"I think," said Dr. Lavendar, as he and Goliath came plodding into Old
Chester in the May dusk, "I think I'll go and see Willy. He'll tell me
how much Sam's love-making amounts to."
His mind was on the matter to such an extent that he hardly heard
Mary's anxious scolding because he looked tired, but his preoccupation
lifted at supper, in the consciousness of how lonely he was without
David. He really wanted to get out of the house and leave the
loneliness behind him. So after tea he put on his broad-brimmed felt
hat and tied a blue muffler around his throat--Dr. Lavendar felt the
cold a good deal; he said it was because the seasons were changing--and
walked wearily over to Dr. King's house. That talk with Benjamin Wright
had told on him.
"Well," he said, as the doctor's wife opened the door, "how are you,
Martha?"
"Very tired," said Mrs. King. "And dear me, Dr. Lavendar, you look
tired yourself. You're too old to do so much, sir. Come in and sit
down."
"I'll sit down," said Dr. Lavendar, dropping into a chair in the
parlor; "but don't flatter yourself, Martha, that you'll ever be as
young as I am!" ("He _is_ failing," Mrs. King told her husband
afterwards. "He gets his words all mixed up. He says 'young' when he
means 'old.' Isn't that a sign of something, William?" "It's a sign of
grace," said the doctor shortly.)
"I want Willy to come over and give my Mary a pill," Dr. Lavendar
explained. "She is as cross as a bear, and cross people are generally
sick people--although I suppose that's Mary's temperament," he added
sighing.
Martha shook her head. "In my judgment _temperament_ is just another
word for temper: I don't believe in making excuses for it. That's a
great trick of William's, I'm sorry to say."
"I should have thought you'd have cured him of it by this time?" Dr.
Lavendar murmured; and then he asked if the doctor was out.
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. King, dryly; "Willy always manages to get out in
the evening on one excuse or another. You'd think he'd be glad of a
restful evening at home with me, sometimes. But no. William's patients
need a surprising amount of attention, though his bills don't show it
When Mrs. Richie's cook was sick--just as an instance--he went six
times to see her. I counted."
"Well; she got well?"' said Dr. Lavendar.
"Got well? She'd have got well if he hadn't gone near her." Martha
began to stroke the gathers on a bit of cambric with a precise needle
that suddenly trembled. "The woman herself was not to blame it's only
just to say that--And there's one thing about me, Dr. Lavendar; I may
not be perfect, but I am always just. No, she was not to blame; it was
Mrs. Richie who sent for William. She is the most helpless woman I ever
saw, for her years;--she is at least forty, though she uses
sachet-powders, and wears undersleeves all trimmed with lace, as if she
were six teen! I don't want to find fault, Dr. Lavendar, but I must say
that _I_ wouldn't have trusted that little boy to her."
"Oh," said Dr. Lavendar, "I trusted _her_ to the little boy! She'll be
so busy looking after his sleeves, she'll forget her own."
Mrs. King sniffed, doubtfully. "I'm sure I hope you are right; but in
my opinion, she's a very helpless and foolish woman;--if nothing worse.
Though according to my ideas, the way she lets Sam Wright's Sam behave
is worse!"
Dr. Lavendar was suddenly attentive, "How does she let him behave?"
"Well, he is so daft over--her that he neglects his work at the bank to
write verses. Why doesn't she stop it?"
"Because," said William King, appearing in the doorway, smelling
honestly of the barn and picking off a straw here and there from his
sleeve; "she knows nothing about it."
Dr. Lavendar and Martha both looked up, startled at his tone.
"Women," said the doctor, "would gossip about a--a clam!"
"I am not gossiping?" Martha defended herself; but Dr. Lavendar
interrupted her, cheerfully,
"Well, I am, I came over to gossip with William on this very
subject.--Martha, will you let him put a match to that grate? I
declare, the seasons are changing. When I was your age it wasn't cold
enough to have a fire in May.--Look here, Willy, what do you mean by
saying Mrs. Richie doesn't know Sam's sentiments?"
"I mean that women like Mrs. Richie are so unconscious, they don't see
things like that. She's as unconscious as a girl."
"Tck!" said Martha.
"A girl!" said Dr. Lavendar.--"Say a tree, or a boy but don't say a
girl. Why, William, everybody sees it. Even Benjamin Wright. Of course
she knows it."
"She doesn't; she isn't the kind that thinks of things like that. Of
course, some women would have discovered it months ago; one of your
strong-minded ladies, perhaps--only Sam wouldn't have been spoony on
that kind."
"Well!" said Martha, "I must say, flat--"
But William interrupted her--"To prove what I say: she lets him come in
and bore her to death, just out of kindness. Do you suppose she would
do that if she knew he was such an idiot as to presume to--to--"
"Well," said Dr. Lavendar, "as there is so much ignorance about,
perhaps Sam doesn't know he's lost his heart?"
But at that William laughed, "_He_ knows; Trust a young fellow! That's
just the difference between a man and a woman, sir; the man always
knows; the woman, if she's the right kind, doesn't--until she's told."
"Tck!" said Martha,
Dr. Lavendar looked down at the bowl of his pipe then he said meekly,
"I was under the impression that Eve ate her apple before Adam had so
much as a bite. Still, whether Mrs. Richie knows the state of Sam's
affections or not, I do wish she would urge him to put his mind on his
work. That's what I came in to speak to you about. His father is all on
edge about it, and now his grandfather has taken it into his head to be
worried over it, too But you know her better than the rest of us do,
and I thought perhaps you'd drop a hint that she would be doing
missionary work if she'd influence the boy to be more industrious."
"I'll go and talk it over with her," Martha volunteered. "I am always
ready to advise any one."
William King got up and kicked at a lump of coal in the grate. "I am
sure you are," he said dryly; "but no talking over is necessary., I
shall probably be going up the hill in a few days, and I'll say a word
if Dr. Lavendar wants me to. Nothing definite; just enlist her sympathy
for his father--and get her to protect herself, too. He must be an
awful nuisance."
"That's it!" said Dr. Lavendar. "I'd do it myself, but you know her
better than I do. I'm getting acquainted with her through David. David
is really a remarkable child! I can't tell you how I miss him." And
then he began to relate David's sayings, while Martha sewed fiercely,
and William stared at the hearth-rug "The little rascal is no Peter
Grievous," Dr Lavendar declared, proudly; and told a story of a badly
barked knee, and a very stiff upper-lip; "and the questions he asks!"
said the old man, holding up both hands; "theological questions; the
House of Bishops couldn't answer 'em!" He repeated some of the
questions, watching the husband and wife with swift glances over his
spectacles; when he had wrung a reluctant laugh from the doctor, and
Mrs., King was not sewing so fast, he went home, not much rested by his
call.
But the result of the call was that at the end of the week Dr. King
went up to the Stuffed Animal House.
"We are shipwrecked!" cried Mrs. Richie, as she saw him coming down the
garden path towards the barn. Her face was flushed and gay, and her
hair, shaken from its shining wreath around her head, hung in two
braids down her back. She had had a swing put up under the big
buttonwood beside the stable, and David, climbing into it, had clung to
the rigging to be dashed, side wise, on to the rocks of the
carriageway, where Mrs. Richie stood ready to catch him when the vessel
should drive near enough to the shore. In an endeavor to save himself
from some engulfing sea which his playmate had pointed out to him,
David had clutched at her, breaking the top hook of her gown and
tearing her collar apart, leaving throat, white and round, open to the
hot sun. Before the doctor reached her, she caught her dress together,
and twisted her hair into a knot. "You can't keep things smooth in a
shipwreck," she excused herself, laughing.
David sighed, and looked into the carriage-house. In that jungle--Mrs.
Richie had called it a jungle--were wild beasts; there were also
crackers and apples--or to be exact, breadfruit and citrons--hanging
from what George called "harness-racks," though of course, as
thoughtful persons know, they were trees; David was to gather these
tropical spoils, and then escape from the leopard, the shark, the
crocodile! And now there was Dr. King, spoiling everything.
The doctor sat down on a keg and looked at the two, smiling. "Which is
the younger of you?" he said. It came over him, in a gust of amusement,
what Martha would say to such a scene, and he laughed aloud.
"Dr. King," said David, in a small distinct voice, "won't Jinny run
away, if you leave her so long at gate?"
"Oh, David!" cried Mrs. Richie, horrified. But the visitor threw back
his head with a shout.
"That's what my wife would call speaking 'flatly and frankly'! Well,
Mrs. Richie, I never wrote a better prescription in my life. You look
like a different woman, already."
And, indeed, the youth in her face was as careless as David's own. But
it flagged when he added that he hoped her brother would not think the
care of David would be too much for her.
"Oh, no," she said, briefly.
"I feel like saying 'I told you so'! I knew you would like to have a
child about."
"I do, but he is a tyrant. Aren't you, David? I have to get up for
breakfast!"
"Terrible," said William delightedly.
"Why, but it _is_. I don't know when I've done such a thing! At first I
thought I really couldn't. But I couldn't leave him all by himself,
down-stairs--could I, David?"
"I'd just as lieves," said David, gently.
"Oh, how like your sex!" Helena cried.
"What do you suppose I've come for?" Dr. King began in the bantering
tone one uses to a child. "I've come to get you to exert your influence
to improve business. _Business!_" he repeated, delighted at his own
absurdity; "a lady who finds it hard to get up in the mornings."
She looked at him ruefully; "I'm lazy, I am afraid." "No, you're
not--it's a very sensible thing to do, if you are not strong. Well, I
must tell you what we want; Sam Wright is anxious, because young Sam
neglects his work at the bank, and--"
"But he doesn't like business," she explained with a surprised look;
and William laughed with pleasure.
"So that's a reason for not attending to it? Unfortunately, that's the
young man's own point of view. He's a queer youngster," William added
in his kind voice.
"I don't think it's queer not to like disagreeable things," Helena said.
"Well, no; but all the same, we've got to stand them. Sam has no
patience with anything disagreeable. Why, when he was a little
fellow--let me see, he was younger than David; about four, I think--he
scratched his finger one day pretty severely; it smarted, I guess,
badly. Anyway, he roared! Then he picked up a pair of scissors and ran
bawling to his mother; 'Mamma, cut finger off! It hurts Sam--cut finger
off!' That's been his principle ever since: 'it hurts--get rid of it.'"
"I don't blame him in the least," Helena protested gayly; "I'm sure
I've wanted to 'cut finger off.' And I have done it, too!"
"Well," said the doctor with great pretence of gravity, "I suppose,
then, we'll have to tell old Mr. Wright that nobody must ever do
anything he doesn't want to do? It appears that he's worried, too,
because the young gentleman isn't industrious. The fact is, he thinks
Sam would rather come up here than work over his ledgers," he teased.
Helena sprung to her feet, nervously. "But I wish he wouldn't come! I
don't want him to come. I can't help it; indeed I--I can't help it!"
She spoke with a sort of gasp. Instantly David, who had been lounging
in the swing, slipped down and planted himself directly in front of
her, his arms stretched out at each side. "I'll take care of you," he
said protectingly.
William King caught his breath. No one could have heard the frightened
note in her voice without understanding David's impulse. The doctor
shared it. Evidently Sam had been making love to her, and her very
innocence made her quick to feel herself rebuked! William felt an
ardent desire to kick Sam Wright's Sam.
But Mrs. Richie was herself again; she laughed, though not quite
naturally, and sat down in the swing, swaying slightly back and forth
with an indolent push of her pretty foot. David lounged against her
knee, eying the doctor with frank displeasure. "I am sure," she said,
"I wish Sam would attend to his ledgers; it would be much better than
making visits."
"Dr. King," David said, gently, "I'll shake hands now, and say good-by."
The laugh that followed changed the subject, although warm in William's
consciousness the thought remained that she had let him know what the
subject meant to her: he shared a secret with her! She had told him,
indirectly perhaps, but still told him, of her troubles with young Sam.
It was as if she had put out her hand and said, "Help me!"
Inarticulately he felt what David had said, "I'll take care of you!"
And his first care must be to make her forget what had distressed her.
He said with the air of one imparting interesting information, that
some time in the next fortnight he would probably go to Philadelphia on
business. "Can I do any errands for you? Don't you ladies always want
ribbons, or something."
"Does Mrs. King let you buy ribbons for her?" Helena asked.
"Ribbons! I am to buy yarn, and some particular brand of lye for soap."
"Lye! How do you make soap out of lye?"
"You save all the "--William hesitated for a sufficiently delicate
word--"the--fat, you know, in the kitchen, and then you make soft soap."
"Why! I didn't know that was how soap was made."
"I'm glad you didn't," said William King. "I mean--it's disagreeable,"
he ended weakly. And then, to David's open joy, he said good-by and
jogged off down the hill, leaving Mrs. Richie to her new
responsibilities of discipline.
"Now, David, come here. I've got to scold you."
David promptly climbed up into the swing and settled himself in her
lap. Then he snuggled his little nose down into her neck. "I'm a bear,"
he announced. "I'm eating you. Now, you scream and I'll roar."
"Oh, David, you little monkey! Listen to me: you weren't very polite to
Dr. King."
"O-o-o-o-o-o!" roared the bear.
"You should make him feel you were glad to see him."
"I wasn't," mumbled David.
"But you must have manners, dear little boy."
"I have," David defended himself, sitting up straight. "I have them in
my head; but I only use them sometimes."
Upon which the disciplinarian collapsed; "You rogue!" she said; "come
here, and I'll give you 'forty kisses'!"
David was instantly silent; he shrank away, lifting his shoulder
against his cheek and looking at her shyly. "I won't, dear!" she
reassured him, impetuously: "truly I won't."
But she said to herself she must remember to repeat the speech about
manners to the doctor; it would make him laugh.
William laughed easily when he came to the Stuffed Animal House.
Indeed, he had laughed when he went away from it, and stopped for a
minute at Dr. Lavendar's to tell him that Mrs. Richie was just as
anxious as anybody that Sam Wright should attend to his business.
"_Business_!" said the doctor, "much she knows about it!" And then he
added that he was sure she would do her part to influence the boy to be
more industrious. "And you may depend on it, she won't allow any
love-making," said William.
He laughed again suddenly, out loud, as he ate his supper that night,
because some memory of the after-noon came into his head. When Martha,
starting at the unusual sound, asked what he was laughing at, he told
her he had found Mrs. Richie playing with David Allison. "They were
like two children; I said I didn't know which was the younger. They
were pretending they were shipwrecked; the swing was the vessel, if you
please!"
"I suppose she was trying to amuse him," Mrs. King said. "That's a
great mistake with children. Give a child a book, or put him down to
some useful task; that's my idea."
"Oh, she was amusing herself," William explained. Mrs. King was silent.
"She gets up for breakfast now, on account of David; it's evidently a
great undertaking!" the doctor said humorously.
Martha held her lips hard together.
"You ought to hear her housekeeping ideas," William rambled on. "I
happened to say you wanted some lye for soap. She didn't know soap was
made with lye! You would have laughed to hear her--"
But at that the leash broke: "_Laughed_? I hope not! I hope I wouldn't
laugh because a woman of her age has no more sense than a child. And
she gets up for breakfast, does she? Well, why shouldn't she get up for
breakfast? I am very tired, but I get up for breakfast. I don't mean to
be severe, William, and I never am; I'm only just. But I must say,
flatly and frankly, that ignorance and laziness do not seem _funny_ to
me. Laugh? Would you laugh if I stayed in bed in the mornings, and
didn't know how to make soap, and save your money for you? I guess not!"
The doctor's face reddened and he closed his lips with a snap. But
Martha found no more fault with Mrs. Richie. After a while she said in
that virtuous voice familiar to husbands, "William, I know you don't
like to do it, so I cleaned all the medicine-shelves in your office
this morning."
"Thank you," William said, curtly; and finished his supper in absolute
silence.