IN WHICH THE SUMMER PASSES
Midsummer arrived, and David, healed of his wounds, pronounced himself
as "strong as a cricketer." What he meant by that Hoyle could only
conjecture, and, after much pondering, decided that his strength was now
so great that should he desire to do so, he could leap into the air or
jump long distances after the manner of crickets.
"You reckon you could jump as fer in one jump now as from here to
t'other side the water trough yandah?" he asked one day, as they sat on
the porch steps together.
"No, I don't reckon so," said David, laughing.
"Well, could you jump ovah this here house and the loom shed in one
jump?"
"I don't reckon so."
"Be sensible, honey son. You mustn't 'low him to ax ye fool questions,
Doctah. You knows they hain't nobody kin do such as that, Hoyle," called
his mother from within.
"He has some idea in his head. What is it, brother Hoyle?"
"I heered you tellin' Cass 'at you was gettin' strong as one o' these
here cricket bugs, an' I had one t'other day; he could jump as fer as
cl'ar acrost the po'ch--and he was only 'bout a inch long--er less 'n a
inch. I thought if brothah David was that strong, he could jump a heap."
David had comforted Hoyle for the loss of Cassandra from the home by
explaining that they were now become brothers for the rest of their
lives, and in order to give this assurance appreciable significance, he
had taken the small chap to the circus and had treated him to pink
lemonade and a toy balloon.
They had remained over until the next day, and Doctor Bartlett and David
had examined him all over at the old physician's office and then had
gone into a little room by themselves and stayed a long time, leaving
him outside. Then, to compensate for such gross neglect, David had
taken him to a clothing store and bought him a complete suit of store
clothing, very neat and pretty. Hoyle would have been in the seventh
heaven over all this, were it not, alas! that there the child for the
first time in his life looked into a mirror that revealed him to himself
from head to foot, little wry neck, hunched back and all.
David, not realizing this was a revelation to the little man, wondered,
as they walked away, that all his enthusiasm and exuberance of spirits
had left him, and that he walked at his side wearily and sadly silent.
His pathetic little legs spindled down from the smart new trousers, and
his hands dangled weakly from his thin wrists, albeit his fingers clung
tightly to his toy balloon.
"We're going back to the bishop's now, and we'll have a good dinner, and
then you'll have a whole hour to play with Dorothy before we leave for
home," said David, cheeringly. The child made no response other than to
slip his hand into David's. "What are you thinking about, brother
Hoyle?"
"Jest nothin'. I war a-wonderin'."
"Oh, there is a difference? What were you wondering?"
"Maw told me if you war that good to take me to a circus, I mustn't
bothah you with a heap o' questions 'at wa'n't no good."
"That's all right. I'm questioning you now."
"What war you an' that old man feelin' me all ovah for? War you tryin'
to make out hu' come my hade is sot like this-a-way? Reckon you r'aly
could set hit straight an' get this 'er lump off'n my back?"
"Don't worry about your head and your back. You have a very good head.
That's more than some can say."
"I nevah see nary othah boy like I be. You reckon that li'l' girl, she
thought I war quare?"
"What little girl?"
"Mrs. Towahs's li'l' girl. She said 'turn roun',' an' when I done hit,
she said 'turn roun' agin.' Then she said, 'Whyn't you hol' your hade
like I do?'"
"What did you say?"
"Didn't say nothin.' Jes' axed her whyn't she hol' her head like I did?
an' she said, 'Don't want to.' So I said, 'Don't want to.'" He twisted
his head about to look up in David's face, and his lips smiled, but in
his eyes was a suspicion of tears. His heart heavy for the child, David
praised him for a brave little chap, comforting him as best he could.
"You reckon she'd like me if I war to give her this here balloon?"
"No, you take that home to sister. The little girl can get one when the
circus comes again." But after dinner, David did not send Hoyle off to
play the hour with Dorothy. He took her on his knee and entertained them
both with tales and mimicry until he had them in gales of laughter, and
for the time being Hoyle forgot his troubles.
As the days passed, David became more and more interested in his patch
of ground and the growing things in his garden. Never had he labored
with his hands in this fashion, and each night he lay down to sleep
physically weary, in contentment of spirit. Steadily he progressed
toward the desired goal of health. In his young wife, also, he found a
rich satisfaction, watching her unfold and blossom into the gracious
wifehood and ladyhood he had dreamed of for her.
Together they used to stroll to the little farm, where she told him all
she knew about the crops--what was best for the animals, and what would
be needed for themselves. Long before David was able to oversee the work
himself, she had set Elwine Timms to sowing cow-peas and planting corn.
"Behold your heritage!" David said to her one morning, as they strolled
thus among the thrifty greenness and patches of vetch where the cow was
contentedly feeding. He laughed joyously and drew his wife's arm through
his. She looked up at him wistfully. He thought she sighed, and bent his
head to listen. "What was that little sound?"
"I was only thinking."
"We'll sit here where we sat that morning when we both put our hands to
the plough, and you tell me what you were thinking."
"I ought not to stop now, David. I've left all for mother to do. I was
that busy at the cabin I didn't get down to her this morning."
"You can't keep two homes going with only your own two dear hands,
Cassandra. It must be stopped. We'll find some one to live with your
mother and take your place." She gave a little gasp, then sat silently,
her hands dropped passively in her lap, and he thought she seemed sad.
He took her face between his hands and made her look into his eyes.
"Don't be worried, sweetheart; we'll make a few changes. You're mine
now, you know--not only to serve me and labor for me as you have been
doing all these weeks, but--"
"But I like it, David. I like doing for you. I hope it may always be so
I can do for you."
"Would you like me to become an invalid again so you could keep on in
the way you began?"
"Not that--but sometimes I think what if you shouldn't really need me!"
She hid her face on his breast. "I--I want you to need me--David!" It
was almost like a cry for help, as she said it.
"Dear heart, dear heart! What are you thinking and fearing? Can't you
understand? You are mine now, to be cared for and loved and held very
near and dear to my heart. We are no more twain, we are one."
"Yes, but--but--David, I--I want you to need me," she sobbed, and he
knew some thought was stirring in her heart which she could not yet put
into words. He comforted her and soothed her, explaining certain plans
which later he put into execution, so that her duties at the Fall Place
were brought to an end and he could have her always with him.
A daughter of her Uncle Cotton, who had gone down into South Carolina to
live, was induced to come and stay with the widow, and the girl's
brother came with her and helped David on the farm.
Then David made changes in and about his cabin. He built on another room
and put therein a cook stove. He could not bear to see his young wife
bending at the hearth preparing their meals, and when she demurred, he
explained that he wished to keep her as she was and not see her growing
old and wrinkled before her time, with the burning heat of the open fire
in her face, like many of the mountain women.
One evening,--they had eaten their supper out under the trees,--she
proposed they should walk up to her father's path, as she called the
spot toward which she so often lifted her eyes, and David was well
pleased to go with her. As they set out, she asked him to wait a moment
while she went back for something, and quickly returned, bringing his
flute.
"I've often wished father could have heard you play on this," she said,
as he took it from her hand.
They crossed the little river that tumbled and rushed among great
moss-covered boulders on its way to the fall, and followed its wayward
course toward its head, where the way was untrodden and wild, as if no
human foot had ever climbed along its banks. After a little they turned
off toward a tremendous rock of solid granite that had been cleft
smoothly in twain by some gigantic force of nature, and, walking between
the towering walls of stone, came out on the farther side upon a small
level space, where immense ferns and flags grew thickly in the rich
soil, held in place and kept damp by the great cool masses of stone.
Above this little dell the hill rose steeply, and Cassandra led him to a
narrow opening in the dense shrubbery surrounding the spot from which a
beaten path wound upward, overarched with thickly interlacing branches
of birch wood and hemlocks. Along this winding trail they climbed, until
they reached a cluster of enormous cedars which made the dark place on
the mountain Cassandra had pointed out to him from below. Here the path
widened so they could walk side by side, and continued along a level
line at the foot of the dark mass of trees.
"Here father used to walk up and down reading in his little books; seems
like I can hear his voice now. Sometimes he would look off over the
valley below us there and repeat parts by heart. Isn't it beautiful
here, David?"
"Heavenly beautiful!"
"I'm glad we never came here before."
"Why, dearest?"
"Because." She hesitated with parted lips, and cheeks flushed from the
climb. David stood with bared head. He felt as if he were in a
cathedral.
"And why because?" he asked again.
"For now we bring just happiness with us. We're not troubled or
wondering about anything. No sorrow comes with us. In our hearts we are
sure--sure--" She paused again and lifted her eyes to his.
"Sure that all is right when we belong to each other--this way?"
"Yes, sure! Oh, David, sure--sure!" She threw her arms about his neck
and drew his face down to hers. "It's even a greater happiness than when
he used to carry me in his arms here. There's no sorrow near us. It's
all far away."
Thus, sometimes she would throw off all the habitual reserve of her
manner and open her heart to him, following the rich impulses of her
nature to their glorious revelation.
"Now, David, sit here and play; play your flute as you did that first
time when I learned who made the music that I thought must be the
'Voices,' that time I climbed up to see."
They sat under the great cedars on a bank of moss, and David took the
flute from her hand, smiling as he thought of that moment when he had
stood among the blossoming laurel and watched her as she moved about his
cabin, the day before his hurt, and how she had kissed it.
"I used to sit here like this." She bent forward and rested her head on
his knee. She had a way of putting her two hands together as a child is
taught to hold them in prayer and placing them beneath her cheek; and so
she waited while David paused, his hand on her hair, and his eyes fixed
on the sea of hilltops where they melted into the sky,--a mysterious,
undulating line of the faintest blue, seen through the arching branches
above, and the swaying hemlocks on either side, and over the tops of a
hundred varieties of pines and deciduous trees beneath them, all down
the long slope up which they had climbed.
Thus they waited, until she lifted her head and looked into his eyes
questioningly. He bent forward and kissed her lips and then lifted the
flute to his own--but again paused.
"What are you thinking now, David?" she asked.
"So you really thought it was the 'Voices'? What was their message,
Cassandra?"
"I couldn't make it out then, but I thought of this place and of father,
and it was all at once like as if he would make me know something, and
I prayed God would he lead me to understand was it a message or not. So
that was the way I kept on following--until I--"
"You came to me, dear?"
"Yes."
"And what did you think the interpretation was then?"
"Yes, it was you--you, David. It was love--and hope--and
gladness--everything, everything--"
"Go on."
"Everything good and beautiful--but--sometimes it comes again--"
"What comes?"
"Play, David, play. I'll tell you another time in another place, not
here. No, no."
So he played for her until the dusk deepened around and below them, and
they had to make their way back stumblingly. When they came to the wild,
untrodden bank of the little river, David resigned the choosing of their
path entirely to her and followed close, holding her hand where she led.
When at last they reached their cabin, they did not light candles, but
sat long in the doorway conversing on the deep things of their souls.
It still seemed to David as if she held something back from him, and now
he begged her for a more perfect self-revealing.
"It is no longer as if we were separate, dearest; can't you remember and
feel that we are one?"
"In a way I do. It is very sweet."
"You say in a way. In what way?"
"Why, David?"
"I want your point of view."
"I see. We're not really one until we see from each other's hilltop, are
we?"
"No, and you never take me into the secret places of your heart and let
me look off from your own hilltop."
"Didn't I this very evening, David?"
"We stood on the same spot of earth and looked off on the same distance,
yet in my soul I know I did not see what you saw."
"Pictures come to me very suddenly and just float by, hardly understood
by myself. I didn't want you to see all I saw, David. I don't know how
comes it, but all the time, even in the midst of our great
gladness--right when it is most beautiful--far before me, right across
our way, is a place that is dim. It seems 'most like the shadows that
fall on the hills when those great piles of clouds pass through the sky,
when it is deep blue all around them and the sun shines everywhere
else."
"Your soul is still an undiscovered country to me, Cassandra."
"I should think you'd like that. Don't men love to go discovering? And
if you could get into the secret chambers, as you call them, you
wouldn't find much. Then you'd be sorry."
"Cassandra, what are you covering and holding back?"
"I don't know, David. It's like it was when I couldn't understand the
message of the 'Voices'! When it comes clear and strong, I'll tell you."
"Then there is something?"
"Yes."
With a little sigh, she rose and entered the cabin. He sat in silence as
she had left him, but soon she returned. Standing behind him in the
darkness, she put her interlaced fingers under his chin and drew his
face backward until she could see it, white in the dusk, beneath her
eyes.
"You have come back to explain?"
"If I can, David. It's hard for me to put in words what is so dim--what
I see. It's all just love for you, David. The love burns and blazes up
in me like the fire when it's fiercest on the hearth, when the day is
cold outside. You've seen it so. In the little books my father used to
read, there was a tale of a woman who had my name. She foretold the
sorrows to come. Perhaps she saw as I see things in the dim pictures,
only more clearly, and wisdom was given her to interpret them.
"Often and often I've felt that in me--that strange seeing and knowing
before, and I don't like it. Only once it made me feel glad--when it led
me to you and Frale that terrible moment. But it wasn't a picture that
time; it was a feeling that pulled me and made me go. I would have gone
that time if I had died for it."
He took her two hands and covered them with kisses, there in the
darkness. "I told you you were my priestess of all that is good."
"But I don't want to be always seeing the shadows and foreboding. I
want to be all happy--happy--the way you are."
"I believe you are one of the blessed ones of God who have 'the gift';
but you are right to feel as you do. Your life will be more normal and
wholesome not to try to probe into the future. I'll not attempt to take
my coarser humanity into your holy places, dear."
He led her into their canvas sleeping chamber, and there she was soon
calmly slumbering at his side; but he lay long pondering and trying to
see his way out of a certain dilemma of unrest that had been creeping
into his veins and prodding him forward ever since his reestablished
health had become an assured fact. He recognized it as no more than the
proper impulse of his manhood not to stagnate and slumber in a lotus
dream, even as delicious a dream as this. Ah, it was inevitable. His
world must become her world.
Herein lay the dilemma. This unsullied, beautiful being must enter that
sordid old world, that had so pressed upon him and broken him down. This
idyl might go on for perhaps a year longer--but not for always--not for
always.
He slept at last, and dreamed that they were being driven along a dark,
cold river, wide and swift; that they had entered it where it was only a
narrow, rushing stream, sparkling and tumbling over rocks, and winding
in intricate turnings on itself; that they had laughed as they followed
it, plashing among the stones where she led him by the hand, until it
grew wider and deeper and colder, and they were lifted from their feet
and were tossed and swirled about, and she cried and clung to him, and
even as he clasped her and held her, he knew her to be slipping from
him. Then in terror he awoke, and, reaching out in the darkness, drew
her into his embrace and slept again.