"And in winter the winds sweep the snows across it."
The night was in windy November, and the blast, threatening rain, roared
around the poor little shanty of Uncle Ripley, set like a chicken-trap
on the vast Iowa prairie. Uncle Ethan was mending his old violin, with
many York State "dums!" and "I gol darns!" totally oblivious of his
tireless old wife, who, having "finished the supper-dishes," sat
knitting a stocking, evidently for the little grandson who lay before
the stove like a cat.
Neither of the old people wore glasses, and their light was a tallow
candle; they couldn't afford "none o' them new-fangled lamps." The room
was small, the chairs were wooden, and the walls bare--a home where
poverty was a never-absent guest. The old lady looked pathetically
little, weazened, and hopeless in her ill-fitting garments (whose
original color had long since vanished), intent as she was on the
stocking in her knotted, stiffened fingers, and there was a peculiar
sparkle in her little black eyes, and an unusual resolution in the
straight line of her withered and shapeless lips.
Suddenly she paused, stuck a needle in the spare knob of her hair at the
back of her head, and looking at Ripley, said decisively: "Ethan Ripley,
you'll haff to do your own cooking from now on to New Year's. I'm goin'
back to Yaark State."
The old man's leather-brown face stiffened into a look of quizzical
surprise for a moment; then he cackled, incredulously: "Ho! Ho! har!
Sho! be y', now? I want to know if y' be."
"Well, you'll find out."
"Goin' to start to-morrow, mother?"
"No, sir, I ain't; but I am on Thursday. I want to get to Sally's by
Sunday, sure, an' to Silas's on Thanksgivin'."
There was a note in the old woman's voice that brought genuine
stupefaction into the face of Uncle Ripley. Of course in this case, as
in all others, the money consideration was uppermost.
"Howgy 'xpect to get the money, mother? Anybody died an' left yeh a
pile?"
"Never you mind where I get the money so 's 't you don't haff to bear
it. The land knows if I'd 'a' waited for you to pay my way--"
"You needn't twit me of bein' poor, old woman," said Ripley, flaming up
after the manner of many old people. "I've done my part t' get along.
I've worked day in and day out--"
"Oh! I ain't done no work, have I?" snapped she, laying down the
stocking and levelling a needle at him, and putting a frightful emphasis
on "I."
"I didn't say you hadn't done no work."
"Yes, you did!"
"I didn't neither. I said--
"I know what you said."
"I said I'd done my part!" roared the husband, dominating her as usual
by superior lung power. "I didn't say you hadn't done your part," he
added with an unfortunate touch of emphasis.
"I know y' didn't say it, but y' meant it. I don't know what y' call
doin' my part, Ethan Ripley; but if cookin' for a drove of harvest hands
and thrashin' hands, takin' care o' the eggs and butter, 'n' diggin'
'taters an' milkin' ain't my part, I don't never expect to do my part,
'n' you might as well know it fust 's last."
"I'm sixty years old," she went on, with a little break in her harsh
voice, dominating him now by woman's logic, "an' I've never had a day to
myself, not even Fourth o' July. If I've went a-visitin' 'r to a picnic,
I've had to come home an' milk 'n' get supper for you men-folks. I ain't
been away t' stay overnight for thirteen years in this house, 'n' it was
just so in Davis County for ten more. For twenty-three years, Ethan
Ripley, I've stuck right to the stove an' churn without a day or a night
off."
Her voice choked again, but she rallied, and continued impressively,
"And now I'm a-goin' back to Yaark State."
Ethan was vanquished. He stared at her in speechless surprise, his jaw
hanging. It was incredible.
"For twenty-three years," she went on, musingly, "I've just about
promised myself every year I'd go back an' see my folks." She was
distinctly talking to herself now, and her voice had a touching, wistful
cadence. "I've wanted to go back an' see the old folks, an' the hills
where we played, an' eat apples off the old tree down by the well. I've
had them trees an' hills in my mind days and days--nights, too--an' the
girls I used to know, an' my own folks--"
She fell into a silent muse, which lasted so long that the ticking of
the clock grew loud as the gong in the man's ears, and the wind outside
seemed to sound drearier than usual. He returned to the money problem;
kindly, though.
"But how y' goin' t' raise the money? I ain't got no extra cash this
time. Agin Roach is paid, an' the interest paid, we ain't got no hundred
dollars to spare, Jane, not by a jugful."
"Wal, don't you lay awake nights studyin' on where I'm a-goin' to get
the money," said the old woman, taking delight in mystifying him. She
had him now, and he couldn't escape. He strove to show his indifference,
however, by playing a tune or two on the violin.
"Come, Tukey, you better climb the wooden hill," Mrs. Ripley said, a
half-hour later, to the little chap on the floor, who was beginning to
get drowsy under the influence of his grandpa's fiddling. "Pa, you had
orta 'a' put that string in the clock to-day--on the 'larm side the
string is broke," she said, upon returning from the boy's bedroom. "I
orta git up early to-morrow, to git some sewin' done. Land knows, I
can't fix up much, but they is a little I c'n do. I want to look
decent."
They were alone now, and they both sat expectantly.
"You 'pear to think, mother, that I'm agin yer goin'."
"Wal, it would kinder seem as if y' hadn't hustled yerself any t' help
me git off."
He was smarting under the sense of being wronged. "Wal, I'm just as
willin' you should go as I am for myself, but if I ain't got no money I
don't see how I'm goin' to send--"
"I don't want ye to send; nobody ast ye to, Ethan Ripley. I guess if I
had what I've earnt since we came on this farm I'd have enough to go to
Jericho with."
"You've got as much out of it as I have," he replied gently. "You talk
about your goin' back. Ain't I been wantin' to go back myself? And ain't
I kep' still 'cause I see it wa'n't no use? I guess I've worked jest as
long and as hard as you, an' in storms an' in mud an' heat, ef it comes
t' that."
The woman was staggered, but she wouldn't give up; she must get in one
more thrust.
"Wal, if you'd 'a' managed as well as I have, you'd have some money to
go with." And she rose and went to mix her bread and set it "raisin'."
He sat by the fire twanging his fiddle softly. He was plainly thrown
into gloomy retrospection, something quite unusual for him. But his
fingers picking out the bars of a familiar tune set him to smiling, and
whipping his bow across the strings, he forgot all about his wife's
resolutions and his own hardships. "Trouble always slid off his back
like punkins off a haystack, anyway," his wife said.
The old man still sat fiddling softly after his wife disappeared in the
hot and stuffy little bedroom off the kitchen. His shaggy head bent
lower over his violin. He heard her shoes drop--one, two. Pretty soon
she called:
"Come, put up that squeakin' old fiddle, and go to bed. Seems as if you
orta have sense enough not to set there keepin' everybody in the house
awake."
"You hush up," retorted he. "I'll come when I git ready, and not till.
I'll be glad when you're gone--"
"Yes, I warrant that."
With which amiable good-night they went off to sleep, or at least she
did, while he lay awake pondering on "where under the sun she was goin'
t' raise that money."
The next day she was up bright and early, working away on her own
affairs, ignoring Ripley entirely, the fixed look of resolution still on
her little old wrinkled face. She killed a hen and dressed and baked it.
She fried up a pan of doughnuts and made a cake. She was engaged in the
doughnuts when a neighbor came in, one of these women who take it as a
personal affront when any one in the neighborhood does anything without
asking their advice. She was fat, and could talk a man blind in three
minutes by the watch. Her neighbor said:
"What's this I hear, Mis' Ripley?"
"I dun know. I expect you hear about all they is goin' on in this
neighborhood," replied Mrs. Ripley, with crushing bluntness; but the
gossip did not flinch.
"Well, Sett Turner told me that her husband told her that Ripley told
him this mornin' that you was goin' back East on a visit."
"Wal, what of it?"
"Well, air yeh?"
"The Lord willin' an' the weather permittin', I expect to be."
"Good land, I want to know! Well, well! I never was so astonished in my
life. I said, says I, 'It can't be.' 'Well,' ses 'e, 'tha's what she
told me,' ses 'e. 'But,' says I, 'she is the last woman in the world to
go gallivantin' off East,' ses I. 'An',' ses he, 'but it comes from good
authority,' ses he. 'Well, then, it must be so,' ses I. But, land sakes!
do tell me all about it. How come you to make up y'r mind? All these
years you've been kind a' talkin' it over, an' now y'r actshelly
goin'--well, I never! 'I s'pose Ripley furnishes the money,' ses I to
him. 'Well, no,' ses 'e. 'Ripley says he'll be blowed if he sees where
the money's comin' from,' ses 'e; and ses I, 'But maybe she's jest
jokin',' ses I. 'Not much,' he says. S' 'e: 'Ripley believes she's
goin' fast enough. He's jest as anxious to find out as we be--'"
Here Mrs. Doudney paused for breath; she had walked so fast and had
rested so little that her interminable flow of "ses I's" and "ses he's"
ceased necessarily. She had reached, moreover, the point of most vital
interest--the money.
"An' you'll find out jest 'bout as soon as he does," was the dry
response from the figure hovering over the stove; and with all her
manœuvring that was all she got.
All day Ripley went about his work exceedingly thoughtful for him. It
was cold blustering weather. The wind rustled among the corn-stalks with
a wild and mournful sound, the geese and ducks went sprawling down the
wind, and the horses' coats were ruffled and backs raised.
The old man was husking all alone in the field, his spare form rigged
out in two or three ragged coats, his hands inserted in a pair of gloves
minus nearly all the fingers, his thumbs done up in "stalls," and his
feet thrust into huge coarse boots. The "down ears" wet and chapped his
hands, already worn to the quick. Toward night it grew colder and
threatened snow. In spite of all these attacks he kept his cheerfulness,
and though he was very tired, he was softened in temper.
Having plenty of time to think matters over, he had come to the
conclusion that the old woman needed a play-spell. "I ain't likely to be
no richer next year than I am this one; if I wait till I'm able to send
her she won't never go. I calc'late I c'n git enough out o' them shoats
to send her. I'd kind a' lotted on eat'n' them pigs done up in
sassengers, but if the ol' woman goes East, Tukey an' me'll kind a' haff
to pull through without 'em. We'll have a turkey f'r Thanksgivin', an' a
chicken once 'n a while. Lord! but we'll miss the gravy on the
flapjacks." (He smacked his lips over the thought of the lost dainty.)
"But let 'er rip! We can stand it. Then there is my buffalo overcoat.
I'd kind a' calc'lated on havin' a buffalo--but that's gone up the spout
along with them sassengers."
These heroic sacrifices having been determined upon, he put them into
effect at once.
This he was able to do, for his corn-rows ran alongside the road leading
to Cedarville, and his neighbors were passing almost all hours of the
day.
It would have softened Jane Ripley's heart could she have seen his bent
and stiffened form among the corn-rows, the cold wind piercing to the
bone through his threadbare and insufficient clothing. The rising wind
sent the snow rattling among the moaning stalks at intervals. The cold
made his poor dim eyes water, and he had to stop now and then to swing
his arms about his chest to warm them. His voice was hoarse with
shouting at the shivering team.
That night as Mrs. Ripley was clearing the dishes away she got to
thinking about the departure of the next day, and she began to soften.
She gave way to a few tears when little Tewksbury Gilchrist, her
grandson, came up and stood beside her.
"Gran'ma, you ain't goin' to stay away always, are yeh?"
"Why, course not, Tukey. What made y' think that?"
"Well, y' ain't told us nawthin' 't all about it. An' yeh kind o' look
's if yeh was mad."
"Well, I ain't mad; I'm jest a-thinkin', Tukey. Y' see, I come away from
them hills when I was a little girl a'most; before I married y'r
grandad. And I ain't never been back. 'Most all my folks is there,
sonny, an' we've been s' poor all these years I couldn't seem t' never
git started. Now, when I'm 'most ready t' go, I feel kind a queer--'s if
I'd cry."
And cry she did, while little Tewksbury stood patting her trembling
hands. Hearing Ripley's step on the porch, she rose hastily and, drying
her eyes, plunged at the work again.
Ripley came in with a big armful of wood, which he rolled into the
wood-box with a thundering crash. Then he pulled off his mittens,
slapped them together to knock off the ice and snow, and laid them side
by side under the stove. He then removed cap, coat, blouse, and finally
his boots, which he laid upon the wood-box, the soles turned toward the
stove-pipe.
As he sat down without speaking, he opened the front doors of the stove,
and held the palms of his stiffened hands to the blaze. The light
brought out a thoughtful look on his large, uncouth, yet kindly, visage.
Life had laid hard lines on his brown skin, but it had not entirely
soured a naturally kind and simple nature. It had made him penurious and
dull and iron-muscled; had stifled all the slender flowers of his
nature; yet there was warm soil somewhere hid in his heart.
"It's snowin' like all p'ssessed," he remarked finally. "I guess we'll
have a sleigh-ride to-morrow. I calc'late t' drive y' daown in
scrumptious style. If yeh must leave, why, we'll give yeh a whoopin' old
send-off--won't we, Tukey?"
Nobody replying, he waited a moment. "I've ben a-thinkin' things over
kind o' t'-day, mother, an' I've come t' the conclusion that we have
been kind o' hard on yeh, without knowin' it, y' see. Y' see I'm kind o'
easy-goin', 'an' little Tuke he's only a child, an' we ain't c'nsidered
how you felt."
She didn't appear to be listening, but she was, and he didn't appear, on
his part, to be talking to her, and he kept his voice as hard and dry as
he could.
"An' I was tellin' Tukey t'-day that it was a dum shame our crops hadn't
turned out better. An' when I saw ol' Hatfield go by I hailed him, an'
asked him what he'd gimme for two o' m' shoats. Wal, the upshot is, I
sent t' town for some things I calc'lated you'd need. An' here's a
ticket to Georgetown, and ten dollars. Why, ma, what's up?"
Mrs. Ripley broke down, and with her hands all wet with dish-water, as
they were, covered her face, and sobbed. She felt like kissing him, but
she didn't. Tewksbury began to whimper too; but the old man was
astonished. His wife had not wept for years (before him). He rose and
walking clumsily up to her timidly touched her hair--
"Why, mother! What's the matter? What've I done now? I was calc'latin'
to sell them pigs anyway. Hatfield jest advanced the money on 'em."
She hopped up and dashed into the bedroom, and in a few minutes returned
with a yarn mitten, tied around the wrist, which she laid on the table
with a thump, saying: "I don't want yer money. There's money enough to
take me where I want to go."
"Whee--ew! Thunder and gimpsum root! Where 'd ye get that? Didn't dig it
out of a hole?"
"No, I jest saved it--a dime at a time--see!"
Here she turned it out on the table--some bills, but mostly silver dimes
and quarters.
"Thunder and scissors! Must be two er three hundred dollars there," he
exclaimed.
"They's jest seventy-five dollars and thirty cents; jest about enough to
go back on. Tickets is fifty-five dollars, goin' an' comin'. That leaves
twenty dollars for other expenses, not countin' what I've already spent,
which is six-fifty," said she, recovering her self-possession. "It's
plenty."
"But y' ain't calc'lated on no sleepers nor hotel bills."
"I ain't goin' on no sleeper. Mis' Doudney says it's jest scandalous the
way things is managed on them cars. I'm goin' on the old-fashioned cars,
where they ain't no half-dressed men runnin' around."
"But you needn't be afraid of them, mother; at your age--"
"There! you needn't throw my age an' homeliness into my face, Ethan
Ripley. If I hadn't waited an' tended on you so long, I'd look a little
more's I did when I married yeh."
Ripley gave it up in despair. He didn't realize fully enough how the
proposed trip had unsettled his wife's nerves. She didn't realize it
herself.
"As for the hotel bills, they won't be none. I agoin' to pay them
pirates as much for a day's board as we'd charge for a week's, an' have
nawthin' to eat but dishes. I'm goin' to take a chicken an' some
hard-boiled eggs, an' I'm goin' right through to Georgetown."
"Wal, all right, mother; but here's the ticket I got."
"I don't want yer ticket."
"But you've got to take it."
"Well, I hain't."
"Why, yes, ye have. It's bought, an' they won't take it back."
"Won't they?" She was perplexed again.
"Not much they won't. I ast 'em. A ticket sold is sold."
"Wal, if they won't--"
"You bet they won't."
"I s'pose I'll haff to use it." And that ended it.
They were a familiar sight as they rode down the road toward town next
day. As usual, Mrs. Ripley sat up straight and stiff as "a half-drove
wedge in a white-oak log." The day was cold and raw. There was some snow
on the ground, but not enough to warrant the use of sleighs. It was
"neither sleddin' nor wheelin'." The old people sat on a board laid
across the box, and had an old quilt or two drawn up over their knees.
Tewksbury lay in the back part of the box (which was filled with hay),
where he jounced up and down, in company with a queer old trunk and a
brand-new imitation-leather hand-bag.
There is no ride quite so desolate and uncomfortable as a ride in a
lumber-wagon on a cold day in autumn, when the ground is frozen, and the
wind is strong and raw with threatening snow. The wagon-wheels grind
along in the snow, the cold gets in under the seat at the calves of
one's legs, and the ceaseless bumping of the bottom of the box on the
feet is almost intolerable.
There was not much talk on the way down, and what little there was
related mainly to certain domestic regulations, to be strictly followed,
regarding churning, pickles, pancakes, etc. Mrs. Ripley wore a shawl
over her head, and carried her queer little black bonnet in her hand.
Tewksbury was also wrapped in a shawl. The boy's teeth were pounding
together like castanets by the time they reached Cedarville, and every
muscle ached with the fatigue of shaking.
After a few purchases they drove down to the station, a frightful little
den (common in the West), which was always too hot or too cold. It
happened to be hot just now--a fact which rejoiced little Tewksbury.
"Now git my trunk stamped, 'r fixed, 'r whatever they call it," she said
to Ripley, in a commanding tone, which gave great delight to the
inevitable crowd of loafers beginning to assemble. "Now remember, Tukey,
have grandad kill that biggest turkey night before Thanksgiving, an'
then you run right over to Mis' Doudney's--she's got a nawful tongue,
but she can bake a turkey first-rate--an' she'll fix up some squash-pies
for yeh. You can warm up one o' them mince-pies. I wish ye could be with
me, but ye can't; so do the best ye can."
Ripley returning now, she said: "Wal, now, I've fixed things up the best
I could. I've baked bread enough to last a week, an' Mis' Doudney has
promised to bake for yeh--"
"I don't like her bakin'."
"Wal, you'll haff to stand it till I get back, 'n' you'll find a jar o'
sweet pickles an' some crab-apple sauce down suller, 'n' you'd better
melt up brown sugar for 'lasses, 'n' for goodness' sake don't eat all
them mince-pies up the fust week, 'n' see that Tukey ain't froze goin'
to school. An' now you'd better get out for home. Good-by! an' remember
them pies."
As they were riding home, Ripley roused up after a long silence.
"Did she--a--kiss you good-by, Tukey?"
"No, sir," piped Tewksbury.
"Thunder! didn't she?" After a silence: "She didn't me, neither. I guess
she kind a' sort a' forgot it, bein' so flustrated, y' know."
One cold, windy, intensely bright day, Mrs. Stacey, who lives about two
miles from Cedarville, looking out of the window, saw a queer little
figure struggling along the road, which was blocked here and there with
drifts. It was an old woman laden with a good half-dozen parcels, which
the wind seemed determined to wrench from her.
She was dressed in black, with a full skirt, and her cloak being short,
the wind had excellent opportunity to inflate her garments and sail her
off occasionally into the deep snow outside the track, but she held out
bravely till she reached the gate. As she turned in, Mrs. Stacey cried:
"Why! it's Gran'ma Ripley, just getting back from her trip. Why! how do
you do? Come in. Why! you must be nearly frozen. Let me take off your
hat and veil."
"No, thank ye kindly, but I can't stop," was the given reply. "I must be
gittin' back to Ripley. I expec' that man has jest let ev'rything go six
ways f'r Sunday."
"Oh, you must sit down just a minute and warm."
"Wal, I will; but I've got to git home by sundown sure. I don't s'pose
they's a thing in the house to eat," she said solemnly.
"Oh dear! I wish Stacey was here, so he could take you home. An' the
boys at school--"
"Don't need any help, if 't wa'nt for these bundles an' things. I guess
I'll jest leave some of 'em here, an'--Here! take one of these apples. I
brought 'em from Lizy Jane's suller, back to Yaark State."
"Oh! they're delicious! You must have had a lovely time."
"Pretty good. But I kep' thinkin' of Ripley an' Tukey all the time. I
s'pose they have had a gay time of it" (she meant the opposite of gay).
"Wal, as I told Lizy Jane, I've had my spree, an' now I've got to git
back to work. They ain't no rest for such as we are. As I told Lizy
Jane, them folks in the big houses have Thanksgivin' dinners every day
of their lives, and men an' women in splendid clo's to wait on 'em, so
't Thanksgivin' don't mean anything to 'em; but we poor critters, we
make a great to-do if we have a good dinner onct a year. I've saw a pile
o' this world, Mrs. Stacey--a pile of it! I didn't think they was so
many big houses in the world as I saw b'tween here an' Chicago. Wal, I
can't set here gabbin'." She rose resolutely. "I must get home to
Ripley. Jest kind o' stow them bags away. I'll take two an' leave them
three others. Good-by! I must be gittin' home to Ripley. He'll want his
supper on time."
And off up the road the indomitable little figure trudged, head held
down to the cutting blast--little snow-fly, a speck on a measureless
expanse, crawling along with painful breathing, and slipping, sliding
steps--"Gittin' home to Ripley an' the boy."
Ripley was out to the barn when she entered, but Tewksbury was building
a fire in the old cook-stove. He sprang up with a cry of joy, and ran to
her. She seized him and kissed him, and it did her so much good she
hugged him close, and kissed him again and again, crying hysterically.
"Oh, gran'ma, I'm so glad to see you! We've had an awful time since
you've been gone."
She released him, and looked around. A lot of dirty dishes were on the
table, the table-cloth was a "sight to behold" (as she afterward said),
and so was the stove--kettle-marks all over the table-cloth, splotches
of pancake batter all over the stove.
"Wal, I sh'd say as much," she dryly assented, untying her
bonnet-strings.
When Ripley came in she had her regimentals on, the stove was brushed,
the room swept, and she was elbow-deep in the dish-pan. "Hullo, mother!
Got back, hev yeh?"
"I sh'd say it was about time," she replied curtly, without looking up
or ceasing work. "Has ol' 'Crumpy' dried up yit?" This was her greeting.
Her trip was a fact now; no chance could rob her of it. She had looked
forward twenty-three years toward it, and now she could look back at it
accomplished. She took up her burden again, never more thinking to lay
it down.