Somesville, but nothing came of it.'
'Just as well now,' said Zadoc coldly; adding, half in dream, 'I
recollect _all_ them Somesville girls was pretty. 'Lizabeth come from
there.'
'Who?' asked Jeems.
''Lizabeth,--the wife,--why, she was your sister, Jeems!'
'So she was! I forgot!'
Many madmen speak in the past tense at the stage where they seem to look
back on their proper selves.
The sun neared the west.
'Lie down again,' said Jeems; 'I’ll watch.'
'Any sail--that time before?'
'No sail, Zadoc.'
The wind dropped near night, and Jeems lay on the raft with eyes that
glowed back the red reflection of the setting sun. As it moved toward
the liquid line of sea, its brilliance fell into the smother of a cloud
through which its sides shone with the softened, satin polish of the
second apple as Jeems last saw it. The thought struck him in the middle
of his heart, which began leaping as when, at nineteen, a girl’s smooth
fingers lingered on his own. He hungered for sight of the second apple
as for nothing else in the whole of the world before. He wished the raft
might roll so violently as to throw off the dipper, and then, before he
realized, his own foot had kicked it into the ocean and the apple smiled
before him, securely laid between two great planks at the bottom of the
raft. Zadoc slept. Jeems was alone with the second apple!
He looked at it between caked lids and let his eyes rove over and over
its rare beauties. For the first time since he was born, his whole
being--the knotted body whose abundant energies had been quite absorbed
by the arduous doings of his roving life, and the big heart of him
where the rich red of the blood was pent and packed with never a bit of
an outlet for relief--thrilled with the keen, delicious mystery of
Desire. His meagre lips, crackling like snake-skin, repeated in
monotone, as if to hold his conscience under some mesmeric charm, 'I
must! I must!'
The mere thought of the cool heart of the fruit made his pulse spring as
if whipped. To imagine the exquisite satisfaction which would follow his
teeth as they sank slowly, slowly--sank farther and farther through
those moistening walls until, at the very acme of delight, they met!
Christ! He was on it in an instant, holding it with both hands and not
lifting it, but just putting his face down and keeping it so in a
passionate embrace. He _would_ eat, if he died for it. He _must_--
''Lizabeth!' It was Zadoc, dreaming.
''Lizabeth! Good old girl. Good girl. Bye-bye, home at sundown. Good
old, good--ah-h-h-h!'
The voice fell away in an idiotic sigh. Jeems sprang to his feet and
stood swaying with the raft, the image of his sister in his eyes. Off
east, where the gray shades grew, he saw her walking on the sea, her
long hair blown before, like a cloud of jet-black flame, and her face
all lovely.
''Lizabeth!' Jeems spread his arms; but she did not see him, for she
looked at Zadoc as he lay there at her brother’s feet, and her eyes
rained love, which calmed the sea like oil.
And then Jeems saw himself as if from far. ''Lizabeth!' he cried; but
she did not hear, so he held his two arms up toward the sky and
whispered, 'God, God, _God_! Forgive Jeems Harbutt, a wicked
sinner,--and take him,'--his voice sank to a low, unhuman key,--'and
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory, forever--O God!'
And with arms still raised in suppliance for his great unselfish soul,
he sprang out backward to the darkening sea.
THE PURPLE STAR
BY REBECCA HOOPER EASTMAN
I
WHEN the Fifth Graders returned in the fall, they knew, to a boy and a
girl, that they were to go to Room H, and they knew, too, that by
passing over the threshold they would automatically become the elderly
and dignified Sixth Grade. Proud and disdainful were Sixth Graders, in
that they carried the largest geographies made; highly pedantic, too,
were they, because they coped with mysterious institutions called
fractions, which occupied the clean, unexplored back part of one’s
arithmetic. Fearsomely learned were they in words of seven, eight, and
nine syllables. To be one of such was to be indeed Grown Up. When the
new class, half-timorous, and wholly suspicious, entered Room H, they
were startled to find their thirty names already written in a neat
column on the blackboard, with an imperative 'DO NOT ERASE' underneath.
How on earth had Miss Prawl found out their names?
It was hard for Theodora Bowles to take her seat inconspicuously, as if
she were no better than stupid Freddy Beal; as if, in fact, she had not
been for five years the leader of the class. Theodora, however, was not
nearly so obscure as she supposed; for Miss Prawl, in secret session
with the Fifth-Grade teacher, had been informed that Theodora was so
quick-witted that she usually called out the answer before the teacher
had finished putting the question. Furthermore, whenever the class was
asked to recite in concert, she invariably shouted the answer first, and
then the rest of the class repeated what Theodora had said, and were
therefore always right. The fact that she knew more than any one but the
teacher had made Theodora’s life one delightful arrogance of
intellectual supremacy. Pretending that she was royalty in disguise,
Theodora gazed impatiently at Miss Prawl, and wondered how long it would
be before the new teacher found out how bright she was.
After all the children were located at desks corresponding to the ones
they had occupied in Grades Five, Four, Three, Two, and One, Miss Prawl
opened a drawer of her shiny, spotless desk, and took out a box which
proved to contain six new pieces of different-colored chalk, lying side
by side. The combination of the bright colors was so alluring that every
child immediately resolved to save up for just such an outfit, in order
to play hopscotch in colors. With every eager eye riveted upon her, Miss
Prawl took out the piece of pink chalk, and made a very beautiful pink
star on the blackboard, directly after Stella Appleton’s name. Stella,
it may be said, always had a good deal of undeserved prominence, because
her name began with an A.
'If, at the end of the week, Stella or any one of the rest of you is
perfect in spelling, that person will get a pink star after his name,'
announced Miss Prawl. And she put away the pink chalk, and drew a
blue-chalk star after Freddy Beal’s name. 'You will all receive blue
stars if you are perfect in arithmetic,' she continued. 'And yellow--'
she drew a yellow star--'yellow is for perfect geography. Green'--she
made a green star--'green is for perfect reading; and red--'Miss Prawl
paused impressively--'red is for perfect deportment.'
After this entrancing monologue, Miss Prawl rubbed out the explanatory
stars, replaced the chalk carefully in the box, and waited. Theodora’s
hand at once shot up into the air.
'Well?' asked Miss Prawl.
'My-name’s-Theodora-Bowles,' said Theodora. 'And there’s a piece of
purple chalk in your box, Miss Prawl, that you didn’t say anything
about. And so I wondered if you hadn’t forgotten to tell us about purple
stars.'
The whole class leaned forward in breathless expectancy, proud of their
discerning Theodora.
'I am very glad that you asked me this question, Theodora,' said Miss
Prawl. 'I keep the purple chalk for a very special, wonderful
reason.'Thirty pairs of glistening eyes grew rounder. 'The purple star,'
said Miss Prawl, in a hushed voice, 'is the greatest reward that I can
bestow on any girl or boy. It is given only for some very great deed:
for some deed which shall show that the girl or boy is either very brave
or very kind, or both. Although I have seen a great many fine girls and
boys, it has never happened that I felt that the right time had come to
give any one a purple star. But perhaps this will be purple-star year.'
Theodora listened with a great dawning worship in her eyes. How exciting
it was of Miss Prawl to set up such an impossibly high standard! And how
altogether interesting Miss Prawl was, too! Her eyes seemed much given
to dancing and twinkling; her voice was sweet and pleasant, being
especially persuasive when she said 'boy' or 'girl'; and her smile was a
blended maternal-siren affair which nobody of either sex had ever been
able to resist. Miss Prawl made one feel a little ashamed, as if one had
never before appreciated what a privilege and a responsibility it was to
be a boy or a girl. The new teacher’s dress was a soft, pretty brown,
dainty and fresh. Yes, Theodora resolved that she must attain the purple
star, and thus forever become famous.
Just as she had arrived at this engrossing decision, the hall door
opened, and Mr. Wadsmore, the adored, portly principal, strode
energetically in, leading a new boy. This person, this upstart, this
unidentified stranger, this perfect nobody of a new boy faced the
critical, penetrating eyes of the assembled class with an almost
superhuman ease.
'Miss Prawl, this young man is Charley Starr,' said Mr. Wadsmore. 'Can
you make a place for him?'
Beside Theodora there was an empty seat, the only one in the room. As it
was on the 'girls' side,' the male aspirants for education with
difficulty smothered their roars of laughter at the idea of a boy’s
sitting, debased, among the girls. Observing this ill-concealed
hilarity, Miss Prawl at once led Charley to the empty seat beside
Theodora.
'If you’ll sit here to-day, Charley, I will rearrange the seating
to-morrow,' she said.
As Charley sank into the place assigned, Theodora blushed painfully.
Being nearest to the unwelcome masculine stranger embarrassed her
frightfully. Her hand flew up into the air.
'MayIgwoutandgettadrink?' she asked.
'Yes, Theodora,' replied Miss Prawl evenly.
She had heard of Theodora’s continuous and unquenchable thirst, and had
been advised by no less a person than Mr. Wadsmore that the best course
was to allow Theodora to drink as much and as often as she wished.
After a copious raid on the water-cooler, Theodora returned, feeling a
little bloated, but much more composed and natural.
'Five minutes for whispering,' announced Miss Prawl, at eleven o’clock.
A deafening hubbub immediately arose.
'Say,' began Charley Starr to Theodora, from behind his desk cover, 'how
do you like _her_?' He nodded toward Miss Prawl, and winked.
Theodora was unwilling to indulge in the intimacies of gossip on so
slight an acquaintance.
'Where’d you come from, anyway?' she icily inquired.
'Skipped up from the Fourth Grade.'
'You did!' Hauteur was drowned in awe.
'You bet. It’s the second time I’ve skipped in this school, too.'
Theodora studied Charley with detached, incipient dislike. Charley must
be very bright indeed to have skipped two classes. She herself, with all
her brains, had never arrived at the pinnacle of skipping. And she had
so much wanted to feel the importance of marching into chapel with the
class next higher up, and of smiling back at her old mates with
condescending tolerance. Theodora did not know that she might have
skipped several times, but for the fact that her parents, who believed
in the slow unfolding of her almost too brilliant mind, had begged to
have her kept back.
All unconscious of this parental duplicity, Theodora was having some
very uncomfortable minutes. If Charley Starr had skipped two classes, it
looked as if the impossible were true--that there actually existed on
the earth a person who was brighter than she. It could not be, and yet,
and yet--Charley looked disturbingly intelligent. But there, of course
he had not studied last year’s subjects in detail, so he could not
possibly compete with her. And when she received the purple star, she
would be entirely safe. Star--why, the new boy’s name was Star.
'Is your name spelled plain _S-t-a-r_?' she asked.
'_S-t-a-double r_,' replied Charley. 'I’m Charles Augustus Starr,
Junior,' he said, in a bragging tone.
Theodora gave a shriek of delight, and punched the girl in front of her.
'Say, Laura, the new boy’s father is Coal-Cart Starr!' she cried.
Laura immediately shrieked, too, and so did all the other girls when
they heard the news. Bewildered at so much noise, Miss Prawl rang the
bell, and asked Theodora, who seemed to be a sort of cheer-leader, to
look up the word 'whisper' in the large dictionary, and write the
definition on the blackboard.
The cause of all the undue commotion was the fact that Charles Augustus
Starr, Senior, was in the coal business, and that daily, all day long,
up and down the city went huge coal carts labeled 'C. A. Starr.' At
Theodora’s instigation, the girls in her class had formed the 'C. A.
Starr Club,' which was a very original organization. There were no dues,
and the responsibilities were light. They consisted of merely looking
upward into the sky, and of pointing upward simultaneously with the
index finger of the right hand every time one met a coal cart. C. A.
Starr was thus cunningly interpreted as 'See a star!' It rather spoiled
things that there were no stars to be seen in the daytime, and that the
club members never met any coal carts at night. Still, it was extremely
good fun, when you caught sight of a coal cart, to point up and look up
suddenly, and to have the vulgar, uninitiated outsider ask, 'What are
you doing?' and then to explain that you belonged to a secret order, and
that there were times when it was necessary to give the high sign.
As Theodora was president of the See-A-Star Club, she at once called a
meeting, to be held at the noon hour, for the purpose of considering
whether or not club members ought to give the high sign in the presence
of C. A. Starr, Junior. It was at length decided by the president, who
did all the talking, that they would point up and look up when they met
C. A. Starr, Junior, outside the school grounds. Otherwise, with Charley
Starr right there in the same room, they would have to be pointing up
and looking up all the time, and Miss Prawl might with reason object.
'Say,' said Charley Starr to Theodora, in the afternoon whispering
period, 'did you hear about the purple star?'
Theodora nodded. She was speechless, because she had just crammed an
entire licorice 'shoe-string' into her mouth.
'Well, I’m laying all my plans to get that star,' proclaimed Charley.
'So’m I,' said Theodora, thickly, with black lips. 'So there’s no use in
your trying. I’d give up the idea, if I was you.'
'Not much I won’t. I’d like to see a girl get ahead of _me_,' retorted
Charles, witheringly.
Violent sex-antagonism sprang up full grown within the soul of Theodora.
This insignificant upstart who casually skipped must be taught the
lesson, once and for all, that school was one of the places where girls
excelled.
'Let us refresh our memories by reviewing some of last year’s
geography,' said Miss Prawl, ringing the dinner-bell which called the
class to order.
'Aha!' thought Theodora, swallowing the last of the shoe-string
whole,--clearing the decks for action, as it were,--'I guess I’ll
surprise C. A. Starr, Junior, _now_!'
'Recite in concert. What is the capital of Maine?' asked Miss Prawl.
'Augusta-on-the-Kennebec!' shouted Theodora Bowles and Charley Starr, as
in one voice. 'Ter-ron-the-Kennebec!' echoed the rest of the class.
'What is the capital of New Hampshire?'
Again the two brilliant ones roared the right answer, and the rest
recited, 'Curd-on-the-Merrimac!'
'Vermont?' continued Miss Prawl.
'Montpelier-on-the-Winooski!' yelled the rivals.
'She’s going straight through the United States in order,' decided
Theodora. 'I know 'em all, backwards and forwards, and I guess Charley
Starr will get left long before we get to the Dakotas.'
'What is the capital of Rhode Island?' asked the wily Miss Prawl, who
had noted the absent look on Theodora’s face, and purposely omitted
Massachusetts. And she caught everybody in the class.
'Boston-on-Massachusetts-Bay!' the leaders cried. And the parrots
mimicked them.
Miss Prawl paused so long that Theodora recalled her question.
'Providence-and-Newport-on-Narragansett-Bay!' howled Charles Starr,
_ahead_ of Theodora, and in a voice that could be heard all over the
building.
Theodora could scarcely keep back the flood of her tears. Charley Starr
had thought quicker than she! It was the first time in all her life that
she had been worsted, and--well, those smarting tears were already
spilling over and showing.
'MayIgwoutandgettadrink?' she asked. And from the depths of the
dressing-room, where she was sobbing into the heart of the roller towel,
she could hear Charles, the usurper, yelling,--
'Harrisburg-on-the-Susquehanna!'
When Theodora felt able to return to society, the color which was
usually in her cheeks seemed to have concentrated at the end of her
nose, and her eyes looked sopping wet. Her intense little being,
however, was all afire with determination to win the purple star.
II
At the end of the week, Theodora and Charles had each a pink, blue,
yellow, green, and red star. So had several of the other children, for
that matter, but Theodora well knew that these others would have an
intellectual slump by the third or fourth week. She was right, for at
the end of the month, the names of Theodora Bowles and Charles Augustus
Starr, Junior, were the only ones that had a complete set of stars after
them.
'Miss Prawl, now, about what kind of a deed would a person have to do,
to get a purple star?' queried Charley, one day when he had stayed after
school for the express purpose of extracting some inside information
from Miss Prawl.
'That’s just exactly what Theodora asked me yesterday,' said Miss Prawl.
'The trouble is, I shan’t know, myself until the deed is done.'
'Miss Prawl, now, if I saved the President of the United States from a
runaway horse that wanted to stamp on him, would that deed get me a
purple star?'
'It might,' admitted Miss Prawl. 'That would be a brave, kind act.'
'If he would only move to Brooklyn, I might stand some show,' yearned
Charles.
'Now, Miss Prawl,' began Theodora excitedly, the day after the
Thanksgiving recess, 'if I discovered something that nobody had ever
discovered before, would that be a purple-star deed?'
'It would depend upon the nature of your discovery, Theodora. Of course,
while the world could not progress without discoveries, they are not
primarily brave, or kind.'
'That’s just the trouble,' sighed Theodora. But she still looked
hopeful. 'Miss Prawl, now, would it be a purple-star deed, if I
discovered that there was another sun up in the sky besides the one we
are already using?'
'If you discovered anything as remarkable as that, Theodora, I should
feel entirely justified in giving you a purple star,' replied Miss
Prawl, reveling in Theodora’s imagination. 'But you mustn’t worry about
it,' she advised. 'And you mustn’t try too hard, dear.'
Theodora could hardly believe her ears. Dear! A schoolteacher had called
her _dear_. How romantic she felt! She took her seat with such an
expression of ecstasy on her face that Miss Prawl wondered what she
could be thinking about now.
Although Miss Prawl had asked her not to try too hard, Theodora, under
the impelling flattery of 'dear,' resolved that she would work more than
ever to do something kindly brave or bravely kind. As there didn’t seem
to be any deeds of that sort lying round loose waiting to be done,
Theodora worked up a bitter grudge against George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln, who, before she was born, had taken a mean advantage of her by
saving the country and freeing the slaves. Still, by thinking constantly
of the purple star, and kind bravery, she hoped to keep in the proper
frame of mind to recognize the great deed when it came along just aching
to be done. Meanwhile, she practised brave kindness, by smiling lovingly
and saying sweetly 'Good morning!' to the school janitor, who was a
faithful, glowering old dog of a Scotchman--one of the few human beings
who are impervious to blandishments. If any one ever spoke to him
unnecessarily, this janitor fixed a murderous gaze on the offender, as
if he would deeply relish killing him, if he weren’t too busy mopping or
washing blackboards. All those who were not practising bravery avoided
him as much as possible.
It gets on one’s nerves to try to live in perpetual exaltation, and
Theodora was very often cross. Especially was she irritated at the sight
of Charley Starr being driven home from school by a coxcombical groom,
in a large, gleaming, red-wheeled cart, drawn by a nobby bob-tailed
horse. Theodora herself lived just one block away from the school, and
walked humbly to and from the halls of learning. She was not jealous of
Charles, but he annoyed her, because he completely upset her theory that
all very rich children were correspondingly stupid. Usually one could
work out the law of compensation very pleasantly, and in a way that was
extremely complimentary to one’s self. The only way in which she could
revenge herself on her wealthy, fortunate, scintillating rival was to
call meetings of the See-A-Star Club on a certain street-corner past
which Charley and his liveried groom invariably drove. And when Charles
was conveyed by, self-consciously,--he hated the pomp and polish which
his mother prided herself upon,--the See-A-Star Club raised eyes and
right hands, and gave its ear-piercing, steam-whistle 'yell.'
Charles always blushed deeply, being much embarrassed before the groom,
and tried to wheedle Theodora into an explanation of her acts. She was,
however, iron-heartedly uncommunicative, and continued her persecutions.
III
On a certain March afternoon, when it was snowing most unseasonably
hard, and the children were drowsy and listless, Miss Prawl dismissed
her class early, with instructions to go straight home, and to change
their shoes and stockings the minute they got there. On account of the
deep, blinding snow, Theodora reluctantly called off the meeting of the
See-A-Star Club, and as she plunged home through the biting icy flakes,
she mused on the futility of even trying to get a purple star. There was
no use in hoping to excel Charley Starr in the matter of ordinary stars,
because he was always perfect. Neither he nor she had so far been absent
or late, and neither had failed in anything. The only solution,
therefore, was to invent some way of being more than perfect.
As the snow continued to fall all night, and was still coming down the
next morning, Theodora, besides her usual wraps, wore a pair of shiny,
unused rubber boots, a Christmas present from her grandmother, who had
always worn rubber boots to school when _she_ was little, and thought
that girls ought to now. With a somewhat lumbering gait, Theodora waded
to school, and arrived just in time to see Charles Augustus Starr,
Junior, being magnificently driven up in a regal sleigh with great
accompanying jingling of bells, and waving in the wind of red and yellow
plumes. Besides Charley and Theodora, very few of the class were
present; and as for chapel--well, it looked desolate and emptily bleak,
instead of being hot and crowded as usual.
Miss Prawl went through the lessons rapidly, and at eleven o’clock, Mr.
Wadsmore put his head in the door, and said that school must be
dismissed at once. There was a high gale, and the children were to go
home as quickly as they could get there.
The next morning, the snowstorm had become a blizzard, a dangerous
monster of a blizzard, in fact the one great historic blizzard--the
blizzard of 1888. And the milkman left no milk at Theodora’s house that
morning. And the rooms were so dark that all the gas in the house had to
be lit. And the choreman couldn’t come to fix the furnace, and the fire
went out. Everything was cold, shivery, and unreal. Outside, the great
banks of snow were impenetrable. From the downstairs rooms, you couldn’t
have seen people on the other side of the street--supposing that there
had been any people to see. A policeman went by on a floundering horse,
but there were no wagons, and there was nobody walking--no red-faced
jocose postman, no iceman, no sedate business men, no scurrying,
scampering children.