to the house, 'n' then, he says, come one o' the strangest parts o' the
story--the part as shows how everythin' turns out for the best in the
end. He says it's really most like a fairy-tale, 'n' jus' as if he 'd
planned it all to order. Seems when he tried to get up 'n' walk to the
house Tilly wanted her father to help hold up his other side, 'n' she
could n't see where her father was. She started aroun' the shed to look
for him 'n' there she found him stretched out flat.--Seems when she cut
Ely loose she let the pole fly roun' jus' in time to take her father in
the legs 'n' there he laid, not dead, but in a way as showed right off
as some one else 'd have to run his farm from then on. Well, old man Ely
says you need n't tell him as there ain't no All-wise Providence after
_that_, 'n' he rubbed his chin with his hand a long, long while 'n'
shook his head 'n' then said 'need n't tell _him_' all over again. He
says he joined the church the very next Sunday 'n' him 'n' Tilly was
married in September like he 'd always planned. He says they was very
happy on the whole 'n' after a while Old Pearson got where he got around
pretty well, only for a crazy idea he had as suthin' unexpected was
goin' to hit him sudden. He says he had the idea so strong as he never
was free from it while he was alive 'n' it was a mercy when he died. He
says as he see how good things can turn out, for, Tilly always jus'
loved him half to death 'cause he 'd loved her enough to cut that rope
in two. He says he means her to have a very handsome monument, 'n' if he
ever marries again he shall keep her picture in the parlor just the
same."
"Do--" said Mrs. Lathrop.
"Well, I think he 'll try to," said Miss Clegg, "but his other wife may
not see it in the same spirit, Mrs. Ely not bein' no great ornament, 'n'
the farm is safe now anyhow."
"I--" said Mrs. Lathrop, further.
"Yes," said Susan, "I thought so myself but it did n't seem to strike
him that way."
* * * * *
THE WOLF AT SUSAN'S DOOR
PART FIRST
MISS CLEGG'S SPECULATIONS
Mrs. Lathrop, rocking placidly in her kitchen window, was conscious of a
vague sense of worry as to her friend over the fence. It appeared to her
that Susan was looking more thin and peaked than nature had intended. It
is true that Miss Clegg was always of a bony and nervous outline, but it
seemed slowly but surely borne in upon her older friend that of late she
had been rapidly becoming sharper in every way. Mrs. Lathrop felt that
she ought to speak--that she ought not to lead her next door neighbor
into the false belief that her sufferings were unnoticed by the
affectionate spectacles forever turned her way,--and yet--Mrs. Lathrop
being Mrs. Lathrop--it was only after several days of rocking and
cogitation that the verbal die came to its casting.
That came to be upon a summer evening, and it came to pass across the
barrier-fence where Miss Clegg had come to lean wearily, her shoulders
and the corners of her mouth following the same dejected angle, while
her elderly friend stood facing her with a gaze that was at once
earnest, penetrating, and commiserating, and a clover blossom in her
mouth.
"Susan," said Mrs. Lathrop, in a voice mournful enough to have renovated
Job; "Susan, I--"
Miss Clegg shut her eyes firmly and opened them sharply.
"I 'm glad you have," she said, in a voice whose tone was divided
between relief and reproach,--"I certainly am glad you have. I try to be
close-mouthed 'n' never trouble any one with my affairs, Mrs. Lathrop,
but I will say as I have often wondered at how you could sit 'n' rock in
the face of what I 've been grinnin' 'n' bearin' these last few weeks.
Not that rockin' is any crime, 'n' I always feel it must be fine
exercise for the chair, but it 's hard for one who has the wolf at their
door, 'n' not only at their door, but nigh to bu'stin' it in, to see
their dearest friend rockin' away, like wolf or no wolf she 'd go on
forever."
Mrs. Lathrop looked aggrieved.
"Why, Susan--" she protested.
"That ain't no excuse," the friend said, not harshly but with a cold
distinctness; "you may talk yourself blind if you feel so inclined, 'n'
I don't say but what you really did n't mean nothin', but the fact
remains, 'n' always will remain, as you 've took a deal of comfort
rockin' while I 've been kitin' broadcast tryin' to see if I could keep
soul 'n' body together or whether I 'd have to let one or the other of
'em go."
Mrs. Lathrop opened her mouth and eyes widely.
"I never--" she gasped.
Susan hooked herself on to the fence-rail with both her elbows
preparatory to a lengthy debate; her eyes were bright, her expression
one of unreserved exposition. Mrs. Lathrop continued to keep her eyes
and mouth open, but reasons which will soon be known to the reader
prevented her making another remark for a long time.
"Mrs. Lathrop, I may as well begin by goin' 'way back to the beginnin'
of everythin' 'n' takin' you right in the hide and hair of my whole
troubles. It ain't possible for you to realize what your rockin 's meant
to me unless you understand to the full what I 've been goin' through
'n' crawlin' under these last weeks. I want to spare your feelin's all I
can, for it ain't in me to be unkind to so much as a gooseberry, but I
can't well see how you can keep from bein' some punched by remorse when
you hear how I 've been cleanin' house with a heavy heart 'n' no new
mop. That's what I 've been doin', Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' so help me Heaven,
it's death or a new mop next year. The way that mop has skipped dirt 'n'
dripped water!--well, seein' is the only believin' when it comes to
mops, but all I can say is that you never looked more spotty than I have
since that mop, 'n' you know how lookin' spotty is mortal agony to
me--me not bein' one who can be happy rockin' on top of dirt.
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I said I was goin' to begin at the beginnin', so I
will, although the whole town knows as it was that fine scheme of Mr.
Kimball's as set my ball bouncin' down hill. I was n't the only one as
got rolled over 'n' throwed out feet up, but I don't know as bein' one
of a number to lose money makes the money any more fun to lose. Mr. Dill
was sayin' yesterday as he would n't have listened to nothin' but white
for Lucy's weddin'-dress if it had n't been for Mr. Kimball 'n' his
little scheme, but I don't get any great comfort out of knowin' that
Lucy Dill 's got to try 'n' get herself married in her Aunt Samantha
Dill's blue bengaline. The blue bengaline 's very handsome 'n' I never
see a prettier arrangement of beads 'n' fringe, but every one says too
much of Lucy shows at the top 'n' bottom to even be romantic. They _can_
hook it, but Lucy can't stay hooked inside but five minutes at the
outside. I 'm sure I don't see how they 'll ever fix it, 'n' Gran'ma
Mullins says she cries whenever she thinks that at Hiram's weddin' the
bride won't have no weddin'-dress. Polly Allen wanted Lucy to open the
darts 'n' let in puffs like Mary Stuart's husbands always was puffed,
but Lucy never see Mary Stuart 'n' the only picture in town of any of
her husbands has got him in bed with the sheet drawed up to his chin 'n'
his hands folded right on top of where they 'd want to copy the darts.
Such a picture ain't no help a _tall_, so Lucy is still shakin' her head
the same as at first. _My_ idea would be to make no wish-bones about it
'n' just be married in her travelin'-dress 'n' then wear it when she
goes away, but it seems she wants her travelin'-dress for church, 'n'
does n't mean to wear it travelin' anyhow, because she 'n' Hiram is just
wild over the no-one-knowin'-they 're-married idea, 'n' Lucy is goin' to
wear old gloves 'n' some buttons off her shoes, 'n' Hiram is goin' to
wear his mother's spectacles 'n' Mr. Shores' store umbrella. Gran'ma
Mullins feels awful over Hiram's goin' away like that; she says she 's
brought him up so neat 'n' always a vest on Sunday 'n' only
shirt-sleeves in summer, 'n' now to think of him goin' off on his
weddin'-trip in Mr. Shores' umbrella!--but Lucy don't care--nor Hiram
neither--'n' they 're goin' to take along a piece of sand-paper 'n'
sand-paper the shine off the ring on the train. Polly Allen 'n' the
deacon is laughin' to fits over them. Everythin' 's very different with
Polly 'n' the deacon. The deacon says it ain't in reason as a man of
sixty-two can look forward to many more weddin's, 'n' he 's goin' to sit
with his arm around Polly, 'n' he don't care who chooses to suspeck they
're weddin'-trippin'. They 're goin' to be all new clothes right through
to their skins, 'n' Polly 's goin' to have a orange-blossom bunch on her
hat. The deacon says he 'll pay for all the rice folks are willin' to
throw, 'n' it 's a open secret as he 's goin' to give the minister a
gold piece. The minister was smilin' all over town about it until Mr.
Kimball told him he see a gold quarter-of-a-dollar once. He's hopin' for
a five, but Mr. Shores says he knows positive as the deacon got two
two-dollar-and-a-halfs at the bank when his wife died, and he gave one
to the minister then 'n' probably he 's been savin' the other to get
married again with."
Susan paused for breath--a vital necessity--and then went on:
"But dear me, Mrs. Lathrop, all that ain't what I set out to tell you,
'n' even if it's a pleasure to you to hear it, it ain't in reason as I
should take my time to talk to you about other people's affairs. You may
be interested in other people's affairs, but I ain't, 'n' we started to
talk about mine 'n' what I set out to talk about I talk about or else I
stay at home. It was my troubles as I was goin' to make a clean high
breast of, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' I 'll lay any odds as by the time I get
through you 'll have little feelin' to sleep in you. The Lord says, 'To
him who hath shall be given,' 'n' I will in confidence remark as I 've
just been achin' to give it to you for these many days. You 've always
been poor, but you 've never seemed to mind; now I 'm poor (yes, Mrs.
Lathrop, jump if you like"--for Mrs. Lathrop had started in
surprise--"but it 's so) 'n' _I_ mind; I mind very much, I mind all up
'n' down and kitty-cornered crossways, 'n' if I keep on gettin' poor,
Lord have mercy on you, for I shall certainly not be able to look on
calmly at no great amount of rockin'."
Mrs. Lathrop stared widely--and gasped openly. Susan continued:
"It all began with Mr. Kimball 'n' his gettin' the fever of
speckilation. Mr. Kimball said he thought he 'd rather get rich quick
than not get rich at all. That was the way he put it 'n' it sounded so
sensible 't I felt to agree. Then he begin to unfold how (he had the
newspaper in his hand), 'n' as soon as he was unfolded I read the
advertisement. It was a very nice advertisement an' no patent medicine
could have sounded easier to take in. You buy two rubber trees 'n' then
wait two years 'n' get fifty per cent till you die. Well, Mrs. Lathrop,
I went over that advertisement fifty times to try 'n' see what to do 'n'
yet the more I studied it the less faith I had in it somehow. The
picture of the man who tended the trees was up on top 'n' little
pictures of him made a kind of pearl frame around the whole, 'n' he was
honest enough lookin', as far as I could judge, but--as I told Mr.
Kimball--what was to guarantee us as he 'd stick to the same job steady,
'n' I certainly did n't have no longin' in me to buy a rubber tree in
southeast Peru 'n' then leave it to be hoed around by Tom, Dick, 'n'
Harry. So I shook my head 'n' said 'no' in the end 'n' then we looked up
railway stocks. Mr. Kimball read me a list of millionaires 'n' he asked
me if I would n't like to be called 'Susan Clegg, queen of the Western
Pacific'--but I 'm too old to be caught by any such chaff, 'n' I told
him so to his face, and then it was that we come to his favorite scheme
of the 'Little Flyer in Wheat.' That was what he called it, 'n' I must
say that I think it's a pretty good name, only if I know myself I 'll
buy wheat as never sets down hereafter.
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, it took a deal of talkin' 'n' Mr. Kimball had to do
a lot of figgerin' before my eyes afore I was ready to believe him when
he said as five of us could go in together 'n' double our money every
few days for a month or so. He showed me as what he was figgerin' from
was printed in plain letters 'n' red ink in a city paper, 'n' after a
while I opened my mouth 'n' swallowed the whole thing, red ink 'n' all.
Mr. Kimball, Mr. Dill, Mr. Shores, me, 'n' me over again, was the five,
'n' we bought the share right off, fully believin' as we 'd begin the
wheat-flyin' the same way--" Susan paused and set her teeth a little
vigorously for a moment,--then:
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, that was the way it all begun, 'n' I can lay my
hand anywhere 'n' swear as all my bad luck is founded solid on Mr.
Kimball in consequence. The very day after we begun with our fly instid
of doublin' he halved in the mornin' paper 'n' it seemed we 'd got to
buy him all over again or it was good-by Johnny. Me bein' the only one
with money known to be ready 'n' idle they brought the paper to me to
save the share, 'n' I can only say, Mrs. Lathrop, as I wish as you could
have seen their faces when they saw mine. I saw I was a lamb sittin'
among the sharks, but I see, too, as I 'd have to come to time 'n' I got
the money, 'n' then we set down--Mr. Dill, Mr. Shores, 'n' me--to figger
on how much of the share was mine on the new deal. It struck me, 'n' it
strikes me now, 'n' it always will strike me, as any one as owns
two-fifths of a thing and then buys the whole thing over again owns
seven-fifths of it from then on, but Mr. Dill had the face to tell me to
my face as it wa'n't so at all. He figgered the share at 100 'n' us paid
down at 50 'n' me all together as aggravatin' up to 45, 'n' I could only
sit starin' 'n' stark ravin' dumb to see where he would come out after
that. I did n't say nothin' of what I felt to him or Mr. Shores, for the
very good reason as I wanted to save all my feelin's for Mr. Kimball,
but I tell you that a volcano gettin' itself made in the beginnin' is
floatin' lily-pads beside the inside of me that hour.
"I went down-town that afternoon 'n' I aired myself pretty thoroughly
over the whole town, I can assure you. Mr. Allen said I 'd better pocket
my loss 'n' give up dabblin' in stocks, but I did n't see no great sense
in what he said. I did n't have nothin' to pocket, everything was
gone,--'n' so far as dabblin' goes I wa'n't dabblin', I was in up to my
nose. But Mr. Kimball come out as brassy as a bass-drum 'n' showed me a
picture of wheat layin' on his back in bed takin' a tonic with four
doctors doin' up his room work for him. The doctors was all millionaires
on that stock list of railroads 'n' I counted on their knowin' what they
were givin' him, so I come home quite a little easier, 'n' that night I
slept like a ton of hay. But the next day!--my Lord alive, you remember
the next day, don't you, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' it must have been arsenic as
them four had put in his bottle, for I was up in the garret makin' a
thistle-down pillow 'n' there come Ed tearin' up on his bicycle to tell
me as I must stick in ten dollars more on a margin. 'On a what?' I
hollered from the window. 'On a margin,' he hollered from under the
porch. Well, really, Mrs. Lathrop, I do believe if he had n't been under
the porch I would have throwed something down on him. My, but I was mad!
I come down that garret-ladder like a greased pan 'n' I tied my bonnet
on 'n' walked straight in on Mr. Kimball. That was one time as he did
very little jokin', 'n' in the end he put in five of the ten himself 'n'
then we both sat down 'n' tried to figger out as to how much of that
share we each owned. I will confess as takin' down stoves was lookin'
out of the window beside that job, 'n' in the end he made out as that if
the share was worth the whole of itself I 'd own half, but bein' worth
only what had happened to it there was n't the half in the whole. So I
come home 'n' dreamed nothin' but nightmares runnin' wildly up 'n' down
me.
"You know what happened next!--it was the next mornin', 'n' I was makin'
bread with a very heavy dough when Ed come bouncin' in for three dollars
more margin. Well, I honestly thought I 'd bu'st. I blazed up so quick
'n' so sudden that Ed fell back agin the table, 'n' then I shook till
the window rattled. It was a good minute before I could speak, 'n' when
I spoke, I may in truth remark, Mrs. Lathrop, that I never spoke plainer
nor firmer in my life,--'Edward Andrews'--I says--'Edward Andrews, you
paddle yourself right back to Mr. Kimball 'n' tell him that my patience
is very short 'n' is gettin' shorter each minute, 'n' you may just
casually mention that I ain't got no more money to margin with not now
'n' not never. If a thing as I 've paid nigh to eight-fifths for is
shrunk to less than half of itself Mr. Dill 'n' Mr. Shores can margin
for it from now on--I'm done forever.' 'N' I was done, too--but I never
bargained on what came next!--Mr. Kimball traded that share in wheat for
two in a Refrigerator Trust 'n' never even so much as sneezed about it
to me, 'n' I will say, Mrs. Lathrop, as I consider that the Bible sayin'
'Honor among thieves' ought to apply to me just as much as to any one
else. 'N' there I went into the city as unsuspectin' as a can brimful of
buttermilk 'n' bought a paper to read comin' home on the cars, 'n' what
should I unfold but wheat runnin' up a ladder along with a bull to get
out of the way of a lot of wild-lookin' lambs! The ladder-rungs was
numbered 'n' I was sharp enough to see as them numbers was money 'n'
that wheat had one leg safe on 110; so I kited home to sell out--'n' it
was then I learned about the Refrigerator!
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop!--well, _Mrs_. Lathrop, what do you think was my
feelin's then?--I tell you boilin' lava 'n' India's sunny strand was n't
hotter than me that minute. Me--the backbone of the whole thing 'n' sold
out like I was a mummy while I was in town buyin' darnin'-cotton!"
Miss Clegg shifted her weight to the other foot and drew a long, fresh
breath.
"Mr. Kimball 'n' me has never been the same since," she continued with
warmth;--"we had enough to make us different, Heaven knows, for from
that day on misfortune has just dogged and rabbited me, I know. The
winter was so cold that the only way the Refrigerator Trust could come
out even was to burn up toward spring, 'n' the day it burnt wheat was
sittin' on 140, kissin' his hand to the new crop."
"But Mr. Kim--" interposed Mrs. Lathrop.
"Oh, well, of course, havin' Mr. Shores fail right opposite brightened
everything for him--I 'd smile myself if any one was to fail right
opposite me, 'n' I said just that very thing to Mr. Shores the mornin'
after. I says,--I says, 'Mr. Shores, you must consider that this is a
world of ups and downs, 'n' that if you don't like to fail your failure
is makin' Mr. Kimball happy 'n' your loss will be his credit.' But Mr.
Shores was too busy to talk, so I bought two skewers to encourage him
'n' come out, 'n' within a week I found to my sorrow as I was pretty
unpleasantly near to a mark-down sale myself."
"It was--" observed Mrs. Lathrop, sadly.
"Yes," said her friend, "that's just when it was,--that very self-same
week. I was in the square listenin' to Gran'ma Mullins' everlastin' tale
of woe over Hiram 'n' Lucy, 'n' up come the blacksmith with a tale of
woe for myself. Now, Mrs. Lathrop, you know me 'n' you 've known me a
long time 'n' you 've heard me tell this a good many times 'n' yet I
want to ask you one time more,--_do_ you think any one but the
blacksmith 'n' Mr. Dill would ever have blamed me for the crick's
washing out back of the blacksmith's 'n' lettin' the anvil 'n' the hind
legs of Mr. Dill's horse slide out sudden? Of course, I own the
blacksmith shop 'n' of course I rent it, but--as I told him 'n' Mr. Dill
both that very day--nobody can't rent common sense nor yet keep track of
men's washouts 'n' horses' hind legs. I knowed all the time I was
walkin' towards the crick that it was goin' to be a bad business, but I
never expected to see nothin' as looked like Mr. Dill's horse, 'n' I
never again shall hope to see nothin' as 'll look like Mr. Dill's looks
as he looked at the horse. Not as his horse was n't worth lookin' at
either. His legs had gone out behind so far 'n' so unexpected that it
seemed like he could n't get them high enough 'n' close enough to suit
him, 'n' he just stood there drawin' them up alternate for all the world
like a fly on fly-paper. Mr. Dill said he felt like if his horse was n't
ever goin' to be able to h'ist his legs no quicker'n that he 'd have to
have damages, 'n' at that word I nigh to sat right down. I tell you
what, Mrs. Lathrop, Mr. Weskin has bred this damage idea too deep into
this town for any comfort. It 's got to where it's better to hurt
yourself most any way than to damage some one else only a little. I
would n't take the chances of sayin' 'shoo' to a hen on a slippery
mornin', 'n' things has come to a pretty pass when you 've got to
consider a hen's back-slidin's. Such bein' the case I felt more 'n a
little troubled when Mr. Dill said damages, but I tried to look on the
bright side, 'n' I told him that it seemed to me that a proper-minded
horse would have hauled in his legs when he felt himself slippin' in
half. Mr. Dill said his horse unfortunately could n't see with his tail
'n' was also brought up to consider anvils as solid. I answered as all I
could say was as it was a great pity as his horse was n't built enough
like the rest of the world to have better hindsight than foresight,--'n'
then I looked at the anvil in the crick--'n' then I come home."
"'N' that--" said Mrs. Lathrop, sadly.
"Yes, that very night!--it was that very night that the lightnin' struck
my house"--Susan halted a moment to turn and look at the house. "I never
will see why the lightnin' had to strike my house, Mrs. Lathrop, with
yours so handy right next door; but it did strike it--'n' me inside
sleepin' the sleep of the nigh to poverty-stricken 'n' done-up, 'n'
never as much as dreamin' of bein' woke by a brick bouncin' out of my
own flesh 'n' blood stove-hole. My heavens alive! what a night that was,
'n' even if nothin' catched fire everythin' in kingdom come rained in,
'n' when mornin' come 'n' I see what a small hole it was after all I
would n't ever have believed it if you 'd swore it till the week after
doomsday."
"And then--" said Mrs. Lathrop, sympathetically.
"Yes, 'n' then come the roof-mendin'. I never can feel to blame myself
there because I did n't want to pay no carpenter, 'n' you know yourself,
Mrs. Lathrop, as it looked just as easy to get up on that roof as to
fall off any other. I hung the shingles around my neck 'n' put the nails
in my mouth 'n' the hammer down my back, 'n' then I went up the lattice
'n' got over the little window on to the ridge-pole. You know, Mrs.
Lathrop, how simple it all seemed from the ground, 'n' I was to just sit
edgeways from the end of the peak right along up to the hole, but you
've heard me remark afore 'n' I will now remark again as no one on the
ground has any notion of ridge-poles as they really are. A ridge-pole
from the ground, Mrs. Lathrop, looks like it could n't be fell off, but
from itself it feels like it could n't be stuck on to, 'n' I thought I
'd swallow the last one of them nails gaspin' afore I got to the hole.
You saw me tryin' to get to the hole, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' then you saw me
tryin' to get the hammer. I thought I 'd go somer-settin' head over
heels afore I got it fished out 'n' then there was n't no place to lay
it down!
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I never shall be able to look back on that day and
hour without a cold conscience. It was certainly a awful time. I took a
nail out of my mouth 'n' a shingle off my neck 'n' made ready to begin.
I took the hammer 'n'--just then--I looked down--'n' if there was n't
the minister 'n' his wife just turnin' in my gate!
"Well, of course, that came nigh to endin' me ever 'n' ever! No
Christian would ever dream of answering her front-door bell from her
back ridge-pole, 'n' I never was one to do nothin' as folks could talk
of. I see it was do or die right then or there 'n' I made a quick slide
for the porch roof. You know what happened, 'n' I never have felt to
forgive the minister, even if it was n't him as drove that unexpected
nail in my roof. Mrs. Lathrop, we 've spoke of this afore, 'n' I 've
said then, 'n' I 'll say now, that in spite of my likin' for you, _no_
one as rocks forever on a cushion can be able to even surmise what it is
to slide quick over a unexpected nail, 'n' so it was only natural that
even in the first hour I never looked for anything from you but Pond's
Extract. But I may remark further--for it 's right you should know--that
nothin' in my whole life ever rasped me worse the wrong way of my hair
than to watch you rockin' that fortnight that I had my choice to stand
up or go to bed, 'n' even in bed I had to get up 'n' get out if I wanted
to turn over. Mr. Shores told Mrs. Macy as probably it was the sun as
had drawed that nail, 'n' all I can say is that I hope if it was the sun
'n' he ever takes it into his head to draw another of my nails, that he
'll either draw it completely out or leave it completely in, for I know
as I never want to come down from another ridge-pole by way of another
nail--not while I 'm alive anyhow."
A short pause and a long sigh. Mrs. Lathrop sighed, too.