foolish ez I am about that there little, curly-headed sassy tike, without
-it's his grandfather on the other side, old Major Ashcroft. We differ
-radically on politics, the Major bein' a besotted and hopeless black
-Republikin; and try ez I will I ain't never been able to cure him of a
-delusion of his'n that the Ninth Michigan could a-helt its own ag'inst
-King's Hell Hounds ef ever they'd met up on the field of battle; but in
-other respects he's a fairly intelligent man; and he certainly does
-coincide with me that betwixt us we've got the smartest four-year-old
-youngster fur a grandchild that ever was born. There's hope fur a nation
-that kin produce sech children ez that one, ef I do say it myself.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He stood up and shook himself.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In fact, son,” concluded Sergeant Bagby, “you mout safely say that,
-takin' one thing with another, this country is turnin' out to be quite a
-success.”
- </p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER II. AND THERE WAS LIGHT
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">S</span>O many things that at first seem amazingly complex turn out amazingly
-simple. The purely elemental has a trick of ambushing itself behind a
-screen of mystery; but when by deduction and elimination—in short,
-by the simple processes of subtraction and division—we have stripped
-away the mask, the fact stands so plainly revealed we marvel that we did
-not behold it from the beginning. Elemental, you will remember, was a
-favourite word with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and one much employed by him in
-the elucidation of problems in criminology for the better enlightenment of
-his sincere but somewhat obvious-minded friend, the worthy Doctor Watson.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the other hand, traits and tricks that appear to betray the characters,
-the inclinations and, most of all, the vocations of their owners may prove
-misleading clues, and very often do. You see a black man with a rolling
-gait, who spraddles his legs when he stands and sways his body on his hips
-when he walks; and, following the formula of the deductionist cult of
-amateur detectives, you say to yourself that here, beyond peradventure, is
-a deep-water sailor, used to decks that heave and scuppers that flood.
-Inquiry but serves to prove to you how wrong you are. The person in
-question is a veteran dining-car waiter.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then along comes another—one with a hearty red face, who rears well
-back and steps out with martial precision. Evidently a retired officer of
-the regular army, you say to yourself. Not at all; merely the former bass
-drummer of a military brass band. The bass drummer, as will readily be
-recalled, leans away from his instrument instead of toward it.
-</p>
-<p>
-For a typical example of this sort of thing, let us take the man I have in
-mind for the central figure of this tale. He was a square-built man,
-round-faced, with a rather small, deep-set grey eye, and a pair of big
-hands, clumsy-looking but deft. He wore his hair short and his upper lip
-long. Appraising him upon the occasion of a chance meeting in the street,
-you would say offhand that this, very probably, was a man who had been
-reasonably successful in some trade calling for initiative and expertness
-rather than for technic. He wouldn't be a theatrical manager—his
-attire was too formal; or a stockbroker—his attire was not formal
-enough.
-</p>
-<p>
-I imagine you in the act of telling yourself that he might be a clever
-life-insurance solicitor, or a purchasing agent for a trunk line, or a
-canny judge of real-estate values—a man whose taste in dress would
-run rather to golf stockings than to spats, rather to soft hats than to
-hard ones, and whose pet hobby would likely be trout flies and not first
-editions. In a part of your hypothesis you would have been absolutely
-correct. This man could do things with a casting rod and with a mid-iron
-too.
-</p>
-<p>
-Seeing him now, as we do see him, wearing a loose tweed suit and sitting
-bareheaded behind a desk in the innermost room of a smart suite of offices
-on a fashionable side street, surrounded by shelves full of medical books
-and by wall cases containing medical appliances, you, knowing nothing of
-him except what your eye told you, would probably hazard a guess that this
-individual was a friend of the doctor, who, having dropped in for social
-purposes and having found the doctor out, had removed his hat and taken a
-seat in the doctor's chair to await the doctor's return.
-</p>
-<p>
-Therein you would have been altogether in error. This man was not the
-doctor's friend, but the doctor himself—a practitioner of high
-repute in his own particular line. He was known as a specialist in
-neurotic disorders; privately he called himself a specialist in human
-nature. He was of an orthodox school of medicine, but he had cast
-overboard most of the ethics of the school and he gave as little as
-possible of the medicine. Drugs he used sparingly, preferring to prescribe
-other things for most of his patients—such things, for instance, as
-fresh air, fresh, vegetables and fresh thoughts. His cures were numerous
-and his fees were large.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the other side of a cross wall a woman sat waiting to see him. She was
-alone, being the first of his callers to arrive this day. A heavy,
-deep-cushioned town car, with a crest on its doors and a man in fine
-livery to drive it, had brought her to the doctor's address five minutes
-earlier; car and driver were at the curb outside.
-</p>
-<p>
-The woman was exquisitely groomed and exquisitely overdressed. She
-radiated luxury, wealth and the possession of an assured and enviable
-position. She radiated something else, too—unhappiness.
-</p>
-<p>
-Here assuredly the lay mind might make no mistake in its summarising.
-There are too many like her for any one of us to err in our diagnosis when
-a typical example is presented. The city is especially prolific of such
-women. It breeds them. It coddles them and it pampers them, but in payment
-therefore it besets them with many devils. It gives them everything in
-reason and out of reason, and then it makes them long for something else—anything
-else, so long as it be unattainable. Possessed of the nagging demons of
-unrest and discontent and satiation, they feed on their nerves until their
-nerves in retaliation begin to feed on them. The result generally is
-smash. Sanitariums get them, and divorce courts and asylums—and
-frequently cemeteries.
-</p>
-<p>
-The woman who waited in the reception room did not have to wait very long,
-yet she was hard put to it to control herself while she sat there. She bit
-her under lip until the red marks of her teeth showed in the flesh, and
-she gripped the arms of her chair so tightly and with such useless
-expenditure of nervous force that through her gloves the knuckles of her
-hands exposed themselves in sharp high ridges.
-</p>
-<p>
-Presently a manservant entered and, bowing, indicated mutely that his
-master would see her now. She fairly ran past him through the
-communicating door which he held open for her passage. As she entered the
-inner room it was as though her coming into it set all its orderliness
-awry. Only the ruddy-faced specialist, intrenched behind the big table in
-the middle of the floor, seemed unchanged. She halted on the other side of
-the table and bent across it toward him, her finger tips drumming a little
-tattoo upon its smooth surface. He did not speak even the briefest of
-greetings; perhaps he was minded not to speak. He waited for her to begin.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Doctor,” she burst out, “you must do something for me; you must give me
-medicine—drugs—narcotics—anything that will soothe me. I
-did not sleep at all last night and hardly any the night before that. All
-night I sat up in bed or walked the floor trying to keep from screaming
-out—trying to keep from going mad. I have been dressed for hours—I
-made my maid stay up with me—waiting for your office to open so that
-I might come to you. Here I am—see me! See the state I am in!
-Doctor, you must do something for me—and do it now, quickly, before
-I do something desperate!”
- </p>
-<p>
-She panted out the last words. She put her clenched hands to her bosom.
-Her haggard eyes glared into his; their glare made the carefully applied
-cosmetics upon her face seem a ghastly mask.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I have already prescribed for you, madam,” the doctor said. “I told you
-that what you mainly needed was rest—complete and absolute rest.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Rest? Rest! How can I rest? What chance is there for me to rest? I can't
-rest! If I try to rest I begin to think—and then it is worse than
-ever. I must keep on the go. Something drives me on—something inside
-me, here—to go and go, and to keep on going until I drop. Oh,
-doctor, you don't know what I suffer—what I have to endure. No one
-knows what I have to endure. No one understands. My husband doesn't
-understand me—my children do not, nor my friends.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Friends? I have no friends. I can't get on with any one—I quarrel
-with every one. I know I am sick, that I am irritable and out-of-sorts
-sometimes. And I know that I am self-willed and want my own way. But I've
-always been self-willed; it's a part of my nature. And I've always had my
-own way. They should appreciate that. But they don't. They cross me. At
-every turn somebody crosses me. The whole world seems in a conspiracy to
-deny me what I want.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It can't be my fault always that I am forever quarrelling with people—with
-my own family; with my husband's family; with every one who crosses my
-path. I tell you they don't understand me, doctor. They don't make
-allowances for my condition. If they would only make allowances! And they
-don't give me any consideration. I can't stand it, doctor! I can't go on
-like this any longer. Please—please, doctor, do something for me!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mounting hysteria edged her voice with a sharpened, almost a vulgar
-shrillness. The austere and studied reserve of her class—a reserve
-that is part of it poise and the rest of it pose—dropped away from
-her like a discarded garment, and before her physician she revealed
-herself nakedly for what she was—a creature with the passions, the
-forwardness and the selfishness of a spoiled and sickly child; and, on top
-of these, superimposed and piled up, adult impulses, adult appetites,
-adult petulance, adult capacity for misery.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I told you,” he said, “to go away. I thought, until my man brought me
-your name a bit ago, that you had gone. Weeks ago I told you that travel
-might help you—not the sort of travel to which you have been used,
-but a different sort—travel in the quiet places, out of the beaten
-path, and rest. I told you the same thing again less than a week ago.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But where?” she demanded. “Where am I to go? Tell me that! I have been
-everywhere—I have seen everything. What is there left for me to see
-in the world? What is there in the world that is worth seeing? You told me
-before there was nothing organically wrong with me, nothing fundamentally
-wrong with my body. Then it must be my mind, and travel couldn't cure a
-mind in the state that mine is in. How can I rest when I am so distracted,
-when small things upset me so, when——”
- </p>
-<p>
-In the midst of this new outburst she broke off. Her eyes, wandering from
-his as she pumped herself up toward a frenzy, were focused now upon some
-object behind him. She pointed toward it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I never saw that before,” she said. “It wasn't there when I was here
-last.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He swung about in his chair, its spiral creaking under his weight.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No,” he said; “you never saw that before. It came into my possession only
-a day or two ago. It is a——”
- </p>
-<p>
-She broke in on him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What a wonderful face!” she said. “What beauty there is in it—what
-peace! I think that is what made me notice it—the peace that is in
-it. Oh, if I could only be like that! Doctor, the being to whom that face
-belonged must have had everything worth having. And to think there can be
-such beings in this world—beings so blessed, so happy—while I—I——”
- </p>
-<p>
-Tears of self-pity came into her eyes. She was slipping back again into
-her former mood. With his gaze he caught and held hers, exerting all his
-will to hold it. A brother psychologist seeing him in that moment would
-have said that to this man a possible way out of a dilemma had come—would
-have said that an inspiration suddenly had visited him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Perhaps you would like to see it at closer range,” he said, still
-steadfastly regarding her. “There is a story regarding it—a story
-that might interest you, madam.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He rose from his place, crossed the room and, reaching up, took down a
-plaster cast of a face that rested upright against the broad low moulding
-that ran along his walls on two sides.
-</p>
-<p>
-As he brought it to her he saw that she had taken a chair. Her figure was
-relaxed from its recent rigidness. Her elbows were upon the tabletop. He
-put the cast into her gloved hands and reseated himself. She held it
-before her at arm's length, and one gloved hand went over its surface
-almost caressingly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It is wonderful!” she said. “I never saw such an expression on any human
-face—why, it is soothing to me just to look at it. Doctor, where did
-you get it? Who was the original of it—or don't you know? What
-living creature sat for the artist who made it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No living creature sat for it,” he said slowly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh!” she said disappointedly. “Well, then, what artist had the
-imagination to conjure up such a conception?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No artist conjured it up,” he told her.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Then how-”
- </p>
-<p>
-“That, madam,” he said, “is a death mask.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“A death mask!” Her tone was incredulous. “A death mask, doctor?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, madam—a death mask. See, the eyes are closed—are half
-closed, anyway.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Do you mean to tell me that death can leave such an expression on any
-face? How could—”
- </p>
-<p>
-She broke off, staring incredulously at the thing.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That is what makes the story I mean to tell you,” he said—“if you
-care to hear it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Of course I want to hear it.” Her manner was insistent, impatient,
-demanding almost. “Please go on.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He kept her in suspense a moment or two; and so they both sat, he
-squinting up at the ceiling as though marshalling a narrative in its
-proper sequence in his mind, she holding fast to the disked shape of white
-plaster. At length he began, speaking slowly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Here is the story,” he said: “A few weeks ago an acquaintance of mine—a
-fellow physician—told me of a case he thought might interest me.
-Primarily it was a surgical case, and I, as perhaps you know, do not
-practise surgery; but there was another aspect of it that did have a
-direct and personal appeal for me.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It seems that some weeks before there had been put into his hands for
-treatment a man—a young man—who was stone-deaf and
-stone-blind, and whose senses of taste and of smell were greatly affected—perhaps
-I should say impaired. He could speak, more or less imperfectly, and his
-sense of touch was good; in fact, better than with ordinary mortals. These
-two faculties alone remained to him. He had been afflicted so from
-childhood; the attack, or the disease, which left him in this state had
-come upon him very early, before his mind had registered very many
-sensible impressions.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Speech and feeling—these really were what remained intact. Yet his
-intelligence, considering these handicaps, was above the average, and his
-body was healthy, and his temperament, in the main, sanguine. Practically
-all his life he had been in an asylum—a charity institution. Until
-chance brought him to the attention of this acquaintance of mine it had
-seemed highly probable that he would spend the rest of his life in this
-institution.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The physicians there regarded his case as hopeless. They were
-conscientious men—these physicians—and they were not lacking
-in sympathy, I think; but their hands and their thoughts were concerned
-with their duties, and perhaps—mind you, I say perhaps—perhaps
-an individual case more or less did not mean to them what it means to the
-physician in private practice. You understand? So this young man, who was
-well formed physically, who was normal in his mental aspects, seemed to be
-doomed to serve a life sentence inside walls of utter darkness and utter
-silence.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, this man came under the attention of the surgeon I have mentioned.
-Possibly because it seemed so hopeless, the case interested the surgeon.
-He made up his mind that the affliction—afflictions rather—were
-not congenital, not incurable. He made up his mind that a tumorous growth
-on the brain was responsible for the present state of the victim. And he
-made up his mind that an operation—a delicate and a risky and a
-difficult operation—might bring about a cure. If the operation
-failed the subject would pass from the silence and the blackness he now
-endured into a silence and a blackness which many of us, similarly placed,
-would find preferable. He would die—quickly and painlessly. If the
-operation succeeded he probably would have back all his faculties—he
-would begin really to live. The surgeon was willing to take the chance, to
-assume the responsibility.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The other man was willing to take his chance too. Both of them took it.
-The operation was performed—and it was a success. The man lived
-through it, and when he was lifted off the table my friend had every
-reason to believe—in fact, to know as surely as a man whose business
-is tampering with the human organism can know anything—that before
-very long this man, who had walked all his days in darkness, lacking taste
-and smell, and hearing no sound, would have back all that his afflictions
-had denied him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“To my friend, the surgeon, it seemed likely that I, as a person concerned
-to a degree in psychologic manifestations and psychologic phenomena, would
-be glad of the opportunity to be present at the hour when this man,
-through his eyes, his ears, his tongue and his palate, first registered
-intelligible and actual impressions. And I was glad of the opportunity.
-Almost it would be like witnessing the rebirth of a human being; certainly
-it would be witnessing the mental awakening, through physical mediums, of
-a human soul.
-</p>
-<p>
-“At first hand I would see what this world, to which you and I are
-accustomed and of which some of us have grown weary, meant to one who had
-been so completely, so utterly shut out from that world through all the
-more impressionable years of his life. Naturally I was enormously
-interested to hear what he might say, to see what he might do in the hour
-of his reawakening and re-creation.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I went with the surgeon on the day appointed by him for testing the
-success of his operation. Only five of us were present—the man
-himself, the surgeon who had cured him, two others and myself. Until that
-hour and for every hour since he had come out from under the ether, the
-patient's eyes had been bandaged to shut out light, and his ears had been
-muffled to shut out sounds, and he had been fed on liquid mixtures
-administered artificially.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Why?” asked the woman, interrupting for the first time.
-</p>
-<p>
-For a moment the doctor hesitated. Then he went on smoothly to explain:
-</p>
-<p>
-“You see, they feared the sudden shock to senses and to organs made
-sensitive by long disuse until he had completely rallied from the
-operation. So they had hooded his eyes and his ears.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But food—why couldn't he have eaten solid food before this?” she
-insisted. “That is what I mean.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, that?” he said, and again he halted for an instant. “That was done
-largely on my account. I think the surgeon wanted the test to be complete
-at one time and not developed in parts. You understand, don't you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-She nodded. And he continued, watching her face intently as he proceeded:
-</p>
-<p>
-“So, first of all, we led him into a partly darkened room and sat him down
-at a table; and we gave him food—very simple food—a glass of
-cold water; a piece of bread, buttered; a baked Irish potato, with butter
-and salt upon it—that was all. We stood about him watching him as he
-tasted of the things we put before him—for it was really the first
-time he had ever properly tasted anything.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Madam, if I live to be a hundred years old, I shall never forget the look
-that came into his face then. Even though he lacked the words to express
-himself, as you and I with our greater vocabularies might conceivably have
-expressed ourselves had such an experience come to us, I knew that to him
-the bread was ambrosia and the water was nectar.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He didn't wolf the food down as I had rather expected he might. He ate it
-slowly, extracting the flavour from every crumb of it. And the water he
-took in sips, allowing it to trickle down his throat, drop by drop almost.
-And then he spoke to us, touching the bread and the potato and the water
-glass. Mind you, I am reproducing the sense of what he said rather than
-his exact words. He said:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'What is this—and this—and this? What are these delicious
-things you have given me to eat? And what is this exquisite drink I have
-swallowed?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“We told him and he seemed not to believe it at first. He said:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Why, I have handled such things as these often. I have taken them up in
-my hands a thousand times and I have swallowed them. I should have known
-what they were by the touch of my fingers—but the taste of them
-deceived me. Can it be possible that these things are common things—that
-even poor people can feast upon such meals as this which I am eating? Can
-it even be possible that there is food within the reach of ordinary
-mortals which has a finer zest than this?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“And when his friend, the surgeon, told him 'Yes'—told him 'Yes'
-many times and in many ways—still he seemed loath to believe it.
-When he had finished, to the last scrap of the potato skin and the last
-morsel of the bread crust and the last drop in the glass, he bowed his
-head and outspread his hands before him as though returning thanks for a
-glorious benefaction.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Perhaps I should have told you that this took place late in the
-afternoon. We waited a little while after that, and then just before
-sunset we took him outdoors into a little shabby garden on the asylum
-grounds; and we freed his eyes and we unmuffled his ears. And then we drew
-back from him a distance and watched him to see what he would do.
-</p>
-<p>
-“For a little while he did nothing except stand in his tracks, transfixed
-and transfigured. He saw the sky and the sunlight and the earth and the
-grass and the shadows upon the earth and the trees and the flowers that
-were about him—saw them literally in a celestial vision; and he
-smelled the good wholesome smells of the earth, and the scents of the
-struggling, straggling flowers in the ill-kept flower beds, and the scents
-of the green things growing there too.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And just then, as though it had known and had been inspired to choose
-this instant for bringing to him yet another sensation, a thrush—a
-common brown thrush—began singing in an elm tree almost directly
-above him. Of course it was merely a coincidence that a thrush should
-begin singing then and there. Thrushes are plentiful enough about the
-country in this climate at this season of the year. Central Park is full
-of them, sometimes. Most of us scarcely notice them, or their singing
-either. But, you see, with this man it was different. He literally was
-undergoing re-creation, re-incarnation, resurrection. Call it what you
-please. It was one of those three things. In a way of speaking it was all
-three of them.
-</p>
-<p>
-“At the first note of music from the bird he gave a quick start, and then
-he threw back his head and uplifted his face; and quite near at hand he
-saw the little rusty-coloured chap, singing away there, with its speckled
-throat feathers rising and falling, and he heard the sounds that poured
-from the thrush's open beak. And as he looked and listened he put his
-hands to his breast as though something were hurting him there. He didn't
-move until the bird had fluttered away. Nor did we move either.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Then he turned and came stumbling and reeling toward us, literally drunk
-with joy. His intoxication of ecstasy thickened his tongue and choked him
-until he, at first, could not speak to us. After a bit, though, the words
-came outpouring from his lips.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Did you hear that?' he cried out. 'Did you hear it? Do you smell the
-earth and the flowers? And the sky—I have seen it! I can see it now.
-Oh, hasn't God been good to us to give us all this? Oh, hasn't He been
-good to me?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“In an outburst of gratitude he seized the hand of my friend and kissed it
-again and again. I had meant to take notes of his behaviour as we went
-along, but I took none. I knew that afterward I could reproduce from
-memory all that transpired.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Presently he was calmer, and the surgeon said to him:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'My son, there is something yet to be seen—something that you,
-having so many other things to see, have overlooked. Look yonder!' And he
-pointed to the West, where the sun was just going down.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And, at that, the other man faced about and looked full into his first
-sunset. Instantly his whole mood changed. It became rapt, reverential—you
-might say worshipful. His lips moved, but no words came from them at
-first, and he made as though to shut out the sight with his hands, as
-though the beauty of the vision was too great for him to endure. I went to
-him and put my hand on his shoulder. He was quivering from head to foot in
-an ague of sheer happiness. He seemed hardly to know I was there. He did
-not look toward me. He kept his eyes fixed upon the West as if he were
-greedy to miss nothing of the spectacle.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Until now the sunset had seemed to me less beautiful by far than many
-another summer sunset I had seen, for the sky was rather overcast and the
-colours not particularly vivid; but, standing there beside him, in
-physical contact with him, I caught from him something of what he felt,
-and I saw that glow in the west as some-thing of indescribable grandeur
-and unutterable splendour, a miracle too glorious for words to describe or
-painters to reproduce upon squares of canvas.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Presently he spoke to me, still without turning his head in my direction.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'How often does this—this—come to pass?' he asked, panting
-the words out.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Many times a year,' I told him. 'At this season nearly every evening.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'And is it ever so beautiful as this?' he said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Often more beautiful,' I said. 'Often the colours are richer and
-deeper.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Why are there not more of us here to look upon it?' he asked. 'Surely at
-this hour all mankind must cease from its tasks—from whatever it is
-doing—to see this miracle—this free gift of the Creator!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“I tried to tell him that mankind had grown accustomed to the daily
-repetition of the sunset, but he seemed unable to comprehend. As the last
-flattened ray of sunshine faded upon the grass, and the afterglow began to
-spread across the heavens, I thought he was about to faint; and I put both
-my arms round him to steady him. But he did not faint, though he trembled
-all over and took his breath into his lungs in great sobbing gulps. I
-showed him the evening star where it shone in the sky, and he watched it
-brighten, saying nothing at all.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Suddenly he turned to me and said:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'At last I have lived, and I have found that life is sweet. Life is
-sweeter than I ever dared to hope it might be.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“Then he said:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'I have a home. Will you show me where it is? While I was blind I could
-feel my way to it; but, now that I can see, I feel lost—all things
-are so changed to me. Please lead me there—I want to see with my own
-eyes what a home is like.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I took his hand in mine and we went toward it, and the three others
-who were there followed after us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Madam, his home—the only home he had, for so far as we knew, he had
-no living kinspeople—was a room in that big barn of an asylum. I led
-him to the door of it. It was a barren enough room—you know how
-these institutions are apt to be furnished, and this room was no exception
-to the rule. Bare walls, a bare floor, bare uncurtained windows, a bed, a
-chair or two, a bare table—a sort of hygienic and sanitary brutality
-governed all its appointments.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I imagine the lowest servant in your employ has a more attractively
-furnished room than this was. Now, though, it was flooded with the
-afterglow, which poured in at the windows; that soft light alone redeemed
-its hideousness of outline and its poverty of furnishings.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He halted at the threshold. We know what home means to most of us. How
-much must it have meant, then, to him! He could see the walls closing
-round to encompass him in their friendly companionship; he could see the
-roof coming down to protect him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Home!' he said to himself in a half whisper, under his breath. 'What a
-beautiful word home is! And what a beautiful place my home is!'
-</p>
-<p>
-“Nobody gave the signal, none of us made the suggestion by word or
-gesture; but with one accord we four, governed by the same impulse, left
-him and went away. We felt in an inarticulate way that he was entitled to
-be alone; that no curious eye had any right to study his emotions in this
-supreme moment.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In an hour we went back. He was lying where he had fallen—across
-the threshold of his room. On his face was a beatific peace, a content
-unutterable—and he was dead. Joy I think had burst his heart. That
-bit of plaster you hold in your hand is his death mask.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The doctor finished his tale. He bent forward in his chair to see the look
-upon his caller's face. She stood up; and she was a creature transformed
-and radiant!
-</p>
-<p>
-“Doctor,” she said—and even her voice was altered—“I am going
-home—home to my husband and my children and my friends. I believe I
-have found a cure for my—my trouble. Rather, you have found it for
-me here to-day. You have taught me a lesson. You have made me see things I
-could not see before—hear things I could not hear before. For I have
-been blind and deaf, as blind and as deaf as this man was—yes,
-blinder than he ever was. But now”—she cried out the words in a
-burst of revelation—“but now—why, doctor, I have everything to
-live for—haven't I?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, madam,” he said gravely; “you have everything to live for. If only
-we knew it, if only we could realise it, all of us in this world have
-everything to live for.”
- </p>
-<p>
-She nodded, smiling across the table at him. “Doctor,” she said, “I do not
-believe I shall ever come back here to see you—as a patient of
-yours.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No,” he affirmed; “I do not believe you will ever come back—as a
-patient of mine.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But, if I may, I should like to come sometimes, just to look at that face—that
-dead face with its living message for me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Madam,” he told her, “you may have it on two conditions—namely,
-that you keep it in your own room, and that you do not tell its story—the
-story I have just told you—to any other person. I have reasons of my
-own for making those conditions.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“In my own room is exactly where I would keep it,” she said. “I promise to
-do as you ask. I shall never part with it. But how can you part with it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, I think I know where I can get another copy,” he said, “The original
-mould has not been destroyed. I am sure my—my friend—has it.
-This one will be delivered at your home before night. My servant shall
-take it to you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No,” she said. “If you do not mind, I shall take it with me now—in
-my own hands.”
- </p>
-<p>
-She clasped the gift to her breast, holding it there as though it were a
-priceless thing—too priceless to be intrusted to the keeping of any
-other than its possessor.
-</p>
-<p>
-For perhaps five minutes after the departure of his recent patient the
-great specialist sat at his desk smiling gently to himself. Then he
-touched with his forefinger a button under the desk. His manservant
-entered.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You have heard of troubles being started by a lie, haven't you?” asked
-the doctor abruptly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir—I think so, sir.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The man was not an Englishman, but he had been trained in the school of
-English servants. His voice betrayed no surprise.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, did you ever hear of troubles being ended by a lie?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Really, sir, I can't say, sir—offhand.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, it can be done,” said the doctor; “in fact, it has been done.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The man stood a moment.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Was that all, sir?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No; not quite,” said the master. “Do you remember an Italian pedlar who
-was here the other day?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“An Italian pedlar, sir?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes; don't you remember? A street vender who passed the door. I called
-him in and bought a plaster cast from him—for seventy-five cents, as
-I recall.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, yes, sir; I do remember now.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The man's eyes flitted to an empty space on the wall moulding above the
-bookcase behind his employer's chair, and back again to his employer's
-face.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well,” said the doctor, “you keep a lookout for him, in case he passes
-again. I want to buy another of those casts from him. I think it may be
-worth the money—the last one was, anyhow.”
- </p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER III. MR. FELSBURG GETS EVEN
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>F all the human legs ever seen in our town I am constrained to admit that
-Mr. Herman Felsburg's pair were the most humorous legs. When it came to
-legs—funny legs—the palm was his without a struggle. Casting
-up in my mind a wide assortment and a great range of legs, I recall no set
-in the whole of Red Gravel County that, for pure comedy of contour or rare
-eccentricity of gait, could compare with the two he owned. In his case his
-legs achieved the impossible by being at one and the same time bent
-outward and warped inward, so that he was knock-kneed at a stated point
-and elsewhere bow-legged. And yet, as legs go, they were short ones. For a
-finishing touch he was, to a noticeably extent, pigeon-toed.
-</p>
-<p>
-I remember mighty well the first time Mr. Felsburg's legs first acquired
-for me an interest unrelated to their picturesqueness of aspect. As I
-think backward along the grooves of my memory to that occasion, it defies
-all the rules of perspective by looming on a larger scale and in brighter
-and more vivid colours than many a more important thing which occurred in
-a much more recent period. I reckon, though, that is because our Creator
-has been good enough to us sometimes to let us view our childhood with the
-big, round, magnifying eyes of a child.
-</p>
-<p>
-I feel it to be so in my case. By virtue of a certain magic I see a small,
-inquisitive boy sitting on the top step of the wide front porch of an old
-white house; and as he sits he hugs his bare knees within the circle of
-his arms and listens with two wide-open ears to the talk that shuttles
-back and forth among three or four old men who are taking their comfort in
-easy-chairs behind a thick screen of dishrag and morning glory and
-balsam-apple vines.
-</p>
-<p>
-I am that small boy who listens; and, as the picture forms and frames
-itself in my mind, one of the men is apt to be my uncle. He was not my
-uncle by blood ties or marriage, but through adoption only, as was the
-custom down our way in those days and, to a certain degree, is still the
-custom; and, besides, I was his namesake.
-</p>
-<p>
-I know now, when by comparison I subject the scene to analysis, that they
-were not such very old men—then. They are old enough now—such
-of them as survive to this day. None of that group who yet lives will ever
-see seventy-five again. In those times grown people would have called them
-middle-aged men, or, at the most, elderly men; but when I re-create the
-vision out of the back of my head I invest them with an incredible
-antiquity and a vasty wisdom, because, as I said just now, I am looking at
-them with the eyes of a small boy again. Also, it seems to me, the season
-always is summer—late afternoon or early evening of a hot, lazy
-summer day.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was right there, perched upon the top step of Judge Priest's front
-porch, that I heard, piece by piece, the unwritten history of our town—its
-tragedies and its farces, its homely romances and its homely epics. There
-I heard the story of Singin' Sandy Riggs, who, like Coligny, finally won
-by being repeatedly whipped; and his fist feud with Harve Allen, the
-bully; and the story of old Marm Perry, the Witch. I don't suppose she was
-a witch really; but she owned a black cat and she had a droopy lid, which
-hung down over one red eye, and she lived a friendless life.
-</p>
-<p>
-And so when the babies in the settlement began to sicken and die of the
-spotted fever somebody advanced the very plausible suggestion that Marm
-Perry had laid a spell upon the children, and nearly everybody else
-believed it. A man whose child fell ill of the plague in the very hour
-when Marm Perry had spoken to the little thing took a silver dollar and
-melted it down and made a silver bullet of it—because, of course,
-witches were immune to slugs of lead—and on the night after the day
-when they buried his baby he slipped up to Marm Perry's cabin and fired
-through the window at her as she sat, with her black cat in her lap,
-mouthing her empty gums over her supper. The bullet missed her—and
-he was a good shot, too, that man was. Practically all the men who lived
-in those days on the spot where our town was to stand were good shots.
-They had to be—or else go hungry frequently.
-</p>
-<p>
-When the news of this spread they knew for certain that only by fire could
-the evil charm be broken and the conjure-woman be destroyed. So one night
-soon after that a party of men broke into Marm Perry's cabin and made
-prisoners of her and her cat. They muffled her head in a bedquilt and they
-thrust the cat into a bag, both of them yowling and kicking; and they
-carried them to a place on the bluff above Island Creek, a mile or so from
-the young settlement, and there they kindled a great fire of brush; and
-when the flames had taken good hold of the wood they threw Marm Perry and
-her cat into the blaze and stood back to see them burn. Mind you, this
-didn't happen at Salem, Massachusetts, in or about the year 1692. It
-happened less than a century ago near a small river landing on what was
-then the southwestern frontier of these United States.
-</p>
-<p>
-There were certain men, though—leaders of opinion and action in the
-rough young community—who did not altogether hold with the theory
-that the evil eye was killing off the babies. Somehow they learned what
-was afoot and they followed, hotspeed, on the trail of the volunteer
-executioners. As the tale has stood through nearly a hundred years of
-telling, they arrived barely in time. When they broke through the ring of
-witch burners and snatched Marm Perry off the pyre, her apron strings had
-burned in two. As for the cat, it burst through the bag and ran off
-through the woods, with its fur all ablaze, and was never seen again. I
-remember how I used to dream that story over and over again. Always in my
-dreams it reached its climax when that living firebrand went tearing off
-into the thickets. Somehow, to me, the unsalvaged cat took on more
-importance than its rescued owner.
-</p>
-<p>
-There were times, too, when I chanced to be the only caller upon Judge
-Priest's front porch, and these are the times which in retrospect seem to
-me to have been the finest of all. I used to slip away from home alone,
-along toward suppertime, and pay the Judge a visit. Many and many a day,
-sitting there on that porch step, I watched the birds going to bed. His
-big front yard was a great place for the birds. In the deep grass, all
-summer long and all day long, the cock partridge would be directing the
-attention of a mythical Bob White to the fact that his peaches were ripe
-and overripe. If spared by boys and house cats until the hunting season
-began he would captain a covey. Now he was chiefly concerned with a
-family. Years later I found that his dictionary name was American quail;
-but to us then he was a partridge, and in our town we still know him by no
-other title.
-</p>
-<p>
-Forgetting all about the dogs and the guns of the autumn before he would
-even invade Judge Priest's chicken lot to pick up titbits overlooked by
-the dull-eyed resident flock; and toward twilight, growing bolder still,
-he would whistle and whistle from the tall white gate post of the front
-fence, while his trim brown helpmate clucked lullabies to her speckled
-brood in the rank tangle back of the quince bushes.
-</p>
-<p>
-When the redbirds called it a day and knocked off, the mocking birds took
-up the job and on clear moonlight nights sang all night in the honey
-locusts. Just before sunset yellow-hammers would be flickering about,
-tremendously occupied with things forgotten until then; and the chimney
-swifts that nested in Judge Priest's chimney would go whooshing up and
-down the sooty flue, making haunted-house noises in the old sitting room
-below.
-</p>
-<p>
-Sprawled in his favourite porch chair, the Judge would talk and I would
-listen. Sometimes, the situation being reversed, I would talk and he
-listen. Under the spell of his sympathetic understanding I would be moved
-to do what that most sensitive and secretive of creatures—a small
-boy—rarely does do: I would bestow my confidences upon him. And if
-he felt like laughing—at least, he never laughed. And if he felt
-that the disclosures called for a lecture he rarely did that, either; but
-if he did the admonition was so cleverly sugar-coated by his way of
-framing it that I took it down without tasting it.
-</p>
-<p>
-As I see the vision now, it was at the close of a mighty warm day, when
-the sun went down as a red-hot ball and all the west was copper-plated
-with promise of more heat to-morrow, when Mr. Herman Felsburg passed. I
-don't know what errand was taking him up Clay Street that evening—he
-lived clear over on the other side of town. But, anyway, he passed; and as
-he headed into the sunset glow I was inspired by a boy's instinctive
-appreciation of the ludicrous to speak of the peculiar conformation of Mr.
-Felsburg's legs. I don't recall now just what it was I said, but I do
-recall, as clearly as though it happened yesterday, the look that came
-into Judge Priest's chubby round face.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Aha!” he said; and from the way he said it I knew he was displeased with
-me. He didn't scold me, though—only he peered at me over his glasses
-until I felt my repentant soul shrivelling smaller and smaller inside of
-me; and then after a bit he said: “Aha! Well, son, I reckin mebbe you're
-right. Old Man Herman has got a funny-lookin' pair of laigs, ain't he?
-They do look kinder like a set of hames that ain't been treated kindly,
-don't they? Whut was it you said they favoured—horse collars, wasn't
-it?” I tucked a regretful head down between my hunched shoulders, making
-no reply. After another little pause he went on:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, sonny, ef you should be spared to grow up to be a man, and there
-should be a war comin' along, and you should git drawed into it someway,
-jest you remember this: Ef your laigs take you into ez many tight places
-and into ez many hard-fit fights as I've saw them little crookedy laigs
-takin' that little man, you won't have no call to feel ashamed of 'em—not
-even ef yours should be so twisted you'd have to walk backward in order to
-go furward.”
- </p>
-<p>
-At hearing this my astonishment was so great I forgot my remorse of a
-minute before. I took it for granted that off yonder, in those far-away
-days, most of the older men in our town had seen service on one side or
-the other in the Big War—mainly on the Southern side. But somehow it
-never occurred to me that Mr. Herman Felsburg might also have been a
-soldier. As far back as I recalled he had been in the clothing business.
-Boylike, I assumed he had always been in the clothing business. So——
-</p>
-<p>
-“Was Mr. Felsburg in the war?” I asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He most suttinly was,” answered Judge Priest.
-</p>
-<p>
-“As a regular sure-nuff soldier!” I asked, still in doubt.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ez a reg'lar sure-nuff soldier.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I considered for a moment.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Why, he's Jewish, ain't he, Judge?” I asked next.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So fur as my best information and belief go, he's practically exclusively
-all Jewish,” said Judge Priest with a little chuckle.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But I didn't think Jewish gentlemen ever did any fighting, Judge?”
- </p>
-<p>
-I imagine that bewilderment was in my tone, for my juvenile education was
-undergoing enlargement by leaps and bounds.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Didn't you?” he said. “Well, boy, you go to Sunday school, don't you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, yes, sir—every Sunday—nearly.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, didn't you ever hear tell at Sunday school of a little feller named
-David that taken a rock-sling and killed a big giant named Goliath?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir; but——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, that there little feller David was a Jew.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I know, sir; but—but that was so long ago!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“It was quite a spell back, and that's a fact,” agreed Judge Priest. “Even
-so, I reckin human nature continues to keep right on bein' human nature.
-You'll be findin' that out, son, when you git a little further along in
-years. They learnt you about Samson, too, didn't they—at that there
-Sunday school?”
- </p>
-<p>
-I am quite sure I must have shown enthusiasm along here. At that period
-Samson was, with me, a favourite character in history. By reason of his
-recorded performances he held rank in my estimation with Israel Putnam and
-General N. B. Forrest.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Aha!” continued the Judge. “Old Man Samson was right smart of a fighter,
-takin' one thing with another, wasn't he? Remember hearin' about that time
-when he taken the jawbone of an ass and killed up I don't know how many of
-them old Philistines?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, yes, sir. And then that other time when they cut off his hair short
-and put him in jail, and after it grew out again he pulled the temple
-right smack down and killed everybody!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“It strikes me I did hear somebody speakin' of that circumstance too. I
-expect it must have created a right smart talk round the neighbourhood.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I can hear the old Judge saying this, and I can see—across the years—the
-quizzical little wrinkles bunching at the corners of his eyes.
-</p>
-<p>
-He sat a minute looking down at me and smiling.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Samson was much of a man—and he was a Jew.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Was he?” I was shocked in a new place.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That's jest exactly what he was. And there was a man oncet named Judas—not
-the Judas you've heared about, but a feller with the full name of Judas
-Maccabæus; and he was such a pert hand at fightin' they called him the
-Hammer of the Jews. Judgin' by whut I've been able to glean about him, his
-enemies felt jest as well satisfied ef they could hear, before the
-hostilities started, that Judas was laid up sick in bed somewheres. It
-taken considerable of a load off their minds, ez you might say.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But—jest as you was sayin', son, about David—it's been a good
-while since them parties flourished. When we look back on it, it stretches
-all the way frum here to B. C.; and that's a good long stretch, and a lot
-of things have been happenin' meantime. But I sometimes git to thinkin'
-that mebbe little Herman Felsburg has got some of that old-time Jew
-fightin' blood in his veins. Anyhow, he belongs to the same breed. No,
-sirree, sonny; it don't always pay to judge a man by his laigs. You kin do
-that with reguards to a frog or a grasshopper, or even sometimes with a
-chicken; but not with a man. It ain't the shape of 'em that counts—it's
-where they'll take you in time of trouble.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He cocked his head down at me—I saying nothing at all. There didn't
-seem to be anything for me to say; so I maintained silence and he spoke
-on:
-</p>
-<p>
-“You jest bear that in mind next time you feel moved to talk about laigs.
-And ef it should happen to be Mister Felsburg's laigs that you're takin'
-fur your text, remember this whut I'm tellin' you now: They may be
-crooked; but, son, there ain't no gamer pair of laigs nowheres in this
-world. I've seen 'em carry in' him into battle when, all the time, my
-knees was knockin' together, the same ez one of these here end men in a
-minstrel show knocks his bones together. His laigs may 'a' trembled a
-little bit too—I ain't sayin' they didn't—but they kept right
-on promenadin' him up to where the trouble was; and that's the main p'int
-with a set of shanks. You jest remember that.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Being sufficiently humbled I said I would remember it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“There's still another thing about Herman Felsburg's laigs that most
-people round here don't know, neither,” added Judge Priest when I had made
-my pledge: “All up and down the back sides of his calves, and clear down
-on his shins, there's a whole passel of little red marks. There's so many
-of them little scars that they look jest like lacework on his skin.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Did he get them in the war?” I inquired eagerly, scenting a story.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No; he got them before the war came along,” said Judge Priest. “Some of
-these times, sonny, when you're a little bit older, I'll tell you a tale
-about them scars on Mr. Felsburg's laigs. There ain't many besides me that
-knows it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Couldn't I hear it now?” I asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I reckin you ain't a suitable age to understand—y it,” said Judge
-Priest. “I reckin we'd better wait a few years. But I won't for-git—I'll
-tell you when the time's ripe. Anyhow, there's somethin' else afoot now—somethin'
-that ought to interest a hongry boy.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I became aware of his house servant—Jeff Poindexter—standing
-in the hall doorway, waiting until his master concluded whatever he might
-be saying in order to make an important announcement.
-</p>
-<p>
-“All right, Jeff!” said Judge Priest. “I'll be there in a minute.” Then,
-turning to me: “Son-boy, hadn't you better stay here fur supper with me? I
-expect there's vittles enough fur two. Come on—I'll make Jeff run
-over to your house and tell your mother I kept you to supper with me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-After that memorable supper with Judge Priest—all the meals I ever
-took as his guest were memorable events and still are—ensues a
-lapse, to be measured by years, before I heard the second chapter of what
-might be called the tale of Mr. Felsburg's legs. I heard it one evening in
-the Judge's sitting room.
-</p>
-<p>
-A squeak had come into my voice, and there was a suspicion of down—a
-mere trace, as the chemists say—on my upper lip. I was in the second
-week of proud incumbency of my first regular job. I had gone to work on
-the <i>Daily Evening News</i>—the cubbiest of cub reporters, green
-as a young gourd, but proud as Potiphar over my new job and my new
-responsibilities. This time it was professional duty rather than the
-social instinct that took me to the old Judge's house.
-</p>
-<p>
-I had been charged by my editor to get from him divers litigatious facts
-relating to a decision he had that day rendered in the circuit court where
-he presided. The information having been vouchsafed, the talk took a
-various trend. Somewhere in the course of it Mr. Felsburg's name came up
-and my memory ran back like a spark along a tarred string to that other
-day when he had promised to relate to me an episode connected with certain
-small scars on those two bandy legs of our leading clothing merchant.
-</p>
-<p>
-The present occasion seemed fitting for hearing this long-delayed
-narrative. I reminded my host of his olden promise; and between puffs at
-his corncob pipe he told me the thing which I retell here and now, except
-that, for purposes of convenience, I have translated the actual wording of
-it out of Judge Priest's vernacular into my own.
-</p>
-<p>
-So doing, it devolves upon me, first off, to introduce into the main theme
-a character not heretofore mentioned—a man named Thomas Albritton, a
-farmer in our country, and at one period a prosperous one. He lived, while
-he lived—for he has been dead a good while now—six miles from
-town, on the Massac Creek Road. He lived there all his days. His father
-before him had cleared the timber off the land and built the two-room log
-house of squared logs, with the open “gallery” between. With additions,
-the house grew in time to be a rambling, roomy structure, but from first
-to last it kept its identity; and even after the last of the old tenants
-died off or moved off, and new tenants moved in, it was still known as the
-Albritton place. For all I know to the contrary, it yet goes by that name.
-</p>
-<p>
-From pioneer days on until this Thomas Albritton became heir to the farm
-and head of the family, the Albrittons had been a forehanded breed—people
-with a name for thrift. In fact, I had it that night from the old Judge
-that, for a good many years after he grew up, this Thomas Albritton
-enjoyed his due share of affluence. He raised as good a grade of tobacco
-and as many bushels of corn to the acre as anybody in the Massac Bottoms
-raised; and, so far as ready money went, he was better off than most of
-his neighbours.
-</p>
-<p>
-Perhaps, though, he was not so provident as his sire had been; or perhaps,
-in a financial way, he had in his latter years more than his share of bad
-luck. Anyhow, after a while he began to go downhill financially, which is
-another way of saying he got into debt. Piece by piece he sold off strips
-of the fertile creek lands his father had cleared. There came a day when
-he owned only the house, standing in its grove of honey locusts, and the
-twenty acres surrounding it; and the title to those remaining possessions
-was lapped and overlapped by mortgages.
-</p>
-<p>
-It is the rule of this merry little planet of ours that some must go up
-while others go down. Otherwise there would be no room at the top for
-those who climb. Mr. Herman Felsburg was one who steadily went up. When
-first I knew him he was rated among the wealthy men of our town. By local
-standards of those days he was rich—very rich. To me, then, it
-seemed that always he must have been rich. But here Judge Priest
-undeceived me.
-</p>
-<p>
-When Mr. Felsburg, after four years of honourable service as a private
-soldier in the army of the late Southern Confederacy, came back with the
-straggling handful that was left of Company B to the place where he had
-enlisted, he owned of this world's goods just the rags he stood in, plus a
-canny brain, a provident and saving instinct, and a natural aptitude for
-barter and trade.
-</p>
-<p>
-Somewhere, somehow, he scraped together a meagre capital of a few dollars,
-and with this he opened a tiny cheap-John shop down on Market Square,
-where he sold gimcracks to darkies and poor whites. He prospered—it
-was inevitable that he should prosper. He took unto himself a wife of his
-own people; and between periods of bearing him children she helped him to
-save. He brought his younger brother, Ike, over from the old country and
-made Ike a full partner with him in his growing business.
-</p>
-<p>
-Long before those of my own generation were born the little store down on
-Market Square was a reminiscence. Two blocks uptown, on the busiest corner
-in town, stood Felsburg Brothers' Oak Hall Clothing Emporium, then, as
-now, the largest and the most enterprising merchandising establishment in
-our end of the state. If you could not find it at Felsburg Brothers' you
-simply could not find it anywhere—that was all. It was more than a
-store; it was an institution, like the courthouse and the county-fair
-grounds.
-</p>
-<p>
-The multitudinous affairs of the industry he had founded did not engage
-the energies of the busy little man with the funny legs to the exclusion
-of other things. As the saying goes, he branched out. He didn't speculate—he
-was too conservative for that; but where there seemed a chance to invest
-an honest dollar with a reasonable degree of certainty of getting back,
-say, a dollar-ten in due time, he invested. Some people called it luck,
-which is what some people always call it when it turns out so; but,
-whether it was luck or just foresight, whatsoever he touched seemed bound
-to flourish and beget dividends.
-</p>
-<p>
-Eventually, as befitting one who had risen to be a commanding figure in
-the commercial affairs of the community, Mr. Felsburg became an active
-factor in its financial affairs. As a stockholder, the Commonwealth Bank
-welcomed him to its hospitable midst. Soon it saw its way clear to making
-him a director and vice president. There was promise of profit in the use
-of his name. Printed on the letterheads, it gave added solidity and added
-substantiality to the bank's roster. People liked him too. Behind his
-short round back they might gibe at the shape of his legs, and laugh at
-his ways of butchering up the English language and twisting up the
-metaphors with which he besprinkled his everyday walk and conversation;
-but, all the same, they liked him.
-</p>
-<p>
-So, in his orbit Mr. Herman Felsburg went up and up to the very peaks of
-prominence; and while he did this, that other man I have mentioned—Thomas
-Albritton—went down and down until he descended to the very bottom
-of things.
-</p>
-<p>
-In the fullness of time the lines of these two crossed, for it was at the
-Commonwealth Bank that Albritton negotiated the first and, later, the
-second of his loans upon his homestead. Indeed, it was Mr. Felsburg who
-both times insisted that Albritton be permitted to borrow, even though,
-when the matter of making the second mortgage came up, another director,
-who specialised in county property, pointed out that, to begin with,
-Albritton wasn't doing very well; and that, in the second place, the
-amount of his indebtedness already was as much and very possibly more than
-as much as the farm would bring at forced sale.
-</p>
-<p>
-Even though the bank bought it in to protect itself—and in his
-gloomy mind's eye this director foresaw such a contingency—it might
-mean a cash loss; but Mr. Felsburg stood pat; and, against the judgment of
-his associates, he had his way about it. Subsequently, when Mr. Felsburg
-himself offered to relieve the bank of all possibility of an ultimate
-deficit by buying Albritton's paper, the rest of the board felt relieved.
-Practically by acclamation he was permitted to do so.
-</p>
-<p>
-Of this, however, the borrower knew nothing at all, Mr. Felsburg having
-made it a condition that his purchase should be a private transaction. So
-far as the borrower's knowledge went, he owed principal and interest to
-the bank. There was no reason why Albritton should suspect that Mr. Herman
-Felsburg took any interest, selfish or otherwise, in his affairs, or that
-Mr. Felsburg entertained covetous designs upon his possessions. Mr.
-Felsburg wasn't a money lender. He was a clothing merchant. And Albritton
-wasn't a business man—his present condition, stripped as he was of
-most of his inheritance, and with the remaining portion heavily
-encumbered, gave ample proof of that.
-</p>
-<p>
-Besides, the two men scarcely knew each other. Albritton was an occasional
-customer at the Oak Hall. But, for the matter of that, so was nearly
-everybody else in Red Gravel County; and when he came in to make a
-purchase it was never the senior member of the firm but always one of the
-clerks who served him. At such times Mr. Felsburg, from the back part of
-the store, would watch Mr. Albritton steadily. He never approached him,
-never offered to speak to him; but he watched him.
-</p>
-<p>
-One day, not so very long after the date when Mr. Felsburg privately took
-over the mortgages on the Albritton place, Albritton drove in with a load
-of tobacco for the Buckner & Keys Warehouse; and, leaving his team and
-loaded wagon outside, he went into the Oak Hall to buy something. Adolph
-Dreifus, one of the salesmen, waited on him as he often had before.
-</p>
-<p>
-The owners of the establishment were at the moment engaged in conference
-in the rear of the store. Mr. Ike Felsburg was urging, with all the
-eloquence at his command, the advisability of adding a line of trunks and
-suit cases to the stock—a venture which he personally strongly
-favoured—when he became aware that his brother was not heeding what
-he had to say. Instead of heeding, Mr. Herman was peering along a vista of
-counters and garment racks to where Adolph Dreifus stood on one side of a
-show case and Tom Albritton stood on the other. There was a queer
-expression on Mr. Felsburg's face. His eyes were squinted and his tongue
-licked at his lower lip.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hermy,” said the younger man, irritated that his brother's attention
-should go wandering afar while a subject of such importance was under
-discussion, “Hermy, would you please be so good as to listen to me what I
-am saying to you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-There was no answer. Mr. Herman continued to stare straight ahead. Mr. Ike
-raised his voice impatiently:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hermy!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The older man turned on him with such suddenness that Mr. Ike almost
-slipped off the stool upon which he was perched.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What's the idea—yelling in my ear like a graven image?” demanded
-Mr. Herman angrily. “Do you think maybe I am deef or something?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But, Hermy,” complained Mr. Ike, “you ain't listening at all. Twice now I
-have to call you; in fact, three times.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Is that so?” said Mr. Herman with elaborate sarcasm. “I suppose you think
-I got nothing whatever at all to do except I should listen to you? If I
-should spend all my time listening to you where would this here Oak Hall
-Clothing Emporium be? I should like to ask you that. Gabble, gabble,
-gabble all day long—that is you! Me, I don't talk so much; but I do
-some thinking.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But this is important, what I am trying to tell you, Hermy. Why should
-you be watching yonder, with a look on your face like as if you would like
-to bite somebody? Adolph Dreifus ain't so dumb in the head but what he
-could sell a pair of suspenders or something without your glaring at him
-every move what he makes.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Did I say I was looking at Adolph Dreifus?” asked Mr. Herman truculently.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, then, if you ain't looking at Adolph, why should you look so hard
-at that Albritton fellow? He don't owe us any money, so far as I know. For
-what he gets he pays cash, else we positively wouldn't let him have the
-goods. I've seen you acting like this before, Hermy. Every time that
-Albritton comes in this place you drop whatever you are doing and hang
-round and hang round, watching him. I noticed it before; and I should like
-to ask——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Mister Ikey Felsburg,” said Mr. Herman slowly, “if you could mind your
-own business I should possibly be able to mind mine. Remember this, if you
-please—I look at who I please. You are too nosey and you talk too
-damn much with your mouth! I am older than what you are; and I tell you
-this—a talking jaw gathers no moss. Also, I would like to know, do
-my eyes belong to me or do they maybe belong to you, and you have just
-loaned 'em to me for a temporary accommodation?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But, Hermy——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Ike, shut up!”
- </p>
-<p>
-And Mr. Ike, warned by the tone in his brother's voice, shut up.
-</p>
-<p>
-One afternoon, perhaps six months after this passage between the two
-partners, Mr. Herman crossed the street from the Oak Hall to the
-Commonwealth Bank to make a deposit.
-</p>
-<p>
-Through his wicket window Herb Kivil, the cashier, spoke to him, lowering
-his voice: “Oh, Mr. Felsburg; you remember that Albritton matter you were
-speaking to me about week before last?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg nodded.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, the last interest payment is more than a month overdue now; and, on
-top of that, Albritton still owes the payment that was due three months
-before that. There's not a chance in the world of his being able to pay
-up. He practically admitted as much when he was in here last, asking for
-more time. So I've followed your instructions in the matter.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“That's a good boy, Herby—a very good boy,” said Mr. Felsburg,
-seemingly much gratified. “You wrote him, then, like I told you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir; I wrote him. Yesterday I served notice on him by mail that we
-would have to go ahead and foreclose right away. So this morning he called
-me up by telephone from out in the country and asked us to hold off,
-please, until he could come in here and talk the thing over again.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Does he think maybe he can pay his just debts with talk?” inquired Mr.
-Felsburg.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, if he does I'll mighty soon undeceive him,” said Kivil. “And yet I
-can't help but feel sorry for the poor devil—he's had an awful run
-of luck, by all accounts. But here's the thing I mainly wanted to speak to
-you about: You see, he still thinks the bank holds these mortgages. He
-doesn't know you bought 'em from the bank; and what I wanted to ask you
-was this: Do you want me to tell him the truth when he comes in, or would
-you rather I waited and let him find it out for himself when the
-foreclosure goes through and the sheriff takes possession?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Don't do neither one,” ordered Mr. Felsburg. “You should call him up
-right away and tell him to come in to see about it to-morrow at ten
-o'clock. And then, Herby, when he does come in, you should tell him he
-should step over to the Oak Hall and see me in my office. That's all what
-you should tell him. I got reasons of my own why I should prefer to break
-the news to him myself. Understand, Herby?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I understand, Mr. Felsburg,” said Mr. Kivil. “The minute he steps in here—before
-he's had time to open up the subject—I'm to send him over to see
-you. Is that right?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“That's exactly right, Herby.” And, with pleased puckers at the corners of
-his eyes, Mr. Felsburg turned away and went stumping out.
-</p>
-<p>
-Physically Mr. Felsburg didn't in the least suggest a cat, and yet, after
-he was gone, Cashier Kivil found himself likening Mr. Felsburg to a cat
-with long claws—a cat that would play a long time with a captive
-mouse before killing it. He turned to his assistant, Emanuel Moon.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What's bred in the bone is bound to show sooner or later,” said Herb
-Kivil sagely. “I never thought of it before—but I guess there must
-be a mighty mean streak in Mr. Felsburg somewheres. I know this much: I'd
-hate mightily to owe him any money. Did you see that look on his face? He
-looked like a regular little old Shylock. I'll bet you he takes his pound
-of flesh every pop—with an extra half pound or so thrown in for good
-measure.” Long before ten o'clock the following morning Mr. Felsburg sat
-waiting in his little cubicle of a private office on the mezzanine floor
-at the back of the Oak Hall. He kept taking out his watch and looking at
-it. About ten minutes past the hour one of the clerks climbed the stairs
-to tell him that Mr. Thomas Albritton, from out in the Massac Creek
-neighbourhood, was below, asking to see him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“All right,” said Mr. Felsburg; “you should send him up here to me right
-away. Tell him I said, please, he should step this way.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Presently, the clunk of heavy feet sounding on the steps, Mr. Felsburg
-reared himself back in his chair at his desk with an expectant, eager look
-on his face. In the doorway at the top of the stairs appeared the man for
-whom he waited—a middle-aged man with slumped shoulders, in worn,
-soiled garments, and in every line of his harassed face expressing the
-fact that here stood a failure, mutely craving the pardon of the world for
-being a failure. The yellow dust of country roads was thick, like powdered
-sulphur, in the wrinkles of his shoes and the creases of his shabby old
-coat. He had his hat in his hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Good mornin', Mr. Felsburg,” he said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Morning!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg returned the greeting with a sharp and businesslike brevity.
-He did not invite the caller to seat himself. In the small room there was
-but one chair—the one that held Mr. Felsburg's short form. So,
-during the early part of the scene that followed, Albritton continued to
-stand, while Mr. Felsburg enjoyed the advantage of being seated and at his
-ease where, without stirring, he might, from beneath his lowered brows,
-look the other up and down.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I've just come from over at the Commonwealth Bank,” said Albritton,
-fumbling his hat. “I came in to see about getting an extension on my
-loans, and Mr. Kivil, over there, said I was to come on over here and talk
-to you first. He said you wanted to see me 'bout something—if I
-understood him right.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg nodded in affirmation of this, but made no other reply.
-Albritton, having halted for a moment, went on again:
-</p>
-<p>
-“I suppose you want to talk to me about my affairs, you being a director
-of the bank?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And also, furthermore, vice president,” supplemented Mr. Felsburg.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, suh. Just so. And that's what made me suppose—”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg raised a fat, short hand upon which the biggest, whitest
-diamond in Red Gravel County glittered.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You should not talk with me as an officer of that bank—if you will
-be so good, please,” he stated. “You should talk with me now as an
-individual.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“An individual? I'm afraid I don't understand you, suh.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Pretty soon you will, Mr. Albritton. This is an individual matter—just
-between you and me; because I, and not the bank, am the party what holds
-these here mortgages on your place.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You hold 'em?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Sure! I bought both those mortgages off the bank quite some time ago. I
-own those mortgages—and not anybody else whatsoever.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But I thought—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You don't need to think. You need only that you should listen at what I
-am telling you now. It is me—Herman Felsburg, Esquire, of the Oak
-Hall Clothing Emporium—to which you owe this money, principal and
-likewise interest. So we will talk together, man to man, if you please,
-Mr. Albritton. Do I make myself plain? I do.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The debtor dropped to his side the hand with which he had been rubbing a
-perplexed forehead. A little gleam, as of hope reawakening, came into his
-eyes.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, suh,” he said, “you sort of take me by surprise—I didn't have
-any idea that was the state of the case at all. Then, all along, the bank
-has just been representing you in the matter?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“As my agent—yes,” said the little merchant. “Well, to tell you the
-truth, I'm not sorry to hear it,” said Albritton. “A bank has got its
-rules, I reckin, and has to live up to 'em. But, dealing with you, suh, as
-an individual, is another thing altogether. Anyhow, I'm hoping so, Mr.
-Felsburg.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How you make that out?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg's tone was so sharply staccato that Albritton's face fell a
-little.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, suh, I'm hoping that maybe you can see your way clear not to
-foreclose on me just yet a while. I'd hate mightily to lose my home—I
-would so! I was born there, Mr. Felsburg. And I've got a sickly wife and a
-whole houseful of children. I don't know where I'd turn to get another
-roof over their heads if I was driven off my place. I know I owe you the
-money and by law you're entitled to it; but I certainly would appreciate
-the favour if you'd give me a little more time.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“So? And was there any other little favour you'd like to ask from me, Mr.
-Albritton?” inquired Mr. Felsburg with impressive politeness.
-</p>
-<p>
-Perhaps the other missed the note in the speaker's voice; or perhaps he
-was merely desperate. A drowning man does not pick and choose the straws
-at which he grasps.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, suh; since you bring up the subject yourself, there is something
-else, Mr. Felsburg. If you can see your way clear to giving me a little
-time, and, on top of that, if you could loan me, say, four hundred dollars
-more to help carry me over until fall, I believe I can pay you back
-everything and start clean and clear again.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“So-o-o!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg turned himself in his chair, showing his back to his visitor,
-and, taking up a pen, bent over his desk and for a minute wrote briskly,
-as though to record notes of the proposition. Then he swung back again,
-facing Albritton.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Let me see if I get you right, Mr. Albritton,” he said, speaking slowly
-and prolonging the suspense. “Already you owe me money; and now, instead
-of paying up what you owe, you should like to borrow yet some more money,
-eh? What security should you expect to give, Mr. Albritton?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Only my word and my promise, Mr. Felsburg,” pleaded Albritton. “You don't
-know me very well; but if you'll inquire round you'll find out I've got
-the name for being an honest man, even if I have had a power of hard luck
-these last few years. I ain't a drinking man, Mr. Felsburg, and I'm a hard
-worker. If there was somebody I knew better than I know you I'd go to him;
-but there ain't anybody. I'm right at the end of my rope—I ain't got
-anywhere to turn.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I'm confident, if you'll give me a little help, Mr. Felsburg, I can make
-out to get a new start. But if I'm put off my place now I'll lose the crop
-I've put in—lose all my time and my labour too. It looks like
-tobacco is going to fetch a better price this fall than it's fetched for
-three or four years back, and the young plants I've put in are coming up
-mighty promising. But I need money to carry me over until I can get my
-tobacco cured and marketed. Don't you see how it is with me, Mr. Felsburg?
-Just a little temporary accommodation from you and I'm certain—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Business is business, Mr. Albritton,” said Mr. Felsburg, cutting in on
-him. “And all my life I have been a business man. Is it good business, I
-should like to ask you, that I should loan you yet more money when already
-you owe me money which you cannot pay? Huh, Mr. Albritton?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Maybe it ain't good business; but, just as one human being to another—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh! So now you put it that way? Well, suit yourself. We talk, then, as
-two human beings, eh? We make this a personal matter, eh? Good! That also
-is how I should prefer it should be. Listen to me for one little minute,
-Mr. Albritton. I am going to speak with you about a small matter which
-happened quite a long while ago. Do you perhaps re-member something which
-happened in the spring of the year eighteen hundred and sixty—the
-year before the war broke out?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Why, yes,” said Albritton after a moment of puzzled thought. “That was
-the year my father died and left me the place; the same year that I got
-married too. I wasn't but just twenty-two years old then. But I don't get
-your drift, Mr. Felsburg. What's the year eighteen-sixty got to do with
-you and me?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I'm coming to that pretty soon,” said Mr. Felsburg. He sat up straight
-now, his eyes ashine and his hands clenched on the arms of his chair. “Do
-you perhaps remember something else which also happened in that year, Mr.
-Albritton?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I can't say as I do,” confessed the puzzled countryman.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Then, if you'll be so good as to listen, Mr. Albritton, I should be
-pleased to tell you. Maybe I have got a better memory than what your
-memory is. Also, maybe I have got something on me to remember it by. Now
-you listen to me!
-</p>
-<p>
-“There was a hot day in the springtime of that year, when you sat on the
-porch of your house out there in the country, and a little young Jew-boy
-pedlar came up your lane from the road, with a pack on his back; and he
-opened the gate of your horse lot, in the front of your house, and he came
-through that gate.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And you was sitting there on your porch, just like I am telling you; and
-you yelled to him that he should get out—that you did not want to
-buy nothing from him. Well, maybe he was new in this country and could not
-understand all what you meant. Or maybe it was that he was very tired and
-hot, and that he only wanted to ask you to let him sit down and take his
-heavy pack off his back, and drink some cool water out of your well, and
-maybe rest a little while there. And maybe, too, he had not sold anything
-at all that day and hoped that if he showed you what he had you would
-perhaps change your mind and buy something from him—just a little
-something, so that his whole day would not be wasted.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So he came through that gate of your horse lot and he kept on coming. And
-then you cursed at him, and you told him again he should get out. But he
-kept coming. And then you called your dogs. And two dogs came—big,
-mean dogs—out from under your house.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And when he saw the dogs come from under the house, that young Jew boy he
-turned round and he tried to run away and save himself. But the pack on
-his back was heavy, and he was already so very tired, like I am telling
-you, from walking in the sun all day. And so he could not run fast. And
-the dogs they soon caught him, and they bit him many times in the legs;
-and then he was more worse scared than before and the biting hurt him very
-much, and he cried out.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But you stood there on your porch; and you clapped your two hands
-together and you laughed to hear that poor little pedlar boy cry out. And
-your dogs chased him away down the lane, and they bit him still more in
-his legs. Maybe perhaps you thought a poor Jew would not have feelings the
-same as you? Maybe perhaps you thought he would not bleed when those sharp
-teeth bit him in his legs? So you clapped your hands and you laughed to
-see him run and to hear him yell out that way. Do you remember all that,
-Mr. Albritton?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He stood up now, shaking all over; and his eyes glittered to match the
-diamond on his quivering hand. They glittered like two little hard bright
-stones.
-</p>
-<p>
-Under the tan the face of the man at whom he glared turned a dull
-brick-dust red. Albritton put up a hand to one burning cheek; and as he
-made answer the words came from him haltingly, self-accusingly:
-</p>
-<p>
-“I don't remember it, Mr. Felsburg; but if you say it's true—why, I
-reckin it must 'a' happened just the way you tell it. It was a low-down,
-cruel, mean thing to do; and if it was me I'm sorry for it—even now,
-after all these years. I wasn't much more than a boy, though; and—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You were a grown man, Mr. Albritton; anyhow, you were older than the
-little pedlar boy that your dogs bit. You say you are sorry now; but you
-forgot about it, didn't you?
-</p>
-<p>
-“I didn't forget about it, Mr. Albritton! All these years I have not
-forgotten it. All these years I have been waiting for this day to make you
-sorry. All these years I have been waiting for this day to get even with
-you. I was that little Jew boy, Mr. Albritton. In my legs I have now the
-red marks from your dogs' teeth. And so now you come here and you stand
-here before me”—he raised his chubby clenched fists and shook them—“and
-you—you—you—ask me that I should do you favours!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Mr. Felsburg,” said Albritton—and his figure drooped as though he
-would prostrate himself before the triumphant little man—“I ain't
-saying this because I hope to get any help from you in a money way—I
-know there's no chance of that now—I'm saying it because I mean it
-from the bottom of my soul. I'm sorry. If I thought you'd believe me I'd
-be willing to go down on my knees and take my Bible oath that I'm sorry.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You should save yourself the trouble, Mr. Albritton,” said Mr. Felsburg,
-calmer now. “In the part of your Bible which I believe in it says 'An eye
-for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' Mr. Albritton.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“All right!” said Albritton. “You've had your say—you're even with
-me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He turned from the gloating figure of the other and started to go. From
-the chair in which he had reseated himself, Felsburg, a pic-ture of
-vengeance gratified and sated, watched him, saying nothing until the
-bankrupt had descended the first step of the stairs and the second. Then
-he spoke.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You wait!” he ordered in the tone of a master. “I am not yet done.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What's the use?” said Albritton; but he faced about, humbled and crushed.
-“There ain't anything you could say or do that would make me feel any
-worse.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Come back!” bade Felsburg; and, like a man whipped, the other came back
-to the doorway.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You're even with me, I tell you,” he said from the threshold. “What's the
-use of piling it on?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Mr. Felsburg did not answer in words. He reached behind him to his desk,
-wadded up something in his fingers, and, once more rising, he advanced,
-with his figure distended, on Albritton. Albritton flinched, then
-straightened himself.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hit me if you want to,” he said brokenly. “I won't hit back if you do. I
-deserve it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, I will hit you,” said Felsburg. “With this I will hit you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Into Albritton's right hand he thrust a crumpled slip of paper. At the
-wadded paper Albritton stared numbly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I don't know what you are driving at,” he said; “but, if this is a notice
-of foreclosure, I don't need any notice.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Look at it—close,” bade Felsburg.
-</p>
-<p>
-And Albritton, obeying, looked; and his face turned from red to white and
-then to red again.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Now you see what it is,” said Felsburg. “It is my check for four hundred
-dollars. I loan it to you—without security; and to-day I fix up
-those mortgages for you. Mr. Albritton, I am even with you. All the days
-from now on that you live in your house I am getting even with you—more
-and more every day what passes. And now, please, go away.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He turned from the other, ignoring the fumbling hand that would have taken
-his own in its grasp; and, resting his elbows on his desk, he put his face
-in his cupped palms and spoke from between his fingers:
-</p>
-<p>
-“I ask you again—please go away!”
- </p>
-<p>
-When Judge Priest had finished telling me the story, in form much as I
-have retold it here, he sat back, drawing hard on his pipe, which had gone
-out. Bewildered, I pondered the climax of the tale.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But if Mr. Felsburg really wanted to get even,” I said at length, “what
-made him give that man the money?”
- </p>
-<p>
-The Judge scratched a match on a linen-clad flank and applied the flame to
-the pipe-bowl; and then, between puffs, made answer slowly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Son,” he said, “you jest think it over in your spare time. I reckin mebbe
-when you're a little older the answer'll come to you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-And sure enough, when I was a little older it did.
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER IV. THE GARB OF MEN
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HEY used to say—and how long ago it seems since they used to say
-it!—that the world would never see another world war. They said that
-the planet, being more or less highly civilised with regard to its
-principal geographical divisions, and in the main peaceably inclined,
-would never again send forth armed millions to slit the throats of yet
-other armed millions. That was what they said back yonder in 1912 and
-1913, and in the early part of 1914 even.
-</p>
-<p>
-But something happened—something unforeseen and unexpected and
-unplausible happened. And, at that, the structure of amity between the
-nations which so carefully had been built up on treaty and pledge, so
-shrewdly tongued-and-grooved by the promises of Christian statesmen, so
-beautifully puttied up by the prayers of Christian men, so excellently
-dovetailed and mortised and rabbeted together, all at once broke down,
-span by span; just as it is claimed that a fiddler who stations himself in
-the middle of a bridge and plays upon his fiddle a certain note may, if
-only he keeps up his playing long enough, play down that bridge, however
-strong and well-piered it is.
-</p>
-<p>
-We still regard the fiddle theory as a fable concocted upon a hypothesis
-of physics; but when that other thing happened—a thing utterly
-inconceivable—we so quickly adjusted ourselves to it that at once
-yesterday's impossibility became to-day's actuality and to-mor-row's
-certain prospect.
-</p>
-<p>
-This war having begun, they said it could not at the very most last more
-than a few months; that the countries immediately concerned could not, any
-of them, for very long withstand the drains upon them in men and money and
-munitions and misery; that the people at home would rise in revolt against
-the stupid malignity of it, if the men at the front did not.
-</p>
-<p>
-Only a few war-seasoned elderly men, including one in a War Office at
-London and one in a General Staff at Berlin and one in a Cabinet Chamber
-at Paris, warned their respective people to prepare themselves for a
-struggle bloodier, and more violent and costlier, and possibly more
-prolonged, than any war within the memories of living men.
-</p>
-<p>
-At first we couldn't believe that either; none of us could believe it. But
-those old men were right and the rest of us were wrong. The words of the
-war wiseacres came true.
-</p>
-<p>
-Presently we beheld enacted the intolerable situation they had predicted;
-and in our own country at least the tallies of dead, as enumerated in the
-foreign dispatches, began to mean to us only headlines on the second page
-of the morning paper.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then they said that when, by slaughter and maiming and incredible
-exertion, the manhood of Europe had been decimated to a given point the
-actual physical exhaustion of the combatants would force all the armies to
-a standstill. But the thing went on.
-</p>
-<p>
-It went on through its first year and through its second year. We saw it
-going on into its third year, with no sign of abatement, no evidence of a
-weakening anywhere among the states and the peoples immediately affected.
-We saw our own country drawn into it. And so, figuring what might lie in
-front of us and them by what laid behind, we might, without violence to
-credibility, figure it as going on until all of Britain's able-bodied
-adult male population wore khaki or had been buried in it; until sundry
-millions of the men of France were corpses or on crutches; until Germania
-had scraped and harrowed and combed her domains for cannon fodder; until
-Russia's countless supply of prime human grist for the red hopper of this
-red mill no longer was countless but countable.
-</p>
-<p>
-There is a town in the northern part of the Republic of France called
-Courney. Rather, I should say that once upon a time there was such a town.
-Considered as a town, bearing the outward manifestations of a town and
-nourishing within it the communal spirit of a town, it ceased to exist
-quite a time back. Nevertheless, it is with that town, or with the recent
-site of it, that this story purports to deal.
-</p>
-<p>
-There is no particular need of our trying to recreate the picture of it as
-it was before the war began. Before the war it was one of a vast number of
-suchlike drowsy, cosy little towns lying, each one of them, in the midst
-of tilled fat acres on the breasts of a pleasant land; a town with the
-grey highroad running through it to form its main street, and with farms
-and orchards and vineyards and garden patches round about it; so that in
-the springtime, when the orchard trees bloomed and the grapevines put
-forth their young leaves and the wind blew, it became a little island, set
-in the centre of a little, billowy green-and-white sea; a town of snug
-small houses of red brick and grey brick, with a priest and a mayor, a
-schoolhouse and a beet-sugar factory, a town well for the gossips and a
-town shrine for the devout.
-</p>
-<p>
-Nor is there any especial necessity for us to try to describe it as it was
-after the war had rolled forward and back and forward again over it; for
-then it was transformed as most of those small towns that lay in the
-tracks of the hostile armies were transformed. It became a ruin, a most
-utter and complete and squalid ruin, filled with sights that were affronts
-to the eye and smells that were abominations to the nose.
-</p>
-<p>
-In this place there abode, at the time of which I aim to write, a few
-living creatures. They were human beings, but they had ceased to exist
-after the ordinary fashion of human beings in this twentieth century of
-ours. So often, in the first months and the first years of the war, had
-their simple but ample standards been forcibly upset that by now almost
-they had forgotten such standards had ever been.
-</p>
-<p>
-To them yesterday was a dimming memory, and to-morrow a dismal prospect
-without hope in it of anything better. To-day was all and everything to
-them; each day was destiny itself. Just to get through it with breath of
-life in one's body and rags over one's hide and a shelter above one's head—that
-was the first and the last of their aim. They lived not because life was
-worth while any more, but because to keep on living is an instinct, and
-because most human beings are so blessed—or, maybe, so cursed—with
-a certain adaptability of temperament, a certain inherent knack of
-adjustability that they may endure anything—even the unendurable—if
-only they have ceased to think about the past and to fret about the
-future.
-</p>
-<p>
-And these people in this town had ceased to think. They were out of habit
-with thinking. A long time before, their sensibilities had been rocked to
-sleep by the everlasting lullaby of the cannon; their imaginations were
-wrapped in a smoky coma. They lived on without conscious effort, without
-conscious ambition, almost without conscious desire: just as blind worms
-live under a bank, or slugs in a marsh, or protoplasms in a pond.
-</p>
-<p>
-Once, twice, three times Courney had been a stepping-stone in the swept
-and garnished pathways of battle. Back in September of 1914 the Germans,
-sweeping southward as an irresistible force, took possession of this town,
-after shelling it quite flat with their big guns to drive out the
-defending garrison of French and British. Then, a little later, in front
-of Paris the irresistible force met the immovable body and answered the
-old, old question of the scientists; and, as the Germans fell back to dig
-themselves in along the Somme and the Aisne, there was again desperate
-hard fighting here, and many, very many, lives were spent in the effort of
-one side to take and retain, and of the other to gain and hold fast, the
-little peaky heaps of wreckage protruding above the stumps of the wasted
-orchard trees.
-</p>
-<p>
-Now, though, for a long time things had been quiet in Courney. Though
-placed in debatable territory, as the campaign experts regard debatable
-territory, it had lapsed into an eddy and a backwater of war, becoming, so
-to speak, a void and a vacuum amid the twisting currents of the war. In
-the core of a tornado there may be calm while about it the vortex swirls
-and twists. If this frequently is true of windstorms it occasionally is
-true of wars.
-</p>
-<p>
-Often to the right of them and to the left of them, sometimes far in front
-of them, and once in a while far back in the rear of them, those who still
-abode at Courney heard the distant voices of the big guns; but their place
-of habitation, by reasons of shifts in the war game, was no longer on a
-route of communication between separate groups of the same fighting force.
-It was not even on a line of travel. No news of the world beyond their
-limited horizon seeped in to them. They did not know how went the war—who
-won or who lost—and almost they had quit desiring to know. What does
-one colony of blind worms in a bank care how fares it with colonies of
-blind worms in other banks?
-</p>
-<p>
-You think this state of apathy could not come to pass? Well, I know that
-it can, because with my own eyes I saw it coming to pass in the times
-while yet the war was new; while it yet was a shock and an affront to our
-beliefs; and you must remember that now I write of a much later time, when
-the world war had become the world's custom.
-</p>
-<p>
-Also, could you have looked in upon the surviving remnant of the
-inhabitants of Courney, you would have had a clearer and fuller
-corroboration of the fact I state, because then you would have seen that
-here in this place lived only those who were too old or too feeble to
-care, or else were too young to understand.
-</p>
-<p>
-All tallied, there were not more then than twenty remaining of two or
-three hundred who once had been counted as the people of this
-inconsequential village; and of these but two were individuals in what
-ordinarily would be called the prime of life.
-</p>
-<p>
-One of these two was a French petty officer, whose eyes had been shot out,
-and who, having been left behind in the first retreat toward Paris, had
-been forgotten, and had stayed behind ever since. The other had likewise
-been a soldier. He was a Breton peasant. His disability seemed slight
-enough when he sustained it. A bullet bored across the small of his back,
-missing the spine. But the bullet bore with it minute fragments of his
-uniform coat; and so laden with filth had his outer garments become, after
-weeks and months of service in the field, that, with the fragments of
-cloth, germs of tetanus had been carried into his flesh also, and lockjaw
-had followed.
-</p>
-<p>
-Being as strong as a bullock, he had weathered the hideous agonies of his
-disease; but it left him beset with an affliction like a queer sort of
-palsy, which affected his limbs, his tongue, and the nerves and muscles of
-his face.
-</p>
-<p>
-Continually he twitched all over. He moved by a series of spasmodic jerks,
-and when he sought to speak the sounds he uttered came out from his
-contorted throat in slobbery, unintelligible gasps and grunts. He was sane
-enough, but he had the look about him of being an idiot.
-</p>
-<p>
-Besides these two there were three or four very aged, very infirm men on
-the edge of their dotage; likewise some women, including one masterful,
-high-tempered old woman and a younger woman who wept continuously, with a
-monotonous mewing sound, for a husband who was dead in battle and for a
-fourteen-year-old son who had vanished altogether out of her life, and
-who, for all she knew, was dead too. The rest were children—young
-children, and a baby or so. There were no sizable youths whatsoever, and
-no girls verging on maidenhood, remaining in this place.
-</p>
-<p>
-So this small group was what was left of Courney. Their houses being gone
-and family ties for the most part wiped out, they consorted together in a
-rude communal system which a common misery had forced upon them. Theirs
-was the primitive socialism that the cave dweller may have known in his
-tribe. As I say, their houses were gone; so they denned in holes where the
-cellars under the houses had been. Time had been when they fled to the
-shelter of these holes as the fighting, swinging northward or southward,
-included Courney in its orbit.
-</p>
-<p>
-Afterward they had contrived patchwork roofage to keep out the worst of
-the weather; and now they called these underground shelters home, which
-was an insult to the word home. Once they had had horse meat to eat—the
-flesh of killed cavalry mounts and wagon teams. Now perforce they were
-vegetarians, living upon cabbages and beets and potatoes which grew half
-wild in the old garden patches, and on a coarse bran bread made of a flour
-ground by hand out of the grain that sprouted in fields where real
-harvests formerly had grown.
-</p>
-<p>
-The more robust and capable among the adults cultivated these poor crops
-in a pecking and puny sort of way. The children went clothed in ancient
-rags, which partly covered their undeveloped and stunted bodies, and
-played in the rubbish; and sometimes in their play they delved too deep
-and uncovered grisly and horrible objects. On sunny days the blind soldier
-and the palsied one sat in the sunshine, and when it rained they took
-refuge with the others in whichever of the leaky burrows was handiest for
-them to reach. If they walked the Breton towed his mate in a crippling,
-zigzag course, for one lacked the eyes to see where he went and the other
-lacked the ability to steer his afflicted legs on a direct line.
-</p>
-<p>
-The wreckage of rafters and beams and house furnishings provided abundant
-supplies of wood and for fires. By a kind of general assent, headship and
-authority were vested jointly in the old tempestuous woman and the blind
-man, for the reasons that she had the strongest body and the most resolute
-will, and he the keenest mind of them all.
-</p>
-<p>
-So these people lived along, without a priest to give them comfort by his
-preaching; without a physician to mend their ailments; with no set code of
-laws to be administered and none to administer them. Existence for them
-was reduced to its raw elementals. Since frequently they heard the big
-guns sounding distantly and faintly, they knew that the war still went on.
-And, if they gave the matter a thought, to them it seemed that the war
-always would go on. Time and the passage of time meant little. A day was
-merely a period of lightness marked at one end by a sunrise and at the
-other by a sunset; and when that was over and darkness had come, they
-bedded themselves down under fouled and ragged coverlids and slept the
-dumb, dreamless sleep of the lower animals. Except for the weeping woman
-who went about with her red eyes continually streaming and her whining
-wail forever sounding, no one among them seemingly gave thought to those
-of their own kinspeople and friends who were dead or scattered or missing.
-</p>
-<p>
-Well, late one afternoon in the early fall of the year, the workers had
-quit their tasks and were gathering in toward a common centre, before the
-oncoming of dusk, when they heard cries and beheld the crotchety old woman
-who shared leadership with the blinded man, running toward them. She had
-been gathering beets in one of the patches to the southward of their
-ruins; and now, as she came at top speed along the path that marked where
-their main street had once been, threading her way swiftly in and out
-among the grey mounds of rubbish, she held a burden of the red roots in
-her long bony arms.
-</p>
-<p>
-She lumbered up, out of breath, to tell them she had seen soldiers
-approaching from the south. Since it was from that direction they came,
-these soldiers doubtlessly would be French soldiers; and, that being so,
-the dwellers in Courney need feel no fear of mistreatment at their hands.
-Nevertheless, always before, the coming of soldiers had meant fighting;
-so, without waiting to spy out their number or to gauge from their
-movements a hint of their possible intentions, she had hastened to spread
-the alarm.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I saw them quite plainly!” she cried out between pants for breath. “They
-have marched out of the woods yonder—the woods that bound the fields
-below where the highroad to Laon ran in the old days. And now they are
-spreading out across the field, to the right and the left. Infantry they
-are, I think—and they have a machine gun with them.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How many, grandmother? How many of them are there?”
- </p>
-<p>
-It was the eyeless man who asked the question. He had straightened up from
-where he sat, and stood erect, with his arms groping before him and his
-nostrils dilated.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No great number,” answered the old woman; “perhaps two companies—perhaps
-a battalion. And as they came nearer to me they looked—they looked
-so queer!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How? How? What do you mean by queer?” It was the blind man seeking to
-know.
-</p>
-<p>
-She dropped her burden of beetroots and threw out her hands in a gesture
-of helplessness.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Queer!” she repeated stupidly. “Their clothes now—their clothes
-seemed not to fit them. They are such queer-looking soldiers—for
-Frenchmen.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, if only the good God would give me back my eyes for one little hour!”
- cried the blind man impotently. Then, in a different voice, “What is
-that?” he said, and swung about, facing north. His ears, keener than
-theirs, as a blind man's ears are apt to be, had caught, above the babble
-of their excited voices, another sound.
-</p>
-<p>
-Scuttling, shuffling, half falling, the palsied man, moving at the best
-speed of which he was capable, rounded a heap of shattered grey masonry
-that had once been the village church, and made toward the clustered group
-of them. His jaws worked spasmodically. With one fluttering hand he
-pointed, over his left shoulder, behind him. He strove to speak words, but
-from his throat issued only clicking, slobbery grunts and gasps.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What is it now?” demanded the old woman.
-</p>
-<p>
-She clutched him, forcing him to a quaking standstill. He kept on gurgling
-and kept on pointing.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Soldiers? Are there more soldiers coming?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He nodded eagerly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“From the north?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He made signs of assent.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Frenchmen?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He shook his head until it seemed he would shake it off his shoulders.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Germans, then? From that way the Germans are coming, eh?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Again he nodded, making queer movements with his hands, the meaning of
-which they could not interpret. Indeed, none there waited to try. With one
-accord they started for the deepest and securest of their burrows—the
-one beneath the battered-down sugar-beet factory. Its fallen walls and its
-shattered roof made a lid, tons heavy and yards thick, above the cellar of
-it. In times of fighting it had been their safest refuge. So once more
-they ran to hide themselves there. The ragged children scurried on ahead
-like a flight of autumn leaves. The very old men and the women followed
-after the children; and behind all the rest, like a rearguard, went the
-cripple and the old woman, steering the blind man between them.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the gullet of a little tunnel-like opening leading down to the deep
-basement below, these three halted a brief moment; and the palsied man and
-the woman, looking backward, were in time to see a skirmisher in the
-uniform of a French foot soldier cross a narrow vista in the ruins,
-perhaps a hundred yards away, and vanish behind a culm of broken masonry.
-Seen at that distance, he seemed short, squatty—almost gnomish. Back
-in the rear of him somewhere a bugle sounded a halting, uncertain blast,
-which trailed off suddenly to nothing, as though the bugler might be out
-of breath; and then—pow, pow, pow!—the first shots sounded.
-High overhead a misdirected bullet whistled with a droning, querulous
-note. The three tarried no longer, but slid down into the mouth of the
-tunnel.
-</p>
-<p>
-Inside the cellar the women and children already were stretched close up
-to the thick stone sides, looking like flattened piles of rags against the
-flagged floor. They had taken due care, all of them, to drop down out of
-line with two small openings which once had been windows in the south wall
-of the factory cellar, and which now, with their sashes gone, were like
-square portholes, set at the level of the earth. Through these openings
-came most of the air and all of the daylight which reached their
-subterranean retreat.
-</p>
-<p>
-The old woman cowered down in an angle of the wall, rocking back and forth
-and hugging her two bony knees with her two bony arms; but the maimed
-soldiers, as befitting men who had once been soldiers, took stations just
-beneath the window holes, the one to listen and the other to watch for
-what might befall in the narrow compass of space lying immediately in
-front of them. For a moment after they found their places there was
-silence there in the cellar, save for the rustling of bodies and the
-wheeze of forced breathing. Then a woman's voice was uplifted wailingly:
-“Oh, this war! Why should it come back here again? Why couldn't it leave
-us poor ones alone?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Hush, you!” snapped the blinded man in a voice of authority. “There are
-men out there fighting for France. Hush and listen!”
- </p>
-<p>
-A ragged volley, sounding as though it had been fired almost over their
-heads, cut off her lamentation, and she hid her face in her hands, bending
-her body forward to cover and shield a baby that was between her knees
-upon the floor.
-</p>
-<p>
-From a distance, toward the north, the firing was answered. Somewhere
-close at hand a rapid-fire gun began a staccato outburst as the gun crew
-pumped its belts of cartridges into its barrel; but at once this
-chattering note became interrupted, and then it slackened, and then it
-stopped altogether.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Idiots! Fools! Imbeciles!” snarled the blind man. “They have jammed the
-magazine! And listen, comrade, listen to the rifle fire from over here—half
-a company firing, then the other half. Veterans would never fire so. Raw
-recruits with green officers—that's what they must be.... And
-listen! The Germans are no better.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Outside, nearby, a high-pitched strained voice gave an order, and past the
-window openings soldiers began to pass, some shrilly cheering, some
-singing the song of France, the Marseillaise Hymn. Their trunks were not
-visible. From the cellar could be seen only their legs from the knees
-down, with stained leather leggings on each pair of shanks, and their
-feet, in heavy military boots, sliding and slithering over the cinders and
-the shards of broken tiling alongside the wrecked factory wall.
-</p>
-<p>
-Peering upward, trying vainly at his angled range of vision to see the
-bodies of those who passed, the palsied man reached out and grasped the
-arm of his mate in a hard grip, uttering meaningless sounds. It was as
-though he sought to tell of some astounding discovery he had just made.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, yes, brother; I understand,” said the blind man. “I cannot see, but
-I can hear. There is no swing to their step, eh? Their feet scuffle inside
-their boots, eh? Yes, yes, I know—they are very weary. They have
-come far to-day to fight these Huns. And how feebly they sing the song as
-they go past us here! They must be very tired—that is it, eh? But,
-tired or not, they are Frenchmen, and they can fight. Oh, if only the good
-God for one little hour, for one little minute, would give me back my
-eyes, to see the men of France fighting for France!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The last straggling pair of legs went shambling awkwardly past the
-portholes. To the Breton, watching, it appeared that the owner of those
-legs scarcely could lift the weight of the thick-soled boots.
-</p>
-<p>
-Beyond the cellar, to the left, whither the marchers had defiled, the
-firing became general. It rose in volume, sank to a broken and individual
-sequence of crashes, rose again in a chorus, grew thin and thready again.
-There was nothing workmanlike, nothing soldierlike about it; nothing
-steadfastly sustained. It was intermittent, irregular, uncertain.
-Listening, the blind man waggled his head in a puzzled, irritated fashion,
-and shook off the grasp of his comrade, who still appeared bent on trying
-to make something clear to him.
-</p>
-<p>
-With a movement like that of a startled horse the old leader-woman threw
-up her head. With her fingers she clawed the matted grey hair out of her
-ears.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hark! Hark!” she cried, imposing silence upon all of them by her hoarse
-intensity. “Hark, all of you! What is that?”
- </p>
-<p>
-The others heard it too, then. It was a whining, gagging, thin cry from
-outside, dose up against the southerly wall of their underground refuge—the
-distressful cry of an un-happy child, very frightened and very sick. There
-was no mistaking it—the sobbing intake of the breath; the choked
-note of nausea which followed.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It is a little one!” bleated one woman.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What child is missing?” screeched another in a panic. “What babe has been
-overlooked?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Each mother took quick and frenzied inventory of her own young, groping
-out with her hands to make sure by the touch of their flesh to her flesh
-that her offspring were safely bestowed. But when, this done, they turned
-to tell their leader that apparently all of Courney had been accounted
-for, she was gone. She had darted into the dark passage that led up and
-outward into the open. They sat up on their haunches, gaping.
-</p>
-<p>
-A minute passed and she was back, half bearing, half pulling in her arms
-not a forgotten baby, but a soldier; a dwarfish and misshapen soldier, it
-seemed to them, squatting there in the fading light; a soldier whose
-uniform was far too large for him; a soldier whose head was buried under
-his cap, and whose face was hidden within the gaping collar of his coat,
-and whose booted toes scraped along the rough flagging as his rescuer
-backed in among them, dragging him along with her.
-</p>
-<p>
-In the middle of the floor she released him, and he fell upon his side in
-a clump of soiled cloth and loose accoutrement; and for just an instant
-they thought both his hands had been shot away, for nothing showed below
-the ends of the flapping sleeves as he pressed his midriff in his folded
-arms, uttering weak, tearful cries. Then, though, they saw that his hands
-were merely lost within the length of his sleeves, and they plunged at the
-conclusion that his hurt was in his middle.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ah, the poor one!” exclaimed one or two. “Wounded in the belly.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Wounded?” howled the old woman. “Wounded? You fools! Don't you see he has
-no wound? Don't you see what it is? Then, look, you fools—look!”
- </p>
-<p>
-She dropped down alongside him and wrestled him, he struggling feebly,
-over on his back. With a ferocious violence she snatched the cap off his
-head, tore his gripped arms apart, ripped open the coat he wore and the
-coarse shirt that was beneath it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Look, fools, and see for yourselves!” Forgetting the danger to themselves
-of stray bullets, they scrambled to their feet and crowded up close behind
-her, peering over her shoulders as she reared back upon her bent knees in
-order that they might the better see.
-</p>
-<p>
-They did see. They saw, looking up at them from beneath the mop of tousled
-black hair, the scared white face and the terror-widened eyes of a boy—a
-little, sickly, undernourished boy. He could not have been more than
-fourteen—perhaps not more than thirteen. They saw in the gap of his
-parted garments the narrow structure of his shape, with the ribs pressing
-tight against the tender, hairless skin, and below the arch of the ribs
-the sunken curve of his abdomen, heaving convulsively to the constant
-retching as he twisted and wriggled his meagre body back and forth.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, Mother above!” one yowled. “They have sent a child to fight!”
- </p>
-<p>
-As though these words had been to him a command, the writhing heap half
-rose from the flags.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I am no child!” he cried, between choking attacks of nausea. “I am as old
-as the rest—older than some. Let me go! Let me go back! I am a
-soldier of France!”
- </p>
-<p>
-For all his brave words, his trembling legs gave way under him, and he
-fell again and rolled over on his stomach, hiding his face in his hands, a
-whimpering, vomiting child, helpless with pain and with fear.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He speaks true! He speaks true!” yelled the old woman. Now she was on her
-feet, her lean face red and swollen with a vast rage. “I saw them—I
-saw them—I saw those others as I was dragging this one in. He speaks
-true, I tell you. There was a captain—he could not have been more
-than fifteen. And his sword—it was as long as he was, nearly. There
-are soldiers out there like this one, whose arms are not strong enough to
-lift the guns to their shoulders. They are children who fight outside—children
-in the garb of men!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The widow, who continually wept, sprang forward. She had quit weeping and
-a great and terrible fury looked out of her red-lidded eyes. She screeched
-in a voice that rose above the wails of the rest:
-</p>
-<p>
-“And it was for this, months ago, that they took away from me my little
-Pierre! Mother of God, they fight this war with babies!”
- </p>
-<p>
-She threw herself down on all fours and, wriggling across the floor upon
-her hands and knees, gathered up the muddied, booted feet of the boy
-soldier and hugged them to her bosom.
-</p>
-<p>
-In the middle of the circle the old woman stood, gouging at her hair with
-her hands.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It is true!” she proclaimed. “They are sending forth our babies to fight
-against strong men.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The palsied man twisted himself up to her. He shook his head to and fro,
-as if in dissent of what she declared. He pointed toward the north; then
-at the sobbing boy at his feet; then north again; then at the boy; and, so
-doing, he many times and very swiftly nodded his head. Then he repeated
-the same gesticulations with his arms that he had made at the time of
-giving the first alarm of the approach of the enemy. Finally he stooped
-his back and shrank up his body and hunched in his shoulders in an effort
-to counterfeit smallness and slightness, all the while gurgling in a
-desperate attempt to make himself understood. All at once, simultaneously
-his audience grasped the purport of his pantomime.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The Germans that you saw, they were children too—children like this
-one?” demanded the old woman, her voice all thickened and raspy with her
-passion. “Is that what you mean?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He jerked his head up and down in violent assent, his jaws clicking and
-his face muscles jumping. The old woman shoved him away from in front of
-her.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Come on with me!” she bade the other women, in a tone that clarioned out
-high and shrill above the sobbing of the boy on the floor, above the
-gurgling of the cripple and the sound of the firing without. “Come on!”
- </p>
-<p>
-They knew what she meant; and behind her they massed themselves, their
-bodies bent forward from their waists, their heads lowered and their hands
-clenched like swimmers about to breast a swift torrent.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Bide where you are—you women!” the blinded man commanded. He felt
-his way out to the middle of the room, barring their path with his body
-and his outspread arms. “You can do nothing. The war goes on—this
-fight here goes on—until we win!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No, no, no, no!” shouted back the old beldam, and at each word beat her
-two fists against her flaccid breasts. “When babies fight this war this
-war ends! And we—the women here—the women everywhere—we
-will stop it! Do you hear me? We will stop it! Come on!”
- </p>
-<p>
-She pushed him aside; and, led by her, the tatterdemalion crew of them ran
-swiftly from the cellar and into the looming darkness of the tunnel,
-crying out as they ran.
-</p>
-<p>
-Strictly speaking, the beginning of this story comes at the end of it. One
-morning in the paper, I read, under small headlines on an inner page,
-sandwiched in between the account of a football game at Nashville and the
-story of a dog show at Newport, a short dispatch that had been sent by
-cable to this country, to be printed in our papers and to be read by our
-people, and then to be forgotten by them. And that dispatch ran like this:
-</p>
-<h3>
-BOYS TO FIGHT WAR SOON
-</h3>
-<p>
-Germany Using Some Seventeen Years Old.
-</p>
-<p>
-Haig Wants Young Men
-</p>
-<p>
-London—The war threatens soon to become a struggle between mere
-boys. The pace is said to be entirely too fast for the older men long to
-endure. It is declared here that by the middle of 1917, the Entente Allies
-will be facing boys of seventeen in the German Army.
-</p>
-<p>
-General Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the British Expeditionary Forces, is
-said to have objected to the sending out of men of middle age. He wants
-young men of from eighteen to twenty-five. After the latter year, it is
-said, the fighting value of the human unit shows a rapid and steady
-decline.... The older men have their place; but, generally speaking, it is
-said now to be in “the army behind the army”—the men back of the
-line, in the supply and transport divisions, where the strain is not so
-great. These older men are too susceptible to trench diseases to be of
-great use on the firing line. England already is registering boys born in
-1899, preparatory to calling them up when they attain their eighteenth
-year.
-</p>
-<p>
-So I sat down and I wrote this story.
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER V. THE CURE FOR LONESOMENESS
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HEY were on their way back from Father Minor's funeral. Going to the
-graveyard the horses had ambled slowly; coming home they trotted along
-briskly so that from under their feet the gravel grit sprang up, to blow
-out behind in little squills and pennons of yellow dust. The black plumes
-in the headstalls of the white span that drew the empty hearse nodded
-briskly. It was only their colour which kept those plumes from being
-downright cheerful. Also, en route to the cemetery, the pallbearers, both
-honorary and active, had marched in double file at the head of the
-procession. Now, returning, they rode in carriages especially provided for
-them.
-</p>
-<p>
-The first carriage—that is to say, the first one following the
-hearse—held four passengers: firstly, the widowed sister of the dead
-man, from up state somewhere; secondly and thirdly, two strange priests
-who had come over from Hopkinsburg to conduct the services; finally and
-fourthly, the late Father Minor's housekeeper, a lean and elderly spinster
-whose devoutness made her dour; indeed, a person whom piety beset almost
-as a physical affliction. Seeing her any time at all, the observer went
-away filled with the belief that in her particular case the more certain
-this woman might be of blessedness hereafter, the more miserable she would
-feel in the meantime. Now, as her grief-drawn face and reddened eyes
-looked forth from the carriage window upon the familiar panorama of
-Buckner Street, all about her bespoke the profound conviction that this
-world, already lost in sin, was doubly lost since Father Minor had gone to
-take his reward.
-</p>
-<p>
-In the second carriage rode four of the honorary pallbearers, and each of
-them was a veteran, as the dead priest had been: Circuit Judge Priest,
-Sergeant Jimmy Bagby, Doctor Lake, and Mr. Peter J. Galloway, our leading
-blacksmith and horseshoer. Of these four Mr. Galloway was the only one who
-worshipped according to the faith the dead man had preached. But all of
-them were members in good standing of the Gideon K. Irons Camp.
-</p>
-<p>
-As though to match the changed gait of the undertaker's horses, the
-spirits of these old men were uplifted into a sort of tempered
-cheerfulness. So often it is that way after the mourners come away from
-the grave. All that kindly hands might do for him who was departed out of
-this life had been done. The spade had shaped up and smoothed down the
-clods which covered him; the flowers had been piled upon the sexton's
-mounded handiwork until the raw brown earth was almost hidden. Probably
-already the hot morning sun was wilting the blossoms. By to-morrow morning
-the petals would be falling—a drifting testimony to the mortality of
-all living things.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the way out these four had said mighty little to one another, but in
-their present mood they spoke freely of their departed comrade—his
-sayings, his looks, little ways that he had, stories of his early life
-before he took holy orders, when he rode hard and fought hard, and very
-possibly swore hard, as a trooper in Morgan's cavalry.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It was a fine grand big turnout they gave him this day,” said Mr.
-Galloway with a tincture of melancholy pride in his voice. “Almost as many
-Protestants as Catholics there.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Herman Felsburg sent the biggest floral design there was,” said Doctor
-Lake. “I saw his name on the card.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“That's the way Father Tom would have liked it to be, I reckin,” said
-Judge Priest from his corner of the carriage. “After all, boys, the best
-test of a man ain't so much the amount of cash he's left in the bank, but
-how many'll turn out to pay him their respects when they put him away.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Still, at that,” said the sergeant, “I taken notice of several absentees—from
-the Camp, I mean. I didn't see Jake Smedley nowheres around at the church,
-or at the graveyard neither.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Jake's got right porely,” explained Judge Priest. “He's been lookin' kind
-of ga'nted anyhow, lately. I'm feared Jake is beginnin' to break.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, I reckin tain't ez bad ez all that,” said the sergeant. “You'll see
-Jake comin' round all right ez soon ez the weather turns off cool ag'in.
-Us old boys may be gittin' along in years, but we're a purty husky crew
-yit. It's a powerful hard job to kill one of us off. I'm sixty-seven
-myself, but most of the time I feel ez peart and skittish ez a colt.” He
-spoke for the moment vaingloriously; then his tone altered: “I'm luckier,
-though, than some—in the matter of general health. Take Abner
-Tilghman now, for instance. Sence he had that second stroke Abner jest kin
-make out to crawl about. He wasn't there to-day with us neither.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Boys,” said Doctor Lake, “I hope it's no reflection on my professional
-abilities, but it seems to me I've been losing a lot of my patients here
-recently. I'm afraid Ab Tilghman is going to be the next one to make a gap
-in the ranks. Just between us, he's in mighty bad shape. Did it ever occur
-to any of you to count up and see how many members of the Camp we've
-buried this past year, starting in last January with old Professor Reese
-and winding up to-day with Father Minor?”
- </p>
-<p>
-None of them answered him in words. Only Judge Priest gave a little
-stubborn shake of his head, as though to ward away an unpleasant thought.
-Tact inspired Sergeant Bagby to direct the conversation into a different
-channel.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I reckin Mrs. Herman Felsburg won't know whut to do now with that extry
-fish she always fries of a Friday,” said the sergeant.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That's right too, Jimmy,” said Mr. Galloway. “Well, God bless her anyway
-for a fine lady!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Had you, reader, enjoyed the advantage of living in our town and of
-knowing its customs, you would have understood at once what this last
-reference meant. You see, the Felsburgs, in their fine home, lived
-diagonally across the street from the little priest house behind the
-Catholic church. Mrs. Felsburg was distinguished for being a rigid
-adherent to the ritualistic laws of her people. Away from home her husband
-and her sons might choose whatever fare suited their several palates, but
-beneath her roof and at the table where she presided they found none of
-the forbidden foods.
-</p>
-<p>
-On Fridays she cooked with her own hands the fish for the cold <i>Shabbath</i>
-supper and, having cooked them, she set them aside to cool. But always the
-finest, crispest fish of all, while still hot, was spread upon one of Mrs.
-Felsburg's best company plates and covered over with one of Mrs.
-Felsburg's fine white napkins, and then a servant would run across the
-street with it, from Mrs. Felsburg's side gate to the front door of the
-priest house, and hand it in to the dour-faced housekeeper with Mrs.
-Felsburg's compliments. And so that night, at his main meal of the day,
-Father Minor would dine on prime river perch or fresh lake crappie, fried
-in olive oil by an orthodox Jewess. Year in and year out this thing had
-happened once a week regularly. Probably it would not happen again. Father
-Minor's successor, whoever he might be, might not understand. Mr. Galloway
-nodded abstractedly, and for a little bit nothing was said.
-</p>
-<p>
-The carriage bearing them twisted out of the procession, leaving a gap in
-it, and stopped in front of Doctor Lake's red-brick residence. The old
-doctor climbed down stiffly and, leaning heavily on his cane, went up the
-walk to his house. Next Mr. Galloway was dropped at his shabby little
-house, snug in its ambuscade behind a bushwhacker's paradise of lilac
-bushes; and pretty soon after that it was Sergeant Bagby's turn to get
-out. As the carriage slowed up for the third stop Judge Priest laid a
-demurring hand upon his companion's arm.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Come on out to my place, this evenin', Jimmy,” he said, “and have a bite
-of supper with me. There won't be nobody there but jest you and me, and
-after supper we kin set a spell and talk over old times.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The sergeant shook his whity-grey head in regretful dissent.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I wish't I could, Judge,” he said, “but it can't be done—not
-to-night.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Better come on!” The judge's tone was pleading. “I sort of figger that
-there old nigger cook of mine has killed a young chicken. And she kin mix
-up a batch of waffle batter in less'n no time a-tall.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Not to-night, Billy; some night soon I'll come, shore. But to-night my
-wife is figurin' on company, and ef I don't show up there'll be hell to
-pay and no pitch hot.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Listen, Jimmy; listen to me.” The judge spoke fast, for the sergeant was
-out of the carriage by now. “I've got a quart of special licker that
-Lieutenant Governor Bosworth sent me frum Lexington. Thirty-two years old,
-Jimmy—handmade and run through a gum log. Copper nor iron ain't
-never teched it. And when you pour a dram of it out into a glass it beads
-up same ez ef it had soapsuds down in the bottom of it—it does fur a
-fact. There ain't been but two drinks drunk out of that quart.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Judge, please quit teasin' me!” Like unto a peppercorn, ground between
-the millstones of duty and desire, the sergeant backed reluctantly away
-from between the carriage wheels.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You know yourse'f how wimmin folks are. It's the new Campbellite preacher
-that's comin' to-night, and there won't be a drop to drink on the table
-exceptin' maybe lemonade or ice tea. But I've jest natchelly got to be on
-hand and, whut's more, I've got to be on my best behaviour too. Dem that
-new preacher! Why couldn't he a-picked out some other night than this
-one?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Jimmy, listen——”
- </p>
-<p>
-But the sergeant had turned and was fleeing to sanctuary, beyond reach of
-the tempter's tongue.
-</p>
-<p>
-So for the last eighth-mile of the ride, until the black driver halted his
-team at the Priest place out on Clay Street, the judge rode alone.
-Laboriously he crawled out from beneath the overhang of the carriage top,
-handed up two bits as a parting gift to the darky on the seat, and waddled
-across the sidewalk.
-</p>
-<p>
-The latch on the gate was broken. It had been broken for weeks. The old
-man slammed the gate to with a passionate jerk. The infirm latch clicked
-weakly, then slipped out of the iron nick and the gate sagged open—an
-invitation to anybody's wandering livestock to come right on in and feast
-upon the shrubs, which from lack of pruning had become thick, irregular
-little jungles. Clumps of rank grass, like green scalp locks, were
-sprouting in the walk, and when the master had mounted the creaking steps
-he saw where two porch planks had warped apart, leaving a gap between
-them. In and out of the space ran big black ants. The house needed
-painting, too, he noticed; in places where the rain water had dribbled out
-of a rust-hole in the tin gutter overhead, the grain of the clapboarding
-showed through its white coating. Mentally the judge promised himself that
-he would take a couple of days off sometime soon and call in workmen and
-have the whole shebang tidied and fixed up. Once a place began to run down
-it seemed to break out with neglect all over, as with a rash.
-</p>
-<p>
-Halfway through his supper that evening the judge, who had been strangely
-silent in the early part of the meal, addressed his house boy, Jeff
-Poindexter, in the accents of a marked disapproval.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Look here, Jeff,” he demanded, “have I got to tell you ag'in about
-mendin' the ketch on that front gate?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yas, suh—I means no, suh,” Jeff corrected himself quickly. “Ise
-aimin' to do it fust thing in de mawnin', suh,” added Jeff glibly,
-repeating a false pledge for perhaps the dozenth time within a month. “I
-got so many things to do round yere, Jedge, dat sometimes hit seems lak I
-can't think whut nary one of 'em is.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Huh!” snorted his employer crossly. Then he went on warningly: “Some of
-these days there's goin' to be a sudden change in this house ef things
-ain't attended to better—whole place goin' to rack and ruin like it
-is.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Wriggling uneasily Jeff found a pretext for withdrawing himself, the
-situation having become embarrassing. It wasn't often that the judge gave
-way to temper. Not that Jeff feared the covert threat of discharge. If
-anybody quit it wouldn't be Jeff, as Jeff well knew. Usually Jeff had an
-excuse ready for any accusation of shortcomings on his part; thinking them
-up was his regular specialty. But this particular moment did not seem a
-propitious one for offering excuses. Jeff noiselessly evaporated out of
-sight and hearing.
-</p>
-<p>
-In silence the master hurried through the meal, eating it with what for
-him was unusual speed. He was beset with an urge to be out of the big
-high-ceiled dining room. Looking about it he told himself it wasn't a
-dining room at all—just a bare barracks, full of emptiness and
-mighty little else.
-</p>
-<p>
-After supper he sat on the porch, while the long twilight gloomed into
-dusk and the dusk into night. He was half-minded to walk downtown in the
-hope of finding congenial company at Soule's drug store, the favoured
-loafing place of his dwindling set of cronies. But he changed his mind.
-Since Mr. Soule, growing infirm, had taken a younger man for a partner,
-the drug store was changed. Its old-time air of hospitality and comfort
-had somehow altered.
-</p>
-<p>
-The judge smoked on, rocking back and forth in his chair. The bull bats,
-which had been dodging about in the air as long as the daylight lasted,
-were gone now, and their shy cousin, the whippoorwill, began calling from
-down in the old Enders orchard at the far end of the street. Two or three
-times there came to Judge Priest's ears the sound of footsteps clunking
-along the plank sidewalk on his side of the road, and at that he sat
-erect, hoping each time the gate hinges would whine a warning of callers
-dropping in to bear him company. But the unseen pedestrians passed on
-without turning in. The whippoorwill moved up close to Judge Priest's side
-fence. A little night wind that had something on its mind began with a
-mournful whispering sound to swish through the top of the big cedar
-alongside the porch.
-</p>
-<p>
-The judge stood it until nearly half-past nine o'clock. Even under the
-most favourable circumstances a whippoorwill and a remorseful night wind,
-telling its troubles to an evergreen tree, do not make what one would call
-exhilarating company. He closed and locked the front door, turned out the
-single gas light which burned in the hall and went up the stairs. In its
-main design the house was Colonial—Southern Colonial. But his
-bedroom was in an ell, above a side porch overlooking the croquet ground,
-and this ell was adorned with plank curlicues under its gables, and a
-square, ugly, useless little balcony, like a misplaced wooden moustache,
-adhered to its most prominent elevation on the side facing the front. The
-judge frequently said that, as nearly as he could figure it out, the
-extension belonged to the Rutherford B. Hayes period of American
-architecture.
-</p>
-<p>
-Except for him the house was empty. Aunt Dilsey didn't stay on the place
-at night and Jeff's sleeping quarters were over the stable at the back. As
-Judge Priest felt his way through the upper hall and made a light in his
-bedchamber, the house was giving off those little creaking, complaining
-sounds from its joints that an old tired house always gives off when it is
-lonely for a fuller measure of human occupancy.
-</p>
-<p>
-His own room, revealed now in its homely contour and its still homelier
-furnishings, was neat enough, with Jeff's ideas of neatness, but all about
-it indubitably betrayed the fact that only male hands cared for it. The
-tall black-walnut bureau lacked a cover for its top; the mantel was
-littered with cigar boxes and old law reports; the dead asparagus ferns,
-banked in the grate, were faded to a musty yellow; and some of the fronds
-had fallen out across the hearth so that remotely the fireplace suggested
-the mouth of a big cow choking on an overly large bite of dried hay. In
-places the matting on the floor was frayed almost through.
-</p>
-<p>
-Just from the careless skew of the coverlid and the set of the pillows
-against the white bolster, you would have known at a glance that a man had
-made up the bed that morning.
-</p>
-<p>
-Barring one picture the walls were bare. This lone picture hung in a space
-between the two front windows, right where the occupant of the room, if so
-minded, might look at it the last thing at night and the first thing in
-the morning. Beyond any doubt a lover of the truly refined in art would
-have looked at it with a shudder, for it was one of those crayon portraits—a
-crayon portrait done in the most crayonsome and grewsome style of a
-self-taught artist working by the day rather than by the piece. Plainly it
-had been enlarged, as the trade term goes, from a photograph; the enlarger
-thereof had been lavish with his black leads; that, too, was self-evident.
-The original photographer had done his worst with the subject; the
-retoucher had gone him one better.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was a likeness—you might call it a likeness—of a woman
-dressed in the abominable style of the late seventies—with heavy
-bangs down in her eyes, and a tight-fitting basque with enormous sleeves,
-and long pendent eardrops in her ears. The artist, whoever he was, had
-striven masterfully to rob the likeness of all expression. There alone his
-craftsmanship had failed him. For even he had not altogether taken away
-from the face a certain suggestion of old-fashioned wistfulness and
-sweetness. In all other regards, though, he had had his reckless way with
-it. The eyes were black and staring, the lines of the figure stiff and
-artificial, and the background for the head was a pastel nightmare.
-</p>
-<p>
-For so long had Judge Priest been wifeless and childless that many of the
-younger generation in our town knew nothing of the tragedy in this old
-man's life—which was that the same diphtheria epidemic that took
-both his babies in one week's time had widowed him too. We knew he loved
-other people's children; some of us never suspected that once upon a time
-he had had children of his own to love. Except in his memory no images of
-the dead babies endured, and this crayon portrait was the sole sentimental
-reminder left to him of his married life. And so, to him, it was a perfect
-and a matchless thing. He wouldn't have traded it for all the canvases of
-all the old masters in all the art galleries in this round big world.
-</p>
-<p>
-This night, before he undressed, he went over and stood in front of it and
-looked at it for a while. There was dust in the grooves of the heavy
-tarnished gilt frame. From the top bureau drawer he took a big silk
-handkerchief and carefully he wiped the dust away. Then, before he put the
-handkerchief back in its place, he straightened the thing upon the nail
-which held it, and gave the glass front an awkward little caress with his
-pudgy old hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It's been a long, long time, honey, since you went away and left me,” he
-said slowly, in the voice of one addressing a hearer very near at hand;
-“but I still miss you and the babies powerfully. And sometimes it's sorter
-lonesome here without you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-A little later, when the light had been turned out, a noise like a long,
-deep sigh sounded out in the darkness. That, though, might have been the
-wheeze of the afflicted bedsprings as the old judge let his weight down in
-the bed.
-</p>
-<p>
-An hour passed and there was another small sound there—a muffled
-nibbling sound. Behind the wainscoting, between bedroom and bathroom, a
-young, adventuresome rat gnawed at a box of matches which he had found on
-the floor in the hall and had dragged to his nest in the wall. From within
-the box a strangely tantalising aroma escaped; the rat, being deluded
-thereby into the belief that phosphorus might be an edible dainty, was
-minded to sample the contents. Presently his teeth met through the cover
-of the box. There was a sharp flaring pop, followed by a swift succession
-of other pops, and the rat gave a jump and departed elsewhere in great
-haste, with a hot bad smell in his snout and his adolescent whiskers quite
-entirely singed away.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Confederates, in ragged uniforms of butternut jeans, were squatted in
-a clump of pawpaw bushes on the edge of a stretch of ploughed ground. From
-the woods on the far side of the field Yankee skirmishers were shooting
-toward them. A shell from the batteries must have fallen nearby and set
-fire to the dried leaves and the fallen brush, for the smoke kept blowing
-in a fellow's face, choking him and making him cough. Captain Tip Meldrum,
-the commander of Company B, was just behind the men, giving the order to
-fire back. High Private Billy Priest aimed his musket at the thickets
-where the Yankees were hidden and pulled the trigger, but the cap on the
-nipple of his piece was defective or something, and the charge wouldn't
-explode. “Fire! Fire! Fire!” yelled Captain Tip Meldrum over and over
-again, and then he yanked out his own horse-pistol and emptied it into the
-hostile timber. But Private Priest's gun still balked. He flung it down—and
-found himself sitting up in bed, gasping.
-</p>
-<p>
-The dream hadn't been altogether a dream at that. For there was indeed
-smoke in the judge's eyes and his nostrils—plenty of it. A revolver
-was cracking out its shots somewhere near at hand; somebody outside his
-window was shrieking “Fire!” at the top of a good strong voice. In the
-distance other voices were taking up the cry.
-</p>
-<p>
-In an earlier day, when a fire started in town, the man who discovered it
-drew his pistol if he were on the highway, or snatched it up if he chanced
-to be at home, and pointing its barrel at the sky emptied it into the air
-as fast as the cylinder would turn. The man next door followed suit and so
-on until volleys were rattling all over the neighbourhood. Thus were the
-townspeople aroused and, along with the townspeople, the members of the
-volunteer fire department. Now we had a paid department and a regular
-electric-alarm system, predicated on boxes and gongs and wires and things;
-but in outlying districts the pistol-shooting fashion of spreading the
-word still prevailed to a considerable extent, and more especially did it
-prevail at nighttime. So it didn't take the late dreamer longer than the
-shake of a sheep's tail to separate what was fancy from what was reality.
-</p>
-<p>
-As Judge Priest, yet half asleep but waking up mighty fast, shoved his
-stout legs into his trousers and tucked the tails of his nightshirt down
-inside the waistband, he decided it must be his barn and not his house
-that was afire. The smoke which filled the room seemed to be eddying in
-through the side window, from across the end of the ell structure. He
-thought of his old white mare, Mittie May, fast in her stall under the hay
-loft, and of Jeff, who was one of the soundest sleepers in the world, in
-his room right alongside the mow. There was need for him to move, and move
-fast. He must awaken Jeff first, and then get Mittie May out of danger.
-Barefooted, he felt his way across the room and along the hall and down
-the stairs, mending his gait as he went. And then, as he jerked the front
-door open and stumbled out upon the porch, he came into violent collision
-with Ed Tilghman, Junior, who lived across the street, and who had just
-bounded up the porch steps with the idea of hammering on the front-door
-panels. Tilghman was a young man and the judge an old one; it was
-inevitable the judge should suffer the more painful consequences of the
-sudden impact of their two bodies together. He went down sideways with a
-great hard thump, his forehead striking against a sharp corner of the door
-jamb. He was senseless, and a little stream of blood was beginning to
-trickle down his face as Tilghman dragged him down off the porch into the
-yard and stretched him on his back in the grass, and then ran to fetch
-water.
-</p>
-<p>
-In that same minute the big bell in the tower of fire headquarters, half a
-mile away, began sounding in measured beats, and a small hungry-looking
-tongue of flame licked up across the sill and flickered for a moment
-through the smoke which was pouring forth out of the bathroom window and
-rolling across the flat top of the extension. The smoke gushed out still
-thicker, smothering down the red pennon, but in a second or two it showed
-again, and this time it brought with it two more like it. The bathroom
-window became a frame for a cloudy pink glare, and the purring note of the
-fire became a brisk and healthy crackle as it ate through the seasoned
-clapboards of the outer wall.
-</p>
-<p>
-All of a sudden, so it seemed, the yard and the street were full of
-people. Promptly there began to happen most of the things that do happen
-at a fire. As for instance: Mr. Milus Miles, who arrived among the very
-first and who had a commandingly loud voice, mounted a rustic bench
-alongside the croquet ground and called for volunteers to form a bucket
-brigade. That his recruits would have no buckets to pass after they had
-enrolled themselves for service was with Mr. Miles a minor consideration.
-It was the spirit of the thing, the forethought, the responsibility, the
-aptitude for leadership in a work of succour—all these inspired him.
-</p>
-<p>
-Mr. Ulysses Rice, who lived in the next street, climbed the side fence—under
-the circumstances it somehow to him seemed a more resolute thing to scale
-the fence than to enter by the gate in the regular way—and ran
-across the yard, inspired with a neighbourly and commendable desire to
-save something right away. He put his toe in a croquet wicket and fell
-headlong. This was to be expected of Mr. Rice. He had a perfect genius for
-getting into accidents. All Nature was ever in a conspiracy with all the
-inanimate objects in the world to do him bodily hurt. If he went skiff
-riding and fell overboard, as he customarily did, it was not because he
-had rocked the boat. The boat rocked itself. He was the only man in town
-who had ever succeeded in gashing his throat with a safety razor.
-</p>
-<p>
-He now disentangled his foot from the wicket and scrambled up and, still
-actuated by the best motives imaginable, he dashed toward the back of the
-Priest homestead, being minded to seek entrance by a rear door. But a wire
-clothesline, swinging at exactly the right height to catch him just under
-the nose, did catch him just under the nose and almost sawed the tip of
-that useful organ off Mr. Rice's agonised face. Coincidentally, citizens
-of various ages and assorted sizes ran into the house and dragged out the
-furnishings of the lower floor, bestowing their salvage right where other
-citizens might fall over it. Through all the joints between the shingles
-the roof of the ell leaked smoke, until it resembled a sloped bed of
-slaking lime. This fire was rapidly getting to be a regular fire.
-</p>
-<p>
-With a great clattering the department came tearing up the street.
-Dropping down from their perches on the running boards of the wagons,
-certain of its members began unreeling the hose, then ran back with it to
-couple it to the nearest fire hydrant, nearly two blocks away down Clay
-Street. Others brought a ladder and reared it against the side of the
-house, with its uppermost rounds projecting above the low eaves. While
-many hands steadied the ladder in place, Captain Bud Gorman of Station No.
-1—there was also a Station No. 2, but Bud skippered Station No. 1—mounted
-it and, with an axe, started chopping a hole in the roof at a point where
-there seemed as yet to be no immediate peril. Under his strokes the
-shingles flew in showers. It was evident that if the flames should spread
-to this immediate area Captain Bud Gorman would have a rough but
-practicable flue ready for their egress into the open air, against the
-moment when they had burst through the ceiling and the rafters below.
-</p>
-<p>
-More people and yet more kept coming. The rubber piping, which perversely
-had kinked and twisted as it came off the spinning drum of hose reel No.
-1, was fairly straight now, and from his station just inside the gate the
-fire chief bellowed the command down the line to turn 'er on! They turned
-her on, but somewhere in the coupled sections of hose a stricture had
-developed. All that happened was that from the brass snout of the nozzle a
-languid gush of yellow water arose in a fan shape to an elevation of
-perhaps fifteen feet, thence descending in a cascade, not upon the
-particular spot at which the nozzle was aimed, but full upon the
-ill-starred Mr. Rice as he tugged to uproot a wooden support of the little
-grape arbor which flanked the house on the endangered side. Somewhat
-disfigured by the clothesline but still resolute to lend a helping hand
-somewhere, Mr. Rice had but a moment before become possessed of an
-ambition to remove the grape vines, trellis and all, to a place of safety.
-His reward for this kindly attempt was a sudden soaking.
-</p>
-<p>
-As though the hiss of the water had aroused him, Judge Priest sat up in
-the grass, where he had been lying during these tumultuous and crowded
-five minutes. He was still half dazed. As his eyesight cleared, he saw
-that the bathroom was as good as gone and that his bedroom was about to
-go. Some one helped him to his unsteady feet and kept him upright. He
-shook himself free from the supporting grasp of the person who held him,
-and advanced toward the porch steps, wavering a little on his legs as he
-went.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then, before anybody sensed what he meant to do, before anybody could make
-a move to stop him, he had mounted the steps and was at the front door.
-</p>
-<p>
-Out of the door, bumping into him, backed a coughing, gasping squad, their
-noses smarting and their eyes streaming from the acrid reek, towing after
-them the big horsehair sofa which was the principal piece of furniture in
-the judge's sitting room. The sofa had lost two of its casters in transit,
-and it took all their strength to drag it over the lintel.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It's no use, Judge Priest,” panted one of these workers, recognising him;
-“we've got pretty nearly everything out that was downstairs and you
-couldn't get upstairs now if you tried.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Then seeing that the owner meant to disregard the warning, this man threw
-out an arm forcibly to detain the other. But for all his age and size, the
-judge was wieldy enough when he chose to be. With an agile twist of his
-body he dodged past, and as the man, astounded and horrified, glared
-across the threshold he saw Judge Priest running down the murky hall and,
-with head bent and his mouth and nose buried in the crook of one elbow,
-starting up the stairs into the thickest and blackest of the smoke. To
-this man's credit, be it said, he made a valiant effort to overtake the
-old man. The pursuer darted in behind him, but at the foot of the steps
-fell back, daunted and unable to breathe. He staggered out again into the
-open, gagging with the smoke that was in his throat and down in his lungs.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He's gone in there!” he shouted, pointing behind him. “He's gone right in
-there! He's gone upstairs!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who is it? Who's gone in there?” twenty voices demanded together.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The judge—just a second ago! I tried to stop him—he got by
-me! He ain't got a chance!” Even as he spoke the words, a draught of fire
-came roaring through the crater in the roof which Captain Bud Gorman's axe
-had dug for its free passage. An outcry—half gasp, half groan—went
-up from those who knew what had happened. They ran round in rings wasting
-precious time.
-</p>
-<p>
-Sergeant Jimmy Bagby, half dressed, trotted across the lawn. He had just
-arrived. He grabbed young Ed Tilghman by the arm.
-</p>
-<p>
-“How'd she start, boy?” demanded the sergeant. “Where's the judge? Did
-they git everything out?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Everything out—hell!” answered Tilghman, sobbing in his distress.
-“The old judge is in there. He got a lick on the head and it must have
-made him crazy. He just ran back in there and went upstairs. He'll never
-make it—and nobody can get him out. He'll smother to death sure!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Down on his knees dropped Sergeant Bagby and shut his eyes, and for the
-first, last and only time in his life he prayed aloud in public.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, Lord,” he prayed, “fur God's sake git Billy Priest out of there! Oh,
-Lord, that's all I'll ever ask You—fur God's sake git Billy Priest
-out of there! Ez a favour to me, Lord, please, Suh, git Billy Priest out
-of there!” From many throats at once a yell arose—a yell so shrill
-and loud that it overtopped all lesser sounds; a yell so loud that the
-sergeant ceased from his praying to look. Through the smoke, and over the
-sloping peak of the roof from the rear, came a slim, dark shape on its
-all-fours. Treading the pitch of the gable as swiftly and surefootedly as
-a cat, it scuttled forward to the front edge of the housetop, swung
-downward at arms' length from the eaves, and dropped on a narrow ledge of
-tin-covered surface where the small ornamental balcony, which was like a
-misplaced wooden moustache, projected from the face of the building at the
-level of the second floor, then instantly dived headfirst in at that
-window of the judge's bedchamber which was farthest from the corner next
-the bathroom.
-</p>
-<p>
-For a silent minute—a minute which seemed a year—those below
-stared upward, with starting eyes and lumps in their throats. Then, all
-together, they swallowed their several throat lumps and united in an
-exultant joyous yell, which made that other yell they had uttered a little
-before seem by comparison puny and cheap. Through the smoke which bulged
-from the balcony window and out upon the balcony itself popped the agile
-black figure. Bracing itself, it hauled across the window ledge a bulky
-inert form. It wrestled its helpless burden over and eased it down the
-flat, tiny railed-in perch just as a fire ladder, manned by many eager
-hands, came straightening up from below, with Captain Bud Gorman of
-Station No. 1 climbing it, two rounds at a jump, before it had ceased to
-waver in the air.
-</p>
-<p>
-Volunteers swarmed up the ladder behind Bud Gorman, forming a living chain
-from the earth to the balcony. First they passed down the judge, breathing
-and whole but unconscious, with his nightshirt torn off his back and his
-bare right arm still clenched round a picture of some sort in a heavy gilt
-frame. His grip on it did not relax until they had carried him well back
-from the burning house, and for the second time that night had stretched
-him out upon the grass.
-</p>
-<p>
-The judge being safe, the men on the ladder made room for Jeff Poindexter
-to descend under his own motive power, all of them cheering mightily. Just
-as Jeff reached solid ground the stoppage in the hose unstopped itself of
-its own accord and from the brazen gullet of the nozzle there sprang up,
-like a silver sword, a straight, hard stream of water which lanced into
-the heart of the fire, turning its exultant song from a crackle to a croon
-and then to a resentful hiss.
-</p>
-<p>
-In that same instant Sergeant Bagby found himself, for the first time
-since he escaped from the kindly tyranny of a black mammy—nearly
-sixty years before—in close and ardent embrace with a member of the
-African race.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Jeff,” clarioned the sergeant, hugging the blistered rescuer yet closer
-to him and beating him on the back with hearty thumps—“Jeff, God
-bless your black hide, how did you come to think of it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, suh, Mr. Bagby,” wheezed Jeff, “hit wuz lak dis: I didn't wake up
-w'en she fust started. I got so much on my mind to do daytimes 'at I
-sleeps mighty sound w'en I does sleep. Presen'ly, tho', I did wake up, an'
-I got my pants on, an' I come runnin' acrost de lot frum de stable, an' I
-got heah jes' in time to hear 'em all yellin' out dat de jedge is done
-went back into de house. I sees there ain't no chanc't of goin' in after
-him de way he's done went, but jes' about that time I remembers dat air
-little po'ch up yonder on de front of de house w'ich it seem lak ever'body
-else had done furgot all 'bout hit bein' there a-tall. So I runs round to
-de back right quick, an' I dim' up de lattice-work by de kitchen, an' I
-comes out along over de roof, an' I drap down on de little po'ch, an'
-after that, I reckin, you seen de rest of it fur you'self, suh—all
-but whut happen after I gits inside dat window.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What did happen?” From the ring of men who hedged in the sergeant and
-Jeff five or six asked the same question at once. Before an all-white
-audience Jeff visibly expanded himself.
-</p>
-<p>
-“W'y, nothin' a-tall happen,” he said, “'ceptin' that I found de ole
-boss-man right where I figgered I'd find him—in his own room at de
-foot of his baid. He'd done fell down dere on de flo', right after he
-grabbed dat air picture offen de wall. Yas, suh, that's perzack-ly where I
-finds him!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But, Jeff, how could you breathe up there?” Still in the sergeant's
-cordial grasp, Jeff made direct answer:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Gen'l'mens, I didn't! Fur de time bein' I jes' natchelly abandoned
-breathin'!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Again that night Judge Priest had a dream—only this time the dream
-lacked continuity and sequence and was but a jumble of things—and he
-emerged from it with his thoughts all in confusion. In his first drowsy
-moment of consciousness he had a sensation of having taken a long journey
-along a dark rough road. For a little he lay wondering where he was,
-piecing together his impressions and trying to bridge the intervening
-gaps.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then the light got better and he made out the anxious face of Doctor Lake
-looking down at him and, just over Doctor Lake's shoulder, the face of
-Sergeant Bagby. He opened his mouth then and spoke.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, there's one thing certain shore,” said the judge: “this ain't
-heaven! Because ef 'twas, there wouldn't be a chance of you and Jimmy
-Bagby bein' here with me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Whereupon, for no apparent reason on earth that Judge Priest could fathom,
-Doctor Lake, with a huskily affectionate intonation, called him by many
-profane and improper names; and Sergeant Bagby, wiping his eyes with one
-hand, made his other hand up into a fist and shook it in Judge Priest's
-face, meanwhile emotionally denouncing him as several qualified varieties
-of an old idiot.
-</p>
-<p>
-Under this treatment the fogginess quit Judge Priest's brain, and he
-became aware of the presence of a considerable number of persons about
-him, including the two Edward Tilghmans—Senior and Junior—and
-the two Tilghman girls; and Jeff Poindexter, wearing about half as many
-garments as Jeff customarily wore, and with a slightly blistered
-appearance as to his face and shoulders; and Mr. Ulysses Rice, with a
-badly skinned nose and badly drenched shoulders; and divers others of his
-acquaintances. Indeed, he was quite surrounded by neighbours and friends.
-Also by degrees it became apparent to him that he was stretched upon a
-strange bed in a strange room—at least he did not recall ever having
-been in this room before—and that he had a bandage across the
-baldest part of his head, and that he felt tired all over his body.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, I got out, didn't I?” he inquired after a minute or two.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Got out—thunder!” vociferated the sergeant with what the judge
-regarded as a most unnecessary violence of voice and manner. “Ef this here
-black boy of yourn hadn't a-risked his own life, climbin' down over the
-roof and goin' in through a front window and draggin' you out of that fire—the
-same ez ef you was a sack of shorts—you'd a-been a goner, shore.
-Ain't you 'shamed of yourself, scarin' everybody half to death
-that-a-way?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, it was Jeff, was it?” said the old judge, disregarding Sergeant
-Bagby's indignant interrogation. He looked steadfastly at his grinning
-servitor and, when he spoke again, there was a different intonation in his
-voice.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Much obliged to you, Jeff.” That was all he said. It was the way he said
-it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You is more'n welcome, thanky, suh,” answered Jeff; “it warn't scursely
-no trouble a-tall, suh—'cep'in' dem ole shingles on dat roof
-suttin'y wuz warm to de te'ch.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Did—did Jeff succeed in savin' anything else besides me?” The judge
-put the question as though half fearing what the answer might be.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ef you mean this—why, here 'tis, safe and sound,” said Sergeant
-Bagby, and he moved aside so that Judge Priest might see, leaning against
-the footboard of the bed, a certain crayon portrait. “The glass ain't
-cracked even and the frame ain't dented. You three come out of there
-practically together—Jeff a-hang-in' onto you and you a-hangin' onto
-your picture. So if that's whut you went chargin' back in there fur, I
-hope you're satisfied!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I'm satisfied,” said the judge softly. Then after a bit he cleared his
-throat and ventured another query:
-</p>
-<p>
-“That old house of mine—I s'pose she's all burnt up by now?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Don't you ever believe it,” said the sergeant. “That there house of yourn
-'pears to be purty nigh ez contrary and set in its ways ez whut you are.
-It won't burn up, no matter how good a chance you give it. Jest about the
-time Jeff here drug you out on that little balcony outside your window,
-the water works begun to work, and after that they had her under control
-in less'n no time. She must be about out by now.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Your bathroom's a total loss and the extension on that side is pretty
-badly scorched up, but the rest of the place, excusing damage by the water
-and the smoke, is hardly damaged,” added the younger Tilghman. “You'll be
-able to move back in, inside of a month, judge.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And in the meantime you're going to stay right here, Judge Priest, and
-make my house your home,” announced Mr. Tilghman, Senior. “It's mighty
-plain, but such as it is you're welcome to it, judge. We'll do our level
-best to make you comfortable. Only I'm afraid you'll miss the things
-you've been used to having round you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, I reckin not,” said Judge Priest. His glance travelled slowly from
-the crayon portrait at the foot of the bed to Jeff Poindexter's
-chocolate-coloured face and back again to the portrait. “I've got mighty
-near everything I need to make me happy.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What I meant was that maybe you'd be kind of lonesome away from your own
-house,” Mr. Tilghman said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No, I don't believe so,” answered the old man, smiling a little. “You
-see, I taken the cure for lonesomeness to-night. You mout call it the
-smoke cure.”
- </p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER VI. THE FAMILY TREE
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE family tree of the Van Nicht family was not the sort of family tree
-you think I mean, although they had one of that variety too. This was a
-real tree. It was an elm—the biggest elm and the broadest and the
-most majestic elm in the entire state, and in the times of its leafage
-cast the densest shade of any elm to be found anywhere, probably. For more
-than one hundred years the Van Nicht family had lived in its shadow. That
-was the principal trouble with them—they did live in the shadow.
-I'll come to that later.
-</p>
-<p>
-Every consequential visitor to Schuylerville was taken to see the Van
-Nicht elm. It was a necessary detail of his tour about town. Either before
-or after he had viewed the new ten-story skyscraper of the Seaboard
-National Bank, and the site for the projected Civic Centre, and the
-monument to Schuyler County's defenders of the Union—1861-'65—with
-a dropsical bronze figure of a booted and whiskered infantryman on top of
-the tall column, and the Henrietta Wing Memorial Library, and the rest of
-it, they took him and they showed him the Van Nicht elm. So doing, it was
-incumbent upon them to escort him through a street which was beginning to
-wear that vacillating, uncertain look any street wears while trying to
-make up its mind whether to keep on being a quiet residential byway in an
-old-fashioned town or to turn itself into an important thoroughfare of a
-thriving industrial centre. You know the kind of street I aim to picture—with
-here an impudent young garage showing its shining morning face of red
-brick in a side yard where there used to be an orchard, and there a new
-apartment building which has shouldered its way into a line of ancient
-dwellings and is driving its cast-iron cornices, like rude elbows, into
-the clapboarded short ribs of its neighbours upon either side.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the far, upper end of that street, upon the poll of a gentle eminence,
-uplifted the Van Nicht elm. It was for sundry months of the year a
-splendid vast umbrella, green in the spring and summer and yellow in the
-fall; and in the winter presented itself against the sky line as a great
-skeleton shape, without a blemish upon it, except for a scar in the bark
-close down to the earth to show where once there might have been a fissure
-in its mighty bole. No grass, or at least mighty little grass, grew within
-the circle of its brandishing limbs. It was as though the roots of the
-tree sucked up all the nourishment that the soil might hold, leaving none
-for the humble grass to thrive upon.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was in the winter that the house, which stood almost directly under the
-tree, was most clearly revealed as a square, ugly domicile of grey stone,
-a story and a half in height, lidded over by a hip roof of weathered
-shingles; with a deeply recessed front door, like a pursed and proper
-mouth, and, above it, a row of queer little longitudinal windows, half
-hidden below the overhang of the gables and suggesting so many slitted
-eyes peering out from beneath a lowering brow. You saw, too, the mould
-that had formed in streaky splotches upon the stonework of the walls and
-the green rime of age and dampness that had overspread the curled shingles
-and the peeling paint, turning to minute scales upon the woodwork of the
-window casings and the door frames. Also you saw one great crooked bough
-which stretched across the roof like a menacing black arm, forever
-threatening to descend and crush its rafters in. This was in winter; in
-summertime the leaves almost completely hid the house, so that one who
-halted outside the decrepit fence, with its snaggled and broken panels,
-must needs stoop low to perceive its outlines at all.
-</p>
-<p>
-The carriage or the automobile bearing the prominent guest and the
-chairman of the local reception committee would halt at the end of the
-street.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That,” the chairman would say, pointing up grade, “is the Van Nicht elm.
-Possibly you've heard about it? Round here we call it the Van Nicht family
-tree. It is said to be the largest elm in this part of the country. In
-fact, I doubt whether there are any larger than this one, even up in New
-England. And that's the famous old Van Nicht homestead there, just back of
-it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Its got a history. When Colonel Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht came here right
-after the Revolutionary War—he was a colonel in the Revolution, you
-know—he built the house, placing it just behind the tree. The tree
-must've grown considerably since then, but the house yonder hasn't changed
-but mighty little all these years. It's the oldest building in Schuyler
-County. As a matter of fact, the town, with this house for a starter, sort
-of grew up down here on the flat lands below. The old colonel raised a
-family here and died here. So did his son and his grandson. They were rich
-people once—the richest people in the county at one time.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Why all the land from here clear down to Ossibaw Street—that's six
-blocks south—used to be included in the Van Nicht estate. It was a
-farm then, of course, and by all accounts a fine one. But each generation
-sold off some of the original grant, until all that's left now is that
-house, with the tree and about an acre of ground more or less. And I guess
-it's pretty well covered with mortgages.”
- </p>
-<p>
-This, in substance, was what the guide would tell the distinguished
-stranger. This, in substance, was what was told to young Olcott on the day
-after he arrived in Schuylerville to take over the editorial management of
-the Schuylerville News-Ledger. Mayor T. J. McGlynn was showing him the
-principal points of interest—so the mayor had put it, when he called
-that morning with his own car at the Hotel Brain-ard, where Olcott was
-stopping, and invited the young man to go for a tour of inspection of the
-city, as a sort of introductory and preparatory course in local education
-prior to his assuming his new duties.
-</p>
-<p>
-While the worthy mayor was uttering his descriptive remarks Olcott bent
-his head and squinted past the thick shield of limbs and leaves. He saw
-that the door of the house, which was closed, somehow had the look of
-about always being closed, and that most of the windows were barred with
-thick shutters.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Appears rather deserted, doesn't it?” said the newcomer, striving to show
-a proper appreciation of the courtesy that was being visited upon him.
-“There isn't any one living there at present, is there?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Sure there is,” said Mayor McGlynn. “Old Mr. Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht,
-4th, who's the present head of the family, and his two old-maid sisters,
-Miss Rachael and Miss Harriet—they all live there together. Miss
-Rachael is considerably older than Miss Harriet, but they're both regular
-old maids—guess they always will be. The brother never married,
-either—couldn't find anybody good enough to share the name, I
-suppose. Anyhow he's never married. And besides I guess it keeps him
-pretty busy living up to the job of being the head of the oldest family in
-this end of the state. That's about all he ever has done.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Then he isn't in any regular business or any profession?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Business!” Mayor McGlynn snorted. “I should say not! All any one of the
-Van Nichts has ever done since anybody can remember was just to keep on
-being a Van Nicht and upholding the traditions and the honours of the Van
-Nichts—and this one is like all his breed. The poorer he gets the
-more pompous and the more important acting he gets—that's the funny
-part of it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Apparently not a very lucrative calling, judging by the general aspect of
-the ancestral manor,” said Olcott, who was beginning now to be interested.
-“How do they manage to live?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Lord knows,” said the mayor. “How do the sparrows manage to live? I guess
-there're times when they need a load of coal and a market basket full of
-victuals to help tide 'em over a hard spell, but naturally nobody would
-dare to offer to help them. They're proud as Lucifer themselves, and the
-town is kind of proud of 'em. They're institutions with us, as you might
-say.”
- </p>
-<p>
-McGlynn, who, as Olcott was to learn later, was a product of new
-industrial and new political conditions in the community, spoke with the
-half-begrudged admiration which the self-made so often have for the
-ancestor-made.
-</p>
-<p>
-“We ain't got so very many of the real aristocrats in this section any
-more, what with all this new blood pouring in since our boom started up;
-and even if they are as poor as Job's turkey, these Van Nichts still count
-for a good deal round here. Money ain't everything anyway, is it?... Well,
-Mr. Olcott, if you've seen enough here, we'll turn round and go see
-something else.” He addressed his chauffeur: “Jim, suppose you take us by
-the new hosiery mills next. I want Mr. Olcott to see one of the most
-prosperous manufacturing plants in the state. Employs nine hundred hands,
-Mr. Olcott, and hasn't been in operation but a little more than three
-years. That's the way this town is humping itself. You didn't make any
-mistake, coming here.”
- </p>
-<p>
-As the car swung about, Olcott gave the Van Nicht place a backward
-scrutiny over his shoulder and was impressed by its appearance into saying
-this:
-</p>
-<p>
-“It strikes me as having a mighty unhealthy air about it. I'd say offhand
-it was a first-rate breeding spot for malaria and rheumatism. I wonder why
-they don't trim up that big old tree and give the sunshine and the light a
-chance to get in under it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“For heaven's sake and your own, don't you suggest that to the old boy
-when you meet him,” said McGlynn with a grin. “He'd as soon think of
-cutting off his own leg as to touch a leaf on the family tree. It's sacred
-to him. It represents all the glory of his breed and he venerates it, the
-same as some people venerate an altar in a church.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Then you think I will be likely to meet him? I'd like to—from what
-you tell me, he must be rather a unique personality.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, he's all of that—unique, I mean. And you're pretty sure to
-meet him before you've been in town many months. He seems to regard it as
-his duty to call on certain people, after they've been here a given length
-of time, and extend to them the freedom of the town that his illustrious
-great-granddaddy founded. If you're specially lucky—or specially
-unlucky—he may even invite you to call on him, although that's an
-honour that doesn't come to very many, even among the older residents. The
-Van Nichts are mighty exclusive and it isn't often that anybody sees what
-the inside of their house looks like—let alone a stranger.... Say,
-Jim, after we've seen the hosiery mills, run us on out past the County
-Feeble-Minded and Insane Asylum. Mr. Olcott will enjoy that!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Within a month's time from this time, Mayor McGlynn's prophecy was to come
-true. On a morning in the early part of the summer 01 Olcott sat behind
-his desk in his office adjoining the city room on the second floor of the
-<i>News-Ledger</i> building, when his office boy announced a gentleman
-calling to see Mr. Olcott personally.
-</p>
-<p>
-“See who it is, will you, please, Morgan?” said Olcott to his assistant.
-Morgan had arrived less than a week before, having been sent on by the
-syndicate which owned a chain of papers, the <i>News-Ledger included</i>,
-to serve under the new managing editor. The syndicate had a cheery little
-way of shuffling the cards at frequent intervals and dealing out fresh
-executives for the six or eight dailies under its control and ownership.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I'm busy as the dickens,” added Olcott as Morgan got up to obey; “so if
-it's a pest that's outside, give him the soft answer and steer him off!”
- </p>
-<p>
-In a minute Morgan was back with a cryptic grin on his face.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You'd better see him—he's worth seeing, all right,” said Morgan.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Who is it?” asked Olcott.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It's somebody right out of a book,” answered Morgan; “somebody giving the
-name of Something Something Van Nicht. I didn't catch all the first name—I
-was too busy sizing up its proprietor. Says he must see you privately and
-in person. I gather from his manner that if you don't see him this paper
-will never be quite the same again. And honestly, Olcott, he's worth
-seeing.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I think I know who it is,” said Olcott, “and I'll see him. Boy, show the
-gentleman in!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I'll go myself,” said Morgan. “This is a thing that ought to be done in
-style.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Olcott reared back in his chair, waiting. The door opened and Morgan's
-voice was heard making formal and sonorous announcement: “Mr. Van Nicht.”
- And Olcott, looking over his desk top, saw, framed in the doorway, a
-figure at once picturesque and pitiable.
-</p>
-<p>
-The first thing, almost, to catch his eye was a broad black stock collar—the
-first stock collar Olcott had ever seen worn by a man in daytime. Above it
-was a long, close-shaven, old face, with a bloodless and unwholesome
-pallor to it, framed in long, white hair, and surmounted by a
-broad-brimmed, tall-crowned soft hat which had once been black and now was
-gangrenous with age. Below it a pair of sloping shoulders merging into a
-thin, meagre body tightly cased in a rusty frock coat, and below the coat
-skirts in turn a pair of amazingly thin and rickety legs, ending in
-slender, well-polish-ed boots with high heels. In an instantaneous
-appraisal of the queer figure Olcott comprehended these details and, in
-that same flicker of time, noted that the triangle of limp linen showing
-in the V of the close-buttoned lapels had a fragile, yellowish look like
-old ivory, that all the outer garments were threadbare and shiny in the
-seams, and that the stock collar was decayed to a greenish tinge along its
-edges. Although the weather was warm, the stranger wore a pair of grey
-cotton gloves.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Good morning,” said Olcott, mechanically putting a ceremonious and formal
-emphasis into the words and getting on his feet.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Good morning, sir, to you,” returned the visitor in a voice of surprising
-volume, considering that it issued from so slight a frame. “You are Mr.
-Olcott?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, that's my name.” And Olcott took a step forward, extending his hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Mine, sir, is Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht, 4th.” The speaker paused midway
-of the floor to remove one glove and to shift it and his cane to the left
-hand. Advancing, with a slight limp, he gave to Olcott a set of fingers
-that were dry and chilly and fleshless. Almost it was like clasping the
-articulated bones of a skeleton's hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I have come personally, sir, to pay my respects and, as one representing
-the—ah—the old régime of our people, to bid you welcome to our
-midst.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Thank you very much,” said Olcott, a bit amused inwardly, and a bit
-impressed also by the air of mouldy grandeur which the other diffused.
-“Won't you sit down, Mr. Van Nicht?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I shall be able to tarry but a short while.” The big voice boomed out of
-the little dried-up body as the old man took the chair which Olcott had
-indicated. He took only part of it. He poised himself on the forward edge
-of its seat, holding his spine very erect and dramatising his posture with
-a stiff and stately investure.
-</p>
-<p>
-Olcott caught himself telling himself Morgan had been right: This
-personage was not really flesh and blood, but something out of a book—an
-embodied bit of fiction. Why even his language had the stilted shaping of
-the characters in most of these old-timey classical novels.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He wasn't really born at all,” Olcott thought. “Dickens wrote him and
-then Cruikshank drew him and now here he is, miraculously preserved to
-posterity. But Charlotte Brontë endowed him with his conversation.” What
-Olcott said—aloud—was something fatuous and commonplace
-touching on the state of the weather.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I have yet other motives in presenting myself to-day, in this, your
-sanctum,” stated Mr. Van Nicht. “First of all, I wish to congratulate you
-upon what to me appears to be a very gratifying stroke of journalistic
-enterprise which has come to light in the columns of your valued organ
-since your advent into the community and for which, therefore, I assume
-you are responsible.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well,” said Olcott, “we try to get out a reasonably live sheet.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Pardon me,” said Mr. Van Nicht, “but I do not refer to the aspect of your
-news columns. I am speaking with reference to a feature lately appearing
-in your Sunday edition, in what I believe is known as your magazine
-section. I have observed that, beginning two weeks ago, you inaugurated a
-department devoted to the genealogies of divers of our older and more
-distinguished American families. As I recall, the subjects of your first
-two articles were the Adams family, of Massachusetts, and the Lee family,
-of Virginia. It may interest you to know, sir—I trust indeed that it
-may please you to know—that I, personally, am most highly pleased
-that you should seek to inculcate in the minds of our people, through the
-medium of your columns, a knowledge of those strains of blood to which our
-nation is particularly indebted for much of its culture, much of its
-social development, many of its gentler and more graceful influences. It
-is a most worthy movement indeed, a most commendable undertaking. I
-repeat, sir, that I congratulate you upon it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Thank you,” said Olcott. “This coming Sunday we are going to run a yarn
-about the Gordon family, of Georgia, and after that I believe come the
-Clays, of Kentucky.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Quite so, quite so,” said Mr. Van Nicht. “The names you have mentioned
-are names that are permanently embalmed in the written annals of our
-national life. But may I ask, sir, whether you have taken any steps as yet
-to in-corporate into your series an epitome of the achievements of the
-family of which I have the honour to be the head—the Van Nicht
-family?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, you see,” explained Olcott apologetically, “these articles are not
-written here in the office. They are sent to us in proof sheets as a part
-of our regular feature service, and we run 'em just as they come to us.
-Probably—probably”—he hesitated a moment over the job of
-phrasing tactfully his white lie—“probably a story on your family
-genealogy will be coming along pretty soon.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Doubtlessly so, doubtlessly so.” The assent was guilelessly emphatic. “In
-any such symposium, in any such compendium, my family, beyond
-peradventure, will have its proper place in due season. Nevertheless,
-foreseeing that in the hands of a stranger the facts and the dates might
-unintentionally be confused or wrongly set down, I have taken upon myself
-the obligation of preparing an accurate account of the life and work of my
-illustrious, heroic and noble ancestor, Colonel Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht,
-together with a more or less elaborate <i>résumé</i> of the lives of his
-descendants up to and including the present generation. This article is
-now completed. In fact I have it upon my person.” Carefully he undid the
-top button of his coat and reached for an inner breast pocket. “I shall be
-most pleased to accord you my full permission for its insertion in an
-early issue of your publication.” He spoke with the air of one bestowing a
-gift of great value.
-</p>
-<p>
-Olcott's practised eye appraised the probable length of the manuscript
-which this volunteer contributor was hauling forth from his bosom and,
-inside himself, Olcott groaned. There appeared to be a considerable number
-of sheets of foolscap, all closely written over in a fine, close hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Thank you, Mr. Van Nicht, thank you very much,” said Olcott, searching
-his soul for excuses. “But I'm afraid we aren't able to pay much for this
-sort of matter. What I mean to say is we are not in a position to invest
-very heavily in outside offerings. Er—you see most of our specials—in
-fact practically all of them except those written here in the office by
-the staff—come to us as part of a regular syndicate arrangement.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Here Mr. Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht, 4th, attained the physically
-impossible. He erected his spine straighter than before and stiffened his
-body a mite stiffer than it had been.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Pray do not misunderstand me, sir,” he stated solemnly. “I crave no
-honorarium for this work. I expect none. I have considered it a duty
-incumbent upon me to prepare it, and I regard it as a pleasure to tender
-it to you, gratis.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But—I'd like to be able to offer a little something anyway—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“One moment, if you please! Kindly hear me out! With me, sir, this has
-been a labour of love. Moreover, I should look upon it as an impropriety
-to accept remuneration for such work. To me it would savour of the
-mercenary—would be as though I sought to capitalise into dollars and
-cents the reputation of my own people and my own stock. I trust you get my
-viewpoint?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, yes, indeed”—Olcott was slightly flustered—“very
-creditable of you, I'm sure. Er—is it very long?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No longer than a proper appreciation of the topic demands.” The old
-gentleman spoke with firmness. “Also you may rely absolutely upon the
-trustworthiness and the accuracy of all the facts, as herein recited. I
-had access to the papers left by my own revered grandfather, Judge
-Cecilius Van Nicht, 2d, son and namesake of the founder of our line,
-locally. I may tell you, too, that in preparing this compilation I was
-assisted by my sister, Miss Rachael Van Nicht, a lady of wide reading and
-no small degree of intellectual attainment, although leading a life much
-aloof from the world—in fact, almost a cloistered life.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He arose, opened out the sheaf of folded sheets, pressed them flat with a
-caressing hand and laid them down in front of Olcott. He spoke now with
-authority, almost in the tone of a superior giving instructions regarding
-a delicate matter to an underling:
-</p>
-<p>
-“I feel warranted in the assumption that you will not find it necessary to
-alter or curtail my statements in any particular. I have had some previous
-experience in literary endeavours. In all modesty I may say that I am no
-novice. A signed article from my pen, entitled The Influence of the
-Holland—Dutch Strain Upon American Public Life, From Peter
-Stuyvesant to Theodore Roosevelt, was published some years since in the
-New York <i>Evening Post</i>, afterward becoming the subject of editorial
-comment in the Springfield <i>Republican</i>, the Hartford <i>Courant</i>
-and the Boston <i>Transcript</i>. At present I am engaged in a brief
-history of one of our earlier presidents, the Honourable Martin Van Buren.
-I have the honour to bid you a very good day, sir.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Olcott ran the story in his next Sunday issue but one. It stretched the
-full length of two columns and invaded a third. It was tiresome and
-long-winded. It was as prosy as prosy could be. To make room for it a
-smartly done special on the commercial awakening of Schuyler County was
-crowded out. Olcott's judgment told him he did a sinful thing, but he ran
-it. He went further than that. Into the editorial page he slipped a
-paragraph directing attention to “Mr. Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht's timely
-and interesting article, appearing elsewhere in this number.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He had his reward, though, in the comments of sundry ones of his local
-subscribers. From these comments, made to him by letter and by word of
-mouth, he sensed something of the attitude of the community toward the Van
-Nicht family. As he figured, this sentiment was a compound of several
-things. It appeared to embody a gentle intolerance for the shell of social
-exclusiveness in which the present bearers of the name had walled
-themselves up, together with a sympathy for their poverty and their
-self-imposed state of lonely and neglected aloofness, and still further
-down, underlying these emotions and tincturing them, an understanding and
-an admiration for the importance of this old family as an old family—an
-admiration which was genuine and avowed on the part of some, and just as
-genuine but more or less reluctantly bestowed on the part of others. It
-was as Mayor McGlynn had informed Olcott on their first meeting. The Van
-Nichts were not so much individuals, having a share in the life of this
-thriving, striving, overgrown town, as they were historical fixtures and
-traditional assets. Collectively, they constituted something to be proud
-of and sorry for.
-</p>
-<p>
-Soon, too, he had further reward. One afternoon a small and grimy boy
-invaded his room, without knocking, and laid a note upon his desk.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Old guy downstairs, with long hair and a gimpy leg, handed me this yere
-and gimme fi' cents to fetch it up here to you,” stated the messenger.
-</p>
-<p>
-The note was from Mr. Van Nicht, as a glance at the superscription told
-Olcott before he opened the envelope. In formal terms Olcott was thanked
-for giving the writer's offering such prominence in the pages of his
-valuable paper and was invited, formally, to call upon the undersigned at
-his place of residence, in order that undersigned might more fully express
-to Mr. Olcott his sincere appreciation.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the whole, Olcott was glad of the opportunity to view the inside of
-that gloomy old house under the big tree out at the end of Putnam Street.
-He wanted to see more of Mr. Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht, and to see
-something of the other two dwellers beneath that ancient roof. Olcott had
-dreams of some day writing a novel; some day when he had the time. Most
-newspaper men do have such dreams; or else it is a play they are going to
-write. Meanwhile, pending the coming of that day, he was storing up
-material for it in his mind. Assuredly the bleached-out, pale, old recluse
-in the black stock would make copy. Probably his sisters would be types
-also, and they might make copy too. Olcott answered the note, accepting
-the invitation for that same evening.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was a night of crystal-clear moonlight, and Olcott walked up Putnam
-Street through an alchemistic radiance which was like a path for a Puck to
-dance along. But the shimmering aisle broke off short, when he had turned
-in at the broken gate and had come to the edge of the shade of the Van
-Nicht elm. Under there the shadow lay so thick and dense that, as he
-groped through it to the small entry porch, finding the way by the feel of
-his feet upon the irregular, flagged walk, he had the conviction that he
-might reach out with his hands and gather up folds of the darkness in his
-arms, like ells of black velvet. The faint glow which came through a
-curtained front window of the unseen house was like a phosphorescent
-smear, plastered against a formless background, and only served to make
-the adjacent darkness darker still. If the moonlight yonder was a fit
-place for the fairies to trip it, this particular spot, he thought, must
-be reserved for ghosts to stalk in.
-</p>
-<p>
-Fumbling with his hands, he searched out the heavy door knocker. Its
-resounding thump against its heel plate, as he dropped it back in place,
-made him jump. At once the door opened. Centred in the oblong of dulled
-light which came from an oil lamp burning upon a table, behind and within,
-appeared the slender, warped figure of Mr. Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht, 4th.
-With much ceremony the head of the house bowed the guest in past the
-portals.
-</p>
-<p>
-Almost the first object to catch Olcott's eye, as he stepped in, was a
-portrait which, with its heavy frame, filled up a considerable portion of
-the wall space across the back breadth of the square hallway into which he
-had entered. Excepting for this picture and the table with the oil lamp
-upon it and a tall hat-tree, the hall was quite bare.
-</p>
-<p>
-Plainly pleased that the younger man's attention had been caught by the
-painted square of canvas, Mr. Van Nicht promptly turned up the wick of the
-light, and then Olcott, looking closer, saw staring down at him the
-close-set black eyes and the heavy-jowled, foreign-look-ing face of an old
-man, dressed in such garb as we associate with our conceptions of Thomas
-Jefferson and the elder Adams.
-</p>
-<p>
-“My famous forbear, sir,” stated Olcott's host, with a great weight of
-vanity in his words, “the original bearer of the name which I, as his
-great-grandson, have the honour, likewise, of bearing. To me, sir, it has
-ever been a source of deep regret that there is no likeness extant
-depicting him in his uniform as a regimental commander in the Continental
-armies. If any such likeness existed, it was destroyed prior to the
-colonel's removal to this place, following the close of the struggle for
-Independence. This portrait was executed in the later years of the
-original's life—presumably about the year 1798, by order of his son,
-who was my grandfather. It was the son who enlarged this house, by the
-addition of a wing at the rear, and to him also we are indebted for the
-written records of his father's gallant performances on the field of
-honour, as well as for the accounts of his many worthy achievements in the
-lines of civic endeavour. Naturally this portrait and those records are
-our most precious possessions and our greatest heritages.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The first Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht was by all accounts a great scholar
-but not a practised scribe. The second of the name was both. Hence our
-great debt to him—a debt which I may say is one in which this
-community itself shares.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I'm sure of it,” said Olcott.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And now, sir, if you will be so good, kindly step this way,” said Mr. Van
-Nicht. “The light, I fear, is rather indifferent. This house has never
-been wired for electricity, nor was it ever equipped with gas pipes. I
-prefer to use lights more in keeping with its antiquity and its general
-character.”
- </p>
-<p>
-His tone indicated that he did not in the least hold with the vulgarised
-and common utilities of the present. He led the way diagonally across the
-hall to a side door and ushered Olcott into what evidently was the chief
-living room of the house. It was a large, square room, very badly lighted
-with candles. It was cluttered, as Olcott instantly perceived, with a
-jumble of dingy-appearing antique furnishings, and it contained two women
-who, at his appearance, rose from their seats upon either side of the wide
-and empty fireplace. Simultaneously his nose informed him' that this room
-was heavy with a pent, dampish taint.
-</p>
-<p>
-He decided that what it mainly needed was air and sunshine, and plenty of
-both.
-</p>
-<p>
-“My two sisters,” introduced Mr. Van Nicht. “Miss Rachael Van Nicht, Mr.
-Olcott. Miss Harriet Van Nicht, Mr. Olcott.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Neither of the two ladies offered her hand to him. They bowed primly, and
-Olcott bowed back and, already feeling almost as uncomfortable as though
-he had invaded the privacy of a family group of resident shades in their
-resident vault, he sat down in a musty-smell-ing armchair near the elder
-sister.
-</p>
-<p>
-Considered as such, the conversation which followed was not unqualifiedly
-a success. The brother bore the burden of it, which meant that at once it
-took on a stiff and an unnatural and an artificial colouring. It was dead
-talk, stuffed with big words, and strung with wires. There were
-semioccasional interpolations by Olcott, who continued to feel most
-decidedly out of place. Once in a while Miss Rachael Van Nicht slid a
-brief remark into the grooves which her brother channelled out. Since he
-was called upon to say so little, Olcott was the better off for an
-opportunity to study this lady as he sat there.
-</p>
-<p>
-His first look at her had told him she was of the same warp and texture as
-her brother; somewhat skimpier in the pattern, but identical in the
-fabric. Olcott decided though that there was this difference: If the
-brother had stepped out of Dickens, the sister had escaped from between
-the hasped lids of an old daguerreotype frame. Her plain frock of some
-harsh, dead-coloured stuff—her best frock, his intuition told him—the
-big cameo pin at her throat, the homely arrangement of her grey hair, her
-hands, wasted and withered-looking as they lay on her lap, even her voice,
-which was lugubriously subdued and flat—all these things helped out
-the illusion. Of the other sister, sitting two-thirds of the way across
-the wide room from him, he saw but little and he heard less. The poor
-light, and the distance and the deep chair in which she had sunk herself,
-combined to blot her out as a personality and to efface her from the
-picture. She scarcely uttered a word.
-</p>
-<p>
-As Olcott had expected beforehand, the talk dealt, in the main, with the
-Van Nicht family, which is another way of saying that it went back of and
-behind, and far beyond, all that might be current and timely and pertinent
-to the hour. There was no substance to it, for it dealt with what had no
-substance. As he stayed on, making brave pretense of being interested, he
-was aware of an interrupting, vaguely irritating sound at his rear and
-partly to one side of him. Patently the sound was coming from without. It
-was like a sustained and steady scratching, and it had to do, he figured,
-with one of the window openings. He took a glance over his shoulder, but
-he couldn't make out the cause; the window was too heavily shrouded in
-faded, thick curtains of a sad, dark-green aspect. The thing got on his
-nerves, it persisted so. Finally he was moved to mention it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I beg your pardon,” he said, taking advantage of a pause, “but isn't
-somebody or something fumbling at the window outside?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“It is a bough of the family elm,” explained Mr. Van Nicht. “One of the
-lower boughs has grown forward and downward, until it touches the side of
-the house. When stirred by the breeze it creates the sound which you
-hear.” Internally Olcott shivered. Now that the explanation had been
-vouchsafed the noise made him think of ghostly fingers tapping at the
-glass panes—as though the spirit of the tree craved admittance to
-the dismal circle of these human creatures who shared with it the tribal
-glory.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Don't you find it very annoying?” he asked innocently. “I should think
-you would prune the limb back.” He halted then, realising that his tongue
-had slipped. There was a little silence, which became edged and iced with
-a sudden hostility.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No human hand has ever touched the tree to denude it of any part of its
-majestic beauty,” stated Mr. Van Nicht with a frigid intonation. “Whilst
-any of this household survives to protect it, no human hand ever shall.”
- </p>
-<p>
-From the elder sister came a murmur of assent.
-</p>
-<p>
-The conversation had sagged and languished before; after this it sank to a
-still lower level and gradually froze to death. After possibly ten minutes
-more of the longest and bleakest minutes he ever recalled having
-weathered, Olcott, being mentally chilled through, got up and, making a
-show of expressing a counterfeit pleasure of having been accorded this
-opportunity of meeting those present, said really he must be going now.
-</p>
-<p>
-In their places Miss Rachael Van Nicht and her brother rose, standing
-stiff as stalagmites, and he knew he was not forgiven. It was the younger
-sister who showed him out, preceding him silently, as he betook himself
-from the presence of the remaining two.
-</p>
-<p>
-Close up, in the better light of the hall, Olcott for the first time
-perceived that Miss Harriet Van Nicht was not so very old. In fact, she
-was not old at all. He had assumed somehow that she must be sered and
-soured and elderly, or at least that she must be middle-aged. With this
-establishment he could not associate any guise of youth as belonging. But
-he perceived how wrong he had been. Miss Harriet Van Nicht most assuredly
-was not old. She could not be past thirty, perhaps she was not more than
-twenty-five or six. It was the plain and ugly gown she wore, a
-dun-coloured, sleazy, shabby gown, which had given her, when viewed from a
-distance, the aspect of age—that and the unbecoming way in which she
-wore her hair slicked back from her forehead and drawn up from round her
-ears. She had fine eyes, as now he saw, with a plaintive light in them,
-and finely arched brows and a delicate oval of a face; and she was small
-and dainty of figure. He could tell that, too, despite the fit of the
-ungraceful frock.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the outer door, which she held ajar for his passage, she spoke, and
-instantly he was moved by a certain wistfulness in her tones.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It was a pleasure to have you come to see us, Mr. Olcott,” she said, and
-he thought she meant it too. “We see so few visitors, living here as we
-do. Sometimes I think it might be better for us if we kept more in touch
-with people who live in the outside world and know something of it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Thank you, Miss Van Nicht,” said Olcott, warming. “I'm afraid, though, I
-made a rather unfortunate suggestion about the tree. Really, I'm very
-sorry.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Her face took on a gravity; almost a condemning expression came into it.
-And when she answered him it was in a different voice.
-</p>
-<p>
-“A stranger could not understand how we regard the Van Nicht elm,” she
-said. “No stranger could understand! Good night, Mr. Olcott.”
- </p>
-<p>
-At the last she had made him feel that he was a stranger. And she had not
-shaken hands with him either, nor had she asked him to call again.
-</p>
-<p>
-He made his way out, through the black magic of the tree's midnight gloom,
-into the pure white chemistry of the moonlight; and having reached the
-open, he looked back. Except for that faint luminous blotch, like smeared
-phosphorus, showing through the blackness from beyond the giant tree,
-nothing testified that a habitation of living beings might be tucked away
-in that drear hiding place. He shrugged his shoulders as though to shake a
-load off them and, as he swung down the silvered street in the flawless
-night, his thoughts thawed out. He decided that assuredly two of the Van
-Nichts must go into the book which some day, when time served, he meant to
-write.
-</p>
-<p>
-They belonged in a book—those two poor, pale, sapless creatures,
-enduring a grinding poverty for the sake of a vain idolatry; those joint
-inheritors of a worthless and burdensome fetish, deliberately preferring
-the shadow of a mouldy past for the substance of the present day. Why, the
-thing smacked of the Oriental. It wasn't fit and sane for white people—this
-Mongolian ancestor-worship which shut the door and drew the blind to every
-healthy and vigorous impulse and every beneficent impulse. Going along
-alone, Olcott worked himself into quite a brisk little fury of impatience
-and disgust.
-</p>
-<p>
-He had it right—they belonged in a book, those two older Van Nichts,
-not in real life. And into a book they should go—into his book. But
-the younger girl, now. It was a pitiable life she must lead, hived up
-there in that musty old house under that terrific big tree with those two
-grim and touchy hermits. On her account he resented it. He tried to
-picture her in some more favourable setting. He succeeded fairly well too.
-Possibly, though, that was because Olcott had the gift of a brisk
-imagination. At times, during the days which followed, the vision of
-Harriet Van Nicht, translated out of her present decayed environment,
-persisted in his thoughts. He wondered why it did persist.
-</p>
-<p>
-Nearly a month went by, during which he saw no member of that weird
-household. One day he encountered upon the street the brother and went up
-to him and, rather against the latter's inclination, engaged him in small
-talk. It didn't take long to prove that Mr. Van Nicht had very little
-small talk in stock; also that his one-time air of distant and punctilious
-regard for the newspaper man had entirely vanished. Mr. Van Nicht was
-courteous enough, with an aloof and stand-away courteousness, but he was
-not cordial. Presently Olcott found himself speaking, from a rather
-defensive attitude, of his own ancestry. He came of good New England stock—a
-circumstance which he rarely mentioned in company, but which now, rather
-to his own surprise, he found himself expounding at some length. Afterward
-he told himself that he had been merely casting about for a subject which
-might prove congenial to Mr. Van Nicht and had, by chance, hit on that
-one.
-</p>
-<p>
-If such were the care, the expedient failed. It did not in the least serve
-to establish them upon a common footing. The old gentleman listened, but
-he refused to warm up; and when he bade Olcott good day and limped off, he
-left Olcott profoundly impressed with the conviction that Mr. Van Nicht
-did not propose to suffer any element of familiarity to enter into their
-acquaintanceship. Feeling abashed, as though he had been rebuked after
-some subtle fashion for presumption and forwardness, Olcott dropped into
-the handiest bar and had a drink all by himself—something he rarely
-did. But this time he felt that the social instinct of his system required
-a tonic and a bracer.
-</p>
-<p>
-Within the next day or two chance gave him opportunity for still further
-insight into the estimation in which he was held by other members of the
-Van Nicht family. This happened shortly before the close of a cool and
-showery July afternoon. Leaving his desk, he took advantage of a lull in
-the rain to go for a solitary stroll before dinner. He was briskly
-traversing a side street, well out of the business district, when suddenly
-the downpour started afresh. He pulled up the collar of his light raincoat
-and turned back to hurry to the Hotel Brain-ard, where he lived. Going in
-the opposite direction a woman pedestrian, under an umbrella, met him; she
-was heading right into the slanting sheets of rain. In a sidelong glance
-he recognised the profile of the passer, and instantly he had faced about
-and was alongside of her, lifting his soaked hat.
-</p>
-<p>
-“How d'you do, Miss Van Nicht?” he was saying. “I'm afraid you'll make
-poor headway against this rainstorm. Won't you let me see you safely
-home?”
- </p>
-<p>
-It was the younger Miss Van Nicht. Her greeting of him and her smile made
-him feel that for the moment at least he would not be altogether an
-unwelcome companion. As he fell in beside her, catching step with her and
-taking the umbrella out of her hands, he noted with a small throb of pity
-that her cheap dark skirt was dripping and that the shoes she wore must be
-insufficient protection, with their thin soles and their worn uppers,
-against wet weather. He noted sundry other things about her: Seen by
-daylight she was pretty—undeniably pretty. The dampness had twisted
-little curls in her primly bestowed hair, and the exertion of her struggle
-against the storm had put a becoming flush in her cheeks.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I was out on an errand for my sister,” she said. “I thought I could get
-home between showers, but this one caught me. And my umbrella—I'm
-afraid it is leaky.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Undeniably it was. Already the palm of Olcott's hand was sopping where
-water, seeping through open seams along the rusted ribs, had run down the
-handle. Each new gust, drumming upon the decrepit cloth, threatened to
-make a total wreck of what was already but little better than the
-venerable ruin of an umbrella.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You must permit me to see you home then,” he said. He glanced up and
-down, hoping to see a cab or a taxi. But there was no hireable vehicle in
-sight and the street cars did not run through this street. “I'm afraid,
-though, that we'll have to go afoot.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And I'm afraid that I am taking you out of your way,” she said. “You were
-going in the opposite direction, weren't you, when you met me?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I wasn't going anywhere in particular,” he lied gallantly; “personally I
-rather like to take a walk when it's raining.”
- </p>
-<p>
-For a bit after this neither of them spoke, for the wind all at once blew
-with nearly the intensity of a small hurricane, buffeting thick rain spray
-into their faces and spattering it up about their feet. She seemed so
-small—so defenceless almost, bending forward to brace herself
-against its rude impetuosity. He was mighty glad it was his hand which
-clasped her arm, guiding and helping her along; mighty glad it was he who
-held the leaky old umbrella in front of her and with it fended off some
-part of the rain from her. They had travelled a block or two so, in
-company, when the summer storm broke off even more abruptly than it had
-started. There was an especially violent spatter of especially large
-drops, and then the wind gave one farewell wrench at the umbrella and was
-gone, tearing on its way.
-</p>
-<p>
-In another half minute the setting sun was doing its best to shine out
-through a welter of shredding black clouds. There were wide patches of
-blue in the sky when they turned into Putnam Street and came within sight
-of the Van Nicht elm, rising as a great, green balloon at the head of it.
-By now they were chatting upon the basis—almost—of a seasoned
-acquaintanceship. Olcott found himself talking about his work. When a
-young man tells a young woman about his work, and is himself interested as
-he tells it, it is quite frequently a sign that he is beginning to be
-interested in something besides his work, whether he realises it yet or
-not. And in Miss Van Nicht he was pleased to discern what he took to be a
-sympathetic understanding, as well as a happy aptness and alertness in the
-framing of her replies. It hardly seemed possible that this was the second
-time they had exchanged words. Rather it was as though they had known each
-other for a considerable period; so he told himself.
-</p>
-<p>
-But as, side by side, they turned in at the rickety gate of the ancestral
-dooryard and came under the shadow of the ancestral tree, her manner, her
-attitude, her voice, all about her seemed to undergo a change. Her pace
-quickened for these last few steps, and she cast a furtive, almost an
-apprehensive glance toward the hooded windows of the house.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I'm afraid I am late—my sister and my brother will be worrying
-about me,” she said a little nervously. “And I am sorry to have put you to
-all this trouble on my account.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Trouble, Miss Van Nicht? Why, it was—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I shan't ask you in,” she said, breaking in on him. “I know you will want
-to be getting back to the hotel and putting on dry clothes. Good-by, Mr.
-Olcott, and thank you very much.”
- </p>
-<p>
-And with that she had left him, and she was hurrying up the porch steps,
-and she was gone, without a backward look to where he stood, puzzled and
-decidedly taken aback, in the middle of the seamed flags of the walk.
-</p>
-<p>
-He was nearly at the gate when he discovered that he had failed to return
-her umbrella to her; so he went back and knocked at the door. It was the
-elder sister who answered. She opened the door a scant foot.
-</p>
-<p>
-“How do you do, sir?” she said austerely.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I forgot to give your sister her umbrella,” explained Olcott.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I perceive,” she replied, speaking through the slit with a kind of
-sharp impatience, and she took it from him. “'Thank you! We are most
-grateful to you for your thoughtfulness.”
- </p>
-<p>
-She waited then, as if for him to speak, providing he had anything to say—her
-posture and her expression meanwhile most forcibly interpreting the
-attitude in which he must understand that he stood here. It was plain
-enough to be sensed. She resented—they all resented—his
-reappearance in any rôle at the threshold of their home. She was
-profoundly out of temper with him and all that might pertain and appertain
-to him. So naturally there was nothing for him to say except “Good
-evening,” and he said it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Good evening,” she said, and as he bowed and backed away she closed the
-door.
-</p>
-<p>
-Outside the fence he halted and looked about him, then he looked back over
-the gapped and broken palings. Everywhere else the little world of Putnam
-Street had a washed, cleansed aspect; everywhere else nearly the sun slid
-its flattened rays along the refreshed and moistened sod and touched the
-wayside weeds with pure gold; but none of its beams slanted over the side
-hill and found a way beneath the interlaced, widespread bulk of the family
-tree. He saw how forlornly the lower boughs, under their load of rain
-water, drooped almost to the earth, and how the naked soil round about the
-vast trunk of it was guttered with muddy, yellow furrows where little
-torrents had coursed down the slope, and how poisonously vivid was the
-mould upon the trunk. The triangular scar in its lower bark showed as a
-livid greenish patch. Still farther back in the shadow the outlines of the
-old grey house half emerged, revealing dimly a space of streaked walls and
-the sodden, warped shingles upon one outjut-ting gable of the peaked roof.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It's not an honest elm,” thought Olcott to himself in a little impotent
-rage. “It's a cursed devil tree, a upas tree, overshadowing and blighting
-everything pleasant and wholesome that might grow near it. Bats and owls
-and snails belong back there—not human beings. There ought to be a
-vigilance committee formed to chop it down and blast its roots out of the
-ground with dynamite. Oh, damn!”
- </p>
-<p>
-In his pocket he had a letter from the presiding deity of the organisation
-that owned the string of papers of which the paper he edited was a part.
-In that letter he was invited to consider the proposition of surrendering
-his present berth with the Schuylerville <i>News-Ledger</i> and going off
-to Europe, as special war correspondent for the syndicate. He had been
-considering the project for two days now. All of a sudden he made up his
-mind to accept. While the heat of his petulance and disappointment was
-still upon him, he went that same evening and wired his acceptance to
-headquarters. Two days later, with his credentials in his pocket and a
-weight of sullen resentment against certain animate and inanimate objects
-in his heart, he was aboard a train out of Schuylerville, bound for New
-York, and thereafter, by steamer, for foreign parts.
-</p>
-<p>
-He was away, concerned with trenches, gas bombs, field hospitals and the
-quotable opinions of sundry high and mighty men of war-craft and
-statecraft, for upwards of a year. It was a most remarkably busy year, and
-the job in hand claimed jealous sovereignty of his eyes, his legs and his
-brain, while it lasted.
-</p>
-<p>
-He came back, having delivered the goods to the satisfaction of his
-employers, to find himself promoted to a general supervision of the
-editorial direction of the papers in his syndicate, with a thumping good
-salary and a roving commission. He willed it that the first week of his
-incumbency in his new duties should carry him to Schuylerville. In his old
-office, which looked much the same as it had looked when he occupied it,
-he found young Morgan, his former assistant, also looking much the same,
-barring that now Morgan was in full charge and giving orders instead of
-taking them. Authority nearly always works a change in a man; it had in
-this case.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Say, Olcott,” said Morgan after the talk between them had ebbed and
-flowed along a little while, “you remember that old geezer, Van Nicht,
-don't you? You know, the old boy who wrote the long piece about his
-family, and you ran it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Certainly I do,” said Olcott. “Why—what of him?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Instead of answering him directly, Morgan put another question:
-</p>
-<p>
-“And of course you remember the old Van Nicht house, under that big,
-whopping elm tree, out at the end of Putnam Street, where he used to live
-with those two freakish sisters of his?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Where he used to live? Doesn't he—don't they—live there now?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Nope—tree's gone and so is the house.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Gone? Gone where?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Gone out of existence—vamoosed. Here's what happened, and it's a
-peach of a tale too: One night about six months ago there came up a hard
-thunderstorm—lots of lightning and gobs of thunder, not to mention
-rain and wind a plenty. In the midst of it a bolt hit the Van Nicht elm—ker-flewie—and
-just naturally tore it into flinders. When I saw it myself the next day it
-was converted from a landmark into the biggest whisk broom in the world.
-The neighbours were saying that it rained splinters round there for ten
-minutes after the bolt struck. I guess they didn't exaggerate much at
-that, because—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Was the house struck too? Was anybody hurt?” Olcott cut in on him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No, the house escaped somehow—had a few shingles ripped off the
-roof, and some of its windows smashed in by flying scraps; that was all.
-And nobody about the place suffered anything worse than a stunning. But
-the fright killed the older sister—Miss Rachael. Anyhow, that's what
-the doctors think. She didn't have a mark on her, but she died in about an
-hour, without ever speaking. I guess it was just as well, too, that she
-did. If she had survived the first shock I judge the second one would just
-about have finished her.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The second shock? You don't mean the lightning?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No, no!” Morgan hastened to explain.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Lightning never plays a return date—never has need to, I take it. I
-mean the shock of what happened after daylight next morning.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That was the queerest part of the whole thing—that was what made a
-really big story out of it. We ran two columns about it ourselves, and the
-A. P. carried it for more than a column.
-</p>
-<p>
-“After the storm had died down and it got light enough to see, some of the
-neighbours were prowling round the place sizing up the damage. Right in
-the heart of the stump of the elm, which was split wide open—the
-stump, I mean—they found a funny-looking old copper box buried in
-what must have been a rot-ted-out place at one time, maybe ninety or a
-hundred years ago. But the hollow had grown up, and nobody ever had
-suspected that the tree wasn't solid as iron all the way through, until
-the lightning came along and just naturally reached a fiery finger down
-through all that hardwood and probed the old box out of its cache and,
-without so much as melting a hinge on it, heaved it up into sight, where
-the first fellow that happened along afterward would be sure to see it.
-Well, right off they thought of buried treasure, but being honest they
-called old Van Nicht out of the house, and in his presence they opened her
-up—the box I mean—and then, lo and behold, they found out that
-all these years this town had been worshipping a false god!
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir, the great and only original Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht was a rank
-fake. He was as bogus as a lead nickel. There were papers in the box to
-prove what nobody, and least of all his own flesh and blood, ever
-suspected before. He wasn't a hero of the Revolution. He wasn't a colonel
-under George Washington. He wasn't of Holland-Dutch stock. His name wasn't
-even Van Nicht. His real name was Jake Nix—that's what it was, Nix—and
-he was just a plain, everyday Hessian soldier—a mercenary bought up,
-along with the other Hessians, and sent over here by King George to fight
-against the cause of liberty, instead of for it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“As near as we can figure it out, he changed his name after the war ended,
-before he moved here to live, and then after he died—or anyhow when
-he was an old man—his son, the second Cecilius Jacob, concocted the
-fairy tale about his father's distinguished services and all the rest of
-it. The son was the one, it seems, who capitalised the false reputation of
-the old man. He lived on it, and all the Van Nichts who came after him
-lived on it too—only they were innocent of practising any deception
-on the community at large, and the second Van Nicht wasn't. It certainly
-put the laugh on this town, not to mention the local aristocracy, and the
-D. A. R.'s and the Colonial Dames and the rest of the blue bloods
-generally, when the news spread that morning.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, there couldn't be any doubt about it! The proofs were all right there
-and dozens of reliable witnesses saw them—letters and papers and the
-record of old Nix's services in the British army. In fact there was only
-one phase of the affair that has remained unexplained and a mystery. I
-mean the presence of the papers in the tree. Nobody can figure out why the
-son didn't destroy them, when he was creating such a swell fiction
-character out of his revered parent. One theory is that he didn't know of
-their existence at all—that the old man, for reasons best known to
-himself, hid them there in that copper box and that then the tree healed
-up over the hole and sealed the box in, with nobody but him any the wiser,
-and nobody ever suspecting anything out of the way, but just taking
-everything for granted. Why, it was exactly as if the old Nix had come out
-of the grave after lying there for a century or more, to produce the truth
-and shame his own offspring, and incidentally scare one of his descendants
-plumb to death.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What a tragedy!” said Olcott. But his main thought when he said it was
-not for the dead sister but for the living.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You said it,” affirmed Morgan. “That's exactly what it was—a
-tragedy, with a good deal of serio-comedy relief to it. Only there wasn't
-anything very comical about the figure the old man Van Nicht cut when he
-came walking into this office here about half past ten o'clock that day,
-with a ragged piece of crêpe tied round his old high hat. Olcott, you
-never in your life saw a man as badly broken up as he was. All his vanity,
-all his bumptiousness was gone—he was just a poor, old, shabby,
-broken-spirited man. I'd already gotten a tip on the story and I'd sent
-one of my boys out to find him and get his tale, but it seemed he'd told
-the reporter he preferred to make a personal statement for publication.
-And so here he was with his statement all carefully written out and he
-asked me to print it, insisting that it ought to be given as wide
-circulation as possible. I'll dig it up for you out of the files in a
-minute and let you see it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes, sir, he'd sat down alongside his sister's dead body and written it.
-He called it A Confession and an Apology, and I ran it that way, just as
-he'd written it. It wasn't very long, but it was mighty pitiful, when you
-took everything into consideration. He begged the pardon of the public for
-unwittingly practicing a deceit upon it all through his life—for
-living a lie, was the way he phrased it—and he signed it 'Jacob Nix,
-heretofore erroneously known as Cecilius Jacob Van Nicht, 4th.' That
-signature was what especially got me when I read it—it made me feel
-that the old boy was literally stripping his soul naked before the
-ridicule of this town and the ridicule of the whole country. A pretty
-manly, straightforward thing, I called it, and I liked him better for
-having done it than I ever had liked him before.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, I told him I would run the card for him and I did run it, and
-likewise I toned down the story we carried about the exposure too. I'm
-fairly well calloused, I guess, but I didn't want to bruise the old man
-and his sister any more than I could help doing. But, of course, I didn't
-speak to him about that part of it. I did try, in a clumsy sort of way, to
-express my sympathy for him. I guess I made a fairly sad hash of it,
-though. There didn't seem to be any words to fit the situation. Or, if
-there were, I couldn't think of them for the moment. I remember I mumbled
-something about letting bygones be bygones and not taking it too much to
-heart and all that sort of thing.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He thanked me, and then, as he started to go, he stopped and asked me
-whether by any chance I knew of any opening—any possible job for a
-person of his age and limitations. I remember his words: 'It is high time
-that I was casting about to find honourable employment, no matter how
-humble. I have been trading with a spurious currency for too long. I have
-spent my life in the imposition of a monumental deceit upon this
-long-suffering community. I intend now, sir, to go to work to earn a
-living with my own hands and upon my own merits. I wish to atone for the
-rôle I have played.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“It may have been imagination, but I thought there was a kind of faint
-hopeful gleam in his eye as he looked at me and said this; and he seemed
-to flinch a little bit when I broke the news to him that we didn't have
-any vacancies on the staff at present. I sort of gathered that he rather
-fancied he had literary gifts. Literary gifts? Can't you just see that
-poor, forlorn old scout piking round soliciting want ads at twenty cents a
-line or trying to cover petty assignments on the news end? I told him,
-though, I'd be on the lookout for something for him, and he thanked me
-mighty ceremoniously and limped out, leaving me all choked up. Two days
-later, after the funeral, he telephoned in to ask me not to trouble myself
-on his account, because he had already established a connection with
-another concern which he hoped would turn out to be mutually advantageous
-and personally lucrative; or words to that effect.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I did a little private investigating that evening and I found out
-where the old chap had connected. You see I was interested. A live wire
-named Garrison, who owned the state rights for selling the World's Great
-Classics of Prose and Poetry on subscriptions, had landed here about a
-week before. You know the kind of truck this fellow Garrison was peddling?
-Forty large, hard, heavy volumes, five dollars down and a dollar a month
-as long as you live; no blacksmith's fireside complete without the full
-set; should be in every library; so much for the full calf bindings; so
-much for the half leather; give your little ones a chance to acquire an
-education at a trifling cost; come early and avoid the rush of those
-seeking to take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity; price
-positively due to advance at the end of a limited period; see also our
-great clubbing offer in conjunction with Bunkem's Illustrated Magazine—all
-that sort of guff.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, Garrison had opened up headquarters here. He'd brought some of his
-agents with him—experts at conning the simple peasantry and the
-sturdy yeomanry into signing on the dotted line A and paying down the
-first installment as a binder; but he needed some home talent to fill out
-his crew, and he advertised with us for volunteers. Old Van Nicht—Nix,
-I mean—had heard about it, and he had applied for a job as
-canvasser, and Garrison had taken him on, not on salary, of course, but
-agreeing to pay him a commission on all his sales. That was what I found
-out that night.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Before Olcott's eyes rose a vision of a dried-up, bleak-eyed old man
-limping from doorstep to doorstep, enduring the rebuffs of fretful
-housewives and the insolence of annoyed householders—a failure, and
-a hopeless, predestined failure at that.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Too bad, wasn't it?” he said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What's too bad?” asked Morgan.
-</p>
-<p>
-“About that poor old man turning book agent at his age, with his lack of
-experience with the ways of the world.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Save your pity for somebody that needs it,” said Morgan, grinning. “That
-old boy doesn't. Why, Olcott, he was a hit from the first minute. This
-fellow Garrison was telling me about him only last week. All that stately
-dignity, all that Sir Walter Raleigh courtesy stuff, all that faculty for
-using the biggest possible words in stock, was worth money to the old chap
-when he put it to use. It impressed the simple-minded rustic and the merry
-villager. It got him a hearing where one of these gabby young canvassers
-with a striped vest and a line of patter memorised out of a book would be
-apt to fail. Why, he's the sensation of the book-agent game in these
-parts. They sick him on to all the difficult prospects out in the country,
-and he makes good nine times out of ten. He's got four counties in his
-territory, with all expenses paid, and last month his commissions—so
-Garrison told me—amounted to a hundred and forty dollars, and this
-month he's liable to do even better. What's more, according to Garrison,
-the old scout likes the work and isn't ashamed of it. So what do you know
-about that?”
- </p>
-<p>
-As Morgan paused, Olcott asked the question which from the first of this
-recital had been shaping itself in the back part of his head: “The other
-sister—what became of her?” He tried to put a casual tone into his
-inquiry.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You mean Miss Harriet? Well, say, in her case the transformation was
-almost as great as it was in her brother's. She came right out of her
-shell, too—in fact, she seemed downright glad of a chance to come
-out of it and quit being a recluse. She let it be noised about that she
-was in the market for any work that she could do, and a lot of people who
-felt sorry for her, including Mayor McGlynn, who's a pretty good chap,
-interested themselves in her behalf. Right off, the school board appointed
-her a substitute teacher in one of the lower grammar grades at the
-Hawthorne School, out here on West Frobisher Street. She didn't lose any
-time in delivering the goods either. Say, there must have been mighty good
-blood in that family, once it got a real chance to circulate. The kiddies
-in her classes all liked her from the start, and the other teachers and
-the principal liked her, too, and when the fall term begins in October she
-goes on as a regular.
-</p>
-<p>
-“On top of that, when she'd got a little colour in her cheeks and had
-frizzed her hair out round her face, and when she'd used up her first
-month's pay in buying herself some good black clothes, it dawned on the
-town all of a sudden that she was a mighty good-looking, bright, sweet
-little woman instead of a dowdy, sour old maid. They say she never had a
-sweetheart before in her life—that no man ever had looked at her the
-second time; at least that's the current gossip. Be that as it may, she
-can't complain on that score any more, even if she is still in mourning
-for her sister.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How do you know all this?” demanded Olcott suspiciously. “Are you paying
-her attentions yourself?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who, me? Lord, man, no! I'm merely an innocent bystander. You see, we
-live at the same boarding house, take our meals at the same table in fact,
-and I get a chance to see what's going on. She came there to board—it's
-Mrs. Gale's house—as soon as she moved out of the historic but
-mildewed homestead, which was about a month after the night of the storm.
-The New Diamond Auto Company—that's a concern formed since you left—bought
-the property and tore down the old house, after blasting the stump of the
-family tree out of the ground with giant powder; they're putting up their
-assembling plant on the site. After the mortgage was satisfied and the
-back taxes had been paid up, there was mighty little left for the two
-heirs; but about that time Miss Harriet got her job of teaching and she
-came to Mrs. Gale's to live, and that's where I first met her. Two or
-three spry young fellows round town are calling on her in the evenings—nearly
-every night there's some fellow in the parlour, all spruced up and highly
-perfumed, waiting to see her—not to mention one or two of the
-unmarried men boarders.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Morgan,” said Olcott briskly, “do me a favour! Take me along with you to
-dinner tonight at your boarding place, will you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Tired of hotels, eh?” asked Morgan. “Well, Mrs. Gale has good home
-cooking and I'd be glad to have you come.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“That's it,” said Olcott; “I'm tired of hotel life.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You're on,” said Morgan.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes,” said Olcott, “I am—but you're not on—at least not yet.”
- But Morgan didn't hear that, because Olcott said it to himself.
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER VII. HARK! FROM THE TOMBS
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">F</span>ROM all the windows of Coloured Odd Fellows' Hall, on the upper floor of
-the two-story building at the corner of Oak and Tennessee Streets,
-streamed Jacob's ladders of radiance, which slanted outward and downward
-into the wet night. Along with these crossbarred shafts of lights, sounds
-as of singing and jubilation percolated through the blurry panes. It was
-not yet eleven o'clock, the date being December thirty-first; but the New
-Year's watch service, held under the auspices of Castle Camp, Number 1008,
-Afro-American Order of Supreme Kings of the Universe, had been going on
-quite some time and was going stronger every minute.
-</p>
-<p>
-Odd Fellows' Hall had been especially engaged and partially decorated for
-this occasion. Already it was nearly filled; but between now and midnight
-it would be fuller, and at a still later time would doubtlessly attain the
-superlatively impossible by being fuller than fullest.
-</p>
-<p>
-From all directions, out of the darkness, came belated members of the
-officiating fraternity, protecting their regalias under umbrellas, and
-accompanied by wives and families if married, or by lady and other friends
-if otherwise. With his sword clanking impressively at his flank and his
-beplumed helmet nodding grandly as he walked, each Supreme King of the
-Universe bore himself with an austere and solemn mien, as befitting the
-rôle he played—of host to the multitude—and the uniform that
-adorned his form.
-</p>
-<p>
-Later, after the young year had appropriately been ushered in, when the
-refreshments were being served, he might unbend somewhat. But not now. Now
-every Supreme King was what he was, wearing his dignity as a becoming and
-suitable garment. This attitude of the affiliated brethren affected by
-contagion those who came with them as their guests. There was a
-stateliness and a formality in the greetings which passed between this one
-and that one as the groups converged into the doorway, set in the middle
-front of the building, and by pairs and by squads ascended the stairs.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Good evenin', Sist' Fontleroy. I trusts things is goin' toler'ble well
-wid you, ma'am?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Satisfactory, Br'er Grider—thank de good Lawd! How's all at yore
-own place of residence?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Git th'ough de C'ris'mus all right, Mizz Hillman?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yas, suh; 'bout de same ez whut I always does, Mist' Duiguid.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, ole yeah's purty nigh gone frum us, Elder; ain't it de truth?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Most doubtless is. An' now yere come 'nother! We don't git no younger,
-sister, does we?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Dat we don't, sholy!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The ceremonial reserve of the moment would make the jollifying all the
-sweeter after the clocks struck and the whistles began to blow.
-</p>
-<p>
-There was one late arrival, though, who came along alone, wearing a
-downcast countenance and an air of abstraction, and speaking to none who
-encountered him on the way or at the portal. This one was Jeff Poindexter;
-but a vastly different Jeff from the customary Jeff. Usually he moved with
-a jaunty gait, his elbows out and his head canted back; and on the
-slightest provocation his feet cut scallops and double-shuffles and
-pigeonwings against the earth. Now his heels scraped and his toes dragged;
-and the gladsome raiment that covered his person gave him no joy, but only
-an added sense of resentment against the prevalent scheme of mundane
-existence.
-</p>
-<p>
-An unseen weight bowed his shoulders down, and beneath the wide lapels of
-an almost white waistcoat his heart was like unto a chunk of tombstone in
-his bosom. For the current light of his eyes, Miss Ophelia Stubblefield,
-had accepted the company of a new and most formidable rival for this
-festive occasion. Wherefore an embodiment of sorrow walked hand in hand
-with Jeff.
-</p>
-<p>
-After this blow descended all the taste of delectable anticipation in his
-mouth had turned to gall and to wormwood. Of what use now the costume he
-had been at such pains to accumulate from kindly white gentlemen, for whom
-Jeff in spare moments did odd jobs of valeting—the long, shiny frock
-coat here; the only slightly spotted grey-blue trousers there; the almost
-clean brown derby hat in another quarter; the winged collar and the puff
-necktie in yet a fourth? Of what value to him would be the looks of envy
-and admiration sure to be bestowed upon the pair of new, shiny and
-excessively painful patent-leather shoes, specially acquired and specially
-treasured for this event?
-</p>
-<p>
-He had bought those shoes, with an utter disregard for expense, before he
-dreamed that another would bring Ophelia to the watch party. With her at
-his side, his soul would have risen exultant and triumphant above the
-discomfort of cramped-up toes and pinched-in heels. Now, at each dragging
-step, he was aware that his feet hurt him. Indeed, for Jeff there was at
-that moment no balm to be found throughout all Gilead, and in his ointment
-dead flies abounded thickly.
-</p>
-<p>
-It added to his unhappiness that the lady might and doubtlessly would rest
-under a misapprehension regarding his failure to invite her to share with
-him the pleasures of the night. He had not asked her to be his company;
-had not even broached the subject to her. For this seeming neglect there
-had been a good and sufficient reason—one hundred and ninety pounds
-of a chocolate-coloured reason. Seven days before, on Christmas Eve, Jeff
-had been currying Mittie May, the white mare of Judge Priest, in the
-stable back of the Priest place, when he heard somebody whistle in the
-alley behind the stable and then heard his name called. He had stepped
-outside to find one Smooth Crumbaugh leaning upon the alley gate.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hello, Smoothy!” Jeff had hailed with a smart and prompt cordiality.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was not that he felt any deep warmth of feeling for Smooth, but that it
-was prudent to counterfeit the same. All in Smooth's circle deported
-themselves toward Smooth with a profound regard and, if Smooth seemed out
-of sorts, displayed almost an affection for him, whether they felt it or
-not. 'Twere safer thus.
-</p>
-<p>
-With characteristic brusqueness, Smooth entirely disregarded the greeting.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Come yere to me, little nigger!” he said out of one corner of his lips,
-at the same time fixing a lowering stare upon Jeff. Then, as Jeff still
-stood, filled with sudden misgivings: “Come yere quick w'en I speaks! Want
-me to come on in dat yard after you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Jeff was conscious of no act of wrongdoing toward Smooth Crumbaugh. With
-Jeff, discretion was not only the greater part of fighting valour but
-practically was all of it. Nevertheless, he was glad, as he obeyed the
-summons and, with a placating smile fixed upon his face, drew nearer the
-paling, that he stood on the sanctuary ground of a circuit judge's
-premises, and that a fence intervened between him and his truculent
-caller.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Comm' right along,” he said with an affected gaiety.
-</p>
-<p>
-Just the same, he didn't go quite up to the gate. He made his stand three
-or four feet inside of it, ready to jump backward or sidewise should the
-necessity arise.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I'se feared I didn't heah you call de fus time,” stated Jeff
-ingratiatingly. “I wuzn't studyin' about nobody wantin' me—been
-wipin' off our ole mare. 'Sides, I thought you wuz down in Alabam',
-workin' on de ole P. and A. Road.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Num'mine dat!” said Smooth. “Jes' lis'en to whut I got to say.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The hostile glare of his eye bored straight into Jeff, making him chilly
-in his most important organs. Smooth was part basilisk, but mainly hyena,
-with a touch of the man-eating tiger in his composition. “Little nigger,”
- he continued grimly, “I come th'ough dis lane on puppus' to tell you
-somethin' fur de good of yore health.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I's lis'enin',” said Jeff, most politely.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Heed me clost,” bade Smooth; “heed me dost, an' mebbe you mout live
-longer. Who wuz you at de Fust Ward Cullid Baptis' Church wid last Sunday
-night? Dat's de fust question.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who—me?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yas; you!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Why, lemme see, now,” said Jeff, dissembling. “Seem lak, ez well ez I
-reckerleck, I set in de same pew wid quite a number of folkses durin' de
-service.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I ain't axin' you who you set wid. I's axin' you who you went wid?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh!” said Jeff, as though enlightened as to the real object of the
-inquiry, and still sparring for time. “You means who did I go dere wid,
-Smoothy? Well——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Wuz it dat Stubblefield gal, or wuzn't it? Answer me, yas or no!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The tone of the questioner became more ominous, more threatening, with
-each passing moment.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yas—yas, Smoothy.” He giggled uneasily. “Uh-huh! Dat's who 'twuz.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, see dat it don't happen ag'in.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Huh?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You heared whut I said!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But I—— But she——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“See dat it don't happen nary time ag'in.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But—but——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Say, whut you mean, interrup'in' me whilst I's speakin' wid you fur yore
-own good? Shut up dat trap-face of your'n an' lis'en to me, whut I'm say
-in': Frum dis hour on, you stay plum' away frum dat gal. Understan'?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Honest, Smoothy, I didn't know you wuz cravin' to be prankin' round wid
-Ophelia!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Jeff spoke with sincerity, from the heart out. In truth, he hadn't known,
-else his sleep of nights might have been less sound.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Dat bein' de case, you better keep yore yeahs open to heah de news, else
-you won't have no yeahs. Git me mad an' I's liable to snatch 'em right
-offen de sides of your haid an' feed 'em to you. I's tuck a lay-off fur de
-C'ris'mus. An' endurin' de week I spects to spend de mos' part of my time
-enjoyin' dat gal's society. I aims to be wid her to-night an' to-morrow
-night an' de nex' night, an' ever' other night twell I goes back down de
-road. I aims to tek her to de C'ris'mus tree doin's at de church on Friday
-night, an' to de festibul at de church on Sad'day night, an' to de watch
-party up at de Odd Fellers' Hall on New Yeah's Eve. Is dat clear to you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Suttinly is, seein' ez it's you,” assented Jeff, trying to hide his
-disappointment under a smile. “Course, Smoothy, ef you craves a young
-lady's company fur a week or so, I don't know nobody dat's mo' entitled to
-it'n whut you is. Jes' a word frum you is plenty fur me. You done told me
-how you feels; dat's ample.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“No, 'tain't!” growled Smooth. “I got somethin' mo' to tell you. Frum now
-on, all de time I's in dis town I don't want to heah of you speakin' wid
-dat gal, or telephonin' to her, or writin' her ary note, or sendin' ary
-message to her house. Ef you do I's gwine find out 'bout it; an' den I's
-gwine lay fur you an' strip a whole lot of dark meat offen you wid a razor
-or somethin'. I won't leave nothin' of you but jes' a framework. Now den,
-it's up to you! Does you want to go round fur de rest of yore days lookin'
-lak a scaffoldin', or doesn't you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Smoothy,” protested Jeff, “I ain't got no quarrel wid you. I ain't aimin'
-to git in no rookus wid nobody a-tall—let alone 'tis you. But
-s'posen'”—he added this desperately—“s'posen' now I should
-happen to meet up wid her on de street. Fur politeness' sake I's natchelly
-'bleeged to speak wid her, ain't I—even ef 'tain't nothin' more'n
-jes' passin' de time of day?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Is dat so?” said Smooth in mock surprise. “Well, suit yo'se'f; suit
-yo'se'f. Only, de words you speaks wid her better be yore farewell message
-to de world. Ef anythin' happen to you now, sech ez a fun'el, hit's yore
-own fault—you done had yore warnin' frum headquarters. I ain't got
-no mo' time to be wastin' on a puny little scrap of nigger sech ez you is.
-I's on my way now. But jes' remember whut I been tellin' you an' govern
-yo'se'f 'cordin'ly.” And with that the bully turned away, leaving poor
-Jeff to most discomforting reflections amid the ruins of his suddenly
-blasted romance.
-</p>
-<p>
-The full scope of his rival's design stood so clearly revealed that it
-left to its victim no loophole of escape whatsoever. Not only was he to be
-debarred, by the instinct of self-preservation, from seeking the presence
-of Ophelia during the most joyous and the most socially crowded week of
-the entire year; not only were all his pleasant dreams dashed and smashed,
-but, furthermore, he might not even make excuses to her for what would
-appear in her eyes as an abrupt and unreasonable cessation of sentimental
-interest on his part, save and except it be done at dire peril to his
-corporeal well-being and his physical intactness.
-</p>
-<p>
-Above all things, Jeff Poindexter coveted to stay in one piece. And Smooth
-Crumbaugh was one who nearly always kept his word—especially when
-that word involved threats against any who stood between him and his
-personal ambitions.
-</p>
-<p>
-Jeff, watching the broad retreating back of Smooth, as Smooth swaggered
-out of the alley, fetched little moans of acute despair. To him remained
-but one poor morsel of consolation—no outsider had been a witness to
-his interview with the bad man. Unless the bad man bragged round, none
-need know how abject had been Jeff's capitulation.
-</p>
-<p>
-Solitary, melancholy, a prey to conflicting emotions, Jeff Poindexter
-climbed the stairs leading up to Odd Fellows' Hall, at the heels of a
-family group of celebrants. Until the last minute he hadn't meant to come;
-but something drew him hither, even as the moth to the flame is drawn. He
-paid his fifty cents to the Most High Grand Outer Guardian, who was
-stationed at the door in the capacity of ticket taker and cash collector,
-and entered in, to find sitting-down space pretty much all occupied and
-standing room rapidly being preempted—especially round the walls and
-at the back of the long assembly room.
-</p>
-<p>
-Outside, the air was muggy with the clinging dampness of a rainy, mild
-winter's night; a weak foretaste of the heightened mugginess' within.
-Nearly always, in our part of the South, the first real cold snap came
-with the New Year; but, as yet, there were no signs of its approach.
-Inside, thanks to a big potbellied stove, choked with hot coals, and to
-the added circumstance of all the windows being closed, the temperature
-was somewhere up round eighty; which was as it should be. When the
-coloured race sets itself to enjoy itself, it desires warmth, and plenty
-of it.
-</p>
-<p>
-This crowd was hot and therefore happy. Trickles of perspiration, coursing
-downward, streaked the rice powder upon the cheeks of many mezzotint
-damosels, and made to glisten the faces of the chrome-shaded gallants who
-squired them.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the platform at the far end of the hall, beneath crossed flags, sat the
-principal officiating dignitaries, three in number—first, the
-Imperial Grand Potentate of the lodge, holder of an office corresponding
-to president elsewhere, but invested with rather more grandeur than
-commonly appertains to a presidency; then the second in command, known
-formally as First Vice Imperial Grand Potentate; and thirdly, the Reverend
-Potiphar Grasty, pastor of First Ward Church.
-</p>
-<p>
-Facing these three and, in turn, faced by them, sat on the front seats the
-Supreme Kings, temporarily detached from their kinspeople and
-well-wishers, who, with the populace generally, filled the serried rows of
-chairs and benches behind the uniformed ranks.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the rear, near the main entrance, in a cleared space, stood two long
-trestles bearing the refreshments, of which, at a suitable moment, all and
-sundry would be invited to partake. The feast plainly would be a rich and
-abundant one, including, as it did, such items as cream puffs, ham
-sandwiches, Frankfurters, bananas, and soda pop of the three more popular
-varieties—lemon, sarsaparilla and strawberry—in seemingly
-unlimited quantities.
-</p>
-<p>
-Sister Eldora Menifee, by title Queen Bee of the Ladies' Royal Auxiliary
-of the Supreme Kings, had charge of the collation, its arrangement and its
-decorations. She hovered about her handiwork, a mighty, black mountain,
-vigilant to frown away any who might undertake any clandestine poaching.
-The display of napery and table linen was most ample; and why not? Didn't
-Sister Menifee do the washing for the biggest white folks' boarding house
-in town?
-</p>
-<p>
-With an eye filmed and morose, Jeff Poindexter, pausing at the rear,
-comprehended this festive scene. Then, as his gaze ran to and fro, he saw
-that which he dreaded to see and yet sought to behold. He saw Smooth
-Crum-baugh sitting with Ophelia on the right side of the hall, well up
-toward the front. Their backs were to him; their heads inclined sidewise
-toward a common centre.
-</p>
-<p>
-The loose fold of flesh in Smooth's bull neck pouched down over his
-glistening collar as he slanted one shoulder to whisper sweet somethings
-in Ophelia's ear. They must have been sweet somethings, and witty withal;
-for at once the lady gave vent to a clear soprano giggle. Her mirthful
-outburst rose above the babble of voices and, floating backward, pierced
-Jeff Poindexter's bosom as with darts and javelins; and jealousy,
-meantime, like the Spartan boy's fox, gnawed at his inwards.
-</p>
-<p>
-The sight and the sound, taken together, made Jeff Poindexter desperate
-almost to the point of outright recklessness—almost, but not quite.
-He noted the fortuitous circumstance of a vacant chair directly behind the
-pair he watched. Surely now Smooth Crumbaugh would start no disturbance
-here. Surely—so Jeff reasoned it—time, place, occasion and the
-present company, all would operate and cooperate to curb Smooth's chronic
-belligerency.
-</p>
-<p>
-If only for a fleeting period, Jeff longed to venture within
-conversational distance of Ophelia; to bask for a spell in one of her
-brilliant smiles; to prove to her by covert looks, if not by whispered
-words, that there were no ill feelings; to give her an opportunity for
-visual appreciation of his housings; and, most of all, subtly to convey
-the suggestion that it was bodily indisposition which had caused him to
-absent himself from her presence throughout the Christmas. Under cover of
-his hand he rehearsed a deep cough, and simultaneously began to inch his
-way along an aisle toward the coveted seat in the adjacent rear of the
-couple.
-</p>
-<p>
-The programme proper was well under way; it had begun auspiciously and it
-promised much. There had been a prayer and a welcoming address by the
-Imperial Grand Potentate, and now there was singing. Starting shortly, the
-annual memorial service for any member or members who had departed this
-life during the preceding twelve months would follow; this lasting until
-five minutes before midnight. Then all the lights would be turned out, and
-the gathering would sit in darkness, singing some lugubriously appropriate
-song as a vocal valedictory for the passing year until the first stroke of
-midnight, when the lights would flash on again. Thereafter would follow
-the strictly social phases of the watch party.
-</p>
-<p>
-Almost until the last it had seemed that the memorial exercises would have
-to be foregone for lack of material to work on. But at the eleventh hour,
-as it were, Red Hoss Shackleford, who always heretofore had been a
-disappointment to everybody, had greatly obliged, and, at the same time,
-disproved the oft-repeated assertion that one born for hanging can never
-be drowned, by falling overboard off the tugboat <i>Giles C. Jordan</i>.
-</p>
-<p>
-This tragedy had occurred at a late hour of the evening of December
-twenty-sixth, when the <i>Giles C. Jordan</i> was forty miles up Tennessee
-River on a crosstie-towing venture, and while Red Hoss Shackleford, who
-had shipped aboard her as cook and general roustabout, was yet overcome by
-the potent elements of his Christmas celebration, self-administered
-internally in liquid form.
-</p>
-<p>
-At least such were the tidings borne by the captain and surviving crew
-upon their return to port on the twenty-ninth instant. Whereupon the
-Supreme Kings had seized upon the opportunity thus vouchsafed as a free
-gift of a frequently inscrutable Providence.
-</p>
-<p>
-To be sure, the late Shackleford was not exactly a member in good
-standing. Two years before, in a fine fervour of enthusiasm induced by the
-splendour of the uniforms worn at the funeral turnout of a departed
-brother, Red Hoss had joined the lodge. He had fallen behind in his dues,
-and, to all intents and purposes, had been expunged from the rolls. Red
-Hoss generally was in arrears, anyhow, except for those obligations he
-owed the county chain gang. Those were debts he always paid—if they
-could catch him.
-</p>
-<p>
-None the less, certain points were waived by acclamation, following the
-receipt of the news of his taking-off. It was agreed that one Red Hoss
-Shackleford dead at such time was worth ten Red Hoss Shacklefords living.
-His memory was to be perpetuated, thereby lending to the programme
-precisely that touch of seriousness which was needed to round it out and
-make of it a thing complete and adequate.
-</p>
-<p>
-To add to the effect, his sole surviving relative, a half sister, by name
-Sister Rosalie Shackleford, had a prominent place at the front, flanking
-the low platform. It was conceivable, everything considered, that her loss
-had been no great one; nevertheless, with a fine theatric instinct for the
-unities and the verities, she now deported herself as one utterly
-devastated by a grief almost too great to be borne. There was no mistake
-about it—when this sister mourned, she mourned!
-</p>
-<p>
-With her prevalent dark complexion enhanced by enshrouding ells of black
-crape, she half lay, half sat in a slumped attitude betokening utter and
-complete despondency, and at timely intervals uttered low moans and sobs.
-Two friends attended her in a ministering capacity. One fanned her
-assiduously. The other, who was of ample girth, provided commodious and
-billowy accommodations for her supine form when she slipped back after
-swooning dead away. It was expected of Sister Rosalie that she should
-faint occasionally and be revived; and so she did.
-</p>
-<p>
-The ritualistic features of the night had been disposed of and the singing
-was in full swing as Jeff Poindexter edged along, pussyfooting like a
-house cat, toward the point he sought. Eventually he arrived there
-unobserved by the quarry he stalked.
-</p>
-<p>
-Up to this point fortune had favoured him; none had pre-empted the one
-vacant chair, half concealed from general view as it had been by the
-adjacent bulk of a very fleshy black woman. With a whispered apology to
-her for intruding, Jeff wormed his way in alongside. He let himself softly
-down into the seat and began to cough the gentle cough of a quasi invalid
-now on the road to recovery.
-</p>
-<p>
-Together, it would seem, the pair in front of him sensed his presence so
-near them. With one accord they swung their heads.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Evenin', Miss Stubblefield. Evenin', Smoothy,” said Jeff, smiling wanly,
-as a convalescent naturally would. “Seein' ez how dis yere cheer wuz
-onuccupied, I jes' taken it so's to be out of de draf'. I ain't been so
-well dis week—had a little tech of pneumonia, I think 'twuz; an' so—”
- </p>
-<p>
-Ophelia's surprised murmur of sympathy was cut short. Smooth Crumbaugh
-distorted his gingerbread-coloured countenance into a hideous war mask. He
-turned in his place, thrusting his face forward. “Git up outen dat seat!”
- he ordered in a low, forceful grumble.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But de seat ain't taken, Smoothy,” protested Jeff weakly. “I 'lowed I'd
-set yere jes' fur a minute or two, account of de draf'.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Git up outen dat cheer!” repeated Smooth Crumbaugh in a louder tone.
-</p>
-<p>
-His shoulders began to hunch and his hands to curl up into fists.
-Ophelia's rising agitation was tempered perhaps by the realisation of the
-fact that for her favour two persons, both well known and prominent in
-their respective spheres of activity, were about to have words—possibly
-to exchange threats, or even blows. To be the storm centre of such a
-sensation is not always entirely unpleasant, especially if one be young
-and personable. She spoke now in a voice clearly audible to several about
-her.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Please, suzz, gen'lemen, both of you be nice an' quiet!” she implored. “I
-trusts there ain't goin' be no trouble 'cause of me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“'Tain't goin' be no trouble, gal,” stated Smooth, as Jeff sat dumb with
-apprehension. “'Tain't goin' be nothin' but a pleasure to me to haul off
-an' knock dis little nigger naiked.” He addressed Jeff: “Git up outen dat
-cheer, lak I tells you! Start travellin', an' keep on travellin'. Git
-plum' out of dis yere buildin'!” Daunted to the very taproots of his
-being, Jeff nevertheless strove to save his face. He made pretense that
-his cough prevented the utterance of a defiant rejoinder as he rose and
-backed out into the aisle and worked his way toward the rear, with Smooth
-Crumbaugh's glower following after him. Perhaps the excellence of his
-acting may have deceived some, but in his own soul Jeff suffered amain.
-</p>
-<p>
-Far back, hard by the refreshment stand, he wriggled himself in behind an
-intervening frieze of standees. His judgment warned him that he should
-heed Smooth Crumbaugh's wishes and entirely betake himself hence; but his
-crushed and bruised spirit revolted against a surrender so abject and so
-utter. He told himself he had given up his chair because he did not care
-to be sitting down, anyway. Even so, this was a free country and he would
-stay a while longer if he wanted to stay. Only, he meant to keep yards of
-space and plenty of bystanders between him and Smooth Crumbaugh. He would
-be self-effacive, but not absolutely absent.
-</p>
-<p>
-With an ear dulled by chagrin, he hearkened as the Reverend Grasty rose
-and opened his discourse touching on the life and works of the late Red
-Hoss Shackleford. The speaker's very first words made it clear to all that
-he had come to bury Cæsar—not to praise him. Really, the only
-complimentary thing which might truthfully be said of Red Hoss was that
-always he had a good appetite. At once the Reverend Grasty manifested that
-he meant to adopt no weak and temporising course in his discussion of the
-subject in hand. Forthrightly he launched into a stirring recital of the
-shortcomings of the deceased; and out of his topic's sins, cut off in the
-midst of his impenitence, he builded a vivid lesson to warn the living.
-</p>
-<p>
-If one might judge by her behaviour, the lorn half sister resented not the
-attitude and the language of the orator. She forgot to faint and she sat
-erect. Presently she was chanting an accompaniment to his shouted
-illustrations.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, my pore lost brother, sunken in de cold waters.” She quavered in a
-fine camp-meeting tremolo. “Oh, my pore onworthy brother, whut we gwine do
-'bout you now?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Fervently deep amens began to arise from other quarters, punctuating the
-laments of Sister Rosalie and the louder outpourings of the Reverend
-Grasty. The memorial service was turning out to be the high point of the
-watch party.
-</p>
-<p>
-In spite of personal distractions, Jeff was carried away by the dramatic
-intensity of the scene. Forgetting momentarily his own trouble, he shoved
-forward, the better to see and hear. A menacing growl in his off ear
-brought him back to earth with a jolt. It was the dread voice of Smooth
-Crumbaugh, speaking from a distance not of yards but of inches. And now,
-as Jeff turned his head, Smooth's outjutted underlip was almost brushing
-the tip of his nose.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Thought I tole you to git plum' outen dis hall!” quoth Smooth; and his
-voice, more than before, was freighted with the menace of dire
-catastrophe, imminent and impending.
-</p>
-<p>
-Jeff didn't dare reply in regular words. He muttered unintelligible sounds
-beneath his breath, seeking the while to draw away.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Quit mumblin'!” ordered Smooth. “You's liable to mumble up somethin' I
-don't keer to heah, an' den I'll tek an' jes' natchelly mek a set of
-nigger shoestrings outen you. B'lieve I'll do hit anyway—right now!”
- </p>
-<p>
-One of his hands—the left one—closed en-twiningly in Jeff's
-coat collar. His right stole back toward his hip pocket—the pocket
-wherein Smooth was reputed to carry his razor. Jeff felt dark wings
-fanning his clammy brow.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Speak up an' say whut you got to say whilst you is got de breath to say
-hit,” said the bad man.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I—I wus jes' fixin' to go, Smoothy,” his voice squeaked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Naw, you wuzn't. Ain't I been watchin' you, hangin' round back yere whar
-you thought I couldn't see you. Now den——”
- </p>
-<p>
-A uniformed and helmeted form bulged in between them, breaking Smooth's
-hold on Jeff. The disturbance had drawn the Most High Grand Outer Guardian
-away from his post at the door.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yere! Dat'll be 'bout all!” stated this functionary in a voice of
-authority. “Go on outside, you two, ef you wants to argify wid one nurr.
-Dis ain't no place to be 'sputin'.” He gave a violent start of surprise
-and his voice trailed off to nothingness. Until now he had not recognised
-Jeff's adversary.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Who you talkin' to, Mistah Monkey Clothes?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Smooth swung on the officer, ready in his present state of feeling to
-carve up one or a dozen. An ingratiating smile split the nervous
-countenance of the Most High Grand Outer Guardian. Than to be flirting
-with disaster nothing was farther from his desires.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Scuse me, Mistah Crumbaugh. I didn't know 'twuz you. I begs yore pardon!”
- he stated hastily. “Please, ef you don't mind, I'll settle dis matter fur
-you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He swung round on Jeff, who was making himself smaller by the second.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Whut you mean,” he demanded, “per-vokin' Mistah Crumbaugh twell he's jes'
-about to lose his temper? Ef yore presence yere irritates him, w'y don't
-you go on 'way, lak a gen'leman?... Lis'en to dat! Don't you see you's
-'bout to break up de programme?” From the rows of seats nearest them came
-indignant Sh-h-hs! Jeff's popped eyes, glaring about him, read in all
-visible looks only intense disapproval of him. It was not healthy to hold
-Smooth Crumbaugh responsible for the interruption; but poor Jeff stood in
-quite a different attitude with the assemblage.
-</p>
-<p>
-He shrank away, pawing out behind him with both hands for the door. Partly
-mollified, but still growling, Smooth started to return to his seat, all
-in his way making a clear path for him. Jeff vanished through the opening
-like a scared chipmunk.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Reverend Grasty had not been discommoded by the disturbance in the
-rear. He was getting louder every minute. So was Sister Shackleford.
-</p>
-<p>
-Outside on the landing, Jeff breathed again and paused to master a
-trembling tendency as regards his legs, at the same time telling himself
-he had not wanted to stay through their old watch party anyhow. It was a
-lie; but he kept on telling it to himself over and over again until he
-almost believed it. With a bitter smile, reflective of the intense
-bitterness in his heart, he looked backward at the blank panels of the
-door and reflected that, barring one fascinating exception, he didn't have
-a real friend in all that multitude.
-</p>
-<p>
-Why, if they really wanted to put somebody out, hadn't they clubbed in and
-put that tough Smooth Crumbaugh out? Why hadn't twenty-five or thirty of
-them formed a volunteer committee on good order and removed Smooth by
-force? He would have been glad to enroll as a member of that committee—as
-the thirtieth member and in an advisory capacity purely.
-</p>
-<p>
-Oh, well, what was the use of hanging round a place where true gentility
-was neither recognised nor appreciated? These here Supreme Kings couldn't
-possibly last much longer, anyway—running things the way they did.
-He might as well go on about his business. Reluctantly, making compromise
-with his outraged dignity at every step, and rent between a hankering to
-linger on and a conviction that if he did linger a most evil thing surely
-would befall him, Jeff limped in his creaking new shoes down the empty
-stairs, descending yard by yard into a Slough of Despond.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the foot of the steps he stopped again, fumbling in his pockets. The
-jangled state of his nerves demanded the sooth of nicotine. From one
-pocket he exhumed nearly half of a cigar and from the other a box of
-matches. He inserted the cigar between his lips and undertook to strike a
-light. These were a new kind of matches—long, thick ones, with big
-white-and-black heads. Judge Priest had brought home a supply of them the
-day before, and Jeff, attracted vaguely by their novelty of appearance and
-their augmented size, had been moved to borrow a box of them off the
-dining-room sideboard without mentioning the matter to any one.
-</p>
-<p>
-The misanthrope drew one of the big matches down the plastered side of the
-entryway. It sputtered and snapped under the friction of the stroke, but
-declined to burst into flame. Jeff cast it away and tried another, with no
-different result, except that the stick part snapped off short. Either the
-prevalent dampness had adversely affected them or they were defective and
-untrustworthy by reason of some flaw in their manufacture. But he noted
-that both matches had left queer luminous streaks upon the dingy wall.
-</p>
-<p>
-Morbidly reflecting that in this night of his bad luck he was to be denied
-even the small solace of a smoke, Jeff absently fingered a third match
-between his fingers, plucking at its bulbous tip with a thumb nail.
-Instantly the effect of this was such as mildly to startle him; for at
-once on his finger ends appeared a strange spectral glow, as though he had
-been fondling some new and especially well-illuminated breed of lightning
-bug in his naked hand.
-</p>
-<p>
-At any other time, almost, this phenomenon, so simply accomplished, would
-have set Jeff's nimble fancy at work devising experimental means of
-entertainment to be derived therefrom; but now and here, in his existent
-frame of thought, the discovery gave him no pleasure whatsoever.
-</p>
-<p>
-He pouched cigar butt and matches, and stepped forth from the stair
-passage into the drizzle. Out of the darkness a figure reeled unsteadily.
-It bumped into him with such violence as to drive him back into the
-doorway, and then caromed off, rocking on its heels to regain its balance.
-Jeff made out that the awk-ward one was a person of his own colour and
-sex.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Whut's ailin' you, man?” he demanded irritably. “Ain't a whole sidewalk
-wide 'nuff fur you, widout you tryin' to knock folkses down?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Huh?”
- </p>
-<p>
-The wavering pedestrian exhaled a thick grunt, which brought with it an
-aroma of stick gin. He tottered forward again, throwing out his clutching
-hands for some support.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Go on 'way frum me!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Jeff flung out an arm to fend the other off; but the gesture froze solid
-while yet his elbow was crooked, and Jeff cowered back, transfixed and
-limber with terror, too scared to run, too weak to cry out.
-</p>
-<p>
-For there, centred in the dim half-light that streamed down from above,
-swaying on his legs and dripping moisture, as befitting one who had but
-lately met a watery end, stood the mortal remains of the late unlamented—whom
-even now they were most unkindly commemorating upstairs—Red Hoss
-Shackleford, deceased. There was no doubt about it. Red Hoss' embodied
-spirit, with the restless malignity of a soul accursed, had come back to
-attend its own memorial service!
-</p>
-<p>
-Jeff's jaws opened and refused to close. His throat locked on a howl, and
-that howl emerged as a thin, faint wheeze. The filling inside his knee
-joints turned to a marrowy jelly. His scalp crawled on his skull.
-</p>
-<p>
-The ghost grabbed him in a fumbling embrace; and even as Jeff, in an
-intensified spasm of terror, wrestled to be free of that awful clutch, he
-realised that this ghost was entirely too solid for a regular ghost.
-Besides, there was that smell of gin. Ghosts did not drink—or did
-they? He found his voice—part of it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Shacky, ain't you daid?” he pleaded in croaking accents. “Fur Gawd's
-sake, tell me de truth—ain't you sho-'nuff daid?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who say I'm daid?” demanded Red Hoss with maudlin truculence. Then
-instantly his tone became plaintive: “How come ever'whars I goes to-night
-dey axes me is I daid? Does I look daid? Does I act daid?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Wait a minute, Shacky—lemme think.” And now Jeff, well recovered,
-was holding the ex-apparition upright. “You sorter taken me by s'prise;
-but lemme think.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Already, as his self-possession came back to him, the germ of a splendid,
-dazzling idea took root and sprouted in his brain.
-</p>
-<p>
-Still supporting the burden of the miraculously restored Red Hoss, he
-glanced over his shoulder up the hallway. There was no one visible; none
-other shared this marvellous secret with him. As quickly as might be, he
-guided the uncertain form of Red Hoss away from the doorway and round the
-corner into the black shadows at the side of the building, where rain
-dripped on them from the eaves above.
-</p>
-<p>
-That made no difference. Red Hoss was wet through, and in this moment any
-slight dam-age from dampness to his own vanities of wardrobe meant nothing
-at all to Jeff. He propped Red Hoss against the brick wall and steadied
-him there. And when he spoke, he spoke low; but, also, he spoke fast. Time
-was a precious commodity right now.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Red Hoss,” he said, “I's yore friend, ez you knows full well. Now tell
-me: How come you didn't git drownded in de river?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Me? Huh! Dey ain't nary river ever been dug deep 'nuff to drownd me in,”
- Red Hoss was replying with drunken boastfulness. “Here's de way 'twuz:
-Come de night after C'ris'mus, I finds myse'f a little bit overtuck wid
-licker. So I lays down on de b'iler deck of dat dere tugboat, takin' a
-little nap. I reckin I must 'a' roll over in my sleep, 'ca'se all of a
-sudden I 'scovers myse'f in de middle of dat ole Tennessee River; an' dat
-tugboat, she's agoin' 'long upstream same ez ef de w'ite folks is sayin'
-to deyse'ves: 'Well, one nigger mo' or less don't make no diff'ence in
-good times lak dese.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“I treads water an' I yells; but she keep right on movin'. So den I jes'
-swims an' swims, an' swims some mo'; an' dat river sut-tinly is cold to my
-skin. After a spell I lands ashore whar dey's some thick-kinder woods; an'
-I walks back an' fo'th th'ough dem woods, tryin' to keep frum freezin' to
-death.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Long 'bout daylight I comes to a tie camp whar two w'ite men is got a
-gang of niggers git-tin' out crossties, an' I yells an' knocks on de do'
-of de shack twell I rousts 'em all up. Dey lemme in; an' dey ax me a whole
-passel of fool questions 'bout whar'bouts is I come frum, an' whut is I
-doin' dar, an' dey kindle up a big fire an' I dries myse'f out; an' den
-bimeby dey feeds me a meal of vittles. W'en I gits ready to start frum
-dar, 'long about de middle of de day, one of de w'ite men gives me six
-bits to pay my way back yere on de railroad.
-</p>
-<p>
-“But jes' after I leaves de camp to walk to de railroad, w'ich is eight
-miles 'way, I runs into a bunch of de hands, hid out in de woods a little
-piece, shootin' craps; an' I stops. So presently my six bits is gone. So
-den I goes on to de railroad afoot; an', not havin' no money nor nothin',
-I has to beat my way home. I rides on de brake beams a spell, an' den de
-brakeman he spies me; an' he th'ows me off; and de las' eighteen miles I
-has to walk all de way—an' hit a-rainin'!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“W'en did you git yere? I means w'en did you hit town?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“'Bout a hour ago—or mebbe 'twuz a hour an' a half.”
- </p>
-<p>
-With usage, Red Hoss' powers for coherent speech were improving.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So, fust off, I goes down to de river whar dat tugboat is tied up to see
-whut chance dey is, dat time of night, of my drawin' whut money is coinin'
-to me. But de cabin is all dark an' t'ain't nobody aboard her 'cep'in' de
-nigger night watchman; an' he's settin' down back in de ingine room, sound
-asleep. I walks back to whar he is an' I says to him, I says: 'Hello,
-nigger!'—jes' lak dat. An' he open his eyes an' gimme jes' one look;
-an' den he give out one yell, an' den he ain't dere no mo'. I kin heah his
-footsteps goin' up de levee, scatterin' gravels lak a ole hen scratching
-but dat nigger is plum' gone. He act lak he seen a ha'nt, or somethin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So den, de nex' thing I does, I goes up de wharf to de house whar my ha'f
-sister, Rosalie—you knows dat 'ooman?—does cookin' fur a w'ite
-fambly; an' I goes round de house an' knocks at de kitchen do', but
-t'ain't nobody answers. I keeps on knockin', an' after a spell de boss of
-de house, a w'ite man, name of Futrell, he come out on de back po'ch in
-his night-clo'es, wid a lamp in his hand, an' he suttinly do act
-'stonished to see me standin' dar; an' he ax me p'intedly ain't I
-drownded; an' I tells him No, suh; suttinly I ain't drownded! An' I ax him
-whar is Rosalie. An' he say, ef she ain't in her cabin in de yard, he
-reckon she must 'a' come on up yere to dis yere hall fur some kind of
-nigger doin's. Dat's de fust I knows 'bout her livin' on de Futrell place.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I goes out to de cabin in de yard; but she done gone, leavin' de do'
-unlocked an' on de jar. So I goes in an' meks a light an' looks 'bout me;
-an' I finds sixty cents under a mat on de washstand, w'ich on my way yere
-I spends dat sixty cents fur gin at de Bleedin' Heart Saloon, 'ca'se I's
-wet to de skin, ez you kin see fur yo'se'f. An' so den I meks my way to
-dis hall, 'ca'se I p'intedly does aim to drag dat dere 'ooman out an' ax
-her whut put it into her fool haid to go all round town tellin' folkses
-I's drownded w'en she know, her ownse'f, dey ain't nary river ever been
-dug deep 'nuff to drownd me in.”
- </p>
-<p>
-His voice became complaining now, rather than indignant:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Fur de las' ha'f hour, mo' or less, I been tryin' to git up dem stepses.
-But seem lak dem stepses is a heap mo' steeper'n whut dey used to be. Whut
-mek 'em steepen dem stepses fur, Jeff?”
- </p>
-<p>
-A sudden drowsiness overcame the narrator and he sought to slump down
-against the wall. But Jeff upheld him, against his will; and a minute
-later Jeff's words had roused him out of his gin-born daze:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Lis'en to me, Red Hoss; lis'en! I jes' come down frum up dere. I come
-away; 'ca'se I's yore friend, an' I jes' natchelly couldn't bear to set
-dere no longer an' heah 'em scandalise you de way dey's doin'.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Scandalise me! Who's scandalisin' me?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Ever'body is; but specially de pastor of de Fust Ward Church—yas,
-suh; he's de main scandaliser. An' dat sister of your'n, she's settin'
-there harkin' to him, same ez ef he wuz tellin' her some good news.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Lemme go! Lemme go! I lay I'll learn dem niggers to be 'stroyin' my good
-name behine my back!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The victim of calumny, all wide-awake now, wrestled to be free of the
-detaining hands. After a little, though, he suffered his form to relax and
-his struggles to abate as Jeff poured agreeable advice upon him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Wait a minute, Shacky—jes' wait a minute! I got a better scheme 'n
-whut dat one is. 'Sides, you couldn't git past de do'—whole place up
-dere is jest jammed an' blocked off wid people. Come on now wid me. We'll
-go in by de back way, whar de stepses ain't so steep ez dey is round yere
-in front. You an' me'll go up dat way, tippytoe, so ez not to mek no
-noise; and we'll wait in dat little hall behine de flatform—you
-knows de hall I means—de one whar dey perpares de candidates fur
-'nitiation?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Red Hoss nodded.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I knows it full well. Been dere oncet. And den whut?” he inquired.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Den we'll wait twell dey turns de lights out; dey's aimin' to turn 'em
-out in a mighty few minutes to welcome in de New Yeah in de darkness. An'
-jes' w'en dey does dat I'll open de do', an' you step out on de flatform
-an' say: 'Heah I is!' At dat I'll switch on de lights right quick; an' den—don't
-you see?—you'll be standin' right dere in full view, up on de
-flatform, whar you kin tell dat preacher whut you thinks of him.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I ain't 'lowin' to tell him nothin'—I 'low to jes' haul off an'
-bust him one, an' peel his nappy haid fur him!” avowed Red Hoss.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Suit yo'se'f about dat,” conceded Jeff; “but how do de res' of de plan
-seem to strike you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You's my friend—seem lak you's de onlies' friend whut I got lef in
-de world,” stated Red Hoss. “An' so I does lak you says—up to a
-suttin point; but frum den on I's gwine cut loose an' be rough. Come on,
-Jeff! Show me de way! Dat's all I axes you—jes' show me de way!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Hole still a minute—we got time yit to spare,” counselled Jeff; on
-top of his first inspiration a second one had burgeoned forth. “Fust off,
-lemme wipe de rain an' de cinders offen you—yore face is powerful
-dirty.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Obediently Red Hoss offered his features for renovation. From his pocket
-Jeff hauled out a handkerchief; hauled something else out, too—only
-Red Hoss didn't see that. He made pretense of wrapping a forefinger in the
-handkerchief; but it was not a finger tip that carefully encircled both of
-Red Hoss' blinking eyes, pressing firmly against the moist black flesh,
-and then outlined his nose and passed in rings round his mouth, above the
-upper lip and below the lower one.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Hole up!” protested Red Hoss. “You's rubbin' too hard. Yore finger nail
-hurts me.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Stay still!” urged Jeff. “I's 'most th'ough.” Craftily, with a fresh
-match, he touched the outer and the inner corners of Red Hoss' eyes and
-the lobes of his ears; and then he drew off, almost appalled himself by
-the ghastliness of his own handicraft, as revealed in the dark.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Come along, Red Hoss. An' don't furgit whut you's goin' to say w'en I
-opens de hall do' fur you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Ain't furgittin' nothin',” promised Red Hoss.
-</p>
-<p>
-Their two figures, closely interwoven—one steering and supporting;
-the other being steered and being supported—passed in the murk round
-the back corner of Odd Fellows' Hall, to bring up at the foot of a flight
-of rough wooden stairs, built on against the wall for added protection and
-as an added means of exit from the upper floor in case of fire, fight or
-flight. Here the hardest part of Jeff's job began. He had to boost Red
-Hoss up, step by step.
-</p>
-<p>
-Above, the most successful watch party ever conducted under the auspices
-of the Supreme Kings of the Universe had progressed almost to its apogee.
-It was now six minutes before the hour when, according to no less an
-authority than the late Bard of Avon, churchyards yawn and graves give up
-their sheeted dead. The principal orator, with his high collar quite
-wilted down and his face, behind his spectacles, slick and shiny with
-sweat, reached his conclusion, following a burst of eloquence so powerful
-that his hearers almost could hear the Tophet fires crackling beneath
-their tingling feet.
-</p>
-<p>
-“An' now, my dearly beloved sistern an' brethem,” he proclaimed, in a
-short peroration to his longer one—“an' now I commands you to think
-on the fix this pore transgressor must be in at this very minute, cut off
-ez he wuz in the midst of his sins an' his shortcomin'ses. Think on yore
-own sins an' yore own shortcomin'ses. Think, an' think hard! Think, an'
-think copious!”
- </p>
-<p>
-His voice swung downward to the more subdued cadence of the
-semiconversational tone: “The hour of midnight is 'most at hand. In
-acco'dance wid the programme I shell now turn off the lights, an' this
-gatherin' will set in the solemn communion of darkness fur five minutes,
-till the New Yeah comes.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He stepped three paces backward and turned a plug set in the wall close to
-the door jam. All over the hall the bulbs winked out. Nothing was to be
-seen, and for a few seconds nothing was heard except the sound of the
-minister's shuffling movements as he felt his way back to his place at the
-front of the platform, and, below him, in the body of the hall, the
-nervous rustle of many swaying bodies and of twice as many scuffling feet.
-</p>
-<p>
-On the far side of the closed rear door crouched Jeff, breathless from his
-recent exertions, panting whispered admonitions in the ear of his
-co-conspirator. Red Hoss was impatient to lunge forward. He wanted to
-surge in right now. But Jeff held fast to him. Jeff could sense a
-psychological moment, even if he could not pronounce one.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Wait jes' one secont mo'—please, Red Hoss!” he entreated. “Wait
-twell I opens dis yere do' fur you. Den you bulge right in an' speak up de
-words 'Here I is!' loud an' clear. You won't furgit'dat part, will you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“'On't furgit nothin'!” muttered Red Hoss. “Jes' watch my smoke—dat's
-all!”
- </p>
-<p>
-With his ear against a thin panel, Jeff listened; listened—and
-smiled. Through the barrier he heard the preacher's voice saying:
-</p>
-<p>
-“All present will now unite in singin' the hymn w'ich begins: Hark! From
-the Tombs a Doleful Soun'!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Softly, oh, so softly, Jeff's fingers turned the doorknob; gently, very
-gently, he drew the door itself half open; with the whispered admonition
-“Now, boy, now!” he swiftly but silently propelled Red Hoss, face forward,
-through the opening.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Reverend Grasty stood waiting for the first words of the hymn to
-uprise from below him in a mighty swing. But from that unseen gathering
-down in front a very different sound came—a sound that was part a
-gasp of stupefaction, part a groan of abject distress. For the rest saw
-what the minister, as yet, did not see, by reason of his back being to the
-wall, where-as they faced it. They saw, floating against a background of
-black nothingness, a face limned in wavering pulsing lines of a most
-ghastly witch fire—nose and brow and chin and ears, wide mouth and
-glaring eyes, all wreathed about by that unearthly graveyard glow.
-</p>
-<p>
-In that same flash of space Jeff Poindexter's hand had found the switch,
-set in the wall hard by the door casing, and had flipped the lights on.
-And now before them they beheld the form of the late Red Hoss Shackleford,
-his face seamed with livid greyish streaks, his garments all adrip, his
-arms outspread, his eyes like balls of flame, and his lips agleam with a
-palish blush, as though he had hither come direct from feasting on the hot
-coals of Perdition, without stopping to wipe his mouth. And then he opened
-that fearsome scupper of a mouth, and in a voice thickened and muddy—the
-proper voice for one who had lain for days in river ooze—he spoke
-the words:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Here I is!” That was all he said. But that was enough.
-</p>
-<p>
-It is believed that the Reverend Grasty was the first to move. Naturally
-he would be among the first, anyhow, he being the nearest of all to the
-risen form of the dead. He spread himself like an eagle and soared away
-from there; and when he lit, he lit a-running. Indeed, so high did he jump
-and so far outward that, though he started with a handicap, few there were
-who beat him in the race to the door.
-</p>
-<p>
-Smooth Crumbaugh was one who beat him. Smooth feared neither man nor beast
-nor devil; but ha'nts were something else! He took a flying start, spuming
-the floor as he rose up over chairs and their recent occupants. Without
-checking speed, he clove a path straight through the centre of Sister
-Eldora Menifee's refreshment department; and on the stairway, going down,
-he passed the Most High Grand Outer Guardian as though the Most High Grand
-Outer Guardian had been standing still.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was after he struck the sidewalk, though, and felt the solid bricks
-beneath his winged feet, that Smooth really started to move along. For
-some ten furlongs he had strong competition, but he was leading by several
-lengths when he crossed Yazoo Street, eight blocks away, with the field
-tailing out behind him for a matter of half a mile or so.
-</p>
-<p>
-I might add that Sister Rosalie Shackleford, hampered though she was by
-skirts and the trappings of woe, nevertheless finished inside the money
-herself.
-</p>
-<p>
-Jefferson Poindexter, calm, smiling and debonair, picked his way daintily
-among overthrown chairs and through a litter of hats, helmets, umbrellas
-and swords across the hall to Ophelia, who, helpless with shock, was
-plastered, prone and flat on the floor, close up against the side wall,
-where Smooth had flung her as he launched himself in flight.
-</p>
-<p>
-Right gallantly Jeff raised her to her feet and supported her; and right
-mainfully she clung to him, inclosing herself, all distracted and aquiver,
-within the circle of his comforting arms. Already they were almost alone
-and within a space of moments would be entirely so, except for one fat
-auntie, lying in a dead faint under the wrecked snack stand.
-</p>
-<p>
-Also there still remained Red Hoss Shackleford, who wavered to and fro
-upon the platform, with a hand to his bewildered brow, trying foggily to
-figure out just how he had been thwarted of his just retribution upon the
-persons of those vanished arch-detractors of him. He had had his revenge—had
-it sugar-sweet and brimming over—only he didn't know it yet.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, Jeffy,” gasped Ophelia, “wuzn't you skeered too?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who—me?” proclaimed Jeff. “Me skeered of a wet nigger, full of
-stick gin? Fair lady, mebbe I don't keer so much fur gittin' my clothes
-all mussed up fightin' wid bully niggers, but I ain't never run frum no
-ghostes yit; an' I don't never aim to, neither—not 'thout waitin'
-round long 'nuff to find out fust w'ether hit's a real ghost or not. Dat's
-me!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, Jeffy, you suttinly is de bravest man I knows!” she answered back in
-muffled tones, with her head on his white waistcoat.
-</p>
-<p>
-At this moment precisely the town clock sounded the first stroke of
-twelve, and all the steam whistles in town let go, blasting out shrilly;
-and all the giant firecrackers in town began bursting in loud acclaim of
-the New Year. But what the triumphant, proud, conquering Jeff heard was
-his Ophelia, speaking to him soul to soul.
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER VIII. CINNAMON SEED AND SANDY BOTTOM
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>AJOR putnam stone is dead, but his soul goes marching on. Mainly it does
-its marching on at Midsylvania University. Every fall, down yonder, on the
-night of the day of the last game of the season, when the squad has broken
-training and many of the statutes touching on the peace and quiet of the
-community, there is a dinner. At the end of this dinner the captain of the
-team stands up at one end of the table and chants out: “Cinnamon Seed and
-Sandy Bottom!”—just like that. Whereupon there are loud cheers. And
-then, at the far end of the table from him, the chairman of the athletic
-community stands up in his place and lifts his mug and says, in the midst
-of a little silence: “To the memory of Major Putnam Stone!” Then everybody
-rises and drinks; and there are no heel-taps.
-</p>
-<p>
-This ceremony is never omitted. It is a tradition; and they go in rather
-strongly for traditions at Midsylvania, and always have since the days
-when there was not much else to Midsylvania except its traditions. The
-team may have won that afternoon, or it may have lost. The boys may be
-jubilating for the biggest victory of the whole year, or, over the
-trenches and the tankards, consoling themselves and one another for an
-honourable defeat at the hands of their classic rival, Vanderbeck. It
-makes no difference. Win or lose, they toast the shade and the name of
-Major Stone.
-</p>
-<p>
-So there is no danger that the Major will be forgotten at the University,
-any more than there is danger of such a thing coming to pass in the <i>Evening
-Press</i> shop where the Major used to work. Most of the old hands who
-worked there with him once upon a time are gone elsewhere now. One or two
-or three are dead and the rest of us, with few exceptions, have scattered
-over the country. But among the men who are our successors on the staff
-the spirit of the old man walks, and there is a tale of him to be told to
-each beginner who comes on the paper. It is as much a part of the history
-of the city room as the great stories that Ike Webb, who was our star man,
-wrote back in those latter nineties; as much a part as the sayings and the
-doings of little Pinky Gilfoil, who passed out last year, serving with the
-American ambulance corps over in France.
-</p>
-<p>
-The last time I was down that way I stopped over between trains and went
-around on Jefferson Street to look the old place over. It was late in the
-afternoon, after press time for the final edition, and the day force had
-all departed; but out of the press-room to greet me came limping old
-Henry, the black night watchman, who, according to belief, had been a
-fixture of the <i>Evening Press</i> since the corner stone of the building
-was laid.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yassuh,” said Henry to me after this and that and the other thing had
-been discussed back and forth between us; “we still talks a mighty much
-about ole Majah. Dis yere new issue crop of young w'ite genelmens we got
-workin' 'round yere now'days gits a chanc't to hear tell about him
-frequent an' of'en. They's a picture of him hangin' upstairs in de big
-boss' room on de thud flo'. Big boss, he sets a heap of store by 'at air
-picture. An' they tells me 'at de mate to it is hangin' up in 'at air new
-structure w'ich they calls de Forbes Memorial, out at de Univussity.”
- </p>
-<p>
-If my recollection serves me aright I have once or twice before touched on
-sundry chapters in the life and works of the old Major, telling how, for
-him, nothing of real consequence happened in this world between the
-surrender of Lee at Appomattox and the day, nearly forty years later, when
-all his tidy property was wiped out in an unfortunate investment, and he
-moved out of his suite at the old Gault House and abandoned his armchair
-in a front window at the Shawnee Club, and, at the age of sixty-four and a
-salary of twelve dollars a week, took a job as cub reporter on the <i>Evening
-Press</i>; how because he would persist in gnawing at the rinds of old
-yesterdays instead of nosing into the things of the current day he was a
-most utter and complete failure at the job; how once through chance,
-purely, he uncovered the whoppingest scoop that a real reporter could
-crave for and then chucked it away again to save a woman who by the
-standards of all proper people wasn't worth saving in the first place; how
-by compassion of the owner of the paper and against the judgment of
-everybody else, he hung on all through the summer, a drag upon the
-organization and a clog on the ankle of City Editor Wilford Devore; how on
-the opening day of the famous Lyric Hall convention he finally rose to an
-emergency that was of his liking and with the persuasive aid of a brace of
-long-barrelled, ivory-handled cavalry revolvers stampeded the Stickney
-gang, when they tried by force to seize the party machinery, having first
-put that official bad man and deputy subheader of the opposition, Mink
-Satterlee, out of business, by love-tapping Mink upon his low and
-retreating forehead with the butt end of one of his shooting irons; and
-how then as a reward therefor, he was made war-editor of the sheet,
-thereafter fitting comfortably and snugly into a congenial berth
-especially devised and created for his occupancy. All this has elsewhere
-been told.
-</p>
-<p>
-This present tale, which has to do in part with the Major and in part with
-the student body of Midsylvania, dates from sometime after the day when he
-became our war editor, and was writing those long and tiresome special
-articles of his, dealing favourably with Jackson's Campaign in the Valley,
-and unfavourably with Sherman's March to the Sea.
-</p>
-<p>
-Midsylvania, those days, was a university with a long vista of historic
-associations behind it and a puny line of endowments to go forward on; so
-it went forward very slowly indeed. To get the most favourable perspective
-on Midsylvania you must needs look backward into a distinguished but
-mouldy past, and consider the list of dead-and-gone warriors and statesmen
-and educators and clergymen who had been graduated in the class of '49 or
-the class of '54, or some other class. Chief among its physical glories
-were a beech tree, under which Daniel Boone was said to have camped
-overnight once; an ancient chapel building of red brick, with a row of fat
-composition pillars, like broken legs in plaster casts, stretching across
-its front to uphold its squatty portico; and in the centre of the campus,
-a noseless statue of Henry Clay.
-</p>
-<p>
-Sons of Old Families in the state attended it, principally, I suppose,
-because their fathers before them had attended it; sons of new families
-mostly went elsewhere for their education. With justice, you might speak
-of Midsylvania as being conservative, which was true; but when you said
-that, you said it all, and it let you out. There was nothing more to be
-said.
-</p>
-<p>
-If poor shabby old Midsylvania lagged behind sundry of her sister schools
-in the matter of equipment, most certainly and most woefully did she lag
-behind them in the matter of athletics. In that regard, and perhaps other
-regards, she was an Old Ladies' Home. Eight governors of American
-commonwealths, six of them dead and two yet living, might be listed on the
-roster of her alumni—and were; but you sought in vain there for the
-name of a great pitcher or of a consistent winner of track events, or of a
-champion pole vaulter. If anybody mentioned Midsylvania in connection with
-college sports, it was to laugh. So there was a good deal of laughing one
-fall when, for the first time, she went in for football. The laughter
-continued, practically without abatement, through that season; but early
-the following season it died away altogether, to be succeeded by a wave of
-astonishment and of reluctantly conceded admiration, which ran from the
-Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Seaboard to the
-Mississippi River. Other football teams began to respect Midsylvania's
-football team. They had to; she mauled it into their respective
-consciousness.
-</p>
-<p>
-The worm had turned—and turned something besides the other cheek, at
-that; for in that second year she won her first game, which was her game
-with Exstein Normal. Now Exstein Normal came up proudly, like an army
-glorious with banners, and went down abruptly, like a scuttled ship:
-Score, thirty-one to nothing. Following on this, she beat Holy Mount's
-team of fiery Louisiana Creoles, with a red-headed demon of a New Orleans
-Irish boy for their captain; and, in succession, she took on and overcame
-Cherokee Tech., and Alabama State, and Bayless.
-</p>
-<p>
-She held to a tie what was conceded to be the best team that Old Dominion
-had ever mustered; and Vanderbeck, the largest and, athletically
-considered, the strongest of them all, bested her only by the narrowest
-and closest of margins on Vanderbeck's own gridiron. It was one of the
-upsetting things that never can happen, but occasionally do, that
-Midsylvania should go straight through to Thanksgiving Day with a
-miraculous record of five victories, one tie and one defeat out of seven
-games played, and with not a man in the regular lineup seriously damaged.
-And yet not so miraculous either when you came to cast up causes to find
-results. Her men had steam and had speed and had strategy, which meant
-team-work; in fact, they had everything. Heaven alone knew where, within
-the space of one year they had got it, but they had it: that was the main
-point, the incontrovertible detail.
-</p>
-<p>
-You know the old saying: Home folks are always the last ones to appreciate
-us. More or less I think this must have been true of us as regards our own
-University's football outfit. Undoubtedly a lot had been written and said
-in cities farther south about it, before the <i>Evening Press</i> and the
-other papers in town began fully to realise that Midsylvania was putting
-the town on the football map. But when we did realise it we gave her and
-her team front page space and sporting page space, and plenty of both.
-Before we had been content to bestow upon her a weekly column which one of
-the undergraduates turned in at space rates, and pretty poor space rates
-at that—departmental stuff, mostly dealing with faculty changes, and
-Greek letter society doings and campus gossip and such-like. Now though
-almost anything that anybody on the staff or off of it chose to grind out
-about the boys who wore the M on their sweater breasts found a warm
-welcome after it landed on the City Editor's desk. Local pride in local
-achievement had been roused and if anybody knows of anything stronger than
-local pride in a city of approximately a hundred and fifty thousand
-population, please tell me what it is. We covered the games that were
-played at home that year as fully as the limitations of a somewhat scanty
-staff permitted, and Ike Webb was detailed to travel with the squad when
-it played away from home. He sent back by telegraph, regardless of
-expense, stories on the games abroad, which were smeared all over the
-sheet under spread heads and signed as being “By Our Special Staff
-Correspondent.” They were good stories—Ike was not addicted to
-writing bad ones, ever—and they made circulation.
-</p>
-<p>
-There is no telling how many letters from subscribers came to the chief
-commending him for his journalistic enterprise. He ran a good many of
-them. The paper rode with the team on the crest of the popularity wave.
-Trust Devore for that. He had a sense for news-values which compensated
-and more than compensated for certain temperamental shortcomings as
-exhibited inside the plant.
-</p>
-<p>
-One day in the tail end of November the old Major came stumping down the
-stairs from his sanctum—anyhow, he always called it his sanctum—upon
-the top floor in a little partitioned-off space adjoining the chief's
-office, where he had a desk of his own and where he did his work. He had a
-wad of copy paper in his hand. In dress and in manner he was the same old
-Major that he had been in the flush times two years back, when he used to
-come in daily, ostensibly to get some exchanges but really to sit and sit,
-and bore everybody who would listen with tiresome long accounts of things
-that happened between 1861 and 1865—not the shabby forlorn figure he
-became that first summer after he got his twelve-dollar-a-week job—but
-his former self, recreated all over again. His fullbreasted shirt of fine
-linen jutted out above the unbuttoned top of his low waistcoat in pleaty,
-white billows and his loose black sailor's tie made a big clump at his
-throat where the ends of his Lord Byron collar came together. His cuffs
-almost covered his hands and his longish white hair was like silk floss
-lying on his coat collar behind. That little white goatee of his jutted
-out under his lower lip like a tab of carded wool. Altogether he was the
-Major of yore, rejoicing sartorially in his present state of comparative
-prosperity. The boys around the shop always said that if the Major had
-only ten dollars and fifty cents in the world he would spend five dollars
-of it for his club dues and five of it on his wardrobe and give the
-remaining fifty cents to some beggar. I guess he would have, too.
-</p>
-<p>
-He came downstairs this day and walked up to Devore, and laid down his
-sheaf of pages at Devore's elbow. “A special contribution, sir,” he said
-very ceremoniously.
-</p>
-<p>
-Devore ran through the first page, which was covered with pencil marks—the
-Major always wrote his stuff out in long hand—and glanced up, a
-little bit astonished.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Kind of out of your usual line, isn't it, Major Stone?” he asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In a measure, sir—yes,” stated the old man; and he rocked on his
-high heels as though he might be nervous regarding the reception his
-contribution would have in this quarter. “Under the circumstances I feel
-justified in a departure from the material I customarily indite. But if
-you feel—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, that's all right!” said Devore, divining what the Major meant to say
-before the Major finished saying it. “There's always room for good stuff.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He laid the first sheet aside and shuffled through the sheets under it,
-picking out lines and appraising the full purport of the manuscript, as
-any skilled craftsman of a newspaper copy desk can do in half the length
-of time an outsider would be needing to make out the sense of it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“About young Morehead, eh? I didn't know you knew him, Major?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Personally I do not. But, in his lifetime, I knew his gallant father
-well; in fact, intimately. For some months we served together on the staff
-of General Leonidas Polk. Accordingly I felt qualified by my personal
-acquaintance with his family to treat of the subject as I have treated
-it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, I see!” Devore gave an involuntary smile quick burial in the palm of
-his cupped hand. “And so you've caught the fever too?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Fever, sir? What fever?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I mean you've got yourself all worked up about football, the same as
-everybody else in town?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Not at all, sir. Of the game of football I know little or nothing. In my
-college days we concerned ourselves in our sportive hours with very
-different pursuits and recreations.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The Major, as we knew from hearing him tell about it a hundred times, had
-left the University of Virginia in his second year to enlist in the army.
-And we knew his views on the subject of sports. If a young person of the
-masculine gender could waltz with the ladies, and ride a horse well enough
-to follow the hounds without falling off at the jumps, and with a shotgun
-could kill half the birds he fired at—these, from the Major's
-standpoint, were accomplishments enough for any Southern gentleman, now
-that the use of duelling pistols had died out. We had heard him say so,
-often.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Football, considered as a game, does not interest me,” he went on now. “I
-have never seen it played. But on account of Mr. James Payne Morehead,
-Junior, I am interested. Being of the strain of blood that he is, I am
-constrained to believe he will acquit himself in a manner worthy of his
-ancestry, wheresoever he may be placed. In the article you have there
-before you I have said as much.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“So I notice,” said Devore, keeping most of the irony out of his tone.
-“Thank you, Major—we'll stick the yarn in to-morrow.” And then, as
-the old man started out: “By the way, Major Stone, if you've never seen a
-game you might enjoy seeing the one next Saturday—against Sangamon.
-It'll be your last chance this season. I'll save you out a press ticket—if
-you don't mind sitting in the newspaper box with the boys that I'll have
-out there covering the story?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I am obliged to you, sir,” said Major Stone. “I shall be pleased to avail
-myself of the courtesy, and nothing could afford me more pleasure than to
-have the company of my youthful compatriots in the field of journalistic
-endeavour on that occasion.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He talked like that. Talking, he made you think of the way some people
-write in their letters, not of the way anybody else on earth spoke in
-ordinary conversation.
-</p>
-<p>
-Out he went then, all reared back and Devore read the copy through,
-chuckling to himself. It wasn't a malicious chuckle, though. Devore was
-not likely to forget what the Major did for him that day eighteen months
-before at the Lyric Hall convention when Bad Mink Satterlee tried to cave
-in Devore's skull with a set of brass knuckles and doubtlessly would have
-carried the undertaking through successfully if Major Stone hadn't been so
-swiftly deft with the ivory butt of one of his pair of cavalry pistols,
-nor to forget how nasty he, as City Editor, had been before that, during
-all the months of the Major's apprenticeship as a sixty-four-year-old cub
-reporter.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Just like the old codger!” he said, tapping the manuscript with his hand
-affectionately. “Starts out to write about the kid; gives the kid a couple
-of paragraphs; and then uses up twenty pages more telling what great men
-the kid's father and grandfather were. Here, you fellows, just listen a
-minute to this.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He read a few sentences aloud.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Get the angle, don't you? Major figures that any spunk and any sense the
-Morehead boy's got is a heritage from his revered ancestors, and that
-he'll just naturally have to make good because he had 'em for his
-ancestors. Well, at that, the Maje is probably right, without realising
-it. I'm thinking Captain James Payne Morehead, Junior, and his bunch of
-little fair-haired playmates are going to need something more than they've
-got now when they go up against that bunch of huskies from Sangamon next
-Saturday. How about it, eh?” We knew about it, or at least we thought we
-knew about it, as surely as anyone may know in advance of the accomplished
-event. There was a note of foreboding in the answers we made to our
-immediate superior there in the city room. One of the boys summed it up:
-“'Pride goeth before a fall,'” he said; “and biting off more than you can
-chaw is bad on the front teeth—provided the Midsylvania eleven have
-any front teeth left after the Sangamon eleven get through toying with
-their bright young faces on Saturday afternoon.” Which, differently
-expressed, perhaps, was the common sentiment. A chill of dread was
-descending upon the community at large; in fact, had been descending like
-a dark, dank blanket for upward of a week now. During the first few hours
-after the announcement came out that the team of Sangamon College, making
-their post-season tour, would swing downward across Messrs. Mason and
-Dixon's justly celebrated survey marks for the express purpose of playing
-against Midsylvania, there had been a flare-up of jubilation that was
-statewide.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was no small honour for victorious Midsylvania that her football eleven
-should be the chosen eleven below the Line to meet these all-conquering
-gladiators from above it. So everybody agreed, at the outset. But on
-second thought, which so often is the better thought of the two, the
-opportunity seemed, after all, not so glorious. A hero may go down leading
-a forlorn hope—may die holding a last ditch—and posterity
-possibly will applaud him; but we may safely figure that he does not
-greatly enjoy himself while thus engaged; nor can his friends and
-well-wishers, looking on, be so very happy, either, over the dire and
-distressful outcome of the sacrificial deed. The nearer came the day of
-the game and the more people read about the strength of the invaders, the
-more dismal loomed the prospect for the defenders.
-</p>
-<p>
-To begin with, Sangamon was one of the biggest fresh-water colleges on the
-continent, and one of the richest. Sangamon had six times as many students
-enrolled as Midsylvania, which meant, of course, six times the bulk of raw
-material from which to pick and choose for her team. Sangamon had a
-professional coach, paid trainers and paid rubbers; and Sangamon had a fat
-fund to support her in her athletic endeavours.
-</p>
-<p>
-Midsylvania, it is almost needless to state, had none of these. Sangamon
-had gone through the fall, mopping up ambitious contenders, east and west,
-due north, north by east, and north by west. Sangamon had two players—not
-one, but actually two—that the experts of the New York dailies had
-nominated for the All-American—her fullback, Vretson, known
-affectionately and familiarly as the Terrible Swede; and her star end,
-Fay, who, in full football panoply of spiked shoes and padded knickers,
-had, on test, done a hundred yards in twelve seconds flat. It isn't so
-very often that the astigmatic Eastern sharps can see across the
-Appalachians when they come to make up the roster of nominees for the
-seasonal hall of football fame. This year, though, they had looked as far
-inland as Sangamon. At the peril of a severe eyestrain they had to,
-because Sangamon simply would not be denied.
-</p>
-<p>
-This was what Midsylvania must go up against this coming Saturday
-afternoon. Wherefore the apprehension of disaster was that thick you could
-slice it with a knife.
-</p>
-<p>
-They played the game out at Morehead Downs, where every year the Derby was
-run. Neither the baseball park nor the rutty common at the back of the
-University campus, where the Varsity scrubs and regulars did their stint
-at practise, could begin to hold the number that was due to attend this
-game, decent weather being vouchsafed. So Morehead Downs it was, with the
-lines blocked out in the turf on the inner side of the white fence that
-bounded the track, a little way up the home stretch, so that the judges'
-stand should not cut off the view of any considerable number of the
-spectators sitting across in the grand stand.
-</p>
-<p>
-For the newspaper fellows they rigged up elbowroom accommodations of bench
-and table against the base of the judges' kiosk. There we sat—Ike
-Webb and the Major and Gil Boyd, who was our sporting editor, and myself,
-all in a row—and there we had been sitting for nearly an hour before
-the time for starting. Ike Webb was to do the introduction and Gil Boyd
-the running account of the game, play by play. My job was to keep tab of
-incidents and local-colour stuff generally. But the old Major was there as
-a spectator merely.
-</p>
-<p>
-He certainly saw a sight. In that town we always measured multitudes by
-our Derby Day figures; yet even Derby Days did not often turn out a bigger
-crowd than the crowd that swarmed to the Downs that bright gusty December
-afternoon. The governor came down from the capital and most of the
-statehouse force came with him. There were excursions by rail in from out
-in the state, all of them mighty well patronised.
-</p>
-<p>
-As for the local attendance—well, so far as compiling a directory of
-the able-bodied adult white population and a fair sprinkling of the black
-was concerned, the enumerators could have simplified and expedited their
-task considerably by going up and down the aisles and jotting down the
-names as they went. They could have made a fairly complete census of our
-prominent families without straying beyond the confines of the
-reserved-seat section at the front, or fashionable, side of the grand
-stand. And if a single society girl in town was absent it was because her
-parents or her guardian kept her at home under lock and key.
-</p>
-<p>
-Before two o'clock, the slanting floor beneath the high-peaked red roof of
-the structure made you think of a big hanging garden, what with the faces
-and the figures of all those thousands packed in together, row after row
-of them, with the finery of the women standing out from the massed
-background in brighter patches of colour, and the little red pennons that
-the venders had peddled in the audience all dancing and swaying, like the
-petals of wind-blown flowers. That spectacle alone, viewed from our
-vantage place over across the race course, was worth the price of
-admission to anybody.
-</p>
-<p>
-Carrying the simile a bit farther, you might have likened two sections of
-space in the stand to hothouses where noise was being brought into bloom,
-by both artificial and natural means. One of these forcing beds of sound
-was where Midsylvania grouped herself—faculty and students and old
-graduates. The other, a smaller area, held the visitors from Sangamon, two
-hundred strong and more, who had come down three hundred miles by special
-train, to root for the challengers, bringing with them a brass band and
-their own glee club—or a good part of it, anyhow—and their own
-cheer leader.
-</p>
-<p>
-This cheer leader, being the first of a now common species ever seen in
-our parts, succeeded in holding the public eye mighty closely, as he
-stood, bareheaded and long-haired, down below on the track, with his gaudy
-blue-and-gold sweater on, and his big megaphone in his hand, jerking his
-arms and his body back and forth as he directed his chorus above in its
-organised cheering and its well-drilled singing of college songs.
-</p>
-<p>
-Compared with this output, Midsylvania's cheering arose in larger volume,
-which was to be expected, seeing that Midsylvania so greatly excelled in
-numbers present, and had behind its delegations the favour of the
-onlookers almost to a unit'; but, even so, it seemed to lack the force and
-fervour of those vocal volleys arising from the ranks of the enemy. Each
-time Sangamon let off a yell it was platoon firing, steady and rapid and
-brisk; and literally it crackled on the air. When this had died away, and
-Midsylvania had answered back, the result somehow put you in mind of a boy
-whistling to keep up his courage while passing a cemetery after dark.
-</p>
-<p>
-It is hard to express the difference in words, but, had you been there
-that day, you would have caught it in a jiffy. One group was certain of
-victory impending and expressed its certainty; the other was doubtful and
-betrayed it. In the intervals between the whooping and the singing
-Sangamon's imported band would play snatches of some rousing air, or else
-Midsyl-vania's band would play; between the two of them pumping up the
-pulsebeats of all and sundry.
-</p>
-<p>
-I was struck by one thing—the Major maintained calm and dignity
-through all the preliminary excitement. In the moment of the first really
-big outburst, which was when the Varsity's students and former students
-marched in behind their band, out of the tail of my eye I caught the Major
-with a pencil, checking off the names of the home squad on his copy of the
-official programme. Knowing the old fellow as I did, I guessed he was
-figuring up to see how many of the players were members of Old Families.
-Nearly all of them were, for that matter. He even held himself in when, at
-two-fifteen or thereabouts, first one of the teams and then the other
-trotted out from under opposite ends of the grand stand and crossed the
-track to the field to warm up.
-</p>
-<p>
-He asked me to point out young Morehead to him; and when I did he nodded
-as if in affirmation of a previous decision of his own. On my own
-initiative I pointed out some of the other stars to him too.
-</p>
-<p>
-In advance we knew Sangamon was going to have the advantage of beef on her
-side; but I do not think anybody realised just how great the advantage was
-until we saw the two teams on the same ground and had opportunity to
-compare and appraise them, man for man. Then we saw, with an added sinking
-of the spirit—at least I knew my spirit sank at the inequality of
-the comparison—that her front line outweighed ours by pounds upon
-pounds of brawn.
-</p>
-<p>
-In another regard as well, and a more essential regard, too, she showed
-superiority. For these champions from the upper Corn Belt had what plainly
-their opponents always before during the season had likewise had, but now
-lacked: they had an enormous conceit of themselves, a mountainous and a
-monumental belief in their ability to take this game away from the rival
-team.
-</p>
-<p>
-They had brought it with them—this assurance—and they had fed
-it stall-fat beforehand; and now, with the easy and splendid insolence of
-lusty, pampered youth, they exhibited it openly before all these hostile
-eyes upon the enemy's soil. It showed in them individually and as a unit.
-Almost as visibly as though words of defiance had been stencilled upon
-their tight-laced jerkins fore and aft, they flaunted forth their
-confidence in themselves, somehow expressing it in their rippling leg
-muscles and in their broad backs and in their hunched shoulders as they
-bunched up into formidable close formation, and in everything they did and
-said in the few minutes of practice intervening before they should be at
-grips with their opponents.
-</p>
-<p>
-They accepted the handclaps from the onlookers—a tribute of
-hospitality this was, extended by people to whom hospitality for the
-stranger was as sacred as their religion and as sincere as their politics—with
-an air which betokened, most evidently, that presently they meant to repay
-those who greeted them for the greeting, by achieving one of Sangamon's
-customary victories in Sangamon's customary workmanlike fashion. Among
-them Vretson, the much-advertised, loomed a greater giant above lesser
-giants, justifying by bulk alone his title of the Terrible Swede.
-</p>
-<p>
-As for Midsylvania's players, upon the other hand, it seemed to me, as I
-watched them, that they, in turn, watched the young Gogs and Magogs who
-were to grapple with them in a half-fearsome, half-furtive fashion. I
-marked that they flinched nervously, like débutantes, before the volleys
-of friendly applause from the crowd. It occurred to me that their thoughts
-must be studded with big black question marks; whereas we all could
-understand that no suggestion of doubtfulness punctuated the anticipations
-of the opposing eleven touching on the possibilities of the next two
-hours.
-</p>
-<p>
-The feeling of foreboding spread like a cold contagion from the field to
-the press stand, affecting the newspaper men; and, becoming generally
-epidemic, it reached the spectators. That earlier lustiness was almost
-altogether lacking from the outbreak signalling the beginning of play. In
-the salvo there was nothing heartening. It appeared rather to be pitched
-in the tone of sympathetic consolation for a predestined and an impending
-catastrophe; and even the bark and roar of Midsylvania's yell, as all
-Midsylvania gave it,' seemed to have almost a hollow daunted sound to it.
-Where we sat we could sense this abatement of spirit with particular
-plainness; in fact, I rather think Major Stone was the only person there
-who did not sense it in its full effect and its full import.
-</p>
-<p>
-I am not going to spend overmuch space in describing the first half of
-that game; this was in the days when games were divided into halves, and
-not quartered up into periods. Anyhow, I have forgotten a good many of the
-details. The principal points are what stick out in my memory. I remember
-that on the toss of the coin Sangamon won and kicked off. It was Vretson—no
-less—who drove his talented punting toe into the pigskin.
-</p>
-<p>
-There was a sound as though some one had smote a taut bladder with a
-slapstick, and the ball soared upward and away, shrinking from the size of
-a watermelon to the size of a gourd, and from a gourd to a goose egg; and
-then it came whirling downward again, growing bigger as it dropped.
-Woolwine, our quarter, caught it and took a flying start off his shoe
-hobs. Fay and the other Sangamon end, whose name I have forgotten, were
-after him like a pair of coursing beagles after a doubling hare; and
-together they nailed him before he had gone twenty yards, and down he
-went, with Fay on top of him and What'shisname on top of Fay. When they
-dug the three of them out of their heap little Woolwine still had the ball
-under him.
-</p>
-<p>
-As the teams lined up, boring their heads forward to a common centre,
-billy-goat fashion, and Morehead, who was playing end, called out the
-signals, “Six—eight—twenty-eight—thirty-one”—or
-some such combination of figures—we caught the quaver in his voice.
-Ike Webb, sitting next to me, gave a little groan and laid down his
-pencil, and put his pessimistic face in his sheltering hands.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Listen to that tremolo note, will you?” he lamented from between his
-fingers. “Licked, by golly, before they start! They won't play to win,
-because they're scared to death already. They'll play to keep from being
-licked by too big a score, and that means they won't have a chance. Just
-you fellows watch and see if I'm not right. Ah-h! There she goes!”
- </p>
-<p>
-We watched all right; and we saw that our boys meant to try to carry the
-ball through for gains. There was not a chance of that, though. They
-butted their heads against a stone wall until they fairly addled the
-football instincts in their brains. In two attempts they did not advance
-the ball six feet; so they tried kicking it. Young Railey punted well into
-Sangamon territory and now Sangamon had the ball. She lost it on a fumble,
-but got it back a minute or two later on a fumble slip by the other side.
-In their respective shortcomings as regards fumbling it was even-Stephen
-between the teams; but Ike Webb couldn't view the thing in any such
-optimistic light. He had turned into a merciless critic of the Varsity
-outfit.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Aha!” he muttered dolorously as a scrimmaging tangle of forms
-disentangled and showed that Sangamon, by a smart bit of strategy, had
-gained three yards. “What did I tell you not five minutes back? Those boys
-lost their hearts before they even began, and now they're due to lose
-their heads too.”
- </p>
-<p>
-It really looked as though Ike Webb was qualifying for clairvoyant
-honours, for promptly Midsylvania's defence became more and more
-inefficient, more and more uncertain. Sangamon had a smart field
-commander, and he took leeway of the advantage. He set his men to the job
-of jamming through; and jam through they did. It took time, though,
-because Midsylvania, of course, offered a measure of resistance. To me,
-however, it appeared to be the mechanical resistance of bodies in action
-rather than anything guided by a spiritual determination—if you get
-what I mean. It took a good deal of time; but after a while, by dint of
-shoving ahead with all her tonnage against Midsyl-vania's slighter and
-lighter displacement, the visitors forced the ball along to Midsylvania's
-thirty-yard line.
-</p>
-<p>
-At this point, Sangamon suddenly changed her tactics. Collop, her captain,
-made a gesture with his arms and the Blue tackles dropped back a little.
-From the centre of the massed wedge of shapes a signal was barked out. So
-swiftly that the spectacle made you think of a pyramid of pool balls
-scattering over a pool table when the cue ball hits it hard on the nose,
-the visiting players shifted positions.
-</p>
-<p>
-For ten seconds we lost sight of the ball altogether. When we saw it again
-it was cuddling in Vretson's vast, outspread paws. Who had passed it, or
-how it got there after being passed, I never knew. Magically it had
-materialised in his grasp in the same way that a prestidigitator's china
-egg is produced from a countryjake's whiskers. He tucked it into the bight
-of his left arm and, with his mighty right arm swinging behind him as a
-rudder and before him as a flail, he tore down the field, going away out
-to the right.
-</p>
-<p>
-He was fast for his size—wonderfully fast, and besides, he had
-perfect interference to help him along. His mates, skirmishing out on his
-flank, threw back and bowled over the men who bored in to tackle him. In
-his flight he himself accounted for at least two Varsity players who
-sprang round the wings of his protecting line, hoping to intercept the big
-sprinter. One he dodged, the other he flung aside; and then he kept on and
-on until after a run of thirty-five yards, he flung himself through the
-air; and, with Cabell, of Midsylvania, clutching at the wideness between
-his shoulder blades, he dropped flat across Midsylvania's goal line. A
-groan went up from the grand stand.
-</p>
-<p>
-There wasn't a sound from any quarter, though, as Vretson squared off to
-kick for a goal; but whoops of relief arose when the ball, after soaring
-high and straight, veered off under pressure of a puff of air and, instead
-of passing over the bar, struck one of the goal posts with a mellow smack
-and dropped back. So the score, by the rules of those times, stood four to
-naught.
-</p>
-<p>
-Nearly everybody there, I guess, figured that Sangamon would promptly
-buttress her lead by at least four additional points, and very possibly
-more; but she didn't. True, she played all round and all over and all
-through Midsylvania during the remaining portion of the first half, but
-she did not score again. This was due not so much to the rebuttal fight
-the defenders offered, for now their playing sagged more woefully weak
-than ever, but to small misplays and slip-ups and seeming overconfidence
-on the part of Sangamon.
-</p>
-<p>
-It may have been they were cocksure of their power to score again when
-they chose. Maybe they were a trifle tired. Maybe they were satisfied to
-postpone the slaughter-house work until toward the end of the game and
-make a spectacular, overwhelming finish of it. Anyhow, it struck us, in
-the press stand, that the reason behind their failure to push their
-advantage still farther, during the next ten minutes or so, was rather
-because of their own disinclination than because of any strategy or
-strength Midsylvania's plainly despondent eleven presented against them.
-</p>
-<p>
-Along here I became aware, subconsciously at first, and then in a minute
-or so with a fuller sense of realisation, that Major Stone had waked up. I
-felt him wriggling on the bench, joggling me in the side with his elbow;
-and when I looked at him his face was an indignant pink and his little
-white goatee was bristling like a thistle pod.
-</p>
-<p>
-He was saying something to himself, and by listening, I caught from his
-muttered words the purport of the change that had come into the old man's
-emotions, which change, as I speedily divined, was exactly what might have
-been expected of him. He did not have the attitude of the average
-spectator over in the grand stand, for his bump of local pride was not
-being bruised, as theirs was, by this exhibition. Nor had he grasped and
-assimilated the feelings of those two groups of youngsters whose cleated
-feet ripped up the turf in front of him.
-</p>
-<p>
-It did not lie within his capabilities to share their youthful and,
-therefore, profound conviction that all which was desirable in life, here
-or hereafter, centred on the results of this struggle; and that the youth
-who failed now to acquit himself to the greater glory of his comrades and
-his class and his college—and, most of all, himself—would
-droop an abased and shameful head through all the years to come. For, as I
-may have remarked before, Major Stone was not a bright person, but rather
-a stupid one; and his viewpoint on most subjects had not altered
-materially since Appomattox.
-</p>
-<p>
-That was it—it had not altered since Appomattox; and because it had
-not he was viewing the present event as a struggle between North and South—as
-a conflict into which Civil War causes and Civil War effects directly
-entered. Possibly you cannot understand that. But you could if you had
-known Major Stone and men like him, most of whom are now dead and gone.
-His face turned from a hot pink to a dull brick-dust red, and he gnawed at
-his moustache.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It is monstrous!” I heard him say. “It is incredible! Southern sons of
-Southern sires, every damned one of them! And because the odds are against
-them they have weakened! I myself can see that they are weakening every
-minute. Why, the thing's incredible—that's what it is! Incredible!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Just then the whistle blew, and the teams, which had been in a mix-up,
-unsnarled themselves. The Sangamon eleven came off the field; some of them
-were briskly trotting to prove their fitness, and some were swaggering a
-little as their band hit up the tune of Marching Through Georgia to play
-them into their quarters under the stand. But the Varsity eleven passed
-out of sight with shoulders that drooped and with no spring in their
-gaits.
-</p>
-<p>
-Back at the tail end of their line went little Morehead, wiping his damp
-eyes with the dirty sleeve of his jersey. Morehead was no young Saint
-Laurence, to expire smilingly on a gridiron. He was not of the stuff that
-martyrs are made of; he was a creature, part man and part boy, and the man
-part of him made him furious with self-reproach, but the boy in him made
-him cry. I take it, some of the spectators felt almost like crying too;
-certainly their cheering sounded so.
-</p>
-<p>
-One of the Red tackles—Rodney—had been disabled just before
-the breakaway, and I ran over to Midsylvania's quarters to find out for
-the paper whether he was injured to the degree of being definitely
-incapacitated for further participation in the game. In what, during race
-meets, was a refreshment establishment, under the grand stand, I obtruded
-upon a veritable grand lodge of sorrow.
-</p>
-<p>
-Gadsden, the coach, who had played with the team the year before, which
-was his graduating year, was out in the centre of the floor making a brave
-pretense at being hopeful; but I do not think anybody present suffered
-himself to be deceived thereby. His pleas to the team to buck up and to
-brace up, and to go back in and fight for every point, lacked sincerity.
-He appeared to be haranguing them because that was the ordained thing for
-him to do, and not because he expected to infuse into them any part of his
-make-believe optimism. Lying on their backs upon blankets, with limbs
-relaxed, some of his hearers turned dejected faces upward. Others, sitting
-upright or squatted on their knees, kept their abashed heads on their
-breasts, staring down steadfastly at nothing at all.
-</p>
-<p>
-Morehead was sulking by himself in a corner, winking his eyelids and
-wrinkling his face up to hold back the tears of his mortification. He
-blamed himself, I take it, for what was the fault of all. Cabell was a
-tousled heap, against a wall. He was flexing a bruised wrist, as though
-that small hurt was just now the most important thing in the world to him.
-Even the darky rubbers and the darky water carrier showed their sensations
-by their dejected faces. There was enough of downcastness in that room to
-supply half a dozen funerals with all the gloom they might require; the
-whole place exhaled the essence of a resentful depression that was as
-plainly to be sniffed up into the nostrils as the smells of alcohol and
-arnica and liniment which burdened the air and gave the accompaniment of a
-drug-store smell to the picture.
-</p>
-<p>
-As I halted at the door on my way out of this melancholy spot to the
-scarcely less melancholy atmosphere of the open, having learned that
-Rodney was not really injured, somebody bumped into me, jostling me to one
-side; and, to my astonishment, I saw that the impetuous intruder was Major
-Stone. I had not known until then that he had followed me here, and I did
-not know now what errand could have brought him along. But he did not keep
-me wondering long; in fact, he did not keep me wondering at all. He burst
-in on them with a great “Woof!” of indignation.
-</p>
-<p>
-Before scarcely any one there had realised that a newcomer, arriving
-unheralded and all unexpected, was in their midst, he stood in the middle
-of the littered floor, glaring about him and snorting loudly. His first
-words, too, were calculated not only to startle them but deeply to profane
-the semi-privacy of their grief and their humiliation.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Young gentlemen,” he fairly shouted, “I am ashamed of you! And I have
-come here to tell you so, and to tell you why I am ashamed.”
- </p>
-<p>
-By sight, even, he was probably a stranger to most of those who, with one
-accord, now stared at the little, old-fashioned figure of this invader.
-They straightened up. There was a rustle and a creaking of their harnessed
-and padded bodies. Perhaps surprise held them dumb; or perhaps they were
-in a humour to take a scolding, even from an outsider, feeling that they
-deserved it. At any rate, only one of them spoke. I think it was the voice
-of Gadsden, the coach, that answered back.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Who the devil are you?” he asked. “And who the devil let you in here,
-anyhow?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“You may not know me,” snapped the Major; “but I know you.” He wheeled on
-his heels, aiming a jabbing forefinger at this man and that. “And I know
-you—and I know you—and I know you—and you, and you, too,
-young sir, over there in the corner. What is more, I knew your fathers
-before you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, what of it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What of it? This much of it: Your fathers before you were gallant
-Southern gentlemen—the bearers of honoured names; names revered in
-this state and in the Southern armies. That is what your fathers were. And
-what have you, their sons, proved yourselves to be this day? Cravens—that
-is the word. Cravens! Out of all the South you were chosen to represent
-your native land against these Northerners; and how have you repaid the
-trust imposed in you? By quitting—by showing the white feather, like
-a flock of dunghill cockerels—by raising the white flag at the first
-attack!” A babble of resentful voices arose:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Say, look here; now—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“What do you know about football?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Who gave you any license to butt in here?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Say, that's pretty rough!”
- </p>
-<p>
-He broke into the confused chorus of their protests, silencing the
-interrupters by the stormy blare of his rejoinder. He was so terribly in
-earnest that they just had to hearken.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I know nothing of this game you have essayed to play. Before to-day I
-never saw it played; and if this miserable exhibition by you is a sample
-of the game I hope never to see it played again. But I know courage when I
-see it and I know cowardice when I see it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He levelled his condemning finger at little Morehead and focused his glare
-upon that un-happy youth.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Your name is Morehead! Your grandfather was a great governor of this
-great state. Your father was my companion in arms upon the field of battle—and
-no braver man ever breathed, sir. This historic inclosure bears the
-honoured name of your honoured line—Morehead Downs. You are the
-chosen leader of these companions of yours. And how have you led them
-to-day? How have you acquitted yourself of your trust? I ask you that—how?”
- He halted, out of breath.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The other team is stronger. They've got us outclassed. Look—why,
-look at the reputation they've got all over this country! What—what
-chance have we against them?”
- </p>
-<p>
-The confession came from little Morehead haltingly, as though he spoke
-against his own will in his own defence.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Damn their reputation!” shouted Major Stone. “Your very words are an
-admission of the things I allege against you, and against all of you here.
-Concede that your antagonists are stronger than you, man for man. Concede
-that they outclass you in experience. Is that any reason why they should
-outclass you in courage and in determination? Your father and the fathers
-of more than half of the rest of you served in an army that for four years
-defended our beloved country against a foe immensely stronger than they
-were—stronger in men, in money, in munitions, in food, in supplies,
-in guns—stronger in everything except valour.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Suppose, because of the odds against them, your people had lost heart
-from the very outset, as you yourselves have lost heart here today. Would
-that great war have lasted for four years? Or would it have lasted for
-four months? Would the Southern Confederacy have endured until it no
-longer had the soldiers to fill the gaps and hold the lines; or food for
-the bellies of those soldiers who were left; or powder and lead for their
-guns? Or would it have surrendered after the first repulse, as you have
-surrendered? Answer me that, some of you!
-</p>
-<p>
-“These Northerners are game clear through; I can tell that. Their
-ancestors before them were brave men—the Southern Confederacy could
-never have been starved out and bled white by a breed of cowards. And
-these young men here—these splendid young Americans from up yonder
-in that Northern country—have the same gallant spirit their people
-showed forty years ago against your people. But you—you have lost
-the spirit of your race, that surely must have been born in you. You are
-going to let these Yankees run right over you—your behaviour proves
-it—and not fight back. That is what I charge against you. That is
-what I am here to tell you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How about me?” put in one of the blanketed contingent of his audience.
-“My people were all Unionists.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Your name?” demanded the Major of him. “Speedman.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“A son of the late Colonel Henry T. Speedman?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“His nephew.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I knew your uncle and your uncle's brothers and your grandfather. They
-were Union-men from principle; and I admired them for it, even though we
-differed, and even though they took up arms against their own kinsmen and
-fought on the opposite side. They wore the blue from conviction; but when
-the war was over your uncle, being a Southerner, helped to save his native
-state from carpetbaggery and bayonet rule. That was the type of man your
-uncle was. I regret to note that you did not inherit his qualities. I
-particularly observed your behaviour out there on that field yonder a
-while ago. You quit, young man—you quit like a dog!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Say, look here; you're an old man, and that's enough to save you!”
- Speedman suddenly was sobbing in his mortification. “But—but you've
-got no right to say things like that to me. You've—you've-” A gulp
-cut the miserable youngster's utterance short. He choked and plaintively
-tried again: “If we can't win we can't win—and that's all there is
-to it! Isn't it, fellows?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He looked to his companions in distress for comfort; but all of them, as
-though mesmerised, were looking at Major Stone. It dawned on me, watching
-and listening across the threshold, that some influence—some
-electric appeal to an inner consciousness of theirs—was beginning to
-galvanise them, taking the droop out of their spines, and making their
-frames tense where there had been a sag of nonresistance, and putting
-sparks of resentment into their eyes. The transformation had been almost
-instantaneously accomplished, but it was plainly visible.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I am not expecting that you should win,” snapped the Major, turning
-Speedman's words into an admonition for all of them. “I do not believe it
-is humanly possible for you to win. There is nothing disgraceful in being
-fairly defeated; the disgrace is in accepting defeat without fighting back
-with all your strength and all your will and all your skill and all your
-strategy and all your tactics. And that is exactly what I have just seen
-you doing. And that, judging by all the indications, is exactly what you
-will go on doing during the remaining portion of this affair.”
- </p>
-<p>
-There were no more interruptions. For perhaps two or three minutes more,
-then, the old Major went steadily on, saying his say to the end. Saying
-it, he wasn't the Old Major I had known before; he was not pottering and
-ponderous; he did not clothe his thoughts in cumbersome, heavy phrases. He
-fairly bit the words off—short, bitter, scorching words—and
-spat them out in their faces. He did not plead with them; nor—except
-by indirection—did he invoke a sentiment that was bound to be as
-much a part of them as the nails on their fingers or the teeth in their
-mouths.
-</p>
-<p>
-And, somehow, I felt—and I knew they felt—that here, in this
-short, stumpy white-haired form, stood the Old South, embodied and
-typified, with all its sectional pride and all its sectional devotion—yes,
-and all its sectional prejudices. All at once, in the midst of a sentence,
-he checked up; and then, staring hard at them through a pause, he spoke
-his final message: “You are of the seed of heroes. Try to remember that
-when you go back out yonder before that great crowd. You are the sons of
-men who had sand, who had bottom, who had all the things a fighting man
-should have. Try—if you can—to remember it!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Out from behind the group that had clustered before the speaker, darted a
-diminutive darky—Midsylvania's self-appointed water carrier:
-</p>
-<p>
-“He done jest said it!” whooped the little negro, dancing up and down in
-frenzy. “He done jest said it! 'Cinnamon Seed an' Sandy Bottom! 'Dat's it!
-Cinnamon Seed an' Sandy Bottom!'—same ez you sez it w'en you sings
-Dixie Land. Dem's de words to win by! W'ite folks, youse done heared de
-lesson preached frum de true tex'. Come on! Le's us go an' tear dem
-Sangamonders down! 'Cinnamon Seed an' Sandy Bottom!' Oh, gloree, gloree,
-hallelujah!”
- </p>
-<p>
-He rocked back on his splay feet, his knees sprung forward, his mouth wide
-open, and his eyes popping out of his black face.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Major did not look the little darky's way. Settling his slouch hat on
-his head, he faced about and out he stalked; and I, following along after
-him, was filled with conflicting emotions, for, as it happened, my father
-was a Confederate soldier, too, and I had been bred up on a mixed diet of
-Robert E. Lee, N. B. Forrest and Albert Sidney Johnston.
-</p>
-<p>
-I followed him back to our post, he saying nothing at all on the way and I
-likewise silent. I scrouged past him to my place alongside Ike Webb and
-sat down, and tried in a few words to give Ike and Gil Boyd a summary of
-the sight I had just witnessed. And when I was done I illustrated my brief
-and eager narrative by pointing with a flirt of my thumb to Major Stone,
-stiffly erect on my left hand, with his chest protruded and his head held
-high in a posture faintly suggestive of certain popular likenesses of the
-late Napoleon Bonaparte; and on his elderly face was the look of one who,
-having sowed good seed in receptive loam, confidently expects an abundant
-and a gratifying harvest.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was a different team which came out for the second half of that game;
-not exactly a jaunty team, nor yet a boisterous one, but rather a team
-that were grimly silent, indicating by their silence a certain
-preparedness and a certain resolution for the performance of that which is
-claimed to speak louder than words—action.
-</p>
-<p>
-The onlookers, I judged, saw the difference almost instantly and realised
-that from some source, somehow, Morehead's men had gathered unto
-themselves a new power of will, which presently they meant to express
-physically. And three minutes later Sangamon found herself breasted by a
-mechanism that had in its composition the springiness of an earnest desire
-and a sincere determination, whereas before, in emergencies, it had
-expressed no more than sullen and downhearted desperation.
-</p>
-<p>
-Now from the very outset there was resilience behind its formations and
-active intelligence behind its movements, guiding and shaping them. The
-confronting line might give under the pressure of superior weight, but it
-bounced right back. At once it was made manifest that the Red eleven would
-not thenceforward be content merely to defend, but would have the
-effrontery actually to attack, and attack again, and to keep on attacking.
-No longer was it a case of hammer falling on anvil; two hammers were
-battering against one another, nose to nose now, and in one stroke there
-was as much buoyancy as in the other.
-</p>
-<p>
-In my eagerness to reach my climax I am getting ahead of my story. Let's
-go back a bit: The whistle blew. The antagonists having swapped goals,
-Midsylvania now had what benefit was to be derived from the wind, which
-blew out of the West at a quartering angle across the field. Following the
-kick-off an interchange of punts ensued. Midsylvania apparently elected to
-continue these kicking operations indefinitely; whereupon it is probable
-the Sangamon strategists jumped at the conclusion that, realising the
-hopelessness of overcoming the weight presented against them, the locals
-meant to make a kicking match of it. Be that as it may, they accepted the
-challenge, if challenge it was, and a punting duel ensued, with no
-noteworthy fortunes falling to either eleven.
-</p>
-<p>
-I think it was early in this stage of the proceedings, after some mighty
-brisk scrimmaging, when the strangers, by coming into violent physical
-contact with their opponents, discovered that a new spirit inspired and
-governed the others, and began to apprehend that, after all, this would
-not be a walkover for them; but that they must fight, and fight hard, to
-hold their present lead, and fight even harder if they expected to swell
-that lead.
-</p>
-<p>
-When, at the first opportunity for a forward push, the Red line came at
-the Blue with an impetuosity theretofore lacking from its frontal
-assaults, you could almost see the ripple of astonishment running down the
-spines of the Northerners as they braced themselves to meet and stay the
-onslaught. Anyhow, you could imagine you saw it; certainly there were
-puzzled looks on the faces of some of them as they emerged from the mêlée.
-</p>
-<p>
-With appreciative roars, the crowd greeted these evidences of a newer and
-more comforting aspect to the situation. Each time some Midsylvania player
-caught the booted ball as it came tumbling out of the skies the grand
-stand rocked to the noise; each time Midsylvania sent it flying back to
-foreign ground it rocked some more; each time the teams clashed, then
-locked together, it was to be seen that the Midsylvanians held their
-ground despite the efforts of their bulkier rivals to uproot and overthrow
-them.
-</p>
-<p>
-And, at that, the air space beneath the peaked roof was ripped all to
-flinders by exultant blares from sundry thousands of lungs. Under the
-steady pounding feet the floor of the grand stand became a great bass
-drum, which was never silent; and all the myriad red flags danced
-together. Into the struggle an element of real dash had entered and
-mightily it uplifted the spectators. They knew now that, though the
-Varsity team might be beaten, and probably would be, they would not be
-disgraced. It would be an honourable defeat before overpowering odds, and
-one stoutly resisted to the end by all that intelligence, plus pluck,
-could do.
-</p>
-<p>
-There was no fault now to be found with Midsylvania's captain. Little
-Morehead, with his face a red smear, was playing all over the lot. The
-impact of a collision with a bigger frame than his, had slammed him face
-down against the ground, skinning one cheek and bloodying his nose. He
-looked like a mad Indian in streaky war paint, and he played like one. He
-seemed to be everywhere at once, exhorting, commanding, leading; by
-shouted precept and by reckless example giving the cue to his teammates.
-</p>
-<p>
-I suppose the latter half was about half over when the Sangamon team
-changed their tactics and, no longer content to play safe and exchange
-punts, sought to charge through and gain ground by sheer force.
-Doubtlessly their decision was based on sound principles of reason; but by
-reason of certain insurmountable obstacles, personified in eleven gouging,
-wrestling, panting, sweating youths, they were effectually deterred,
-during a breathless period of minutes, from so doing.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was inevitable that a break must come sooner or later. It was not
-humanly possible for any team or any two teams to maintain that punishing
-pace very long without giving way somewhere.
-</p>
-<p>
-The ball, after various vicissitudes, was in the middle of the field, and
-the Northerners had it. As the Blue tackles slipped back of their comrades
-stealthily, and Vretson, stealing forward, poised himself to take the
-catch, we on the press benches realised that Sangamon meant to undertake a
-repetition of the device that had won her lone goal for her. Thirty
-minutes earlier it would have seemed the logical move to try. Now, in view
-of everything, it was audacious.
-</p>
-<p>
-At that, though, I guess it was Sangamon's best card, even though
-Midsylvania would be forewarned and forearmed by their earlier disastrous
-experience to take measures for combating the play. Everything depended on
-getting Vretson away to a flying start and then keeping his interference
-intact.
-</p>
-<p>
-The captain chanted the code numbers. The Blue press shifted in quick
-shuttlelike motions, and the ball, beautifully and faultlessly handled,
-was flipped back, aiming straight for Vretson's welcoming grasp.
-Simultaneously something else happened. That something else was Morehead.
-</p>
-<p>
-As the ball was passed he moved. There was a hole in Sangamon's
-breastworks, made by the spreading out of her men. It was a little hole
-and a hole which instantaneously closed up again, being stoppered by an
-interposing torso; but in that flash of space Morehead saw the opening
-and, without being touched, came whizzing straight through it like a
-small, compact torpedo. Head in and head down, he crashed into Vretson in
-the same tenth-second when the ball reached Vretson's fingers. With his
-skull, his shoulders, his arms, and his trunk he smashed against the
-giant.
-</p>
-<p>
-Vretson staggered sideways. The ball escaped from his grip; and, striking
-the earth, it took one lazy bound, and then another; but no more. As it
-bounced the second time, Morehead, bending double from his hips, slid
-under it with outspread arms, scooped it up to his breast, and was off,
-travelling faster, I am sure, than Morehead in all his life had ever
-travelled. He was clear and away, going at supertopspeed, while Vretson
-still spun and rocked on his heels.
-</p>
-<p>
-Obeying the signal for the play the majority of the Sangamon team already
-had darted off to their right to make a living barrier upon the threatened
-side of the imaginary lane their star was due to follow. It behooved them
-to reverse the manouvre. Digging their heels into the earth for brakes
-they wheeled round, scuttling back and spreading out to intercept the
-fugitive; but he was already past and beyond Vretson, and nearing the line
-of cross-angle along which the nearest of his pursuers must go to
-encounter him. Before him, along the eastern boundary of Sangamon's
-territory, was a clear stretch of cross-marked turf.
-</p>
-<p>
-Vretson recovered himself and made a stem chase of it, and Vretson could
-run, as I said before; but it would have been as reasonable to expect a
-Jersey bull to overtake a swamp rabbit when the swamp rabbit had the start
-of the bull, and was scared to death besides, as to expect Vretson to
-catch Morehead. The Red captain travelled three feet for every two the
-bigger man travelled. Twenty yards—thirty, forty—he sped, and
-not a tackler's hand was laid on him. With the pack of his adversaries
-tagging out behind him like hounds behind a hare, he pitched over the goal
-line and lay there, his streaming nose in the grass roots, with the
-precious ball under him, and the Sangamon players tumbling over him as
-they came tailing up. Single-handed, on a fluky chance, Morehead had
-duplicated and bettered what Vretson, with assistance, had done.
-</p>
-<p>
-The crowd simply went stark, raving crazy and behaved accordingly. But the
-Varsity section in the grand stand and the clump of blanketted Varsity
-substitutes and scrubs on the side lines were the craziest spots of all.
-</p>
-<p>
-After this there isn't so very much to be told. Midsylvania kicked for a
-goal, but failed, as Sangamon had done. The ball struck the crossbar
-between the white goal posts and flopped back; and during the few
-remaining minutes of play neither side tallied a point, though both tried
-hard enough and Sangamon came very near it once, but failed—thanks
-to the same inspired counterforces that had balked her in similar
-ambitions all through this half.
-</p>
-<p>
-So, at the end, with the winter sun going down red in the west, and the
-grand stand all red with dancing flags to match it, the score stood even—four
-to four.
-</p>
-<p>
-Officially a tie, yes; but not otherwise—not by the reckoning of the
-populace. That Midsylvania, outmanned and outweighted as she was, should
-have played those Middle West champions to a standstill was, in effect, a
-victory—so the crowd figured—and fitting to be celebrated on
-that basis, which promptly it was.
-</p>
-<p>
-Out from the upstanding ranks of the multitude, down from the stand,
-across the track and into the field came the Varsity students, clamouring
-their joy, and their band came with them, and others, unattached, came
-trailing after them. Some were dancing dervishes and some were human steam
-whistles, and all the rest were just plain lunatics. They fell into an
-irregular weaving formation, four or six abreast, behind the team, with
-Morehead up ahead, riding upon the shoulders of two of his fellows; and
-round the gridiron they started, going first between one pair of goal
-posts and then between the other pair. Doubtlessly the band played; but
-what tune they elected to play nobody knew, because nobody could hear it—not
-even the musicians themselves.
-</p>
-<p>
-As the top of the column, completing its first circuit, swung down the
-gridiron toward the judges' stand, Morehead pointed toward where we sat
-and, from his perch on their shoulders, called down something to those who
-bore him. At that, a deputation of about half a dozen broke out of the
-mass and charged straight for us. For a moment it must have seemed to the
-crowd that this detachment contemplated a physical assault upon some
-obnoxious newspaper man behind our bench, for they dived right in among
-us, laying hands upon one of our number, heaving him bodily upward, and
-bearing him away a prisoner.
-</p>
-<p>
-Half a minute later Major Putnam Stone, somewhat dishevelled as to his
-attire, was also mounted on a double pair of shoulders and was bobbing
-along at the front of the procession, side by side with young Morehead.
-Judging by his expression, I should say the Major was enjoying the ride.
-Without knowing the whys and the wherefores of it, the spectators derived
-that in some fashion this little, old, white-haired man was esteemed by
-Midsylvania's representatives to have had a share in the achieved result.
-</p>
-<p>
-As this conviction sank home, the exultant yelling mounted higher and
-higher still. I think it was along here the members of the band quit
-trying to be heard and stopped their playing, and took their horns down
-from their faces.
-</p>
-<p>
-Immediately after this still another strange figure attained a conspicuous
-place in the parade: A little darky, mad with joy, and wearing a
-red-and-gray sweater much too roomy for him, came bounding across the
-field, with an empty water bucket in one hand. He caught up with the front
-row of the marchers; and, scuttling along backward, directly in front of
-them, he began calling out certain words in a sort of slogan, repeating
-them over and over again, until those nearest him detected the purport of
-his utterances and started chanting them in time with him.
-</p>
-<p>
-Presently, as the chorus of definite sounds and the meaning of the sounds
-spread along down the column, the Varsity boys took up the refrain, and it
-rose and fell in a great, thundering cadence. And then everybody made out
-its substance, the words being these:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Cinnamon Seed and Sandy Bottom! Cinnamon Seed and Sandy Bottom! CINNAMON
-SEED AND SANDY BOTTOM!”
- </p>
-<p>
-The sun, following its usual custom, continued to go down, growing redder
-and redder as it went; and Midsylvania, over and above the triumph it had
-to celebrate and was celebrating, had also these three things now added
-unto her: A new college yell, in this perfectly meaningless line from an
-old song; a new cheer leader—her first, by the way—in the
-person of a ragged black water boy; and a new football idol to take to her
-heart, the same being an elderly gentleman who knew nothing at all of the
-science of football, and doubtlessly cared less—an idol who in the
-fullness of time would become a tradition, to be treasured along with the
-noseless statue of Henry Clay and the beech tree under which Daniel Boone
-slept one night.
-</p>
-<p>
-So that explains why, each year after the main game, when the team of a
-bigger and stronger Midsylvania have broken training, they drink a rising
-toast to the memory of Major Putnam Stone, deceased; whereat, as
-afore-stated, there are no heel-taps whatsoever.
-</p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER IX. A KISS FOR KINDNESS
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>S WILL be recalled, it was from the lips of His Honour, Judge Priest,
-that I heard the story relating to those little scars upon the legs of Mr.
-Herman Felsburg. It was from the same source that I gleaned certain
-details concerning the manner of Mr. Felsburg's enlistment and services as
-a private soldier in the Army of the Confederate States of America; and it
-is these facts that make up the narrative I would now relate. As Judge
-Priest gave them to me, with occasional interruptions by old Doctor Lake,
-so now do I propose giving them to you.
-</p>
-<p>
-This tale I heard at a rally in the midst of one of the Bryan campaigns,
-back in those good days before the automobile and the attached cuff came
-in, while Bryan campaigns were still fashionable in the nation. It could
-not have been the third Bryan campaign, and I am pretty sure it was not
-the first one; so it must have been the second one. On second thought, I
-am certain it was the second one—when the candidate's hair was still
-almost as long in front as behind.
-</p>
-<p>
-By reason of the free-silver split four years earlier, and bitter
-dissensions within the party organization subsequently, our state had
-fallen into the doubtful column; wherefore, campaigns took on even a more
-hectic and feverish aspect than before. Of course there was no doubt about
-our own district. Whatever might betide, she was safe and sound—a
-Democratic Rock of Ages. “Solid as Gibraltar!” John C. Breckinridge called
-her once; and, taking the name, a Gibraltar she remained forever after,
-piling up a plurality on which the faithful might mount and stand, even as
-on a watch-tower of the outer battlements, to observe the struggle for
-those debatable counties to the eastward and the northward of us. It was
-not a question whether she would give a majority for the ticket, but a
-question of how big a majority she would give. Come to think about it,
-that was not much of a question, either. We had sincere voters and
-competent compilers of election returns down our way then; and still have,
-for that matter.
-</p>
-<p>
-Nevertheless and notwithstanding, it was to be remembered that, four years
-before, the bulk of the state's votes in the Electoral College, for the
-first time in history, had been recorded for a Republican nominee; and so,
-with a possibility of a recurrence of this catastrophe staring us in the
-face, the rally that was held on that fine Indian summery day at Cold
-Springs, five miles out from town on the road to Maxon's Mills, assumed a
-scope and an importance beyond the rallies of earlier and less uncertain
-times. It was felt that by precept and deed the Stalwarts should set an
-example for all wavering brethren above the river. So there was a parade
-through town in the morning and burgoo and a barbecue in the woods at
-noon, and in the afternoon a feast of oratory, with Congressman Dabney
-Prentiss to preside and a United States Senator from down across the line
-in Tennessee to deliver the principal address. There was forethought in
-the shaping of the programme thus: those who came to feast would remain to
-hear.
-</p>
-<p>
-Time waits on no man, but has an accommodating way of checking up
-occasionally, while the seed pod of reminiscence sprouts beneath the warm,
-rich humus of a fellow's memory; and, because time does do just this, I
-yet can visualise, with sufficient clarity for my present purposes, some
-of the things which happened that day. Again is my blood quickened by
-sweet strains of music as Dean's Brass Band swings up Franklin Street,
-leading the procession of the forenoon.
-</p>
-<p>
-Without serious mental strain I re-create the picture of the prominent
-guests riding in open carriages with members of the reception committee
-and, behind them, the Young Men's Democratic Marching Club going afoot,
-four hundred strong.
-</p>
-<p>
-I see a big four-horse wagon, used ordinarily for such prosaic purpose as
-moving household goods, but now with bunting and flags converted into a
-tableau car, and bearing pretty girls, badged and labelled with the names
-of the several states of the Union. And the prettiest, stateliest girl of
-all stands for Kentucky. At her side is a little dark girl who represents
-the Philippines, and accordingly she wears upon her wrists a dangling
-doubled loop of ironmongery. This hardware is very new and very shiny, and
-its links jangle effectively as the pageant moves onward, thereby causing
-the captive sister to smile a gratified smile not altogether in keeping
-with the lorn state of servitude here typified by these trace-chain
-manacles of hers.
-</p>
-<p>
-It seems a long time—doesn't it?—since Expansion was a
-cardinal issue and Imperialism a war cry, and we were deeply concerning
-ourselves with the fate and future of the little brown brother, and warmly
-debating among ourselves whether we should continue to hold him as a more
-or less unwilling ward of the nation or turn him and his islands loose to
-fend for themselves. But really, when we cast up the tally of the
-intervening years, it isn't so very long ago after all. It is as though
-this might have happened yesterday, isn't it?
-</p>
-<p>
-So it is with me—abiding as one of those yesterdays that stand out
-from the ruck and run of yesterdays. Perhaps that is why I can almost
-taste the dust which is winnowed up from beneath the hoofs of the teams
-and the turning wheels as the crowds stream off out the gravel turnpike,
-bound for Cold Springs. Nearly everybody of consequence, politically or
-socially, joins in that hurrying pilgrimage. Like palmers of old, Judge
-Priest and Commonwealth's Attorney Flournoy and Sheriff Giles Birdsong and
-all our district and county and city officials attend, to attest by their
-presence the faith that is in them. I attend, too; but in the capacity of
-scribe. I go to report the doings for the <i>Daily Evening News</i>. I am
-the principal reporter and, by the same token, one-half of the local staff
-of that dependable journal, the remaining half being its editor in chief.
-</p>
-<p>
-Time in its flight continuing to turn backward, we are now at Cold
-Springs. Mint-master Jack Frost has been busy there these last few nights,
-so that the leaves of the hickories are changing from summer's long green
-to swatches of the crisp yellow-backed currency of October. On the snake
-fence, which separates the flanks of the woodland from the cleared lands
-beyond, the trumpet vine and the creeper blaze in clumps so red that one
-almost wonders the dried rails do not catch fire too.
-</p>
-<p>
-The smells of fall are in the air—of com in the shock; of bruised
-winesaps dropping, dead ripe, from the orchard trees; of fox grapes
-turning purple in the vine canopies away up in the tops of the trees. From
-the fringes of the grove come the sounds of the stamping of horses' feet
-and the restless swishing of horses' tails. Off in quiet places a hundred
-flat flasks have been uncorked; in each thicket rendezvous fore-thoughted
-citizens are extending the hospitalities of the occasion to such as forgot
-to freight their hip pockets before journeying hither. There have been two
-fights and one runaway.
-</p>
-<p>
-And now it is noon time; and now it is half an hour past it, and the
-county committee, with the aid of the only known Republicans present—all
-these latter being of African descent and all, or nearly all, camp cooks
-of high repute in Red Gravel County—is about to play host to the
-multitude.
-</p>
-<p>
-In retrospect I smell the burgoo a-cooking, and sympathetically my mouth
-waters. Do you know burgoo? If not your education has been sadly neglected—most
-woefully neglected. It is a glorified gumbo, made in copper caldrons over
-open fires; and it contains red meats and white meats, and ducks and
-chickens, and young squirrels, and squabs, and all the fresh green
-vegetables in season. And into it with prodigal black hands the cooks put
-plenty of tomatoes for color and potatoes for body and red peppers for
-seasoning and onions for flavour. And all these having stewed together for
-hours and hours, they merge anon into a harmonious and fragrant whole. So
-now the product is dipped up in ladles and bestowed upon the assemblage in
-tin cups, to be drunk after a fashion said to have been approved of by Old
-Hickory Jackson himself. A Jeffersonian simplicity likewise governs the
-serving out of the barbecued meats, following afterward. You eat with the
-tools Nature has given you, and the back of your hand is your napkin. And
-when everybody is as full of victuals as a good Democrat should be—which
-is another way of saying so full he cannot hold another bite or another
-sup—the band plays and the speaking starts on a plank platform under
-a brush arbour, with the audience sitting or standing—but mostly
-sitting—on a fragrant thick matting of faded wild grasses and fallen
-red and yellow leaves.
-</p>
-<p>
-The programme of events having progressed to this point, I found my
-professional duties over for the day. The two principal speeches were
-already in type at the <i>Daily Evening News</i> office, advance copies
-having been furnished by Congressman Prentiss and the visiting Senator
-from Tennessee, the authors of the same. By special messenger I had
-transmitted brief dispatches touching on the complete and unqualified
-success of the burgoo, the barbecue, the two fist fights and the runaway.
-</p>
-<p>
-Returning from the fringes of the woodland, after confiding my scribbled
-advices to our courier, my way led me under the shoulder of the bluff
-above Cold Springs. There, right where the water came seeping out through
-the bank of tawny gravel, I came upon a picture which is one of the
-pictures that have endured in reasonably vivid colours on the background
-of my mind.
-</p>
-<p>
-The bole of an uptorn gum tree spanned a half-moon depression at the verge
-of the spring. Upon the butt end of the log, where an upended snag of root
-made a natural rest for his broad back, was perched Judge Priest. His
-plump legs hugged the rounded trunk. In one hand he held a pint flask and
-in the other a tin cup, which lately must have contained burgoo. A short
-distance down the tree from him sat old Doctor Lake, without any bottle,
-but with the twin to Judge Priest's tin cup poised accurately upon one of
-his bony knees.
-</p>
-<p>
-Behind these two, snugly screening them in, was a wall of green and yellow
-grape leaves. Through the vines the sunlight filtered in, to make a mellow
-flood about them. Through the leaves, also, came distantly the sound of
-the present speaker's voice and, at frequent intervals, cheering. There
-was to be heard a gentle tinkling of cracked ice. A persuasive odour of
-corn distillations perfumed the languid air. All through the glade nuts
-were dropping from the hickories, with sharp little reports. It was a
-picture, all right enough!
-</p>
-<p>
-My feet made rustlings in the leaves. Judge Priest squinted over his
-glasses to see who the intruder upon their woodland privacy might be.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Why, howdy, son!” he hailed. “How's everything with you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-He didn't offer to share his store of refreshment with me. I never knew
-him to give a very young man a drink or to accept a drink from such a one.
-Doctor Lake raised his cup to stir its contents and nodded in my direction
-over it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The big speech of the day has just got started good, gentlemen,” I said.
-“Didn't you-all know it?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes; we knowed it,” answered the old Judge; “in fact, we heared the
-beginnin' of it. That's one reason why me and Lew Lake come on away. The
-other reason was that Lew run acrost a little patch of late mint down here
-by the spring. So we slipped off frum the crowd and come on down here to
-sort of take things nice and easy till it gits time to be startin' back
-toward the city.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Why, I thought he was a mighty fine speaker, from what I heard right
-after Mr. Prentiss introduced him,” I said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He's all of that,” assented the old Judge; “he's a regular Cicero—seems
-to know this here oratory business frum who laid the rail. He don't never
-jest plain ast somebody to do somethin'. He adjures 'em by the altars of
-their Sunny Southland, and he beseeches 'em by the memories of their
-sires; but he don't ast 'em. And I took notice, durin' the few minutes I
-lingered on—spellbound, ez you mout say, by the witchery of his
-voice—that when he gits holt of a good long word it ain't a word no
-more. He runs her as a serial and every syllable is a separate chapter.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, no; I ain't got a word to say ag'inst the distinguished gentleman's
-style of delivery. I only wisht I had his gift of melodious expression. I
-reckin ef I did, I'd talk in public part of the day and sing the rest of
-the time. But the p'int is, son, that me and Lew Lake have heared
-consid'able of that particular brand of oratory in our day, and after a
-little spell of listenin' we decided betwixt ourselves that we favoured
-the quiet of the sylvan dell to the heat and dust of the forum. So here we
-are, ez you behold us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“One speech mere or less won't make much difference in the gineral
-results, noways, I reckin. Down here in the pennyrile country we'll all
-vote the regular ticket the same ez we always do; and the Republikans will
-vote their ticket, bein' the stubborn unreasonable creatures that they
-are; and then our boys'll hold back the returns to see how many Democrat
-votes are needed, and up in the mountains the Republikans will hold them
-back to see how many Republikan votes are needed—and that'll be the
-whole upshot of it, onless the corrupt scoundrels should succeed in
-outcounting the party of the people.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Of course there's a great crisis hoverin' over our country at present.
-There's a crisis hoverin' every four years, regular—to hear the
-orators tell it. But I've took notice that, after the votin' is over, the
-crisis always goes back in its hole to stay till the next presidential
-election, and the country remains reasonably safe, no matter which side
-gits in; though I admit it's purty hard to convince the feller who's
-already got a government job, or hopes to git one, that the whole nation
-won't plumb go to thunder onless his crowd wins.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Still, Billy,” put in Doctor Lake, “there was a time when all these
-high-sounding phrases about duty and patriotism meant more to us than they
-do now—back in the spring and summer of Sixty-one—eh?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Behind the Judge's spectacle lenses sparks of reminiscence burned in his
-faded blue eyes. He lifted his cup ceremoniously and Doctor Lake lifted
-his, and I knew they were drinking to the memory of olden days.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Now you're shoutin'!” Judge Priest assented. “Say, Lew, do you call to
-mind them speeches Hector Dallas used to utter 'way back yonder, when
-Sumter was bein' fired on and the Yankee Government was callin' fur troops
-to put down the Rebellion, ez they seen fit to term it? Heck Dallas was
-our champion homegrown orator in those times,” he vouchsafed in an aside
-for my better enlightenment. “Somethin' about that young feller yonder,
-that's speakin' so brilliantly and so fluently now, puts me right smartly
-in mind of him. Heck was plenty copious with language himself. When it
-come to burnin' words he was jest the same ez one of these here volcanoes.
-Remember, don't you, Lew, how willin' Heck was to bleed and die fur his
-native land?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“But he didn't,” stated Doctor Lake grimly.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well—since you mention it—not to any noticeable extent,” said
-Judge Priest. “Leastwise, any bleedin' that he done was done internally,
-frum the strain of utterin' all them fiery remarks.” Again he included me
-with a gesture. “You see, son, Heck didn't go off to the war with the rest
-of us. Nearly everybody else did—this town was purty near emptied of
-young fellers of a suitable courtin' age after we'd gone down to Camp
-Boone to begin drillin'. But Hecky didn't go.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ez I recollect, he felt called upon to put out first fur Richmond to give
-President Davis and the Cabinet the benefit of his advice or somethin';
-and aimed to join us later. But he didn't—somehow, somethin' always
-kept inter-ferin' with his ambition to bleed and die, until after a while
-it seemed like he jest got discouraged and quit tryin'. When we got back
-home, four years later—sech ez was left of us—Heck had done
-been entirely reconstructed and was fixin' to run fur office on the Black
-Radical ticket.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The cat had to jump mighty brisk to beat Hector,” said Doctor Lake; “or
-else, when she landed on the other side, she'd find him already there,
-wanning a place for her. I've known a good many like Hector—and some
-of them prospered fairly well—while they lasted.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well, the spring of Sixty-one was a stirrin' period, and I reckin oratory
-helped along right smartly at the start,” said Judge Priest; “though, to
-be sure, later on it came to pass that the boys who could go hongry and
-ragged, and still keep on fightin' the Yankees, were the ones that really
-counted.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Take Meriwether Grider now: He went in as our company commander and he
-come out with the marks of a brigadier on his coat collar; but I'll bet
-you a ginger cookie Meriwether Grider never said a hundred words on a
-stretch in his life without he was cussin' out some feller fur not doin'
-his duty. Meriwether certainly learned to cuss mighty well fur a man whose
-early trainin' had been so turribly neglected in that respect.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Recall how Meriwether Grider behaved the night we organised Company B?”
- inquired Doctor Lake.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Jest the same ez ef it was yistiddy!” assented Judge Priest.
-</p>
-<p>
-He half turned his chubby body so as to face me. By now I was sitting on
-the log between them. I had scented a story and I craved mightily to hear
-it, though I never dreamed that some day I should be writing it out.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You see, boy, it was like this: Upstate the sentiment was purty evenly
-divided betwixt stayin' in the Union and goin' out of it; but down here,
-in Red Gravel County, practically everybody was set one way—so much
-one way that they took to callin' our town Little Charleston, and spoke of
-this here Congressional District as the South Carolina of the West. Ez
-state after state went out, the feelin' got warmer and warmer; but the
-leaders of public opinion, all except Heck Dallas, counselled holdin' off
-till the legislature could act. Heck, he was for crossin' over into
-Illinois some nice pleasant dark night and killin' off the Abolitionists,
-though at that time of speakin' there weren't many more Abolitionists
-livin' on that side of the river than there were on this. That was merely
-Heck's way of expressin' his convictions.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In spite of his desires, we kept on waitin'. But when word come from
-Frankfort that the legislature, by a mighty clost vote, had voted down the
-Secession Ordinance and had declared fur armed neutrality—which was
-in the nature of a joke, seein' ez everybody in the state who was old
-enough to tote a fusee was already armed and couldn't be a neutral—why,
-down in this neck of the woods we didn't wait no longer.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Out of the front window of his printin' office old Colonel Noble h'isted
-the first Confederate flag seen in these parts; and that night, at the old
-market house, there was the biggest mass meetin' that ever had been held
-in this here town up to then. A few young fellers had already slid down
-acrost the border into Tennessee to enlist, and a few more were already
-oyer in Virginia, wearin' the grey; but everybody else that was anybody
-was there.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Right away Heck took the platform. They'd a had to lock it up somewheres
-to keep him frum takin' it. He was up on one of them market benches,
-wavin' his arms and spoutin' about the mudsills and the nigger lovers, and
-jest darin' the accursed invader to put one heel upon the sacred soil of
-the grand old Commonwealth—not both his heels, but ary one of 'em—when
-all of a sudden Meriwether Grider leaned over and kissed his wife—he
-hadn't been married but a little more'n a year and they had a baby about
-three weeks old at home. And then he stepped forward and climbed up on the
-bench and sort of shoved Heck to one side, and called out that there'd
-been enough talk, and that it was about time for action; and said, ef
-somebody had a piece of paper handy, he'd like mightily to put his name
-down as a volunteer fur the Southern Army. And in another second every
-woman there was cheerin' with one side of her mouth and cryin' with the
-other.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And Colonel Noble had fetched his flag up and was wavin' it with both
-hands; and old Doctor Hendrickson, the Presbyterian preacher, had made a
-prayer—a heap shorter one than whut he ginerally made—and had
-yanked a little pocket Testament out frum under his coattails fur the boys
-to take the oath on. And in less'n no time Heck Dallas was back down in
-the crowd, in considerable danger of being trampled to death in the rush
-of young fellers to git up there and sign their names to the roll.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Doctor Lake slid off the log and stood up, with his black hat crumpled in
-one gnarled old hand. In the emotion of the moment he forgot his grammar:
-“You remember, Billy—don't you?—how you and me and Peter J.
-Galloway and little Gil Nicholas went up together to sign?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I ain't exactly liable to furgit it, ever,” said Judge Priest. “That was
-the night I jest natchelly walked off and left my little law office flat
-on its back. I'd been advertisin' myself to practise law fur about a year,
-but whut I'd mainly practised up to that time was economy—that and
-checkers and old sledge, to help pass away the time. No, suh; I didn't
-leave no clients behind me, clamourin' fur my professional services.
-Clients were something I'd heared a lot of talk about, but hadn't met face
-to face. All I had to do when I quit was jest to put out the fire and shut
-the door, and come on away.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And the last one of all to sign that night was Herman Felsburg,” stated
-Doctor Lake, as though desirous of rounding out a recital.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes—that's right too, Lew,” agreed the old Judge. “Herman was the
-very last one. I remember how some of the crowd begun snickerin' when he
-come stumpin' up on them crooketty little laigs of hisn; but the
-snickerin' died out when Meriwether Grider grabbed Herman's hand and shook
-it, and Doctor Hendrickson held out the Book fur him to swear on it to be
-true and faithful to the cause of the Southern Confederacy. A person don't
-snicker so very well that's got a lump in his throat at the moment.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You see, son, Herman was a kind of town joke them days,” stated Judge
-Priest, again digressing for my benefit. “There weren't many furreign-born
-people in this section back yonder in Sixty-one. Ef a feller come along
-that was frum Greece or Italy or Spain, or somewheres else down that way,
-we jest called him a Dago, dry-so—and let it go at that. But ef he
-hailed from Germany or Holland or Russia, or anywhere in Northern Europe,
-he was a Dutchman to us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“There were just two exceptions to the rule: An Irishman was an Irishman,
-of course; and a Jew was a Jew. We had a few Irish families in town, like
-the Galloways and the Hallorans; and there was one Jewish family livin'
-here—the Liebers; but they'd all been born in this country and
-didn't speak nothin' but English, and, exceptin' that old man Lieber used
-to close up his hide-and-pelt store of a Sad'day, instid of Sunday, it
-never occurred to anybody that the Liebers practised a different religion
-frum the run of folks.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Herman had been here about a year, off and on. He didn't seem to know
-nobody, and he didn't have any friends. He wasn't more'n nineteen years
-old—or maybe twenty; and he was shy and awkward and homely. He used
-to go out through the county with a pack on his back, sellin' gimcracks to
-country people. He could make change all right—I reckin he jest
-natchelly inherited that ez a gift—and he was smart enough at
-drivin' a bargain; but somehow it seemed like he jest couldn't learn to
-talk English, or to understand it, neither, exceptin' when the subject was
-business. Understand, that was thirty-odd years back; but sometimes, even
-now, when old Herman gits excited, you'd think, to hear him, that he
-didn't know much English yit. His language matches the shape of his laigs
-then.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I nodded understanding, Mr. Felsburg's conversational eccentricities being
-a constant fount of material for the town humourists of my own generation.
-The Judge went on: “Well, anyway, he signed up that night, along with all
-the rest of us. And after that, fur a few days, so many things was
-happenin' that I sort of forgot about him; and I reckin nearly everybody
-else did too. It seemed like the whole town sort of went crazy fur a
-spell, whut with the first company, which was our company, electin' its
-officers, and the County Battery formin', and a troop of cavalry
-organisin', and the older men enrollin' fur home defence, and a lot of
-big-moth fellers standin' round on street comers lowin as how it was goin'
-to be only a ninety-day picnic, anyway, and that any Southern man could
-whip five Yankees—and so forth and so on.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And then we'd go home at night and find our mothers and sisters settin'
-round a coal-oil lamp, makin' our new grey uniforms, and sewin' a tear in
-with every stitch. And every feller's sweetheart was makin' him a silk
-sash to wear round his waist. I could git a sash round my waist then, but
-I s'pose if I felt called on to wear one now I'd have to hire old man
-Dillon, the mattress maker, to make one fur me out of a roll of
-bedtickin.” And the speaker glanced downward toward the bulge of his
-girth.
-</p>
-<p>
-“My mother kept telling me that it would kill her for me to go—and
-that she'd kill me if I didn't go,” interpolated Doctor Lake.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I reckin no set of men on this earth ever went out to fight with the
-right sort of spirit in 'em onless their womenfolk stood behind 'em,
-biddin' 'em to go,” said the old Judge. “That's the way it was with us,
-anyway—I know that much. Well then, right on top of everything else,
-along come the big ball they gave us at the Richland House the night
-before we left fur Camp Boone to be mustered in, regular fashion. There
-wasn't any absentees there that night—not a single solitary one.
-They'd 'a' had to tie me hand and foot to keep me frum comin' there to
-show off my new grey suit and my red-striped sash and all my brass
-buttons.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Fur oncet, social lines didn't count. That night the best families mixed
-with all the other families that was mebbe jest as good, but didn't know
-it. Peter Galloway's old daddy drove a dray down on the levee and his
-mother took in washin', but before the ball broke up I seen old Mrs.
-Galloway with both her arms round Mrs. Governor Trimble, and Mrs. Governor
-Trimble had her arms round Mrs. Galloway, and both of 'em cryin' together,
-the way women like to do. The Trimbles were sending three sons; but old
-Mrs. Galloway was givin' up Peter, and he was all the boy she had.
-</p>
-<p>
-“We danced till purty near sunup, stoppin' only oncet, and then jest long
-enough fur 'em to present Captain Meriwether Grider with his new
-gold-mounted sword. You remember, Lew, we buried that sword in the same
-coffin with him fifteen years later?
-</p>
-<p>
-“About four o'clock in the mornin', when the first of the daylight was
-beginnin' to leak in at the winders, the nigger string band in the corner
-struck up Home, Sweet Home! We took partners, but that was one dance which
-never was finished.
-</p>
-<p>
-“All of a sudden that sassy little red-headed Janie Thornbury stopped
-dead-still out in the middle of the floor, and she flung both arms round
-the neck of Garrett Hinton, that she was engaged to marry, but didn't—on
-account of her marryin' somebody else while Garry was off soldierin'—and,
-before everybody, she kissed him right smack on the mouth!
-</p>
-<p>
-“And then, in less'n no time at all, every feller in the company had his
-arms round his sweetheart or his sister, or mebbe his mother, and kisses
-were goin' off all over that old ball room like paper bags a-bustin'. I
-fergit now-who 'twas I kissed; but, to the best of my recollection, I jest
-browsed round and done quite a passel of promiscuous kissin'.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I'll never forget the one I kissed!” broke in Doctor Lake. “With the
-exception of the ensuing four years, I've been kissing the same girl ever
-since. She hefts a little more than she did then—those times you
-could mighty near lock a gold bracelet round her waist, and many's the
-time I spanned it with my two hands—and she's considerably older;
-but her kisses still taste mighty sweet to me!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Go 'way, Lew Lake!” protested Judge Priest gallantly. “Miss Mamie Ellen
-is jest ez young ez ever she was; and she's sweeter, too, because there's
-more of her to be sweet. I drink to her!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Two tin cups rose in swinging circles; and I knew these old men were
-toasting a certain matron of my acquaintance who weighed two hundred and
-fifty if she weighed a pound, and had white hair and sizable
-grandchildren.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And so then”—Judge Priest was resuming his narration—“and so
-then, after a spell, the epidemic of kissin' began to sorter die down,
-though I reckin some of the boys would 'a' been willin' to keep it up
-plumb till breakfast time. I mind how I was standin' off to one side,
-fixin' to make my farewells to Miss Sally Machen, when out of the tail of
-my off eye I seen little Herman Felsburg, over on the other side of the
-ballroom, lookin' powerful forlorn and lonesome and neglected.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Doubtless he'd been there all night, without a soul to dance with him,
-even ef he'd knowed how, or a soul to speak with him, even ef he could
-have understood whut they said to' him. Doubtless he wasn't exactly whut
-you'd call happy. Jest about then Miss Sally Machen must 'a' seen him too;
-and the same thought that had jest come to me must 'a' come to her
-too. “'It's a shame!' she said—jest like that—under her voice.
-And in another minute she was walkin' acrost the floor toward Herman.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I remember jest how she looked. Why, ef I was an artist I could draw a
-picture of her right now! She was the handsomest girl in town, and the
-proudest and the stateliest—tall and slender and dark, with great
-big black eyes, and a skin like one of these here magnolia buds—and
-she was well off in her own name; and she belonged to a leadin' family.
-Four or five boys were beauin' her, and it was a question which one of 'em
-she'd marry. Sometimes, Lew, I think they don't raise very many girls like
-Miss Sally Machen any more.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, she kept right on goin' till she came to where Herman was scrouged
-up ag'inst the wall. She didn't say a word to him, but she took him by the
-hand and led him right out into the middle of the floor, where everybody
-could see; and then she put those white arms of hers round his neck, with
-the gold bracelets on her wrists jinglin', and she bent down to him—she
-had to bend down, bein' a whole head taller than whut he was—and she
-kissed him on the lips; not a sweetheartin' kiss, but the way his own
-mother might 'a' kissed him good-bye, ef he'd had a mother and she'd been
-there.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Some few started in to laugh, but stopped off short; and some started to
-cheer, but didn't do that, neither. We-all jest stood and watched them
-two. Herman's face tum't ez red ez blood; and he looked up at her sideways
-and started to smile that funny little smile of hisn—he had one
-front tooth missin', and that made it funnier still. But then his face got
-serious, and frum clear halfway acrost the hall I could see his eyes were
-wet. He backed off frum her and bowed purty near to the ground before her.
-And frum the way he done it I knowed he was somethin' more than jest a
-little, strange Jew pedlar in a strange land. You have to have the makin's
-of a gentleman in you to bow like that. You mout learn it in time, with
-diligent practice, but it comes a sight easier ef you're born with it in
-you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-From his flat flask the old Judge toned up the contents of their julep
-cups. Then, with pauses, during which he took delicate but prolonged sips,
-he spoke on in the rambling, contemplative fashion that was as much a part
-of him as his trick of ungrammatical speech or his high bald forehead was,
-or his wagging white chin-beard:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well, purty soon after that we were all down yonder at old Camp Boone,
-and chiefly engaged, in our leisure hours—which we had blamed few
-leisure hours, at that—in figurin' out the difference between
-talkin' about soldierin' and braggin' about it, and actually doin' of it.
-There wasn't no more dancin' of quadrilles with purty girls then. We done
-our grand right-and-left with knapsacks on our backs and blisters on our
-feet. Many and many a feller that had signed up to be a hero made the
-distressin' discovery what he'd really j'ined on to.
-</p>
-<p>
-“All this time little old Herman was doin' his share like a major. Long
-before he could make out the words of command, he'd picked up the manual
-of arms, jest frum watchin' the others in the same awkward squad with him.
-He was peart enough that-a-way. Where he was slow was learnin' how to
-talk' so ez you could make out whut he was aimin' to say. It seemed like
-that was the only slow thing about him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Natchelly the boys poked a heap of fun at him. They kept prankin' with
-him constantly. But he taken it all in good part and grinned back at 'em,
-and never seemed to lose his holt on his temper. You jest couldn't help
-likin' him—only he did cut such funny mon-keyshines with the Queen's
-English when he tried to talk!
-</p>
-<p>
-“Because he was so good-natured, some of the boys took it into their
-heads, I reckin, that he didn't have no real grit; or mebbe they thought
-he wasn't spunky because he was a Jew. That's a delusion which a good many
-suffer frum that don't know his race.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I remember one night, about three weeks or a month after we went into
-camp, Herman was put on post. The sergeant mighty near lost his mind, and
-did lose his disposition, drillin' the countersign and the password into
-Herman's skull. So a couple of boys out of the Calloway County company—they
-called themselves the Blood River Tigers, and were a purty wild and
-devilish lot of young colts ginerally—they took it into their heads
-that after it got good and dark they'd slip down to the lines and sneak up
-on Herman, unbeknownst to him, and give him a good skeer, and mebbe take
-his piece away from him—sort of play hoss with him, ginerally. So,
-'long about 'leven o'clock they set out to do so.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He paused and looked at Doctor Lake, grinning. I couldn't hold in.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What happened?” I asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, nothin' much,” said Judge Priest—“exceptin' that presently
-there was a loud report and consider'ble many loud cries; and when the
-corporal of the guard got there with a squad, one of them Calloway County
-boys was layin' on the ground with a hole through his right shoulder, and
-the other was layin' alongside of him right smartly clubbed up with the
-butt end of a rifle. And Herman was standin' over 'em, jabberin' in German—he'd
-forgot whut little English he knowed. But you could tell frum the way he
-carried on that he was jest double-dog darin' 'em to move an inch. I don't
-believe in my whole life I ever seen two fellers that looked so out of the
-notion of playin' practical jokes as them two Blood River Tigers did. They
-were plumb sick of Herman, too—you could tell that frum a mere
-glance at 'em ez we toted 'em in and sent for the surgeon to patch 'em up.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So, after that, the desire to prank with Private Felsburg when he was on
-duty sort of languished away. Then, when Herman took down sick with camp
-measles, and laid there day after day in the hospital tent under an old
-ragged bedquilt, mighty sick, but never complainin'—only jest
-grinnin' his gratitude when anybody done a kind turn fur him—we
-knowed he was gritty in more ways than one. And there wasn't a man in
-Company B but whut would have fit any feller that ever tried ag'in to
-impose on him.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He was sick a good while. He was up and round ag'in, though, in time to
-do his sheer in the first fight we were in—which was at Belmont,
-over acrost the Mississippi River frum Columbus—in the fall o' that
-year. I seem to recall that, ez we went into action and got into fire, a
-strange pair of laigs took to tremblin' mightily inside the pair of pants
-I was wearin' at the time; and most of my vital organs moved up into my
-throat and interfered some with my breathin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In fact I made a number of very interestin' discoveries in the openin'
-stages of that there fight. One was that I wasn't never goin' to be
-entirely reconciled to the idea of bein' killed on the field of battle;
-and another was that, though I loved my native land and would die fur her
-if necessary—only hopin' it wouldn't be necessary to go so fur ez
-all that—still, ef I lived to git out of this particular war I
-wasn't goin' to love another native land ez long ez I lived.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Shucks, William!” snorted Doctor Lake. “Try that on somebody else, but
-don't try to come such stuff on me. Why, I was right alongside of you when
-we went into that charge, and you never faltered!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Lew,” stated Judge Priest, “you might ez well know the truth. I've been
-waitin' fur nearly forty years to make this confession. The fact of the
-matter was, I was so skeered I didn't dare to stop goin' ahead. I knowed
-ef ever I did slow up, and give myself a chance to think, I'd never quit
-runnin' the other way until I was out in the Gulf of Mexico, swimmin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And yit another thing I found out that day was that the feller back home
-who told me one Southerner could whip five Yankees, single-handed, made a
-triflin' error in his calculations; or else the Yankees he had in mind
-when he uttered the said remark was a different breed frum the bunch we
-tackled that day in the backskirts of the thrivin' little community of
-Belmont, Missoury. But the most important thing of all the things I
-discovered was about Herman Felsburg—only that come later.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In the early stages of that little battle the Federals sort of shoved us
-back a few pegs; but about three o'clock in the evenin' the tide swung the
-other way, and shortly thereafter their commandin' general remembered some
-pressin' business back in Cairo, Illinois, that needed attendin' to right
-away, and he started back there to do so, takin' whut was left of his army
-along with him. So we claimed it ez a victory for us, which it was.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Along toward dusk, when the fightin' had died down, our company was
-layin' alongside a country road jest outside the town, purty well tuckered
-out, and cut up some. We were all tellin' each other how brave we'd been,
-when along down the road toward us come a file of prisoners, under guard,
-lookin' mighty forlorn and low-sperrited. They was the first prisoners any
-of us had ever seen; so we jumped up from where we was stretched out and
-crowded up round 'em, pokin' fun at 'em. The guards halted 'em to let 'em
-rest and we had a good chance to exchange the compliments of the season
-with 'em. Eight in the front rank of the blue-bellies was one big
-furreign-lookin' feller, with no hat on, and a head of light yaller hair.
-He ripped out somethin' in German—a cuss word, I take it. Doubtless
-he was tellin' us to go plum' to hell. Well, suh, at that, Herman jumped
-like he'd been stung by one of these here yaller jackets. I reckin he was
-homesick, anyway, fur the sound of his own language.
-</p>
-<p>
-“He walked over and begun jabberin' in Dutch with the big sandy-haired
-Yank, and the Yank jabbered back; and they talked together mighty
-industrious until the prisoners moved on—about fifteen minutes, I
-should say, offhanded. And ez we went back to lay down ag'in I took notice
-that Herman had the funniest look on his face that ever I seen on almost
-any human face. And he kept scratchin' his head, like there was somethin'
-on his mind, troublin' him, that he jest simply couldn't make out noway.
-But he didn't say nothin' to nobody then—jest kept on scratchin' and
-studyin'.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In fact, he held in till nearly ten o'clock that night. We made camp
-right there on the edge of the battleground. I was fixin' to turn in when
-Herman got up frum where he'd been squattin', over by a log fire, lookin'
-in the flames; and he come over to me and teched me on the
-shoulder.“'Pilly Briest,' he says in that curious way of hisn, 'I should
-like to speak mit you. Please, you gecomin' mit me.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“So I got up and follered him. He led me off into a little thicket-like
-and we set down side by side on a log, same ez we three are set-tin' here
-now. There was a full moon that night, ridin' high, and no clouds in the
-sky; and even there in the shadders everythin' was purty nigh ez bright ez
-day.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Well, old hoss,' I says, 'whut seems to be on your mind?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“I ain't goin' to try very hard to imitate his accent—you-all kin
-imagine it fur yourselves. 'And he says to me he's feared he's made a big
-mistake.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Whut kind of a mistake?' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Ven I j'ined dis army,' he says—or words to that effect.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'How so?' I says.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And then he starts in to tell me, talkin' ez fast ez his tongue kin wag,
-and makin' gestures with both his hands, like a boy tryin' to learn to
-swim dog-fashion. And after a little, by piecin' together ez much of his
-talk ez I kin ketch, I begin to make out whut he's drivin' at; and the
-shock is so great I come mighty near failin' right smack off that log
-backward.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Here's the way the thing stands with him: That night at the old market
-house, when the company is bein' formed, he happens along and sees a
-crowd, and drops in to find out, ef he kin, whut's afoot. Presently he
-makes out that there's a war startin' up ag'inst somebody or other, and,
-sence he's made up his mind he's goin' to live in America always and make
-it his country, he decides it's his bounden duty to fight fur his country.
-So he jest up and signs, along with the rest of us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Of course from that time on he hears a lot of talk about the Yankee
-invader and the Northern vandal; but he figgers it that the enemy comes
-frum somewhere 'way up North—Canada or Greenland, or the Arctic
-regions, or the North Pole, or some of them other furreign districts up in
-that gineral vicinity. And not fur a minute—not till he talked with
-the big Dutch prisoner that day—had it ever dawned on him fur a
-single minute that a Yankee mout possibly be an American, too.
-</p>
-<p>
-“When he stops I sets and looks at him a minute, takin' it all in; and he
-looks back. Finally I says:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'And so you went and enlisted, thinkin' you was goin' to fight fur the
-United States of America, and you're jest findin' out now that all these
-weeks you've been organism' yourself to fight ag'inst her? Is that it?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“And he says, 'Yes, that's it.' And I says: 'Well, I wisht I might be
-dam'!' And he says, well, he wishes he might be dam' too, or in substance
-expresses sech a sentiment. And fur another spell we two merely continues
-to set there lookin' one another in the face.
-</p>
-<p>
-“After a little I asts him whut he's aimin' to do about it; and he says he
-ain't decided yit in his own mind. And then I says:
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Well, Herman, it's purty tough on you, anyway you take it. I don't
-rightly know all the rules o' this here war business yit, myself; but I
-reckin ef it was made clear to the higher authorities that you was sort of
-drug into this affair under false pretenses, ez it were, why, mebbe they
-mout muster you out and give you an honourable discharge—providin',
-of course, you pledged yourself not to take up arms fur the other side,
-which, in a way of speakin', would make you a deserter. We-all know you
-ain't no coward, and we'll all testify to it ef our testimony is needed. I
-reckon the rest of the boys'll understand your position in the matter; in
-fact, I'll undertake to make 'em understand.'
-</p>
-<p>
-“He asts me then: 'Whut iss false pretenses?'”
- </p>
-<p>
-And I explains to him the best I kin; and he thinks that p'int over fur a
-minute or two. Then he looks up at me sideways frum under the brim of his
-cap, and I kin see by the moonlight he's blushin' ez red ez a beet, and
-grinnin' that shy little snaggle-teethed grin of hisn.
-</p>
-<p>
-“'Pilly,' he says, 'mebbe so you remember dot young lady vot put her arms
-round me dot night—de von vot gif to me a kiss fur kindness? She iss
-on de Deexie side—yes?—no?'
-</p>
-<p>
-“And I says to him: 'You kin bet your sweet life she is!'”
- </p>
-<p>
-“'All right!' he says. 'I am much lonesome dot night—and she kiss
-me! All right, den. I fights fur her! I sticks mit Deexie!' And when he
-says that he makes a salute, and I notice he's quit grinnin'.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And did he stick?” I asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-Before he answered, the old Judge drained his tin cup to the bottom.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Did he stick? Huh! Four long hard bitter years he stuck—that's all!
-Boy, you mout not think it, to see old Herman waddlin' acrost that Oak
-Hall Clothin' Store to sell some young buck from the country a pair of
-twenty-five-cent galluses or a celluloid collar; but I'm here to tell you
-he's one of the stickin'est white men that ever drawed the breath of life.
-Lew Lake, here, will tell you the same thing. Mebbe it's because he is
-sech a good sticker that he's one of the wealthiest men in this county
-to-day. I only wisht I had to spend on sweetenin' drams whut he lays-'by
-every year. But I don't begrudge it to him.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Through the grove ran an especially loud outburst of cheering, and on top
-of it we heard the scuffling of many yeomen feet. Judge Priest slid off
-the log and stood up and stretched his pudgy legs.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That must mean the speakin's over and the rally's breakin' up,” he said.
-“Come along, son, and ride on back to town with us in my old buggy. I
-reckin there's room fur you to scrouge in between me and Doctor Lake, ef
-you'll make yourself small.”
- </p>
-<p>
-The October sun, slanting low, made long stippled lanes between the tree
-trunks, so that we waded waist-deep in a golden haze as we made for the
-place where Judge Priest's Mittie May was tethered to a sapling. The old
-white mare recognised her master from afar, and whinnied a greeting to
-him, and I was moved to ask another question. To me that tale stood
-uncompleted:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Judge, what ever became of that young lady who kissed him that night at
-the Richland House?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh, her? She died a long, long time ago—before you was born. Her
-folks lost their money on account of the war, and she married a feller
-that wasn't much account; they moved out to Arkansaw and the marriage
-turned out bad, and she died when her first baby was born. There ain't
-none of her family livin' here now—they've purty much all died out
-too. But they shipped her body back here, and she's buried out in Ellum
-Grove Cemetery, in the old Machen lot.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Some of these days, when you are out there in the cemetery foolin' round,
-with nothin' much else to do, you look for her grave—you kin find
-it. Bein' a Christian woman, she had a Christian burial and she's restin'
-in a Christian buryin' ground; but, in strict confidence, I'll tell you
-this much more while we're on the subject: It wasn't no Christian that
-privately paid the bill fur the tombstone that marks the place where she's
-sleepin'. I wonder ef you could figger out who it was that did pay fur it?
-I'll give you two guesses.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And say, listen, sonny: your first guess will be the right one.”
- </p>
-<p>
-<br /><br />
-</p>
-<hr />
-<p>
-<a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a>
-</p>
-<div style="height: 4em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-<h2>
-CHAPTER X. THE START OF A DREAM
-</h2>
-<p class="pfirst"><span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">F</span>or years it was the dream of our life—I should say our lives, since
-my wife shared this vision with me—to own an abandoned farm. The
-idea first came to us through reading articles that appeared in the
-various magazines and newspapers telling of the sudden growth of what I
-may call the aban-doned-farm industry.
-</p>
-<p>
-It seemed that New England in general—and the state of Connecticut
-in particular—was thickly speckled with delightful old places which,
-through overcultivation or ill-treatment, had become for the time being
-sterile and non-productive; so that the original owners had moved away to
-the nearby manufacturing towns, leaving their ancestral homesteads empty
-and their ancestral acres idle. As a result there were great numbers of
-desirable places, any one of which might be had for a song. That was the
-term most commonly used by the writers of these articles—abandoned
-farms going for a song. Now, singing is not my forte; still, I made up my
-mind that if such indeed was the case I would sing a little, accompanying
-myself on my bank balance, and win me an abandoned farm.
-</p>
-<p>
-The formula as laid down by the authorities was simple in the extreme:
-Taking almost any Connecticut town for a starting point, you merely
-meandered along an elm-lined road until you came to a desirable location,
-which you purchased for the price of the aforesaid song. This formality
-being completed, you spent a trivial sum in restoring the fences, and so
-on, and modernizing the interior of the house; after which it was a
-comparatively easy task to restore the land to productiveness by processes
-of intensive agriculture—details procurable from any standard book
-on the subject or through easy lessons by mail. And so presently, with
-scarcely any trouble or expense at all, you were the possessor of a
-delightful country estate upon which to spend your declining years. It
-made no difference whether you were one of those persons who had never to
-date declined anything of value; there was no telling when you might start
-in.
-</p>
-<p>
-I could shut my eyes and see the whole delectable prospect: Upon a gentle
-eminence crowned with ancient trees stood the rambling old manse, filled
-with marvelous antique furniture, grandfather's clocks dating back to the
-whaling days, spinning wheels, pottery that came over on the <i>Mayflower</i>,
-and all those sorts of things. Round about were the meadows, some under
-cultivation and some lying fallow, the latter being dotted at appropriate
-intervals with fallow deer.
-</p>
-<p>
-At one side of the house was the orchard, the old gnarly trees crooking
-their bent limbs as though inviting one to come and pluck the sun-kissed
-fruit from the burdened bough; at the other side a purling brook wandering
-its way into a greenwood copse, where through all the golden day sang the
-feathered warblers indigenous to the climate, including the soft-billed
-Greenwich thrush, the Peabody bird the Pettingill bird, the red worsted
-pulse-warmer, and others of the commoner varieties too numerous to
-mention.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the back were the abandoned cotes and byres, with an abandoned rooster
-crowing lustily upon a henhouse, and an abandoned bull calf disporting
-himself in the clover of the pasture. At the front was a rolling vista
-undulating gently away to where above the tree-tops there rose the spires
-of a typical New England village full of old line Republicans and
-characters suitable for putting into short stories. On beyond, past where
-a silver lake glinted in the sunshine, was a view either of the distant
-Sound or the distant mountains. Personally I intended that my
-establishment should be so placed as to command a view of the Sound from
-the east windows and of the mountains from the west windows. And all to be
-had for a song! Why, the mere thought of it was enough to make a man start
-taking vocal culture right away.
-</p>
-<p>
-Besides, I had been waiting impatiently for a long time for an opportunity
-to work out several agricultural projects of my own. For example, there
-was my notion in regard to the mulberry. The mulberry, as all know, is one
-of our most abundant small fruits; but many have objected to it on account
-of its woolly appearance and slightly caterpillary taste. My idea was to
-cross the mulberry on the slippery elm—pronounced, where I came
-from, ellum—producing a fruit which I shall call the mulellum. This
-fruit would combine the health-giving qualities of the mulberry with the
-agreeable smoothness of the slippery elm; in fact, if my plans worked out
-I should have a berry that would go down so slick the consumer could not
-taste it at all unless he should eat too many of them and suffer from
-indigestion afterward.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then there was my scheme for inducing the common chinch bug to make chintz
-curtains. If the silk worms can make silk why should not the chinch bug do
-something useful instead of wasting his energies in idle pursuits? This is
-what I wished to know. And why should this man Luther Burbank enjoy a
-practical monopoly of all these propositions? That was the way I looked at
-it; and I figured that an abandoned farm would make an ideal place for
-working out such experiments as might come to me from time to time.
-</p>
-<p>
-The trouble was that, though everybody wrote of the abandoned farms in a
-broad, general, alluring way, nobody gave the exact location of any of
-them. I subscribed for one of the monthly publications devoted to country
-life along the Eastern seaboard and searched assiduously through its
-columns for mention of abandoned farms. The owners of most of the country
-places that were advertised for sale made mention of such things as
-fourteen master's bedrooms and nine master's baths—showing
-undoubtedly that the master would be expected to sleep oftener than he
-bathed—sunken gardens and private hunting preserves, private golf
-links and private yacht landings.
-</p>
-<p>
-In nearly every instance, also, the advertisement was accompanied by a
-halftone picture of a structure greatly resembling the new county court
-house they are going to have down at Paducah if the bond issue ever
-passes. This seemed a suitable place for holding circuit court in, or even
-fiscal court, but it was not exactly the kind of country home that we had
-pictured for ourselves. As my wife said, just the detail of washing all
-those windows would keep the girl busy fully half the time. Nor did I care
-to invest in any sunken gardens. I had sufficient experience in that
-direction when we lived in the suburbs and permanently invested about half
-of what I made in our eight-by-ten flower bed in an effort to make it
-produce the kind of flowers that the florists' catalogues described. You
-could not tell us anything about that subject—we knew where a sunken
-garden derives its name. We paid good money to know.
-</p>
-<p>
-None of the places advertised in the monthly seemed sufficiently abandoned
-for our purposes, so for a little while we were in a quandary. Then I had
-a bright thought. I said to myself that undoubtedly abandoned farms were
-so cheap the owners did not expect to get any real money for them; they
-would probably be willing to take something in exchange. So I began buying
-the evening papers and looking through them in the hope of running across
-some such item as this:
-</p>
-<p>
-To Exchange—Abandoned farm, centrally located, with large farmhouse,
-containing all antique furniture, barns, outbuildings, family graveyard—planted—orchard,
-woodland, fields—unplanted—for a collection of postage stamps
-in album, an amateur magician's outfit, a guitar with book of
-instructions, a safety bicycle, or what have you? Address Abandoned, South
-Squantum Center, Connecticut.
-</p>
-<p>
-I found no such offers, however; and in view of what we had read this
-seemed stranger still. Finally I decided that the only safe method would
-be by first-hand investigation upon the spot. I would go by rail to some
-small but accessible hamlet in the lower part of New England. On arriving
-there I personally would examine a number of the more attractive abandoned
-farms in the immediate vicinity and make a discriminating selection.
-Having reached this conclusion I went to bed and slept peacefully—or
-at least I went to bed and did so as soon as my wife and I had settled one
-point that came up unexpectedly at this juncture. It related to the
-smokehouse. I was in favor of turning the smokehouse into a study or
-workroom for myself. She thought, though, that by knocking the walls out
-and altering the roof and building a pergola on to it, it would make an
-ideal summer house in which to serve tea and from which to view the
-peaceful landscape of afternoons.
-</p>
-<p>
-We argued this back and forth at some length, each conceding something to
-the other's views; and finally we decided to knock out the walls and alter
-the roof and have a summer house with a pergola in connection. It was
-after we reached this compromise that I slept so peacefully, for now the
-whole thing was as good as settled. I marveled at not having thought of it
-sooner.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was on a bright and peaceful morning that I alighted from the train at
-North Newburybunkport.
-</p>
-<p>
-Considering that it was supposed to be a typical New England village,
-North Newbury-bunkport did not appear at first glance to answer to the
-customary specifications, such as I had gleaned from my reading of novels
-of New England life. I had expected that the platform would be populated
-by picturesque natives in quaint clothes, with straws in their mouths and
-all whittling; and that the depot agent would wear long chin whiskers and
-say “I vum!” with much heartiness at frequent intervals. Right here I wish
-to state that so far as my observations go the native who speaks these
-words about every other line is no longer on the job. Either I Vum the
-Terrible has died or else he has gone to England to play the part of the
-typical American millionaire in American plays written by Englishmen.
-</p>
-<p>
-Instead of the loafers, several chauffeurs were idling about the station
-and a string of automobiles was drawn up across the road. Just as I
-disembarked there drove up a large red bus labeled: Sylvan Dale Summer
-Hotel, European and American Plans. The station agent also proved in the
-nature of a disappointment. He did not even say “I swan” or “I cal'late!”
- or anything of that nature. He wore a pink in his buttonhole and his hair
-was scalloped up off his forehead in what is known as the lion tamer's
-roach. Approaching, I said to him:
-</p>
-<p>
-“In what direction should I go to find some of the abandoned farms of this
-vicinity? I would prefer to go where there is a good assortment to pick
-from.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He did not appear to understand, so I repeated the question, at the same
-time offering him a cigar.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Bo,” he said, “you've sure got me winging now. You'd better ask Tony
-Magnito—he runs the garage three doors up the street from here on
-the other side. Tony does a lot of driving round the country for suckers
-that come up here, and he might help you.”
- </p>
-<p>
-To reach the garage I had to cross the road, dodging several automobiles
-in transit, and then pass two old-fashioned New England houses fronting
-close up to the sidewalk. One had the sign of a teahouse over the door,
-and in the window of the other, picture postcards, birch-bark souvenirs
-and standard varieties of candy were displayed for sale.
-</p>
-<p>
-Despite his foreign-sounding name, Mr. Magnito spoke fair English—that
-is, as fair English as any one speaks who employs the Manhattan accent in
-so doing.
-</p>
-<p>
-Even after he found out that I did not care to rent a touring car for
-sightseeing purposes at five dollars an hour he was quite affable and
-accommodating; but my opening question appeared to puzzle him just as in
-the case of the depot agent.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Mister,” he said frankly, “I'm sorry, but I don't seem to make you.
-What's this thing you is looking for? Tell me over again slow.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Really the ignorance of these villagers regarding one of their principal
-products—a product lying, so to speak, at their very doors and
-written about constantly in the public prints—was ludicrous. It
-would have been laughable if it had not been deplorable. I saw that I
-could not indulge in general trade terms. I must be painfully explicit and
-simple.
-</p>
-<p>
-“What I am seeking”—I said it very slowly and very distinctly—“is
-a farm that has been deserted, so to speak—one that has outlived its
-usefulness as a farm proper, and everything like that!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Oh,” he says, “now I get you! Why didn't you say that in the first place?
-The place you're looking for is the old Parham place, out here on the post
-road about a mile. August'll take good care of you—that's his
-specialty.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“August?” I inquired. “August who?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“August Weinstopper—the guy who runs it,” he explained. “You must
-have known August if you lived long in New York. He used to be the steward
-at that big hotel at Broadway and Forty-second; that was before he came up
-here and opened up the old Parham place as an automobile roadhouse. He's
-cleaning up about a thousand a month. Some class to that mantrap! They've
-got an orchestra, and nothing but vintage goods on the wine card, and
-dancing at all hours. Any night you'll see forty or fifty big cars rolling
-up there, bringing swell dames and—”
- </p>
-<p>
-I judge he saw by my expression that he was on a totally wrong tack,
-because he stopped short.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Say, mister,” he said, “I guess you'd better step into the post-office
-here—next door—and tell your troubles to Miss Plummer. She
-knows everything that's going on round here—and she ought to, too,
-seeing as she gets first chance at all the circulars and postal cards that
-come in. Besides, I gotter be changing that gasoline sign—gas has
-went up two cents a gallon more.”
- </p>
-<p>
-Miss Plummer was sorting mail when I appeared at her wicket. She was one
-of those elderly, spinsterish-looking, kittenish females who seem in an
-intense state of surprise all the time. Her eyebrows arched like croquet
-wickets and her mouth made O's before she uttered them.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Name, please?” she said twitteringly.
-</p>
-<p>
-I told her.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ah,” she said in the thrilled tone of one who is watching a Fourth of
-July skyrocket explode in midair. The news seemed to please her.
-</p>
-<p>
-“And the initials, please?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The initials are of no consequence. I do not expect any mail,” I said. “I
-want merely to ask you a question.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Indeed!” she said coyly. She said it as though I had just given her a
-handsome remembrance, and she cocked her head on one side like a bird—like
-a hen-bird.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I hate to trouble you,” I went on, “but I have experienced some
-difficulty in making your townspeople understand me. I am looking for a
-certain kind of farm—a farm of an abandoned character.” At once I
-saw I had made a mistake.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You do not get my meaning,” I said hastily. “I refer to a farm that has
-been deserted, closed up, shut down—in short, abandoned. I trust I
-make myself plain.”
- </p>
-<p>
-She was still suffering from shock, however. She gave me a wounded-fawn
-glance and averted her burning face.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The Prewitt property might suit your purposes—whatever they may
-be,” she said coldly over her shoulder. “Mr. Jabez Pickerel, of Pickerel
-& Pike, real-estate dealers, on the first corner above, will doubtless
-give you the desired information. He has charge of the Prewitt property.”
- </p>
-<p>
-At last, I said to myself as I turned away, I was on the right track. Mr.
-Pickerel rose as I entered his place of business. He was a short, square
-man, with a brisk manner and a roving eye.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I have been directed to you,” I began. He seized my hand and began
-shaking it warmly. “I have been told,” I continued, “that you have charge
-of the old Prewitt farm somewhere near here; and as I am in the market for
-an aban-” I got no farther than that.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In one minute,” he shouted explosively—“in just one minute!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Still clutching me by the hand, he rushed me pell-mell out of the place.
-At the curbing stood a long, low, rakish racing-model roadster, looking
-something like a high-powered projectile and something like an enlarged
-tailor's goose. Leaping into this machine at one bound, he dragged me up
-into the seat beside him and threw on the power. Instantly we were
-streaking away at a perfectly appalling rate of speed—fully
-forty-five to fifty-five miles an hour I should say. You never saw
-anything so sudden in your life. It was exactly like a kidnaping. It was
-only by the exercise of great self-control that I restrained myself from
-screaming for help. I had the feeling that I was being abducted—for
-what purpose I knew not.
-</p>
-<p>
-As we spun round a corner on two wheels, spraying up a long furrow of
-dust, the same as shown in pictures of the chariot race in Ben-Hur, a man
-with a watch in his hand and wearing a badge—a constable, I think—ran
-out of a house that had a magistrate's sign over it and threw up his hand
-authoritatively, as though to stop us; but my companion yelled something
-the purport of which I could not distinguish and the constable fell back.
-Glancing rearward over my shoulder I saw him halting another car bearing a
-New York license that did not appear to be going half so fast as we were.
-</p>
-<p>
-In another second we were out of town, tearing along a country highway.
-Evidently sensing the alarm expressed by my tense face and strained
-posture, this man Pickerel began saying something in what was evidently
-intended to be a reassuring tone; but such was the roaring of the car that
-I could distinguish only broken fragments of his speech. I caught the
-words “unparalleled opportunity,” repeated several times—the term
-appeared to be a favorite of his—and “marvelous proposition.”
- Possibly I was not listening very closely anyhow, my mind being otherwise
-engaged. For one thing I was surmising in a general sort of way upon the
-old theory of the result when the irresistible force encounters the
-immovable object. I was wondering how long it would be before we hit
-something solid and whether it would be possible afterward to tell us
-apart. His straw hat also made me wonder. I had mine clutched in both
-hands and even then it fluttered against my bosom like a captive bird, but
-his stayed put. I think yet he must have had threads cut in his head to
-match the convolutions of the straw and screwed his hat on, like a nut on
-an axle.
-</p>
-<p>
-I have a confused recollection of rushing with the speed of the tornado
-through rows of trees; of leaping from the crest of one small hill to the
-crest of the next small hill; of passing a truck patch with such velocity
-that the lettuce and tomatoes and other things all seemed to merge
-together in a manner suggestive of a well-mixed vegetable salad.
-</p>
-<p>
-Then we swung off the main road in between the huge brick columns of an
-ornate gateway that stood alone, with no fence in connection. We bumpily
-traversed a rutted stretch of cleared land; and then with a jar and a jolt
-we came to a pause in what appeared to be a wide and barren expanse.
-</p>
-<p>
-As my heart began to throb with slightly less violence I looked about me
-for the abandoned farmhouse. I had conceived that it would be white with
-green blinds and that it would stand among trees. It was not in sight;
-neither were the trees. The entire landscape presented an aspect that was
-indeed remarkable. Small numbered stakes, planted in double lines at
-regular intervals, so as to form aisles, stretched away from us in every
-direction. Also there were twin rows of slender sticks planted in the
-earth in a sort of geometric pattern. Some were the size of switches.
-Others were almost as large as umbrella handles and had sprouted slightly.
-A short distance away an Italian was steering a dirtscraper attached to a
-languid mule along a sort of dim roadway. There were no other living
-creatures in sight. Right at my feet were two painted and lettered boards
-affixed at cross angles to a wooden upright. The legend on one of these
-boards was: Grand Concourse. The inscription on the other read: Nineteenth
-Avenue West. Repressing a gasp, I opened my mouth to speak.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Ahem!” I said. “There has been some mistake—”
- </p>
-<p>
-“There can be no mistake!” he shouted enthusiastically. “The only mistake
-possible is not to take advantage of this magnificent opportunity while it
-is yet possible to do so. Just observe that view!” He waved his arm in the
-general direction of the horizon from northwest to southeast. “Breathe
-this air! As a personal favor to me just breathe a little of this air!” He
-inhaled deeply himself as though to show me how, and I followed suit,
-because after that ride I needed to catch up with my regular breathing.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Thank you!” I said gratefully when I had finished breathing. “But how
-about——”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Quite right!” he cried, beaming upon me admiringly. “Quite right! I don't
-blame you. You have a right to know all the details. As a business man you
-should ask that question. You were about to say: But how about the train
-service? Ah, there spoke the true business man, the careful investor!
-Twenty fast trains a day each way—twenty, sir! Remember! And as for
-accessibility—well, accessibility is simply no name for it! Only two
-or three minutes from the station. You saw how long it took us to get here
-to-day? Well, then, what more could you ask? Right here,” he went on,
-pointing, “is the country club—a magnificent thing!”
- </p>
-<p>
-I looked, but I didn't see anything except a hole in the ground about
-fifty feet from us.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Where?” I asked. “I don't see it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Well,” he said, “this is where it is going to be. You automatically
-become a member of the country club; in fact, you are as good as a member
-now! And right up there at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Washington
-Parkway, where that scraper is, is the public library—the site for
-it! You'll be crazy about the public library! When we get back I'll let
-you run over the plans for the public library while I'm fixing up the
-papers. Oh, 'my friend, how glad I am you came while there was yet time!”
- </p>
-<p>
-I breasted the roaring torrent of his pouring language.
-</p>
-<p>
-“One minute,” I begged of him—“One minute, if you please! I am
-obliged to you for the interest you take in me, a mere stranger to you;
-but there has been a misunderstanding. I wanted to see the Prewitt place.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“This is the Prewitt place,” he said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes,” I said; “but where is the house? And why all this—why all
-these-” I indicated by a wave of my hand what I meant.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Naturally,” he explained, “the house is no longer here. We tore it away—it
-was old; whereas everything here will be new, modern and up-to-date. This
-is—or was—the Prewitt place, now better known as Homecrest
-Heights, the Development Ideal!” Having begun to capitalize his words, he
-continued to do so. “The Perfect Addition! The Suburb Superb! Away From
-the City's Dust and Heat! Away From Its Glamor and Clamor! Into the Open!
-Into the Great Out-of-Doors! Back to the Soil! Villa Plots on Easy Terms!
-You Furnish the Birds, We Furnish the Nest! The Place For a Business Man
-to Rear His Family! You Are Married? You Have a Wife? You Have Little
-Ones?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes,” I said, “one of each—one wife and one little one.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Ah!” he cried gladly. “One Little One—How Sweet! You Love Your
-Little One—Ah, Yes! Yes! You Desire to Give Your Little One a
-Chance? You Would Give Her Congenial Surroundings—Refined
-Surroundings? You Would Inculcate in Her While Young the Love of Nature?”
- He put an entire sentence into capitals now: “Give Your Little One a
-Chance! That is All I Ask of You!”
- </p>
-<p>
-He had me by both lapels. I thought he was going to kneel to me in
-pleading. I feared he might kiss me. I raised him to his feet. Then his
-manner changed—it became domineering, hectoring, almost threatening.
-</p>
-<p>
-I will pass briefly over the events of the succeeding hour, including our
-return to his lair or office. Accounts of battles where all the losses
-fall upon one side are rarely interesting to read about anyway. Suffice it
-to say that at the last minute I was saved. It was a desperate struggle
-though. I had offered the utmost resistance at first, but he would surely
-have had his way with me—only that a train pulled in bound for the
-city just as he was showing me, as party of the first part, where I was to
-sign my name on the dotted line A. Even then, weakened and worn as I was,
-I should probably not have succeeded in beating him off if he had not been
-hampered by having a fountain pen in one hand and the documents in the
-other. At the door he intercepted me; but I tackled him low about the body
-and broke through and fled like a hunted roebuck, catching the last car
-just as the relief train pulled out of the station. It was a close
-squeeze, but I made it. The thwarted Mr. Pickerel wrote me regularly for
-some months thereafter, making mention of My Little One in every letter;
-but after a while I took to sending the letters back to him unopened, and
-eventually he quit.
-</p>
-<p>
-I reached home along toward evening. I was tired, but I was not
-discouraged. I reported progress on the part of the committee on a
-permanent site, but told my wife that in order to find exactly what we
-wanted it would be necessary for us to leave the main-traveled paths. It
-was now quite apparent to me that the abandoned farm-seeker who stuck too
-closely to the railroad lines was bound to be thrown constantly in contact
-with those false and feverish metropolitan influences which, radiating
-from the city, have spread over the country like the spokes of a wheel or
-an upas tree, or a jauga-naut, or something of that nature. The thing to
-do was to get into an automobile and go away from the principal routes of
-travel, into districts where the abandoned farms would naturally be more
-numerous.
-</p>
-<p>
-This solved one phase of the situation—we now knew definitely where
-to go. The next problem was to decide upon some friend owning an
-automobile. We fixed upon the Winsells. They are charming people! We are
-devoted to the Winsells. They were very good friends of ours when they had
-their small four-passenger car; but since they sold the old one and bought
-a new forty-horse, seven-passenger car, they are so popular that it is
-hard to get hold of them for holidays and week-ends.
-</p>
-<p>
-Every Saturday—nearly—some one of their list of acquaintances
-is calling them up to tell of a lovely spot he has just heard about, with
-good roads all the way, both coming and going; but after a couple of
-disappointments we caught them when they had an open date. Over the
-telephone Winsell objected that he did not know anything about the roads
-up in Connecticut, but I was able to reassure him promptly on that score.
-I told him he need not worry about that—that I would buy the road
-map myself. So on a fair Saturday morning we started.
-</p>
-<p>
-The trip up through the extreme lower end of the state of New York was
-delightful, being marred by only one or two small mishaps. There was the
-trifling incident of a puncture, which delayed us slightly; but
-fortunately the accident occurred at a point where there was a wonderful
-view of the Croton Lakes, and while Winsell was taking off the old tire
-and adjusting a new one we sat very comfortably in the car, enjoying
-Nature's panorama.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was a little later on when we hit a dog. It seemed to me that this dog
-merely sailed, yowling, up into the air in a sort of long curve, but
-Winsell insisted that the dog described a parabola. I am very glad that in
-accidents of this character it is always the victims that describe the
-parabola. I know I should be at a complete loss to describe one myself.
-Unless it is something like the boomerang of the Australian aborigines I
-do not even know what a parabola is. Nor did I dream until then that
-Winsell understood the dog language. However, those are but technical
-details.
-</p>
-<p>
-After we crossed the state line we got lost several times; this was
-because the country seemed to have a number of roads the road map omitted,
-and the road map had many roads the country had left out. Eventually,
-though, we came to a district of gently rolling hills, dotted at intervals
-with those neat white-painted villages in which New England excels; and
-between the villages at frequent intervals were farmhouses. Abandoned
-ones, however, were rarer than we had been led to expect. Not only were
-these farms visibly populated by persons who appeared to be permanently
-attached to their respective localities, but at many of them things were
-offered for sale—such as home-made pastry, souvenirs, fresh poultry,
-antique furniture, brass door-knockers, milk and eggs, hand-painted
-crockery, table board, garden truck, molasses taffy, laundry soap and
-livestock.
-</p>
-<p>
-At length, though, when our necks were quite sore from craning this way
-and that on the watch for an abandoned farm that would suit us, we came to
-a very attractive-looking place facing a lawn and flanked by an orchard.
-There was a sign fastened to an elm tree alongside the fence. The sign
-read: For Information Concerning This Property Inquire Within.
-</p>
-<p>
-To Winsell I said:
-</p>
-<p>
-“Stop here—this is without doubt the place we have been looking
-for!”
- </p>
-<p>
-Filled—my wife and I—with little thrills of anticipation, we
-all got out. I opened the gate and entered the yard, followed by Winsell,
-my wife and his wife. I was about halfway up the walk when a large dog
-sprang into view, at the same time showing his teeth in rather an
-intimidating way. To prevent an encounter with an animal that might be
-hostile, I stepped nimbly behind the nearest tree. As I came round on the
-other side of the tree there, to my surprise, was this dog face to face
-with me. Still desiring to avoid a collision with him, I stepped back the
-other way. Again I met the dog, which was now growling. The situation was
-rapidly becoming embarrassing when a gentleman came out upon the porch and
-called sharply to the dog. The dog, with apparent reluctance, retired
-under the house and the gentleman invited us inside and asked us to be
-seated. Glancing about his living room I noted that the furniture appeared
-to be a trifle modern for our purposes; but, as I whispered to my wife,
-you cannot expect to have everything to suit you at first. With the sweet
-you must ever take the bitter—that I believe is true, though not an
-original saying.
-</p>
-<p>
-In opening the conversation with the strange gentleman I went in a
-businesslike way direct to the point.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You are the owner of these premises?” I asked. He bowed. “I take it,” I
-then said, “that you are about to abandon this farm?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I beg your pardon?” he said, as though confused.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I presume,” I explained, “that this is practically an abandoned farm.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Not exactly,” he said. “I'm here.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes, yes; quite so,” I said, speaking perhaps a trifle impatiently. “But
-you are thinking of going away from it, aren't you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Yes,” he admitted; “I am.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Now,” I said, “we are getting round to the real situation. What are you
-asking for this place?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Eighteen hundred,” he stated. “There are ninety acres of land that go
-with the house and the house itself is in very good order.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I considered for a moment. None of the abandoned farms I had ever read
-about sold for so much as eighteen hundred dollars. Still, I reflected,
-there might have been a recent bull movement; there had certainly been
-much publicity upon the subject. Before committing myself, I glanced at my
-wife. Her expression betokened acquiescence.
-</p>
-<p>
-“That figure,” I said diplomatically, “was somewhat in excess of what I
-was originally prepared to pay; still, the house seems roomy and, as you
-were saying, there are ninety acres. The furniture and equipment go with
-the place, I presume?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Naturally,” he answered. “That is the customary arrangement.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“And would you be prepared to give possession immediately?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Immediately,” he responded.
-</p>
-<p>
-I began to feel enthusiasm. By the look on my wife's face I could tell
-that she was enthused, too.
-</p>
-<p>
-“If we come to terms,” I said, “and everything proves satisfactory, I
-suppose you could arrange to have the deed made out at once?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The deed?” he said blankly. “You mean the lease?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The lease?” I said blankly. “You mean the deed?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The deed?” he said blankly. “You mean the lease?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“The lease, indeed,” said my wife. “You mean——”
- </p>
-<p>
-I broke in here. Apparently we were all getting the habit.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Let us be perfectly frank in this matter,” I said. “Let us dispense with
-these evasive and dilatory tactics. You want eighteen hundred dollars for
-this place, furnished?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Exactly,” he responded. “Eighteen hundred dollars for it from June to
-October.” Then, noting the expressions of our faces, he continued
-hurriedly: “A remarkably small figure considering what summer rentals are
-in this section. Besides, this house is new. It costs a lot to reproduce
-these old Colonial designs!”
- </p>
-<p>
-I saw at once that we were but wasting our time in this person's company.
-He had not the faintest conception of what we wanted. We came away.
-Besides, as I remarked to the others after we were back in the car and on
-our way again, this house-farm would never have suited us; the view from
-it was nothing extra. I told Winsell to go deeper into the country until
-we really struck the abandoned farm belt.
-</p>
-<p>
-So we went farther and farther. After a while it was late afternoon and we
-seemed to be lost again. My wife and Winsell's wife were tired; so we
-dropped them at the next teahouse we passed. I believe it was the
-eighteenth teahouse for the day. Winsell and I then continued on the quest
-alone. Women know so little about business anyway that it is better, I
-think, whenever possible, to conduct important matters without their
-presence. It takes a masculine intellect to wrestle with these intricate
-problems; and for some reason or other this problem was becoming more and
-more complicated and intricate all the time.
-</p>
-<p>
-On a long, deserted stretch of road, as the shadows were lengthening, we
-overtook a native of a rural aspect plodding along alone. Just as we
-passed him I was taken with an idea and I told Winsell to stop. I was
-tired of trafficking with stupid villagers and avaricious land-grabbers. I
-would deal with the peasantry direct. I would sound the yeoman heart—which
-is honest and true and ever beats in accord with the best dictates of
-human nature.
-</p>
-<p>
-“My friend,” I said to him, “I am seeking an abandoned farm. Do you know
-of many such in this vicinity?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“How?” he asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-I never got so tired of repeating a question in my life; nevertheless, for
-this yokel's limited understanding, I repeated it again.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Well,” he said at length, “whut with all these city fellers moving in
-here to do gentleman-farming—whatsoever that may mean—farm
-property has gone up until now it's wuth considerable more'n town
-property, as a rule. I could scursely say I know of any of the kind of
-farms you mention as laying round loose—no, wait a minute; I do
-recollect a place. It's that shack up back of the country poor farm that
-the supervisors used for a pest house the time the smallpox broke out.
-That there place is consider'bly abandoned. You might try—”
- </p>
-<p>
-In a stern tone of voice I bade Winsell to drive on and turn in at the
-next farmhouse he came to. The time for trifling had passed. My mind was
-fixed. My jaw was also set. I know, because I set it myself. And I have no
-doubt there was a determined glint in my eye; in fact, I could feel the
-glint reflected upon my cheek.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the next farm Winsell turned in. We passed through a stone gateway and
-rolled up a well-kept road toward a house we could see in glimpses through
-the intervening trees. We skirted several rather neat flower beds, curved
-round a greenhouse and came out on a stretch of lawn. I at once decided
-that this place would do undoubtedly. There might be alterations to make,
-but in the main the establishment would be satisfactory even though the
-house, on closer inspection, proved to be larger than it had seemed when
-seen from a distance.
-</p>
-<p>
-On a signal from me Winsell halted at the front porch. Without a word I
-stepped out. He followed. I mounted the steps, treading with great
-firmness and decision, and rang the doorbell hard. A middle-aged person
-dressed in black, with a high collar, opened the door.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Are you the proprietor of this place?” I demanded without any preamble.
-My patience was exhausted; I may have spoken sharply.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Oh, no, sir,” he said, and I could tell by his accent he was English;
-“the marster is out, sir.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I wish to see him,” I said, “on particular business—at once! At
-once, you understand—it is important!”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Perhaps you'd better come in, sir,” he said humbly. It was evident my
-manner, which was, I may say, almost haughty, had impressed him deeply.
-“If you will wait, sir, I'll have the marster called, sir. He's not far
-away, sir.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Very good,” I replied. “Do so!”
- </p>
-<p>
-He showed us into a large library and fussed about, offering drinks and
-cigars and what-not. Winsell seemed somewhat perturbed by these
-attentions, but I bade him remain perfectly calm and collected, adding
-that I would do all the talking.
-</p>
-<p>
-We took cigars—very good cigars they were. As they were not banded I
-assumed they were home grown. I had always heard that Connecticut tobacco
-was strong, but these specimens were very mild and pleasant. I had about
-decided I should put in tobacco for private consumption and grow my own
-cigars and cigarettes when the door opened, and a stout elderly man with
-side whiskers entered the room. He was in golfing costume and was
-breathing hard.
-</p>
-<p>
-“As soon as I got your message I hurried over as fast as I could,” he
-said.
-</p>
-<p>
-“You need not apologize,” I replied; “we have not been kept waiting very
-long.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I presume you come in regard to the traction matter?” he ventured.
-</p>
-<p>
-“No,” I said, “not exactly. You own this place, I believe?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I do,” he said, staring at me.
-</p>
-<p>
-“So far, so good,” I said. “Now, then, kindly tell me when you expect to
-abandon it.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He backed away from me a few feet, gaping. He opened his mouth and for a
-few moments absent-mindedly left it in that condition.
-</p>
-<p>
-“When do I expect to do what?” he inquired. “When,” I said, “do you expect
-to abandon it?” He shook his head as though he had some marbles inside of
-it and liked the rattling sound.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I don't understand yet,” he said, puzzled.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I will explain,” I said very patiently. “I wish to acquire by purchase or
-otherwise one of the abandoned farms of this state. Not having been able
-to find one that was already abandoned, though I believe them to be very
-numerous, I am looking for one that is about to be abandoned. I wish, you
-understand, to have the first call on it. Winsell”—I said in an
-aside—“quit pulling at my coat-tail! Therefore,” I resumed,
-readdressing the man with the side whiskers, “I ask you a plain question,
-to wit: When do you expect to abandon this one? I expect a plain answer.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He edged a few feet nearer an electric push button which was set in the
-wall. He seemed flustered and distraught; in fact, almost apprehensive.
-</p>
-<p>
-“May I inquire,” he said nervously, “how you got in here?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Your servant admitted us,” I said, with dignity. “Yes,” he said in a
-soothing tone; “but did you come afoot—or how?”
- </p>
-<p>
-“I drove here in a car,” I told him, though I couldn't see what difference
-that made.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Merciful Heavens!” he muttered. “They do not trust you—I mean you
-do not drive the car yourself, do you?”
- </p>
-<p>
-Here Winsell cut in.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I drove the car,” he said. “I—I did not want to come, but he”—pointing
-to me—“he insisted.” Winsell is by nature a groveling soul. His tone
-was almost cringing.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I see,” said the gentleman, wagging his head, “I see. Sad case—very
-sad case! Young, too!” Then he faced me. “You will excuse me now,” he
-said. “I wish to speak to my butler. I have just thought of several things
-I wish to say to him. Now in regard to abandoning this place: I do not
-expect to abandon this place just yet—probably not for some weeks or
-possibly months. In case I should decide to abandon it sooner, if you will
-leave your address with me I will communicate with you by letter at the
-institution where you may chance to be stopping at the time. I trust this
-will be satisfactory.”
- </p>
-<p>
-He turned again to Winsell.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Does your—ahem—friend care for flowers?” he asked.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Yes,” said Winsell. “I think so.”
- </p>
-<p>
-“Perhaps you might show him my flower gardens as you go away,” said the
-side-whiskered man. “I have heard somewhere that flowers have a very
-soothing effect sometimes in such cases—or it may have been music. I
-have spent thirty thousand dollars beautifying these grounds and I am
-really very proud of them. Show him the flowers by all means—you
-might even let him pick a few if it will humor him.”
- </p>
-<p>
-I started to speak, but he was gone. In the distance somewhere I heard a
-door slam.
-</p>
-<p>
-Under the circumstances there was nothing for us to do except to come
-away. Originally I did not intend to make public mention of this incident,
-preferring to dismiss the entire thing from my mind; but, inasmuch as
-Winsell has seen fit to circulate a perverted and needlessly exaggerated
-version of it among our circle of friends, I feel that the exact
-circumstances should be properly set forth.
-</p>
-<p>
-It was a late hour when we rejoined our wives. This was due to Winsel's
-stupidity in forgetting the route we had traversed after parting from
-them; in fact, it was nearly midnight before he found his way back to the
-teahouse where we left them. The teahouse had been closed for some hours
-then and our wives were sitting in the dark on the teahouse porch waiting
-for us. Really, I could not blame them for scolding Winsell; but they
-displayed an unwarranted peevishness toward me. My wife's display of
-temper was really the last straw. It was that, taken in connection with
-certain other circumstances, which clinched my growing resolution to let
-the whole project slide into oblivion. I woke her up and in so many words
-told her so on the way home. We arrived there shortly after daylight of
-the following morning.
-</p>
-<p>
-So, as I said at the outset, we gave up our purpose of buying an abandoned
-farm and moved into a flat on the upper west side.
-</p>
-<div style="height: 6em;">
-<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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